had cleared the snow from this part of the glacier, laying bare the great
blue, black cracks, and they were horrible to behold. If the breadth of a
crevasse was too large to be crossed we worked along the bank until an
ice bridge presented itself along which we could go. As the sun's rays
grew more powerful, the visibility became perfect, and I must confess we
were disappointed to see before us the most disheartening wilderness of
pressure ridges and disturbances. We were in the heart of the Great Ice
Fall which is to be found half-way down the Beardmore Glacier. We
struggled along, for there is no other expression which aptly describes
our case. Had we not been in superb physical training and in really hard
condition all three of us must have collapsed. We literally carried the
sledge, which weighed nearly four hundred pounds.

When the afternoon march had already extended for hours we found
ourselves travelling mile after mile across the line of our intended
route to circumvent the crevasses. They seemed to grow bigger and bigger.
At about 8 p.m. we were travelling on a ridge between two stupendous open
gulfs, and we found a connecting bridge which stretched obliquely across.
I saw that it was necessary to move round or across a number of these
wide open chasms to reach the undulations which we knew from our ice
experience must terminate this broken up part of the glacier. In vain I
told myself that these undulations could not be so far away.

To cross by the connecting bridge which I have just spoken about was, to
say the least of it, a precarious proceeding. But it would save us a mile
or two, and in our tired state this was worth considering. After a
minutes rest we placed the sledge on this ice bridge, and, as Crean
described it afterwards, "We went along the crossbar to the H of Hell."
It was not all misnamed either, for Lashly, who went ahead, dared not
walk upright. He actually sat astride the bridge and was paid out at the