The upper glacier depot was overhung by great cliffs of rock, shattered by the frosts and storms of countless centuries, and many fragments were poised in such a fashion that scarcely more than a touch seemed necessary to bring them hurtling down. All around us on the ice lay rocks that had recently fallen, and it was not a comforting sensation to feel that at any moment a huge boulder might drop upon our camp.
We had no choice of a camping-ground, as all around was rough ice. The cliffs were composed largely of weathered sandstone, and it was on the same mountain higher up on the glacier that Wild discovered coal, at a point where the slope was comparatively gentle.
The "Nimrod" pushing through heavy Pack Ice on her way South. (See page 174)
One of our greatest disappointments was that the last ridge of the great glacier having been passed and the actual plateau gained, we did not meet with a hard surface, such as the Discovery expedition had encountered in the journey to the plateau beyond the west of McMurdo Sound, but still had to battle with soft snow and hard sastrugi.
After the fierce blizzard which raged from the night of January 6 until the morning of January 9, we had better conditions under which to make our final march southwards, for the wind had swept away the soft snow and unencumbered with the sledge we could advance more easily.
In reviewing the experience gained on the southern journey, I do not think that I could suggest any important improvements in equipment for future expeditions. Evidently the Barrier surface varies remarkably, and the traveller must be prepared for either a very hard or a very soft surface, both of which he may encounter in the same day's march.
On the glacier we should have been glad to have had heavy Alpine boots with nails all round, but as the temperature is too cold to permit of the explorer wearing ordinary leather boots, some boot would have to be designed which was at once warm enough for the feel and strong enough to carry the nails.
Our clothing proved to be quite satisfactory, but experience goes to show that a party which hopes to reach the Pole must take more food per man than we did I would in no case take cheese again, for chocolate is more palatable and easier to divide.
Each member of our Southern Party had his own particular duties to perform, Adams being responsible for the meteorological observations which involved—among other duties—the taking of temperatures at regular intervals. Marshall took the meridian altitudes, and the angles and bearings of all the new land, and his work was most discomforting, for at the end of a day's march and often at lunch-time as well, he would be compelled to stand in the biting wind handling the screws of the theodolite. He also prepared the map of the journey and took most of the photographs.