CHAPTER XXXIXUPWARDS AND ONWARDS
Sofar as the possibility of reaching the Magnetic Pole was concerned, our fortunes seemed to have reached a low ebb. It was already December 20, and we knew that we had to be back at our depot on the Drygalski Glacier not later than February 1 or 2, if there was to be a reasonable chance of our being picked up by the Nimrod. That meant that we had to travel at least 480 to 500 miles before we could hope to get to the Magnetic Pole and back to our depot, and there remained only six weeks to accomplish this journey.
At the same time we should have to pioneer a road up to the high plateau, and now that everything was buried under soft snow it was clear that sledging would be slower and more difficult than ever. Under the circumstances it was, perhaps, not to be wondered at that we were not hopeful of our chance of success.
However, there was nothing to do but to reconnoitre in a south-westerly direction to see what way was most practicable for us, and after paddling, unwillingly, in many shallow pools of water and crossing much pressure-ice and several crevasses, we at last saw that we should have to drag our sledge up a steep slope encumbered with soft deep thawing snow.
We also collected several specimens, including a solitary coral, and while we were collecting them we could hear the roar of many mountain torrents descending the steep granite slopes of the great mountain mass.
Occasionally, too, we heard the boom and crash of an avalanche descending from the high mountain top, and such sounds were strange to our ears, accustomed so long to the almost uninterrupted solitude and silence of the Antarctic.
The Northern Party at the South Magnetic PoleFrom left: Dr. Mackay, Professor David, Douglas Mawson (See page 215)
The Northern Party at the South Magnetic PoleFrom left: Dr. Mackay, Professor David, Douglas Mawson (See page 215)
On the 22nd we were suddenly struck by a furious blizzard which hindered us until Christmas Eve, but by ten o'clock on that evening we had succeeded in struggling on until we were above the uncomfortable zone of thaw, and everything around us was once more crisp and dry though cold. We had reached over 1200 ft. above sea level, and our spirits mounted with the altitude.
On Christmas Day we were delayed at first by a blizzard, but in spite of this we managed to travel about four miles and to camp at night over 2000 ft. above sea-level. Having no other kind of Christmas gift to offer, Mawson and I presented Mackay with some sennegrass for his pipe, his tobacco having been exhausted long before.
The following day saw us again crossing crevasses, and as some of them were from 20 to 30 ft. wide, it was fortunate that the snow lids were strong enough to carry safely both the sledge and ourselves. Mackay suggested that, for greater security, we should fasten the alpine rope around Mawson, who was in the lead, and secure the other end of it to the sledge. The rope was left just slack enough to admit of the strain of hauling being taken by the harness rope, and so Mawson had two strings to his bow in case of being suddenly precipitated into a crevasse. It was a good system, and we always adopted it afterwards in crossing heavily crevassed ice.
On the next day we made a small depot of our ski boots, all our geological specimens, and about one day's food supply together with a small quantity of oil, and this we called the Larsen Depot as it was close to one of the southern spurs of Mount Larsen.
Our eyes were now straining, as we advanced with thesledge, to see whether any formidable mountains still barred our path to the plateau, and our thankfulness was unbounded when at last we realised that apparently we were going to have a fairly easy ascent of hard névé and snow on to the plateau. On that day we advanced a little over ten miles, and on December 30 we reached an altitude of nearly 5000 ft., our breath freezing into lumps of ice and cementing our Burberry helmets to our beards and moustaches as in winter time.
New Year's Eve brought with it some disappointment from Mawson's announcement—after he had taken a fresh set of magnetic observations—that he made out the Magnetic Pole to be further inland than had been originally estimated. We were still dragging the sledge on an up grade and on a softer surface than before, and as we were also obliged to put ourselves on somewhat shorter rations, in order to form an emergency food-supply in case our journey proved longer than we anticipated, we were very much exhausted by night.
On that same evening a skua gull came to visit us, I am afraid not with any intention of giving us New Year's greetings, but because he mistook us for seals crawling inland to die, as is not infrequently the habit of these animals.
New Year's Day gave us beautifully calm weather, and to celebrate the beginning of 1909 Mawson provided us with a grand hoosh and a rich pot of cocoa, which we enjoyed thoroughly after an exhausting march.
Hunger, indeed, was beginning to beset us, and we should also have liked more to drink if we could have afforded it. In fact instead of talking about what we would like to eat, we began to talk about what we would drink if we had the chance. Mackay would have liked to drink a gallon of buttermilk straight off, Mawson wanteda big basin of cream, while my choice was several pots of the best coffee with plenty of hot milk.
We were still climbing on January 3, but on the next day we were pleased to find that the up grade was becoming less steep. We had reached an altitude of over 6000 ft. and found breathing in the cold air distinctly trying. It was not that definite mountain sickness had attacked us, but that we felt weaker than usual as the result, doubtless, of the height combined with the cold.
Still, we were progressing at the rate of about ten miles a day, and that was enough to make us hopeful in spite of everything.
On the 6th I left off my crampons and put on a new pair of finnesko, with the result that I fell heavily over one of the sastrugi, and slightly straining some muscles on the inner side of my left leg, just below the knee, I suffered a considerable amount of pain for the rest of the journey.
Mountain lassitude still continued to attack us and our hands were often frost-bitten when packing up the sledge. By the 9th we were completely out of sight of any mountain ranges, and were toiling up and down amongst the huge billows of a snow sea.