-- "none of us would have escaped. There is no surface there; only
a crust as thin as paper. It doesn't look very inviting down below,
either; immense spikes of ice sticking up everywhere, which would
spit you before you got very far down."

This description was not attractive; it was well we had found "such a
good place." Meanwhile Wisting had finished his work, and was hauled
up. When asked whether he was not glad to be on the surface again,
he answered with a smile that "it was nice and warm down there." We
then hauled the sledge up, and for the time being all was well. "But,"
said Hassel, "we must be careful going along here, because I was
just on the point of going in when Hanssen and I were bringing up the
sledge." He smiled as though at a happy memory. Hassel had seen that
it was best to be careful. There was no need to look for crevasses;
there was literally nothing else to be seen.

There could be no question of going farther into the trap, for we had
long ago come to the conclusion that, in spite of our precautions,
we had arrived at this ugly place. We should have to look about for
a place for the tent, but that was easier said than done. There was
no possibility of finding a place large enough for both the tent and
the guy-ropes; the tent was set up on a small, apparently solid spot,
and the guys stretched across crevasses in all directions. We were
beginning to be quite familiar with the place. That crevasse ran
there and there, and it had a side-fissure that went so and so --
just like schoolboys learning a lesson.

Meanwhile we had brought all our things as far as possible into a
place of safety; the dogs lay harnessed to reduce the risk of losing
them. Wisting was just going over to his sledge -- he had gone the