trample a place for the tent, and we could push the tent-pole right
down without meeting resistance; probably it would be better higher
up. In the evening Hanssen and Bjaaland went out to reconnoitre, and
found the conditions as we had seen them from a distance. The way up
to the first terrace was easily accessible; what the conditions would
be like between this and the second terrace we had still to discover.

It was stiff work next day getting up to the first terrace. The arm
of the glacier that led up was not very long, but extremely steep
and full of big crevasses; it had to be taken in relays, two sledges
at a time. The state of the going was, fortunately, better than on
the previous day, and the surface of the glacier was fine and hard,
so that the dogs got a splendid hold. Bjaaland went in advance up
through this steep glacier, and had his work cut out to keep ahead of
the eager animals. One would never have thought we were between 85deg.
and 86deg. S.; the heat was positively disagreeable, and, although lightly
clad, we sweated as if we were running races in the tropics. We were
ascending rapidly, but, in spite of the sudden change of pressure,
we did not yet experience any difficulty of breathing, headache,
or other unpleasant results. That these sensations would make their
appearance in due course was, however, a matter of which we could
be certain. Shackleton's description of his march on the plateau,
when headache of the most violent and unpleasant kind was the order
of the day, was fresh in the memory of all of us.

In a comparatively short time we reached the ledge in the glacier
that we had noticed a long way off; it was not quite flat, but sloped
slightly towards the edge. When we came to the place to which Hanssen
and Bjaaland had carried their reconnaissance on the previous evening,
we had a very fine prospect of the further course of the glacier. To