Saturday night.—­Camp 45.  T. -3 deg..  Bar. 21.61. ?Rise.  Height about 7750.  Great vicissitudes of fortune in the afternoon march.  Started west up a slope—­about the fifth we have mounted in the last two days.  On top, another pressure appeared on the left, but less lofty and more snow-covered than that which had troubled us in the morning.  There was temptation to try it, and I had been gradually turning in its direction.  But I stuck to my principle and turned west up yet another slope.  On top of this we got on the most extraordinary surface—­narrow crevasses ran in all directions.  They were quite invisible, being covered with a thin crust of hardened neve without a sign of a crack in it.  We all fell in one after another and sometimes two together.  We have had many unexpected falls before, but usually through being unable to mark the run of the surface appearances of cracks, or where such cracks are covered with soft snow.  How a hardened crust can form over a crack is a real puzzle—­it seems to argue extremely slow movement.  Dead reckoning, 85 deg. 22’ 1’’ S., 159 deg. 31’ E.

In the broader crevasses this morning we noticed that it was the lower edge of the bridge which was rotten, whereas in all in the glacier the upper edge was open.

Near the narrow crevasses this afternoon we got about 10 minutes on snow which had a hard crust and loose crystals below.  It was like breaking through a glass house at each step, but quite suddenly at 5 P.M. everything changed.  The hard surface gave place to regular sastrugi and our horizon levelled in every direction.  I hung on to the S.W. till 6 P.M., and then camped with a delightful feeling of security that we had at length reached the summit proper.  I am feeling very cheerful about everything to-night.  We marched 15 miles (geo.) (over 17 stat.) to-day, mounting nearly 800 feet and all in about 8 1/2 hours.  My determination to keep mounting irrespective of course is fully justified and I shall be indeed surprised if we have any further difficulties with crevasses or steep slopes.  To me for the first time our goal seems really in sight.  We can pull our loads and pull them much faster and farther than I expected in my most hopeful moments.  I only pray for a fair share of good weather.  There is a cold wind now as expected, but with good clothes and well fed as we are, we can stick a lot worse than we are getting.  I trust this may prove the turning-point in our fortunes for which we have waited so patiently.

Sunday, December 24.—­Lunch.  Bar. 21.48. ?Rise 160 feet.  Christmas Eve. 7 1/4 miles geo. due south, and a rise, I think, more than shown by barometer.  This in five hours, on the surface which ought to be a sample of what we shall have in the future.  With our present clothes it is a fairly heavy plod, but we get over the ground, which is a great thing.  A high pressure ridge has appeared on the ‘port bow.’  It seems isolated, but I shall be glad to lose sight of such disturbances.  The wind is continuous from the S.S.E., very searching.  We are now marching in our wind blouses and with somewhat more protection on the head.