was clear in another moment.  We had been actually travelling along the bridge of a crevasse, the sledge had stopped on it, whilst the dogs hung in their harness in the abyss, suspended between the sledge and the leading dog.  Why the sledge and ourselves didn’t follow the dogs we shall never know.  I think a fraction of a pound of added weight must have taken us down.  As soon as we grasped the position, we hauled the sledge clear of the bridge and anchored it.  Then we peered into the depths of the crack.  The dogs were howling dismally, suspended in all sorts of fantastic positions and evidently terribly frightened.  Two had dropped out of their harness, and we could see them indistinctly on a snow bridge far below.  The rope at either end of the chain had bitten deep into the snow at the side of the crevasse, and with the weight below, it was impossible to move it.  By this time Wilson and Cherry-Garrard, who had seen the accident, had come to our assistance.  At first things looked very bad for our poor team, and I saw little prospect of rescuing them.  I had luckily inquired about the Alpine rope before starting the march, and now Cherry-Garrard hurriedly brought this most essential aid.  It takes one a little time to make plans under such sudden circumstances, and for some minutes our efforts were rather futile.  We could get not an inch on the main trace of the sledge or on the leading rope, which was binding Osman to the snow with a throttling pressure.  Then thought became clearer.  We unloaded our sledge, putting in safety our sleeping-bags with the tent and cooker.  Choking sounds from Osman made it clear that the pressure on him must soon be relieved.  I seized the lashing off Meares’ sleeping-bag, passed the tent poles across the crevasse, and with Meares managed to get a few inches on the leading line; this freed Osman, whose harness was immediately cut.

Then securing the Alpine rope to the main trace we tried to haul up together.  One dog came up and was unlashed, but by this time the rope had cut so far back at the edge that it was useless to attempt to get more of it.  But we could now unbend the sledge and do that for which we should have aimed from the first, namely, run the sledge across the gap and work from it.  We managed to do this, our fingers constantly numbed.  Wilson held on to the anchored trace whilst the rest of us laboured at the leader end.  The leading rope was very small and I was fearful of its breaking, so Meares was lowered down a foot or two to secure the Alpine rope to the leading end of the trace; this done, the work of rescue proceeded in better order.  Two by two we hauled the animals up to the sledge and one by one cut them out of their harness.  Strangely the last dogs were the most difficult, as they were close under the lip of the gap, bound in by the snow-covered rope.  Finally, with a gasp we got the last poor creature on to firm snow.  We had recovered eleven of the thirteen._13a_