Then I wondered if the last two could not be got, and we paid down the Alpine rope to see if it was long enough to reach the snow bridge on which they were coiled.  The rope is 90 feet, and the amount remaining showed that the depth of the bridge was about 65 feet.  I made a bowline and the others lowered me down.  The bridge was firm and I got hold of both dogs, which were hauled up in turn to the surface.  Then I heard dim shouts and howls above.  Some of the rescued animals had wandered to the second sledge, and a big fight was in progress.  All my rope-tenders had to leave to separate the combatants; but they soon returned, and with some effort I was hauled to the surface.

All is well that ends well, and certainly this was a most surprisingly happy ending to a very serious episode.  We felt we must have refreshment, so camped and had a meal, congratulating ourselves on a really miraculous escape.  If the sledge had gone down Meares and I must have been badly injured, if not killed outright.  The dogs are wonderful, but have had a terrible shaking—­three of them are passing blood and have more or less serious internal injuries.  Many were held up by a thin thong round the stomach, writhing madly to get free.  One dog better placed in its harness stretched its legs full before and behind and just managed to claw either side of the gap—­it had continued attempts to climb throughout, giving vent to terrified howls.  Two of the animals hanging together had been fighting at intervals when they swung into any position which allowed them to bite one another.  The crevasse for the time being was an inferno, and the time must have been all too terribly long for the wretched creatures.  It was twenty minutes past three when we had completed the rescue work, and the accident must have happened before one-thirty.  Some of the animals must have been dangling for over an hour.  I had a good opportunity of examining the crack.

The section seemed such as I have shown.  It narrowed towards the east and widened slightly towards the west.  In this direction there were curious curved splinters; below the snow bridge on which I stood the opening continued, but narrowing, so that I think one could not have fallen many more feet without being wedged.  Twice I have owed safety to a snow bridge, and it seems to me that the chance of finding some obstruction or some saving fault in the crevasse is a good one, but I am far from thinking that such a chance can be relied upon, and it would be an awful situation to fall beyond the limits of the Alpine rope.

We went on after lunch, and very soon got into soft snow and regular surface where crevasses are most unlikely to occur.  We have pushed on with difficulty, for the dogs are badly cooked and the surface tries them.  We are all pretty done, but luckily the weather favours us.  A sharp storm from the south has been succeeded by ideal sunshine which is flooding the tent as I write.  It is the calmest, warmest day we have had since we started sledging.  We are only about 12 miles from Safety Camp, and I trust we shall push on without accident to-morrow, but I am anxious about some of the dogs.  We shall be lucky indeed if all recover.