and west.  It was by this glacier that we should have to gain the plateau; we could see that.  We had one more descent to make before reaching it, and from above we could distinguish the edges of some big gaps in this descent, and found it prudent to examine it first.  As we thought, there was a side-glacier coming down into it, with large, ugly crevasses in many places; but it was not so bad as to prevent our finally reaching, with caution and using good brakes, the great main ice-field —­ Axel Heiberg Glacier.  The plan we had proposed to ourselves was to work our way up to the place where the glacier rose in abrupt masses between the two mountains.  The task we had undertaken was greater than we thought.  In the first place, the distance was three times as great as any of us had believed; and, in the second place, the snow was so loose and deep that it was hard work for the dogs after all their previous efforts.  We set our course along the white line that we had been able to follow among the numerous crevasses right up to the first terrace.  Here tributary glaciers came down on all sides from the mountains and joined the main one; it was one of these many small arms that we reached that evening, directly under Don Pedro Christophersen.

The mountain below which we had our camp was covered with a chaos of immense blocks of ice.  The glacier on which we were was much broken up, but, as with all the others, the fissures were of old date, and, to a large extent, drifted up.  The snow was so loose that we had to 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.