What we could see of the glacier appeared to be pretty steep; but it was only between the south and south-east, under the new land, that the fog now and again lifted sufficiently to enable us to see anything.  From the south round to the west the fog lay as thick as gruel.  We could see that the big crevasses lost themselves in it, and the question of what the glacier looked like on the west had to be put aside for the moment.  It was to the south we had to go, and there it was possible to go forward a little way.  We continued our march until the ground began to show signs of the glacier in the form of small crevasses, and then we halted.  It was our intention to lighten our sledges before tackling the glacier; from the little we could see of it, it was plain enough that we should have stiff work.  It was therefore important to have as little as possible on the sledges.

We set to work at once to build the depot; the snow here was excellent for this purpose —­ as hard as glass.  In a short time an immense erection of adamantine blocks of snow rose into the air, containing provisions for five men for six days and for eighteen dogs for five days.  A number of small articles were also left behind.

While we were thus occupied, the fog had been coming and going; some of the intervals had been quite clear, and had given me a good view of the nearest part of the range.  It appeared to be quite isolated, and to consist of four mountains; one of these —­ Mount Helmer Hanssen —­ lay separated from the rest.  The other three —­ Mounts Oscar Wisting, Sverre Hassel, and Olav Bjaaland —­ lay closer together.  Behind this group the air had been heavy and black the whole time, showing that more land must be concealed there.  Suddenly, in one of the brightest intervals, there came a rift in this curtain, and the summits of a colossal mountain mass appeared.  Our first impression was that this mountain —­ Mount Thorvald Nilsen —­ must be something over 20,000 feet high; it positively took our breath away, so formidable did it appear.  But it was only a glimpse that we had, and then the fog enclosed it once more.  We had succeeded in taking a few meagre bearings of the different summits of the nearest group; they were not very grand, but better ones were not to be obtained.  For that matter, the site of the depot was so well marked by its position under the foot of the glacier that we agreed it would be impossible to miss it.

Having finished the edifice, which rose at least 6 feet into the air, we put one of our black provision cases on the top of it, so as to be able to see it still more easily on the way back.  An observation we had contrived to take while the work was in progress gave us our latitude as 86deg. 21’ S. This did not agree very well with the latitude of our dead reckoning —­ 86deg. 23’ S. Meanwhile the fog had again enveloped everything, and a fine, light snow was falling.  We had taken a bearing of the line of glacier that was most free of crevasses, and so we moved on again.  It was some time before we felt our way up to the glacier.  The crevasses at its foot were not large, but we had no sooner entered upon the ascent than the fun began.  There was something uncanny about this perfectly blind advance among crevasses and chasms on all sides.  We examined the compass from time to time, and went forward cautiously.