Our camp, as I have said, lay on the north side of King Haakon Bay near the head.  Our path towards the whaling-stations led round the seaward end of the snouted glacier on the east side of the camp and up a snow-slope that appeared to lead to a pass in the great Allardyce Range, which runs north-west and south-east and forms the main backbone of South Georgia.  The range dipped opposite the bay into a well-defined pass from east to west.  An ice-sheet covered most of the interior, filling the valleys and disguising the configurations of the land, which, indeed, showed only in big rocky ridges, peaks, and nunataks.  When we looked up the pass from Peggotty Camp the country to the left appeared to offer two easy paths through to the opposite coast, but we knew that the island was uninhabited at that point (Possession Bay).  We had to turn our attention farther east, and it was impossible from the camp to learn much of the conditions that would confront us on the overland journey.  I planned to climb to the pass and then be guided by the configuration of the country in the selection of a route eastward to Stromness Bay, where the whaling-stations were established in the minor bays, Leith, Husvik, and Stromness.  A range of mountains with precipitous slopes, forbidding peaks, and large glaciers lay immediately to the south of King Haakon Bay and seemed to form a continuation of the main range.  Between this secondary range and the pass above our camp a great snow-upland sloped up to the inland ice-sheet and reached a rocky ridge that stretched athwart our path and seemed to bar the way.  This ridge was a right-angled offshoot from the main ridge.  Its chief features were four rocky peaks with spaces between that looked from a distance as though they might prove to be passes.

The weather was bad on Tuesday, May 16, and we stayed under the boat nearly all day.  The quarters were cramped but gave full protection from the weather, and we regarded our little cabin with a great deal of satisfaction.  Abundant meals of sea-elephant steak and liver increased our contentment.  McNeish reported during the day that he had seen rats feeding on the scraps, but this interesting statement was not verified.  One would not expect to find rats at such a spot, but there was a bare possibility that they had landed from a wreck and managed to survive the very rigorous conditions.

A fresh west-south-westerly breeze was blowing on the following morning (Wednesday, May 17), with misty squalls, sleet, and rain.  I took Worsley with me on a pioneer journey to the west with the object of examining the country to be traversed at the beginning of the overland journey.  We went round the seaward end of the snouted glacier, and after tramping about a mile over stony ground and snow-coated debris, we crossed some big ridges of scree and moraines.  We found that there was good going for a sledge as far as the north-east corner of the bay, but did not