. There were about eighty acres of rock exposed on the edge of the
ice-cap, mainly composed of mica schists and some granite; the whole
extensively weathered. A line of moraine ran from the rocks away in an
east-north-east direction.

Most of the next day was broken by a heavy gale and, since the prospect
ahead was nothing but bare, rough ice, we passed the day in making
everything ready for a start and repaired a torn tent. The rent was made
by Amundsen, who dragged up the ice-axe to which he was tethered and, in
running round the tent, drove the point of the axe through it, narrowly
missing Kennedy's head inside.

Tuesday November 12 was an interesting day. The greater part of the
track was over rippled, level ice, thrown into many billows, through
devious pressure-hummocks and between the inevitable crevasses. The
coast was a kaleidoscope of sable rocks, blue cascades, and fissured
ice-falls. Fifteen miles ahead stood an island twenty miles long, rising
in bare peaks and dark knolls. This was eventually named David Island.

The dogs were working very well and, if only a little additional food
could be procured for them, I knew they could be kept alive. Zip broke
loose one night and ate one of my socks which was hanging on the sledge
to dry; it probably tasted of seal blubber from the boots. Switzerland,
too, was rather a bother, eating his harness whenever he had a chance.

On the 14th, a depot was formed, consisting of one week's provisions
and oil; the bags being buried and a mound erected with a flag on top.
Kennedy took a round of angles to determine its position.

At the end of two snowy days, after we had avoided many ugly crevasses,
our course in an east-south-east line pointed to a narrow strait between
David Island and the mainland. On the southern side of the former, there
was a heaped line of pressure-ice, caused by the flow from a narrow
bay being stopped by the Island. After lunch, on the 16th, there was an
hour's good travelling and then we suddenly pulled into a half-mile of
broken surface--the confluence of the slowly moving land-ice and of the
more rapidly moving ice from a valley on our right, from which issued
Reid Glacier. It was impossible to steer the dogs through it with a
load, so we lightened the loads on both sledges and then made several
journeys backwards and forwards over the more broken areas, allowing the
dogs to run loose. The crevasses ran tortuously in every direction
and falls i