The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎273r] (48/154)

AN EXPLORATION IN 1897 OF SOME OF THE GLACIERS OF SPITSBERGEN. 139
imprisoned us in this camp for twenty-four hours. We employed the
finer intervals in practising with ski, by aid of which the remainder of
the inland journey had to be accomplished. A brief clearance enabling
us to discover the best direction to take over the icy interior, we set
forward again through the dense fog. Nothing was visible during the
march. The snow was soft, the slope steady; the sledges travelled
with difficulty. We camped again in the white wilderness. Next
morning there was a short lifting of the fog, which permitted us to see
westward for a few minutes, down a broad snowy valley to the line of
hills that border Dickson bay on the east. The fog soon returned and
blotted everything out. We marched on as before, to the north-east,
with nothing visible in any direction. The slope at times steepened so
much that we had to take on one sledge at a time, and then return for
the other. Late in the day a howling storm burst upon us, and one of
our Norwegian seamen broke down from cold, exposure, and fright.
He refused to advance further, so camp had to be pitched. We v/ere
soon almost snowed under, the sledges being completely buried out
of sight.
On the 18th Garwood and I left camp early in the continuing fog,
and made a ski expedition to the east and north. On reaching the
summit of a snowy dome, we came above the mist, and obtained a clear
view to the east, where a broad glacier valley opened at our feet, leading
away to the east, and then bending round south. Tributary valleys
joined this one on the north. All across the north and east were
plateau-fronts or bluffs of rock, with neve both below and above them.
Garwood set forth down the valley to investigate the rocks of a nunatak ;
I went north up a higher snow-dome, from the summit of which I had an
uninterrupted northward view. In that direction the snow-plateau
continued for some distance, cut up by deep glacier valleys, beyond
which were several higher mountains. Unfortunately, Wijde bay, all
the hills round it, and all the region to the west of me, were buried in
cloud. Late in the day we returned to camp, and found the sick man
in a feeble condition. He urgently demanded to be taken back to the
coast. Accordingly, we packed up camp, and set forth towards the
south-east over the highest part of the snow-plateau.
The evening was most beautiful; the scenery superb. High above
the clear air that surrounded us was a dark blue roof of cloud, resting
on skyey walls of marvellous colours, with streaks of stratus across them,
reflecting the golden sunlight. The sun itself was hidden in the north,
but beneath it there hung a reticulated web, woven of gold and purple,
through which the shafts of tender light drooped like eyelashes upon
the snow. All around, the neve swept away in gentle curves and domes,
greyish-white in some places with purple shadows, bluish-grey in
others, here and there strewn with carpets of sunlight. The rocks, too,
wherever they appeared, were rich in colour, showing their own ruddy