I
shouted to Wilson to look out, but he had already jumped on to the sledge
(for he was running) having seen Stareek put his paws through. It was a
nasty crevasse, about twenty feet across with blue holes on both sides.
The sledge ran over and immediately on the opposite side was brought up
by a large 'haystack' of pressure which we had not seen owing to the
light. Meares' team, on our left, never saw any sign of pressure. The
light was so bad that we never saw this cairn of ice until we ran into
it.
We ran level for another two miles, Meares and Scott on our left. We were
evidently crossing many crevasses. Quite suddenly we saw the dogs of
their team disappearing, following one another, just like dogs going down
a hole after some animal.
"In a moment," wrote Scott, "the whole team were sinking--two by two we
lost sight of them, each pair struggling for foothold. Osman the leader
exerted all his strength and kept a foothold--it was wonderful to see
him. The sledge stopped and we leapt aside. The situation was clear in
another moment. We had been actually travelling along the bridge [or snow
covering] of a crevasse, the sledge had stopped on it, whilst the dogs
hung in their harness in the abyss, suspended between the sledge and the
leading dog. Why the sledge and ourselves didn't follow the dogs we shall
never know.
Pages:
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276