The wind was
bringing a little drift with it and the white dust lay on our clothes.
I thought that we might be able to keep warm and have half an hour's
rest this way. Within a minute my two companions were fast asleep. I
realized that it would be disastrous if we all slumbered together, for
sleep under such conditions merges into death. After five minutes I
shook them into consciousness again, told them that they had slept for
half an hour, and gave the word for a fresh start. We were so stiff
that for the first two or three hundred yards we marched with our knees
bent. A jagged line of peaks with a gap like a broken tooth confronted
us. This was the ridge that runs in a southerly direction from Fortuna
Bay, and our course eastward to Stromness lay across it. A very steep
slope led up to the ridge and an icy wind burst through the gap.
We went through the gap at 6 a.m. with anxious hearts as well as weary
bodies. If the farther slope had proved impassable our situation would
have been almost desperate; but the worst was turning to the best for
us. The twisted, wave-like rock formations of Husvik Harbour appeared
right ahead in the opening of dawn. Without a word we shook hands with
one another. To our minds the journey was over, though as a matter of
fact twelve miles of difficult country had still to be traversed.
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