We held on down the main glacier, and the descent was soon so steep that only with difficulty could we prevent the sledge from charging down the slope. On January 31 we took half the load off the sledge, and started with the remainder to try and work a passage of the ice-pressure ridges of the combined Drygalski and Larsen Glaciers on the smoother sea-ice, and eventually on to the Drygalski Ice Barrier. While Mawson and Mackay pulled, I steadied the sledge on the lower side in rounding the steep sidelings, but in spite of my efforts to keep it on even keel the sledge frequently capsized. At last we arrived at the foot of an immense ice-pressure ridge, a romantic-looking spot with a huge cliff of massive granite rising up on our left to heights of about 2000 ft., although I admit that at the time we did not exactly appreciate its romantic beauty. Mackay reconnoitred, and found that the large pressure ridge which seemed to bar progress towards our depot must be crossed. So taking our ice-axes we smoothed a passage across part of the ridge--a tough job--and then unloaded the sledge and passed each one of our packages over by hand. Finally we dragged the sledge up, and hoisted it over and lowered it down safely on the other side. Little by little the surface improved after this, until our progress was once more barred, but on this occasion by what may be termed an ice donga, apparently an old channel formed by a river of thaw-water. We encountered three of them during that afternoon from a few feet to 50 or 100 ft. broad, and often we had to take our sledge a long way round to cross them. Our difficulties were increased by the innumerable crevasses and steep ice ridges, and once Mackay and I were in the same crevasse at the same time, he up to his shoulders and I up to my waist. Fortunately, however, we were able to save ourselves from falling right through the lid by throwing out our arms. While we sledged on through the night, snow began to fall, and when we camped at 7 A.M. on February 1 we were all most thoroughly weary. CHAPTER XLII OBSTACLES IN OUR COURSE It continued to snow heavily during the day. But although Mawson's leg pained him a great deal we had to push on, for we were still sixteen miles, we thought, from our depot on the Drygalski Glacier, and we had only two days' food left. So we started to sledge in the thick, driving snow, but as the work under these conditions were excessively exhausting, and we were also unable to keep our proper course while the blizzard lasted, we camped at 8 P.M. and were soon sleeping the sleep of worn and weary wanderers. On the morning of February 2 we were rejoiced to find the sun shining, and we resolved to make a desperate attempt to reach our depot on this day, for we knew that the _Nimrod_ would be due--perhaps overdue--by the night. On looking back we saw that our track of the day before was about as straight as a corkscrew.