CHAPTER XXXVII THE DRYGALSKI GLACIER On November 26 Mawson and I ascended a rocky promontory, while Mackay was securing some seal-meat, and from the top we had a splendid view across the level surface of sea-ice far below us. But although what we saw was magnificent, it was also discomforting, for at a few miles from the shore an enormous iceberg, frozen into the floe, lay right across the path which we had meant to travel on the next day. To the north-west of us was Geikie Inlet, and beyond that, stretching as far as the eye could follow, was the great Drygalski Glacier. Not a little concerned were we to observe with our field-glasses that the surface of this glacier was wholly different to that of the Nordenskjold Ice Barrier. Clearly the surface of the Drygalski Glacier was formed of jagged surfaces of ice very heavily crevassed, but we could see that at the extreme eastern extension, some thirty miles from where we were standing, the surface appeared to be fairly smooth. It was also obvious to us, from what we had seen looking out to sea to the east of our camp, that there were large bodies of open water at no great distance from us trending shorewards in the form of long lanes. The lanes of water were only partly frozen over, and some of these were interposed between us and the Drygalski Glacier. Not a moment was to be lost if we were to reach the glacier before the sea-ice broke up, for one strong blizzard would have converted the whole of the sea-ice between us and the glacier into a mass of drifting pack. The thing, indeed, for us to do was to push on with all our might, and still with slushy surfaces to hinder us we pulled and tramped until--on the 28th--we came to a point where for some time it seemed as if our progress further north was completely blocked. Eventually, however, we found a place where the ice might just bear our sledges, and, having strengthened it by laying down slabs of sea-ice and shovelfuls of snow, we rushed our sledges over safely. Extremely thankful were we to get them over to the other side, for the ice was so thin that it bent under our weight, and once Mackay broke through and very nearly got a ducking. Next we had to encounter some very high sastrugi of hard tough snow, and as these were nearly at right-angles to our course, the work of dragging our sledges over them was very distressing. And after the sastrugi we met with an ice-surface which kept continually cracking as we passed over it, with a noise like that of a whip being cracked. We were unable by this time to talk about anything but cereal foods, such as cakes of various kinds and fruits, for we were very short of biscuits and were consequently seized with food obsessions.