At the same time we should have to pioneer a road up to the high plateau, and now that everything was buried under soft snow it was clear that sledging would be slower and more difficult than ever. Under the circumstances it was, perhaps, not to be wondered at that we were not hopeful of our chance of success. However, there was nothing to do but to reconnoitre in a south-westerly direction to see what way was most practicable for us, and after paddling, unwillingly, in many shallow pools of water and crossing much pressure-ice and several crevasses, we at last saw that we should have to drag our sledge up a steep slope encumbered with soft deep thawing snow. We also collected several specimens, including a solitary coral, and while we were collecting them we could hear the roar of many mountain torrents descending the steep granite slopes of the great mountain mass. Occasionally, too, we heard the boom and crash of an avalanche descending from the high mountain top, and such sounds were strange to our ears, accustomed so long to the almost uninterrupted solitude and silence of the Antarctic. [Illustration: The Northern Party at the South Magnetic Pole From left: Dr. Mackay, Professor David, Douglas Mawson (_See page 215_)] On the 22nd we were suddenly struck by a furious blizzard which hindered us until Christmas Eve, but by ten o'clock on that evening we had succeeded in struggling on until we were above the uncomfortable zone of thaw, and everything around us was once more crisp and dry though cold. We had reached over 1200 ft. above sea level, and our spirits mounted with the altitude. On Christmas Day we were delayed at first by a blizzard, but in spite of this we managed to travel about four miles and to camp at night over 2000 ft. above sea-level. Having no other kind of Christmas gift to offer, Mawson and I presented Mackay with some sennegrass for his pipe, his tobacco having been exhausted long before. The following day saw us again crossing crevasses, and as some of them were from 20 to 30 ft. wide, it was fortunate that the snow lids were strong enough to carry safely both the sledge and ourselves. Mackay suggested that, for greater security, we should fasten the alpine rope around Mawson, who was in the lead, and secure the other end of it to the sledge. The rope was left just slack enough to admit of the strain of hauling being taken by the harness rope, and so Mawson had two strings to his bow in case of being suddenly precipitated into a crevasse. It was a good system, and we always adopted it afterwards in crossing heavily crevassed ice. On the next day we made a small depot of our ski boots, all our geological specimens, and about one day's food supply together with a small quantity of oil, and this we called the Larsen Depot as it was close to one of the southern spurs of Mount Larsen.