The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 21: The Recent Days (1910-1914)
History
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 21: The Recent Days (1910-1914)
World history
Farther down toward the west at the end of the glacier "Ole Engelstad
Mountain" rises to an elevation of about 13,000 feet. At this
relatively narrow place the glacier was very hummocky and rent by many
deep crevasses, so that we often feared that we could not advance
farther. On the following day we reached a slightly inclined plateau
which we assumed to be the same which Shackleton describes. Our dogs
accomplished a feat on this day which is so remarkable that it should
be mentioned here. After having already done heavy work on the
preceding days, they covered nineteen miles on this day and overcame a
difference in altitude of 5,700 feet. On the following night we camped
at a place which lay 10,800 feet above sea level. The time had now come
when we were forced to kill some of our dogs. Twenty-four of our
faithful comrades had to die. The place where this happened was named
the "Slaughter House." On account of bad weather we had to stay here
for four days. During this stay both we and the dogs had nothing except
dog meat to eat. When we could at last start again on November 26th,
the meat of ten dogs only remained. This we deposited at our camp;
fresh meat would furnish a welcome change on our return. During the
following days we had stormy weather and thick snow flurries, so that
we could see nothing of the surrounding country. We observed, however,
that we were descending rapidly. For a moment, when the weather
improved for a short time, we saw high mountains directly to the east.
During the heavy snow squall on November 28th we passed two peculiarly
shaped mountains lying in a north-south direction; they were the only
ones that we could see on our right hand. These "Helland-Hansen
Mountains" were entirely covered by snow and had an altitude of 9,200
feet. Later they served as an excellent landmark for us.
On the next day the clouds parted and the sun burst forth. It seemed to
us as if we had been transferred to a totally new country. In the
direction of our advance rose a large glacier, and to the east of it
lay a mountain range running from southeast to northwest. Toward the
west, impenetrable fog lay over the glacier and obscured even our
immediate surroundings. A measurement by hypsometer gave 8,200 feet for
the point lying at the foot of this, the "Devil's Glacier." We had
therefore descended 2,600 feet since leaving the "Slaughter House."
This was not an agreeable discovery, as we, no doubt, would have to
ascend as much again, if not more. We left provisions here for six days
and continued our march.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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