THE ASCENT OF MOUNT EREBUS.
shining ice surface of the Blue Lake, only half a mile from our winter quarters. Now that the haven was at hand, and the strain and stress over, (for it had proved a pretty severe strain for most of us,) we suddenly felt our limbs grow heavy and leaden, just as they sometimes seem to in a nightmare, when one imagines oneself pursued by wild beasts.
When close to the hut, we formed in line, and saw Lieutenant Shackleton and the rest of our comrades rush out to meet us; he hailed us with the cry, “Did you get to the top”? At first there was no response, presumably because each one of us was waiting for the other to speak, and what’s everybody’s business is, of course, nobody's business. Then Adams sung out “Yes”, and they all gave us a hearty cheer.
Many were the hand-shakings, and warm the welcome. How cosy and luxurious were our winter quarters after the wind-swept slopes of Erebus! and how delightful it was to pour our travellers’ tales into the ears of willing listeners! These tales probably lost nothing in the telling, from the fact that the doctor administered to each of us, just as an antidote to collapse, of course, a small dose of champagne. Fearing that our listeners might suffer from collapse through excess of strain upon their credulity, the doctor pre-
