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AURORA AUSTRALIS. A moment later our astonished gaze was greedily devouring the situation. The mist had temporarily rolled back, revealing a steep slope commencing shortly in front of us. The gradient increased rapidly until lost to sight in the mist, a couple of thousand feet below.

We appeared to be standing on the ruin of a huge volcanoe of unprecedented proportions. The wall on which we stood extended far to the North and South. Even as we watched, the cloud bank rolled yet further back, and a more extended view unfolded to our rapt gaze. The steep gradient, already noted, ended below in a yet steeper slope, almost wall like, whilst dimly, in the depths below, snowless undulating plains were visible.

What a mighty wall guarded the secrets of the abyss. What grandeur beyond anything to be expected. Our very souls were elevated and burned with a desire to penetrate the depths before us: yet how impossible this seemed. How could mortal man scale such a wall as barred our progress.

Whilst our thoughts ran thus, a better view being obtained to the South, we descried a steeply dipping slope leading from the plateau down to the depths below. This was developed in the form of a