A mirage made the sastrugiappear to be dancing like some ice-goblins.
We are continually falling, for we are unable to distinguish the high and low parts of the sastrugi surface.
We encountered a very high, rough sastrugi surface, most remarkably high, and had a cold breeze in our faces during the march.
A southerly wind made possible the use of the sail, and the trouble was to prevent the sledge bounding ahead over rough sastrugi and capsizing.
The surface, too, grew worse; nothing but sastrugi eighteen inches to thirty inches high and very close together.
At length it occurred to us that something serious might have happened, so we left our loads and started back at a gallop for Aladdin's Cave with two empty sledges, Mertz careering ahead on skis over the sastrugi field.
We then spent several hours in advancing a mile over badly broken ground, arriving at a slope covered with sastrugi and descending steeply for one thousand feet into the bed of the glacier.
The sledge was being continually jammed into big, old, invisible sastrugiand we fell about in the wind until crampons became absolutely necessary.
The sastrugi were high and hard, and over them we bumped, slipping and falling in the uncertain light.
Two sets of sastrugiwere found crossing one another, and, in the absence of the sun, we could not be sure of the course, so the camp was pitched niter five miles.
The light became worse, and the sastrugi indistinguishable.
Finally, the trail emerged on to ordinarysastrugi once more, where a halt was made for lunch.
On the other hand, over deeply furrowed sastrugi or blue ice, or during a strong wind, unless it were at our backs, skiing was impossible.
From twenty to fifty miles 'out', the surface was neve with areas of sastrugi up to three feet in height.
At seventy miles the broken ice gave way to a level expanse of hard sastrugi dotted all over with small mounds of ice about four feet high.
There was at first a slight descent, and then we strained up the eminence to the south over high sastrugi running almost north and south.
The surface of hard, polished sastrugi caused many falls.
The strange thing was that the firm sastrugi present on the outward journey were now covered inches in snow, which became deeper as we marched westward.
On December 31, after a day's blizzard, the surface was found to be covered withsastrugi of soft snow eighteen inches to two feet in depth.
That it had been blowing here at some time, and violently too, was shown by the under-surface, which was composed of sastrugi as hard as iron.
Meanwhile the sastrugi grew smaller and smaller, and finally they disappeared altogether, and the surface became quite flat.
And then we were off: It was a hard pull to begin with, both for men and beasts, as the high sastrugi continued towards the south, and made it extremely difficult to advance.
The surface was also perfectly level; there was not a sign of sastrugi in any direction.
The sastrugi gradually became levelled out, until the surface was perfectly smooth; it was a relief to have even ground to go upon once more.
The sastrugi were very high, and often abrupt; if one came on them unexpectedly, one required to be more than an acrobat to keep on one's feet.
The camp was much drifted up, and immense sastrugi .
It was a miserable march, blizzard all the time and our sledge either sticking on sastrugi or overrunning the traces.
It suggests to me a surface with sastrugi and layers of fine dust on which the snow has taken hold.
In the afternoon we struggled on, got out of sastrugi and turned over on glazed surface, crossing many crevasses--very easy work on ski.
The sea ice south is covered with confused irregular sastrugi well remembered from Discovery days.
In the afternoon we continued on ski till after two hours we struck a peculiarly difficult surface--old hard sastrugi underneath, with pits and high soft sastrugi due to very recent snowfalls.
It looks as though we were descending slightly; sastrugi remain as in forenoon.
The sastrugi are very much diminished, and those from the south seem to be overpowering those from the S.
The sastrugi are confused, the underlying hard patches appear as before to have been formed by a W.
Over the sastrugi it is all up and down hill, and the covering of ice crystals prevents the sledge from gliding even on the down-grade.
The hard surface gave place to regular sastrugi and our horizon levelled in every direction.
The surface is greatly changed since we passed outward, in most places polished smooth, but with heaps of new toothed sastrugi which are disagreeable obstacles.
In the afternoon the sastrugi gradually diminished in size and now we are on fairly level ground to-day, the obstruction practically at an end, and, to our joy, the tracks showing up much plainer again.
The sastrugi seemed to increase as we advanced and they have changed direction from S.
Very curious surface--soft recent sastrugi which sink underfoot, and between, a sort of flaky crust with large crystals beneath.
Then during the first part of the march they got among sastrugi which jerked the sledges about, and so tired out the second team that they had great difficulty in keeping up.
The sastrugiseemed to increase as they advanced, and late in the afternoon they encountered a very rough surface with evidences of hard southerly wind.
We (Scott and Bowers) steered with compass, the drifting snow across our ski, and occasional glimpses of southeasterly sastrugi under them, till the sun showed dimly for the last hour or so.
On account of the sastrugi the ski were left at Camp 59, but they had only marched a mile from it when the sastrugi disappeared.
Over the sastrugi it is all up and down hill, and the covering of ice crystals prevents the sledge from gliding even on the downgrade.
The sastrugi increased in height as they advanced, and presently [Page 375] they found themselves in the midst of a sea of fishhook waves, well remembered from their Northern experience.
The surface was very slippery in parts and on the hard sastrugi it was a case of falling or stumbling continually.
Sastrugi are the hard waves formed by wind on a snow surface; these are seldom more than a foot or so in height, and often so obscured as to be imperceptible irregularities.
We just pulled for all we were worth and did nearly two miles an hour: for two miles a baddish salt surface, then big undulating hard sastrugi and good going.
Our salvation is on the summits of the ridges, where hard névé and sastrugi obtain, and we skip over this slippery stuff and make up lost ground easily.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "sastrugi" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
