Allysse Riordan Writings

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 prescribed for all of them a similar treatment.

Built in the nineteenth century, the bridge is too narrow for two-way traffic and there is no pavement. About a third of the way across, I had a brush with death, as a very quiet hearse surprised me as it passed close. Heaped on the coffin were beautiful wreaths of yellow roses, but strangely there was no cavalcade of mourners' cars behind.