Bitter winds swept across the vast plain before them and searched them through, all the clothing and blankets they had scarcely sufficing to keep them warm; indeed, the Settlement men and Francisco, who had been bred in a southern clime, suffered severely.

Nor were matters improved when, on the breaking of the light, they woke from a troubled sleep to find the plain hidden in a dense mist.

However, they rose, made a fire with reeds and dead wood which they gathered on the banks of the river, and ate, waiting for the fog to vanish.
But it did not vanish, so about nine o'clock they continued their journey under Soa's guidance, following the east bank of the river northwards.

The ground proved easy to travel over, for, with the exception of isolated water-worn boulders of granite, the plain was perfectly smooth and covered with turf as fine as any that grows in northern lands.
All that day they marched on, wandering like ghosts through the mist, and guided in their path by the murmuring sound of the river.

They met no man, but once or twice great herds of hairy creatures thundered past them.