They were fortunate in that the water was not deep; only three feet or so in spots; not enough to endanger the goods being transported in the wagons, but the going was arduous. They had to assemble the oxen into large teams and drag the wagons through this mire two by two, a task that was finally accomplished at dusk. Those travelling by foot and by horse were less fortunate than those travelling by wagon; both ox and horse had to be led by hand, and few horses were able to bear their riders across without mishap. By the time they reached the other side, most of the company was wet, filthy, shivering in the damp cold and exhausted.
Though they would have liked to stop, upon reaching the far side, Birin and some of the more experience soldiers elected to press on, distrusting the low ground underneath the snow which was just soft enough to be worrisome. Once again, as though faced with a mirror-image of the side they had left, the company was presented with a sharp embankment, followed by a wide band of bracken on the same variety they had breasted earlier.
By evening, they were crashing through the last of the snow-covered bracken, and to their relief, discovered that the land beyond this barrier resumed its former pattern of hillocks crowned with stands of trees and thick stands of copsewood.