25.2 A COLD BATH. 



mixed with the water from remaining fire (now available): 

 luncheon put into the " scran-bag," and " Down hoiise 

 break up!" Such, reader, is the delightful process of the 

 Polar travelling gentlemen, to be understood in future 

 as " started" = after breakfast, etc.; " pitched "= or 

 erected tents, cooked, and went to sleep. 



On the 4th of May, at seven, moved forward for Star 

 Bluff, but heavy packed ice fragments of broken floe, 

 cemented together by frost (only to be compared with 

 the roughest rocky travelling over disrupted quarries) 

 rendered our progress difficult with our heavily laden 

 sledges; we were very glad to "pitch" five miles short 

 of it, 



About eight A.M. on the 5th we moved forward, and 

 on closing Star Bluff we found the ice becoming very 

 tender. I thought that the off-shore ice would prove 

 firmer : it was so, but I did not go sufficiently far, and 

 in the attempt to make a short cut, to avoid one of the 

 most apparently dangerous spots, the leading sledge 

 broke in. Here the trusty 'Hamilton' did good ser- 

 vice ; she was soon floating beside the sledge, and safely 

 were the goods transferred. The instruments were safe, 

 and I was on the point, carrying the theodolite-legs in 

 my hand, of seeking a secure spot, when I found myself 

 suddenly immersed in a bath, by no means acceptable : 

 it might have been an intentional interpretation of C. B., 

 but it was beyond joke. The current beneath the ice 

 ran very strong. I had the chronometer on me, and, 

 unless I was soon rescued, I should be missing under 

 the ice ! At present the legs of the instrument across 

 the hole sustained me just enough out of water to pre- 



