268 DETERMINE RATE OF TRAVEL. \_May, 



chance errors. We breakfasted at four, this being Sun- 

 day, and at six P.M., after prayers, with a temperature of 

 7, moved forward. The floe had now become uniformly 

 smooth and clear of hummocks. Hitherto the rate of 

 travel had been estimated, the efforts were irregular, and 

 resting periods undetermined : this did not suit me. I 

 travel always, for years past, with reels of the strongest 

 cable-laid sewing-cotton, capable of sustaining fair weights 

 fourteen pounds : these I had measured before leav- 

 ing the ship, and they were found to be very correct in 

 length, viz. one hundred fathoms (it is marked, Patent 

 line, two hundred yards) : of this line I brought eighteen 

 reels, equal to eighteen hundred fathoms : some had been 

 rewound on a core, with the running part from the centre, 

 as customary in grocers' shops, etc., which prevented any 

 chance of undue twist. These lines were intended for 

 sounding in great depths ; and the entire loss of the line 

 proved but a cheap mode of purchasing a valuable fact, 

 for the failure of finding bottom in great depths is valu- 

 able information. 



May 16. Making use of one hundred fathoms and 

 the chronometer, on the principle of the log, I was en- 

 abled to determine the period at which the sledge moved 

 over six hundred feet of snow ; the result, at very slow 

 travelling, gave one mile in forty minutes. As this was 

 easy work, I enacted that each spell should occupy forty 

 minutes, and an interval for rest of ten minutes, securing 

 a mean value of one mile in every fifty minutes of travel- 

 ling ; thus, in a complete day, we had, from six P.M. till 

 midnight, six hours, one hour for luncheon, smoking, 

 etc., and five hours, up to six A.M., making together 



