1854.] CRACKS BRIDGED BY FLOATING ICE. 211 



extent damaged. Yet for weeks this has been the con- 

 dition of those engaged in the long journeys of the latter 

 part of the season. 



Such are the ills, the difficulties, the wearing miseries 

 entailed on those engaged on this Arctic search. Far 

 from their ship, they feel that life can only be preserved 

 by such continuous labour, such endurance, as we should 

 hesitate to inflict on the horse, if Tie could sustain it (?). 

 Let any of the hardiest of my readers try the effect of 

 this on his own person for one day, under a temperature 

 even of 24, or 8 below freezing, and say, does double 

 pay compensate for ninety-jive or a hundred continuous 

 days of such fatigue ? 



In some instances this surface water was seen to rush 

 with considerable velocity to escape by the fissures ; but 

 in others, where a seal-hole only offered its funnel shape, 

 the vortex was highly dangerous to man or beast, and at 

 times attended with considerable noise. 



The floe itself, at the fissures, appeared to maintain off 

 shore a mean thickness of four feet, but seldom reached 

 six or seven feet. 



Between our two first tents, a distance of twenty geo- 

 graphical miles, the open cracks, exciting hopes of relief 

 this season, occurred at intervals of nearly each mile. 

 These were fortunately bridged by ice at narrow points, 

 selected by the officers in advance, or occasionally float- 

 ing masses of sufficient bulk were brought up to bear 

 the weight, and with our accumulated force each sledge 

 was separately passed over at railway speed. But for 

 such chances we should have been compelled to unload 

 and reload, ferrying our cargoes across, which would have 



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