442 Chapter VII. 



dear reminiscences of that quiet laboratory at home, and 

 every morning- as I come in here the microscope and 

 glasses and colours on the table invite me to work. But 

 though I work indefatigably day after day till late in the 

 night, it is mostly duty work, and I am not sorry when 

 it is finished, to go and lie for some few hours in my 

 berth reading a novel and smoking a cigar. With what 



O <J *~J 



exultation would I not throw the whole aside, spring up, 

 and lay hold of real life, fighting my way over ice and 

 sea with sledges, boats, or kayaks. It is more than true 

 that it is ' easy to live a life of battle ' ; but here there 

 is neither storm nor battle, and I thirst after them. I long 

 to enlist titanic forces and fight my way forward that 

 would be living ! But what pleasure is there in strength 

 when there is nothing for it to do ? Here we drift 

 forward, and here we drift back, and now we have been 

 two months on the same spot. 



" Everything, however, is being got ready for a possible 

 expedition, or for the contingency of its becoming neces- 

 sary to abandon the ship. All the hand-sledges are 

 lashed together, and the iron fittings carefully seen to. 

 Six dog-sledges are also being made, and to-morrow we 

 shall begin building ' kayaks ' ready for the men. They 

 are easy to draw on hand-sledges in case of a retreat 

 over the ice without the ship. For a beginning we are 

 making ' kayaks ' to hold two men each. I intend to 

 have them about 12 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 18 inches 

 in depth. Six of these are to be made. They are to be 



