THE START SOUTHWARD. 211 



ene of the black flags that had been planted by Ice-pilot 

 Dunbar, but seeing that he had planted another one ahead 

 of us we pushed on with the first cutter to reach that too. 

 This goal reached, we found that we were a mile and a half 

 from the starting place, and that it had taken us three hours 

 to make the distance. 



But we, in our enthusiasm, had gone too far. It appears 

 that the captain had only intended that we should make a 

 single short station on the first day, but the order had pro- 

 bably been misunderstood by Mr. Dunbar, whose only wish 

 was that we should make as good progress as possible. So 

 we had to return ; but on our way back we found that the 

 ice had shifted and that our original road had been entirely 

 broken up, and so we had to leave our sled midway between 

 the two flags and then go to the assistance of the rest. We 

 soon found that we had been fortunate with the first cutter. 

 During our absence the captain, with a special detail and 

 dogs, had attempted to advance the second cutter and whale- 

 boat. He had launched the whale-boat across a fissure, and 

 had broken the sled in hauling her out. No. 1 sled, named 

 the ' Sylvie,' had also been broken, as well as two others. 



The ice was all in motion, and we had a very bad outlook, 

 with our boats and sleds at various points on the road. 

 Chipp had been ordered to advance with the hospital sled, 

 with Kuehne and Alexai and three men to assist him. The 

 sled was heavily laden, and the work was too severe for the 

 first lieutenant in his weak state, and the result was that he 

 fainted from sheer exhaustion, requiring the services of the 

 doctor to restore him. 



On our first outward march, Machinist Walter Lee had 

 fallen out of the ranks and rolled upon the ice in agony with 

 cramps in the calves of his legs a result, doubtless of his 

 having worked for so many months on the iron plates of the 

 fire room, oftentimes with wet feet. He was a large, heavy- 

 bodied man, and the unusual task fell heavily upon him at 

 first. 



At six o'clock in the morning (we had been in the region 



