THE JOURNEY ON THE GLACIER 243 



feet broke at every step. The day afterwards the cold 

 grew more intense and a gale came on. At night the 

 men complained bitterly and could not sleep, and as the 

 storm increased in strength they were forced to leave the 

 tent and by active exercise prevent themselves from 

 freezing. 



To face the wind was impossible, and shelter was 

 nowhere to be found upon the unbroken plain, there 

 being but one direction in which they could move, that 

 being with their backs to the gale. It was not without 

 difficulty that the tent was taken down and bundled 

 upon the sledge, the wind blowing so fiercely that they 

 could scarcely roll it up with their stiffened hands. 

 The men were in pain and could only hold on for a few 

 moments to the hardened canvas, their fingers, freezing 

 continually, requiring vigorous pounding to keep them 

 on the flickering verge of life. " In the midst of a vast 

 frozen Sahara, with neither hill, mountain, nor gorge 

 anywhere in view," says Hayes, "fitful clouds swept 

 over the face of the full-orbed moon, which, descending 

 toward the horizon, glimmered through the drifting 

 snow that whirled out of the illimitable distance, and 

 scudded over the icy plain, to the eye in undulating 

 lines of downy softness, to the flesh in showers of 

 piercing darts. Our only safety was in flight ; and like 

 a ship driven before a tempest which she cannot with- 

 stand, and which has threatened her ruin, we turned 

 our backs to the gale ; and, hastening down the slope, 

 we ran to save our lives. We travelled, upwards of 

 forty miles, and had descended about three thousand 

 feet before we ventured to halt." 



Next year he visited the large glacier in Whale 



