io reach the North Pole in 18S7. 367 



tion ; a passing gull, or a mass of ice of unusual form, became objects which 

 our situation and circumstances magnified into ridiculous importance ; 

 and we have since often smiled to remember the eager interest with which we 

 regarded many insignificant occurrences. It may well be imagined, then, 

 how cheering it was to turn from this scene of inanimate desolation, to our 

 two little boats in the distance, to see the moving figures of our men winding 

 with their sledges among the hummocks, and to hear once more the sound of 

 human voices breaking the stillness of this icy wilderness. In some ca8e^ 

 Lieutenant Ross and myself took separate routes to try the ground, which 

 kept us almost continually floundering among deep snow and water. The 

 sledges having then been brought up as far as we had explored, we all went 

 back for the boats ; each boat's crew, when the road was tolerable, dragging 

 their own, and the officers labouring equally hard with the men. It was thus 

 we proceeded for nine miles out of every ten that we travelled over ice : for 

 it was very rarely indeed that we met with a surface sufficiently level and 

 hard to drag all our loads at one journey ; and in a great many instances, 

 during the first fortnight, we had to make three journeys with the boats and 

 baggage ; that is, to traverse the same road five times over. 



We halted at eleven' p. m. on the 1st, having traversed from ten to eleven 

 miles, and made good, by our account, seven and a half in a N. by W. direc- 

 tion. We again set forward at ten a.m. on the 2d, the weather being calm, 

 and the sun oppressively warm, though with a thick fog. The temperature 

 in the shade was 35° at noon, and only 47° in the sun ; but this, together with 

 the glare from the snow, produced so painful a sensation in most of our eyes, 

 as to make it necessary to halt at one p. m. to avoid being blinded. We there- 

 fore took advantage of this warm weather to let the men wash themselves^ 

 and mend and dry their clothes, and then set out again at half-past three. 

 The snow was, however, so soft as to take us up to our knees at almost every 

 other step, and frequently still deeper ; so that we Were sometimes five minutes 

 together in moving a single empty boat, with all our united strength. It 

 being impossible to proceed under these circumstances, I determined, by de- 

 grees, to fall into our night travelling again, from which we had of late insen- 

 sibly deviated. We therefore halted at half-past five, the M'eather being now 

 very clear and warm, and many of the people's eyes beginning to tail. We 

 did not set out again until after midnight, with the intention of giving the 

 snow time to harden after so warm a day ; but we found it still so soft 

 as to make the travelling very fatiguing. Our way lay at first across a 

 number of small loose pieces, most of which were from five to twenty yards 

 apart, or just sufficiently separated to give us all the labour of launching and 

 hauling up the boats, without the advantage of making any progress by wa- 

 ter ; while we crossed, in other instances, from mass to mass, by laying the 

 boats over as bridges, by which the men and the baggage passetl. By these 

 means, we at length reached a floe, about a mile in length, in a northern di- 

 rection ; but it would be difficult to convey an adetpiate idea of the labour 

 requiretl to traverse it. The average depth of snow upon the level ]iarts was 

 about five inches, under which lay water four or five inches deep ; but the 

 moment we approached a hummock, the diepth to which we sank increased to 

 three feet or more, rendering it difficult at times to obtain sufficient footing 



