CHAPTER XXVH. 



THE STORM CONTINUES. — AT WORK. — AMONG THE HUMMOCKS. —DIFFICULTIES 

 OF THE TRACK. — THE SNOW-DRIFTS. — SLOW PROGRESS. — THE SMITH 

 SOUND ICE. — FORMATION OF THE HUMMOCKS. — THE OLD ICE-FIELDS. 

 GROWTH OF ICE-FIELDS. — THICKNESS OF ICE. —THE PROSPECT. 



I will not lay so heavy a tax upon the reader's pa- 

 tience as to ask him to follow the pages of my diary 

 through the next three weeks. Diaries are of necessity 

 so much taken up with matters that are purely per- 

 sonal and contain so much of endless repetition, so 

 many events that are of daily recurrence, that it is 

 impossible in the very nature of things that they can 

 have much interest for anybody but the writers of 

 them. Suffice it, therefore, to say that the storm con- 

 tinued with unabated violence during the day suc- 

 ceeding that which closed the last chapter, and it did 

 not fairly subside until the end of the tenth day. 

 Meanwhile, however, we were busily occupied. The 

 storm did not keep us housed. 



Our first duty was to bring up the stores left at 

 Cape Hatherton. This accomplished, we broke up 

 our camp and set out to cross the Sound with a mod- 

 erate load, the men dragging the large sledge, while 

 the dogs were attached as before. The wind had, for- 

 tunately, hauled more to the south, and, coming 

 nearly on our backs, we found little inconvenience 

 from this source. But difficulties of another kind 

 soon gave us warning of the serious nature of the 



