SNOW BLINDNESS. 323 



into near four, — making, with the three times going 

 over it, about twelve. I have not before had so bad 

 a day ; and yet the men could not possibly have 

 brought their sledge through at all. The dogs climb 

 the hummocks with the facility of the chamois mount- 

 ing the Alpine crags. One advantage they possess 

 is, that the}^ are not so heavy as the men and do not 

 so readily break through the crusted snow ; and then, 

 the sledges being smaller, are more easily managed. 

 We have reached a most formidable ridge of hum- 

 mocks which we were too much exhausted to scale ; 

 and have camped in a sort of cave made by the 

 crowding over of some ice-tables, thus saving the 

 labor of making a burrow ; and it came most oppor- 

 tunely ; for Jensen, owing to the uncertain footing, 

 discarded his glasses, and is in consequence suffering 

 from incipient snow-blindness, and would have been 

 unable to assist in digging our usual nightly pit into 

 a snow-drift. Our quarters are very tight and more 

 than usually comfortable, — the temperature being up 

 to within 10° of the freezing point, wdiile, outside, it 

 is 12° below zero. 



We set out in the morning with much spirit, but 

 are gloomy enough to-night. Such slow progress, 

 with so much labor, is not inspiring. Sleep is our 

 only consolation, and I am glad the temperature is 

 sufficiently high to enable us to repose without freez- 

 ing. Sleep, that has before drowned many a sorrow 

 for many a weary and care-w^orn man, has drowned 

 many a one of mine during these past twenty-five 

 days. It is 



" Tired Nature's sweet restorer," 



aniiong these ice-deserts, even more than elsewhere ; 

 and our sleep is truly the "sleep of the laboring 



