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128 JOURNEY ON THE GLACIER. 



eling upon the sea, that I doubt if I should have 

 attempted a journey in that quarter. In those posi- 

 tions most favorable to early freezing the ice does not 

 unite firmly until the darkness has fully set in ; and 

 traveling is not only attended with much risk, but 

 with great loss of that physical strength so necessary 

 to resist the insidious influences of the malady, hith- 

 erto so often fatal to sojourners in the Arctic darkness. 

 And it has been the general judgment of my prede- 

 cessors in this region, that the late spring and early 

 summer are alone calculated for successful sledge trav- 

 eling. I recall but two commanders who have sent 

 parties into the field in the autumn, and in both of 

 these cases the attempt was, apparently, not only use- 

 less, but prejudicial. The men were broken down by 

 the severity of the exposure — having been almost 

 constantly wet and always cold — and when the dark- 

 ness set in they were laid up with the scurvy ; and in 

 the spring it was discovered that the depots which 

 they had established were, for the most part, either 

 destroyed by bears or were otherwise unavailable. 



With inland traveling the case is different. There 

 is then no risk of getting wet, and I have not ordina- 

 rily experienced serious difficulty in traveling at any 

 temperature, however severe, provided I could keep 

 ray party dry. Some dampness is, however, almost 

 unavoidable even on land journeys, and this is, in 

 truth, one of the most embarrassing obstacles with 

 which the Arctic traveler has to contend. Even at 

 low temperatures he cannot wholly avoid some moist- 

 ure to his clothes and fur bedding, caused b}^ the 

 warmth of his own person melting the snow beneath 

 him while he sleeps. 



This being our first journey, of course everybody 



