MEN USED UP. 319 



notwithstanding, — discovered Grinnell Land, and 

 surveyed two hundred miles of its coast. But the ice 

 is now infinitely worse than it was then ; and I am 

 convinced that the difficulties of this journey have 

 now culminated and the crisis has been reached. The 

 men are, as I have before observed, completely ex- 

 hausted from the continued efforts of the past week, 

 and are disheartened by the contemplation of the Ht- 

 tle progress that was made as well as by the formi- 

 dable nature of the hummocks in front, which they 

 realize are becoming more and more difficult to sur- 

 mount as they penetrate farther and farther into them. 

 Their strength has been giving way under the incessant 

 and extraordinary call upon their energies, at temper- 

 atures in which it is difficult to exist even under the 

 most favorable circumstances, each realizing that upon 

 his personal exertions depends the only chance of 

 making any progress, and recognizing that after all 

 their efforts and all their sacrifices the progress made 

 is wholly inadequate to accomplish the object in view. 

 Besides this prostration of the moral sentiments, there 

 is the steady and alarming prostration of the ph3^sical 

 forces. One man is incapacitated from work by havino- 

 his back sprained in lifting ; another is rendered useless 

 by having his ancle sprained in falling ; the freezino- 

 of the fingers and toes of others renders them almost 

 helpless ; and the vital energies of the whole party 

 are so lowered by exposure to the cold that they are 

 barely capable of attending to their own immediate 

 necessities, without harborino- a thought of exertino- 

 themselves to complete a journey to which they can 

 see no termination, and in the very outset of which 

 they feel that their lives are being sacrificed. 



It is, therefore, in consideration of the condition of 



