296 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. IX. 



came after them, by which the snow was trodden 

 down, and made easier for the boats. What follows 

 is too interesting to be omitted. 



" As soon as we arrived at the other end of the floe, or 

 came to any difficult place, we mounted one of the highest 

 hummocks of ice near at hand (many of which were from 

 fifteen to twenty-five feet above the sea) in order to obtain 

 a better view around us ; and nothing could well exceed the 

 dreariness which such a view presented. The eye wearied 

 itself in vain to find an object but ice and sky to rest upon ; 

 and even the latter was often hidden from our view by the 

 dense and dismal fogs which so generally prevailed. For 

 want of variety the most trifling circumstance engaged a 

 more than ordinary share of our attention ; a passing gull, 

 a mass of ice of unusual form, became objects which our 

 situation and circumstances magnified into ridiculous im- 

 portance ; 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 cases Lieu- 

 tenant Ross and myself took separate routes to try the 

 ground, which kept us almost continually floundering among 

 deep snow and water. The sledges having 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 



