270 UNCERTAINTY OF OUR ROUTE. 



the duty of a single individual, as an exact 

 distribution had been made of the baggage, 

 from which any deviation might have seriously 

 affected our future operations : each day's dis- 

 tance, moreover, was marked out, and it was 

 only by a rigid observance of these arrange- 

 ments that I could expect to reach the Thlew- 

 ee-choh on the ice. In short, in my case, as I 

 have elsewhere said, pity for temporary ailments 

 might be felt, but was not to be expressed ; the 

 restraint, however painful, being absolutely in- 

 dispensable. 



In the course of the night the weather 

 became overcast and threatening; and being 

 perplexed as to the most direct route, from the 

 seeming continuity of the land to the eastward, 

 as well as the deep bays and strange sand-hills 

 in the same quarter, I made for two dark points 

 that stood out boldly from the opposite western 

 shore, in the conviction that the track would 

 either be found there, or that I should recognise 

 some objects which might lead me to it. The sky 

 was extremely lowering, with a cold northerly 

 wind; and a small sleet falling, made the ice 

 so slippery that the dogs were much fagged. 

 The points, when reached, proved not to be 

 islands, as I had conjectured, but the extreme 

 promontory of an extensive bay. I therefore 

 ascended the highest hill near me, and per- 



