16 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. May 



man dancing on yon when brushing down the con- 

 densation collected on the inside of the tent was 

 disjoensed with this morning, there being none to brush 

 down. Under way at 3.20 a.m., got abreast Cape 

 Aldrich at 4 a.m., and then steered for a bare patch 

 on the brow of the low spit which rims off the cape, 

 and nearly due north of it, and reached the foot of the 

 ascent at 5.20 a.m. 



6 Found some difficulty in securing the depot, as 

 there was not a stone to be had ; the ground was very 

 hard, and composed of soil and very small shingle, 

 with here and there a thin covering of ice, pro- 

 bably caused by the snow melting in the sun and 

 freezing again before it could sink into the hard frozen 

 ground. On this mixture the pickaxe made but very 

 little impression, and it took four of us, working in 

 spells, two and a-half hours to get a hole ten inches in 

 depth and large enough to place the bottom of the 

 gutta-percha case in, wrapped up in an extra coverlet. 

 " Treboggined " down the hill on the empty sledge, 

 packed sledge, lunched, and started at 9.15, being 

 lighter by about 300 lbs. We were not at all sorry to 

 get under way again ; securing the depot was too cool 

 to be pleasant. Temperature minus 15°. Wind, force 

 6, from the N.W., and a cutting drift. We now had 

 a very heavy drag up the low spit, which extends from 

 Cape Aldrich for one or two miles towards the north, 

 and curves to the eastward. We reached the top at 

 11 a.m., and were disappointed to find we could only 

 see land five miles ahead, bearing about W. by N., 

 and terminating in a bold high cape, since named 



