40 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. June 



preferable to the longer and more tortuous journey by 

 Guide Hill. Sighted Conical Hill, and having ascer- 

 tained my whereabouts, returned to the tent at five, 

 very tired and with a splitting headache, the effects of 

 a very powerful sun. Invalids arrived five minutes 

 after me, having occupied six hours and-a-half in 

 walking a distance we hauled the sledge slowly in two 

 hours and-a-quarter. 



' Had we but one invalid, or perhaps two, we could 

 put them on the sledge. As it is, they must walk, or 

 give in altogether, in which case I must send Ayles on 

 from View Point Depot, trusting in his intelligence, 

 strength, and endurance to reach the ship and ask for 

 assistance. When I spoke to him on the subject, he 

 expressed his readiness to start, and I have every con- 

 fidence in the man ; he has been with me both in the 

 autumn and spring, and I cannot speak too highly of 

 him. Having the blessing of health, his assistance to 

 me throughout has been and is invaluable ; and the 

 anything but cheering circumstances in which we are 

 placed enables me fully to appreciate it. I keep an 

 anxious look-out on the weather, dreading the thaw 

 which must shortly set in, and which will soon render 

 the route between View Point and the ship very bad, 

 if not impassable. 



' Sunday, 18th. — Eead the Morning Service. Ee- 

 joicing in a cold morning, but it is thick and inclined 

 to snow. It is fortunate I walked ahead last night, as 

 we followed my tracks. James Doidge collapsed soon 

 after starting, and having brought him to with a strong- 

 dose of sal volatile, left him to come on with the others, 

 while Good, Mitchell, Ayles, and I marched on with 



