108 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Jxjtse 



possibly spare, including the tent, gun, and my sextant 

 and knife, the only two things I had left. We started 

 on the evening of the 11th, and had not got a mile 

 from the shore hummocks before we came to water. 

 It was a large black-looking pool, surrounded for some 

 distance by ice, so rotten that sledge, sick, and all 

 would have gone in at the first step off the thicker 

 floe. 



' This obstacle at the very outset, where I so little 

 expected it, made me stop short, knowing the strong 

 tides and currents that existed on the other shore. I 

 felt that with a sick and enfeebled crew the risk was 

 too great, so we turned back and landed again. We 

 had completed from the depot to eight days' provisions ; 

 that would have been ample to cross with. Now we 

 had to make the best of our way to Polaris Bay, forty 

 miles off. The question was how much more to take ; 

 we ate so little, that eight days would last us twelve 

 I knew, and if we went on as we had done that would 

 be enough ; so taking the tent and gun from the depot 

 we started along the coast. Next march Dobing 

 broke down altogether, and Jones felt so bad he did 

 not think he could walk much longer. Poor fellows ! 

 Disappointment at the change of routes had much to 

 do with it. 



6 This was our darkest day. We were forty miles 

 off Polaris Bay at the very least, and only Gray and 

 myself to drag the sledge and the sick — the thing did 

 not seem possible. However, it was clear that we 

 must take all the provisions, and then push on as long 

 and as far as we could ; so we went back to the depot, 

 Gray, Jones, and I, and brought the remainder, ten 



