610 THE VOYAGE OF THE JE ANNETTE. 



It has been blistering hot since midnight, though the 

 thermometer marked only 23° in the sun. The sky was 

 cloudless. A light S. S. W. breeze fanned along, but 

 we all suffered from the heat. Our hands and faces 

 are all swollen and blistered, and my hands are very 

 painful. 



At 7.30 a. M. had supper; at 8.30 a. m. read divine 

 service, and at nine A. M. piped down ; at six p. m. called 

 all hands ; at seven breakfasted, and at eight started 

 ahead again. Dunbar first, road makers next, dog 

 sleds third, and Melville, with the heavy sleds, last. 



For breakfast had beef- tea (excellent), coffee, bread, 

 and pemmican. By eleven p. m. the sleds and boats 

 were advanced half a mile over a fairly good road, 

 and the sick were sent to the front. A thick fog hid 

 our flags, and I had to stumble and flounder along Mr. 

 Dunbar's tracks to gain a place for marking a halt. I 

 say the road was fairly good, though for the greater 

 part of the way we had to wade through water nearly 

 to our knees. At one half mile we had a bad place to 

 cross, requiring some digging and bridging, but 



June 27th, Monday, — one a. m., found us about a 

 quarter of a mile further, and we halted for dinner. 

 Turned to at 2.15 A. m., and from this time to seven 

 a. m. we had the hardest time we have yet had. We 

 succeeded in advancing only half a mile further south 

 southwest, making one and a quarter miles in eleven 

 hours' steady work. Just after leaving our halting 

 place, we had another opening to cross twenty feet in 

 width ; and while we tried bridging it, it opened twenty 

 feet more. After great exertion we succeeded in drag- 

 ging in three large floes for bridges,, and by herculean 

 efforts got our sleds and boats over, launching first and 

 second cutters. Drifting about one eighth of a mile 



