IN THE BOATS. 699 



time for supper came, 6 p. m., I considered we had 

 made good seven miles to the southward. This is too 

 immense not to glory in, when I remember the hard 

 days of dragging which only gave one and a half or 

 two miles. 



Sat down to supper at six p. m. on a hard ice floe, 

 letting our loaded boats ride alongside. It was my de- 

 sire to keep the twelve dogs we had on leaving Ben- 

 nett Island, and if we could possibly carry them to 

 bring them with us to the end. But on Sunday, when 

 we were starting, four of them jumped from the boats, 

 and time was too precious to stop and run after them. 

 To-day four more, Smike, J. Armstrong, Wolf, and 

 Dick, did the same thing, and though their doleful 

 howling could be heard long after we had stopped for 

 dinner, I could not spare the time to chase them even 

 if the crowded condition of our boats would have per- 

 mitted their being carried. But as our boats are so 

 heavily loaded that the slightest motion causes the 

 water to wash in through the rowlocks, carrying dogs 

 becomes a risk. Perhaps the most sensible thing would 

 have been to shoot them all, but, with the island so 

 near, I thought if they escaped from us they might get 

 back and perchance live. So that chance for life was 

 given them. 



To-night, however, after canning four dogs in the 

 first cutter, I came to the conclusion that I was wrong- 

 so to lumber up the boat, and much to my regret (and 

 to Ericksen's grief) Prince was one of the two victims 

 led off to execution, Pilgarlic was the other. We now 

 have two of our original forty, — Snoozer and Kas- 

 matka, — and these two I shall keep until it becomes 

 perilous to do so. 



Got under way again at 7.30, and by 9.30 p. m. had 



