DRIFTING TO THE SOUTH. 133 



packed on two sledges, which were, however, soon com- 

 pletely snowed up. All our labour was rendered heavier 

 by the storm, which made it almost impossible to breathe. 

 About eleven we experienced a sudden fissure which threat- 

 ened to tear our house asunder ; with a thundering noise 

 an event took place, the consequences of which, in the 

 first moments, deranged all calculations. God only knows 

 how it happened that, in our flight into the open, none 

 came to harm. But there in the most fearfiil weather we 

 all stood roofless on the ice, waiting fi^r daylight, which 

 was still ten hours off". The boat King William lay on 

 the edge of the floe, and might have floated away at any 

 moment. Fortunately the fissure did not get larger. As 

 it was somewhat quieter at midnight, most of the men 

 crept into the captain's boat, when the thickest sail we had 

 was drawn over them ; some took refuge in the house. 

 But there, as the door had fallen in, they entered by 

 the skylight, and in the hurry broke the panes of glass, 

 so that it was soon full of snow. This night was the 

 most dreadful one of our adventurous voyage on the floe. 

 The cold was — 9^° Fahr. Eeal sleep, at least in the boat, 

 was not to be thought of; it was but a confused, unquiet, 

 half-slumber, which overpowered us from utter weariness, 

 and our limbs quivered convulsively as we lay packed like 

 herrings in our furs. The cook Lad, in spite of all, found 

 energy enough in the morning to make the cofi*ee in the 

 house, and never had the delicious drink awakened more 

 exhausted creatures to life. The bad weather raged the 

 whole day. We lay in the boat, half in water, half in 

 snow, shivering with the frost, and wet to the skin. We 

 also passed the night of the 15th to the 16th, in the same 

 comfortless position, and only on the morning of the 16th 



