SLEDGE JOURNEY. 415 



pemmican extract of moat, beans, lentils, peas, barley, flour 

 mixed with melted butter, and twenty bottles of brandy. 

 The pulse was cooked on board, left on deck to freeze, 

 then chopped in pieces, and thrown into the sack. Our 

 medicine-chest only provided for three diseases, frost-bite, 

 dysentery, and bad eyes ; five pounds of private luggage 

 were allowed for each man, and the three guns, with 200 

 cartridges, formed what may be termed the dead weight. 



Well, it is the 8th of March. Some days before we had 

 made a trial trip, and it had proved most satisfactory ; 

 there seemed no prospect of change in the temperature, 

 which was the lowest we ever observed in East Green- 

 land, being 24° to 35.50° Fahr. below zero, and still less 

 hope of the cessation of those time-thieving, indescribably 

 dreadful snow-storms. But time is too precious ; we 

 have already ten hours' daylight ; the sledge is packed, 

 and we begin the journey. 



The weather is lovely. A moderate wind blows from 

 the north over the hard snowy covering, along which the 

 sledge glides, now with hoarse and now with ringing 

 tones. At the next rocky projection, beyond which the 

 ship can no longer be seen, our companions, who have 

 given us the customary escort, return ; and w^e continue 

 our journey alone. 



The eye soon gets weary of the brightness of the white 

 surface and the uniformity of the landscape. Chains of 

 mountains, stretching along the coast from ten to fifteen 

 nautical miles off, are seen day after day. From insigni- 

 ficant elevations there rise, in the course of a few hours, 

 over the endless snowy surface, stately icebergs, behind 

 which huge snow-drifts have accumulated. A short stay in 

 the dry cold air causes a painful dryness in the larynx 



