APPENDIX 



431 



line about one hundred 3^ards from the ice foot on the sea ice. The earliest 

 gale drifted them up nearl}^ gunwale high, and thus for two months they 

 remained in sight whilst we congratulated ourselves on their security. The 

 last gale brought more snow, and piling it in drifts at various places in the 

 bay, chose to be specially generous with it in the neighbourhood of our boats, 

 so that afterwards they were found to be buried three or four feet beneath 

 the new surface. Although we had noted with interest the manner in which 

 the extra weight of snow in other places was pressing down the surface of 

 the original ice, and were even taking measurements of the effects thus pro- 

 duced, we remained fatuously blind to the risks our boats ran under such 

 conditions. It was from no feeling of anxiety, but rather to provide occu- 

 pation, that I directed that the snow on top of them should be removed, 

 and it was not until we had dug down to the first boat that the true state of 

 affairs dawned on us. She was found lying in a mass of slushy ice, with 

 which also she was nearly filled. For the moment we had a wild hope that 

 she could be pulled up, but by the time we could rig shears the air tempera- 

 ture had converted the slush into hardened ice, and she was found to be 

 stuck fast. At present there is no hope of recovering any of the boats : as 

 fast as one could dig out the sodden ice, more sea-water would flow in and 

 freeze. . . . The danger is that fresh gales bringing more snow will sink 

 them so far beneath the surface that we shall be unable to recover them at 

 all. Stuck solid in the floe they must go down with it, and every effort 

 must be devoted to preventing the floe from sinking.' As regards the rope, 

 it is a familiar experience that dark objects which absorb heat will melt 

 their way through the snow or ice on which they lie. 



Note 18, p. 206. 



