140 Polar Explorations. 
dresses, dry stockings and fur boots—ate their slender sup- 
per—prepared for the next day’s journey—the men smoked 
their pipes and told stories, and the labors of the day were 
forgotten. A regular watch was set to look out for any mov- 
ing or breaking up of the ice, and to attend to drying, as far 
as possible, the wet clothes. They travelled ten hours, al- 
lowing one hour for dinner, and employed the night, gener- 
ally, for walking, and the day for sleep, for although the sun 
was all the time apparent, its effects were very different 
when it was highest in the heavens. The light was then 
more dazzling—the sludge and water were deeper on the 
surface of the ice, while by night the snow was somewhat 
harder for travelling, although there was not a great varia- 
tion in the temperature during the twenty-four hours. The 
day was concluded with prayers, and sleep was obtained with 
a degree of comfort that could scarcely be believed possible. 
After sleeping seven hours, the man appointed to prepare the 
pet “roused them by the sound of the bugle.” The 
allow 
—rum, -. Two 
pints of spirits of wine was the daily allowance of fuel, which 
placed in a shallow lamp with seven wicks, served to boil the 
cocea, and warm and dry in a slight degree, the interior, 
covered by the awnings. They were drenched with rain a 
considerable part of the time “not having had so much, all 
taken together, in the whole seven preceding summers.” | 
e ice became more and more broken as the season ad- 
vanced, and they proceeded north. From the “highest hum- 
mocks” they sought for some object to rest their eyes upon 
beside the sea and sky, but the forlorn waste mocked their 
expectation—not even a bear, or a sea-bird—not even the 
dangerous dashing of the waves met their view. The on 
change from this dazzling desolation, was the fogs, and rains, 
which obscured the extent of their solitude. 
Their way lay often among loose pieces of ice, from five 
to twenty yards asunder giving all the “trouble of launching 
and hauling up the boats, without making any progress by 
ater.”’ In narrow openings where it could be effected, a 
bridge was made of the boats from mass to mass, over which 
the men and baggage passed. The snow was three feet deep 
* Meat dried and powdered fine, and packed very closely. 
