154 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA* Octobbb 





were large and downy, resembling those which fall 

 when the temperature is near freezing point, 



On the 5th, the weather was still as gloomy as ever, 

 with thick snow falling In the evening Lieutenant 

 Aldrich returned, with eleven dogs harnessed to one 

 sledge on which his light gear was secured. Every- 

 thing else had been left a few miles behind to enable 

 him to reach the ship before night. 



The dogs, sinking as they frequently did in the soft 

 snow up to their muzzles, had proved to be nearly 

 useless, and but for the help of the men the sledge 

 would have had to be abandoned. The dogs had 

 suffered much from fits, one had been shot, and two 

 others had wandered from the party when temporarily 

 mad. Aldrich had succeeded in reaching Cape Joseph 

 Henry, and had spent three days in exploring the 

 neighbourhood. The floebergs and rugged ice piled 

 directly against the precipitous face of the cliffs, with 

 an extremely rough pack in constant motion, effectually 

 prevented sledges being dragged round the cape ; but 

 fortunately there was a fair prospect of finding a 

 level road overland to the sea on the other side of the 

 cape in the spring. It was now too late in the season 

 for Markham to attempt it, 



Commander Markham's party were communicated 

 with on the 1st, six miles distant from the cape and 

 travelling towards it. The sledge crews had all ex- 

 perienced very hard work, occasioned by the thin state 

 of the new ice having forced them to travel along the 

 land, to follow every indentation of the shore, and to 

 haul the sledges across the hills at the back of the pre- 

 cipitous points. The fact that the travellers continued 



