. 



Hi 4 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Ootob 



slightly, we obtained a momentary glimpse of the hill- 

 tops. Although so mneh snow had fallen lately, the 

 wind had swept them completely bare, carrying the 

 snow to the sheltered slopes and on to the sea ice. 



I remarked in my journal : ' 8th. — Light airs and 

 calms with snow. The floe is in a most deplorable 

 state ; the snow, two feet in thickness, covers more 

 than one foot of wet sludge at a temperature of 27°. 

 It was with difficulty that we obtained a sledge-load 

 of ice from the upper surface of a floeberg about one 

 hundred yards from the ship. A road was cleared for 

 a short distance with shovels, but as soon as the snow 

 was removed the uncovered water a foot in depth 

 above the floe turned into sludge, but refused to freeze 

 hard. Matters were little better on shore. After more 

 than half an hour's struggling over the soft snow on 

 my knees, I reached the observatory which was about 

 three hundred yards distant from the ship, but I failed 

 altogether to reach ' Markham Hall.' A road must be 

 shovelled away before we can communicate with it 

 unless we use snow-shoes. This soft snow and so long- 

 continued a fall of it is a new experience to Arctic 

 men. The German Expedition on the east coast of 

 Greenland are the only people who have met with 

 anything like it. Our travellers must be experiencing 

 very hard work, but fortunately they have plenty of 

 x provisions. It is difficult to say which is worse, the 

 soft snow or the continuous misty weather. The dogs 

 can do nothing in it, and it is quite impossible to put 

 them into snow-shoes. 



' Yesterday's wind forced the pack off the land from 

 Cape Sheridan to Ca/pe Eawson, leaving a water channel 



