1875 AUTUMN SLEDGE TRAVELLING. 171 



the sledges forward one at a time. The newly formed 

 ice was so weak that it became necessary to cross it 

 with half-loads, and the unfrozen water-spaces near the 

 shore were so frequent that land travelling along every 

 bend of the coast-line had to be resorted to. A large 

 water-pool in the neighbourhood of Cape Eichardson 

 obliged the travellers to cross a hill 250 feet high. 



Out of the party of twenty-one men and three 

 officers, no less than seven men and one officer returned 

 to the ship badly frost-bitten, three of these so severely 

 as to render amputation necessary, the patients being 

 confined to their beds for the greater part of the 

 winter. 



The sledges with their cargoes on four occasions 

 broke through the ice, and individual men frequently : 

 these being made to change their clothing escaped any 

 bad consequences. The frost-bites were attributable 

 entirely to the wet sludgy state of some of the ice that 

 had to be crossed. 



The water that had oozed up through the ice 

 remained unfrozen, although the temperature was 

 upwards of forty degrees below freezing point ; con- 

 sequently whenever the travellers, inexperienced as 

 they were at the time, were forced to drag their 

 sledges over a road of this nature, their feet became 

 wet and frost-bitten a considerable time before they 

 discovered it when changing their foot-gear in the 

 evening ; by which time the mischief had attained such 

 an advanced stage as to defy all restoration of the 

 circulation. 



The sledges proved to be too rigid ; but by taking 

 out the metal pins connecting the uprights to the 

 upper bearer, and depending upon the hide lashings 



j 



