187(5 NORTHERN SLEDGE JOURNEY. 357 



brought up by enormous masses of ice, piled up, piece 

 on piece, to the height of over twenty feet. Through 

 this we resolved to cut a passage, although foreseeing 

 it would be a long and tedious job ; however, there 

 appeared no other alternative, so immediately after 

 lunch the road-makers, always supervised and headed 

 by Parr, who is not only a first-rate engineer but also 

 a most indefatigable labourer, set to work to cut a road. 

 This by 6 p.m. — with such resolution did they work — 

 was completed, the sledges dragged through and on to 

 another old floe, girt by more hummocks which were 

 in their turn attacked by Parr and his gang, and we 

 had the satisfaction of halting and encamping on a fine 

 large floe, which promises to give us a good lead for 

 some way to the north to-morrow. Parr, I am happy 

 to say, has quite recovered from his snow-blindness. 



' lit/i. — Crossed an old floe, having a deep incrus- 

 tation of frozen snow on its surface, rendering the 

 dragging very laborious, then through a belt of small 

 hummocks on to another fair-sized floe. These belts, 

 or cordons, of hummocks vary in breadth from 50 and 

 100 yards to as much as a quarter and half-a-mile. 

 As a rule round the larger floes appear the heavier 

 hummocks. We have been assailed by an unpleasant 

 nipping breeze from the northward, our faces being 

 constantly touched up by Jack Frost. Temperature 

 minus 28°. We were employed, during the afternoon, 

 in making a road through a more than ordinary broad 

 hedge of hummocks, and pulling the sledges through, 

 we made in consequence little head-way. The wind 

 freshening and the weather becoming very thick, we 

 halted earlier than we otherwise would have done. 



