1876 NORTHERN SLEDGE JOURNEY. 365 



faces considerably. Distance marched nine miles ; 

 made good two and-a-half. 



' 2 ore/. — A beautifully sunshiny day, but misty over 

 the land. Latitude 82° 58' 37" N. Crossed a heavy 

 floe with numerous " hillocks " on it, but covered with 

 deep and soft snow, that made it hard work for our 

 sledges. It appears to us that the heavier the floes 

 are, the deeper and softer is the snow on their surface. 

 The temperature inside our tent this morning, before 

 the coverlets were removed, was 20°, a decided im- 

 provement. 



' Our travelling to-day has been very heavy, and 

 consequently our progress has been slow ; much delay 

 was caused by having to cut our way through various 

 belts of hummocks. Distance marched six miles ; 

 made good one and-a-quarter. Temperature minus 

 32° at midnight. 



' 24th. — On walking to the northern extreme of the 

 floe on which we were encamped, a dismal prospect 

 met our view. Enormous hummocks from twenty to 

 thirty feet high, all squeezed up together with ap- 

 parently no floes beyond. Foreseeing that time and 

 trouble must necessarily be expended before a road 

 could be cut through these obstacles, a number of 

 road-makers, with Parr at their head, were advanced, 

 whilst the remainder of the party remained in the 

 tents. This course was adopted in consequence of a 

 cold wind that was blowing, in which with the low 

 temperature it would have been unwise to have kept 

 the men standing about waiting for the pioneers to 

 complete their work. The hummocks appeared in- 

 terminable. From the summit of the loftiest no floe of 



