LIFE OR DEATH? 201 



After launching the two canoes it was with great 

 danger and difficulty we were able to force a way 

 through the broken but heavy shore-ice to the open 

 water beyond. Having once gotten clear, we were 

 able to make good progress, and even at great risk of 

 being smashed upon some of the many rocks, we paddled 

 far into the night ; but at a late hour, being sheathed in 

 ice from the freezing spray, we landed, and, without 

 supper, lay down to sleep upon the snow. 



Eight more dreary days passed, six of which were 

 spent in battling with the elements and two in lying 

 storm-stayed in our tents.. During this interval our 

 party suffered much from cold and lack of food, and to 

 make matters worse, dysentery attacked us, and it ap- 

 peared as if one of our men would die. 



The ice had been all the while forming, rendering it 

 more and more difficult to launch or get ashore. Our 

 frail crafts were being badly battered, and often were 

 broken through by the ice, and the low character of 

 the coast had not improved. Still with hollow cheeks 

 and enfeebled strength we struggled on, sometimes 

 making fair progress and at others very little, until on 

 October the 14th, as we advanced, the ice became so 

 heavy, and extended so far out to sea, that in order to 

 clear it we had to go quite out of sight of land. 



Towards evening we began to look about for some 

 opportunity of going ashore, but nothing could be seen 

 before us but a vast field of ice with occasional pro- 

 truding boulders. We pushed on, hoping to find some 

 bluff point or channel of water by which we might 

 reach the shore, but the appearance of things did not 

 change in the slightest. We stood up in the canoes or 



