200 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



minute later he rolls in, cold and in bad spirits, gets off his 

 overalls and boots, and crawls as far into his bag as possible. 

 Tea is made about 6 P.M., and after that conversation is kept 

 up for a little while, at first rather briskly on the everlasting 

 theme how the weather is going to be on the morrow. But 

 by-and-by it flags ; one man gets out his diary, writes a few 

 words, and again we crawl deeper into our bags, making our- 

 selves snug, while a heavy breathing, now from one bag, 

 now from another, tells that the occupant is in the land of 

 dreams. Outside everything is quiet, only now and then a dog 

 stirs to secure a better position. A short fight may be the 

 result, but a yell from the inhabitants of the tent soon stops 

 that, and slowly the whole party, men and dogs, gets quieter 

 and quieter, until at last every one is asleep, possibly dreaming 

 of fair weather, warm sun, grassy and shady slopes, a favourite 

 dream in the Arctic, while round us the wind is absolute 

 master, whirling up the snow, covering the dogs, and packing 

 a blanket of snow round our frail abode. 



Our tent is admirable ; outside the temperature is 22 C., 

 inside it is only 8 C. The boat-cover certainly gives us a 

 good deal of comfort. 



Thursday, March 21. It took us two hours to start this 

 morning. The wind had died down during the night, but 

 tent and sledges were buried under a heap of snow. The 

 weather was hazy but calm, and we made some progress, but 

 had to fight against rather heavy ice, as we had got outside the 

 sand-spits. While trudging along, Mr. Leffingwell saw the mark 

 on Cross Island, and as we wanted to bear out over the ice 

 from there as well as to leave some food at that place, we made 

 for it and camped at 3 P.M. We deposited provisions for five 

 days there for our return march. The ice looks better than off 

 Flaxman Island, but of course we cannot see much from 

 here. 



The temperature is falling; we had 31 to-day. Calm 

 and hazy. 



Friday, March 22. We turned out at 5 A.M. and packed up 

 the sledges after breakfast. The weather looked very threaten- 

 ing, and as we had to go out over the pack ice, where we must 

 be able to see our way, we waited an hour to ascertain what it 

 was going to be. During that hour the wind increased steadily, 



