THE VOYAGE OVER THE PACK ICE 209 



heavy old ice, piled up in high pressure-ridges, and our only 

 possibility of making headway was to use our pickaxe all the 

 way, which means very hard work. "Uxra" has suddenly 

 been taken ill, and we are very sorry, for he is a willing dog 

 and a good puller. We have given him a day off, and hope 

 that may help him to recover, but we know by sad experience 



HOT LUNCH. 



that dogs once attacked by that dreaded disease are not apt 

 to survive. We have not had much trouble from open water 

 to-day, there has only been one lane to cross, but the ice has 

 been bad and the travelling hard. However, the ice is older than 

 on the preceding days, and we soon hope to be out of this belt 

 of pressed-up ice, as we are also afraid that our sledges will 

 not be able to stand the strain. Storkersen's sledge is getting 

 out of shape, and we had to strip off the under-runners, as they 

 were badly split. At noon we were disagreeably surprised to 

 find that our observed latitude was four miles less than our 

 dead reckoning, as we had thought that we were, if anything, 

 further along. Camped at 4.45 P.M., having made about seven 

 miles. The weather has been unpleasant all day, cold and windy. 



Temperature 30 C. ; wind S.W., about eighteen miles 

 an hour. 



Monday, April I. Broke camp at 7.20 A.M. and commenced 

 at once with hard chopping work. However, as the day wore 

 on the ice got better, and about u A.M. we struck some fairly 

 good going over some older floes with pressure-ridges along the 

 edges. Over the ridges we had to break a road, but that gives 



A.I. p 



