THE VOYAGE OVER THE PACK ICE 221 



within his reach. We wish we could afford to shoot him, but 

 we cannot as long as there is the barest chance that he may 

 pull round. Mr. Leffingwell especially is feeling very sorry. 

 " Unimack " is his pet dog. " Kamalook " seems to be picking 

 up, and we hope that he at least will pull through. 



Temperature 22 C. at 7 A.M. Wind N.E., calming down 

 towards night. Clear. Made nine miles progress. Lat. 72 01' 

 N., long. 149 44' W. 



Wednesday, April 10. Broke camp in most disagreeable 

 weather, so thick that we could hardly see one-eighth of a mile 

 away, and, what was almost worse, we could not see the undula- 

 tions of the surface of the floe. In thick weather no shadows 

 are thrown at all and the white surface of the icefields looks 

 perfectly level, although we now stumble against a small hill, 

 now tumble into a hole. The only way to find out the real 

 condition of the floe is to walk carefully and feel the way with 

 our feet, trying to bear our various falls with as good a grace as 

 possible. 



The lane was frozen over, and though it was a little risky we 

 could walk on it, but, while we were looking round to find the 

 most solid path across, a small motion in the ice broke the 

 lane open again. However, we found a crossing a quarter of a 

 mile farther away and got over without serious accidents. 

 Once I stepped on a weak spot and went through halfway up 

 my legs. I had to change and put on our only spare suit, but 

 it was very disagreeable standing on the snow with bare feet in 

 a temperature of 18 C. After a very short walk over fairly 

 good ice we came to a newly-opened crack. We jumped 

 across, after which the sledges could easily be taken over, 

 and we were again going north. But in a few feet there 

 was another crack, and when it was passed still another. 

 W'herever we turned we found cracks from two to twenty feet 

 or more. The dogs were afraid of the great amount of water, 

 and we could only make them jump by plying the whip 

 vigorously ; then half of them would fall into the water, and in 

 the struggle to get out they would get hopelessly tangled, bite 

 their traces, and run away, so that when we caught the culprits 

 again we had to get everything knotted together as best we 

 could. At last we could find no way at all. Wherever we 

 went we found water, the cracks got more and more numerous 



