THE JOURNEY OVER THE PACK ICE 237 



times the lanes were absolutely too wide to cross, and we had 

 to make long detours to find a place where we could get over. 

 This delays us very much, and even if the lane is wide enough for 

 the dogs to jump, some of the beasts are afraid, and it takes a 

 lot of whipping and other hard usage to make them try. 

 "Mack" and "Werner" are the worst ; the former has got a 



THE SAME PRESSURE-RIDGE LEVELLED DOWN BEFORE TAKING THE 

 SLEDGES OVER. 



very disagreeable trick of slipping his harness and watching the 

 fun from a safe distance. And knowing by previous experience 

 what will happen when he gets caught, our sweetest words and 

 most kindly actions will not induce him to come near, for he 

 knows that, even if the man who makes a fool of himself by the 

 things he says and does when trying to get at him has not 

 got a whip, there is one somewhere in the party, and not very 

 far away either. " Werner " also slips his harness, but as he is a 

 very good dog and pulls like a horse, we usually are not so very 

 hard on him. We tried to cure " Mack " of his fear of the 

 water by throwing him into it, but I am afraid that our 

 experiment has only made matters worse. 



The prospects were not very favourable for finding a camping- 

 place solid enough to be comfortable, but towards night we 

 saw the hills of an old floe not very far away and made for it, 

 knowing that we should be safe there ; only very heavy pressure 

 could cause us trouble, and we considered ourselves almost as 



