FROM FLAXMAN ISLAND TO ICY CAPE 341 



caused us a lot of hard work, and it was not till after three 

 hours' travelling, at 10 A.M., that we reached the ice itself. 

 But the work there was even worse than anything we had had 

 before. It seemed as if our sledges were sucked into the ice ; 

 all of us were in harness, the dogs were made to work to 

 the utmost of their ability, and still we crawled along to the 

 westward, going less than three-quarters of a mile per every 

 hour's toil. 



And to crown our hard lot, it was so foggy that we could not 

 see more than a quarter of a mile about us, but had to work with 

 the compass and the wind as guides. More than once we saw 

 pressure-ridges looming through the fog and looking exactly 

 like land. For a few minutes we rejoiced at the thought that 

 we could camp on a sandbar or on the beach with plenty of 

 wood to burn, but only disappointments were in store for us, 

 and what we thought was land invariably turned out to be 

 pressure-ridges. 



We kept on till after dark, hoping to reach the other side of 

 the bay, but the night fell, we stumbled on and on, until at last 

 we could not see to walk any further and had to camp on the ice, 

 which was less than a foot thick. It was a very unpleasant 

 sensation, the ice bent under us, and we knew that a pressure 

 during the night might open up the ice underneath us. Every- 

 thing we had by way of long pieces of wood, our snow-shoes, 

 skis, some of the tent poles, ice spears, etc., were placed on the 

 ice to give a better support ; then we crawled into our sleeping 

 bags, trying as best we could to keep the small flame of our 

 stove burning. All we had to drink was a little water, rather 

 brackish ; for the rest we ate cold pemmican and crackers, and 

 after that tried to forget our craving for something warm in the 

 arms of sleep. 



Saturday, the 26th, arrived without any change in the weather ; 

 it was still foggy and warm, only 8 C, We had nothing to 

 drink that morning and worked all day on crackers and choco- 

 late. We progressed very slowly, even more slowly than on the 

 previous day, as both men and dogs were in want of something 

 to drink, the snow on the surface being saturated with salt. 

 We took many soundings with our ice spear, and towards night 

 we were delighted to see the depth decreasing. The difference 

 was very little, but we had hopes of being near land now. 



