364 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



and the glimpse I saw on November 27 was the last before 

 December 28. 



We began the day by following the tops of the sand-spits, 

 but it told so heavily on the runners that I saw the sledge 

 would break down hopelessly far from help and assistance. 

 Consequently we gave up travelling on the sand-spit and went 

 down to the ice, swept bare by the furious gales which had been 

 blowing; the surface thus exposed was so sharp that the dogs 

 were all limping after a couple of days' travelling over it, and 

 we had to repair our kamicks every night. We camped about 

 2 P.M., when the daylight was already disappearing, and before 

 we had pitched our tent' and fed the dogs it was so dark that 

 we had to use a candle to work outside, which, however, did 

 not matter much, as the weather was so fine that the flame 

 stood immovable and the candle burned down, leaving a thin 

 tube of stearine all around the flame. 



The weather remained fine and we ought to have made good 

 progress, but our sledge was in no ideal state. The runners 

 were cross-grained, and we had to stop every two or three hours 

 to whittle off the splinters, which dug their way into the ice 

 and slush and made the sledge almost immovable. We did 

 not bless the maker, whose fault it was. He had had much 

 experience in building sledges, and it was inexcusable to use 

 such wood for the runners, still more inexcusable because the 

 sledge was shod with German silver, and we could not see the 

 runner itself until the metal was worn off, and then, of course, it 

 was too late. It might very easily have become serious in our 

 case, far away, as we thought, from. any people, and with a sledge 

 rapidly going to pieces. 



To use every minute of light, we would turn out an hour before 

 the moon rose over the eastern hills, and toil hard all day to 

 help our weary dogs ; but still we made little progress, on an 

 average about eighteen miles a day. In the middle of the day 

 we stopped for a quarter of an hour to eat our lunch, a frozen 

 salmon of about one pound, and I found it a sustaining as well 

 as a palatable meal. We missed some fat to eat with it while 

 on the trail, and had to take a small chunk of butter or lard as 

 a substitute for the seal oil which the natives used. 



But apart from that quarter of an hour we were moving con- 

 tinually ; slowly but surely we were forging ahead. Our load 



