TOWARDS CAPE SOUTH-WEST. 365 



great distance. We guessed the time that we should require to 

 reach it, at two or three hours, but before we came to the crack 

 it was late in the evening. This, however, was not entirely owing 

 to the fact that it appeared nearer to us than it really was : we 

 had made slow progress, and had not covered much more than nine 

 miles ; but it was something to have done this on such bad going as 

 was our lot. 



Up by the crack were a couple of bear-tracks, and we were 

 in great hopes of soon having a new bear for the dogs ; but in this 

 we were disappointed. Towards the end of the day the sky grew 

 very black in the south-east, and we saw that a storm was brewing. 

 We accordingly pitched the tents with extra care, so as to be 

 ready for an emergency, and had not long to wait before a breeze 

 sprang up ; we were hardly inside them before the storm burst. 

 It raged with such violence that we lay all night expecting 

 the canvas to be split to ribbons, and the gale playing havoc with 

 our things inside. 



We turned out of the bags next morning at four o'clock, and 

 began to cook and get ready for a start, although the storm was 

 howling as loud as ever ; but it was ' on our backs,' and we thought 

 we ought to go on. Before we got outside the tent, however, the 

 wind suddenly went round to the north-west with the same strength 

 as before. This was too much for anybody, and we forthwith 

 gave up the attempt and settled down within doors. 



Many were our speculations inside the tent that day. It was 

 this new^and, in particular, which haunted our imagination. To 

 the steep mountain, which was still due west of us, it was certainly 

 twenty-five miles or more, and perhaps behind it the land extended 

 still farther to the west : that it could be Ellesmere Land we 

 considered almost impossible. On our journey from Fourth Camp 

 we had seen several large icebergs out in the bay, passing close 

 by one of them. Whence came they ? I could hardly think they 

 had drifted northward from Jones Sound ; but if they had not come 

 that way they must of necessity be from the north, and, in that case, 

 there must be glaciers existing in these parts ; they must, in any 

 case, have come a long distance, for as yet we had seen no 

 glaciated land. Greely mentions the existence of glaciers in Greely 



