CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



A TOILSOME JOURNEY. 



JUST here by the point the going changed its character in a 

 quite remarkable way. Whereas on the east side of it we had 

 all the time driven on drifted snow, on the other side the ice 

 was quite bare, and was blue and bright as far as we could see. 

 Here also violent pressure had taken place last autumn, and great 

 masses of ice had been forced up towards land ; the sea-ice, too, 

 had been subjected to great pressure, and would be bad for driving 

 on, it appeared. 



Before starting round the point we made a short halt, 'ate 

 some biscuits and pemmican, and I climbed up the talus to 

 get a view over the ice. I saw no old ice, either in the north or 

 the west all was pressed-up young ice ; but the pressure towards 

 land seemed to have been extremely violent, and great masses of 

 ice lay thrown up and extended in a continuous ridge, certainly 

 fifty feet high, almost the whole way along inshore. The ice was 

 bare, almost as far as I could see. This was dangerous country 

 for driving in, and we put the odometers on the loads before we 

 went farther, for any attempt at using them would only end in 

 fractures. 



The dogs were as pleased as we were at getting on to easier 

 going ; they set off at such a pace that the sledges flew, and it 

 was as much as we could do to keep them from overturning. In 

 many places it seemed as if they must come to grief among all 

 the pressure-ice, and especially the aluminium plates under the 

 cross-pieces. 



Some way farther north we came to a place where the ice was 

 even worse. Happily we saw a means of driving inside the wall 



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