TOWARDS THE NORTH! 397 



again the more readily, which might otherwise have been difficult 

 had we passed by here in thick weather ; but if there had been bears 

 about we should have been more careful how we put up such an 

 erection, for there is nothing they are so fond of pulling down and 

 destroying as a standing mark and things of the kind. Even if 

 such a thing is ever so far out of his way, a bear cannot resist 

 going to poke and sniff about it, and is quite sure 'to pull it 

 down; he has a perfect mania for ravaging things of the kind. 

 We put our backs into the work, and it was not many minutes 

 before the pyramid was finished and we on our way northward 

 again. 



We drove past two largish hummocks, which I took to be of 

 glacier ice, but could not be certain ; they may have been frag- 

 ments of some ancient pressure-ridge. I examined them as well as 

 I could, without gaining any clear idea as to their origin. They 

 were about two hundred to two hundred and fifty yards long, 

 and twelve feet or so in height, and both were of about the same 

 shape. The surface had melted, and so was rounded and smoothed 

 off, and they looked very much like the backs of two whales 

 sticking up above the surface of the sea. Of what kind of ice they 

 were must for ever remain in oblivion ; but -for us they served as 

 good landmarks, and marks one must have if one is to find 

 anything again in these great plains. I have, myself, repeatedly 

 experienced how difficult it is to find again even as large a thing as 

 a tent on a stretch of sand, and yet it would be thought that it 

 must be quite easy. 



Such weather as we had had of late is very trying to the eyes ; 

 much worse, in fact, than the brightest sunshine. One's spectacles 

 become clouded from the driving snow, and one has to be con- 

 tinually wiping them, which is not exactly what one wears them 

 for. The result of this is that one omits to wear them, and the 

 usual consequences are not slow to follow. Late in the afternoon 

 my eyes began to pain me somewhat ; but I was so taken up with 

 keeping our course and urging on the dogs, that I had no time to 

 think about it. In the evening, when we camped on the ice, I felt 

 decided signs of snow-blindness. I lay the whole night with 

 a bandage on my eyes ; but as I was not much better in the 



