WESTWARD WITH THE SHIP. 47 



of these the hare has fewer in winter than in summer. Nor do I 

 think that they entertain such fear of the darkness and desolation 

 of the polar night as to lead them to collect and, like the reindeer 

 in certain parts, migrate south to lighter regions when winter is at 

 hand. 



On August 24 we did some coaling, and filled the butokers so 

 carefully that I do not think they had been stowed as full since we 

 left Christiania. We had just reached the entrance to Cardigan 

 Strait, and several times during the day made a little spurt up 

 it. We took every inch we could get, and if the vessel only 

 advanced a cable-length at a time we were pleased, for we were 

 lying very close to land. As the day advanced and the coaling 

 neared its end our hopes of soon getting free also rose. The 

 current became swifter and swifter, and as soon as the tide was in 

 our favour we were rapidly carried south, well clear of land. 



During the course of August 25 we managed to advance quite 

 a good way down Cardigan Strait, despite the ice being very close ; 

 and in the night, when the tide turned, although the ice jammed 

 so that we found it necessary to stop the engines, we felt certain 

 that when it slackened again with the next tide we should get 

 clear. 



My plan was to steer south of North Kent and up through 

 Hell Gate, but I counted without the inevitable south-east wind. 

 Early in the morning, just when we were expecting the change of 

 tide, a stiff breeze from the south-east suddenly sprang up, and 

 soon increased to half a gale. We now, to our sorrow, drifted 

 fairly rapidly north-westward in the closely packed ice and 

 against the stream, and in the evening found ourselves far north 

 in the strait, well nipped in the pack. We hoped against hope 

 that the south-east wind would soon drop, and that a fresh 

 breeze would spring up at once from the opposite quarter; it 

 was all we wanted to take us at express speed through the sound. 

 But the fates were against us ! The south-east wind did indeed 

 go down, but instead of a north-west wind a stiff breeze from the 

 north-north-east sprang up, and off we drifted south-westward, 

 towards land again, with ever closer ice and without any chance 

 of going the way we wanted. 



