SNOWSTORM AND MISFORTUNE. 91 



smooth young ice with which the bay was covered as far as one 

 could see to the northward, I suddenly perceived an ominous bank 

 of clouds in the south. They had gathered suddenly, and looked 

 so dark and threatening that I at once gave up the idea of crossing 

 the newly formed ice on the bay. It was impossible to say how 

 strong or the reverse it might be farther north, and I saw from the 

 atmosphere that we were in for a storm. So I at once turned 

 back to the ice-foot, thinking it wiser to drive along it until the 

 storm broke, and we had an idea of what it was going to be like. 

 To do this would not take us far out of our way, and it would 

 be easy to turn out on to the ice again if the storm proved to 

 be nothing much. 



It was not long since the spring tides, when the water had 

 risen far above the ice-foot. This now consisted of polished ice so 

 slippery and smooth that in places the dogs could hardly get a 

 foothold on it. No sooner were we on to the ice-foot than the 

 storm burst. At various times I have seen storms come up 

 suddenly and violently, but seldom one to equal this. It came 

 sweeping across the ice at terrific speed. I thought, however, that 

 being so sudden it was more of the nature of a squall, and would 

 soon go down ; in an hour's time probably it would be quite 

 calm. 



But herein I was much mistaken. The weather was not in 

 that mood to-day. The gale increased without ceasing ; later in 

 the day it blew so hard that it was as much as we could do to 

 keep our legs, while all the time the snow drifted and scudded to 

 such an extent that we could hardly open an eye. But the ice- 

 foot was polished and the gale abaft the beam, and on we flew 

 before it. I knew the way, and it was no difficult matter to find 

 it, even across the bays which cut deepest into the land. 



We had just passed a bay of the kind, and had barely come up 

 on to the ice-foot again when a gust of wind carried Olsen's sledge 

 and team away across the ice like a glove. The sledge was thrown 

 heavily against a block of ice, and Olsen was shot several yards 

 through the air and came down on his shoulder. He was on his 

 legs again at once, like a cat, but said that his arm hurt him so 

 much that he could not use it ; it was dislocated, he thought. I 



