NEW LAND! 131 



cheerfulness of spirit. But the state of the snow beggars de- 

 scription ! We sank into it almost to our knees, and the worst of 

 it all was that we had stupidly omitted to bring any ' ski ' with 

 us. When we left the ship the snow was as hard as bone ; we 

 knew that out on the sea-ice it was the same, and assumed that 

 it must be as hard everywhere on land ; but in this we were 

 much deceived. The dogs swam for nothing else could it be 





ACROSS THE NECK. 



called in it the whole livelong day, and we trudged up to our 

 knees in sluggish, drifted snow till we perspired as if we were 

 in a Turkish bath, in almost sixty-one degrees below zero ! 



It was a curious sight to look back at the caravan as it 

 ploughed its way up along the valley.' The dogs floated along 

 in the sea of white, one team hauling and panting worse than the 

 other ; while their drivers struggled quite as much as the animals 

 themselves. From this long column, which slowly but surely 

 wended its way on, there arose in the still air a dense cloud of 

 steam which lay like fog above the convoy, and so filled the 

 hollow that, when fifty yards in front of the hindermost sledge, I 



