THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY 



shoes. We walked from ten in the morning until half-past 

 eight at night. One of the sledges was pulled by three dogs 

 and the other one by four, and the persevering animals managed 

 very well during the day. 



When we began to move after the days of rest occasioned 

 by the snowstorm we felt very weak in the knees, but we 

 quickly beat the weakness down, putting our best leg foremost, 

 especially as the clouds still looked threatening and a fresh 

 storm might interrupt our journey at any moment. Fortu- 

 nately it proved to be merely a threat. With great velocity 

 the clouds raced above our heads before a south-west gale ; later 

 in the day their speed decreased and the sky assumed a more 

 quiet aspect. 



The last 15 kilometres of the journey we were much ham- 

 pered by crevasses, presumably local ones, as they were all 

 situated in the vicinity of an elevation where the ice appeared to 

 have cracked through its own tension. They were of an 

 unusually deceitful kind, merging entirely into the surface of 

 the glacier and in most places covered by thin bridges, so that 

 it was difficult to notice them in the hazy atmosphere. Once 

 Wulff was on the point of falling through, but fortunately he 

 hung by the arms, so that I was able to get hold of him and 

 pull him up. The crevasse was narrow at the top, but widened 

 out downward into a dark, bottomless abyss. After this 

 dreadful experience we tied ropes round our waists and con- 

 tinued our march without further obstacles. 



We have had to kill another dog. 



At the beginning of our day's journey we sighted land due 

 north-west — probably Cape Forbes and its westward continua- 

 tion. About half -past three more land became visible, and we 

 thought we recognized Cape Webster. From our point the 

 land inward looked like a multitude of little seas in a frozen 

 ocean. 



August 20th. — It was one o'clock when we went to rest, 

 and already by seven o'clock we had to set to, cooking our last 

 cup of coffee and the last but one portion of pemmican gruel. 

 A person who has not been starving is unable to understand 



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