18 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



and awoke now with unequivocal signs of mental dis- 

 turbance. It became evident that he had lost the 

 bearing of the icebergs, which in form and colour end- 

 lessly repeated themselves ; and the uniformity of the 

 vast field of snow utterly forbade the hope of local 

 landmarks. 



" Pushing ahead of the party, and clambering over 

 some rugged ice-piles, I came to a long level floe, which 

 I thought might probably have attracted the eyes of 

 weary men in circumstances like our own. It was a light 

 conjecture ; but it was enough to turn the scale, for 

 there was no other to balance it. I gave orders to 

 abandon the sledge, and disperse in search of footmarks. 

 We raised our tent, placed our pemmican in cache, 

 except a small allowance for each man to carry on his 

 person ; and poor Ohlsen, now just able to keep his legs, 

 was liberated from his bag. The thermometer had 

 fallen by this time to - 49 '3°, and the wind was setting 

 in sharply from the north-west. It was out of the 

 question to halt : it required brisk exercise to keep us 

 from freezing. I could not even melt ice for water ; and, 

 at these temperatures, any resort to snow for the purpose 

 of allaying thirst was followed by bloody lips and tongue : 

 it burnt like caustic. 



" It was indispensable, then, that we should move on, 

 looking out for traces as we went. Yet when the men 

 were ordered to spread themselves, so as to multiply the 

 chances, though they all obeyed heartily, some painful 

 impress of solitary danger, or perhaps it may have been 

 the varying configuration of the ice-field, kept them 

 closing up continually into a single group. The strange 

 manner in which some of us were affected I now attribute 

 as much to shattered nerves as to the direct influence of 

 the cold. Men like McGary and Bonsall, who had stood 

 out our severest marches, were seized with trembling-fits 



