20 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



halt long. Each of us took a turn of two hours' sleep ; 

 and we prepared for our homeward march. 



" We took with us nothing but the tent, furs to protect 

 the rescued party, and food for a journey of fifty hours. 

 Everything else was abandoned. Two large buffalo-bags, 

 each made of four skins, were doubled up, so as to form 

 a sort of sack, lined on each side by fur, closed at the 

 bottom, but opened at the top. This was laid on the 

 sledge ; the tent, smoothly folded, serving as a floor. 

 The sick, with their limbs sewed up carefully in reindeer- 

 skins, were placed upon the bed of buffalo-robes, in a half- 

 reclining posture ; other skins and blanket-bags were 

 thrown above them ; and the whole litter was lashed 

 together so as to allow but a single opening opposite the 

 mouth for breathing. 



" This necessary work cost us a great deal of time and 

 effort ; but it was essential to the lives of the sufferers. 

 It took us no less than four hours to strip and refresh 

 them, and then to embale them in the manner I have 

 described. Few of us escaped without frost - bitten 

 fingers : the thermometer was at 55*6° below zero, and 

 a slight wind added to the severity of the cold. 



" It was completed at last, however : all hands stood 

 around ; and, after repeating a short prayer, we set out 

 on our retreat. It was fortunate indeed that we were 

 not inexperienced in sledging over the ice. A great 

 part of our track lay among a succession of hummocks ; 

 some of them extending in long lines, 15 and 20 feet 

 high, and so uniformly steep that we had to turn them 

 by a considerable deviation from our direct course ; 

 others that we forced our way through, far above our 

 heads in height, lying in parallel ridges, with the space 

 between too narrow for the sledge to be lowered into it 

 safely, and yet not wide enough for the runners to cross 

 without the aid of ropes to stay them. These spaces, too, 



