KANE'S EXPEDITION (1854) 21 



were generally choked with light snow, hiding the 

 openings between the ice-fragments. They were fearful 

 traps to disengage a limb from, for every man knew that a 

 fracture or a sprain even would cost him his life. Besides 

 all this, the sledge was top-heavy with its load : the 

 maimed men could not bear to be lashed down tight enough 

 to secure them against falling off. Notwithstanding our 

 caution in rejecting every superfluous burden, the weight, 

 including bags and tent, was 1100 pounds. 



" And yet our march for the first six hours was very 

 cheering. We made by vigorous pulls and lifts nearly a 

 mile an hour, and reached the new floes before we were 

 absolutely weary. Our sledge sustained the trial admir- 

 ably. Ohlsen, restored by hope, walked steadily at the 

 leading belt of the sledge-lines ; and I began to feel 

 certain of reaching our half-way station of the day before, 

 where we had left our tent. But we were still 9 miles 

 from it, when, almost without premonition, we all became 

 aware of an alarming failure of our energies. 



" I was, of course, familiar with the benumbed and 

 almost lethargic sensation of extreme cold ; and once, 

 when exposed for some hours in the midwinter of Baffin's 

 Bay, I had experienced symptoms which I compared to 

 the diffused paralysis of the electro-galvanic shock. But 

 I had treated the sleepy comfort of freezing as something 

 like the embellishment of romance. I had evidence now 

 to the contrary. 



" Bonsall and Morton, two of our stoutest men, came 

 to me, begging permission to sleep : ' they were not cold : 

 the wind did not enter them now : a little sleep was all 

 they wanted. 1 Presently Hans was found nearly stiff 

 under a drift ; and Thomas, bolt upright, had his eyes 

 closed, and could hardly articulate. At last, John Blake 

 threw himself on the snow, and refused to rise. They did 

 not complain of feeling cold ; but it was in vain that I 



