18 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. MAY 



perpendicular wall some hundreds of yards in length, 

 and of considerable height. I at first thought it was 

 a tremendous snow-drift ; originally, perhaps, it may 

 have been, but now it is either compressed snow or 

 bluish ice, and resembles the face of a glacier. 



' As the weather gives every promise of being fine, 

 I intend remaining off Cape Columbia to-morrow, and 

 to ascend Cooper Key Peak, from which we shall get 

 a splendid view. The whole crew are so anxious to 

 come, I told them to draw lots for one to remain with 

 the tent ; poor Doidge is much down on his luck, 

 having been " elected " to stay behind. The Sergeant- 

 Major's leg still gives him no pain, but the angry red 

 colour has spread considerably ; I do not like the look 

 of it at all. I have given him turpentine liniment to 

 rub in, which he uses with a will. 



' '2nd. During breakfast a fog-bank appeared on 

 the N.W. horizon, and it clouded over ; the wind 

 freshened, and shortly afterwards the increasing mist 

 rendered any attempt to go up the peak useless. We 

 were all very disappointed, but we could not afford 

 time to wait for the weather to clear. Under weigh at 

 3.20 A.M. Temperature minus 10. 



' After travelling a short distance over the old ice, 

 which was covered with level but spongy-looking snow, 

 we got on to excellent ice some forty or fifty yards 

 broad, over which the sledge followed me at a rate of 

 about three miles an hour. This, however, only lasted 

 for half-a-mile, when we came to moderately hard 

 sastrugi, running parallel to the land, with a little soft 

 snow on top. By this time the fog had come down 

 and rendered all things and everything of no colour. 



