1876 WESTERN SLEDGE JOURNEY. 21 



to be closing in towards the land, and promise to be 

 very near the next cape or point. 



' The ground round the depot is beautiful-looking 

 soil, with small shingle, last year's saxifrage and 

 poppy, and this year's moss, which latter was of 

 such a brilliant green we all thoroughly enjoyed 

 looking at it. It did our eyes good. A solitary 

 lemming track was the only sign of animal life. The 

 country gives no promise of game whatever, although 

 I had a good look all about while the depot was being 

 secured. 



' 9 th. Under weigh at 3.25. Continued our ascent 

 parallel to, and about one and-a-half miles from the 

 hills, until nearly lunch-time, when we got a good 

 view of the distant land. Afterwards we proceeded 

 along level and very fair travelling, over moderately 

 hard snow, until at 10.30 A.M. we came to a steep 

 descent of a good 200 feet, the result of all our 

 uphill work, which we had hoped would have sloped 

 down gradually instead. It was necessary to back 

 the sledge down ; the men sitting on the snow, hauling 

 back on the drag-ropes. When two-thirds of the 

 way down, the men became a little too confident, 

 and the whole apparatus took charge. Fortunately, 

 nothing caught the runners, and no harm resulted, but 

 the astonishment which its capers caused the crew will 

 probably induce them to be more careful on similar 

 occasions. 



' We now crossed over a series of undulating rollers 

 of lowland, which were parallel to one another, and 

 extended to the northward about two miles from the 

 hills. The travelling during the latter part of the clay 



