100 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. MAY 



dry, but of the consistency of moist sugar ; walking 

 was most exhausting, one literally had to climb out of 

 the holes made by each foot in succession, the hard 

 crust on the top, which would only just not bear you, 

 as well as the depth of the snow preventing you from 

 pushing forward through it, each leg sank to about 

 three inches above the knee, and the effort of lifting 

 them so high to extricate them from their tight-fitting 

 holes, soon began to tell upon the men. William 

 Jenkins, Peter Craig, and Charles Paul complained of 

 stiffness in the hamstrings, and all of us were very tired. 

 The morning was most beautiful, but the island close 

 to us was inaccessible on account of a reef, which 

 caused the tides to break up the ice at its margin, and 

 to maintain a barrier of water round it. I could find 

 no way past this, and to have gone round to the other 

 side, or to the other island, would have been four hours' 

 hard work through that snow, so I gave it up. 



' Our next march was made under a hot sun, 

 through snow never less than three feet thick; we 

 were parched with thirst, and obliged to halt every 

 fifty yards to recover breath. 



' The shore for which we were making did not 

 seem more than two miles off, so I went ahead to see 

 if the travelling was better under the cliffs. I got 

 about a mile and-a-half ahead of the sledge in three 

 hours, and then gave it up. I was nearly done ; so I 

 hailed them to go to lunch, but would rather have 

 missed three meals than gone back all that distance, so 

 I had a good rest and made a sketch instead ; and 

 then seeing that the sledge would never reach me that 

 day I started back for them, walking in my tracks. 



