WE MAKE A START 1 09 



light sledges and tearing along as fast as legs and snow- 

 shoes will carry us. We shall be none the worse for this 

 delay, provided we do not meet too much pack-ice or too 

 many openings in the ice. 



" I have weighed all the dogs and have come to the 

 conclusion that we can feed them on each other and keep 

 going for about fifty days; having, in addition to this, dog 

 provisions for about thirty days, we ought to be able to 

 travel with dogs for eighty days, and in that time it seems 

 to me we should have arrived somewhere. And, besides, 

 we have provisions for ourselves for one hundred days. 

 This will be about 440 pounds on each sledge if we 

 take three, and with nine dogs per sledge we ought to 

 manafje it," 



So here we were again, busy with preparations and 

 improvements. In the meantime the ice moved a little, 

 broke up, and lanes were formed in various directions. 

 On March 8th I say: "The crack in the large Hoe to 

 starboard, formed while we were away, opened yesterday 

 into a broad lane, which we can see stretching with new- 

 ly frozen ice towards the horizon, both north and south. 

 It is odd how that petroleum launch is always in ' hot 

 water ' wherever it is. This crack formed underneath it, 

 so it was hanging with the stern over the water when 

 they found it in the morning. We have now decided to 

 cut it up and use the elm-boards for the sledge-runners. 

 That will be the end of it. 



" Wednesday, March 13th. 84° north latitude, 101° 



