A HARD STRUGGLE 1^7 



possibility of drying or changing one's clothes, and one 

 must wear a chain mail of ice until they thaw and dry on 

 the body, which takes some time in this temperature. I 

 took an observation for longitude and a magnetic obser- 

 vation yesterday morning, and have spent the whole fore- 

 noon to-day in calculations (inside the bag) to find out 

 our exact position, I find our latitude yesterday was 

 86° 2.8' N. This is very little, but what can we do when 

 the ice is what it is 1 And these dogs cannot work 

 harder than they do, poor things. I sigh for the sledge- 

 dogs from the Olenek daily now. The longitude for yes- 

 terday was gS" 47.15 , variation 444 . 



" I bec^in to think more and more that we ouQ^ht to 

 turn back before the time we originally fixed.* It is 

 probably 350 miles or so to Petermann's Land (in point 

 of fact it was about 450 miles to Cape Fligely) ; but it 

 will probably take us all we know to get over them. 

 The question resolves itself into this: Ought we not, at 

 any rate, to reach 87° N. .? But I doubt whether we can 

 manage it if the ice does not improve. 



"Saturday, April 6th. Two a.m., -11.4° Fahr. 

 ( — 24.2' C). The ice grew worse and worse. Yester- 

 day it brought me to the verge of despair, and when we 

 stopped this morning I had almost decided to turn back. 

 I will go on one day longer, however, to see if the ice is 

 really as bad farther northward as it appears to be from 



* When I left the ship I had purposed to travel northward for 50 days, 

 for which time we had taken provender for the dogs. 



