A HARD STRUGGLE i?! 



They ran, however, about in our direction (our course is 

 now the magnetic S. 22° W., or about the true W.S.W.), 

 and we could go alongside them. At last, however, w^e 

 had to make a crossing, and accomplished it successfully, 

 although the ice bent under us and our sledges more than 

 was desirable. Late in the afternoon we came across a 



" ON TOLERABLY GOOD GROUND 



channel, which we proposed to cross in the same way. 

 We reached the other side with the first sledge safely 

 enough, but not so with the other. Hardly had the 

 leaders of the team got out to the dangerous place where 

 the ice was thinnest, and where some water had come up 

 on to it, when they stopped and warily dipped their paws 

 in the water. Then through went one of them, splashing 

 and struo-o;lino- to oet out. The ice beo;an to sink under 



