A HARD STRUGGLE 183 



E. This tallies well with our reckoning. We have gone 

 50 miles or so since the last observation (April 13th), just 

 what I had assumed beforehand. 



" Still the same brilliant sunshine day and night. 

 Yesterday the wind from the north freshened, and is still 

 blowing to-day, but does not trouble us much, as it is be- 

 hind us. The temperature, which now keeps from about 

 4° to 22° below zero (Fahr.), can only be described as 

 agreeable. This is undoubtedly fortunate for us ; if it 

 were warmer the lanes would keep open a longer time. 

 My greatest desire now is to get under land before the 

 lanes become too bad. What we shall do then must be 

 decided by circumstances. 



"Sunday, April 21st. At 4 o'clock yesterday we 

 got under way. During the night we stopped to have 

 something to eat. These halts for dinner, when we 

 take our food and crawl well down to the bottom of 

 the bag, where it is warm and comfortable, are unusually 

 cozy. After a good nap we set off again, but were 

 soon stopped by the ugliest lane we have yet come 

 across. I set off along it to find a passage, but only 

 found myself going through bad rubble. The lane was 

 everywhere equally broad and uncompromising, equally 

 full of aggregated blocks and brash, testifying clearly 

 to the manner in which, during a long period, the 

 ice here has been in motion and been crushed and 

 disintegrated by continual pressure. This was apparent, 

 too, in numerous x\q\w ridges of rubble and hummocky 



