A HARD STRUGGLE 193 



pect to see it every minute ; perhaps, though, it will be 

 some days yet.* 



"Tuesday, April 30th. -6.7' Fahr. (-21.4" C. ). 

 Yesterday, in spite of everything, was a bad day. It be- 

 gan well with brilliant sunshine ; was warm (4^ below 

 zero Fahr.), and there, bathed in the slumbering sun- 

 licrht and alluring us on, were stretches of beautiful flat 

 ice. Everything tended to predict a good day's work ; 

 but, alas, who could see the ugly dark cracks which ran 

 ri^ht across our course, and which were destined to 

 make life a burden to us. The wind had packed the 

 snow well together, and made the surface fimi and 

 good, so that we made rapid progress ; but we had not 

 gone far before we were stopped by a lane of entirely 

 open water which stretched right across our course. 

 After followino: it some little distance we eventuallv 

 found a way across.! Not long afterwards we came 

 across another lane running in about the same direction. 

 After a fairly long detour we got safely over this too, 

 with the minor misfortune that three dogs fell into the 

 water. A third lane we also got over, but the fourth was 

 too much for us altogether. It was broad, and we fol- 



'^ In point of fact it was nearly three months (,till July -4' before this 

 marvel happened. 



+ As on the previous day, the ice on the north side of the lane was 

 moving westward, in comparison with that on the south side. The same 

 thing was the case, or could be seen to have been so, with the lanes 

 we met with later in the day. We naturally conceived this to mean that 

 there was a strong westerly drift in the ice northward, while that south- 

 ward was retained by land. 

 II.— 1-; 



