2i8 FARl'HEST NORTH 



S.S.E. or east of that, according as the drift necessitates. 

 We kept the Seventeenth of May — on the iSth, it is true 

 — by a feast of unsurpassed magnificence, consisting of 

 lobscouse, stewed red whortleberries mixed with vril-food, 

 and stamina h'me-juice mead {i.e., a concoction of Hme- 

 juice tablets and Frame Food stamina tablets dissolved 

 in water), and then, having eaten our fill, crawled into 

 our bag." 



As we gradually made our way southward the ice be- 

 came more impracticable and dif^cult to travel over. We 

 still came across occasional good fiat plains, but they were 

 often broken up by broad belts of jammed-up ice, and in 

 a measure by channels, which hindered our advance. On 

 May 19th I write: "I climbed to the top of the highest 

 hummock I have yet been up. I measured it roughly, 

 and made it out to be about 24 feet above the ice whence 

 I had climbed up ; but, as this latter was considerably 

 above the surface of the water, the height was probably 

 30 feet or so. It formed the crest of quite a short and 

 crooked pressure-ridge, consisting of only small pieces of 

 ice. 



That day we came across the first tracks of bears 

 which we had seen on our journey over the ice. The 

 certainty that we had got down to regions where these 

 animals are to be found, and the prospect of a ham, made 

 us very joyous. On May 20th there was a tremendous 

 snow-storm, through which it was impossible to see our 

 way on the uneven ice. " Consequently there is nothing 



