A HARD STRUGGLE 227 



and directions of the wind, and all the possibilities of 

 drift during the days which passed between our last cer- 

 tain observation for longitude (April Sth) and the day 

 when, according to the dead reckoning, we assumed our- 

 selves to be in longitude 86° E. (April 13th). That there 

 should be any great mistake is inconceivable. The ice 

 can hardly have had such a considerable drift during those 

 particular days, seeing that our dead reckoning in other 

 respects tallied so well with the observations. 



'• Yesterday evening ' Kvik ' was slaughtered. Poor 

 thing, she was quite worn out, and did little or nothing 

 in the hauling line. I was sorry to part with her, but 

 what was to be done } Even if we should get fresh meat, 

 it would have taken some time to feed her up again, and 

 then, perhaps, we should have had no use for her, and 

 should only have had to kill her, after all. But a fine big 

 animal she was, and provided food for three days for our 

 remaining eight dogs. 



" I am in a continual state of wonderment at the ice 

 we are now travelling over. It is flat and good, with 

 only smallish pieces of broken-up ice lying about, and a 

 large mound or small ridge here and there, but all of it 

 is ice which can hardly be wdnter-old, or at any rate has 

 been formed since last summer. It is quite a rarity to 

 come across a small tract of older ice, or even a single 

 old floe which has lain the summer through — so rare, in 

 fact, that at our last camping-place it was impossible to 

 find any ice which had been exposed to the summer sun, 



