BY SLEDGE AND KAYAK 255 



ice, and it was like walking through gruel. As a matter 

 of fact, the ice about here is nothing else but pure broken- 

 up sea-ice, consisting of large and small floes, not infre- 

 quently very small floes closely aggregated ; but when 

 they have the chance of slackening they will spread over 

 the whole sea hereabouts, and we shall have water enouorh 

 to row in any direction we please. 



"The weather seems to-day to be of the same kind 

 as yesterday, with a southwest wind, which is tearing 

 and rattling at the tent walls. A thaw and wet snow. 

 I do not know if we shall get any more frost, but it would 

 make the snow in splendid condition for our snow-shoes. 

 I am afraid, however, that the contrary will rather be 

 the case, and that we shall soon be in for the worst 

 break - up of the winter. The lanes otherwise are be- 

 ginning to improve; they are no longer so full of brash 

 and slush; it is melting away, and bridges and such- 

 like have a better chance of forming in the clearer 

 water. 



" We scan the horizon unremittingly for land every 

 time there is a clear interval ; but nothing, never any- 

 thing, to be seen. Meanwhile we constantly see signs 

 of the proximity of land or open water. The gulls 

 increase conspicuously in number, and yesterday we saw 

 a little auk {Ulcrgnhis allc) in a lane. The atmosphere 

 in the south and southwest is always apt to be dark, but 

 the weather has been such that we can really see nothing. 

 Yet I feel that the solution is approaching. But. then, 



