BV SLEDGE AND KAYAK 271 



been a better plan, yet it would have been too trouble- 

 some, seeing that we had to take them off continually to 

 get the sledges over ridges and lanes. In addition to all 

 this, wherever one turns, the ice is uneven and full of 

 mounds and old ridges, and it is only b}- wriggling along 

 like an eel, so to speak, that one can get on at all. 

 There are lanes, too, and they compel one to make 

 long detours or go long distances over thin, small floes, 

 rido^es, and other abominations. We stru^o-led alono-, 

 however, a little way, working on our old plan of two 

 turns, but a quick method it could not be called. 

 The dogs are becoming more and more worn out. 

 ' Lillerceven,' the last survivor of my team, can now 

 hardly walk — hauling there is no question of: he stag- 

 gers like a drunken man, and when he falls can hardly 

 rise to his feet again. To-day he is going to be killed, 

 I ani thankful to say, and one will be spared seeing 

 him. ' Storra?ven,' too, is wtting very slack in the 

 traces; the only one of mine which pulls at all is ' Kaifas/ 

 and that is only as long as one of us is helping behind. 

 To keep on longer in such circumstances is only wear- 

 ing out men and dogs to no purpose, and is also using 

 up more provender than is necessary. W^e therefore re- 

 nounced dinner, and halted at about ten yesterday even- 

 ing, after having begun the march at half -past four 

 in the afternoon. I had, however, stopped to take an 

 observation on the way. It is not easy to get hold of 

 the sun nowadays, and one must make the most of him 



