284 FARTHEST NORTH 



breakfast of seal's -flesh, seal -liver, blubber, and soup, 

 here I lie dreaming dreams of brightness; life is all 

 sunshine again. What a little incident is necessary to 

 change the whole aspect of affairs ! Yesterday and the 

 last few days were dull and gloom}^ ; everything seemed 

 hopeless, the ice impassable, no game to be found ; and 

 then comes the incident of a seal rising near our kayaks 

 and rolling about round us, Johansen has time to give it 

 a ball just as it is disappearing, and it floats while I har- 

 poon it — the first and only bearded seal {PJioca barbata) 

 we have seen yet — and we have abundance of food and 

 fuel for upward of a month. We need hurry no longer; 

 we can settle down, adapt the kayaks and sledges better 

 for ferrying over the lanes, capture seals if possible, and 

 await a change in the state of the ice. We have eaten 

 our fill both at supper and breakfast, after being raven- 

 ous for many days. The future seems bright and certain 

 now ; no clouds of darkness to be seen any longer. 



"It was hardly with great expectations that we 

 started off on Tuesday evening. A hard crust which 

 had formed on the top of the soft snow did not improve 

 matters ; the sledges often cut through this, and were 

 not to be moved before one lifted them forward again, 

 and when it was a case of turning amid the uneven ice 

 they stuck fast in the crust. The ice was uneven and 

 bad, and the snow loose and water-soaked, so that, even 

 with snow-shoes on, we sank deep into it ourselves. 

 There were lanes besides, and though tolerably easy to 



