322 FARTHEST NORTH 



increased as the day went on. It was easy to perceive 

 by the atmosphere that the wind was driving the ice 

 off the land, and land-lanes formed particularly on the 

 east side of it. When I was up on a hummock yester- 

 day evening I observed a black stripe on the horizon 

 under land; I examined it with the glass, and, cS I had 

 surmised, there was an ice-edge or glacier stretching far 

 in a westerly direction ; and there was plainly a broad 

 lane in front of it, to judge by the dark bank of mist 

 which lay there. It seems to me that land cannot 

 be far off, and if the ice is tolerably passable we may 

 reach it to-day. The wind continued last night, but 

 it has quieted down now, and there is sunshine outside. 

 We try by every means in our power to get a com- 

 fortable night's rest in our new bag of blankets. We 

 have tried lying on the bare ice, on the 'ski,' and to- 

 nioht on the bare ice airain ; but it must be confessed 

 that it is hard and never will be very comfortable ; a 

 little chilly, too, when one is wet ; but we shall appreci- 

 ate a good warm bed all the more when we get it. 



" Tuesday, July 30th. We make incredibly slow 

 progress; but we are pushing our way nearer land all the 

 same.* Every kind of hinderance seems to beset us: 

 now I am suffering so much from my back (lumbago?) 

 that vesterdav it was only by exerting all my strength of 

 will that I could drag myself along. In difficult places 



* In reality we were probably farther from it than before. 



