LAND AT LAST 333 



the leos, we at last ferried over the lane and went on 

 our way. 



" The ice was not s^ood ; and, to make bad worse, we 

 immediately came on some terrible lanes, full of nothing 

 but tightly packed lumps of ice. In some places there 

 were whole seas of it, and it was enough to make one 

 despair. Among all this loose ice we came on an un- 

 usually thick old floe, with high mounds on it and pools 

 in between. It was from one of these mounds that I 

 observed through the glass the open water at the foot of 

 the glacier, and now we cannot have far to go. But the 

 ice looks very bad on ahead, and each piece when it is 

 like this may take a long time to travel over. 



" As we went along we heard the wounded bear low- 

 ing ceaselessly behind us ; it filled the whole of this si- 

 lent world of ice with its bitter plaint over the cruelty 

 of man. It was miserable to hear it ; and if we had had 

 time we should undoubtedly have gone back and sacri- 

 ficed a cartrido-e on it. We saw the cubs iro off to the 

 place where the mother was lying, and thought to our- 

 selves that we had got rid of them, but heard them soon 

 afterwards, and even when we had camped they were not 

 far off. 



" Wednesday, August 7th. At last we are under 

 land ; at last the drift-ice lies behind us, and before us 

 is open water — open, it is to be hoped, to the end. Yes- 

 terday was the day. When we came out of the tent 

 the evening of the day before yesterday we both thought 



