340 FARTHEST NORTH 



had packed around us, and I do not know yet how we 

 shall get out of it, though there is open water not far off 

 to our west. 



" Thursday, August 8th. After hauling our impcdi- 

 lucnfa over some f^oes we got into open water yesterday 

 without much difficulty. When we had reached the 

 edge of the water we made a paddle each from our snow- 

 shoe-staffs, to which we bound blades made of brokcn-off 

 snow-shoes. They were a great improvement on the 

 somewhat clumsy paddles, with canvas blades lashed to 

 bamboo sticks. I was very much inclined to chop off 

 our sledges, so that they would onl)- be half as long as 

 before; by so doing we could carry them on the after- 

 deck of the kayaks, and could thus each paddle alone, 

 and our advance would be much quicker than by pad- 

 dling the twin kayaks. However, I thought, perhaps, it 

 was unadvisable. The water looked promising enough 

 on ahead, but there was mist, and we could not see far; 

 we knew nothing of the country or the coast we had 

 come to, and might yet have good use for the sledges. 

 We therefore set off in our double kayak, as before, with 

 the sleds^es athwart the deck fore and aft. 



" The mist soon rose a little. It was then a dead calm ; 

 the surface of the water lay like a great mirror before us, 

 with bits of ice and an occasional f^oe drifting on it. It 

 was a marvellously beautiful sight, and it was indeed 

 glorious to sit there in our light vessels and glide over 

 the surface without any exertion. Suddenly a seal rose 



