374 FAR THE S2' NORTH 



the spoondrift was driven over the sea, and the spray 

 was dashed far in over the ice. There was Httle else 

 to be done but to pitch our tent and wait for better 

 times. We were now more than ever in need of shel- 

 ter to keep the tent from being torn by the wind, 

 but, search and tramp up and down as we might, 

 _we could find no permanent resting-place, and at last 

 had to content ourselves with the scant shelter of a 

 little elevation which we thought would do. We had 

 not lain long before the gusts of wind made such 

 onslaughts on the tent that we found it advisable to 

 take it down, to avoid having it torn to pieces. We 

 could now sleep securely in our bags beneath the pros- 

 trate tent, and let the wind rage above us. After a time 

 I awoke, and noticed that the wind had subsided so much 

 that we could once more raise our tent, and I crept out 

 to look at the weather. I was less pleasantly surprised on 

 discovering that we were already far out to sea ; we must 

 have drifted eight or ten miles from land, and between it 

 and us lay open sea. The land now lay quite low, far off 

 on the horizon. In the meantime, however, the weather 

 had considerably improved, and we once more set out 

 along the edge of the ice to try to get our kayaks 

 launched. But it was no easy matter. It was still blow- 

 ino- hard, and the sea ran hio;h. In addition to this, there 

 were a number of loose fioes beyond, and these were in 

 constant motion, so that we had to be on the alert to pre- 

 vent the kayaks from being crushed between them. After 



