THE JOURNEY SOUTHWARD 501 



At length, on Wednesday, June 3d, we went on ; 

 but now the west wind had driven the ice landward, 

 so that there was no longer open sea to travel south 

 upon, and there was nothing for it but to go over the ice 

 along the land. However, the wind was from the north, 

 and we could put up a sail on our sledges, and thus get 

 along pretty fast. We still saw several walruses on the 

 ice, and there were also some in the water that were 

 continually putting their heads up in the cracks and 

 grunting after us. The ice we were crossing here was 

 remarkably thin and bad, and as we got farther south it 

 became even worse. It was so weighed down with the 

 masses of snow that lay upon it that there was water 

 beneath the snow wherever we turned. We had to 

 make towards land as quickly as possible, as it looked 

 still worse farther south. By going on snow-shoes, 

 however, we kept fairly well on the top of the snow, 

 though often both sledge and snow - shoes sank down 

 into the water below and stuck fast, and no little 

 trouble would be caused in getting everything safely on 

 to firmer ice again. At last, however, we got in under 

 a high, perpendicular basaltic cliff,* which swarmed 

 with auks. This was the first time we had seen these 

 birds in any great quantity ; hitherto we had only seen 

 one or two singly. We took it as a sign that we were 

 approaching better-known regions. Alongside of it, to 



* Jackson's " Cape Fisher." 



