THE JOURNEY SOUTHWARD 521 



listened, and how heard the water trickhng into the 

 kayak under me. To turn and run her in on to the 

 sunken ledge of ice was the work of a moment, but 

 I sank there. The thing was to get out and on to 

 the ice, the kayak all the time getting fuller. The 

 edge of the ice was high and loose, but I managed to 

 get up ; and Johansen, by tilting the sinking kayak over 

 to starboard, so that the leak came above the water, 

 managed to bring her to a place where the ice was 

 low enough to admit of our drawing her up. All I 

 possessed was floating about inside, soaked through. 

 " What I most regret is that the water has got into the 

 photographic apparatus, and perhaps my precious pho- 

 tographs are ruined. 



" So here we lie, with all our worldly goods spread 

 out to dry and a kayak that must be mended before 

 we can face the walrus aorain. It is a o-ood bis rent 

 that he has made, at least six inches long; but it is 

 fortunate that it was no worse. How easily he might 

 have wounded me in the thisb with that tusk of his ! 

 And it would have fared ill with me if we had been 

 farther out, and not just at such a convenient place by 

 the edge of the ice, where there was a sunken ledge. 

 The sleeping-bag was soaking wet; we wrung it out as 

 well as we could, turned the hair outside, and have 

 spent a capital night in it." 



On the evening of the same day I wrote: " To-day 

 I have patched my kayak, and we have gone over all 



