THE SPRING AXD SUMMER OF iSg4 479 



Blessing and I held a post viortcni upon him in the 

 afternoon, but we could discover no signs of anything 

 unusual. It does not seem to be an infectious ailment. 

 I cannot understand it. 



" ' Ulenka,' too, the handsomest doo: in the whole 

 pack, our consolation and our hope, suddenly became ill 

 the other day. It was the morning of May 24th that 

 we found it paralyzed and quite helpless, lying in its 

 cask on deck. It kept trying to get up, but couldn't, and 

 immediately fell down again — just like a man who has 

 had a stroke and has lost all power over his limbs. It 

 was at once put to bed in a box and nursed most care- 

 fully; except for being unable to walk, it is apparently 

 quite well." It must have been a kind of apoplectic 

 seizure that attacked the spinal cord in some spot or 

 other, and paralyzed one side of the body. The dog 

 recovered slowly, but never got the complete use of its 

 legs again. It accompanied us, however, on our subse- 

 quent sledge expedition. 



The dogs did not seem to like the summer, it was 

 so wet on the ice, and so warm. On June iith I 

 write : " To-day the pools on the ice all round us have 

 increased wonderfully in size, and it is by no means 

 agreeable to go off the ship with shoes that are not 

 water-tight; it is wetter and wetter for the dogs in the 

 daytime, and they sweat more and more from the heat, 

 though it as yet only rarely rises above zero (C). A few 

 days ago they were shifted on to the ice, where two long 



