SECOND AUTUMN IN THE ICE 583 



that is to say, less than iS pounds for each clog to draw. 

 After 41 days this will at least have been reduced to 280 

 pounds (by the consumption of provisions and fuel and by 

 dispensing with sundry articles of our equipment, such 

 as sleeping-bags, tent, etc., etc., which will have become 

 superfluous). There remain, then, 56 pounds for each of 

 the five dogs, if we draw nothing ourselves ; and should it 

 be desirable, our equipment might be still further dimin- 

 ished. With a burden of from 18 to 56 pounds apiece (the 

 latter would only be towards the end), the dogs would on 

 an average be able to do 13* miles a day, even if the snow- 

 surface should become somewhat more difhcult. That 

 is to say, we shall have gone 565 miles to the south, or 

 we shall be i8i miles past Cape Fligely, on June ist, with 

 five dogs and nine days' provisions left. But it is prob- 

 able, in the first place, that we shall long before this have 

 reached land ; and, secondly, so early as the first half of 

 April the Austrians found open water by Cape Fligely 

 and abundance of birds. Consequently, in May and June 

 we should have no difficulty as regards food, not to men- 

 tion that it would be strange indeed if we had not before 

 that time met with a bear or a seal or some stray birds. 

 " That we should now be pretty safe I consider as 

 certain, and we can choose whichever route we please : 

 either along the northwest coast of Franz Josef Land, 

 by Gillis Land tow^ards Northeast Island and Spitz- 

 bergen (and, should circumstances prove favorable, this 

 would decidedly be my choice), or we can go south 



