140 Polar Explorations. 



dresses, dry stockings and fur boots — ate their slender sup- 

 per — prepared for the next day's journey — the men smoked 

 their pipes and told stories, and the labors of the day were 

 forgotten. A regular watch was set to look out for any mov- 

 ing or breaking up of the ice, and to attend to drying, as far 

 as possible, the wet clothes. They travelled ten hours, al- 

 lowing one hour for dinner, and employed the night, gener- 

 ally, for walking, and the day for sleep, for although the sun 

 was all the time apparent, its effects v^ere very different 

 when it was highest in the heavens. The light was then 

 more dazzling — the sludge and water were deeper on the 

 surface of the ice, while by night the snow was somewhat 

 harder for travelling, allhougli there was not a great varia- 

 tion in the temperature during the twenty-four hours. The 

 day was concluded with prayers, and sleep was obtained with 

 a degree of comfort that could scarcely be believed possible. 

 After sleeping seven hours, the man appointed to prepare the 

 breanffist, " roused them by the sound of the bugle." The 

 allowance for each man per day was 1 1 oz. biscuit — 9 oz, 

 pemniican* — sweetened cocoa powder sufficient for one pint 

 — rum, one gill — and 3 oz. tobacco for one week. Two 

 pints of spirits of wine was the daily allowance of fuel, which 

 placed m a shallow lamp with seven wicks, served to boil the 

 cocoa, and warm and dry in a slight degree, the interior, 

 covered by the awnings. They were drenched with rain a 

 considerable part of the time "not having had so much, all 

 taken together, in the whole seven preceding summers." 



The ice became more and more broken as the season ad- 

 vanced, and they proceeded north. From the " highest hum- 

 mocks" they sought for some object to rest their eyes upon 

 beside the sea and sky, but the forlorn waste mocked their 

 expectation — not even a bear, or a sea-bird — not even the 

 dangerous dashing of the waves met their view. The only 

 change from this dazzling desolation, was the fogs, and rains, 

 which obscured the extent of their solitude. 



Their way lay often among loose pieces of ice, from five 

 to twenty yards asunder giving all the "trouble of launching 

 and hauling up the boats, without making any progress by 

 water." In narrow openings where it could be effected, a 

 bridge was made of the boats from mass to mass, over which 

 the men and baggage passed. The snow was three feet deep 



Meat dried and powdered fine, and packed very closely. 



