CHAPTER V 
OCEAN CAMP 
In spite of the wet, deep snow and the halts occasioned by 
thus having to cut our road through the pressure-ridges, we 
managed to march the best part of a mile towards our goal, 
though the relays and the deviations again made the actual 
distance travelled nearer six miles. As I could see that the 
men were all exhausted I gave the order to pitch the tents 
under the lee of the two boats, which afforded some slight 
protection from the wet snow now tlneatening to cover every- 
thing. While so engaged one of the sailors discovered a small 
pool of water, caused by the snow having thawed, on a sail 
which was lying in one of the boats. There was not much— just a 
sip each ; but, as one man wrote in his diary, " One has seen and 
tasted cleaner, but seldom more opportunely found water." 
Next day broke cold and still with the same wet snow, and 
in the clearing light I could see that with the present loose 
surface, and considering how little result we had to show for 
all our strenuous efforts of the past four days, it would be 
impossible to proceed for any great distance. Taking into 
account also the possibility of leads opening close to us, and so 
of our being able to row north-west to where we might find land, 
I decided to find a more solid floe and there camp until condi- 
tions were more favourable for us to make a second attempt to 
escape from our icy prison. To this end we moved our tents 
and all our gear to a thick, heavy old floe about one and a half 
miles from the wreck and there made our camp. We called this 
" Ocean Camp." It was with the utmost difficulty that we 
shifted our two boats. The surface v/as terrible— like nothing 
that any of us had ever seen around us before. We were 
sinking at times up to our hips, and everywhere the snow was 
two feet deep. 
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