THE MARCH BETWEEN 
morning. I was anxious, now that we had started, that we 
should make every effort to extricate ourselves, and this tempo- 
rary check so early was rather annoying. So that afternoon 
Wild and I ski-ed out to the crack and found that it had closed 
up again. We marked out the track with small flags as we 
returned. Each day, after all hands had turned in, Wild and 
I would go ahead for two miles or so to reconnoitre the next 
day's route, marking it with pieces of wood, tins, and small 
flags. We had to pick the road which, though it might be 
somewhat devious, was flattest and had least hummocks. 
Pressure-ridges had to be skirted, and where this was not possible 
the best place to make a bridge of ice-blocks across the lead 
or over the ridge had to be found and marked. It was the 
duty of the dog-drivers to thus prepare the track for those who 
were toiling behind with the heavy boats. These boats were 
hauled in relays, about sixty yards at a time. I did not 
wish them to be separated by too great a distance in 
case the ice should crack between them, and we should be 
unable to reach the one that was in rear. Every twenty yards 
or so they had to stop for a rest and to take breath, and it was 
a welcome sight to them to see the canvas screen go up on 
some oars, which denoted the fact that the cook had started pre- 
paring a meal, and that a temporary halt, at any rate, was going 
to be made. Thus the ground had to be traversed three times 
by the boat-hauling party. The dog-sledges all made two, 
and some of them three, relays. The dogs were wonderful. 
Without them we could never have transported half the food 
and gear that we did. 
We turned in at 7 p.m. that night, and at 1 a.m. next day, 
the 25th, and the third day of our march, a breakfast of sledging 
ration was served. By 2 a.m. we were on the march a^gain. 
We wished one another a merry Christmas, and our thoughts 
went back to those at home. We wondered, too, that day, 
as we sat down to our " lunch " of stale, thin bannock and a 
mug of thin cocoa, what they were having at home. 
All hands were very cheerful. The prospect of a relief 
from the monotony of life on the floe raised all our spirits. 
One man wrote in his diary : " It's a hard, rough, joUy life, 
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