96 
PORTAGE OF INSTRUMENTS. 
into the water below. Our shoes were smooth, unfor¬ 
tunately; but, by using cords, and lying at full length 
upon the ice, we got over without accident. On the 
other side of the glacier we had a portage of about 
three miles; the sledge being unladen and the baggage 
carried on our backs. To Mr. Brooks, admitted with 
singular unanimity to be the strongest man of our 
party, was voted our theodolite, about sixty pounds of 
well-polished mechanism, in an angular mahogany box. 
Our dip-circle, equally far from being an honorary 
tribute, fell to the lot of a party of volunteers, who 
bore it by turns. 
During this inland crossing, I had fine opportunities 
of making sections of the terraces. We ascertained the 
mean elevation of the face of the coast to be one thou¬ 
sand three hundred feet. On regaining the seaboard, 
the same frowning cliffs and rock-covered ice-belt 
that we had left greeted us. 
After an absence of five days, we found by observa¬ 
tion that we were but forty miles from the brig. Be¬ 
sides our small daily progress, we had lost much by the 
tortuous windings of the coast. The ice outside did 
not invite a change of plan in that direction; but I 
determined to leave the sledge and proceed over land 
on foot. With the exception of our instruments, we 
carried no weight but pemmican and one buffalo-robe. 
The weather, as yet not far below the freezing-point, 
did not make a tent essential to the bivouac; and, 
with this light equipment, we could travel readily two 
miles to one with our entire outfit. On the 4tli of 
