188 
PARTY ON THE FLOES. 
us the news: Brooks, Baker, Wilson, and Pierre were 
all lying frozen and disabled. Where? They could 
not tell: somewhere in among the hummocks to the 
north and east; it was drifting heavily round them 
when they parted. Irish Tom had stayed by to feed 
and care for the others; but the chances were sorely 
against them. It was in vain to question them fur¬ 
ther. They had evidently travelled a great distance, 
for they were sinking with fatigue and hunger, and 
could hardly be rallied enough to tell us the direction 
in which they had come. 
THE RESCUE PARTY. 
My first impulse was to move on the instant with an 
unencumbered party: a rescue, to be effective or even 
hopeful, could not be too prompt. What pressed on 
my mind most was, where the sufferers were to be 
looked for among the drifts. Ohlscn seemed to have 
his faculties rather more at command than his asso¬ 
ciates, and I thought that he might assist us as a 
guide; but he was sinking with exhaustion, and if he 
went with us we must carry him. 
