EXHAUSTED. 
197 
windless, with a clear sun. All enjoyed the refresh¬ 
ment we had got ready: the crippled were repacked in 
their robes; and we sped briskly toward the lnimmock- 
ridges which lay between us and the Pinnacly Berg. 
The hummocks we had now to meet came properly 
under the designation of squeezed ice. A great chain 
of bergs stretching from northwest to southeast, moving 
with the tides, had compressed the surface-floes; and, 
rearing them up on their edges, produced an area more 
like the volcanic pedragal of the basin of Mexico than 
any thing else I can compare it to. 
It required desperate efforts to work our way over 
it,—literally desperate, for our strength failed us anew, 
and we began to lose our self-control. We could not 
abstain any longer from eating snow: our mouths 
swelled, and some of us became speechless. Happily 
the day was warmed by a clear sunshine, and the 
thermometer rose to —4° in the shade: otherwise we 
must have frozen. 
Our halts multiplied, and we fell half-sleeping on 
the snow. I could not prevent it. Strange to say, it 
refreshed us. I ventured upon the experiment myself, 
making Riley wake me at the end of three minutes; 
and I felt so much benefited by it that I timed the 
men in the same way. They sat on the runners of the 
sledge, fell asleep instantly, and were forced to wake¬ 
fulness when their three minutes were out. 
By eight in the evening we emerged from the floes. 
The sight of the Pinnacly Berg revived us. Brandy, 
an invaluable resource in emergency, had already been 
