278 
t n E TIIAATS. 
ice-foot and into the broken outside ice; and, unable to 
masticate our heavy India-rubber cloth, they had tied 
it up in unimaginable hard knots. 
“ McGary describes the whole area around the cache 
as marked by the well-worn paths of these animals; 
and an adjacent slope of ice-covered rock, with an 
angle of 45°, was so worn and covered with their hair, 
as to suggest the idea that they had been amusing 
themselves by sliding down it on their haunches. A 
performance, by-the-way, in which I afterward caught 
them myself. 
“June 28, Wednesday.—Hans came up with the 
party on the 17tli. Morton and he are still out. Tliev 
took a day’s rest; and then, ‘following the old tracks,’ 
as McGai-y reports, ‘till they were clear of the cracks 
near the islands, pushed northward at double-quick 
time. When last seen, they were both of them walk¬ 
ing, for the snow was too soft and deep for them to 
ride with their heavy load.’ Fine weather, but the ice 
yields reluctantly.” 
While thus watching the indications of advancing 
summer, my mind turned anxiously to the continued 
absence of Morton and Hans. We were already beyond 
the season when travel upon the ice was considered 
practicable by our English predecessors in Wellington 
Channel, and, in spite of the continued solidity around 
us, it was unsafe to presume too much upon our high 
northern position. 
The ice, although seemingly as unbroken as ever, 
was no longer fit for dog-travel; the floes were covered 
