193 
LOG OF TIIE SLEDGES. 
rope, dried their bedding, cooked them a porridge of 
meat-biscuit and pea-soup, fastened up their desolate 
doorway, hung a dripping slab of pork-fat over their 
lamp-wick, and, first joining in a prayer of thankfulness 
and then a round of merry gossip, all hands forgot 
sickness and privation and distance in the contentment 
of our sleeping-bags. I cannot tell how long we slept, 
for all our watches ran down before we awoke. 
The gale had risen, and it was snowing hard when. I 
replenished the fires of our hearthstone. Rut we went 
on burning rope and fat, in a regular tea-drinking frolic, 
till not an icicle or even a frost-mark was to be seen on 
the roof. After a time Godfrey rejoined us; Metek 
came with him; and between their two sledges they 
brought an ample supply of meat. With part of this 
I hastened to the sledge-party. They were now off 
Ten-mile Ravine, struggling through the accumulated 
snows, and much exhausted, though not out of heart. 
In spite of their swollen feet, they had worked fourteen 
hours a day, passing in that time over some twelve 
miles of surface, and advancing a mile and a half on 
their way. 
A few extracts from their log-book, as kept by Dr. 
Hayes, may show something of our mode of travel, 
though it conveys but an imperfect idea of its trials. 
“May 23, Wednesday.—Mr. Bonsall, cook, called at 
8 p.ir. George Riley suffering from snow-blindness 
Vol. II—13 
