LONG TIME GETTING TO 83 °. 
321 
for the floe on which we slept was so full of hum¬ 
mocks, that it occupied us just six hours to cross 
it, the distance in a straight line not exceeding two 
miles and a half. At midnight, on the 22nd, we had 
a good observation in latitude 82° 43' 32", being, as 
usual, the mean of two observers. After this, our 
road once more consisted of small rugged masses, and 
little pools of water, requiring many launches. In 
addition to these impediments, the wind, which had 
been from the N.N.W. at our setting out, again shifted 
to north, and freshened up considerably. We halted 
at seven A.M., after a laborious day’s work, and I 
must confess, a disheartening one to those who knew 
to how little effect we w T ere struggling ; which, how¬ 
ever, the men did not, though they often laughingly 
remarked that “ we were a long time getting to this 
83°! ” Being anxious to make up, in some measure, 
for the drift which the present northerly wind was 
in all probability occasioning, we rose earlier than 
usual, and set off at half-past four in the evening. 
^ # # * & 
“ When we first launched the boats, our prospect of 
making progress seemed no better than usual, but we 
found one small hole of water leading into another in 
so extraordinary a manner that, though the space in 
which we were rowing seemed to be always coming 
