An Arctic boat journey, in the autumn of 1854 . mount and it did not seem possible that he could do, andhis request was not granted ; but shortly after, whennot observed, he rolled from the sledge, and declaredthat if he could not walk he would go no farther. Iraised him up, and gave him the support of my proceeded thus together for about a mile, whenhe suddenly fell by my side and fainted away, We were at the moment close beside a small ice-berg, which, on its eastern side, was hollowed out inthe form of a crescent. Across in front, from wingto wing, lay a heavy snow-drift in
An Arctic boat journey, in the autumn of 1854 . mount and it did not seem possible that he could do, andhis request was not granted ; but shortly after, whennot observed, he rolled from the sledge, and declaredthat if he could not walk he would go no farther. Iraised him up, and gave him the support of my proceeded thus together for about a mile, whenhe suddenly fell by my side and fainted away, We were at the moment close beside a small ice-berg, which, on its eastern side, was hollowed out inthe form of a crescent. Across in front, from wingto wing, lay a heavy snow-drift inclosing a smallarea. Into this protected place we carried our sickcomrade ; and, after wrapping him in our blankets,we built about him a rude shelter with blocks ofsnow, which were cut from the hard drift. Godfreystarted the lamp to cook for him some coffee. Hedid not speak for several minutes. His first wordswere : Leave me and save yourselves. I can neverreach the ship, and had better die at once. We were in a dilemma. Go on without Stephen-. DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS. 279 son we would not; and go on with him it seemedthat we could not. What should we do ? The difficulty resolved itself. Although we hadnot made, on this our first march, more than onehalf of the distance we expected, being only halfway to Cape Parry, and less than one fourth of theway to Northumberland Island, yet we were allthoroughly exhausted; and without rest it did notseem possible that we could go much farther. Wedetermined, therefore, to camp; and accordinglysuch a snow shelter was constructed as, on formeroccasions of similar exposure, we had found toafford a safe protection ; but we soon discovered thatwe could prevent ourselves from freezing only byconstant activity. It was clear that we must move on; for to runabout with the view of keeping warm, or rather Ishould say, with the view of keeping alive, would beonly to wear ourselves out without accomplishinganything in the direction of our purpose. I p
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