Wild and I went out
prospecting as usual, but it seemed too broken to travel over.
"December 29.--After a further reconnaissance the ice ahead proved
quite un-negotiable, so at 8.30 p.m. last night, to the intense
disappointment of all, instead of forging ahead, we had to retire half
a mile so as to get on a stronger floe, and by 10 p.m. we had camped
and all hands turned in again. The extra sleep was much needed,
however disheartening the check may be."
During the night a crack formed right across the floe, so we hurriedly
shifted to a strong old floe about a mile and a half to the east of our
present position. The ice all around was now too broken and soft to
sledge over, and yet there was not sufficient open water to allow us to
launch the boats with any degree of safety. We had been on the march
for seven days; rations were short and the men were weak. They were
worn out with the hard pulling over soft surfaces, and our stock of
sledging food was very small. We had marched seven and a half miles in
a direct line and at this rate it would take us over three hundred days
to reach the land away to the west. As we only had food for forty-two
days there was no alternative, therefore, but to camp once more on the
floe and to possess our souls with what patience we could till
conditions should appear more favourable for a renewal of the attempt
to escape.
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