besides being inconvenient and uncomfortable, greatly increased our weights. To give an instance, my militza (fur jumper), which on leaving the hut weighed a little under ten pounds, on our return scaled nearly thirty pounds. The rises of temperature and consequent wet in the tent caused our furs to rot, and the stench made thereby was absolutely indescribable.

During our first sledge journey of last spring we were on several occasions cut off by open sea-water-of course with masses of floating ice in it, running right up to the ice precipices which fringe the coast, thus stopping all further advance on the sea ice, and obliging us to search for a spot where, aided by high snowdrifts, we could haul our sledges by means of a purchase up the face of the glacier, and thus enable us to begin the climb up the steep incline of the ice-clad land. This work entailed excessive labor, hauling our sledges simply foot by foot, as the five remaining dogs stopped every eight or ten yards, and could only be started again by hauling up the sledges and by shouting ourselves hoarse. whip is of little use when every muscle has to be strained to move at all, and besides being repugnant to any one fond of

The

animals, tends to discourage rather than to spur them on, and Mr. Armitage seldom used it.

one.

There is a popular picture of dog-driving, of a man seated on a sledge twirling a long whip around his head, and careering gayly along at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, behind a team of dogs. This, unfortunately, is anything but a true We never thought of riding upon a sledge, but were more than contented if it could be kept in motion at a slow walk by the united efforts of the animals and ourselves. I hauled in a trace ahead of the dogs, and led the way, while my companion, by continuous shouting and occasional use of the whip, kept the dogs at their work, and whenever the sledges stopped-which they did at the smallest obstruction-by hauling and shouting got them started again.

On more than one occasion we nearly lost our pony down crevasses, when toiling over the high glacier land.

One day last spring I was leading as usual with her, and Mr. Armitage was following in my tracks with the dog team. On the even surface of the snow there is nothing whatever to indicate the yawning dark chasms, hundreds of feet in depth, which lie concealed around us

by light bridges of snow, only a few inches in thickness. The snow-covered surface of the glacier looks as firm and stable as Piccadilly, not even a slight depression in the snow marks the hideous pitfall below, and the inexperienced traveller would probably tramp on with a feeling of perfect security. We, however, had been on glaciers many times before. Suddenly, without a moment's warning, "Brownie" dropped through the snow

crust with all four legs, and hung suspended by a light bridge of snow over a gaping abyss, the black depths of which the eye could not fathom. Fortunately she was too much frightened and too exhausted to move a muscle, otherwise she would have disappeared at once, taking her sledges with her. My companion, seeing what had happened, at once came to my help, but unwisely stepped off his

A ROWDY-DOWDY CREW.

ski-which are a great protection in such cases-and at once dropped through into the crevass up to his arms. I must confess that the next few seconds were anxious ones as I endeavored to hold up the pony with one hand, and to render assistance to Mr. Armitage with the other. However, he fortunately managed to scramble out into safety, and by passing a line round the pony's neck we suc

and weaker, and we still knew not the distance that separated us from our hut on Cape Flora, or how far we yet had to travel.

On the evening of the second day of this charming weather I heard her struggling to get upon her feet, and I went outside the tent to render assistance, in which Mr. Armitage shortly afterwards joined me. For an hour, in the howling gale, we endeavored to get her up, but she was too weak to stand. We wrapped her up in her blanket coat and made her as comfortable as we could, giving her the last handful of oats kept for an emergency. I knew it was all over with her. Next morning I found her dead and frozen hard.

We felt very sad at the loss of our poor old pony. At the hut she had become quite one of the family, and in good weather ran about loose as she pleased. She had been a faithful servant to us, and I

had been promising her all sorts of good times for the rest of her life if I could only get her back to England in safety. Poor animal, she deserved a better fate than to leave her bones on that dismal, silent glacier. With her, too, died more than half our re

summer, when the breaking up of the ice rendered it possible, boat journeys were undertaken.

In the summer of 1895, as soon as the Windward had broken loose from her winter quarters, I selected a crew of six, and in our whale-boat, twenty-five feet in length, and undecked, started off to explore the western land beyond Mr. Leigh Smith's farthest.

Franz-Josef Land has a very dangerous coast to boat upon. The greater portion of its shores is faced with perpendicular glacier walls, varying in height from thirty to eighty feet, and it is only at very long intervals that black basaltic rocks jut out of the ice near the sea, rendering landing possible. Every where else the ice-cap overruns everything.

Violent gales are frequent and sudden, accompanied by snow and dense mists even in summer.

"We left Cape Neale about 11 A.M., and rowed round the cape to clear a lot of drift-ice, and then set sail across the bay. After proceeding some distance Cambridge Bay began to open out, and we could clearly make out the large, bold headland, with pockets running up on either side, forming a prominent cape. On the western side the water appears to run out in the form of straits, connecting Cambridge Bay with sea to the northward.

"At 4.30 P.M. we passed Cape Ludlow, which is merely an ice-covered and glacier-faced promontory, with the upper ridges of a rock showing through the ice. Landing was impossible here. Fisher made a rough sketch of it, and after we had passed it some distance I took a photographic snap-shot of it. We had gone through much ice, and as we sailed on toward Cape Lofley it became much

closer. This, and the fact that the wind had freshened, and that the whole coast was glacier-faced, rendering landing impossible and offering no shelter, made our progress more and more risky. At 9 P.M. we rounded Cape Lofley and ran on to within five or six miles of a cape west of it (Cape Mary Harmsworth), which I had first definitely seen from the summit of Cape Neale. Beyond it lay a dense bank of fog. The wind had now increased to nearly a moderate gale, and the ice had become very close, but of a low, level description, of about four to five feet in thickness, and being in motion, we had many narrow escapes from it. We had taken in a reef in the lug-sail, and we had now continually to put the boat's head up into the wind and to shake the sail to avoid gusts.

"Cape Lofley is of the same character as Cape Ludlow, with just a little more rock showing above the ice, but is glacierfaced, and there was no place where it was possible to land, still less to haul a boat out. Cape Mary Harmsworth appears to be very similar in these respects. Heavy ice lay to seaward and ahead of

us, and had every appearance of a tight pack; and the wind was increasing in force, with an ugly-looking sky and a rapidly falling barometer. Things looked very threatening. It would be extremely nasty to be caught in a gale in our cockle-shell, especially amongst the ice we were in, which, although not heavy enough to break the force of the sea, was quite sufficiently so to smash our boat to match-wood. The whole coast is fronted by high, overhanging glacier faces, rendering landing impossible. I decided to try and get back to Cape Neale, which was apparently the nearest spot we could land upon, and to wait there until the storm passed over before proceeding.

"The whole coast, reaching from the throat of Cambridge Bay as far as we could see to the west, is one unbroken glacier face, with the tops of basaltic rocks jutting out of the ice, and with very high country behind it (it appeared to rise about 2000 feet). A more utterly desolate scene it is impossible to imagine. Nothing but one huge glacier is discernible. Cape Mary Harmsworth appeared to be as