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.