As soon as there was light enough, he started off to the south of the igloo, and after a time overtook his companions.

Had he gone even a little way to the north he would not have met them, and would have had to walk back alone to the ship, without supplies, a distance of seventy or eighty miles, with a storm brewing.
This party had bad weather nearly all the way home.

The temperature was comparatively mild, only ten or fifteen degrees below zero, and the sky was overcast.

The captain made the last march a long one, notwithstanding the darkness.

Of course he could not always keep the trail.