The travelling across land was exceedingly heavy and tedious, owing to
the softening condition of the snow, and to the lakes being covered
with water to the depth of about six or eight inches. In the morning
the slight crust on the snow, formed during the night, would break
through at nearly every step; while during the rest of the day it was
simply wading through slush or water. We found the salt-water ice also
in a bad condition for travelling. It was very old ice, and as hummocky
as it is possible for ice to be. We usually kept near the coast, where
we found pretty good sledging; but one day we took to the hummocks, to
avoid a great detour that following the shore ice would have entailed
upon us, and did it to our sorrow. The fall snows and winter winds had
piled up around and among the hummocks, filling in the interstices, so
that, were the snow frozen, the sledging would not have been so very
difficult; but the sun had already poured his rays upon it, day and
night, for so long a time that the snow was soft, and nearly every step
would break through.
Sometimes we would sink to our waists, and then our legs would be
dangling in slush and water without finding bottom. The sled would
often sink so that the dogs could not pull it out, light as was the
load, and when we would gather round to help them, we could only get an
occasional foothold, perhaps by kneeling in a hummock, or holding on
with one hand while we pulled with the other.
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