seen obstacles may confront us?

"1. The ice may be more impracticable than was supposed.
"2. We may meet with land.
"3. The dogs may fail us, may sicken, or freeze to death.
"4. We ourselves may suffer from scurvy.

"1 and 2. That the ice may be more impracticable farther north is
certainly possible, but hardly probable. I can see no reason why
it should be, unless we have unknown lands to the north. But should
this be so--very well, we must take what chance we find. The ice can
scarcely be altogether impassable. Even Markham was able to advance
with his scurvy-smitten people. And the coasts of this land may
possibly be advantageous for an advance; it simply depends on their
direction and extent. It is difficult to say anything beforehand,
except that I think the depth of water we have here and the drift
of the ice render it improbable that we can have land of any extent
at all close at hand. In any case, there must, somewhere or other,
be a passage for the ice, and at the worst we can follow that passage.

"3. There is always a possibility that the dogs may fail us, but,
as may be seen, I have not laid out any scheme of excessive work
for them. And even if one or two of them should prove failures, that
could not be the case with all. With the food they have hitherto had
they have got through the winter and the cold without mishap, and the
food they will get on the journey will be better. In my calculations,
moreover, I have taken no account of what we shall draw ourselves. And,
even supposing all the dogs to fail us, we could manage to get along
by ourselves pretty well.

"4. The worst event would undeniably be that we ourselves should
be attacked by scurvy; and, notwithstanding our excellent health,
such a contingency is quite conceivable when it is borne in mind how
in the English North Pole Expedition all the men, with the exception
of the officers, suffered from scurvy when the spring and the sledge
journeys began, although as long as they were on board ship they had
not the remotest suspicion that anything of the kind was lying in
wait for them. As far, however, as we are concerned, I consider this
contingency very remote. In the first place, the English expedition
was remarkably unfortunate, and hardly any others can show a similar
experience, although they may have undertaken sledge journeys of
equal lengths--for example, M'Clintock's. During the retreat of the
Jeannette p