, the dogs required helping and progress was slow. The midnight
sun shone low in the south, and we tramped on through the morning hours,
anxious to reduce the miles which lay ahead.

Early on December 16 the sky became rapidly overcast. The snowy land and
the snowy sky merged to form an enclosed trap, as it seemed to us, while
showers of snow fell. There were no shadows to create contrast; it was
impossible to distinguish even the detail of the ground underfoot.
We stumbled over unseen ridges of the hard neve, our gaze straining
forward. The air was so still that advantage was taken of the calm to
light the primus and melt some snow in the lee of the sledge. The water,
to which were added a few drops of primus alcohol, helped to assuage our
thirst.

The erection of the makeshift tent was a long and tedious operation, and
so, on our return marches, we never again took any refreshment during
the day's work excepting on this occasion.

At 6 A.M., having done twenty miles and ascended to an elevation of
about two thousand five hundred feet, we pitched camp.

There was very little sleep for me that day for I had an unusually bad
attack of snow-blindness. During the time that we rested in the bags
Mertz treated one of my eyes three times, the other twice with zinc
sulphate and cocaine.

On account of the smallness of the tent a great deal of time was
absorbed in preparations for "turning in" and for getting away from each
camp. Thus, although we rose before 6 P.M. on December 16, the start was
not made until 8.30 P.M., notwithstanding the fact that the meal was of
the "sketchiest" character.

On that night ours was a mournful procession; the sky thickly clouded,
snow falling, I with one eye bandaged and the dog Johnson broken down
and strapped on top of the load on the sledge. There was scarcely a
sound; only the rustle of the thick, soft snow as we pushed on, weary
but full of hope. The dogs dumbly pressed forward in their harness,
forlorn but eager to follow. Their weight now told little upon the
sledge, the work mainly falling upon ourselves. Mertz was tempted to
try hauling on skis, but came to the conclusion that it did not pay and
thenceforth never again used them.

Close to the Magnetic Pole as we were, the compass was of little use,
and to steer a straight course to the west without ever seeing anything
of the surroundings was a difficult task. The only check upon the
correctness of the bearing was the directi