BREAKING IN.
11. Ahead of us in the south lay a dark water-sky, while the land on either side was veiled in mist and fog. We tried to persuade ourselves that this phenomenon might be explained otherwise than by open water. Soon, however, we heard the unambiguous sound of ice-pressure and of the beating of the surf at no great distance, and when we went to rest, in 80° 36′ N. L., it was with the feeling that we needed new strength to meet the dangers which unquestionably awaited us. We slept soundly for some hours in spite of all our anxious fears, till we were aroused by the increasing noise. We now advanced along the old sledge-track upon which we had fallen. Orel and I went first, and after we had gone a few hundred paces the truth burst upon us: we saw the sea ahead of us and no white edge beyond. Walls of forced-up ice surrounded this water, which, stirred by a heavy wind, threw up crested waves; the spray of its surf dashed itself for a distance of thirty yards over the icy shore. Forthwith ascending an iceberg, we looked over the dark waste of water, in which the icebergs, under which we had passed a month before, were now floating; the more distant of them stood out against the arch of light on the horizon, and those nearer to us shone with a dazzling brilliancy under the dark water-sky. That on which lay our depôt of provisions was floating in the midst of them; and here we were, without a boat, almost without provisions, and fifty-five miles distant from the ship! A strong current was running southwards at the rate of three or four miles an hour; fragments of ice were driving before the wind, as if they meant to delight us by their movements, and as if there were no change for the worse to a handful of men, who stood in reality before an impassable abyss.
ARRIVAL BEFORE THE OPEN SEA.
12. But what were we to do; what direction were we to follow? If we killed and ate our dogs and broke up our sledge to find wood to melt the snow, we might live for eight days longer. In this case we must ourselves carry our baggage. But the most important question was, Whither? In what direction did the ice lie still unbroken? Did the land on the west afford a connected route to the ship? Did the sea before us communicate further south with the sea where the Tegetthoff lay? There was but one alternative—escape by land and over land; and because open water could be traced to the north-west beyond the bare reefs of the Hayes Islands, and heavy clouds over Markham Sound seemed to indicate that the ice had broken up in it also, I decided to try the way over the glaciers of Wilczek Land. Everything depended on the unbroken state of the ice in the southern parts of Austria Sound. Dejected as I was, I finished my sketch of this dreadful scene, while Orel went back to caution the men against venturing on the young ice and to tell them to keep to the old ice under the land. While the men were struggling with the great sledge in the snow, I descended from my higher point of view, and, soaked through by the surf, went along the ice-strand in a south-easterly direction towards Wilczek Land. The others followed, and though we came on many fissures merely covered with snow, we yet reached terra firma in safety, Orel skilfully guiding the movements of the sledge according to the signs agreed on.
DRAGGING THE SLEDGE UNDER THE GLACIERS OF WILCZEK LAND.
13. But soon afterwards everything was veiled in mist; the temperature rose to 7° F., then came driving snow, which gradually increased to a snow-storm, and in order not to be cut off we were obliged once more to keep together. Dreadful as the weather was, we could not venture to put up the tent; march we must, in order to escape before the wind destroyed the ice-bridges on the way back. We trudged along under enormous glacier walls, enveloped in whirling snow. Sounding all round, we escaped the abysses with difficulty. We could scarcely even breathe and make head a against the wind. Our clothes were covered with snow, our faces were crusted with ice, eyes and mouth were firmly closed, and the dark sea beneath us was hidden from our view. We ceased to hear even its roar, the might of the storm drowning everything else. Haller, a few paces ahead, continually sounded, so as to keep us clear of fissures. We could scarcely follow him or recognise his form. We saw nothing even of the enormous glacier walls under which we toiled along, except that at times we caught a glimpse of them towering aloft. At every hundred paces we halted for a few minutes to remove the ice which formed itself on our eyes and round our mouths. We stilled our hunger with the hope, that we should find and dig out the body of the bear which we had shot a month ago. But we dared not rest, nor await the abatement of the storm, until we had crossed the glacier and felt the firm ground, free from ice, beneath our feet. This we compassed after a march of seven hours. Utterly exhausted, we then put up the tent on a stony slope, got beneath it, white with snow, wet through and stiffened with ice; notwithstanding our hunger, we lay down to sleep without eating. Not a morsel of bread could we venture to serve out from the small stock of provisions that remained. Our prospects were gloomy in the extreme. If open water, or even a broad fissure at Cape Frankfort, separated us from the ship, we must inevitably perish on the shores of Wilczek Land.