We now began to make preparations for our journey southward, which must be performed before the land-ice should begin to break up.
I suggested that some of the party should first make a trip with part of our provisions, sufficient for three or four days, to the south, and there form a depot, so that we might not run the risk of starving should we fail to kill any animals, and this was agreed to.
Sandy and I drew lots which of us should go, and which remain at the hut.
The lot fell on him to go, and he chose Hans and Croil to accompany him. I confess that I would far rather have gone, but having agreed to the proposal, I felt bound to yield to his wishes.
The party set off the next morning with the tent, and as much bear’s meat as they chose to carry, and a portion of the remainder of our other stores. Ewen and I saw them off, not without some forebodings of evil, and then returned to our hut to employ ourselves as usual.
We never allowed the time to hang heavily on our hands, though we would have given a great deal for a book of any description, especially for a Bible, for that could have been read over and over again with advantage, whereas any other book would have been quickly got through. We calculated that Sandy would be absent a week or ten days at the utmost. The ten days had elapsed, and Sandy had not appeared; a fearful snow-storm, with a violent wind, had, however, come on, and confined us to the hut, and we concluded that he and his companions had pitched their tent, and had halted until it should be over, and that we might thus expect to see them at any hour.
Still days went by after this, and they did not come.
“Can they have deserted us?” asked Ewen.
“I am sure that they have not willingly done so,” I replied. “Some serious accident I fear may have happened to prevent them from returning.”
Our position had now become critical in the extreme. In a short time the ice might leave the shore, and our escape from the bay would be impossible.