six to eighteen inches of soft snow lay upon it in every part, making the travelling very fatiguing, and obliging us to make at least two, and sometimes three, journeys with our loads.  We now found it absolutely necessary to lighten the boat as much as possible, by putting the bread-bags on the sledges, on account of the “runners” of the boats sinking so much deeper into the snow; but our bread ran a great risk of being wetted by this plan.

We halted at eleven P.M. on the 1st, having traversed from ten to eleven miles, and made good, by our account, seven and half in a N.b.W. direction.  We again set forward at ten A.M. on the 2d, the weather being calm, and the sun oppressively warm, though with a thick fog.  The temperature in the shade was 35 deg. at noon, and only 47 deg. in the sun; but this, together with the glare from the snow, produced so painful a sensation in most of our eyes, as to make it necessary to halt at one P.M., to avoid being blinded.  We therefore took advantage of this warm weather to let the men wash themselves, and mend and dry their clothes, and then set out again at half past three.  The snow was, however, so soft as to take us up to our knees at almost every other step, and frequently still deeper; so that we were sometimes five minutes together in moving a single empty boat, with all our united strength.  It being impossible to proceed under these circumstances, I determined to fall into our night-travelling again, from which we had of late insensibly deviated.  We therefore halted at half past five, the weather being now very clear and warm, and many of the people’s eyes beginning to fail.  We did not set out again till after midnight, with the intention of giving the snow time to harden after so warm a day; but we found it still so soft as to make the travelling very fatiguing.  Our way lay at first across a number of loose pieces, most of which were from five to twenty yards apart, or just sufficiently separated to give us all the labour of launching and hauling up the boats, without the advantage of making any progress by water; while we crossed, in other instances, from mass to mass, by laying the boats over as bridges, by which the men and the baggage passed.  By these means, we at length reached a floe about a mile in length, in a northern direction; but it would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the labour required to traverse it.  The average depth of snow upon the level parts was about five inches, under which lay water four or five inches deep; but, the moment we approached a hummock, the depth to which we sank increased to three feet or more, rendering it difficult at times to obtain sufficient footing for one leg to enable us to extricate the other.  The pools of fresh water had now also become very large, some of them being a quarter of a mile in length, and their depth above our knees.  Through these we were prevented taking the sledges, for fear of wetting all our provisions; but we preferred transporting the boats across them, notwithstanding the severe cold of the snow-water, the bottom being harder for the “runners” to slide upon.  On this kind of road we were, in one instance, above two hours in proceeding a distance of one hundred yards.