beyond all bounds.  Some of them simply declined to believe it; they merely turned round a few times and lay down again on the same spot.  They had to be flogged home.  Can anything more inexplicable be imagined?  There they lay, three miles from their comfortable home, where they knew that abundance of food awaited them —­ in a temperature of -40deg.F.  Although they had now been out for twenty-four hours, none of them gave a sign of wanting to leave the spot.  If it had been summer, with warm sunshine, one might have understood it; but as it was —­ no!

That day —­ August 24 —­ the sun appeared above the Barrier again for the first time in four months.  He looked very smiling, with a friendly nod for the old pressure-ridges he had seen for so many years; but when his first beams reached the starting-point, his face might well show surprise.  “Well, if they’re not first, after all!  And I’ve been doing all I could to get here!” It could not be denied; we had won the race, and reached the Barrier a day before him.

The day for our actual start could not be fixed; we should have to wait until the temperature moderated somewhat.  So long as it continued to grovel in the depths, we could not think of setting out.  All our things were now ready up on the Barrier, and nothing remained but to harness the dogs and start.  When I say all our things were ready, this is not the impression anyone would have gained who looked in on us; the cutting out and sewing were going on worse than ever.  What had previously occurred to one as a thing of secondary importance, which might be done if there was time, but might otherwise quite well be dropped, now suddenly appeared as the most important part of the whole outfit; and then out came the knife and cut away, until great heaps of offcuts and hair lay about the floor; then the needle was produced, and seam after seam added to those there were already.

The days went by, and the temperature would give no sign of spring; now and then it would make a jump of about thirty degrees, but only to sink just as rapidly back to -58deg.  F. It is not at all pleasant to hang about waiting like this; I always have the idea that I am the only one who is left behind, while all the others are out on the road.  And I could guess that I was not the only one of us who felt this.

“I’d give something to know how far Scott is to-day.”

“Oh, he’s not out yet, bless you!  It’s much too cold for his ponies.”

“Ah, but how do you know they have it as cold as this?  I expect it’s far warmer where they are, among the mountains; and you can take your oath they’re not lying idle.  Those boys have shown what they can do.”

This was the sort of conversation one could hear daily.  The uncertainty was worrying many of us —­ not all —­ and, personally, I felt it a great deal.  I was determined to get away as soon as it was at all possible, and the objection that much might be lost by starting too early did not seem to me to have much force.  If we saw that it was too cold, all we had to do was to turn back; so that I could not see there was any risk.