Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/221

 After launching the two canoes it was with great danger and difficulty we were able to force a way through the broken but heavy shore-ice to the open water beyond. Having once gotten clear, we were able to make good progress, and even at great risk of being smashed upon some of the many rocks, we paddled far into the night; but at a late hour, being sheathed in ice from the freezing spray, we landed, and, without supper, lay down to sleep upon the snow.

Eight more dreary days passed, six of which were spent in battling with the elements and two in lying storm-stayed in our tents.. During this interval our party suffered much from cold and lack of food, and to make matters worse, dysentery attacked us, and it appeared as if one of our men would die.

The ice had been all the while forming, rendering it more and more difficult to launch or get ashore. Our frail crafts were being badly battered, and often were broken through by the ice, and the low character of the coast had not improved. Still with hollow cheeks and enfeebled strength we struggled on, sometimes making fair progress and at others very little, until on October the 14th, as we advanced, the ice became so heavy, and extended so far out to sea, that in order to clear it we had to go quite out of sight of land.

Towards evening we began to look about for some opportunity of going ashore, but nothing could be seen before us but a vast field of ice with occasional protruding boulders. We pushed on, hoping to find some bluff point or channel of water by which we might reach the shore, but the appearance of things did not change in the slightest. We stood up in the canoes or