the cart being tilted up to windward of them, so as to break up
some measure the violence of the wind; and, when wrapped up, or,
rather, enclosed in our blanket bags, we were generally quite warm
enough to enjoy the most sound and refreshing repose.

It continued to blow and snow till seven P.M., when the wind
having veered to the S.W., and become more moderate, we struck the
tents; and having now placed the men's knapsacks on the cart, to
enable them to drag with greater facility, we proceeded on our
journey to the northward. We passed a narrow but deep ravine lying
across our course, in some parts of which the snow reached nearly
to a level with the banks, forming a kind of bridges or causeways,
on one of which we crossed without difficulty. The men had hoisted
one sail upon the cart at first setting off; but the wind being
now, as they expressed it, "on the larboard quarter," a second
blanket was rigged as a mainsail, to their great amusement as well
as relief.

After crossing a second ravine, on the north side of which the
ground rose considerably, we entered upon another snowy plain,
where there was nothing to be seen in any direction but snow and
sky. To make it the more dreary, a thick fog came on as the night
advanced; and as this prevented our taking any mark more than
fifty or a hundred yards ahead, we had to place the compass, by
which we were now entirely travelling, upon the ground every five
minutes; and as it traversed with great sluggishness, we made a
very crooked and uncertain course. For more than two hours we did
not pass a single spot of uncovered ground, nor even a stone
projecting above the snow.