d by the water.

"We toiled all day, and night found us five miles from shore, with a
strip of open water between us and land. Here and there were floating
cakes of ice, but the main body had been blown off by the wind and
promised to be a mile or two further to the north before morning.

"I determined to wait for daylight, and then endeavor to reach the
shore on cakes of ice. The attempt would be full of danger, but there
was nothing else to be done. Reluctantly I proposed abandoning the
dogs, but my companions appealed to me to keep them with us, as they
had already saved our lives, and it would be the basest ingratitude to
desert them. I did not require a second appeal, and promised that
whatever we did, the dogs should go with us if possible.

"Imagine the horror of that night! We divided the little food that
remained, men and dogs sharing alike, and tried to rest upon the ice.
We had no means of making a fire, our clothing was soaked with water,
and, during the night, the wind shifted suddenly to the northward and
became cold. I was lying down, and fell asleep from utter exhaustion;
though the cold was severe, I did not think it dangerous, and felt
quite unable to exercise to keep warm. The Yakuts, with Nicolai,
huddled among the dogs, and were less wearied than I. When they
shouted to me at daybreak, I slowly opened my eyes, and found that I
could not move. I was frozen fast to the ice!

"Had I been alone there would have been no escape. My companions came
to my relief, but it was with much difficulty that they freed me from
my unpleasant situation. When we looked about, we found that our
circumstances had greatly changed during the night. The wind had
ceased, and the frost had formed fresh ice over the space where there
was open water the day before. It was out of the question to ferry to
land, and our only hope lay in driving the sledges over the new ice. I
ordered the teams to be made ready, and to keep several hundred yards
apart, so as to make as little weight as possible on one spot. I took
one sledge, Nicolai another, and the Yakuts the third. Our fourth
sledge was lost at the time of our accident the day before.

[Illustration: THE TEAM.]

"Our plan was to drive at full speed, to lessen the danger of breaking
through. Once through the ice, there would have been no hope for us.
We urged the dogs forward with loud cries, and they responded to our
wishes by exerting all their strength. We went forward a