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.
The fog continued too thick to allow us to move till six A.M., at
which time we resumed our journey. There was a broad and distant
haze-bow of very white and dazzling light directly opposite the
sun. The weather being still too foggy to see more than a quarter
of a mile ahead, it was with considerable difficulty that we could
proceed on a tolerably straight course.
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