I was, therefore, very reluctantly compelled to yield to
this necessity, and to order the things to be got on board again.
Immediately after we had, on the 27th, proved experimentally the extreme
difficulty of transporting our boats and stores over the ice which now
surrounded us, I made up my mind to the very great probability there
seemed to be of the necessity of adopting such alterations in our
original plans as would accommodate them to these untoward circumstances
at the outset. The boats forming the main impediment, not so much on
account of their absolute weight as from the difficulty of managing so
large a body upon a road of this nature, I made preparations for the
possible contingency of our having to take only one, continuing the same
number of men in our whole party. All that I saw reason to apprehend
from having only a single boat on our outward journey, was some
occasional delay in ferrying over spaces of water in two trips instead
of one; but we considered that this would be much more than compensated
by the increased rate at which we should go whenever we were upon the
ice, as we expected to be nine days out of ten. The principal
disadvantage, therefore, consisted in our not all being able to sleep in
the boat, and this we proposed to obviate in the following manner.
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