A Little Tripe De Roche* Was Also Obtained. These Would Have Satisfied Us In Ordinary Times But We Were Now Almost Exhausted By Slender Fare And Travel And Our Appetites Had Become Ravenous.

We looked however with humble confidence to the Great Author and Giver of all good for a continuance of the support which had hitherto been always supplied to us at our greatest need.

The thermometer varied today between 25 and 28 degrees. The wind blew fresh from the south.

(*Footnote. The different kinds of gyrophora are termed indiscriminately by the voyagers tripe de roche.)

On the 18th the atmosphere was hazy but the day was more pleasant for walking than usual. The country was level and gravelly and the snow very deep. We went for a short time along a deeply-beaten road made by the reindeer which turned suddenly off to the south-west, a direction so wide of our course that we could not venture upon following it. All the small lakes were frozen and we marched across those which lay in our track. We supped off the tripe de roche which had been gathered during our halts in the course of the march. Thermometer at six P.M. 32 degrees.

Showers of snow fell without intermission through the night but they ceased in the morning and we set out at the usual hour. The men were very faint from hunger and marched with difficulty, having to oppose a fresh breeze and to wade through snow two feet deep.

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