8. As we advanced further, we went round Schönau Island[42] so remarkable for its columnar structure and environed by ice which had been raised up by pressure. In a cleft of its precipitous rocky walls we buried a depôt of provisions and a supply of alcohol for two days, together with some articles of clothing, covering them up with four feet of snow. We could not, however, conceal from ourselves the danger of placing a depôt within sight of a bear’s hole, and greatly deplored that we were not able, like the fox in the fable, to obliterate the marks of our footsteps. Towards evening the temperature fell to -10° F., and the tent was frozen as stiff as a board. On the 30th of March the temperature fell to -22° F., and a strong north wind was blowing as we came out of the tent, and curling billows of snow, reddened by the rising sun, rolled round us, hiding from us at last even the sun himself. A march in the teeth of a wind at so low a temperature is quite useless and only exposes to the great danger of frost-bite. This was now clearly seen when, the tent being taken down as usual immediately after breakfast, the laggards, imperfectly clad, faced the wild weather. One was binding a stocking round his face with his braces, because his frozen fingers would not permit him to button on his nose-band and wind-guard; another had put on reindeer shoes instead of boots after a vain attempt to thaw them; a third had put on the wrong boot, and I myself was obliged to wind a long rope round my body, because I was unable to fasten my coat. Such a state of things is opposed to order and safety, and may degenerate into serious mischief. There was nothing for it therefore but to set up the tent again and to get back into our sleeping-bag. But the damp tent was frozen hard, and we felt much as if we were lying between two plates of cold metal. It would be difficult to say whether we suffered more from cold than from vexation. Zaninovich spread the sail over us, and shovelled down the snow from the walls of the tent;—who could be so serviceable as this comrade of ours, who on every occasion displayed such hardihood against cold? Orel and I made vain attempts to shorten the time by reading a volume of Dessing which we had brought with us; but we soon renounced the effort, finding that we could not fix our attention in such a situation. We had some compensation, however, in the amusement of listening to the Dalmatians learning to speak German with Klotz, who was far from the weakness of uttering a single word in Italian. As usual, when the weather was bad, the dogs gathered close to the wind-sheltered side of our tent. Sumbu forcing himself in among us had to be driven out, for he growled if he had the faintest suspicion that we meant to move or to smoke; but failing to make himself comfortable among the other dogs, he avenged himself by again rushing in among us, shaking the snow from his coat, and forced us to admit him. [Illustration: LIFE IN THE TENT.]