The 19, early in the morning we pursued our route. This day’s journey was still more fatiguing than the preceding one. The way was terrible. Twenty times I saw my sledge ready to be shattered to pieces, which would certainly have been the case, if I had not at last determined to proceed on foot. I was compelled to this, in order to guard myself against the danger of being overturned, and thus was I obliged to walk almost the whole day; but I only avoided one misfortune to fall into another. In a few hours I felt myself so fatigued that I was going to remount my sledge, when a sudden jolt instantly turned it upon its side, and effectually cooled my desire. I had no resource but to drag myself on as well as I could. My legs bent under me, I was in a profuse perspiration, and a burning thirst still added to my weariness. The snow was a poor relief, and I had nothing else with which to quench my thirst. Unfortunately I perceived a little river; absolute necessity conduced my steps to it, and, without reflecting upon the consequences of my imprudence, I instantly broke the ice, and put a piece into my mouth. This precipitation was purely mechanical, and I soon repented it. My thirst was relieved; but from the excessive heat of which I before complained, I passed to the contrary extreme; a universal chill seized me, and all my limbs trembled. The sharpness of the night increased my agueish feeling, and my weakness at last was so extreme, that I was unable to proceed a step farther. I entreated my companions to halt in the midst of this desert. They complied out of pure civility to me, for the difficulty of procuring wood was otherwise a sufficient reason to determine them to proceed. Scarcely could they collect enough to place under a kettle; it consisted of a few little shrubs, so green that it was almost impossible to make them burn. How happy were we to succeed so far as to be able to make tea! After drinking a few cups, I retired to my tent[4], where I lay down upon a small mattrass spread upon the snow, and covered myself up with a number of furs, in order to revive perspiration. It was in vain; I did not close my eyes during the whole night. To the anguish of a dry and burning fever, were added a continual oppression, and all the restlessness peculiar to the first symptoms of a disorder. I conceived myself, I acknowledge, to be dangerously ill, particularly when I found, upon getting up, that I could not articulate a single sound. I suffered infinitely both in my breast and throat; the fever was not abated; nevertheless the idea that a longer halt in this place would be of no benefit to me, and that I could only hope for succour by proceeding, determined me to conceal my extreme illness from M. Schmaleff. I was the first to propose going on, but in this I consulted my courage more than my strength.