The Man Who Ate His Boots by Anthony Brandt

Author:Anthony Brandt [Brandt, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-59290-3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2009-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

The polar sea was not open after all. They would not be going anywhere until the ice broke up.

So began yet another minuet with the ice. It retreated from the shore when the wind was off the shore, came back when the wind blew off the ocean. But the coast was shallow, and grounded ice held fast to the shore even when the wind did blow from the south. The coast was so shallow, in fact, that it was frequently difficult to bring the boats ashore; it was rocky, too, hard on the bottoms of the boats when they ran aground. And they constantly ran aground. Days went by when they couldn’t move at all, and the mosquitoes were so bad they could endure them only by sitting in their tents and filling the tents with smoke. After weeks of this Franklin reported their frustration:

More tedious hours than those passed by us in the present situation, cannot well be imagined. After the astronomical observations had been obtained and worked, the survey brought up, a sketch made of the encampment, and specimens of the plants and stones in the vicinity collected, there was, literally, nothing to do. The anxiety which was inseparable from such an enterprise as ours … left but little disposition to read … and still less composure to invent amusement. Even had the musquitoes been less tormenting, the swampiness of the ground, in which we sank ancle deep at every step, deprived us of the pleasure of walking.

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