PEARY'S FARTHEST NORTH OF 1905-6 165 



again. Their journey back was thus a race for life, and one made 

 in the face of an unremitting blizzard, through which "none but an 

 Eskimo could have kept the trail." 



The blizzard past, a region of broken ice and huge pressure 

 ridges was encountered, in which their pickaxes were constantly 

 in use. Slow and exhausting was their progress, and when the 

 ridges were passed a greater danger yet confronted them. There 

 ran the big lead, a band of black water extending in both directions 

 to the limit of vision. It had delayed their outward march; it was 

 to delay more perilously their return march. 



Efforts to. cross it with their sledges and the light remaining 

 loads of food were tried in vain. In one place they tried to cross on 

 half-frozen rubble-ice, but finding that it was parting under their 

 feet they hurried back in alarm. Then for five dismal days they 

 remained marooned on a piece of old floe ice, drifting steadily to 

 the east, while the lead continued to widen. Commander Peary tells 

 what followed so graphically and well that we must borrow again 

 from his own narrative: 



"On the fifth day two Eskimos whom I had sent reconnoitering 

 to the east reported young ice a few miles distant which might 

 support us on snowshoes across the lead, now over two miles wide. 

 No time was lost in hurrying to the place when it was evident that 

 it was our chance or never. Each man tied on his snowshoes with 

 utmost care and we began the crossing in widely extended line. 

 Each man was intent upon his snowshoes which could not be lifted 

 from the ice, while the slightest unsteadiness or stumbling would 

 have meant his finish. The thin film crusting the black water bent 

 and yielded beneath us, sending undulations in every direction. I 

 do not care for another similar experience. 



"Across those intermediate miles we walked in silence. It was 

 with an inexpressible relief that I skipped on the firm ice on the other 

 side with a number of my party still on the ice. As we left the lead 

 a widening lane of black water cut the frail bridge upon which we 

 had crossed into two parts. 



