404 Chapter VII. 



water, perhaps to the very Pole, but gets stuck in the 

 ice and laments ; another is prepared to get stuck in 

 the ice, but will not grumble even should he find open 

 water. It is ever the safest plan to expect the least 

 of life, for then one often gets the most." 



The open spaces, the lanes, and the rifts in the ice 

 are, of course, produced, like the pressure and packing, 

 by the shifting winds and the tidal currents that set 

 the ice drifting first in one direction, then in another. 

 And they best prove, perhaps, how the surface of the 

 Polar Sea must be considered as one continuous mass 

 of ice-floes in constant motion, now frozen together, now 

 torn apart, or crushed against each other. 



During the whole of our drift I paid great attention to 

 this ice, not only with respect to its motion, but to its 

 formation and growth as well. In the Introduction 

 of this book I have pointed out that, even should the 

 ice pass year after year in the cold Polar Sea, it could 

 not by mere freezing attain more than a certain thick- 

 ness. From measurements that were constantly being- 

 made, it appeared that the ice which was formed 

 during the autumn in October or November continued 

 to increase in size during the whole of the winter and 

 out into the spring, but more slowly the thicker it became. 

 On April icth it was about 2-31 metres ; April 2ist, 2-41 

 metres; May 5th, 2-45 metres; May 31, 2*52 metres; 

 June Qth, 2-58 metres. It was thus continually increasing 

 in bulk, notwithstanding that the snow now melted 



