DISCOVERY OF NORTHWEST PASSAGE 307 



"To the east the whole interior of Melville Bay lay before us. Right in- 

 side, in the farthest background, we could see several mountain tops. An im- 

 penetrable mass of ice filled the bay ; mighty icebergs rose here and there from 

 out of the mass of ice. When we at last looked back, we saw the fog out of 

 which we suddenly slipped, lying thick like a wall behind us. Such a sight is 

 one of those wonders only to be seen in the never-to-be-forgotten seas of ice." 



Melville Bay was not to be a sticking-point for this lucky party, however, 

 and Cape York was made with ease. There Amundsen met members of the 

 so-called Danish Literary Expedition to Greenland, led by Mylius Ericksen, 

 and including Knad Rasmussen, one of the strongest supporters of Dr. Fred- 

 erick A. Cook. Felicitations and advice were exchanged, and the Amundsen 

 party proceeded through Lancaster Sound to Beechey Island, which was the 

 point where Sir John Franklin had his last comfortable winter quarters. 

 Amundsen, always an admirer of Franklin, gives vent, in his account of the 

 trip, to his feelings on their putting in at the spot where the sturdy Britisher 

 quartered himself while still in health and hope. It was there that the scurvy, 

 which was to scourge the crews of the Erebus and Terror most fearfully, first 

 made its appearance. 



After a short stay the Gjoa was turned south in Franklin Strait and plunged 

 into a region of mysteries and possible perils. As the point of the magnetic 

 pole was approached, the compass began to show signs of being in a strange 

 country. It vacillated furiously, and before the eyes of the anxious mariners 

 veered gradually until it pointed southwest. The magnetic pole was at hand. 



What lay before the party, with the ice accumulations always a danger, and 

 with a "nervous" compass, they could not foretell. But they sailed the Gjoa 

 on along Somerset Island. Between that island and Prince of Wales Land 

 Amundsen encountered what he feared was the long-dreaded ice-barrier. They 

 saw what they took, he says, in the mirror-like glitter of the calm sea, to be a 

 compact mass of ice extending from shore to shore. "It seemed evident to me 

 that we had now reached the point whence our predecessors had been compelled 

 to return — the border of solid unbroken ice. Happily we were mistaken, as, 

 in fact, we were several times afterward under similar circumstances. With 

 the sunlight on the glassy surface of the sea, with pieces of ice scattered over, 

 these may easily present the appearance of one solid, continuous mass. This 

 optical illusion is also enhanced by the *ice blink' constantly occurring in the 

 Arctic sea. This ice blink magnifies and exaggerates a small block of ice to 

 such an extent that it looks like an iceberg; especially when looking at it 



