FINAL SPURT BEGUN 277 



made, we were likely to retain it now that the wind 

 had ceased to blow from the north. It was even pos- 

 sible that with the release of the wind pressure the ice 

 might rebound more or less and return us some of the 

 hard-earned miles which it had stolen from us during 

 the previous three days. 



Near the end of the march I came upon a lead which 

 was just opening. It was ten yards wide directly in 

 front of me, but a few hundred yards to the east was 

 an apparently practicable crossing where the single 

 crack was divided into several. I signaled to the 

 sledges to hurry; then, running to the place, I had time 

 to pick a road across the moving ice cakes and return 

 to help the teams across before the lead widened so 

 as to be impassable. This passage was effected by my 

 jumping from one cake to another, picking the way, 

 and making sure that the cake would not tilt under the 

 weight of the dogs and the sledge, returning to the 

 former cake where the dogs were, encouraging the dogs 

 ahead while the driver steered the sledge across from 

 cake to cake, and threw his weight from one side to 

 the other so that it could not overturn. We got the 

 sledges across several cracks so wide that while the 

 dogs had no trouble in jumping, the men had to be 

 pretty active in order to follow the long sledges. For- 

 tunately the sledges were of the new Peary type, 

 twelve feet long. Had they been of the old Eskimo 

 type, seven feet long, we might have had to use ropes 

 and pull them across hand over hand on an ice cake. 



It is always hard to make the dogs leap a widening 

 crack, though some of the best dog drivers can do it 

 instantly, using the whip and the voice. A poor dog 



