ETAH TO CAPE SHERIDAN 51 



channels; and two others, the Discovery and the 

 Proteus, had penetrated them as far as Discovery 

 Harbour. 



Our freedom of movement and abiHty to leave the 

 shelter of the land and cross and recross the channel 

 at will through the heaviest ice, was also gratifying 

 to me. 



In the voyage from New York to Etah we had 

 passed the latitudes of the most northern extremities 

 of North America, Europe and Asia. 



Since leaving Etah, we had passed the latitudes of 

 the most northern extremities of Spitzbergen and 

 Franz Joseph Land, and now only the northern points 

 of the two most northern lands in the world, Cape 

 Morris Jesup and Cape Columbia, lay a little beyond 

 us. The northern-reaching fingers of all the rest of 

 the great world lay far behind us below the ice-bound 

 southern horizon. We were deep in that gaunt frozen 

 border land which lies between God's countries and 

 inter-stellar space. 



