146 NEAREST THE POLE 



it ? " but I dared not take my eyes from the steady, 

 even gliding of my snowshoes, and the fascination 

 of the glassy swell at the toes of them. 



When we stepped upon the firm ice on the southern 

 side of the lead, the sighs of relief from the two men 

 nearest me in the line on either side were distinctly 

 audible. I was more than glad myself. The cry I had 

 heard had been from one of my men whose toe, like 

 mine, had broken through the ice. 



To give an illustration of the temperament of my 

 Eskimos, the temperament which fits them so espe- 

 cially for Arctic work, the Chief Engineer of the 

 Roosevelt was rather a heavy man, weighing something 

 over 235 pounds; and as we stooped untying our snow- 

 shoes, one of my men, Ahngmalokto, turned sidewise 

 to me and said, " Pearyaksoah, if the Chief had been 

 with us, he would be down there now (indicating the 

 depths below us), wouldn't he?" And Ahngmalokto 

 was entirely right. 



When we stood up from unfastening our snowshoes, 

 and looked back for a moment before turning our 

 faces southward, a narrow black ribbon cut the frail 

 bridge on which we had crossed, in two. The lead 

 was widening again and we had just made it. 



The ice on the southern side of the lead was an 

 awful mess, and we climbed to the top of the highest 

 upheaved mass of it to see if we could make out any 

 practicable route through. To and beyond the hori- 

 zon extended such a hell of shattered ice as I had never 

 seen before and hope never to see again, a con- 

 glomeration of fragments from the size of paving 

 stones to literally and without exaggeration the dome 



