FROM 87° 6' TO GREENLAND COAST 147 



of the Capitol, all rounded by the terrific grinding 

 they had received between the jaws of the " big lead " 

 when its edges were together and shearing past each 

 other. It did not seem as if anything not possessing 

 wings could negotiate it, and I turned to my men to 

 say a few encouraging words, but caught a glint in 

 their eyes and a setting of the jaws, such as I had noticed 

 before when they and I had been mixed up with a 

 roaring herd of infuriated bull walrus or facing a 

 wounded polar bear, and I shut my mouth and said 

 nothing, for I knew words were not necessary. 



During this march and the next and part of the 

 next, we stumbled desperately southward through this 

 frozen Hades, constantly falling and receiving num- 

 erous uncomfortable bruises. My uncushioned stumps 

 seemed to catch it especially, and it is no exaggeration 

 to say that at our first camp my jaws were actually 

 aching from the viciousness with which I had re- 

 peatedly ground my teeth together during the march. 



On the next march after we emerged from the south- 

 em edge of the zone of shattered ice, we made out the 

 distant snow- clad summits of the Greenland moun- 

 tains, and this improved the spirits of my men. One 

 or two of them had said while waiting north of the 

 lead, that they could see land clouds from one of the 

 high pinnacles close by the lead, but I could make out 

 nothing, and the other Eskimos were not sure of it. 

 There could be no mistake in the matter now, and from 

 here on the going improved. There were very few 

 leads and these narrow and finally disappearing, there 

 was no perceptible movement of the ice, and I rec- 

 ognised that we were now under the shelter of Cape 



