258 NEAREST THE POLE 



of our eventual escape unless some unforeseen event 

 occurred, still the lateness of the season and our 

 surroundings were such as to make a repetition of the 

 Polarises experience, and a winter's drift in the pack 

 by no means impossible. 



The unforeseen contingency seemed to have arrived 

 when it was reported on the 14th that the propeller 

 was loose, and if we did any backing we would lose it. 

 Such a loss would of course mean a certainty of winter- 

 ing in the pack. Much to my relief an examination of 

 the propeller showed that only the nuts holding the 

 blades in place were loose, and these after nearly two 

 days of effort were with much difficulty tightened up, 

 and this danger, for a time at least, averted. During 

 the night of the 14th a floe not less than eight or ten 

 miles in diameter, crowding south on the ebb-tide, 

 wedged us and the ice about us over to within ten 

 miles of Cape Sabine. In return, however, for this 

 apparent injury it gave us a bear, the first seen by the 

 Expedition, and left along its northern edge a line of 

 cleavage through which we were able to butt and squeeze 

 a passage eastward once more, and reach a series of 

 areas of young ice from three to five inches in thickness. 

 To many a ship this ice would have been as imprac- 

 ticable as the heavy floes through which we had been 

 working; but to the fine bow of the Roosevelt, which 

 Captain Dix had so carefully moulded, it proved no 

 obstacle, and she walked steadily through it in spite 

 of her crippled propeller and reduced boiler power. 



And when after rounding the northeastern angle of 

 the floe and heading more to the south, it was possible 

 to set the sails to the fresh northerly wind, she trod 



