CHAPTER XIII 



ETAH TO NEW YORK 



AS WE left Etah loose ice was streaming down 

 past the mouth of the fiord. Cape Alexander 

 was reached at midnight and the Roosevelt headed for 

 Cape Isabella to run a line of soundings across Smith 

 Sound as far as the ice would permit. About ten 

 miles from Alexander the solid edge of the ice was 

 encountered extending unbroken from there to the 

 EUesmere Land shore. This ice was very heavy and 

 appeared to have no cracks or openings in it. The 

 sounding here was 438 fathoms. The Roosevelt then 

 headed away for Cape Chalon steaming around a point 

 of the pack which reached nearly in to the Greenland 

 shore above Sonntag Bay. Steaming into Whale 

 Sound, which was filled with icebergs, fragments of 

 ice and sheets of newly formed young ice, numbers 

 of walrus were seen and ten secured, though with great 

 difficulty as the young ice made it almost impossible 

 to approach them. We then steamed into Kookan 

 to land more of my Eskimos, and the anchor was hardly 

 down off the delta of the stream, when a large sheet of 

 comparatively heavy young ice drove against us and 

 pushed the Roosevelt's stern ashore almost at the crest 

 of high water. 



This extremely annoying incident held us here until 



the following noon, but the occurrence was turned to 



265 



