340 NEAREST THE POLE 



For a short distance this was the worst bit of ice- 

 foot I have ever encountered. By the sHpping of my 

 sledge two men nearly lost their lives, saving them- 

 selves by the merest chance, with their feet already 

 dangling over the crest of a vertical face of ice some 

 fifty feet in height. At the very extremity of the cape 

 we were forced to pass our sledges along a shelf of ice, 

 less than three feet in width, glued against the face of 

 the cliff at an elevation v/hich I estimated at the time 

 as seventy-five feet above the ragged surface of the 

 floe beneath. On the western side of the cape the ice- 

 foot broadened and became nearly level, but was smoth- 

 ered in such a depth of light snow that it stalled us and 

 we went into camp. The next day we made Crozier 

 Island. 



During April 2d and 3d we were held here by a 

 westerly storm, and the 4th and 5th were devoted to 

 hunting musk-oxen, of which three were secured, two 

 of them being very small. From here I sent back three 

 Eskimos, keeping Henson and four Eskimos with me. 



Reconnoissances of the polar pack northward were 

 made with the glasses from the summit of the island 

 and from Cape Hecla. 



The pack was very rough, but apparently not as bad 

 as that which I saw north of Cape Washington two 

 years before. Though unquestionably difficult, it 

 yet looked as though we might make some progress 

 through it unless the snow was too deep and soft. 

 This was a detail which the glasses could not 

 determine. 



On the morning of April 6th I left Crozier Island, and 

 a few hours later, at the point of Cape Hecla, we swung 



