EXPEDITION OF 1898- 1902 341 



our sledges sharply to the right and climbed over and 

 down the parapet of the ice-foot on to the polar pack. 

 As the sledges plunged down from the ice-foot their 

 noses were buried out of sight, the dogs wallowed belly- 

 deep in the snow, and we began our struggle due north- 

 ward. 



We had been in the field now just a month. We 

 had covered not less than 400 miles of the most arduous 

 travelling in temperatures of from -3 5° to -57° F., and 

 we were just beginning our work, i. e., the conquest of 

 the polar pack, the toughest undertaking in the whole 

 expanse of the Arctic region. 



Some two miles from the cape was a belt of very 

 recent young ice, running parallel with the general 

 trend of the coast. Areas of rough ice caught in this 

 compelled us to exaggerated zigzags, and doubling on 

 our track. It was easier to go a mile round, on the 

 young ice, than to force the sledge across one of these 

 islands. 



The northern edge of the new ice was a high wall of 

 heavily rubbled old ice, through which, after some 

 reconnoissance, we found a passage to an old floe, where 

 I gave the order to build an igloo. We were now about 

 five miles from the land. 



The morning of the 7 th brought us fine weather. 

 Crossing the old floe we came upon a zone of old-floe 

 fragments deeply blanketed with snow. Through the 

 irregularities of this we struggled; the dogs flounder- 

 ing, almost useless, occasionally one disappearing for 

 a moment; now treading down the snow round a 

 sledge to dig it out of a hole into which it had sunk, 

 now lifting the sledges bodily over a barrier of blocks; 



