342 NEAREST THE POLE 



veering right and left; doubling in our track; road- 

 making with snowshoe and pickaxe. 



Late in the day a narrow ditch gave us a lift for a 

 short distance, then one or two little patches of level 

 going, then two or three small old floes which, though 

 deep with snow, seemed like a Godsend compared with 

 the wrenching earlier work. We camped in the lee 

 of a large hummock on the northern edge of a small 

 but very heavy old floe, everyone thoroughly tired, 

 and the dogs dropping motionless in the snow as soon 

 as the whip stopped. 



We were now due north to Hecla, and I estimated 

 we had made some six miles, perhaps seven, perhaps 

 onh^ five. A day of work like this makes it difficult 

 to estimate distances. This is a fair sample of our 

 day's work. 



On the 1 2 th we were storm-bound by a gale from the 

 west, which hid even those dogs fastened nearest to 

 the igloo. During our stay here the old floes on which 

 we were camped split in two with a loud report, and 

 the ice cracked and rumbled and roared at frequent 

 intervals. 



In the first march beyond this igloo we were deflected 

 westward by a lead of practically open water, the thin 

 film of young ice covering it being unsafe even for a 

 dog. A little further on a wide canal of open water 

 deflected us constantly to the northwest and then 

 west until an area of extremely rough ice prevented us 

 from following it farther. Viewed from the top of a 

 high pinnacle this area extended west and northwest 

 on both sides of the canal, as far as could be seen. I 

 I could only camp and wait for this canal, which evi- 



