614 THE VOYAGE OF THE JE ANNETTE. 



By great good fortune a large piece was handy, and by 

 hard hauling Dunbar, Sharvell, and I succeeded in get- 

 ting it in place, and a fortunate closing of the lead a 

 foot or two jammed it in as a solid bridge. Unfortu- 

 nately openings were occurring in our rear, and we 

 had more bridging; to do there. 



Never was there such luck. No sooner do we get our 

 advance across a lead than a new one opens behind 

 it, and makes us hurry back lest our rear should be 

 caught. By the time we have got a second sled ahead 

 more openings have occurred, and we are in for a time. 

 These openings are always east and west. By no 

 means, seemingly, can we get one north and south, so 

 that we might make something by them ; and these 

 east and west lanes meander away to narrow veins be- 

 tween piled up masses, over which there can no road 

 be built, and between which no boat can be got. It is 

 no uncommon thing for us to have four leads to bridge 

 in half a mile, and when one remembers that Melville 

 and his party have to make always six and sometimes 

 seven trips, the amount of coming and going is fearful 

 to contemplate. Add to this the flying trip of the dog- 

 sleds, and the moving forward of the sick at a favor- 

 able moment, and it is not strange that we dread meet- 

 ing an ice opening. 



This very old and hard ice is beyond doubt what Sir 

 George Nares calls " paleocrystic." I measured one 

 place and found it thirty-two feet nine inches thick, 

 and where it is not mud-stained it is rounded up in 

 hummocks resembling alabaster. Over this we sledded 

 and dragged well enough, though it was, as the men 

 said, " a rocky road to Dublin." I encountered one 

 piece, which was sixteen feet thick, and I am almost 

 inclined to think was a single growth, for not a line of 

 union of layers could be seen. 



