THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 297 



disaster. We had realized the risk and taken certain precautions. 

 Our main dependence being always rifles and ammunition, we 

 carried half the ammunition and two rifles on each sled, and for 

 an additional precaution I used to carry my own rifle on my back, 

 and about fifty rounds of ammunition with it. Had we lost one 

 sled we could still have continued with the other; and had we 

 lost both, the fifty cartridges would probably have taken the four 

 of us home, even across five or six hundred miles of sea ice and 

 uninhabited land. The question of footgear for so long a walk 

 would have been the most important. We should have had to 

 bend every effort toward getting home — there would have been 

 no loitering by the way. Certainly exploration for the year would 

 have been at an end. 



The accident resulted when we came to a strip of young ice 

 about ten yards wide. As on all such occasions, I walked out 

 upon it carefully, while the teams and men awaited the verdict. 

 With my hunting-knife I made holes at three different places, 

 and by putting my hand in the water found the ice was about 

 six inches thick. To those used to fresh water, ice of six inches 

 seems a great thickness, and as a matter of fact a team of dray- 

 horses and a heavy load could be taken across six inches of fresh- 

 water ice. Salt-water ice is a different thing. A piece four inches 

 thick, if you allow it to drop on any hard surface from a height of 

 three or four feet, will splash like a chunk of ice-cream instead of 

 falling like a piece of glass as would glare ice of the same thick- 

 ness. So I knew the crossing was dangerous, but it was so short 

 that I thought the dogs would probably be upon firm footing be- 

 fore the ice broke, if it did break. 



The first sled crossed safely. It had been built by Captain 

 Bernard according to a modification of my own of the standard 

 Nome design, with runners that rested on the ice for seven out of 

 their twelve feet of length, so as to distribute the weight over a; 

 large area. The other sled was of the typical Alaskan type, where 

 the runners are bent somewhat rocking-chair fashion to make the 

 sled easier to turn and maneuver, and only two or three feet 

 of the middle part of the runners rest on level ice. 



Ole was in charge of the leading sled, and as it came across 

 without difficulty Storkerson and Thomsen anticipated no trouble 

 with the second. They were walking close to the rear end when I 

 noticed the ice under them begin to bend. I shouted to them to 

 get away from the sled, my thought being to remove their weight 



