38 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. July 



was experienced. Occasionally when a thicker piece 

 than usual refused to succumb to the blow, it would 

 hang evenly balanced across the stem, and being forced 

 ahead in front of the ship, collect other pieces, until at 

 last the accumulation of ice would render it necessary 

 to stop the engines and turn the ship's bow in another 

 direction. When we had run thirty miles through 

 the pack on the same course it gradually became closer 

 and the floes larger, measuring a mile and more in 

 diameter, obliging a discriminating selection of the 

 best leads to be made from the crow's nest. Only 

 one iceberg, and that a small one, was sighted at this 

 part of the passage, but it proved a most valuable 

 mark when steering through the tortuous passages, 

 towards the more open water-spaces. 



Looking from the masthead over a boundless extent 

 of ice-covered sea, with no prominent objects to direct 

 a course, it is very easy to run off from the desired 

 direction without being aware of it. A compass in 

 the crow's nest materially assists the look-out man on 

 such occasions. 



The lanes of water lying in a north-west and south- 

 east direction, permitted a rapid advance, and by 8 p.m. 

 of the 24th we had run sixty miles through the pack. 

 The ice was never close enough to cause anxiety 

 that we might be caught in it, but still kept me fully 

 employed in choosing the best leads from the crow's 

 nest. The heaviest ice met with was not more than 

 four feet thick, with hummocks rising some six feet 

 above it. After 8 p.m. the channels between the floes 

 became decidedly broader and more numerous, denot- 

 ing that we had passed through the thickest part of 





