THE VOYAGE OVER THE PACK ICE 191 



the sledges were packed and we were ready to start, a lane 

 twenty yards wide had sprung open where Mr. Leffingwell and 

 myself had walked only half an hour previously. We watched 

 the ice until a motion in it at 10 A.M. caused the crack to close 

 up so much that by floating down loose pieces of ice we could 

 make a bridge which, with care, would carry the sledges. The 

 fine ice we thought we had seen yesterday was nowhere to be 

 found, and we toiled along through deep snow and by a very 

 winding course in order to get clear of the larger hummocks 

 and pressure-ridges. Time after time we had to stop, and two 

 or three men had to put their whole weight to one sledge in 

 order to lift and carry it over a particularly rough stretch. Then 

 we came on young ice, and although the sledges dragged very 

 heavily we made some headway. About 2 P.M. we reached a 

 very large expanse of ice, so thin that it could hardly carry a 

 man, and, as we did not want to risk our outfit "on the highly 

 problematic chance of crossing, we camped, and it would be 

 hard to find three men more miserable than we ; the progress 

 made by four hours of hard work amounted only to about 

 one mile ! 



Turned in immediately to forget our cares in sleep. Tempera- 

 ture 20 C. ; calm and cloudy. 



Tuesday, March 5. As soon as breakfast was eaten we 

 started to cross the thin ice. It was risky work, as the ice 

 was still very thin and inclined to move. We took one sledge 

 over at a time, with one man ahead to cheer up the dogs, one 

 man to toil at the sledge, and one man with a whip, in order to 

 make its persuading influence felt whenever the energy of the 

 dogs flagged or they balked at' a forming pressure-ridge. We 

 got the sledges over without accidents and were glad once more 

 to be able to start over the firm ice. For about one-and-a-half 

 miles we had tolerably good going, and were already beginning 

 to think that the worst was over, when, on coming out from a 

 hummocky floe, we saw a wide lane ahead of us, so recently 

 formed that there was not yet any young ice at all. A couple 

 of hours were spent in trying to find a passage round the water, 

 some going east and others west, but every one returning with 

 the same result no way of getting round it. Again we were 

 forced to pitch our tent in the middle of the day with less than 

 two miles to our credit. 



