192 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



Temperature 18 C.; calm and cloudy. Depth 17 fathoms, 

 soft brown mud. 



Wednesday, March 6. The lane which stopped us yesterday 

 had now frozen sufficiently hard to enable us to cross it by 

 picking out the more solid places as well as we could. On the 

 other side we found old ice, very hummocky, but we could wind 



A REST ON THE ICE. 



our way across and made good progress. Round the edge of it 

 was a lofty pressure-ridge, and we had to do a lot of levelling 

 work in order to make a place sufficiently smooth to take our 

 sledges over. Then we crossed a newly-frozen lane and were 

 once more on fair floes. But only a few hundred yards ahead 

 of us we could see a perpendicular wall of ice, exceedingly 

 rugged on the top. The average height was about four to five 

 feet above the other ice, but further back we could see ice piled 

 up to a height of about twenty feet. 



With feelings of anxiety we called a halt near it, and Mr. 

 Leffingwell and myself hurried up to the highest point to see 

 what was beyond. Our expectations had not been high, but 

 what we saw was worse than anything we had ever dreamt of. 

 We stood on a ridge about twenty to twenty-five feet high, and 

 as far as we could see northward the ice was broken up into 

 small pieces, tilted on edge, and thrown together in confusion. 





