THE VOYAGE OVER THE PACK ICE 193 



Not one level place or lane was to be seen ; the ice resembled 

 the surface of a newly harrowed field, covered with lumps of ice 

 three to four feet high. For a while we looked angrily at it, 

 scanning the horizon to see whether there was a possibility of 

 level ice within reach, but as far as we could see to the north, 

 the east, and the west, the horizon was ragged without the 



THE ICE WAS BROKEN UP INTO SMALL PIECES. 



slightest suspicion of anything level. It looked as if floes 

 about one to two feet thick had been formed between two 

 large bodies of ice and been crushed into fragments by heavy 

 pressure. Afterwards the pieces had frozen together, the floes 

 had opened again as new sheets of ice had been formed, then 

 crushed again, and as this process had been constantly 

 repeated during the whole winter, the belt of rugged ice 

 fragments had grown wider. The ice was cracked later on 

 in an easterly and westerly direction and had opened up into 

 long lanes about three to six feet wide. The sides of the break 

 were perfectly smooth and perpendicular, about four to six feet 

 high and of a whitish colour. Snow had lodged between the 

 ice pieces, filling up the deepest holes, but, owing to the close- 

 ness of the ice pieces, the wind could not get a chance to pack 

 it hard, so that at times we sunk waist deep into the treacherous 

 snow which covered deep pits, holes, and cracks. We started 

 to break a road through it, two of us with pickaxes and two 

 A.I. o 



