206 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



behind us, and we were once more on level though rather thin 

 ice. At 4 P.M. we reached an older pressure-ridge, and as from 

 the top of it we could see the young ice extending to the 

 horizon, we camped on the nearest heavy floe, not daring to 

 trust ourselves for the night to the rather thin ice ahead. We 

 had much work to find a suitable camping-place, as the snow 

 was deep on the ridge which we had picked out, but at last we 

 found a spot which looked fairly good. If pressure should 

 begin during the night, all the young ice about us would go 

 first, and we should probably be safe. We had also much 

 work to find snow sufficiently fresh for cooking purposes, but 

 this small inconvenience could not damp our high spirits or 

 overshadow the knowledge that we had made fourteen miles 

 over the ice and were probably through the rough belt. It was 

 difficult for our dogs to find a place to sleep in, and several 

 times during the night we were disturbed by fighting, when 

 a larger dog made up his mind to sleep where a smaller dog 

 had found a resting-place, which, of course, necessarily meant 

 trouble. 



The temperature rose during the day to 25 C. 



Friday, March 29. The ice had been pressing during the 

 night, but nothing had happened in our immediate neighbour- 

 hood, although the noise made by the screwing ice had roused 

 us from our sleep several times. We had fair going for the 

 first hour, but then we reached some ugly-looking ridges of 

 heavier ice. We had to use the pickaxe pretty hard to get 

 through it, but with what little good ice there was in between 

 we made a fair hourly average. At I P.M. we came to a rather 

 large expanse of young ice, the crossing of which caused us 

 much trouble and considerable work. It was so thin that it 

 bent under our feet, and we were very pleased when we came 

 to the other side of it, where we found comparatively good 

 going over older ice. At 3 P.M. we again came to young ice, 

 and as it looked a little too thin to take the sledges over, I went 

 across to test it with the ice spear. It was thin, but could bear 

 us, so I returned to the sledges which were left behind on firm 

 ice. A large bear had crossed the ice before I did, but it was 

 nowhere to be seen. When nearing the solid floe where our 

 sledges were, I saw that Mr. Leffingwell and Storkersen com- 

 menced to wave their hands frantically, and I ran as fast as I 



