234 



CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



Once more we took a sounding to 620 metres with no bottom, 

 and that only about sixty miles off land. During the forenoon the 

 weather was bad, hazy, and blowing rather hard from W.S.W., 

 but at noon it cleared up, the sun broke through the clouds, 

 and the wind died down. There is a great difference between 

 travelling when the sun is shining and when it is hazy. We 



LOOKING FOR PASSABLE ICE. 



can make almost twice the distance in the former case ; the 

 dogs pull much better, we ourselves also feel better, and we 

 can see what we are about, which is the greatest advantage 

 of all. In hazy weather we have to stumble along and feel our 

 way, sometimes walking on rough ice, while fifty yards away 

 the going may be good, if we could only see it. But in sun- 

 shine we can see the ice for miles and miles about us, can see 

 every level place in it and take advantage of it. 



After some rugged ice we came to beautiful going on large 

 floes of old ice. We could almost have taken the sledges at 

 a run, and the surface of these floes afforded the best possible 

 progress. After crossing one floe, about three miles wide, we 

 came to a channel of very thin ice. I started out on it, feeling 

 my way with the ice spear, but the ice was terribly thin and, 

 as far as I could judge, not more than two inches thick. I 



