250 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



number of miles we may possibly accomplish, even though by 

 sad experience we know that we have not yet had one whole 

 day's march over ice which could be called good. The thin 

 ice lasted only for a mile ; gloom settled once more over the 

 party, and our progress was stopped by an open water-lane. 

 It was a wide one, about one hundred yards from one side to 

 the other, and although we travelled along it for more than a 

 mile we could not find a suitable crossing place. It was all the 

 more tantalizing as we could see a large and level old floe on 

 the other side on which we could have made splendid progress. 

 As it was so early in the day we could not camp, and we rigged 

 up our raft for the first time ; to tell the truth, we had no very 

 great faith in it. It took us an hour to rig it up, as we had to 

 grease the canvas, and after that an hour and a half was spent 

 in breaking the thin layer of ice which prevented the free passage 

 of the raft. It was tedious work doing all this. I was on the 

 raft, as it was my invention, and I had promised to take the 

 wetting if wetting were to ensue. Kneeling down at the bow 

 of the raft I broke the ice with the shovel, which was also used 

 as a paddle, and pushed the broken pieces in under the floe on 

 either side so that the loose ice should not cut the canvas. 

 At last the channel was open, and I ferried Storkersen across, 

 taking a line along with me at the same time so as to pull the 

 raft backwards and forwards without having to paddle it. First 

 we took the dog pemmican and loose odds and ends and got them 

 safely over. Then came the turn of the dogs. They did not 

 like it at all, and we had to tie some of them down tightly or 

 they would have jumped overboard. " Dad " and " Chorniska " 

 looked at the raft for a little while before they made up their 

 minds to trust their lives to it, and then they walked gingerly on 

 board, coiled themselves up, and were absolutely unconcerned. 

 But the last load, Mr. Lernngwell's eleven-foot sledge with 

 about 300 Ibs. weight on, was rather heavy, and I was not 

 happy until it was safely deposited on the other side. The 

 height of the raft was 8 inches ; it was 3^ feet wide 

 and 9 feet long, so the ends of the long sledge stuck out 

 fore and aft. To load it on the raft was not very easy, 

 but by dint of an ingenious fastening of the raft we con- 

 trived to push it out and to balance it so as to make the raft 

 rest evenly on the water. Then I crawled out very carefully 



