THE JOURNEY OVER THE PACK ICE 259 



down it on the other side, Storkersen lost control of his sledge 

 so that it dashed down, with the result that both runners 

 broke. We had to whittle off the broken runners, turn the 

 sledge round, and pull it stern first. The grain of the runners 

 pointed aft and put a heavy extra drag on the sledge. We 

 stopped at a wide lane, and at 10.30 A.M. took a sounding which 

 showed fifty-six metres to the bottom, and noticed a drift to the 

 west. This is only two and a half miles to the south of our 

 camp, and there we had five hundred metres and no bottom. 



Between noon and the time we started we crossed sixteen 

 cracks and lanes wide enough to cause us trouble, and a number 

 of smaller ones, but we managed to cross them all without 

 resorting to our raft. The ice was. fearful all day ; when there 

 were no open lanes we had pressure-ridges, high and rugged, or 

 deep, soft snow. All day we sank three to four inches into 

 it, but for two hours after lunch the surface was the worst we 

 had yet had, heavy rubble with soft, sticky snow, so deep that 

 we continually went knee deep into it, and often as far as our 

 waists. Needless to say that we only crawled along. At 3.30 P.M. 

 we came to a lane several hundred yards wide, and we could not 

 find a crossing anywhere. The waves were rather too high for 

 our raft, so we camped, hoping that it might close up before 

 to-morrow. We made five miles S.S.E. Lat. at camp 7iO5', 

 long. 148 22'. The longitude shows a drift of 43' to the west- 

 ward in two days. We shall have to hurry southward, as the 

 drift is getting too strong. 



Tuesday, April 30. The lane had closed up during the night, 

 and we began crossing the network of cracks which we found in 

 its place at 6 A.M. It took us almost an hour and a half to 

 get over the numerous smaller cracks, and then once more we 

 struck the rubble ice with deep snow. It was very hard work, 

 and the more difficult because we had no pickaxe. The 

 weather was so warm to-day that our kamicks were soaked 

 through and our stockings permanently wet. It was not only 

 the melting of the snow on the outside of the kamicks which 

 made us wet, but as we practically sank knee deep at every step, 

 snow came into the kamicks from above. The appearance of a 

 small floe of young ice was greeted with enthusiasm, though we 

 knew that it would probably lead to an open lane not far away. 

 We were right in our conclusion, but things were even worse 



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