CHAPTER IV. 



TO GAASEFJOED. 



WE steered south through Cardigan Strait in fairly easy waters, 

 until the change of watch at midnight. At that hour we met a 

 close stream of ice lying straight across the sound, and Peder, who 

 was taking the middle watch, had orders to lie-to. It was no use 

 to run ourselves into this thick mass of ice in the middle of the 

 night. By three o'clock, however, on the morning of September 17, 

 he had forced his way through the belt ; but at four, when I came 

 up, he had been obliged to turn again on account of another 

 ice-stream. 



Despite a strong north wind we then tried steaming up under 

 the coast of Xorth Kent, hoping that by following it we might get 

 through Hell Gate. But we were soon obliged to turn, for the 

 whole of the sound north was packed full of ice, and to take a ship 

 that way was out of the question. 



We then followed the belt of ice southwards. It stretched 

 across the entire expanse of water as far as North Devon. By 

 keeping close under this laud we managed to slip through the 

 ice-stream, and then tried to push our way up through Hell 

 Gate on the east side of the belt, but here, too, we were un- 

 successful; the ice was too close for us, and we failed to slip 

 through. Our only resource then was to go east, to Gaasefjord. 



By eight in the morning we were at the eastern cape, and bore 

 thence up the fjord. A stiff breeze was blowing straight out from 

 it, rendering our pace by no means rapid ; but by four in the 

 afternoon we had pushed our way in, and anchored in fifteen 

 fathoms of water rather more than a mile and a half from the 

 head of the fjord. 



GO 



