1904] DANGEROUS WORK 253 



it becomes hard and tiresome, and can be continued only by 

 chipping away with long-handled implements and occasionally 

 clearing out the detached pieces with a shovel. The worst 

 part comes when the water is admitted, as this happens before 

 the bottom of the hole can be knocked out, and it is most 

 difficult to continue the chipping under water ; in fact, towards 

 the end of the day we gave up attempting to do this, and 

 decided that it was better to blow the bottom out with a small 

 charge. Whilst the holes were being dug, our own " Discovery " 

 party were busily fitting and firing charges ; this is dangerous 

 work of course, and I have been very careful to see that proper 

 precautions are taken. The charge fitters are isolated in a tent 

 some way from the scene of action, and the fitted charges are 

 brought up on a sledge under proper custody, and handled only 

 by our own experts. The battery is kept on a small sledge of 

 its own, and can thus be taken out of reach of the electric 

 circuits when not in use. 



1 We are doing things on a large scale ; three charges are 

 fired together, and each charge contains 35 lbs of guncotton. 

 When three holes are finished, a charge is taken to each with 

 a small line five fathoms long attached to it ; then the electric 

 wires are joined up and the charges are lowered under water to 

 the extent of their lines, everyone clears away from the region, 

 and the battery is run up to the other end of the wires, a 

 hundred and fifty yards away. When all is ready the key is 

 pressed. Then the whole floe rises as though there were an 

 earthquake ; three mighty columns of water and ice shoot up 

 into the sky, rising high above the masts of the ships ; there is 

 a patter of falling ice-blocks and then quiet again. One might 

 imagine that nothing could withstand such prodigious force 

 until one walks up and finds that beyond three gaping blackened 

 craters there is nothing to show for that vast upheaval — at 

 least, nothing that can be detected with a casual glance ; but a 

 close scrutiny of the surface between the holes generally shows 

 that after all something has been effected, for from each hole a 

 number of minute cracks radiate, and one can see that in two 

 or three places these have joined. At first these cracks are so 



