CHAPTER IV 

 CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT 



CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT 



"M jW AY 2nd. — We started at ten o'clock. We expected 

 ▼ I bad driving, and we got it. According to its position, 

 the Polaris Peninsula lies like a wedge in the midst of 

 a strong drift of ice-floes which, under the pressure of all Lin- 

 coln Sea, break their way past the large capes to be ground in 

 through the narrow Robeson Channel. By midnight we had 

 nearly reached Cape Sumner and made camp utterly worn out. 

 The dogs also were worn out by the pressure-ice, and as soon 

 as the signal to stop was given they laid down almost on top 

 of each other, never stirring all through the night from the 

 spot where they had flopped. 



The quality of the ice showed that there had been open 

 water along the coast until late in the autumn. From Hall's 

 Grave to Cape Lupton we therefore had excellent going, but 

 here the character of the ice changed, and, as it was not always 

 possible for us to follow the belt of the tidal water, we often 

 met pressure-ridges which towered up in front of us to a height 

 of 10 to 15 metres. It was quite impossible to drive across 

 these huge blocks, which lay piled together as if thrown there 

 by a giant's hand. For hours we had to stop in order to make 

 a road for the sledges with our ice-picks. 



In some places the ice was pressed up towards land, lying 

 like an exquisite diadem round the ice-foot, gleaming in beau- 

 tiful colours when the rays of the sun caught the many broken 

 crystals. 



While the country south-east of Hall's Grave is low with 

 occasional rounded hills, the north coast stands like a steep 

 wall of cliff's with a beautiful design in brown and grey on its 

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