30 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



was to liberate the dogs. I leaned forward to cut poor 

 Tood's traces, and the next minute was swimming in a 

 little circle of pasty ice and water alongside him. Hans, 

 dear good fellow, drew near to help me, uttering piteous 

 expressions in broken English ; but I ordered him to 

 throw himself on his belly, with his hands and legs 

 extended, and to make for the island by cogging himself 

 forward with his jack-knife. In the meantime — a mere 

 instant — I was floundering about with sledge, dogs, and 

 lines, in confused puddle around me. I succeeded in 

 cutting poor Tood's lines and letting him scramble to the 

 ice, for the poor fellow was drowning me with his piteous 

 caresses, and made my way for the sledge ; but I found 

 that it would not buoy me, and that I had no resource 

 but to try the circumference of the hole. Around this I 

 paddled faithfully, the miserable ice always yielding when 

 my hopes of a lodgement were greatest. During this 

 process I enlarged my circle of operations to a very 

 uncomfortable diameter, and was beginning to feel weaker 

 after every effort. Hans meanwhile had reached the firm 

 ice, and was on his knees, like a good Moravian, praying 

 incoherently in English and Esquimaux ; at every fresh 

 crushing-in of the ice he would ejaculate ' God ! ' and 

 when I recommenced my paddling he recommenced his 

 prayers. 



" I was nearly gone. My knife had been lost in cutting 

 out the dogs ; and a spare one which I carried in my 

 trousers-pocket was so enveloped in the wet skins that I 

 could not reach it. I owed my extrication at last to a 

 newly broken team-dog who was still fast to the sledge, 

 and in struggling carried one of the runners chock against 

 the edge of the circle. All my previous attempts to use 

 the sledge as a bridge had failed, for it broke through, 

 to the much greater injury of the ice. I felt that it was a 

 last chance. I threw myself on my back, so as to lessen as 



