144 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



sionally over narrow cracks filled with loose mush ice that bore 

 up the dogs and sledges, but compelled the men to lean their weight 

 on the handle-bars to prevent themselves from breaking through. 

 Even at this, some of them broke through enough to wet their feet. 



Then our progress was stopped not by adverse ice conditions 

 but by the most serious and most nearly fatal accident I have 

 ever seen in the North. Captain Bernard was still driving the lead- 

 ing sled just behind me when we passed over a little ice ridge not 

 more than three feet high. From oS this ridge on to the level ice 

 beyond there was a sheer drop of between two and three feet, which 

 is not a serious circumstance ordinarily, so that I did not even look 

 around. But Captain Bernard unfortunately had his hands on the 

 handle-bars and when the sled dropped failed to let go. By the 

 weight of the sled he was pulled forward and fell on his forehead, 

 striking the cross-piece between the handle-bars. There was a 

 slight outcry, probably from some one else. When I looked around 

 Captain Bernard was sitting on the level ice holding one hand to 

 his forehead. A moment later he removed his hand, being about to 

 stand up, when a flap of his scalp dropped down over his eyes, ex- 

 posing the skull and hiding nearly all the face above the mouth. 

 He had cut the scalp in an inverted curve from about an inch above 

 the outer corner of the left eye to a little outside the outer corner 

 of the right eye, the arch of the cut passing up over the entire 

 forehead. 



We hastily pitched a tent, took some stitches in the wound, and 

 carried the Captain ashore in an empty sled. Two men were at the 

 handle-bars to keep it from upsetting and two were at the front end 

 to ease it over the rough ice. In spite of this the Captain received 

 a great deal of jolting which further increased the bleeding, so that 

 by the time we got him ashore his underwear was soaked with blood 

 and his boots nearly full of it, while his strength was so diminished 

 that he had to be helped into the house. The marvel was that he 

 did not once lose consciousness. 



Next morning it appeared both that the Captain's wound would 

 probably not prove serious and that we could not in any event do 

 him any good by staying, so we started off again. The other men 

 had meantime returned to the edge of the land-fast ice where they 

 waited for us. It was true misfortune that Captain Bernard could 

 not go on with the journey, for he was a good man from all points 

 of view and his enthusiasm and cheerfulness were especially valu- 

 able. His place was taken by Crawford, and McConnell was taken 

 on as an extra man. He had caught up to us on the ice just before 



