45'1 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 



after some reconnoissance, we found a passage to an old floe, where I 

 gave the order to build an igloo. We were now about 5 miles from 

 the land. 



The morning- of the Tth brought us fine weather. Crossing the old 

 floe we came upon a zone of old floe fragments, deeply blanketed 

 with snow. Through the irregularities of this we struggled, the 

 dogs floundering almost useless, occasionall}' one disappearing for a 

 moment, now treading down the snow around a sledge to dig it out of 

 a hole into which it had sunk, now lifting the sledges bodily over a 

 barrier of blocks, veering right and left, doubling in our track, road 

 making with snowshoe and pickax. Late in the day a narrow ditch 

 gave us a lift for a short distance, then one or two little patches of 

 level going, then two or three small old floes, which though deep with 

 snow, seemed like a godsend compared with the wrenching work 

 earlier. Camped in the lee of a large hummock on the northern 

 edge of a small but very heav}" old floe. P^veryone thoroughly tired, 

 and the dogs utterly lifeless, dropping motionless in the snow as soon 

 as the wdiip stopped. 



We were now due north of Ilecla, and I estimated we had made 

 some 6 miles, perhaps 7, perhaps onl}^ 5. A day of work like this 

 makes it difficult to estimate distances. This is a fair sample of our 

 day's work. 



On the 12th we were storm bound by a gale from the west, which 

 hid even those dogs fastened nearest to the igloo. During our stay 

 here the old floe on which we were camped split in two with a loud 

 report, and the ice cracked and rumbled and roared at frequent 

 intervals. 



In the first march beyond this igloo we were deflected westward by 

 a lead of practically open water, the thin film of young ice covering it 

 being unsafe even for a dog. A little farther on a wide canal of open 

 water deflected us constantl}" to the northwest and then west, until an 

 area of extremely rough ice prevented us from following it farther. 

 Viewed from the top of a high pinnacle this area extended west and 

 northwest on both sides of the canal, as far as could be seen. I could 

 only camp and wait for this canal, which evidenth' had been widened 

 (though not newly formed) bv the storm of the day before, to close up 

 or freeze over. During our first sleep at this camp there was a slight 

 motion of the lead, but not enough to make it practicable. From here 

 I sent back two more Eskimos. 



Late in the afternoon of the 14:th the lead began to close, and hastily 

 packing the sledges we rushed them across over moving fragments of 

 ice. We now found ourselves in a zone of high parallel ridges of 

 rul)l)le ice covered with deep snow. These ridges were caused by 

 successive opening and closing of the lead. When after some time 

 we found a practicable pass through this barrier, we emerged upon a 



