Fighting the Polar Ice 



73 



" WE CROSSED THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, AND ALL MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION WHO HAD NOT 

 CROSSED THE PARALLEL BEFORE, WERE SEIZED BY THEIR COMRADES WHO HAD, AND 

 INITIATED AS POLAR EXPLORERS BY BEING THROWN OVERBOARD WHILE THE STEAMER 

 WAS IN MOTION, THEIR SAFETY FIRST INSURED BY A LONG LINE MADE FAST AROUND 

 THEIR WAISTS." 



This and the foUon'ing photogi aphs 



' copyrighted by Anthony Fiala. 



keep their ship in an open roadstead, 

 where she was finally crushed and sunk by 

 the ice with more than half the provisions 

 and coal. What they had taken ashore, 

 however, was sufficient for one year. 



The failure of the relief ship to appear 

 in 1904 would have seriously embar- 

 rassed the party if it had not been for the 

 -abundant stores cached at Cape Flora by 

 the Duke of Abruzzi and a vein of coal 

 found by Assistant Engineer Vedoe 600 

 feet up the talus. The coal burned 

 ireely. Twenty tons of it were mined 

 out of the frozen clay and carried down 

 the steep talus on the backs of the men. 



Mr Fiala writes vtry entertainingly, 

 hiis power of description being exceed- 

 ingly realistic. Particularly vivid are the 

 •chapters describing the grinding of the 

 ship by the immense fields of ice which 

 finally engulfed her; and the march in 

 the blackness of an arctic night from 



Camp Ziegler to Camp Abruzzi, a dis- 

 tance of 200 miles. The lowest temper- 

 ature recorded was 60.2 below zero 

 (Fahr.), on January 5, 1905. 



The volume is magnificently illustrated 

 from photographs by Mr Fiala, the pano- 

 ramic pictures giving us a better idea of 

 the difficulties of dragging sledges over 

 the polar ice than any pictures heretofore 

 published. 



"It is a curious fact that when one 

 dog has antagonized the others the only 

 way to save him from destruction later 

 on is to chain him. Then the other dogs 

 let him alone. Unfortunately for us, the 

 dogs that seemed to incur the enmity of 

 their fellows were the large, strong ani- 

 mals — the bullies and fighters. There 

 seemed to be a degree of justice in their 

 judgments. From close observation, I 

 found that the dogs generally forgave a 

 bite on the head or body, while an attack 



