ARCTIC ICE AND ITS NAVIGATION. 683 



In breaking up a floe of great extent and thickness, which is 

 rarely attempted, as the coal and labor thus expended might be 

 saved by a movement of the ice in a few hours, two vessels work 

 to great advantage in concert, striking alternate blows at an angle 

 with each other, thus breaking off wedge-shaped sections, which 

 are shoved out of the way as fast as an advance is made into 

 the floe. 



Various other methods are employed for breaking a way 

 through the ice or relieving the pressure on the ship, but they 

 are all insignificant compared with the mighty results of dashing 

 and fearless ramming. "Without it, in spite of the utmost exer- 

 tions of officers and men, Greely would not have been rescued. 

 The dispersive effect of explosives in water-soaked ice is small, and 

 placing the torpedoes requires time ; the ice-saw is clumsy, slow, 

 and rapidly exhausts an already overwrought crew, while warp- 

 ing and towing floes are but the last safeguards from despair. 



The Dundee skippers are not held to too strict account for 

 damages that the vessels may sustain during their short but ex- 

 citing cruise. Desperate risks are taken every day ; the man who 

 fears responsibility would never succeed, while another hesitating 

 or lacking resource would quickly lose his ship. Starting from 

 Dundee in April, they generally reach Godhavn, in latitude 69° 15' 

 north, before June, but from that point to their destination it is a 

 long and plucky fight with the ice. Continually following up the 

 breaches made in the solid field by storms and tides, their only 

 fear, though surrounded by floes capable of crushing the ships if 

 taken unawares, is that the lead will open in some other place, 

 leaving them inclosed by vast immovable floes until some rare 

 northwest wind loosens the pack, or the summer's sun so weakens 

 it that the ship is able to smash through and escape. 



On the approach of a gale, when the ice may be expected to 

 move rapidly and through its great weight and extent accumulate 

 pressure, a fine solid floe is selected in which to form a protected 

 dock. In it the ship is rammed as far as possible, if necessary the 

 slip being deepened with the ice-saw ; so long as the floe holds 

 together the ship will be subjected to the pressure of only those 

 small fragments that may be forced into the entrance to the dock. 



To take advantage of every little patch of open water in break- 

 ing through the pack, a pilot is stationed aloft in the "crow's 

 nest " ; this is a large cask, with a trap-door in the bottom for en- 

 trance, secured to the mast. It is sometimes quite cozy, being 

 fitted with a wind-screen, rest for the long glass, engine-room bell 

 pull or indicator, helm-director, and compass. The height of the 

 observer is about one hundred and fifteen feet, and the greatest 

 distance at which ordinary pack ice is visible from that height is 

 less than seven miles ; it is evident, then, how much experience and 



