SOUTH 
to rest my eyes from the strain of watching the wide white 
expanse broken by that one black ribbon of open water, I 
could see that my companions were waiting with more than 
ordinary interest to learn what I thought about it all. After 
one particularly heavy collision somebody shouted sharply, 
" She has cracked in the middle." I jumped off the look-out 
station and ran to the place the men were examining. There 
was a crack, but investigation showed it to be a mere surface- 
break in the snow with no indication of a split in the berg 
itself. The carpenter mentioned calmly that earlier in the day 
he had actually gone adrift on a fragment of ice. He was 
standing near the edge of our camping-ground when the ice 
under his feet parted from the parent mass. A quick jump 
over the widenmg gap saved him. 
The hours dragged on. One of the anxieties in my mind 
was the possibility that we would be driven by the current 
through the eighty-mile gap between Clarence Island and Prince 
George Island into the open Atlantic ; but slowly the open 
water came nearer, and at noon it had almost reached us. A 
long lane, narrow but navigable, stretched out to the south-west 
horizon. Our chance came a little later. We rushed our boats 
over the edge of the reehng berg and swung them clear of the 
ice-foot as it rose beneath them. The James Caird was nearly 
capsized by a blow „froni below as the berg rolled away, but she 
got into deep water. We flung stores and gear aboard and within 
a few minutes were away. The James Caird and Dudley Docker 
had good sails and with a favourable breeze could make progress 
along the lane, with the rolling fields of ice on either side. The 
swell was heavy and spray was breaking over the ice-floes. An 
attempt to set a little rag of sail on the Stancomh Wills resulted 
in serious delay. The area of sail was too small to be of much 
assistance, and while the men were engaged in this work the boat 
drifted down towards the ice-floe, where her position was likely 
to be perilous. Seeing her plight, I sent the Dudley Docker back 
for her and tied the James Caird up to a piece of ice. The Dudley 
Docker had to tow the Stancomh Wills, and the delay cost us two 
hours of valuable daylight. When I had the three boats together 
again we continued down the lane, and soon saw a wider stretch 
128 
