FIGHTING THE ICE 
A blinding storm of wind and snow prevented 
the Roosevelt from starting until about two- 
thirty p. M.5 when, with all the dogs a-howling, 
the whistle tooting, and the crew and members 
cheering, we steamed out of the Harbor into 
Smith Sound, and a thick fog which compelled 
half-speed past Littleton Island and into 
heavy pack-ice. 
Captain Bartlett was navigating the ship 
and his eagle eye found a lane of open water 
from Cape Sabine to Bache Peninsula and 
open water from EUesmere Land half-way 
across Buchanan Bay, but this lead closed 
on him, and the Roosevelt had to stop. Late 
in the evening, the ice started to move and 
grind alongside of the ship, but did no damage 
except scaring the Esquimos. Daylight still 
kept up and we went to sleep with our boots 
on! 
From Etah to Cape Sheridan, which was 
to be our last point north in the ship, con- 
sumed twenty-one days of the hardest kind 
of work imaginable for a ship ; actually fight- 
ing for every foot of the way against the al- 
most impassable ice. For another ship it 
would have been impassable, but the Roosevelt 
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