FIGHTING THE ICE 
Provisions were packed in compact shape and 
every one was busy. Two caches of pro- 
visions were made ashore in the event of an 
overland retreat, and the small boats were fully 
provisioned as a precaution against the loss 
of the ship. We did not dwell on the thought 
of losing it, but we took no chances. 
Meeting with continual rebuffs, but per- 
sistently forging ahead and gaining de- 
liberately day by day, the Roosevelt pushed 
steadily northward through the ice-encumbered 
waters of Kane Basin, Kennedy and Robeson 
Channels, and around the northeast corner of 
Grant Land to the shelter of Cape Sheridan, 
which was reached early in the afternoon of 
September 5, 1908. 
34 
