THE POLAR SEA 
have to come back and start them, which was 
always the signal for a fight or two. We 
worked through the belt of rubble-ice at last, 
and came up with the heavy old floes and 
rafters of ice-blocks, larger than very large 
flag-stones and fully as thick as they were long 
and wide; the fissures between them full of 
the drifted snow. Even with our broad 
snow-shoes on, we sank knee-deep, and the 
dogs were in up to their breasts, the sledges up 
to the floors and frequently turning over, so 
it was a long time before we had covered seven 
miles, to be stopped by open water. I took 
no chances on this lead, although afterwards 
I did not hesitate at more desperate looking 
leads than this was. Instead of ferrying 
across on a block of ice, I left one of my boys 
to attend the dogs and sledges, and with 
Ootah I started to reconnoiter. We found 
that there were two leads, and the safest way 
to cross the first was to go west to a point 
where the young ice was strong enough to bear 
the weight of the sledges. We got across and 
had not gone very far before the other lead, 
in spite of a detour to the east, efl*ectually 
blocked us. Starting back to the sledges, 
82 
