PIONEERING 
in progress, but the motion of the ice remains 
satisfactory. 
This is not a regular camp. We are shel- 
tered north of a huge paleocrystic floeberg; 
and the dogs are at rest, with their noses in 
their tails. Dr. Goodsell has set his boys to 
work building an igloo, which will not be 
needed, for I see Ooqueah and Egingwah pil- 
ing up the loads on their sledges, and Professor 
MacMillan is very busy with his own personal 
sledge. No halt, only a breathing spell and, 
as I have predicted, we are on our way again. 
This is an extremely dangerous zone to halt 
or hazard in. The ice is liable to open here 
at any moment and let us either sink in the 
cold, black water or drift on a block of frozen 
ice, much too thin to enable us to get on to the 
heavy ice again. Three miles wide at least. 
The foregoing was written while out on the 
ice of the Arctic Ocean, just after crossing 
the raftered hummocks of the ice of the Big 
Lead. While we were waiting for the rest of 
the expedition to gather in, I slumped down 
behind a peak of land or paleocrystic ice, and 
made the entry in my diary. We were not 
tired out ; we had had more than six days' rest 
94 
