an Cape Hecla, our former point of departure.

When we were far enough out on the ice to be away from the shelter of
the land, we got the full force of the violent wind. But it was not in
our faces, and as we had a trail which could be followed, even if with
heads down and eyes half closed, the wind did not impede us or cause us
serious discomfort. Nevertheless, I did not like to dwell upon the
inevitable effect which it would have upon the ice farther out--the
opening of leads across our route.

When we dropped off the edge of the glacial fringe onto the pressure
ridges of the tidal crack already described, in spite of the free use of
our pickaxes and the pickaxes of the pioneer division, which had gone
before, the trail was a most trying one for men, dogs, and sledges,
especially the old Eskimo type of sledge. The new "Peary" sledges, by
reason of their length and shape, rode much more easily and with less
strain than the others. Every one was glad to reach the surface of the
old floes beyond this crazy zone of ice which was several miles in
width. As soon as we struck the old floes the going was much better.
There appeared to be no great depth of snow, only a few inches, and this
had been hammered fairly hard by the winter winds. Still the surface
over which we traveled was very uneven, and in many places was
distinctly trying to the sledges, the wood of which was made brittle by
the low temperature, now in the minus fifties. On the whole, however, I
felt that if we encountered nothing worse than this in the first hundred
miles from the land we should have no serious cause for complaint.

[Illustration: PASSING THROUGH A DEFILE IN ROUGH ICE]

A little farther on, while walking alone behind my division, I met
Kyutah of Marvin's division, hurrying back with empty sledge. He had
smashed his sledge so badly that it seemed better to go back to Cape
Columbia for one of the reserve sledges there than to attempt to repair
the broken one. He was cautioned not to waste a minute and to be sure to
overtake us at our camp that night, and he was soon disappearing into
the wind haze in our rear.

Still farther on I met Kudlooktoo, returning on the same errand, and a
little later came upon some of the other divisions that had been obliged
to stop to repair their sledges which had suffered severely in their
encounters with the rough ice.

Finally I reached the captain's first camp, ten miles out. Here I took
one of the two iglo