d of black water between our two igloos and
Bartlett's, the nearer edge of water being close to our entrance; and on
the opposite side of the lead stood one of Bartlett's men yelling and
gesticulating with all the abandon of an excited and thoroughly
frightened Eskimo.

Awakening my men, I kicked our snow door into fragments and was outside
in a moment. The break in the ice had occurred within a foot of the
fastening of one of my dog teams, the team escaping by just those few
inches from being dragged into the water. Another team had just escaped
being buried under a pressure ridge, the movement of the ice having
providentially stopped after burying the bight which held their traces
to the ice. Bartlett's igloo was moving east on the ice raft which had
broken off, and beyond it, as far as the belching fog from the lead
would let us see, there was nothing but black water. It looked as if the
ice raft which carried Bartlett's division would impinge against our
side a little farther on, and I shouted to his men to break camp and
hitch up their dogs in a hurry, in readiness to rush across to us should
the opportunity present itself.

Then I turned to consider our own position. Our two igloos, Henson's and
mine, were on a small piece of old floe, separated by a crack and a low
pressure ridge, a few yards away, from a large floe lying to the west of
us. It was clear that it would take very little strain or pressure to
detach us and set us afloat also like Bartlett's division.

I routed Henson and his men out of their igloo, gave orders to everybody
to pack and hitch up immediately, and, while this was being done,
leveled a path across the crack to the big floe at the west of us. This
was done with a pickax, leveling the ice down into the crack, so as to
make a continuous surface over which the sledges could pass. As soon as
the loads were across and we were safe on the floe, we all went to the
edge of the lead and stood ready to assist Bartlett's men in rushing
their sledges across the moment their ice raft should touch our side.

Slowly the raft drifted nearer and nearer, until the side of it crunched
against the floe. The two edges being fairly even, the raft lay
alongside us as a boat lies against a wharf, and we had no trouble in
getting Bartlett's men and sledges across and onto the floe with us.

Though there is always a possibility that a lead may open directly
across a floe as large as this one, we could not waste