s to the opposite shore, a saving of several miles if one could
make it, instead of following the landwash round the bay. Although the
ice looked rough, it seemed good, though one could see that it had
been smashed up by the incoming sea and packed in tight again by the
easterly wind. Therefore, without giving the matter a second thought,
I flung myself on the komatik and the dogs started for the rocky
promontory some four miles distant.

All went well till we were within about a quarter of a mile of our
objective point. Then the wind dropped suddenly, and I noticed
simultaneously that we were travelling over "sish" ice. By stabbing
down with my whip-handle I could drive it through the thin coating of
young ice which had formed on the surface. "Sish" ice is made up of
tiny bits formed by the pounding together of the large pans by the
heavy seas. So quickly had the wind veered and come offshore, and so
rapidly did the packed slob, relieved of the inward pressure of the
easterly breeze, "run abroad," that already I could not see any pan
larger than ten feet square. The whole field of ice was loosening so
rapidly that no retreat was possible.

There was not a moment to lose. I dragged off my oilskins and threw
myself on my hands and knees beside the komatik so as to give a larger
base to hold, shouting at the same time to my team to make a dash for
the shore. We had not gone twenty yards when the dogs scented danger
and hesitated, and the komatik sank instantly into the soft slob. Thus
the dogs had to pull much harder, causing them to sink also.

It flashed across my mind that earlier in the year a man had been
drowned in this same way by his team tangling their traces around him
in the slob. I loosened my sheath-knife, scrambled forward and cut the
traces, retaining the leader's trace wound securely round my wrist.

As I was in the water I could not discern anything that would bear us
up, but I noticed that my leading dog was wallowing about near a piece
of snow, packed and frozen together like a huge snowball, some
twenty-five yards away. Upon this he had managed to scramble. He shook
the ice and water from his shaggy coat and turned around to look for
me. Perched up there out of the frigid water he seemed to think the
situation the most natural in the world, and the weird black marking
of his face made him appear to be grinning with satisfaction. The rest
of us were bogged like flies in treacle.

Gradually I succee