egins to calm down. The noise passes on, and is lost
by degrees in the distance.

This is what goes on away there in the north month after month and
year after year. The ice is split and piled up into mounds, which
extend in every direction. If one could get a bird's-eye view of the
ice-fields, they would seem to be cut up into squares or meshes by a
network of these packed ridges, or pressure-dikes, as we called them,
because they reminded us so much of snow-covered stone dikes at home,
such as, in many parts of the country, are used to enclose fields. At
first sight these pressure-ridges appeared to be scattered about in
all possible directions, but on closer inspection I was sure that I
discovered certain directions which they tended to take, and especially
that they were apt to run at right angles to the course of the pressure
which produced them. In the accounts of Arctic expeditions one often
reads descriptions of pressure-ridges or pressure-hummocks as high
as 50 feet. These are fairy tales. The authors of such fantastic
descriptions cannot have taken the trouble to measure. During the
whole period of our drifting and of our travels over the ice-fields
in the far north I only once saw a hummock of a greater height than
23 feet. Unfortunately, I had not the opportunity of measuring this
one, but I believe I may say with certainty that it was very nearly 30
feet high. All the highest blocks I measured--and they were many--had
a height of 18 to 23 feet; and I can maintain with certainty that
the packing of sea ice to a height of over 25 feet is a very rare
exception. [35]

"Saturday, October 14th. To-day we have got on the rudder; the
engine is pretty well in order, and we are clear to start north
when the ice opens to-morrow morning. It is still slackening and
packing quite regularly twice a day, so that we can calculate on
it beforehand. To-day we had the same open channel to the north,
and beyond it open sea as far as our view extended. What can this
mean? This evening the pressure has been pretty violent. The floes
were packed up against the Fram on the port side, and were once
or twice on the point of toppling over the rail. The ice, however,
broke below; they tumbled back again, and had to go under us after
all. It is not thick ice, and cannot do much damage; but the force is
something enormous. On the masses come incessantly without a pause;
they look irresistible; but slowly and surely they are crushed
ag