when the sun bursts through the fog, at first
only a little of the blue sky is visible, but it gradually widens, until
the view is only limited by the horizon."

These spectacles, presented by the polar sea, Erik and his friends were
able to contemplate at their leisure as they left the coast of
Greenland, to which they had kept close until they had reached
Uppernavik. Then they sailed westward across Baffin's Bay. Here
navigation became more difficult, for this sea is the ordinary course of
the polar icebergs which are drawn in by the innumerable currents which
traverse it. Sometimes they found their course checked by insurmountable
barriers of ice, which it was impossible to break, and therefore they
were compelled to turn aside. The "Alaska" was obliged continually to
break her way through immense fields of ice. Sometimes a tempest of snow
assailed them which covered the deck and the masts with a thick coat.
Sometimes they were assailed by ice dashed over them by the wind, which
threatened to sink the vessel by its weight. Sometimes they found
themselves in a sort of lake, surrounded on all sides by fields of ice
apparently firm and impassable, and from which they had great difficulty
to extricate themselves and gain the open sea. Then they had to exercise
great vigilance to escape some enormous iceberg sailing down from the
north with incredible swiftness, a frightful mass, which could have
crushed the "Alaska" like a walnut. But a greater danger still was the
submarine ice, which could injure her and act like a battering-ram.

The "Alaska" lost her two large boats. One must experience the dangers
which polar navigation presents at every moment to have any just
appreciation of them.

After one or two weeks of such experience the most intrepid crew become
exhausted, and repose is necessary for them.

Sometimes, although surrounded by all these dangers, they made rapid
progress; at others they made scarcely any; but at length, on the 11th
of June, they came in sight of land again, and cast anchor at the
entrance to Lancaster Sound.

Erik had expected to be obliged to wait some days before being able to
enter the sound; but, to his surprise and joy, he found it open, at
least at the entrance. He entered resolutely, but only to find the next
day his passage impeded by ice, which held them prisoners for three
days; but, thanks to the violent currents which sweep through this
Arctic canal, he at last was able to free