e floe to which we were attached, and Dr. Goodsell and
Borup, with two Eskimos, started out to investigate. This walking across
the floes is dangerous, as the ice is full of cracks, some of them quite
wide, and on the day in question the cracks were for the most part
concealed by a recent snowfall. In jumping across a lead, the men had a
narrow escape from drowning, and when they got within shooting distance
of the black object they were seeking, it proved to be only a block of
stone.

Before the return of Borup and the doctor the ice had already begun to
close in around the ship and, as soon as the men were safe on board, the
cable was hauled in and the _Roosevelt_ drifted south with the pack. So
close was the ice that night, that we had to swing the boats inward on
the davits to protect them from the great floes, which at times crowded
the rail. Finally, the captain worked the ship into another small lake
to the southeast of our former position by the great floe, and there we
remained several hours, steaming back and forth in order to keep the
pool open.

About eleven o'clock that night, for all our efforts, the ice closed in
again around the _Roosevelt_; but I observed a small lead to the
southeast, which led into another body of open water, and gave orders to
ram the vessel through, if possible. By working the nose of the ship
into the small opening, and then by butting the ice on alternate sides,
we succeeded in widening the lead sufficiently to allow of our passing
through to the pool of open water beyond.

At four o'clock the next morning we were again under way, working
northward through slack ice to a point a little beyond Shelter River,
where we were again stopped by ice about nine o'clock in the forenoon.
The _Roosevelt_ moved in near the shore and her head was shoved against
a big floe, to avoid her being jammed or carried southward by the now
swiftly running tide and the ice pack.

After supper that night, MacMillan, Borup, and Dr. Goodsell, with two
Eskimos, started for the shore over the jammed ice, with the intention
of getting some game; but before they reached the shore there was so
much movement in the adjacent floes that I considered their journey too
hazardous for inexperienced men. A recall was sounded with the ship's
whistle, and they started back over the now moving floes. Their
movements were impeded by their guns, but fortunately they carried boat
hooks, without which they could never have