across. We got the dogs and sledges from one
piece of ice to another--the whole forming a sort of pontoon bridge.

As Borup was getting his team across the open crack between two pieces
of floating ice, the dogs slipped and went into the water. Leaping
forward, the vigorous young athlete stopped the sledge from following
the dogs, and, catching hold of the traces that fastened the dogs to the
sledge, he pulled them bodily out of the water. A man less quick and
muscular than Borup might have lost the whole team as well as the sledge
laden with five hundred pounds of supplies, which, considering our
position far out in that icy wilderness, were worth more to us than
their weight in diamonds. Of course, had the sledge gone in, the weight
of it would have carried the dogs to the bottom of the sea. We drew a
long breath, and, reaching the solid ice on the other side of this
pontoon bridge, plunged on to the north. But we had gone only a short
distance when right in front of us the ice separated with loud reports,
forming another open lead, and we were obliged to camp.

The temperature that night was 50 deg. below zero; there was a fresh breeze
from the southeast and enough moisture in the open water close by us to
give the wind a keen edge, which made the time occupied in building
igloos decidedly unpleasant. But we were all so thankful over our escape
from losing that imperiled sledge with its precious load that personal
discomforts seemed indeed of small account.

CHAPTER XXVI

BORUP'S FARTHEST NORTH

That night was one of the noisiest that I have ever spent in an igloo,
and none of us slept very soundly. Hour after hour the rumbling and
complaining of the ice continued, and it would not have surprised us
much if at any moment the ice had split directly across our camp, or
even through the middle of one of our igloos. It was not a pleasant
situation, and every member of the party was glad when the time came to
get under way again.

In the morning we found a passage across the lead a short distance to
the east of our camp over some fragments which had become cemented
together during the cold night. We had only gone forward a few hundred
yards when we came upon the igloo which Henson had occupied. This did
not indicate rapid progress.

[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

A TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF WORKING SLEDGES OVER A PRESSURE
RIDGE]

At the end of six hours we