Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/71

Rh neck of ice between the two floes shows signs of cracking. Once more astern! Once more full speed ahead! The ice shivers, the neck breaks, and the gallant ship is in the open water that she has fought so hard to reach.

But it may happen that the task is hopeless, that too much valuable coal would be spent to accomplish the breaking of such a neck between two floes, and in that case the ship retreats and goes round the end of the floe instead. Or, if that seems of no avail, the ice-anchor is dropped over the ship's bows and she is made fast to the floe. There she waits, the skipper takes a meal and perhaps a sleep while his trusted mates watch developments. A change of tide or wind, perhaps three or four hours later or perhaps twenty-four hours later, causes the ice to slacken, and, without any effort, the ship steams through what was only a short time before an impenetrable part of the pack. Long experience of ice, good judgment, cool-headedness, and indomitable patience are the leading qualities of a good ice-navigator.

In the Arctic Regions the floes and pack ice are essentially the same as in the Antarctic Regions, except that there is more snow on the floes, and consequently also on the pack, in the Antarctic Regions. In the Arctic Regions the snow on the floes is not only less, but is