Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/382

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lying high and dry upon the beach, pushed up by the resistless pack even above the level of the highest tides. The first embarrassment to our progress occasioned by this cause occurred soon after setting out from our camp above Cape Frazer, and being wholly unable to pass it, we were obliged to take once more to the ice-fields. But this was a matter not easily accomplished. The tide was out, apparently at full ebb, and the land-ice formed a wall, down which we were obliged to scramble. By lashing the two sledges together we made a ladder, and thus secured our own descent; while the dogs were lowered by their traces, and the cargo piece by piece with a line. The field-ice was, however, found to be, in addition to its roughness, in many places very rotten and insecure, so that after one of the teams had broken through and was rescued not without difficulty, we found ourselves compelled to haul in shore and take once more to the land-ice. Being thenceforth under the necessity of following all the windings of the shore line, our distance was at least doubled, and when we hauled up for the night both ourselves and the dogs were very weary.

Although much exhausted with the day's journey, I availed myself of the time consumed by my companions in preparing the camp and supper to climb the hill-side for a view. The air was quite clear, and I commanded an uninterrupted horizon to the eastward. The ice was much less rough than that which we had crossed in Smith Sound, owing to the old floes having been less closely impacted while that part of the sea was freezing up during the last autumn or winter. Hence, there was much more new ice. It was evident that the sea had been open to a very