gale was out of the question.  Face and eyes became snowed up within two minutes, and serious frost-bites would have been the penalty of perseverance.  The dogs stayed in their kennels for the most part, the “old stagers” putting out a paw occasionally in order to keep open a breathing-hole.  By evening the gale had attained a force of 60 or 70 miles an hour, and the ship was trembling under the attack.  But we were snug enough in our quarters aboard until the morning of the 14th, when all hands turned out to shovel the snow from deck and kennels.  The wind was still keen and searching, with a temperature of something like -30° Fahr., and it was necessary for us to be on guard against frost-bite.  At least 100 tons of snow were piled against the bows and port side, where the weight of the drift had forced the floe downward.  The lead ahead had opened out during the night, cracked the pack from north to south and frozen over again, adding 300 yds. to the distance between the ship and “Khyber Pass.”  The breakdown gang had completed its work by lunch-time.  The gale was then decreasing and the three-days-old moon showed as a red crescent on the northern horizon.  The temperature during the blizzard had ranged from -21° to -33.5° Fahr.  It is usual for the temperature to rise during a blizzard, and the failure to produce any Föhn effect of this nature suggested an absence of high land for at least 200 miles to the south and south-west.  The weather did not clear until the 16th.  We saw then that the appearance of the surrounding pack had been altered completely by the blizzard.  The “island” floe containing the ‘Endurance’ still stood fast, but cracks and masses of ice thrown up by pressure could be seen in all directions.  An area of open water was visible on the horizon to the north, with a water indication in the northern sky.

The ice-pressure, which was indicated by distant rumblings and the appearance of formidable ridges, was increasingly a cause of anxiety.  The areas of disturbance were gradually approaching the ship.  During July 21 we could bear the grinding and crashing of the working floes to the south-west and west and could see cracks opening, working, and closing ahead.

“The ice is rafting up to a height of 10 or 15 ft. in places, the opposing floes are moving against one another at the rate of about 200 yds. per hour.  The noise resembles the roar of heavy, distant surf.  Standing on the stirring ice one can imagine it is disturbed by the breathing and tossing of a mighty giant below.”

Early on the afternoon of the 22nd a 2-ft. crack, running south-west and north-east for a distance of about two miles, approached to within 35 yds. of the port quarter.  I had all the sledges brought aboard and set a special watch in case it became necessary to get the dogs off the floe in a hurry.  This crack was the result of heavy pressure 300 yds. away on the port bow, where huge blocks of ice were piled