Three, the _Alert_, the _Discovery_, and the _Proteus_, made the voyage up and back in safety; but one of those, the _Proteus_, was lost in an attempt to repeat the dash.

The _Roosevelt_ had on the expedition of 1905-6 made the voyage up and back, though she was badly smashed on the return.
Going north, the _Roosevelt_ of necessity followed the coast a portion of the way, as only close to the shore could any water be found which would enable the ship to advance.

With the shore ice on one side, and the moving central pack on the other, the changing tides were almost certain to give us an occasional opportunity to steam ahead.
This channel is the meeting place between the tides coming from Baffin Bay on the south and from Lincoln Sea on the north, the actual point of meeting being about Cape Frazer.

South of that point the flood tide runs north, and north of it the flood tide runs south.

One may judge of the force of these tides from the fact that on the shores of the Polar Sea the mean rise is only a little over a foot, while in the narrowest part of the channel the tide rises and falls twelve or fourteen feet.
As a rule, looking across the channel, there seems to be no water--nothing but uneven and tortured ice.