But beyond lay Robeson Channel, only some thirty miles away, and the navigator who knows Robeson Channel will never be sanguine that it has anything good in store for him.
Soon we encountered both ice and fog, and, while working slowly along in search of an opening, we were forced clear across to the Greenland coast at Thank God Harbor, the winter quarters of the _Polaris_ in 1871-72.

I have mentioned the lane of water which often lies at ebb tide between the land and the moving central pack; but the reader must not fancy that this is an unobstructed lane.

On the contrary, its passage means constant butting of the smaller ice, and constant dodging of larger pieces.
Of course the steam is up at all times, ready, like ourselves, for anything at a moment's notice.

When the ice is not so heavy as to be utterly impenetrable, the ship under full steam moves back and forth continually, butting and charging the floes.

Sometimes a charge will send the ship forward half her length, sometimes her whole length--sometimes not an inch.