While we were resting there, some of the men observed a black object far out on the great ice floe to which we were attached, and Dr.Goodsell and Borup, with two Eskimos, started out to investigate.

This walking across the floes is dangerous, as the ice is full of cracks, some of them quite wide, and on the day in question the cracks were for the most part concealed by a recent snowfall.

In jumping across a lead, the men had a narrow escape from drowning, and when they got within shooting distance of the black object they were seeking, it proved to be only a block of stone.
Before the return of Borup and the doctor the ice had already begun to close in around the ship and, as soon as the men were safe on board, the cable was hauled in and the _Roosevelt_ drifted south with the pack.

So close was the ice that night, that we had to swing the boats inward on the davits to protect them from the great floes, which at times crowded the rail.

Finally, the captain worked the ship into another small lake to the southeast of our former position by the great floe, and there we remained several hours, steaming back and forth in order to keep the pool open.
About eleven o'clock that night, for all our efforts, the ice closed in again around the _Roosevelt_; but I observed a small lead to the southeast, which led into another body of open water, and gave orders to ram the vessel through, if possible.