The Commander on another of his expeditions nearly had a similar experience when he saw his Eskimos acting strangely, and quickly kicked out the side of the igloo." Still another peril that is omnipresent in sledge journeys over a polar sea is that of falling through thin ice and getting thoroughly wet.
Perhaps it is not necessary to enlarge upon the gravity of this danger, since it was precisely such an accident that cost Professor Marvin his life.

Even if the victim of such an accident should be able to drag himself out of the water, he would in all probability speedily freeze to death.

Death by freezing comes speedily to a water-soaked man when temperatures are ranging anywhere from 20 to 60 degrees below zero.
"Just finished changing my boots for a dry pair," writes the doctor.
"Crossing a lead covered with thin ice and fissured in the center, my left leg went in to the knee.

Fortunately my right foot was forward on firm ice and I threw myself ahead, going down on my left knee on the edge of firm ice and drawing my leg out of the water.

At another lead the ice gave way as I sprang from its surface.