Anyway, we were well over the 88th parallel, in a region where no human being had ever been before.

And whatever distance we made, we were likely to retain it now that the wind had ceased to blow from the north.

It was even possible that with the release of the wind pressure the ice might rebound more or less and return us some of the hard-earned miles which it had stolen from us during the previous three days.
Near the end of the march I came upon a lead which was just opening.

It was ten yards wide directly in front of me, but a few hundred yards to the east was an apparently practicable crossing where the single crack was divided into several.

I signaled to the sledges to hurry; then, running to the place, I had time to pick a road across the moving ice cakes and return to help the teams across before the lead widened so as to be impassable.