I knew that beyond Smith Sound we might have to make our slow way rod by rod, and sometimes literally inch by inch, butting and ramming and dodging the mountainous ice; that, if the _Roosevelt_ survived, I should probably not have my clothes off, or be able to snatch more than an hour or two of sleep at a time, for two or three weeks.

Should we lose our ship and have to make our way over the ice southward from anywhere below Lady Franklin Bay, or possibly beyond there--it was good-by to my life's dream and probably to some of my companions..