Roald Amundsen's the North West Passage; Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship Gjoa 1903-1907 Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. In V1rg1n Water. W1th the departure from Beechey, a new chapter opened in our expedition. We now knew the course we were to take; the die was cast, and we only had to push on and make headway. Our voyage now assumed a new character. Hitherto we had been sailing in safe and known waters, where many others had preceeded us. Now we were making our way through waters never sailed in, save, possibly, by a couple of vessels, and were hoping to reach still farther where no keel had ever ploughed. We were very sanguine. In fact, I may almost say we felt certain that we should make our way through, having been fortunate enough to get thus far already. The ice conditions had been unusually favourable. We had made headway with ease, and almost without hindrance, where our predecessors had had to endure the most terrible struggles against ice and storms. As far as we could judge, the year 1903 must have been a very favourable one as regards ice. We set out from Beechey Island at 1 P.m. on August 24th, heading for Limestone Island at the entrance to Peel Sound. The compass--a floating compass by E. S. Ritchie, of Boston--proved most excellent. Owing to the nearness of the Magnetic Pole, it commenced, of course, to be somewhat slow in turning, but our further progress proved that it was quite serviceable; for as soon as we got into Barrow Strait we were caught in a fog which hung heavy and dense till the 26th, and when it cleared we sighted the land around Peel Sound. We encountered no ice with the exception of a few narrow strips of old sound ice, carried by the wash. Of large Polar ice we saw absolutely nothing. Between Sherard Head, on Prince of Wales's Land, and Cape Court, on North Somerset, we encountered the first large...