The die is cast, and we must now make a determined push for the open southern sea.
There is a considerable swell from the N.W.; it should help us to get along.
_Evening_ .-- Again extraordinary differences of fortune.

At first things looked very bad--it took nearly half an hour to get started, much more than an hour to work away to one of the large area floes to which I have referred; then to my horror the ship refused to look at it.

Again by hard fighting we worked away to a crack running across this sheet, and to get through this crack required many stoppages and engine reversals.
Then we had to shoot away south to avoid another unbroken floe of large area, but after we had rounded this things became easier; from 6 o'clock we were almost able to keep a steady course, only occasionally hung up by some thicker floe.

The rest of the ice was fairly recent and easily broken.

At 7 the leads of recent ice became easier still, and at 8 we entered a long lane of open water.