The 5th of September was a memorable day, one that practically ended my fears and anxieties. At 3:30 A. M. we got under way after about an hour’s backing and butting to get out of our niche. A narrow strip of water close inshore showed as far as Cape Union where a narrow but apparently dense barrier pressed against the Cape. Would it let us through? As we neared the barrier it was evidently only about a mile wide, with water beyond it extending to Cape Rawson. I kept both watches of firemen on, and routed out the chief engineer ahead of his watch, because it was evident that we must get through _now_. In a few minutes the _Roosevelt_ was in the thick of it, throbbing like a motor, the black smoke pouring from her stack, and successfully forced her way through. Cape Union was passed at 4:30 A. M. South of Rawson the ice ran close in against the shore but was looser outside, and we made a wide detour to the northeast, the captain, the mate, and myself in the rigging. The ice was in large, heavy floes and in rapid motion swinging into the mouth of the channel on the flood-tide. The anxious moments were numerous both as to whether we should get through, and also as to whether we should escape a serious nip. Soon we opened up the _Alert’s_ cairn at Floeberg Beach and could see a narrow canal of water extending close to the ice-foot, and at 7 A. M. the _Roosevelt_, racing with the incoming pack, was driven through a narrow stream of ice and fairly hurled into a niche in the face of the ice-foot under the extremity of Cape Sheridan and made fast. The ice was packed heavily against the point of the cape and grinding past it. Before our lines were made fast the ice had closed in upon us and the open water behind us was rapidly disappearing. We were now about two miles beyond the _Alert’s_ position, moored to the exposed face of the ice-foot, with the nose of the _Roosevelt_ pointing almost true north. I felt now that the risks, the chances of the voyage were past. The ship might be lost by being forced ashore, for our position was an extremely exposed one, but we were not likely to lose provisions and equipment, and with these the remainder of the programme could be carried out, and even should she get no farther she would have done her duty and achieved the purpose of her being. With my feelings of relief, was a glow of satisfaction that by a hard-fought struggle we had successfully negotiated the narrow, ice-encumbered waters which form the American gateway and route to the Pole; had distanced our predecessors; and had substantiated my prophecy to the club, that with a suitable ship, the attainment of a base on the north shore of Grant Land was feasible almost every year. Previous to the _Roosevelt_, only two other ships, the _Polaris_ and the _Albert_, had completely navigated these channels; and two others, the _Discovery_ and the _Proteus_, had penetrated them as far as Discovery Harbour.