HORRORS OF THE "JEANNETTE" EXPEDITION 333 



full, a cloudless sky, brilliant stars, a pure white waste of snow- 

 covered ice, which seems firm and crisp under your feet, a ship 

 standing out in bold relief, every rope and thread plainly visible, 

 and enormously enlarged by accumulations of fluffy and down-like 

 frost feathers; and you have a crude picture of the scene. But to 

 fill in and properly understand the situation, one must experience 

 the majestic and awful silence which generally prevails on these 

 occasions, and causes one to feel how trifling and insignificant he 

 is in comparison with such grand works in nature. The brightness 

 is wonderful. The reflection of moonlight from bright ice-spots 

 makes brilliant efforts, and should a stray piece of tin be near you, 

 it seems to have the light of the dazzling gem. A window in the 

 deck-house looks like a calcium light when the moonlight strikes 

 it at the proper angle, and makes the feeble light from an oil-lamp 

 within, seem ridiculous when the angle is changed. Standing one 

 hundred yards away from the ship one has a scene of the grandest, 

 wildest and most awful beauty." 



And the Arctic prisoners succeeded in keeping up their spirits, 

 celebrating Christmas and New Year with some of the home en- 

 thusiasm, and enjoying the amusements necessary for health in 

 the polar solitudes. Yet with all they could do to make the time 

 pass cheerily, the monotony was depressing and the coming of 

 spring was hailed with gladness. 



May came and with it a hopeful sign. On the :6th of May 

 land was sighted, the first they had seen for fourteen long months. 

 It was an island, a small one apparently, but as the commander 

 wrote: "Fourteen months without anything to look at but ice and 

 sky, and twenty months drifting in the pack, will make a little mass 

 of volcanic rock like our island as pleasing to the eye as an oasis 

 in the desert." 



On the 24th more land was seen, while large lanes of water 

 opened in the ice, and on the 3ist Engineer Melville with several 

 companions set out with a dog team to visit this second island, then 



