GOO FAST TO AN ICEBERG. 



this moment, 8.23 P.M., having written it in ink in our 

 snow hut. Thermometer outside minus 7. Yesterday 

 all day the thermometer minus 20 to 23 that is, 20 

 minus to 23 minus Fahrenheit. 



"C. F. HALL." 



After the interment of Captain Hall, Captain Budding- 

 ton succeeded to the command of the expedition. The 

 Polaris remained at her quarters in Thank-God Harbor 

 during the winter and spring. The winter passed without 

 incident, except a severe gale in the month of November, 

 which caused the Polaris to drag her anchors and forced 

 her up alongside an iceberg, from which a spur projected 

 under her bow, holding it securely. Every effort to free 

 her from its unwelcome support proved abortive, and she 

 rode on the rest of the winter with her bow fast and sta- 

 tionary, while her stern rose and fell with the tide. This 

 strained her so that she leaked quite badly in the spring, 

 when she got loose. This winter-life in the dark was ne- 

 cessarily very monotonous, and except occasionally when 

 the weather permitted the cleaning of the decks and other 

 similar work, the chief employment of the officers and 

 men was the devising of ways and means of making the 

 time pass as agreeably as possible. Meanwhile, the scien- 

 tists of the party availed themselves of every opportunity 

 to acquire such information as it was their special pro- 

 vince to seek. 



The long winter night at length came to an end, but 

 the Polaris was as yet so securely closed in by ice that she 

 could not be moved. On the 8th of June, 1872, two boat- 

 crews were organized, the one under Captain Tyson, the 

 other under Mr. Chester. These went forth " to go as far 

 north as they could get." One of them was lost in the ice 

 Boon after starting, but a canvas boat was constructed, and 

 the crews succeeded in reaching Newman's Bay, where 

 they were detained waiting for the ice to break up and 



