238 Chapter VI. 



But the men have grown so indifferent to the pressure 

 now, that they do not even go up to look, let it thunder 

 ever so hard. They feel that the ship can stand it, and 

 so long as that is the case there is nothing to hurt except 

 the ice itself. 



"In the morning the. pressure slackened again, and we 

 were soon lying in a large piece of open water, as we did 

 yesterday. To-day, again, this stretched far away 

 towards the northern horizon, where the same dark 

 atmosphere indicated some extent of open water. I now 

 gave the order to put the engine together again ; they 

 told me it could be done in a day and a half or at most 

 two days. We must go north and see what there is u { > 

 there. I think it possible that it may be the boundary 

 between the ice-drift the Jeannette was in and the pack 

 we are now drifting south with -or can it be land ? 



" We had kept company quite long enough with the 

 old, now broken-up floe, so worked ourselves a little way 

 astern after dinner, as the ice was beginning to draw 

 together. Towards evening the pressure began again in 

 earnest, and was especially bad round the remains of our 

 old floe, so that I believe we may congratulate ourselves 

 on having left it. It is evident that the pressure here 

 stands in connection with, is perhaps caused by, the tidal 

 wave. It occurs with the greatest regularity. The ice 

 slackens twice and packs twice in 24 hours. The 

 pressure has happened about 4, 5, and 6 o'clock in the 

 morning, and almost at exactly the same hour in the 



