NEAR HERALD ISLAND. IT/", 



somely. But at 4 P. M. we could proceed no further. Wo 

 banked fires, secured the vessel with ice-anchors, and 

 remained. That night was exceedingly cold. The ship was 

 frozen in. At this time the ice \vas in pieces ranging from 

 ten square yards to several acres in area, with small water- 

 courses like veins running between them, but now quite frozen 

 over. It remained quiet for a number of days, and we found 

 ourselves in the middle of a large accumulation of floes about 

 four miles across. We were then in about twenty fathoms 

 of water, and had Herald Island in sight to the southward 

 and westward, twenty-one miles distant by triangulation on 

 a base line of 1,100 yards. 



About the 15th of September, First Lieutenant Chipp, Ice- 

 Pilot Dunbar, Engineer Melville, and the Indian, Alexai. 

 started with a dog-sledge for Herald Island. They got 

 within six miles of the beach, when they found open water 

 before them, and were compelled to return. We found the 

 ship drifting with the ice, and with so uncertain a base the 

 captain would not send other persons to the island with 

 boats. The general appearance of the ice at this time was 

 uniform, with here and there almost snowless hummocks 

 appearing above the surface, between which were pools 

 whereon the men could skate. The deflorescence of salt was 

 like velvet under the feet. From day to day we saw a loom- 

 ing of land to the southwest, and sometimes in the clouds. 

 We soon found that the ice always took up the drift with 

 the w r ind. 



The ship at this time began to heel to starboard under the 

 pressure, and inclined about twelve degrees. We unshipped 

 the rudder, got up mast-head tackles on the port side, with 

 lower blocks hooked to heavy ice-anchors about a hundred 

 and fifty feet distant, and set them taut in order to keep the 

 ship upright. The propeller was not triced up, but was 

 turned so that the blades would be up and down the stern- 

 post ; the engines were tallowed, but not taken apart. When 

 the ship commenced to heel, the local deviation of the com- 

 pass increased in the ratio of one and a half degrees duration 



