286 THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



Thus opened the .year, soon to prove eventful. The num- 

 ber of birds shot by all hands during 1879 was 215 ; many 

 more might have been taken, but, like Josh Billings' crow, 

 we did not " hanker arter " them, nor had we learned to 

 value them for fresh food, as was afterward the case. Our 

 first season for collecting was short; still we could enumerate 

 specimens ornithological, botanical, ethnological, osteological 

 and alcoholic, which looked well as a nucleus. As the days 

 began to lengthen the cold began to strengthen. Our coldest 

 weather for this year was in February, when the spirit 

 thermometer indicated 57.8 Fahrenheit. Yery little wind, 

 as a rule, with these low temperatures. 



One day, soon after New Year's, I was out walking with 

 one of the Indians. Noticing the new moon, he stopped, 

 faced it, and blowing out his breath he spoke to it, invoking 

 success in hunting. The moon, he said, was the " Tyune," or 

 ruler of deer, bears, seals, and walrus. The Indian told me 

 this particular manner of invoking good-will was a secret 

 handed down to him by his father, who got it from a very 

 old Indian for a wolf-skin. 



The Jeannette was under pressure off and on all winter, 

 and on the 19th of January, in consequence of a crack 

 which made right under her forefoot, she sprung a leak. 

 "The men are at the pumps constantly night and day. I 

 took a spell myself. The ship at this time, by estimate of 

 the carpenter, is leaking between 2,500 and 3,000 strokes 

 per hour. Unless the pressure ceases it is only a question 

 of time how soon we have to abandon the Jeannette. The 

 Siberian coast is some two hundred miles south by compass. 

 A long, tough journey ; but a will to work has helped many 

 a man through a tight place, and, I trust, will yet help us. 

 The quivering of the ship indicates the pressure yet upon 

 her." 



On the 21st a steam-pump was rigged forward. " This 

 greatly relieves the men, who are working splendidly." From 

 the date of this accident until her being crushed a period 

 of some eighteen months pumping was kept up night and 



