A WINTER S DEI FT. 



193 



west, as well as to the northeast. The vessel seemed to 

 drift in a groove, which we called Melville's Canal, as he was 

 the first to call attention to the fact. Mr. Chipp took the 

 soundings every morning, and by long experience we could 

 judge of the drift so accurately that his dead reckoning gen- 

 erally tallied with the observations. He adopted a scale by 

 which ' slow ' drift meant three nautical miles per day ; 

 ' moderate,' six miles ; ' rapid,' nine miles ; ' very rapid,' 

 twelve miles. He always reckoned the direction and speed 

 of the drift and placed the ship before making the observa- 

 tion. His judgment was excellent. He and the captain 

 made frequent lunar observations for chronometer errors, 

 but those of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites were the best. 





BEAR-HUNTING ON THE FLOE. 



February was the coldest month ; and the mean for the 

 three months was only six degrees lower than that for the same 

 months during the previous year. The soundings generally 

 ran thirty-three, but one morning Mr. Dunbar sounded in 

 forty-four ; some called that place Dun-bar Hole. We drifted 

 over this spot once again at a later period. The absence of 

 animal life prior to May was greater than during the pre- 



