A FATAL DELAY. 22,5 



X 



articles on a floe-piece about August 6th. We now worked 

 during' the day and slept during the night. 



At Bennett Island the doctor, who belonged to my boat, 

 had been transferred to the captain's, and Mr. Melville was 

 placed in charge of mine that is, the whale-boat. I was 

 ordered to remain in the boat as a passenger, and to assist 

 in emergencies. I always carried my own baggage, and 

 assisted whenever possible. Dunbar was detailed with 

 Chipp. 



We made very good progress until about August 20th. 

 On that day the leads were very open, and we thought we 

 were all right. The wiisd was fresh and favorable; -the first 

 cutter and whale-boat, which followed closely, passed safely 

 th rough great quantities of ice, but the second cutter was in 

 the rear, and became jammed by the floe-pieces coming 

 together very suddenly, and Chipp had to haul out and 

 transport his boat about a mile in order to get her afloat 

 again. In many cases a passage was obtained by prying 

 the floe-pieces apart ; but several times these sprang back, 

 thus cutting off the advance of the second cutter. It was 

 very hard and slow work, but much better than dragging 

 the sleds over the ice. 



The delay caused by getting Chipp's boat afloat was very 

 fatal to us, for the wind shifted suddenly and we were 

 forced to camp after waiting for him several hours. The 

 ice jammed up during the night so that we had to remain 

 there ten days without being able to move. Then land 

 came in sight, and we seemed to be drifting along the north 

 face of an island which the captain at first thought was New 

 Siberia, but it was afterward found that we were drifting 

 along the north coast of Thaddeoffsky. We drifted along 

 this coast until August 28th, when, at last, we were again 

 able to make a move. We trailed the place the Ten Day 

 Camp. But we had used the delay in making repairs, and 

 the food had been distributed per capita among the boats. 



On the afternoon of the 29th we launched the boats again 

 and worked in the pack for about two hours, when further 



