ENTERING WINTER HARBOR. 91 



cord it to their credit, that throughout a voyage of unu- 

 sual ;^eril and exposure they had never quailed in the 

 presence of danger, and they had to a man exhibited the 

 most satisfactory evidence of manly endurance. 



The reader will readily understand that to me the 

 failure to cross the Sound was a serious disappoint- 

 ment. Hoping, as heretofore stated, to reach the west 

 coast, and there secure a harbor in some convenient 

 place between latitude 79° and 80°, it was evident to 

 me that in failing to do this my chances of success 

 with sledges during the following spring were greatly 

 jeopardized. Besides — and this to me was the most 

 painful reflection — my vessel was, apparently, so badly 

 injured as to be unfit for any renewal of the attempt 

 the next year. 



