Mar. 1858. PREPARING FOR SEA. 71 



than that which occurred in the second week in February. 

 Our drift has also been great, — 166 miles. We are south of 

 the 70th parallel, and may soon be expelled from our icy 

 home. 



On the 24th there was a fearful gale of wind. Had not 

 our housing been very well secured, it must have been blown 

 away. We are preparing for sea, removing the snow from 

 oft* the deck and round the ship ; our skylights have been 

 dug out (for in winter they are always covered with a thick 

 layer of snow), and the flood of light which beams down 

 through them is quite charming. How intolerably sooty and 

 smoke-dried everything looks ! 



On the 27 th the first seal of this year was shot ; it came in 

 good time, for the fifty-one seals shot in autumn were finished 

 only two days before : our English supply of dogs' food 

 therefore remains almost untouched. Snow was observed to 

 melt against the ship's side exposed to the sun, the ther- 

 mometer in the shade standing at — 22 ! A very fine dog 

 has died from eating a quantity of salt fish, which he managed 

 to get at although it was supposed to be quite out of his 

 reach. 



One of the two large icebergs which commenced this 

 voyage with us last October, in 75-J- N., has drifted out 

 of sight to the S.E. ; the other one is far off in the N.W. 

 I attribute these increased distances solely to the spreading 

 abroad of the intervening ice. 



When we were far north, and probably drifting more 

 slowly than the ice in the stream of Lancaster Sound to the 

 westward of us, the ship's head turned very gradually from 

 right to left, in other words, from N.N.W. to W. When 

 about the parallel of 72 N., we supposed ourselves to be 

 drifting faster than the western ice (in this, as in the previous 

 case, comparing our drift with that of Lieutenant de Haven), 

 the ship's head slowly shifted back to the right as far as 



