162 TROUBLES OF EXPLORER 



are lost to us unless God returns them. The natives went off on a piece of 

 ice with their paddles and ice-spears. The work looks dangerous; we may 

 never see them again. But we are lost without the boat, so that they are 

 as well off. After an hour's struggle we can make out, with what littfe 

 light there is, that they have reached the boat, about half amile off. 



"There they appear to be helpless, the ice closing in all around, and we can 

 do nothing until daylight. Daylight at last — 3 a. m. There we see them 

 with the boat ; they can do nothing with her. The kayak is the same distance 

 in another direction. We must venture off; may as well be crushed by the 

 ice and drowned as to remain here without the boat. Off we venture, all but 

 two, who dare not make the attempt. We jump or step from one piece to 

 another as the swell heaves it and the ice comes close together, one piece being 

 high, the other low, so that you watch your chance to jump. All who ventured 

 reached the boat in safety, thank God ! and after a long struggle we got her 

 safe to camp again." 



"April 20. — The wind here from the northwest. Blowing a gale in the 

 northeast. The swell comes from there, and is very heavy. The first warning 

 we had — the man on watch sang out at the moment — a sea struck us, and 

 washing over us, carried away everything that was loose. This happened at 

 nine o'clock last night. We shipped sea after sea, five and ten minutes after 

 each other, carrying away everything we had in our tent, skins and most of our 

 bedclothing, leaving us destitute, with only the few things we could get into 

 the boat. There we stood from nine in the evening until seven next morning, 

 enduring, I should say, what man never stood before. The few things we 

 saved and the children were placed in the boat. The sea broke over us during 

 .that night and morning. Every fifteen or twenty minutes a sea would come, 

 lift the boat and us with it, carry us along the ice, and lose its strength near 

 the edge and sometimes on it. Then it would take us the next fifteen minutes 

 to get back to a safe place, ready for the next roller. So we stood that long 

 hour, not a word spoken, but the commands to "Hold on, my hearties; bear 

 down on her ; put on all your weight," and so we did, bearing down and hold- 

 ing on like grim death. ■ Cold, hungry, wet and little prospect ahead." 



The crisis seemed to be rapidly drawing near. Their little ice-cake, already 

 too small for the erection of a hut on it, was wasting away hourly, and at 

 last, on the 25th, the gale reached them, and they were compelled at great 

 risk to embark again in their boat. They were forced back to the floe, however. 



At the end of April a steamer appeared. Herrons tells of it thus : 



