20 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



it, being nearly always a glacier line. To the best of our 

 ability to see and judge, the ice-pack was tolerably solid from 

 these Sabine Islands to the coast, showing that we were not 

 far removed from the edge of the Melville Bay pack. The 

 entire bay was dotted with clusters of icebergs. 



" Between four and six P. M. we were favored with a light 

 fall of snow, the thermometer standing at 42°, with a light 

 S. E. wind and moderate swell. Knowing that everything 

 that could be accomplished by the boat must be done in fine 

 weather, and that it would be well to keep a hold on the land 

 as much as possible, owing to the uncertainty of our position 

 and the inaccuracy of the chart, I determined to push on 

 with greater speed, in order to be as near the land as possible, 

 which at its nearest point was about fifty miles distant, and to 

 this end fired up afresh, making a large hole in our fuel. 



" At eight o'clock the next morning, Wednesday', August 

 6th, we had no land in sight ahead, but we found ourselves 

 on the edge of the ice-pack, with a thick fog shutting in and 

 no signs of a lead through. At about eleven A. M. land 

 showed itself abeam, bearing N. E. (true), in the shape of two 

 high hills, which Mr. Dodge recognized as the Peaked Hill, 

 marked on the chart as being in lat. 76° 18' N. and long. 62° 

 W. Just as we sighted this land, Mr. Dodge discovered a 

 lead in the pack to the westward, but the fog shutting in 

 thicker than ever, we were unable to follow it, and I decided 

 to anchor to an iceberg rather than risk the boat on the edge 

 of the pack. We accordingly made our ice-anchor fast at one 

 P. M., but discovering the berg to be full of cracks and look- 

 ing very much like breaking up, I shifted our anchorage to a 

 small ice-cake and banked fires. 



" At this point I took an' account of fuel remaining, and calcu- 

 lated that it was very nearly half gone. We had accomplished 

 this distance without any more serious mishap than our danger 

 of being firmly caught in the ice in Allison Bay. Cape York 

 was only forty miles off, and the people of the Polaris might be 

 there waiting for relief. In the foggy state of the weather 

 burning coal without advancing would be a waste of fuel, and 

 I decided to let the fire go out under the boiler, hoping to ac- 



