THE COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION. 35 



and we were loaded down with ooal and what provisions we 

 should require. The great object was to carry coal so that we 

 might be able to steam, and we filled up every available nook 

 and corner with that precious article. We had to sleep upon 

 coal, and that made a hard bed, I assure you ; and when you 

 add to that the fact that we were wet to the skin almost from 

 the time of our start, with our blankets soaking always, you 

 can understand that we had very little comfort and less rest. 

 We had eight in our party, and kept watch and watch, of 

 course, and in bad weather all hands had to be around. 

 Cooped up in a small space, there could be no distinction made 

 between officers and men, and we turned in and out with each 

 other. 



I cannot give you any very accurate idea of our trip with- 

 out writing a fearfully long letter, and so I will only refer to 

 the leading incidents. About one hundred and twenty miles 

 to the northward of Upernavik we were caught in the ice. 

 Now, being caught in the ice means starving to death or 

 being frozen to death, if you have to stay there. We got 

 caught in it by accident, for we were folloAving a lead in the 

 ice when a thick fog shut in and new ice commenced forming 

 around us. On attempting to work back the way we had 

 come, we missed our track and were brought up standing. 

 Such a night of anxiety I hope never to have again. We 

 were fast, ice was making around us and thickening all the 

 time ; nothing to be seen for miles but ice. Mr. Dodge, who 

 had spent a long time in this part of the world, shook his head 

 rather dubiously. Still, I was not disposed to give up without 

 a fight. We kept ramming the ice all the time, trying to 

 drive through it, running into every little crack we made, 

 grinding and scraping, trying to break through ahead of the 

 boat, so as to make a clearance. Sometimes we would get 

 into a narrow lane of water and run along nicely for a hun- 

 di-ed feet or so, and then bang ! we were again at a stand-still. 

 This continued for twelve hours, and finally we got clear. 



Our next mishap was getting in a gale of wind when about 

 eight miles from Cape York. We had been on the edge of 

 the ice-pack looking for an opening, in a thick fog, when this 



