DRIFTING IN ICE OFF HERALD ISLAND. 113 



drifted into a bay in the ice. Hauled off to the east- 

 ward and southeast. 



At dayhght the weather became thick and foggy. 

 Sighted a barque to the S. E. under all sail. Had her 

 in sight for three hours, when we lost her in the fog. 

 At her nearest she was four miles distant, and we were 

 too anxious about finding a decent opening in the pack 

 to run down and speak her. At eight a. m., there be- 

 ing nothing but ice in sight, except to the S. E. where 

 we had come from, I concluded to put the ship into a 

 likely looking lead in the pack opening towards the 

 N. W. We accordingly worked along in this lead, 

 keeping a general N. W. direction until 3.10 p. m., 

 when it became so foggy and the ice so closely packed 

 that we stopped and planted an ice-anchor in a conven- 

 ient floe. Meanwhile, at noon we got soundings in 

 twenty-eight fathoms (blue mud), and towed the dredge, 

 adding some star-fish to our collections. At 4.30 the 

 fog lifted a little and we got under way, working to 

 northward true until 5.30 P. M., when we again an- 

 chored to a floe, the fog becoming im]3enetrable. Calm 

 with thick fog up to midnight. At seven p. m. sounded 

 in thirty-eight fathoms (blue mud). Tired with my 

 day in the crow's-nest. 



September ith, Thursday. — The day opens calm and 

 with a thick fog. Still at anchor to the floe. We ob- 

 serve a gradual closing in of large floes around us, and 

 a seeming drift of small pieces to the southeast through 

 the small water spaces. The rigging is one mass of 

 snow and frost, presenting a beautiful sight ; but as we 

 are more interested in progress than in beautiful sights 

 it has but little charm for us. The pack ice surround- 

 ing us seems to have a uniform thickness of about seven 

 feet, — two feet being above the water. It is somewhat 

 8 



