DRIFTING IN ICE OFF HERALD ISLAND. 123 



are getting no nearer Herald Island, and are making no 

 advance in any direction, unless we are really drifting, 

 ice and all, to the N. W. It is unpleasant to realize 

 that our exploration for a whole year should come to a 

 stop on the 6th September, and that at a point which 

 a sailing ship, the Vincennes, reached in 1855 without 

 any difficulty. And here we are in a steamer, and be- 

 set in the pack before we are two months out of San 

 Francisco. My disappointment is great, how great no 

 one else will probably ever know. I had hoped to ac- 

 complish something new in the first summer, and we 

 have done nothing. While waiting for next summer 

 we are consuming our provisions and fuel, and running 

 the risk of the enfeeblement of the general health which 

 a winter's confinement may produce. 



There is a bare chance of there being drift-wood 

 on Herald Island to help us out in the matter of fuel, 

 and as this is an important matter, I conclude to send 

 a sledge party toward the island to get information. 

 Chipp, therefore, is ordered to prepare for a journey, 

 and accompanied by Melville, Dunbar, and Alexey, to 

 take a sledge and eight dogs to proceed toward Herald 

 Island to-morrow morning at eight o'clock. It is just 

 as well, also, that I should know something about the 

 ice between the ship and Herald Island, and the exist- 

 ence of some harbor into which the ship might be, by 

 some happy circumstance, secured for the winter, if 

 there is to be no further advance for us this season. 

 In making preparations for the sledge journey the day 

 ends. 



September loth, Saturday. — At eight a. m. the sledge 

 party leaves. We are all on deck to see it start, the 

 colors are hoisted, and we cheer the little party as it 

 moves off, the dogs in high glee, dragging the sled 



