136 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



sure it must be Herald Island. All sign of bird life 

 seems to be gone. On rare occasions a gull is seen, but 

 only in the neighborhood of a water-hole, and these 

 water-holes are growing extremely rare. One bear- 

 track was sighted -this afternoon to our satisfaction, for 

 we had begun to fear that bears too had disappeared 

 with the birds. Not a bear-track has been seen save 

 this one since our capture of the 17th inst. 



September 28th, Sunday. — Snowing pretty much all 

 day. At ten a. m. inspected ship and had divine service. 

 In the afternoon Mr. Newcomb and Alexey shot two 

 female walruses about two and one half miles from the 

 ship, weighing about one thousand pounds each. Sent 

 out the dogs and dragged them in, one after the other, 

 gaining a valuable addition to our dog food. One of 

 the females was with young, and I have directed Mr. 

 Newcomb to save the foetus. He will also save the skin 

 of one in order to mount it on our return, and the head 

 of the other for mounting on board ship. The wisdom 

 of having one officer look out for our fuel is evident. 

 The coal report shows a saving of three hundred and 

 seventy-five pounds in the past week. 



SejJtember oOth, Tuesday. — The month ends with a 

 full moon, but beyond an occasional view of it through 

 drifting snow it has not been of much comfort. It 

 makes but little difference, however, because we have 

 so much sunlight that we can be very independent ; but 

 I suppose the time will soon come when we shall con- 

 sider the moon our best friend, and watch anxiously for 

 her advent. 



Our drift since last observation (26th inst.) has been 

 five miles S. W. by W. We seem to swing around a 

 kind of an irregular triangle, independent somewhat of 

 local circumstances of wind or current. After our first 



