CHAPTER y. 



FAST IX THE ICE. ^ 



October — November, 1879. 



Reappearance of Herald Island. — Condition of the Quarters. — Ross's 

 Gull. — Moisture between Decks. — New Laud in Sight. — Winter 

 Routine. — A 13eautif ul Night. — Doctor Ambler's Dream. — Cracks 

 in the Ice. — The Noises of Ice Cracking. — The Grinding. — Clear 

 Water on the Port Side. — Necessity and Anxiety. — The Dogs. — 

 Disappearance of the Sun. — Adrift from the Floe. — Distilled 

 Water. — Arctic Beauty. 



OcTOBEE Is^, Wednesday. — The day opened cloudy 

 and snovvnig, with a stiff east northeast breeze, and 

 a generally unsettled look about the weather, which 

 promised a blow. For the first three hours the ane- 

 mometer indicated a velocity of fourteen miles an hour, 

 and the fourth hour it had increased to twenty-one 

 miles an hour. It remained near this velocity until 

 six p. M., when it increased to twenty-seven miles, and 

 reached its maximum at eight p. m., of twenty-eight 

 miles. From that time until the day ended it averaged 

 twenty-four miles an hour, the wind since noon having 

 backed to N. E. and N. true. Thouo^h the 4]^ale was 

 from the northward and eastward, it was not accom- 

 panied by any low temperature particularly, the high- 

 est being 20° and the low^est 11°. It may be that there 

 is open water to the northward of us of a warm tem- 

 perature, and the wind blowing over it has had the chill 

 taken oft' it before reaching us. The gale was accom- 



