164 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANXETTE. 



who says that heretofore, when he read that men were 

 subsisting on bear and seal, he beheved they were hav- 

 ing a hard time, but he will know better in the future, 



October 31s4 Friday. — The open water streaks are 

 again closing up, the ice piling up to a height of some 

 ten feet as the floes come together. Chipp has observed 

 that these openings occur at full and change of the 

 moon, and disappear at the time of neap tides. There 

 may be a tidal action here, but as we are drifting 

 around with the floe there is no chance for tidal obser- 

 vations. The weather has been so thick the last two 

 days that we have seen nothing of the land. If we 

 could only drift in near enough to it to land on it and 

 explore it I should feel that we had accomplished some- 

 thing to keep us in countenance. It is hard that our 

 first season should thus be passed in idleness. 



November 1st, Saturday. — Began to-day the winter 

 routine. 



November 2d, Sunday. — Inspected the ship at eleven 

 A. M. while all hands were on the ice for exercise. Hav- 

 ing kept up roaring fires of blubber in the two stoves in 

 the deck-house since yesterday morning, I was pleased 

 to find that all the wet clothing had tlioroughly dried, 

 and that the deck-house was dry and comfortable ; in 

 fact, the temperature ranged between 60'' and 70° at 

 the forward end, the stoves being in the middle. At 

 one P. M. mustered the crew and read the Articles of 

 War. At the conclusion of this ceremonj^ held divine 

 service. 



November 3c?, Monday. — Discovered this morning a 

 crack in the ice two hundred yards N. W. of the ship. 

 It ran in an irregular direction for about one quarter of 

 a mile, and was in places nearly twenty feet in width. 

 The surface of the sides of the opening was but two 



