FAST TN THE ICE. 175 



November 16th, Saturday. — A clay of complete 

 quiet as far as ice is concerned. The open water on 

 our port side lias frozen over sufficiently to bear 

 walking upon it. Alexey was accordingly sent to 

 the opposite side for Tom and his friends, and he 

 brought the three (not four) missing dogs back, to my 

 great satisfaction, and no doubt to theirs also, for they 

 seemed glad to return to the land of dried fish. Not 

 that they had hungered during the separation, for 

 Alexey says he saw a lot of bones where they were, 

 which these dogs had no doubt saved in times of plenty 

 and buried in the snow for future emergencies. The 

 remaining dogs were very indignant, at the absent but 

 returning ones, and had they not been prevented would 

 have given them a fight as a celebration, looking no 

 doubt on the enforced separation as some new dodge 

 for shirking work. Finished to-day making sleeping 

 baiirs for all hands. 



o 



Novemher IWi, Sunday. — At eleven a. m. held my 

 usual inspection. Found everything dry and comforta- 

 ble below. At one p. m. held divine service. The S. E, 

 wind which sprang up yesterday blew with great force 

 during the night with terrific squalls ; and though its 

 velocity for a whole hour was no greater than seventeen 

 miles, at times it must have been at the rate of fifty 

 miles. It continued blowing during the day, and I 

 stood by from midnight for some exciting result. We 

 are seemingly resting in a cradle made under the ship 

 in the neighborhood of the foremast, and which has not 

 been sufficiently disturbed by our port floe leaving us 

 to set us adrift ; for although the heavy wind has been 

 blowing on our starboard bow (its best hold for shoving 

 us off), we hang on bravely. Should large masses of 

 ice come grinding along our port side, it will be a ques- 



