THE DEAD OF WINTER. 199 



mann no one has passed a winter in the Arctic before. 

 Mr. Dunbar's experience has been Hmited to a winter 

 in Cumberland Gulf, where his ship was in a snug har- 

 bor, and communication could be had and was had with 

 the natives. Nindemann's experience covers one win- 

 ter in the Polaris in Thank God Harbor, and his terri- 

 ble winter-drift on the ice-floe and miraculous rescue. 

 For the rest of us it is our first experience ; and when 

 we add to our wintering in the pack, with all its un- 

 certainties and terrors, the knowledge that we attained 

 no high latitude our first season, made no discoveries, 

 so far as we know have made no useful additions to 

 scientific knowledge, we cannot help feeling that we 

 are doing nothing toward the object of the expedition, 

 and are consuming provisions, wearing out clothing, 

 and burning coal to no purpose. However we cannot 

 tell what may be in store for us, and in our ignorance 

 it is better to hope for good results than to pass our 

 lives in fearing bad ones. 



New ice has formed twenty inches in thickness 

 around us, and salt has been deposited on its surface 

 by crystallization. What the certain thickness may be 

 at which the ice is almost free from salt I know not, 

 and Weyprecht does not say. But with a saw we cut 

 from a thickness of sixteen inches of ice four pieces, 

 each four inches thick, in regular succession, melted 

 the ice, and the resulting water was so salt as to be 

 unfit for use. I will try this experiment with an eight 

 foot floe in a few days, and inscribe the result in this 

 record. Without evaporating the water, and weighing 

 the remaining salt, I could not say what the exact de- 

 grees of difference were, if any, between the several 

 four inch layers ; but by the nitrate of silver test the 

 water turned white in each case to the same degree, 



