200 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



and the bottom layer made water as unfit to drink as 

 did the surface layer containing the crystallized salt. 



December 15th, Monday. — An uneventful day. The 

 Snellen type test seems not a good way to obtain even 

 a comparative record of the intensity of our daylight ; 

 for whereas we could read a certain kind of type at a 

 distance of twenty feet on the 10th inst., we can to- 

 day read the same type twenty-seven feet, and yet 

 the circumstances of sky and weather seem exactly the 

 same. 



Decemhe?' liSth, Tuesday. — As far as it is possible to 

 do so, we are beginning to have some confidence in the 

 stability of our position. We have had such a quiet 

 time with the ice lately that we feel quite confident and 

 reassured. So much so that we contemplate neither a 

 breaking up of the ice nor any treachery while we are 

 walking over it. As if to show us, however, how par- 

 ticularly deceitful our surroundings are, Collins and two 

 men broke through the ice to-day at different times 

 and places within a radius of three hundred yards from 

 the ship. No harm resulted beyond a ducking, from 

 thus involuntarily taking the temperature of the sur- 

 face water. Highest temperature, minus 11°, lowest 

 minus 26° (our lowest thus far). 



December ISth, Thursday. — This morning we dis- 

 cover a large opening in the ice about five hundred 

 yards to the northward of the ship, about one quarter 

 of a mile in width and extending east and west. This 

 is bringing the uneasiness close home. 



At five p. M., by a meridian altitude of the moon and 

 an altitude of Mars, Danenhower establishes our posi- 

 tion in lat. 72° 27' N., long. 178° 23' W., showing a 

 drift of eight miles to the W. 21° S. since December 

 2d. We seem to be, therefore, in a comparatively quiet 

 part of the ocean. 



