THE DEAD OF WINTER. 215 



and were growing faint in the distance. The carpen- 

 ters commenced to-day the building of two more sleds, 

 to carry our cutters in case we have to abandon the 

 ship, which God forbid. 



January l^th, Wednesday. — Excepting a little ad- 

 ditional movement in the distance to the S. W., the ice 

 gave us no alarms. But at its best, it is so treacherous 

 that we never feel safe. I went with a dog sled sev- 

 eral miles around the floe and saw a few openings, al- 

 ready frozen over, but these are the only signs of recent 

 movement. The big piles of slab ice heaped up here 

 and there are the results of the great November confu- 

 sion which broke us adrift and floated us to our pres- 

 ent insecure berth. 



January 16th, Thursday. — We have had considera- 

 ble anxiety to-day on account of the ice. At noon a 

 slight shock was experienced, and on going out on the 

 floe I found that it had cracked and opened about 

 twenty feet from our starboard side (ship heading S. 

 S. W. and a half W.), the crack rounding the bow and 

 going ahead in the prolongation of the stem in one di- 

 rection, and in the other, passing along, it went across 

 the stern at a distance of about one hundred yards. 

 This crack widened, until at three it had become eight 

 feet in width, and at the same time a fissure appeared 

 on our port side about one hundred feet distant, which 

 became an opening at six. As far as could be observed, 

 the general direction of the ice movement was to the 

 E. and S. We were not disturbed beyond an occasional 

 snap, as some fracture took place in the ice, but this 

 horrible uncertainty grows wearisome. Living over a 

 powder manufactory may be exciting, but it is not 

 healthy excitement ; and our constant state of anxiety 

 may well be compared to it. As the daylight left us, 



