258 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



The water being pumped out of the ship of course 

 freezes at once, and in consequence the ice on the star- 

 board side reaches above her doubling. This naturally 

 will hold the ship down, but we cannot help it. Work- 

 ing in this temperature is difficult for men, but impos- 

 sible for toolso When the temperature becomes decent, 

 say at zero, I shall have a trench dug around her to re- 

 lieve this hold, but at present nothing can be done. 

 Finding that the delivery of the hose was constantly 

 freezing, we allowed the surface ice to cover above the 

 scupper, and then dug a hole down underneath for the 

 water to flow, raising the temperature of the delivery 

 to that of the surrounding ice. 



February ISth, Wednesday. — A very stormy, disa- 

 greeable day, — one of the worst we have had. The 

 day began with an E. N. E. wind, with a velocity of fif- 

 teen and one half miles an hour. This backed and 

 moderated until it reached N. at six a. m. (velocity six 

 miles), the barometer then standing 28.59, — our low- 

 est on record. There it remained until the wind backed 

 to N. W. at seven, when it commenced to rise. Re- 

 membering that " the first rise after very low indicates 

 a stronger blow," I stood by for a breeze. It com- 

 menced to freshen immediately ; at frequent intervals 

 we had very heavy squalls, probably from thirty to 

 forty miles velocity. Snow filled the air in falling, and 

 when drifted by the wind. The temperature fell rap- 

 idly to minus 34°, and with the fierce wind and driving 

 snow hiding everything at twenty yards, while sifting 

 through one's clothes, made up one of the most disa- 

 greeable days we have yet seen. Barometer reaches 

 29.11 by midnight. 



Finding that staying up all night until 4.30 or 5.30, 

 and struggling to get enough sleep in the day (without 



