266 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



with our snow-goggles, for they quickly frost up, ancl 

 we cannot see through them. If we go without them 

 we run the risk of snow-blindness, for the glare is ter- 

 rific. 



The refraction is something wonderful. The shapes 

 of distant pieces of ice change very often apparently, 

 and small lumps look inordinately large. Occasionally 

 we sight some enormous blocks which have been broken 

 off and up-ended in the ice pressures. To survey these 

 massive pieces more satisfactorily we plod through the 

 broken hummocks toward them only to find upon ar- 

 rival that a very insignificant block has been magnified 

 by refraction. A piece seemingly forty feet in height 

 becomes in reality about ten feet. 



Our auroral displays are falling off in number and 

 brillianc}^ There is but one to record in these twenty- 

 four hours. Lunar halos and circles are quite com- 

 mon, the mist which hangs over these openings in the 

 ice during the day seeming to be drawn to the moon 

 regularly and resolving itself into a halo or circle. Of 

 late days the moon has had a "burr" around it in ris- 

 ing, as if she had been dipped in adhesive vapor before 

 showing above the horizon. 



February 2Qth, Thursday. — At ten p. m. the Baxter 

 boiler and engine commenced working the forward 

 spar deck bilge-pump again. This made a pleasant re- 

 lief for the men, who found the pumping by hand no 

 sinecure. It would be an unpleasant feature of our 

 cruise were the pumping done by hand, for doubtless it 

 would soon break our men down. Valuable as our coal 

 is, the expenditure of two hundred and fifty pounds 

 per diem for pumping is a wise measure, and not to be 

 considered in comparison with the continued pumping 

 b}^ hand and wearing out of men's health. 



