THE RETURN OF DAYLIGHT. 279 



several weeks' exposure we tried each kind, and were 

 inclined to favor the snow-cured as being the more 

 freshened by the operation. 



Marcli 10th, Wednesday. — A long lead of open 

 water is seen about one and a half miles to southward, 

 running in a curve from E. to S. W. Vapor rises from 

 this opening during the afternoon until five o'clock, 

 when ice having formed over it, the escape of the heat 

 from the water is prevented and the vapor ceases. As 

 long as daylight lasted the place of the opening lay 

 like a black band stretched out on the white surface 

 of the ice-field. By to-morrow, no doubt, the salt will 

 have become squeezed to the surface, covering it en- 

 tirely, and making its appearance more like that of the 

 surrounding floe. 



Beginning with the first flush of dawn at three A. m., 

 and ending with the disappearance of twilight at nine 

 p. M., our days are beginning to be very long. At six 

 A. M. the anemometer can be read without artificial 

 light. Whenever at night there is no aurora, we can 

 see a faint o>leam of lis-lit on the northern horizon at 

 midnight, and thus trace the entire circuit of the sun. 



The crew were engaged to-day in digging the trench 

 along the starboard side of the ship. This was a much 

 harder job than digging on the port side, because, on 

 account of the heel of the ship to starboard, a greater 

 depth had to be reached to get to the doubling. The 

 deeper the digging the harder seemed the ice, and, 

 finally, it was so hard and so closely knit together as 

 to resemble flint. The freezing has been so uniform as 

 to leave no pores or interstices, and pick-axes have 

 nothing like the expected effect. Six hours' steady dig- 

 ging and shoveling gave about the distance from the 

 quarter to the mainmast. Another day will be re- 



