UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 331 



deck nicely clean, and, satisfactoiy to say, quite dry. 

 We are so changing from the torpid appearance we 

 presented during the winter to the ship-shape and tidy 

 condition we are generally accustomed to that, were it 

 not for the leak and the steady pump, pump, we could 

 soon forget all our past discomforts in planning for the 

 future. Following inspection, we had divine service in 

 the cabin. 



AjJrll 2Qih, Monday. — Our soundings dropped sud- 

 denly to thirty-one fathoms (thirteen and one half fath- 

 oms less than yesterday), and as our position to-day (lat- 

 itude 72° 56' N., longitude 179° 16' W.) is only two and 

 one half miles N. W. of our position of yesterday, we 

 must assume that we struck a deep hole. 



A bit of excitement occurred this afternoon at 4.30 

 by the cry of " Bear ! " A young, or at all events small, 

 bear had come up to about three hundred yards of the 

 ship, when the dogs gave the alarm, and out tumbled 

 Chipp, Dunbar, the natives, and the dogs in pursuit. 

 His bearship left incontinently, and as the snow-drifts 

 made heavy traveling for bipeds he succeeded in escap- 

 ing, to our regret, as young bear is fine eating. 



Ajyril 2Sth, Wednesday. — By three p. m. the wind- 

 mill was in place, and connected with the shifted bilge- 

 pump in the corner of the fire-room hatch. The sails 

 made of sheeting having been found to possess too lit- 

 tle surface, and to sag in too much, had been removed, 

 and in their places fans made of sheet tin (utilized from 

 our empty coffee and sugar tins) had been secured 

 with wire stops. So well did the new rig work, that 

 at eight p. m. we stopped pumping forward by hand, 

 opened the starboard flood-gate, and allowed all the 

 water to come aft. Up to midnight the windmill was 

 working admirably, enabling us to save a little coal on 



