340 



THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



May 5th, Wednesday. — To-day is memorable as 

 showing our position to be west of the 180th meridian, 

 an extraordinary occurrence in view of the stiff N. W. 

 wind and the indicated drift S. E. by the lead line. 

 Either our ice-field must have acquired sufficient move- 

 ment during the long continuance of S. E. wdnd to work 

 to windward with the change, or we are in a N. W. cur- 

 rent. I do not change the date, for in a day or two 

 we may begin to go back and soon find ourselves east of 

 that meridian, necessitating a further change, and so on 

 back and forth. When, therefore, w^e are so far in east 

 longitude as to make our crossing to west longitude 

 again a question of considerable time, I shall change 

 our date. Meanwhile we will go on as before. 



Our position exactly is in latitude 73° 11' 24", longi- 

 tude 179° 37' 30" E., a drift of eight miles N. 63° W. 

 having taken place since the 1st, or two miles a day 

 perhaps. Newcomb and Alexey went out on a shoot- 

 ing; excursion and broug-ht back 

 three o;uillemots. Nothing; could 

 be found of the bear shot yester- 

 day, and so we are that much out. 

 Alay Qth, Thursday. — A party 

 going to the lead three miles S. E. 

 of the ship found it slowly clos- 

 ing up from the movement of the 

 floes, and they saw some guille- 

 mots and the tracks of a fox. 



Tests for carbonic acid at ten 

 p. M. on the berth deck give 1.69 

 volumes per 1,000, or .169 per cent. A very good 

 showing for people living under our circumstances. 



3Iay 1th, Friday. — The water-sky is much dimin- 

 ished in extent, and travelers to the open water S. E. 

 of the ship report it frozen over. 



ack Guillemot. 



