392 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



July M, Saturday. — The amount of water finding 

 its way into the fore peak has become very small, and 

 within the last week or two just a small stream running 

 over the floors. But to-day even that small amount has 

 ceased, and the fore peak and flour-room are both as 

 dry as a bone. The amount of water lodging in the 

 fire-room bilge is correspondingly small. We have been 

 accustomed to let about five inches accumulate, in order 

 to have a convenient feed for our distilling apparatus, 

 running the windmill, or pumping by hand, when that 

 depth has been increased. The light airs and calms of 

 the past day or two have necessitated the use of the 

 quarter deck bilge-pump, and I have remarked that a 

 dozen strokes or so each hour have caused it to " suck." 

 The melting of the surface ice around us has so much 

 decreased the mass of ice surrounding the ship that it 

 has been buoyed up by the water bringing the ship with 

 it, and to-day the water-level is at a height, or perhaps 

 more properly depth, of eight feet seven inches on our 

 stem. 



The decrease of the leak is pleasant enough, though 

 of course I can assign no satisfactory reason. The 

 change from 3,663 gallons per hour to a dozen strokes 

 of a hand bilge-pump is too remarkable to be mentioned 

 casually. The change has been gradual, and inexplica- 

 ble beyond a certain extent. The settling down and 

 hardening of the oatmeal, white lead, oakum, etc., be- 

 tween the frames may have caused a partial barrier to 

 the entrance of the water, and the raising of the ship 

 and ice out of the water, and so diminishing the height 

 of the water head, may have so decreased the pressure 

 as to make that barrier effectual. As no water flows 

 into the fore peak, this seems to follow naturally, and 

 the small accumulation in the fire-room may proceed 



