A FROZEN SUMMER. 401 



thawing. Arrived at the "open water" it proved to 

 be nearly closed, a width of six feet only allowing a 

 look down in the depths below. The ice seemed to be 

 about four feet in thickness, but looking only was very 

 deceptive. In this precious lane there floated a broken 

 portion of the floe, and anxious to realize the sensation 

 .of being under way again I embarked on it and pushed 

 myself across. Near the old opening there was consid- 

 erable dirty ice, with shells and small pebbles, showing 

 that this ice had been on the bottom, or had rubbed 

 along the land, or (query?) was it refuse matter left on 

 it by a walrus? Near by we found a log of birch (?), 

 heavy from water soaking, but sound and fresh at the 

 fractured end. Not being able to bring it in we stuck 

 it up in a hummock, that some men might let their 

 dogs drag it in to-morrow. We started with three 

 dogs, but not liking to wet their feet they ran away 

 from us and returned to the ship. 



Jiihj lith, Wednesday. — Having great difficulty in 

 getting any work out of our " hoodlum gang," Jack, 

 Tom, and Wolf, a method of punishment had to be de- 

 vised. Ordinarily they lie around on ash-heaps all day 

 in the sun, blinking lazily, and ready to head an attack 

 on some wandering dog in search of a bone, or more 

 particularly sallying out to meet some dog returning 

 with the hunters, who has incurred their grave dis- 

 pleasure by assisting at any work. The sight of a 

 harness, merely, reminds them of a pressing engage- 

 ment elsewhere ; and the moving of a dog sled in their 

 range of vision seems suggestive of the advisability of 

 a change of base. Accordingly, each morning, when 

 the ice has to be dragged in for melting, these three 

 are occupied in surveying the work from a distance 

 until it is completed, and then they unite in an attack 



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