412 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEAXNETTE. 



— as a kind of Key AYest or Aspinwall. dull as a hoe 

 and dreary to stay in, but bound to come in sometimes 

 in a three years' cruise in those neighborhoods. And 

 Jack's philosophy, '' It is all in a cruise, boys ; the more 

 days the more dollars," comes in well apropos. 



July 27th, Tuesday. — Excellent observations to-day 

 show us a drift of one mile south since yesterday. 

 Light snow falls nearly all day, and the temperature 

 rises from 26° to 30° ! Ye gods, ye gods ! 



July 2Sth, Wednesday. — A gloomy, disagreeable day, 

 and a mile further south than yesterday. 



July 29th, Thursday. — To-day becomes memorable 

 as showing that we are again at the 180th meridian. 

 Since the 27th we have drifted seventeen and two 

 tenths miles to N. 84° E. 



As I did not change our date w^hen we passed to the 

 westward of the 180th meridian on the 5th of May, no 

 confusion of dates now occurs, although we were longer 

 in getting to the eastward again than I had anticipated. 

 I am glad that I did not change the date, for were we 

 to vibrate from one side to the other an endless per- 

 plexity would follow any attempt to settle upon any 

 particular date for an occurrence. Our great drift 

 seems to show that the ice is slacker to the eastward 

 of us than to the northward, for though in obedience to 

 a strong S. and S. S. W. wind we should have gone N. 

 or N. N. E., we have in reality gone E. and a half N. 

 What is in store for us it is impossible to anticipate. 

 If we have not had our summer yet, we may hope to 

 do something next month. If our summer has come 

 and gone, then, alas, our chances are slim. If one could 

 see into the future how much anxiety might be spared 

 in the present. It is ver}^ hard to realize that all our 

 hopes and expectations should result in a weary drift 



