436 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



August 2dth, Sunday. — Another week come and 

 gone, and here we are yet. Of course it is for the best 

 that we are here, else it would not be the case ; but 

 oh ! how hard, and, in fact, impossible it is to draw 

 any consolation from it. Our situation seems un- 

 changed, and its continuance inevitable. Although I 

 have been buoyed up during the last two wrecks by the 

 mildness of the temperature, and its probable wasting 

 effect on the ice, even that comfort is removed now by 

 a fall in the temperature early this morning, and the 

 appearance of young ice on the surface of our ponds 

 which did not disappear until near noon. Although 

 passing a second winter in the pack is not a pleasant 

 thing to contemj)late, I do not think an officer or man 

 shrinks from it because of the danger to be incurred, 

 or the discomfort to be endured. 



But we cannot help asking ourselves the question, 

 " Shall we be any more successful when it has passed ? " 

 Here we have been nearly a year drifting with the 

 ice to and fro, and we are about one hundred and forty 

 miles N. N. W. of where we started. Let us suppose a 

 year from now we are still one hundred and forty miles 

 north of our position to-day (latitude N. 73° 41', longi- 

 tude W. 177° 13'), or say N. 76° 30'. We shall then be 

 800 miles from the Pole, and 500 miles from a Siberian 

 settlement, with a disabled ship, no fuel, and perhaps 

 as immovably jammed as now. Supposing our pro- 

 gress were in the same successive manner the next 

 year, and so on, in six additional years we should reach 

 the Pole. But what is the use of figuring it up — a 

 man might as well attempt to demonstrate by mathe- 

 matical calculation the day of his death. Let us deal 

 with the present. 



The long continuance of foggy, damp weather, and 



