458 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



son for anticipating a change to-morrow. With certain 

 duties assigned for certain hours, we move along me- 

 chanically, satisfied we can do no more and naturally 

 unwilling to do less. Deriving our motive power from 

 the food we eat, we perform the operations of break- 

 fast, dinner, and supper as a duty rather than as an en- 

 joyment. With even a liberal variety of food, we know 

 exactly what we are going to eat and how much, and 

 when we are going to eat it, and hence have no nov- 

 elty in that respect. Eating, sleeping, and performing 

 duties which are as regular as time and as invariable as 

 one day succeeds another, no calculation is necessary, 

 no one heeds the arrival or departure of a new day or 

 a new week. A prisoner in a jail has an advantage 

 over us ; for knowing his sentence he can fix the date 

 of his release, while we know " neither the day nor the 

 hour." 



To-day Melville changed back our main engine bilge- 

 pump to a piston-pump as before, and arranged it so 

 that it could be worked by hand. To use the steam- 

 cutter's boiler for pumping as well as distilling requires 

 more coal than I think we can afford. Our carpenters 

 were at work felting the forward side of the galley- 

 house, using all of the felt which remained serviceable. 

 The sides being protected by the porches, I think we 

 have made the cook-house habitable, and our cook and 

 steward seem as pleased with their habitation as if it 

 were on the banks of the Yang-tse-kiang. We have 

 such treasures in them as no previous Arctic expedi- 

 tion had I am sure. Our next work is to build Alexey 

 a house inside the deck-house, and then our township 

 will be ready for a charter. 



If it had not been for an occasional fog obscuring 

 everything, we should have had an entire bright and 



