THE RETURN TO COLD AND DARKNESS. ^^4tff 



grass occasionally," may be quoted as a proverb, " Man 

 needs land once in a while." Excepting the small party 

 that landed at Koliutchin Bay, none of us have set foot 

 on the land for nearly fifteen months, and our sensa- 

 tions now are somewhat dull when we try to realize 

 what it was like. According to my idea, we have be- 

 come receivers of magnetism without proper earths to 

 let it escape. Our rest is broken and unnatural. It is 

 not an unusual thing for those of us who turn in at ten 

 p. M. to lie awake until three A. m. ; and I, who cannot 

 turn in until after midnight, never turn in before one 

 o'clock, and rarely get asleep until nearly 3.30. We 

 are all awake at various times afterwards, and no one 

 sleeps after nine A. m. Each morning we are dull and 

 heavy, having no feeling of rest obtained, and a kind of 

 lethargy clings to us until we get out for our daily walk- 

 ing exercise from eleven to one. From that time for- 

 ward we are in our normal condition, having no especial 

 desire for sleep, and yet feeling somewhat out of sorts 

 for want of it. 



November 30th, Tuesday. — Soundings in twenty-five 

 fathoms. Very rapid drift to N. N. W. At three p. m., 

 by a Sumner of stars, the ship is placed in latitude 74° 

 N., longitude 178° 15' E., showing a remarkable drift 

 in two days of twenty-two miles to N. 32° W. Hardly 

 believing that we could have gone so far, I got the 

 meridian altitude of Jupiter at eight p. m., which gave 

 a latitude of 73° 50', differing 10'. But as the meridian 

 altitude was only 18°, and the refraction accordingly 

 much in doubt, I decided to consider the Sumner nearer 

 correct. 



December 2d, Thursday. — The usual monotony was 

 very pleasantly broken to-day by the killing of a bear. 

 At ten a. m. Chipp sighted him, and got within eighty 



