500 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



that we were about to turn our backs on the old year 

 and our faces to the new ; that this cruise, like every 

 event in life, might be divided into two parts, that 

 which has been and that which is to be. During the 

 past sixteen months we had drifted 1,300 miles, far 

 enough, if in a straight line, to reach the Pole and be- 

 yond it ; but we were only actually 220 miles north- 

 west of where we were first beset; we had suffered 

 mishap, and danger had confronted us often ; we had 

 been squeezed and jammed, tossed and tumbled about, 

 nipped and pressed, until the ship's sides would have 

 burst if they had not been as strong as the hearts they 

 held within them ; we had pumped a leaking ship for a 

 year and kept her habitable ; we were not yet daunted, 

 but were as ready to dare as ever. We were all here, 

 in good health, etc. We faced the future with a firm 

 hope of doing something worthy of ourselves, worthy 

 of the enterprise of the gentleman whose name was so 

 closely connected with the expedition, worthy of the 

 flag which floats above us, as by the blessing of God 

 we would, and then we could go back to our homes, 

 and with pardonable pride exclaim in the future, " I, 

 too, was a member of the American Arctic Expedition 

 of 1879." 



The Kittiwake. 



