504 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



by the action of the wind up here. The gale which 

 we had some days ago, and which sent us spinning away 

 to the northwest, played some curious freaks. It not 

 only buried the ship to her rails, but it laid out the 

 surface snow into long ridges sastrugi, which give our 

 surrounding floe the appearance of a newly-plowed 

 field. These ridges piled up in straight lines running 

 to leeward and as hard as ice, and making walking dif- 

 ficult, lead me to many a tumble as I poke about with 

 a lantern, reading thermometers, etc. 



Our weary days drag along without novelty or 

 change. Living mechanically as we do, no change or 

 novelty seems possible. The wind having ceased to 

 blow, we are zigzagging again, evidently ; for our lead 

 line showing us to-day thirty and one half fathoms, in- 

 dicates also a slight drift to S. S. W. And so we go ; 

 the temporary hope that at last we are drifting some- 

 where was soon dissipated. So far as I know, never 

 has an Arctic expedition been so unprofitable as this. 

 People beset in the pack before have always drifted 

 somewhere to some land, but we are drifting about like 

 a modern Flying Dutchman, never getting anywhere, 

 but always restless and on the move. 



Coals are burning up, food is being consumed, the 

 pumps are still going, and thirty-three people are wear- 

 ing out their hearts and souls like men doomed to im- 

 prisonment for life. If this next summer comes and 

 goes like the last without any result, what reasonable 

 mind can be patient in contemplation of the future ? 



January 107/i, Monday. — Another easterly blow, 

 which causes the snow to fly in clouds again along the 

 surface of the floe. Barometer falls rapidly from 30.46 

 to 30.09, and the temperature as quickly runs up to 

 plus 6.5°, causing one to feel quite languid with the 



