THE LAST OF THE JEAXXETTE. 533 



seen. Toward four p. m. another opening occurred in 

 the southwest, and the old lead one eighth of a mile 

 astern (north) opened also. All the hunters were out, 

 of course, and made for the water. But three seals 

 were seen, too far to shoot at, and no bear-tracks. 

 By using a glass from aloft, ice could be seen across 

 this large opening to the northward. So we were not 

 on the edge of an open sea, as we might have hoped. 

 Generally speaking, however, the ice is full of small 

 cracks, and it seems as if a good southwest blow would 

 send it streaming away to the northeast without any 

 difficulty, and getting these fields into deep water 

 break them up, and so allow us a chance to get our 

 poor ice-ridden ship under way. We had quite an 

 alarm about Wilson, who, accompanied by his satellite 

 Smike, started off at the first sight of water. Not 

 coining back by six p. m., though the recall had been 

 hoisted for two hours, Ericksen and Starr were dis- 

 patched in search of him. Eight p. m. came and no 

 Wilson, and I was about to send out large parties in 

 various directions, when the man arrived with Smike. 

 We had next of course to send for Ericksen and Starr. 



Wilson had crossed a crack before it opened, and 

 on his way back he found himself headed off. Conse- 

 quently he had a five mile walk over rough ice, until 

 somewhere on our starboard quarter he could get across 

 and make his way home. 



March 29th, Tuesday. — As if by magic every ice 

 opening of yesterday is closed to-day, and not a drop 

 of water is to be seen. A light N. E. breeze veers to 

 E. N. E. and to S. E , and the ice is all solid again. To 

 the southwest of us it came together with some force, 

 for a ridge of broken lumps marks the line of closing. 



April 1st, Friday. — Our spring and summer routine 



