540 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



was badly hurt by the bear, and that Prince stayed by 

 him until he died. It would not surprise us, however, 

 to see Wolf come straggling along yet, but judging by 

 Prince's condition he had better not defer his arrival 

 much longer. 



April 27th, Wednesday. — For the first time we get 

 some diatoms in our Sands cup, and of the order cos- 

 cinodiscus. As these things are supposed to be a river 

 growth, it is fair to presume that we have just come 

 within the area of the deposits from the Kolyma River. 

 Let us then hope for something from the much lauded 

 velocity of the spring freshets of Siberian rivers, for 

 that is about the only Arctic theory that we have not 

 exploded. 



April oOth, Saturday. — Ice found to be seven feet 

 six inches in thickness, direct freezing since August 

 31, 1880. 



May 1st, Sunday. — The month of May enters prom- 

 isingly, indeed, — a temperature of minus 2° being a 

 cheerful indication of future spring ; for I suppose I am 

 not very far wrong if I consider we are yet enjoying 

 winter. At five P. M. we got a sharp shock under the 

 stern, and soon after we found the ice open about one 

 hundred and eighty yards from the ship, and running 

 in an irregular bow-and-quarter line as far as we could 

 see it through the rough ice. It gave a chance for 

 Chipp to make some interesting measures of ice thick- 

 ness which I put in my general items book. 



May 2d, Monday. — Surely in no other place in the 

 world north of the Equator have I heard of a temper- 

 ature of minus 10° on the 2d day of May. 



May 3d, Tuesday. — In a little book called " Rein- 

 deer, Dogs, and Snowshoes," there is a remark that in 

 Siberia there is no spring — the transition from winter 



