546 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



would make us all as rich as the treasury without its 

 debts. I believe most of us look carefully at our island 

 before we go to bed, to make sure it has not melted 

 away. Fourteen months without anything to look at 

 but ice and sky, and twenty months drifting in the 

 pack, will make a little mass of volcanic rock like our 

 island as pleasing to the eye as an oasis in the desert. 



Beside this stupendous island, the other events of the 

 day sink into insignificance. 



May 17th, Tuesday. — Our island continues to be the 

 cynosure of all eyes, of course, and as the fog which 

 hung over it yesterday has disappeared to-day, we are 

 able to define its appearance better, the white portion 

 which the fog hid yesterday showing as a snowy slope 

 extending back to some distance. The shaded portions 

 seem to be rock, with clefts or gulleys in it, in which 

 snow has lodged. The highest and further corner 

 seems to be a volcano top. We are watching the land 

 anxiously enough, and getting our position by obser- 

 vations daily, but of course in one day we have not 

 altered bearings at all. That may be a question of 

 weeks, unless we have stiff winds. Sights to-day place 

 us in latitude N. 76° 43' 38", longitude E. 161° 42' 30", 

 — a drift since yesterday of two and one half miles 

 N. 83° W., or exactly towards the island. 



Soundings forty-three fathoms (mud and pebbles), a 

 slight drift N. by E. being indicated by the lead line. 

 Temperature, maximum, 11.5° ; minimum, minus 5.5°. 

 What lovely Aveather for the middle of May ! 



May ISih, Wednesday. — Latitude N. 76° 44' 50", lon- 

 gitude E. 161° 30' 45". As we draw ahead of our island, 

 we open out quite a face to the northward, and Mr. 

 Dunbar is quite certain that he saw high land above 

 and beyond it to the westward. My repeated visits to 



