624 THE VOYAGE OF THE JE ANNETTE. 



across all right. Soon after we had to make a second 

 ferriage, and then a number of bridges before we reached 

 the hard ice which Dunbar and I had visited before our 

 last camp. Ice which was connected then was all open 

 and moving now, and it was not until one a. m., 



July 5th, Tuesday, that we had everything in suffi- 

 cient security to sit down to our dinner. The snow was 

 falling quite heavily in large flakes, and we rigged up 

 our rubber blankets from the boat's rails to protect us, 

 making our dinner-halt look like a small country fair, 

 as some of the men said. I could not help remarking 

 that there were many people under canvas in Hoboken 

 to-day picnicking, who would like a little of the cool- 

 ness we were now having, but it seemed to provoke a 

 desire to exchange places with them, and I said noth- 

 ing more. 



At two a. m. we turned to and went ahead. Ice 

 openings again annoyed us somewhat, but we set to 

 work bridging them. While so doing the whole pack 

 seemed to get alive, and the tossing and tumbling that 

 went on for fifteen minutes were uncomfortable to wit- 

 ness. Large floes, which had been held under others, 

 became liberated, and rising to the surface floundered 

 around like huge whales ; where the floe edges came 

 together large blocks were broken off, and reared up 

 on end twenty-five and thirty feet high ; a mass of rub- 

 ble coming together raised an enormous piece, until it 

 stood like a monument thirty feet above the surface of 

 the floe. Long, thick snouts shoved up above and over 

 even floe pieces, like immense snow-plows, and groans 

 and shrieks came from all directions as these snouts 

 rose and advanced inch by inch ; where long floe pieces 

 reared up to thirty feet and toppled backward, they 

 broke in large lumps and scattered themselves for 



