642 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANXETTE. 



Melville's orders, and disobedience of the orders of his 

 commanding officer. He had nothing to say beyond 

 mildly offering a statement that he did not know Mr. 

 Melville was speaking to him, which, to say the very 

 least, is preposterous. I at once put him off duty. 



Piped down at nine A. m. Called all hands at six 

 p. m. Breakfasted at seven p. m. A clear, bright even- 

 ing and calm. Upon looking to the southwest a land- 

 like appearance was to be seen, and several declared 

 they could also see the water. The sun at this hour 

 strikes at right angles, nearly, to anything southwest, 

 and consequently prevents clear views. But if we 

 can hold this bright weather until four a. m. to-morrow, 

 the sunlight will then be at our backs, and upon the 

 supposed land and water, and we can have a good pos- 

 itive view. 



Under way at eight p. m. Crossed the lead near the 

 camp, and swung along on a west southwest course, as 

 mentioned in my remarks at camping. During our 

 sleep, however, several small openings had occurred in 

 the large ice floe, and we found ourselves obliged to 

 bridge. It was not until 12.30 a. m., 



July lAth, Thursday, that we had reached the good 

 ice, and were enabled to lay out a track on our south 

 southwest course. We now halted for dinner. At tw 7 o 

 hours before midnight a breeze had sprung up from 

 northwest and brought up masses of fog, which soon 

 spread over the whole sky, and during our dinner we 

 were dampened and chilled by the change from the 

 bright sunlight. 



I have hitherto forgotten to mention that within a 

 few days some of our dogs have been attacked with 

 fits. First, the dog Jim ; his fit took him while in har- 

 ness, and lasted for some time after he was cut adrift. 



