BENNETT ISLAND. 653 



and boats, because of a sudden widening. Two other 

 leads beyond widened also, and altogether we had a 

 very delicate amount of work, requiring much care and 

 attention. 



Anxious to see what Mr. Dunbar saw before camp- 

 ing, I hastened forward with him to the same high 

 ridge at which he stopped, and which commanded a 

 good view. Here, to my unpleasant surprise, I could 

 see land enough, but no water ; and though Mr. Dun- 

 bar averred he could see water with streaks of ice in it, 

 I felt inclined to think it was an effect of refraction. 

 After undergoing many kaleidoscopic changes, I be- 

 gan to believe it had settled into land and water, both. 

 The whole back curve remained as a dim outline, but 

 lower down there were apparently dark cliffs and snow 

 patches, but infinitely less distinct and regular. The 

 more I looked the more confused I became, and Mr. 

 Dunbar was nonplussed. At one time I was ready to 

 declare that nothing but ice extended to the land ; at 

 another, that the land was very distant, and that we 

 were near an open ocean, with pieces of drifting ice ; 

 and again, that mirage had raised and inverted ice 

 hummocks and small peaks, and that there was neither 

 land nor water. This last I abandoned, however, be- 

 cause the light curve above had been too often seen 

 and too well maintained its regularity to be an effect 

 of refraction. I sat and studied this thing for an hour, 

 watching every change carefully with a glass, and I 

 finally made up my mind that part of the dark looking 

 mass was land, but that the lower strata was certainly 

 water. I decided, however, to send Dunbar and the 

 doctor ahead after dinner, to look nearer and speak 

 more surely. Turning back to see what kept Chipp 

 and the boats behind, I learned of the serious ice-open- 



