670 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



At eight A. m. yesterday, when we concluded to go on, 

 and worked for twenty -four hours, so many good roads, 

 each leading seemingly directly on shore, presented 

 themselves, that I was embarrassed in a choice. In fif- 

 teen minutes they had fallen to pieces, and became puz- 

 zling masses of ice and water. There was no question 

 that when I gave it up at six p. m., everybody was used 

 up, and could not possibly have gone further. Every- 

 body was wet up to his knees, stiff legs and cramps an- 

 noyed us until we had been an hour or two in our bags, 

 and we were too tired, in fact, to get the rest we stood 

 so much in need of. However, we are all right again 

 this morning, and none the worse off, better off, in fact, 

 for if we had not put in the twenty-four hours in full, 

 we should have been out in the heavy drift ice, and 

 probably miles away from the land by the time this 

 gale is over. 



At noon the fog broke away and showed the land for 

 a few moments. We were exactly as I had supposed 

 and indicated by the sketch on the preceding page. 

 The pressure of the ice in swinging off the east point 

 has backed us in toward the bay, and between our floe 

 and the land there is about two miles of water nearly 

 clear of ice. Jammed against our floe are a number of 

 large blocks and hummocks, offering serious difficulty to 

 any attempt to launch our boats. On the off side of 

 these hummocks the sea is breaking considerably. The 

 wind tears around us in fierce gusts. No. 6 tent has 

 been twice blown clown. We shall see what the state 

 of affairs is after dinner. Dined at 12.30 P. M. luxuri- 

 ously on bear stew. 



By 1.30 the land was again in fog, and otherwise the 

 situation was as before. My desire was to go ahead, 

 but prudence told me to wait until the weather moder- 



