706 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



Cooking seal meat with blubber consumed much time, 

 and it was not until eight p. M. that we were under 

 way again. The wind had now got to east, and the ice 

 commenced to open quite rapidly, sometimes to south, 

 sometimes to west. By ten P. M. we had advanced 

 south two miles, and as the fog prevented me from 

 seeing anything I hauled alongside a large floe and 

 unloaded and camped. Temperature 26°. 



August IQth, Tuesday. — Called all hands at six. 

 Breakfasted at seven. Wind N. E. ; temperature 25.5°. 

 Loaded the boats and got under way at 8.15, but had 

 hard luck. First, I was compelled to go to the north- 

 ward to get in a lead running to the southwest, and 

 then with all our crooks and turns I do not think we 

 had made two miles southwest by eleven a. m., when 

 we were brought to a stand. From the highest hum- 

 mock we could command, but few patches of water 

 could be seen, and no lanes at all. The ice seemed all 

 ready to fall in pieces, but N. E. winds held it jammed 

 closely. I got the latitude at noon, 76° 2', and we were 

 not so far south as I had hoped. Bennett Island, 

 Cape Emma, being in 76° 38', we are only 36' south of 

 it, and as for longitude I can only say it bore N. 12° E. 

 on the 13th, when we saw it last. We are probably 

 not much over forty miles away from it. At one p. m. 

 made another start, and struggled along southwest for 

 perhaps a mile, when at four p. m. we were again 

 stopped. Hoping for a change of wind to the N. W. 

 I have done what I- considered a proper thing, that is, 

 waited. If I attempt sledding I shall probably lose 

 some of our provisions by sleds getting overboard in 

 this skeleton pack. Before supper I hoped for a change 

 after supper, but after supper no change for the better 

 had occurred. The wind had backed to N. and snow 



