IN THE BOATS. 709 



whaleboat's men had to turn out and shift their tents far- 

 ther back. Called all hands at five. Breakfasted at six. 

 Light N. W. breeze. Temperature 27°. Under way at 

 7.10, and by twelve had made ten miles on a south course 

 good. At 9.20 we had come to so much open water that 

 I believed the sea was close at hand. With a view of 

 keeping under way all day, and perhaps all night, I ran 

 the three boats alongside a floe to lay in a supply of snow 

 for cooking. This took twenty minutes or so, but we 

 soon made it up in pulling and sailing. The wind was 

 freshening a little, and we were going at about two and 

 a half miles an hour. One of our sleds (No. 1) was dis- 

 mounted and carried inside the boat, and the other was 

 carried in the bows ; so we had none of the wearisome 

 towing and impossible steering of yesterday. Chipp's 

 sled was dismounted and laid across the stern of the 

 second cutter, Melville's being across the bow of the 

 whaleboat. I instructed the boats to keep close to me, 

 and away we went. Commenced getting dinner in our 

 boats, going under sail alone while so doing, and at 

 twelve, just as we were sitting down to dinner, I saw 

 the second cutter lower her sail and the crew hurriedly 

 unload the boat. We had just come through a some- 

 what narrow 7 passage between small floes, and I supposed 

 it had narrowed too much to let the boat through. I 

 rounded to, and directed the whaleboat to do the same, 

 and we secured to a floe and finished dinner. The wind 

 had now veered to N. E., and ice seemed to come 

 down upon us on all sides. I could not get back to 

 Chipp to help him without being caught, and he could 

 not get to me. From noon to three p. M. he seemed 

 to be continually loading, unloading, dragging over ice, 

 tracking, and poling, so it was only upon his joining 

 me at 3.30 that I learned the trouble. 



