762 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



Upon halting for supper we, of course, built a tre- 

 mendous fire, for the cords of wood along the beach 

 had no owner but ourselves. In front of this we sat 

 and roasted, while our wet clothes steamed in clouds. 

 Our beds we made of logs, and our coverings of our 

 blankets, and after we were all down our half of the 

 cut tent was hauled over us like a tarpaulin over mer- 

 chandize. Day's walk, five miles. < 



September 21st, Wednesday. — During the night 

 snow fell heavily, and the wind increased. Our tent 

 cover blew away from us, owing to a mistake which we 

 made of turning in with our feet to the fire and our 

 heads to the wind. Besides this, we were all frequently 

 awake to shake, for I must confess it was a very cold 

 bed. 



At six I called all hands. S. E. gale, snow and fog. 

 At 7.30 we loaded up and went ahead until 11.30. Boyd 

 and Sam made good progress, and Ericksen did better 

 than yesterday, but still it was terribly slow going ; four 

 miles was all that we covered in the four hours. I fol- 

 lowed the heavy timber on the south bank of the river, 

 though we saw no water except when thin ice let us 

 through knee-deep into swamp-grass and mud. On the 

 northern bank there appeared no drift-wood. Numer- 

 ous fox-traps were seen, some of them sprung. Deer 

 tracks were seen in large number, evidently made by 

 a large herd. 



At eleven Nindemann, whom I had sent ahead of ev- 

 erybody to look for game, came up to me and reported 

 that we had reached a river one hundred yards wide, 

 with good, smooth ice along the shore. We had been 

 running about a southwest course, and this river was in 

 the same direction ; but now the line of heavy timber 

 was on the north side, just away from us. This gave 



