APPENDIX 705 



too hard. As we drifted toward Point Barrow the wind dropped abnost 

 to a calm, the current slackened, and by the time we arrived off Cooper 

 Island the ice stopped and there was no pressure. This was the last 

 week of September. During our stay off Cooper Island no one talked 

 about wanting to go ashore except one of the natives, but the Captain 

 refused to let him go. We were so near the land and the ice was so 

 steady that any one could have gone ashore who tried. [According to 

 the accounts of the natives ashore who watched the ship, they could 

 see her ropes with their bare eyes. She was probably from three to five 

 miles from land and was nearly stationary for several days.] 



About October 4th or 5th a southeast wind gradually freshened to a 

 gale and we started drifting northwest. We continued on that line 

 through October, the water deepening until the sounding machine 

 showed 900 and 1,000 fathoms. During this month the Captain had 

 some drag-nets set up and he also made several himself for Mr. Murray. 

 These drags were continually on the bottom until the ship was crushed. 

 The nets were hauled up at noon and emptied and reset. Murray got 

 what he called "lots of interesting specimens " Several times during 

 October the ice cracked in such a way that we had open water close 

 to the ship. It was within fifty yards at one time. During October 

 and November the natives killed between forty and fifty seals, one 

 small bear and five foxes. Early in November easterly winds blew and 

 set us to the south and southwest until about the 20th of December, 

 when we finally landed up against the Siberian shore ice. 



During the month of November the Captain had all the deck-load 

 of kerosene and lumber placed on the ice and also all the hard bread, 

 rice, beef, pork, the sleds and canoes. The crew removed the wooden 

 cases from the pemmican and sewed it up in drill to lighten the loads 

 in case of emergency. The Captain put me to work at making two 

 canoe sleds [for hauling the Eskimo-type skin boats or umiaks]. Ac- 

 cording to his directions, I made also three sleds of the type used by 

 Peary. Two of these sleds were eventually used for going ashore in 

 Wrangel Island and one was used by the Captain for his Siberian 

 trip. 



During the drift the scientific staff were engaged in their various 

 occupations. Murray and Beuchat were writing continually, the Doc- 

 tor was making up clothes from Burberry for all the staff, and Mc- 

 Kinlay was engaged in meteorology. Malloeh had a theodolite set up 

 on the ice and every night when the sky was clear he would be on the 

 ice taking sights and keeping the ship's position well in hand. 



About the beginning of December the Captain had the fires drawn 

 and the engines cleaned up. That done, the engineers made ice picks 

 and cooking pots. There were a lot of new aluminum cooking pots of 

 all sizes in the outfit of the ship but the Captain considered them un- 

 suitable, preferring cooking pots made by cutting in half a five-gallon 

 Standard Oil kerosene tin and having a tin lid made to fit. These 



