24 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



at 5 P.M. the ship was tearing through the water with only a 

 foresail and a staysail. 



Mr. Leffingwell and Dr. Howe were rapidly becoming tine 

 sailors; they were as quick and as handy as the able 

 seamen, and I saw that they would soon know as much as most 

 of the crew. 



Upon the whole we had a very fine run that day, and when 

 night fell, it was as if we were running through an ocean of 

 fire. The crests of the waves were glittering and shining ; 

 along the sides of the vessel millions of sparks lit up the dark 

 water ; our wake stood out plainly, an illuminated path, and 

 the spray from the bow was flashing and glowing with phos- 

 phorescence. Our little ship was doing finely, jumping so it 

 seemed from wave to wave ; lurching, rolling, and pitching, 

 she made her way across the turbulent sea with 8 J miles to her 

 credit every hour. But again the leak made itself felt : the 

 pumps were working, and we knew that the leak must be rather 

 high up and away aft under the quarter. 



Although it blew hard, the storm did not last long this time, 

 and on June I at 8 P.M. we were again tossed about by the 

 swell, without steerage way, and it was not until June 2 that 

 the wind returned. It was fair and brisk, and we were making 

 five miles in the hour. The wind was too tempting, and we 

 held a council in the cabin, where it was unanimously agreed to 

 go to Kodiak Island to take in water and, if possible, to get a 

 Kodiak bear for the Hon. W. Rothschild. 



By this time Mr. Ditlevsen began to show symptoms of 

 illness, and Mr. Lerfingwell and myself were somewhat anxious, 

 as his condition seemed too serious to be regarded as indisposi- 

 tion caused by sea-sickness. However, we still hoped that he 

 would soon recover. 



On Tuesday, June 5, in spite of storms, calm, and head- 

 winds, we had got so far that we could begin to look out for 

 land, and we were very much interested in a bank of clouds on 

 the northerly horizon. Land ought to be there ; our noon 

 observations had told us that it was less than sixty miles away, 

 but it was not before 7 P.M. that the shout of "Land ho!" 

 brought everybody on deck. There it was, the mountain tops 

 rising above the low-lying clouds, and now and again we could 

 see the lower land through a rift in the fog. It was too 



