44 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



happened. We saw, or thought we saw, a rock, not hitherto 

 marked on any map. As we had heard from Commander 

 Werlish that two new rocks had risen out of the water near the 

 Aleutian Isles during the fearful earthquake in San Francisco, 

 we now thought that a new one might have appeared here also ; 

 consequently we took angles to determine its locality, and to 

 make quite sure we bore down towards what we supposed to 

 be the rock. Everybody was on deck, excited beyond measure 

 at the startling fact that something new had been cut out for 

 us to find in the well-known Behring Strait waters. As we 

 came nearer it looked strange, and we ceased talking too loud 

 about the " new rock," or about the name we proposed to give 

 it, etc., but we were within three-quarters of a mile before we 

 were certain that a piece of dirty ice had led us on a wild goose 

 chase, miles out of our course. 



While we were sailing southward, bound for Nome, with a 

 splendid breeze, Mr. Leffingwell and I had a long talk about 

 Mr. Ditlevsen's illness. There was no longer any doubt about 

 it ; he was very ill indeed. 



He thought himself that he had gallstone, and in that case 

 we could hardly take him into the Arctic, though, on the other 

 hand, we did not know what to do without him. We should 

 miss him badly, and, what was worse, the work he was to do 

 would then have to remain undone. We should be obliged to 

 abandon all hope of drawings and of the zoological collections 

 which we had promised to the Hon. W. Rothschild and the 

 Duchess of Bedford. We made up our minds to call another 

 doctor when we arrived at our destination, for a consultation with 

 Dr. Howe; they could then decide whether Mr. Ditlevsen could 

 continue the voyage into the Arctic, or whether we should lose 

 the man, who was most universally liked on board. 



We were heading for Nome, and came within fifty miles 

 when the fair wind left us and a south-easter took its place. As 

 Nome is an open beach exposed to all southerly winds, we could 

 not lie there, and bore off again, making a fair wind of the 

 south-easter and heading for Port Clarence, where we anchored 

 just inside Port Spencer at 6 P.M. 



Mr. Ditlevsen, Dr. Howe, and I went ashore. We had seen 

 large herds of domestic reindeer in the neighbourhood, and 

 Mr. Ditlevsen had a good opportunity for sketching the splendid 



