PASSAGE THROUGH THE ICE 57 



The water was so quiet and shining that a short distance 

 from the ship it looked as if oil had been poured over it, and the 

 rays of the setting sun coloured the white ice with a delicate 

 pink, while the dark blue shadows on the ice facing south 

 looked deeper and bluer against the white and red. It was 

 fine, but would have been still finer if we had been able to 

 make a run of two or three miles an hour towards land, towards 

 open water, and towards Point Barrow, the place we were 

 especially anxious to pass. 



Thursday, August 2. I stayed on deck till 3A.M. We had 

 not been sailing for the last five hours only drifting. As the 

 ship got stuck in some young ice and could not move, I went 

 below to sleep, leaving Mr. Storkersen in charge. 



While I was below, Mr. Leffingwell, Dr. Howe, and 

 Storkersen saw a bear and went after it, with the satis- 

 factory result that they called me at 7 A.M. to tell me the news 

 of the bear's death. Besides the bear they had the good luck 

 to shoot a walrus, and were very busy when I at last came on 

 deck. The weather was splendid not a breath of air, the 

 sky clear as crystal, and the sun shining on the glittering white 

 ice with such brilliancy that it hurt the eyes to look at it ; on 

 a small piece near at hand Dr. Howe with some of the men 

 were busy skinning the bear. In the tackles the walrus was 

 hanging, also ready for skinning, and the dogs, crazy with joy, 

 tugged at their chains and jumped backwards and forwards in 

 their desire to get loose, never for a second losing sight of the 

 pleasing spectacle of meat and of blood running over the snow. 

 When the meat was got on board, every dog seemed quite 

 beside himself, and not till each of them had got a large chunk 

 did the noise subside, but even then only for a short time, as 

 the dogs had not been fed on meat since we left St. Lawrence 

 Island. .To-day they had all they wanted; let the morrow 

 take care for itself! 



At noon a light breeze sprang up, and we left the icefloe we 

 had been tied to, leaving ample evidence of the killing of the bear 

 and walrus in the blood on its hitherto spotless surface. From 

 the crow's-nest we could see a dark streak far away on the 

 horizon, which we at first thought was water, but later on it 

 turned out to be land. 



At any rate we made for it, thinking that even if it were land 



