WINTERING IN THE BAY 29 



by visits between the ships, and to the snowhouses of the natives 

 built on the ice close alongside. 



On the night of the llth of December a second sad occur- 

 rence happened. When everybody was busy preparing letters 

 for the mail about to be sent to Churchill by a couple of 

 Eskimos from 'Baker lake, James O'Connel, a cabin-boy of weak 

 mind, left the ship to go to the snowhouses, and wandered away 

 in a snowstorm, which commenced shortly after his departure. 

 He had been in the habit of hiding behind the launch, or in 

 other places abeut the decks, where he would remain for hours, 

 and, in consequence, his absence was unnoticed by his mess 

 mates until the following morning. Immediately upon the 

 alarm being given, the crews of both ships and all the natives 

 turned out and searched systematically, in all directions from 

 the ship, but, owing to the blizzard, without success. The storm 

 continued to rage during the next two days, so that it was only 

 on the 15th that definite information concerning his fate was 

 obtained by the natives, who traced his track in the snow to 

 the open water in the southwest some three miles from the ship, 

 where the poor fellow had gone before the strong wind. There 

 is no doubt that death came quickly, and we were relieved of 

 the thoughts of his possible sufferings had he continued to 

 wander about the country and finally died of exhaustion and 

 cold. 



The short days of mid-winter and the excessive cold of the 

 early spring practically rendered impossible any surveying or 

 other outside scientific work until the month of April, when 

 preparations were made for exploratory and surveying work. 

 During the winter Mr. Grossman made a very efficient ice-boring 

 machine, which worked admirably in making holes for sound- 

 ing through the thick ice. Weather observations were taken 

 five times daily during our stay at Fullerton, and these, 

 together with the readings taken on the voyage, are printed in 



