116 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



hard enough by the recent southeast winds to block the 

 way? 



The mate went on duty. First, then, he steered 

 northeast to more open water, east and southeast, and 

 at last southerly, led on by the sky sign of blue and 

 white bands of clouds near the horizon, indicating clear 

 water. Steadily we made our way, now through fairly 

 open places, now crowding denser pans out of our track, 

 till at length the welcome groundswell lifted our forefoot 

 a little as the subdued semblance of a wave wriggled to 

 us under the ice, and by 9 p. m. we were in open water 

 again. We had nearly been caught in the ice, and no 

 one could tell when, if ever, we should have been released 

 again. It was near this position that the "Jeannette" 

 was beset in 1879 to drift for twenty months and finally 

 be crushed. I felt relieved. My hunting companions 

 did not seem to think seriously of the matter at all. 

 They apparently assumed all the time that it was a mat- 

 ter of course that wherever we got in we could get out. 

 But the lateness of the season, so near the usual time of 

 freezing up, made me rather anxious. 



Elting went on deck early to find the captain on 

 watch, bucking crowded broken ice in a calm sea covered 

 with frozen slush an inch deep. 



"I'm headin' for Wrangell Island as straight as a 

 bee," was his answer to our now usual greeting. 



We never knew an hour at a time what way we were 

 bound, in these days. When the mate took charge at 

 4 A. M. he headed southeast at once, for fear of the sea 

 freezing and tying up the boat; as he said that this 

 "mush" immediately preceded the freeze-up. The ther- 

 mometer stood at 29°, about the freezing point of the sea, 

 and the wind was a mere northwest whisper. By six we 



