IN THE MELVILLE BAY PACK 



21 



i 



51', and longitude about 60° W. Mr. Peary fixed the points 

 with his pocket sextant and the ship's compass, and then made 

 a sketch of the headlands. The ice looks rotten, but yet it 

 holds together too firmly to permit us to force a passage. 

 We measured some of the 

 floes, and found the thickest 

 to be two and a half feet. It 

 has seemed very raw to-day, 

 owing largely to a slight north- 

 west wind ; and for the first 

 time the average temperature 

 has been below the freezing- 

 point, being 31^° F. 



Friday, July 10. This morn- 

 ing the rigging was covered 

 with hoar-frost, making the 

 "Kite" look like a "phantom 

 ship." The fog hung heavily 



about us, shutting r 



I 

 out the land com^ 



pletely. In the \ 

 forenoon a sound- [._ _ "^ \JiP* _J 



ing was made, but Sailing Through the Pack, 



no bottom was found at 343 fathoms. While we were at din- 

 ner, without any warning the " Kite " began to move, steam 

 was immediately gotten up, and for an hour and a half we cut 

 our way through the ice, which had become very rotten, large 



