278 FARTHEST NORTH 



did yesterday. To-day, again, this stretched far away 

 towards the northern horizon, where the same dark at- 

 mosphere indicated some extent of open water. I now 

 gave the order to put the engine together again ; they 

 told me it could be done in a day and a half or at most 

 two days. We must go north and see what there is up 

 there. I think it possible that it may be the boundary 

 between the ice-drift the Jeannette was in and the pack 

 we are now drifting south with — or can it be land ? 



" We had kept company quite long enough with the 

 old, now broken-up floe, so worked ourselves a little way 

 astern after dinner, as the ice was beginning to draw 

 together. Towards evening the pressure began again in 

 earnest, and was especially bad round the remains of our 

 old floe, so that I believe we may congratulate ourselves 

 on having left it. It is evident that the pressure here 

 stands in connection with, is perhaps caused by, the tidal 

 wave. It occurs with the greatest regularity. The ice 

 slackens twice and packs twice in 24 hours. The 

 pressure has happened about 4, 5, and 6 o'clock in the 

 morning, and almost at exactly the same hour in the 

 afternoon, and in between we have always lain for some 

 part of the time in open water. The very great pressure 

 just now is probably due to the spring-tide ; we had new 

 moon on the 9th, which was the first day of the press- 

 ure Then it was just after mid-day when we noticed 

 it, but it has been later every day, and now it is at 



8 P.M." 



