624 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



Dundee, Scotland, in the afternoon of September 17th, and the 

 next day, by telegraph, the news was received of their safety. 



Their story corroborated that which had previously been 

 learned from the other survivors of the expedition, without 

 adding materially anything further to our information. The 

 scientific results of the observations have not yet been printed. 



The following extracts from the diary kept by John Heron, 

 the steward, who was one of the party left by the Polaris on 

 the ice, are most interesting as the record of what was probably 

 the most remarkable voyage ever made, consisting, as it did, of 

 a six months' voyage on floating ice: 



"October 15th. — Gale from the S. W. ; ship made fast to floe; 

 bergs pressed in and nipped the ship until we thought she was 

 going down ; threw provisions overboard, and nineteen souls 

 got out on the floe to receive them and haul them up on the 

 ice. A large berg came sailing down, struck the floe, shivered 

 it to pieces, and freed the ship. She was out of sight in five 

 minutes. We were afloat on different pieces of ice. We had 

 two boats. Our men were picked up, myself among them, and 

 landed on the main floe, which we found to be cracked in many 

 places. We remained shivering all night. Saved very little 

 provisions. 16th, Morning fine; light breeze from the N. The 

 berg that did us so much damage half a mile to the N. E. of us. 

 Plenty of open water. We lost no time in launching the boats, 

 getting the provisions in, and pulling around the berg, when 

 we saw the Polaris. She had steam up and succeeded in getting 

 a harbor. In the evening we started with the boats for shore. 

 Had we reached it we could have walked on board in an hour, 

 hut the ice set in so fast that we could not pull through it. We 

 had a narrow escape in jumping from piece to piece until w T e 

 reached the floe. We dragged the boat two or three hundred 

 yards, and made for our provisions, which were on a distant 

 part of the floe. We cannot see our other boat ; the snow-drift 

 has covered our late tracks. 23d. With the aid of a marine 



