CHAPTER Xm. 
I HAVE continued my journal long enough to prove 
the wearying sameness of oar days. I wish now to 
say a few words about the local characters of the seat 
of our imprisonment. 
The ice was of several kinds. One was the true 
material of the winter floe, varying in thickness from 
seven feet to as many inches. This was snow-cover- 
ed, patched by fresh water-pools, and sufficiently un- 
altered to retain its crystalline structure in full integ- 
rity. When it was over two feet in thickness, por- 
tions taken from its surface gave no evidence of salt 
under the test of nitrate of silver. 
A second ice I have called water-sodden. It sel- 
dom exceeded a foot in thickness, hut was irregularly 
thawed in patches and striated lines. It was thor- 
oughly infiltrated with salt water, and broke readily 
under a blow, displaying at the lines of fracture the 
vertical prisms of its crystalline structure. This ice 
formed the basis of the pack ; and although, by select- 
