228 
SHORE INACCESSIBLE. 
teen pounds, soaking it thoroughly in a composition 
of caoutchouc, ether, and linseed oil, the last in quan- 
tity. After it was finished and nearly dried, I wrap- 
ped it up in a dry covering of coarse muslin, and placed 
it for the pight in a locked closet, at some distance 
from the cook's galley, where the temperature was be- 
tween 80° and 90°. In the morning it was destroyed. 
The wrapper was there, retaining its form, and not 
discolored ; but thfe outer folds of the tent were smok- 
ing ; and, as I unrolled it, fold after fold showed more 
and more marks of combustion, till at the centre it 
was absolutely charred. There was neither flame nor 
spark. 
In a few days more the tumult of the ice-fields had 
made all chance of reaching the shore hopeless. But 
the mean time was not passed without efforts. 
October 23. I started with a couple of men on an- 
other attempt to reach the shore. After five miles of 
walking, with recurring alternations of climbing, leap- 
ing, rolling, and soaking, we found that the ice had 
driven out from the coast, and a black lane of open 
water stopped our progress. This is the seventh at- 
tempt to cross the ice, all meeting with failure from 
the same cause. The motion of ice, influenced by 
winds, tides, and currents, keeps constantly abrading 
the shore-line. Any outward drift, of course, makes 
an irregular lane of water, which a single night con- 
verts into ice ; the returning floes heap this in tables 
one over another ; and the next outward set carries off 
the floes again, crowned with their new increment. 
" The haze gathered around us about an hour after 
starting, and the hummocks were so covered with snow 
that the chasms often received us middle deep. We 
walked five hours and a half, making in all but eleven 
