338 ' ICE COMMOTIONS. 
that my one "ball could not align his mate. This 
was the first game we had obtained since the fall: 
he was divided, poor fellow, between two of my scur- 
vy patients. In getting this bird out, I came very 
near getting myself in; and that, when a ducking 
means a freezing, is no fun. 
" 10 P.M. To-night finds me knocked up. Be it 
known, that after crawling on my belly, not like the 
wisest of animals, for two hours, I came nearly with- 
in shot of a week's fresh meat. The fresh meat dived, 
first shaking his whisker tentacles at my disconsolate 
beard, leaving me half frozen and wholly discontent- 
ed. Fool-like, after the long walk back, the wann- 
ing, the drying, and the feeding, I returned by the 
other long walk to the ice-openings, tramped for 
two hours, saw nothing but frost-smoke, and came 
back again, dinneiiess, with legs quaking, and spirits 
wholly out of tune. 
"Our drift to-day, at meridian, was in the neigh- 
borhood of 9 miles; our latitude was 71° 9^ 18''''. 
"31arch 23, Sunday. After divine service, started 
for the ice-openings. We are now in the centre of 
an area, which we estimated roughly as four miles 
from north to south, and a little more east and west. 
On reaching what was yesterday's sea-beach, I was 
forced to recant in a measure my convictions as to 
the force of the opposing floes. Yesterday's beach 
existed no longer; it was swallowed up, crushed, 
crumbled, submerged, or uplifted in long ridges of 
broken ice. 
" The actions were still in progress, and fast in- 
truding upon the solid old ice which is our home- 
stead. The ice-tables now crumbling into hummocks 
were from eight to fourteen inches thick, generally 
