368 
CUTTING OUT. 
refracted tops of the Lancaster Bay headlands, our last 
land. 
^^May 20, Tuesday. So snow-hlind that I can bare- 
ly see to write. A gauzy film floats between me and 
every thing else. I have been walking twelve miles 
upon the ice. No sun, but a peculiar misty, opalescent 
glare. I bagged thirty-three Auks ; but my snow- 
blindness avenges them." 
For some days after this entry my snow-blindness 
unfitted me for active duty. Several of the officers 
and men 'shared the visitation. Captain De Haven 
more severely than any of us. My next quotation 
from my journal dates of the 24th. 
"May 24, Saturday. The ship shows signs of change, 
grating a little in her icy cradle, and rising at least 
nine inches forward. The work of removing the ice 
goes on painfully, but constantly. The blocks are now 
hoisted with winch and capstan by a purchase from 
the fore-yard; the saw, of course, pioneering. The 
blocks when taken out resemble great break-water 
stones, measuring sometimes eight by six feet. 
" Thus far, by persevering labor, we have cut a four- 
feet wide trench to our starboard gangway, a little 
vacant pool of six yards by three in our bows, and a 
second trench now reaching amidships of our fore- 
chains. 
" The difference of level between the deck at our 
bows and stern is still five feet three inches. It is 
proposed to launch the brig, as it were, from her ice- 
ways. To this purpose a screw jack is to be applied 
aft, and strong purchases on the ice ahead. The ex- 
periment will take place this afternoon. We have 
now been five months and a half, since the seventh 
of December, living on an inclined plane of about one 
foot in sixteen. 
I 
