3 
Launcliing of the Boat over the Drift Ice from Lovell Point Encampment. 
four hours of unceasing, most harassing, and dangerous work, which fairly put to 
the test the capabihties of every one of my small party, and fully satisfied me that 
I could not have selected a finer boat's crew for a perilous service, had I had the 
whole Arctic squadron to have picked them from. After supper, having set a 
watch for the night as a precaution against a surprise from the bears, whose 
tracks were rather numerous upon the snow on the beach, the buffalo robes 
were spread, and all turned into their felt-bags to enjoy that sound and refresh- 
ing sleep, which seldom fails to attend on the wearied and toilworn, however 
hard may be the couch or inclement the clime. 
Friday 20th, the spot on which we encamped last night is a little to the north- 
ward of Lovell Point, all around a snowy waste, save and except the narrow 
shingle ridge on which the tent stood, and that was bare. The northern sky 
looked black and threatening, not that peculiar dark horizon indicating the 
presence of open water, and hence technically called a water-sky, but the 
lurid appearance preceding bad weather ; the thermometer during the day rose 
no higher than 31° Fahrenheit. We saw four large flocks of geese all flying at 
a considerable height in their usual angular-shaped phalanx, shaping their course 
for the south, a sure sign of winter's near approach. Saw also many dovekiea 
and kittiwakes, and two seals. 
On emerging from our felt-bags this morning at six o'clock, in which, chry- 
salis-like, w^e had been incased during the night, and quitting the confines 
of the tent, we found that but little change had taken place in the scene around us : 
both ice and weather bore much the same aspect. On the outer edge of the ice 
a heavy surf was still breaking, and large floe-pieces had been stranded on the 
beach by the heavy pressure in the night. The atmosphere looked gloomy, 
over-cast, and threatening ; the thermometer had fallen below 29°, and young ice 
formed to the thickness of an inch. After our breakfast of cold bacon and 
biscuit with chocolate, I took a rough sketch of the encampment, and walked 
for about a mile along the beach to the northward, in search of a more promising 
part in the belt of ice for embarkation, but found none, even so practicable for 
the purpose as the place of our encampment. 
A 2 
