A FOX. 
357 
the snow surfaces. The hummocks seem already to 
have diminished by evaporation. They are less angu- 
lar, and blend in rounder lines with the snow drifts. 
Night has gone. I see still at midnight the circum- 
polar stars, and Jupiter, in his splendor, on the east- 
ern sky ; hut I can read at midnight. 
April 25, Friday. Walked to open water to the 
northeast. The snow is melted through the crust. I 
sink up to my knees. Saw the tracks of a fox, very 
recent. The little fellow had come from the direction 
of the poor wounded bear, now cut off from us by the 
broken ice, swimming the lead at its narrowest cross- 
ing, some fifteen paces. So long as his patron could 
have supplied him with food, the little parasite would 
not have left him. It may he that the bear has per- 
ished from inability to hunt for both. 
“ Saw a right whale ! Saw also a large flock of 
geese at 9 A.M., winging their way to the northward, 
and flying very low. They were so irregular in their 
order of flight, that I would have taken them for ducks 
— the Smnateria ; hut my messmates say geese. 
‘•‘■April 26, Saturday. One of the changes which we 
must expect has brought back to us comparative win- 
ter. Yesterday gave us a noonday and morning tem- 
perature of +28°. It is now (10 P.M.) —9°. It was 
-7° at noonday, with a bright, clear sunshine. The 
change is due to a northerly wind. It has blown 
steadily throughout the day from northwest by north. 
We hope much from it in the way of drift. Our lat- 
itude was 69° 40' 42'''N ; our longitude, 63° 08' 46" W. 
“ The wind change has given us no new ruptures. 
Indeed, it seems to have shut up the environing ‘ leads’ 
around us. This may he a good preface to a squeeze ; 
for I can see no water from the mast-head. 
