58 
BEACON-CAIRN. 
on the coast of Arctic Asia, nothing of ice-upheaval 
has ever been described equal to this. CIZ) 
“Still, anxious beyond measure to get the vessel re¬ 
leased, I forced a boat through the drift to a point 
about a mile north of us, from which 1 could overlook 
the sound. There was nothing to be seen but a melan¬ 
choly extent of impacted drift, stretching northward 
as far as the eye could reach. I erected a small beacon- 
cairn on the point; and, as I had neither paper, pencil, 
nor pennant, I burnt a K. with powder on the rock, 
and scratching 0. K. with a pointed bullet on my. cap- 
lining, hoisted it as the representative of a flag.”* 
With the small hours of Wednesday morning came 
a breeze from the southwest, which was followed by 
such an apparent relaxation of the floes at the slack- 
water of flood-tide that I resolved to attempt an escape 
from our little basin. We soon warped to a narrow 
cul-de-sac between the main pack on one side and the 
rocks on the other, and after a little trouble made our¬ 
selves fast to a berg. 
There was a small indentation ahead, which I had 
noticed on my boat reconnoissance; and, as the breeze 
seemed to be freshening, I thought we might venture 
for it. But the floes were too strong for us : our eight- 
inch hawser parted like a whip-cord. There was no 
* It was our custom, in obedience to a general order, to build cairut 
and leave notices at every eligible point. One of these, rudely marked, 
much as I have described this one, was found by Captain Ilartstenc. 
and, strange to say, was the only direct memorial of my whereabouts 
communicated from some hundred of beacons. 
