CHANCES OF ESCAPE. 
105 
understood when I say that my carpenter and all the 
working men, save Bonsall, are still on their backs; 
and that a month’s preliminary labor is needed before 
I can commence the heavy work of transporting my 
three boats over the ice to the anticipated water. At 
the moment of my writing this, the water is over 
eighty miles in a straight line from our brig. 
“ April 12, Thursday.—The wind still blowing as 
yesterday, from the southward and eastward. This is 
certainly favorable to the advance of open water. The 
long swell from the open spaces in Baffin’s Bay has 
such a powerful effect upon the ice, that I should not 
wonder if the floes about Lifeboat Cove, off McGary 
Island, were broken up by the first of May. 
“Our sick have been without fresh food since the 
5th; but such is the stimulus imparted by our late 
supply that they as yet show no backward symptoms. 
McGary and Ohlsen and Brooks and Riley sun them¬ 
selves daily, and are able to do much useful jobbing. 
Thomas begins to relieve me in cooking, Riley to take 
a spell at the slops, Morton cooks breakfast, and, aided 
by McGary and Ohlsen, has already finished one worsted 
quilted camp-blanket, with which I intend to cover our 
last remaining buffalo-skins. Wilson comes on slowly; 
Dr. Hayes’s toe begins to heal; Sontag is more cheery. 
With the exception of Goodfellow, John, and Whipple, 
I can feel that those of my little household are fast 
becoming men again. 
“April 13, Friday.—Our sick—which still means all 
hands except the cook, which means the captain— 
