136 
PREPARING FOR ESCAPE. 
Alexander. It is a subject of serious anxiety to me. 
Our experience has taught us that the swell caused by 
these winds breaks up the ice rapidly. Now, there can 
be no swell to the southward, or these heavy gales 
would have done this now. It augurs ill not only for 
the possible release of the brig, but for the facility of 
our boat-voyage if we shall be obliged to forsake her, 
as every thing seems to say we must do soon. Last 
year, on the 10th of May, the water was free around 
Littleton Island, and coming up to Avithin two miles 
of Refuge Inlet. It is now forty miles farther off! 
“Petersen and Olilsen are working by short spells 
at the boats and sledges. 
“I will not leave the brig until it is absolutely cer¬ 
tain that she cannot thaw out this season; but every 
thing shall be matured for our instant departure as 
soon as her fate is decided. Every detail is arranged; 
and, if the sick go on as they have done, I do not doubt 
but that we may carry our boats some thirty or forty 
miles over the ice before finally deciding whether we 
must desert the brig. 
“April 20, Friday.—A relief-watch, of Riley, Mor¬ 
ton, and Bonsall, are preparing to saw out sledge- 
runners from our cross-beams. It is slow work. They 
are very weak, and the thermometer sinks at night to 
—26°. Nearly all our beams have been used up for 
fuel; but I have saved enough to construct two long 
sledges of seventeen feet six inches each. I want a 
sledge sufficiently long to bring the weight of the 
whaleboat and her stowage within the line of the 
