THE OPEN WATER. 
239 
seasons here, as well as the influence which they exert 
upon the habits of the migratory wild-fowl, they were 
thoroughly cased in ice, and not a nest was to be seen. 
I ascended some eight hundred feet to the summit 
of Pekiutlik, and, looking out, beheld the open water, 
so long the goal of our struggles, spread out before me. 
It extended seemingly to Cape Alexander, and was 
nearer to the westward than the south of my position 
by some five or six miles. But the ice in the latter 
direction led into the curve of the bay, and was thus 
PEKIUTLIK, (THE BOBBING SEAL.) 
protected from the wind and swell. My jaded com¬ 
rades pleaded anxiously in favor of the direct line to 
the water; but I knew that this ice would give us both 
safer and better travel. I determined to adopt the in¬ 
shore route. Our position at Pekiutlik, as we deter¬ 
mined carefully by the mean of several observations, 
is in latitude 78° 22' 1" and longitude 74° 10'. We 
connected it with Cape Alexander and other deter¬ 
mined stations to the north and west. 
The channel between the islands was much choked 
with upreared ice; but our dogs had now come back to 
