80 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
and extra blades, shaving-soap, hair-clippers, gog¬ 
gles, pipes, sweaters, shirts, and various other 
things. 
As soon as it was light on the twenty-ninth I 
kept a sharp eye out for land; south by west, by 
the compass, I could see a blue cloud raised up on 
the horizon. According to the soundings we 
should have been nearer Wrangell Island than 
Herald Island; I was inclined to think that it was 
Herald Island, although working out our position 
with, our chronometer readings gave us Herald 
Island sixty miles to the south. Afterwards I 
found out that our observations at this time were 
correct but that the soundings were not right on 
the chart. What deceived us more than anything 
else was the big mirage; Herald Island looked 
large and distorted for many days. Later in the 
day I went aloft to see if I could make out which 
island it really was but on account of the imperfect 
light I found it impossible to tell. 
Some time during the night the ice cracked 
about a hundred yards from the ship and made an 
open ribbon of water ten inches wide; during the 
next day the young ice was cracking a good deal 
all around us. There was no lateral movement of 
the ice. 
The next day was the last day of 1913. Our 
time was six hours and thirty-six minutes later than 
