302 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
was just in the right ballast for bucking the ice; 
besides being small, she was short for her beam 
and was quick to answer the helm. 
The ice through which we were making our toil¬ 
some way was not so heavy as it was closely packed. 
It was great to see the good old Bear charging and 
recharging, twisting and turning; being heavy in 
the water she was able, with her great momentum, 
to smash off points and corners of the ice and make 
her way through it. I should have been delighted 
to be in the crow 5 s-nest, for steering such a ship 
through the ice is not unlike driving a big automo¬ 
bile through a crowded thoroughfare; this time, 
however, I was a passenger. 
Near Wainwright Inlet we found a large four- 
masted schooner ashore. The Bear tried in vain 
to get her off; she was fast aground and heavily 
loaded. The only thing that could be done was to 
take her cargo out of her. While we were stand¬ 
ing by, the ice began to close in and we had to turn 
round and steam south in a hurry, leaving our big 
line with the schooner. When we got back again 
some days later she had been floated all right. 
We reached Point Barrow on the evening of the 
twenty-first of August. Here I found McCon¬ 
nell, who had come in a small schooner from the 
eastward. Tie told me all about what had hap¬ 
pened to Stefansson after the Karluk had been 
