844	JEANNETTE- INQUIRY.
sound for the bard work of traveling should we be forced to abandon the ship.
June 16th, Wednesday.—Observations to day place .us in 730 40' 54" N., and 177° 18' 15" E., showing that we have drifted since yesterday thirteen miles to S. 180 E. This is the hardest blow of all, and difficult to stand up under. Are we never to have a change l Our soundings to-day are in twenty-five fathoms, so .I suppose we are drifting towards some shoal on which our ice-field may bring up. I am too disgusted to make any more remarks on such a miserably resulting day. * * *
* * * Discouraging, very. And yet my motto is, "Hope on, hope ever." A very good one it is when one's surroundings are more natural than ours ; but situated as we are it is better in the abstract than in realization. There can be no greater wear and tear on a man's mind and patience than this life in the pack. The absolute monotony; the unchanging round of hours; the awakening to the same things and the same ecnditions that one saw just before losing one's self in sleep; the same Ikees; the same dogs; the same ice; the same conviction that to-morrow will be exactly the same as to-day, if not more disagreeable; the absolute impotence to do anything, to go anywhere, or to change one's situation all iota; the realization that food is being consumed and fuel burned with no valuable result, beyond sustaining life; the knowledge that nothing has been accomplished thus far to save this expedition from being denominated an utter failure ; all these things crowd in with irresistible force on my reasoning rower each night as I sit down to reflect upon the events of the day, and but for some still small voice within me that tells me this can hardly be the ending of all my labor and zeal, I should be tempted to despair.
All our books are read, our stories related; our games of chess, cards, and checkers long since discontinued. When we assemble in the morning at breakfast we make daily a fresh start. Any dreams, amusing or peculiar, are related and laughed over. Theories as to whether we shall eventually drift N. E. or N. W. are brought forward and discussed. Seals' livers as a change of diet are pronounced a success. The temperature of the morning watch is inquired into, the direction and velocity of the wind, and if it is snowing (as it generally is) we call it a "fine summer day." After breakfast we smoke. Chipp gets a sounding and announces a drift E. S. E. or S. E., as the ease may be. We growl thereat. Dunbar and Alexy go off for seals with as many dogs as do not run away from them en route. The doctor examines Danenhower and Iversen, his two chronic patients. Melville draws a little for this journal, sings a little, and stirs everybody up to a realization that it is daytime. Danenhower talks incessantly—on any or all subjects, with or without an audience. The doctor moralizes between observations; I smoke; Mr. Newcomb makes his preparations for dredging specimens; Mr. Collins has not appeared, his usual hour being 12.30 in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the men have been set at work; a sled and dogs are dispatched for the day's snow for washing purposes. The decks are cleared up, soundings made, berth-deck inspected, and work of painting,.scraping, or whatever is on hand commenced. The day's rations are served out to the cook, and then we commence to drift out on the ice to dig ditches, to look at the dogs, calculate the waste in the ice since yesterday, and the probable amount by to-morrow. The dredge is lowered and hauled. I get the sun at meridian, and we go to dinner. After dinner more smoke, more drawing, more singing, more talk, more ditch and canal-making, more hunting, more work, more dog inspection, and some attempts at napping until four P. iii., when we are all around