2nd Jan., 1858.—New Year's day was a second edition of Christmas, and quite as pleasantly spent. We dwelt much upon the anticipations of the future, being a more agreeable theme than the failure of the past. I confess to a hearty welcome for the new year—anxious, of course, that we may escape uninjured, and sufficiently early to pursue the object of our voyage.
Exactly at midnight on the 31st December the arrival of the new year was announced to me by our band—two flutes and an accordion—striking up at my door. There was also a procession, or perhaps I should say a continuation of the band; these performers were grotesquely attired, and armed with frying-pans, gridirons, kettles, pots, and pans, with which to join in and add to the effect of the other music!
SUFFERINGS OF AN ARCTIC PARTY.
We have a very level hard walk alongside the ship; it is narrowed to two or three yards in width by a snow-bank four feet high. In the face of this bank some twenty-five holes have been excavated for the dogs, and in them they spend most of their time. It looks very formidable in the moonlight, being a good imitation of a casemated battery.
After our rubber of whist on New Year's night Petersen related to us some of his dreadful sufferings when with the party which had left Dr. Kane. They spent the months of October and November in Booth Sound, lat. 77°; all that time upon the verge of starvation, unable to advance or retreat. For these two months they had no other fuel than their small cedar boat, the smoke of which was not endurable in their wretched hut, and without light, for the sun left them in October, unless we except one inch and a half of taper daily, which they made out of a lump of bees'-wax that accidently found its way into their boat before leaving the ship. In December they regained their vessel. I am surprised that no account of the extreme hardships of this party—so far exceeding that of their shipmates on board—has ever appeared; and I regret it, as I believe they owed their lives to the experience and fidelity of their interpreter Petersen. At first the Esquimaux assisted them; latterly they were quite unable to do so, and became anxious to get rid of their visitors. Observing how weakened they had become, the Esquimaux endeavored to separate them from their guns and from each other, and even used threatening language.
ICE ACTED ON BY WIND ONLY.
During December we drifted 67 miles, directly down Baffin's Bay towards the Atlantic, and are now in lat. 74°. Although it is quite impossible to discriminate between the several influences which probably govern our movements, or to ascertain how much is due to each of them—such as the relative positions of ice, land, and open water, winds, currents, and earth's rotation—yet it appears in the present instance that the wind is almost the sole agent in hastening this vast continent of ice towards the latitudes of its dissolution. We move before the wind in proportion to its strength: we remain stationary in calm weather. Neither surface nor submarine current has been detected; the large icebergs obey the same influences as the surface ice. We have noticed a slight set to the westward—it is not likely to be produced by current, and may be the result of the earth's motion from west to east.
6th.—Many lanes of water. A seal has been seen, the only one for six weeks. Of the old ice which so closely hemmed us in up to the middle of September, there is hardly any within several miles of us except the large floe-piece we are frozen to. Every crack or lane which opens is quickly covered with young ice, so that it cannot close again; and in this manner the old ice has been spread out. I rejoice in its dispersion!
RETURN OF THE SUN.
To-day I put a tumblerful of our strong ale (Allsopp's) on deck to freeze: this was soon effected, the temperature being -35°. After bringing it below, and when its temperature had risen to 17°, it was almost all thawed—at 22° it was completely so: it looked muddy, but settled after standing for a couple of hours, when I drank it off, in every way satisfied with my experiment and my beer: it seemed none the worse for its freezing, but rather flat from its long exposure in a tumbler.