shooting a sheep, put an end to this episode of our mission.

After great difficulty in getting out of the ice we ran all day on
Sunday, July 31, along the edge of the pack with Wrangel Island in
sight, but were unable to find a favorable lead that would take us
nearer the land than twelve or fifteen miles. The principal events that
go to make up the record of our cruise for the next ten days were the
finding of a ship's lower yard; the fabulous numbers of eider ducks seen
off the Siberian coast, and the usual encounters with fogs, bears, and
ice.

On the morning of August 11, we were so near the unexplored land that we
were most sanguine about getting ashore, although it seemed as if a
journey would have first to be made over the ice. In the afternoon the
chances were so good that I volunteered to go ashore on the ice on the
morning of the 12th in company with Lieutenant Reynolds, Engineer Owen,
and two men. Preparations were made accordingly; the skin boat, rations,
etc., being got ready, and we spent a restless night in anticipating the
events of the coming day. We were called at five o'clock on the morning
of the 12th, and while eating a hurried breakfast the ship steamed
inshore. We were fully prepared for the undertaking; but finding the
leads in the ice more favorable than on the preceding evening, the
little steamer jammed and crashed along in a labyrinthine course not
without great difficulty, for at times she was completely beset by great
masses of ice, which she steamed against at full speed for several
minutes before they showed sign of giving way, and it seemed that all
endeavors to get out of the pack would be futile. Happily, all these
difficulties yielded, and a clear way being seen to a water hole just
off the mouth of a river, we anchored in ten fathoms near some grounded
floebergs, about a quarter of a mile off shore. A boat was then got