Page:The frozen North; an account of Arctic exploration for use in schools (IA frozennorthaccou00hort).pdf/91

 To the southwest lay Herald island, which the men attempted to explore. Taking a dog sledge, they traveled to within six miles of the beach, where they found open water, so that they were obliged to return to the ship without setting foot on land. They found the ship drifting with the ice, and in danger of being crushed between the huge masses which surrounded her. Thundering noises from far away could be heard as the blocks of ice ground and grated together. At times the ice separated near the ship, leaving it in clear water. Again, the pack closed up about the stanch little vessel, which was like an eggshell at the mercy of enormous blocks of floating ice.

But all this time the Jeannette was drifting, and at length she came in sight of Wrangel Land. Before De Long lost sight of this land, he satisfied himself that it was an