Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/137

 success, and the schooner was once more in safety. The air falling calm, and the temperature going down to 10° below zero, we were now soon firmly frozen up, and were protected against any further accidents of this nature, and were rejoiced to find ourselves able to run over the bay in security. In anticipation of this event, I had set Jensen and Peter to work making harness for the dog's, and on that day I took the first drive with one of my teams. The animals had picked up finely, and were in excellent condition, and I had satisfied myself both as to their qualities and those of their driver, Jensen. The day was indeed a lively one to all hands. The ice having closed up firmly with the land, the necessity no longer existed for keeping a channel open for the boats; and the hunters, being able now to get ashore with ease, set off early in the morning, in great glee, after reindeer.

On the day following, the hawsers by which we had thus far been moored to the rocks were cut out of the ice and elevated on blocks of the same material. We also made a stairway of slabs of this same cheap Arctic alabaster, from the upper deck down to the frozen sea; and, a deep snow falling soon afterward, we banked this up against the schooner's sides as a further protection against the cold.

During the next few days the teams were employed in collecting the reindeer which had been cached in various places, and when this labor was completed our inventory of fresh supplies was calculated to inspire very agreeable sensations.

The schooner being now snugly cradled in the ice, we had no longer occasion for the nautical routine, so I adopted a landsman's watch, with one officer and one sailor; the sea day, which commences at noon,