Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/422



INSPECTION OF THE SCHOONER.—METHOD OF REPAIRING.—THE SERIOUS NATURE OF THE INJURY.—THE SCHOONER UNFIT FOR ANY FURTHER ICE-ENCOUNTERS.—EXAMINATION OF MY RESOURCES.—PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.

The extracts from my journal quoted in the preceding chapter will have sufficed to give the reader an understanding of the results of my spring and summer sledging, and he will have perceived that they were regarded by me as having laid down a correct basis for future exploration. With the character of the Smith Sound ice I had become more familiar, and the accurate determination of the coast-lines enabled me more readily to calculate upon the influence of the summer drift; while the rotten state of the ice in Kennedy Channel, even at so early a period of the season as May, and the existence of open water beyond it, left no doubt upon my mind as to the practicability of getting a vessel through under ordinarily favorable conditions of the season.

It will be perceived, therefore, that my future course was dependent upon the condition of the schooner.

Although I have not made more than a passing allusion to the report of Mr. McCormick as to the damage sustained by the vessel, yet the reader will have gathered from my journal that it caused me much anxiety. I was too much prostrated after my return