our sleeping
hours in sitting up to watch for it. Our former igloos being lost to us,
there was nothing to do but to build another set and turn in
immediately. It goes without saying that this extra work was not
particularly agreeable. That night we slept with our mittens on, ready
at a moment's notice for anything that might happen. Had a new lead
formed directly across the sleeping platform of our igloo, precipitating
us into the icy water, we should not have been surprised after the first
shock of the cold bath, but should have clambered out, scraping the
water off our fur garments, and made ready for the next move on the part
of our treacherous antagonist--the ice.

Notwithstanding the extra fatigue and the precarious position of our
camp, this last march had put us well beyond my record of three years
before, probably 87 deg. 12', so that I went to sleep with the satisfaction
of having at last beaten my own record, no matter what the morrow might
bring forth.

The following day, March 29, was not a happy one for us. Though we were
all tired enough to rest, we did not enjoy picnicking beside this arctic
Phlegethon, which, hour after hour, to the north, northeast, and
northwest, seemed to belch black smoke like a prairie fire. So dense was
this cloud caused by the condensation of the vapor and the reflection in
it of the black water below that we could not see the other shore of the
lead--if, indeed, it had a northern shore. As far as the evidence of our
senses went, we might be encamped on the edge of that open polar sea
which myth-makers have imagined as forever barring the way of man to the
northern end of the earth's axis. It was heart-breaking, but there was
nothing to do but wait. After breakfast we overhauled the sledges and
made a few repairs, dried out some of our garments over the little oil
lamps which we carried for that purpose, and Bartlett made a sounding of
1,260 fathoms, but found no bottom. He did not let all the line go out,
fearing there might be a defect in the wire which would lose us more of
it, as we were desirous of keeping all that we had for a sounding at our
"farthest north," which we hoped would be at the Pole itself. I had only
one sounding lead now left, and I would not let Bartlett risk it at this
point, but had him use a pair of sledge shoes (brought along for this
very purpose from the last broken up sledge) to carry the line down.

When our watches told us that it was bedtime--fo