After four hours of such work as dock cutting entails, it was poor comfort for us to return on board wet, cold, and hungry, only to find that our fires had been allowed to burn out, and that we could neither get a cup of tea to refresh ourselves with, nor a chance of warming ourselves at the stove.[1] The Eskimo dogs, being turned out on the floe and tied to one of our anchor lines, made night hideous by their dreary and lamentable wailing.
No. 1 saw cuts from A to B 200 ft. No. 2 " " D to C 200 ft. No. 3 " " B to C 35 ft., and then on to F 115 ft. No. 4 saw cuts from F to D 120 ft., and, if necessary, from E to F 48 ft.
Length 200 ft. Breadth, at entrance 65 " Ditto, at head 35 "]
For two days were the ships kept close prisoners; but on Sunday, August 15th, as soon as divine service was finished, a large party of men was actively engaged in cutting and blasting a passage between the floe in which we were imprisoned and the shore, for a lead of water had been observed in the channel which we were naturally desirous of reaching. Although Sunday was as much as possible observed as a day of rest, it was quite out of the question to a party situated as we were altogether to abstain from work on the Sabbath. Our navigable season, we knew, was a short one; no opportunity could we afford to lose; and therefore we were compelled to work as much on Sunday as on week-days should circumstances arise which would make it necessary for us to do so. After about nine hours' hard work we succeeded in making a passage sufficiently broad for the ships to pass through. Our last explosion was a most effective one; no less than eight blasting charges, or torpedoes, were exploded simultaneously--these varied in size from five to twelve pound charges.
[Illustration: "THE MOANING OF THE TIED."]
The result of this, designated by the men, "feu de joy" was wonderful; the floe split and cracked in all directions, enabling us with our long ice points and poles to clear a splendid channel. Hauling the ships out of dock, we steamed through the passage and into a fine stream of water round Cape Louis Napoleon. So narrow, however, was our channel that in rounding the point, to our great dismay, the "Discovery" grounded. A delay at this moment might have proved fatal to us, and it was therefore with no small amount of satisfaction, after a short detention, that we observed her again afloat. Our joy at being again on the move was short-lived. A few hours sufficed to bring us to the edge of a field of ice, to penetrate which seemed utterly impossible. To cut a dock in such ice, the floes being from ten to twenty feet in thickness, was also out of the question, even had we been provided with saws sufficiently long to do so. Blasting was resorted to, and by this means we were enabled to secure the ship in a small indentation in the ice that afforded some slight protection. So high was the ice that our boats, hanging from the midship davits on the outside of the ship, had to be turned inboard to prevent their being crushed. For three days were we kept in a state of feverish excitement without being able to make any progress, and yet constantly moving the ship to avoid destruction from drifting bergs and closing floes.