stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-038

25H

by a heavy booming sound that was almost deafening. We hurried to the main deck
and discovered that a lead had opened in the ice off the port side of the ship.
The lead opened fifty feet from the vessel, was probably a half mile in length
and four feet in width, and was in the old floe on which we kept dogs and on which
we had previously stored provisions removed from the ship. Wen I tell you that
where the lead opened the ice was solid and fifteen feet in thickness, you may have
some idea of the terrific strain that caused it to part.

Our first care was to bring the dogs to safety. We did not care for
the coal and provisions, as we still had plenty on board. The dogs would not cross
the lead of their own accord, so we had to leap across to them, take them by their
chains, then recross the lead and drag the dogs after us. These northern dogs do
not take kindly to the water; they will sleep on the snow and ice for months, but
they have an instinct that teaches them the water is to be avoided. We knew that
if we lost our dogs we would be helpless in case the ship was crushed and sunk.

In a few days this lead partially closed, and froze over, leaving
us in the same situation as before. By this time we had started on our southwesterly
drift and were moving in the direction of Wrangell Island. We noticed, also,
that whereas it had been a silent drift before, we now frequently heard the boom-
ing noises caused by the strain of the ice that told us leads were forming.

We were nearing the arctic midnight. Nothing further occuring
to renew our fears, we settled back into theebid routine of living and waiting.

We celebrated Christmas Day, 1913, on board the Karluk. It was
the last Christmas on earth for many of our company. Wr held athletic sports
and contests, such as running, jumping, sack races, three-legged races, etc., for
which prizes were given, on the ice. All of us were in splendid health and good
spirits. At 4 o'clock P.M. we sat down to a Christmas dinner, at which we had
polar bear steaks, canned lobster, canned ox tongue, creamed peas, creamed
[yWwfltf ]potatoes which we had saved the whole time just to have them for Christmas