STEVENS." The men ashore did not at once abandon hope of the ship returning before the Sound froze firmly.

New ice formed on the sea whenever the weather was calm, and it had been broken up and taken out many times by the blizzards.

During the next few days eager eyes looked seaward through the dim twilight of noon, but the sea was covered with a dense black mist and nothing was visible.

A northerly wind sprang up on May 8 and continued for a few hours, but it brought no sign of the ship, and when on May 10 the most violent blizzard yet experienced by the party commenced, hope grew slender.

The gale continued for three days, the wind attaining a velocity of seventy miles an hour.