Steam has been ordered but will not be ready till near midnight.

Shall we be out of the pack by Christmas Eve?
The floes to-day have been larger but thin and very sodden.

There are extensive water pools showing in patches on the surface, and one notes some that run in line as though extending from cracks; also here and there close water-free cracks can be seen.

Such floes might well be termed '_composite_' floes, since they evidently consist of old floes which have been frozen together--the junction being concealed by more recent snow falls.
A month ago it would probably have been difficult to detect inequalities or differences in the nature of the parts of the floes, but now the younger ice has become waterlogged and is melting rapidly, hence the pools.
I am inclined to think that nearly all the large floes as well as many of the smaller ones are 'composite,' and this would seem to show that the cementing of two floes does not necessarily mean a line of weakness, provided the difference in the thickness of the cemented floes is not too great; of course, young ice or even a single season's sea ice cannot become firmly attached to the thick old bay floes, and hence one finds these isolated even at this season of the year.
Very little can happen in the personal affairs of our company in this comparatively dull time, but it is good to see the steady progress that proceeds unconsciously in cementing the happy relationship that exists between the members of the party.

Never could there have been a greater freedom from quarrels and trouble of all sorts.