Winter in the pack was attended with severe hardships and grave perils.

Under the influence of the ocean currents and the tides, the ice was continually breaking up and shifting, and each time the ship was in imminent danger of being crushed.

In his journal DeLong tries to describe the terrifying clamor of a shifting pack.

"I know of no sound on shore that can be compared with it," he writes.

"A rumble, a shriek, a groan, and the crash of a falling house all combined, might serve to convey an idea of the noise with which this motion of the ice-floe is accompanied.