October 2 enough for thirty-five days remained, and at the request of the men, Greely so changed the ration as to provide for forty-five days.

October 5 Lieutenant Lockwood noted in his diary: "We have now three chances for our lives: First, finding American cache sufficient at Sabine or at Isabella; second, of crossing the straits when our present ration is gone; third, of shooting sufficient seal and walrus near by here to last during the winter." How delusive the first chance proved we shall see later.

The second was impractical, for the current carried the ice through the strait so fast, that any party trying to cross the floe, would have been carried south to where the strait widened out into Baffin's Bay before they could possibly pass the twenty-five miles which separated Cape Sabine from Littleton Island.

Moreover, there was no considerable cache at the latter point, as Greely thought.

As for the hunting, it proved a desperate chance, though it did save the lives of such of the party as were rescued.