When, with all the steam of the boilers, we can make no headway whatever, we wait for the ice to loosen up, and economize our coal.

We do not mind using the ship as a battering ram--that is what she was made for; but beyond Etah coal is precious, and every ounce of it must yield its full return of northward steaming.
The coal at present in our bunkers was all that we should have until our return the following year, when the Peary Arctic Club would send a ship to meet us at Etah.
[Illustration: THE MIDNIGHT SUN AS SEEN IN THE WHALE SOUND REGION] It must be remembered that during all this time we were in the region of constant daylight, in the season of the midnight sun.

Sometimes the weather was foggy, sometimes cloudy, sometimes sunny; but there was no darkness.

The periods of day and night were measured only by our watches--not, during the passage of these channels, by sleeping and waking, for we slept only in those brief intervals when there was nothing else to do.

Unresting vigilance was the price we paid for our passage.
Bartlett's judgment was reliable, but the cabin had no attraction for me when the ship and the fortunes of the expedition were swaying in the balance.