The group of dogs on the main deck stood about with low, dejected heads and dripping tails.

Only at feeding time did they take courage even to fight or snap at one another.

Most of the time the ship was stationary, or drifting slowly with the ice toward the mouth of Dobbin Bay.

When at last the ice loosened, we made about ten miles in open water--then the wheel rope broke, and we had to stop for repairs, unable to take advantage of the stretch of water still before us.

The captain's remarks when the strands of that cable parted I will leave to the imagination of the reader.