I had only one sounding lead now left, and I would not let Bartlett risk it at this point, but had him use a pair of sledge shoes (brought along for this very purpose from the last broken up sledge) to carry the line down.
When our watches told us that it was bedtime--for we were now in the period of perpetual sunlight--we again turned into the igloos which had been hurriedly built after our exciting experience the night before.

A low murmur as of distant surf was issuing from the blackness ahead of us, and steadily growing in volume.

To the inexperienced it might have seemed an ominous sound, but to us it was a cheering thing because we knew it meant the narrowing, and perhaps the closing, of the stretch of open water that barred our way.

So we slept happily in our frosty huts that "night.".