mainly by drifting, nineteen miles in four days. Sometimes the scene changes very rapidly in these arctic ice fields. One day, for example, it was 26 August; we were closely sur- rounded by ice pans so thickly pressed together that they formed an impassable barrier for miles and miles. A polar bear was sighted stalking seals a mile or more astern of us, and Captain Picket, one of the crew and I started for it. I soon turned back on account of getting a bad fall on an upturned ice cake, but the captain and his man kept on after the bear. A narrow lane stopped their advance 300 yards from their guar- ty and the captain opened fire but without success and they returned to the ship. For an hour after they got back the ice maintained its for.