It is unnecessary for us to dwell minutely on everything that occurred during the succeeding week or ten days.  The wind shifted to south-west the very day that the Sea Lion got back into her little harbour; and this seemed to put a sudden check on the pressure of the vast floe.  Nevertheless, there was no counter-movement, the ice remaining in the Great Bay seemingly as firmly fastened as if it had originally been made there.  Notwithstanding this shift of the wind to a cold point of the compass, the thermometer rose, and it thawed freely about the middle of the day, in all places to which the rays of the sun had access.  This enabled the men to work with more comfort than they could have done in the excessively severe weather; as it was found that respiration became difficult when it was so very cold.

Access was now obtained to the wreck by cutting a regular passage to the main hatch through the ice.  The schooner stood nearly upright, sustained by fragments of the floe; and there were extensive caverns all around her, produced by the random manner in which the cakes had come up out of their proper element like so many living things.  Among these caverns one might have wandered for miles without once coming out into the open air, though they were cold and cheerless, and had little to attract the adventurer after the novelty was abated.  In rising from the water, the schooner had been roughly treated; but once sustained by the ice, her transit had been easy and tolerably safe.  Several large cakes lay on or over her, sustained more by other cakes that rested on the rocks than by the timbers of the vessel herself.  These cakes formed a sort of roof, and as they did not drip, they served to make a shelter against the wind; for, at the point where the wreck lay the south-west gales came howling round the base of the mountain, piercing the marrow itself in the bones.  At the hut it was very different.  There the heights made a lee that extended all over the cape, and for some distance to the westward; while the whole power the sun possessed in that high latitude was cast, very obliquely it is true, but clearly, and without any other drawback than its position in the ecliptic, fairly on the terrace, the hut above, and the rocks around it.  On the natural terrace, indeed, it was still pleasant to walk and work, and even to sit for a few hours in the middle of the day; for winter was not yet come in earnest in that frozen world.

One of Roswell’s first objects was to transport most of the eatables from the wreck; for he foresaw the need there would be for everything of the sort.  Neither vessel had laid in a stock of provisions for a longer period than about twelve months, of which nearly half were now gone.  This allowance applied to salted meats and bread, which are usually regarded as the base of a ship’s stores.  There were several barrels of flour, a few potatoes, a large quantity of onions, a few barrels of corn-meal, or