Loose ice was still filling the harbor and bay—paleocrystic floes that had floated in. Brainard and Cross brought in eleven ducks killed at Breakwater Point, having to swim in order to get them. Weather now mild, ice in harbor much broken up, and channel outside open. Lieutenant Greely thought there was every reason for expecting a relief-ship soon. It was very desirable on many accounts that she should come. A false alarm of her approach created great excitement. Some one said he saw her smoke in the distance. The hunters brought in ducks or other game almost daily. A weasel was shot near the house—a beautiful little animal, yellow with black tail. Dead wolves were sometimes found—probably those poisoned in the winter. Brainard, Cross, and Ellis returned from Beechy, where they killed three musk-oxen, two dozen geese, and some ducks. Lockwood occupied himself on his maps of the Greenland coast, adding pictures of scenery from sketches taken _en route_. Jans, desiring to capture seals, tried to approach them by interposing a cotton screen. But the seal had too much sense to wait for him, and slipped off the ice into the water. On the 31st, Lockwood measured some ice-floes aground in the harbor, finding them to be fourteen feet thick. He had seen many on his northern trip which, by Nares’s rule of one seventh above water, would have been thirty-five to forty-five feet thick. Of course, these were paleocrystic floes, the accumulation of years. On the 7th of August, Lockwood went with Lieutenant Greely and a party in the launch to Cape Lieber, finding the bay very free from ice. Left near the cape some provisions for use in case of having to retreat next year in boats, a subject which, from the non-arrival of the ship, was then agitated. They got many Esquimaux relics. The straits away down as far as Franklin Island and Cape Constitution, as seen from an elevation, were free from ice. They could see nothing to prevent the ship from coming. Returned in the evening, landing at Proteus Point, because a large floe-berg had floated in during their absence and occupied their harbor. Lieutenant Greely did not expect the ship before the 15th. Many eyes were daily fixed on the bold profile of Cape Lieber, from behind whose rocky face she must emerge, if she came at all.