The extracts from my journal quoted in the preceding chapter will have sufficed to give the reader an understanding of the results of my spring and summer sledging, and he will have perceived that they were regarded by me as having laid down a correct basis for future exploration. With the character of the Smith Sound ice I had become more familiar, and the accurate determination of the coast-lines enabled me more readily to calculate upon the influence of the summer drift; while the rotten state of the ice in Kennedy Channel, even at so early a period of the season as May, and the existence of open water beyond it, left no doubt upon my mind as to the practicability of getting a vessel through under ordinarily favorable conditions of the season. It will be perceived, therefore, that my future course was dependent upon the condition of the schooner. Although I have not made more than a passing allusion to the report of Mr. McCormick as to the damage sustained by the vessel, yet the reader will have gathered from my journal that it caused me much anxiety. I was too much prostrated after my return from the journey to make, during the first few days, that thorough inspection which was needed to form a correct judgment. I was consoled, however, in some measure for the delay, by realizing the necessity of writing up the occurrences of my return journey, while they were fresh in my mind, and of defining on my chart the observations and geographical discoveries which I had made. [Sidenote: INSPECTION OF THE SCHOONER.] These duties performed, and my strength sufficiently restored to justify me in leaving my cabin, I made a careful examination of the schooner and the means which had been adopted for repairing her. These means were altogether unexceptionable, and reflected much credit upon Mr. McCormick and also upon the mate, Mr. Dodge, who had given him zealous assistance. McCormick had begun by digging the ice away from the bows down to the very keel, thus exposing all the forward part of the vessel as completely as if she lay in a dry-dock. The damage proved to have been even greater than we had anticipated, and it seemed remarkable that the forward planks and timbers had not opened to such a degree as to let the water through in torrents and sink us at once. The heads of the planks which were let into the stem were all started; the outer planking was loose and gaping open; the iron sheathing of the cut-water and bows was torn and curled up as if it had been pine-shavings; the stem-post was started, and the cut-water itself was completely torn away. [Sidenote: REPAIRING THE SCHOONER.] By dint of much earnest exertion and the use of bolts and spikes,--by replacing the torn cut-water, careful calking, and renewal of the iron plates,--it seemed probable that the schooner would be sea-worthy; but I was forced to agree with my sailing-master, that to strike the ice again was sure to sink her.