Afraid that the ice would break up beneath them overnight and that they would not awake until they fell into the water, Lecointe, Cook, and Amundsen took turns keeping watch. Not that any of them got much sleep. They were kept up by the screeching wind; the sound of ice bumping, cracking, and crumbling; and a symphony of grunts, barks, and exhalations. “Our floe was little by little reduced in size until we could hear the seals in the water as plainly as if they were under the tent,” wrote Cook.
