382 



THE JEANNETTE ARCTIC KXPEDITION. 



eastward, too, and I hastened to get on the west bank again, 

 reaching there at ten minutes to twelve for dinner our last 

 four-fourteenths of a pound of pemmican. 



At forty minutes past one got under way again and made 

 a long spurt until twenty minutes, past two. While at the 

 other side of the river Alexai said he saw a hut, and during 

 our dinner camp he said he again saw a hut. Under our 

 circumstances my desire was to get to it as speedily as pos- 

 sible. As Alexai points out, it was on the left bank of the 

 river of which we were now on the right side, looking south, 

 but a sand bank gave us excellent walking for a mile or two 



A TIME OF TROUBLE. 



until we took to the river and got across it diagonally. Here, 

 at twenty minutes past two, I called* a halt, and Alexia 

 mounted the bluff to take a look again. He now announced 

 he saw a second hut, about one and a quarter miles back 

 from the coast, the other hut being about the same distance 



