GREELY'S WAGON 277 



snow, that it was impossible to detect the topography 

 of the region. To the north lay an unbroken expanse 

 of ice, interrupted only by the horizon." 



On Midsummer Day Greely started with a four- 

 wheel wagon to explore Grinnell Land. The wagon, 

 in the men's vernacular, was a man-killer, and was 

 abandoned after they had dragged it a hundred miles. 

 On this journey much exploring work was done in the 

 unknown country, the most interesting find being that 

 of the Eskimo house at Lake Hazen. In this, accord- 

 ing to Greely 's description, there were two fireplaces, 

 one in the east and the other in the south, both of 

 which had been built outward so as to take up no part 

 of the space of the room, which was over seventeen 

 feet long and nine feet wide. The sides of the entire 

 dwelling were low walls of sodded earth, lined inside 

 with flat thin slates, the tops of which were about two 

 feet above the level of the interior floor, and the bench 

 was covered with flat slabs of slate. Near by was a smaller 

 house of the same character, and around were a large 

 number of relics, including walrus-ivory toggles for 

 dog -traces, sledge-bars and runners, an arrow head, 

 skinning knife, and articles of worked bone. Next 

 year further explorations of the back country were 

 undertaken, so that some six thousand miles of the 

 interior were viewed, disclosing many fertile valleys 

 with their herds of musk ox. 



Meanwhile the Neptune, with supplies for Fort 

 Conger, had in August, 1882, been vainly endeavouring 

 to get north, and, a few miles from Cape Hawks, had 

 turned back with the pack piling the ice as high as her 

 rail. Six attempts she made before she gave up and 



