Ill 



OUR FIRST WINTER 



\yl /"HEN we landed at Etah I hoped we might be 

 ^ * able to cross the Sound at least by the 1st of 

 February, but as the days went on I could contain my- 

 self no longer and felt that something must be done. 

 Although I had every reason to believe that a crossing 

 of Smith Sound at this time would be impossible, I 

 reasoned that it would be of great help to the work if 

 an advance depot of supplies could be laid down some 

 fifteen miles north of the point of crossing. 



In former years there was always a strong tendency 

 to delay the departure of an expedition until the warm 

 days of spring. Living, as the men did, in tents, pull- 

 ing their own sledges, and clothed in woolens, this was 

 but natural. A sixty -below-zero wind coming into 

 contact with hot, perspiring, tired men might easily 

 defeat all the purposes for which an expedition was 

 planned. The date for leaving winter quarters depends 

 upon the nature of the work, the physical conditions of 

 the country, and the length of the route. When follow- 

 ing the indentations of a northern land, such work can 

 well be continued until late in June and with profitable 

 results, following the traveling upon the so-called ice- 

 foot, the great natural highway of the North; but work 



