56 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Mar. 



In two inarches we were at the big cache at the en- 

 trance to Hayes Sound, where we found everything as 

 we had left it some weeks before. We were now ready 

 for the crossing of Ellesmere Land. The regular pass 

 is at the head of Flagler Bay, where, as shown by the 

 tent sites, the Innuits (Eskimos) have crossed for cen- 

 turies. But my Eskimos advised crossing the glacier 

 at the head of Beitstadt Fiord. I was easily persuaded 

 to adopt this plan, as I knew very well the experiences 

 of Sverdrup in the Flagler Pass in 1899. If he were 

 ever called upon to repeat that trip, I know that he 

 would fit his sledges with wheels! Boulders and wind- 

 swept stretches of bare ground are daily entries in his 

 journal. 



We proceeded with very heavy sledges southwest 

 into Hayes Sound and camped at the mouth of Beit- 

 stadt Fiord. Noon on the following day found us look- 

 ing up at an almost vertical wall of ice, the front of the 

 Beitstadt Glacier, which stretches across Ellesmere Land 

 from sea to sea, a distance of more than fifty miles. 

 How we were ever to get up there I did not know. 

 Pee-a-wah-to and Kai-o-ta walked along the base of 

 the glacier, laughing and joking, but at the same time 

 critically examining every square foot of it. In the 

 same leisurely manner they began cutting into the face 

 of it with their hatchets to secure a good grip for the 

 hands and a good step for the feet; then up they went 

 until they stood on the crest, some fifty feet above the 

 ground. It was now getting dark. We burrowed for 

 shelter into the base of a large snowbank at the foot of 

 the glacier, and were soon resting for the strenuous work 

 of the morrow. 



All the next day we were busy carrying our supplies 



