112 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [June 



The following is the entry for that date in his book: 



In the morning of the 29th, Mr. Brooks, McGary, and myself 

 walked fourteen miles along the marginal ice; it was heavy and com- 

 plicated with drift, but there was nothing about it to make me change 

 my purpose. 



His purpose was to return to the ship and organize 

 a boat party to advance north, which explains the 

 "Gone south" in the record. 



Page 58 also aids us in an understanding of the 

 record : 



I erected a small beacon cairn on the point; and as I had neither 

 paper, pencil, nor pennant, I burned a "K" with powder on the 

 rock, and scratching "O.K." with a pointed bullet on my cap- 

 lining, hoisted it as the representative of a flag. 



He hoisted this makeshift flag on August 29th, one 

 mile above Fog Inlet, which he subsequently renamed 

 Refuge Harbor. The "O.K." can still be seen. To 

 think that we held in our hands a record and the cap- 

 lining of the first American Arctic explorer! Actual 

 relics of the author of a book which has caused many 

 a lad to neglect his studies and dream and dream of 

 sledges, dogs, snow-shoes, and the North trail! I felt 

 that we were almost shaking hands with the immortal 

 Kane. 



June 29th was an important day in the life of one little 

 chap, for on that day he announced his arrival in un- 

 mistakable tones. And he had come without the pro- 

 fessional skill of learned doctors, the smell of ether or 

 chloroform, or the tender care of a high-priced nurse. 

 The mother, a healthy animal, attended to the child 

 and was up and about in a few hours. 



