206 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Nov. 



company with Freuchen, and reported the relief-ship, 

 George B. Cluett, frozen in for the winter at Parker Snow 

 Bay, about ninety miles by dog-team to the south. 

 She was ill-prepared to spend a winter in the North; 

 the crew were without warm clothes and had but little 

 food. 



Doctor Hovey had decided to retain on board the 

 ship the provisions sent up to me by my good friend, 

 Mr. M. J. Look, of Kingston, New York. A long letter 

 from Doctor Hovey informed me fully of the situation, 

 of his grave fears for the winter, of his plans to have 

 the party sledged to South Greenland in company with 

 the annual mail-teams leaving about January 1st, and 

 of his great desire for as many skins as I could possibly 

 gather. He requested that Doctor Hunt should be 

 sent to the ship at once to attend to sickness on board. 

 This news made it necessary for me to go back to Etah 

 immediately, for we must now relieve the relief. How- 

 ever, we could not start back that day coi account of 

 a violent wiad which drove us out of our slatting tent 

 and into the shelter of an abandoned igloo. 



An early start and propitious weather on the 8th 

 enabled our dogs to cover thirty miles on the back trail 

 to Nerky, where we rested on the 9th, preparatory for 

 the forty-eight miles to Etah. From here Na-hate-e- 

 lah-o was sent on to headquarters with instructions to 

 Doctor Hunt to make preparations to proceed to the 

 ship upon my arrival. 



Open water off Clements Markham Glacier turned us 

 back to Nerky on the 10th. This was but preliminary 

 to a long, vexatious delay due to darkness and falling 

 snow, both extremely dangerous when dealing with thin 

 ice and leads. Poor Green had been suffering for some 



