1917] CAPE SABINE TO CLARENCE HEAD 287 



shore was a cable, which was undoubtedly the mooring- 

 line of the famous old ship of Nansen. 



On reaching Cape Herschel, we were again blocked 

 by open water, and we turned inland among the hills. 

 Hitching twenty dogs to a sledge, we forced our teams 

 through frozen gravel and stones, nearly ruining our 

 steel runners. 



About two miles southwest of this pass, I searched the 

 land carefully for the remains of Greely's first camp on 

 his famous retreat of 1883. His accurate description in 

 Three Years of Arctic Service enabled me to recognize 

 the exact location, and within a few minutes we found 

 the crumbling walls of the three stone huts. Here 

 Greely and his men landed, following their retreat of 

 270 miles from their headquarters in Lady Franklin 

 Bay. Hoping against hope and with only thirty -five 

 days' provisions, they began the construction of their 

 huts. A few days later Rice returned from Cape Sabine, 

 whither he had been sent in the hope of finding a cache 

 of food left by the relief -ship of 1882. He had found 

 the food and a note stating that the relief -ship of 1883 

 had been crushed and that the men had departed south 

 in open boats. Greely decided at once to move his camp 

 to the vicinity of the cache at Cape Sabine. 



We were the first to examine the ruins of these houses 

 since the departure of the ill-fated party in October, 

 1883. A removal of the snow in the interior revealed 

 the stern of a large boat, with the ring-bolt intact, and 

 the very section of the narwhal horn found and de- 

 scribed by Greely. 



April 1st presented us with a mixture of both good and 

 bad luck. Cape Isabella was absolutely impassable. 

 Exposed as it is to violent winds, swirling tides, and cur- 



