1917] CAPE SABINE TO CLARENCE HEAD 295 



Peary Channel and Cape Morris Jesup as his objective 

 point, returning over the ice-cap to Etah August 1st. 

 His party consisted of two white men: Koch, geologist, 

 and Wulff, botanist, and also four Eskimos. He failed 

 to return; and at the present writing no tidings whatever 

 have been received.^ 



With the departure of the Rasmussen party on 

 April 15th I decided to attempt again what I had 

 just failed in doing — a survey of the eastern coast 

 of Ellesmere Land from Cape Sabine to Clarence 

 Head. 



Within a few weeks seals would be plentiful as food 

 for our dogs, and possibly the sea ice would be solid 

 and stationary around Capes Sabine, Herschel, and 

 Isabella. 



On Thursday, May 3d, we were off again for Cape 

 Sabine, where we arrived May 6th, having encountered 

 another driving snowstorm on Smith Sound. To meet 

 my men two days later after they had been feeding 

 upon three-year-old narwhal meat was a far more 

 severe test of physical endurance. Great Csesar! what 

 a stench! It persisted in keeping us company for miles 

 and miles. 



The ice at Cape Herschel was unchanged. Again the 

 Elison Pass; and again ruined runners, demanding hours 

 of hard work with emery-paper to restore them to their 

 former bright and smooth condition. 



Quoting from my field journal of May 9, 1917: 



One below zero at eight o'clock. . . . We are in camp to-night on 

 south side of Cape Isabella, a point I have wanted to reach for 



1 The Rasmussen party has been reported by cable to have reached Etah 

 late in the summer of 1917 in a starving condition, and with the loss of 

 Doctor Wulff, the botanist, and Hendrik Olsen, a half-breed South-Greenland 

 dog-driver. — Editor. 



