1917] CAPE SABINE TO CLARENCE HEAD 305 



long dead, were again rolled into place on the ground 

 flap of our shelter. 



Our next camp was at Cape Herschel, that I might 

 examine and search for the cairn and record left by A. 

 P. Low of the Dominion Government Expedition. Here 

 Mr. Low landed and took formal possession of Ellesmere 

 Land in August, 1904. The cairn was demolished and 

 the record gone. 



My diary reads: 



Wednesday, May 23, 1917, SanTH Sound. — Open water at Cape 

 Sabine gave us some hard and also dangerous work, because a slip 

 or a snowslide meant a cold salt-water bath following a bad fall. 

 There were two dangerous points, owing to the vertical cliffs, nar- 

 row ice-foot, and large, sloping snowbank. Here very cautious work 

 was imperative. By cutting a furrow for one runner and using 

 ropes, we got by safely. 



Rounding Cape Sabine with six seals in sight looked like the 

 promised land. It was not long before we had two of them into 

 our dogs. 



4.15. — A gale from the south with drift and snow. Will the tent 

 hold.^ My boots and mittens are within reach if it decides to leave 

 us. If it were not for our seven guy-ropes in addition to eight fasten- 

 ings through holes in the ice, it would have gone into the air long 

 ago. 



The Eskimos, sleeping on their sledges, are a mass of drifted 

 snow. I can hear a smothered yell now and then asking about the 

 weather. 



7.30. — Signs of clearing. 



At 2.30 on the morning of the 24th we reached land in a smother 

 of snow. Old Smith Sound gave us a savage parting as we left her 

 for the last time — the tenth trip across the ice. Ak-pood-a-shah-o 

 declared that the God of the Sea had his eye upon us. "Yes, and 

 something more," added E-took-a-shoo. 



