APPENDIX III 373 



at the mouth of Parker Snow Bay, though he did not 

 come in until four hours after the rest, he pluckily kept 

 the trail despite fog and darkness, until he reached his 

 goal. 



Our entire party was encamped in two tents, rather 

 crowded accommodations for so many, and we were 

 glad when we left the next morning that we should no 

 longer be so many the rest of the way. From this camp 

 only those sledges that were to go the whole distance 

 continued the way; the rest loaded with coal and re- 

 turned to North Star Bay. 



From Parker Snow Bay to the settlement at Cape 

 York, the going was heavy, and the snow everywhere 

 deep, often with water beneath it into which the sledges 

 sank, and stuck so that the dogs could not pull them 

 out unaided. Heavy flurries of snow, in which it was 

 difficult to pick our way, further retarded our progress; 

 though we left Parker Snow Bay at eleven o'clock in 

 the morning, we did not get into Cape York until long 

 after midnight. Ordinarily, with good going, the dis- 

 tance could have been covered in half the time. 



We stayed at Cape York feeding our dogs and our- 

 selves until midnight of the twenty -first. At the 

 "breakfast" that I ate that morning soon after Ras- 

 mussen had announced that we should start, I made 

 way with seventeen whole raw dovekies, a gastronomic 

 record for me. From Cape York we should find no 

 Eskimo villages until we got to Cape Seddon, quite 

 across the bay. 



The Eskimo reported heavy going ahead of us — much 

 "pootenook," that is, heavy snow with water on the 

 thin ice under it. We started away at four o'clock, and 

 not long after we began to strike deep snow, as yet with 



