NORTH POLE OF THE WINDS 



made an agreeable dessert to many of our meals on 

 this expedition. 



Later in the day the wind veered to the west and 

 blew strongly down the lake, so that we hoisted sail 

 and, sprawled on the load, now without effort 

 we glided rapidly up the lake. From this position 

 we could study the very remarkable cirrus clouds 

 which here present perhaps a greater beauty and 

 variety than anywhere else in the world. At the 

 head of the lake, where we arrived in the late after- 

 noon we made a cache of the heavy umiak and oc- 

 cupied another of Nordenskj old's camps, but one 

 where the weathered antlers of caribou are already 

 deep down in the tundra to testify to an earlier 

 camp of caribou hunters probably at least fifty 

 years before. 



With the umiak now left behind, we set out on 

 July 28th to carry everything upon our shoulders, 

 our strong man Gould portaging the seventy-five 

 pound canoe. From lamed muscles and the pro- 

 tests of our Eskimos we had learned before noon 

 that we must further reduce our loads. We had 

 left a large cache of provisions under the umiak 

 for use upon the return while making surveys about 

 Taserssuak, but we must now adopt a simpler 

 fare and so secure a lighter outfit. At our next 

 camp, a dry one, we therefore left a depot, but still 



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