CHAPTER XIII 



RECONNAISSANCE 



HE twentieth of July as we 

 were completing the more 

 urgently needed part of 

 our construction on Mount 

 Evans, Abraham had come 

 to me to say that he wanted to go after caribou 

 with Nathaniel and Peter, and this request I was 

 glad to grant. Erlanson was to go on a botanizing 

 trip to the Nakajanga region across the fjord for 

 a period of several days. Belknap and I were to 

 start on a reconnaissance trip to the inland-ice in 

 preparation for our major expedition of the sum- 

 mer. We decided, therefore, to start out at once 

 and take Erlanson with us in the motor-dory tow- 

 ing a canoe which was to be left with him. 



Church and Kallquist were the ones left in 

 Camp. The weather was fine and the fjord smooth. 

 After depositing Erlanson under the Nakajanga, 



146 



