NORTH POLE OF THE WINDS 



Belknap pioneered some distance ahead with the 

 canoe and Erlanson fired a charge of No. 2 shot 

 into a seal but he got away. We camped for the 

 night near the landing, getting drinking water 

 from a little lake situated about one half a mile 

 northwest of the landing. At four o'clock next 

 morning I roused the camp so as to get an early- 

 start, and we had a breakfast of tea, pemmican and 

 pilot bread. By six-fifteen o'clock we were off 

 under heavy packs and found that we made an 

 advance of about a quarter of a mile each five 

 minutes. We adopted the plan of trekking for five 

 minutes and then resting five, which worked out 

 very well. 



Just before noon we saw a rookery of fresh- 

 water seals and counted thirty-two sunning them- 

 selves below the Lower Rapids of the Watson 

 River. We were too far away from them for ef- 

 fective shooting and they were surrounded by a 

 wide area of rapid water and quicksand which 

 made a nearer approach impracticable. After a 

 hard day during which we made nearly ten miles, 

 we camped at four o'clock in the afternoon beside 

 the Middle Rapids, an old camp of Belknap and 

 myself and one supplied with good water in a pool 

 hidden under the rocks. The water in the rapids 

 is of course fresh but is so charged with glacial 



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