NORTH POLE OF THE WINDS 



cause of these unfavorable conditions which we 

 could not control, daily marches were reduced to 

 a minimum, the average of a day being about 

 twelve miles. With a normal winter and the snow 

 in good condition, the sled-trip from Mount Evans 

 to the inland-ice should be the easiest imaginable. 



Our course was along the south side of the 

 fjord-head along the entended plateau of Naka- 

 janga, thence over about six miles of ancient sand 

 and pebble flats. In the fall of the year when 

 this flat had been covered with a few tenths of an 

 inch only of loose drift snow, I had described the 

 surface as that of sandpaper, since it was ex- 

 tremely difficult to pull through it a steel-runnered 

 sled. I had counted on now being able to follow 

 the bed of the Watson River and so avoid the al- 

 most impossible "sandpaper". This was unfor- 

 tunately not possible unless we were to have our 

 kamiks soaked through, for the water in the river 

 came up through the ice-cover and, freezing, pro- 

 duced an extremely difficult sledging surface — 

 what the Eskimos call sarsinek ice. 



After some ten days of this hard traveling I 

 was again back in headquarters at Camp Lloyd. 

 There was now so little daylight that it was im- 

 possible to travel with profit more than four or 

 five hours daily. Had dogs and well trained driv- 



190 



