NORTH POLE OF THE WINDS 



fell throughout the night. At seven the next 

 morning I was up and sent Marius out after ducks 

 since I had seen them about the head of the bay. 

 In a half hour he came back with no ducks but 

 with a large loon which he had seen in a low willow 

 shrub, and by simulating the call of the loon had 

 lured out and clubbed to death. Soon it was rain- 

 ing again and we crept into our tents. In the af- 

 ternoon there was a lull in the drizzle and we 

 made a reconnaissance as far as the high divide 

 south of us and between four and five miles dis- 

 tant. We were driven in by rain which continued 

 during the night, so that by the morning of the 

 tenth a half inch of rain had fallen since our ar- 

 rival. It had already been expected that this shore 

 of the fjord possessed a much more humid climate, 

 for we have often looked out from the observatory 

 on a bank of convectional clouds rising on this 

 shore when anticyclonic weather prevailed on the 

 north bank. This observation of greater precipi- 

 tation was to be confirmed by our later experience. 

 Although the tundra of the north bank is nearly 

 always dry, here we found the ground generally 

 wet and spongy. 



We broke camp this morning leaving, however, 

 a cache of food in a two-man tent brought for the 

 purpose. We took a general southerly course 



246 



