CARLSON'S WINTER DOG-SLED EXPEDITION 



of the moraines which the men had followed in 

 coming down off the ice. 



The next morning Marius had come down with 

 a serious case of the flu. This illness was doubtless 

 from germs brought in from the coast by the crew 

 of the Nakuak. The Eskimos are especially sus- 

 ceptible to colds and grippe, and on arrival of out- 

 side people they quickly contract diseases of this 

 nature. The postponement was first until some- 

 time in October, but later it was further put off 

 until winter, when it could be much better under- 

 taken with the use of dog-sleds across the frozen 

 surface of the fjord and over the ice-cover of the 

 lakes and rivers. Moreover, in the summer season 

 the ice-cap itself is in the neighborhood of its mar- 

 gin cut into deep crevasses and thaw-water chan- 

 nels. These during a normal winter become healed 

 or filled up by drift-snow which is blown into 

 them and packed hard under the strong foehn 

 winds which blow down the surface of the ice. 



It was only because the winter of 1927-28 was 

 the warmest in perhaps thirty years that this did 

 not appear to have taken place, and the land out- 

 side, like the inland-ice itself, was largely bare of 

 snow for most of the time. Otherwise Bangsted 

 would have met with much easier travel conditions 

 on his winter ice-cap expedition of that year. 



329 



