MUSK-OXEN AT LAST 159 



to a water-soaked man when temperatures are ranging 

 anywhere from 20 to 60 degrees below zero. 



"Just finished changing my boots for a dry pair," 

 writes the doctor. "Crossing a lead covered with 

 thin ice and fissured in the center, my left leg went 

 in to the knee. Fortunately my right foot was for- 

 ward on firm ice and I threw myself ahead, going 

 down on my left knee on the edge of firm ice 

 and drawing my leg out of the water. At another 

 lead the ice gave way as I sprang from its surface. 

 My right foot dipped into the water to the ankle. I 

 do not understand why I did not go down bodily into 

 the water. Had I gone in to my waist there would 

 have been a serious result, for the sledges were some 

 distance away and the temperature was 47° below 

 zero. In the absence of an igloo and a change of 

 clothes near at hand, a ducking in this temperature 

 would certainly have a serious termination." 



Trying conditions these — yet the thing had its 

 irresistible fascination, and now and then came 

 reflective moments like the one on February 25, when 

 the doctor, encamped on the way from the Roosevelt to 

 Cape Columbia, wrote as follows: 



"When I was nearing Point Good, insensibly I 

 paused time and again to view the scene. I could 

 see Cape Hecla to the rear and the Parry Peninsula. 

 In advance the twin peaks of Cape Columbia beckoned 

 us on to the second point of departure in the Com- 

 mander's northward march. To the north as we pro- 

 gressed, beyond the comparatively smooth glacial 

 fringe loomed the floes and pinnacles of rough ice 

 which will try us all to the utmost for weeks to come. 



