CHAPTER XXXIV 



BACK TO LAND AGAIN 



WE had now reached the neighborhood of the 

 "Big Lead" which had held us in check 

 so many days on the upward journey and 

 which had nearly cost the lives of my entire party 

 in 1906. I anticipated trouble, therefore, in the 

 march of April 20-21, and I was not disappointed. 

 Although the "Big Lead" was frozen over we found 

 that Bartlett on his return had lost the main trail 

 here and did not find it again. For the rest of the 

 ice journey, therefore, we were compelled to follow 

 the single trail made by Bartlett instead of our well 

 beaten outward trail. I could not complain. We 

 had kept the beaten road back to within some fifty 

 miles of the land. 



For me this was the most uncomfortable march 

 of the entire trip. It was made following a sleepless 

 night in a cold igloo. For all that my clothes were 

 wet with perspiration, my jaw and head throbbed and 

 burned incessantly, though toward the end of the 

 march I began to feel the effects of the quinine I had 

 taken, and not long after we reached the captain's 

 igloo the worst of the symptoms had departed. But 

 it was hard drilling that day, and our troubles were 

 in no way lessened by the fact that the dogs seemed 

 utterly without energy or spirit. 



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