LAST DAYS AT SHERIDAN 327 



a line of ten or five mile soundings from Columbia to 

 Camp No. 8 to bring out the cross section of the 

 continental shelf and the deep channel along it, and 

 Bartlett had got his equipment ready for this purpose. 

 However, I decided not to send him for the reason 

 that he was not in the best physical condition, 

 his feet and ankles being considerably swollen, 

 while he was, moreover, afflicted with a number 

 of Job's comforters. My own physical condition, 

 however, remained perfect during the rest of our stay 

 in the north, with the exception of a bad tooth from 

 which I suffered more or less torture during a space 

 of three weeks. 



This was the first time in all my arctic expeditions 

 that I had been at headquarters through May and 

 June. Hitherto there had always seemed to be some- 

 thing more to be done in the field; but now the 

 principal work was completed, and it remained only to 

 arrange the results. In the meantime the energies 

 of the Eskimos were largely employed in short journeys 

 in the neighborhood, most of them for the purpose 

 of visiting the various supply depots established 

 between the ship and Cape Columbia and removing 

 their unused supplies to the ship. Between them these 

 various small expeditions did some interesting work. 

 Most of this supplementary work in the field was 

 accomplished by other members of the expedition, 

 but I had plenty of work on board the Roosevelt 

 Along about the 10th of May we began to get genuine 

 spring weather. On that day Bartlett and myself 

 began spring housecleaning. We overhauled the cabins, 

 cleared out the dark corners, and dried out everything 



