36 NEAREST THE POLE 



along the Cape D'Urville shore where the Windward 

 wintered in '98 -'99. Looking into the distant depths 

 of Princess Marie Bay, numerous episodes with bear 

 and seals and musk-oxen crowded upon me. We 

 experienced some trouble with ice near Hayes Point 

 and Cape Frasier, and finally dodged into Maury Bay 

 and anchored at noon of the 19th, to escape the 

 large fields of very heavy ice which were moving 

 rapidly southward before a fresh northerly wind, 

 crashing with savage fury against the iron bastion 

 of Cape John Sparrow under which we lay. 



Vigilantly watching the ice and taking advantage 

 of every opportunity, we squeezed and hammered 

 our way into Scoresby Bay, hugging the shore closely, 

 and thence to Richardson Bay, Twice we nearly 

 reached Cape Joseph Goode only to be forced back 

 by the oncoming floes to a shelter under Cape Wilkes, 

 close to my "Christmas" igloos of 1898, where on that 

 unfortunate midwinter journey to Fort Conger, during 

 which I froze both my feet, I had spent Christmas and 

 opened a small box from loved ones at home. 



Rawlings Bay was packed and the ice along the 

 Grinnell Land shore apparently unbroken. On the 

 Greenland side it appeared less dense. During this 

 time the weather was fine. 



The aspect of the ice was so extremely unfavourable, 

 northward on the Grinnell Land side, that I deter- 

 mined to test my belief gained in my last four years 

 of work in this region, that the Greenland side of 

 Kennedy and Robeson Channels offered as a rule more 

 favourable opportunities for navigation than the 

 Grinnell Land side. 



