AUTUMN AT CAPE SHERIDAN 6i 



I still recognised that our main source of supply must 

 be the drainage basin of Lake Hazen, the northern 

 portion of which, covering the southern slopes of the 

 United States Range, had not been drawn upon by me 

 while at Fort Conger between 1899 and 1902. 



This region was now tapped with great success by 

 parties travelling directly overland from the ship to 

 Lake Hazen. 



The boxes of provisions which had been landed 

 were fashioned by the crew into three box-houses, a 

 large one some thirty feet long by fifteen feet wide 

 which, roofed with the spanker and fitted with a stove 

 and fuel, was to serve as an immediate refuge in case 

 of mishap to the ship, and two smaller ones. The 

 larger tents were also set up ashore, the boats turned 

 bottom up and the barrels arranged in such a way as 

 to serve as wind-shelters for the dogs. Later on 

 houses and tents were heavily banked with snow. All 

 the heavy ice next to the ship on the starboard side 

 was cut down on a gentle slope ending at the water 

 level against the ship's side, and a bank of small 

 fragments of ice filled against the ship her entire 

 length to serve as a cushion. On top of this a wall 

 of snow blocks was built as high as the rail and from 

 the mainmast to the mizzenmast as high as the top 

 of the deck-house. The deck was covered deep with 

 snow and the forward and after deck-houses covered 

 and banked in with the same. No attempt was made 

 to house in the deck with sails, but snow vestibules 

 or entrances were constructed at all of the outer doors. 

 The Eskimo men when not in the field were occupied 

 in making sledges and harnesses, each man his own 



