62 NEAREST THE POLE 



sledge, and with the waning of the hght, I had a fleet 

 of some twenty-five sledges in commission. Attempts 

 were made to hoist the rudder on deck so that it could 

 be repaired, but without success. 



Marvin erected a tide gauge on the ice-foot protected 

 by a snow igloo, and took tidal observations during 

 a period in excess of a lunar month. 



A disagreeable feature of this time was the frequent 

 occurrence of violent southerly winds varying from 

 vicious squalls of a few hours' duration to furious gales 

 lasting two or three days. These winds invariably 

 denuded the land in our vicinity of snow and were 

 always accompanied by more or less extended open 

 water. As late as October i6th, a ship located south 

 of Rawson could have come around that cape and 

 made our present location with even greater ease than 

 did the Roosevelt on the 5th of September. On one 

 occasion such a ship could have gone on without 

 obstruction to Cape Joseph Henry, passing about one 

 hundred yards outside of our position. Naturally 

 under these conditions the mean temperature was 

 unexpectedly high. 



October ist, our large game score reached seventy- 

 three musk-oxen and twenty-seven reindeer, just an 

 even hundred. On this date small stoves were set 

 up for the first time in the after house. October 

 2d, the boilers were blown off for the winter. October 

 3d, I started to make a reconnoissance of our spring 

 route to Hecla, as my observations in 1902 had satis- 

 fied me that there was a better route than that for- 

 lowed by the English across Fielden Peninsula. I 

 also wished to examine Clements Markham Inlet for 



