SHERIDAN TO THE BIG LEAD 117 



off the dense vapour that had been obscuring our view 

 to the north. 



The Eskimos claimed to see water to the north, but 

 I could see nothing but mirage, and declined to 

 believe in it until I had it at my feet. 



Satisfactory observations with sextant and transit 

 gave Lat. 84° 38' + Longitude 74° W. approx. and Var. 

 107 /^° W. We were somewhat farther west than I 

 intended owing to the constant tendency of Henson 

 and his party to turn to the left in negotiating leads 

 and areas of rough ice. 



I did not sleep much during the night of the 30th 

 (not but that I was comfortable enough physically) 

 and we had an early tea. 



A raw, cloudy, threatening morning with a breeze 

 from S. S. W. true which I feared would develop into 

 a gale. In the afternoon and evening it cleared and 

 was fine again. I got my observations just in time. 



The ice had ceased its motion entirely now, and in 

 the afternoon of the 31st the young ice on the lead 

 (now some two miles wide) was safe except a strip 

 about 100 feet wide in the centre, with a narrow 

 band of open water in its middle. 



I sent Henson with one man and the long sledge to 

 the east on the young ice, and he reported the main 

 lead narrowing and branching, one branch running 

 S. E. true. The band of young ice and the water 

 crack continued on east. 



In the afternoon I had the men cut a sledge road 

 through the rubble ice, bordering the lead, to the 

 young ice, as we might be able to get a start the next 

 day. 



