FROM 87° 6' TO GREENLAND COAST 141 



the rear, in the usual Eskimo way, with waving arm, 

 and the sledges made directly for him, we crossed the 

 lead, picked up the trail on the southern side and 

 went on. In this way the sledges lost no time, and we 

 were able to keep as rapid a pace on the return as on 

 the outward march, in spite of the movement of the ice 

 and the necessity of keeping the trail. The three of 

 us frequently ran for considerable distances, in order 

 to keep a sufficient space between us and the sledges 

 to enable us to reconnoitre the leads before the sledges 

 came up. At the end of every march we stumbled 

 into our old igloos utterly exhausted, with eyes aflame 

 from the wind and driving snow, but thanking God 

 that we did not have to put ourselves to the additional 

 effort of building igloos. 



As in our outward so in our return journey, scarcely 

 for an hour did the wind cease its infernal rush and 

 hiss and assault upon our faces. The last march 

 into Storm Camp, which we reached God only knows 

 how, was in the teeth of another blinding western 

 blizzard with driving snow, through which none but 

 an Eskimo, and a very good one at that, could have 

 kept the trail for five minutes. Of course I found no 

 provisions here. Our igloos were lined with frost 

 crystals and nearly filled with drifting snow, but they 

 were havens of refuge from the howling elements out- 

 side, which were more than appreciated. Ootah was 

 the happiest man in the party. Just before reaching 

 the igloos he had spied a small fragment of pemmican, 

 a crumb from somebody's lunch dropped off the last 

 sledge when we started north from Storm Camp, and 

 he had pounced upon it and swallowed it just as 



