ALONG THE GREENLAND COAST 165 



and treacherous part of the journey along the north- 

 west coast of Greenland, without serious difficulty. 

 We found no water, the pack ice in front of the cliffs 

 was fairly decent, and the ice-foot extending up to the 

 cliffs on both sides was passable. 



Two men sent overland back of the cliffs from the 

 camp to the east, rejoined us on the west side of the 

 cliffs. They had secured one hare which they ate in 

 accordance with my instructions. We saw where they 

 had killed two ptarmigan near the ice-foot and had 

 eaten them raw all except the feathers, not even throw- 

 ing away the feet or intestines. When they rejoined 

 us Ootah was still carrying and greedily sucking the 

 well-cleaned skin of the hare. Our camp at the end 

 of this march was at Repulse Harbour. All the way 

 from the western end of the cliffs to the harbour we 

 faced a strong and bitter wind and drift. We were 

 now where Beaumont wrote and left his magnificent 

 record of human endurance and courage ending with 

 "God help us." We were not as bad off as he and 

 his party. We could all of us walk yet and I believed 

 would all be able to walk to the ship, but it was essen- 

 tial that we get across the channel at once. We were 

 getting weaker every day. 



From the bluffs back of our camp after we had had 

 our tea we could make out the Roosevelt lying at Sher- 

 idan, and my men were very much encouraged at the 

 sight. It was a gratifying sight to me as well, for 

 while I had not allowed myself to worry or lose sleep 

 thinking about what might happen to the ship dur- 

 ing our absence, I had of course, been fully aware that 

 the storm which sent us so far to the eastward, might 



