CHAPTER IX 



WESTWARD OVER THE GLACIAL FRINGE OF GRANT LAND 



THE weather for the week following our return to 

 the ship was of the most disagreeable character, 

 beginning within twenty-four hours of our arrival, with 

 a violent southerly gale which swept up the channel 

 with great fury, and was followed by continuous thick 

 weather, with a pronounced rise in temperature, fre- 

 quent winds and snow. I congratulated myself every 

 day that we got in just in time. The gale combined 

 with the prolonged thick weather and the invariable 

 drop in the physical barometer accompanying such 

 rises of temperature, might in our condition have proved 

 the last straw. 



I called my Eskimos together and told them they 

 had done good work, and now they could rest till the 

 ship started for home, and could either stay about 

 the ship, or go in to Lake Hazen, or to Fort Conger with 

 their families. 



For myself and the others there was still work of 

 value to be accomplished in the weeks remaining before 

 the Roosevelt would be free, and the programme of 

 this work shaped itself. 



Captain Bartlett would take lines of soundings 

 across Robeson Channel, Marvin would run a line of 

 soundings as far north from Hecla as practicable. 

 The Doctor would utilise the time collecting specimens 



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