192 NEAREST THE POLE 



Without snowshoes we should not have made over 

 half the distance, perhaps not more than five miles. 



One dog played out and dragged into camp behind 

 the sledge, three others next door to it. 



We are now abreast of what looks as if it might be 

 a musk-ox country and I must go in and reconnoitre 

 it as soon as we have had some sleep and the weather 

 permits. I cannot give the dogs more than the 

 allowance of pemmican, and that is not enough for 

 them in this heavy going. 



The first half of the march was clear, following a 

 brilliant day in camp, then clouds and fog gathered 

 with a wind directly in our faces, and the latter part 

 of the march was decidedly bleak and cold, in striking 

 contrast to the previous one, when I travelled com- 

 fortably in my blanket shirt. 



Almost by the time the tent was pitched, it was 

 snowing, and is now snowing and blowing heavily 

 from the southwest (true). 



The course to-day has been for the most distant 

 cape, and using this line as a long base, I have fixed 

 points of the coast b}^ intersections. 



It is rather aggravating that the day on which I 

 begin my running survey, should be worse than pre- 

 vious ones, but that is the Arctic way. 



In to-day's march we passed the mouth of a black 

 precipitous-walled bay, some eight to ten miles wide- 

 at its mouth, with apparently several interior ramifica- 

 tions. Mine! 



