214 NEAREST THE POLE 



We got away from Southwest Camp at 2 a. m. of 

 the 4th. The promise of the previous afternoon of 

 good weather, had not been kept, and all but the base 

 of the land was buried in cloud (Jesup Land of course 

 invisible). For an hour we got along fairly well fol- 

 lowing the raised edges of a tidal crack, then fog 

 descended upon us and we waded and floundered 

 through pools of water to the land at West Point 

 (which is really one of three islands). Along the 

 shore of this, and the next island, was decent going 

 on deep snow, and so across the ice-foot to the edge 

 of the tidal crack west of Northwesterly Point and 

 along this to the point itself. 



From here to off Intermediate Point we had more 

 trouble as the tidal crack was not so well marked. 



It had commenced to snow at Northwesterly Point 

 and from Intermediate Point we had it very uncom- 

 fortable. The snowfall steadily increasing blotted 

 out every thing over a hundred feet distant, and was 

 accompanied by a penetrating wind from the northeast 

 and yet was damp enough to melt on our clothing, 

 and saturate us wherever we had escaped wetting in 

 our constant wading. 



Impossible to pick a route, we could only work 

 along in a general direction, guided by the wind. 



For several hours it looked as if we would have to 

 camp in the slush on the ice ; then it lightened enough 

 to let us pick a way, and at last after wading the broad 

 ice-foot river, I stepped on the point at Observation 

 Camp. Every thread on me was soaked with snow- 

 water, and every joint and muscle ached with the 

 exertion of pulling out the slush-laden snowshoes at 



