EXPEDITION OF 1898-1902 303 



for sledges, I was convinced that a good deal of earnest 

 work with picks and shovels, assisted by the levelling 

 effects of the next spring tides, would enable me to get 

 loaded sledges over it during the next moon. From 

 Cape Norton Shaw I could see that by making a detour 

 into Scoresby Bay the heavy pack could be avoided 

 in crossing. 



This stretch of ice-foot from Cape Eraser to Cape 

 Norton Shaw is extremely Alpine in character, being 

 an almost continuous succession of huge blocks and 

 masses of bergs and old floes, forced bodily out of the 

 water and up on to the rocks. At Cape John Barrow 

 a large berg had been forced up on the solid rock of the 

 high- tide level. 



Returning from my reconnoissance, I camped again 

 at Cape Eraser, building the first of the snow igloos, 

 which I intended should be constructed at convenient 

 intervals the entire distance to Fort Conger. The next 

 three days were occupied in bringing the supplies at 

 Cape Louis Napoleon up to Cape Eraser, and on the 

 4th of November I returned to the ship. 



The time until the return of the next moon was 

 fully occupied in making and repairing sledges, bringing 

 in beef from the cache on Bache Peninsula, and trans- 

 porting supplies and dog-food to Cape Hawkes, beyond 

 the heavy going of AUman Bay. During much of this 

 time the temperature was in the -4o°'s, Fahr. 



November 21st, Henson and three Eskimos left with 

 loads, and on the 2 2d I followed with a party of three 

 to begin the work of the November moon. This work 

 ended just after midnight of December 4th, when the 

 last sledges came in. It left 3,300 pounds of supplies 



