304 NEAREST THE POLE 



and a quantity of dog-food at Cape Wilkes, on the 

 north side of Richardson Bay. These suppUes would 

 have been left at Cape Lawrence had it not been for 

 the desertion and turning back of one of my men, 

 discouraged with the hard work, while crossing Rich- 

 ardson Bay. Knowing it to be essential to prevent any 

 recurrence of the kind, I pushed on to Cape Wilkes, 

 camped and turned in after a twenty-five-hours day, 

 slept three hours, then started with empty sledge, 

 eight picked dogs, and an Eskimo driver, to overtake 

 my man. He was found at Cape Louis Napoleon, and, 

 after receiving a lesson, was taken along with me to 

 the ship. 



My party was left with instructions to bring up 

 supplies which the wrecking of sledges had obliged me 

 to cache at various places, assemble all at Cape Wilkes, 

 and then, if I did not return, reconnoitre the ice-foot to 

 Rawlings Bay, and return to the ship. 



The distance from Cape Wilkes to the Windward 

 was sixty nautical miles in a straight line (as travelled 

 by me along the ice-foot and across the bays, not less 

 than ninety statute miles); and was covered in 23 

 hours and 20 minutes, or 21 hours 30 minutes actual 

 travelling time. Temperature during the run -50° F. 



Every sledge was more or less smashed in this two 

 weeks' campaign, and at Cape John Barrow sledges 

 and loads had to be carried on our backs over the ice 

 jams. The mean daily minimum temperature for 

 the thirteen days was -41.2° F., the lowest -50° F., 

 which occurred on four successive days. 



The experience gained on this trip led me to be- 

 lieve that the conditions of travel from Cape Wilkes 



