3o6 NEAREST THE POLE 



winds rushing out of Kennedy Channel, heavy snow and 

 an abominable ice-foot in Rawlings Bay delayed us, 

 and it was not until the 28th that I had all my supplies 

 assembled at Cape Lawrence, on the north side of 

 Rawlings Bay. 



Cape Lawrence presented the advantage of two pos- 

 sible routes by which these latter supplies could be 

 reached from Conger, one through Kennedy Channel, 

 which I was about to follow, and the othe via Archer 

 Fiord and overland. In spite of the delays I felt, 

 on the whole, well satisfied with the work up to the 

 end of the year. I had all my supplies half way to 

 Fort Conger, and had comfortable snow igloos erected 

 at Cape Hawkes, Cape Louis Napoleon, Cape Eraser, 

 Cape Norton Shaw, Cape Wilkes, and Cape Lawrence. 



December 29th, I started from Cape Lawrence with 

 light sledges for Fort Conger, hoping to make the dis- 

 tance in five days. The first march from Cape Lawrence 

 the ice-foot was fairly good, though an inch or two 

 of efflorescence made the sledges drag as if on sand. 

 The ice-foot grew steadily worse as we advanced, until, 

 after rounding Cape Def osse, it, was almost impassable, 

 even for light sledges. The light of the moon lasted 

 only for a few hours out of the twenty-four, and at its 

 best was not sufficient to permit us to select a route 

 on the sea ice. 



Just south of Cape Defosse we ate the last of our 

 biscuit, just north of it the last of our beans. On the 

 next march a biting wind swept down the Channel and 

 numbed the Eskimo who had spent the previous win- 

 ter in the United States, to such an extent, that, to 

 save him, we were obliged to halt just above Cape 



