EXPEDITION OF 1898-1902 311 



duous ice-foot to St. Patrick's Bay, I found the bay 

 filled with broken pack ice covered with snow almost 

 thigh deep. From the top of Cape Murchison, with 

 a good glass, no practicable road could be seen. The 

 following day I sent two men with empty sledges and 

 a powerful team of dogs to Cape Beechey, to recon- 

 noitre from its summit. Their report was discouraging. 

 Clear across to the Greenland shore, and up and down 

 as far as the glass could reach, the channel was filled 

 with unheaved floe fragments, uninterrupted by young 

 ice or large floes, and covered with deep snow. 



Crippled as I was, and a mere dead weight on the 

 sledge, I felt that the road was impracticable. Had 

 I been fit and in my usual place, ahead of the sledges 

 breaking the trail with my snow-shoes, it would have 

 been different. One chance remained — that of find- 

 ing a passage across to the Greenland side at Cape 

 Lieber. 



Returning to Fort Conger, I sent Henson and one 

 Eskimo off immediately on this reconnoissance, and 

 later sent two men to Musk-ox Bay to look for musk- 

 oxen. Two days afterward they returned reporting 

 sixteen musk-oxen killed, and Henson came in on the 

 same day, reporting the condition of the channel off 

 Capes Lieber and Cracroft the same as that off Capes 

 Beechey and Murchison, and that they had been unable 

 to get across. I now gave up the Greenland trip, and 

 perhaps it was well that I did so, as the unhealed place 

 on my right foot was beginning to break down and 

 assume an unhealthy appearance from its severe treat- 

 ment. As soon as the musk-ox skins and beef were 

 brought in, the entire party, except myself and one 



