320 NEAREST THE POLE 



The wind was still bitter in our faces when we again 

 got under way the morning of the 27th, the ice-foot 

 became worse and worse up to Cape Cracroft, where 

 we were forced down into the narrow tidal joint, at 

 the base of the ice-foot; this path was a very narrow 

 and tortuous one, frequently interrupted, and was 

 extremely trying on men and sledges. Cape Lieber 

 was reached on this march. At this camp the wind 

 blew savagely all night, and in the morning I waited 

 for it to moderate before attempting to cross Lady 

 Franklin Bay. While thus waiting the returning 

 Eskimos of the first and second divisions came in. 

 They brought the very welcome news of the killing 

 of 21 musk-oxen close to Conger. They also reported 

 the wind out in the bay as less severe than at the Cape. 



I immediately got under way and reached Conger 

 just before midnight of the 28th — 24 days from Etah 

 — during six of which I was held up by storms. 



The first division had arrived four days and the 

 second two days earlier. During this journey there 

 had been the usual annoying delays of broken sledges, 

 and I had lost numbers of dogs. 



The process of breaking in the tendons and muscles 

 of my feet to their new relations, and the callousing 

 of the amputation scars, in this, the first serious 

 demand upon them, had been disagreeable, but 

 was, I believed, final and complete. I felt that I had 

 no reason to complain. 



The herd of musk-oxen so opportunely secured near 

 the station, with the meat cached here the previous 

 spring, furnished the means to feed and rest my dogs. 

 A period of thick weather followed my arrival at Conger 



