332 NEAREST THE POLE 



The next day, when about one- third the way across, 

 the ice did begin to open out, and it was only after a 

 rapid and hazardous dash from cake to cake that we 

 reached an old floe, which, after several hours of heavy 

 work, allowed us to climb upon the ice-foot of the 

 western end of the cliffs. 



From here on rapid progress was made again, three 

 more marches taking us to Conger, where we arrived 

 at 1 :3o A. M., June loth, though the open water between 

 Repulse Harbour and Cape Brevoort, which had now 

 expanded down Robeson Channel to a point below 

 Cape Sumner, and the rotten ice under Cape Sumner, 

 hampered us seriously. In passing I took copies of the 

 Beaumont English Records from the cairn at Repulse 

 Harbour, and brought them back for the archives of 

 the Club. They form one of the finest chapters of the 

 most splendid courage, fortitude and endurance, under 

 dire stress of circumstances, that is to be found in the 

 history of Arctic explorations. 



In this journey I had determined, conclusively, the 

 northern limit of the Greenland Archipelago or land 

 group, and had practically connected the coast south- 

 ward to Independence Bay, leaving only that com- 

 paratively short portion of the periphery of Greenland 

 lying between Independence Bay and Cape Bismarck 

 indeterminate. The non-existence of land, for a very 

 considerable distance to the northward and northeast- 

 ward, was also settled, with every indication pointing 

 to the belief that the coast along which we travelled 

 formed the shore of an uninterrupted central Polar sea, 

 extending to the Pole, and beyond to theSpitzbergen and 

 Franz Joseph Land groups of the opposite hemisphere. 



