188 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



Island. At the time of turning east we had on hand 147 pounds 

 of man food and 74 pounds of dog food, which meant provisions 

 for men for about fifteen days and for dogs for about ten days. 



Under date of April 26th I wrote under the caption "Plans" the 

 longest diary entry of the whole trip. This was because we had 

 come in a sense to a parting of the ways. We were two hundred 

 miles from Alaska, we had provisions for two weeks only, and the 

 signs of game were getting fewer every day. Without having ex- 

 actly lost faith in the presence of seals in every part of the Arctic, 

 my men were becoming a little dubious about it. We had been 

 drifting before light northwesterly airs, but now we were encamped 

 on a solid floe waiting to see the effect of the east wind. If it 

 drifted us west with great rapidity I should have turned reluctantly 

 towards Alaska, for a westward drift would mean a great deal 

 of open water between us and Banks Island. On the other hand, 

 should we not drift materially to the west we had in this a sign 

 that the ice was fairly continuous from us to Banks Island where 

 we might hope for a landing. The north coast of Alaska is known 

 to be subject in spring to violent ice movement and the current 

 is considered to be prevailingly westward. I thought then and still 

 think that any attempt to land in May or June on the north coast 

 of Alaska with a sledge party coming from the Beaufort Sea has 

 the imminent hazard of being swept by the current west beyond 

 Alaska into the ocean north of Bering Straits. 



When I am lost in a storm, or when I am in doubt of any 

 kind, I frequently find that my feelings, or so-called "instincts," 

 are in conflict with deliberate reason, and I have invariably found 

 that the "instincts" are unreliable. I may have the strongest feel- 

 ing, which almost amounts to a conviction, that my camp lies in 

 a certain direction, for example, when a careful review of circum- 

 stances shows that it really ought to lie in another. I confess that 

 I now had similarly, in common with the men, the feeling that 

 our safety lay in returning over the known route to Alaska, but 

 all available facts indicated that such an attempt would be the 

 most hazardous course. To the south lay known dangers but to 

 the east we were in complete ignorance of conditions, and by ele- 

 mentary reasoning the chances were at least even that the condi- 

 tions towards Banks Island of which we knew nothing would be as 

 good as the conditions to the south, which we knew to be bad. 



My companions were more strongly impressed with the dangers 

 of the unknown. They pointed out that we knew that the sealing 

 to the south was good, while it might easily be bad to the east. 



