THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 195 



can hardly be said to have done it willingly this time) be on the 

 ice so late in the season. Had we been six days earlier we should 

 have had frosty weather to Banks Island and should be there now. 

 As it is, the issue seems doubtful, and Storkerson and Ole may 

 prove right after all in thinking our enterprise dangerous. 



"After a rest and making some drinking water, we started again 

 at 3:15 A. M. and camped at 7:15, as it was getting too warm for 

 the dogs to pull well and the snow was melting on our clothing and 

 making us wet. Distance traveled, about 18 miles east 110° N. 



"Yesterday we awoke to find the long siege of easterly wind over 

 for the time. By 6 A. M. it was blowing from the northwest ten 

 miles an hour, increasing by 8 A. M. to about northwest 15 miles. 

 During the day the wind shifted to about west 10° south. In the 

 evening thickly clouded in the southwest and some snow fell be- 

 fore midnight. Sun barely visible most of the day and the light 

 very trying on the eyes. About 3 A. M. we saw from northeast 

 to southeast what Storkerson and Ole think was a mirage of land. 

 It looked through my glasses like clouds undulating around oval- 

 topped mountains. Crossed two more leads over the same sort of 

 rotten and sloppy four-inch ice. In one case the ice bent so badly 

 under the sled that for a minute or two we expected it to break 

 through, which might have proved fatal to all of us, although to 

 give a certain margin of safety I always carry my rifle over my 

 shoulder and about fifty rounds of ammunition. The west wind is 

 doing brave work for us, closing the leads partly though it is not 

 strong enough yet to have closed any of them completely. There 

 is lateral motion discernible at all the leads. The floe west of each 

 lead appears to be moving south about a foot in five minutes with 

 reference to the floe next east of it. The floes are also approaching 

 each other and crumbling a little on the edges. I suppose the pres- 

 sure is so mild because there is a great deal of open water between 

 us and Banks Island with nothing solid to obstruct the eastward 

 motion of the ice." 



I have quoted this entry in full, except for the meteorological 

 observations, to show what sort of records I was in the habit of 

 keeping. Many of the entries are a good deal more detailed, giv- 

 ing information of the kind of ice, or mention of signs of game, 

 "pink snow" and other botanical and zoological phenomena. Full 

 reproduction of such notes would be tedious in a book intended 

 for general reading, although it is really these that constitute the 

 larger part of the scientific information gained. This detailed in- 



