264 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



pointment, for I knew my companions capable of inferring that for 

 themselves. It said merely, "Make camp on the coast half a mile 

 southwest of here." 



Then I walked east along a ridge of hills half a mile, for our 

 meat supply was again beginning to run low and it was time to get 

 another caribou, and I had further a vague plan of remaining at 

 the Cape for three or four days. From the end of the ridge I had 

 a view over a beautiful valley running eastward, with great 

 stretches of flat bottom lands and rolling grassy hills on either side. 

 On a hilltop eight or ten miles to the northeast were some caribou, 

 too far away for present need but giving assurance that, should 

 we decide to stay in the vicinity, we were likely to find food here 

 no less than elsewhere. 



On my return to camp I found the gloom I had expected. We 

 had all felt fairly certain of finding at least some beacon at Cape 

 Kellett. There was the hope of our own ships. Also Mr. Mott 

 of the Polar Bear had said to me that in the event of my ships dis- 

 obeying orders and not coming to Banks Island, which he antici- 

 pated more strongly than I through his association with the expe- 

 dition during the winter, he would leave a depot for me at Kellett. 

 We had even agreed what it was to be — one or two rifles with am- 

 munition to fit, some kerosene with two or three blue-flame kero- 

 sene stoves, a tent and possibly some clothes, and a little of some 

 kind of food least likely to be destroyed by bears. The food part 

 I had told him was of small importance, but I now felt keenly how 

 convenient it would have been to find rifles, ammunition, oil, and 

 the like. But the moral effect of the slightest evidence that we had 

 not been forgotten would have been greater than the physical value 

 of any supplies we could have found. 



It is scarcely possible for healthy men living in the open air 

 to remain despondent long. After an hour or two of gloom I began 

 to see various romantic possibilities in the situation and launched 

 upon a sermon to my companions on the text that the most precious 

 use of adversity is its stimulus. I pointed out that the greater 

 the obstacle the greater the achievement, with various other plati- 

 tudes I have now forgotten. While we lacked many things we could 

 have made use of, we nevertheless had resources enough not only 

 to pass the winter safely but to make an exploratory journey in the 

 spring, if it were nothing more than to cross to Victoria Island 

 and finish the mapping of it between the farthest points attained 

 by the expeditions of McClure and of Amundsen. Thus we should 

 accomplish useful geographic work and knock in the head, if we 



