274 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



can a launch be useful ; and while it might be well enough to carry 

 such a boat on a big ship where she could be hoisted in davits, she 

 was nothing but a white elephant to the Sachs, which was too small 

 to handle her comfortably on deck. The Edna had been towed part 

 of the way and nearly wrecked by ice; then with the greatest dif- 

 ficulty they had managed to lift her up on the decks of the Sachs. 



We might have made some use now of the Edna if she had been 

 in seaworthy condition. I put Crawford at fixing her up, but it was 

 eight or ten days before she was ready for use. By that time 

 the frosts had set in and the season of navigation was over. 



Two new chronometer watches had been sent to me by the 

 Government down the Mackenzie and had arrived before the Sachs 

 sailed. One of these had been taken for O'Neill to replace the 

 watch he had turned over to me, but Wilkins had been given the 

 other, so we now had two good pocket chronometers. A battery 

 of three Waltham ship's chronometers, really huge watches mounted 

 in gimbals, had also been given the Sachs, and various small items 

 of scientific equipment from the Alaska. 



But there were three exceedingly serious gaps in our equipment. 



A special feature of our ice exploration was the large water- 

 proof tarpaulin used to convert our sleds into boats. Of the two 

 the expedition possessed we had already used one for the trip from 

 Martin Point to Banks Island, and it was nearly worn out. The 

 other I had expected would be brought by the Star. It had been 

 taken to Coronation Gulf to be used for spreading over stores to 

 keep the rain out. 



The specially strong sled which we had lost with Wilkins and 

 Castel had also been taken to Coronation Gulf. Lighter sledges 

 of the sort best suited to work on or near land had been sent us 

 instead. 



Why the tarpaulin and the sled had not been sent us I under- 

 stood in a measure, though not fully. What I never understood was 

 that the Alaska had miles of sounding wire and sent us none of it. 

 This was truly heartbreaking. We should have to make our ocean 

 exploration next spring over depths inevitably beyond the reach 

 of our 1386 metre line, and thus our journey would be robbed of half 

 its scientific value. 



An answer to all these things would be: "We thought Stefansson 

 was dead, and expected Wilkins to confine his activities to the 

 shores of Banks Island where the boat tarpaulin, the strong sled, 

 and the sounding wire would be needed no more than by us in 

 Coronation Gulf." 



