316 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



lars as well as the weather allowed, and probably the reason we 

 saw no cairn was that it had been built of materials which had 

 not withstood weathering. 



June 4th we traveled north only about four miles and then 

 camped at the west end of another island, oblong with the main 

 axis east and west, about two miles long and 100 feet high. The 

 day was cut short because while I was exploring some deep bights 

 to the eastward the men saw several seals scattered on the ice. 

 We had five days' provisions on the sledges, so that by ordinary 

 rule no halt for hunting should have been made before camp 

 time. But we had been talking much lately of the unwisdom of one 

 man always doing the hunting. Were he to get sick the others 

 might have undue trouble in getting food for themselves and him. 

 Through my greatest experience and our desire to save both time 

 and ammunition, I had so far done all the sealing on the ice; seal- 

 ing in the water needs no training and all had had their share of 

 that. Now that several seals were scattered about in ideal hunting 

 weather the men concluded the psychological moment for practice 

 had arrived. So, much to my wonder — I was watching them with 

 glasses six or eight miles away — they camped, thereafter going 

 off in different directions, each after his own seal. 



Crawling up to seals sleeping on the ice is simple in theory and 

 easy to describe. But as often happens to those who learn by 

 precept, one may think he understands every detail and find on 

 trial that he does not. So it turned out now. Although Storker- 

 son, Thomsen and Ole all had excellent explanations when they 

 came home, none had a seal. Thomsen, who was a very deter- 

 mined chap, later stayed up all night while the rest of us slept, 

 making fresh attempts. He had a good appetite for breakfast next 

 morning but no fresh seal meat to satisfy it. But I must say that 

 when once he did secure his first seal, some days later, Thomsen 

 seldom failed thereafter. 



On this island were stones fit for making a cairn, although small 

 and not abundant. Thomsen built a beacon two or three feet 

 high and I wrote to deposit in it a "record" giving the latitude and 

 longitude and describing in about a hundred words our journey up 

 to that point. There was also a forecast of what we should do 

 the remainder of the season. 



As we approached the north end of Prince Patrick Island we 

 felt we were coming into more intimate touch with the tragic 

 occasion for the explorations we were now completing. Our pred- 

 ecessors, who over sixty years ago had mapped all but a little 



