326 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



is upon the map but no one knows whence it came or how it 

 got there. 



From the west end of the largest of McClintock's Polynia 

 Islands I could see the sledges to the northwest traveling along 

 steadily and leaving me farther and farther behind, for I spent 

 a great deal of time in taking cross bearings not only of the islands 

 laid down by McClintock to verify their position, but also of 

 several islands or reefs which he had not seen. Apparently we 

 were more fortunate than he had been in the conditions of visibil- 

 ity; indeed this was one of the best days we had in the vicinity 

 of Prince Patrick Island. Although the sky was mainly clouded 

 one could see a considerable distance, and sufficient light came from 

 one quarter of the sky so that shadows enough were cast to make 

 even white objects visible. 



I traveled about fifteen miles a trifle east of north from Cape 

 McClintock when I saw the men making camp about five miles 

 north. They had been compelled to turn slightly to the eastward 

 because of the trend of the shore floe, which was reflected in the 

 sky as a dark streak and which showed its presence not far away 

 by the roughness of the ice. 



It becomes second nature after long years of hunting in the 

 North to spend much time in examining from any available emi- 

 nence every part of the landscape. I was on the top of a hum- 

 mock twenty or thirty feet high and had already taken bearings 

 of every landmark in sight. Prince Patrick Island to the south had 

 disappeared, either because it was low or because the conditions 

 of visibility were not so good in that direction. But I could still see 

 the islands just northwest of Cape McClintock from which we had 

 started that morning. I next turned the glasses to the west, exam- 

 ining the region of the shore floe for possible seals. Polar bears 

 I was not expecting, for we had not seen the tracks of a single one 

 since landing at the southeast corner of Prince Patrick Island, and 

 seals were not likely to be out at this time of night — about two in 

 the morning of June 18th. Seals may lie on the ice twelve or 

 fifteen or even twenty hours but they will usually go down for a 

 feed somewhere around midnight. That they go down in search 

 of food after their long basking periods is reasonable on the face 

 of it. We have direct evidence also. When a seal is killed in the 

 early morning after he has just come up on the ice we usually 

 find in his stomach undigested and partly digested shrimps and 

 other Crustacea, 



I did not see any seals, and I had already been examining the 



