THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 329 



than seal meat, but it was different. We had therefore some of the 

 psychological elements of a celebration. 



We slept less than usual because of the excitement, and at five 

 in the afternoon of June 18th started towards the land. After 

 about a mile and a half a seal hole appeared which gave opportunity 

 for sounding. The depth was 69 fathoms and there was a strong 

 current running a little west of north. There must be a fairly 

 deep strait between our new land and Prince Patrick Island, for 

 otherwise the current could scarcely have had such force. This 

 is our only evidence for thinking that the strait may be deep ; apart 

 from that we would suppose it to be shallow, for certainly it is 

 studded with islands and reefs. 



Seven and a half miles ENE from camp we came to one of the 

 gravel islands that form a sort of chain from Prince Patrick Island 

 to our new land. Their position may be more accurately indicated 

 by saying that a line drawn through them would be tangent to the 

 west sides both of Prince Patrick Island and the new land. 



It is about five miles from this particular islet to the mainland. 

 The sleds landed about straight east of it, but I walked more to 

 the north, for in that direction was the highest visible hill. I had 

 great hopes of what I might see from the top of this hill, but by 

 the time I got there the regular half fog had descended again. I 

 could see little black dots and horizontal black lines which ap- 

 peared as if they were floating in the sky but which I knew to 

 be the tops of hills from which the sun had removed the snow. 

 Under such conditions not much that is profitable can be learned, 

 and the only significant thing was the trend of the water sky, which 

 was running a little west of north to a distance which I estimated 

 by the elevation of the black reflection in the sky at about fifteen 

 miles. To be able to see so little on the first day was disappoint- 

 ing but we hoped for better things to-morrow. 



The hope was disappointed, for the morrow came cloudy and 

 obscure. We should have liked to remain in camp here long 

 enough for the sun to come out so that we might locate exactly 

 both in latitude and longitude the spot of our landing. But summer 

 was advancing so rapidly and the need of returning to the base 

 at Kellett had become so pressing that we did not dare to wait. 

 There was also the palliating circumstance that we had been 

 able to secure good observations at our island base near Cape Mc- 

 Clintock, and that on the march north on the 17th and again to 

 the new land on the 18th we had been able to take many compass 

 observations, both direct and cross bearings, so that we thought our 



