CHAPTER XXXV 



MELVILLE ISLAND AND MCCLURE STRAIT 



TOWARDS the end of June we began to be annoyed and de- 

 layed by the rotting of our dog harness. I suppose there must 

 be some rot-proof material or rot-resisting enough to last 

 through a season, but we had none of it on the expedition. The best 

 thing we ever tried is ordinary commercial horse harness leather. We 

 never had much of this and relied on two things: first, the moosehide 

 harness made by the North American Indians, practically inde- 

 structible when kept dry. Through experience I know that a set 

 of this will last for years under ordinary winter conditions. But 

 these were no winter conditions, for our progress was much of the 

 time something between wading and navigation. It was not pos- 

 sible to travel over the land for, although there was snow in many 

 places, there were little rivers coming down to the coast too deep 

 and turbulent to be forded. It was not possible to leave the coast 

 on approach to these rivers so as to make a detour around the 

 mouth, because their warm water had made its way between 

 the ice and the land to a considerable distance each way from it, 

 forming an impassable moat that prevented us from getting out 

 on the ice. In fact, it was only at points half-way between these 

 rivers that it was possible to get from sea ice to shore, and we had 

 to travel along a mile or two from land. The ice in Fitzwilliam 

 Strait and later on in Kellett Strait was mostly of the type known 

 as "paleocrystic"; that is, it was old ice where the rains and thaws 

 of one or more summers had rounded the pressure ridges into oval 

 hummocks. There was a little this-year's ice here and there, 

 showing that the straits had been open or at least that the pack had 

 been in motion the previous season. 



On the old ice there were left over from last year water courses 

 which had deepened into channels, in some cases four or five feet 

 deep. Where they were that deep we did not venture into them 

 but the best we could usually do was to cross where they widened 

 out into little lakes, the depth of water then being from a few 

 inches to three feet. In the deeper places the dogs had to swim 



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