434 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



I should have to start on my trip to Cape Kellett before Stor- 

 kerson arrived from his surveying journey. I accordingly wrote 

 telling him that with the cooperation of the entire ship's company 

 of the Bear he was to prepare for the ice trip of the coming year. 

 The first thing to do was to fetch the two good sledges which we 

 had left at Mercy Bay. This meant an overland trip of about a 

 hundred miles if the direct route were taken which might be diffi- 

 cult as the journey had to be made in the darkness of midwinter 

 and the unknown country might prove mountainous. By the coast 

 the distance would be nearly double and it was likely that along the 

 Melville Sound shore of Banks Island the ice would be rough. 



When the sledges had been brought home and repaired if neces- 

 sary, a depot of sledge provisions was to be made at the northeast 

 corner of Banks Island, Point John Russell. Now that we had 

 plenty of pemmican and the other foods commonly used in polar 

 exploration we would make use of them to take us through the 

 period of limited daylight when hunting is difficult. We expected 

 them to last until we reached the vicinity of our new land which we 

 thought would be in April, for the main task of the spring was 

 to be the survey of land already discovered. Next year from the 

 more northerly base we hoped to establish we would make journeys 

 farther afield. 



In preparation for the trip to Banks Island I built an experi- 

 mental snowhouse to give the men a little practice, for in this as 

 in many other undertakings a good deal depends on the prompt and 

 intelligent cooperation of every one engaged. The building I would 

 do myself and did not expect the men to learn except gradually, but 

 the cutting and carrying of the blocks, the filling of the crevices, 

 the digging of the tunnel through the foundation snowdrift to pro- 

 vide an entrance at a lower level than the floor, the building up in- 

 side of the bed platform and covering it with skins, the setting up of 

 the cooking gear and the like, all these I wanted the men to practice 

 in the favorable conditions of the base where we were not tired and 

 where the work could be done in daylight. On the actual journey 

 the work would have to be done perhaps in half darkness, perhaps 

 by moonlight, and even possibly by lantern light. 



After building two or three experimental houses, we put up on 

 November 12th about as good a one as could be built. It was ten or 

 eleven feet in diameter with a dome about seven feet above the 

 floor. We fitted it up properly with all the camp equipment, cov- 

 ering the bed platform with skins. When this was done the various 

 members of the expedition visited it. The Eskimo women, who 



