490 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



Beyond Cape Grassy we found that Storkerson had struck away 

 from the land in a direction 22 degrees west of north which is the 

 proper course for Cape Murray, the point where we came ashore 

 at the time of our discovery of Borden Island. But four miles 

 from Cape Grassy we found a place where the sledges had stopped 

 briefly by the way, to judge by the tracks of men and dogs. After 

 this the trail led for eleven miles in a direction 20 degrees east 

 of north. While it continued in this direction I thought Storkerson 

 must have made up his mind to strike for the south coast of the 

 new land with a view of exploring the east side instead of the west, 

 and this disturbed me for I thought the seaward side should be ex- 

 plored while the weather was still cold, leaving the land-locked ice 

 along the east coast to be traversed later in the season. But after 

 eleven miles of this course the party had turned back to their pre- 

 vious one, heading again for Cape Murray. I learned later that 

 the reason had been one of the remarkable mirages or "appearances 

 of land" that have deceived so many arctic explorers. Storkerson 

 told me later that the fog had suddenly lifted, showing a land with 

 bold cliffs apparently only fifteen or twenty miles away. This 

 surprised him, but after consulting his companions, both Eskimo 

 and white, and studying the land carefully through the glasses he 

 made up his mind that they could probably reach it that day and 

 that he might as well strike it first at this cape and follow it 

 westward. But for two or three hours as they advanced the land 

 kept receding and getting lower, until finally without becoming 

 obscured by any fog or mist it sank beneath the horizon as if it had 

 been some heavenly body setting. 



In general my polar experience has been nearly free from the 

 hardships that most impressed me in the books I read before going 

 North. For nine polar winters I have never frozen a finger or a toe 

 nor has any member of my immediate parties. My only experi- 

 ence was on my first expedition when I once got my feet wet in 

 an overflowed river with the temperature perhaps forty below and 

 froze one of my feet enough to raise a slight blister. I have now 

 forgotten whether it was a heel or a toe. Since then I have never 

 had a frostbitten foot or hand except for an occasional nip on the 

 wrist when my mittens have not met the coat sleeve properly. 

 These have never been more serious than a burn from a drop of 

 grease spattered from a frying-pan. My face gets slightly frozen 



