518 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



day we were able to travel only five miles, for we got into thick 

 ice through which it was impracticable to pick a trail in the 

 impenetrable fog which had settled down. Just before we went 

 to bed Charlie reported seeing what he took for land on the tempo- 

 rary lifting of the fog, but this could not be verified because the 

 fog descended again. 



The next morning was moderately clear and no land was in 

 sight, but after traveling about five miles to the northeast, from 

 the top of a hummock I saw indubitable land to the northeast. As 

 the ice was very rough we had to camp after approaching six 

 miles nearer. The next day, June 14th, we pitched camp on the 

 sea ice a hundred yards from the new land, having traveled first 

 about nine miles. It had accordingly been about fifteen miles dis- 

 tant when we sighted it. 



The diary gives this entry: "Reached land 12:15 A. M. June 

 15, but did not go ashore as I knew the boys were anxious to be 

 the first. As Charlie seems to have been the first to see what is 

 clearly identifiable as this land, I called that honor enough for 

 him and let Noice step ashore first. We saw a seal but did not 

 try to get it." Interest was solely in the land. 



This land, first seen, was barely visible against the clouded sky. 

 The top of it was snow-covered, with a smooth and oval skyline 

 such as I have never seen on any land. It occurred to me that it 

 might be covered with a glacier. I had never seen a glacier in the 

 Arctic, nor have I seen glaciers in any land, beyond those that fill 

 mountain valleys in the American Rockies, Iceland, and Switzer- 

 land. As I was still unable to walk far and as the boys were en- 

 thusiastic about exploring, I asked Noice to go inland as far as he 

 could while Charlie followed the beach a little way, coming back 

 before eight o'clock to help take an observation for longitude. 



Since leaving Cape Isachsen more and more birds had been no- 

 ticed. Some sandpipers flew over camp June 7th and the first 

 Ross's gull June 10th. June 13th two loons (black-throated?) 

 were seen flying towards land, as well as several jaegers. On June 

 14th when camped near the beach we could hear the cackling of 

 geese inland, and later concluded they must have been Hutchins 

 geese as no other kind were observed on the island. Next day we 

 found a Hutchins goose nest with three eggs, and saw a female eider 

 duck, undoubtedly king eider, and two large gulls, perhaps Barrow 

 gulls. 



The snowdrifts in the vicinity of this land seen not only the day 

 we landed but several days following, showed clearly that the pre- 



