THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 521 



Of course such economy would not have been possible had we 

 cooked more than one sort of food. We had a few items of gro- 

 ceries with us, but nearly every meal consisted of boiled seal meat 

 with the broth for drink. 



As we started the exploration of this new land on June 17th 

 the sledges followed the coast, keeping to the sea ice, for the land 

 was already largely bare of snow. Meantime I crossed overland 

 not only to get an idea of the topography but also to save dis- 

 tance, for I thought I could cut across in such a way as to make 

 in four miles what the others would have to do in eight. In spite 

 of light fog I had no difficulty in keeping track of the team but 

 apparently the men had greater difficulty in keeping track of me. 

 After hobbling along ten miles overland at a very slow rate, I went 

 down to the sea and waited about two hours for the sleds to come 

 along. When they did not appear I started back along the coast 

 and after six or seven miles found a camp in charge of Noice. They 

 had somehow got the impression that I was behind them, had 

 stopped and waited for me awhile and eventually made camp. 

 Noice was in charge now while Charlie was inland looking for me 

 on the theory that I must have sprained my ankle over again. 



The season, although we were much farther north, seemed far- 

 ther advanced now on June 16th than on June 22, 1915, on the 

 south coast of Borden Island. It rained heavily the night before 

 and the night after June 17th, and near the coast there was very 

 little snow except where it had accumulated in ravines or in the 

 shelter of cliffs. 



Sea shells were scattered over the land, and there were the pe- 

 culiar ice-built elevated beaches already described. It appears, 

 then, that this land has been rising in recent times, in common with 

 most or all others in this part of the Arctic. 



More evidence of a rapid rise of the land appears in the islands 

 discovered by us and in the two Ringnes Islands than in Melville, 

 Banks and Victoria Islands. Skeletons of ovibos are absent from 

 these rapidly rising and perhaps comparatively new lands, while 

 either the bones or the living animals are found in the lands that 

 appear older. Our observation of the habits of the ovibos is that 

 they are very unlikely to cross sea ice from one island to the 

 other; in fact, were I the owner of a herd of them I should take 

 no pains to keep them on any particular island, feeling sure that 

 they would never of their own accord try to leave it. We have 

 never seen their tracks farther than one or two hundred yards out 

 on sea ice. These habits of theirs (together with the fact that their 



