THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 539 



bunting its nose at or below water level into the next "island" and 

 that very hard, for the dogs scrambled ahead at a great rate trying 

 to get out of the icy water. 



When the sun was shining they splashed and swam willingly 

 enough, but on colder days it was my task to drag the leader against 

 all his strength off each ice island and into the water. When the 

 team was once in the water they behaved quietly and everything 

 went well so long as their feet touched bottom, but when they 

 began to swim the rear dogs, which were the largest and usually 

 the fastest swimmers, would catch up to the ones ahead and all 

 would be bunching up around me. We were using the tandem type 

 of harness which is suitable for all conditions of sledge travel 

 except swimming, and we usually found at shallow water or climb- 

 ing out on an island that the team was all tangled up and had 

 to be straightened again. 



At one stage we thought of striking a direct course for Cape 

 Murray and traveled in that direction a dozen miles, but the going 

 became so bad as to be virtually impossible and we had to turn 

 back. This we did, thinking that a lead we had seen running 

 south from King Christian Island might be a widened tide crack 

 running perhaps all the way across to Findlay Island. The diary 

 narrates: "We shall turn back from here to the lead we left two 

 days ago. We have now crossed Findlay Island as mapped on 

 Admiralty chart No. 2118 and found an average depth of over 

 two hundred meters (maximum depth 315 meters) while all signs 

 of nearby land are wanting. The lead we were following may run 

 from King Christian Land to Findlay Island, at least it trends 

 that way the first ten miles or so. The going we are in here now 

 may be called impossible — the water deep and the mushroom 

 islands so high that a man who has been wading needs to put his 

 hands and knees on them to scramble out. It is very hard to get 

 a sled on one, for most have not room on top for the team to pull 

 and there is not often room for the sled and dogs after you do get 

 on top." 



At this season the only passable traveling conditions are found 

 along the edges of the long leads. Some leads vary greatly in width 

 and are crooked and may come to an end, but there is usually a 

 nearly straight lead running between the headlands where two 

 islands approach each other most nearly across a strait. The lead 

 to which we turned back proved such a one, although it ran in a 

 course more easterly than we desired, probably towards some cape 

 on Bathurst Island. We had advanced two days westward and 



