610 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



winter had brought misfortunes, and delays and difficulties con- 

 tinued, so that it was only on April 12th that we finally got out 

 on the moving ice, when our expectations had been for a month 

 earlier. 



We had never left land at so high a latitude before and we never 

 had found the ice so stable and favorable. It was not level, and 

 rapid progress was impossible, but it had little of the danger and 

 uncertainty of the thinner and more mobile ice where the currents 

 are strong, as around Banks Island or Alaska. For the first few 

 days we saw plenty of signs of seals but did not stop to hunt them. 

 We took frequent soundings, for the character of the bottom was 

 remarkably interesting. At the shore floe fifteen or twenty miles 

 from land we got a sounding of four hundred and sixty-eight 

 meters. After two days of travel, when we were eighteen miles 

 farther from land, we got four hundred and fifty-two meters; ten 

 miles farther on four hundred and forty-four meters. The bottom 

 we were traveling over was therefore similar to that of an enclosed 

 sea, as we knew from theory and found later when we ran a line 

 of soundings across Melville Sound between Melville and Vic- 

 toria Islands. This fell in with the theories of Greely, Harris and 

 others that there ought to be land to the northwest, and with 

 Peary's report of having seen "Crocker Land" in that direction. 



Before we left the shore floe Charlie had complained of illness. 

 On getting up suddenly he felt dizzy and sometimes collapsed. 

 In general he was disinclined to all exertion, depressed with all 

 sorts of gloomy forebodings, and his strength was noticeably less. 

 These were the symptoms of scurvy and I asked to see his teeth 

 and gums. The gums were swollen and purple and the teeth were 

 slightly loose. There was a dull ache in the arch of the teeth and 

 the gums bled readily. This was almost conclusive, but I did 

 not see how it could be with the diet we had been having. When 

 I said to him that with fresh meat every day scurvy was impossible, 

 I really meant to inquire whether he had been following the direc- 

 tions to eat fresh meat, and I took his reply of "Yes, sir," as indi- 

 cating that he had been doing so and that the mouth trouble was 

 probably pyorrhea. As we advanced he became weaker and more 

 depressed every day, so that it became necessary to send him back. 

 There were reasons for sending the support party back soon, al- 

 though not quite this soon. I wanted Storkerson to complete the 

 survey of Victoria Island if he could. 



The party that turned back on April 16th had several impor- 

 tant things to do. We feared from the report brought by Captain 



