THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 639 



carried on the general principle of always having with us an outfit 

 adequate for supporting us at least a year. The heaviest single 

 item was our geological collection, about thirty pounds. These 

 were specimens gathered in the Ringnes Islands, Lougheed Island, 

 and on the east coast of Melville Island, including samples of coal 

 both from Lougheed Island and Melville Island. 



Point John Russell by our observations is a degree farther west 

 than the longitude given in McClure's record and upon the map. 

 This is not surprising, especially in view of the parenthesis in his 

 record which explains that the longitude was secured by a lunar 

 distance observation. This is well known to be an inaccurate 

 method of getting longitude and especially so if there is but one 

 observation and that taken under conditions of discomfort, as prob- 

 ably was the case with McClure. There could be little doubt of 

 our observation, for not only were our watches keeping a satisfac- 

 tory rate, but it was only a few days since we had left Parry's 

 Rock, the only place in the North that is considered reliably lo- 

 cated. It could hardly be supposed that our watches had varied 

 enough since then to account for more than a small fraction of a 

 degree. 



Judging from this discrepancy between the map and our ob- 

 servations and also from the fact that the northeast corner of 

 Banks Island is obtusely rounded instead of elongated to a narrow 

 tip as the map shows, we concluded that the coast line stood in 

 need of even such hurried rectification as we could give it. So we 

 followed the coast when we made our start July 28th. As usual, 

 I walked inland to get what knowledge of the country was possible. 

 Knight and Emiu looked after the pack dogs and Noice took com- 

 pass bearings along the coast and made a sketch as he went. They 

 were to make only five miles the first day, as I did not expect our 

 crippled dog to be equal to more than that. That evening I wrote 

 in my diary: "Sapsuk hobbles along wonderfully and is said to 

 have caused no delay, though he is very wobbly and does not walk 

 as if he could go a hundred yards." 



The next day we made better progress and still Sapsuk kept up, 

 and day after day he kept getting better so that our worries for 

 him were over. 



At Dealy Island I had agreed that the men might take from the 

 depot certain articles of clothing on condition that they would 

 carry them themselves across Banks Island. But when we made 

 our cache near Knight Harbor they had changed their minds and 

 abandoned some of them; others they carried bravely at first, but 



