''MAEIOISr" EXPEDITION TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIISr BAY 37 



Islands, 30 miles to the southward off Cape Chidley, Labrador. It 

 was an anxious night for those who knew of the strong currents and 

 the poor charts, but fortunately the line of stations was taken with- 

 out disaster and by 1.15 a. ni. on August 21 the Marion was heading 

 eastward once more, bound for the open sea. 



A break in the routine of the cruise now occurred. In obedience 

 to a radiogram from Coast Guard headquarters, a search was com- 

 menced in the waters east of Resolution Island for the fliers Hassel 

 and Cramer. They w^ere on a flight from Canada to Mount Evans, 

 Greenland, and had not been heard from since early on August 19, 

 when they had reported themselves as about 40 miles eastward of 

 Hatton Headland. Two full days were devoted to a vain searcli 

 for these aviators. Later on we learned that they had succeeded 

 in reaching Greenland before losing their plane. 



The 21st Avas a fine day with full visibility, but the 22d was marred 

 b}^ moderate to fresh gales and rather rough to very rough seas. At 

 4^40 a. m. on the 22d, before it had started to blow, the eastern side 

 of Resolution Island was seen again, this time close aboard. There 

 w^ere many stranded bergs along the rocky coast, but exactly what 

 part of the island was sighted will never be known, for the storm 

 which came up suddenly at this time ended the period of good visi- 

 bility and forced the Marion to head offshore. Late in the afternoon 

 the sky cleared and the wind moderated suddenly, but only to pipe 

 up again to a fresh gale from the south, and to cloud over after three 

 hours of moderate to strong breezes from the same direction. On the 

 morning of August 23, after a night of great pitching and rolling the 

 gale moderated enabling speed to be increased on our southerly 

 course. 



Visibility was so good after the storm that frequent bearings 

 could be tiiken of the rocky heights of the Button Islands and Cape 

 Chidley, 25 miles to the westward. Inshore an unidentified steamer 

 which was heading northward looked very lonely and small on the 

 wild empty waters between us and mountainous land. 



Half a dozen bergs and a few growlers were sighted during the 

 day. According to our observations the Button Islands and Cape 

 Chidley seemed to be charted on B. A. chart 1422. about 12 miles to 

 the eastward of their true i)osition, but there must have been some- 

 thing like unusual refraction affecting our sights, for it is almost 

 unbelievable that these well-known places can be so improperly 

 located on the charts in use to-day. The charts on board were evi- 

 dently still far from perfect, however, for they differed among them- 

 selves. For instance, the eastern point of the Button Islands was 

 176° true from Hatton Headland on H. O. chart No. 5380, while this 

 bearing was 159° true on B. A. chart Xo. 1422. 



We had been eating much whale meat and salt horse even before 

 leaving Disko, and now, in Labrador, we hoped to catch or buy some 

 cod. We had bought a saddleback seal carcass at x\ta, Greenland, 

 but nobody took much of a fancy to this food despite the fact that 

 it is keenly relished by the Greenlanders. Whale meat if hung in 

 the rigging for about a week is not at all bad, but best of all w^ei-e 

 the steaks from the polar bears shot on the pack ice of Davis Strait. 

 Meat, it was observed, keeps an exceedingly long time if hung out 

 in the polar air. Both the whale meat and the bear were eaten 



