' ' MARION ' ' EXPEDITIOISr TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIN BAY 7 



bank and di'awin<>; water with buckets from a near-by stream. Fresh 

 water for scrubbing clothes was also put into four open barrels on 

 deck. One member of the engineer force had to be left in the Inter- 

 national' Grenfell Association Hospital at Battle Harbor, as he was 

 suffering from chronic rheumatism that had been greatly aggravated 

 by the raw and dam]? climate into which the Marion had suddenly 

 come. Through the aid of the American consulate at St. Johns, New- 

 foundland, he was later furnished with transportation by commercial 

 vessel back to the United States. 



There was little time to observe shore conditions at Battle Harbor, 

 but the quickest of inspections sufficed to show that here was an en- 

 tirely diiferent world from that left behind in New England a few 

 days previously. In the strait where the stations had just been taken 

 three small bergs had been sighted, and stranded near Battle Harbor 

 were tAvo more. The dark rainy weather marred their whiteness, 

 but brought out strongly their tints of blue and green. This day's 

 bergs constituted the first specimens of glacial ice ever beheld by the 

 majority of the crew. The water in the harbor was surprisingly 

 transparent. Despite the dullness of the day, details of the rocky 

 bottom and sides of the little cleft of a harbor could be observed in 

 many places as the Marion nosed about slowly between the two rows 

 of small wharves. 



Ashore, the rounded rocky hills were covered wdierever there was 

 any soil with a rank, soggy growth of grass, moss, and flowers. 

 Many of the latter were strange to our southern eyes. All our re- 

 maining doubts about being on the edge of the Arctic were quickly 

 dispelled by the sight of the port's tiny houses and the fish-drying 

 stages, about which were walking the fishermen and the Eskimo dogs 

 of the little town. At 8.50 p. m, the Marioth^s business had been 

 completed and we stood out to sea to head northward into the fog and 

 the rain. 



The morning of July 20 brought good visibility. A few bergs were 

 siglited off the coast in the Labrador current and over 20 were seen 

 grounded along the rocky shore. A northwest gale piped up just 

 before noon, so the deeply loaded Marion w^as run into sheltered 

 waters and anchored off Domino Harbor, Labrador. Only two per- 

 sons were found at this place — a father and son from Newfoundland 

 who were spending the summer there catching cod. The surround- 

 ings were uninviting and bleak, for the ground was rockier and the 

 vegetation less vigorous than at Battle Harbor, only TO miles farther 

 south. 



In the afternoon the Marion was swung in Domino Run to deter- 

 mine the deviations of the radiocompass, the local commercial radio 

 station transmitting wdienever test bearings were required. At 4.50 

 p. m., as it was still overcast and very windy, the Marion was 

 anchored at Spotted Island Harbor. This town was considerably 

 more populous than Domino Harbor, lying across the run from it. 

 There was a hospital of the Internatioiud (irenfell Association at the 

 new village. Tlie hospital j^eople and the natives were most cordial 

 throughout the ship's 45-hour stay. It was here that we had our 

 first taste of seal meat, the consensus of opinion being that it was very 

 good if properly cooked. 



