244 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



and had not earned his rations for several days. We are in 

 doubt whether he ever has done any real work at all, though he 

 always managed to keep the trace tight, but the general opinion 

 is that he never did more. Well, he is gone now, and his 

 comrades have each got a nice big chunk of his carcase. They 

 eat it now without any further ado, although they do not like it 

 as well as pemmican, and I have a feeling that they are looking 

 reproachfully at us when they see that we are selecting 

 another victim as a sorry reward for so many days' hard 

 work. 



Camped at 4.40 P.M. and made about 6'*5 true S.E. Lat. 

 71 16', long. 148 25' W. Temperature 17 C. ; at noon 

 13 C. Calm and overcast. 



Monday, April 22. We left our last camping-place at 6.30, 

 and made very little progress ; the ice was fearfully rough. 

 About 8.30 A.M., coming to an open lane, we took a sounding. 

 The bottom at last ! Sixty-six metres of wire ran out, and we 

 were so surprised that at first we did not realize that it was the 

 bottom. We are glad to return to the Continental Shelf, and 

 we are not going to leave it again. We camped on a small 

 piece of old ice and ran out a line of sounding due north. The 

 result was rather surprising ; at a distance of two and a quarter 

 miles the depth increased from sixty-six metres to six hundred 

 and twenty metres and no bottom. We took a series of sound- 

 ings in the lane, which luckily ran north and south, and found 

 the depth increasing from eighty-eight metres to two hundred 

 and twenty at a distance of a little less than a quarter of a 

 mile ; at a distance of one and a quarter miles from two hundred 

 and twenty to four hundred and fifteen metres, and finally at a 

 distance of three-quarters of a mile from four hundred and 

 eighteen metres to six hundred and twenty metres with no 

 bottom. The colour of the bottom changed from greyish blue 

 to brown or yellow at the greatest depth. We took twelve sound- 

 ings in a straight line from the camp and northward, covering a 

 distance of two and three-quarter miles. Taking so many deep 

 soundings requires a long time, especially with an inadequate 

 machine, and it was late when Storkersen and myself returned. 

 We pulled the sledge with the sounding machine on it, and 

 some of our dogs followed us, doubtless highly pleased and 

 surprised to see us toil at the sledge without their aid. 



