442 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



cut down and had to be renewed. When the gale was over our tent was 

 nearly buried and crushed with snow, so that we could not even sit up 

 straight. In the morning we had to dig our way out. 



We arrived at the island on November 22, after five weeks on the trail. 

 As we expected to make it in two weeks we took only six weeks' provision, 

 so had to cook dog-food on our return trip. As it was, we had only five 

 days' rations for men and no food for the dogs when we arrived. We had to 

 kill two dogs to feed the others. We were very much relieved to find the whaler 

 Narwhal, Captain Leavett, wintering there, for we were uncertain whether 

 any one had gone in. Captain Leavett kindly advanced us provisions to get 

 home with, and to buy a couple of dogs. 



After about a week of gales at the island, we started home. The sun had 

 set for the winter, but we had about five or six hours of twilight, and 

 moonlight besides. The return journey took three weeks, for we had many 

 head-winds and made only a few full days' marches. Time and time 

 again we would start off at 4 or 5 A.M. by moonlight, only to be stopped 

 by 10 A.M. by head-winds. Our ethnologist, Stefansson, of Harvard, made 

 the trip in six marches in the spring, with good weather and long days. 



We reached the ship about December 16, and after a rest started prepara- 

 tions for our ice trip to the north, to look for supposed land and to sound the 

 ocean for the Continental Shelf. In January Captain Mikkelsen and a 

 sailor went down to Erie's. Expecting to be gone only two weeks he did 

 not show up for nearly a month, and we were about to start in search of 

 him when he came in. They had sent up into the country for cariboo meat, 

 which the boys had cached during the fall hunting ; besides, they had 

 much bad weather. On their way home they were struck by a severe gale, 

 which broke the tent poles, and later tore the tent so that it filled with snow, 

 forcing them to the open. They lay outside in their sleeping bags for 

 about twenty-four hours ; then the wind slackened somewhat and they 

 started for Erie's cabin, fifteen miles away, with the wind at their backs. 

 They took sleeping bags along in case they should miss the cabin in the 

 thick snowdrift which obscured everything. People who have never been 

 in cold climates do not understand what drifting snow is. During high 

 winds the air is often so thick with flying snow that we cannot see a black 

 object thirty yards away. During the winter we had many gales, when we 

 could see only the topmasts of the schooner from the shore, about sixty 

 yards away. 



Captain Mikkelsen got into an open crack in the ice and was soaked up 

 to his waist. His arms also got wet, and his clothing froze and shrunk, 

 leaving his wrists exposed. That night they reached the neighbourhood of 

 Erie's cabin, but could not find it, so they slept out again. The next 

 morning the wind had fallen and they could recognize some landmarks, but 

 it was much colder. It took them scarcely half an hour to reach Erie's, 

 but in that time Captain Mikkelsen's wet clothes had shrunk and stiffened 

 so that he could hardly walk. As it was they had to cut them to get them 

 off. He reached the cabin just in time, for his heel, knees, and all the back 

 of his hands and wrists were severely nipped. He felt the symptoms of a 



