IX 



A NIGHT TRIP TO CAPE RUSSELL 



THE moon, past its second quarter, was bril- 

 liant; snow and ice encrusted by prismatic 

 frost crystals sparkled and scintillated; a 

 filmy veil of rime hung in the air; wind currents in 

 the higher atmosphere drove heavy cloud patches to 

 the southward. The cold was intense. We hur- 

 riedly loaded the sledges to take advantage of the 

 perfect weather for our journey to Etah. Presently 

 the dogs were harnessed, and straining in traces, the 

 komatiks were broken loose and we were away. 



As had been anticipated, traveling was rough and 

 hard and for the most part overland; the ice foot was 

 too rough to negotiate and beyond it was much open 

 water strewn with pans driving rapidly to the 

 southward. We had covered scarcely half the dis- 

 tance when the wind began to rise, and were still ten 

 miles from Etah when it attained the proportions of 

 a gale, and snow began to drift so badly that one 

 could scarcely see ten feet ahead. 



Once the Eskimos lost the trail, and while they 

 crawled forward on hands and knees to search for old 

 komatik tracks as a guide, left me in charge of dogs 

 and sledges. They were absent not over fifteen 



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