SLEDGE-JOURNEYS ASHORE AND AFLOAT. 193 



sealing-boat, with the intention of collecting more moss for the 

 hut, but the attempt was a failure, and we climbed up on the 

 heights instead. The view was more hopeless than ever, and 

 the ice more closely packed than we had seen it all the summer, 

 but on the north side of Pirn Island, there was a channel along 

 shore. If only we could push through the narrow belt of ice 

 between Cape Kutherford and Cocked Hat, the Tram' would 

 be able to reach Smith Sound. 



It was remarkable how few walrus we saw in Eice Strait that 

 year. We had always several men out in hopes of a catch of 

 some kind, and if for some reason they were not out, the dredging- 

 boat was always about ; but, as far as I know, not a single walrus 

 was seen the whole of the summer. The previous year, when the 

 young ice began to form, we saw them every day ; sometimes in 

 large herds. Perhaps, however, they were on their winter wandering 

 from the inner part of the fjord ; it is not unlikely that they would 

 stay a couple of days in the sound on their way south to forage and 

 rest after their long swim, and also to get air. 



Day after day we scanned the ice from the highest hill-tops, 

 but the prospect of getting on through Kane Basin seemed ever 

 equally hopeless. Meantime we got ready for sea, in order to be 

 able to start at a moment's notice, and among other things we pre- 

 pared to take the dogs on board whenever it should be necessary ; 

 they had been tethered on shore all the summer. 



In the night of Sunday, July 23, a fresh breeze sprang up from 

 the north, and the belt of fast ice on the south side of the strait 

 drifted away during the course of it. As soon as the breeze sprang 

 up we lighted the furnaces and fetched the dogs on board. 



'On the 24th we weighed anchor and steered northward, in 

 hopes of being able to go north of Pirn and Cocked Hat, but the 

 wind had pressed the ice southward, so that the land-channel north 

 of Pirn Island had disappeared. There was nothing to be done, 

 therefore, but to turn back. We then steamed south to Brevoort 

 Island, where we lay for some hours speculating as to the condition 

 of the ice. Nearly the whole of Smith Sound was closely packed 

 with heavy polar ice from Kane Basin. We could, certainly, have 

 forced a way across the sound to Foulke Fjord, where it would 



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