THE FOURTH WINTJSR AND SPRING. 355 



all so anxious to get home, and firmly believed that the sand was 

 going to work wonders. For the present we dumped it in heaps 

 down the fjord as far as the point at Borgen, and left the rest to be 

 done after the spring journey. It was not advisable to scatter it 

 before the snow had melted, as otherwise the thaw-water would 

 carry away all the fine sand with it, and this it is which is the 

 most efficacious. 



We had great plans for the spring. In case a ship might 

 come into Jones Sound in the course of the summer to look for us, 

 we resolved to build cairns, and leave a record of our expedition 

 on Cone Island, and on the different points in the sound. The 

 coast-line west of Greely Fjord was to be examined, and the still 

 unmapped coast of North Devon mapped. We had to send a 

 sledge-expedition to Beechey Island, partly to correct our chrono- 

 meters according to the place-determination of the English, and 

 partly to look at the depots which they had left there half a century 

 before ; and furthermore to try to find the sloop ' Mary,' which 

 John Boss left behind him in 1850. If we were unsuccessful in 

 getting away this year too, I should be obliged to send news of the 

 expedition to Danish Greenland, and it might then be a good 

 thing to be in possession of a seaworthy vessel. We could indeed 

 sail down to Danish Greenland in one of our own boats, but it 

 would be far better to make use of a sloop of the kind. 



Isachsen, Fosheim, and Hassel were to go eastward, and leave 

 the records of the expedition ; Schei and I to make a long journey 

 north, and map the tracts west of Greely Fjord. Baumann and 

 Eaanes were to come with us to Storoen, where we intended to 

 put down a cache, which the northward-bound party could make 

 use of on the way home. By the time the returning party were 

 again on board, the cairn-builders would also be back, and then 

 Baumann, Fosheim, and the mate were to go over to Beechey 

 Island, and Isachsen and Bay to drive across the sound to North 

 Devon, surveying. 



On April 1, 1902, all three parties went off. During the first 

 part of the spring season the weather was of the worst kind : 

 north wind and falling snow, with exceedingly difficult travelling. 

 Added to this was the fact that our dog-food this year was 



VOL. II. 2 A 2 



