250 Uncertainty as to the Route. [April, iseo. 



cliild liad no nourislimeiit except a piece of raw meat to suck. With 

 but one exception, however, entreaties to resume the administering of 

 medicine were refused up to the day of its release from its sufferings. 



On the morning of the 16th, Ebierbing and Hall climbed a hill 

 300 feet above the lake, but were shut out from any clear sight of the 

 sea to the north by the thickly-flying snow ; they thought that through 

 the spy-glass they could obscurely make out sea-ice. All along their 

 route, tracks of tlie musk-ox were now plainly recognized by their 

 stand-droppings, so much larger than those of the deer ; reindeer were 

 seen, but the travelers had no weapons with them but long knives. 

 The view from the hill took in lakelets in every direction ; the one on 

 which tliey were encamped, was three-fourths of a mile in length, with an 

 arm on the other side of the hill that seemed to extend itself to the sea; 

 while the number of the lakes made it more difficult than ever to deter- 

 mine whether they were really upon Dr. Eae's old route. Hall thought 

 that a dozen different routes might be followed from Christie Lake to 

 the Sea of Ak-koo-lee. 



On his return from the hill, he found that a puppy had capsized 

 his artificial horizon, spilling all the mercury, and Mani-tnark had not 

 much improved the matter by gathering it from the snow into a tin 

 dish. Provoking as this was, he had to make the best of it, as a few 

 days before he had done when the dogs fell to fighting while he was 

 taking his meridian observations — the dogs, in the muss, knocking the 

 liorizon over and over. Such annoyances and worse ones, not unfre- 

 quently occurring, he wished all the dogs in "Tophet"; j^et he writes, 

 tliey " are a blessing to an Arctic traveler. I hope some day to have 

 tlu'ir aid in ^"-etting to tlie North Pole." 



< )n liic 17th, another day was forced from him for rest by the 



