iTiny, i8««.j Encampment near North Pole LaLe. 267 



The 17th was a very warm (hiy, the theriiioineter reacliin"- 38°, 

 although no sun appeared ; the upper ^^'alls of the kom-mongs fell in, 

 and made necessary the erection of tent-coverings overhead. Th(3 day 

 following, the snow melting as it fell, prevented the [)arty from resum- 

 ing their return journey. The shoeing of the sledges also was found 

 entirely thawed off during the night. In the morning Hall found that 

 one of his pups had been suffocated by its mother lying ujjon it, and 

 that, failing to lick it into life, she had eaten it for her breakfast. On 

 the 19th, he found she had repeated the act, a few bloody sj)<)t.s 

 only remaining to tell the tale. This left him but five of the litter, 

 the birth of which had given him hope of efficient aid on his next 

 journey. He had to handle this mother black dog and her })ups him- 

 self, as the Innuits, through some superstitious notions, were unwill- 

 ing to feed or to harness them. 



At 8 15 p. m. of this day the party began a further advance, jjre- 

 ferring to travel at night, and averaging two and a half miles per hour, 

 until twenty minutes past midnight. On leaving the small lake on 

 which they had made their thirty-fifth encampment, April 19, deviat- 

 ing now from the route of that date, they crossed a bluff the descent 

 of which being very abrupt was swifth^ made by the loaded sledges 

 themselves, when the teams, which had been doubled up for the 

 ascent, were successfully detached. On the 21st, the party got 

 back as far as the Lower Narrows, heretofore noticed as a deer-cross- 

 ing, and on the 22d, they made the forty-ninth encampment on the 

 same spot between Christie and North Pole Lake which they had 

 occupied on the 5th of April. At this place See-pung-er arrived, 

 to the surprise of all, with his fomily. He had been working hard to 

 rejoin the party since being separated from them at the fort}-sixtli 



