314 Sledge Trip to Cape Weynton. [May, iser. 



the consent of the captains to take Frank Leonard and Peter Bayne, 

 of the Ansell Gibbs ; and Silas Norton, of the Concordia; and with 

 these and his own two Eskimos, left Ships Harbor Islands May 1. He 

 had a team of nineteen dogs for a large sled, the full load on which 

 weighed 1,700 pounds; several Innuit friends assisted in loading up 

 and starting it. Over the smooth sea-ice their first advance averaged 

 t\v(t and a half miles per hour. Passing next over two miles of rough 

 ice before entering Gibson's Cove, at noon they arrived at Walrus 

 Island: at 2 p. m. they were opposite Iwillik ; and at 10 p. m. com- 

 pleted their first igloo. The keen appetite of travel was satisfied by a 

 heart}' meal of raw deer-meat, coffee, and bread, with rank whale- 

 blubber for butter; and the dogs had a small meal to prevent their 

 runnin"- back to the islands. 



The travel through the early part of the next day was under sail 

 hoisted on the sled to assist the dogs, until the wind died away and 

 the sun came out. The sails were then furled and the sled re-shod. 

 Night found them under a high bluff hill on the east side of Christie 

 J.akc, the choice of which spot was made in the expectation that water 

 couhl be <t]jtained bv removing- some of the snow from the huije bank. 

 111 tills \\[v }nirty were not disappointed. 



The next day they were housed by a gale from the north-north- 

 west, wlii.li liad set in on the night previous, accompanied by flying 

 hnow X. thick that one could not see an arm's length, nor visit the 

 uat«'r-supply; on digging througli the snow, however, Ebierbing found 

 water witliin tlie encampment. All hands then turned out and built 

 a loohioo (outer igloo) to protect tlic^ dogs, and "preserve their fat for 

 working service." \\\uu tin- u-aj,. l.rokc, tlie carcass of an old Polar 

 bfjir, wliK-h jiad been brought along for them, was chopped up and 



