3"96 New Igloos. [Aprii, iseo. 



bright and joyful faces. The last part of the day's journey being over 

 an unbroken old floe with many hillocks, and the dogs being very 

 weary, the twenty-fifth encampment was made among the hummocks. 



The next morning, to Hall's great grief, all at once his pocket chro- 

 nometer utterly refused to go. Of this he said : '* Few can imagine how 

 strange i feel at the loss of my chronometer ; its constant ' tick-tick ' 

 at my right ear I thought anything but music, but now I feel lost." 

 His compass was very sluggish as they approached the Magnetic Pole : 

 he allowed 80° for variation. During the day Shepherd Bay and 

 Point Dry den came in sight across an extensive sea of hummocky 

 ice. His highest expectations now were to find the natives whose 

 sledge tracks from King William's Land had been seen. It was nec- 

 essary, however, to tell his party that if he did not promptly succeed, 

 he would let them stop all work and go to sealing, on which they went 

 right to work making seal-harpoons. They were troubled about the 

 dogs, which had become so ravenous as to gnaw the sledge-bars and 

 destroy tlie moss-icing immediately on its being put on the run- 

 ners, this kind of sled having been now fully proven to be superior 

 to all others. 



On the 30th, an igloo was seen to the southward with its wall-shel- 

 ter built to protect the sealers ; on visiting this, it was plain that it 

 had been lately occupied, for fresh tracks of men and dogs were all 

 around. Ou-e-la and "Jerry " were then quickly sent southward to find 

 Innuits ; and at the end of a couple of hours, to Hall's great delight, 

 signs were recognized from the two men that many inhabited igloos 

 were seen. Pa-pa now became more frightened than ever, and, on 

 conferring with the others. Hall agreed to stop behind the line of 

 pressed-up ice, which they thought would be an admirable breastwork 



