CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT 



May 5th. — As usual, we camped on the ice between the 

 highest ice-banks so as to be sheltered from the sweeping blast 

 which whirled across the ice-foot and whipped our tents with 

 showers of snow and gravel. An inhospitable country to wake 

 up in when the day's journey must begin after a good night of 

 rest in a comfortable sleeping-bag ! Each day has to be started 

 with a little reconnoitring. One or two men go seaward 

 armed with ice-picks in order to rid the road~~oT~TrTe~ first 

 obstacles. It is always a good thing to get quickly away from 

 a camp, for nothing is more demoralizing than looking too 

 long at the place where last one slept. 



We soon found that by going seaward we quickly came 

 across fairly good ice, though it was old Sikussaq with slippery 

 hilly slopes and annoying hollows. But this old ice alternated 

 with good driving, and thus it happened to our great surprise 

 that we quickly crossed the place where we had expected the 

 greatest struggle. Near Cape Stanton we onee more got up 

 on the ice-foot, which was everywhere bounded on its outer 

 side by ridges of from 5 to 20 metres high. We were now 

 rid of the pressure-ice, but the clayey snow gave the dogs hard 

 work in pulling the sledges. 



During the previous day's journey we had seen tracks of 

 Polar wolves, a very large male and its mate, which a few days 

 ago had travelled in the very direction in which we were now 

 struggling. On this day also we ran across the same tracks, 

 and the dogs, which scented the strange animals, were animated 

 a little by the hope of a possible hunt. Also we were interested 

 in the tracks, for where wolves exist one will, as a ride, find 

 musk-ox, and we were all longing for fresh meat. In several 

 places on land we found excrements of musk-ox, but unfortu- 

 nately they were all very old and covered with moss. 



So far the day's journey differed only from the many others 

 of laborious and weary struggles along a monotonous and barren 

 coast, in that we passed two beautiful bays. There was Hands 

 Bay, with two peaceful valleys edged by high mountains which 

 further emphasize the idyllic aspect ; at the head of this bay the 

 ice was even and appeared to have been melted during the 



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