THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY 



Again a dog has to be killed. 



It was the best dog we had yet tasted, despite which I was 

 seized during the meal by a sudden feeling of discomfort, so 

 strong that, notwithstanding my hunger, it was impossible for 

 me to eat any more. According to our calculations we should 

 now be some 30 kilometres away from the land round Cape 

 Agassiz — " the great land without mountains," as the Eskimos 

 call it — and here we hope our bad experience will have an end. 

 Just think of tallow and fragrant reindeer meat, and probably 

 a delicious autumn hare ! 



CAMP 15 

 (600 metres above sea-level. Distance, 12 kilometres). 



August 21st. — The day begins with the cooking of the last 

 portion of pemmican gruel, and a thin one at that, for there 

 must be sufficient to go round. But however thin it may be, 

 it lies like cotton-wool round our vitals, refreshing us with its 

 substantial taste. At the same time the last biscuits are dis- 

 tributed, four to each man. If only the weather will last 

 things do not seem too black, for we have five dogs, which con- 

 stitute sufficient provisions if unforeseen obstacles do not delay 

 our descent to land. The weather does not promise well ; we 

 have a positive temperature of 3°, which is never a good sign 

 on the inland-ice ; furthermore, the clouds are coming up with 

 the velocity of a storm from the south-west. We leave behind 

 us everything that is unnecessary, both skis and snowshoes, and 

 hasten forward. 



The glacier is firm and bare of snow ; it consists of little sharp 

 needles which hurt us and the dogs, and as the animals wear 

 out their kamiks we tie up their paws in bits of an old towel. 



LAND AHEAD 



At twenty minutes past one the great moment of the day 

 and of the journey arrives : Land ahead ! Involuntarily we all 

 hail the saving coast with loud cries of joy. The dreadful ten- 

 sion of the journey seems at an end. The expedition is once 



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