138 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



and, arrived at Dragon Point, they opened out another 

 wide reach of bays and fiords. Beaumont was anxious to 

 reach Mount Hooker, from which he expected to see not 

 only the islands to the north, but get the best idea of the 

 trend of the mainland ; he encountered, however, soft 

 snow which varied from 2 to 4 J feet in depth : they had 

 " literally to climb out of the holes made by each foot 

 in succession.'" Why snow-shoes were not used seems be- 

 yond comprehension. Beaumont writes : " The shore for 

 which we were making did not seem more than 2 miles 

 off, so I went ahead to see if the travelling was better 

 under the cliffs. I got about a mile and a half ahead of the 

 sledge in three hours, and then gave it up. I was nearly 

 done ; so I hailed them to go to lunch, but would rather 

 have missed three meals than gone back all that distance." 

 The men struggled on, sometimes dragging the sledge 

 on their hands and knees to relieve their aching legs, 

 or hauling her ahead with a long rope and standing 

 pulls. 



On the 19th of May, Beaumont writes : " Nobody 

 will ever believe what hard work this becomes on the 

 fourth day ; but this may give them some idea of it. 

 When halted for lunch, two of the men crawled for 200 

 yards on their hands and knees, rather than walk unneces- 

 sarily through this awful snow. 11 This snow was too much 

 for them : on the 22nd May they started on the return 

 journey without having reached Mount Hooker. A record 

 was left in a cairn on the north end of Reef Island. At 

 Dragon Point a chart and another record were left in a 

 cairn, and Beaumont and Alexander Gray set off to ascend 

 the highest mountain in the neighbourhood. The eleva- 

 tion was 3700 feet and the view was magnificent, but 

 Beaumont did not see what he wanted : — " The Mount 

 Hooker Land hid the islands, and the Cape Buttress channel 

 was shut in. Mount Albert I could see was a separate 



