■f 



CHAPTER XXI I 



SUMMER TRAVEL ON DRIFTING ICE FLOES, 1914 



NOW we had a good deal of cloudy weather and found the "wa- 

 ter sky" exceedingly useful. When uniformly clouded over 

 the sky reflects everything beneath it in the manner of a mir- 

 ror. If there is below a white patch of ice, then the sky over it looks 

 white, while a black strip of water is represented by a black line in 

 the sky. It is hard on the eyes to travel in cloudy weather and hard 

 on the dogs for picking trail, yet the water sky absent in clear 

 weather more than makes up for these disadvantages. Leads were 

 all about us but the corners of various cakes were touching, and by 

 keeping our eyes on the cloud map above we were able to travel 

 sometimes a day at a time without even seeing water. Fortunately 

 for us, the leads ran in such a direction and tlie cakes met in such 

 a way that the course which enabled us to avoid the leads was north- 

 east, which was also the course we most desired to travel. 



But when the sun came out, astronomical observations showed 

 that while we were traveling northeast at an average estimated 

 rate of about ten miles per day, we were being carried south so 

 rapidly that our actual course was southeast. With Norway Is- 

 land the appointed rendezvous, it had been for some time my inten- 

 tion, if we could, to make the landing at Cape Alfred, the most 

 northwesterly corner of Banks Island, so that our ice exploration 

 might be as comprehensive as possible. We would then travel south 

 along the coast to Norway Island, where we would build a beacon on 

 the most conspicuous hill for the information of the Star, and go 

 on, since Norway Island is shown on the chart as only six or eight 

 miles in diameter, and hunting would probably not be good enough 

 to justify a stay. Sealing and consequently bear hunting might 

 be good but we would prefer the mainland to the east on account of 

 caribou, as we wanted their skins for bedding and clothing the com- 

 ing winter. 



During the following three weeks in the slow struggle towards 

 shore we were voluntarily delayed by the frequent soundings. For 

 some days the water was too deep for our length of wire but on 



220 



