340 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



or no Star. To be prepared for her not coming we must get home to 

 dry moat for use as dog feed on the ice. In any case she will probably 

 not bring us skins for clothing and we must secure and dress enough 

 caribou and seals for winter clothing and spring water boots for next 

 year. 



"VII. Bernard and Levi are alone at home and there is much work 

 of many kinds to do, so we are all urgently needed there. 



"VIII. My own especial scientific interests are in the archaeology of 

 these lands and I want a week or two to dig at Kellett in the old village. 

 It is possible I may learn something there which, when co-ordinated with 

 my own previous work on the mainland and that of Jenness in Victoria 

 Island and on the mainland, may lead to enlightening results. 



"IX. The men are out of tobacco and Thomsen (who still has a 

 little from Ole) seems to take this hard. Then all of them are 'home- 

 sick' for the fleshpots of Kellett. Storkerson is the only one of the three 

 who has imagination to see anything in exploration beyond hard and 

 disagreeable work. 



*'It is to be noted that none of the men worry over the question of 

 quantity of food, though Thomsen especially dreads a long siege of 

 'meat straight.' It is therefore shown that I have at least three disciples 

 who have faith to believe that the rifles will provide food for the 

 morrow." 



The evening of June 22nd we started south. Frotn now until we 

 got half-way down the west coast of Melville Island we had condi- 

 tions which McClintock describes very well in his entry for June 

 25, 1853. He is speaking then of the vicinity of Emerald Isle 

 and, as it happened, we were in that vicinity the same day of the 

 month but with us, as doubtless with him, the description was ap- 

 plicable to the condition in that general locality for a matter of two 

 weeks. He says: 



"Snow fell throughout the day but the weather now is beautiful. 

 Started across the strait at a quarter before seven for Emerald Isle; 

 we have ten days' provisions to last us to Depot Island. . . . Soon found 

 the floe to be exactly in the condition we expected, the snow upon it 

 partially thawed about knee-deep and the lower six inches saturated with 

 water; our progress therefore was extremely slow. The men worked un- 

 commonly well so that by frequent 'standing pulls' and occasional 'dig- 

 ging out' they got the sledge along about two thirds of a mile in an hour. 

 A thick fcg came on shortly after starting and continued throughout 

 the march." * 



Although this entry of McClintock's is typical as to weather and 



♦"Further Papers Relative to the Recent Arctic Expeditions in Search 

 of Sir John Franklin," London, 1855, p. 574. 



