528 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



take a series of tide observations, records ten minutes apart for 

 thirty hours. 



Caribou signs were more abundant in Ellef Ringnes Island than 

 they had been east of Hassel Sound. Traces of wolves were also 

 numerous. Most of these were of the ordinary kind, but in the 

 mud on the beach we saw in various places the tracks of one animal 

 that seemed to have smaller feet than any wolf should have. Of 

 course, the pups are not large at this season but they should be 

 with their mothers and going about in bands. This animal had 

 been alone ; some of its tracks were only a few days old and others 

 several weeks old, so it had apparently been living in the vicinity. 



After finishing our tide observations we continued south along 

 the coast for about fourteen miles, taking compass bearings and 

 making a survey, for we had found that the coastline had been 

 determined only in the most general way by Captain Isachsen and 

 that our observations would add considerable in the way of correc- 

 tion and detail. We were approaching land after crossing a bay 

 when we came upon the skeleton of a polar bear. I suppose polar 

 bears must die now and then of illness or old age, but the sight 

 of this skeleton brought instantly the thought that the animal had 

 been killed by men. An inspection of the bones gave no proof, for 

 I could find none that had been broken by a bullet. The flesh 

 was gone, having been eaten by some carnivorous animals, and 

 several of the bones were not to be found. They might very well 

 have sunk, for there was now a shore lead varying in width from 

 a few feet to fifteen or twenty yards, separating the land from the 

 still immovable ice. 



Before finding the bear's skeleton I had noticed a mound at the 

 top of the point we were approaching. Presently we could see 

 pieces of board sticking up. This was, then, a place that had 

 been visited by white men. 



I knew that Donald MacMillan's Crocker Land Expedition had 

 its base at Etah in north Greenland, but I hardly expected them 

 to be working down in this vicinity. Yet the distance from his 

 base at Etah to the west coast of Prince Patrick Island by way 

 of the sledge route is no greater than the distance from our base at 

 Cape Kellett to the north end of Meighen Island, so that if both 

 of us went equally far from home our fields of work would overlap 

 by two hundred miles. 



Even before we found the record I was sure that the monument 

 had been built by MacMillan. His expedition and ours had pur- 

 chased pemmican from the same packers and here were scattered 



