638 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



"It is requested whoever may find this will communicate the Same 

 to the Secretary of the Admiralty, London. 



"Dated (several words illegible — perhaps 'safe and sound') Investi- 

 gator frozen in the Pack, Latitude 72° 50', N. Longitude. 



"21 April, 1851, 



" McClure (Signature partly illegible), 



"Commander." 



One extra day we spent to happy purpose. During our outfit- 

 ing for the overland march Sapsuk had been improving so steadily 

 that when everything was ready he was almost able to walk. We 

 waited this extra day to let him gain a little more strength. 



Before departure we built a cairn on the site where I discovered 

 the cylinder. It is not possible in sandy country to make a per- 

 manent monument, but we had the advantage of building this in 

 summer where McClure made his in winter, and ours will prob- 

 ably last a little better. In the monument we left a copy of 

 McClure's document, taking the original along with us, and added 

 a record of our own, giving some information about what we had 

 done and telling that we were on our way to Cape Kellett to over- 

 take our ships and sail home. 



Near the beach where our camp had stood, about two miles 

 south of Knight Harbor, we propped up our two sledges one against 

 the other so they stood like bears on their hind legs, conspicuous 

 for a long distance. Without having any reason to think that the 

 things we left would be found by any one who would want to use 

 them, we still packed up everything in the safest manner possible. 

 We then made a platform between the two sledges and put most of 

 the things upon this platform, protected as well as possible from 

 rain. A few articles we left on the ground. Some books were 

 among the things we had to abandon — Dickens' "Christmas Stories," 

 Churchill's "Crisis," Bigelow's "Applied Biology," Mikkelsen's 

 "Conquering the Arctic Ice." These were left behind either be- 

 cause they were heavy or because we knew them almost by heart. 

 And these others were carried on, either because they were lighter 

 or more highly valued — Barham's "Ingoldsby Legends," Comte's 

 "Fundamental Principles of Positive Philosophy," Boas' "Mind of 

 Primitive Man," the Royal Geographical Society's "Hints to Trav- 

 elers," and the American Nautical Almanac for 1916. 



Besides these books and a minimum of bed clothing we carried 

 our sextant and artificial horizon, some spare notebooks, a manak, 

 four large snow knives, and five hundred rounds of ammunition. 

 The manak, snow knives, and large quantity of ammunition were 



