694 APPENDIX 



was scarce and we used tents to sleep in at night but as soon as we 

 came to the old ice pack where we could be comfortable because good 

 snow could be found, we commenced to live in snowhouses. We pre- 

 ferred them to tents, which during the Arctic winter should be used 

 only in emergencies. 



Traveling mostly over old ice, the going getting better the farther 

 we got from shore, we proceeded till the night of April 3rd when 

 we were about one hundred and five miles north of Cross Island and 

 at north latitude 72°, west longitude 147°. On the following day I sent 

 the first support party, consisting of our chief engineer, Herman 

 Kilian, in command of two men, two sleds and nineteen dogs, on their 

 return to Barter Island. Their equipment naturally was the poorest we 

 had. Early the following morning they bade us good-by. Taking with 

 them my reports to the Commander, they started for home while a few 

 minutes later we proceeded northward with our remaining nine men, 

 thirty-six dogs and five sleds. 



As days went by the old ice floes continually increased in size, 

 and over them we found traveling good with a little road-cutting here 

 and there through ridges bordering the floes. In the forenoon of April 

 8th we came to an old ice floe which it took us three hours to cross, 

 its diameter being about seven miles. Upon our arrival at the northern 

 edge of this floe we were stopped by an open lead, across which in places 

 it was impossible to see the ice to the north. To cross it by sled-boat 

 was impossible on account of the young ice and the width of the lead. 

 Following along to find a place where both sides would meet had some- 

 times in the past been a successful method of getting over a lead and 

 I intended to try this once more; but, when from an ice hummock 

 about fifteen or twenty feet above sea level the lead could be seen dis- 

 appearing to the east and to the west wide open, there was nothing 

 for it but to build our house near by and wait till the lead should 

 close. 



On the night following our arrival at the lead the easterly wind 

 which had continued blowing steadily since our departure from shore 

 increased in force and shortly was blowing a gale, with of course the 

 accompanying thick snow which made it hard for any one to be 

 outside. So during the time spent in camp there no hunting was done 

 except a few hours on the first day after our arrival at the lead when 

 seals seemed to be numerous and we shot and retrieved three. With 

 that strong wind blowing it was not long before we had considerable 

 evidence of pressure through the shaking and vibration of the ice. At 

 the edge of the lead considerable crushing could be seen when I walked 

 over there. It was evident that the floe on which we were camped was 

 rapidly drifting to the northeast before the wind. 



When I was with Leffingwell and Mikkelsen on their ice trip in 

 1907 * we had, on returning towards shore, experienced a rapid west- 



* See Ejnar Mikkelsen: "Conquering the Arctic Ice," Chapters VI and VII. 



