172 MY ARCTIC JOURNAL 



made an effort to ford it, thinking thereby to save a walk of 

 five miles. Matt stepped in and I followed. The water felt 

 intensely cold ; it was above my kamik-tops, but not above 

 my knees, and we went on. When we came to a rock about 

 one fourth of the way over I w^as compelled to climb on it and 

 beat my feet and legs ; I could not control them any longer. 

 Then w^e again plunged into the icy water, which now reached 

 above my knees. It took us fifteen minutes to cross, and the 

 temperature of the water was certainly not over 35°, for large 

 and small pieces of ice were floating about us. The current 

 was in places very strong, and had it not been for the boat- 

 hook I had taken with me, on which to hoist a flag over the 

 cache, I should have been swept off my feet many times. 

 Once across, and our wet stockings changed for dry ones, I 

 did not regret having come. We found the cache after some 

 little trouble, and I deposited the note, also a can of milk, a 

 can of fruit, some biscuit, and a small flask of brandy, and 

 then put up the flag. 



We retraced our steps past old Tooktoo Camp to the mouth 

 of the river. Here we found that the tide had already risen 

 a foot, and we continued our walk along the river-bank toward 

 the head of the lake. On reaching it we found that it com- 

 municated with a second lake by a deep, roaring torrent, which, 

 although narrower than the river below% was still too wide and 

 deep to be crossed ; so on we went till we reached the end of 

 the second lake, and here it seemed as if we might walk around 

 it by climbing along the lower edge of two glaciers, although 



