THE GREAT WHITE JOURNEY. 



According to my program, the ist of May was to be the 

 time for the start on the inland ice, and on the 28tli of April, 

 Astrup, Gibson, Dr. Cook, and the native men then at Red- 

 cliffe left with the last load of supplies for the head of 

 McCormick Bay. The nativ^es were to return after helping 

 the boys carry the supplies to the top of the bluff; the boys 

 themselves were to push forward with the work until I joined 

 them. This I did on the 3d of May. When I left Redcliffe 

 the number of natives there had dwindled very materially ; 

 some drawn away to the seal-hunt, but more driven away by 

 their superstitious feeling in regard to my going upon the 

 great ice. We had the most exceptionally fine weather all 

 through April, but on the very night that I reached the head 

 of the bay a sullen sky over the ice-cap betokened a change. 

 From this night until the morning of the 6th of August, when 

 Astrup and myself clambered down the flower-strewn bluffs 

 again, my couch was the frozen surface of the inland ice, and 

 my canopy the blue sky. 



The first two weeks after leaving the little house upon the 

 shores of McCormick Bay were occupied in transporting the 

 supplies — which at various times during the preceding month 



