98 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
over the frozen Polar Ocean, whilst directly below us was a 
tremendous ravine, which, cutting through the ridge on which 
we were standing, effectually cut us off from the slope of ‘‘ The 
Great Pyramid,” the height of which we estimated at 5000 feet. 
Failing in the main object of our day’s enterprise,-we then 
attempted to travel to the westward, but the softness of the snow 
prevented our proceeding over four or five miles; the dogs sank 
up to their .backs, and advanced by aseries of bounds; we could 
only get along by hanging on to the back of the sledge. We 
returned to camp after thirteen hours’ continuous hard work, 
completely worn out. 
We remained in this valley during the 18th, 19th, and 20th, 
making excursions in various directions. We procured a few 
Hares and two or three couples of Ptarmigan, and saw a few 
Snow Buntings, which were mating by this date. Having fixed 
the position, and taken the altitude of several heights in the 
neighbourhood of the valley where we had encamped, we shifted 
our quarters and moved to the southwards. On leaving the ship 
we were provisioned for fourteen days, the full extent to which 
our sledge could transport food for ourselves and dogs. Con- 
sequently, on the 24th May our party returned to the ‘ Alert.’ 
On arriving there we found Captain Nares and Lieut. May 
prepared to start on the following day, with a dog-sledge, for Cape 
Joseph Henry and the northward, it being the Captain’s intention 
to investigate personally the condition of the ice on the northern 
shores of Grinnell Land. An invitation to join this party was 
gladly accepted by me, and after a good meal, a change of 
clothes, and a refreshing sleep in a warm bed, I started again 
from the ship on the 25th. On the 26th we left our camp at 
7p.m.; the weather misty, and blowing strong from the north, 
our leader walking in advance, found considerable difficulty in 
steering a course over the floe,—however, we struck the shore- 
ice about a mile south of Depét Point, the position we were 
aiming for. A Wolf followed us all through that march, so 
Mr. May and I dropped behind the sledge and hid ourselves 
under a hummock in hopes of outwitting this animal, but he 
suspected us and did not give a fair shot. I noticed that the 
gait of this Wolf was more slinking than that of our Eskimo 
dogs; it carried its tail in a drooping manner. This beast 
appeared to be about half as big again as our largest dog. The 
