NOTES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL. 99 
27th and 28th may be dismissed with the remark that they were 
two days of uncommon hard work for both the men and dogs of 
our party. 
The 29th saw us encamped near Cape Joseph Henry. This 
was a beautiful day, and Captain Nares determined to take 
advantage of the clearness of the atmosphere, by ascending 
Mount Julia, a hill in the neighbourhood. Accompanied by 
one of the men, and carrying a theodolite between us, we left 
camp at five o’clock in the evening. After a stiff climb of six 
hours’ duration we reached the top of the hill, an altitude of 
2000 feet. From that point we obtained a magnificent view. 
Though mist and cloud hung over the valleys immediately 
- beneath us, yet in every other direction our range of vision 
was unobstructed. To the northwards over the Polar Ocean we 
could see at least fifty miles; and a careful examination through 
the telescope showed that within that range, not a pool of water 
—not even a water cloud—was discernible to break the dreary 
monotony of piled-up ice. No land, or any trace of land, was 
perceptible. Our hearts sunk within us when we gazed upon 
this scene of appalling desolation, for we felt at once how futile 
must have been the attempts of Markham and his brave com- 
panions to make a long journey in the direction of the Pole 
over such an area as there lay beneath us. After taking a 
series of angles, which was bitterly cold work, and building a 
cairn, we commenced our descent of the hill. Mount Julia is 
composed of a hard blue-coloured carboniferous limestone, 
containing a considerable assemblage of fossil remains. After 
returning to camp and getting a meal—time being too precious 
to expend in sleep—I started with one of our men along the 
shore to the northward. We saw a pair of Ptarmigan, the female 
of which we shot. This bird was in full summer plumage, and 
may be recorded as the most northern ornithological specimen 
ever secured, having been killed in lat. 82° 46’ N. We returned 
to the tent on the afternoon of the 30th, the wind having com- 
menced to blow from the northward very cold, with sleet and 
snow. Throughout the whole of that night Captain Nares and I, 
and two of the men, laboured in the ravines collecting fossils, 
and by the morning of the 3lst a goodly pile was stacked in 
front of the tent. From a spell of work of over thirty-six hours’ 
duration, we were glad to turn into our bags. After four hours’ 
