442 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 



Greenland. Now I decided upon the latter. The lateness of the season 

 and the condition of my dogs might militate against a very long 

 journey, and if I chose the Hecla route and failed of my utmost aims 

 the result would be complete failure. If, on the other hand, I chose 

 the Greenland route and found it impossible to proceed northward 

 over the pack, I still had an unknown coast to exploit, and the oppor- 

 tunity of doing valuable work. Later developments showed my decis- 

 ion to be a fortunate one. 



I planned to start from Conger the 0th of April, but stormy weather 

 delayed the departure until the 11th, when 1 got awa}^ with sev^en 

 sledges. 



At the first camp beyond Conger my best Eskimo was taken sick, 

 and the following day I brought him back to Conger, leaving the rest 

 of the party to cross the channel to the Greenland side, where I would 

 overtake them. This I did two or three days later, and we began our 

 journey up the northwest Greenland coast. As far as Cape Sumner 

 we had almost continuous road making through very rough ice. Before 

 reaching Cape Sumner we could see a dark water sky, lying beyond 

 Cape Brevoort, and knew that we should find open water there. 



From Cape Sumner to Polaris Boat Camp, in Newman Bay, we cut 

 a continuous road. Here we were stalled until the 21st by continued 

 and severe winds. Getting started again in the tail end of the storm, 

 we advanced as far as the open water, a few miles east of Cape Brevoort, 

 and camped. This open water, about 3 miles wide at the Greenland 

 end, extended clear across the mouth of Robeson Channel to the Grin- 

 nell Land coast, where it reached from Lincoln Bay to Cape Rawson. 

 Bej'ond it to the north and northwest as far as could be seen were 

 numerous lanes and pools. The next day was devoted to hewing a 

 trail along the ice foot to Repulse Harbor, and on the 23d, in a violent 

 gale accompanied by drift, I pushed on to the "Drift Point" of Beau- 

 mont (and later Lockwood),a short distance west of Black Horn Cliffs. 



The ice foot as far as Repulse Harbor, in spite of the road making 

 of the previous day, was very trjnng to sledges, dogs, and men. The 

 slippery side slopes, steep ascents, and precipitous descents wrenched 

 and strained the latter, and capsized, broke, and ripped shoes from the 

 former. 



I was not surprised to see from the "Drift Point" igloo that the 

 Black Horn Cliffs were fronted by open water. The pack was in motion 

 here, and had only recently been crushing against the ice foot, where we 

 built our igloo. I thought I had broken my feet in pretty thoroughly 

 on my journey from Etah to Conger, but this day's work of handling a 

 sledge along the ice-foot made me think they had never encountered 

 any serious work before. A blinding snowstorm on the 24th kept us 

 inactive. The next day 1 made a reconnoissance to the cliffs, and the 

 next day set the entire party to work hewing a road along the ice foot. 



