FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 453 



As the last march had been through deep suow, I did not dare to 

 attempt the English short cut across Fielden Peninsula behind Cape 

 Joseph Henry, preferring to take the ice-foot route round it. 



For a short distance this was the worst bit of ice foot I have ever 

 encountered. By the slipping of my sledge two men nearl}- lost their 

 lives, saving themselves by a most fortuitous chance, with their feet 

 already dangling over the crest of a vertical face of ice some 50 feet 

 in height. 



At the very extremity of the cape we were forced to pass our sledges 

 along a shelf of ice less than 3 feet in width, glued against the face 

 of the cliti at an elevation which I estimated at the time as 75 feet 

 above the ragged surface of the floe beneath. 



On the western side of the cape the ice foot broadened and became 

 nearly level, but was smothered in such a depth of light snow that 

 it stalled us and we went into camp. The next day we made Crozier 

 Island. 



During April 2 and 3 we were held here by a westerh' storm, and 

 the 4th and 5th were devoted to hunting musk oxen, of which 3 were 

 secured, 2 of them being very small. 



From here 1 sent ])ack 3 Eskimos, keeping Henson and 4 Eskimos 

 with me. 



During this time reconnoissances of the polar pack northward were 

 made with the glasses from the summit of the island and from Cape 

 Hecla. The pack was very rough, but apparently not as bad as that 

 which 1 saw north of Cape Washington two 3-ears before. Though 

 unquestionably a hard proposition, it 3-et looked as though we might 

 make some progress through it, unless the snow was too deep and soft. 

 This was a detail which the glasses could not determine. 



On the morning of April 6 1 left Crozier Island, and a few hours 

 later, at the point of Cape Hecla, we swung our sledges sharply to the 

 right, and climbed over and down the parapet of the ice foot onto the 

 polar pack. As the sledges plunged down from the ice foot their 

 noses were buried out of sight, the dogs wallowed belly deep in the 

 snow, and we began our struggle due northward. 



We had been in the lield now just a month. We had covered not 

 less than 400 miles of the most arduous traveling in temperatures of 

 from —35^ to —57"^ F., and we were just beginning our work— i. e., 

 the conquest of the polar pack, the toughest proposition in the whole 

 wide expanse of the arctic region. 



Some two miles from the cape was a belt of ver}- recent young ice, 

 running parallel with the general trend of the coast. Areas of rough 

 ice caught in this compelled us to exaggerated zigzags, and doubling 

 on our track. It was easier to go a mile around on the young ice than 

 to force the sledge across one of these islands. The northern edge of 

 the new ice was a high Avail of heavily ru])l)led old ice, through which, 



