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



miirch. 1 had had no sleep the nioht before, and to the physical strain 

 of handling- my sledge was added the mental tax of trying to keep the 

 trail. When we finally camped it was only for a few hours, for I 

 recognized that the entire pack was moving slowly, and that our trail 

 was everywhere being faulted and interrupted l)y new pressure ridges 

 and leads in a way to make our return march nearly if not quite as 

 slow and laborious as the outward one. The following marches were 

 nuich the same. In crossing one lead I narrowly escaped losing two 

 sledges and the dogs attached to them. Arrived at the "grand canal," 

 as 1 called the big lead at which I had sent two Eskimos back, the 

 changes had ])een such as to make the ])lace almost unrecognizable. 



Two marches south of the grand canal the changes in the ice had 

 been such, betweeii the time of our upward trip and the return of my 

 two men from the canal, that they, experienced men that they were 

 in all that pertains to ice craft, had been hopelessly bewildered and 

 wandered apparently for at least a day without finding the trail. 

 After their passage other changes had taken place, and as a result I 

 set a compass course for the land and began making a new road. In 

 the next march we picked up our old trail again. 



Early in the morning of the 2'2d we reached the second igloo out 

 from Cape Hecla and camped in a di'iving snowstorm. At this igloo 

 we were storm bound during the 2Tth and 28th, getting awa}- on the 

 29th in the densest fog, and bent on ])utting our way in a "bee-line" 

 compass course for the land. Floundering through the deep snow 

 and ice. saved from unpleasant falls only by the forewarning of the 

 dogs, we reached Crozier Island after a long and wear}^ march. The 

 band of 3'oung ice along the shore had disappeared, crushed up into 

 confused ridges and mounds of irregular blocks. 



The floe at the island camp had split in two, the crack passing 

 through our igloo, the halves of which stared at each other across the 

 chasm. This march finished two of my dogs, and three or four more 

 were apparently on their last legs. We did not know" how tired we 

 were until we reached the island. The warm foggy weather and the 

 last march together dropped our ph3^sical barometer several degrees. 



As we now had light sledges, I risked the short cut across the base 

 of Fieldin Peninsula, and camped that night under the lee of View 

 Point. Four more marches carried us to Conger, where we remained 

 three days drying clothing and repairing sledges, and giving the dogs 

 a much-needed rest. Leaving Conger on the 6th of May, 11 marches 

 ])rought us back to Payer Har])or on the 17th of May. A few days 

 after this I went north to complete the survey of the inner portions 

 of Dobbin Bay, being absent from headquarters sonu^, ten days. Open 

 water vetoing a trip which I had planned for June up Buchanan Bay 

 and across to the west coast of EUesmere Land, the remainder of the 



