204 Notes. 



followed, but unfavorable ice and enormous crevasses obliged 

 frequent detours eastward. 



On June 26, still at an elevation of 6,000 feet, the course was 

 northeastward, but land appearing in that course, a detour east- 

 ward was again necessary, which led to a comparatively flat, 

 round-topped, ice-clad land. Skirting the edge of the inland 

 ice parallel with the land, they reached their highest northing 

 on the 82d parallel. Here there was land to the northwest, 

 northward and northeast. Of its character Lieutenant Peary 

 says : " Dark-brown and red cliffs looked down into a grand, 

 vertical-walled canyon reaching up toward our camp ; and every- 

 where, to the northwest, north and east, black and dark-red 

 precipices, deep valleys, mountains capped with cloud-shadowed 

 domes of ice, stretched away in a wild panorama." From this 

 point Lieutenant Peary was obliged to travel toward the south- 

 east parallel with the edge of the inland ice and the shore land. 



On July 1 a wide opening between high vertical cliffs allowed 

 Lieutenant Peary to travel northeastward and quit the summit 

 of the inland ice, then 5,000 feet above sea level. Following 

 down a steep gradient toAvard the red-broAvn land, livers and 

 lakes became visible along the margin of the ice, and the party 

 finally reached the highest point of a moraine after wading 

 many streams and floundering through much melting snow. 

 Leaving Astrup and his team at this point. Lieutenant Peary 

 started northeastward to climb a cliff which apparently com- 

 manded a view of the coast and seemed to be only five miles away. 

 The mountain appeared to recede as he advanced, and after 

 eight hours' work to reach the summit, it proved that interven- 

 ing hills shut out a full view of the coast. By this time Lieu- 

 tenant Peary's foot-gear was practically w^orn out and his feet 

 injured from the broken sharp rocks, and it was only by im- 

 provising foot-gear from his sealskin mittens and cap that he 

 was able to return to camp. On July 3 with Astrup he de- 

 scended to the shore and kej)t along the crest of rock-strewn 

 mountains. 



Finally, on July 4, they reached the summit of a rocky plateau 

 with a sheer face rising 4,000 feet above the bay, which was 

 named Independence bay from the day of its discovery. On 

 the east was a great ice stream named Academy glacier, beyond 

 which rose a 3''et higher vertical cliff, on a portion of which 

 rested a great projecting tongue of inland ice. 



