508 



AECTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



The following day, April 12th, while Sharkey and Koojesse 

 were engaged in the locality of my third encampment hunting 

 young seal, I started, accompanied by my attendant, Henry Smith, 

 to explore another bay which appeared to run up some distance 

 beyond Peter Force Sound. I expected to be able to go and re- 

 turn in one day, and therefore made no preparations beyond tak- 

 ing half a pound of pemmican and a quarter of a pound of Bor- 

 den's meat-biscuit, intended for our lunch. As I wished to keep 

 a careful account of the distance traveled, I took the line used by 

 me when on the Greenland coast, near Holsteinborg, in drawing 

 out of the great deep many a cod and halibut, and measured off 

 with tape-line seventy -five feet ; my log then consisted of a cold 

 chisel used by me in cutting out my rock pemmican. 



It should be said, however, that previous to this time, and on 

 all subsequent occasions when my whole company were with me, 

 and all our provision was to be carried, no one could ride on the 

 sledge, the dogs having difficulty even in dragging their necessary 

 load. Consequently, at such times, all my measurements between 

 my astronomically-determined points had to be made by pacing — 

 a tolerably accurate, but, withal, a very tiresome method of work- 

 ing. 



I found many apparent heads to the bay during my passage 

 up, and at each turn it seemed as if we had reached the termina- 

 tion ; but, on making the several points of land, others were found 

 beyond. 



After some hours of travel the dogs became very tired, the 

 snow allowing them to sink to their bodies at every step. It was 

 growing late ; a snow-storm was coming on ; to return was im- 

 possible ; we therefore set about making ourselves as comforta- 

 ble as circumstances would allow. We had no snow-knife, but 

 an impromptu igloo was planned which we built of the sledge 

 and snow, getting out the blocks of the latter in the best way 

 possible, that is to say, with a broken sledge-beam. 



When the igloo was finished, and before the door was sealed 

 up, we took in the dogs, and were soon really comfortable. The 

 storm came down fearfully, but we were well protected ; the beat- 

 ing snow sought an entrance, but could find none. Fortunately, 

 we had saved a piece of the pemmican from our lunch, and this 

 served to give us just a mouthful for supper; some fragments of 

 the meat-biscuit also remained ; and after this frugal repast and 

 some pipes of tobacco, we retired to our snow bed. I had one 



