Heyiry G. Bryant 
19 
Jones Sound. Leaving Professor Chamberlin to pursue his 
studies of the glaciers about Bowdoin Bay, the Auxiliary Expe- 
dition, reinforced by the presence of Messrs. Astrup, En trikin, 
Vincent, Carr, Davidson and Swain, of the Peary party, started 
on August 4th for Cape Faraday, Ellesmere Land. After thirty- 
six hours struggle with the ice in Murchison Sound, the open 
water of Baffin Bay was reached, and on August 7th we suc- 
ceeded in pushing our way through the belt of ice which impinges 
the east coast of Ellesmere Land and succeeded in landing at 
Cape Faraday, being, as far as I can learn, the first party of white 
men to land on the west coast of Baffin Bay between Jones 
Sound and Smith Sound.^ No trace of the lost explorers was 
found here, nor at Clarence Head — a bold headland to the south, 
where in company with Professor Libbey and Messrs. Astrup 
and Diebitsch I went ashore on August 8. Before returning to 
the ship, cairns were built on prominent points at both places 
in which records of our visit were placed. The assertion of the 
whaling captain that this west coast is unapproachable during 
ten months of the year, owing to the field of ice which extends 
twenty miles from shore, seemed to be verified by the experien- 
ces of our party. Although we arrived in the height of the Arc- 
tic summer we could not forcethe “Falcon” nearer than eight 
miles from shore and were compelled to make the remaining 
distance on foot at considerable risk over the shifting ice. 
Had the unfortunate travelers ever succeeded in landing at 
Cape Faraday or Clarence Head their position would have been 
a desperate one. The entire coast line consists of a succession of 
precipitous headlands, crowned by the changeless snow-cap which 
discharges by numerous glaciers into the sea. No traces of 
3. Clements R. Markham, P. R. G. S. in an address before the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society, on May 28th, 1894, (Geog. Journal, vol. iv, p. 14) referring 
to the possibilities for original research in Ellesmere Land remarked: “♦ * * 
Next to Northern Greenland, the most interesting part of the unknown 
region is the land bn the western side of the north part of Baffin Bay, be- 
tween Smith Sound and Jones Sound, and extending along Jones Sound to 
the west and north. It was named Ellesmere Land by Sir Edward Ingle- 
field, who saw it from the deck of the Isabella in 1852. It is called Uming- 
Mak (the land of the musk oxen) by the Eskimos. No one, so far as we 
know, has ever landed between Jones Sound and Smith Sound.” 
