lO 
Peary Auxiliary Expedition, 
20th. We found the pack still substantially unbroken; t^ut the 
presence of occasional “leads” of open water induced Captain 
Bartlett to attempt to advance by the “middle passage.” After 
several hours of ineffectual effort, however, the outlook became 
so discouraging that it was deemed best to retreat to the south- 
east. Holding on our course as best we could through heavy 
ice and enveloped in a dense fog we made but slow progress 
and were compelled to stop the engines for an hour at 6.10 A. 
M. By II A. M. we had advanced a few miles, and the fog lift- 
ing, showed our position to be a little south of the DeviFs Thumb. 
All day we made our devious way through favoring “leads” in 
sight of this landmark. In the afternoon thicker ice was en- 
countered, many of the severed pieces revealing edges of fully 
forty inches. Oftentimes our approach to a favoring “lead” 
would be barred by a “neck” of this thick ice forty or fifty feet 
in width. Against this the “Falcon” would advance at full speed. 
Not only once, but over and over again would this maneuver 
be repeated. The staunch old ship, with her prow sheathed in 
iron and protected below the water line with greenhart plank- 
ing, stood the force of these impacts with impunity, although 
the havoc wrought among the dishes in the saloon and cook^s 
galley was something to be remembered. Two weeks earlier in 
the season this ice would have effectually stopped our advance, 
but we found it considerably weakened by the all-pervading sun- 
shine, and the first westerly gale would probably disintegrate 
the greater part of the floe. The experience of the four Peary 
expeditions which have crossed Melville Bay eight times during 
the past four years go to prove that the traverse can be success- 
fully made, in an average season, any time after the third week 
in July. By noon on July 21st, we had arrived off Cape Walker 
in Latitude 75° 50' N. Some time before this we had entered the 
“Inner Run” of the whalers— this is the narrow leadway 
formed by the tidal crack between the fixed floe ice of the shore 
and the slowly moving drift ice of the bay. This course led us 
comparatively close to the shore of the bay, so illy defined on 
the charts. From our coign of vantage in the “crow’s nest” we 
studied the coast as we moved ahead through the canal-like open- 
