CAPT. ROBERT A. BARTLETT 
GREENLAND EXPEDITION of 1938 
Under the Auspices of 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
AND CLEVELAND MUSEUM 
(27) 
to meet the rooky hills above. This abrupt change in the land as it 
slopes towards Orlick»s Bay tends to bear out what Peary said about 
Orlick's Bay being different from any other place in the arctic. 
We continued on down the valley along side of the stream. Every 
so often Rupert stopped to gather a few specimens of flowers. The sides 
of the valley closed in on us and became steeper as we proceeded. The 
distance is very deceptive, and we thought that we soon would be dovm to 
the bay but after going about five miles, we still were far from it. The 
stream here rounded a sharp bend to the left and cut through a gorge e 
tween two cliffs straight for Orlick’s. Through the walls of this gorge 
we could discern a glacier that I took to be the glacier on the other side 
of Orlick's Bay that I had seen last year from the bay itself. It still 
was a good distance down to the bay. Low clouds were pouring down from 
the hilltops and the few snow flakes that had been falling all the 
noon now were coming down in earnest before a fresh southerly mnd. We 
decided that it would be unwise to go on any farther, expecially as it would 
be necessary to leave the stream bed and cut over the rocky hills. So %ve 
climbed the nearest ridge to try to get a view of the bay and see the 
country, but no luck 1 Clouds had already obscured all adjacent hilltops 
and the snow was falling faster. Here, we broke out a can of corned beef 
hash and each had a slab before turning our backs to Orlick’s Bay and 
heading upstream toivards the lake. 
The tramp back was ajlong weary one. There were fluries of snow and 
it was cold and dismal with the wind but being at our backs it did not 
bother u^uch. We followed the same route, making no stops except at 
the cache for a mug-up, where I found a note from Ray saying that every- 
thing was all right with him. As went down twwards Inglefield Gull 
and appreached sea level, the snow turned to rain. We cut through the 
canyon, following the stream bed instead of going up over th^shoulder of 
the hill on our way down. The going was hard, but we came out at the bot- 
tom of the gorge all right and made our way down to the village, arriving 
at 4:30 a.m. to find Ray sound asleep. He opened his sleepy ey®® to have 
a bite to eat and hash over our return journeys. We slept until 10 a.m.. 
when we awoke for breakfast. Turned in again till 2 p.m. when the vessel 
came for us, successful on the Narwhal Hunt. 
