A JOURNEY AHEAD. 
447 
there -were incidents connected with it which may 
deserve a place in this volume. I recur to my 
journal for a succinct record of my motives in set¬ 
ting out:— 
‘•'December 26, Tuesday.—The moon is nearly above 
the cliffs; the thermometer—57° to—45°, the mean 
of the past four days. In the midst of this cheering 
conjunction, I have ahead of me a journey of a hundred 
miles; to say nothing of the return. Worse than this, 
I have no landmarks to guide me, and must be my own 
pioneer. 
“But there is a duty in the case. McGary and 
Brooks are sinking, and that rapidly. Walrus-beef 
alone can sustain them, and it is to be got from the 
natives and nowhere else. It is a merciful change of 
conditions that I am the strongest now of the whole 
party, as last winter I was the weakest. The duty of 
collecting food is on me. I shall go first to the lower 
Bay Esquimaux, and thence, if the hunt has failed 
there, to Cape Robertson. 
“My misgivings are mostly on account of the dogs; 
for it is a rugged, hummocked drive of twenty-two 
hours, even with strong teams and Esquimaux drivers. 
We have been feeding them on salt meat, for we have 
had nothing else to give them; and they are out of 
health; and there are hardly enough of them at best 
to carry our lightest load. If one of these tetanoids 
should attack them on the road, it may be game up for 
all of us. 
“But it is to be tried at last: Petersen will go with 
