LINE OP OPEN TfATEE. 
69 
“March 15, Thursday.—Hans and Myouk returned 
at eight o’clock last night without game. Their sleep, 
in a snow-drift about twenty miles to the northward, 
in a temperature of —54°, was not comfortable, as 
might be expected. The marvel is how life sustains 
itself in such circumstances of cold. I have myself 
slept in an ordinary canvas tent without discomfort, 
yet without fire, at a temperature of —52°. 
“Myouk was very glad to get back to my warm 
quarters; but Hans was chop-fallen at the dearth of 
game. They found no open water, but ice, ice, ice, as 
far to the north and east as the eye could range from 
an iceberg-elevation of eighty feet. It is the same 
opposite Anoatok; and, according to the Esquimaux, 
as far south of Cape Alexander as a point opposite 
Akotloowiclc, the first Baffin Bay huts. Beyond this, 
in spite of the severity of the winter, there is an open 
sea. It is in the month of March, if at all during the 
year, that the polynias are frozen up. Those of Refuge 
Bay and Littleton were open during the whole of last 
winter; and, considering how very severe the weather 
is now and has been for months past, I question very 
much if such extensive areas as the so-called North 
Water ever close completely. 
“Hans saw numerous tracks of bears; and I have 
no doubt now but that we can secure some of these 
animals before the seal-season opens. One large beast 
passed in the night close by the snow-burrow in which 
our would-be hunters were ensconced. They followed 
his tracks in the morning; but the dogs were ex- 
