OFF FOR THE POLE 
leeward of us to spare us the discomfort of the 
odor. 
July 25 and 26 : Busy with my carpenter's 
kit in the Commander's cabin and elsewhere. 
There has been heavy rain and seas, and we 
have dropped the Erik completely. The 
Roosevelt is going fine. We can see the 
Greenland coast plainly and to-day, the 29th, 
we raised and passed Disco Island. Icebergs 
on all sides. The light at midnight is almost 
as bright as early evening twilight in New 
York on the Fourth of July and the ice-blink 
of the interior ice-cap is quite plain. We 
have gone through Baffin's Bay with a rush 
and raised Duck Island about ten a. m. and 
passed and dropped it by two P. m. 
I was ashore on Duck Island in 1891, on my 
first voyage north, and I remember distinctly 
the cairn the party built and the money they 
deposited in it. I wonder if it is still there? 
There is little use for money up here, and the 
place is seldom visited except by men from the 
whalers, when their ships are locked in by ice. 
From here it is two hundred miles due north 
to Cape York. 
August 1 : Arrived at Cape York Bay and 
21 
