PARTIES TURN BACK 
then we realized how utterly fatigued and ex- 
hausted we were. It took us over an hour 
and a half to build our igloos. We had a hard 
time finding suitable snow conditions for 
building them, and the weather was frightfully 
cold. The evening meal of pemmican-stew 
and tea was prepared, the dogs were fed, and 
we turned in. 
March 23: Our sleep-banked eyes were 
opened by the excitement caused by the arrival 
of Marvin and his division. He reported the 
same good going that we had had the day ber 
fore, and also that he had taken an elevation 
of the sun and computed his latitude as 85° 46' 
north. We turned the igloos over to Marvin 
and his Esquimos, who were to await the ar- 
rival of the Commander, and Captain Bartlett 
and myself got our parties under way. 
Conditions are never similar, no two days are 
the same ; and our going this day was nothing 
like the paradise of the day before. At a lit- 
tle distance from the igloos we encountered 
high masses of heavily-rubbled, old ice. The 
making of a trail through these masses of ice 
caused us to use our pickaxes continuously. 
It was backing and filling all of the time. 
110 
