The ice-foot offering better traveling, they followed that course, though it took them somewhat away from Distant Cape. Leaving it, they crossed what seemed to them a little bay, but it took them one hour and a half to reach the cape on the farther side. Seeing a large fiord intervening between them and Distant Cape which they had wished to reach before encamping, they gave up the effort and pitched their tent. Soon after, Frederick shot a hare, but only wounding him, they had to expend all their remaining strength in running him down. But food was now everything, and they spared neither the hare nor themselves. They called that point Rabbit Point, in memory of the friend who served them a good turn. Advanced seventeen miles in ten hours.
Having, on account of a snow-storm, failed to get the sun on the south meridian, Lockwood waited until it should come round to the north meridian, as this matter of observations was important, and difficult to attend to en route. In the mean time, they cached some rations. Saw some ptarmigans, but failed to shoot them. Left near midnight, and having crossed the hummocks thrust in against all these capes, reached the level surface of an immense bay which they were two and one quarter hours in crossing, after untold labor and fatigue, through deep snow, so wet that they seemed to be wading through soft clay. They reached the opposite shore, bathed in perspiration, Lockwood going in advance to encourage the dogs. Sometimes they went down waist-deep. The mass of hummocks came up so near the cliffs as to force the travelers outside. Still, Distant Cape was farther on, with a fiord intervening. At four o’clock, they reached this long-sought point, and looked ahead to see what lay beyond. Away off in the same general direction (northeast) was seen another headland, separated from them by a number of fiords and capes, which lay on an arc connecting Distant Cape with that in the far distance. Inclining to the right, they made their way toward one of these intermediate capes. Sometimes seeing it and sometimes not, they finally reached it at 6 A. M., and, being unable to see anything ahead, went into camp. Soon afterward a pyramidal island loomed up through the storm in the northeast. They enjoyed part of their rabbit for supper, almost raw, for they had no alcohol to waste on luxuries, and carefully laid away the other half for further indulgence. But Ritenbank saw that half rabbit stowed away, and he too liked rabbit, as will be seen. After supper Lockwood made observations, and of trials and tribulations this was not the least. Face chilled, fingers frozen, and sun so low as to require him to lie in the snow; the sun like a grease-spot in the heavens, and refusing to be reflected; snow-drifts over artificial horizon cover; sextant mirrors becoming obscure, vernier clouded, tangent-screw too stiff to work; then, when one had nearly secured a contact, some dog interposing his ugly body or stirring up the snow; such were some of the difficulties to be overcome. Still, these observations must be made, and carefully and correctly made, or otherwise the chief value of the expedition would be lost. They secured double sets of observations here, which delayed them, but got off near midnight from this cape, which Lockwood called Low Point, and made good time toward the dim headland at the northeast. In two hours and a half they reached the cape, which he named Surprise, because they came upon it unexpectedly looming up through the gloom. Beyond and to the right was seen through the storm a dome-capped island, the inevitable inlet intervening. The traveling proving good, they reached it at four, and found it to be the end of a long line of grand, high, rocky cliffs, bearing far to the south.
The ice-foot here being free from snow, the dogs took the sledge along at a trot, and the explorers rode by turns—the first time since leaving Boat Camp. The trend of the coast-line becoming nearly east, Lockwood began to think the time had come for leaving the coast and striking off directly toward the pole, as arranged for in his orders. As this was a matter requiring full consideration, he stopped to get an observation, but, defeated in this by the drifting snow, they went into camp at 6 A. M., having advanced seventeen miles in less than seven hours.
After sleeping, Lockwood rose to take observations. While so doing, and hence out of the tent, he heard a noise in it, and suspected mischief. Sure enough, there was that old thief, Ritenbank, coolly eating up the remains of the rabbit they had kept for a second feast. A dash and a blow, and the dog scampered off, dropping part of the animal in his flight. They had reached the state of not being particular about what they ate, so they gathered up the remains and ate them on the spot.
Resuming their journey at 1 A. M., they traveled under a long line of high cliffs, with hills in the rear. The travel was excellent, but the weather abominable—high winds, with falling and drifting snow. After three hours of progress in an easterly course, a headland was seen obliquely to their left, between which and themselves lay a wide fiord. After an observation of the sun, they struck directly across this fiord for the headland in question, which they finally reached after repeatedly losing themselves in the mist and gloom. Here they stopped awhile to eat pemmican and view the surroundings. Found many rabbit-tracks, but saw none of the animals. In Arctic traveling, one craves warm meat, but seldom gets any but that which is frozen. Continuing along this coast over a good ice-foot, they were pleased to see on their left a small island with a high, narrow ledge, a few hundred yards long. This they reached and went to the north side or end of it. Mist and snow shutting in the land farther on, and also that already passed, they camped, having advanced twenty-two miles in nine and a half hours.
Finding traveling so troublesome in the storm, and much difficulty in getting observations, Lockwood resolved to remain there for better weather, all sleeping as much and eating as little as possible. Indeed, Brainard agreed with Lockwood that, if the easterly trend of the coast should continue, they had better spend their time in going directly north over the sea. On the 11th, it being still stormy and no other land in sight, they remained in their sleeping-bags on the island, which from its shape was first called “Shoe Island,” but afterward “Mary Murray.” All of them suffered greatly with cold feet in the mean while; and, although Lockwood’s feet were wrapped in blankets, furs, and socks, they were like lumps of ice. To husband their few rations, they had eaten very little of late, and doubtless to this may be attributed their cold feet. The dogs were ravenous for food. When feeding-time came, it was amid blows from the men and fights among the dogs that the distribution was made. Old Howler was conspicuous on these occasions. That he might secure all he could, he bolted ball after ball of the frozen mass, and then would wander around, uttering the most unearthly howls while the mass was melting in his stomach. He was, indeed, a character. He had an air of utter weariness and dejection, as well he might, for who can be more miserable than the dethroned monarch, jeered, cuffed, and condemned by his late subjects? One day one of the dogs swallowed a live lemming, and the little animal went squealing all the way down to the corporation.
The weather clearing up a little the next morning, Lockwood took sun observations, and soon after saw a cape with very high land behind it, at the northeast. But the storm setting in again, they could not attempt to cross the mouth of the deep fiord intervening between them and the cape until nearly two hours after midnight. The traveling being good, and aided by a high wind, they made good time across the fiord toward the cape, alternately visible and invisible, and reached it in two hours. This cape proved to be the extremity of a line of high, rocky cliffs, stretching toward the southeast. Here they found the ice-foot entirely obstructed by lines of floe-bergs and hummocks pressed up nearly to the foot of the cliff, and to add to their difficulty, the tide-crack ran here close to the cape. With great labor they got the dogs and sledge upon a hummock, thence along its surface, using the axe, and finally lowered them down again, and, by a bridge over the crack, gained a level floe half a mile beyond the cape. There, finding a branch crack twelve or fifteen feet wide, Frederick went forth to seek a crossing, while Lockwood and Brainard obtained a peep at the sun for position. The fog rising, the grandest view they had yet seen was suddenly disclosed. To their right were seen the high cliffs connected with the cape just passed, bending to the southeast to form an inlet. Away beyond and across this inlet, and east of them, was the farther shore—a line of very high cliffs, terminating in a bold headland northeast of their position. Back of the cape and cliffs, the land became higher and higher, till, just east of the travelers, stood a peak apparently four thousand feet high. Between them and the cliffs below the peak was seen an island of pyramidal shape and quite high. The explorers made good time toward it, over a level floe, as some hummocks and tide-cracks at the mouth of the inlet prevented them from going direct to the cape. Thence, after a short rest and a relish of pemmican, they took their way toward the cape, now standing nearly north of them. Soon the snow became so deep and soft that the sledge often sank below the slats, the dogs to their bellies, and the men to their knees. Fortunately, the load was very light, and yet, had not the deep snow soon after become dry and feathery, they could not have proceeded. It was then that Lockwood promised himself never to undertake another sledge-journey, a resolve afterward easily forgotten when in camp with a full stomach. Time, rest, plenty to eat, and a good smoke, sometimes make philosophers, was the reflection recorded. About noon, after changing their course around an easterly bend of the cliff, they came to what might be regarded as the northern extremity of the cape, beyond which lay the inevitable fiord. Here they camped on the ice-foot, below a mass of picturesquely colored rocky cliffs, and essayed, but failed, to get observations. Their advance was sixteen miles in ten hours.
On the 14th of May, occurred a storm so violent that it seemed as if the tent must be blown down. Ritenbank took advantage of it to burrow under the tent and lay hold of a bag of pemmican, but a timely blow on his snout “saved their bacon.” After discussion with Brainard, Lockwood concluded to go no farther, as their remaining rations would hardly suffice to enable them satisfactorily to determine their present position. While waiting for the sun that this might be done, they improvised a checker-board from the chopping-board, and played some games. After a while, finding that the cliffs somewhat interfered with the observations, they moved the tent farther west, stopping to build a cairn, large and conspicuous, and depositing a full record of their journey and a thermometer. This cairn stood on a little shelf or terrace below the top of the cliff. Brainard also cut “XXX Bitters” on the highest rock of the cliff he could reach, Lockwood telling him he only wanted to get a bottle for nothing on the strength of his advertisement. They were engaged until midnight, chiefly in taking observations and in collecting specimens of rocks and vegetation. Some snow-birds were seen.
The next morning the weather became warm, beautiful, and delightful, the sun bright and sky clear, and there was no wind—surely a bit of sunshine in a shady place.
