My decision not to attempt to winter at Fort Conger was arrived at after careful consideration. Two things controlled this decision: First, the uncertainty of carrying dogs through the winter, and, second, the comparative facility with which the distance from Etah to Fort Conger can be covered with light sledges.
After the rendezvous with the Diana I went on board the latter ship, and visited all the native settlements, gathering skins and material for clothing and sledge equipment, and recruiting my dog-teams.
The Windward was sent walrus hunting during my absence. The Diana also assisted in this work. August 25th the Windward sailed for home, followed on the 28th by the Diana, after landing me with my party, equipment, and additional supplies at Etah.
The Diana seemed to have gathered in and taken with her all the fine weather, leaving us a sequence of clouds, wind, fog, and snow, which continued with scarcely a break for weeks.
After her departure the work before me presented itself as follows: To protect the provisions, construct our winter quarters, then begin building sledges, and grinding walrus meat for dog pemmican for the spring campaign.
During the first month a number of walrus were killed from our boats off the mouth of the fiord; then the usual Arctic winter settled down upon us, its monotony varied only by the visits of the natives, occasional deer-hunts, and a December sledge journey to the Eskimo settlements in Whale Sound as far as Kangerdlooksoah. In this nine days’ trip some 240 miles were covered in six marches, the first and the last marches being of 60 to 70 miles. I returned to Etah just in time to escape a severe snowstorm, which stopped communication between Etah and the other Eskimo settlements completely, until I sent a party with snowshoes and a specially constructed sledge, carrying no load, and manned by double teams of dogs, to break the trail.
During my absence some of my natives had crossed to Mr. Stein’s place at Sabine, and January 9th I began the season’s work by starting a few sledge loads of dog-food for Cape Sabine, for use of my teams in the spring journey. From this time on, as the open water in Smith Sound permitted, more dog-food was sent to Sabine, and as the light gradually increased some of my Eskimos were kept constantly at Sonntag Bay, some twenty miles to the South, on the lookout for walrus.
My programme for the spring work was to move three divisions of sledges north as far as Conger, the first to be in charge of Henson; while I brought up the rear with the third.
From Fort Conger I should send back a number of Eskimos; retain some at Conger; and with others proceed north via Hecla or the north point of Greenland, as circumstances might determine.
I wanted to start the first division on the 15th of February, the second a week later, and leave with the third March 1st; but a severe storm, breaking up the ice between Etah and Littleton Island, delayed the departure of the first division of seven sledges until the 19th.