MY ENTIRE WESTERN PARTY
ON THE ROAD TO CAPE COLUMBIA
THE TWIN PEAKS AT CAPE COLUMBIA, WITH THE MORRIS K. JESUP SLEDGE IN THE FOREGROUND
My new tent was only partially dry from its recent waterproofing, and was still sticky and ill smelling, and soiled hands and clothing, and everything that came in contact with it. I was stiff, sore, short of wind and my feet and legs swollen. Altogether it was rather a disagreeable “first night.”
Koodlooktoo returned about 3 o’clock in the morning and we got away soon after. During our stay at this camp it was cloudy and foggy but this gradually cleared away as we marched and the sun got higher. Near Cape Creswell we met the Captain and I took one of his men and his best dogs.
He told me he was intending to go back out on the trail again, if he had not received my letter. After a short stop, he continued on to the ship, and I kept on my way for six and one-half hours through soft snow, one foot to two feet thick, to the ice-foot west of View Point. I intentionally made this a short march in order to get round to night marches. A brilliant day and evening.
We left this camp soon after midnight and reached Cape Hecla in six and one-half hours across Fielden Peninsula. The snow was hard at first, then very deep. A brilliant night. This made seventeen and one-half marching hours from Cape Sheridan to Cape Hecla.
I quote from my Journal:
Point Moss, June 5th.—What with overhauling the sounding apparatus, seeing that Marvin’s outfit and supplies were complete, writing his instructions, selecting the things to go back to the ship from the cache at Hecla, and those to take with me to supplement the Point Moss cache, sending instructions to the Captain, and invoicing and putting in order what was to remain at Hecla, I got but an hour’s sleep there.