Any party traversing this coast and having the time, would do well to examine these two places, and if in need of meat should certainly do so as they will be likely to find musk-ox there. The night while we marched was raw, a fresh easterly wind blowing, and everything obscured by fog and clouds until about 4 A. M. when it cleared and gave us brilliant sunlight. It looked now as if the last of the recent storm had disappeared, but one can never tell up here. Our camp here was nearer to the sea ice (the edge of which was distinctly visible) than any since leaving Cape Hecla.
I was still inclined to think that the peculiar ice and snow formations along this coast owe their existence to the wind.
At the camp off McClintock Bay a clear brilliant day with light easterly breeze, and late in the afternoon strata of fog forming and hiding the tops of the land, was followed by a foggy night for travelling, but better so than bright sun.
We marched in deep snow until the increased density of the fog made it impossible to see where we were going, then camped off the Glacier at Cape Fanshawe Martin.
Our short marches, abundant food, and my special care of myself have put me in better condition than when I left the ship; the swelling of my feet and legs has apparently ceased, and in this march I took my regular turn at breaking the trail ahead of the sledges with snowshoes. An eight-hour march and four of us gave each two hours, in one-hour spells.
A sandpiper flew over our camp, and during the march a skua gull and six brant flew over us. Just before reaching this camp, we saw a hare on the bluff, and Koolootingwah went in and got two. He reports last summer’s musk-ox tracks.
The middle point in McClintock Bay is apparently an island, and the so-called “spits” from McClintock Bay on, are true glaciers.
The formation this side of Cape Alexandra is probably the same.
In this camp we were at the west coast “corner” as it were, this Cape Fanshawe Martin being in the same latitude as Hecla, and the cape next ahead of us the same latitude as Joseph Henry, then the coast trends more rapidly to the south.
I felt that from here I ought to make Aldrich’s “Farthest” in four more marches, possibly in three.