I broke the trail for five and one-half hours, and on arriving at camp felt the effects of it. I was still decidedly below par.
June 16th we were off Aldrich’s “Farthest.” It had been alternately sunny and foggy while we slept, and at the ice-foot settling down to cloudy with frequent fog banks during our march.
From our camp at the ice-foot I set a course direct for the point beyond Cape Alfred Ernest, and marched for eight and one-quarter hours. The edge of the ice was still visible, but it was because we were up above sea-level on the undulating surface of the glacial fringe.
There was water all along the edge of the ice-foot and out to the westward apparently a large area of it.
A sandpiper flew over as we were breaking camp.
A day’s march beyond Aldrich’s “Farthest,” and what I saw before me in all its splendid, sunlit savageness was mine, mine by the right of discovery, to be credited to me, and associated with my name, generations after I have ceased to be.
While we were in camp at the “Farthest,” it cleared completely, and when we turned out, there was not a cloud nor bit of fog visible anywhere.
The distant land which I had thought to be the north point of Jesup Land, showed now in the clear atmosphere to be an extension of the Grant Land coast appearing over a long glacier.
I changed our course for this most distant point and kept this course all day.
After marching four hours I made out from one of the ice swells, land still farther to the right (west). This land I saw during the march the night before, when coming out to the edge of the ice, but my Eskimos thought it was only the sun shining on large pieces of ice and as it seemed to change its shape, I was inclined after a time to agree with them. There was no question now as to its being land, and I thought it must surely be Jesup Land this time.