The sun shone occasionally during the 21st but the land remained hidden continuously by dense fog.
With much trouble we succeeded in drying out most of our clothing, and then broke camp and got out to the cache, and proceeded on our way.
A snow-bunting was seen and an additional number of brant. The flock which seemed to be hanging around here numbered about eighteen. The one shot was a female and the eggs in the ovaries were small.
The hare killed here (ten in all) were small, very thin, and the meat tough.
In getting away from the shore camp we marched through about a mile of knee-deep slush and water, thoroughly wetting our feet of course, and came out to the cache; fitted Koolootingwah out and started him for the Roosevelt; left a small cache of provisions, and the various specimens; loaded the two sledges with the remaining stuff (about nine days’ rations of pemmican) and went on ten paced miles.
This was a disagreeable march; no sun, only fog and clouds and snow squalls, straining the eyes and rendering it very difficult to keep a course; strong head wind and deep soft snow, but it was good to be moving again.
It was thick all day while we slept, and continued so, with the land invisible. Just after we pitched the tent, there was a brief, sharp flurry of hail, which rattled on the tent in great shape, and startled the dogs.
Another wearing march, though an improvement on the previous one; and I had no reason to complain as we covered sixteen paced miles in seven hours fifty minutes, including ten minutes for lunch, and fifteen for examining some moraine tumuli. Though the sun did not shine through the clouds, it was warm enough to thaw the surface of the snow, and this layer of wet snow made very heavy snowshoeing. As a compensation the sledges ran measurably easier.
I kept the same pace as on previous marches, one-half mile in ten minutes, then waited for the dogs to come up. In this march the dogs made each half mile in twelve and one-half minutes, as against full fifteen minutes in the two previous marches.
The densest of fog shrouded us for the first five hours, and I kept my course by the wind-marks in the snow; then it cleared overhead, and the sun shone brilliantly, but the land remained shrouded.