There was a persistent “fog eater” (fog bow) ahead of us during this time. From 3:30 till 7, we could just make out the low shores on our left. We pitched our tent on a little patch of just-dried glacial clay in what seemed to be a small bight of the shore, and having plenty of water about us the supper was quickly cooked.
Then the fog shut in again completely, and nothing could be seen but a bit of the shore nearest us, and this very dimly.
The ice traversed in this march was a succession of swells of moderate height. The light and shade after the sun came out, allowed the undulations of this remarkable ice-foot to be very clearly seen, and I was more and more reminded of the ice-cap.
I quote from my Journal:
June 24th.—Occasionally (though rarely) this country affords complete and surprising changes for the better. The last twenty-four hours have been a case in point. A day of comfort, of interest, of accomplishment after the five days of storm, delay and disappointment.
It continued foggy all day at the last camp, but began to clear when I started breakfast, and at 11 P. M. when we got under way, it was as fine and clear as could be desired.
I went on ahead of the sledges. Two miles from camp brought me to a low point, then a walk of some two miles or more over bare, dry gravel, where I saw a sandpiper, two brant, the recent tracks of four deer in the snow, the place where they had slept, and picked up a perfectly bleached buck antler.
Then joining the sledges we came to a low point six miles from camp. Two hours from this with good going, at a three-mile-an-hour pace, brought us to another low point under the mountain for which I have been setting my course during the last fifty-three miles.
Though this striking peak looked very steep from the east, I was satisfied as we came along that it was practicable and after a brief reconnoissance, I gave the word to pitch the tent, that we would devote the rest of the day to the ascent.
I felt this was an opportunity not to be lost; the brilliant weather, the chance to perfect my principal angles, and the practical certainty that the elevation would enable me to see what there was beyond, and, I hoped, show me the desired north end of Jesup Land.