At 9 P. M. I turned out after practically fruitless attempts to sleep, owing to the heat in the tent, and the swarms of big blue flies which, attracted by the meat, swarmed round and into the tent and over us. During an hour or two of this time, there were some heavy squalls which shook the tent viciously, and overturned my transit but without injuring it.
Coffee finished, and the dogs fed again, they were all hitched to the one sledge, and we started at 11 P. M. for the summit of the cape.
A big snow drift on the east side enabled us to take the sledge to an elevation of about 600 feet.
Here it was left, and the dogs fastened, and we went on up an easy ascent of loose rocks alternating with banks of snow, reaching the summit (about 1,600 feet) comfortably in an hour and a half from camp.
On the summit we built a cairn similar to that on the summit of Cape Columbia, in which I deposited a brief record and a piece of my silk flag as usual.
The clear day greatly favoured my work in taking a round of angles, and with the glasses I could make out apparently a little more distinctly, the snow-clad summits of the distant land in the northwest, above the ice horizon.
My heart leaped the intervening miles of ice as I looked longingly at this land, and in fancy I trod its shores and climbed its summits, even though I knew that that pleasure could be only for another in another season. While I was thus engaged my men made out three deer in a valley south of us.
With the completion of my work on the summit, and the building of the cairn, we came down to the sledge and dogs, from whence I returned to camp, while the two men went after the deer we had seen. I started to return without snowshoes, so the men might take them along, but as I went into the wet snow to my hips at every step, I changed my mind and retained them.
Just below the lower edge of the snow as I came down, a flock of not less than one hundred brant were feeding and sunning themselves. When I came within fifty yards they rose.
Back to camp at 4 A. M. for my breakfast.