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having passed through the dangerous rough ice belt which always exists
between the main pack and shore. Traveling through this belt snow was
scarce and we used tents to sleep in at night but as soon as we came to
the old ice pack where we could be comfortable because good snow could
be found, we commenced to live in snowhouses. We preferred them to
tents, which during the Arctic winter should be used only in emergencies.

Traveling mostly over old ice, the going getting better the farther
we got from shore, we proceeded till the night of April 3rd when we were
about one hundred and five miles north of Cross Island and at north
latitude 72°, west longitude 147°. On the following day I sent the
first support party, consisting of our chief engineer, Herman Kilian, in
command of two men, two sleds and nineteen dogs, on their return to
Barter Island. Their equipment naturally was the poorest we had. Early
the following morning they bade us good-by. Taking with them my reports
to the Commander, they started for home while a few minutes later we pro-
ceeded northward with our remaining nine men, thirty-six dogs and five
sleds.

As days went by the old ice floes continually increased in size, and
over them we found traveling good with a little road-cutting here and
there through ridges bordering the floes. In the forenoon of April 8th
we came to an old floe which it took us three hours to cross, its diameter
being about seven miles. Upon our arrival at the northern edge we were
stopped by an open lead, across which in places it was impossible to see
the ice to the north. To cross it by sled-boat was impossible on account
of the young ice and the width of the lead. Following along to find a
place where both sides would meet had sometimes in the past been a suc-
cessful method of getting over a lead and I intended to try this once
more; but, when from an ice hummock about fifteen or twenty feet above
sea level the lead could be seen disappearing to the east and to the