Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/329

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the Nalegaksoak such a fine coat, for his wife and children, who had not tasted bear-meat for ever so long a time, and finally for his dogs. "See how unhappy they are," said he, pointing to his tired team, which seemed to possess little appreciation of the eloquence that was being wasted upon them, for they had all fallen down in their tracks as soon as we had halted the sledges. Four days of hauling through drifts and hummocks had made them care little for a bear-hunt.

Despite the difficulties of the traveling, three days more brought me within view of the great Humboldt Glacier, but the ice was becoming worse and worse, the icebergs were multiplying, my dogs were being worn out to no purpose; and much as I should have liked to continue the journey, there was no object to be gained by doing so. The ground had been covered by Dr. Kane's parties, and there was nothing to be learned further than I had experienced already, namely, that, in no event, could I get my boat to the polar sea in this direction. Whether I could do any better by the passage across the Sound to Grinnell Land remained to be seen. In any case, this last was clearly my only route.

The Humboldt Glacier was visible from the top of an iceberg. It revealed itself in a long line of bluish whiteness. Cape Agassiz, the last known point of the Greenland coast, bounded it on the right, and to the left it melted away in the remote distance. The line of its trend appeared to me to be more to the eastward than given in the original survey of Mr. Bonnsall, of Dr. Kane's expedition; and, although of little practical importance, yet this circumstance, coupled with observations hereafter to be recorded, have caused me