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350

after the death of my dogs I could hope
to carry on the search. The temperatures
were frightful -40° to -56° but
my experience of last year on the
rescue party where we travelled eighty
nearly (haltless) miles without a halt in sixty odd
hours without a frostbite, shows that
such temperatures are no obstacle to
travel. Provided you have the necessary
practical knowledge of the equipment
and conduct of your party, I firmly
believe that no natural cold as yet
known can arrest travel. The above
story of this winter illustrates it. I
have both sledged and walked sixty &
seventy miles over the roughest ice in
repeated journeys at 50 degrees below
zero, and the two parties from the
south reached our brrig in the dead of
winter after being exposed for 300 miles to the
same horrible cold.

The day has been beautifully clear &
so mild that our mid day thermometers
gave but -7°. This bears badly
upon the desertion of Godfrey for the
probabilities are that he will find at
the hut Hans' buffalo robe and thus
sleep and be refreshed. In [such a] that case
he can easily reach Leiper Bay and
may as easily seize upon the sledge dogs
rifle and trading articles. The consequences
of such an act would be very
disastrous, nearly all my hopes of [lifting?]
the sick and therefore of escaping in
boats to the South rest upon these dogs.
By them only can we hunt bear and
early seal, or rapidly transport ourselves
to the tide holes (Polynia) of
the spring where we can add water

350

after the death of my dogs I could hope
to carry on the search. The temperatures
were frightful -40° to -56° but
my experience of last year on the
rescue party where we travelled eighty
nearly (haltless) miles without a [?] in sixty odd
hours without a frostbite, shows that
such temperatures are no obstacle to
travel. Provided you have the necessary
practical knowledge of the equipment
and conduct of your party, I firmly
believe that no natural cold as yet
known can arrest travel. The above
story of this winter illustrates it. I
have both sledged and walked sixty &
seventy miles over the roughest ice in
repeated journeys at 50 degrees below
zero, and the two parties from the
south reached our brrig in the dead of
winter after being exposed for 300 miles to the
same horrible cold.

The day has been beautifully clear &
so mild that our mid day thermometers
gave but -7°. This bears badly
upon the desertion of Godfrey for the
probabilities are that he will find at
the hut Hans' buffalo robe and thus
sleep and be refreshed. In [such a] that case
he can easily reach Leiper Bay and
may as easily seize upon the sledge dogs
rifle and trading articles. The consequences
of such an act would be very
disastrous, nearly all my hopes of [?]
the sick and therefore of escaping in
boats to the South rest upon these dogs.
By them only can we hunt bear and
[early?] seal, or rapidly transport ourselves
to the tide holes (Polynia) of
the spring where we can add water