Since reaching the ship I have had an aversion to pencil and paper, and have only cared to lie and think and plan. To think after all the preparation, the experience, the effort, the strain, the chances taken, and the wearing of myself and party to the last inch, what a little journey it is on the map and how far short of my hopes it fell. To think that I have failed once more; that I shall never have a chance to win again. Then to put this useless repining aside, and plan for my western trip, and when I have done my duty by this, to plan for mine and Eagle Island. CHAPTER IX WESTWARD OVER THE GLACIAL FRINGE OF GRANT LAND The weather for the week following our return to the ship was of the most disagreeable character, beginning within twenty-four hours of our arrival, with a violent southerly gale which swept up the channel with great fury, and was followed by continuous thick weather, with a pronounced rise in temperature, frequent winds and snow. I congratulated myself every day that we got in just in time. The gale combined with the prolonged thick weather and the invariable drop in the physical barometer accompanying such rises of temperature, might in our condition have proved the last straw. I called my Eskimos together and told them they had done good work, and now they could rest till the ship started for home, and could either stay about the ship, or go in to Lake Hazen, or to Fort Conger with their families. For myself and the others there was still work of value to be accomplished in the weeks remaining before the _Roosevelt_ would be free, and the programme of this work shaped itself. Captain Bartlett would take lines of soundings across Robeson Channel, Marvin would run a line of soundings as far north from Hecla as practicable. The Doctor would utilise the time collecting specimens and in making a trip to Conger and I would go west and endeavour to fill in the unknown gap in the Grant Land Coast, between Aldrich’s and Sverdrup’s “farthest.” There were just dogs enough for this programme. Forty odd out of 120 had survived the spring campaign. The change to the ship was so great after our months of roughing it, that I found it impossible to sleep more than a few hours at a time, and I had some trouble in controlling my appetite, but compromised by eating frequently and lightly. My feet and legs swelled in a way that might have troubled a novice, but having been through it all before, I did not give myself any worry. Henson, and particularly Clark, were a good deal disturbed by theirs. The preparation for the western trip gave me little trouble. I had worked out the complete list of supplies, equipment, etc., while tramping mechanically along the Greenland coast, and had jotted the items down while in camp, so now I had simply to give my instructions for such and such things to be made and assembled.