When they returned I fitted them out with their loads for the ship, moved everything from the ice-foot well up the rock talus of the Cape, started them off and then got away with my party about an hour after midnight. Finest of weather all the time, clear and calm. There is more snow now than in March. It is firm enough to support the dogs, but the sledges sink much of the time, and a man needs snow shoes continually. Three months to a day since I left Hecla the last time. It seems an age. Twenty years ago to-day I crossed the Arctic Circle for the first time. We came on to Point Moss in five and one-half hours. The entire depth of Clements Markham Inlet visible. Distinctive names for the prominent mountains lying east and west south of the Inlet, would be Streaked, Camel, Saddle, Twin. Here at Point Moss I have had eight hours’ good sleep, and for the first time in a long time have leisure after breakfast to let my breakfast settle a little before hurrying off. With no vital necessity for hurry, and with nothing to look out for but my own small party, this is very agreeable. I shall finally arrange my loads here, and when we make our next camp beyond here, I hope to feel that I am really straightened out for my trip. [Illustration: LIVE BULL MUSK-OX AT CLOSE QUARTERS—CAPE COLUMBIA ] [Illustration: MUSK-OX AT CAPE COLUMBIA The same animal as shown in the preceding picture, in death struggles, showing the massiveness of the head and horns ] Our next camp west of Point Moss was off Challenger Point. The march was made in fine weather and we encountered for the first time, what later became a constant and striking feature of the glacial fringe, the long, prairie-like swells of its surface. My wind was improving, the swelling in my legs going down and I felt that I was getting in shape again. As we came along, we kept a sharp lookout on the shore with the glasses for musk-oxen, but did not see any. Just before turning in, a dark spot under Columbia ahead of us had every appearance of being a musk-ox asleep. The snow at this camp was three feet deep. We left the camp off Challenger Point at ten at night and headed straight for the point of Cape Columbia, studying the shore very carefully with the glasses. At last our dark object of the day before was located again, a musk-ox feeding on a little plateau, and I went away at once with Koolootingwah and two dogs and secured the animal with one shot, after taking a number of photos at short range. From the elevation where he was, open water could be seen extending all along the edge of the ice-foot. The swells which we traversed coming from Point Moss, showed up beautifully from here as parallel swells following the main contour of the shore. When the two men came up with the sledges I found that they had utilised their time while waiting, in locating four more musk-oxen farther inland.