The mean temperature for December was -50.4° Fahrenheit, the lowest -69°; on January 3 the thermometer fell to the lowest point experienced by Lieutenant Schwatka’s party, and stood at -70° in the morning and -91° at five o’clock in the afternoon. The party had long been without the fatty food so essential to retain bodily warmth in these fearful temperatures, and the dogs, although fed upon frozen reindeer meat, which, however, has but little nourishment in it in that state for cold weather, began to sicken and die. The small amount of blubber now remaining only served for lighting the igloos at night, and a cooked meal could only be indulged in on days when the party remained in camp and could gather moss for fuel. To add to the general misery under which the return journey was continued, wolves were frequently met with, so ravenous and bold that they attacked the dogs for the purpose of eating the meat thrown out to them. On another occasion:— “Toolooah was out hunting on the 23d of February,” writes Gilder, “when a pack of about twenty wolves attacked him. He jumped upon a big rock, which was soon surrounded, and there he fought the savage beasts off with the butt of his gun until he got a sure shot, when he killed one, and while the others fought over and devoured the carcass, he made the best of the opportunity to get back into camp. It was a most fortunate escape, as he fully realized.” Two days later, the same hunter, while following a reindeer not far from camp, was surprised to meet another Innuit, whom he found to be an acquaintance; from this man he learned that Depot Island was about three days’ journey off. Returning to camp with this happy intelligence, it was decided to push on and lighten the sledges at the igloo of this native the following day, and then by forced marches reach Depot Island as soon as possible.