[Sidenote: "CAPE FLY-AWAY."] As we rounded to in a convenient place for our camp, McDonald looked up at the tall Cape, which rose above our heads; and, as he turned away to get our furnace to prepare a much-needed meal, he was heard to grumble out in a serio-comic tone: "Well, I wonder if that _is_ land, or only 'Cape Fly-away,' after all?" [Illustration] CHAPTER XXX. THE PROSPECT AHEAD.--TO CAPE NAPOLEON.--TO CAPE FRAZER.--TRACES OF ESQUIMAUX.--ROTTEN ICE.--KENNEDY CHANNEL.--MILDNESS OF TEMPERATURE.--APPEARANCE OF BIRDS.--GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF COAST.--VEGETATION.--ACCIDENT TO JENSEN. Although much gratified with the success which I had achieved against such desperate obstacles, yet, when I came to reflect upon my situation, in connection with the expectations which I had entertained at setting out, I had little heart to feel triumphant. The thirty-one days occupied in crossing the Sound, the failure to get the boat, or even a foot party over, had disarranged my original plans; while the severity of the labor, and the serious and unexpected draft made upon my provisions by the extra feeding of the dogs, in order to keep up their strength, had so much reduced my resources that, for the present season, I could have little hope of making any extended exploration. Under ordinary conditions of traveling, much less than one half the amount of food which I gave to the animals daily would have amply sufficed for their sustenance. As it was, the eight hundred pounds of dog-food which I had when the foot party left me, was reduced by consumption and small depots for our return journey to about three hundred pounds,--in no case more than sufficient for twelve days. The most that I could now expect to do was to explore the route to the shores of the Polar Sea, as a basis for further exploration to follow the event of my reaching the west side of Smith Sound with my vessel late in the summer; in other words, to ascertain what chance there was of carrying into effect my original design, which the circumstance of being forced into a winter harbor on the Greenland coast, instead of the coast opposite, had disturbed. [Sidenote: SLOWNESS OF PROGRESS.] The extracts from my field diary, given in the last chapter, will have shown the reader the slowness of our progress; while a former chapter will have so far satisfied him concerning the track over which we had recently traveled as to make any review of it in this connection unnecessary. Although anticipating at the outset a grave obstacle in the hummocks, I was unprepared to encounter them in such formidable shape; and the failure of the foot party to make headway through them was a serious blow to my expectations. I had, however, prepared myself for every emergency, and looked forward to making up what I had lost by remaining in Smith's Sound another year.