A dépôt was left at Cape Bryant, and then Beaumont made for Cape Fulford, which is the north extremity of the line of cliffs on the west side of St. George’s Fiord. The road across the mouth of the fiord was very good, and, arrived at Dragon Point, they opened out another wide reach of bays and fiords. Beaumont was anxious to reach Mount Hooker, from which he expected to see not only the islands to the north, but get the best idea of the trend of the mainland; he encountered, however, soft snow which varied from 2 to 4½ feet in depth: they had “literally to climb out of the holes made by each foot in succession.” Why snow-shoes were not used seems beyond comprehension. Beaumont writes: “The shore for which we were making did not seem more than 2 miles off, so I went ahead to see if the travelling was better under the cliffs. I got about a mile and a half ahead of the sledge in three hours, and then gave it up. I was nearly done; so I hailed them to go to lunch, but would rather have missed three meals than gone back all that distance.” The men struggled on, sometimes dragging the sledge on their hands and knees to relieve their aching legs, or hauling her ahead with a long rope and standing pulls. On the 19th of May, Beaumont writes: “Nobody will ever believe what hard work this becomes on the fourth day; but this may give them some idea of it. When halted for lunch, two of the men crawled for 200 yards on their hands and knees, rather than walk unnecessarily through this awful snow.” This snow was too much for them: on the 22nd May they started on the return journey without having reached Mount Hooker. A record was left in a cairn on the north end of Reef Island. At Dragon Point a chart and another record were left in a cairn, and Beaumont and Alexander Gray set off to ascend the highest mountain in the neighbourhood. The elevation was 3700 feet and the view was magnificent, but Beaumont did not see what he wanted:—“The Mount Hooker Land hid the islands, and the Cape Buttress channel was shut in. Mount Albert I could see was a separate island. Cape Britannia, as far as could be seen, had very high land far back. Stephenson Land was quite hidden behind Mount Hooker Land, which latter towards Cape Buttress extended very far back to the eastward. Cape Buttress overlapped it, but inside and above the cape could be seen either a hummocky floe or a _mer de glace_; it looked like a floe, but its skyline had a perceptible curve in it—a haze hung over this part. By the look of the land and shore, a passage seemed to connect St. George’s Fiord with St. Andrew’s Bay. St. George’s Fiord could be traced continuing to the south, after making a slight bend to the west. The view inland in that direction stretched away without a break as far as the eye could reach, all much about the same elevation. Mount Punch stood out from most of the other mountains, and Grant’s Land was distinctly visible, the United States’ range being very conspicuous.”