April 22–23, 1909 Cape Columbia (cont.)
MARCH: Calendar | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11, B, C, D | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25, B | 26, B | 27, B | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 APRIL: 1, B, Bv, C | 2, B, C | 3, B | 4, B | 5, B, C | 6, B, Bv, C, D, E | 7, B, C, D, E, F, G | 8 | 9 |10, 10v | 11 | 12-13 | 13-14 | 19-20 | 20-22 | 22-23, B | 24 | Home
...trail back on our side & took it up again. After a short distance through rough ice saw edge of the glacial fringe ahead of us. Stopped party till I g could get up on it to take some photos. At 8.30 p.m. of the 22 entire party on the glacial fringe of Grant Land, off the sea ice & practically on terra firma though the fringe here (some 5 miles west of C. Nares is 5 miles wide) Found Captain's igloo a few hundred yards further on. At 11.-p.m. stopped for lunch, & at 6.-a.m. of the 23rd reached the... ...igloos at C. Columbia, 16 marches from the Pole. It has been a great return trip. Will never be done like this again. 52 days (43 marches) from land to beyond the Pole & back again. The devil must be asleep, or his attention taken up by trouble with his wife, or we should never have got back so comfortable. It has been a very comfortable return, & we have had full rations. But a little difference in the weather & all would have been changed. I am glad to be over the treacherous leads & wide expanses of young ice, where a gale would have put an open sea between us & the land, & rendered our [vertically in margin:] return problematical.
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