Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-14

Last december, OWING 10 Udu WcdlLIcL
and consequent difficulty in making up
sufficient food. for two men, Courtauld
remained alone at the station, with
provisions enough on a fairly generous
scale to last him until April 80. Ac-
tually, he knew that these provisions
would last a good deal longer. 1t had
been hoped that we might be able to
relieve him early, but Greenland has
had unusually bad weather all this year,
and we were unable to move into the
interior.
The actual relief took place on May
5, five days late, and when the party
reached the station Courtauld still had
food enough left for another two
months.
Perhaps the only mistake lay in send
ing out the earlier sledge party. under
James M Scott, surveyor and dog driver.
to attempt an early relief. Owing to
the extremely bad weather, bad snow
surface and bad visibility, the party
reached the neighborhood of the ice
cap station with only one weeks supply
Of food left.
The party was faced with two alterna-
tives. First, that they make careful
search Of the vicinity; but owing to the
enormous snowdrifts raised by a six-day
blizzard, they knew that this search
might end unsucceSsfully. When they
had run out Of all of their food, thsy
would have to walk out, living on their
dogs.
They also knew that II they did that.
they would arrive back at the base near
,Angmagsalik very late and might not
be able to find any suitable dogs to make
the second relief journey into the in
terror,
Secondly, they might make a hurried
search and, II 1t should prove unsucceSs-
full, undertake quick journey back to
the base to prepare for a new journey
which would still have been in plenty of
time, and they would be certain of find
ing the station and Courtauld, too,
owing to the improved snow conditions
and the weather in May.
Decision Proves Wise.
Scott chose the latter alternative,
which proved to be the wise one AS
soon as they arrived back RyHnill Chap
man and prepared fora journey to
the station and started of on April 81.
We were back here at the Angmagsalik
base with Courtauld in 20 days. We
have never asked for any help and did
not feel that we actually required any.
The rescue expeditions from Europe
were, OF course, prepared without our
knowledge. Apart from the wonderful
oNCoA IlldOC Wy N6pt. RitSCkiDSIB
the only benefits we received from all
OF these rescue efforts, as 1t turned out,
were six packets Of milk chocolate and
two tins Of matted milk which we en-
tracted from the ratlons dropped down
to US when the Swedish airmen arrived
on the scene.
Before ever It was a question of re-
lieving Courtauld the Winter gales had
frequently interfered with the air route
expedition plans. Early this year a
storm at Angmagsalik, the largest set
Element in East Greenland, wrecked one
OF our airplanes. Later, Just when It
was most necessary to drop food on
SCOTS Ice Cap party, sudden blizzard
ripped the surviving machine.
Hampton, the engineer, at Angmags-
alik, was sending urgent messages for
spare parts to complete his repair work.
and the only thing to do was to sledge
90 miles and get the gear over in that
way. All the best dogs were away,
either with SCOTS party or with
Stephenson, the chief surveyor. and the
only dogs available were six borrowed
from a pastor at Angmagsalik and
Capt. Lemons team.
Passage From Report Quoted.
As an indication Of the trouble that
beSet our routine work at that particu-
lar period. the following passage from
Capt. Lemons report may be quoted:
I'VE started at 4 am. for the Kar-
tartuSsiak settlement on this side of
the Sermilik Fjord. The way lay for
8 miles across the two fjords, sur
rounded by tongue OF land along the
frozen stream and over much of rough
country.
I'VE crossed a magnificent lake 3
miles long, surrounded by an ice fall
and high mountains, and then had to
step 2 miles up the smooth glacier,
We reached the summit of the glacier
in about four hours and felt certain
that we should reach Igloo in another
five hours.
Five miles down the glacier we had
! to stop to drop on to the Peterson Blight
in the Sermilik Fjord, which went fairly
well, not so quickly as we had hoped,
as the borrowed dogs gave us trouble
in the deep and crossed snow, loosening
an already awkward load.
ION the ford. with 9 miles to 60,
our trouble started. The surface, which
was an appalling 1-foot layer OF soft
snow on the top Of 6 inches Of wet
slush. brought our rate Of travel down
| to 2 miles per hour. The snow got
deeper, and finally the clsrgyman's dogs
gave up the unequal struggle. One
| sledge had to be left on the ice miles
| from Kartartussiak.
I'VE hitched both teams to one siedge
and after a prolonged fight between the
teams we got the sledge going. But the
borrowed dogs had done their days
work and they had to be taken out OF
harness.
meanwhile the weather thickened
and soon we had no idea OF our direc-
ton except from drift Of falling snow