Rather than heading south to Fitzjames Island, we decided to go back north toward Cape Crozier to re-examine and document the things we had seen. We found some more tent rings, but nothing Franklin-related. We examined more closely one unusually large tent ring that we had seen yesterday about three miles north of our camp. It is 7 metres long by 4 metres wide. This would be most unusual for Inuit, since they supported their tents with whalebone and driftwood; a tent that large would require a major structure to hold it up. We can't jump to the conclusion that it was a European tent from the Franklin era, but it could have been. It could also be contemporary Inuit since they have had canvas available to them for the past fifty or sixty years as well. This is larger than any Inuit camp we have ever seen. The Inuit usually travel in very small groups (1 - 3), this could have held almost a dozen people. We've thoroughly documented it.

We also found an unusual pattern of stones in the ground that is like an Indian petroglyph in the sense that it appears to be a person drawn with stones. It is quite unusual, right near a tent ring. Picture 4 cubes in a row, up and down, with a little space in between, then from the second one down you have a rectangular one pointing out to the left and a rectangular one pointing out to the right, and at the very bottom you have another rectangular one pointing down to the left, at an angle, and one pointing down to the right, like somebody leaping. There was another pattern of stones below this, which we haven't been able to decipher. This was right near a large tent ring, as if pointing to it. This petroglyph or "in-ground inukshuk", flat on the ground, is about 15 feet in length and about 8 feet wide. We have lots of photographs.

"Inukshuk-like arrangement of large flat stones. What (if anything) is the meaning or intent of the builder? They are old (lichen growth indicates this)." - quote from John Harrington's journal

The weather continues clear and still and warm - a little cooler, about 15 degrees, and the bugs are still everywhere. (Here Derek shouted something about "going crazy" with the bugs!)

ICE DRIFTING INTO THE BAY

We actually have a bit of a dilemma shaping up. The plane landed here and dropped off our food supply, so this has become our lower base camp (about five miles south of Cape Crosier). The bay has filled up with ice and now the plane can't get in. We have about ten more days supply of food, but we're not sure what we're going to do then. We're looking for one of two things. First, we're hoping the wind will shift and take the ice out. This may not happen, because the prevailing winds are toward us and are going to bring the ice in even more. Second, we have Plan B. We've just returned now from an inland hike to a lake we saw on the map, about two miles from here. We may have to move everything to this lake, where the float plane could land. It's really tough walking to get there, lots of huge stones, and massive, muddy frost boils coming out of the ground, with a lot of water and muck. We're really hoping for the wind to shift and get rid of the ice, (and maybe the mosquitos) so we won't have to tackle that. They're scheduled to pick us up next Tuesday, so we'll have to decide by Monday what we will do. A lot of weather can happen between now and then, so we're not too concerned about it just yet.

Our plan tomorrow is to hike toward Fitzjames Island, as far as we can get in five hours. If, at that time we are close to it, we'll keep going, if not, we'll head back. It will be at least a ten hour march, which is about all we can take right now - our feet are getting pretty sore.

I'm looking at a beautiful sight. The sun is high over the West, casting a brilliant yellow colour over all of these ice floes that are in close, it's really quite amazing...

A caibou snorted into the back window of my tent last night and scared the living daylights out of me! A seal just swam by - we haven't seen seals in this close before. A fox came into camp last night, and got about fifteen feet from Derek and John, and right now there's a lemming scurrying around not five feet from me.

We're in good spirits, and having a good time. It may be late when we call in tomorrow, depending on how far we get.

Note from webmaster: My apologies for the lateness of this report. Although the page was prepared late Friday night, our server was down for about 24 hours, and the page could not be uploaded until Saturday evening. We hope we do not encounter this difficulty again.

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