This rounding of Cape Sheridan was not the ultimate achievement probable.
So great was our relief at having driven the _Roosevelt_ through the ice of Robeson Channel, that as soon as the mooring lines were out at Cape Sheridan we set to work unloading the ship with light-hearted eagerness.
The _Roosevelt_ was grounded inside the tide crack, and the first things we got ashore were the two hundred and forty-six dogs, which had made the ship a noisy and ill-smelling inferno for the last eighteen days.
They were simply dropped over the rail onto the ice, and in a few minutes the shore in all directions was dotted with them, as they ran, leaped and barked in the snow.

The decks were washed down with hose, and the work of unloading began.

First the sledges came down from the bridge deck, where they had been built during the upward voyage, a fine fleet of twenty-three.
[Illustration: THE ROOSEVELT DRYING OUT HER SAILS AT CAPE SHERIDAN, SEPTEMBER, 1908 (The Dark Spots on the Shore are the Supplies and Equipment of the Expedition)] We wanted to get the ship well inside the ice barrier where she would be really safe, so we lightened her that she might float with the high tide.

We made chutes from planks, and down these we slid the oil cases from the main deck and the hold.

It was necessary to work carefully, as the ice was thin at that season.