GOOD-BY TO MARVIN Up to this time no observations had been taken.

The altitude of the sun had been so low as to make observations unreliable.

Moreover, we were traveling at a good clip, and the mean estimate of Bartlett, Marvin, and myself, based on our previous ice experience, was sufficient for dead reckoning.

Now, a clear, calm day, with the temperature not lower than minus forty, made a checking of our dead reckoning seem desirable.

So I had the Eskimos build a wind shelter of snow, in order that Marvin might take a meridian altitude for latitude.