and Polaris had just left for the Koksoak River and Crystal One,
taking with them Mr. Balkin, the engineer for the Al Johnson
Construction Company. Hiatt also said that after we had done the
most urgent sounding at the Koksoak River with Balkin, we
should probably be sent north to Frobisher Bay. At that I com-
menced a study of Major Crowell's report on the geography of
that intricate and ill-charted sheet of water. Crowell had estab-
lished the Crystal Two base on an island far up the bay in October
and there he had spent the winter as commanding officer of his
small garrison of ten men. His report, though sketchy, was of
value to anyone who would try to find him.

On July 7 a dispatch came from New York telling us not to
go to Crystal One at all, but instead to meet the trawler Polaris at
Port Burwell and go thence with her direct to Crystal Two. Ap-
parently they felt that they already knew enough about getting
into the Koksoak River, and exploration of Frobisher Bay was
much more urgent, especially since they were still in doubt which
of three sites there to use for an airport: (1) Captain Roosevelt's
choice, discarded by Crowell's party as having no good anchorage;
(2) the island where Crowell had made camp and wintered; or
(3) the area east of Sylvia Grinnell River at the head of the bay,
favored by Hubbard and others, after they had viewed it from the
air in June. Our job would be to see if site Number 3 could be
reached by sea, and if so, whether Hubbard was right in thinking
it would serve better than the island for an airport. We should then
have the task of surveying, sounding, and charting the approaches
to whatever base was chosen.

We had scarcely adjusted our minds to the change of plan
when word came that the Morrissey had arrived at St. John's. We
motored immediately to the city, arriving at the waterfront just in
time to see the Morrissey gliding by down the harbor. We pursued
her to the wharf we took for her destination, but when we got
there she was already heading out of the harbor, presumably bound
for Brigus.

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