"This isn't quite clear." Koehler referred again to Hedon's record. "He speaks of open ice conditions early last year."
"And from what we've heard on the way up we know that's true," said Latham.
"So he may have had to change his plans after leaving here. If he built that cairn near the bones of the bear on the south shore and left a message there, he did it after leaving here, or otherwise he surely would have mentioned it in this report."
"You mean something must have gone wrong with him after he left here?"
"Not necessarily. He may have built those cairns just to record some alteration in his plan on account of ice conditions, or for any other reason."
Latham took the report from the doctor.
"We've got to look at this sensibly," he said. "This tells us that Thomas and Hedon got back to land here and Thomas died. It also tells us that Hedon left here alone to try to travel south over the ice before it broke up. He seemed to expect, even before he started, to have difficulty in travelling south."
