BRADLEY'S ACCOUNT OF THE COOK EXPEDITION 115 



the matter of our destination. He was curious and interested at 

 times. 



' 'Got enough pemmican here to feed a tribe of Eskimos,' 

 remarked he one day. 



" 'Oh, yes/ I answered. 'Might need it in case we are ship- 

 wrecked.' 



' 'Quite some hickory wood aboard,' he remarked later. 



" 'Quite so,' I answered. 'We may need it to build houses with 

 when we get crushed in the ice.' 



: 'Well,' he answered after a moment's thought, 'if I didn't 

 know you were going on a fishing trip I would say you were going 

 to find the Pole.' 



"Well, we arrived and everything seemed to be adapted for the 

 attempt which Dr. Cook had in mind. We went thirty-five miles 

 above Etah at first and Dr. Cook went ashore. He returned to the 

 vessel and reported that he considered the conditions ideal for his 

 purpose. Now let me show you how he reasoned and let us see 

 whether or not this was the harum-scarum dash of a man for the 

 Pole in a straw hat? 



"First, he made a census of the natives at the point where he 

 landed and found that there were 240 of them, as compared with 

 250, according to the last record, which made a decrease of only 

 ten in twenty years. The little colony was in the pink of condition ; 

 the young men were strong and healthy. The Eskimos had had a 

 good winter, for it was on August 28, 1907, that we landed. They 

 had plenty to eat. Game was abundant, musk oxen, walrus and 

 other animals were everywhere in evidence, and there were large 

 numbers of fish. We found that there was little ice in Kennedy 

 Channel, that the traveling over the land was good and that weather 

 conditions were perfect." 



Mr. Bradley diversified their trip with some shooting, going for 

 duck, seal, walrus, bear and every other kind of northern game, and 

 various trips were made about the vicinity. One morning after this, 

 while they were breakfasting on hoard the schooner, Cook said : 



