1913] NORTHWARD HO! 21 



The Eskimo really seems to appreciate the stranger's 

 companionship, and he enjoys the varied experiences 

 which he is bound to have when in search of new lands. 

 The Eskimo is a true nomad. Nothing delights him so 

 much as the knowledge of the fact that he alone of the 

 assembled company has been far north or west and 

 knows the way to distant hunting-grounds. With the 

 certainty of the white man's food and strong equipment 

 and the comfort derived from tobacco, he loves to 

 undertake these sometimes dangerous journeys. As old 

 Panikpa once said: 



"We never worry on such trips. We let the white 

 man do that." 



Nerky, fifteen miles north, furnished us with Noo- 

 ka-ping-wa and Oo-bloo-ya, the former quite unknown 

 to me, but the latter a well-tried and trusty man. At 

 Etah, where we arrived at 11 p.m. on the 18th, one more 

 boy, Ah-pellah, was taken because of his knowledge of 

 lands to the far west. 



On the. 19th we began to buck the ice of Smith Sound 

 in the endeavor to cross to the selected site of our winter 

 quarters at the mouth of Flagler Bay, eighty miles due 

 northwest. A few hours' work convinced me that my 

 captain had no intention whatever of placing the old 

 Erik beyond that running stream of ice pouring through 

 the narrowest part of Smith Sound. Compelled by the 

 insurance company to select a man with a "ticket," 

 we had to sacrifice experience in ice navigation to book 

 learning and a knowledge of finding longitude and lati- 

 tude. The captain was afraid the ship would be com- 

 pelled to winter in the far North, and he hung obsti- 

 nately and tenaciously to the eastern side of the Sound 

 and well out of all danger of being caught or carried 



