1914] IN SEARCH OF CROCKER LAND 47 



and various tribes in Africa have added vegetables, 

 oatmeal, raisins, currants, sugar, wild cherries, and even 

 honey. Amundsen on his South Pole trip used a pemmi- 

 can made of dried fish and lard. 



Certain tribes of Hudson Bay know it under the name 

 "thewhagon" and others call it "achees." In drying 

 meat loses three-fourths of its moisture, vet retains all 

 of its nutritive properties. As a result it becomes an 

 extremely valuable food for the explorer, who is often 

 compelled to carry food for a thousand miles or more 

 and is forever confronted by that problem, "How can 

 I lighten my load?" 



In general, it can be said that pemmican is not pala- 

 table and not easily digested, but that made for the 

 Crocker Land Expedition was delicious and satisfying. 

 Put up in eight-pound tins for the dogs and six-pound 

 for the men, it was easily handled for transportation. 

 With a clip of the ax the frozen block was readily di- 

 vided for consumption at the end of the march. And 

 every crumb was picked and lapped from the snow! 



Each man was clothed in the conventional dress of 

 the Smith Sound Eskimo — caribou-skin coat, bearskin 

 pants, seal, caribou, and bearskin boots, and hareskin 

 stockings. For the last we substituted sheepskin, sac- 

 rificing but little warmth for a tremendous increase in 

 durability. Boots made of the skin of the forelegs of 

 a polar bear, with a sole of the bearded, or thong, seal, 

 are undeniably the warmest product of the norther^ 

 Eskimo shoemaker. 



At moderately low temperatures, twenty and thirty 

 below, a boot of the forelegs of the caribou is very satis- 

 factory. The sealskin boot, called the kamik, is the 

 boot in general use among the Eskimos of Smith Sound. 



