50 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Feb. 



a snow house which is occupied by every succeeding 

 division, thus saving time and labor. 



Green and Ah-pellah got away on February 7ch, with 

 their two divisions — seven sledges — with orders to take 

 on full loads of 500 pounds each at Ka-mowitz, fifteen 

 miles north of Etah, cross Smith Sound, and proceed 

 on toward the musk-ox grounds of Eureka Sound in 

 Ellesmere Land. Here we were to rendezvous, elimi- 

 nate and send back the least desirable men and dogs, 

 and then push on toward the Polar Sea. 



The departure of the advance party was signaled the 

 night before by an explosion in an Eskimo igloo. Why 

 it was not attended by more serious results is hard to 

 understand. Both our kerosene and gasolene were 

 packed in five-gallon tins, two tins in a case, plainly 

 marked, and well understood by our Eskimos. Tau- 

 ching-wa, groping in the dark in search of kerosene-oil, 

 seized by mistake five gallons of gasolene. With his 

 big igloo full of Eskimos, he cut a good-sized hole in the 

 top of the can with his knife and then proceeded to fill 

 a large burning oil -heater! WTien what happened was 

 over, our Eskimo neighbors were considerably bunched 

 in various nooks and corners of their primitive home. 

 The various parts of the stove were never assembled; 

 nor, in fact, of Tau-ching-wa, since much of his hair 

 was gone and practically all the skin from his face. 

 Henceforth, that particular brand of oil, which was a 

 bit "too quick," was designated as the ^^Tau-ching-wa 

 ook-sook'' ("Tau-ching-wa oil"). 



On the 8th Tanquary left with his division. A beau- 

 tiful day, seventeen below zero, and no wind. He was 

 followed by Ekblaw and his Eskimos on the 9th, and 

 Hunt and his division on the 10th. With the latter 



