1914] IN SEARCH OF CROCKER LAND 61 



dogs for speed, hitching them to one sledge, and grabbed 

 their rifles. The other Eskimos at once set off in dif- 

 ferent directions to scour the hills. The team made its 

 way leisurely across the fiord; they had not yet sighted 

 or smelled the animals. As I watched through the field- 

 glasses, one musk-ox started directly up the almost 

 vertical slope, immediately followed by the four others 

 and two more which we had not seen. It was hard 

 to believe that the black line behind them, going with 

 such incredible speed, could be our dogs pulling some six 

 hundred pounds. They were now a band of wolves with 

 fresh meat in sight, and nothing could stop them; sand, 

 rocks, boulders, and snow seemed to be taken without 

 effort. A wild ride behind a good fast team of dogs in 

 pursuit of a bear or a musk-ox is one of the joys of this 

 world, and certainly compensates for much of the dis- 

 comfort of Arctic work. As the dogs stopped at the 

 foot of the talus, we could see the three men slowly 

 making their way up the slope to get within rifle range. 

 Before the report of the first shot reached our ears, we 

 saw a black object rolling rapidly down the hill, indicating 

 that the slaughter had begun. Knowing that one sledge 

 could not possibly bring all the meat to camp. Green 

 and I harnessed up our dogs and ran over to where we 

 found the two Eskimos busily skinning and cutting up 

 the seven musk-ox they had killed. 



Plenty of meat now for dogs and men put every one 

 in good spirits, enabling us to save our pemmican for 

 the Polar Sea. I had repeatedly been assured by the 

 Eskimos that it would be possible to subsist upon the 

 country from the head of Bay Fiord to Cape Thomas 

 Hubbard. This optimistic view of things I could not 

 accept; therefore I planned to use pemmican for half the 



