114 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [July 



is not all snow and ice; as elsewhere, the sun means life, 

 full and abundant. 



On August 5th our harbor was free of ice, enabling 

 us to launch our thirty-foot power-boat. I had worried 

 considerably for several weeks over Ekblaw and Tan- 

 quary, believing that all was not quite so rosy at Umanak 

 as pictured by the Danish trader. True, they had 

 planned and outfitted their own trip with all the equip- 

 ment and supplies of the expedition at their command, 

 yet I felt that a relief party might be welcome. 



On the 9th we were off through large fields of ice 

 with our 12-H.P. Wolverine engine working like a clock, 

 bound south for North Star Ba^^ 120 miles distant. 

 In six hours we were at the village of Nerky, where we 

 found six tupiks inhabited by twenty-two people, all 

 of whom, ill-clothed, dirty, and greasy, were in marked 

 contrast to our hair-combed, face-washed, cloth-clad, 

 cigar-smoking Eskimos. The change brought about by 

 a year's contact with white men was hardly credible. 



At Ig-loo-da-houney, poor E-lay-ting-wa sat in her 

 home with bowed head and tear-filled eyes, mourning 

 over the death of her only little one, just as dear to the 

 heart of the savage as it would be to the civilized mother. 



Skirting the shore below Cape Parry to avoid heavy 

 sea ice stretching to the southern horizon, we passed 

 but a few yards from the hut at Booth Inlet erected by 

 the retreat party from the Advance, locked in the ice of 

 Rensselaer Harbor. These men, wearied by the monot- 

 ony of the Arctic, and lacking the moral strength, when 

 hardships came, to stand by their leader, preferred the 

 risks of a southward journey in two small boats rather 

 than remain for another winter. 



And what hardships they experienced! And at last, 



