"I 



1914] WORK AT BORUP LODGE 117 



Naturally, our letters and newspapers, the first for 

 a year, were very interesting, informing us of our trouble 

 with Mexico, the loss of Stefansson's ship, the Karluk, 

 the discovery of Nicholas II Land, the plans of Sir 

 Ernest Shackleton for crossing Antarctica, the political 

 situation at home, and the discovery of a river by 

 Colonel Roosevelt in South America. The conflicting 

 exclamations and news announcements coming from the 

 four bedrooms were a bit laughable: 



"Harvard beat Yale fifteen to five!" 

 Cook says we are here to steal his records!" 

 My brother broke both legs above the ankle!" 

 "Oh, my! but that is a great baby!" 

 'My wife wants me to come home!" 



It is interesting to note that a few days following the 

 receipt of this mail nearly every man contracted a severe 

 cold! Undoubtedly the germs of civilization, would-be 

 Arctic explorers, had survived the six thousand miles 

 of sea travel with our letters and were now at ''Farthest 

 North,'' Letters to outposts should be disinfected. 



We read our letters over and over again, and then 

 again buckled down to work, every pleasant day finding 

 us out in our power-boat, quartering the sea in search 

 of walrus, running north as far as Cape Hatherton and 

 south to Cape Chalon. Slush in the water on the 23d 

 warned us of a probable freezing over of the harbor, 

 and our power-boat was hauled up for the winter. 



The annual pilgrimage to the caribou-grounds some 

 fifty miles north took place as usual, the Eskimos and 

 Doctor Hunt leaving on September 10th, and returning 

 on the 23d with forty-two warm skins, invaluable for 

 bed-robes, coats, and sleeping-bags for the extreme tem- 

 peratures to come. Such good luck inspired Tanquary 



