VII 



TO UPERNAVIK AND BACK 



XTOW that Crocker Land had been proved a myth 

 -^^ and our original plans for Arctic work were, there- 

 fore, curtailed, it was absolutely necessary that the 

 various institutions under whose auspices we had sailed 

 should be apprised of the fact in order that a relief- 

 ship might be despatched to us in 1915. I deemed it 

 imprudent to trust so valuable a mail to Freuchen and 

 his Eskimos who journey south every spring, so I 

 planned to sledge across Melville Bay to Upernavik in 

 South Greenland during the moonlight periods of De- 

 cember and January, a distance from Etah of some 

 500 miles. This trip would, I believed, add consider- 

 able ethnological data through my getting into personal 

 touch with every man, woman, and child in the Smith 

 Sound tribe. A December start was somewhat unusual, 

 but the Dane readily agreed to it and promised to make 

 all arrangements for dog-drivers and meat. 



Early in the fall, Tanquary surprised me with a re- 

 quest to accompany me on the journey. There was 

 every reason why this request should not be granted; 

 there was only one why it should — his enthusiasm for 

 field-work. I consented to his going, and I am sorry 

 to say he met with misfortune on the journey — badly 

 frosted feet and the loss of both big toes. 



