228 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Mak. 



Joining Ak-kom-mo-ding-wa one-half mile beyond on 

 the sea ice, we were delighted to find a royal road stretch- 

 ing across Smith Sound and apparently leading directly 

 to Victoria Head, forty miles distant. Five miles out 

 I said good-by to Kae-we-ark-sha and Tau-ching-wa, 

 two boys who had helped us with our loads. 



In 1861 Doctor Hayes and his men consumed thirty- 

 eight days in crossing this stretch of ice; the answer — 

 inexperience and poor judgment. In 1914 we crossed 

 repeatedly in six hours by traveling on the thin ice at 

 the edge of the water. 



With the head of Flagler Bay as my objective point, 

 I kept well north for Victoria Head, the first day cover- 

 ing about thirty miles, and camping in the midst of a 

 maze of bear tracks. This was encouraging, as we were 

 depending upon the country to supply us with meat 

 for at least half the time. 



Starting out on the 24th, we could see the termination 

 of our smooth white highway only a few miles ahead. 

 "A hard trip," I thought to myself, "for the rest of the 

 way." Imagine my surprise and delight, upon round- 

 ing a sharp turn, to find it continuing even broader and 

 better, and — a bear right in the middle of it! The race 

 was on! Ninety leaping dogs, eight bounding sledges, 

 eight long, snapping whips, a long, level straightaway, 

 and nanooh-suah (big bear) bound for the western shore! 

 Fortunately, we differ vastly as to our ideas of real 

 sport. One man strides a horse and follows a pack of 

 yelping hounds in pursuit of the red fox, and calls it 

 "the king of sports." Another man strides a horse and 

 follows a wooden ball with a mallet, and declares it 

 to be the only game. The Eskimo strides his sledge, 

 yells to his ten leaping dogs, and is in heaven. Seal- 



