1916] ALONE AT BORUP LODGE 265 



Contrary to the general belief, this bird lays its eggs not 

 near the shore, but well back among the hills. The color 

 of the back so closely resembles that of the soil that 

 the bird on its nest can only be detected with difficulty. 



On July 5th, with a subconscious but a bit-delayed 

 patriotic attitude toward the Glorious Fourth, which 

 we had ushered in the day before with a rapid salute of 

 our ten guns, We-we's three-year-old boy walked bravely 

 by our front door with a large stick of dynamite in 

 his mouth! This particular stick carefully secured and 

 disposed of, the thought occurred to me that possibly 

 the naturally curious-minded Eskimos might cook the 

 dynamite in mistake for erbswurst, which it strongly 

 resembled; therefore I removed the box with the loose 

 cover to a safe distance around the bend of the cove, 

 some 300 yards west of the house. Two days later a 

 pup appeared at our front door with a stick in his 

 mouth, wagging his tail and trying to tell me that he 

 had found that which was lost. It was rather interest- 

 ing trying to catch this playful animal, since he persisted 

 in dropping his plaything every twenty yards or so in 

 order to get a better grip on it with his teeth. 



On July 21st, with my three favorite Eskimos — 

 E-took-a-shoo, Arkho, and Ak-pood-a-shah-o — I left 

 Etah in my twenty-one-foot dory for a bight below Sul- 

 wuddy we called Snug Harbor. The Arctic tern was 

 supposed to breed here, and we wanted the eggs for 

 our collection. A heavy squall off Cape Alexander com- 

 pelled us to return for a camp at the Crystal Palace 

 Cliffs. The next day we reached Sutherland Island 

 without incident and found it to be the nesting-place 

 of hundreds of eider ducks, gulls, and brant. A large 

 flock of the latter was resting upon the surface of Snug 



