276 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Jan. 



playing "angekok" — causing the ring to disappear 

 mysteriously. It did, very effectively. 



On the morning of our fourth and last Christmas, 

 we each found beneath our plate the only gift of the 

 day — an English sovereign, presented by Doctor Hovey. 

 It was appreciated and valued as a memento of our life 

 in the far North; and could only be used in this way. 

 In that country money loses its value and is consigned 

 to the scrap-heap. 



Roast venison, mashed potatoes, turnips, hot biscuits, 

 coffee jelly, tapioca custard, fancy cakes, coffee, and 

 cigars made up the list of good things set down before 

 us at three in the afternoon. 



We were astonished, as well as chagrined, to be in- 

 formed, on the morning of January 8th, that there had 

 been a total eclipse of the moon from one o'clock to 

 four. The Eskimos were all awake and enjoying the 

 phenomenon, while the white men were sound asleep, 

 ignorant of the whole affair. W^e felt that the Eskimos 

 had stolen a march on us. 



Six sledges arrived on January 11th, bringing us news 

 of Ekblaw's and Hunt's departure on December 15th, 

 and also news of the great world war. We learned that 

 Lord Kitchener and his staff had been drowned, that a 

 big naval engagement had taken place off the coast of 

 Denmark, that a German submarine had reached Balti- 

 more, that von Moltke was dead, and that the United 

 States had acquired, by purchase, the Danish West 

 Indies, conceding to Denmark at this time the right to 

 control all of Greenland. The last piece of news was of 

 the highest interest to our Eskimos, hitherto free and inde- 

 pendent, henceforth subject to the control of a foreign 

 nation. 



