294 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [April 



grounds were littered vfith equipment and personal be- 

 longings. Upon the page of an almost blank note- 

 book there were three lines: 



Past, Present, and Future. 



Dost thou remember long, long ago 



Those school-days which we loved so well? 



Some one of the party, longing for the homeland, 

 had planned to write something of his past life, of his 

 present, and of his future. Only two lines of his past ! 



Finding a school-book, I turned back the cover and 

 read on the fly-leaf: 



To my dear father. From his affectionate son, Harry Kisling- 

 bury. May God be with you and return you safely to us. 



The little fellow's prayer was not answered. His 

 father. Lieutenant Kislingbury, was the twelfth to die. 



We arrived at Etah on the 9th. Rasmussen arrived 

 on the 10th. To my astonishment, although about to 

 undertake a 1,000-mile trip to the northern end of 

 Greenland and return, he had practically no oil, very 

 little biscuit, and no pemmican. His plan to live 

 chiefly on the country and cook with willow roots en- 

 tailed so much suffering and danger that I finally per- 

 suaded him to outfit from our stores. Thirty gallons of 

 oil, 100 pounds of biscuit, and 200 of pemmican could 

 be well spared to a man who had aided us in so many 

 ways. 



A lack, however, of an indispensable part of an Arctic 

 man's equipment — snow-shoes — has caused me serious 

 apprehensions as to the safe return of all of his party. 

 It was his plan to follow the coast northward by way of 

 Kane Basin, Kennedy and Robeson Channel, with the 



