APPENDIX I 325 



Thence we went by the outside route around Cape 

 Parry, stopping for a day at Keatek; at Keatek the first 

 pair of snow-buntings appeared from the Southland, the 

 usual signal for the Eskimos to move from their stone 

 igloos to their sealskin tents, or tupiks. The ice was 

 generally good, and we made rapid progress to Umanak, 

 the Eskimo name for North Star Bay. Except for a 

 violent blizzard in which we became lost crossing Whale 

 Sound, and which forced us to build snow houses near 

 Cape Parry to shelter us trom the storm, our further way 

 to North Star Bay was without incident. 



Just as we came driving up to the trading-station 

 from the north, Sechmann Rossbach, the catechist, or 

 teacher, with his family and a number of other Eskimos, 

 came driving in from the south, having come from Danish 

 Greenland. We little anticipated then that before the 

 summer was over we should have to thank Sechmann 

 for keeping us from starvation. 



Peter Freuchen established us in his own house and 

 we made ourselves as comfortable as limited facilities 

 permitted. A little misgiving entered our minds when 

 Peter told us that during his absence the Eskimos had 

 eaten nearly all his provisions and had made way with 

 all his coffee, sugar, and tinned goods, but we felt that 

 we could readily live on meat and blubber if need be, 

 never dreaming that in a land where game was relatively 

 so abundant we should ever lack meat. 



The days passed pleasantly enough. Hunting was 

 apparently poor, for meat was difficult to get from the 

 Eskimos. We made serious inroads upon the few sup- 

 plies we had brought from Etah; though we wasted 

 nothing, we made no particular effort to save anything, 

 relying upon Peter's assurance that just as soon as the 



