APPENDIX I S3l 



spaired after a few efforts. The big white dog kept 

 threshing away, and finally, with the little help I could 

 give him, got to the edge of the pool, and, at last, I too. 

 Fortunately the day was clear and sunshiny, and though 

 my clothes were all soaked, I did not freeze on my way 

 home to the station. 



One of the most interesting sights at North Star 

 Bay was the station fur-storehouse. The summer Tank 

 and I were there it was hung with about 3,000 blue-fox 

 skins in bunches of fifty, graded according to color, and 

 300 white in bunches of fifty, too. The collection of 

 furs was beautiful. The soft, glossy, fluffy furs ready 

 for market were wealth and luxury that a queen might 

 have desired to add to her wardrobe. Yet the wealth 

 of furs ceased to interest us long before the summer 

 was over, for our chief thought was getting away. 



We had almost given up hope of relief that summer. 

 We had worn a hole in the horizon looking so hard for 

 a ship. Every day we wondered when we should again 

 have enough to eat. The ice was so slow in going that 

 we feared it was going to stay. Then on the 12th of 

 August the long-awaited relief came. 



I had been back among the mountains seeking to 

 assuage by hard work the ever-present pangs of hunger. 

 My feet were so stone-bruised that I could not walk 

 fast; yet when I came to the crest of the divide back of 

 the station and saw first the Danish colors waving from 

 the flagstaff, I knew that a ship of some kind had come, 

 and tried my best to run. Finally I could look over the 

 ridge into the little bay, and there I saw the George 

 Borup, our motor-boat, lying at anchor. 



Fast as I could hobble down the mountain I hurried 

 toward her. Doctor Hunt and Jot met me in a whale- 



22 



