360 FOUR YEARS IN THE WRITE NORTH 



the lake; though we hunted for musk-ox, we found 

 none; only old skulls and skeletons, where Peary's 

 Eskimos — Esayoo among them — had killed game years 

 before. Another day's march brought us to the source 

 of Ruggles River, the outlet from the lake. Plere we 

 had expected to find a pool of open water in which 

 we might catch some of the big, fat Lake Hazen salmon, 

 but we were disappointed to find it frozen solid. Not 

 being able to fish in open water, w^e had to make a hole 

 through the ice if we wanted any salmon; hence, 

 E-took-a-shoo and I dug two holes with our picks and 

 hatchets, both holes over eight feet deep. Much to our 

 chagrin, we struck the gravel at the bottom instead of 

 water. Hungry as we were for salmon, we gave up 

 such unlucky fishing. We killed three nice, fat musk- 

 oxen, though, not far from the mouth of the lake. 



We were sorely disappointed to find no one here to 

 meet us. We had confidently expected to see some one, 

 perhaps Tank, perhaps Mac, perhaps Hal, and a num- 

 ber of Eskimos. Since they were not here, we concluded 

 they would meet us at Fort Conger. 



It was at this camp that I was suddenly seized with 

 cramps and thought I should die. I could not imagine 

 what was the matter, for all the time on the trail before 

 I had not been ill a minute. While lying in my sleeping- 

 bag, I happened to recall a tale I had once read of an 

 Eskimo who had eaten a lot of warm caribou tallow, 

 and afterward drunk some ice-water, with the result 

 that the tallow stiffened in his pyloric sphincter and 

 killed him. I remembered that I had committed the 

 same indiscretion that day and felt certain of my im- 

 pending demise as a consequence. I hurriedly wrote 

 some good-by messages, told Esayoo what of my equip- 



