378 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH 



Cape Seddon, at midnight. Some of the sledges did not 

 get in for several hours later. Many of the dogs were so 

 far gone that they died. Of one team of eight five died, 

 and from other teams several of the dogs were lost. 



Instead of crossing Melville Bay in two or three days, 

 as Rasmussen had expected, we had been en route ten 

 days, ten days of bitter cold, grueling hard going for 

 men and dogs, and constantly increasing fear that the 

 trip might end disastrously. We had come to realize 

 how efficient a barrier Melville Bay had been for cen- 

 turies to intercourse between the Smith Sound Eskimo 

 and those of Danish Greenland. 



We rested at Tooktooliksuah for two days before 

 starting on our way. Though the Eskimo here were not 

 abundantly supplied with meat they had sufficient for 

 us and our dogs, and for supplies to take with us when 

 we left. While in camp in the village I suffered an 

 attack of nose-bleed, due to frosted lining of the nasal 

 passages, that Doctor Hunt found it difficult to check; 

 when finally he got my nose plugged tight enough to 

 stop the bleeding, I had lost nearly a six-pound pemmi- 

 can-canful of blood, and was weak as a sick cat. In all 

 my Arctic experience I had not been in so disabled a 

 condition — weak from loss of blood, both feet frozen 

 and sore, both wrists frozen, and both heel-cords chafed 

 deep. I was but a worn, broken specimen of Arctic 

 explorer. 



A few days later we had reached Tasiusak, the north- 

 ernmost Danish station; and a week after we left Cape 

 Seddon we were in Upernavik, the capital of the colony, 

 where we found civilization strongly intrenched in the 

 homes of Governor Vinterberg, Pastor Rossen, and 

 Doctor Bryder. 



