SHIPWRECKED 



There was also a chance of rescue from another 

 quarter. The umiak, which had visited our camp 

 and brought us the information of the smoke col- 

 umn sent up by Hassell, was now making its way 

 down the fjord on the way to Sukkertoppen. 

 These umiak parties are accustomed to lay up at 

 night on the shore and our Eskimos were sure 

 that this one was somewhere on the fjord above 

 us, and it seemed likely that they would soon be 

 passing our position. For a suitable recompense 

 they would doubtless be willing to leave their heavy 

 loads of caribou meat and take us out to Kan- 

 gamiut and then later come back for the meat cargo. 



At one-thirty in the afternoon the tide was on 

 the ebb and the wind seemed to have moderated a 

 little, so our two Eskimos set off in the little din- 

 ghy. Potter, who is our best alpinist, now started 

 up the cliff to get an outlook and see if he could 

 make out the position of the umiak party. A few 

 hundred yards up the rock in the down-fjord 

 direction I was able to find an excellent bit of 

 level ground where we could set up our tents in a 

 position from which one could look down the fjord 

 in the direction from which relief should come to 

 us. With the sun now bright we realized what 

 a scenic position we had fallen into for our forced 

 detention. Across the fjord glaciers descended 



293 



