48 THE NORTH POLE 



they could never survive the six-months' night and 

 the many rigors of their home. 



Their feeling for me is a blending of gratitude and 

 confidence. To understand what my gifts have meant 

 to them, imagine a philanthropic millionaire descend- 

 ing upon an American country town and offering every 

 man there a brownstone mansion and an unlimited 

 bank account. But even this comparison falls short 

 of the reality, for in the United States even the poorest 

 boy knows that there is a possibility of his attaining 

 for himself those things on which he sets his heart, if he 

 will labor and endure, while to the Eskimos the things 

 which I have given them are absolutely out of their 

 world, as far beyond their own unaided efforts as the 

 moon and Mars are beyond the dwellers on this 

 planet. 



My various expeditions into that region have had 

 the effect of raising the Eskimos from the most abject 

 destitution, lacking every appliance and accessory of 

 civilized life, to a position of relative affluence, with the 

 best material for their weapons, their harpoons and 

 lances, the best of wood for their sledges, the best of 

 cutlery, knives, hatchets, and saws for their work, and 

 the cooking utensils of civilization. Formerly they were 

 dependent upon the most primitive hunting weapons; 

 now they have repeating rifles, breech-loading shotguns, 

 and an abundance of ammunition. There was not a 

 rifle in the tribe when I first went there. As they have 

 no vegetables, and live solely on meat, blood, and blub- 

 ber, the possession of guns and ammunition has 

 increased the food-producing capacity of every hunter, 

 and relieved the whole tribe from the formerly ever- 



