74 THE NORTH POLE 



first to Karnah, on the Redcliffe Peninsula, thence to 

 Kangerdlooksoah and Nunatoksoah, near the head of 

 the gulf. Returning on our course, we came back to 

 Karnah, then went south to the neighborhood of the 

 Itiblu Glacier, then northwest again by a devious 

 course around the islands and the points to Kookan, 

 in Robertson Bay, then to Nerke, on C. Saumarez, 

 then on to Etah, where we joined the Roosevelt, hav- 

 ing obtained all the Eskimos and dogs we needed, — 

 two hundred and forty-six of the latter, to be exact. 



There was no intention of taking to the far North 

 all the Eskimos taken aboard the Erik and the Roose- 

 velt — only the best of them. But if any family 

 wanted transportation from one settlement to another, 

 we were glad to accommodate them. It is to be 

 doubted if anywhere on the waters of the Seven Seas 

 there was ever a more outlandishly picturesque ves- 

 sel than ours at this time — a sort of free tourist 

 steamship for traveling Eskimos, with their chatter- 

 ing children, barking dogs, and other goods and 

 chattels. 



Imagine this man-and-dog-bestrewn ship, on a 

 pleasant, windless summer day in Whale Sound. The 

 listless sea and the overarching sky are a vivid blue 

 in the sunlight — more like a scene in the Bay of Naples 

 than one in the Arctic. There is a crystalline clear- 

 ness in the pure atmosphere that gives to all colors a 

 brilliancy seen nowhere else — the glittering white 

 of the icebergs with the blue veins running through 

 them; the deep reds, warm grays, and rich browns of 

 the cliffs, streaked here and there with the yellows 

 of the sandstone; a little farther away sometimes the 



