BACK TO LAND AGAIN 319 



Eskimos of his party came to the spot where the 

 broken ice gave them the first hint of the accident. 

 One of the Eskimos said that the back of Marvin's 

 fur jacket was still visible at the top of the water, 

 while the condition of the ice at the edge seemed to 

 indicate that Marvin had made repeated efforts to 

 drag himself from the water, but that the ice was so 

 thin that it had crumbled and broken beneath his 

 weight, plunging him again into the icy water. He 

 must have been dead some time before the Eskimos 

 came up. It was, of course, impossible for them to 

 rescue the body, since there was no way of their 

 getting near it. Of course they knew what had 

 happened to Marvin; but with childish superstition 

 peculiar to their race they camped there for a while 

 on the possibility that he might come back. But 

 after a time, when he did not come back, Kood- 

 looktoo and "Harrigan" became frightened. They 

 realized that Marvin was really drowned and they 

 were in dread of his spirit. So they threw from the 

 sledge everything they could find belonging to him, 

 that the spirit, if it came back that way, might find 

 these personal belongings and not pursue the men. 

 Then they hurried for the land as fast as they 

 could go. 



Quiet in manner, wiry in build, clear of eye, with 

 an atmosphere of earnestness about him, Ross G. 

 Marvin had been an invaluable member of the expe- 

 dition. Through the long hot weeks preceding the 

 sailing of the Roosevelt, he worked indefatigably look- 

 ing after the assembling and delivery of the count- 

 less essential items of our outfit, until he, Bartlett, 



