THE ARCTIC DISASTERS 275 



from a long trip, and make all ready to start on the morning 

 of December 18th. 



They were up at dawn and away at seven. Lieutenant 

 Jarvis, Lieutenant Bertholf, Doctor Call, and the half-breed 

 Russian, Alexis Kolchoff, who owned the dogs and had agreed 

 to take the relief party to St. Michaels, each with an Esquimau 

 to help him, drove the four sleds. Planning to avoid rough 

 travelling along the coast, they struck straight across country 

 for Andreafski on the Yukon. The first day they crossed a 

 range of mountains. The second day they travelled from 

 dawn until nearly sunset across the frozen swamps and small 

 streams of the Yukon delta. They spent the second night, 

 as they had spent the first, at a little native village, but trouble 

 with the dogs threatened delay; so Lieutenant Jarvis and 

 Doctor Call took the two best teams and two native guides and 

 pushed on next day for St. Michaels, leaving the others to 

 follow as soon as they could; and because those two took the 

 only tent. Lieutenant Bertholf was forced to sleep in one of 

 the native huts. 



He has wiitten a vivid and illuminating account of that 

 peculiarly unhappy experience, for the huts were half under- 

 ground, and securely protected from every possible ailment 

 that might be borne in on fresh air from the outside. They 

 were heated to a comfortable temperature by the unwashed 

 bodies of the crowded occupants; and were redolent of decaying 

 fish and blubber and oil, not to go into particulars concerning 

 the natives themselves. ''Having a whole day before me, I 

 concluded to make a tour of inspection to find out which [hut] 

 seemed least odorous. There did not seem to be much choice, 

 and having selected one at random, I broke myself to my new 

 quarters by going inside for a few minutes at a time. This I 

 kept up during the day, each time remaining a little longer, with 

 such good results that by night I was fairly acclimated, as it 

 were, and after eating the usual evening meal, turned into my 

 sleeping bag, imagining I was comfortable. When I awoke 

 in the morning I found that the foul air had given me a raging 

 headache, but when I got out in the open air it soon passed 



