THE ARCTIC DISASTERS 277 



accomplishment, for the Esquimaux had no conception of what 

 credit really meant and were decidedly unwilling to give their 

 tangible riches to men with no visible property — had got two 

 hundred and ninety-four deer from the mission at Cape Prince of 

 Wales, had picked up a few more from natives, and on February 

 3d had set out on the last seven hundred miles of the journey 

 with four hundred and forty-three deer all told. Pushing ahead 

 of their train, which now included three white men, six herders, 

 and three deer dogs, Jarvis and Doctor Call crossed the ice 

 from Cape Espenberg and arrived at Cape Blossom on Febru- 

 ary 12th, the day after Bertholf had arrived. 



On February 15th, leaving Bertholf with provisions for the 

 men who were following with the deer, Jarvis started for 

 Point Hope; and thither, after delivering the provisions, 

 Bertholf followed him, parting at the mouth of the Kivalena 

 River with the deer and the herders, who were to save time by 

 striking inland across the base of the point. The two parties 

 united at Cape Seppings and went on together to Point Hope, 

 which they reached on March 2d. At the whaling station there, 

 where supplies of flour and other provisions were kept, Bertholf 

 waited in case it should seem best to send any of the refugees 

 back from Point Barrow. 



On March 4th Jarvis and Call set out again over bad roads 

 and through deep snow. And on March 29th, after a journey 

 of seventeen hundred miles through the Arctic winter — it had 

 taken them three months and eleven days — they reached 

 Point Barrow with news that the herds were coming up the 

 coast. 



The joy of the half-starved whalers was almost delirious. 

 Their long siege in the Arctic and the uncertainty of rescue or 

 escape at any time were excellent preparation for delirium, or 

 worse. 



The native hunters had already killed and brought in more 

 than a thousand wild deer, for they had ranged two hundred miles 

 from the station, and in the mountains thereabouts deer were, 

 providentially, more plentiful that year than at any time in the 

 two decades before. But although the natives had lived on 



