54 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



any party were to go ashore temporarily they could always get 

 back to the Karluk, for they would find her either just where they 

 left her or to the east. It did not occur to us that she could be 

 carried off, unbroken, far to the westward. 



The consultations between Bartlett and me resulted in the con- 

 clusion that a hunting party should be sent ashore. We had an 

 abundance of provisions, but no fresh meat. There were some 

 seals to be had around the ship, but the men wanted "variety" in 

 fresh meat and especially they wanted the delectable meat of the 

 caribou. In earlier years I had hunted caribou on the mainland 

 just east of the Colville River and I knew from experience that 

 it was good game country. 



A logical thing might seem to have been to send the Eskimos 

 to hunt, for the popular supposition is that you cannot be an 

 Eskimo without being a good hunter. The fact is, however, that 

 in a large part of Alaska caribou hunting is a lost art, for caribou 

 have been nearly or quite extinct from portions of that territory 

 for more than a generation. Our two Point Hope men had never 

 seen a caribou in their lives, though they were good seal and walrus 

 hunters. Kataktovik had hunted caribou a little but confessed 

 he did not know much about it. Kurraluk was a good hunter, 

 for he was of the appropriate temperament. Although he belonged 

 to the Kuvugmiut of Kotzebue Sound who have, since the disap- 

 pearance of the caribou from that region, become mainly a fishing 

 and sealing people, he had spent enough time in the interior with 

 other tribes to become proficient in caribou hunting. But he was 

 a stranger to this district. I was aware that his wife, Keruk, 

 knew every creek and cove in it, for I had first met her on my 

 caribou hunts in the Colville delta in 1909. But we could not 

 afford to let her ashore, for she was our only seamstress and the 

 most important person aboard. We had hundreds of reindeer 

 skins and other skin material that needed to be made up into 

 warm clothing. It had been my purpose to engage several seam- 

 stresses either at Herschel Island or Cape Bathurst, but our stick- 

 ing fast in the ice had settled all that. Now all our garments 

 had to be made by this one Eskimo woman and by those of our 

 staff or crew who might be able to learn from her. Several of 

 the men eventually acquired a degree of proficiency. 



Captain Bartlett volunteered to lead a party ashore, but he 

 was under the handicap of not knowing the country, whereas I 

 had the advantage of having hunted through it and of knowing 

 the places where native villages might be found. This was im- 



