THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 87 



cook breakfast the next morning and suggested that the breakfast 

 might consist af oatmeal mush and hot cakes. This struck Lef- 

 fingwell as an extraordinary suggestion and the genuineness of his 

 surprise was clear from the tone in which he said, "Mush and hot 

 cakes! If you have mush what's the use of hot cakes, and if you 

 have hot cakes what's the use of mush?" 



This principle is the essence of dietetics in the North. The 

 simplicity of living on few foods contributes not a little to the charm 

 of the North which one does not appreciate fully till he comes back 

 to the complex menus of civilization. I would not go so far as 

 to say that you could decide which was better, mush or hot cakes, 

 and then live forever on the one or the other. But if instead of one 

 of these you select some complete food, such as fat caribou meat for 

 instance, then it contributes considerably to your satisfaction in 

 life from every point of view, including that of enjoyment of your 

 meals, to have for every meal indefinitely caribou meat and nothing 

 else. I am aware that this sounds like a joke to the ordinary reader, 

 but it is truth to all who have tried it. I have never had experience 

 with a man who did not protest in advance that he would be sure 

 to get deadly tired of a diet of nothing but caribou meat, but I have 

 never found a man who in actual practice did get tired of it. They 

 invariably like it better the longer they are confined to it. This, 

 of course, is no unique experience in the world. There are probably 

 no people on earth so fond of rice as those Chinese who get little 

 else. And if it be true that there are Scotchmen who live mainly on 

 oatmeal, then it is certain that those Scotchmen will prefer oatmeal 

 to almost any food. 



Leffingwell was able to tell us a good deal about the Alaska and 

 Sachs, making more explicit the information we had received at Cape 

 Smythe. Everything was going well. The men were living at Col- 

 linson Point, but Charles Thomsen and his family of the Sachs 

 were at a trapping camp six or eight miles this side. Most of the 

 men would be at the camp except Dr. Anderson who would prob- 

 ably not be at home, for he had expected to take mail to Herschel 

 Island for the Mounted Police to carry to Dawson in January. 



That everything was so well with our people was largely thanks 

 to Leffingwell. It was one of the best pieces of luck of the expedi- 

 tion that he happened to be coming to the Arctic in 1913 and 

 accepted my invitation to be our guest on the Sachs. Chipman, 

 whom I had placed in charge of her to take her to Herschel Island 

 where she was to be handed over to Murray, was new in the coun- 

 try, though in every other respect a good man for his task. Al- 



