190 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



It was a bit hard for me to persuade the men to continue 

 towards Banks Island. Storkerson was used to living on meat, and 

 that part of our future did not worry him, but this was not the case 

 with Ole, who had the dread of a meat diet common to those who 

 have not tried it. But when their minds were made up to take the 

 risk they became wholly enthusiastic for the plan and energetic in 

 carrying it out. 



This is a proper place for a tribute to those qualities which made 

 my companions ideal comrades under difficult conditions, but as 

 the qualities themselves appear constantly in this narrative I shall 

 not attempt a tribute more direct, for it would be certain to fall 

 short of my feelings and desires. 



For the first few days after turning towards Cape Alfred we 

 found good level ice, and the leads all proved to have crossing 

 places so that we were able to make from fifteen to twenty-five 

 miles per day. The night between May 2nd and May 3rd we had 

 the midnight sun for the first time. No more than a third of it 

 went that night below the ice horizon. 



The first ten days of May were a period of anxiety. The sun 

 was rising mercilessly higher and higher and we struggled towards 

 Banks Island with the fear of summer upon us. Kerosene gave 

 out May 5th, but we saw no seals in any of the leads and dared not 

 wait and watch for them, for every hour was precious. When we 

 wanted something to cook with, necessity invented it. As part of 

 our bedding we carried two grizzly bear skins, and we had a pair of 

 scissors. The long hair of the skins proved effective, though scarcely 

 fragrant, and half a pelt was enough to cook the meals for a day. 

 After a long period of gorging ourselves to lighten our loads, we 

 now found the sled nearly empty and went on half rations for the 

 only time on the whole expedition. This abstemiousness resulted 

 from our unwillingness to stop and hunt, for we were now sure that 

 the warm weather was going to make it difficult to reach Banks 

 Island, and were even beginning to fear it might make a landing 

 before next fall impossible. This, in turn, would result in our miss- 

 ing the Star at the Norway Island rendezvous. The dogs were on 



miles farther west than the point at which my written word had said we 

 would make our landing. It is interesting to me, though scarcely flattering, 

 that I have found among hundreds of editorials and thousands of news 

 stories from the daily papers, not one opinion to the effect that we should 

 be found where I had said the North Star was to look for us. 



