THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 203 



hauling a huge load almost as heavy as our load had been when the 

 support party left us. Ole kept pointing out what a comfortable 

 thing it was to know we had plenty, and volunteered to pull on the 

 sled to help the team along. Surely if he who works has a right 

 to eat, Ole had this right, for he was never lazy and seldom tired. 

 Still, looking back now, we are all agreed that had it not been for 

 Ole's frequent "We'd better get that one and make sure of him," 

 we should have been able to make better progress. It is possible, 

 doubtless, to have an excess of faith, but generally speaking he is 

 the best ice traveler under our system who is the greatest optimist. 



Until the kerosene gave out cooking had been done in the tent, 

 for our primus stove never gave any trouble. Afterwards for a 

 few days we had cooked outside, burning grizzly bear or caribou hair 

 in an improvised tin stove. When we began to kill seals we used 

 for some days an Eskimo-style seal-oil lamp, improvised from a 

 frying pan. But I was the only member of the party who was 

 used to the management of this cooking apparatus, and the others 

 had difficulty in keeping the wicks trimmed, with the result that 

 a lot of smoke escaped into the tent and lampblack got all over 

 the cooking pots, almost insulating them and making it difficult to 

 bring the food to a boil. The indoors cooking being a nuisance, 

 especially now that heat was not necessary in camp, Storkerson 

 undertook to rig an outdoors cooking arrangement which proved 

 satisfactory and was used on all our later trips. Intending to make 

 a "blubber stove" eventually, we had been carrying our six gallons 

 of kerosene in a galvanized iron tank, the sides and bottom of 

 which were clinched as well as soldered so that it could not come 

 to pieces upon application of heat. To have them suitable for 

 blubber stoves we make these iron tanks cylindrical with a diam- 

 eter a little larger than the largest of our aluminum cooking pots 

 and a height of about fifteen inches. When the contents have 

 been used the top is removed and a draft hole is cut near the bot- 

 tom; then half-way up the stove we run two or three heavy wires 

 across for the cooking pot to stand on. 



In burning seal oil or blubber, as in burning tallow, you must 

 have a wick. Once I considered that asbestos might serve, since 

 it could be used over and over again, but it would probably not be 

 suitable, for the fibers would become so clogged with the incom- 

 bustible residue of oil that its usefulness as a wick would be de- 

 stroyed. Anyway, there is a simpler method. After our meals 

 we save the clean-picked bones. When next the fire is to be built 

 we use a little piece of rag for kindling, not necessarily more than 



