208 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



but as all the interstices between the fibers are filled with lard the 

 tarpaulin cannot possibly become water-soaked. This also gives a 

 surface to which ice cannot adhere tenaciously, but can be removed 

 by rolling the tarpaulin about, walking on it or beating it with a 

 stick. The tarpaulin with its water-proofing of lard weighed about 

 forty pounds, and I don't believe there was any time when this 

 weight was increased as much as five pounds by the ice that still 

 adhered to it when we rolled it into a bundle and put it in the sled. 

 The bundle resembled a bolt of flannel as you see it in a dry goods 

 store and was loaded in the sled's bottom, conveniently and with no 

 danger of injury during travel. 



Of course it is quite true that the sledboat is not as seaworthy 

 as Nansen's kayaks. Still, Storkerson and Ole, who were both good 

 sailors, once made me the serious proposition that we attempt to 

 cross in it from Nelson Head to Cape Parry, a distance of sixty 

 miles. I don't think this would have been a sensible thing to do, 

 although it might have been accomplished. The great difficulty was 

 that from the craft's shape it was not easy to paddle. 



A young seal was our food on May 20th. The younger the seal 

 the more delectable the meat, and partly because the meat was 

 good and partly because everything was going so well that we were 

 in high spirits, we overdid the feast and on May 21st we did not 

 travel. It may be a disgrace of a sort to confess to such gluttony, 

 but at least it is no reflection on our method of provisioning to say 

 that this was not the only occasion on that journey nor the only 

 one of our journeys when one man or another was indisposed through 

 overeating. Incidentally it shows how well we liked our diet. It 

 does take some time to get used to a meat diet, and Ole was not as 

 yet completely broken in. Storkerson and I that day were the pa- 

 tients, but it wasn't many days before Ole was in equal plight. 



During this night we were awakened by the dogs barking. There 

 might have been a bear in the vicinity, but none was visible. The 

 dogs, too, were not watching the ice but were looking out towards 

 an open lead. After we had gone back into the tent they began to 

 bark again. This time their barking was explained, for we heard 

 the noise which had surprised and worried them, and which now 

 surprised and interested us though it was by no means a source of 

 worry. It was the blowing of whales. We ran out and saw a 

 school of beluga whales passing, northward-bound along the lead. 

 During the next two or three weeks we saw thousands of them. 

 They were usually traveling north or east according to the way 

 the leads were running, but on rare occasions they were traveling 



