288 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



hazardous crossing of the mountains back of Nelson Head. The 

 danger is not in the mountains themselves, although precipices are 

 frequent, but in the darkness which makes every precipice treach- 

 erous. Because of the elevation of the land to perhaps fifteen 

 hundred or two thousand feet, and because of the open water which 

 prevails most winters around the south end of the island, every 

 breath of wind that blows off the sea is converted into a cloud of 

 fog when it strikes the colder hills. The daylight is negligible; 

 and the moonlight, which comes to you first through clouds that 

 are high in the sky and later through an enveloping fog, is a 

 light which enables you to see your dog-team distinctly enough, 

 or even a black rock a hundred yards away, but is scarcely better 

 than no light at all upon the snow at your feet. So far as" the 

 eyes can tell, you never know whether you are going to step on 

 a bank of snow or into an abyss. 



Walking ahead of the team I used to carry a pair of large, 

 dark-colored deerskin mittens. After throwing one of them about 

 ten yards ahead, I would keep my eyes on it till I got within three 

 or four yards and then throw the other, so that most of the time 

 I could see the two black spots on the snow ahead of me separated 

 by five or six yards of whiteness. But in falling snow or in a 

 blizzard we used to remain in camp, sometimes two or three days 

 at a time, unless we happened to be following a valley where, 

 without great danger of falling, we were merely inconvenienced by 

 walking now and then against the face of a cliff. 



Although the south end of Banks Island where we crossed it 

 was no more than fifty miles in diameter, we traveled in twilight 

 and darkness through labyrinths of valleys behveen haphazard 

 mountain ridges double that distance between December 22nd and 

 January 4th, when we reached the sea ice of De Salis Bay. In 

 another five days we had examined the whole southeast coast of 

 the island and had crossed Prince of Wales Straits to Victoria 

 Island without discovering any signs of human beings. This is the 

 one time of the year when traveling is dangerous if you rely upon 

 game for food and fuel. The game is there, of course, no less than 

 at other seasons, but the darkness is the handicap in securing it. 

 We found the ice in the vicinity of Victoria Island not to be in 

 motion, and as there consequently was no open water the chance 

 of getting bears was less than elsewhere. Seals could be secured 

 only through the tedious method of having the dogs discover breath- 

 ing-holes and then waiting for the seals to come up, a method 



