378 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



win, especially as the Americans had not entered the war. I could 

 not understand why they had kept out, but if they had incompre- 

 hensibly refrained so far they might continue to refrain. 



But I did think the war could not last another full year. So my 

 mind continued fearful of the news we might receive next year, 

 or whenever we next got news. 



This may seem the logical place to record what had happened 

 to the Karluk, for Captain Lane brought me considerable informa- 

 tion. But much of what he told was contradictory — he had heard 

 many conflicting reports — and it was only after I had seen Hadley 

 that the situation became clear in my mind, so I shall reserve the 

 story. 



Of the affairs of the southern section of the expedition Captain 

 Lane could tell that the Alaska and Star had both reached a harbor 

 on the south shore of Dolphin and Union Straits in August, 1914. 

 (This has since been named Bernard Harbor, after Captain Joseph 

 Bernard of the Teddy Bear* a nephew of our Captain Peter Ber- 

 nard.) The Star had remained but Dr. Anderson with the Alaska 

 had returned to Herschel Island for a second cargo. On her way 

 east the Alaska had gone aground in the harbor at Cape Bathurst 

 in a gale and by the time they got her afloat it was too late to pro- 

 ceed east, so she had to winter. Dr. Anderson had left her in charge 

 of Captain Sweeney, going himself to Bernard Harbor by sled in 

 the fall. During the winter Engineer Daniel Blue had died of 

 scurvy, from which disease Captain Sweeney had barely recovered; 

 the rest of the crew were Eskimos who, through their different food 

 habits, had not suffered. 



Captain Lane had learned these things on his way east. He was 

 able to add that the Alaska this summer had proceeded to Herschel 

 Island to meet the schooner Ruby on which the Government was 

 sending us supplies. These were the supplies that had failed to get 

 in last year, 1914, which showed how foolish it would have been 

 to rely on them then. It was to protect ourselves against their 

 possible non-arrival in 1914 that I had bought the outfit of Captain 

 Andreasen and Duffy O'Connor, a purchase now fully justified by 

 the event. 



About the Star in the present summer Captain Lane knew noth- 

 ing directly. He had been told of how she had been taken away 

 from Wilkins the previous year and he was of the opinion, on the 

 basis of reports heard on the mainland, that Wilkins would be un- 



* For some account of Captain Joseph Bernard of the Teddy Bear see 

 references in the index to "My Life With the Eskimo." 



