380 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



ognized as mine by an Eskimo who had once traveled with me. At 

 Herschel Island the summer of 1914 the Eskimos had seen with 

 their telescopes from the top of the island three men on an ice cake 

 four or five miles out in the pack. This was reported to the police 

 and boats were launched, but the weather was bad and much ice 

 about. Only wooden boats were available and in these it was 

 unsafe to go in a gale out among the tumbling and jarring floes, 

 and the attempt was given up. It was agreed that had skin boats 

 (umiaks) been available our lives might have been saved. 



This was not our only appearance. A little earlier in the sea- 

 son we three had been seen on a cake of ice near Icy Cape, some 

 600 or 700 miles west of Herschel Island. In that case also rescue 

 had failed, although umiaks were available. Probably the polar 

 bears that were impersonating us heard the excited cries of the res- 

 cuers and made off; or maybe they were seals and dived. 



Among the white men on the coast only three had believed we 

 might be alive — John Firth, the Hudson's Bay Company's factor 

 at Fort Macpherson, Inspector J. W. Phillips of the Royal North- 

 west Mounted Police, and Captain Matt Andreasen, Ole's brother.* 



I have not since 1913 seen Mr. Brower or Mr. Hopson at Point 

 Barrow, and I still hope they may have been among the optimistic. 

 Our fellow members of the expedition had apparently been unani- 

 mous in thinking us gone and had written to that effect to Ottawa. 



At Ottawa at least two men still had faith in us — R. W. Brock, 

 director of the Geological Survey, later Deputy Minister of Mines, 

 and G. J. Desbarats, the Deputy Minister of Naval Service. Mr. 

 Brock was no longer, properly speaking, at Ottawa, for he was on 

 leave of absence as Major Brock of the Canadian Expeditionary 

 Forces. Mr. Desbarats was at his post as when we sailed, although 

 now heavily laden with the burdens incident to the expansion of 

 the work of the Naval Service in war time. He was therefore still 

 in charge of the affairs of the expedition. 



I had discussed with Mr. Desbarats fully my ideas of the meth- 

 ods of polar exploration, and have been deeply gratified to learn 

 that he, together with a handful of my intimate friends in various 

 countries, held to the view that in striking north over the ice from 

 Alaska I was merely carrying out instructions according to the 



* Many of these facts were told me either by Captain Lane or by his 

 second officer, William Seymour, a man whom I had known for years and 

 liked, since we took turns using the same bunk, by his invitation, when I 

 was Captain Cottle's guest on the Karluk in 1907 between the mouth of the 

 Colville River and Herschel Island. But I have since picked up some addi- 

 tions and corrections which are here embodied. 



