THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 391 



to engage along with them comparatively useless husbands and 

 families of several children. And we even try our best to get these 

 Eskimos, especially the children, to dress in the best flannels and 

 silks we have been able to bring north with us — intended for use 

 if we can't get Eskimo clothing — so as to leave the mother free to 

 make clothes for us instead of her family. 



Besides seamstresses we needed sealskins, extra dogs, and many 

 other things of which I was able to buy a good outfit. The spare 

 time between these transactions I used in writing a report to the 

 Government. I had but a few personal letters to answer, for of all 

 the friends who commonly write when I am in the North, only 

 one family, that of Mr. E. W. Deming, the artist, and some friends 

 at the American Museum of Natural History, had written a line. 

 The rest had supposed me dead. 



The Government itself had addressed no communications to me 

 that year. All of them had been directed to the expedition's second- 

 in-command. Dr. Anderson. I thought at the time that this must 

 be because every one at Ottawa including even Mr. Desbarats had 

 supposed me dead. I have learned since that this was not quite 

 correct. Although Mr. Desbarats thought there was still chance of 

 my being alive, he had understood from Dr. Anderson's reports of 

 the preceding year that no communications could reach me in Banks 

 Island directly. He knew the Star had been taken to Coronation 

 Gulf, though he did not know it had been taken against my orders, 

 as he had never received a plain statement of what the orders were. 

 But he knew the Sachs had been sent to Banks Island, he knew 

 her unfitness for those icy waters, and he feared the very thing that 

 had happened — that she had been incapacitated for her search for 

 us by injury from the ice. He accordingly reasoned that if I were 

 alive I could not be reached except through a ship going north to 

 search. 



Dr. Anderson's reports together with the opinions held at Ot- 

 tawa determined the general tenor of the instructions for the year. 

 These instructions may be summarized as follows: 



It was thought that the work of the southern section of the expe- 

 dition should be terminated the summer of 1916 and the section 

 should return to Ottawa in the autumn of that year. But the fate 

 of my p; rty up in Banks Island must not be left undetermined. 

 Dr. Anderson should therefore send one vessel, and if necessary two, 

 to Banks Island for the purpose of doing anything that might be 

 there required. 



These instructions meant, when taken literally, that the work of 



