394 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



service of our expedition. For this purpose I was able to buy from 

 Captain Wolki the small schooner Gladiator and hand it over as 

 part payment for the Bear. 



The engaging of Eskimos as it had to be done at Herschel Island 

 is by no means a simple thing. You cannot offer a salary for the 

 year and let it go at that. You must arrange that the Hudson's 

 Bay Company at Fort Macpherson gives ten caddies of tea to some 

 remote relative and that the Mounted Police promise to transport 

 a piece of baggage to some other relative. You furnish flour to 

 a cousin, transfer a dog team to an uncle and altogether you may 

 have to make one or two dozen special arrangements in connection 

 with the engaging of a single family. What with the buying of 

 dogs, the loading of cargo, and the finishing of reports to the Gov- 

 ernment, I had no time to keep up diary entries, so that most of 

 what happened during this time I have to write from memory. 

 One of the results is that, although it is a rather important day in 

 the history of the expedition, I do not know on what exact day we 

 sailed from Herschel Island although I think it was between the 

 22nd and 25th of August [1915]. 



On arrival at Cape Bathurst we found, much to our surprise, 

 that the Atkon had not yet arrived. We waited a day and the 

 weather was excellent but still she did not come. Everyone began 

 to fear shipwreck, and I was especially concerned about Hadley. 

 Although so anxious to push ahead to Banks Island I could not 

 think of leaving these men possibly stranded on some delta mud- 

 flat, especially Hadley, who had already in the service of the 

 expedition been through the trying experiences of Wrangel Island. 

 Accordingly, the Gladiator under command of William Seymour 

 was sent out to look for the Atkon. 



A day after the Gladiator started the Atkon arrived, having 

 been merely delayed by getting aground several times in the shallow 

 channels of the delta. The two ships must have passed in fog 

 somewhere near Point Atkinson. We could not leave Seymour 

 and his companions behind any more than we could Hadley, so 

 now there was a second wait for the Gladiator. There are few 

 enterprises so likely as a polar expedition to be turned from success 

 to failure by the weight of a straw. On the basis of what we now 

 know, this delay at Cape Bathurst put upon us some of the heaviest 

 handicaps against which we had to struggle during the next two 

 years. 



At Cape Bathurst we learned that, contrary to our best reason- 



