462 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



eaten from a pound and a half to a pound and three-quarters of 

 sugar per week per man. But our supply called for less than a 

 pound, if it was to last two years. We had a large supply of a 

 preparation of saccharin known as "Saxin" and I had hoped to be 

 able to use this in the sweetening of fruits, sauces and the like. 

 But I found that the pure food campaign in the United States 

 ten or fifteen years ago was in the minds of several who had been 

 convinced by the newspaper misrepresentations of that time that 

 saccharin even in the smallest quantities is seriously prejudicial 

 to health. Accordingly I considered myself forced to the effort of 

 transporting about a thousand pounds of sugar around the north 

 end of Banks Island to the Bear. 



Preparations for Storkerson's trip were not going entirely well. 

 Natkusiak had in December accumulated at his Gore Islands hunt- 

 ing camp a huge quantity of meat and especially blubber, but then 

 came the Christmas holidays and he had to go to the Bear to 

 celebrate, not because he was lonesome but because it was Christ- 

 mas. This gave half a dozen polar bears a chance to celebrate 

 also and when he got back he found nearly all his accumulated 

 stores either eaten or dragged away and lost. The weather was 

 so dark that he had no chance to shoot the bears although he got 

 a few glimpses of them prowling about. But the serious thing was 

 that northwesterly winds prevailed for some time thereafter, press- 

 ing the heavy ice solidly against the land floe and preventing any 

 open water sealing. Natkusiak might have been able to catch seals 

 by the mauttok method, but this is always tedious and there was 

 no level ice where it could be practiced. In fact, western and 

 northern Banks Island are about the worst places for that kind 

 of sealing. It can be successfully practiced only on the flat ice 

 in bays or straits or on the clear level ice fifty or a hundred miles 

 from land, but not easily in the confused and broken ice near shore. 



While Natkusiak devoted himself mainly to this unsatisfactory 

 sealing, most of the others occupied themselves in relaying sugar 

 along the north coast. The going was bad, for the cliffs are pre- 

 cipitous into deep water, giving the currents and wind a chance to 

 heap the ice against the land. Road-making with pick-axes was 

 frequently necessary, progress was slow, and hauling heavy loads 

 difficult. But eventually we had varying quantities of sugar re- 

 layed forward and deposited in hundred-pound bags at the Gore 

 Islands, Mercy Bay and two intermediate points. 



These depots also contained a large store of dog feed intended 

 for Storkerson's teams on his way west, and kerosene and other 



