CHAPTER XLIX 



WILKINS LEAVES THE EXPEDITION [1916] 



WHEN he joined us Wilkins had done so as an employee of 

 the Gaumont Company of Great Britain, to become 

 photographer of the expedition, for we had made an ar- 

 rangement by which the company undertook all our photographic 

 work except that which any other member might want to do himself 

 by preference. The sumptuous outfit of three moving-picture 

 cameras and several for still photography had been lost with the 

 Karluk, and I had been able to outfit Wilkins only with an old 

 cinematograph camera purchased from Mr. John Clark, who had 

 been cinematographer with Captain Pedersen on the Elvira and 

 who sold it to me after the wreck of that ship. The camera itself 

 was not good and the film was limited in quantity and of poor qual- 

 ity. Wilkins' valuable work as employee of the Gaumont Company 

 was therefore over and he would have returned home the summer 

 of 1914 had he not realized that if he failed us no one else would 

 bring assistance to us in Banks Island. 



There is no overestimating the value to the geographic side 

 of our expedition of Wilkins' decision to carry on at that time, and 

 his work in fetching the Star and taking her to the northwest corner 

 of Banks Island had been equally good. The things he had done 

 could not have been done so well by any other member of the 

 expedition. But I was forced to agree with him that for the work 

 which we now had before us, which was mainly sledge exploration, 

 we had more men available than dogs or sledges. We discussed 

 the possible necessity for his taking command of the Bear to bring 

 her to Melville Island the summer of 1916, but agreed that her pres- 

 ent crew were quite capable of doing that and would probably use 

 their best endeavors in that direction. 



It was decided therefore that Wilkins would proceed to the 

 Bear and on arrival would discreetly make up his mind as to the 

 intention of the Captain and the sentiment of the crew in the matter 

 of trying to get the ship next summer to Melville Island. If there 



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