THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 555 



These were not first quality skins but I had been saving them for 

 making trousers, for which purpose they would have done very well. 

 These were three out of the four caribou skins secured in Amund 

 Ringnes Island." 



Various hunts over southern Borden Island confirmed the view 

 formed the day after we discovered it in 1915 that it is or has in 

 recent times been frequented by caribou in winter. This was 

 shown by the abundance of horns of all ages and both sexes. The 

 oldest bulls drop their horns about midwinter and the young cows 

 not till June, but there were many horns of both of these and also 

 of the intermediate kinds. That the comparative fewness of cari- 

 bou now was due to persecution by wolves I inferred not only from 

 the fact that wolf tracks seemed as numerous as those of caribou, 

 but from the following considerations: Although vegetation in 

 much of Borden Island is as abundant as it is in Lougheed Island, 

 the caribou were exceptionally fat in Lougheed Island and extraordi- 

 narily lean in Borden Island. When I last saw caribou in Lougheed 

 Island about September 5th, the cows had shed the velvet from 

 their horns, but on September 20th cows of the same age killed in 

 Borden Island still had the velvet intact. I have imagined that 

 their leanness was caused by their being harassed by wolves and 

 that the slow development of the horns was a consequence of the 

 leanness. All this may be bad reasoning, but I give it for what it 

 is worth. 



For five days there is a blank in the diary, partly because of 

 the mental depression which appears in an entry on the sixth day. 



"September 26: This is an uncomfortable time while the snow 

 is yet too soft for house-building and the temperature nevertheless 

 too low for comfort in a tent. My ink is frozen and I had thought 

 to make no entries except in my pocket notebook until I could 

 write with ink again. But the time is getting too long. I shall 

 make entries for September 21st to 25th later, however, as time 

 presses. 



"Castel's complete failure is now too unfortunately clear.* 



* This statement and one or two other sentences from the diary entry of 

 September 26th are reproduced here not as facts but to show a state of mind 

 at the time of writing. It will appear later that Castel had not failed in 

 anj'^ sense for which he could be criticized, and that both he and every one 

 else in Melville Island had worked hard and faithfully and been successful 

 far beyond what might have been expected, considering their situation and 

 resources. 



In this book I am trying to present things not as they appear now but 

 as they seemed then — with, of course, the exception of immutable facts, 

 such as topography or temperature. It is in exploration as it is in life of 



