568 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



been frequent and it had to be gathered in and covered with skins 

 and then spread out when the sun came back. Wolves and foxes 

 and bears were numerous, so that it had to be protected as well 

 as dried, and nothing will adequately protect meat from bears 

 except a man on guard. 



It was probably unfortunate that they began hunting in the 

 spring near Cape Ross, for the country there is very rocky and 

 it would have been more desirable for us to have a base farther 

 north. But having once started they had to continue in the same 

 locality, for the stores of meat could not easily be moved. For 

 convenience they had killed entire herds, ranging usually from ten 

 to thirty head. The killing of two or three bands soon accumulated 

 so much meat near Cape Ross that moving much farther into the 

 gulf was out of the question. Still they did move a little way, to 

 Peddie Point where they had discovered a coal mine. It was not 

 nearly so good as Natkusiak's at Cape Grassy for it was bituminous 

 shale rather than coal. It burned well enough but when the fire 

 went out there were left in the stove pieces of the shape and size 

 of those put into it. All that had burned was the oil. 



When autumn came they had built a house of ovibos hides, with 

 a main floor space of twelve by twenty-eight feet and an additional 

 sleeping alcove about eight feet by eight. Out of tin cans they 

 had made a stove and stovepipe and were very comfortable. It 

 had been our intention to spend the winter in snowhouses lined 

 with skins where we would have used seal blubber or ovibos tallow 

 for fuel. Now that we had the coal to burn, the tallow would be 

 used for candles, and the seal oil for food for men and dogs. 



There had been no sign of the Bear, but from the high land 

 at Cape Ross they had seen the ocean to the south fairly open 

 and believed the ship could have had no trouble in getting to 

 Melville Island. Even Liddon Gulf had opened up this year. This 

 was different from last year, as was evidenced by the ice we had 

 traveled over the preceding spring. Every one in Storkerson's 

 party felt certain that the Bear must be at Winter Harbor and 

 this was the reason for the present journey. He said that in spite 

 of their promise Castel and Emiu had begun to talk so much about 

 the meat diet and had been so sure that they could get to the Bear 

 by merely going to Winter Harbor, that he had eventually yielded 

 and was now taking them there. But for this pressure, he would 

 have hauled to the main camp three or four depots of meat which 

 had not yet been brought in. There was much dried meat at Cape 

 Ross and a good deal half-way between there and the camp, and 



