642 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



yards it occurred to Emiu that he had left behind the greasy dish- 

 washing rag and that Sapsuk might eat it. He ran back but 

 was too late; the rag was gone, 



I learned this at camp time. From Emiu's account the rag 

 was so large that Sapsuk's death seemed inevitable, but I did 

 the only thing that could be done. He had not yet begun to feel 

 the effects and his appetite was good. I fed him a large quantity 

 of fat. Seal oil would have been better than the caribou suet, which 

 was the only thing we had, but I am inclined to think the case 

 was hopeless from the first. The next day he followed without 

 trouble but the second he was very ill. I am rather a coward in 

 such things, so I left camp without giving any instructions, know- 

 ing that the men would do what had to .be done. Sapsuk was shot 

 that morning. 



He is the only dog on the whole expedition that was lost on any 

 of my journeys through any cause other than of the contagious 

 dog "distempers." It was the bear, after all, that killed him, al- 

 though indirectly, for had he been carrying a pack with the rest 

 of the dogs he would have had no chance to remain behind in camp 

 and pick up the rag that proved fatal. A contributing cause was 

 that as usual we were limiting the dogs somewhat on the fat side 

 of their ration. We gave them enough of meat that was not en- 

 tirely lean for them to be fat and reasonably contented, but they 

 were always eager for more fat and Emiu's housekeeping rag had 

 naturally been tempting. 



Until after the death of Sapsuk we had been carrying along 

 certain remnants brought from the Dealy Island cache — a little 

 chocolate, a little sugar (syrup) and some split peas. Emiu was 

 the only one in the party particularly fond of these and ate more 

 than his share, with the result that he was now and then troubled 

 with indigestion, probably chiefly due to the peas. These were 

 split peas and looked perfectly normal but were tasteless and 

 mealy, and some that were boiled for more than twenty hours 

 refused to swell materially or break up. It was probably his last 

 meal of these things that made Emiu so sick on the 16th that it 

 did not seem advisable to have him travel. 



I had been thinking that if we reached Kellett by the 25th it 

 would be time enough, for the ships, knowing that I might be on 

 the way, would have no occasion to start before that time, when 

 their only task was to go directly out, once they hove anchor. 

 But the men were worried, especially Knight. He told me on the 

 basis of two years of association with the Bear that, while he 



