THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 647 



instructions through not coming back the previous spring, or Ber- 

 nard neglecting my directions to remain at the base at Kellett and 

 to make no attempt to connect with Melville Island. I had framed 

 my orders as I did because I felt sure that he could not succeed 

 in bringing to me in Melville Island anything of value in time for 

 use this year. His actual arrival in time would, he must have 

 felt, show me to have underestimated the possibilities, thus silenc- 

 ing any criticism. 



In August Captain Pedersen arrived with the Herman, and ac- 

 cording to Captain Bernard's anticipation was able to give him 

 material for two sledges. He also gave him many things useful 

 although not so imperatively necessary. The mail he landed for 

 the expedition is said to have been four or five hundred pounds. 

 To me this would be the most interesting mail of my whole life 

 probably, for my friends who for a year had considered my Martin 

 Point ice party dead and the expedition a failure, had found out 

 that we were alive and well and keeping on with our work. The 

 letters that people write under such circumstances could not fail 

 to be of moment; many of them would deserve to be treasured 

 forever. 



After landing the supplies and mail. Captain Pedersen went 

 forty miles southeast along the Banks Island coast and landed two 

 Eskimo families who were to remain there trapping in the interests 

 of the H. Liebes Company of San Francisco, owners of the Herman. 

 He then sailed southwest towards Cape Bathurst and Herschel 

 Island. Somewhere on this route he had met the Challenge and 

 given Crawford the information which Gonzales brought to us in 

 Melville Island, that Thomsen was coming north to us during the 

 winter bringing sledges. Apparently Captain Pedersen did not 

 know, or at least he did not mention to Crawford, that Bernard 

 was coming too. 



At Kellett Bernard set to work at once on the sledge-making 

 while Thomsen hunted caribou and did other things to make the 

 camp ready for winter. When the snow came and the ice along 

 the coast was sufficiently strong for sledging, they made prepara- 

 tions to start north. Part of these preparations was that they in- 

 duced one of the Herman's Eskimo families to move up to our 

 Kellett base temporarily to help with the work while Bernard and 

 Thomsen were gone in Melville Island. Just before setting out 

 Bernard gave these Eskimos a calendar and explained that they 

 should make one check on it each day and when they had thirty 

 checks made he would be back again. This was not only a fore- 



