676 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



and Demarcation Point to Barter Island, where every one worked 

 hard and faithfully all winter. From Herschel Island I went down 

 to Shingle Point, where Ole Andreasen was not only anxious to 

 help but also inclined to want to become a member of our explora- 

 tory party. In the delta and at Fort Macpherson I was able to 

 buy several good dogs and many ordinary ones, so that eventu- 

 ally our outfit of sledges and dogs became far the best that we 

 had on the expedition. 



The prospects were excellent when the first week of January 

 I had finished all purchases of dogs, had engaged some Eskimos 

 to help in the early stages of the journey, and was proceeding 

 westward from the delta to Herschel Island. But, as often before, 

 these bright prospects were to be darkened and this time through 

 a new cause. During the years we had been isolated from people 

 we had been mercifully free from contagious "colds." But we 

 had been infected as soon as we reached Cape Bathurst and repeat- 

 edly during the fall we "caught cold" afresh from coming to some 

 new settlement of whites or Eskimos. I caught one of these colds 

 while at the house of Mr. Kenneth Stewart, the Hudson's Bay 

 Company's trader in the delta, and while traveling north to the 

 coast and then west I began to feel more and more indisposed. At 

 Shingle Point I remained two or three days visiting Ole, for there 

 was as yet no hurry, with Storkerson and Hadley carrying on the 

 preparations adequately at the Bear. The start was to be not 

 actually from the ship but from Cross Island, about four or five 

 days' journey to the westward. Here we had a hunting camp 

 under the command of Castel for the purpose of securing seals for 

 dog feed, and I felt equally at ease about this undertaking, for 

 few things had been better done for the expedition than Castel's 

 management of our base at Grassy in 1917. I accordingly thought 

 I could afford to humor myself until the indisposition passed, as I 

 felt sure it would do in a few days. 



We started from Shingle Point for King Point, Amundsen's for- 

 mer winter quarters fifteen miles west, with a strong head wind blow- 

 ing and I know now that I must have had a fever of probably 103° 

 or 104°, for I have never been more ill than I was on that day 

 and on the two days following while we were storm-bound at King 

 Point. The fourth day of the high fever we traveled from King 

 Point to Stokes Point, a distance of over twenty-five miles and I 

 walked about eighteen of them, still against a head wind. But 

 towards the end I had no more strength and had to be carried 



