THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 677 



on the sled to Stokes Point. Here we met Inspector Tupper, who 

 was giving up his command at Herschel Island and was bound 

 for civilization by way of Fort Macpherson and Dawson. He 

 is reported to have said later that he realized I was seriously ill, 

 but he said nothing to me at the time and I did not as yet under- 

 stand it, for my experience with illness is limited. 



For once I found an Eskimo house intolerable. They are al- 

 ways overheated from the point of view of a white man but I am 

 accustomed to them. In this case, however, I could not endure 

 the heat and slept in the alleyway where the temperature went 

 below freezing. I had no thermometer but I knew that no matter 

 how low the temperature fell I should not suffer from cold. Re- 

 calling the modern treatment of fevers where the patient is fre- 

 quently packed in ice, I considered it quite orthodox to sleep in an 

 unheated snow alleyway. 



The next day my Eskimo host hitched up his team, for ours 

 was loaded, and carried me wrapped in blankets into Herschel 

 Island, about eighteen miles. I went directly to the Police bar- 

 racks, where I was welcomed by Constables Lamont and Brockie. 

 They sent at once for the missionary, Mr. Henry Fry, who was 

 considered to have the most experience of any one on the island 

 with disease, or who at any rate had a thermometer. My tem- 

 perature was something above 104°. There was great excitement 

 forthwith. I was bathed, put to bed and treated as sick men com- 

 monly are. 



Nothing could have exceeded the kindness of every white man 

 on the island, nor were the Eskimos unsympathetic. The two 

 white women, Mrs. Fry and Mrs. Harding, also did what they 

 could in the way of cooking and sending over dishes that are con- 

 sidered safe and proper for invalids. 



No one, except possibly Mr. Fry, realized in the early stages 

 that the disease was serious. As for me, I counted every day on 

 being out of bed to-morrow, but as time lengthened into weeks I 

 began to chafe. It did not occur to me that I could not make the 

 ice trip, but only that once more the start was going to be delayed 

 until March when the temperature is no longer as low as it should 

 be for the best progress over moving ice. So I sent for Storkerson 

 and conferred with him about the alteration of plans involving 

 further delay. 



Two weeks later I began a gradual recovery, hastened, I believe, 

 by my eating generous meals of the most substantial kinds of food. 



