THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 681 



hospital at Fort Yukon, urging him to come to Herschel Island if 

 he could. 



I think it was before this that Mr. Fry told me that he was 

 expecting Archdeacon Hudson Stuck to arrive from the west early 

 in April, and it now became my main hope and dream that the 

 Archdeacon might arrive in time, for I felt sure that he would 

 stand with me and probably undertake himself my transfer to the 

 hospital. But travel conditions are uncertain in the North, and 

 any one of dozens of things might have happened to delay the 

 Archdeacon or even prevent his coming. I accordingly continued 

 my efforts, especially with Inspector Phillips. 



A week after the Indians left my condition kept growing worse 

 until every one finally agreed that I was going to die. Then 

 Phillips took the stand that if I was going to die, anyway, I might 

 as well die as I wanted, trying to get to the hospital. This did not 

 meet entirely the views of some of the others, who may have felt 

 as my mother said (but probably did not feel) when I went on my 

 first expedition north: ''What worries me most is that if you die 

 you will not get a Christian burial." There is at Herschel Island 

 a very respectable graveyard, growing larger every year, where 

 many persons have been buried with all the pomp and circum- 

 stance of death. I am sure that if I had died there I should have 

 had a very presentable funeral as well as an orthodox one. 



Inspector Phillips now had his mind made up and there was no 

 budging him. Constable Brockie was willing to volunteer to take 

 me but I believe the Inspector formally detailed him for the pur- 

 pose. My Indian boy whom I had hired in the delta when I was 

 buying dogs, was to go with us, and two Eskimos, Sharyoak and 

 Naipaktuna, the latter as guide. Mr. Fry was willing to go along 

 to help look after me, although he would not take the responsi- 

 bility of being in command. At the instance of some of the white 

 men of the island I was asked to sign a paper saying that the jour- 

 ney was made at my insistent request and that I took the whole 

 responsibility myself in case anything should go wrong. 



I am afraid I have not given a very clear account of this illness 

 through three months, and this is not a medical book, anyway. 

 But it seems in general that first I had typhoid, then pneumonia, 

 then there were two recurrences of severe pleurisy, and through 

 the pneumonia and the two pleurisy attacks the alimentary tract 

 continued in extremely bad condition and seemed not to be im- 

 proving. Typhoid, pneumonia and pleurisy are so common that 

 they are not worth describing in themselves, but it is not every 



