690 APPENDIX 



in new men, we had to start out from our headquarters each time with 

 the same kind of food that previous Arctic explorers had carried and 

 rely upon teaching our men our method of living off the country grad- 

 ually before our groceries gave out and we began living on meat only. 

 Always when the men returned from the trips they were enthusiastic 

 about the life they had lived and the meat diet. They got to like the 

 kind of meat and they said they had never felt better in their lives. 



PREPARING FOR OUR SPRING WORK 



Wliat had been the rule for previous years was also to be the rule 

 the winter of 1917 and 1918. A couple of our men were willing enough 

 to start living on meat right away, but the majority, including of course 

 the new men that were engaged the summer of 1917, said that the meat 

 diet might be all right and, while they had no objection to living on it 

 when the time came, they wanted as much food taken along as possible. 

 Although we knew it to be a waste of energy to haul sleds loaded with 

 rations, we had to do it in order to make our men feel safe and to satisfy 

 their individual food prejudices which depended on the variety of food 

 they had been used to — the less the variety they had been used to the 

 greater the prejudice against trying anything new. 



Our preparations for the spring work of 1918 commenced on No- 

 vember 25, 1917, when while in camp at Herschel Island and after we 

 had found that we could buy the needed supplies from the trading com- 

 panies in the country, I received instructions from the Commander to 

 proceed to Barter Island and superintend the making of the equipment 

 needed for the ice journey of our fifth year in the spring of 1918. Owing 

 to stormy weather it was not before the morning of November 27th 

 that I was able to start west with one team of seven dogs hauling a load 

 of seven hundred pounds. After being delayed by considerable stormy 

 weather and stopping over here and there in order to buy supplies from 

 Eskimos and white men, it was not until the 9th of December that I 

 reached our headquarters at Barter Island. 



Upon arrival there I immediately had the making of the outfit and 

 equipment started. For the short time at my disposal I had a great 

 amount of work to do, and every available man had to be put to work 

 and kept at it steadily. New sleds had to be built of the sled material 

 we had succeeded in buying; rations for men and dogs had to be put 

 up and packed properly; outfits of clothing for about twenty-five men 

 had to be made; arms and ammunition had to be overhauled and packed; 

 hunting implements, tents and camping gear, canvas boat covers and 

 boat frames had to be made ; and as we had at headquarters only a small 

 amount of supplies for the spring work and needed for the maintenance 

 of the expedition's complement at Barter Island a great amount of 

 supplies which could only be had from the Hudson's Bay Company stores 

 at Herschel Island or from H. Liebes and Company's trading post at 



