724 APPENDIX 



the time. Give each party enough dogs, if you can spare them so that 

 they can better cover the ground. 



"As we talked about distributing supplies thatyou bring back; give 

 each one their proportional share. As it stands now there are 80 days' 

 pemmican and oil for each person. 



"Please do all you can to promote good feeling in camp. You 

 will assemble at Rodgers Harbor about the middle of July where I 

 hope to meet you with a ship. 



"Sincerely yours, 



"R. A. Bartlett, 



"Captain, C. G. S." 



March 18th Bartlett and Kataktovik with seven dogs, one sledge, 

 provisions for forty-eight days for themselves and thirty for the dogs, 

 started for the mainland of Siberia. They followed the east and south 

 coasts of Wrangel Island five days and then started from near the 

 southwest corner of the island the hundred and ten-mile crossing to 

 the mainland. On the way over they met the ordinary traveling con- 

 ditions. There were seals in the leads and abundant traces of bears. 

 The leads, however, caused some delay. Doubtless because they had 

 land behind them as well as in front, they met no very wide leads 

 such as are found north of Alaska, and were generally able to deal 

 with the ones they met by traveling a few miles to one side, where 

 the leads narrowed enough for a crossing. March 30th they saw the 

 comparatively low land ahead and April 4th they reached the mainland 

 of Siberia, twelve days after leaving Wrangel Island and seventeen 

 from their separation from the main party. 



When they neared land Bartlett had some trouble with his Eskimo 

 companion who, like every other Eskimo, feared the natives who were 

 strangers to him. On the west coast of Alaska the Eskimos rather 

 specialize in fearsome tales about the Siberians. There seem to have 

 been some hostilities in the past but in the main these stories are 

 founded merely on fear of the unknown. 



Immediately on landing they found the trail of a native sled that 

 had recently passed and after a few miles of traveling to the east 

 they came to a house. Kataktovik was worried about what the people 

 might do to them but they proved, in fact, exceedingly hospitable. 

 From now on Bartlett was able to sleep in a native house at the end 

 of each day's journey, and could secure food and even dogs by the 

 way. Later he met white men who were equally hospitable. 



But as he progressed eastward he gradually developed an illness 

 of the same general symptoms as that from which the men in Wrangel 

 Island died — swelling of the legs, weakness, disinclination to exercise. 

 In going to Emma Harbor he was forced to discontinue his journey 

 through the increase of the illness. Though he would have preferred 

 to continue to Anadyr for the sake of trying to send out a wireless 



