THE CROCKER LAND EXPEDITION 



211 



I am going to have the time of my Hfe 

 on that trip. The only thing that can 

 prevent it will be the tender bringing 

 up I had in the South, which the Eskimo 

 had the luck to miss. 



Just noAv the wind is trying to blow 

 the house down. That seems to be the 

 daily task it sets itself, but it only makes 

 the stove draw better. 



The hills are silent, there is no answer 

 to my footstep from the great white 

 plains. I walk and walk! Cold? No! 

 the thermometer says it is bitter cold 

 but the glass tube is a plaything of the 

 South — it lies ! My hands are bare — 

 from one dangles my mittens wet with 

 sweat, in the other is my whip with 

 which I clip little dents in the snow 

 around me. The whip is about twenty- 

 five feet long and it cracks like a pistol 

 in the crisp air. Over my head circles 

 a great round moon, brighter than any 

 3'ou ever saw. Round and round she 

 goes, rolling lazily along; underfoot the 

 road is miles wide and leagues long, 

 whiter than the whitest marble it 

 stretches away into the dreams that 

 come. I seem to weigh nothing; my 

 muscles are steel springs ; I laugh aloud ! 

 I throw back the hood of my koolitah — 

 its fox tail roll keeps my face warm but 

 I tire of it. I listen, not a breath — not 

 a movement in the miles and miles that 

 lie before my eyes. Even the mist over 

 the ice cap hangs sleeping on the white 

 breast beneath. 



.... Last month Ekblaw and I laid our 

 food supplies up to the coast and over 

 in Ellesmere Land for the spring trip that 

 starts in February, as soon as it gets light 

 enough to travel in the day time. We 

 each had our divisions of Eskimo but 

 kept in touch with each other. Onthelast 

 trip that ended just before Christmas we 

 got five bears. I shot one of them. Now 

 I have bearskin pants, mittens, and trim- 

 mings of bearskin on all of my fur clothes. 



We had temperature below 50° be- 

 low zero and had a bad gale with the 

 bitter weather. Even the Eskimo 

 frosted their faces. But I have become 

 so used to freezing my face that it is no 



more than sunburn at home We 



got all turned aroimd and were traveling 

 in the night and sleeping in the daytime 

 by the time we reached home. I could 

 write all night about things but will tell 

 you some day. All I have to say is that 

 I hope the ship gets wrecked on her way 

 up to take us back so that we can stay 

 another year. I guess the Lord made 

 me an Eskimo and then forgot and sent 

 me to you instead of to Panikpah or 

 the like. 



The Eskimo are an ideal crowd. They 

 are good-natured, unselfish and ever- 

 lastingly good fun. The children have 

 white children beaten a mile. I have a 

 regular nursery in my room and never 

 feel at home unless I stumble over two 

 or three when I am trying to find my 

 clothes or writing material. 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTER WRITTEN JANUARY 9 

 AT ETAH BY DR. HARRISON J. HUNT 



Last moon I went to North Star Bay 

 to see some sick people, and visited all 

 the Eskimo settlements on the way 

 home. They are eager to go with us. 

 This tribe needs a doctor to reside with 

 them. A small lying-in hospital would 

 increase the population at once as the 

 death rate among infants and mothers 

 is very high. With about forty thou- 

 sand dollars behind me I would like to 

 undertake the task. 



The colony at Etah shot about fifty 

 caribou this fall. Seals are plenty and 

 large Arctic rabbits, one of which I shot 

 to-day weighing nine pounds, and there 

 are bear and fox, to say nothing of the 

 ducks of which we have eaten a great 

 many. 

 . . . .The Eskimo are with us all the time. 



