156 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
December 4. The second day devoted to hunting brought in one sheep out 
of a flock of eleven seen. ‘The third day’s travel brought us to green spruce 
trees. Ptarmigan were scarce, also hard to find as the river valley was wild. 
We were on pretty short rations before we struck the caribou herds in the 
high foothills on December 18. ‘The snow was deep and soft on the south 
side of the divide, our sleds were soon stalled, and we were delayed for days 
cutting trees, hewing out boards and making toboggans. A trail had to be 
snow-shoed ahead, and travel was slow, all hands “slugging” in harness 
with the dogs. ‘Two porcupine and a great gray owl proved welcome addi- 
tions to our larder. Canada jays were observed a few miles north of the 
limit spruce trees, and ravens were often in sight. During the latter part of 
December we saw many caribou, at one time over a thousand within rifle 
range at one time,—a magnificent spectacle. We lived in tents until 
December 23, when we built a hut of poles covered with blocks of moss, liv- 
ing there until late in January, occasionally seeing caribou. ‘They were 
continually moying eastward, and we were finally compelled to cross a low 
chain of hills to another large creek valley about twenty miles farther east. 
When we were down to our last day’s food, we fortunately killed sixteen 
caribou, January 31, and one moose, February 4. This gave us meat 
enough to attempt the return journey. * * * * The return journey was 
easier than the descent, as the river was covered with ice. We often had 
difficulty in crossing places where the whole river half a mile wide was over- 
flowed with several inches of water which perhaps had a very thin crust of 
ice over it — this at —50° Fahrenheit. Lowest temperature observed was 
54° F. We recrossed the “divide” February 28 and reached Flaxman 
Island March 7, having been on a “straight meat”’ ration for four months,— 
two months without salt. All the party, however, were in fine health and 
condition.* * * * The usual procedure before moving camp is to pound up 
every bone and boil the fragments to extract the grease —as a result of 
which few bones are left on the mountains for future paleontologists to 
ponder over. 
I made another trip to the Hula-hula River from Flaxman Island to bring 
out the balance of my skins and skulls, returning April 14, and met Mr. 
Stefansson, whom I had not seen since October 20. After finishing the 
preparation of my specimens I started west from Flaxman Island, and 
sledded as far as Smith Bay. Here I found a note from Mr. Stefansson who 
had preceded me, stating that advices had been received at Point Barrow 
to the effect that no whalers were coming into the Arctic Ocean this summer, 
and we were left to our own resources to get our belongings east. 
We at once started hauling goods and supplies east from our cache at 
Smith Bay, and by strenuous effort with two sleds succeeded in getting five 
