TURNING KOGMOLLIK FOR SCIENCE 213 
perature being —50° Farenheit, and to feel the cold nowhere but on the 
>) 
face.’ They eat Eskimo food also, a great acquirement for a white man, 
and report that since the first month’s difficulties they relish all,— raw 
frozen fish, eaten as one would eat corn from the cob, boiled fish without 
salt, taken with the fingers, even the Eskimo delicacy of boiled fish heads, 
and, of course, seal oil, whale blubber and deer meat. 
The necessity of existing on such food seems a bad enough state of 
affairs to one surrounded by the comforts of civilization, but in reading the 
letters of the expedition’s experiences the past winter the imagination is 
sated with the recounting of one impossible food after another: 
A little Eskimo boy with us was fortunate enough to find the carcass of a 
caribou which had been killed by wolves. They had eaten only part of the back 
meat, leaving us enough for three or four good meals....After that was gone we 
had “whitefish” blubber straight, with the addition of about two spoonfuls apiece 
of caribou stomach mixed with oil at each meal. Our caribou had carried a peck of 
well masticated moss and grass in its stomach. Perhaps the stuff did not have much 
nutritive value for man, but it served as.a vehicle for the assimilation of a much 
greater quantity of oil than we could take straight. I asked the Eskimos to tell me 
the name of this camping place, as nearly every little creek, hill or promontory has a 
local name. Nobody knew, but ‘Jimmy’ sardonically suggested that we call it 
Kak’-wi-d-tuk (the place of no food). 
Ivitkuna killed a fox, which afforded a taste of meat. We also singed the hair 
off a piece of sealskin, slightly scorching the skin. This made the skin brittle and 
“chewable” and as a little fat was still adhering it was quite palatable, much better 
than the scraps of rubbery, raw sealskin we had often forced down our throats before. 
....This diet kept us from experiencing actual hunger, but we felt lazy, and weaker 
every day. Frequent halts were necessary, perhaps fifteen minutes every hour, 
and we usually fell asleep sitting on the sled at every halt. Everybody was getting 
pretty thin, but had not been sick at all. I had lost fully twenty pounds in nine 
days, although still fairly strong. 
The expedition took small equipment in supplies, it is true. Yet scan 
the list of purchases made at Point Barrow on the Alaskan coast. At first 
blush the perusal is amusing, later enlightening. Of course, there is am- 
munition; also, bespeaking the needs of the climate there are deerskin 
coats and various articles such as snow goggles. Lanterns and cases of 
coal oil anticipate the Arctic winter when the sun does not rise for nearly 
three months. Naturally the list itemizes dogs: 4 dogs at $15 each, 1 dog 
$19, 3 dogs $45. But besides all these there are certain frequently recurring 
items that arouse interest because of the large amounts: 50 lbs. of tea at 
35 cents a lb., 20 lbs. of tea at 20 cents a lb., 40 lbs. of tea at 35 cents, and 
so on; 4 tins of matches $8, 3 tins of matches $6, 2 tins of matches $4, 
and so on; 100 Ibs. black tobacco $50, 8 boxes chewing tobacco $38, 
50 lbs. Uncle Ned tobacco $20, and so on and on. The fact develops that 
