DOWN THE MACKENZIE 



151 



five miles of the camp. Sparrows and longspurs were every- 

 where abundant. I collected a few siffleux, one of which I 

 boiled to test the quality of its flesh; it tasted much as a house 

 rat looks. The almost continual rain and fog made camping 

 alone with a boat sail for shelter very monotonous. During the 

 last two days the mosquitoes were unusually vicious and in such 

 numbers that they obscured the color of my clothing and sur- 

 roundings with their gray-hued legions. 



During my absence one of the vessels had returned to repair 

 a rudder, which had been broken in the ice. The officers de- 

 clared that the ice was heavier and more abundant than they 

 had ever known it to be before. They could not advance 

 beyond Pelly Island, where one vessel had been driven ashore 

 but had been hauled off without serious injury. No whales had 

 been seen. Point Barrow natives, whom they had established on 

 Bailey Island, had not secured any whales during the spring. 

 There seemed to be some doubt among the officers of the island 

 fleet as to whether or not the outside fleet would succeed in 

 passing the reefs, midway between the island and Point Bar- 

 row, where the ice always lies close inshore, and, it is said, does 

 not during some seasons open sufficiently to allow a vessel to 

 pass at all, although the whalers have reached Mackenzie Bay 

 each summer since 1889. During that year the United States 

 Steamship "Thetis" visited Herschel Island and examined the 

 harbors at the eastern and southern capes. Though Pauline 

 harbor is half a mile in length, the extent of good anchoring 

 ground does not exceed an area four hundred yards long by 

 three hundred wide. 



On the 8th of August signal smokes on the mainland an- 

 nounced the arrival of the Rat Indians who annually visit the 

 island with dried meat and skins. The Eskimos went to meet 

 them with a whaleboat. 



Early on the morning of August 19th a steam launch arrived, 

 which had been despatched from Return Reef, where the out- 

 side fleet had been stopped by the ice. Captain Ellis reported 

 the loss of the bark "Reindeer," which had been driven ashore 

 by the ice. He had killed three polar bears while working 

 through the ice, one of which he presented to the University of 

 Iowa. 



At 1 p. m. the first steamer hove in sight around the northern 



