124 VIKINGS OF TO-DA Y 



Landing on a low island as we passed north, we 

 found the eider-duck nesting in considerable numbers, 

 while in the little pools among the rocks were young 

 ducks and young gulls in numbers. Of the latter 

 we caught several for our stew-pot. We steamed 

 thence fifteen miles to Boulter's Rock Harbour by a 

 long narrow channel inside two enormous islands, 

 the passage being known as Squasho Run. Fog 

 succeeded fog all along this part of the coast, and it 

 was only by the help of volunteer local pilots we 

 succeeded in finding many of the harbours. 



One dark night, unable to find our way further, 

 we dropped our anchor inside some outlying islands 

 called Seal Islands. It seemed to us that we had 

 hardly got straight and settled down for the night's 

 rest before we heard a boat bumping against our 

 side. In such a lonely place, and in a thick drizzly 

 fog at night, a superstitious person might well have 

 started. Soon we heard the soft tread of a mocassin 

 over the half-inch boarding which, covered with 

 painted canvas, served us as a roof ; then a bustling 

 at the hatchway door, and soon the broad face of a 

 half-breed Eskimo peered into the cabin. It appeared 

 he had a very sick daughter at his hut on the island, 

 near which no doctor ever went. He had heard of 

 the Princess May being about ; and seeing our cabin 

 lights shining as he chanced to pass in his boat 

 homewards, he had come in search of assistance. 

 Soon, swathed in oilskins, I was sitting in the stern 

 of his boat, while he swiftly rowed away into the 



