86 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



me on the previous day. He asked me to come round to his 

 ship, and I joined them when they returned to the fleet. 



It was too hazy for Mr. Lemngwell and Dr. Howe to see the 

 signals of recall which we had hoisted on board the Duchess of 

 Bedford, and when everything was settled I availed myself of 

 Captain Hamlet's offer to let his steam launch land meat a spot 



on the outside of the sand- 

 spit, as near as possible to 

 where my comrades were. 

 On coming to the other 

 side of the sand-spit I was 

 stopped by a lagoon too 

 deep to ford, but I was 

 bound to reach Mr. Lemng- 

 well, and there was no other 

 boat at hand than a kayak. 

 I asked the owner to allow 

 me to use it, and he con- 



UMIAK AND KAYAK IN OPEN WATER. sented chiefly, I think, to 



have the pleasure of seeing 



me capsize. He went in another kayak to take his own property 

 back, but kept at a safe distance. It was a rather shaky affair ; I 

 nearly capsized several times, but managed to cross the lagoon, 

 300 or 400 yards wide. But getting ashore was worse, and 

 I tried several times in different ways. My friend sat at a 

 distance, laughing at my careful manoeuvring, and I admit that 

 I was not particularly keen upon a dip in the cold water. At 

 last I got broadside on to the beach, and as the owner now 

 thought it quite safe to approach me, he came nearer to get a 

 suitable reward for the loan. Just then the kayak slid away from 

 under me, and I grabbed at the nearest thing at hand, which 

 happened to be the Eskimo's kayak. It kept me up, but capsized 

 him. I had never before seen an angry Eskimo, but I saw one 

 shortly afterwards when he stood dripping on the beach and 

 pouring the water out of his skiff and using all the fancy words 

 which the whalers had taught him. I got wet too, but not so 

 much, and had nothing to give him but some soaked tobacco. 

 This he did not like, and on his way home, as far away as I could 

 hear him, he expressed his opinion as to white men's ability to 

 use a kayak and their lack of generosity. But I was across and 



