WINTER QUARTERS 101 



the animal, took out the stomach, cut the body into pieces, 

 strapped the meat on our backs, and made for home. Luckily 

 we met Dr. Howe, who had gone in another direction, and he 

 took part of the burden. Nevertheless we were exceedingly 

 tired, for walking about ten miles over frozen grass and slippery 

 ice in thin kamicks with no heels, and 45 Ibs. on one's back, is 

 certainly no easy task. 



Next morning we took to our boat again, as Uxra wanted to 

 hunt in a valley closer to the mountains and a little further to 

 the east. It was only a short distance away, and we went out 

 hunting the same day. Dr. Howe and Uxra went together 

 while I strolled out to a sand-spit, Collingson's Point, where I 

 could see numerous Eskimo houses in ruins. 



Captain Collingson, H.M.S. Enterprise, wintered behind the 

 point, in 1853-54, being caught on the way back to civilization. 

 Among other trips he endeavoured to make a sledge expedition 

 north over the ice from his ship. The ice, however, was so 

 rough and broken that he had to abandon his project. 



Besides the ruins of Eskimo houses, there was a hut built by 

 white men. The builders were a couple of miners who had 

 come up to the coast of the Arctic ocean to look for gold. They 

 had spent one year in the place, then they had left the country, 

 like many a miner before them, poorer by some thousands of 

 dollars, but very much richer in experience. 



An immense amount of driftwood was scattered all over the 

 sand-spit, and, judging by the number of ruins, the village 

 must at one time have been pretty large. 



It was to this place that the enterprising Eskimo traders from 

 Point Barrow formerly went in large numbers during the spring 

 season to trade with the people who in those days inhabited 

 the country. Trading at that time was a dangerous occupation, 

 as the knife was always ready to settle points of dispute. The 

 people from the west left their women and children behind at 

 Flaxman Island when they went to meet the Kokmoliks (the 

 Eskimo word for " people living to the east "), and the men 

 never returned without leaving one or more of their number 

 behind them. It often happened that a whole umiak crew was 

 surprised and killed while asleep, their trade goods stolen, and 

 the umiak spoiled. But as dangerous as the occupation was, 

 it suited the Eskimos of former days, and they were willing to 



