WINTER QUARTERS in 



early morning till late at night I was alone, doing odd jobs to 

 pass the time. Now and then some Eskimos would come 

 over, bringing a couple of seals, some deer meat, or some piece 

 of manufactured skin for sale. Douglamana arrived the day 

 after the party had started and brought two large seals as dog- 

 feed and several seal livers for our own table. The seal livers 

 are really very palatable, and we ate all we could get with great 

 relish. Throughout the winter we got most of the livers from 

 the seals caught by the natives, and that although they them- 

 selves liked them very much. 



Besides the livers she brought a parkey of mountain sheep- 

 skins, a splendid kind of fur for clothing and sleeping bags, as 

 it is warm and light. The woman was sewing it for her 

 husband when I came and saw it, and we soon came to terms. 

 I gave a large Colt revolver for it and all the cartridges I had, 

 which, however, were only fifty. Some days later a man 

 happened to come along with a new teapot, and Sachawachick 

 liked it so much that he exchanged the revolver for the pot, thus 

 getting a value of 50 cents for $25 ! 



Douglamana was always busy. As soon as she came down 

 into the cabin she at once started cleaning things up, and if she 

 found some piece of wearing apparel which needed repairing, 

 she asked for a needle and thread and went to work. She 

 sewed very well and could get through an astonishing amount 

 of work. She never got any payment for what she sewed on 

 board, except the needle she used, and some food if she 

 happened to be in the cabin when the meal was served. 

 Usually, however, the Eskimos all managed to be about at meal 

 hours, and came in the early morning so as to be sure to catch 

 at least one. Later on they found out how the sun stood over 

 the mountains at lunch, and throughout the winter one or 

 usually more of the natives happened to appear just in time to 

 get a bite of lunch, and looked as if they were highly surprised 

 to see us eating, though we knew that they had been watching 

 the sun for the last hour. 



We fixed up a tide staff alongside the ship to take direct read- 

 ings, and later we built a large ice hut over the hole. The tidal 

 observations were continued without a break until January i, 

 and were taken every hour, night as well as day. Flood or ebb 

 readings were taken every ten minutes, for one hour before till 



