286 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



up the house, building caches, and extending our ice-house, 

 which we have dug out in the glacial ice of the island. Mr. 

 Stefansson has got a man to help him to dig out ethnographical 

 specimens, of which he is getting quite a large amount, but 

 when night comes, and work is put aside, the reports of guns 

 sound from every part of the island, the ducks fly up from the 



BREAKING UP THE " DUCHESS OF BEDFORD." 



water where they are feeding, scared and bewildered, while all 

 the men are trying to outshine each other in the trophies they 

 are bringing home from their evening's sport, a welcome addition 

 to our meat supply. 



On May 28 we were unable to cross to the mainland on the 

 ice, as it had broken up in the middle of the sound. From the 

 mast which w r e have raised behind our house we can see open 

 water everywhere, and in the sound as well as seaward there are 

 large patches of open water, where the seals are continually 

 appearing and disappearing. 



On May 30 we had to go over to the mainland for the Doctor 

 and some natives, and on this occasion we used our boat for 

 the first time that summer. Dr. Howe brought back five saddles 

 of meat, told me that there was much more left, and that the 

 natives would be down at the coast in a few days. 



We had a very dreary time after we were confined to our 

 island, and until we could go out in the boats a period of solitude 

 followed, which was only now and then enlivened by a native 



