298 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



The wind died down again towards night, and shortly after 

 midnight we started and were carried along by a very light 

 south-east wind. From 6 A.M. we had the south-west wind 

 again, and had to track the boats round some rather large bays 

 before we camped at n A.M. It was beautiful weather, warm 

 and bright, so we lay down in the long grass and tried to sleep, 

 but while we slept the westerly wind died down, an easterly 

 wind rose, and when we woke it was blowing quite strongly. 

 Getting the boats out and starting was only a matter of a few 

 minutes, and soon we were rapidly passing bays and points, on 

 which old graves, ruined houses, or remnants of a rack were 

 proof enough that a numerous tribe of people had lived here in 

 years long since gone by. At n P.M. the wind had died down, 

 and we camped on a mudflat in the mouth of the Colville 

 River, as the current was too strong for us to row against. 



The westerly winds, on which we had not counted, had 

 blown so much in the last few days that we had been delayed, 

 and I was afraid that we might run short of food before we 

 reached Point Barrow. Mr. Stefansson, however, had become 

 so interested in some Eskimo remains which we had found that 

 he forgot about the letters he was expecting at Point Barrow 

 and told me that he would stay another year. In order to 

 save provisions we agreed to leave him, Storkersen, and 

 Sachawachick behind, while I was to go on with the umiak 

 and the rest of the party, who were all going west to join the 

 whalers. Then when I returned eastwards on board one of the 

 vessels we would pick up the three men who had been left 

 behind. Mr. Stefansson and his party required only very little 

 food, as they could shoot as many ducks as they wanted, and 

 thus we would be able to reach Point Barrow without running 

 short. 



But the next morning this arrangement, and with it my plans 

 for the coming year, were most grievously and violently frus- 

 trated. Sachawachick had taken one boat and gone ahead 

 to find a channel through the delta of the Colville River ; 

 meanwhile Storkersen had gone out with a gun to shoot 

 ducks. He did not succeed, and put the gun back in the 

 case, loaded and cocked. We embarked when Sachawachick 

 had found the channel and started for it. When we had 

 come so far that we could not miss our road, we were to say 



