3i8 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



until the body is removed to the coffin. And the next day a 

 small procession of Eskimos would wind their way along the 

 well-trodden path to their burial ground, place the coffin on the 

 ground, while an eloquent Eskimo spoke in glorification of the 

 deceased, a " home-made " prayer was said, and then the pro- 

 cession would go back to their potfuls of meat, their dances 

 and songs, and to more death. 



Sergeant Fitzgerald was very good to the sick, but, as none 

 of us knew what the ailment was, it was rather hard to do any- 

 thing, the more so as the detachment had no medicine what- 

 ever. I offered to send for Dr. Howe if the Eskimos would 

 place boat and crew at his disposal, and even to give them food 

 enough for the journey, but however greatly the sick needed 

 attention, those who were sound and well had something better 

 and more amusing to do than to sail about four hundred miles 

 for a doctor. And so Dr. Howe was not sent for, planks 

 continued to be in request, saw and hammer were still kept 

 busy, and when during the night we were sometimes aroused 

 by the carpenters at work we knew that some poor Eskimo had 

 left this world and gone to the happy hunting-grounds. 



Steamers now and then called at the harbour, and towards 

 the end of August they came two or three at a time. The 

 S.S. Jeanette was particularly welcome, as she had provisions to 

 the value of several thousand dollars on board provisions 

 which were due to the natives as payment for the meat they 

 had sold to the vessels during the winter of 1905-6, when 

 many ships were caught unawares without sufficient food to 

 get through the winter. The Eskimos were very well treated 

 by Captain Hoffman, the master of the Jeanette, and got the 

 food at a very reasonable price. 



I made arrangements with Captain Leavett, S.S. Narwhal, to 

 stop at Flaxman Island and take the crew on board, and as we 

 had a good deal of provisions at Herschel Island, I likewise 

 made arrangements with him to take them on board and land 

 them at our house together with the dogs which I had bought. 

 Captain Leavett promised to do so and left the island on 

 August 26. 1 would have liked to go with him, but Captain 

 Tilton, S.S. Herman, had bought some dogs for me at Cape 

 Bathurst, and I wanted to get those and afterwards to settle 

 with him. On August 28 the harbour was empty and the 



