ON HERSCHEL AND FLAXMAN ISLANDS 325 



the flames would begin to reach her. And I almost saw the 

 old pagan himself, not bound, but perfectly free, crawling on to 

 the fire, sitting down, and watching the agony of his girl until 

 he himself succumbed to the fearful death. 



We slept well all night and were off early in the morning, 

 but we reached the Hula-Hula River without seeing any signs 

 of the Eskimos. We did not like the idea of crossing it, but 

 we had been lured on and on by our hopes of meeting the 

 natives we were looking for, and as we were short of food, we 

 had to go over to Ned's house to get some more. We stripped 

 entirely for the deeper places, and, carrying our packs and 

 clothes on our heads, we walked naked through the icy water. 

 I had never realized that anything could be so cold as this 

 water ; it made our limbs stiff, and the pain in my bones almost 

 brought the tears to my eyes. Beside me was poor old " Dad " 

 swimming with pack and all. At last, on September 14, we 

 reached Ned's house, but there was no one at home, and we 

 made ourselves comfortable in the only room, though the smoke 

 from the stove would almost have been strong enough to drive 

 us out of doors if the weather had not been so very cold. As 

 it was, we buried our heads in some furs on the bed and let the 

 stove smoke. 



Several new people had settled down in the neighbourhood 

 since I was last there. Captain Tilton had landed -a man, John 

 Grubben, with his squaw, and they had built a house, which, by 

 the way, was rather a splendid one for that part of the country. 

 Dan Sweeney and Axel Anderson, a young Swede who had 

 entered into partnership with him, had done the same, though 

 their abode was far from being as splendid as John's ; and a 

 native from Point Barrow, Kronoloolo, had likewise built a 

 house. But no one was at home, and at last we went out to 

 find out what had happened to all the people. We found 

 numerous footprints of natives and dogs leading up the river, 

 and next morning we followed them. It took us two days of 

 hard packing before we reached the tents, which had been 

 pitched on a small island in the middle of Hula-Hula River, 

 about fifty miles inland. It was high time, indeed, to find them, 

 as my boots were entirely worn out, my stockings burned to 

 pieces, and we had nothing to eat. 



Ned did not know anything of Ujarajak's movements, but he 



