330 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



Douglamana was there, working hard at the red-hot stove. 

 Like everybody else, she had given us up for lost, and her joy at 

 our return was great. But her duties as an Eskimo wife were 

 to get some hot food ready for her returning husband, and she 

 did not even come out to see us land. 



Nor was there any boisterous greeting of the husband when 

 we crawled into the cosy igloo only a happy nod for me and a 

 searching look at Sachawachick, to see whether he had suffered ; 

 then, immediately remembering that she had a white man as 

 her guest, she shook hands with us hurriedly, laughed, and 

 went to work again on " flapjacks " and tea. But undemon- 

 strative as her reception was, I saw in a corner of the house 

 ample evidence of days and nights spent in anxiety for the safety 

 of her lord and master, evidence which she tried to hide and 

 consisting of some more or less finished clothes which she had 

 made in order to face -the cold when she went to look for us; 

 this she had intended to do as soon as the ice would bear. 



Hipana was quite well again, and Mr. Lemngwell's fame as 

 a doctor was established, although he had not been able to 

 save a child which had been brought to him by the parents 

 and which had died after great suffering. The chin of the 

 poor little thing had been eaten away by a kind of canker ; 

 the lower jaw was eaten through, the teeth fell out, and for 

 days she had not been able to eat. Her parents, a young 

 couple, Alegok and Anneksine, had come hurrying down to our 

 house from Sadlerochil River, almost worried out of their minds, 

 carrying their dying firstborn. Mr. Leffingwell had done all he 

 could, but to no purpose, and the child died two days after their 

 arrival. As soon as the child was dead the bereaved parents 

 became calmer ; only now and then they would talk of their 

 baby, and once when they saw a calendar of Mr. LefBngwell's, 

 with a picture of angels and the crucified Christ, they looked at 

 it long and earnestly, and were very happy when they got it, 

 for their child was there, they told us, in warmth, in health, 

 in happiness, and surrounded by all sorts of good things 

 to eat. 



There were many natives on Flaxman Island, and they were 

 all more or less dependent upon us. The hunt on the Koogoora 

 had failed and the people who had been there had returned. 

 Hungry, almost starving, they had reached our island, and 



