378 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



But we had to start again, and I bade Jim Allen good-bye ; he 

 had got the baking powder he wanted at Blossom, had used 

 what money he had, and was returning for Point Hope, while 

 on Sunday, the 22nd, in the morning we headed for Candle. 



However, Candle was far away, nearly one hundred miles; 

 the trail was bad, the dogs worse than ever, so we could not 

 reach the place we had expected, but had to camp in the 

 shelter of some canvas, which once might have been called a 

 tent. Food we had now neither for ourselves nor for the dogs, 

 but we tightened our belts, crawled into our bags, and soon 

 were fast asleep. 



We had been confident that we would reach Candle on the 

 23rd, but before long we discovered that there was little 

 prospect of our doing so. The trail was heavy and bad as 

 usual, and the dogs half dead with fatigue and hunger. We 

 camped in a large native house, where other travellers had 

 already found shelter before us. The people who owned it had 

 left their home, containing all their belongings, with the door 

 unlocked, so that tired and exhausted travellers might rest 

 there during the holidays, and had themselves gone to Keger- 

 tavrook for Christmas. Here I had to use the five-dollar gold 

 piece of little Miss Campbell, which I had carried ever since I 

 left Victoria. The natives, who were there before us, came 

 from the south ; they had excellent food, but they also wanted 

 a good price for it, and as we were hungry we had to buy the 

 food at whatever price they asked. Upon the whole, we were 

 now made to feel that we were rapidly nearing the outposts of 

 civilization, where the courtesy of the trail was no longer law, 

 and where the natives by sad experience had learned that you 

 can get food if you have money, that the price you are willing 

 to pay depends upon how hungry you are, but that you cannot 

 get food at all if money is lacking or the fur bag empty. 



During the march of the day we had met eleven sledges 

 bound north for Kegertavrook, all full of people who were living 

 far from the Mission, and now were flocking there for Christmas, 

 to get some of the presents they knew would be there, and 

 to gossip with their friends and relatives. The Mission at 

 Blossom and Mr. and Mrs. Geary seemed well liked by the 

 natives. 



On December 24, after eight hours' travelling, we reached 



