APPENDIX II 



(THE following extracts from letters written by Mr. Leffingwell to his 

 father in Illinois relate to details of the expedition which are not so fully 

 given in my diary. E. MlKKELSEN.) 



It was late September 17 when we arrived at Flaxman Island, and 

 navigation might close at any time. The place seemed very desirable, 

 especially as there were two native families on the island from whom we 

 could get game and furs. These people have been a great blessing in many 

 ways, and we have never regretted coming here : Sachawachick, wife and 

 two sons ; Uxra, wife and baby, are their names. The former is a very 

 high type, and has generously given up his whole year to us, hunting seal 

 for our dog-feed all the winter in the worst weather. 



Shortly after we were settled at the island, Captain Mikkelsen and our 

 Dr. Howe went off cariboo hunting with Uxra, but got only a couple. In 

 the meantime I got ready for a trip to Herschel Island, to send out my 

 mail. On account of many gales ice did not form until October 15, and 

 immediately Mate Storkersen and I set out for the island with five dogs, 

 provisioned for six weeks, as we had only two hundred miles of coastway. 

 The ice was very thin at first, so we had to keep close to the shore. When 

 we reached Collingson Point, in Camden Bay, we were blocked by open 

 water for eight days. Luckily we met Erie at the same place, en route for 

 Point Barrow, on account of scarcity of provisions. The whalers were all 

 frozen in the year before, and only one came east. Erie had his native 

 wife, two sons, seventeen and fifteen years, and two children, six and three 

 years old. Then for the first time we saw how comfortably a man could live 

 in this country, if he only knew how. In the year at Franz Joseph Land I 

 learned practically nothing, but after a year here I feel that I have learned 

 a great deal ; so that camping need not be a hardship, even in the severest 

 weather. 



While we were there, his boys made a trip out after cariboo, meat and 

 brought in a sled-load, so we lived on the fat of the land. The squaw did 

 all the work and we boys loafed. Surely, a fine life ! " Everybody works 

 but father ! " 



When the, ice formed Storkersen and I pushed on, stopping one day 

 at Erie's cabin, near Barter Island. Later we were held back by deep, 

 soft snow during a calm spell, and we prayed for the wind to come and pack 

 the snow. The wind came, and we had fine going, but too much wind for 

 comfort. Just opposite Herschel we were held for two days by a violent 

 gale, one of the worst of the year. We never expected our tent to stand, 

 although we built a wind-break of hard snowblocks. These were rapidly 



