3Ss<iS* 



II 



FAREWELL TO THE SHIPS 



MANY days' imprisonment on board ship, 

 with enforced idleness and lack of exercise, 

 made us over eager to be away. The har- 

 bor was rugged and romantic, and its waters, calm 

 and beautiful, were dotted with thousands of water 

 fowl brant, eider ducks, gulls, looms and sea 

 pigeons. It was very attractive, and as soon as the 

 anchor was dropped Norton, Larned, the chief en- 

 gineer and myself launched our power boat and 

 spent several hours cruising around and exploring 

 our surroundings, before returning to the ship with 

 some eider ducks which we had killed and which 

 proved a very welcome addition to the ship's menu. 

 Here Norton and I left the others, took aboard 

 two Eskimos, and visited the Eskimo village on the 

 mainland. It was situated on a round, flat-topped 

 hill. The people, attired in fur clothing and with 

 long, coarse, black hair, appealed to our unaccustomed 

 eyes as very fantastic indeed. Their round, smiling 

 faces shone with grease and good nature and, reflect- 

 ing childlike simplicity, left no doubt of our welcome. 

 Nearly all of them had a store of fox skins, narwhal 

 tusks, walrus tusks and other valuable products of 



