AT ANNOOTOK 47 



meet and combat Nature in this her most desolate 

 habitation, I felt some uncertainty of the wisdom of 

 my step. I climbed a hill that rises behind the shack 

 at Etah, and sat down to think. 



Was I sorry or not that I had thus suddenly re- 

 nounced present-day civilization for an indefinite 

 period, and taken up instead the primitive life of 

 the northernmost Eskimo? It was too late now to 

 turn back and I made up my mind to make the most 

 of the adventures and experiences that my new sur- 

 roundings should offer. Upon consideration indeed 

 I was very glad I had remained. I looked about me 

 and viewed with delight the mighty expanse of 

 Arctic wilderness spread at my feet, austere and 

 rugged, but yet possessing a beauty and a grandeur 

 born of its very desolation, and distinctively its own. 

 And it was an impressive and fascinating thought 

 that here lay a region thousands upon thousands of 

 square miles in extent, unpeopled save by the hand- 

 ful of natives who were to be my companions, and 

 by the wild beasts we were to hunt and must to some 

 extent depend upon for our living. In these wilds 

 primeval I too would be an Eskimo and adopt the 

 Eskimo life, which is as free from convention as any- 

 thing the imagination can picture! 



And so I entered upon the life with a lightness of 

 heart and freedom from care that was exalting. My 

 reasoning led me into a frame of mind that bred con- 

 tentment, and my first sleep in the shack at Etah, 

 wrapped in a primitive bed of musk-ox skins, was 

 as sound and peaceful as a child's. 



