142 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



in addition to boxes of provisions, and in bright 

 moonlight and dead calm began our march back to 

 Annootok. 



We were not far on our way when the ever rest- 

 less wind began to rise, attended by drifting snow. 

 Steadily the wind increased and thicker grew the 

 drift. To make matters worse, I stepped into a hole 

 shortly after starting, and so badly sprained a knee 

 that I thought I should have to return to Etah. 

 Oxpuddyshou, however, took two bags of coal off his 

 komatik, cached them, and thus made room for me 

 to ride. With heavily loaded sledges, traveling was 

 proportionately harder than on the outward trip, and 

 so much slower that twenty-two hours elapsed before 

 Annootok and the shack, which had grown to seem 

 like home to me now, finally loomed up in the moon- 

 light. 



My knee was badly swollen and exceedingly pain- 

 ful. I rubbed it at once with liniment, while a ket- 

 tle of water was heating, and then, wetting towels in 

 the hot water, wrapped them around it. Two days 

 of this treatment eliminated the pain and reduced the 

 swelling considerably, though not altogether. 



Now I noticed that my hair was coming out in 

 great bunches. This was doubtless due to wearing 

 the kuletar hood so continuously. The skin hood cov- 

 ering the head completely precludes air circulation, 

 and I presume loss of hair was to have been expected, 

 though, so far as I observed, the Eskimos are not af- 

 fected in this way. With baldness apparently ap- 



