ADRIFT ON THE ICE 173 



could ride, the Eskimos invariably slept on the 

 sledges, and told me they rested as well at these times 

 as in an igloo. I tried to adopt this plan, but the 

 best I could do under such conditions was to catch 

 momentary dozes that were little better than no rest 

 at all. 



In their own country the Eskimos have a white 

 man "stung to death" from every point of view. 

 They not only can go to sleep promptly, but sleep 

 soundly and well as they travel, when circumstances 

 permit. They get sustenance, too, by eating hard 

 frozen raw walrus and seal meat or blubber. This I 

 could never learn to do. Walrus and seal meat are 

 so strong in flavor that attempts to eat either raw 

 invariably nauseated me, though I succeeded very 

 well with raw hare, deer's meat or ptarmigan, when 

 I had it. 



Perhaps, too, the Eskimo's physical make-up has 

 something to do with his truly remarkable powers 

 of endurance. He is more stockily built, with pro- 

 portionately longer body and shorter legs than the 

 white man, and this doubtless aids in giving him a 

 physique to withstand the long and almost constant 

 strains of hardship and privation which he is called 

 upon to endure. Tireless and active in work, he 

 will travel for days at a time with no other rest than 

 the little that he can snatch at brief intervals on his 

 sledge, and usually while traveling he is called upon 

 to perform the hardest physical labor. And while 

 it is true he will consume great quantities of animal 

 flesh in times of plenty, when conditions require it 



