FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER 



afternoon and already by two o'clock in the morning we have 

 covered the first 94 miles to Netsilivik, where we meet our 

 comrades. 



April 7th. — Netsilivik is a little camp consisting of three 

 houses, and it is only because of the big heart of the Eskimo 

 that it is possible for us all to get a roof over our heads. We 

 are fifteen men in each house, and for the first few hours every- 

 thing is sheer confusion. The dogs are tethered on the ice 

 outside. We make camp and cook a well-deserved cup of 

 coffee on the humming Primus, whilst the dogs are fed from 

 the abundant meat stores of Netsilivik. 



A glance through the peep-holes of the small gut-skin 

 windows shows that our comrades and all their friends still lie 

 in the sweetest of slumbers. The heat in the overcrowded stone 

 house is scorching, and I therefore decide to pay a morning call 

 at Iterfiluk's house, which lies a quarter of an hour's walk away 

 from the others. Iterfiluk is a gossiping widow of fifty years 

 of age, and she is a great friend of mine. In the course of the 

 winter she has often been to Thule to make boots for the 

 members of the expedition, and she therefore receives me with 

 a shrill shout of welcome as I crawl through the passage into 

 the house ; I am only discovered at the very moment when I 

 crawl up on to her greasy stone floor. Her house also is filled 

 with travellers, and while her visitors are asleep she herself sits 

 stark naked by her lamp, like one of the holy virgins guarding 

 the lamp so that the precious light shall not be extinguished 

 during the night. For up here it is reckoned a great disgrace 

 if the guests of the house should wake up in the cold with the 

 lamps gone out. 



According to the custom of the country I also must pull off 

 my clothes and press in between Iterfiluk and one of her friends, 

 the fat Kiajuk, who wears the same paradisaical costume as the 

 hostess. I sit chatting with her for a long time, until tiredness 

 and the atmosphere of the house rob me of all strength, so that 

 I, as all the other guests have done, droop down and slip into 

 unconsciousness. 



However, we could only afford a few hours of sleep and then 



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