THE WHITE WORLD 



pelled to remain motionless for some days in the ice, it is 

 the custom for the captains to gather together on board one 

 or another of the ships, and hold a sort of symposium, dis- 

 cussing the prospects of the season's catch. These assem- 

 blages are known as " Mollies." A bucket is hoisted at the 

 fore-royal masthead as a signal of what is to take place. 

 The meetings are most decidedly of a convivial nature, and, 

 during the conversation, large quantities of Scotch whiskey 

 and beer are consumed. 



Once or twice the whalers, notably the Arctic and the 

 Wolf, through clever manoeuvring and fortunate circum- 

 stances, got to the front, and this was more or less annoy- 

 ing to the crews of the relief ships. For we were resolved 

 that the whalers must not come in first. Finally, however, 

 feeling that there was too much at stake in the summer's 

 catch of fish to follow what was at best only problematical, 

 the whalers turned back to the southward. 



They bade us a cordial farewell, and most heartily wished 

 us Godspeed. I shall never forget the warm grasp of Cap- 

 tain Fairweather's hand, as he said in his mellow Scotch 

 accents: 



" Gude bye, Captain. We may live without fesh, but 

 those poor fellows up there must have breed. God bless 

 you! It's no use for us to go further." 



The Thetis and the Bear continued on their way. We 

 encountered many surprises, succeeding in pushing onward 

 when we expected failure, and being checked where we had 

 been confident of advancing. In many cases, we were 

 forced to come to a standstill, for it would have been sui- 

 cidal to attempt to go on. On more occasions than one 

 we received assistance from the Eskimos, whom we found 

 to be always obliging and ready to furnish us with any 

 information in their power. Further and further we pushed 

 on slowly northward. We found caches here and there, 

 and cairns were easily discoverable. 



At Saunders Island there were perhaps fifty Eskimos who 

 came off in their sleds to the ship, but they could furnish us 

 with no information as to the party we were in search of. 

 We gave them pork and bread, as well as broken oars and 

 odd pieces of wood with which to mend their kayaks. The 

 latter they seemed to crave especially, together with nails 



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