POLAR HOSPITALS 



tember 10, we abandoned the steam-launch and one of the 

 boats; on September 12, another boat was abandoned, and 

 we tried to reach Cape Sabine over the ice, carrying our 

 last boat on the sledge. The little dingey having been 

 previously cut up and used for fuel. But the next day a 

 strong wind broke up the ice, and we drifted into Smith 

 Sound on the floe upon which we were encamped. We 



From a painting by Albert Operti 

 ESKIMO SUMMER HOME 



were now on short rations, but supplemented this some- 

 what by the addition of seal meat and blubber from a few 

 seals which we were fortunate enough to kill. The water 

 obtained from the paleocrystic floe was very brackish, and 

 as our salt was all gone, we used seawater for stewing our 

 seal meat. This, together with the fatty seal-blubber, 

 caused a great deal of diarrhoea, and the little opium we 

 had taken along was fast nearing exhaustion. 



We drifted about on this floe, sometimes north, some- 

 times south, until September 29, when a providential high 



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