THE WHITE WORLD 



was clean, being kept so with sand. In this one room 

 lived, perhaps, three families, men, women, and children, 

 eight or nine in all. 



One of our pleasantest recollections is of our trip to 

 Bluefields to obtain speciments of the Nordenskjold iron. 

 We went in a whaleboat with a crew of six Eskimo, and 

 camped out at night in our tent to wait for the tide to be 

 favorable. On the way the crew shot a good many birds, 

 which we cooked for supper. The Eskimo felt the cold 

 that night, their old skin tupic was so thin, but we were 

 in a new canvas tent with an oil stove burning. How those 

 people did admire that oil stove, it was so " assuit " (quick) 

 — almost as much as the women admired a large pink satin 

 muffler that I wore. I imagine I could have bought the 

 island with it had I consented to trade. After obtaining 

 several good speciments, we were returning home, when 

 I felt cold for the first time since leaving the ship, and Mr. 

 Lee made me put on his fur coat. When we got near 

 enough to be seen, the natives all began shouting to the 

 crew. It seems, they thought from the hood and coat I 

 wore, that I must be a Cape York Eskimo, and the crew 

 kept up the joke. The natives are always ready to laugh, 

 and have a great deal of humor. As we drew nearer, I 

 stood up and waved my hand. Upon recognizing me, they 

 laughed with glee over their mistake. 



Another pleasant trip was a climb up the mountain to the 

 ice-cap. We started early one morning, carrying just as 

 little provision as possible, and wearing our kamiks; while 

 I wore for the first and only time a bloomer costume, the 

 only comfortable dress for such climbing. The mountain 

 was 2600 feet high, and the ascent most difficult on account 

 of the soft moss on its slope that gives no foothold. At 

 noon we were half-way up, so we rested and lunched in 

 a little rocky glen by a waterfall. I was pretty nearly 

 exhausted then, and, when about three-quarters of the way 

 up, declared I could not go another step either up or down. 

 After resting for a while, though Mr. Lee urged me to 

 return, I was bound to reach the top, as Mrs. Peary had 

 done several years before, and started on again slowly, Mr. 

 Lee carefully picking the way. Soon I got my second wind, 

 and easily gained the top, and stood on the ice-cap. Sud- 



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