228 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA 



Why, my dear fellow, everything interested me. Every 

 day brought something new and strange. I believe I could 

 write volumes about the magnificent scenery of Greenland 

 and its wonderful system of glaciers and fiords ; about the 

 funny little women with divided skirts, their heads adorned 

 with red and blue and green ribbons and crowned with a 

 Psyche knot, while perhaps a little bright-eyed baby cooed 

 from the golf hood on the back of its mother ; about the kay- 

 akers and their remarkable kayaks, how they would glide over 

 the stormy sea where no white man dared venture, and how 

 they would roll over and over, now in the water and now out, 

 wetting only their hands and face. And their harpoons ! 

 how ingeniously they were made, as well as their weapons for 

 capturing the seal, walrus, and other game — but why write 

 more ? Every day was full of interest, from the rising of the 

 sun to the going down thereof. Only yesterday a man said 

 to me, " I never heard of any one who went in the vicinity of 

 the North Pole who didn't want to go again, and you are an- 

 other of those Arctic cranks. I don't understand it.'' Well, 

 we do ; we've been there. 



I cannot close without a word of praise for good Captain 

 Dixon and his crew, who came to our rescue when in dire dis- 

 tress, and, with great pecuniary loss and inconvenience, took 

 us to a place of safety. They are a good type of the New 

 England fishermen — brave, venturesome, kind-hearted, and 

 ever ready to help the unfortunate. May God bless each one 

 of them with a long and happy life. 



B. C. JiLLSOK. 



