42 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



the rail making way along the deck a few yards, to the 

 saloon door, one grasped this and pulled it open. Care- 

 fully choosing the right moment one made his spring 

 into the dining saloon and pulled the door to after him 

 with a bang. 



The dining saloon was about fifteen feet long by 

 eight feet wide. Forward on the port side a door opened 

 into the captain's cabin, and on the starboard side a 

 door into the galley. From the latter issued forth the 

 dishes and the perfumes thereof, convoyed by the cabin 

 boy, a young Eskimo. Down the two or three steps 

 into the galley we could catch occasional glimpses of 

 the Japanese cook, who in all kinds of weather managed 

 to have a meal ready at the proper hour. An ingenious 

 system of wires strung across the top of the stove kept 

 the pots and pans in their places and prevented any 

 wholesale destruction of food even in a severe storm. 

 Under his ministration we never lost more than one or 

 two dishes at any one time. The crew and the Eskimos 

 lived in the forecastle in the extreme bow of the ship, 

 and ate their meals somewhere there. All the rest of 

 us, passengers and officers, dined at one mess in the 

 saloon. 



The full sitting of the mess was twelve souls, packed 

 around an oblong table, close to one side of the saloon. 

 Between this and the wall five of us sat on a narrow 

 wooden bench. At one end of the table Ed Born, the 

 o^\Tier and engineer of the ''Abler," had his accustomed 

 seat on a little, old iron safe. 



Ed Born was a powerfully built man, with a hand- 

 some Roman face, black hair, and a good-natured smile. 

 He was full of humor and enjoyed a joke, even if it was 

 on himself. As owner of the ship he might have taken 



