158 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



It did not take a great while to hoist the seven wah'us 

 overboard, all made fast to a long line of Carbondale's. 

 Then the men from the whole village tallied on and 

 hauled the mass gradually in to the beach. Even a little 

 boy joined m the labor. Great excitement and rejoicing 

 attended the arrival of so much valuable meat, for 

 Carbondale said they were often on the edge of starva- 

 tion and ten walrus would keep this village over a winter. 

 Often he had to stake needy neighbors out of his store 

 and do what he could for the sick. When food ran out 

 they would borrow from the Chukchi at Welen and the 

 Eskimo at East Cape (Nuotan). All events for years to 

 come would date ''from the day when the ship brought 

 the seven w^alrus." Elting gave him medicine for his 

 woman and for a neighbor who had severe rheumatism, 

 as well as a small stock for future emergencies, and won 

 his deep gratitude, for he seemed to sj^mpathize keenly 

 with the natives among whom he had cast his fortune. 



"It must be a fine place to live in," I ventured. 



''Oh, God! I'd get out if I could," he answered. 

 "I've been here eleven years, only going out once, to 

 Japan and Kamchatka, and I'm not the man I was when 

 I came. Then I weighed one hundred and ninety 

 pounds, now one hundred and sixty. The winters are 

 fearful; the wind seems never to stop blowing, and 

 though it's only about 30° F. below zero the cold is 

 terrific. I've seen eighteen days in succession when you 

 could not make the hundred yards from my house to the 

 beach." 



TMiile I bargained for a skin vest, a model igloo and 

 umiak, one of the two Russians who lived in the post 

 asked me to look at a machine which was out of order. 

 Collins and Lovering came too. It was a lathe, made of 



