32 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



and because I had already approached him in the attitude of one 

 who knows little and hopes to learn much, I felt reluctant about 

 explaining to Sir John my knowledge of the freshness of sea ice. 

 For one thing, it is always a delicate matter to spoil a good story 

 by taking away the point of it. However, I tried in a diffident 

 way to explain that I also had had the idea of the saltness of sea 

 ice when I first went North, but that I had learned from Eskimos 

 that it was fresh, through observing that they commonly make 

 their drinking water from it and that this drinking water is per- 

 fectly fresh to the taste. Also I suggested that if there were any 

 salt it would appear when one makes tea, for the quality of water 

 is then peculiarly apparent. We had used it for five Arctic winters, 

 I said, without ever finding any salty flavor in the tea, except 

 where we had chosen ice that had been dashed by salt spray so 

 late in the fall that the spray had frozen on the outside. Even 

 then fresh water could be secured by chipping off the outer or spray 

 layer and using the inside of the piece. 



Indeed, I don't think I got quite so far as this in my explana- 

 tion when I noticed that Sir John was not looking responsive. Some 

 interruption occurred, and he changed the topic. Evidently he 

 cared for no information from me on this subject and had no idea 

 that what I was telling him was anything more than some unsup- 

 ported heresy of mine. As we walked to our hotel I commented 

 to James Murray upon how extraordinary it was that this eminent 

 oceanographer did not know the freshness of sea ice. I took it for 

 granted that my companion agreed with me and did not realize 

 until months later that he had received my remarks in the silence 

 of disbelief. 



One day at Nome, when the Karluk was lying in the roadstead 

 loading up, I received a written request on behalf of the scientific 

 staff to meet them at a certain hour to discuss the equipment of 

 the Karluk. I thought at first it was the scientific equipment they 

 wanted to discuss, and it seemed to me rather late in the day, 

 since nothing of that sort could very well be purchased at Nome. 

 It turned out that what they had on their minds was the water 

 tanks of the ship. They pointed out to me that on the voyage from 

 Victoria to Nome, while they had not actually gone short of fresh 

 water, they had been obliged to be very careful with it. They 

 had had enough, for instance, to wash their faces with, but had 

 been compelled to take their baths exclusively with salt water. 

 If the voyage had been a little longer they would have had to 

 wash even their faces and hands in salt water, reserving the fresh 



