202 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



have been used by the man who goes ahead and picks trail, for he 

 alone has to use his eyes continually upon the white surface. The 

 men who walk at the sleds to prevent them from upsetting are 

 able to keep their eyes on its dark cover or upon the dogs. 



Another preventive is the Eskimo type of wooden protectors. 

 This may be of a variety of designs, but the essential feature is 

 always the same. The light is admitted to the eye through a nar- 

 row slit. The disadvantage is that you have only a limited field 

 of vision — you cannot without stooping forward see what is imme- 

 diately at your feet. For picking trail you must keep your eyes 

 well up, so as to see that portion of the road which is several yards 

 in advance, and when you do this you are liable to stumble, not 

 having within your field of vision the unevennesses closer at hand. 

 These Eskimo goggles have the advantage over regular goggles or 

 spectacles that glass, when it is kept near the eye, will hoarfrost 

 from eye moisture and from the moisture of the face, especially 

 if one perspires. This frosting is not a serious annoyance on a 

 windy day, especially if one keeps the face sidewise to the wind, 

 but on a calm, frosty day the glasses keep frosting continually 

 and if one travels fast enough or works hard enough to perspire 

 they cannot be worn at all. 



It has always been my plan to remain in camp when any one 

 was snowblind, both because I realized the intense suffering of 

 traveling under such conditions and because recovery is always 

 quicker under proper care. But as we lost most of our amber 

 glasses on the Karluk and never afterwards had enough to go 

 around, we lost in five years several weeks of good traveling time 

 through snowblindness. 



When we resumed travel on May 18th we saw seals in every 

 lead we passed. It almost seemed as if they had been keeping out 

 of sight to worry us, for now they were as numerous as I have 

 ever seen them in any waters. 



A minor misfortune to reckon with was Ole's rather too cautious 

 temperament. He was as optimistic as any one when there was 

 real need, but now when seals were all about us and when I thought 

 that with so many in one lead there were pretty sure to be some in 

 the next, he would remind us how we had traveled for days with- 

 out seeing seals and how we might get into another such district 

 at any time. Whenever a seal appeared particularly close or in a 

 position easy to approach, Ole used to say, 'T think we'd better 

 get that one and make sure of him." We lost many an hour in 

 killing and picking up a seal, and presently found ourselves 



