252 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



bigger and fatter than the others. A northern hunter finds it hard 

 to let go any opportunity for securing fat, and I accordingly killed 

 this bull. I skinned it and got a slab of back fat weighing 

 over forty pounds, which was at least ten pounds more than a bull 

 of the same size would have had in the best hunting country known 

 to me on the mainland at the same time of year. The reason prob- 

 ably was in the cool weather and in the fewness of mosquitoes, for 

 although the feed is excellent in Banks Island, it can scarcely be 

 considered better than on the mainland in certain places. 



So it was evident that the caribou had not found this summer 

 in Banks Island disagreeable. Neither had we, although a south- 

 ern reader might infer the contrary from a glance at our meteoro- 

 logical record. July 3rd, it says: "Sky overcast, snowing all day, 

 temperature plus 28° to plus 32°." In another place it says that 

 a slight amount of ice formed every night during the first half of 

 July. We liked this weather for many reasons; one being that it 

 kept down the mosquitoes. The chief reason was, however, doubt- 

 less subjective. 



This was the typical weather of the arctic fall, although in a 

 sense unseasonable in July. When an Iowa farmer speaks of 

 "beautiful hot weather," he really means it, although if he were 

 to analyze his feelings he might realize that half the pleasure he 

 feels in the heat is in the thought that it is ripening his corn and 

 fattening his pocketbook. An equally hot day may not please a 

 North Dakota farmer so well, for he remembers that the ground 

 is dry and his wheat is withering. And just as the heat ripens the 

 corn, so does the cold July wind from the ice-covered sea fatten 

 the caribou, or what amounts to the same thing, keep down the 

 mosquitoes which would keep him from fattening. So also do we 

 like that same cold wind. 



But in his exuberance of good health it is difficult for the arctic 

 hunter to feel anything but pleasure in almost any kind of weather 

 or almost any circumstance. I suppose what I am trying to ex- 

 plain is about what the Biblical writer had in mind when he 

 spoke of a strong man rejoicing to run a race. You may find in some 

 volume of the scientific report of our expedition that during a cer- 

 tain summer it snowed in every week but you should not infer it 

 was bad weather in the sense that it made us uncomfortable. And 

 it would not have made any one else uncomfortable either, if he had 

 been dressed and housed and fed as we w^ere, with the same years of 

 training and experience behind him, the same sound health and the 

 same infatuation with the work. 



