CHAPTER XXVII 



THE AUTUMN HUNT IN BANKS ISLAND, 1914 



DOUBTLESS the average man turns to polar narratives, 

 when he turns to them at all, with the desire and expecta- 

 tion of reading about suffering, heroic perseverance against 

 formidable odds, and tragedy either actual or narrowly averted. 

 Perhaps, then, it is partly the law of supply and demand that 

 accounts for the general tenor of arctic books. However that may 

 be, my main interest in the story I am telling is to "get across" to 

 the reader the idea that if you are of ordinary health and strength, 

 if you are young enough to be adaptable and independent enough 

 to shake off the influence of books and belief, you can find good 

 reason to be as content and comfortable in the North as anywhere 

 on earth. An example to me is the fall of 1914, to which I fre- 

 quently look back as a time I wish I might live over again. 



To begin with, we had that all-important thing, an object for 

 which to work. The Sachs had brought the news that the Karluk 

 had been wrecked near Wrangel Island, that the main resources 

 of our expedition had sunk or had been diverted beyond our reach. 

 But it was up to us to make good in spite of that. I confess the 

 idea of a large expedition had had in it for me less of challenge 

 than the new conditions imposed. When you have under you many 

 officials and more subordinates of a lower rank, it is with a com- 

 mander largely a case of issuing orders, an easy but uninteresting 

 w^ay of bringing anything about. Now, with most of our best men 

 and resources gone, it had become a matter of individual prowess. 

 We had to show that by adapting ourselves unaided to local con- 

 ditions a few could do the work of many. 



The first point was that, although the Sachs had brought a 

 certain amount of food, this wouldn't have been enough even for 

 one winter if men and dogs had subsisted entirely on the cargo. 

 Furthermore, as polar expeditions have proved from the earliest 

 times down to Scott, living on ship's food brings danger of scurvy. 

 We did not have dozens of competent and locally familiar Eskimo 

 hunters as Peary did to send out here and there for meat of walrus 



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