THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 313 



some of which was used for "blood soup" * for ourselves and some 

 for the dogs. Perhaps the "live weight" of the animal was towards 

 300 pounds, but it is probable the seals killed by us throughout the 

 year would average under 150 pounds. That depends on whether 

 we count the occasional bearded seals {erignathus barbatus). 

 These run up to 800 pounds each, and a few of them bring up the 

 average handsomely. 



The evening of June 13th we camped on a grassy island shaped 

 like a huge comma — huge only as a comma, not as an island, for 

 it was only a mile across. We felt pretty sure that our survey 

 had now begun to overlap McClintock's. We had been working 

 in thick weather much of the time. So had he, as can be seen 

 from the following quotation which, so far as concerns descrip- 

 tion of land, ice and weather, might have served as an entry in 

 our own diaries. He wrote it sixty-two years before at just about 

 the spot where we were now: 



"16th June. Saw two other small islands and encamped inside the 

 second one, on a small sand-heap at half-past five o'clock. Appearances 

 were against us when we commenced this march, the dark threatening 

 weather, high contrary wind with falling snow, sand heaps in all direc- 

 tions, and driving banks of fog, so that the land could seldom be seen ; 

 and the snow-covered land too, showed only as a low streak of bright 

 white, with the top of an occasional bare ridge appearing through it at 

 long intervals like a dark horizontal line. At our last encampment this 

 decided land was about 1 mile within us, whilst the sand-heaps extended 

 nearly IV2 mile outside of us. Almost all this march has been over flat 

 sand-banks covered with soft but level snow. A continuous line of very 



* Blood soup is a dish, the preparation of which we learned from the 

 Eskimos. It is made after the boiling of any sort of meat, and Eskimos 

 usually consider that the blood used should be of the same sort of animal 

 as the meat boiled, although I have known seal's blood to be used with 

 caribou broth. The preparation is as follows: When the meat has been 

 sufficiently cooked it is removed from the pot which is still hanging over the 

 fire. Blood is then poured slowly into the boilmg broth with brisk stirring 

 the while. In winter small chunks of frozen blood dropped in one after the 

 other take the place of the liquid blood poured in summer. If the tempera- 

 ture of the soup is too much reduced the pot is allowed to hang over the 

 fire until it comes nearly to a boil again, but not quite. Stirring must con- 

 tinue while the soup is over the fire. The consistency of the prepared dish 

 should be about that of "English pea soup." Among Eskimos it was for- 

 merly drunk from horn dippers — the horn of ovibos being used in the east 

 and those of the mountain sheep in Alaska. Nowadays tin or other cups 

 are used and sometimes spoons. Small pieces of caribou or other suet 

 may be added; if seal's fat is the only kind available, a little uncooked oil 

 is added just before serving. Soup, among such Eskimos as I know, is not 

 served nearly so hot as among us; we would consider lukewarm what they 

 call hot. 



