406 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



their hands as often as ten times per day, but it seemed to us that 

 attempting to restrict this was rather more disagreeable than en- 

 during the damp. Personally I never interfered at all, for had the 

 majority preferred a dry house with dry heat to a dripping house 

 filled with steam, this end could easily have been attained. But 

 the damp discomfort of the base camp furnished me another argu- 

 ment for keeping to the dry and comfortable snowhouse camps we 

 use when traveling and hunting. Except the winter 1911-12 when I 

 was devoting myself to Eskimo linguistics exclusively, I have on 

 none of my expeditions spent more than the least possible time at 

 winter base camps. 



By September 21st the young ice had become fairly strong along 

 the near-by land and Storkerson with a party of three set out, in- 

 tending to make a depot on the northwest corner of Victoria Island, 

 Peel Point. He returned next day, reporting that the strong ice 

 extended only about eight miles north of the camp and that he 

 had been unable to proceed farther. The reason for wanting a 

 depot at Peel Point was that Storkerson was going to attempt his 

 surveying expedition during the period of little daylight, returning 

 long after the sun had ceased to rise at noon. This is the one time 

 of year when it is not reasonable to hope that an extensive journey 

 can be supported through hunting. The animals are there, but they 

 are hard to find in the dark. 



Just at this time I suffered a slight injury through an accident 

 with defective ammunition. On my expedition of 1908-12 I used 

 the Austrian 6.5 mm. Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifle and found it most 

 satisfactory. The advertised muzzle velocity was 2,560 feet. For 

 the present expedition I was using the Mannlicher-Schoenauer as 

 remodeled by Gibbs of Bristol, said to have a muzzle velocity of 

 3,160 feet, attained through a considerable increase of the powder 

 charge. I found the Gibbs modification excellent, if the blame for 

 the sort of accident which happened to me September 22nd is put 

 upon the ammunition rather than the rifle. 



This day I was sealing and had already killed and secured six 

 seals. When the seventh appeared in the water a hundred yards 

 away I fired but never knew whether I hit him, for as I fired I 

 saw a flash of light and for several days thereafter saw very little 

 more with my right eye. The shell had cracked from the primer 

 out to the edge and about a quarter of an inch up the side. It 

 seems unbelievable in examining the Mannlicher-Schoenauer that 

 powder could come back through the bolt^ but it did. The black 

 spots made by it were on my nose and cheek and forehead. They 



