492 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



This day Emiu discovered a small island lying eight or ten nailes 

 to the right of our course and, as we judged, perhaps ten miles 

 southeast from the middle of the east coast of Emerald Isle. 



We were near Eight Bears Island when we met Thomsen and 

 Illun with a light sledge traveling souths who said they had left 

 Storkerson, Charlie and Noice the day before at Cape Murray with 

 one sled and nine dogs. They had killed five caribou but it ap- 

 peared to them that the caribou were fewer and the wolves far 

 more numerous than the previous spring. 



I sent Emiu then with his fast dogs and empty sled to overtake 

 Storkerson, asking him to wait where he was till we caught up. 

 On May 3rd we arrived at Storkerson's camp at Cape Murray. 

 Since leaving Cape Ross we had traveled so strenuously that the 

 dogs had lost a good deal of flesh and were tired in spite of their 

 abundance of food, so we stopped at Cape Murray three days to 

 rest. Meantime I formulated plans for the year. 



The central idea was that Melville Island must be next year's 

 base of operations, whether the Bear got there or not. Gonzales 

 was to bring the ship there if he possibly could. My instructions 

 specified that under no circumstances was he to move the Polar 

 Bear south from where she was at Armstrong Point. If he could 

 not come north he was to leave her where she was. If his best 

 efforts did not enable him to reach Melville Island he was to com- 

 municate with us as soon as Melville Sound froze over, by sledges 

 sent to our winter base which would be on the east side of Liddon 

 Gulf. 



The families of Lopez and Alingnak, now probably in Liddon 

 Gulf killing seals, later on were to kill ovibos and caribou as these 

 became fatter, and to dry as much of the meat as they could. I 

 would send Storkerson back from Cape Murray with instructions 

 to proceed till he met our hunters in Liddon Gulf. He was to stay 

 a few days to get them located on that part of the east side of 

 Liddon Gulf which he found most suitable for wintering. He 

 would then proceed to the Bear with Martin and Illun. After 

 delivering the instructions to Gonzales and making sure that every- 

 thing was clearly understood, he would take his family and perhaps 

 some other Eskimos back to Melville Island where during the 

 summer he would be in charge of the meat-gathering operations and 

 other preparations for wintering. The fuel problem would prob- 

 ably be the most serious and he was to take particular pains to 

 save all fat, emphasizing therefore the seal hunting. But he was 

 to look around also for coal mines so that if one were found we 



