THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 505 



to find his position with the sextant and chronometer, but could 

 make as good a survey of a coastline as any one who was travel- 

 ing at ten to fifteen miles a day under difficult weather conditions. 

 But he also had the common ideas about food, and had never any 

 more than Emiu been converted to the view that one can be 

 healthy and happy on a diet of meat alone. 



As I lay in the camp or rode bundled up in the sled, I became 

 unreasonably irritated by hearing Castel and Emiu talking con- 

 tinually about the delights of tinned sardines, which was Emiu's 

 favorite food, or boiled potatoes, which was Castel's dream. Noice 

 and Charlie were quite different. They had faith in the suitability 

 of a meat diet for health and no feeling that they were being de- 

 graded by being compelled to live on inferior food. It was the 

 second day when Castel and Emiu were having their first meal to- 

 gether after a separation of more than ten days and were chanting 

 to each other the praises of potatoes and sardines that I lost pa- 

 tience and decided to send them where they could have them to 

 their hearts' content. As said above, this was doubtless a case of 

 nerves brought on by my invalidism. Under ordinary conditions I 

 have been able to listen to such talk by the month, knowing that 

 the men would forget all about it when the last food brought from 

 home was gone and they had been for a few weeks on a straight 

 meat diet. 



I had the self-control to wait till the first irritation had passed 

 before speaking. I then told Castel that I had made up my mind 

 not to send him ahead but back to the Bear. I told him that our ex- 

 perience of the last ten days had shown that the exploratory party 

 could make better progress by traveling light and living by hunting, 

 even though I should be carried as baggage, than by carrying pro- 

 visions. I told him also that I realized what a hardship it was for 

 him to do without the food that sailors are used to. Natkusiak 

 would go back with him and Emiu, but only as far as Melville 

 Island. I knew that as soon as he was separated from Castel 

 and Emiu his discontent would disappear, for we had already lived 

 together for years by hunting. It was a life which Natkusiak 

 really liked although he had lately been somewhat discontented in 

 sympathy with the malcontents. He was something like a man 

 who never used to take a drink but began to echo the talk of others 

 about the delights of cocktails when prohibition came in force. 



Once resolved to send Castel back from Cape Isachsen instead 

 of going back myself, my mind began on various schemes and 

 dreams connected with this altered program. I was already com.- 



