THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 567 



hunting with bows and arrows in moderation. Wilkins knew my 

 feehng and refused the rifle. 



Now comes the part of the story where accounts differ. Prob- 

 ably Palaiyak and Mrs. Seymour did not interpret accurately to 

 Wilkins fearing that if Kullak's threats were exactly translated 

 Wilkins might take a stubborn attitude which would result in an 

 attempt to kill either him or some member of his party. After a 

 struggle Kullak succeeded in taking a rifle away from Palaiyak. 

 Later through the intervention of other members of the tribe 

 Wilkins was paid for the rifle with a dog, but it was at best 

 a forced sale. Palaiyak subsequently told me that Kullak had 

 withdrawn his promise not to kill any relative of mine or member 

 of my party upon being compelled to give a dog for the rifle, but 

 he also said that nearly all the other members of the tribe had 

 promised to see to it that Kullak would do no harm and had told 

 Kullak impressively that if he tried to kill any one in our party 

 they would forthwith kill him. 



We spent October 8th in talking and rejoicing, while the women 

 set our clothing in order. It was especially our boots that needed 

 fixing although they had held out wonderfully. There are few man- 

 made articles more nearly perfect as to comfort and durability 

 than the footgear of the Eskimos. The only thing to temper our 

 rejoicing was that Charlie began to feel severe pain in one of his 

 fingers, indicating the development of a felon. The following day 

 we left the camp, and one week later met Storkerson, Castel, 

 Lopez and Emiu with two sledges on the east side of Liddon Gulf 

 north of Cape Hoppner. We should have traveled faster but for 

 Charlie's suffering. He could not ride, for the jolting of the sled 

 was more than he could bear, and had to walk slowly and step 

 carefully so as not to jar his hand. 



There were so many things to learn from Storkerson that we 

 camped immediately on meeting and began to review the summer. 

 He had done his work well and had been adequately assisted by 

 every member of his party. They had killed and converted into 

 dried meat ninety ovibos, twenty-seven seals and two or three 

 polar bears, and this meant a great deal of hard work. It is a 

 big task, to begin with, to remove all the suitable meat from the 

 skeleton and then slice it thin and spread it out on stones to dry. 

 The meat would have dried much more rapidly hanging up, but 

 there was nothing in Melville Island with which it could be kept 

 off the ground except a few caribou antlers. Fogs and rains had 



