THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 621 



we intended to travel rapidly to Winter Harbor on Melville Island 

 and take observations at Parry's Rock, the one spot among the 

 Canadian arctic islands that has been really well located. These 

 observations at Parry's Rock would give us a certainty for our 

 longitudes which would otherwise be wanting. 



"The unexpected always happens." It was the day we expected 

 to arrive at the summer camp and I was following the coastline of 

 which I knew every bend and bight. Now, when everything 

 seemed plain sailing, I became careless because of that very fact 

 and had an accident that came near being fatal. 



Our dogs were not in the best of spirits on their lean meat diet, 

 and when I saw a seal from the camp on June 11th I tried to get 

 it. The diffused light was so bright that I could scarcely see the 

 eights of the rifle and I missed it. A little later I saw another. 

 There was no water visible on top of the ice which was perfectly 

 level. By the auktok method I was able to get within about two 

 hundred yards after an hour of approach, and fired. His head 

 dropped, showing that he had been killed instantly. According 

 to the diary: "I started to run out to him and fell in a tide crack 

 full of slush. I fortunately sank to my knee in a fairly solid 

 snowbank just before getting my other foot in the water. Sank 

 to my belt on the right side, but the slush was just thick enough 

 so that my body and arms did not go through, as my weight was 

 on my left leg that was sticking in the snowbank. Was eventually 

 able to get a hold in the snowbank and climb up. Had my left 

 foot come loose, I suppose I should have been drowned. The 

 slush was the consistency of quicksand. Had I not dropped my 

 rifle before starting to run, I should have lost it. 



"After getting out of the water I saw the seal had disappeared 

 into his hole — slid in, as often happens. This would ordinarily have 

 meant the loss of the animal, but he must have been exceptionally 

 fat for I found him floating in the hole when I got there. The 

 teams had started when I missed my first seal and were now half 

 a mile offshore and half a mile ahead of me, waiting for Emiu who 

 had gone after a seal he saw ahead — he failed to get it. Dragged 

 my seal out to the teams, tied it behind the big dogs and we got 

 to our summer camp of 1916 at 12 o'clock, noon. Distance ten 

 or eleven miles." 



With our observations for time taken, we left Lougheed Island 

 June 13th, traveling south so as to pass ten or fifteen miles west 

 of the northwest corner of Bathurst Island, aiming to strike Mel- 

 ville Island near Bradford Point. The wind was blowing strong 



