THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 631 



of mittens each, and asked to take each a pea jacket and a sweater, 

 and this was agreed on condition that when we came to Banks 

 Island and had to abandon the sleds they would carry the articles 

 themselves, a thing they readily promised to do. 



There should have been a quantity of salt meat in the depot and 

 barrels of it may have been in the lower tiers. One small barrel 

 had probably contained either brandy or rum. The bung was gone 

 and it had been empty for many years, possibly since prior to 

 Captain Bernier's visit. There were tinned vegetables and meat 

 in abundance although we did not see them till the last day, for 

 they were in that part of the house which was just appearing from 

 underneath the snow. These were large tins holding perhaps five 

 pounds each and painted red. They were then marked in a dif- 

 ferent color paint with the names "carrots," and "mutton." Doubt- 

 less there were other varieties farther down. We opened several 

 of the cans, and while they v/ere not obviously spoiled we were 

 afraid of them. We were especially interested in the mutton and 

 opened three cans, the contents of which we later threw away out- 

 side the house. They did not smell like the tinned mutton of to- 

 day, but I have thought since that this may have been due merely 

 to the different processes employed at that time. 



The night before we left, my favorite dog Hans got loose and 

 was sleeping down by the depot in the morning. I became in- 

 stantly fearful that he might die from ptomaine poisoning if he 

 had eaten the tinned mutton. Sure enough he had eaten it. It was 

 not possible he could have finished the whole fifteen pounds but the 

 lot was gone so he must have buried some of it, a trick in which he 

 was an adept. He was round as a barrel from overeating and 

 disinclined to move for that reason, but otherwise there was no 

 sign of ill effect. 



We concluded that something between one-third and one-half 

 of the food, clothing and equipment left in the depot was still in 

 usable condition, with certain things, such as the currants and 

 mittens, as good as new, and others, such as sugar, quite as whole- 

 some as ever although not in perfect condition. 



Two days only were to be spent at the depot but on the second 

 day Emiu was taken violently ill — acute indigestion from over- 

 eating and not, I believe, from the food being spoiled. Between 

 "hot cakes," eaten with ovibos fat and syrup, and various kinds of 

 candies made by Knight and Noice, it was a wonder that Emiu 

 was the only one afflicted. 



From the camp we could see ovibos herds grazing in various 



