62 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



that river and across to Bear Lake and the Mackenzie. 



Darrell was one of the best winter travelers that ever 

 came to the North, but he knew overland travel only and 

 was convinced by the whalers and Eskimos that attempt- 

 ing to accompany Harrison over the ice to Banks Island 

 would be suicidal. From this and from other causes the 

 partnership between Harrison and Darrell had broken 

 up the winter before I arrived in the Arctic. Darrell was 

 now trapping in the forest country some two hundred 

 miles south, but Harrison was still on the coast trying to 

 get Eskimos to go with him to Banks Island. By August, 

 1906, when I met him, he had given up hope of doing 

 anything that year beyond exploring the mainland east 

 of the Mackenzie River and mapping the great bodies of 

 water known as the Eskimo Lakes. Eventually he ac- 

 complished this, and you will find notable differences be- 

 tween the maps of that section if you compare those that 

 preceded Harrison with the ones he made. 



Harrison had engaged for the winter the family of Ka- 

 kotok, Sten's brother-in-law and part owner of the Pene- 

 lope. At first there had been some thought of using the 

 Penelope, but when Captain Tilton came to Herschel Is- 

 land with the whaleboats saved from the wreck of the 

 Alexander, Harrison bought one of these and decided to 

 use it to carry him to the Eskimo Lake country. He in- 

 vited me to take passage in this boat with him as far east 

 as I cared to go, and to spend the winter with him if I 

 liked. I did not dare to go beyond Shingle Point, how- 

 ever, but took the chance to go that far. 1 left a memo- 

 randum with the police at Herschel Island to give to the 

 Duchess of Bedford, should she come, telling her to pick 

 me up at Shingle Point if she was going to proceed farther 

 east that year. 



