7* HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



traveling parties did. A part of this welcome always was 

 a meal. To me this particular one was an especial feast, 

 for Sten had brought ashore with him some flour that 

 had no gasoline in it, and some molasses. We had dough- 

 nuts of exceptional quality. I eventually got so that I 

 liked the taste of things fried in seal oil as well as I 

 like similar things fried in lard, but with doughnuts 

 properly made this is hardly a question. If the oil or 

 lard is kept so hot that it is almost burning, you can 

 cook doughnuts in either without leaving an appreciable 

 taste. This is especially true if porousness is avoided 

 by leaving out the baking powder, thus getting grease- 

 proof glazing on the outside — like that of pretzels. 



At the end of the feast Sten arose to go aboard ship, 

 whereupon it developed that there was a hitch in his 

 plans. His Eskimo crew had decided that Fritz Wolki, 

 two hundred miles to the east of us, must surely have 

 reached the wrecked ship by now and that there was no 

 point in anybody else going there. Sten was of a dif- 

 ferent opinion. The Eskimos, with the greatest good 

 nature, replied that it would be all right for him to go 

 but that they personally were inclined to stay. Some 

 would camp right here at Shingle Point, and the rest of 

 his crew would go inland to the mountains to hunt 

 caribou. Sten became angry and threatened and blus- 

 tered a good deal, but without any effect either in mak- 

 ing the Eskimos angry or in changing their course. 



Sten was of a naturally equable disposition and, fur- 

 thermore, knew the Eskimos well by now. He soon saw 

 the case was hopel< d made them a new proposition. 



This was that a few of them should go back with him 

 on the Penelope fifteen miles up the coast to King Point, 

 where Captain Amundsen had left a cabin and where 



