CHAPTER VII 



HOW AN ESKIMO SAILED THROUGH THE STORM 



At Herschel Island we found the Narwhal and on board 

 of her the warmest sort of welcome from Captain George 

 Leavitt and from his officers and men. The Captain told 

 me that his ship and all the others, including Captain 

 Amundsen's Gjoa, had reached Point Barrow without 

 much trouble. From this point all the other ships con- 

 tinued west to the Pacific and south to San Francisco. 

 But as Captain Leavitt found himself able to half-stock 

 his ship with provisions for another winter, he decided 

 to come back to Herschel Island, for doing so would 

 give him a fine chance to catch a lot of whales next 

 spring. He had hitherto been compelled to compete with 

 twelve and fifteen ships but now he could have the whole 

 western Arctic to himself at the price of merely the 

 slight hardship of wintering with a less variety of sup- 

 plies than he was used to. He would have to put his 

 men on rations, but felt no doubt of getting through the 

 winter all right, especially as he hoped to engage a num- 

 ber of Eskimo hunters to go south into the mountains 

 and secure for him a large amount of caribou meat. 



Captain Leavitt's news of the Duchess of Bedford was 

 that she had rounded Point Barrow safely. She had 

 Started east ahead of the Narwhal, but coming east the 

 Narwhal had pas ed her somewhere without seeing her 

 ( probably in a fog), and the Captain could not say where 

 she would now be. lie thought it unlikely that she would 

 get through to us at Herschel Island, for the season was 



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