HOW AN ESKIMO SAILED THROUGH STORM 79 



so late (September 23rd) that any ship going out into 

 the ocean would run the danger of having ice form all 

 around her, preventing her from getting back again to 

 the safety of a harbor. The best guess was that the 

 Duchess was wintering somewhere near Flaxman Island, 

 about halfway between Herschel Island and Point Bar- 

 row and two hundred miles west of Herschel Island. 



Captain Leavitt thought the thing for me to do was 

 to spend the winter where I liked, waiting for news. 

 Shortly after the freeze-up Eskimo sled travel up and 

 down the coast would commence and it would not be 

 more than a month or two until news would get to 

 Herschel Island about any ship that was wintering be- 

 tween there and Point Barrow. 



My main errand at Herschel was to buy on behalf of 

 Sten and myself as much as I could of certain things, 

 chiefly groceries. Captain Leavitt told me at once that 

 he had nothing to spare of most articles but a little of 

 some staples. Of what he had, he would give me as 

 much as I wanted. 



I was at the police barracks on shore when our pur- 

 chases were being loaded into the whaleboat. On coming 

 down to the ship I noticed that one thing missing from 

 the list I had requisitioned was a barrel of molasses. 

 Captain Leavitt had gone off somewhere and I asked 

 the Mate whether they were short of molasses. He said 

 that on the contrary it was one thing they had in un- 

 limited quantity, and he felt sure the Captain would not 

 mind if he gave me a barrel of it. The barrel was, 

 accordingly, put in the boat. It was not until many 

 months later that I found out why Captain Leavitt had 

 not given me the molasses in the first place. He had 

 intended to do so, but had found that when the boat 



