80 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



was loaded with the rest of my purchases it already had 

 as much cargo as it could safely carry. He had stopped 

 the men at the last moment when they were about to 

 lower the molasses barrel, saying that in case of a gale 

 we were liable to be swamped through overloading. 



Not being much of a sailor myself and having full 

 confidence in Roxy, who had a great reputation in that 

 regard both with Eskimos and whalers, I did not even 

 suspect we were already overloaded as we rowed ashore 

 from the Narwhal a hundred yards to the beach where 

 some Eskimo friends of Roxy's had in waiting for us 

 two or three huge tubs filled with what is known as 

 "blackskin." This is a favorite food not only of the 

 Eskimos but of many northern white men. It consists 

 of slabs of whale skin and attached a certain amount of 

 blubber. The skin varies in thickness according to the 

 age of the whale and according to the part of the body 

 it has been taken from, but generally it is from one- 

 sixth to one-third of an inch thick and there may be any- 

 thing from half an inch to several inches of blubber at- 

 tached. I do not know exactly how much each tub of 

 blackskin weighed, but I estimated later that between it 

 and the molasses we must have been nearly a thousand 

 pounds overweight — carrying three thousand pounds in 

 a boat that was not really seaworthy with much more than 

 two thousand. 



We started September 26th. There was a light breeze 

 when we sailed which carried us a few miles away from 

 the harbor. Then it fell a dead calm and Kay Foint 

 to the east was still twelve or fifteen miles away, too far, 

 we thought, for rowing. Accordingly, we put in at 

 Flanders Point, which is the landward end of Herschel 

 Island and a good fishing place. 



