TRAVELS AFTER THE SUN CAME BACK 171 



had wanted to keep on for Shingle Point and they were 

 standing arguing about this when I came in sight. 



I have never rightly understood Kanirk's position in 

 this. He already had a bad reputation (as I learned 

 later) by reason of having abandoned on a journey a sick 

 Eskimo companion who would have frozen to death had 

 he not been picked up by others who followed. His own 

 statement was that he had considered it no use looking 

 for me in the morning for I would undoubtedly have 

 frozen to death during the night. White men usually did 

 freeze to death when they were lost over night. 



The idea which the Mackenzie River Eskimos had at 

 the time about the ease with which white men freeze to 

 death had no doubt grown up from the frequent tragedies 

 that occurred to sailors who tried to run away from the 

 whaling ships. Captain Leavitt told me many such 

 stories. Men brought up in cities and sailors who knew 

 nothing about land travel had frequently tried to run 

 away from Herschel Island to the interior of Alaska, espe- 

 cially during the time of the Yukon gold excitement (be- 

 tween 1899 and 1902). Commonly these men had little 

 idea of which way to travel or of the distance they would 

 have to go and no idea of how to take care of themselves. 

 It seems unbelievable but some froze to death under clear 

 skies at distances of no more than six or eight miles from 

 the ship. They had sneaked away from the vessels per- 

 haps about nine or ten o'clock in the evening, had stum- 

 bled along through half-darkness over rough ice on the 

 way towards the mainland for six or eight miles, had be- 

 come tired and with clothing wet with perspiration had 

 Iain down to sleep, never to waken. 



Among white men in the North, such as Hudson's Bay 

 Company's men and whalers, there is prevalent a super- 



