1 84 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



rifle he saw two rifle sights where one should have been, 

 for he was still suffering the last effects of the snowblind- 

 ness. The comfortable part of the story he brought back 

 was that he felt sure this was Barter Island. He said 

 we could soon verify that for he had heard there was a 

 sandspit running west from the island on which there 

 were ruins of an ancient Eskimo village. 



When we started traveling this was verified, for we 

 came to the sandspit and to the ruins of several Eskimo 

 houses made of earth and wood. To the south on the 

 mainland we saw a house that looked as if it were in- 

 habited. This turned out correct, but the people were 

 off on a journey. We went into the house, for that is the 

 custom of the country. As Cape York's eyes were not 

 fully recovered and as I found several books and maga- 

 zines to read, we decided to spend the night. There was 

 also the possibility of the occupants coming home. 



Evidently the owner of this house was a white man, for 

 there were books on mining, assaying and the like. Some 

 of the books had on them the names of Leffingwell and 

 Mikkelsen and had evidently come from our ship. 



The second day after leaving this cabin the weather 

 was thick and we walked out of a snow squall almost into 

 an Eskimo camp. This was a tiny house occupied by a 

 couple with an infant child. Now we learned exactly 

 where we were and got information of various sorts. To 

 begin with, the man whose house we had occupied two 

 days before was Ned Arey. I had heard much of him 

 from Captain Leavitt. Arey is of Pilgrim descent, born 

 and brought up in Massachusetts. He first came to the 

 Arctic as a whaler but soon became interested in mining 

 and has traveled over a large part of northern Alaska, 

 prospecting for gold. At first he had a good income which 



