1 86 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



under the command of Dr. Howe and that Ned Arey 

 had gone over there to give Dr. Howe the benefit of his 

 long experience in the country and to make himself gen- 

 erally helpful. 



The bad news inclined us all the more to hurry on to 

 Flaxman Island. It was late in the day, however, so we 

 slept over night. The next morning we started early 

 and made the remaining twenty miles to Flaxman Island 

 by midafternoon. On arrival at the camp we found the 

 physical conditions as described by the Eskimos. The 

 ship had been dismantled and a house had been built on 

 shore where the party were now living under command 

 of Dr. George P. Howe, of Boston, Massachusetts, a 

 Harvard man whom I had known in Cambridge. He had 

 three white men and there were some Eskimos helping 

 about the camp. As a visitor we found Ned Arey with 

 his Eskimo wife and family. 



But we got a new story as to the death of the three 

 officers. Dr. Howe did not think they were dead. The 

 Eskimos had from the first believed that any journey 

 out over the sea ice would be suicidal. The start had 

 been made under ordinary ice exploring conditions, but 

 the party had not been gone more than a few days when 

 the Eskimos already knew they were dead. Later when 

 a dog came ashore this confirmed them in the belief. Dr. 

 Howe thought everything was all right. The intention of 

 the ice party had been to stay away about two months. 

 The time was not quite up and they might come back any 

 day. 



Ned Arey's opinion was intermediate between that of 

 the Eskimos and of Dr. Howe. He thought that the party 

 might have survived a certain length of time out on the 

 ice but that they had now been gone too long and the 



