i88 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



fascinating thing to visit these people, the ancestors of 

 most of whom had never seen a white man and who them- 

 selves certainly never had. If there were a few living 

 who remembered from their childhood the days of the 

 early explorers this would make the case still more inter- 

 esting. Most thrilling of all was the possibility that we 

 might find some old man who could give us from memory 

 a solution of what to the world of Europeans is still the 

 mystery of the fate of Sir John Franklin's men, whose 

 two ships had been set fast in the ice just to the east of 

 Victoria Island. All of his men were supposed to have 

 died there or to the southeast but it was possible that 

 some of them came ashore in Victoria Island. They 

 might even have lived there for a few years, if not in- 

 definitely. 



When I had met Captain Klinkenberg at Herschel 

 Island the past summer my interest had been increased. 

 He had actually seen the Victoria Island people, but pre- 

 sumably only a small fraction of them. He had described 

 them as having copper weapons where other primitive 

 Eskimos usually have stone. But mysterious above every- 

 thing, was his information that a certain small percentage 

 of them differed from the rest and differed from the Alaska 

 Eskimos Klinkenberg knew so well, in having a complex- 

 ion which made them resemble Europeans. He had said 

 that some of them had blue eyes and light hair. 



Dr. Howe and I talked much about this fascinating 

 problem and both said we would give anything to be able 

 to go there. We agreed, however, that the best way of 

 getting there would probably be to leave the country for 

 now and to organize a new expedition later. All our plans 

 had hinged on the Duchess of Bedford and when she was 

 sunk we would have to make a new start. 



