SPRING JOURNEY IN A SKIN BOAT 203 



ing prairie similar to Flaxman Island. There was a great 

 abundance of driftwood on the north coast and we erected 

 a comfortable camp near the ruins. As I had been told, 

 the sea was cutting this island and it appeared as if half 

 the village site w r as already gone. I found awash on the 

 beach a number of carvings of bone and ivory and a 

 number of weapons and implements of bone and wood. 

 These differed in some respects but not fundamentally 

 from those that were in use by the Eskimos when the 

 whites first came to the country. The houses had all 

 fallen and looked superficially merely like so many 

 mounds. I found on investigation that the ground plan 

 had been similar to that of the houses now in use along 

 the coast. In my opinion this village was inhabited no 

 more than two or three centuries ago. 



I was enjoying myself thoroughly, both because I was 

 discovering things of scientific interest and because I was 

 having a good time hunting and merely living in this 

 delightful place. It was rather a disappointment for me 

 than otherwise when on the 25th of July the first of the 

 whaling ships came in sight from the west. We struck 

 camp hurriedly, loaded our gear and our trophies into the 

 boat and paddled out to meet the ship. It turned out to 

 be the steam whaler Belvedere, owned at San Francisco 

 but under command of Captain Stephen F. Cottle of Mas- 

 sachusetts (Martha's Vineyard, I think). Mrs. Cottle 

 was with him. They received me hospitably and gave me 

 fruits and vegetables and various civilized foods for which 

 I had been hankering greatly. 



My c perience since has shown that when you have 

 been without potatoes and apples for a year you are so 

 hungry for them that a boiled potato makes a banquet 

 and an apple is delicious beyond your vocabulary to ex- 



