264 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



in a caribou country and lived mainly on caribou. 

 Furthermore, my Eskimo companions at that time had 

 been brought up as caribou hunters, and if they knew 

 how to hunt seals they did not care much about it. One 

 of them, Natkusiak, came from Cape Prince of Wales in 

 Alaska and had learned sealing as a boy. He had ex- 

 plained to me how it was done and I felt sure I could do 

 it whenever the need arose. But the need never came 

 until in May, 19 12, when he and I were making a 

 1000-mile sledge journey from Langton Bay to Point 

 Barrow. We were on the last lap — the 400-mile stretch 

 between Herschel and Barrow. 



We could have carried almost enough groceries to last 

 us the trip from Herschel to Barrow but we did not like 

 to because such a heavy load would have lessened our 

 speed. So we took only about one-quarter of what we 

 needed, expecting to live mainly by hunting. This was 

 the best time of the year for sealing on top of the ice, and 

 Natkusiak assured me he would be able to get all the 

 seals necessary to feed ourselves and our dogs. 



But soon after we started west from Herschel Island 

 he began to complain about a pain in one of his fingers. 

 This developed into a felon and the pain became so 

 intense that he could not sleep at night. He could not 

 even ride on the sled daytimes for the jarring hurt too 

 much. Delay was out of the question for we had to 

 reach Toint Barrow before the summer heat turned into 

 water the sea ice we were traveling over, so he used to 

 walk along slowly and as carefully as he could, carry- 

 ing his afflicted left hand in front of him supported by 

 Ins right. Crippled as he was he could not hunt seals, so 

 I had to do it. 



I felt I understood the theory and that I should be 



