46 CHALLENGER 



moment and it was with great difficulty that the komatik could 

 be swung clear to one side or the other where the slope was more 

 gentle. 



Eventually the head of the Kurukuluk brook was reached and 

 the teams started working down towards the shack at the foot. 

 But the snow here was very soft indeed, a condition known as 

 'mowya', and from here, time and time again, the big komatik 

 slid off to one side or other of the trail into the deep soft snow, 

 and Buck and Dennis had to leap off into snow waist deep, and 

 sometimes chest deep, in order to get the komatik back on to the 

 trail. Their language should have been sufficient to melt the 

 snow, and the dogs howled dismally until they could go on once 

 more. In this maimer the shack was eventually reached, making 

 the second stage of the journey 2^ miles. The shack was a rough 

 old place without so much as a nail to hang the harness on to 

 keep it away from the dogs, but it had a stove and a roaring fire 

 had been got going before the last komatik got in. 



Overtired from the terrific exertions of the day's journey no 

 one slept much and Gillingham kept the fire going all night. At 

 £ a.m. the travellers had breakfast and by 6.30 the teams were 

 skimming across the flat sea ice, from time to time passing over 

 a neck of land, reaching Udlik Point, where there was a small 

 Eskimo house, by 9.30, and here the teams paused for a 'mug up' 

 of cocoa. Then on across another neck of land to Nutak Run 

 where the going was very good; Nutak was reached by 12.30, 

 an excellent run of 24 miles' really good going. 



Nutak is purely an H.B.C. post with no settler or Eskimo 

 dwellings in the vicinity; it is a clean and neat little place and 

 here the Smiths made the party really welcome. Stevenson was 

 sick with a severe chill so he was left with the Smiths at Nutak. 

 As Henry did not know the trail northwards from Nutak, Smith 

 urged Buck to take Willie Metcalfe, his Eskimo store servant, 

 with him as guide and interpreter. The large komatik was left 

 here and a smaller, old one of Smith's was taken instead. And 

 so the party pressed on next day: Buck, Doc, Dennis, Henry and 

 Willie Metcalfe, with two smallish komatiks and 16 dogs. At first 

 the teams made for the small Eskimo settlement on Parkivik 

 Point, and then, after some miles of rough going among the 

 'billycaters' along the shoreline, a high neck of land had to be 



