iiKDi.i.KA] WRITER'S TRIP ON YUKON 113 



sure short on sleeping, for it is impossible for me to catch up during 



the days: am not ;i day sleeper. I suppose when one is most of 

 the time half hungry his mind naturally reverts to hunger, as mine 



does to sleep. 



We are due to-day again at Point Hope, and I am anxious for a 

 little time there. 



At night. This was a day of harvest. Reached Point Hope about 



3 p. m., but had to go around again to the other side, due to the 

 swell and surf on the north. I went to shore in the first boat, about 



4 p. m. Doctor Goodman, with whom we are very friendly, was 

 with me and promised to go over and help me get some men with 

 whom I want to excavate the burial hole of his predecessor. But 

 when on the shore stays behind and remains. So we go on with my 

 man from the ship to the whalebone graveyard. Near there see 

 two Eskimo men with some dogs. They smile; so I tell them what 

 I want: in two minutes have engaged them; in about three more 

 we begin to dig. ami in about live minutes after strike first bones. 



My good friend the boatswain, Mr. Berg, comes to help, and as I 

 now have four to work I lake a bag and go on collecting a little- 

 more over the plains beyond where we are. Get a good bag. Find 

 another good-natured Eskimo. Frank, coming from fishing, engage 

 him to help carrying and eventually to take place of one of my first 

 workers, who is an old man. Then we see Doctor Goodman, far 

 away, coming to the mission. Borrow two more shovels from his 

 stock and a few coal bags. Meanwhile bone and skull pile is fairly 

 exposed from one side and top gravel partly removed, so I give up 

 intended trip to old village site and, as we were given only to 9.30 

 p. m.. go to work on the pile. 



A great deal here. More than anticipated, though all is a jumble, 

 with the long and other bones of the skeleton on the top. The work 

 is to get down in the moist gravel, disengage one bone and skull after 

 another as rapidly as possible, give it a rapid look-over, and either 

 save, if fairly well preserved or showing some special feature, or 

 discard. If saved, the specimen is handed to one of the Eskimo, 

 who cleans it of gravel, lays it out to dry a little, and then places it 

 gently in a bag. 



Many of the bones and skulls were found so damaged that they 

 had to be left. But much was also good. The strenuous work, how- 

 ever, had to go on without interruption and at the fullest possible 

 speed, if the main part of what was there was to be saved. So no 

 supper, no stop for even a minute, until after 8 p. m. Sixteen bags 

 full, and some of the sacks quite spacious. At last had to give up — 

 no more time, no sacks, and lower down everything frozen as hard 

 as flint. The main part, however, secured — 183 good skulls, several 



