ARCTIC EXPLORATION. 393 



in the right direction, and while I may disagree with him on many of the points 

 of detail, I fully concur with him in the main, and hope that before many years 

 have elapsed we shall see several such corps in the field, and that the work will 

 be vigorously pushed until many of the problems of meteorology and magnetism 

 are solved. And this work can be done without risk to human life, in any lati- 

 tude heretofore attained, if our people will only learn the habits and customs of 

 the Arctic highlander, and conform to them while in that region. While I am 

 in favor of employing the Inu in every capacity but that of observer, I am not in 

 favor of either educating him, or bringing him down to a lower latitude for any 

 instruction whatsoever. Take him just as he is, in his most primitive condition, 

 with his faculties all sharpened in his struggle for existence, and he is the most 

 useful man the explorer can have, for he can teach us in the art of wood-craft 

 and ice-craft, and he has inherited that peculiar instinct of the wild hunter that no 

 man can ever learn, after he has attained maturity. 



" We can never hope to make a scientific observer of the Inu, consequently 

 anything we should be able to teach him, would only tend to draw him away 

 from his old habits, and to blunt the very faculties we are so anxious to cultivate. 

 For it is an art for a man to be able to go into that inhospitable region and main- 

 tain himself with comparative comfort without fuel, and without any shelter except 

 such a,s he can construct from the frozen snow, and if necessary, draw his subsist- 

 ence from a region that to the inexperienced seems absolutely destitute of animal 

 life. In the region where Franklin's party perished the Inu lives in comparative 

 comfort, and with the death of Jens died the last hope of Greely's starving party, 

 and Schwatka's experience shows what a man can do who will intelligently make 

 use of these people as they are. , 



'' During my stay in the Arctic I traveled over 700 miles by sledge through 

 an uninhabited region. All journeys were made without tents and fuel, a small 

 kerosene stove, that consumed only one gallon of oil every twenty days, being 

 used to melt ice, and I never suffered from cold, and my experience teaches me 

 that ih.Q personnel for a successful Arctic expedition for scientific research beyond 

 points where a ship can penetrate should be made up in the following manner : 



" First. A chief of party who has passed at least one year north of the Arc- 

 tic Circle among the Inu. 



" Second. The staff of scientific observers necessary to carry on the work 

 contemplated. 



"Third, One competent cook. 



" Fourth. One Canadian half-breed to each sled equipped. 



" Fifth. One Inu and wife to each sled, the man to hunt, guide and build 

 snow huts; the woman to keep fur clothing and foot-gear in order. 



" With such an outfit, the region to which an energetic man can penetrate is 

 limited only by the shores of the eternally frozen sea " 



P. H. Ray. 



Washington, D. C, October 9, 1884. 



