14 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
personally, men, women and children, from Point 
Barrow east along the northern coast, as well as 
I knew the Eskimo of Whale Sound on the Green- 
land coast, that little tribe of Arctic Highlanders, 
numbering only about two hundred and forty, from 
whom we chose the Eskimo that accompanied us 
on the Roosevelt to Cape Sheridan and played so 
important a part in the attainment of the North 
Pole. Later in the morning of the thirty-first, 
we weighed anchor and steamed around to the 
north side of Point Hope, where we did more trad¬ 
ing, and then proceeded on our way up the coast. 
By noon we had Cape Lisburne a-beam and shaped 
our course for Icy Cape, to go about ten miles out¬ 
side of Blossom Shoals, a dangerous reef off Blos¬ 
som Point, which has always been dreaded by mar¬ 
iners. Our scientists were busily engaged in writ¬ 
ing letters, to be mailed at Point Barrow and taken 
back on the Bear which calls there once a year, 
usually in August. 
Thus far our progress all along had been satis¬ 
factory. Early on the morning of August 1, how¬ 
ever, we began to note indications of the presence 
of ice on our weather side. The water began to get 
smoother, and when we tested its temperature by 
hauling up a bucketful at intervals, as the day wore 
on, we found it dropping steadily, until it reached 
thirty-nine degrees; the water changed color, too, 
