76 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
I was the official starter and fired a pistol in the 
regulation manner. 
Mamen won the running long jump and would 
have won all the other jumps and races if he had 
entered them. The obstacle race was funny to 
watch and greatly enjoyed. The contestants 
started on the ice on the starboard side about amid¬ 
ships. From here they had to go to, and under, the 
jib-boom from which hung loops of rope; they had 
to pass through these loops and then under some 
sledges turned bottom up. Then they had to keep 
on around the ship to a kind of track which we had 
dug in a snowbank running at right angles to the 
ship; the track was just wide enough for a man 
to put both feet in and they had to go up the track 
and down again. This was no easy task and it 
was a cause for hilarious mirth to watch them trying 
to pass each other in the narrow path. Then they 
had to go to the dredge igloo where life-belts had 
been placed, each marked with its owner's name. 
Each man had to find his own life-belt and put it on 
just as he would wear it if he were called upon to 
use it. It was pitch dark in the igloo; a man would 
rush in, pick up a life-belt and rush out again on 
to the ice to look at the belt in the twilight and see 
if it were his. It often took a man several trips to 
find his own. Then they made the final dash to 
the starting-point and the first man home with his 
