204 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
danger that our feet would freeze by the stopping 
of the circulation. Yet, wherever it is practicable 
to wear them, snowshoes are indispensable in Arctic 
travel and I should as willingly do without food as 
without snowshoes. At this point we threw all the 
supplies off the sledge excepting enough for one 
day and, with the sledge light, made the road with 
pickaxes towards the land. 
The Eskimo now showed by his manner that he 
was feeling more optimistic. Finally, as we were 
working our way through the rough ice, he said 
that he smelled wood-smoke, and asked whether I 
smelled it, too. I did not but I had no doubt that 
he did, for an Eskimo’s sense of smell is remarkably 
acute. I felt sure that we were not far from 
human habitation, though just what this might be 
I could only guess. From the leaves of the “Amer¬ 
ican Coast Pilot” that I had with me, I was able to 
learn that “the northeast coast of Siberia has been 
only slightly examined, and the charts must be 
taken as sketches and only approximately accurate. 
The first examination was by Cook, in 1778; the 
next exploration was by Admiral von Wrangell in 
1820; in 1878, Baron Nordenskiold, in the Vega, 
passed along the coast, having completed the N. E. 
passage as far as Pitlekaj, where he was frozen 
in and wintered. In 1881 the coast was examined 
