£18 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
inclined to move we could have done little travelling 
and our enforced stay gave us a good chance to 
dry out our clothes, which had became saturated 
with salt water and perspiration, and to mend 
the numerous tears where the jagged corners of the 
raftered ice had got in their work. I borrowed 
boots and stockings from the natives for Katakto- 
vick and sent him out with another Eskimo to re¬ 
pair our sledge, which was much the worse for wear. 
We made some new dog-harness and repaired the 
old. I tried to buy a dog or two here but the 
natives had none to sell; in fact they had very few 
dogs at any time. 
Towards afternoon Kataktovick came in and 
told me that he thought one of the natives would go 
on to Cape North with us, taking with him his dog 
and his small sledge. This was welcome news, for 
by guiding us along the uncertainties of the trail 
he could expedite our travelling. 
I had two or three cheap watches and other 
small articles and had saved half a dozen razors of 
my own; these things I divided among the natives 
along the way. Money, of which I had only a 
little, was not much good. To the old woman who 
had taken off my boots when we first arrived here 
I gave a cake of soap and some needles, to her 
daughter some empty tea tins and to her twelve- 
year-old boy a watch and a pocket-knife. The 
