no THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
The baron was anxious to get away, for the season 
was advancing, and, at any moment, a thaw might 
set in which would break up the ice in the rivers 
and interfere with the journey. My legs and feet 
had more strength in them by now but I could not 
walk as well as usual. So it was decided that, as 
we were now ready, we might as well start. 
Kataktovick saw us off; we were parting, here. 
I thanked him, as I bade him good-by, for all that 
he had done, and told him how greatly I was in¬ 
debted to him for his constant help and for his 
faith and trust in me. The money due him would 
be paid to him later on, I said, after I had got 
back to civilization. I asked Mr. Carpendale to 
tell the Chukches what a good boy Kataktovick 
was. I gave him the rifle we had carried on our 
journey and some other things we had with us, and 
then we shook hands warmly and parted. 
The day was not a cold one; the thermometer, 
in fact, was about freezing and there was a good 
deal of fog. Consequently, the travelling was not 
so easy as it might have been but we had good dogs 
and good drivers, and, as we had postponed our 
start until the late afternoon when the snow was 
beginning to get harder, we made considerable 
progress before we stopped at ten p. m. at an 
aranga for tea and bear meat. We then kept on 
our way until four o’clock in the morning—the 
