THE START FOR HOME 
family was a very old Esquimo, Merktoshah, 
the oldest man in the whole tribe, and not a 
blood-relation to any member of it. He had 
crossed over from the west coast of Smith 
Sound the same year that Hall's expedition 
had wintered there, and has lived there ever 
since. He had been a champion polar bear 
and big game hunter, and though now a very 
old man, was still vigorous and valiant, in spite 
of the loss of one eye. 
We stopped at Kookan, the most prosper- 
ous of the Esquimo settlements, a village of 
B.Ye tupiks (skin tents), housing twenty-four 
people, and from there we sailed to the ideal 
community of Karnah. Karnah is the most 
delightful spot on the Greenland coast. Sit- 
uated on a gently southward sloping knoll 
are the igloos and tupiks, where I have spent 
many pleasant days with my Esquimo friends 
and learned much of the folk-lore and history. 
Lofty mountains, sublime in their grandeur, 
overtower and surround this place, and its 
only exposure is southward toward the sun. 
In winter its climate is not severe, as com- 
pared with other portions of this country, 
and in the perpetual daylight of summer, life 
168 
