Again we raised him and, soothing him as best I could, I rubbed his inflamed lids with a sharp piece of snow crust, a native cure in such cases. But we were too late to effect a cure. Wearied by gazing at the minute flower-forms of the algæ, dazzled by the glaring snow crystals, my friend's eyes had fallen an easy prey to acute snow-blindness. "Let this be a lesson to you, men," I said after we had led our patient back to the ship. "If any man, in the future, leaves this deck without his goggles, let him take the consequences. This expedition cannot be allowed to develop into a game of blind man's buff." Whinney sat whimpering on the port rail, a pathetic sight. Though I spoke sternly I could but grieve in my heart for the tragic irony of his fate. Many brave adventurers have struggled and died in vain efforts to reach the top of the world. To Reginald Whinney remains the sad distinction of being the only man in the world who has been to the North Pole and back without seeing it! FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 8: The trick is one I learned from an old limehouse "pug" whom I befriended in the east-end of London. He could only show me his gratitude by teaching me the secrets of his trade, which have served me on many an occasion.] [Footnote 9: The entire party on H.M.S. Daffodil, were sunk by a German submarine off St. Jean deLuz. I escaped, having disembarked at Brigus, N.F., in order to join my regiment at Derby, Conn.] [Footnote 10: The Arctic mosquito differs from his southern brothers, the common _stegomia muflans_, in that he does not strike and get away. Like the Canadian "wingle," where he bites he burrows, and that with such rapidity that one must be swift of stroke indeed who would escape his attack. Within a few seconds he disappears beneath the cuticle and dire illness is the result. It is not commonly known but I am convinced that the Arctic variety is the carrier of the scurvy germ, that dreaded terror of travellers. (See Windenborg's treatise "Die Arbeiten Stegomanische und Fleibeiten von dem Nord-deutsches Landes," which, while making many absurd claims as to German supremacy in polar regions, contains at the same time much solid information). T.] [Footnote 11: The ever-watchful Canadian game commission has taken up this matter (which vitally affects the mitten industry) and is conducting at the Govt. Laboratory in Ottawa a series of experiments with various hare-restorers. W.E.T.] [Footnote 12: Since his return to New York, Dr. Traprock has formulated a bill to be introduced at the next session of Congress. The bill is aimed directly at the Fordney tariff-schedule, which imposes the highest duties on whale-bone since whales were first discovered. This, according to Dr. Traprock, is accountable for the corsetless flapperism of today. "The higher the whale-bone the lower the corset," is his trenchant comment.--Ed.] Chapter V