THE BARRIER AT CAPE COLLINSON ] Up to this time, the weather, since arriving at Cape York, has been an uninterrupted sequence of calm and continuous sunlight—typical Arctic summer weather. Now, however, wind and fog have their turn, and render it impossible to secure walrus, wasting the day for us. In the evening we steamed back to Karnah, to take on board the natives there, and be in readiness to attempt the walrus again the following day. By midnight this work was completed, and as everyone was now dead-tired and sleepy, the _Erik_ steamed out into the middle of the Sound to drift until after breakfast of the following day, when we again steamed out to the walrus grounds and by nine o’clock that night had secured eighteen of the animals. Fog and rain were now coming in upon us, and we steamed into the last settlement on our list, Igludiahni, where six tupiks were found. Our stay here was short as I wanted but one family here, and it did not take me long to purchase a number of additional dogs. When the last dog was on board the _Erik_, she headed for Cape Chalon on her way to rejoin the _Roosevelt_ at Etah, where she arrived at breakfast time Sunday, the 13th. The _Roosevelt_ had landed her coal in bags and broken out the supplies for the purpose of restowing to give her the proper trim to enter the ice. It being Sunday, everyone enjoyed a much needed rest, except the Eskimos, to whom the work of skinning and cutting up the walrus was a labour of love and pleasure. Early Monday morning the _Erik_ veered alongside the _Roosevelt_ and, at five o’clock, the work of transferring the meat, of restowing the _Roosevelt’s_ supplies, and of filling her bunkers and ’tween-deck space with coal from the _Erik_, was commenced. This continued during Monday, Tuesday, and till Wednesday at 2 A. M. when the _Roosevelt_ was ready to steam out and begin the struggle for which she was built, the fight with the Arctic ice from Cape Sabine to the northern shore of Grant Land. Thus far the voyage had been child’s play: what was now before her was likely to be the reverse. The _Roosevelt_ now had on board of her a crew of twenty, some forty Eskimos, and about 200 dogs. She also carried, in addition to the supplies and equipment for the party, about four hundred and fifty tons of coal and several tons of walrus meat. I had been agreeably surprised to find the natives in unusually prosperous condition, with a superfluity of dogs, abundance of meat, and a good supply of skins for clothing. Several of my old friends and acquaintances had died during the last three years, but there were also a number of new babies and, although I did not have time for anything in the nature of a census, I had no doubt that the births equalled and probably exceeded the number of deaths. CHAPTER II ETAH TO CAPE SHERIDAN