loaded heavily with fresh whale-meat, and is
purposely keeping in leeward of us to spare us the discomfort of the
odor.

July 25 and 26: Busy with my carpenter's kit in the Commander's cabin
and elsewhere. There has been heavy rain and seas, and we have dropped
the _Erik_ completely. The _Roosevelt_ is going fine. We can see the
Greenland coast plainly and to-day, the 29th, we raised and passed Disco
Island. Icebergs on all sides. The light at midnight is almost as bright
as early evening twilight in New York on the Fourth of July and the
ice-blink of the interior ice-cap is quite plain. We have gone through
Baffin's Bay with a rush and raised Duck Island about ten A. M. and
passed and dropped it by two P. M.

I was ashore on Duck Island in 1891, on my first voyage north, and I
remember distinctly the cairn the party built and the money they
deposited in it. I wonder if it is still there? There is little use for
money up here, and the place is seldom visited except by men from the
whalers, when their ships are locked in by ice.

From here it is two hundred miles due north to Cape York.

August 1: Arrived at Cape York Bay and went ashore with the party to
communicate with the Esquimos of whom there were three families. They
remembered us and were dancing up and down the shore, and waving to us
in welcome, and as soon as the bow of the boat had grazed the little
beach, willing hands helped to run her up on shore. These people are
hospitable and helpful, and always willing, sometimes too willing. As an
example, I will tell how, at a settlement farther north, we were going
ashore in one of the whale-boats. Captain Bartlett was forward,
astraddle of the bow with the boat-hook in his hands to fend off the
blocks of ice, and knew perfectly well where he wanted to land, but the
group of excited Esquimos were in his way and though he ordered them
back, they continued running about and getting in his way. In a very
short while the Captain lost patience and commenced to talk loudly and
with excitement; immediately Sipsoo took up his language and parrot-like
started to repeat the Captain's exact words: "Get back there, get
back--how in ---- do you expect me to make a landing?" And thus does the
innocent lamb of the North acquire a civilized tongue.

It is amusing to hear Kudlooktoo in the most charming manner give
Charley a cussing that from any one else would cause Charley to break
his head open.

For the last week I have