The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-14

now soon be limited to a few open spaces near prominent headlands. The scene of the real hunt changed from the sea to the land. We had as yet no caribou meat. The little auks gathered fin nets during the summer and cider duck bagged later disap- peared fast when used as steady diet. We must procure hare, ptarmigan and reindeer, for we had not yet learned to eat with a relish the f1shy, liver-like all marine mammals.
 Guns and ammunition were distrib uted, and when the winds were easy enough to allow one to venture out every man sought the neighboring hills. Francke also took his exercise with a gun on his shoulder.
 The combined results gave along line of ptarmigan, two reindeer and sixteen hares. As snow covered the upper slopes the game was forced down near the sea, where we could still hope to hunt in the feeble light of the early part of the night.
 No Anxiety For Winter.
 With a larder fairly stocked and good prospects for other tasty meats we were spared the usual anxiety of winter without winter supplies, and Francke was just the man to use this game to good effect, for he had way of preparing our primitive pro- visions that made our dinners seem equal to a Holland House spread.
 In the middle of October foxskfns were prime, and then new std traps were distributed and set near the many caches. By this time the Esk1- mos had all abandoned their sealskln tents and were snugly settled in their winter igloos. The ground was cov- cred with snow, and the sea was near ly frozen over everywhere.
 Everybody was busy preparing for the coming cold and night. The tenn perature was about 20 degrees below zero Severe storms were becoming less frequent, and the air, though colder, was less humid and less disa- greeable. An ice fort was formed, and the winter sledging was begun by short excursions to bait the fox traps and gather the foxes.
 All these pursuits, with the work of building and repairing sleds, making dog harness and shaping new winter clothing, kept up a lively interest while the great crust which was to hold down the unruly deep for so many months thickened and closed.
 Last Glimpse of the Dying Day.
 During the last days of brief sum- shine the weather cleared, and at noon on Oct. 24 everybody sought the freedom of the open for last glimpse of the dying day. There was charm of color and glitter, but no one seem- ed quite happy as the sun sank under the southern ice. for it was not to rise again for 11S days
 The Eskimos took this as signal to enter a trance of sadness, in which the bereavement of each family and the discomforts Of the year are enact ed in dramatic chants or dances.
 But to us the sunset of 1907 was in- spiration for the final work in direct ing the shaping of the outfit with which to begin the conquest of the pole at sunrise of 1908 Most expedi- tions have had the advantage of the liberal hand of a government or of an both favors.
 But we were not incumbered with a cargo of misfts devised by home dreamers, nor was the project handi- capped by the usual army of novices. for white men at best must be regard ed as amateurs compared with the ex- pert efficiency of the Eskimo in his own environment Our food supply contained only the prime factors of primitive nourishment Special foods and laboratory connections did not fill an important space in our larder.