nce, if one Eskimo has a
deerskin which he does not need, and another has something else, they
exchange. The Eskimos had dogs which we wanted, and we had many things
which they wanted, such as lumber, knives and other cutlery, cooking
utensils, ammunition, matches, et cetera. So, as the Yankees say, we
traded.

[Illustration: PEARY DISTRIBUTING UTENSILS TO WIVES OF HIS HUNTERS AT
ETAH]

Steaming in a northwesterly course from Cape York, we passed the
"Crimson Cliffs," so named by Sir John Ross, the English explorer, in
1818. This vivid name was applied to the cliffs by reason of the
quantities of "red snow" which can be seen from a ship miles out at sea.
The color is given to the permanent snow by the _Protococcus nivalis_,
one of the lowest types of the single, living protoplasmic cell. The
nearly transparent gelatinous masses vary from a quarter inch in
diameter to the size of a pin-head, and they draw from the snow and the
air the scanty nourishment which they require. Seen from a distance, the
snow looks like blood. This red banner of the Arctic has greeted me on
all my northern journeys.

Sailing by these cliffs, which extend for thirty or forty miles, my
thoughts were busy with the work before us. First and most necessary of
all was the task of gathering our arctic personnel of Eskimos and dogs,
already begun before we left Cape York.

Our next stop, after Cape York, was on August 3, at North Star Bay,
Oomunnui, as the natives call it, on Wolstenholm Sound. Here I found the
_Erik_, which had become separated from us in Davis Strait several days
before during heavy weather. At Oomunnui we took on two or three
families of Eskimos and more dogs. Ooqueah, one of my North Pole party,
came aboard at this place; Seegloo had joined us at Cape York.

On the night of August 5, a clear and sunshiny night, between Hakluyt
and Northumberland Islands I left the _Roosevelt_ and transferred to the
_Erik_, taking Matt Henson with me, for a reconnaissance of the various
Eskimo settlements on Inglefield Gulf and along the coast. This detour
was for the purpose of picking up more Eskimos and dogs. The _Roosevelt_
was sent ahead to Etah, to get in shape for her coming battle royal with
the ice in Kane Basin and the channels beyond.

There was for me a strange mingling of pleasure and sadness in this
gathering together of our brown-skinned helpers, for I felt that it was
for the last time. The business consumed several days. I w