and we had a special tablecloth, our best cups and
saucers, new spoons, et cetera.

A day or two later we began to get the dogs made fast, in preparation
for the first sledge parties. There was now sufficient snow to begin the
transportation of supplies toward Cape Columbia, and Black Cliffs Bay
was frozen over. The Eskimos tied the dogs, in teams of five or six, to
stakes driven into the shore or holes cut in the ice. They made a fine
picture, looking shoreward from the ship--nearly two hundred and fifty
of them--and their barking could be heard at all hours.

It must be remembered that day and night were still determined only by
the clock, as the ever-circling sun had not yet set. By reason of the
industry of all hands on the upward voyage, everything was now ready for
the fall work. The Eskimos had built the sledges and made the dog
harnesses, and Matt Henson had finished the "kitchen boxes," which
enclosed our oil stoves in the field, while the busy needles of the
Eskimo women had provided every man with a fur outfit.

In the North we wear the regular Eskimo garments, with certain
modifications. First of all, there is the _kooletah_, a fur jacket with
no buttons, which goes on over the head. For summer wear the Eskimos
make it of sealskin, but for winter it is made of fox or deerskin.

For our own use, we had jackets made of Michigan sheepskin. We took the
skins up with us, and the women made the garments, but when it was very
cold we wore the deerskin or foxskin jacket of the Eskimos. Attached to
this jacket is a hood, and around the face is a thick roll made of
fox-tails.

The _ahteah_ is a shirt, usually of fawn skin, with the hair inside, and
the Eskimos wear it even in summer. In some of the photographs of
natives, the skilful piecing together of the skins in the shirt can be
traced. The Eskimo women are more adept at this work than are any of
the furriers of civilization. They sew the skins with the sinew taken
from the back of the deer--the jumping muscle. It is absolutely
unbreakable, and moisture does not rot it. For the coarser work of
sewing boots, canoes, and tents, they use the sinew from the tail of the
narwhal. The sewing is now done with the steel needles I have given
them; but in former years they used a punch made of bone, passing the
sinew through the hole, as a shoemaker uses a "waxed end." They do not
cut the skins with shears, as that would injure the fur; but with a
"woman's knife," simi