ill arguing with the immovable Jerry, John Williams, an
old livyere, fortunately arrived from West Bay, which is half way to
Cartwright, and Fraser used his influence with John to such good
purpose that he consented to take us with his dog team at least as far
as his home at the regular rate. John had only six dogs, but he told
us we should be able to get an additional team at William Mugford's two
miles beyond Rigolet.

The strait at Rigolet was open, and when, late in the afternoon of
Monday, April 25th, we bade Mackenzie and Fraser farewell, George and
I, with our baggage and Hubbard's body, were taken across through the
cakes of floating ice in one of the Company's big boats, manned by a
crew of brawny post servants.

On the other shore we loaded the baggage and coffin on John's komatik,
and with him driving the dogs and George and I walking behind on
snowshoes, we reached Mugford's at dusk. There we stopped for the
night, being served with the meals that the people all down the coast
usually eat at that time of the year--bread and molasses and tea. With
one or two exceptions we had to sleep on the floor at the places where
we stopped; for the houses generally contained only one room divided by
a partition. Almost all of the houses had low extensions used as a
storage place, and there Hubbard's body would rest over night. Never
did we pay anything for our entertainment; poor as the people are, they
would be greatly offended if a traveller they took in offered them
money.

Generally speaking, we had good weather for our long journey to Battle
Harbour and pretty fair going. Day after day we followed the coast
line south, crossing from neck of land to neck of land over the frozen
bays and inlets. Sometimes we encountered ridges on the necks of land,
and then we would have to help the dogs haul the loads to the top.
Resuming our places on the komatiks, we would coast down the slopes,
with the dogs racing madly ahead to keep from being run over. If the
descent was very steep, a drag in the form of a hoop of braided walrus
hide would be thrown over the front of one of the komatik runners, but
even then the dogs would have to run their hardest to preserve a safe
distance between them and us, and out on the smooth ice of the bays we
would shoot, to skim along with exhilarating swiftness. As we
proceeded south we were interested in observing signs of spring.
Towards the end of our journey we encountered much soft