WELCOME FROM THE ESKIMOS As we approached Cape York, which is farther from the Pole in actual distance than New York is from Tampa, Florida, it was with a peculiar feeling of satisfaction that I saw the foremost of our Eskimo friends putting out to meet us in their tiny kayaks, or skin canoes.

Here is the southernmost of the Eskimo villages, by which a permanent settlement is not meant, for these barbarians are nomads.

One year there may be two families there; another year ten; and still another season none at all, for the Eskimos seldom live more than a year or two in one place.
As we neared the Cape, the headland was encircled and guarded by an enormous squadron of floating icebergs which made it difficult for the _Roosevelt_ to get near shore; but long before we reached these bergs the hunters of the settlement were seen putting out to greet us.

The sight of them skimming the water so easily in their frail kayaks was the most welcome spectacle I had seen since we sailed from Sydney.
[Illustration: ESKIMOS COMING OFF TO THE ROOSEVELT IN KAYAKS] It seems fitting to give a good deal of attention at this point to the consideration of this interesting little race, the most northerly people in all the world, for their help is one of the elements without which it is possible that the North Pole might never have been reached.

Some years ago, in fact, I had occasion to write of these people a few sentences that, as it has turned out, were so prophetic that it seems appropriate to reproduce them here.