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.