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 went first to Karnah, on the Redcliffe Peninsula, thence to Kangerdlooksoah and Nunatoksoah, near the head of the gulf.

Returning on our course, we came back to Karnah, then went south to the neighborhood of the Itiblu Glacier, then northwest again by a devious course around the islands and the points to Kookan, in Robertson Bay, then to Nerke, on C.Saumarez, then on to Etah, where we joined the _Roosevelt_, having obtained all the Eskimos and dogs we needed,--two hundred and forty-six of the latter, to be exact.
There was no intention of taking to the far North all the Eskimos taken aboard the _Erik_ and the _Roosevelt_--only the best of them.

But if any family wanted transportation from one settlement to another, we were glad to accommodate them.