SADDLE MOUNTAIN.—GODTHAAB.
The Eskimos of this region have the reputation of being the most expert kayakers in the whole of Greenland, and we were witness to some of their most remarkable feats, such as describing a complete revolution through the water, and crossing one another at right angles, one canoe shooting over the bow of the other. These performances, which are said to have been at one time common with all the west-coast Eskimos, are rapidly becoming a lost art, and it has even been doubted if they took place at all.
Sports of the Kayakers.—Overturning.
Kayaker Overturned.
Our kind friends were so pressing in their attentions that it was not without regret that we were forced to bid adieu to their hospitable homes and a last farewell to the Greenland shores. After a rather tempestuous voyage we arrived at St. John’s, Newfoundland, on September 11th, to find a scene of desolation, and wreck and ruin running in the path of the recent conflagration. The fire had broken out two days after the departure of the “Kite” on her last mission of good-will, and this was the first intimation that any of us had had of the catastrophe. Shaping our course southward, we arrived, after an uneventful voyage, at our port of destination, Philadelphia, where on the 24th, amid a chorus of cheers and hurrahs, and the tooting of innumerable horns and whistles, we received the congratulations of the multitude that had assembled to await our arrival.
I returned in the best of health, much stronger than when I left sixteen months before. The journey was a thoroughly enjoyable one. There were some drawbacks, it is true, but we meet with them everywhere, and were it not for the sad loss of Mr. Verhoeff, I should not have a single regret.
CHAPTER XX
GREENLAND REVISITED
Along the Labrador Coast—Strange Passengers on the “Falcon”—Holsteinborg and Godhavn—The Quickest Passage of Melville Bay—Meeting with Old Friends—No Tidings of Verhoeff—Establishing Ourselves at Bowdoin Bay—Deaths among the Eskimos—A Rich Walrus Hunt—Smith Sound and the Northern Ice-pack—Polaris House—Departure of the “Falcon.”