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254 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND J,

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Well, I think I felt the cold more than I ordinarily would.

We hoped to make home to-morrow, and at least as far as !, . *.

the cross west of Rodgers Harbor to-day, but—! This is 40?ui&lvo

the first blow we have had all year from the west, and, ^-%xa

naturally, it had to come as we were going home in a - i^y

hurry. Oh, well!”

January 16th and 17th there was no traveling because
of a stiff head wind. Their camp had been improperly
built, and, accordingly, on January 18th, “we decided to
erect a snow ring and cover it with the tent and tarpaulin. • • '

Now we are nice and warm and swilling tea like a couple ^wu^S
of Englishmen. Feeding the dogs a sealskin and ^.. i
blubber.” vJCv. i ^ j ^.

Knight does not say how much sealskin he fed, but, as
to quality, the ration was no worse than if it had been
lean meat and fat. Most Eskimos consider the skin rather
a luxury when compared to meat and seldom eat it simply
because it has a greater value for clothing. From the
dietetic point of view the skin is largely protein and,
therefore, with fab makes a complete or balanced ration.

The ordinary European prejudice against eating skin has
nothing to do with the chemistry of the food and, conse-
quently, nothing to do with its nutritive effect on dogs,
for they have no prejudices against it. It is interesting
that in his whole diary Knight comments only twice upon
food as being exceptionally good—in one case owls and
in the other boiled skin. Both these comments were
written when abundant supplies of other things were as
yet on hand.

January 19th: “Broke camp at 9:45 A. M. . . . and

camped about two miles east of last winter’s trapping
camp. Crawford froze the big toe on his right foot
rather badly to-day and is suffering considerable pain.