“July 17.—Fine day with a little wind. Arrived at Etah this morning. After dinner I started ashore for the Eskimo tents with mother and father. We had not gone far when we were overtaken by one of father’s Eskimos with sledge and dogs. We all hopped on, and away we dashed, over the ice and through the pools of water until we came around the corner of the cliffs. Here we saw hundreds of little birds called ‘Little Auks’ perched on the rocks. Father said if we could get ashore we might find some eggs, as these birds lay their eggs among the loose rocks, without making a nest. Each bird lays one egg only. After quite a little trouble we reached the rocks and began to look for eggs. I found the first one. After finding a few more we went on to the tents. At them we found that all the men had gone out to catch ‘Little Auks,’ so we went to the bird place. Here the rocks were actually covered with the birds. How they chattered! They would fly so close over our heads that we could see into their little black eyes. One bird was marked exactly like the others. They have black heads, necks, backs, and tails. Their breasts are white. Their wings are black with a few white feathers in them. They have black feet and legs. The men hide among the rocks. They have a net on the end of a long pole. They take hold of the end of the pole and throw the net back and forth as the birds fly to and from the rocks. In this way the old men who cannot hunt the walrus or the bear support themselves and their families. The women and children help. Every Eskimo wears a shirt made of these skins, and it takes from seventy-five to one hundred for each shirt. We found a few more eggs here.

“On our way down to the shore I picked many kinds of flowers. When we reached the ice we saw our team of dogs running away with our sledge. But an Eskimo who was just starting for the ship kindly took me on his sledge. The Eskimos can hop off and on the sledge while the dogs are running. I tried to do it, but once I fell in the ice-cold water and got very wet, and that was enough for me.”

Another trip was made to the old winter home late in July and more meat landed.

August 1st the “Windward” anchored off Etah again, and while awaiting the coming of the ship from home AH-NI-GHI´-TO learned to paddle about in an Eskimo kayak.

Sunday, August 5th, while AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her parents were below in the cabin they heard the Eskimos shouting, “Oomiaksoah!” “Oomiaksoah!” and hurrying on deck they saw a ship just rounding the point.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO was much excited because she thought she saw her uncle on board, but as the new ship drew nearer she found it was a stranger.

The name of the ship was the “Erik” and she brought many letters from home to AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her father and mother.

In one letter was the sad tidings that AH-NI-GHI´-TO would never see one of her grandmothers again. This grieved her very much, and she wanted to go home at once for fear others would be gone before she could get there.

The “Erik” was a much larger and stronger ship than the “Windward,” and AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father said that the “Windward” should wait here while the “Erik” took him with his party across the now ice-filled Smith Sound and landed him at his winter house.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO, her mother, and Percy went on board the “Erik” together with her father and his party, that they might be with him as long as possible.

Charley, the steward, was going to stay and cook, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO told him to be sure and take care of her father.

After fighting with the ice for four days the “Erik” was still twenty miles south of Cape Sabine, and there seemed little chance of getting any nearer.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father then said all his party and dogs and meat, with some provisions, should be landed here, and he would work his way to his house later in the season.

Two nights before, the old “Erik” had a narrow escape from being crushed between a heavy floe and the straight, hard walls of a glacier face, against which the ice had driven her.

August 29th, AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her mother said good-bye to “dear old dad” and to Charley, promising to come up on the ship next summer, and father in turn promised that he would return home with them.

The home voyage on the “Erik” was made in two weeks, landing AH-NI-GHI´-TO in Sydney the day after her eighth birthday, September 13th, in time to catch the only train of the day for home.

Two days later she was in the home of her grandmother, but as that dear one had been called to another home, AH-NI-GHI´-TO did not care to stay long, and the next day she and her mother went on to New York where uncle was waiting for them.

With him they left for Grossy’s home in Washington, where they arrived late at night and found every one asleep. It did not take long to rouse the household, and there was great rejoicing, for they had not seen their “Snowbaby” for fifteen months, and she had so much to tell that it seemed as if no one would go to bed that night.

Every one felt very sorry that AH-NI-GHI´-TO did not bring her father home with her, but they were glad that she left him well, and that he had promised to come home next year.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO went to school at once and found to her delight that, because she had played at school with mother during the past winter, she was now able to take her place with her little classmates who had been going to school all the time she was in the Snowland.

When July came, AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her mother once more boarded the “Windward,” with good old Captain Sam in command, and sailed for the country of the iceberg and the midnight sun again.

When AH-NI-GHI´-TO returned from this voyage the next September she was nine years old, and instead of sending her diary to her Grossy, who was still in Europe, she tried to write the story of her summer in the Snowland in a long letter to her.