The best summation of the Expedition is in Schwatka's own words, delivered at a dinner in his honor given by the American Geographical Society at Chickering Hall, New York City, on the evening of October 28, 1880. In his Address, he stated: 

"It was the longest sledge journey ever made both in regard to time and distance, having been absent from its base eleven months and four days, and having traversed 2709 geographical or 3124 statute miles if estimated to Marble Island, our nearest point where we returned to civilized food). 

"It was the first sledge journey conducted through the heart of an Arctic winter, and a winter pronounced by the natives to be exceptionally severe as the meteorological table will fully confirm. Not but that quite a number of sledge journeys have been undertaken by white men in the Polar midwinter, but I know of none before this encompassing the whole duration of that unfavorable season; and, in fact, they have been generally very short and under circumstances where comfort commensurate with the exposure could be easily attained at some suitable base."

 "It was the first expedition wherein the white men of a party lived solely upon the same diet, voluntarily assumed, as its native allies. This fact, coupled with those already stated, shows that white men are not only able to live the same as Esquimaux in the Arctic, and with equal comfort, but also to prosecute any projects that their superior intelligence may dictate or their ambition may desire, and under all the circumstances that the natives themselves would similarly venture to undertake for less laudable objects. 

"In its searches the party was the first to make an extended summer's exploration over the ground covered by the unfortunate Franklin Party crews in their deplorable endeavors to reach aid although a glance at the map will show that their base was in a far less favorable position for such an undertaking than that of the greater majority of the numerous searchers who proceeded us. "It established the loss of the records of the Franklin Party beyond all reasonable doubt. As these alone have been the main incentive to the many expeditions since Dr. Rae's in 1854 (who established the loss of the party) this success, although unfortunately of a negative nature, is of no small character, since this fact, coupled with the loss of the party, and the burial of their dead, must necessarily settle the Franklin problem in all its important aspects."

The search of Terror Bay was an extremely difficult one owing to the many long finger-like points that constituted its interig outlines. While only about ten to twelve miles between its bounding capes its contour furnished me with nearly ninety miles of very bad walking, which took seven days to complete. The game (luckily for us) was very plentiful in the neighborhood. On one day alone I saw no less than thirty-four reindeer grazing among the different valleys through which I passed. Colonel Gilder killed five. Without leaving the route of my other duties I killed three. Some had an abundance of substantial food and, better than all, its condition was rapidly improving from the lean stringy quality which characterized our spring supply of venison. 

The Arctic reindeer is an awkward clumsy animal, and when trotting along, unless closely pursued, it goes stumbling over the grough ground in a manner that often leads the amateur hunter, (who perchance has risked a long shot at him) into the belief that his fire has been effective. But the reindeer was the most reliable game in which dependence for regular continuous subsistence can be placed. Without the reindeer my expedition of from nineteen to twenty-two souls and forty to fifty dogs could not have accomplished the journey it did, having only about a month's ration when it started at Camp Daly. I have never enountered a larger band than some three  or four hundred which I saw on the Seroy Lakes, near North Hudson Bay in the autumn of 1878. During the subsequent autumn on King William Land, I saw no less than a thousand in a single day. 

When first thrown wholly upon a diet of reindeer meat, it seems inadequate to properly nourish the system and there is an apparent weakness and inability to perform severe exertive, fatiguing journeys. But this soon passes away in the course of two or three weeks. At first the white man takes to the new diet in too homeopathic a manner, especially if it be raw. However, seal meat which is far more disagreeable with its fishy odor, and bear meat with its strong flavor, seems to have no such a temporary debilitating effect upon the economy. The reindeer are scattered during the spring and summer which is the breeding season, but as the cold weather approaches they herd together in vast bodies. 

Toolooah, my most excellent Innuit hunter, never failed to secure one during every hunt. I knew him to kill seven out of a band of eight reindeer with the eight shots in the magazine of his Winchester before they could get out of range. On ten different occasions he killed two deer at one shot and once three fell at a single discharge. The number of times he dispatched one and wounded others, or wounded two or even three at a single shot, which he afterwards secured, seemed countless.

That he supported an average of nine souls (not counting double that number of dogs dependent upon him for about ten months), coupled with a score of 232 reindeer during that period, besides a number of seal, musk-ox and polar bear, demonstrates his great abilityas a hunter in these inhospitable climes.

On our journey a thorough search was made of that portion of the coast that Frank and Henry had not previously looked over,  but nothing rewarded either our or their labors except an oar found

near the head of Washington Bay. Our trip was also our first continued experience with a raw meat diet and, whenever the weather was sufficiently cold to freeze it into a hard mass, we

found it not altogether unacceptable. Raw versus cooked meat brings up the interesting subject of the different methods of eating by the Innuits, and we no longer considered ourselves aliens in this

foreign land.

Continuous bad weather delayed us at Cape Herschel until June 12, when we started off with a single sled, led by Toolooah accompanied by his family and boy Awanak. We left all our heavy luggage. The remainder of the Innuits of the party were to remain at Camp Herschel until our return, unless any delay should occasion my remaining longer than the breaking up of the summer's ice. In this eventuality, at their own judgment they would return to the mainland where the reindeer are more plentiful. 

On June 15 the last of the hard bread was used and the time was now rapidly approaching when our diet would be a la Innuit until Camp Daly was again reached - some six months hence. My intention was to march to the head of Washington Bay, (which I did on the 17th) thence directly northward across land to Collinson Inlet (before the rapidly disappearing snow was too far gone to render sledging impracticable) then my search would be continued on the salt water ice along the coasts, which lasts a month or six weeks longer. By this means I hoped to reach the mainland of Adelaide Peninsula before the latter ice broke up, and not be coming long distance on our way homeward on the autumn snows. My route across land to Colinson Inlet would, according o the Admiralty charts, take me some wener or twenty-five miles.

On June 23...Arctic aquatic fowl were now getting quite plentiful, and, to vary our monotonous diet of reindeer and seal meat, we secured many. 

By February 1, 1879, the few Inuits at Camp Daly had moved over to Depot island, it being more available for walrus hunting in the ice-flow, which season was then just commencing. For the first time among these savage sons of old Boreas I was brought in contact with one of their superstitions that caused me no little annoyance. When the reindeer hunting season is over the walrus and seal come into the Esquimaux market, completely excluding the reindeer, which from that date becomes forbidden fruit. The Inuit who has relinquished reindeer meat tears down his old igloo and builds a new one, as he must not hunt or eat walrus or seal or work on sealskin clothing in an igloo where the now discarded deer has been eaten or clothing made from his hide. 

Now I found it impossible to procure any reindeer meat for self or for dog-feed while I lived in my present igloo. If I would only build another, which they beseeched me to do, even on the site of the present one, they would bring me plenty. Natives came over daily but brought no meat and we finally had to take the dogs over to Depot Island, where the natives allowed them to be fed. 

This superstition is founded on the belief that there exists two Gods antagonistic to each other, one ruling the seas and all in them, and the other the land with all its beasts and birds, and they must appease their respective divine jealousies by holding true allegiance to only one at a time. 

Elsie Kava - page 97 - Volume 2 - Date is a rough guess.

Every part of the reindeer can be eaten. The jowls, the ears, the velvet on the antlers, and the knuckles are barbecued and eaten. 

The stomach is first removed. Then, the fat on the outside of the stomach, called pugughyi, is peeled off very carefully without puncturing the stomach. Next, some of the contents of the stomach are squeezed out, while some is left in the stomach to ferment and be eaten later. That part of the stomach, called alamka, is washed thoroughly and eaten raw. The alamka, which has the texture like the nap of a towel, is rinsed thoroughly along with the stomach and eaten. 

Somewhere in the reindeer is a part called the kevighqat This is turned inside out and filled with fat from another reindeer. The container it makes is called a keviq. The large intestine also is turned inside out so that the fat [on it] can be stored inside. Our family did not eat the kidneys nor the livers, but some people did. 

The fat on the intestines is carefully peeled off all the way around and removed. Then the glands [on the intestines] are removed. There is a lot of this fat and when it is removed it takes on a tubular shape. Everything in the body of a reindeer is eaten. 

Fall reindeer hides, which have thick fur, are used for bedding. In the spring, when the reindeer are shedding, the fur becomes scruffy. The fur gets very thin and the hair is short. This was saved for parka trim. Sometime in the month of July the fawn hides were ideal for clothing. The length of the hair had gotten just right and was of good quality. Even the hair on the adult reindeer got short. 

Fawning began in April and only men took part in it. They worked in shifts of a week at a time. 

We used to be there at Ivgaq when the reindeer would come to the camp on their own to give birth to their fawns. We would lie down and watch them giving birth. As soon as the fawns dried off, they began to walk and run with the mother. If there was a snowstorm while tending to the fawning, we used tents. Reindeer herders used tents at fawning time. There were lots of reindeer in those days.