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ARCTIC

EXPLORATIONS:

^\i Sttflnb ©rinncU (Bx^tMm

IN SKAHOH OP

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN,

1853, '54, '55.

ELISHA KENT KANE, M.D., U.S.N.

ILLUBTBATED BY UPWARDS OP THItKE HUNDRED EXOBAVINQS,

THE STEEL PLATES EXECUTED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF J. M. BUTLER,
THE WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY VAN INGEN It SNYDER.

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA:
CHILD8 & PETERSON, 124 ARCH STREET.

LONDON:
TEUBNEB & CO., 12 PATERNOSTER ROW.

1857.

/^_

C. 2

v./

259209

Entered according to act of Congrasi, In the year 1850, by

£. K KANK,

in the aerk'8 Office of the Dixtrict Court of the United States for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.

PUBLISSEBS' ADrHBTISEMENT.

Saving j^rclu^ tU ,tenoty^ ji,^ ,f ,^^ «p,
Grinnell Expedition " In, n,. k-„ , .

of LUerature and AuOmrs "

«powrt wji^/i ^/ie present work.
m7^,.. ^^^LDS ^ PETERSON

Philadelphia, September, 1856. -^^oiyiv.

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)

PREFACE.

This book is not a record of scientific inves-
tigations.

While engaged, under the orders of the Navy
Department, in arranging and elaborating the
results of the late expedition to the Arctic seas,
I have availed myself of the permission of the
Secretary to connect together the passages of
my journal that could have interest for the
general reader, and to publish them as a nar-
rative of the adventures of my party. I have
attempted very little else.

The engravings with which my very liberal
publishers have illustrated it, will certainly
add greatly to any value the text may possess.
Although largely, and, in some cases exclu-

PREFACE.

sively, indebted for their interest to the artistic
skill of Mr. Hamilton, they are, with scarcely
an exception, from sketches made on the spot.

E. K. K.

Philadelphia, July 4, 1856.

I !

tic

Dt.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

FAOB

Organization— Equipment— St. John's— Baffin's Bay— Sounding 15

CHAPTER n.

Fiskernaes— The Fishery— Mr. Laasen— Hans Christian— Lich-
tenfels— Sukkertoppen 21

CHAPTER III.

Coaat of Greenland— Swarte-huk— Last Danish Outposts— Mel-
ville Bay— In the Ice— Bears— Bergs— Anchor to a Berg-
Midnight Sunshine 3Q

CHAPTER IV.

Boring the Floes— Successful Passage through Melville Bay— Ice-
Navigation— Passage of the Middle Pack— The North Water. 38

CHAPTER V.

Crimson Cliffs of Beverley— Hakluyt and Northumberland— Red
Snow— The Gates of Smith's Straits— Cape Alexander— Cape
Hatherton— Farewell Cairn— Life-boat Dep6t— Esquimaux
Ruins found— Graves— Flagstaff Point .... 44

CHAPTER VI.

Closing with the Ice — Refuge Harboi>— Dogs — Walrus— Narwhal
— Ice-hills- Beacon-cairn— Anchored to a Berg— Esquimaux

CONTENTS.
\

PAOR

Hats — Peter Force Bay — Cap6 Cornelius Grinnell — Shallows
— ^A Gale — The recreant Dogs 54

CHAPTER VII.

The Eric on a Berg — Godsend Ledge — Holding on — Adrift —
Scudding — Towed by a Berg — Under the Cliffs — Nippings —
Aground — Ice-pressure — At rest

CHAPTER VIII.

Tracking — Inspecting a Harbor — The Musk-ox — Still Tracking —
Consultation — Warping Again — Aground near the Ice-foot —
A Breathing-spell — The Boat-expedition — Departure 78

CHAPTER IX.

The Depdt journey — The Ice-belt — Crossing Minturn River —
Skeleton Musk-ox — Crossing the Glacier — Portage of Instru-
ments — Excessive Burden — Mary Minturn River — Fording
the River — Thackeray Headland — Cape George Russell —
Return to the Brig — The Winter Harbor 91

CHAPTER X.

Approaching Winter — Storing Provisions — Butler Storehouse —
Sunday at Rest — Building Observatory — Training the Dogs —
The Little Willie— The Road— The Faith— Sledging— Recon-
noissance — Depdt-party 104

CHAPTER XI.

The Observatory — Thermometers — The Rats — The Brig on Fire
Ancient Sledge-tracks — Esquimaux Huts — Hydrophobia —
Sledge-driving — Musk-ox Tracks — A Sledge-party 116

CHAPTER XII.

Leaping a Chasm — The Ice-belt — Cape William Wood — Camp
on the Floes — Return of Dep6t-party — Bonsall's Adventure
—Results— An Escape— The Third Cache— McGary Island. . 127

\ \

or.

CONTENTS.

PAOl

CHAPTER XIII.

Walrus-holes — Advance of Darkness — Darkness — The Cold —
"The Ice-blink" — Fox-chase — Esquimaux Huts — OcoultAtion
of Saturn— Portrait of Old Grim 140

CHAPTER XIV.

Magnetic Observatory — Temperatures — Returning Light — Dark-
ness and the Dogs — Hydrophobia — Ice-changes — ^The Ice-foot
—The Ice-belt— The Sunlight— March 152

CHAPTER XV.

Arctic Observations — Travel to Observatory — Its Hazards — Arctic
Life — The Day — The Diet — The Amusements — The Labors —
The Temperature— The "Eis-fod"— The Ice-belt— The Ice-
belt encroaching — Expedition preparing — Good-bye — A Sur-
prise — A second Good-bye 165

CHAPTER XVI.

Preparation — Temperatures — Adventure — An Alarm — Party on
the Floes — Rescue-party — Lost on the Floes — Party found
— ^Return — Freezing — Returning Camp — A Bivouac — Ex-
hausted — Escape — Consequences.... 183

CHAPTER XVn.

Baker's Death — A Visit — The Esquimaux — A Negotiation—
Their Equipment — Their Deportment — A Treaty — The Fare-
well — The Sequel — Myouk — His Escape— Schubert's Illness. 200

CHAPTER XVm.

An Exploration — Equipment — Outfit — Departure — Results —
Features of Coast — Architectural Rocks — Three Brother
Turrets — Tennyson's Monument — The Great Glacier of
Humboldt .* 215

CONTENTS.

CHAPl'ER XIX.

PAaa

Progress of the Party — Prostration — Dallas Bay — Death of
Schubert — ^The Brig in May — Progress of Spring — McGary's
Beturn — Dr. Hayes's Party — Equipment — Schubert's Fu-
neral 229

CHAPTER XX.

Seal-hunting — Sir John Franklin — Resources — Acclimatization
— The Hope — Dr. Hayes's Return — His Journey — Snow-
blindness — Cape Hayes — The Dogs tangled — Mending the
Harness — Capes Leidy and Frazer — Dobbin Bay — Fletcher
Webster Headland — Peter Force Bay — New Parties — Their
Orders — Progress of Season — The Seal — The Netsik and
Usuk — A Bear — Our Encounter — Change in the Floe 241

CHAPTER XXL

Progress of Season — Plants in Winter — Birds Returning — Cooh-
learia— The Plants 265

CHAPTER XXII.

Mr. Bonsall's Return — His Story — ^The Bear in Camp — His Fate
—Bears at Sport— The Thaws , 272

CHAPTER XXm.

Morton's Return — His Narrative — Peabody Bay — Through the
Bergs — Bridging the Chasms — The West Land — The Dogs in
Fright — Open Water — The Ice-foot — The Polar Tides — Capes
Jackson and Morris — The Channel — Free of Ice — Birds and
Plants— Bear and Cub— The Hunt— The Death— Franklin
and Lafayette— The Antarctic Flag — Course of Tides — Mount
Parry —Victoria and Albert Mountains — Resume — The Birds
appear — The Vegetation — The Petrel — Cape Constitution —
Theories of an Open Sea — Illusory Discoveries — Changes of
Climate — A Suggestion 280

CONTENTS.

laa

!29

:41

•I

CHAPTER XXIV.

PAOB

Prospects — Speculations — The Argument — The Oonclusion — The
Reconnoissancc — The Scheme — Equipment of Boat-party —
Eider Island — Hans Island — The Cormorant Gull — Sentiment
—Our Charts — Captain Inglefield — Discrepancies — A Gale-
Fast to aFloe 810

CHAPTER XXV.
Working On — A Boat-nip — Ice-barrier — The Barrier Pack —

Progress Hopeless — ^Northumberland Island-
Glacier — Ice-cascades — Neve

-Northumberland

826

CHAPTER XXVI.

Tbe Ice-foot in August — The Pack in August — Ice-blasting —
Fox-trap Point — Warping — The Prospect — Approaching
Climax — Signal-cairn — The Record — Projected Withdrawal
—The Question — ^The Determination — The Result 887

CHAPTER XXVIl.

Discipline — Building Igloe — Tossut — Mossing — After Seal — On
the young Ice — Going too far — Seals at Home — In the Water
—In Safety— Death of- Tiger 352

CHAPTER XXVni.

The Esquimaux — Larceny — The Arrest — The Punishment — ^The
Treaty — "Unbroken Faith" — My Brother — Return from a
Hunt — Our Life — Anoatok — A Welcome — ^Treaty confirmed.. 863

CHAPTER XXIX.

Walrus-grounds — Lost on the Ice — A Break-up — Igloe of Anoa-
tok — Its Garniture — Creature Comforts — Esquimaux Music —
— Usages of the Table — New London Avenue — Scant diet-
list — Bear and Cub — A Hunt — Close Quarters — Bear-fight-
ing — Bear-habits — Bear's Liver — Rats — The Terrier Fox —
The Arctic Hare — The Ice-foot Canopy — A Wolf — Dogs and

CONTENTS.

PAsa

Wolves — Boar and Fox — The Natives and ourselves — Winter
Quarters — Morton's Return — The Light 876

CHAPTER XXX.

Journey of Morton and Hans — Reception — The Hut — The Wal-
rufi — Walrus-hunt — The Contest — Habits of Walrus — Ferocity
of the Walrus— The Victory— The Jubilee— A Sipak 404

CHAPTER XXXI.

An Aurora — Wood-cutting — Fuel-estimate — The Stove-pipes—
The Arctic Firmament — Esquimaux Astronomy — Heating-
apparatus — Meteoric Shower — A Bear — Hasty Retreat — The
Cabin by Night — Sickness Increasing — Cutting into the Brig
—The Night-watch 420

CHAPTER XXXII.

Esquimaux Sledges — Bonsall's Return — Results of the Hunt —
Return of withdrawing Party — Their Reception — The Esqui-
maux Escort — Conference — Conciliation — On Fire — Casualty
— Christmas — Ole Ben — A Journey Ahead — Setting out — A
dreary Night— Striking a Light— End of 1854 485

PAsa
876

404

GLOSSARY OF ARCTIC TERMS.

120

5«y-^c« ice of recent formation, so called beoa«se forming most readily

in bays and sheltered spots.
Berg, (see Iceberg.)

Beset, so enclosed by floating ice as to be unable to navigate.
Bight, an indentation.

Blasting, breaking the ice by gunpowder introduced in canisters
Bhnk, (see Ice-blink.)

Bore, to force through loose or recent ice by sails or steam.
Brash, ice broken up into small fragments.

Calf, detached masses from berg or glacier, rising suddenly to the
surface.

Crowds nest, a look-out place attached to the top-gallant-masthead

Dock an opening in the ice, artificial or natural, offering protection.

Ifrtft ice, detached ice in motion.

Field-ice, an extensive surface of floating ice.

Fixyrd, an abrupt opening in the coast-line, admitting the sea

F,re.h>U, a well dug in the ice as a safeguard in case of fire.

FU>e, a detached portion of a field.

Glacis, a mass of ice derived from the atmosphere, sometimes abut-
ting upon the sea.

SnmrMchs, ridges of broken ice formed by collision of fields
Ice^nchyr, a hook or grapnel adapted to take hold upon ice.

GLOSSARY OF ARCTIC TERMS.

* V

Itx4>elt, a continaod margin of ioc, which in high northern lutitudci

adheres to the coast above the ordinary level of the sea.
leeberj, a large floating mass of ice detached from a glacier.
lot-hlinkf a peculiar appearance of the atiuuHphere over distant ioe.
Ice-chisel, a long chisel for cutting holes in ice.
Icc'/nce, the abutting face of the ice-bolt.
Ice-foot, the Danish name for the limited ice-belt of the more southern

coast.
Ice-hook, a small ice-anchor.
Ice-raft, ice, whether field, floe, or detached belt, transporting foreign

matter.
Ice-tahle, a flat surface of ioe.
Land-ice, floes or fields adhering to the coast or included between

headlands.
Lane or lca(f, a navigable opening in the ice.

Nip, the condition of a vessel pressed upon by the ioe on both sides.
Old ice, ice of more than a season's growth.

Pack, a large area of floating ices driven together more or less cl'^sely.
Polynia, a Russian term for an open-water space.
Rue-raddy, a shoulder-belt to drag by.

Tide-hole, a well sunk in the ice for the purpose of observing tides.
Tracking, towing along a margin of ice.
Water-ski/, a peculiar appearance of the sky over open water.
Young ice, ice formed before the setting in of winter; recent ioe.

dca

iga

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.

CHAPTER 1.

sen

ORGANIZATION — PLAN OF OI'KRATIONS — COMPLEMENT — EQUIPMENT

— ST. John's.

kly.

In the month of December, 1852, I had the honor
of receiving special orders from the Secretary of the
Navy, to " conduct an expedition to the Arctic seas in
search of Sir John Franklin."

I had been engaged, under Lieutenant De Haven, in
the Grinnell Expedition, which sailed from the United
States in 1850 on the same errand; and I had occu-
pied myself for some months after our return in ma-
turing the scheme of a renewed effort to rescue the
missing party, or at least to resolve the mystery of its
fate. Mr. Grinnell, with a liberalitj^ altogether cha-
racteristic, had placed the Advance, in which I sailed
before, at my disposal for the cruise; and Mr. Pea-
body, of London, the generous representative of many
American sympathies, had proffered his aid largely
toward her outfit. The Geographical Society of New

York, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Phi-

ORGANIZATION.

losophical Society, — I name them in the order in
which they announced their contributions, — and a
number of scientific associations and friends of science
oesides, had come forward to help me ; and by their
aid I managed to secure a better outfit for purposes
of observation than would otherwise have been pos-
sible to a party so limited in numbers and absorbed
in otlier objects.

Ten of our little party belonged to the United
States Navy, and were attached to my command by
orders from the Department ; the others were shipped
by me for the cruise, and at salaries entirely dispro-
portioned to their services : all were volunteers. We
did not sail under the rules that govern our national
ships; but we had our own regulations, well con-
sidered and announced beforehand, and rigidly adhered
to afterward through all the vicissitudes of the expe-
dition. These included — first, absolute subordination
to the officer in command or his delegate; second,
abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, except when
dispensed by special order; third, the habitual disuse
of profane language. We had no other laws.

I had developed our plan of search in a paper
read before the Geographical Society. It was based
upon the probable extension of the land-masses of
Greenland to the Far North, — a fact at that time not
verified by travel, but sustained by the ^iialogies of
physical geography. Greenland, though looked upon
as a congeries of islands connected by interior glaciers,
was still to be regarded as a peninsula whose forma-

PLAN OP OPERATIONS.

tion recognised the same general laws as other penin-
sulas having a southern trend.

From the alternating altitudes of its mountain-
ranges, continued without depression throughout a
meridional line of nearly eleven hundred miles, I in-
ferred that this chain must extend very far to the
north, and that Greenland might not improbably ap-
proach nearer the Pole than any other known land.

Believing, then, in such an extension of this penin-
sula, and feeling that the search for Sir John Franklin
would be best promoted by a course that might lead
most directly to the open sea of which I had inferred
the existence, and that the approximation of the
meridians would make access to the West as easy
from Northern Greenland as from Wellington Channel,
and access to the East far more easy, — feeling, too.
that the highest protruding headland would be most
likely to afford some traces of the lost party, — I
named, as the inducements in favor of my scheme, —

1. Terra firma as the basis of our operations, ob-
viating the capricious character of ice-travel.

2. A due northern line, which, throwing aside the
mfluences of terrestrial radiation, would lead soonest
to the open sea, should such exist.

3. The benefit of the fan-like abutment of land, on
the north face of Greenland, to check the ice in the
course of its southern or equatorial drift, thus obviating
the great drawback of Parry in his attempts to reach
the Pole by the Spitzbergen Sea.

4. Animal life to sustain travelling parties.

Vol. I.— 2

COMPLEMENT.

5. The co-operation of the Esquimaux; settlements
of these people having been found as high as Whale
Sound, and probably extending still farther along the
coast.

We were to pass up Baffin s Bay therefore to its
most northern attainable point; and thence, pressing
on toward the Pole as far as boats or sledges could
carry us, examine the coast-lines for vestiges of the
lost party.

All hands counted, we were seventeen at the time
of sailing. Another joined us a few days afterward ;
so that the party under my command, as it reached
the coast of Greenland, consisted of

Henry Brooks, First Officer. Isaac I. Hates, M.D., Surgeon.

John Wall Wilson,
James McGary,
George Riley,
William Morton,
Christian Ohlsen,
Henry Goodfellow,

August Sontag, Astronomer.
Amos Bonsall,
George Stephenson,
George Whipple,
William Godfrey.
John Blake,

Jefferson Temple Baker,
Pierre Schubert,
Thomas Hickey.

Two of these. Brooks and Morton, had been my asso-
ciates in the first expedition ; gallant and trustworthy
men, both of them, as ever shared the fortunes or
claimed the gratitude of a commander.

The Advance had been thoroughly tried in many
encounters with the Arctic ice. She was carefully

ill

EQUIPMENT.

inspected, and needed very little to make her all a
seaman could wish. She was a hermaphrodite brig of
one hundred and forty-four tons, intended originally
for carrying heavy castings from an iron-foundry, but
strengthened afterward with great skill and at large
expense. She was a good sailer, and easily managed.
We had five boats; one of them a metallic life-boat,
the gift of the maker, Mr. Francis.

Our equipment was simple. It consisted of little
else than a quantity of rough boards, to serve for
housing over the vessel in winter, some tents of India-
rubber and canvas, of the simplest description, and
several carefully-built sledges, some of them on a
model furnished me by the kindness of the British;
Admiralty, others of my owii devising.

Our store of provisions was chosen with little regard
to luxury. We took with us some two thousand
pounds of well-made pemmican, a parcel of Borden's
meat-biscuit, some packages of an exsiccated potato,
resembling Edwards's, some pickled cabbage, and a
liberal quantity of American dried fruits and vege-
tables; besides these, "we had the salt beef and pork
of the navy ration, hard biscuit, and flour. A very
moderate supply of liquors, with the ordinary et ceteras
of an Arctic cruiser, made up the diet-list. I hoped
to procure some fresh provisions in addition before
reaching the upper coast of Greenland ; and I carried
some barrels of malt; with a compact apparatus for
brewing.

We had a moderate wardrobe of woollens, a full

ST. JOHN S.

supply of knives, needles, and other articles for barter,
a large, well-chosen library, and a valuable set of in-
struments for scientific observations.

We left New York on the 30th of May, 1853, es-
corted by several noble steamers ; and, passing slowly
on to the Narrows amid salutes and cheers of farewell,
cast our brig off from the steam-tug and put to sea.

It took us eighteen days to reach St. John's, New-
foundland. The Governor, Mr. Hamilton, a brother
of the Secretary of the Admiralty, received us with a
hearty English welcome; and all the officials, indeed
all the inhabitants, vied with each other in efforts to
advance our views. I purchased here a stock of fresh
beef, which, after removing the bones and tendons, we
compressed into rolls by wrapping it closely with twine,
according to the nautical process of marling^ and hung
it up in the rigging.

After two days we left this thriving and hospitable
city ; and, with a noble team of Newfoundland dogs on
board, the gift of Governor Hamilton, headed our brig
for the coast of Greenland.

We reached Baffin's Bay without incident. We
took deep-sea-soundings as we approached its axis,
and found a reliable depth of nineteen hundred fa-
thoms: an interesting result, as it shows that the
ridge which is known to extend between Ireland and
Newfoundland in the bed of the Atlantic is depressed
as it passes farther to the north. A few days more
found us off the coast of Greenland, making our way
toward Fiskernaes.

FISKERNAES.

CHAPTER II.

FISKERNAES — THE FISHERY — MR. LASSEN — HANS CRI8TIAN —
LICHTENFELS — SUKKERTOPPEN.

We entered the harbor of Fiskemaes on the 1st of
July, amid the clamor of its entire population, assem-
bled on the rocks to greet us. This place has an en-
viable reputation for climate and health. Except per-
haps Holsteinberg, it is the dryest station upon the
coast ; and the springs, which well through the mosses,
frequently remain unfrozen throughout the year.^^^

The sites of the different Greenland colonies seem

to have been chosen with reference to their trading

resources. The southern posts around Julianshaab and

THE FISHERY.

Fredericstahl supply the Danish market "with the valued
furs of the saddle-back seal; Sukkertoppen and Hol-
steinberg with reindeer-skins; Disco and the northern
districts with the seal and other oils. The little settle-
ment of Fiskernaes rejoices in its codfish, as well as
the other staples of the upper coast. It is situated on
Fisher's Fiord, some eight miles from the open bay,
and is approached by an island-studded channel of
moderate draught.

-Si. . Jt

OOMIAK, OR WOMEN'6 bO^I, FISHING -FlbKERNAES.

We saw the codfish here in all the stages of prepara-
tion for the table and the market ; the stockfish, dried
in the open air, without salt; crapefish, salted and
pressed; fresh-fish, a lucua a non lucendOf as salt as a
Mediterranean anchovy : we laid in supplies of all of
them. The exemption of Fiskernaes from the con-
tinued fogs, and its free exposure to the winds as they
draw up the fiord, make it a very favorable place for
drying cod. The backbone is cut out, with the excep-
tion of about four inches near the tail ; the body ex-
panded and simply hung upon a frame : the head, a

an. L A s s E iV.

luxury neglected with us, is carefully dried in a separatp
piece.

Seal and shark oils are the next in importance among
the staples of Fiskernaes/^^ The spec or blubber is pur-
chased from the natives with the usual articles of ex-
change, generally coffee and tobacco, and rudely tried
out by exposure in vats or hot expression in iron
boilers. None of the nicer processes which economy
and despatch have introduced at St. John's seem to
have reached this out-of-the-way coast. Even the
cod-livers are given to the dogs, or thrown into the
general vat.

We found Mr. Lassen, the superintending official of
the Danish Company, a hearty, single-minded man,
fond of his wife, his children, and his pipe. The visit
of our brig was, of course, an incident to be marked in
the simple annals of his colony; and, even before I
had shown him my official letter from the Court of
Denmark, he had most hospitably proffered every thing
for our accommodation. We became his guests, and
interchanged presents with him before our departure;
this last transaction enabling me to say, with con-
fidence, that the inner fiords produce noble salmon-
trout, and that the reindeer-tongue, a recognised deli-
cacy in the old and new Arctic continents, is justly
appreciated at Fiskernaes.

Feeling that our dogs would require fresh provisions,
which could hardly be spared from our supplies on
shipboard, I availed myself of Mr. Lassen's influence
to obtain an Esquimaux hunter for our party. He

1 :

I.'
1.

II A N S CHRISTIAN.

recommended to me one Hans Christian, a boy of nine-
teen, as an expert with the kayak and javelin; and
after Hans had given me a touch of his quality by
spearing a bird on the wing, I engaged him. He was
fat, good-natured, and, except under the excitements
of the hunt, as stolid and unimpressible as one of our
own Indians. He stipulated that, in addition to his

PORTRAIT OF HANS.

very moderate wages, I should leave a couple of barrels
of bread and fifty-two pounds of pork with his mother;
and I became munificent in his eyes when I added the
gift of a rifle and a new kayak. We found him very
useful ; our dogs required his services as a caterer, and
our own table was more than once dependent on his
energies. • ? i

oy of nine-
i^elin; and
quality by
. He was
Kcitemenis
ane of our
ion to iiis

1$.

^S:^

f barrels
mother;
Ided the
im very
rer, and
on his

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ta

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ii>i fc

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It
on
)f

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^ w* .«* - *^\J- '^

r*i|i

LICHTENFELS.

No one can know so well as an Arctic voyager the
value of foresight. My conscience lias often called for
the exercise of it, but my habits make it an effort. I
can hardly claim to be provident, either by impulse or
education. Yet, for some of the deficiencies of our
outfit I ought not, perhaps, to hold myself responsible.
Our stock of fresh meats was too small, and we had
no preserved vegetables : but my personal means were
limited; and I could not press more severely than a
strict necessity exacted upon the unquestioning libe-
rality of my friends.

While we were beating out of the fiord of Fisker-
naes, I had an opportunity of visiting Lichtenfels, the
ancient seat of the Greenland congregations, and one
of the three Moravian settlements. I had read much
of the history of its founders ; and it was with feelings
almost of devotion, that I drew near the scene their
labors had consecrated.^'^

As we rowed into the shadow of its rock-embayed
cove, every thing was so desolate and still, that we might
have fancied ourselves outside the world of life ; even
the dogs — those querulous, never-sleeping sentinels of
the rest of the coast — gave no signal of our approach.
Presently, a sudden turn around a projecting cliflf
brought into view a quaint old Silesian mansion, bris-
tling with irregularly-disposed chimneys, its black over-
hanging roof studded with dormer windows and crowned
with an antique belfry.

We were met, as we landed, by a couple of grave
ancient men in sable jackets and close velvet skuU-

c-.-^M^i^^-'

..,0m',»..m>\AUit , _^ ^^ ^ .-«-.-fc. »

L 1 C ;j T E N F E L S

«i i

caps, such as Vandyke or Rembrandt himself might
have painted, who gave us a quiet but kindly welcome.
All inside of the mansion-house — the furniture, the
matron, even the children — had the same time-sobered
look. The sanded floor was dried by one of those huge

MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT OF LICHTENFELS.

:ll

white-tiled stoves, which have been known for genera-
tions in the north of Europe; and the stiff-backed
chairs were evidently coeval with the first days of the
settlement. The heavy-built table in the middle of
the room was soon covered with its simple offerings of
hospitality; and we sat around to talk of the lands we
had come from and the changing wonders of the times.

SUKKERTOPPEN.

We learned that the house dated back as far as
the days of Matthew Stach ; built, no doubt, with the
beams that floated so providentially to the shore some
twenty-five years after the first landing of Egede ; and
that it had been the home of the brethren who now
greeted us, one for twenty-nine and the other twenty-
seven years. The "Congregation Hall" was within
the building, cheerless now with its empty benches ; a
c juple of French horns, all that I could associate with
the gladsome piety of the Moravians, hung on each side
the altar. Two dwelling-rooms, three chambers, ancl
a kitchen, all under the same roof, made up the one
structure of Lichtenfels.

Its kind-hearted inmates were not without intelli-
gence and education. In spite of the formal cut of
their dress, and something of the stiffness that belongs
to a protracted solitary life, it was impossible not to
recognise, in their demeanor and course of thought,
the liberal spirit that has always characterized their
church. Two of their "children," they said, had "gone
to God" last year with the scurvy ; yet they hesitated
at receiving a scanty supply of potatoes as a present
from our store.

We lingered along the coast for the next nine days,
baffled by calms and light adverse winds ; and it was
only on the lOth of July that we reached the settle-
ment of Sukkertoppen.

The Sukkertop, or Sugar-loaf, a noted landmark, is a
wild isolated peak, rising some 3000 feet from the sea.
The little colony which nestles at its base occupies a

SUKKERTOPPEN.

rocky gorge, so narrow and broken that a stairway
connects the detached groups of huts, and the tide, as
it rises, converts a part of the groundpiot into a tem-
porary island.

Of all the Danish settlements on this coast, it struck
me as the most picturesque. The rugged clifi's seemed
to blend with the grotesque structures about their base.
The trim red and white painted frame mansion, which,
in virtue of its green blinds and flagstaff, asserted the

APPROACH TO SUKKERTOPPIN.

gubernatorial dignity at Fiskernaes, was here a lowly,
dingy compound of tarred roof and heavy gables. The
dwellings of the natives, the natives themselves, and
the wild packs of dogs that crowded the beach, were all
in keeping. It was after twelve at night when we came
into port ; and the peculiar light of the Arctic summer
at this hour, — which reminds one of the effect of an
eclipse, so unlike our orthodox twilight, — bathed every
thing in gray but the northern background — an Alpine
chain standing out against a blazing crimson sky.
Sukkertoppen is a principal dep6t for reindeer-skins;

SUKKERTOPPEN.

and the natives were at this season engaged in their
summer hunt, collecting them. Four thousand had
already been sent to Denmark, and more were on
hand. I bought a stock of superior quality for fifty
cents a piece. These furs are valuable for their
lightness and warmth. They form the ordinary upper
clothing of both sexes ;(*^the seal being used only for
pantaloons and for waterproof dresses. I purchased
also all that I could get of the crimped seal-skin boots
or moccasins, an admirable article of walking gear,
much more secure against the wet than any made by
sewing. I would have added to my stock of fish ; but
the cod had not yet reached this part of the coast, and
would not 1*/ pome weeks.

Bidding . «-. »ye to the governor, whose hospitality
we had shared liberally, we put to sea on Saturday, the
10th, beating to the northward and westward in the
teeth of a heavy gale.

4 ;

Vi ''

CHAPTER m.

I ] i

i ;

Ill i

1 ^ i

COAST OF GREENLAND — SWARTE-HUK — LAST DANISH OUTPOSTS —
MELVILLE BAY — IN THE ICE — BEARS — BERQ8 — ANCHOR TO A
BERG — MIDNIGHT SUNSHINE.

The lower and middle coast of Greenland has been
visited by so many voyagers, and its points of interest
have been so often described, that I need not dwell
upon them. From the time we left Sukkertoppen, we
had the usual delays from fogs and adverse currents,
and did not reach the neighborhood of Wilcox Point,
which defines Melville Bay, until the 27th of July.

On the 16th we passed the promontory of Swarte-
huk, and were welcomed the next day at Proven
by my old friend Christiansen, the superintendent,
and found his family much as I left them three
years before. Frederick, his son, had married a native
woman, and added a summer tent, a half-breed boy,
and a Danish rifle to his stock of valuables. My
former patient, Anna, had united fortunes with a fat-
faced Esquimaux, and was the mother of a chubby
little girl. Madame Christiansen, who counted all these
and so many others as her happy progeny, was hearty

SWA KTE-IIUK.

and warm-hearted as ever. She led the household in
sewing up my skins into various serviceable garments ;
and I had the satisfaction, before I left, of completing
my stock of furs for our sledge parties.

While our brig passed, half sailing, half driftmg, up
the coast, I left her under the charge of Mr. Brooks,

POSTS —
)R TO A

IS been
nterest
; dwell
)en, we
irrents.
Point,

warte-
roven
ndent,

three
native

boy,
My

a fat-
|hubby

these

earty

SWARTE-HUK-BLACK HEAD.

and set out in the whale-boat to make my purchases of
dogs among the natives. Gathering them as we went
along from the different settlements, we reached Uper
navik, the resting-place of the Grinnell Expedition in
1851 after its winter drift, and for a couple of days
shared, as we were sure to do, the generous hospitality
of Governor Flaischer.

LAST DANISH OUTPOSTS.

U'i'

II., J

< ! I

)

! f

i \

Still coasting along, we passed in succession tht
Esquimaux settlement of Kingatok, the Kettle, — a
mountain-top so named from the resemblances of its
profile, — and finally Yotlik, the farthest point of colo-
nization ; beyond which, save the sparse headlands of
the charts, the coast may be regarded as unknown.
Then, inclining more directly toward the north, we ran
close to the Baffin Islands, — clogged with ice when I
saw them three years before, now entirely clear, —
sighted the landmark which is known as the Horse's
Head, and, passing the Duck Islands, where the Ad-
vance grounded in 1851, bore away for Wilcox Point.^^^

We stood lazily along the coast, with alternations of
perfect calm and ofi'-shore breezes, generally from the
south or east; but on the morning of the 27th of July,
as we neared the entrance of Melville Bay, one of those
heavy ice-fogs, which I have described in my former
narrative as characteristic of this region, settled around
us. We could hardly see across the decks, and yet
were sensible of the action of currents carrying us we
knew not where. By the time the sun had scattered
the mist, Wilcox"Point was to the south of us ; and our
little brig, now fairly in the bay, stood a fair chance of
drifting over toward the Devil's Thumb, which then
bore east of north. The bergs which infest this region,
and which have earned for it among the whalers the
title of the "Bergy Hole," showed themselves all around
us : we had come in among them in the fog.

It was a whole day's work, towing with both boats ;
but toward evening we had succeeded in crawling off

|! 11

MELVILLE BAT.

n the
tie, — a
of its
f colo-
nds of
mown,
we ran
vhen I
lear, —
Horse's
he Ad-
?oint/^>
ions of
om the
»f July,
)f those
former
around
|nd yet
us we
lattered
,nd our
^nce of
then
|region,
rs the
ground

boats ;
Img off

shore, and were doubly rewarded for our labor with a
wind. I had observed with surprise, while we were
floating near the coast, that the land ice was already
broken and decayed; and I was aware, from what I
had read, as well as what I had learned from whalers
and observed myself of the peculiarities of this naviga-
tion, that the in-shore track was in consequence beset
with difficulty and delays. I made up my mind at
once. I would stand to the westward until arrested by
the pack, and endeavor to double Melville Bay by an
outside passage. A chronicle of this transit, condensed
from my log-book, will have interest for navigators : —

"July 28, Thursday, 6 a.m. — Made the offsetting
streams of the pack, and bore up to the northward and
eastward; heading for Cape York in tolerably free
water.

"July 29, Friday, 9i a.m.— Made loose ice, and very
rotten ; the tables nearly destroyed, and much broken
by wave action : water-sky to the northward. Entered
this ice, intending to work to the northward and east-
ward,' above or about Sabine Islands, in search of the
northeastern land-ice. The breeze freshened off shore,
breaking up and sending out the floes, the leads rapidly
closing. Fearing a besetment, I determined to fasten
to an iceberg; and after eight hours of very heavy
labor, warping, heading, and. planting ice-anchors, sucr
oeeded in effecting it.

"We had hardly a breathing spell, before we were
startled. by a set of loud crackling sounds above us;
and small fragments of ice not larger than a walnut

Vol. I.— 8

IN THE ICE — BEARS.

I'l

I' i

began to dot the water like the first drops of a sum-
mer shower. The indications were too plain : we had
barely time to cast off before the face of the berg fell
in ruins, crashing like near artillery.

FASTENED TO AN iCEBERb.

"Our position in the mean time had been critical, a
gale blowing off the shore, and the floes closing and
scudding rapidly. We lost some three hundred and
sixty fathoms of whale line, which were caught in the
floes and had to be cut away to release us from the
drift. It was a hard night for boatwork, particularly

IN THE ICE — BERGS.

with those of the party who were taking their first
lessons in floe navigation.

"July 30, Saturday. — ^Again moored alongside of an
iceberg. The wind off shore, but hauling to the south-
ward, with much free water.

"12 M. — The fog too dense to see more than a
quarter of a mile ahead j occasional glimpses through
it show no practicable leads. Land to the northeast
very rugged : I do not recognise its marks. Two lively
bears seen about 2 A. M. The * Red Boat,' with Petersen
and Hayes, got one; I took one of the quarter-boats,
and shot the other.

" Holding on for clearer weather.

"July 31, Sunday. — Our open water beginning to
fill up very fast with loose ice from the south, went
around the edges of the lake in my gig, to hunt for a
more favorable spot for the brig ; and, after five hours'
hard heaving, we succeeded in changing our fasts to
another berg, quite near the free water. In our pre-
sent position, the first change must, I think, liberate
us. In one hour after we reached it, the place we left
was consolidated into pack. We now lie attached to a
low and safe iceberg, only two miles from the open sea,
which is rapidly widening toward us under the in-
fluence of the southerly winds.

"We had a rough time in working to our present
quarters, in what the whalers term an open hole. We
drove into a couple of bergs, carried away our jib-boom
and shrouds, and destroyed one of our quarter-boats.

"August 1, Monday. — Beset thoroughly with drift-

1^*

ANCHOR TO A BERG.

ing ice, small rotten floe-pieces. But for our berg, we
would now be carried to the south j as it is, we drift
with it to the north and east.

" 2 A. M. — The continued pressure against our berg has
begun to aflect it; and, like the great floe all around us,

MELVILLE BAY.

it has taken up its line of march toward the south. At
the risk of being entangled, I ordered a light line to be
carried out to a much larger berg, and, after four hours'
labor, made fast to it securely. This berg is a moving
breakwater, and of gigantic proportions: it keeps its
course steadily toward the north, while the loose ice

MIDNIGHT SUNSHINE.

drifts by on each side, leaving a wake of black water
for a mile behind us.

"Our position last night, by midnight altitude of the
sun, gave us 75° 27'; to-day at noon, with a more re-
liable horizon, we made 75° 37'; showing that, in spite
of all embarrassments, we still move to the north. We
are, however, nearer than I could wish to the land, — a
blank wall of glacier.

"About 10 P.M. the immediate danger was past; and,
espying a lead to the northeast, we got under weigh,
and pushed over in spite of the drifting trash. The
men worked with a will, and we bored through the
floes in excellent style."

On our road we were favored with a gorgeous spec-
tacle, which hardly any excitement of peril could have
made ns overlook. The midnight sun came out over
the northern crest of the great berg, our late "fast
friend," kindling variously-colored fires on every part
of its surface, and making the ice around us one great
resplendency of gemwork, blazing carbuncles, and rubies
and molten gold.

CHAPTER IV.

lil

liORINQ THE FLOES — SUCOESSt'UL PASSAGE THBOUQH MZLVILLK
BAY — ICE NAVIGATION — PASSAGE OF TUE MIDDLE PACK — IHS
NORTH WATER.

Our brig went crunching through all this jewelry;
and, after a tortuous progress of five miles, arrested
here and there by tongues which required the saw and
ice-chisels, fitted herself neatly between two floes. Here
she rested till toward morning, when the leads opened
again, and I was able, from the crow's-nest, to pick our
way to a larger pool some distance ahead. In this we
beat backward and forward, like China fish seeking
an outlet from a glass jar, till the fog caught us again;
and so the day ended.

"August 3, Wednesday. — The day did not promise
well ; but as the wind was blowing in feeble airs from
the north-northwest, I thought it might move the ice,
and sent out the boats for a tow. But, after they had
had a couple of hours of unprofitable work, the breeze
freshened, and the floes opened enough to allow us to
beat through them. Every thing now depended upon
practical ice knowledge ; and, as I was not willing to

,|i

THROUGH MELVILLE BAT.

truHt any one else in selecting the leads for our
course, I have spent the whole day with McGary at
mastrhead, — a somewhat confined and unfavorable pre-
paration for a journal entry.

" I am much encouraged, however; this off-shore wind
is favoring our escape. The icebergs too have assisted
us to hold our own against the rapid passage of the
broken ice to the south ; and since the larger floes have
opened into leads, we have nothing to do but to follow

THE NORTH WATER.

them carefully and boldly. As for the ice-necks, and
prongs, and rafts, and tongues, the capstan and wind-
lass have done a great deal to work us through them j
but a great deal more, a brave headway and our little
brig's hard head of oak.

"Midnight. — ^We are clear of the bay and its myriads
of discouragements. The North Water, our highway
to Smith's Sound, is fairly ahead.

"It is only eight days ago that we made Wilcox

: I

|} I!

THROUGH MELVILLE BAT.

Point, and seven since we fairly left the inside track of
the whalers, and made our push for the west. I did so,
not without full consideration of the chances. Let me
set down what my views were and are."

The indentation known as Melville Bay is protected
by its northern and northeastern coast from the great
ice and current drifts which follow the axis of Bafl&n's
Bay. The interior of the country which bounds upon
it is the seat of extensive glaciers, which are constantly
shedding oflf icebergs of the largest dimensions. The
greater bulk of these is below the water-line, and the
depth to which they sink when floating subjects them
to the action of the deeper sea currents, while their
broad surface above the water is of course acted on by
the wind. It happens, therefore, that thej' are found
not unfrequently moving in different directions from
the floes around them, and preventing them for a time
from freezing into a united mass. Still, in the late
winter, when the cold has thoroughly set in, Melville
Bay becomes a continuous field of ice, from Cape York
to the Devil's Thumb.

On the return of milder weather, the same causes re-
new their action ; and that portion of the ice which is
protected from the outside drift, and entangled among
the icebergs that crowd the bay, remains permanent
long after that which is outside is in motion. Step by
step, as the year advances, its outer edge breaks off"; yet
its inner curve frequently remains unbroken through
the entire summer. This is the "fast ice" of the
whalers, so important to their progress in the earlier

•' i

ICE NAVIGATION.

portions of the season; for, however it may be en-
croached upon by storms or currents, they can gene-
rally find room to track their vessels along its solid
margin; or if the outside ice, yielding to oflf-shore
winds, happens to recede, the interval of water be-
tween the fast and the drift allows them not unfre-
quently to use their sails.

It is therefore one of the whalers' canons of naviga-
tion, which they hold to most rigidly, to follow the
shore. But it is obvious that this applies only to the
early periods of the Arctic season, when the land ice of
the inner bay is comparatively unbroken, as in May or
June, or part of July, varying of course with the cir-
cumstances. Indeed, the bay is seldom traversed ex-
cept in these months, the northwest fisheries of Pond's
Bay, and the rest, ceasing to be of value afterward.
Later in the summer, the inner ice breaks up into large
floes, moving with wind and tide, that embarrass the
navigator, misleading him into the notion that he is
attached to his "fast," when in reality he is accom-
panying the movements of an inunense floating ice-
field.

I have been surprised sometimes that our national
ships of discovery and search have not been more
generally impressed by these views. Whether the
season has been mild or severe, the ice fast and solid,
or broken and in drift, they ha^^e followed in August
the same course which the whalers do in June, run-
ning their vessels into the curve of the bay in search
of the fast ice which had disappeared a month before,

ft'

Hit

PASSAGE OF THE MIDDLE PACE.

(

and involving themselves in a labyrinth of floes. It
was thus the Advance was caught in her second sea-
son, under Captain De Haven; while the Prince Albert,
leaving us, worked a successful passage to the west.
So too the North Star, in 1849, was carried to the
northward, and hopelessly entangled there. Indeed, it
is the common story of the disasters and delays that
we read of in the navigation of these regions.

Now I felt sure, from the known openness of the
season of 1852 and the probable mildness of the fol-
lowing winter, that we could scarcely hope to make
use of the land ice for tracking, or to avail ourselves
of leads along its margin by canvas. And this opinion
was confirmed by the broken and rotten appearance
of the floes during our coastwise drift at the Duck
Islands. I therefore deserted the inside track of the
whalers, and stood to the westward, until we made the
first streams of the middle pack; and then, skirting
the pack to the northward, headed in slowly for the
middle portion of the bay above Sabine Islands. My
object was to double, as it were, the loose and drifting
ice that had stood in my way, and, reaching Cape
York, as nearly as might be, trust for the remainder
of my passage to warping and tracking by the heavy
floes. "We succeeded, not without some laborious
boring and serious risks of entanglement among the
broken icefields. But we managed, in every instance,
to combat this last form of difficulty by attaching our
vessel to large icebergs, which enabled us to hold our
own, however swiftly the surface floes were pressing

r /

THE NORTH WATER.

by us to the south. Four days of this scarcely varied
yet exciting navigation brought us to the extended
fields of the pack, and a fortunate north wester opened
a passage for us through them. We are now in the
North Water. <«>

^nf^mmummtimi

^ i

CHAPTER V.

CRIMSON CLIFFS OF BEVERLEY — HAKLUYT AND NORTHUMBERLAND
— R'ED SNOW — THE GATES OF SMITll's STRAITS — CAPE ALEXAN-
DER — CAPE HATHERTON — FAREWELL CAIRN — LIFE-BOAT DEP6t
— ESQUIMAUX RUINS FOUND — GRAVES — FLAGSTAFF POINT.

My diary continues : —

" We passed the * Crimson Cliffs' of Sir John Ross in
the forenoon of August 5th. The patches of red snow,
from which they derive their name, could be seen
clearly at the distance of ten miles from the coast. It
had a fine deep rose hue, not at all like the brown
stain which I noticed when I was here before. All the
gorges and ravines in which the snows had lodged were
deeply tinted with it. I had no difficulty now in justi-
fying the somewhat poetical nomenclature which Sir
John Franklin applied to this locality ; for if the snowy
surface were more diffused, as it is no doubt earlier in
the season, crimson would be the prevailing color.

"Late at night we passed Conical Rock, the most
insulated and conspicuous landmark of this coast ; and,
still later, Wostenholm and Saunder's Islands, and
Oomenak, the place of the * North Star's' winter-quar-

HAKLUYT AND NORTHUMBERLAND.

ters : — an admirable day's run ; and so ends the 5th of
August. We are standing along, with studding-sails
set, and open water before us, fast nearing our scene
of labor. We have already got to work sewing up
blanket bags and preparing sledges for our campaign-
ings on the ice."

We reached Hakluyt Island in the course of the next
day. I have only this wood-cut to give an idea of its

HAKLUrT POINT, FROM NORTH-NORTHWEST.

northern face. The tall spire, probably of gneiss, rises
six hundred feet above the water-level, and is a valuable
landmark for very many miles around. We were des-
tined to become familiar with it before leaving this
region. Both it and Northumberland, to the southeast
of it, aflforded studies of color that would have re-
warded an artist. The red snow was diversified with
large surfaces of beautifully-green mosses and alope-

THE GATES OF SMITH S STRAITS.

curus ,^\ind where the sandstone was bare, it threw in a
rich shade of brown.

The coast to the north of Cape AthoU is of broken
greenstone, in terraces. Nearing Hakluyt Island, the
truncated and pyramidal shapes of these rocks may
still be recognised in the interior; but the coast pre-
sents a coarse red sandstone, which continues well
characterized as far as Cape Saumarez. The nearly ho-
rizontal strata of the sandstone thus exhibited contrast
conspicuously with the snow which gathers upon their
exposed ledges. In fact, the parallelism and distinct-
ness of the lines of white and black would have dis-
satisfied a lover of the picturesque. Porphyritic rocks,
however, occasionally broke their too great uniformity ;
occasionally, too, the red snow showed its colors ; and
at intervals of very few miles — indeed, wherever the
disrupted masses offered a passage-way — ^glaciers were
seen descending toward the water's edge. All the back
country appeared one great rolling distance of glacier.

"August 6, Saturday. — Cape Alexander and Cape
Isabella, the headlands of Smith's Sound, are now in
sight; and, in addition to these indications of our pro-
gress toward the field of search, a marked swell has
set in after a short blow from the northward, just such
as might be looked for from the action of the wind
upon an open water-space beyond.

"Whatever it may have been when Captain Ingle-
field saw- it a year ago, the aspect of this coast is now
most uninviting.^'^ As we look far off to the west, the
snow comes down with heavy uniformity to the water'^i

CAPE ALEXANDER.

edge, and the patches of land seem as rare as the sum-
mer's snow on the hills about Sukkertoppen and Fisk-
rnaes. On the right we have an array of cliffs,
.vhose frowning grandeur might dignify the entrance
to the proudest of southern seas. I should say they

CAPE ALEXANDER.

would average from four to five hundred yards in
height, with some of their precipices eight hundred feet
at a single steep. They have been until now the Arctic
pillars of Hercules; and they look down on us as if
they challenged our right to pass. Even the sailors are
impressed, as we move under their dark shadow. One

It.aiR

L*' >

CAPE HATHERTON.

of the officers said to our look-out, that the gulls and
eider that dot the water about us were as enlivening as
the white sails of the Mediterranean. *Yes, sir,' he re-
'joined, with sincere gravity; ^yes, sir, in proportion to
their size.'"

" August 7, Sunday. — We have left Cape Alexander

HARTSTENE BAY— LEAVINQ CAPE ALEXANDER.

to the south ; and Littleton Island is before us, hiding
Cape Hatherton, the latest of Captain Inglefield's posi-
tively-determined headlands. We are fairly inside of
Smith's Sound.

" On our left is a capacious bay ; and deep in its north-
eastern recesses we can see a glacier issuing from a fiord."

■

re-

ler

Ung

osi-

LIFE-BOAT DEPdT.

"We knew this bay familiarly afterward, as the re-
sidence of a body of Esquimaux with whom we had
many associations; but we little dreamt then that it
would bear the name of a gallant friend, who found
there the first traces of our escape. A small cluster of
rocks, hidden at times by the sea, gave evidence of the
violent tidal action about them.

"As we neared the west end of Littleton Island,
after breakfast this morning, I ascended to the crow's-
nest, and saw to my sorrow the ominous blink of ice
ahead/'^ The wind has been freshening for a couple of
days from the northward, and if it continues it will
bring down the floes on us.

" My mind has been made up from the first that we
are to force our way to the north as far as the elements
will let us; and I feel the importance therefore of
securing a place of retreat, that in case of disaster we
may not be altogether at large. Besides, we have now
reached one of the points, at which, if any one is to
follow us, he might look for some trace to guide him."

I determined to leave a cairn on Littleton Island,
and to deposit a boat with a supply of stores in some
convenient place near it. One of our whale-boats had
been crushed in Melville Bay, and Francis's metallic
life-boat was the only one I could spare. Its length
did not exceed twenty feet, and our crew of twenty
could hardly stow themselves in it with even a few
days' rations ; but it was air-chambered and buoyant.

Selecting from our stock of provisions and field
equipage such portions as we might by good luck be

Vol. I.— 4

ESQUIMAUX RUINS FOUND.

able to dispense with, and adding with reluctant libe-
rality some blankets and a few yards of India-rubber
cloth, we set out in search of a spot for our first depdt.
It was essential that it should be upon the mainland ;
for the rapid tides might so wear away the ice as to
make an island inaccessible to a foot-party ; and yet it
was desirable that, while secure against the action of
sea and ice, it should be approachable by boats. We
found such a place after some pretty cold rowing. It
was off the northeast wipe of Littleton, and bore
S.S.E. from Cape Hatherton, which loomed in the dis-
tance above the fog. Here we buried our life-boat
with her little cargo. We placed along her gunwale
the heaviest rocks we could handle, and, filling up the
interstices with smaller stones and sods of andromeda
and moss, poured sand and water among the layers.
This, frozen at once into a solid mass, might be
hard enough, we hoped, to resist the claws of the
polar bear.

We found to our surprise that we were not the first
human beings who had sought a shelter in this deso-
late spot. A few ruined walls here and there showed
that it had once been the seat of a rude settlement;
and in the little knoll which we cleared away to cover
in our storehouse of valuables, we found the mortal
remains of their former inhabitants.

Nothing can be imagined more sad and homeless
than these memorials of extinct life. Hardly a ves-
tige of growth was traceable on the bare ice-rubbed
rocks; and the huts resembled so much the broken

ESQUIMAUX GRAVES.

fragments that surrounded them, that at first sight it
was hard to distinguish one from the other. Walrus
bones lay about in all directions, showing that this
animal had furnished the staple of subsistence. There
were some remains too of the fox and the narwhal;
but I found no signs of the seal or reindeer.

ESQUIMAUX RUINED H U T S- L I F E-B A r COVE.

These Esquimaux have no mother earth to receive
their dead ; but they seat them as in the attitude of
repose, the knees drawn close to the body, and enclose
them in a sack of skins. The implements of the living
man are then grouped around him ; they are covered
mth a rude dome of stones, and a cairn is piled above.
This simple cenotaph will remain intact for generation
after generation. The Esquimaux never disturb a
grave.

From one of the graves I took several perforated

ESQUIMAUX IMPLEMENTS.

and rudely-fashioned pieces of walrus ivory, evidently
parts of sledge and lance gear. But wood must have
been evcii more scarce with them than with the
natives of Baffin's Bay north of the Melville glacier.

Vhi'tl't Sjitar.

Pot Book.

ESQUIMAUX IMPLEMENTS, FROM ORAVCS.

We found, for instance, a child's toy spear, which,
though elaborately tipped with ivory, had its wooden
handle pieced out of four separate bits, all carefully
patched and bound with skin. No piece was more
than six inches in length or half an inch in thickness.

FLAGSTAFF POINT.

itly
ave
the
jier.

We found other traces of Esquimaux, both on Lit-
tleton Island and in Shoal- Water Cove, near it. They
consisted of huts, graves, places of deposit for meat,
and rocks arranged as foxtraps. These were evidently
very ancient ; but they were so well preserved, that it
was impossible to say how long they had been aban-
doned, whether for fifty or a hundred years before.

Our stores deposited, it was our next office to erect
a beacon and intrust to it our tidings. We chose for
this purpose the Western Cape of Littleton Island,
as more conspicuous than Cape Hatherton ; built our
cairn ; wedged a staff into the crevices of the rocks ;
and, spreading the American flag, hailed its folds with
three cheers as they expanded in the cold midnight
breeze. These important duties performed, — the more
lightly, let me say, for this little flicker of enthusiasm,
— ^we rejoined the brig early in the morning of the
7th, and forced on again toward the north, beating
against wind and tide.

ich,
den

nore

ess.

CHAPTER VI.

CLOSING WITH THE ICE — REFUGE HARBOR — DOGS — WALRUS —
NARWHAL — ICE-HILLS — BEACON-CAIRN — ANCHORED TO A BERG
— ESQUIMAUX HUTS — PETER FORCE BAY — CAPE CORNELIUS
GRINNELL — SHALLOWS — A GALE — THE RECREANT DOGS.

IV, '

ti:

"August 8, Monday. — I had seen the ominous blink
ahead of us from the Flagstaff Point of Littleton Island ;
and before two hours were over, we closed with ice to
the westward. It was in the form of a pack, very
heavy, and several seasons old; but we stood on,
boring the loose stream-ice, until we had passed some
forty miles beyond Cape Life-boat Cove. Here it be-
came impossible to force our way farther ; and, a dense
fog gathering round us, we were carried helplessly to
the eastward. We should have been forced upon the
Greenland coast ; but an eddy close in shore released
us for a few moments from the direct pressure, and we
were fortunate enough to get out a whale-line to the
rocks and warp into a protecting niche.

"In the evening I ventured out again with the change
of tide, but it was only to renew a profitless conflict.
The flood, encountering the southward movement of

W 111

i 1

REFUGE HARBOR.

the floes, drove them in upon the shore, and with such
ictpidity and force as to carry the smaller bergs along
with them. We were too happy, when, after a manful
struggle of some hours, we found ourselves once more
out of their range.

" Our new position was rather nearer to the south
than the one wf had left. It Was in a beautiful oove,

REFUGE HARBOR.

landlocked from east to west, and accessible only from
the north. Here we moored our vessel securely by
hawsers to the rocks, and a whale-line carried out to
the narrow entrance. At McGary's suggestion, I called
it 'Fog Inlet;' but we afterward remembered it more
thankfully as Refuge Harbor. <*•*)

"August 9, Tuesday. — It may be noted among our
little miseries that we have more than fifty dogs or

DOGS — WALRUS — NARWHAL.

I ^

board, the majority of whom might rather be charac-
terized as * ravening wolves.' To feed this family,
upon whose strength our progress and success depend,
IS really a difficult matter. The absence of shore or
land ice to the south in Baffin's Bay has prevented
our rifles from contributing any material aid to our
commissariat. Our two bears lasted the cormorants
but eight days; and to feed them upon the meagre
allowance of two pounds of raw flesh every other day
is an almost impossible necessity. Only yesterday
they were ready to eat the caboose up, for I would
not give them pemmican. Corn meal or beans, which
Penny's dogs fed on, they disdain to touch; and salt
junk would kill them.

"Accordingly, I started out this morning to hunt
walrus, with which the Sound is teeming. We saw at
least fifty of these dusky monsters, and approached
many groups within twenty paces. But our rifle-balls
reverberated from their hides like cork pellets from a
pop-gun target, and we could not get within harpoon
distance of one. Later in the day, however, Ohlsen,
climbing a neighboring hill to scan the horizon and
see if the ice had slackened, found the dead carcass of
a narwhal or sea-unicorn : a happy discovery, which
has secured for us at least six hundred pounds of good
fetid wholesome flesh. The length of the narwhal was
fourteen feet, and his process, or *horn,' from the tip
to its bony encasement, four feet — hardly half the size
of the noble specimen I presented tx) the Academy of
Natural Sciences after my last cruise.^"^ We built a fire

(

(^■.•l»

ICE-HILLS.

on the rocks, and melted down his blubber : he will
yield readily two barrels of oil.

"While we were engaged getting our narwhal on
board, the wind hauled round to the southwest, and
the ice began to travel back rapidly to the north.
This looks as if the resistance to the northward was
not very permanent : there must be either great areas

ICE-HILLS ON THE COAST ACOVE REFUGE HARBOR.

tip

of relaxed ice or open-water leads along the shore.
But the choking up of the floes on our eastern side
still prevents an attempt at progress. This ice is the
heaviest I have seen; and its accumulation on the
coast produces barricades, more like bergs than hum-
mocks. One of these rose perpendicularly more than
sixty feet. Except the * ice-hills' of Admiral Wrangell,

' I

' Ml'

if''

III

BEACON-CAIRN.

on the coast of Arctic Asia, nothing of ice-upheaval
has ever been described equal to this/"^

" Still, anxious beyond measure to get the vessel re-
leased, I forced a boat through the drift to a point
about a mile north of us, h- a which I could overlook
the sound. There was nothing to be seen but a melan-
choly extent of impacted drift, stretching northward
as far as the eye could reach. I erected a small beacon-
cairn on the point ; and, as I had neither paper, pencil,
nor pennant, I burnt a K. with powder on the rock,
and scratching 0. K. with a pointed bullet on my cap-
lining, hoisted it as the representative of a flag."*

With the small hours of Wednesday morning came
a breeze from the southwest, which was followed by
such an apparent relaxation of the floes at the slack-
water of flood-tide that I resolved to attempt an escape
from our little basin. We soon warped to a narrow
cul-de-sac between the main pack on one side and the
rocks on the other, and after a little trouble made our-
selves fast to a berg.

There was a small indentation ahead, which I had
noticed on my boat reconnoissance ; and, as the breeze
seemed to be freshening, I thought we might venture
for it. But the floes were too strong for us : our eight-
inch hawser parted like a whip-cord. There was no

* It was our custom, in obedience to a general order, to build cairns
and leave notices at every eligible point. One of these, rudely marked,
much as 1 have described this one, was found by Captain Hartstene,
and, strange to say, was the only direct memorial of my whereabouts
communicated from some hundred of beacons.

It.

ANCHORED TO A BERG.

1 T

time for hesitation. I crowded sail and bored into the
drift, leaving Mr. Sontag and three men upon the ice :
we did not reclaim them till, after some hours of adven-
ture, we brought up under the lee of a grounded berg.

I pass without notice our successive efforts to work
the vessel to seaward through the floes. Each had it.s
somewhat varied incidents, but all ended in failure to
make progress. We found ourselves at the end of the
day's struggles close to the same imperfectly-defined
headland which I have marked on the chart as Cape
Cornelius Grinnell, yet separated from it by a barrier
of ice, and with our anchors planted in a berg.

In one of the attempts which I made with my boat
to detect some pathway or outlet for the brig, I came
upon a long rocky ledge, with a sloping terrace on its
southern face, strangely green with sedges and poppies.
I had learned to refer these unusual traces of vegeta-
tion to the fertilizing action of the refuse which gathers
about the habitations of men. Yet I was startled, as I
walked round its narrow and dreary limits, to find an
Esquimaux hut, so perfect in its preservation that a
few hours' labor would have rendered it habitable.
There were bones of the walrus, fox, and seal, scattered
round it in small quantities; a dead dog was found
close by, with the flesh still on his bones ; and, a little
farther off, a bear-skin garment that retained its fur.
In fact, for a deserted homestead, the scene had so
little of the air of desolation about it that it cheered
my good fellows perceptibly.

The scenery beyond, upon the main shore, might

ESQUIMAUX HUTS.

ES-OIMAUX HUT,

have impressed men whose thoughts wore not other-
wise absorbed. An opening througli the cliffs of trap
rock disclosed a valley slope and di;-itant rolling hills, —
in fine contrast with the black precipices in front, —
and a stream that came tumbling through the gorge :
we could hear its pastoral music even on board the
brig, when the ice clamor intermitted.

The water around was so shoal that at three hun-
dred yards from the shore we had but tweh'^e-feet
soundings at low tide. Gr;jat rocks, well worn and
rounded, that must have been floated out by the ice at
some former period, rose above the water at a half
mile's distance, and the inner drift had fastened itself
about them in fantastic shapes. The bergs, too, were
aground well out to seaward ; and the cape aheau was
completely packed with the ice which they hemmed

A'i

PETER FORCE BAT.

in. Tied up as we were to our own berg, we were for
the time in safety, though making no progress; but to
cast loose and tear out into the pack was to risk pro-
gress in the wrong direction.

"August 12, Friday. — After careful consideration, 1
have determined to try for a further northing, by loi-

ns
ed

PREPARING TO ENTER THE S H A L L O W S — B E E V I L L E REACH

FORCE ESAY.

lowing the coast-line. At certain stages of the tides —
generally from three-quarters flood to the commence-
ment of the ebb — the ice evidently relaxes enough to
give a partial opening close along the land. The
strength of our vessel we have tested pretty tho-
roughly : if she will bear the frequent groundings that
we must look for, I am persuaded we may seek these
openings, and warp along them from one lump of

^-ff

CAPE CORNELIUS GRINNELL.

grounded ice to another. The water is too shoal for
ice masses to float in that are heavy enough to make
a nip very dangerous. I am preparing the little brig
for this novel navigation, clearing her decks, securing
things below with extra lashings, and getting out
spars, to serve in case of necessity as shores to keep
her on an even keel.

CAPE CORNELIUS GRINNELL.

"August 13, Saturday. — ^As long as we remain en-
tangled in the wretched shallows of this bight, the long
precipitous cape aheaa may prevent the north wind
from clearing us ; and the nearness of the cliffs will
probably give us squalls and flaws. Careful angular
distances taken between the shore and the chain of
bergs to seaward show that these latter do not budge
with either wind or tide. It looks as if we were to

SHALLOWS — A GALE.

have a change of weather. Is it worth another attempt
to warp out and see if we cannot double these bergs to
seaward ? I have no great time to spare : the young
ice forms rapidly in quiet spots during the entire
twenty-four hours.

"August 14, Sunday. — The change of weather yester-
day tempted us to forsake our shelter and try another
tussle with the ice. We met it as soon as we ventured
out ; and the day closed with a northerly progress, by
hard warping, of about three-quarters of a mile. The
men were well tired; but the weather looked so
threatening, that I had them up again at three o'clock
this morning. My immediate aim is to attain a low
rocky island which we see close into the shore, about
a mile ahead of us.

"These low shallows are evidently caused by the
rocks and foreign materials discharged from the great
valley. It is impossible to pass inside of them, for the
huge boulders run close to the shore.^"^ Yet there is no
such thing as doubling them outside, without leaving
the holding-ground of the coast and thrusting our-
selves into the drifting chaos of the pack. If- we can
only reach the little islet ahead of us, make a lee of
its rocky crests, and hold on there until the winds give
us fairer prospects !

"Midnight. — We did reach it; and just in time. At
11*30 P.M. our first whale-line was made fast to the
rocks. Ten minutes later, the breeze freshened, and
so directly in our teeth that we could not have gained
our mooring-ground. It is blowing a gale now, and

THE RECREANT DOGS.

the ice driving to the northward before it; but we
can rely upon our hawsers. All behind us is now
solid pack.

"August 15, Monday. — We are still fast, and, from
the grinding of the ice against the southern cape, the
wind is doubtlessly blowing a strong gale from the
southward. Once, early this morning, the wind shifted
by a momentary flaw, and came from the northward,
throwing our brig with slack hawser upon the rocks.
Though she bumped heavily she started nothing, till
we got out a stern-line to a j^rounded iceberg.

"August 16, Tuesday. — Fast still; the wind dying
out and the ice outside closing steadily. And here,
for all I can see, we must hang on for the winter, un-
less Providence shall send a smart ice-shattering breeze,
to open a road for us to the northward.

" More bother with these wretched dogs I worse than
a street of Constantinople emptied upon our decks;
the unruly, thieving, wild-beast pack! Not a bear's
paw, or an Esquimaux cranium, or basket of mosses,
or any specimen whatever, can leave your hands for a
moment without their making a rush at it, and, after
a yelping scramble, swallowing it at a gulp. I have
seen them attempt a whole feather bed ; and here, this
very morning, one of my Karsuk brutes has eaten up
two entire birds'-nests which I had just before gathered
from the rocks ; feathers, filth, pebbles, and moss, — a
peckful at the least. One was a perfect specimen of
the nest of the tridactyl, the other of the big burgo-
master.

THE RECREANT DOGS.

" When we reach a Hoe, or berg, or temporary har-
bor, they start out in a body, neither voice nor lash
restraining them, and scamper off like a drove of hogs
in an Illinois oak-opening. Two of our largest left
themselves behind at Fog Inlet, and we had to send
off a boat party to-day to their rescue. It cost a pull
through ice and water of about eight miles before they
found the recreants, fat and saucy, beside the carcass
of the dead narwhal. After more than an hour spent
in attempts to catch them, one was tied and brought
on board ; but the other suicidal scamp had to be left
tohisfate."<'^>

phis

-a
of

JO-

DEGRADED BERQ.

Vol. I.— 6

mi^'

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

I I.I
11.25

£ Bt |2.0

1.4 11.6

— 6"

Sciences
Corporation

ri>^

23 WIST MAIN STRUT

WIBSTIR,N.Y. M5M

(7I6)«73-4S03

^%^^^

%%''

i'i

? I

i I

CHAPTER Vn.

THE ERIO ON A BEBQ — GODSEND LEDQE — HOLDING ON — ADRIPT—
SCUDDING — TOWED BY A BERG — UNDER THE CLIFFS — NIPPINGS
— AGROUND — ICE PRESSURE — AT REST.

"August 16, Tuesday. — The formation of the young
ice seems to he retarded by the clouds: its greatest
nightly freezing has been three-quarters of an inch.
But I have no doubt, if we had continued till now in
our little Refuge Harbor, the winter would have closed
around us, without a single resource or chance for
escape. Where we are now, I cannot help thinking
our embargo must be temporary. Ahead of us to the
northeast is the projecting headland, which terminates
the long shallow curve of Bedevilled Reach. This
serves as a lee to the northerly drift, and forms a
bight into which the south winds force the ice. The
heavy floes and bergs that are aground outside of us
have encroached upon the lighter ice of the reach, and
choke its outlet to the sea. But a wind off shore
would start this whole pack, and leave us free. Mean-
while, for our comfort, a strong breeze is setting in

THE ERIC ON A BERG.

from the southward, and the probabilities are that it
will freshen to a gale.

"August 17, Wednesday. — This morning I pushed
out into the drift, with the usefril little specimen of
naval architecture, which I call *Eric the Red,* but
which the crew have named, less poetically, the *Red

THI RED BOAT FORCED ON AN ICEBERO.

Boat.' We succeeded in forcing her on to one of the
largest bergs of the chain ahead, and I climbed it, in
the hope of seeing something like a lead outside, which
might be reached by boring. But there was nothing
of the sort. The ice looked as if perhaps an off-shore
wind might spread itj but, save a few meagre pools,

1,1

I
I

GODSEND LEDGE.

which from our lofty eminence looked like the merest
ink-spots on a table-cloth, not a mark of water could be
seen. I could see our eastern or Greenland coast ex-
tending on, headland after headland, no less than five
of them in number, until they faded into the mys-
terious North. Every thing else, Ice !

" Up to this time we have had but two reliable ob-
servations to determine our geographical position since
entering Smith's Sound. These, however, were care-
fully made on shore by theodolite ana artificial hori-
zons; and, if our five chronometers, rated but two
weeks ago at Upemavik, are to be depended upon,
there can be no correspondence between my own and
the Admiralty charts north of latitude 78° 18'. Not
only do I remove the general coast-line some two de-
grees in longitude to the eastward, but its trend is
altered sixty degrees of angular measurement. No
landmarks of my predecessor. Captain Inglefield, are
recognisable.^^')

"In the afternoon came a gale from the southward.
We had some rough rubbing from the floe-pieces, with
three heavy hawsers out to the rocks of our little ice-
breaker; but we held on. Toward midnight, our six-
inch line, the smallest of the three, parted; but the
other two held bravely. Feeling what good service
this island has done us, what a Godsend it was to
reach her, and how gallantly her broken rocks have
protected us from the rolling masses of ice that grind
by her, we have agreed to remember this anchorage as
'Godsend Ledge.*

HOLDING ON.

i '

" The walrus are very numerous, approaching within
twent}"^ feet of us, shaking their grim wet fronts, and
mowing with their tusks the sea-ripples.

" August 19, Friday. — The sky looks sinister : a sort
of scowl overhangs the blink under the great brow of
clouds to the southward. The dovekies seem to dis-
trust the weather, for they have forsaken the channel j
but the walrus curvet around us in crowds. I have
always heard that the close approach to land of these
sphinx-faced monsters portends a storm. I was anxious
to find a better shelter, and warped yesterday well
down to the south end of the ledge ; but I could not
venture into the floes outside, without risking the loss
of my dearly-earned ground. It may prove a hard
gale ; but we must wait it out patiently.

"August 20, Saturday, 3 J p.m. — By Saturday morn-
ing it blew a perfect hurricane. We had seen it coming,
pud were ready with three good hawsers out ahead,
and all things snug on board.

"Still it came on heavier and heavier, and the ice
began to drive more wildly than I thought I had ever
seen it. I had just turned in to warm and dry myself
during a momentary lull, and was stretching myself
out in my bunk, when I heard the sharp twanging
snap of a cord. Our six-inch hawser had parted, and
we were swinging by the two others ; the gale roaring
like a lion to the southward.

"Half a minute more, and * twang, twang!' came a
second report. I knew it was the whale-line by the
shrillness of the ring. Our noble ten-inch manilla still

ADRIFT.

held on. I was hurrying my last sock into its seal-
skin boot, when McGary came waddling down the
companion-ladders: — 'Captain Kane, she won't hold
much longer : it's blowing the devil himself, and I am
afraid to surge.'

" The manilla cable was proving its excellence when
I reached the deck; and the crew, as they gathered

PARTINQ HAWSERS OFF QODSEND LEDOE.

t I

round me, were loud in its praises. We could hear its
deep Eolian chant, swelling through all the rattle of
the running-gear and moaning of the shrouds. It was
the death-song ! The strands gave way, with the noise
of a shotted gun ; and, in the smoke that followed their
recoil, we were dragged out by the wild ice, at its mercy.

'■^-"•- -^

vapSi..

■•i

<ll

I „

licl(
skir
com
mu(
afra

I re

rounc
deep
the r
thed
of as
recoil

I It

."' t

the bri

came t

the no

quarte

pack.

skilful

at lea

centre

the n

• rowei

ging
ledge

us;—

by g

Wei

han(

pilii
the
no ■"
had
and

scr
thi
fas
on
tu
bi]

OUR BEST BOWER GONE.

" We steadied and did some petty warping, and got
the brig a good bed in the rushing drift; but it all
came to nothing. We then tried to beat back through
the narrow ice-clogged water-way, that was driving, a
quarter of a mile wide, between the shore and the
pack. It cost us two hours of hard labor, I thought
skilfully bestowed ; but at the end of that time, we were
at least four miles off, opposite the great valley in the
centre of Bedevilled Reach.^^'^ Ahead of us, farther to
the north, we could see the strait growing still nar-
rower, and the heavy ice-tables giinding up, and clog-
ging it between the shore-clifis on one side and the
ledge on the other. There was but one thing left for
us ; — ^to keep in some sort the command of the helm,
by going freely where we must otherwise be driven.
We allowed her to scud under a reefed foretopsail ; all
hands watching the enemy, as we closed, in silence.

"At seven in the morning, we were close upon the
piling masses. We dropped our heaviest anchor with
the desperate hope of winding the brig ; but there was
no withstanding the ice-torrent that followed us. We
had only time to fasten a spar as a buoy to the chain,
and let her slip. So went our best bower ! *-^

"Down we went upon the gale again, helplessly
scraping along a lee of ice seldom less than thirty feet
thick; one floe, measured by a line as we tried to
fasten to it, more than forty. I had seen such ice only
once before, and never in such rapid motion. One up-
turned mass rose above our gunwale, smashing in our
bulwarks, and depositing half a ton of ice in a lump

■ %

•►'vJS--

li'f

TOWED BY A BERQ.

upon our decks. Our stanch little brig bore herself
through all this wild adventure as if she hod o
charmed life.

^' But a new enemy came in sight ahead. Directly in
our way, just beyond the line of floe-ice against which
we were alternately sliding and thumping, was a group
of bergs. We had no power to avoid them ; and the
only question was, whether we were to be dashed in
pieces against them, or whether they might not offer
us some providential nook of refuge from the storm.
But, as we neared them, we perceived that they were
at some distance from the floe-edge, and separated from
it by an interval of open water. Our hopes rose, as the
gale drove us toward this passage, and into it ; and we
were ready to exult, when, from some unexplained
cause, — ^probably an eddy of the wind against the lofty
ice-walls, — ^we lost our headway. Almost at the same
moment, we saw that the bergs were not at rest ; that
with a momentum of their own they were bearing
down upon the other ice, and that it must be our fate
to be crushed between the two.

"Just then, a brood sconce-piece or low water-washed
berg came driving up from the southward. The thought
flashed upon me of one of our escapes in Melville Bay;
and as the sconce moved rapidly close alongside us,
McGary managed to plant an anchor on its slope and
hold on to it by a whale-line. It was an anxious mo-
ment. Our noble tow-horse, whiter than the pale horse
that seemed to be pursuing us, hauled us bravely on ;
the spray dashing over his windward flanks, and his

;i,r ~^.

UNDER THE CLIFFS.

forehead ploughing up the lesser ice as if in scorn.
The bergs encroached upon us as we advanced : our
channel narrowed to a width of perhaps forty feet : we
braced the yards to clear the impending ice-walls.

" We passed clear ; but it was a close shave, —

so close that our port quarter-boat would have been
crushed if we had not taken it in from the davits, —
and found ourselves under the lee of a berg, in a
comparatively open lead. Never did heart-tried men
acknowledge with more gratitude their merciful de-
liverance from a wretched death. . . .

" The day had already its full share of trials ; but
there were more to come. A flaw drove us from our
shelter, and the gale soon carried us beyond the end
of tlie lead. We were again in the ice, sometimes
escaping its onset by warping, sometimes forced to rely
on the strength and buoyancy of the brig to stand its
pressure, sometimes scudding wildly through the half-
open drift. Our jib-boom was snapped off in the cap ;
we carried away our barricade
stanchions, and were forced to
leave our little Eric, with three
brave fellows and their warps,
out upon the floes behind us.

"A little pool of open water
received us at last. It was just
beyond a lofty cape that rose up
like a wall, and under an iceberg
that anchored itself between us
and the gale. And here, close

UNDER THE CLIFFS.

il <

THE NIPPING S.

under the frowning shore of Greenland, ten miles
nearer the Pole than our holding-ground of the morn-
ing, the men have turned in to rest.

" I was afraid to join them ; for the gale was un-
broken, and the floes kept pressing heavily upon our
berg, — at one time so heavily as to sway it on its ver-
tical axis toward the shore, and make its pinnacle
overhang our vessel. My poor fellows had but a pre-
carious sleep before our little harbor was broken up.
They hardly reached the deck, when we were driven
astern, our rudder splintered, and the pintles torn
from their boltings.

" Now began the nippings. The first shock took us
on our portrquarter; the brig bearing it well, and, after
a moment of the old-fashioned suspense, rising by jerks
handsomely. The next was from a veteran floe,
tongued and honeycombed, but floating in a single
table over twenty feet in thickness. Of course, no
wood or iron could stand this ; but the shoreward face
of our iceberg happened to present an inclined plane,
descending deep into the water ; and up this the brig
was driven, as if some great steam screw-powei- was
forcing her into a dry dock.

"At one time I expected to see her carried bodily
up its face and tumbled over on her side. But one of
those mysterious relaxations, which I have elsewhere
called the pulses of the ice, lowered us quite gradually
down again into the rubbish, and we were forced out
of the line of pressure toward the shore. Here we
succeeded in carrying out a warp, and making fast.

THE BRIG AGROUND.

We grounded as the tide fell ; and would have heeled
over to seaward, but for a mass of detached land-ice
that grounded alongside of us, and, although it stove
our bulwarks as we rolled over it, shored us up."

I could hardly get to my bunk, as I went down
into our littered cabin on the Sunday morning after
our hard-working vigil of thirty-six hours. Bags of

re
t.

SHOREO UP.

clothing, food, tents, Lidia-rubber blankets, and the
hundred little personal matters which every man likes
to save in a time of trouble, were scattered around in
places where the owners thought they might have
them at hand. The pemmican had been on deck, the
boats equipped, and every thing of real importance
ready for a march, many hours before.
During the whole of the scenes I have been trying

♦ *W)» ^^^-^ ^^"^^ ,

•»-•■♦ ,^ <i^^« »«• A(^^^^«, ,.««-•-

ICE PRESSURE.

to describe, I could not help being struck by the com-
posed and manly demeanor of my comrades. The tur-
moil of ice under a heavy sea often conveys the im-
pression of danger when the reality is absent ; but in
this fearful passage, the parting of our hawsers, the
loss of our anchors, the abrupt crushing of our stoven
bulwarks, and the actual deposit of ice upon our decks,
would have tried the nerves of the most experienced
icemen. All— oflBcers and men — worked alike. Upon
each occasion of collision with the ice which formed
our lee-coast, efforts were made to carry out lines;
and some narrow escapes were incurred, by the zeal of
the parties leading them into positions of danger. Mr.
Bonsall avoided being crushed by leaping to a float-
ing fragment; and no less than four of our men at
one time were carried down by the drift, and could
only be recovered by a relief party after the gale had
subsided.

As our brig, borne on by the ice, commenced her
ascent of the berg, the suspense was oppressive. The
inunense blocks piled against her, range upon range,
pressing themselves under her keel and throwing her
over upon her side, till, urged by the successive accumu-
lations, she rose slowly and as if with convulsive efforts
along the sloping wall. Still there was no relaxation
of the impelling force. Shock after shock, jarring her
to her very centre, she continued to mount steadily on
her precarious cradle. But for the groaning of her
timbers and the heavy sough of the floes, we might
have- heard a pin drop. And then, as she settled

. ,..r^— ■» ^.4

y V

tiS J

(aJ)

2="

W
Q

i3
«5

M
Z

St.

-tilh-

■t •. \ <

BRIG AT REST.

down into her old position, quietly taking her place
among the broken rubbish, there was a deep-breathing
silence, as though all were waiting for some signal
before the clamor of congratulation and comment
could burst forth. <^'^

THE RE»CU£.

CHAPTER Vm.

TRAOKINO — INSFXOTINO A HARBOR— THE HUSK OX — STILL TRACK-
ING — CONSULTATION — WARPINO AGAIN — AGROUND NEAR THE
lOE-rOOT — A BREATHING SPELL — THE BOAT EXPEDITION —
DEPARTURE.

It was not until the 22d that the storm abated, and
our absent men were once more gathered back into
their mess. During the interval of forced iuiaction,
the little brig was fast to the ice-belt which lined the
bottom of the cliffs, and all hands rested ; but as soon
as it was over, we took advantage of the flood-tide to
pass our tow-lines to the ice-beach, and, harnessing
ourselves in like mules on a canal, made a good three
miles by tracking along the coast.

"August 22, Monday. — ^Under this coast, at the base
of a frowning precipice, we are now working toward a
large bay which runs well in, facing at its opening to
the north and west. I should save time if I could
cross fi jm headland to headland ; but I am obliged to
follow the tortuous land-belt, without whose aid we
would go adrift in the pack again.

"The trend of our line of operations to-day is almost

TRACKINO.

due east. We are already protected from the south,
but fearfully exposed to a northerly gale. Of this
there are fortunately no indications.

"August 23, Tuesday. — We tracked along the ice-
belt for about one mile, when the tide fell, and the
brig grounded, heeling over until she reached her bear-
ings. She rose again at 10 p. m., and the crew turned
out upon the ice-belt.

TRACKINO ALONQ THE ICE-BELT.

" The decided inclination to the eastward which the
shore shows here is important as a geographical fea-
ture ; but it has made our progress to the actual north
much less than our wearily-eamiBd miles should count
for us. Our latitude, determined by the sun's lower
culmination, if such a term can be applied to his mid-
night depression, gives 78° 41'. We are farther north,
therefore, than any of our predecessors, except Parry
on his Spitzbergen foot-tramp. There are those with
whom, no matter how insuperable the obstacle, failure
involves disgrace: we are safe at least from their
censure. f

INSPECTING A HARBOR.

"Last night I sent out Messrs. Wilson, Petersen, and
Bonsall, to inspect a harbor which seems to lie between
a small island and a valley that forms the inner slope
of our bay. They report recent traces of deer, and
bring back the skull of a musk ox.

;-^J<*w.-

SYLVIA H E A DL AN D— I NSPE C T I NQ A HARBOR.

"Hitherto this animal has never been seen east of
Melville Island. But his being here does not surprise
me. The migratory passages of the reindeer, who is
even less Arctic in his range than the musk ox, led me
to expect it. The fact points to some probable land
connection between Greenland and America, or an ap-

THE MUSK OX.

Etnd
een
ope
Eind

proach sufficiently close to allow these animals to mi-
grate between the two.

" The head is that of a male, well-marked, but old :
the teeth deficient, but the horns very perfect. Thos<'
last measure two feet three inches across from tip t<>
tip, and are each one foot ten inches in length mea^
sured to the medium line of the forehead, up to which
they are continued in the characteristic boss or pro-

■j*

lof
ise
is
me
md
ap-

THE ICE-BELT.

tuberance. Our winter may be greatly cheered by
their beef, should they revisit this solitude. ^"^

"We have collected thus far no less than twenty-
two species of flowering plants on the shores of this
bay. Scanty as this starved flora may seem to the
botanists of more favored zones, it was not without
surprise and interest that I recognised among its tho-
roughly Arctic types many plants which had before

Vol. I.— 6

STILL TRAGKINO.

been considered as indigenous only to more southern
latitudes.<'»>

"The thermometer gave twenty-five degrees last
night, and the young ice formed without intermission :
it is nearly two inches alongside the brig. I am loth
to recognise these signs of the advancing cold. Our
latitude to-day gives us 78® 37', taken from a station
some three miles inside the indentation to the south.

"August 24, Wednesday. — We have kept at it, track-
ing along, grounding at low water, but working like
horses when the tides allowed us to move. We are
now almost at the bottom of this indentation. Opposite
us, on tUe shore, is a remarkable terrace, which rises in
a succession of steps until it is lost in the low rocks of
the back country. The ice around us is broken, but
heavy, and so compacted that we can barely penetrate
it. It has snowed hard since 10 p. m. of yesterday, and
the sludge fills up the interstices of the floes. Nothing
but a strong south wind can give us further progress to
the north.

"August 25, Thursday. — The snow of yesterday has
surrounded us with a pasty sludge ; . but the young ice
continues to be our most formidable opponent. The
mean temperatures of the 22d and 23d were 27° and
30° Fahrenheit. I do nqt like being caught by wintei
before attaining a higher northern latitude than this,
but it appears almost inevitable. Favored as we haVe
been by the mildness of the summer ahd by the abrading
action of the tides, there are indications around us which
point to an early winter. '

CONSULTATION.

has
ice
The
and
ntei
this,
laVe

We are suflficiontly surrounded by ice to make our
chances of escapo next year uncertain, anc^^yet not as
iaf as 1 could wish for our spring journeys by the
sledge.

"August 26, Friday. — My officers and crew are
stanch and firm men; but tho depressing influences
of want of rest, the rapid advance of winter, and, above
all, our slow progress, make them sympathize Imt little
with this continued eflfort to force a way to the north.
One of them, an excellent member of the party,
volunteered an expression of opinion this morning in
favor of returning to the south and giving up tho
attempt to winter." ^

It is unjust for a commander to measure his subor-
dinates in such exigencies by his own standard. The
interest which they feel in an undertaking is of a dif-
ferent nature from his own. With him there are
always personal motives, apart from official duty, to
stimulate eflfort. He receives, if successful, 'too large a
share of the credit, and he justly bears all the odium
of failure.

An apprehension — I hope a charitable one — of this
fact leads me to consider the opinions of my officers
with much respect. I called them together at once, in
a formal council, and listened to their views in full.
With but one exception, Mr. Henry Brooks, they were
convinced that a further progress to the north was
impossible, and were in favor of returning southward
to winter.

Not being able conscientiously to take the same view,

WARPING AGAIN.

I explained to them the importance of securing a posi-
tion which might expedite our sledge journeys in the
future; and, after assuring them that such a position
could only be attained by continuing our eflforts, an-
nounced my intention of warping toward the northern
headland of the bay. "Once there, I shall be able to
determine from actual inspection the best point for set-

CAPE THOMAS LEIPER.

ring o'lt on the operations of the spring ; and at the
nearest possible shelter to that point I will put the brig
into winter harbor." My comrades received this deci-
sion in a manner that was most gratifying, and entered
zealously upon the hard and cheerless duty it involved.
The warping began again, each man, myself in-
cluded, taking his turn at the capstan. The ice seemed
less heavy as we penetrated into the recess of the bay;

III

AGROUND NEAR THE ICE-FOOT.

our track-lines and shoulder-belts replaced the warps.
Hot coffee was served out; and, in the midst of cheering
songs, our little brig moved off briskly.

Our success, however, was not complete. At the
very period of high-water she took the ground, while
close under the walls of the ice-foot. It would have
been madness to attempt shoring her up. I could only
fasten heavy tackle to the rocks which lined the base
of the cliffs, and trust to the noble little craft's unas-
sisted strength.

"August 27, Saturday. — We failed, in spite of our
efforts, to get the brig off with last night's tide ; and, as
our night-tides are generally the highest, I have some
apprehensions as to her liberation.

" We have landed every thing we could get up on the
rocks, put out all our boats and filled them with pon-
derables alongside, sunk our rudder astern, and lowered
our remaining heavy anchor into one of our quarter-
boats. Heavy hawsers are out to a grounded lump of
berg-ice, ready for instant heaving.

"Last night she heeled over again so abruptly that
we were all tumbled out of our berths. At the same
time, the cabin stove with a full charge of glowing
anthracite was thrown down. The deck blazed smartly
for a while; but, by sacrificing Mr. Sontag's heavy
pilot-cloth coat to the public good, I choked it down
till water could be passed from above to extinguish it.
It was fortunate we had water near at hand, for the
powder was not far off.

" 3 p. M. — The ground-ice is forced in upon our stem,

■t •» .^ .^

AGROUND NEAR THE ICE-FOOT,

splintering our rudder, and drawing again the bolts of
the pintle-casings.

"5 P.M. — She floats again, and our track-lines are
manned. The men work with a will, and the brig
moves along bravely.

AGROUND NEAR THE ICE-FOOT.

"10 P.M. — ^Aground again; and the men, after a hot
supper, have turned in to take a spell of sleep. The
brig has a hard time of it with the rocks. She has been
high and dry for each of the two last tides, and within
three days has grounded no less than five times. I feel
that this is hazardous navigation, but am convinced it
Ls my duty to keep on. Except the loss of a portion of

A BREATHING SPELL.

J of

are
3rig

lot
le
en
un
iel
it
of

our false keel, we have sustained no real injury. The
brig is still water-tight ; and her broken rudder and one
shattered spar can be easily repaired.

"August 28, Sunday. — By a complication of pur-
chases, jumpers, and shores, we started the brig at
4-10 ; and, Mr. Ohlsen having temporarily secured the
rudder, I determined to enter the floe and trust to the
calm of the morning for a chance of penetrating to the
northern land-ice ahead.

"This land-ice is very old, and my hope is to get
through the loose trash that surrounds it by springing,
and then find a fast that may serve our tracking-lines.
I am already well on my way, and, in spite of the omin-
ous nods of my officers, have a fair prospect of reach-
ing it. Here it is that splicing the main-brace is of
service \^^^

" I took the boat this morning with Mr. McGary, and
sounded along outside the land-floe. I am satisfied the
passage is practicable, and, by the aid of tide, wind, and
springs, have advanced into the trash some two hun-
dred yards.

"We have reached the floe, and find it as I hoped;
the only drawback to tracking being the excessive tides,
which expose us to grounding at low-water."

We had now a breathing spell, and I could find time
to look out again upon the future. The broken and
distorted area around us gave little promise of success-
ful sledge-travel. But all this might change its aspect
under the action of a single gale, and it was by no
means certain that the ice-fields farther north would

/--■

THE BOAT EXPEDITION.

have the same rugged and dispiriting character. Be-
sides, the ice-belt was still before us, broken sometimes
and difficult to traverse, but practicable . for a party
on foot, apparently for miles ahead; and I felt sure
that a resolute boat's crew might push and track
their way for some distance along it. I resolved to
make the trial, and to judge what ought to be

THE FORLORN HOPE.

pur wintering ground from a personal inspection of
the coast.

I had been quietly preparing for such an expedition
for some time. Our best and lightest whale-boat had
been fitted with a canvas cover, that gave it all the
comfort of a tent. We had a supply of pemmican ready
packed in small cases, and a sledge taken to pieces was
Btowed away under the thwarts. In the morning of

'■■**• •-».-■-'•. •*^.v,^

'■■^-K.

_w *•".<-' —

THE FORLORN HOPE.

the 29 th, Mr. Brooks, McGary, and myself, walked
fourteen miles along the marginal ice: it was heavy
and complicated with drift, but there was nothing about
it to make me change my purpose. ■>• ■

My boat crew consisted of seven, all of them volun-
teers and reliable : — Brooks, Bonsall, McGary, Sontag,
Riley, Blake, and Morton. We had buffalo-robes for
our sleeping-gear, and a single extra day suit was put
on board as common property. Each man carried his

'-^HKff^^^^K^

rHE FORLORN HOPE, EQUIPPED.

ion
lad

Ithe

tdy

ras

girdle full of woollen socks, so as to dry them by the
warmth of his body, and a tin cup, with a sheath-knife,
at the belt: a soup-pot and lamp for the mess com-
pleted our outfit. . \

In less than three hours from my first order, the
"Forlorn Hope" was ready for her work, covered with
tin to prevent her being cut through by the bay-ice ;
and at half-past three in the afternoon she was freighted,
launched, and on her way.

I placed Mr. Ohlsen in command of the Advance, and
Dr. Hayes in charge of her log : Mr. Ohlsen with orders

ryM» -• ■--*' '*-^'%^^{f

< ■« K l ■■■!» ■I'&.^

-» •■"*"

-t:i^;:

DEPARTURE.

to haul the brig to the southward and eastward into a
safe berth, and there to await my return.

Many a warm shake of the hand from the crew we
left showed me that our good-bye was not a mere for-
mality. Three hearty cheers from all hands followed
us, — a God-speed as we pushed off.

BROKEN RUDDER.

^..jT^-O*' -♦■*'' --■»•• ■■■ •

J/C>«J>«Ki~*«*»— ...i„..

CHAPTER IX.

THE DEF5t journey — THE lOE-BELT — CBOSSINQ MINTUBN BIYEft
— SKELETON MUSK OX — CROSSINQ THE GLACIEB — FORTAQB 01*
INSTRUMENTS — EXCESSIVE BURDEN — MARY MINTURN RIVER —
FORDING THE RIVER — THACKERAY HEADLAND — CAPE GEOROB
RUSSELL— RETURN TO THE BRIG — THE WINTER HARBOR.

In the first portions of our journey, we found a nar-
row but obstructed passage between the ice-belt and
the outside pack. It was but a few yards in width,
and the young ice upon it was nearly thick enough to
bear our weight. By breaking it up we were able with
effort to make about seven miles a day.

After such work, wet, cold, and hungry, the night's
rest was very welcome. A couple of stanchions were
rigged fore and afb, a sail tightly spread over the canvas
cover of our boat, the cooking-lamp lit, and the buffalo-
robes spread out. Dry socks replaced the wet ; hot tea
and pemmican foUoweu ; and very soon we forgot the
discomforts of the day, the smokers musing over their
pipes, and the sleepers snoring in dreamless forget-
fulness.

We had been out something less than twenty-four

s.,-*»- "'-•■%*

! ^1

'! !

';!

THE IGE-BELT.

hours when we came to the end of our boating. In
front and on one side was the pack, and on the other a
wall some ten feet above our heads, the impracticable
ice-belt. By waiting for high tide, and taking advan-
tage of a chasm which a water-stream had worn in the
ice, we managed to haul up our boat on its surface;
but it was apparent that we must leave her there. She
was stowed away snugly under the shelter of a large
hummock ; and we pushed forward in our sledge, laden
with a few articles of absolute necessity. '.-■ : - 'Jr.

Here, for the first time, we were made aware of a re-
markable feature of our travel. We were on a table or
shelf of ice, which clung to the base of the rocks over-
looking the sea, but itself overhung by steep and lofty
cliflfs. Pure and beautiful as this icy highway was,
huge angular blocks, some many tons in weight, were
scattered over its surface ; and long tongues of worn-
down rock occasionally issued from the sides of the
cliffs, and extended across our course. The cliffs
measured one thousand and' ten feet to the crest of the
plateau above them.*

We pushed forward on this ice-table shelf as rapidly
as the obstacles would permit, though embarrassed a
good deal by the frequent watercourses, which created

* The cliffs were of tabular magnesian limestone, with interlaid and
inferior sandstones. Their height, measured to the crest of the plateau,
was nine hundred and fifty feet — a fair mean of the profile of the coast.
The height of the talus of debris, where it united with the face of the
cliff, was five hundred and ninety feet, and its angle of inclination
between 38° and 45"*

,— »"-<-tf's..

^>....tV.'',C,<„ ...^..^^

iting. In
le other a
practicable
ig advan-
3m in the
I surface;
lere. She
)f a large
Ige, laden

re of a re-

a table or

)cks over-

and lofty

way was,

ght, were

of wom-

s of the

he cliffs

st of the

3 rapidly
Tassed a
created

terlaid and

e plateau,

the ooast.

'ace of the

nolination

f.^ vipfl^' "■ ' -' -^'*f^i

... -s-.^

TTTF TTT-n F T. T

[■|

i _:^J.»Jt-»- ■>».**-

:::S^--i-ef.

y, .»- '"-•7J.--.i;^r^'■;.\-JW»*--^~-

,V1

( (

CROSSING MINTURN RIYER.

large gorges in our path, winding occasionally, and
generally steep-sided. We had to pass our sledge care-
fully down such interruptions, and bear it upon our
shoulders, wading, of course, through water of an ex-
tremely low temperature. Our night halts were upon
knolls of snow under the rocks. At one of these, the
tide overfloAved our tent, and forced us to save our
buffalo sleeping-gear by holding it up until the water
subsided. This exercise, as it turned out, was more of
a trial to our patience than to our health. The circu-
lation was assisted perhaps by a perception of the ludi-
crous. Eight Yankee Caryatides, up to their knees in
water, and an entablature sustaining such of their
household gods as could not bear immersion l^^^

On the 1st of September, still following the ice-belt,
we found that we were entering the recesses of another
bay but little smaller than that in which we had left
our brig. The limestone walls ceased to overhang us ;
we reached a low fiord, and a glacier blocked our way
across it. A succession of terraces, rising with sym-
metrical regularity, lost themselves in long parallel
lines in the distance. They were of limestone shingle,
and wet with the percolation of the melted ice of the
glacier. Where the last of these terraced faces abutted
upon the sea, it blended with the ice-foot, so as to
make a frozen compound of rock and ice. Here, lying
in a pasty silt, I found the skeleton of a musk ox. The
head was united to the atlas; but the bones of the
spine were separated about two inches apart, and con-
veyed the idea of a displacement produced rather by

SKELETON MUSK OX.

the sliding of the bed beneath, than by a force from
without. The paste, frozen so as to resemble limestone
rock, had filled the costal cavity, and the ribs were
beautifully polished. It was to the eye an imbedded
fossil, ready for the museum of the collector.

THE CLIFFS OF GLACIER BAY.

I am minute in detailing these appearances, for they
connect themselves in my mind with the fossils of the
Eischoltz cliffs and the Siberian alluvions. I was
startled at the facility with which the silicious lime- \
stone, under the alternate energies of frost and thaw,
had been incorporated with the organic remains. It

CROSSING THE GLACIER.

had already begun to alter the structure of the bones,
and in several instances the vertebroB were entirely
enveloped in travertin.

The table-lands and ravines round about this coast
abound in such remains. Their numbers and the man-
ner in which they are scattered imply that the animals
made their migrations in droves, as is the case with

CROSSINQ THE QLACIER.

the reindeer now. Within the area of a few acres
we found seven skeletons and numerous skulls: these
all occupied the snow-streams or gullies that led to
a gorge opening on the ice-belt, and might thus be
gathered in time to one spot by the simple action of
the watershed.^'^^

To cross this glacier gave us much trouble. Its sides
were steep, and a slip at any time might have sent us

PORTAGE OF INSTRUMENTS.

into the water below. Our shoes were smooth, unfor-
tunately J but, by using cords, and lying at full length
upon the ice, we got over without accident. On the
other side of the glacier we had a portage of about
three miles ; the sledge being unladen and the baggage
carried on our backs. To Mr. Brooks, admitted with
singular unanimity to be the strongest man of our
party, was voted our theodolite, about sixty pounds of
weU-polished mechanism, in an angular mahogany box.
Our dip-circle, equally far from being an honorary
tribute, fell to the lot of a party of volunteers, who
bore it by turns.

During this inland crossing, I had fine opportunities
of making sections of the terraces. We ascertained the
mean elevation of the face of the coast to be one thou-
sand three hundred feet. On regaining the seaboard,
the same frowning cUffs and rock-covered ice-belt
that we had left greeted us.

After an absence of five days, we found by observa-
tion that we were but forty miles from the brig. Be-
sides our small daily progress, we had lost much by the
tortuous windings of the coast. The ice outside did
not invite a change of plan in that direction; but I
determined to leave the sledge and proceed over land
on foot. With the exception of our instruments, we
carried no weight but pemmican and one bufialo-robe.
The weather, as yet not far below the freezing-point,
did not make a tent essential to the bivouac; and,
with this light equipment, we could travel readily two
miles to one with our entire outfit. On the 4th of

EXCESSIVE BURDEN.

September we made twenty-four miles with comparar
tive ease, and were refreshed by a comfortable sleep
after the toils of the day.*

The only drawback to this new method of advance
was the inability to carry a sufficient quantity of food.
Each man at starting had a fixed allowance of pem-
mican, which, with his other load, made an average
weight of thirty-five pounds. It proved excessive : the
Canadian voyageurs will carry much more, and for an
almost indefinite period; but we found — and we had
good walkers in our party — that a very few pounds
overweight broke us down.

Our progress on the 5th was arrested by another bay
much larger than any we had seen since entering
Smith's Straits. It was a noble sheet of water, per-
fectly open, and thus in strange contrast to the ice out-
side. The cause of this at the time inexplicable phe-
nomenon was found in a roaring and tumultuous river,
which, issuing from a fiord at the inner sweep of the
bay, rolled with the violence of a snow-torrent over a
broken bed of rocks. This river, the largest probably
yet known in North Greenland, was about three-quar-
ters of a mile wide at its mouth, and admitted the tides
for about three miles j^'^Vhen its bed rapidly ascended,

* This halt was under tho lee of a large boulder of greenstone, mea-

Huring fourteen feet in its long diameter. It had the rude blocking

out of a cube, but was rounded at the edges. The country for fourteen

miles around was of the low-bottom series ; the nearest greenstone must

have been many miles remote. Boulders of syenite were numerous ;

their line of deposit nearly due north and south.
Vol. L— 7

HABT MINTURN RIYEB.

and could be traced by the configuration of the hills as
far as a large inner fiord. I called it Mary Mintum
River, after the sister of Mrs. Henry Grinnell. Its
course was afterward pursued to an interior glacier,
from the base of which it was found to issue in num^

MARY MINTURN RIVER.

rous streams, that united into a single trunk about forty
miles above its mouth. By the banks of this stream
we encamped, lulled by the unusual music of running
waters.

Here, protected from the frost by the infiltration of
the melted snows, and fostered by the reverberation of

1 ,^

FORDING THE RIYER.

Us as
atum
Its
acier,
luin^

forty
Iream

^ning

)n of
m of

solar heat from the rocks, we met a flower-growth,
which, though drearily Arctic in its type, was rich in
variety and coloring. Amid festuca and other tufted
grasses twinkled the purple lychnis and the white star
of the chickweed ; and not without its pleasing asso-
ciations I recognised a solitary hesperis, — ^the Arctic
representative of the wallflowers of home/"^^

We forded our way across this river in the morning,
carrjdng our pemmican as well as we could out of
water, but submitting ourselves to a succession of
plunge-baths as often as we trusted our weight on the
ice -capped stones above the surface. The average
depth was not over our hips ; but the crossing cost us
so much labor that we were willing to halt half a day
to rest.

Some seven miles farther on, a large cape projects
into this bay, and divides it into two indentations, each
of them the seat of minor watercourses, fed by the glar
ciers. From the numerous tracks found in the moss-
beds, they would seem to be the resort of deer. Our
meridian observations by theodolite gave the latitude
of but 78° 52': the magnetic dip was 84° 49'.

It was plain that the coast of Greenland here faced
toward the north. The axis of both these bays and
the general direction of the watercourses pointed to the
same conclusion. Our longitude was 78° 41' "W.

Leaving four of my party to recruit at this station, 1
started the next morning, with three volunteers, to cross
the ice to the northeastern headland, and thus save
the almost impossible circuit by the shores of the bay.

100

THACKERAY HEADLAND.

This ice was new, and far from safe : its margin along
the open water made by Mintum River required both
care and tact in passing over it. We left the heavy
theodolite behind us ; and, indeed, carried nothing ex-
cept a pocket-sextant, my Fraunhiifer, a walking-pole,
and three days' allowance of raw pemmican.

We reached the headland after sixteen miles of

h r
i I

f ■

«'.•'

;ft

THACKERAY HEADLAND.

walk, and found the ice-foot in good condition, evi-
dently better fitted for sledge-travel than it was to the
south. This point I named Cape William Makepeace
Thackeray. Our party knew it as Chimney Rock. It
was the last station on the coast of Greenland, de-
termined by intersecting bearings of theodolite, from
known positions to the south. About eight miles be-

CAPE RUSSELL.

101

yond it is a large headland, the highest visible from
the late position of our brig, shutting out all points
farther north. It is indicated on my chart as Cape
Francis Hawks. We found the table-lands were twelve
himdred feet high by actual measurement, and interior
plateaus were seen of an estimated height of eighteen
hundred.

I determined to seek some high headland beyond the
cape, and make it my final point of reconnoissance.

I shall never forget the sight, when, after a hard
day's walk, I looked out from an altitude of eleven
hundred feet upon an expanse extending beyond the
eightieth parallel of latitude. Far off on my left was
the western shore of the Sound, losing itself in dis-
tance toward the north. To my right, a rolling
primary country led on to a low dusky wall-like ridge,
which I afterward recognised as the Great Glacier
of Humboldt; and still beyond this, reaching north-
ward from the north-northeast, was the land which
now bears the name of Washington: its most pro-
jecting headland, Cape Andrew Jackson, bore four-
teen degrees by sextant from the farthest hill. Cape
John Barrow, on the opposite side. The great area
between was a solid sea of ice. Close along its shore,
almost looking down upon it from the crest of our
lofty station, we could see the long lines of hummocks
dividing the floes like the trenches of a beleaguered
city .^*^ Farther out, a stream of icebergs, increasing in
numbers as they receded, showed an almost impene-
trable barrier; since I could not doubt thai among

i 1

102

RETURN TO THE BRIG.

their recesses the ice was so crushed as to be impas-
sable by the sledge.

Nevertheless, beyond these again, the ice seemed
less obstructed. Distance is very deceptive upon the
ice, subduing its salient features, and reducing even
lofty bergs to the appearance of a smooth and attractive
plain. But, aided by my Fraunhofer telescope, I could
see that traversable areas were still attainable. Slowly,
and almost with a sigh, I laid the glass down and
made up my mind for a winter search.

I had seen no place combining so many of the requi-
sites of a good winter harbor as the bay in which we
left the Advance. Near its southwestern comer the
wide streams and the watercourses on the shore pro-
mised the earliest chances of liberation in the coming
summer. It was secure against the moving ice : lofby
headlands walled it in beautifully to seaward, enclosing
an anchorage with a moderate depth of water ; yet it
was open to the meridian sunlight, and guarded from
winds, eddies, and drift. The space enclosed was only
occupied by a few rocky islets and our brig. We soon
came in sight of her on our return march, as she lay
at anchor in its southern sweep, with her masts cut-
ting sharply against the white glacier; and, hurry-
ing on through a gale, were taken on board without
accident.

My comrades gathered anxiously around me, wait-
ing for the news. I told them in few words of the re-
sults of our journey, and why I had determined upon
remaining, and gave at once the order to warp in be-

impas-

i seemed
upon the
ing even
attractive
(, I could
Slowly,
'wn and

le requi-
hich we
■ner the
3re pro-
coming
3: lofty
iclosing
yet it
id from
as only
^e soon
ihe lay
ts cut-
hurry-
ithout

. wait-
he re-
upon
in be-

an
w

h ,

?-. r.

•^ .::

^ '!

@ a •

ffb -

^ !

e' j
© 1

W
fe -

©I

,.*.

'?r^5t; .;,■•- ^

-iwjB-^lfclty

r-j^r-ji-'t..- --^.v-

THE WINTER HARBOR.

103

fcween the islands. We found seven-fathom soundings
and a perfect shelter from the outside ice; and thus
laid our little brig in the harbor, which we were fated
never to leave together, — a long resting-place to her
indeed, for the same ice is around her still.

WINTCR HARBOR.

<* TIm Mine iM U around her lUll."

i.4b^^

{ III

1 ■

RENSSELAER HARBOR.

CHAPTER X.

APPROAOHINQ WINTER — STORINQ PROVISIONS — BUTLER STORE-
HOUSE — SUNDAY AT REST — BUILDINQ OBSERVATORY — TRAIN-
ING THE DOOS — THE LITTLE WILLIE — THE ROAD — THE FAITH
— SLEDOINQ — REOONNOISSANOE — DEPdX PARTY.

The winter was now approaching rapidly. The
thermometer had fallen by the 10th of September to
14°, and the young ice had cemented the floes so that
we could walk and sledge round the brig. About sixty
paces north of us an iceberg had been caught, and was

104

STORING PROVISIONS.

105

frozen in : it was our neighbor while we remained in
Rensselaer Harbor. The rocky islets around us were
fringed with hummocks; and, as the tide fell, their sides
were coated with opaque crystals of bright white. The
birds had gone. The sea-swallows, which abounded
when we first reached here, and even the young burgo-
masters that lingered after them, had all taken their
departure for the south. Except the snow-birds, these
are the last to migrate of all the Arctic birds.

"September 10, Saturday. — We have plenty of re-
sponsible work before us. The long * night in which
no man can work' is close at hand : in another month
we shall lose the sun. Astronomically, he should dis-
appear on the 24th of October if our horizon were free ;
but it is obstructed by a mountain ridge, and, making
all allowance for refraction, we cannot count on seeing
him after the 10th.

"First and foremost, we have to unstow the hold,
and deposit its contents in the storehouse on Butler
Island. Brooks and a party are now briskly engaged
in this double labor, running loaded boats along a canal
that has to be recut every morning.

" Next comes the catering for winter diet. We have
little or no game as yet in Smith's Sound ; and, though
the traces of deer that we have observed may be fol-
lowed by the animals themselves, I cannot calculate
upon them as a; resource. I am without the her-
metically-sealed meats of our last voyage ; and the use
of salt meat in circumstances like ours is never safe.
A fresh-water pond, which fortunf tely remains open at

106

BUTLER STOREfiOUSE.

n.'

U :

l\ i

Medary, gives me a chance for some further experi-
ments in freshening this portion of our stock. Steaks
of salt junk, artistically cut, are strung on lines like a
countrywoman's dried apples, and soaked in festoons
under the ice. The salmon -trout and salt codfish
which we bought at Fiskemaes are placed in barrels,
perforated to permit a constant circulation of fresh
water through them. Our pickled cabbage is similarly
treated, after a little potash has been used to neutralize
the acid. All these are submitted to twelve hours of
alternate soaking and freezing, the crust of ice being
removed from them before each immersion. This
is the steward's province, and a most important one
it is. :V . - '' . , .- " • - * ..

" Every one else is well employed ; McGary arranging
and Bonsall making the inventory of our stores;
Ohlsen and Petersen building our deck-house ; while I
am devising the plan of an architectural interior, which
is to combine, of course, the utmost ventilation, room,
dryness, warmth, general accommodation, comfort, — ^in
a word, all the appliances of health. ; sj

"We have made a comfortable dog-house on Butler
Island ; but though our Esquimaux canaille are within
scent of our cheeses there, one of which they ate yes-
terday for lunch, they cannot be persuaded to sleep
away from the vessel. They prefer the bare snow,
where they can couch within the sound of our voices,
to a warm kennel upon the rocks. Strange that this
dog-distinguishing trait of affection for man should
show itself in an animal so imperfectly reclaimed from

SFJS'DAT AT REST.

107

a savage state that he can hardly be caught when
wanted!

"September 11, Sunday. — To-day came to us the first
quiet Sunday of harbor life. We changed our log re-
gistration from seartime to the familiar home series that
begins at midnight. It is not only that the season has

BUTLER'S ISLAND STOREHOUSE

given us once more a local habitation; but there is
something in the return of varying day and night
that makes it grateful to reinstate this domestic obser-
vance. The long staring day, which has clung to us
for more than two months, to the exclusion of the
stars, has begun to intermit its brightness. Even Al-
debaran, the red eye of the Bull, flared out into fami-
liar recollection as early as ten o'clock; and the hea-

i u

108

BUILDING OBSERVATORY.

■h

vens, though still somewhat reddened by the gaudy
tints of midnight, gave us Capella and Arcturus, and
even that lesser light of home memories, the Polar
Star. Stretching my neck to look uncomfortably at
this indication of our extreme northernness, it was hard
to realize that he was not directly overhead: and it
made me sigh, as I measured the few degrees of dis-
tance that separated our zenith from the Pole over
which he hung.

"We had our accustomed morning and evening
prayers ; and the day went by, full of sober thought,
and, I trust, wise resolve.

"September 12, Monday. — Still going on with Satur-
day's operations, amid the thousand discomforts of
house-cleaning and moving combined. I dodged them
for an hour this morning, to fix with Mr. Sontag upon
a site for our observatory; and the men are already
at work hauling the stone for it over the ice on sledges.
It is to occupy a rocky islet, about a hundred yards
off, that I have named after a little spot that I long to
see again, 'Fern Eock.' This is to be for me the
centre of familiar localities. As the classic Mivins
breakfasted lightly on a cigar and took it out in sleep,
so I have dined on salt pork and made my dessert of
home dreams.

"September 13, Tuesday. — Besides preparing our
winter quarters, I am engaged in the preliminary ar-
rangements for my provision-dep&ts along the Green-
land coast. Mr. Kennedy is, I believe, the only one
of my predecessors who has used October and Novem-

TRAINING THE DOGS.

109

lour
ar-
ien-
lone
lem-

ber for Arctic field-work; but I deem it important to
our movements during the winter and spring, that the
dep6ts in advance should be made before the darkness
sets in. I purpose arranging three of them at in-
tervals, — pushing them as far forward as I can, — ^to
contain in all some twelve hundred pounds of pro-
vision, of which eight hundred will be pemmican."

My plans of future search were directly dependent
upon the success of these operations of the fall. With
a chain of provision-dep6ts along the coast of Green-
land, I could readily extend my travel by dogs. These
noble animals formed the basis of my future plans:
the only drawback to their efficiency as a means of
travel was their inability to carry the heavy loads
of provender essential for their support. A badly-fed
or heavily-loaded dog is useless for a long journey;
but with relays of provisions I could start empty, and
fill up at our final station.

My dogs were both Esquimaux and Newfoundland-
ers. Of these last I had ten: they were to be care-
fully broken, to travel by voice without the whip, and
were expected to be very useful for heavy draught, as
their tractability would allow the driver to regulate
their pace. I was already training them in a light
sledge, to drive, unlike the Esquimaux, two abreast,
with a regular harness, a breastxjoUar of flat leather,
and a pair of traces. Six of them made a powerful
travelling-team ; and four could carry me and my in-
struments, for short journeys around the brig, with
great ease.

THE LITTLE WILLIE.

The sledge I used for them was huilt, with the care
of cabinet-work, of American hickory thoroughly sea-
soned. The curvature of the runners was determined
experimentally tf^^they were shod with annealed steel,
and fastened by copper rivets which could be renewed
at pleasure. Except this, no metal entered into its
construction. All its parts were held together by seal-
skin lashings, so that it yielded to inequalities of sur-
face and to sudden shock. The three paramount con-

LITTLE WILLIE, AND N E tW F U N D L A N D E RS.

siderations of lightness, strength, and diminished fric-
tion, were well combined in it. This beautiful, and,
as we afterward found, efficient and enduring sledge
was named the "Little Willie."

The Esquimaux dogs were reserved for the great
tug of the actual journeys of search. They were now
in the semi-savage condition which marks their close
approach to the wolf; and according to Mr. Petersen,
under whose care they were placed, were totally use-
less for journeys over such ice as was now before us.
A hard experience had not then opened my eyes to

THE ROAD.

Ill

the inestimable value of these dogs : I had yet to learn
their power and speed, their patient, enduring forti-
tude, their sagacity in tracking these icy morasses,
among which they had been bom and bred.

I determined to hold back my more distant pro-
vision parties as long as the continued daylight would
permit; making the Newfoundland dogs establish the
depdts within sixty miles of the brig. My previous
jourffey had shown me that the ice-belt, clogged with
the foreign matters dislodged from the clififs, would not
at this season of the year answer for operations with
the sledge, and that the ice of the great pack outside
was even more unfit, on account of its want of con-
tinuity. It was now so consolidated by advancing
cold as to have stopped its drift to the south ; but the
large floes or fields which formed it were imperfectly
cemented together, and would break into hummocks
under the action of winds or even of the tides. It was
made still more impassable by the numerous bergs*
which kept ploughing with irresistible momentum
through the ice-tables, and rearing up barricades that
defied the passage of a sledge.

It was desirable, therefore, that our dep6t parties
should not enter upon their work until they could
avail themselves of the young ice. This now occu-
pied a belt, about one hundred yards in mean breadth.

* The general drift of these great masses was to the south, — a plain
indication of deep sea-ourrents in that direction, and a convincing
proof, to me, of a discharge from some northern water.

112

THE FAITH.

close to the shore, and, but for the fluctuations of the
tides, would already be a practicable road. For the
present, however, a gale of wind or a spring tide
might easily drive the outer floes upon it, and thus
destroy its integrity.

The party appointed to establish this depdt was
furnished with a sledge, the admirable model of which
I obtained through the British Admiralty. The only
liberty that I ventured to take with this model —
which had been previously tested by the adventurous
journeys of McClintock in Lancaster Sound — ^was to
lessen the height^ and somewhat increase the breadth
of the runner; both of which, I think, were improve-
ments, giving increased strength, and preventing
iio deep a descent into the snow. I named her the
"Faith." Her length was thirteen feet, and breadth
four. She could readily carry fourteen hundred pounds
of mixed stores.

This noble old sledge, which is now endeared to me
by every pleasant association, bore the brunt of the
heaviest parties, and came back, after
the descent of the coast, compara-
tively sound. The men were at-
tached to her in such a way as to
make the line of draught or traction
as near as possible in the axis of the
weight. Each man had his own
shoulder-belt, or "rue-raddy," as we
used to call it, and his own track-
line, which for want of horse-hair

THE RUE-RAODY

atitaiHMIIMiiti*

SLEDGING.

113

was made of Manilla rope : it traversed freely by a
ring on a loop or bridle, that extended from runner
to runner in front of the sledge. These track-ropes
varied in length, so as to keep the members of the
party from interfering with each other by walking
abreast. The longest was three fathoms, eighteen
feet, in length; the shortest, directly fastened to the
sledge runner, as a means of guiding or suddenly ar-
resting and turning the vehicle.
The cargo for this journey, without including the

SLEDQE DRAWN BY NINE MEN.

provisions of the party, was almost exclusively pem-
mican. Some of this was put up in cylinders of
tinned iron with conical terminations, so as to resist
the assaults of the white bear ; but the larger quan-
tity was in strong wooden cases or kegs, well hooped
with iron, holding about seventy pounds each. Sur-
mounting this load was a light India-rubber boat,
made quite portable by a frame of basket willow,,
which I hoped to launch on reaching open water. ^'"^
The personal equipment of the men was a buflfalo-
robe for the party to lie upon, and a bag of Mackinaw

Vol. I.— 8

114

RECONNOISSANOE.

blanket for each man to crawl into at night. India-
rubber cloth was U be the protection from the snow
beneath. The tent was of canvas, made after the
plan of our English predecessors. We afterward
learned to modify and reduce our travelling gear,
and found that in direct proportion to its simplicity
and our apparent privation of articles of supposed
necessity were our actual comfort and practical effi-
ciency. Step by step, as long as our Arctic service
continued, we went on reducing our sledging outfit,
until at last we came to the Esquimaux ultimatum
of simplicity, — ^raw meat and a fur bag.

While our arrangements for the winter were still in
progress, I sent out Mr. Wilson and Dr. Hayes, accom-
panied by our Esquimaux, Hans, to learn something of
the interior features of the country, and the promise it
afforded of resources from the hunt. They returned on
the 16th of September, after a hard travel, made with
excellent judgment and abundant zeal. They pene-
trated into the interior about ninety miles, when their
progress was arrested by a glacier, four hundred feet
high, and extending to the north and west as far as
the eye could reach. This magnificent body of inte-
rior ice formed on its summit a complete plateau, — a
mer de glace, abutting upon a broken plain of syenitc^**^
They found no large lakes. They saw a few reindeer
at a distance, and numerous hares and rabbits, but no
ptarmigan.

"September 20, Tuesday. — ^I was unwilling to delay
my depdt party any longer. They left the brig.

depSt party.

116

McGary, and Bonsall, with five men, at half-past one
to-day. We gave them three cheers, and I accom-
panied them with my dogs as a farewell escort for
-<K)me miles.

"Our crew proper is now reduced to three men ; but
all the officers, the doctor among the rest, are hard at
work upon the observatory and its arrangements."

't:

CHAPTER XI.

THE OBSERVATORY — THERMOMETERS — THE RATS — THE BRIO ON
FIRE — ANCIENT SLEDGE-TRACKS — ESQUIMAUX HUTS — HYDRO-
PHOBIA — BLEDOE-DRIVINO — MUSK OX TRACKS — A SLEDQE PARTY.

The island on which we placed our observatory was
some fifty paces long by perhaps forty broad, and about
thirty feet above the water-line. Here we raised four
walls of granite blocks, cementing them together with
moss and water and the never-failing aid of frost. On
these was laid a substantial wooden roof, perforated at
the meridian and prime vertical. For pedestals we
had a conglomerate of gravel and ice, well rammed
down while liquid in our iron-hooped pemmican-casks,
and as free from all vibration as the rock they rested
on. Here we mounted our transit and theodolite.

The magnetic observatory adjoining, had rather more
of the affectation of comfort. It was of stone, ten feet
square, with a wooden floor as well as roof, a copper
fire-grate, and stands of the same Arctic breccia as
those in its neighbor. No iron was used in its con-
struction. Here were our magnetometer and dip
instruments.

116

THE OBSERVATORY.

iir

Our tide-register was on board the vessel, a simple
pulley-gauge, arranged with a wheel and index, and
dependent on her rise and fall for its rotation.^^

BRIQ IN HAR3Qn.

Our meteorological observatory was upon the open
ice-field, one hundred and forty yards from the ship.
It was a wooden structure, latticed and pierced with

i i

I !

118

THERMOMETERS.

auger-holes on all sides, so as to allow the air to pass
freely, and firmly luted to its frozen base. To guard
against the fine and almost impalpable drift, which in-
sinuates itself everywhere, and which would interfere
with the observation of minute and sudden changes
of temperature, I placed a series of screens at right
angles to each other, so as to surround the inner
chamber.

The thermometers were suspended within the central
chamber : a pane of glass permitted the light of our
lanterns to reach them from a distance, and a lens and
eye-glass were so fixed as to allow us to observe the
instruments without coming inside the screens. Their
sensibility was such that when standing at 40° and 50"
below zero, the mere approach of the observer caused a
perceptible rise of the column. One of them, a three-
feet spirit standard by Taliabue, graduated to 70°
minus, was of sufficiently extended register to be read
by rapid inspection to tenths of a degree. The in-
fluence of winds I did not wish absolutely to neutraUze;
but I endeavored to make the exposure to them so
uniform as to give a relative result for every quarter
of the compass. "We were well supplied with thermo-
meters of all varieties.^**^

I had devised a wind-gauge to be observed by a tell-
tale below deck; but we found that the condensing
moisture so froze around it as to clog its motion.

"September 30, Friday. — ^We have been terribly
annoyed by rats. Some days ago, we made a brave
effort to smoke them out with the vilest imaginable

THE RATS.

119

compound of vapors, — brimstone, burnt leather, and
arsenic, — and spent a cold night in a deck-bivouac
to give the experiment fair play. But they survived
the fumigation. We now determined to dose them
with carbonic acid gas. Dr. Hayes burnt a quantity
of charcoal; and we shut down the hatches, after
pasting up every fissure that communicated aft and
starting three stoves on the skin of the forepeak.

"As the gas was generated with extreme rapidity in
the confined area below, great caution had to be exer-
cised. Our French cook, good Pierre Schubert, — ^who
to a considerable share of bull-headed intrepidity unites
a commendable portion of professional zeal, — stole be-
low, without my knowledge or consent, to season a
soup. Morton fortunately saw him staggering in the
dark; and, reaching him with great difiiculty as he
fell, both were hauled up in the end, — Morton, his
strength almost gone, the cook perfectly insensible.

"The next disaster was of a graver sort. I record
it with emotions of mingled awe and thankfulness.
We have narrowly escaped being burnt out of house
and home. I had given orders that the fires, lit under
my own eye, should be regularly inspected; but I
learned that Pierre's misadventure had made the
watch pretermit for a time opening the hatches. As
I lowered a lantern, which was extinguished instantly,
a suspicious odor reached me, as of burning wood. I
descended at once. Reaching the deck of the fore-
castle, my first glance toward the fires showed me that
all was safe there ; and, though the quantity of smoke

120

THE BRIG ON FIRE.

f
& li

still surprised me, I was disposed to attribute it to the
recent kindling. But at this moment, while passing
on my return near th« door of the bulkhead, which
leads to the carpenter's room, the gas began to affect
me. My lantern went out as if quenched by water ;
and, as I ran by the bulkhead door, I saw the deck
near it a mass of glowing fire for some three feet in
diameter. I could not tell how much farther it ex-
tended j for I became quite insensible at the foot of the
ladder, and would have sunk had not Mr. Brooks seen
my condition and hauled me out.

"When I came to myself, which happily was very
soon, I confided my fearful secret to the four men
around me. Brooks, Ohlsen, Blake, and Stevenson.
It was all-important to avoid confusion: we shut the
doors of the galley, so as to confine the rest of the crew
and officers aft; and then passec! up water from the
fire-hole alongside. It was done very noiselessly. Ohl-
sen and myself went down to the burning deck;
Brooks handed us in the buckets; and in less than
ten minutes we were in safety. It was interesting to
observe the effect of steam upon the noxious gas.
Both Ohlsen and myself were greatly oppressed until
the first bucket was poured on; but as I did this,
directly over the burning coal, raising clouds of steam,
we at once exporienced relief: the fine aqueous par-
ticles seemed to absorb the carbonic acid instantly.
We found the fire had originated in the remains of a
barrel of charcoal, which had been left in the car-
penter's room, ten feet from the stoves, and with a

ANCIENT SLEDGE-TRACES.

121

a
r-
a

bulkhead separating it from them. How it had been
ignited it was impossible to know. Our safety was
due to the dease charge of carbonic acid gas which
surrounded the fire, and the exclusion of atmospheric
air. When the hatches were opened, the flame burst
out with energy. Our fire-hole was invaluable ; and I
rejoiced that in the midst of our heavy duties, this
essential of an Arctic winter harbor had not been neg-
lected. The ice around the brig was already fourteen
inches thick.

"October 1, Saturday. — ^Upon inspecting the scene
of yesterday's operations, we found twenty-eight well-
fed rats of all varieties of age. The cook, though un-
able to do duty, is better: I can hear him chanting
his B^ranger through the blankets in his bunk, happy
over his holiday, happy to be happy at every thing.
I had a larger dose of carbonic acid even than he, and
am sufiering considerably with palpitations and ver-
tigo. If the sentimental asphyxia of Parisian char-
coal resembles in its advent that of the Arctic zone,
it must be, I think, a poor way of dying.

"October 3, Monday. — On shore to the southeast,
above the first terrace, Mr. Petersen found unmistake-
able signs of a sledge-passage. The tracks were
deeply impressed, but certainly more than one season
old. This adds to our hope that the natives, whose
ancient traces we saw on the point south of Godsend
Ledge, may return this winter.

"October 5, Wednesday. — I walked this afternoon
to another group of Esquimaux huts, about three miles

122

ESQUIMAUX HUTS.

fipom the brig. They are four in number, long de-
serted, but, to an eye unpractised in Arctic antiquarian
inductions, in as good preservation as a last year's
tenement at home. The most astonishing feature is
the presence of some little out-huts, or, as I first
thought them, dog-kennels. These are about four
feet by three in ground-plan, and some three feet

it
D

1 I

\ ,1

THE ESQUIMAUX HUTS.

high; no larger than the pologs of the Tchuschi.
In shape they resemble a rude dome; and the stones
of which they are composed are of excessive size, and
evidently selected for smoothness. They were, with-
out exception, of waterwashed limestone. They are
heavily sodded with turf, and a narrow slab of clay-
slate serves as a door. No doubt they are human
habitations, — ^retiring-chambers, into which, away from
the crowded families of the hut, one or even two Esqui-
maux have burrowed for sleep,— chilly dormitories in
the winter of this high latitude.^'^^
"A circumstance that happened to-day is of serious

HTDROPHOBIA.

123

■f^'A

concern to us. Our sluts have been adding to our
stock. We have now on hand four reserved puppies
of peculiar promise; six have been ignominiously
drowned, two devoted to a pair of mittens for Dr.
Kane, and seven eaten by their mammas. Yester-
day, the mother of one batch, a pair of fine white
pups, showed peculiar symptoms. We recalled the
fact that for days past she had avoided water, or had
drunk with spasm and evident aversion; but hydro-
phobia, which is unknown north of 70% never occurred
to us. The animal was noticed this morning walking
up and down the deck with a staggering gait, her
head depressed and her mouth frothing and tumid.
Finally she snapped at Petersen, and fell foaming and
biting at his feet. He reluctantly pronounced it
hydrophobia, and advised me to shoot her. The ad-
vice was well-timed: I had hardly cleared the deck
before she snapped at Hans, the Esquimaux, and
recommenced her walking trot. It was quite an
anxious moment to me ; for my Newfoundlanders were
around the housing, and the hatches open. We shot
her, of course.

"October 6, Thursday. — ^The hares are less numerous
than they were. They seek the coast when the snows
fall in the interior, and the late southeast wind has
probably favored their going back. The^e ammals are
not equal in size either to the European hare or their
brethren of the North American continent. The latter,
according to Seamann, weigh upon an average fourteen
pounds. A large male, the largest seen by us in

124

SLEDGE-DRIVING.

Smith's Sound, weighed but nine; and our average so
far does not exceed seven and a half. They measure
generally less by some inches in length thar« those
noticed by Dr. Richardson. Mr. Petersen is q ae suc-
cessful in shooting these hares: we have a stock of
fourteen now on hand.

"We have been building stone traps on the hills for
the foxes, whose traces we see there in abundance, and
have determined to organize a regular hunt as soon as
they give us the chance.

"October 8, Saturday. — I have been practising with
my dog-sledge and an Esquimaux team till my arms
ache. To drive such an equipage a certain proficiency
with the whip is indispensable, which, like all pro-
ficiency, must be worked for. In fact, the weapon has
an exercise of its own, quite peculiar, and as hard to
learn as single-stick or broadsword.

" The whip is six yards long, and the handle but six-
teen inches, — a short lever, of course, to throw out such
a length of seal-hide. Learn to do it, however, with a
masterly sweep, or else make up your mind to forego
driving sledge; for the dogs are guided solely by the
lash, and you must be able not only to hit any particu-
lar dog out of a team of twelve, but to accompany the
feat also with a resounding crack. After this, you find
that to get your lash back involves another difficulty;
for it is apt to entangle itself among the dogs and lines,
or to fasten itself cunningly round bits of ice, so as to
drag you head over heels into the snow.

" The secret by which this complicated set of require-

MUSK OX TRACKS.

125

tnents is fulfilled consists in properly describing an arc
from the shoulder, with a stiflf elbow, giving the jerk to
the whip-handle from the hand and wrist alone. The
lash trails behind as you travel, and when thrown for-
ward is allowed to extend itself without an effort to
bring it back. You wait patiently after giving the pro-
jectile impulse until it unwinds its slow length, reaches
the end of its tether, and cracks to tell you that it is
at its journey's end. Such a crack on the ear or fore-
foot of an unfortunate dog is signalized by a howl quite
unmistakeable in its import.

" The mere labor of using this whip is such that the
Esquimaux travel in couples, one sledge after the other.
The hinder dogs follow mechanically, and thus require
no whip; and the drivers change about so as to rest
each other. , -

" I have amused myself, if not my dogs, for some days
past with this formidable accessory of Arctic travel. 1
have not quite got the knack of it yet, though I might
venture a trial of cracking against the postillion college
of Lonjumeau.

"October 9, Sunday. — Mr. Petersen shot a hare yes-
terday. They are very scarce now, for he travelled
some five hours without seeing another. He makes the
important report of musk ox tracks on the recent snow.
Dr. Bichardson says that these are scarcely distinguish-
able from the reindeer's except by the practised eye :
he characterizes them as larger, but not wider. The
tracks that Petersen saw had an interesting confirma-
tion of their being those of the musk ox, for they were

126

A SLEDGE PARTY.

accompanied by a second set of footprints, evidently be-
longing to a young one of the same species, and about
as large as a middlensized reindeer's. Both impressions
also were marked as if by hair growijig from the pastern
joint, for behind the hoof was a line brushed in the

^' To-day Hans brought in another hare he had shot.
He saw seven reindeer in a large valley off Bedevilled
Beach, and wounded one of them. This looks pro-
mising for our winter commissariat.

"October 10, Monday. — Our depdt party has been
out twenty days, and it is time they were back: their
provisions must have run very low, for I enjoined
them to leave every pound at the dep6t they could
spare. I am going out with supplies to look after them.
I take four of our best Newfoundlanders, now well
broken, in our lightest sledge ; and Blake will accom-
pany me with his skates. We have not hands enough
to equip a sledge party, and the ice is too unsound for
us to attempt to ride with a large team. The thermo-
meter is still four degrees above zero."

CHAPTER Xn.

LEAFING A OHABM — THX lOE-BELT — CAPS WILLIAM WOOD —
OAMP ON THB VLOES — BETXTBN 0? DEPdT PABTT — BONSALL's
ADVENTUBX — RESULTS — AN ESCAPE — THE THIBD CACHE —
MoQABT ISLAND.

I FOUND little or no trouble in crossing the ice until
we passed beyond the northeast headland, which I have
named Cape William Wood. But, on emerging into
the channel, we found that the spring tides had broken
up the great area around us, and that the passage of
the sledge was intem^ted by fissures, which were
beginning to break in every direction through the
young ice.

My first effort was of course to reach the land ; but
it was unfortunately low tide, and the ice-belt rose up
before me like a wall. The pack was becoming more
and more unsafe, and I was extremely anxious to gain
an asylum on shore ; for, though it was easy to find a
temporary refuge by retreating to the old floes which
studded the more recent ice, I knew that in doing so
we should risk being carried down by the drift.

The dogs began to flag ; but we had to press them : —

127

128

LEAPING A CHASM.

1:^ *

we were only two men ; and, in the event of the ani-
mals failing to leap any of the rapidly-multiplying
fissures, we could hardly expect to extricate our laden
sledge. Three times in less than three hours my shaft
or hinder dogs went in j and John and myself, who had
been trotting alongside the sledge for sixteeii miles,
were nearly as tired as they were. This state of
things could not last ; and I therefore made for the old
ice to seaward.

We were nearing it rapidly, when the dogs failed in
leaping a chasm that was somewhat wider than the
others, and the whole concern came down in the water.
I cut the lines instantly, and, with the aid of my com-
panion, hauled the poor animals out. We owed the
preservation of the sledge to their admirable docility
and perseverance. The tin cooking-apparatus and the
air confined in the India-rubber coverings kept it afloat
till we could succeed in fastening a couple of seal-skin
cords to the cross-pieces at the front and back. By
these John and myself were able to give it an uncertain
support from the two edges of the opening, till the dogs,
after many fruitless struggles, carried it forward at last
upon the ice.

Although the thermometer was below zero, and in
our wet state we ran a considerable risk of freezing,
the urgency of our position left no room for thoughts
of cold. We started at a run, men and dogs, for the
solid ice ; and by the time we had gained it we were
steaming in the cold atmosphere like a couple of
Nootka Sound vapor-baths.

( I

THE ICE-DELT.

129

We restod on the floe. We could not raise oiii* tent,
for it had frozen as hard aa a shingle. But our buffalo-
robe bags gave us protection ; and, though we were too
wet inside to be absolutely comfortable, we managed to

ICE- LI ELI OF OCTOBER,

;hts
the
rare
of

get something like sleep before it was light enough for
us to move on again. '

The journey was continued in the same way ; but
we found to (Jur great gratification that the cracks
closed with the change of the tide, and at high-water
we succeeded in gaining the ice-belt under the cliffs.
This belt had changed very much since my journey in

Vol.. I.— 9

130

CAPE WILLIAM WOOD.

September. The tides and frosts together had coated
it with ice as smooth as satin, and this glossy covering
made it an excellent road. The cliffs discharged fewer
fragments in our path, and the rocks of our last jour-
ney's experience were now fringed with icicles. I saw
with great pleasure that this ice-belt would serve as a
highway for our future operations.

The nights which followed were not so bad as one
would suppose from the saturated condition of our
equipment. Evaporation is not so inappreciable in this
Arctic region as some theorists imagine. By alter-
nately cKposing the tent and furs to the air, and beat-
ing the ice out of them, we dried them enough to per-
mit sleep. The dogs slept in the tent with us, giving
it warmth as well as fragrance. What perfumes of
nature are lost at home upon our ungrateful senses!
How we relished the companionship !

We had averaged twenty miles a day since leaving
the brig, and were within a short march of the cape
which I have named William Wood, when a broad
chasm brought us to a halt. It was in vain that we
worked out to seaward, or dived into the shoreward
recesses of the bay : the ice everywhere presented the
same impassable fissures. We had no alternative but
to retrace our steps and seek among the bergs some
place of security. We found a camp for the night on
the old floe-ices to the westward, gaining them some
time after the darkness had closed in. .^

On the morning of the 15th, about two hours be-
fore the late sunrise, as I was preparing to climb a

'»

CAMP ON THE FLOES.

131

berg from which I might have a sight of the road
ahead, I perceived far off upon the white snow a dark
object, which not only moved, but altered its shape
strangely, — now expanding into a long black line,
now waving, now gathering itself up into a compact
mass. It was the returning sledge party. They had
seen our black tent of Kedar, and ferried across to
seek it.
They were most welcome ; for their absence, in the

CAMP ON THE FLOES.

fearfully open state of the ice, had filled me with
apprehensions. We could not distinguish each other
as we drew near in the twilight; and my first good
news of them was when I heard that they were sing-
ing. On they came^ and at last I was able to count
their voices, one by one. Thank God, seven! Poor
John Blake was so breathless with gratulation, that
I could not get him to blow his signal-horn. We
gave them, instead, the good old Anglo-Saxon greet-
ing, " three cheers !" and in a few minutes were among
them.

132

RETURN

OF DEPOT PARTY.

i. !

I! :

i 'I ;!

They had made a creditable journey, and were, on the
whole, in good condition. They had no injuries worth
talking about, although not a man had escaped some
touches of the frost. Bonsail was minus a big toe-nail,
and plus a scar upon the nose. McGary had attempted,
as Tom Hickey told us, to pluck a fox, it being so frozen
as to defy skinning by his knife; and his fingers had
been tolerably frost-bitten in the operation. " They're
very horny, sir, are my fingers," said McGary, who was
worn down to a mere shadow of his former rotundity ;
"very horny, and they water up like bladders." The
rest had suffered in their feet ; but, like good fellows,
postponed limping until they reached the ship.

Within th^ last three days they had marched fifty-
four miles, or eighteen a day. Their sledge being
empty, and the young ice ilorth of Cape Bancroft
smooth as a mirror, they had travelled, the day before
we met them, nearly twenty-five miles. A very re-
markable pace for men who had been twenty-eight
days in the .field.

My supplies of hot food, cofiee, and marled beef
soup, which I had brought with me, were very oppor-
tune. They had almost exhausted their bread; and,
being unwilling to encroach on the depot stores, had
gone without fuel in order to save alcohol. Leaving
orders to place my own sledge stores in cacJw, I re-
turned to the brig, ah^ad of the party, with my dog-
sledge, carrying Mr. Bonsail with me.

On this return I had much less difiiculty with the

i -^

, I

BONSALLS ADVENTURE.

133

NEWFOUNDLAND DOG TEAM.

\ ■

'e-

ice-cracks; my team of Newxundlanders leaping them
in almost every instance, and the impulse of our
sledge carrying it across. On one occasion, while we
were making these flying leaps, poor Bonsall was
tossed out, and came very near being carried under
by the rapid tide. He fortunately caught the runner
of the sledge as he fell, and I succeeded, by whipping
up the dogs, in hauling him out. He was, of course,
wet to the skin ; but we were only twenty miles from
the brig, and he sustained no serious injury from his
immersion.

' ':

I.)

134

GENERAL RESULTS.

I return to my journal.

"The spar-deck — or, as we call it from its wooden
covering, the * House' — is steaming with the buffalo-
robes, tents, boots, socks, and heterogeneous costum-
ings of our returned parties. We have ample work
in repairing these and restoring the disturbed order
of our domestic life. The men feel the effects of their
journey, but are very content in their comfortable
quarters. A pack of cards, grog at dinner, and the
promise of a three days' holiday, have made the decks
happy with idleness and laughter."

I give the general results of the party; referring
to the Appendix for the detailed account of Messrs.
McGary and Bonsall. ^ '

They left the brig, as may be remembered, on the
20th of September, and they reached Cape Russell on
the 25th. Near this spot I had, in my former jour-
ney of reconnoissance, established a cairn ; and here,
as by previously-concerted arrangement, they left their
first cache of pemmican, together with some bread and
alcohol for fuel.

On the 28t|i, after crossing a large bay, they met a
low cape about thirty miles to the northeast of the
first dep6t. Here they made a second cache of a hun-
dred and ten pounds of beef and pemmican, and about
thirty of a mixture of pemmican and Indian meal, with
a bag of bread.

The day being too foggy for sextant observations for,
position, or even for a reliable view of the landmarks,
they built a substantial cairn, and buried the pro-

; I

GENERAL RESULTS.

13b

vision at a distance of ten paces from its centre,
bearing by compass, E. by N. J N. The point on
which this cache stood I subsequently named after
Mr. Bonsall, one of the indefatigable leaders of the
party.

I will give the geographical outline of the track of
this party in a subsequent part of this narrative, when
I have spoken of the after-travel and surveys which
confirmed and defined it. But I should do injustice
both to their exertions and to the results of them,
were I to omit mention of the difl&culties which they
encountered.

On the twenty-fifth day of their outward journey
they met a great glacier, which I shall describe here-
after. It checked their course along the Greenland
coast abruptly; but they still endeavored to make
their way outside its edge to seaward, with the com-
mendable object of seeking a more northern point for
the provision dep6t. This journey was along the base
of an icy wall, which constantly threw off its dis-
charging bergs, breaking up the ice for miles around,
and compelling the party to ferry themselves and their
sledge over the cracks by rafts of ice.

One of these incidents I give nearly in the language
of Mr. Bonsall.

They had camped, on the night of 5th October,
under the lee of some large icebergs, and within hear-
ing of the grand artillery of the glacier. The floe on
which their tent was pitched was of recent and trans-
parent ice; and the party, too tired to seek a safer

'(']

136

AN ESCAPE.

asylum, had turned in to rest; when, with a crack
like the snap of a gigantic whip, the ice opened directly
beneath them. This was, as nearly as they could
estimate the time, at about one o'clock in the morn-
ing. The darkness was intense; and the cold, about
10° below zero, was increased by a wind which blew
from the northeast over the glacier. They gathered
together their tent and sleeping furs, and lashed them,
according to the best of their ability, upon the sledge.

camp under q l a c i er— ct b e r fifth.

,;;,.„■ .: .. ; ... .... ." ■/■',' t' .'.^ ^ ..;?'., -.

Repeated intonations warned them that the ice was
breaking up ; a swell, evidently produced by the ava-
lanches from the glacier, caused the platform on which
they stood to rock to and fro.

Mr. McGary derived a hope from the stable charac-
ter of the bergs near them : they were evidently not

THE THIRD CACHE.

137

adrift. He determined to select a flat piece of ice,
place the sledge upon it, and, by the aid of tent-poles
and cooking-utensils, paddle to the old and firm fields
which clung to the bases of the bergs. The party
waited in anxious expectation until the returning day-
light permitted this attempt; and, after a most ad-
venturous passage, succeeded in reaching the desired
position.

My main object in sending them out was the de-
posit of provisions, and I had not deemed it advisable
to complicate- their duties by any organization for a
survey. They reached their highest latitude on the
6th of October; and this, as determined by dead
reckoning, was in latitude 79°50', and longitude 76°20'.
From this point they sighted and took sextant bear-
ings of land to the north,* having a trend or incUna-
tion west by north and east by south, at an estimated
distance of thirty miles. They were at this time en-
tangled in the icebergs; and it was from the lofty
summit of one of these, in the midst of a scene of
surpassing desolation, that they made their observa-
tions.

They began the third or final cache, which was the
main object of the journey, on the 10th of October;
placing it on a low island at the base of the large

'*' I may mention that the results of their observations were not used
in the construction of our charts, except their interesting sextant bear-
ings. These were both numerous and valuable, but not sustained at
the time by satisfactory astronomical observations for position.

138

MCGARY ISLAND.

glacier which checked their further march along the
coast.

Before adopting this site, they had perseveringly
skirted the base of the glacier, in a fruitless effort to
cross it to the north. In spite of distressing cold, and
the nearly constant winds from the ice-clothed shore,
they carried out all my instructions for securing this
important dep&t. The stores were carefully buried in
a natural excavation among the cliffs; and heavy
rocks, brought with great labor, were piled above
them. Smaller stones were placed over these, and
incorporated into one solid mass by a mixture of sand
and water. The power of the bear in breaking
up a provision cache is extraordinary; but the Es-
quimaux to the south Lad assured me that frozen
sand and water, which would wear away the ani-
mal's claws, were more effective against him than
the largest rocks. Still, knowing how much trouble
the officers of Commodore Austin's Expedition ex-
perienced from the destruction of their caches^ I had
ordered the party to resort to a combination of these
expedients.^^^ , ..

They buried here six hundred and seventy pounds
of pemmican, forty of Borden's meat biscuit, and some
articles of general diet ; making :\ total of about eight
hundred pounds. They indicated the site by a large
cairn, bearing E. i S. from the cache, and at the dis-
tance of th>ty paces. The landmarks of the cairn
itself were sui'niently evident, but were afterwards
fixed by bearings, for additional certainty.

MOGART ISLAND.

139

The island which was so judiciously selected as the
seat of this cache was named after my faithful friend
and excellent second officer, Mr. James McGary, of
New London.

MCSARY'S CACHE.

CHAPTER XIII.

WALRUS-HOLES — ADVANCE OP DARKNESS — DARKNESS — THE COLD
— "THE ice-blink" — FOX-CHASE — ESQUIMAUX HUTS — OCOULTA-
TION OP SATURN — PORTRAIT OP OLD GRIM. ^

"October 28, Friday. — The moon has reached her
greatest northern declination of about 25° 35'. She is
a glorious object : sweeping around the heavens, at the
lowest part of her curve, she is still 14° above the
horizon. For eight days she has been making her cir-
cuit with nearly unvarjdng brightness. It is one of
those sparkling nights that bring back the memory of
sleigh-bells and songs and glad communings of hearts
in lands that are for away.

"Our fires and ventilation-fixtures are so arranged
that we are able to keep a mean temperature below
of 65°, and on deck, under our housing, above the
freezing-point. This is admirable success; for the
weather outside is at 25° below zero, and there is quite
a little breeze blowing.

" The last remnant of walrus did not leave us until
the second week of last month, when the temperature
had sunk below zero. Till then they found open

140

-THE COLD
— OCOULTA-

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WALRUS-HOLES.

141

water enough to sport and even sleep in, between
the fields of drift, as they opened with the tide ; but
they had worked numerous breathing-holes besides, in
the solid ice nearer shore.* Many of these were in-
side the capes of Rensselaer Harbor. They had the
same circular, cleanly-finished margin as the seals',
but they were in much thicker ice, and the radiating

WALRUS SPORTING.

lines of fracture round them much more marked.
The animal evidently used his own buoyancy as a
means of starting the ice. '

"Around these holes the ice was much discolored:

* The walrus often sleeps on the surface of the water while his
fellows are playing around him. In this condition I frequently sur-
prised the young ones, whose mothers were asleep by their side.

. i

t 'i .

142

ADVANCE OP DARKNESS.

numbers of broken clam-shells were found near them,
and, in one instance, some gravel, mingled with about
half a peck of the coarse shingle of the beach. The
use of the stones which the walrus swallows is still
an interesting question. The ussuk or bearded seal
has the same habit.

" November 7, Monday. — The darkness is coming on
with insidious steadiness, and its advances can only be

WALRUS-HOLE.

perceived by comparing one day with its fellow of some
time back. We still read the thermometer at noonday
without a light, and the black masses of the hills are
plain for about five hours with their glaring patches
of snow; but all the rest is darkness. Lanterns are
always on the spar-deck, and the lard-lamps never ex-
tinguished below. The stars of the sixth magnitude,
shine out at noonday.

"Except upon the island of Spitzbergen, which has

DARKNESS.

143

the advantages of an insular climate and tempered by
ocean currents, no Christians have wintered in so higli
a latitude as this. They are Russian sailors who make
the encounter there, men inured to hardships and cold,
I cannot help thinking of the sad chronicles of the early

NOONDAY IN NOVEMBER.

Dutch, who perished year after year, without leaving a
comrade to record their fate.

"Our darkness has ninety days to run before we shall
get back again even to the contested twilight of to- day.
Altogether, our winter will have been sunless for one
hundred and forty days.

144

THE COLD INCREASING.

"It requires neither the * Ice-foot' with its grow-
ing ramparts, nor the rapid encroachments of the
night, nor the record of our thermometers, to por-
tend for us a winter of unusual severity. The
mean temperatures of October and September are
lower than those of Parry for the same months at
Melville Island. Thus far we have no indications
of that deferred fall cold which marks the insular
climate.

" November 9, Wednesday. — Wishing to get the alti-
tude of the cliflFs on the southwest cape of our bay
before the darkness set in thoroughly, I started in time
to reach them with my Newfoundlanders at noonday.
Although it was but a short journey, the rough shore-
ice and a slight wind rendered the cold severe. I had
been housed for a week with my wretched rheumatism,
and felt that daily exposure was necessary to enable
me to bear up against the cold. The thermometer
indicated twenty-three degrees below zero.

"Fireside astronomers can hardly realize the diffi-
culties in the way of observations at such low tempera-
tures. The mere burning of the hands is obviated by
covering the metal with chamois-skin ; but the breath,
and even the warmth of the face and body, cloud the
sextant-arc and glasses with a fine hoarfrost. Though
I had much clear weather, we barely succeeded by
magnifiers in reading the verniers. It is, moreover,
an unusual feat to measure a base-line in the snow at
fifty-five degrees below freezing.

"November 16, Wednesday. — The great difficulty is

THE ICE-BLlNK.

145

the

to keep up a cheery tone among the men. Poor Hans
has been sorely homesick. Three days ago he bundled
up his clothes and took his rifle to bid us all good-b^e.
It turns out that besides his mother there is anothei-
one of the softer sex at Fiskemaes that the boy's heart
is dreaming of. He looked as wretched as any lover
of a milder clime. I hope I have treated his nostalgia
successfully, by giving him first a dose of salts, and,
secondly, promotion. He has now all the dignity of
henchman. He harnesses my dogs, builds my traps,
and walks with me on my ice-tramps; and, except
hunting, is excused from all other duty. He is really
attached to me, and as happy as a fat man ought
to be.

"November 21, Monday. — "We have schemes innu-
merable to cheat the monotonous solitude of our winter.
We are getting up a fancy ball; and to-day the first
number of our Arctic newspaper, * The Ice-Blink,* came
out, with the motto, ' In tenebris servare fidem.' The
articles are by authors of every nautical grade : some
of the best from the forecastle. I transfer a few of
them to my Appendix ; but the following sketch is a
fac-simile of the vignette of our little paper.

" November 22, Tuesday. — I ofiered a prize to-day of
a Guernsey shirt to the man who held out longest in a
* fox-chase' round the decks. The rule of the sport
was, that *Fox' was to nm a given circuit between
galley and capstan, all hands following on his track ;
every four minutes a halt to be called to blow, and the
fox making the longest run to take the prize ; each of

Vol. I.— 10

1 1

I 1

1 I

146

FOX-CHASE.

'IN TENEBRIS SERVARE FIOCM."

the crew to run as fox in turn. William Godfrey sus-
tained the chase for fourteen minutes, and wore oflf the
shirt.

"November 27, Sunday. — I sent out a volunteer
party some days ago with Mr. Bonsall, to see whether
the Esquimaux have returned to the huts we saw
empty at the cape. The thermometer was in the
neighborhood of 40° below zero, and the day was too
dark to read at noon. I was hardly surprised when
they returned after camping one night upon the snow.
Their sledge broke down, and they were obliged to
leave tents and every thing else behind them. It
must have been very cold, for a bottle of Monongahela
whiskey of good stiff proof froze under Mr. Bonsall's
head.

ESQUIMAUX HUTS.

147

"Morton went out on Friday to reclaim the things
they had left; and to-day at 1 p.m. he returned suc-
cessful. He reached the wreck of the former party,
making nine miles in three hours, — ^pushed on six
miles farther on the Ice-foot, — then camped for the
night; and, making a sturdy march the next day
without luggage, reached the huts, and got back to his
camp to sleep. This journey of his was, we then
thought, really an achievement, — sixty-two miles in
three marches, with a mean temperature of 40° below
zero, and a noonday so dark that you could hardly see
a hummock of ice fifty paces ahead.

"Under more favoring circumstances, Bonsall, Mor-
ton, and myself made eighty-four miles in three con-
secutive marches. I go for the system of forced
marches on journeys that are not over a hundred and
fifty miles. A practised walker unencumbered by
weight does twenty miles a day nearly as easily as
ten: it is the uncomfortable sleeping that wears a
party out.

"Morton found no natives; but he saw enough to
satisfy me that the huts could not have been deserted
long before we came to this region. The foxes had
been at work upon the animal remains that we found
there, and the appearances which we noted of recent
habitation had in a great degree disappeared. Where
these Esquimaux have travelled to is matter for con-
jecture. The dilapidated character of the huts yre
have seen farther to the north seems to imply that
they cannot have gone in that direction. They have

148

OOCUBTATION OP SATURN.

■Il

more probably migrated southward, and, as the spring
opens, may return, with the walrus and seal, to their
former haunts. We shall see them, I think, before we
leave our icy moorings. . • ;

"December 12, Monday. — ^A grand incident in our
great monotony of life! We had an occultation of
Saturn at 2 A. m., and got a most satisfactory observor
tion. The emersion was obtained with greater accu-
racy than would have been expected from the excessive
atmospheric undulation of these low temperatures. My
little Fraunhofer sustained its reputation well. We
can now fix our position without a cavil.

"December 15, Thursday. — We have lost the last
vestige of our mid-day twilight. We cannot see print,
and hardly paper : the fingers cannot be counted a foot
from the eyes. Noonday and midnight are alike, and,
except a vague glimmer on the sky that seems to de-
fine the hill outlines to the south, we have nothing
to tell us that this Arctic world of ours has a sun.
In one week more we shall reach the midnight of
the year.

"December 22, Thursday. — There is an excitement
in our little community that dispenses with reflections
upon the solstitial night. ^Old Grim' is missing, and
has been for more than a day. Since the lamented
demise of Cerberus, my leading Newfoundlander, he
has been patriarch of our scanty kennel.

"Old Grim was *a character' such as perad venture
may at some time be found among beings of a higher
order and under a more temperate sky. A profound

PORTRAIT OP OLD GRIM.

149

hypocrite and time-server, he so wriggled his adulatory
toil as to secure every one s good graces and nobody's
respect. All the spare morsels, the castroff delicacies
of the mess, passed through the winnowing jaws of
'Old Grim,' — an illustration not so much of his eclecti-
cism as his universality of taste. He was never known
to refuse any thing offered or approachable, and never
known to be satisfied, however prolonged and abundant
the bounty or the spoil.

"Grim was an ancient dog : his teeth indicated many
winters, and his limbs, once splendid tractors for the
sledge, were now covered with warts and ringbones.
Somehow or other, when the dogs were harnessing for
a journey, *01d Grim' itas sure not to be found; and
upon one occasion, when he was detected hiding away
in a cast-off barrel, he incontinently became lame.
Strange to say, he has been lame ever since except
when the team is away without him. <i '

"Cold disagrees with Grim; but by a system of pa-
tient watchings at the door of our deck-house, accom-
panied by a discriminating use of his tail, he became
at lost the one privileged intruder. My seal-skin coat
has been his favorite bed for weeks together. Whatr
ever love for on individual Grim expressed by his tail,
he could never be induced to follow him on the ice
after the cold darkness of the winter set in; yet the
dear good old sinner would wriggle after you to the
very threshold of the gangway, and bid you good-bye
with a deprecatory wag of the toil which disarmed
resentment.

160

PORTRAIT OF OLD GRIM.

" His appearance was quite characteristic : — his
muzzle roofed like the old-fashioned gable of a Dutch
garretpwindow ; his forehead indicating the most meagre
capacity of brains that could consist with his sanity as
a dog; his eyes small; his mouth curtained by long
block dewlaps ; and his hide a mangy russet studded
with chestnut-burrs: if he has gone indeed, we 'ne'er
shall look upon his like again.' So much for old
Grim!

" When yesterday's party started to take soundings,
I thought the exercise would benefit Grim, whose time-
serving sojourn on our warm deck had begun to render
him over-corpulent. A rope was fastened round him;
for at such critical periods he •was obstinate and even
ferocious; and, thus fastened to the sledge, he com-
menced his reluctant journey. Reaching a stopping-
place after a while, he jerked upon his line, parted it a
foot or two from its knot, and, dragging the remnant
behind him, started off through the darkness in the
direction of our brig. He has not been seen since.

'^ Parties are out with lanterns seeking him; for it is
feared that his long cord may have caught upon some
of the rude pinnacles of ice which stud our floe, and
thus made him a helpless prisoner. The thermometer
is at 44°.6 below zero, and old Grim's teeth could not
gnaw away the cord.

"December 23, Friday. — Our anxieties for old Grim
might have interfered with almost any thing else ; but
they could not arrest our celebration of yesterday. Dr.
Hayes made us a well-studied oration, and Morton a

PORTRAIT OF OLD GRIM.

151

capital punch ; add to these a dinner of marled beef, —
we have two pieces left, for the sun's return and tlie
Fourth of July, — and a bumper of champagne all
round; and the elements of our frolic are all regis-
tered.

"We tracked old Grim to4ay through the snow to
within six hundred yards of the brig, and thence to
that mass of snow-packed sterility which we call the
shore. His not rejoining the ship is a mystery quite
in keeping with his character. '

POdTRAlT OP OLD QHiM.

. -Tl-.v-*(.- ■• ''■

CHAPTER XIV.

MAONETIO OBSERVATORY — TEMPERATURES — RETURNING LiaHT —
DARKNESS AND THE DOGS — HYDROPHOBIA — ICE-CHANGES — THE
ICE-FOOT — THE ICE-BELT — THE SUNLIGHT — MARCH.

My journal for the first two months of 1854 is so
devoid of interest, that I spare the reader the task of
following me through it. In the darkness and conse-
quent inaction, it was almost in vain that we sought
to create topics of thought, and by a forced excitement
to ward oflf the encroachments of disease. Our ob-
servatory and the dogs gave us our only regular occu-
pations.

On the 9th of January we had again an occulta-
tion of Saturn. The emersion occurred during a short
interval of clear sky, and our observation of it was
quite satisfactory; the limit of the moon's disc and
that of the planet being well defined: the mist pre-
vented our seeing the immersion. We had a re-
currence of the same phenomenon on the 5th of
February, and an occultation of Mars on the 14th;
both of them observed under favorable circumstances,
the latter especially.

MAGNETIC OBSERVATORY.

153

Our magnetic observations went on; but the cold
made it almost impossible to adhere to them with regu-
larity. Our observatory was, in fact, an ice-house of
the coldest imaginable description. The absence of
snow prevented our backing the walls with that im-
portant non-conductor. Fires, buffalo-robes, and an
arras of investing sail-cloth, were unavailing to bring

THE OBSERVATORY.

up the mean temperature to the freezing-point at the
level of the magnetometer ;* and it was quite common

* We had a good unifilar, that had been baned to us by Professor
Bache, of the Coast Survey, and a dip instrument, a Barrow's circle,
obtained from the Smithsonian Institution, through the kindness of
Col. Sabine. I owe much to Mr. Sontag, Dr. Hayes, and Mr. Bon-
sail, who bore the brunt of the term-day observations; it was only
toward the close of the season that I was enabled to take my share

v^"»^.

154

TEMPERATURES.

riii

to find the platform on which the observer stood full
fifty degrees lower, ( — 20°.) Our astronomical ob-
servations were less protracted, but the apartment in
which they were made was of the same temperature
with the outer air. The cold was, of course, intense :
and some of our instruments, the dip-circle particu-
larly, became difiicult to manage in consequence of
the unequal contraction of the brass and steel.

On the 17th of January, our thermometers stood
at forty-nine degrees below zero; and on the 20th,
the range of those at the observatory was at — 64°
to — 67°. The temperature on the floes was always
somewhat higher than at the island; the difierence
being due, as I suppose, to the heat conducted from
the sea -water, which was at a temperature of
+ 29°; the suspended instruments being affected by
radiation.

On the 5th of February, our thermometers began to
show unexampled temperature. They ranged from
60° to 75° below zero, and one very reliable instru-
ment stood upon the taffrail of our brig at — 65°.
The reduced mean of our best spirit-standards gave
— 67°, or 99° below the freezing-point of water.

At these temperatures chloric ether became solid,
and carefully-prepared chloroform exhibited a granu-

of them. In addition to these, we had weekly determinations of varia-
tion of declination, extending through the twenty-four hours, besides
observations of intensity, deflection, inclination, and total force, with
careful notations of temperature.

■^—.j

'••"*,•....

RETURNING LIGHT.

155

lar pellicle on its surface. Spirit of naphtha froze at
— 54°, and oil of sassafras at — 49°. The oil of winter-
green was in a flocculent state at — 56°, and solid at
—63° and — 65°.*<'*)

The exhalations from the surface of the body in-
vested the exposed or partially-clad parts with a
wreath of vapor. The air had a perceptible pungency
upon inspiration, but I could not perceive the painful
sensation which has been spoken of by some Siberian
travellers. When breathed for any length of time, it
imparted a sensation of dryness to the air-passages.
I noticed that, as it were involuntarily, we all breathed
guardedly, with compressed lips.

The first traces of returning light were observed
at noon on the 21st of January, when the southern
horizon had for a short time a distinct orange tint.
Though the sun had perhaps given us a band of illu-
mination before, it was not distinguishable from the
cold light of the planets. We had been nearing the
sunshine for thirty-two days, and had just reached
that degree of mitigated darkness which made the
extreme midnight of Sir Edward Parry in latitude
74° 47'. Even as late as the 31st, two very sensitive
daguerreotype plates, treated with iodine and bromine,
failed to indicate any solar influence when exposed to
the southern horizon at noon; the camera being used
in-doors, to escape the effects of cold.

* I repeated my observations on the effects of these low tempera-
tures with great oare. A farther account of them will be seen in the
Appendix.

■•*-, • —

156

DARKNESS AND THE DOGS.

The influence of this long, intense darkness was
most depressing. Even our dogs, although the greater
part of them were natives of the Arctic circle, were
unable to withstand it. Most of them died from an
anomalous form of disease, to which, I am satisfied,
the absence of light contributed as much as the ex-
treme cold. I give a little extract from my journal
of January 20th.

" This morning at five o'clock — ^for I am so afflicted
with the insonmium of this eternal night, that I rise
at any time between midnight and noon — I went upon
deck. It was absolutely dark; the cold not permit-
ting a swinging lamp. There was not a glimmer came
to me through the ice-crusted window-panes of the
cabin. While I was feeling my way, half puzzled as
to the best method of steering clear of whatever might
be before me, two of my Newfoundland dogs put their
cold noses against my hand, and instantly commenced
the most exuberant antics of satisfaction. It then
occurred to me how very dreary and forlorn must
these poor animals be, at atmospheres of +10° in-doors
and — 50° without, — ^living in darkness, howling at an
accidental light, as if it reminded them of the moon, —
and with nothing, either of instinct or sensation, to
tell them of the passing hours, or to explain the long-
lost daylight. They shall see the lanterns more
frequently."

I may recur to the influence which our long winter
night exerted on the health of these much-valued ani-
mals. The subject has some interesting bearings ; but

'■•■'—.-.,■

THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOGS.

157

I content myself for the present with transcribing
another passage from my journal of a few days later.

"January 25, Wednesday. — The mouse-colored dogs,
the leaders of my Newfoundland team, have for the
past fortnight been nursed like babies. No one can

THE DECKS BY LAMPLIOHT.

tell how anxiously I watch them. They are kept
beloW; tended, fed, cleansed, caressed, and doctored, to
the infinite discomfort of all hands. To-day I give up
the last hope of saving them. Their disease is as
clearly mental as in the case of any human being.
The more material functions of the poor brutes go on
without interruption : they eat voraciously, retain their

158

HYDROPHOBIA.

strength, and sleep well. But all the indications he-
yond this go to prove that the original epilepsy, which
was the first manifestation of brain disease among
them, has been followed by a true lunacy. They
bark frenziedly at nothing, and walk in straight and
curved lines with anxious and unwearying perseve-
rance.

" They fawn on you, but without seeming to appre-
ciate the notice you give them in return; pushing
their heads against your person, or oscillating with a
strange pantomime of fear. Their most intelligent
actions seem automatic: sometimes they claw you, as
if trying to burrow into your seal-skins j sometimes
they remam for hours in moody silence, and then start
off howling as if pursued, and run up and down for
hours.

"So it was with poor Flora, our 'wise dog.* She
was seized with the endemic spasms, and, after a few
wild violent paroxysms, lapsed into a lethargic con-
dition, eating voraciously, but gaining no strength.
This passing off, the same crazy wildness took posses-
sion of her, and she died of brain disease (arachnoidal
effusion) in about six weeks. Generally, they perish
with symptoms resembling locked-jaw in less than
thirty-six hours after the first attack."

On the 22d, I took my first walk on the great floe,
which had been for so long a time a crude, black laby-
rinth. I give the appearance of things in the words
of my journal.

"The floe has changed wonderfully. I remember it

i )

ICE-CHANGES.

159

sixty-four days ago, when our twilight was as it now
is, a partially snow-patched plain, chequered with
ridges of sharp hummocks, or a series of long icy
levels, over which I coursed with my Newfoundlanders.
All this has gone. A lead-colored expanse stretches
its ''rounding gray' in every direction, and the old
angular hummocks are so softened down as to blend
in rolUng dunes with the distant obscurity. The snow
upon the levels shows the same remarkable evapora-
tion. It is now in crisp layers, hardly six inches
thick, quite undisturbed by drift. I could hardly
recognise any of the old localities.

" We can trace the outline of the shore again, and
even some of the long horizontal bands of its stratificar
tion. The cliffs of Sylvia Mountain, which open to-
ward the east, are, if any thing, more covered with
snow than the ridges fronting west across the bay.

"But the feature which had changed most was the
ice-belt. When I saw it last, it was an investing zone
of ice, coping the margin of the floe. The constant
accumulation by overflow of tides and freezing has
turned this into a bristling wall, twenty feet high,
(20 ft. 8 in.) No language can depict the chaos at
its base. It has been rising and falling throughout
the long winter, with a tidal wave of thirteen perpen-
dicular feet. The fragments have been tossed into
every possible confusion, rearing up in fantastic equi-
librium, surging in long inclined planes, dipping into
dark valleys, and piling in contorted hills, often high
above the ice-foot.

160

THE ICE-POOT.

** The frozen rubbish has raised the floe itself, for a
width of fifty yards, into a broken level of crags. To
pass over this to our rocky island, with its storehouse,
is a work of ingenious pilotage and clambering, only
practicable at favoring periods of the tide, and often

THE ICE-FOOT.

■iM_^-<-U,i'

impossible for many days together. Fortunately for
our observatory, a long table of heavy ice has been so
nicely poised on the crest of the ice-foot, that it swings
like a seesaw with the changing water-level, and has
formed a moving beach to the island, on which the
floes could not pile themselves. Shoreward between
Medary and the * terrace,' the shoal-water has reared

THE ICE-BELT.

161

up the ice-fields, so as to make them almost as impass-
able as the floes; and between Fern Rock and the
gravestone, where I used to pass with my sledges,
there is built a sort of garden-wall of crystal, fully
twenty feet high. It needs no iron spikes or broken
bottles to defend its crest from trespassers.

THE BELT-ICES.

" Mr. Sontag amuses me quite as much as he does
himself with his daily efforts to scale it."

My next extract is of a few days later.

" February 1, Wednesday. — The ice-foot is the most
wonderful and unique characteristic of our high
northern position. The spring-tides have acted on it

Vol. I.— 11

162

THE SUNLIGHT.

very powerfully, and the coming day enables us now
to observe their stupendous eflfects. This ice-belt, as
I have sometimes called it, is now twenty-four feet in
solid thickness by sixty-five in mean width : the second
or appended ice is thirty-eight feet wide; and the third
thirty-four feet. All three are ridges of inunense ice-
tables, serried like the granite blocks of a rampart, and
investing the rocks with a triple circumvallation. We
know them as the belt-ices.

"The separation of the true ice-foot from our floe
was at first a simple interval, which by the recession
and advance of the tides gave a movement of about six
feet to our brig. Now, however, the compressed ice
grinds closely against the ice-foot, rising into inclined
planes, and freezing so as actually to push our floe
farther and farther from the shore. The brig has
already moved twenty-eight feet, without the slightest
perceptible change in the cradle which imbeds her."

I close my notice of these dreary months with a
single extract more. It is of the date of February the
21st.

" We have had the sun, for some days, silvering the
ice between the headlands of the bay; and to day, to-
ward noon, I started out to be the first of my party to
welcome him back. It was the longest walk and
toughest climb that I have had since our imprisonment;
and scurvy and general debility have made me * short
o' wind.' But I managed to attain my object. I saw
him once more; and upon a projecting crag nestled in
the sunshine. It was like bathing in perfumed water."

RETURN OF SPRING.

163

The month of March brought back to us the per-
petual day. The sunshine had reached our deck on the
last day of February : we needed it to cheer us. We
were not as pale as my experience in Lancaster Sound
had foretold; but the scurvy-spots that mottled our
faces gave sore proof of the trials we had undergone.
It was plain that we were all of us unfit for arduous
travel on foot at the intense temperatures of the nomi-
nal spring; and the return of the sun, by increasing the
evaporation from the floes, threatened us with a recur-
rence of still severer weather.

But I felt that our work was unfinished. The great
object of the expedition challenged us to a more north-
ward exploration. My dogs, that I had counted on so
largely, the nine splendid Newfoundlanders and thirty-
five Esquimaux of six months before, had perished;
there were only six survivors of the whole pack, and
one of these was unfit for draught. Still, they formed
my principal reliance, and I busied myself from the
very beginning of the month in training them to run
together. The carpenter was set to work upon a
small sledge, on an improved model, and adapted to
the reduced force of our team; and, as we had ex-
hausted our stock of small cord to lash its parts
together, Mr. Brooks rigged up a miniature rope-walk,
and was preparing a new supply from part of the
material of our deep-sea lines. The operations of
shipboard, however, went on regularly; Hans and
occasionally Petersen going out on the hunt, though
rarely returning successful.

'».,-. •v^.

*-•- — "**^',

164

HOPES AND PROSPECTS.

Meanwhile we talked encouragingly of spring hopes
and summer prospects, and managed sometimes to force
an occasion for mirth out of the very discomforts of our
unyielding winter life.

This may explain the tone of my diary.

RITURNINQ DAY.

,, >.: .\ ,; .

it":.V;

1 1

CHAPTER XV.

AROTIO OBSERVATIONS — TRAVEL TO OBSERVATORY — ITS HAZARDS
— ^ARCTIC LIFE — THE DAY — THE DIET — THE AMUSEMENTS — THE
LABORS — THE TEMPERATURE — THE "EIS-FOD" — THl lOE-BELT —
THE ICE-BELT ENOROAOHING — EXPEDITION PBEVARINO — GOOD-
BYE — A SURPRISE — A SECOND GOOD-BTX.

" March 7, Tuesday. — I have said very little in this
business journal about our daily Arctic life. I have
had no time to draw pictures.

" But we have some trials which might make up a
day's adventures. Our Arctic observatory is cold be-
yond any of its class, Kesan, Pulkowa, Toronto, or even
its shifting predecessors, Bossetop and Melville Island.
Imagine it a terra-day, a magnetic term-day.

" The observer, if he were only at home, would be the
* observed of all observers.* He is clad in a pair of
seal-skin pants, a dog-skin cap, a reindeer jumper, and
walrus boots. He sits upon a box that once held a
transit instrument. A stove, glowing with at least a
bucketful of anthracite, represents pictorially a heating
apparatus, and reduces the thermometer as near as may

165

166

ARCTIC OBSERVATIONS.

be to ten degrees below zero. One hand holds a chro-
nometer, and is left bare to warm it: the other luxu-
riates in a fox-skin mitten. The right hand and the
left take it * watch and watch about.* As one bums
with cold, the chronometer shifts to the other, and the
mitten takes its place.

'li

THE MAQNETIC OBSERVATORY.

nil

"Perched on a pedestal of frozen gravel is a magneto-
meter; stretching out from it, a telescope: and, bending
down to this, an abject human eye. Every six minutes,
said eye takes cognizance of a finely-divided arc, and
notes the result in a cold memorandum-book. This
process continues for twenty-four hours, two sets of eyes

'!r

TRAVEL TO OBSERVATORY.

167

taking it by turns; and, when twenty-four hours are
over, term-day is over too.

" We have such frolics every week. I have just been
relieved from one, and after a few hours am to be called
out of bed in the night to watch and dot again. I have
been engaged in this way when the thermometer gave
20° above zero at the instrument, 20° below at two
feet above the floor, and 43° below at the floor itself:
on my person, facing the little lobster-red fury of a
stove, 94° above ; on my person, away from the stove,
10° below zero. *A grateful country' will of course
appreciate the value of these labors, and, as it cons
over hereafter the four hundred and eighty results
which go to make up our record for each week, will
never think of asking ^Gui bono all this?*

"But this is no adventure. The adventure is the
travel to and fro. We have night now only half the
time ; and half the time can go and come with eyes to
help us. It was not so a little while since.

"Taking an ice-pole in one hand, and a dark-lan-
tern in the other, you steer through the blackness for
a lump of greater blackness, the Fern Rock knob.
Stumbling over some fifty yards, you come to a wall :
your black knob has disappeared, and nothing but gray
indefinable ice is before you. Turn to the right;
plant your pole against that inclined plane of slippery
smoothness, and jump to the hummock opposite : it is
the same hummock you skinned your shins upon the
last night you were here. Now wind along, half ser-
pentine, half zigzag, and you cannot mistake that

168

HAZARDOUS TRAVEL.

twenty-feet wall just beyond, creaking and groaning
and even nodding its crest with a grave cold wel-
come: it is the *seam of the second ice.' Tumble
over it at the first gap, and you are upon the first
ice: tumble over that, and you are at the ice-foot;
and there is nothing else now between you and the
rocks, and nothing after them between you and the
observatory.

** But be a little careful as you come near this ice-foot.
It is munching all the time at the first ice, and you
have to pick your way over the masticated fragments.
Don't trust yourself to the half-balanced, half-fixed,
half-floating ice-lumps, unless you relish a bath like
Marshal Suwarrow's, — ^it might be more pleasant if
you were sure of getting out, — ^but feel your way
gingerly, with your pole held crosswise, not disdaining
lowly attitudes, — ^hands and knees, or even full length.
That long wedge-like hole just before you, sending
up its puffs of steam into the cold air, is the 'seam
of the ice-foot:' you have only to jump it and you
are on the smooth level ice-foot itself. Scramble up
the rocks now, get on your wooden shoes, and go to
work observing an oscillating needle for some hours
to come.

"Astronomy, as it draws close under the pole-star,
cannot lavish all its powers of observation on things
above. It was the mistake of Mr. Sontag some months
ago; when he wandered about for an hour on his way
to the observatory, and was afraid after finding it to
try and wander back. I myself had a slide down an

•!

ARCTIC LIFE.

169

inclined plane, whose well-graded talus gave me ample
time to contemplate the contingencies at its base; — a
chasm peradventure, for my ice-pole was travelling
ahead of me and stopped short with a clang; or it
might be a pointed hummock — there used to be one
just below ; or by good luck it was only a water-pool,
in which my lantern made the glitter. I exulted to
find myself in a cushion of snow.

"March 9, Thursday. — How do we spend the day
when it is not term-day, or rather the twenty-four
hours? for it is either all day here, or all night, or a
twilight mixture of both. How do we spend the
twenty-four hours?

"At six in the morning, McGary is called, with all
hands who have sl^t in. The decks are cleaned, the
ice-hole opened, the refreshing beef-nets examined, the
ice-tables measured, and things aboard put to rights.
At half-past seven, all hands rise, wash on deck, open
the doors for ventilation, and come below for breakfast.
We are short o£ fuel, and therefore cook in the cabin.
Our breakfast, for all fare alike, is hard tack, pork,
stewed apples frozen like molasses-candy, tea and coffee,
with a delicate portion of raw potato. After breakfast,
the smokers take their pipe till nine : then all hands
turn to, idlers to idle and workers to work; Ohlsen
to his bench, -Brooks to his 'preparations' in canvas,
McGary to play tailor, Whipple to make shoes, Bonsall
to tinker. Baker to skin birds, — and the rest to the
* Office!' Take a look into the Arctic Bureau! One
table, one salt-pork lamp with rusty chlorinated flame,

170

THE DATS BUSINESS.

three stools, and as many waxen-faced men with their
legs drawn up under them, the deck at zero being too
cold for the feet. Each has his department : Kane is
writing, sketching, and projecting maps; Hayes copying
logs and meteorologicals; Sontag reducing his work at
Fern Kock. A fourth, as one of the working members

VISITINQ THE OBSERVATORY.

of the hive, has long been defunct : you will find him
in bed, or studying * Littell's Living Age.' At twelve,
a business round of inspection, and orders enough to
fill up the day with work. Next, the drill of the Es-
quimaux dogs, — my own peculiar recreation, — a dog-
trot, specially refreshing to legs that creak with every
kick, and rheumatic shoulders that chronicle every

UNPALATABLE DIET.

171

descent of the whip. And so we get on to dinner-time;
the occasion of another gathering, which misses the tea
and coffee of breakfast, but rejoices in pickled cabbage
and dried peaches instead.

"At dinner as at breakfast the raw potato comes in,
our hygienic luxury. Like doctor-stuff generally, it is
not as appetizing as desirable. Grating it down nicely,
leaving out the ugly red spots liberally, and adding the
utmost oil as a lubricant, it is as much as I can do to
persuade the mess to shut their eyes and bolt it, like
Mrs. Squeers's molasses and brimstone at Dotheboys
Hall. Two absolutely refuse to taste it. I tell them
of the Silesians using its leaves as spinach, of the
whalers in the South Seas getting drunk on the mo-
lasses which had preserved the large potatoes of the
Azores, — ^I point to this gum, so fungoid and angry the
day before yesterday, and so flat and amiable to-day, —
all by a potato poultice : my eloquence is wasted : they
persevere in rejecting the admirable compound.

"Sleep, exercise, amusement, and work at will, carry
on the day till our six o'clock supper, a meal something
like breakfast and something like dinner, only a little
more scant: and the officers come in with the reports
of the day. Doctor Hayes shows me the log, I sign it;
Sontag the weather, I sign the weather; Mr. Bonsall
the tides and thermometers. Thereupon comes in mine
ancient, Brooks; and I enter in his journal No. 3 all the
work done under his charge, and discuss his labors for
the morrow.

"McGary comes next, with the cleaning-up arrange-

172

THE AMUSEMENTS.

ment, inside, outside, and on decks; and Mr. Wilson
follows with ice-measurements. And last of all comes
my own record of the day gone by; every line, as I
look back upon its pages, giving evidence of a weak-
ened body and harassed mind.

WINTER LIFE ON BOARD SHIP.

" We have cards sometimes, and chess sometimes, —
and a few magazines, Mr. Littell's thoughtful present,
to cheer away the evening.

'* March 11, Saturday. — All this seems tolerable for
commonplace routine; but there is a lack of comfort

THE LABORS.

173

which it does not tell of. Our fuel is limited to three
bucketfuls of coal a day, and our mean temperature
outside is 40** below zero ; 46° below as I write. Lon-
don Brown Stout, and somebody's Old Brown Sherry,
freeze in the cabin lockers ; and the carlines overhead
are hung with tubs of chopped ice, to make water for
our daily drink. Our lamps cannot be persuaded to
bum salt lard; our oil is exhausted; and we work by
muddy tapers of cork and cotton floated in saucers.
We have not a pound of fresh meat, and only a barrel
of potatoes left. .u i - , >\!. r,; ■

"Not a man now, except Pierre and Morton, is ex-
empt from scurvy; and, as I look around upon the pale
faces and haggard looks of my comrades, I feel that we
are fighting the battle of life at disadvantage, and that
an Arctic night and an Arctic day age a man more
rapidly and harshly than a year anywhere else in all
this weary world.

"March 13, Monday. — Since January, we have been
working at the sledges and other preparations for travel.
The death of my dogs, the rugged obstacles of the ice,
and the intense cold have obliged me to reorganize our
whole equipment. We have had to discard all our
India-rubber fancy-work : canvas shoe-making, fur-sock-
ing, sewing, carpentering, are all going on; and the
cabin, our only fire-warmed apartment, is the work-
shop, kitchen, parlor, and hall. Pemmican cases are
thawing on the lockers; buffalo robes are drying
around the stove; camp equipments occupy the cor-
ners; and our wo-begone French cook, with an in-

— •"-'Sl*-^'^

-C,--.'

'--V—

( :''l

174 THE TEMPERATURE.

finitude of useless saucepans, insists on monopolizing
the stove.

"March 16, Wednesday. — The mean temperature of
the last five days has been,

March 10 — 46°.08

11 — 45°.60

12 — 46«'.64

13 —46^56

14 — 46°.66

giving an average of — 46** Siy, with a variation be-
tween the extremes of less than three-quarters of a
degree.

"These records are remarkable. The coldest month
of the Polar year has heretofore been February; but
we are evidently about to experience for March a
mean temperature not only the lowest of our own
series, but lower than that of any other recorded
observations.

"This anomalous temperature seems to disprove the
idea of a diminished cold as we approach the Pole.
It wiU extend the isotherm of the solstitial month
higher than ever before projected.

" The mean temperature of Parry for March (in lat.
74° 30') wa« —29°; our own will be at least 41°
below zero.

"At such temperatures, the ice or snow covering
offers a great resistance to the sledge-runners. I have
noticed this in training my dogs. The dry snow in its
finely-divided state resembles sand, and the runners

"""^'^"'■i^.- ,"}-" "■-•"W/"

-,>,..r'-ii^.

TUE 'EIS-FOD.'

175

creak as they pass over it. Baron Wrangell notes the
same fact in Siberia at — 40°.

" The difficulties of draught, however, must not inter-
fere with my parties. I am only waiting until the sun,
now 13° high at noon, brings back a little warmth to
the men in sleeping. The mean diflference between
bright clear sunshine and shade is now 5°. But on
the 10th, at noon, the shade gave — 42° 2', and the
sun — 28° ; a difference of more than fourteen degrees.
This must make an impression before long.

" March 17, Friday. — It is nine o'clock, p. M., and the
thermometer outside at — 46°. I am anxious to have
this dep6t party off; but I must wait until there is a
promise of milder weather. It must come soon. The
sun is almost at the equator. On deck, I can see to
the northward all the bright glare of sunset, streaming
out in long bands of orange through the vapors of the
ice-foot, and the frost-smoke exhaling in wreaths like
those from the house-chimneys a man sees in the
valleys as he comes down a mountain-side."

I must reserve for my official report the detailed
story of this ice-foot and its changes.

The name is adopted on board ship from the Danish
"Eis-fod," to designate a zone of ice which extends
along the shore from the untried north beyond us
almost to the Arctic circle. To the south it breaks
up during the summer months, and disappears as high
as Upemavik or even Cape Alexander; but in this
our high northern winter harbor, it is a perennial
growth, clinging to the bold faces of the cliffs, follow-

r t.?*i^*--""'N **•'*■ '^ »■' ■***"*^ ■*" -''

176

THE ICE-BELT.

ing the sweeps cf the bays and the indentations of
rivers.

This broad platform, although changing with the
seasons, never disappears. It served as our highway

■-^ '-.K^.

MARY LEIPER RIVER — THE ICEtBELT.

of travel, a secure and level sledge-road, perched high
above the grinding ice of the sea, and adapting itself
to the tortuosities of the land. As such I shall call it
the "ice-belt."

I was familiar with the Arctic shore-ices of the
Asiatic and American explorers, and had personally

THE ICE-BELT.

177

studied the same formations in Wellington Channel,
where, previously to the present voyage, they might
have been supposed to reach their greatest development.
But this wonderful structure has here assumed a form
which none of its lesser growths to the south had ex-
hibited. As a physical feature, it may be regarded as
hardly second, either in importance or prominence, to
the glacier; and as an agent of geological change, it is
in the highest degree interesting and instructive.

Although subject to occasional disruption, and to
loss of volume from evaporation and thaws, it measures
the severity of the year by its rates of increase. Ris-
ing with the first freezings of the late summer, it crusts
the sea-line with curious fretwork and arabesques: a
little later, and it receives the rude shock of the drifts,
and the collision of falling rocks from the cliffs which
margin it: before the early winter has darkened, it is
a wall, resisting the grinding floes; and it goes on
gathering increase and strength firom the successive
freezing of the tides, until the melted snows and water-
torrents of summer for a time check its progress.
During our first winter at Bensselaer Harbor, the ice-
belt grew to three times the sii^e which it had upon
our arrival; and, by the middle of March, the islands
and adjacent shores were hemmed in by an investing
plane of nearly thirty feet high (27 feet) and one hun-
dred and twenty wide.

The ice-foot at this season was not, however, an un-
broken level. It had, like the floes, its barricades, ser-
ried and irregular; which it was a work of great labor

Vol. I.— 12

■ •^'•m.^^mm^'H,*

» i

178

ICE-BELT ENCROACHING.

and some difficulty to traverse. Our stores were in con-
sequence nearly inaccessible; and, as the ice-foot still
continued to extend itself, piling ice-table upon ice-table,
it threatened to encroach upon our anchorage and peril
the safety of the vessel. The ridges were already

ICE-D£L1 OF EARLY WINTER.

within twenty feet of her, and her stem was sensibly
lifted up by their pressure. "We had, indeed, been puz-
zled for six weeks before, by remarking that the floe
we were imbedded in was gradually receding from the
shore; and had recalled the observation of the Danes
of Upemavik, that their nets were sometimes forced
away strangely from the land. The explanation ia,

EXPEDITION PREPARINO.

179

perhaps, to be found Ui the alternate action of the tides
and frost; but it would be out of place to enter upon
the discussion here.

"March 18, Saturdiuy. — To day our spring-tides gave
to the massive ice which sustains our little vessel a
rise and fall of seventeen feet. The crunching and
grinding, the dashing of the water, the gurgling of the
eddies, and the toppling over of the nicely-poiHcd ice-
tables, were unlike the more brisk dynamics of hum-

ICE'BEIT AND F.Oe.

mock action, but conveyed a more striking expression
of power and dimension.

"The thermometer at four o'clock in the morning
was minus 49° ; too cold still, I fear, for our sledgemen
to set out. But we packed the sledge and strapped on
the boat, and determined to see how she would drag.
Eight men attached themselves to the lines, but were
scarcely able to move her. This may be due in part
to an increase of friction produced by the excessive
cold, according fjo the r ' perience of the Siberian tra-
vellers; but I have no doubt it is principally caused by

180

THE DEPARTURE.

the very thin runners of our Esquimaux sledge cutting
through the snow-crust.

"The excessive refraction this evening, which en-
tirely lifted up the northern coast as well as the ice-
bergs, seems to give the promise of milder weather.
In the hope that it may be so, I have fixed on to-morrow
for the departure of the sledge, after very reluctantly
dispensing with more than two hundred pounds of her
cargo, besides the boat. The party think they can get
along with it now.

EXCESSIVE REFRACTION OF BERGS.

"March 20, Monday. — I saw the dep6t party oflf
yesterday. They gave the usual three cheers, with
three for myself. I gave them the whole of my bro-
ther's great wedding-cake and my last two bottles of
Port, and they pulled the sledge they were harnessed
to famously. But I was not satisfied. I could see it
was hard work; and, besides, they were without the
boat, or enough extra pemmican to make tKeir deposit
of importance. I followed them, therefore, and found
that they encamped at 8 p. m. only five miles from the
brig.

18ft

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Is

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I'i.
TIM

i J

GOOD-BYE — A SURPRISE.

181

"When I overtook them, I said nothing to dis-
courage them, and gave no new orders for the morn-
ing; hut after laughing at good Ohlsen's rueful face,
and listening to all Petersen's assurances that the cold
and nothing but the cold retarded his Greenland sledge,
and that no sledge of any other construction could
have been moved at all through minus 40° snow, I
quietly bade them good-night, leaving all hands
under their buffaloes.

"Once returned to the brig, all my tired remainder-
men were summoned : a large sled with broad runners,
which I had built somewhat after the neat Admiralty
model sent me by Sir Francis Beaufort, was taken
down, scraped, polished, lashed, and fitted with track-
ropes and rue-raddies; the lines arranged to draw as
near as possible in a line with the centre of gravity.
We made an entire cover of canvas, with snugly-
adjusted fastenings; and by one in the morning we
had our discarded excess of pemmican and the boat
once more in stowage.

" Off we went for the camp of the sleepers. It was
very cold, but a thoroughly Arctic night; the snow
just tinged with the crimson stratus above the sun,
which, equinoctial as it was, glared beneath the north-
em horizon like a smelting-fumace. We found the
tent of the party by the bearings of the stranded bergs.
Quietly and stealthily we hauled away their Esqui-
maux sledge, and placed her cargo upon *the Faith.'
Five men were then rue-raddied to the track-lines;
and with the whispered word, *Now, boys, when

:i
If

182

A SECOND GOOD-BYE.

!!;

Mr. Brooks gives his third snore, oflf with you!' off
they went, and 'the Faith* after them, as free and
nimble as a volunteer. The trial was a triumph. We
awakened the sleepers with three cheers ; and, giving
them a second good-bye, returned to the brig, carrying
the dishonored vehicle along with us. And now, bating
mishaps past anticipation, I shall have a depdt for my
long trip.

"The party were seen by McGary from aloft, at
noon to-day, moving easily, and about twelve miles
from the brig. The temperature too is rising, or
rather unmistakably about to rise. Our lowest was
— 43°, but our highest reached — 22°; this extreme
range, with the excessive refraction and a gentle
misty air from about the S.E., makes me hope that we
are going to have a warm spell. The party is well
off. Now for my own to follow them !"

CHAPTER XVI.

PREPARATION — TEMPERATURES — ADVENTURE — AN ALARM — PARTY
ON THE FLOES — RESCUE PARTY — LOST ON THE FLOES — PARTY
FOUND — RETURN — FREEZING — RETURNING CAMP — A BIVOUAC
— EXHAUSTED — ESCAPE — CONSEQUENCES.

" March 21, Tuesday. — ^AU hands at work house-
cleaning. Thermometer — 48°. Visited the fox-traps
with Hans in the afternoon, and found one poor ani-
mal frozen dead. He was coiled up, with his nose
buried in his bushy tail, like a fancy foot-muflf or the
jprie-dieu of a royal sinner. A hard thing about his
fate was that he had succeeded in effecting his escape
from the trap; but, while working his way under-
neath, had been frozen fast to a smooth stone by the
moisture of his own breath. He was not probably
aware of it before the moment when he sought to
avail himself of his hard-gained liberty. These sad-
dening thoughts did not impair my appetite at supper,
where the little creature looked handsomer than ever.

"March 22, Wednesday. — We took down the for-
ward bulkhead today, and moved the men aft, to save
fuel. All hands are still at work clearing up the

183

ft 1

184

P U E r A R A T I N.

decks, the scrapers sounding overhead, and the hickory
brooms crackling against the frozen woodwork. After-
noon comes, and McGary brings from the traps two
foxes, a blue and a white. Afternoon passes, and we
skin them. Evening passes, and we eat them. Never
were foxes more welcome visitors, or treated more like
domestic animals.

"March 23, Thursday. — The accumulated ice upon
our housing shows what the condensed and frozen
moisture of the winter has been. The average thick-
ness of this curious deposit is five inches, very hard
and well crystallized. Six cart-loads have been already
chopped out, and about four more remain.

"It is very far from a hardship to sleep under such
an ice-roof as this. In a climate where the intense
cold approximates all ice to granite, its thick air-tight
coating contributes to our warmth, gives a beautiful
and cheerful lustre to our walls, and condenses any
vapors which our cooks allow to escape the funnels. I
only remove it now because I fear the effects of damp
in the season of sunshine.

" March 27, Monday. — "We have been for some days
in all the flurry of preparation for our exploration
trip : bufifalo-hides, leather, and tailoring-utensils every-
where. Every particle of fur comes in play for mits
and mufis and wrappers. Poor Flora is turned into a
pair of socks, and looks almost as pretty as when she
was heading the team.

" The wind to-day made it intensely cold. In riding
but four miles to inspect a fox-trap, the movement

TEMPERATURES. 186

froze my cheeks twice. We avoid mapsks with great
care, reserving them for the severer weather : the jaw
when protected recovers very soon the sensibility which
exposure has subdued.

" Our party is now out in its ninth day. It has had
some trying weather :

On the 19th -^2».8

20th — S5"'.4

21st — 19^87

22d — 7*'.47

23d — 9°.0''

24th — 18''.82

25th : — 8P.80

26th — 42«.8

27th — 34°.88

of mean daily temperature; making an average of
27°.13 below zero.

"March 29, Wednesday. — ^I have been out with my
dog-sledge, inspecting the ice to-day from the north-
western headland. There seems a marked difference
between this sound and other estuaries, in the number
of ice-bergs. Unlike Prince Kegent's, or Wellington,
or Lancaster Sounds, the shores here are lined with
glaciers, and the water is everywhere choked and
harassed by their discharges. This was never so appa-
rent to me as this afternoon. The low sun lit up line
after line of lofty bergs, and the excessive refraction
elevated them so much, that I thought I could see a
chain of continuous ice running on toward the north
until it was lost in illimitable distance.

K^r* • '''•-*t>S '***^ ■■''*■ '''•••"\^.. ■\

186

AN ADVENTURE.

" March 31, Friday. — I was within an ace to-day of
losing my dogs, every one of them. When I reached
the ice-foot, they balked : — who would not ? — the tide
was low, the ice rampant, and a jump of four feet
necessary to reach the crest. The howling of the
wind and the whirl of the snow-drift confused the

NORTHWESTERN HEADLAND.

poor creatures ; but it was valuable training for them,
and I strove to force them over. Of course I was on
foot, and they had a light load behind them. *Now,
Stumpy! Now, Whitey!' 'Good dogs!' ' Tu-lee-ee-ee !
Tuh 1' They went at it like good stanch brutes, and
the next minute the whole team was rolling in a lump,
some sixteen feet below me, in the chasm of the ice-
foot. The drift was such that at ^rst I could not see

,-,_./

..>..->^,

SUDDEN ALARM.

187

them. The roaring of the tide and the subdued wail
of the dogs made me fear for the worst. I had to walk
through the broken ice, which rose in toppling spires
over my head, for nearly fifty yards, before I found an
opening to the ice-face, by which I was able to climb
down to them. A few cuts of a sheath-knife released
them, although the caresses of the dear brutes had like
to have been fatal to me, for I had to straddle with
one foot on the fast ice and the other on loose piled
rubbish. But I got a line attached to the cross-pieces
of the sledge-runners, flung it up on the ice-foot, and
then piloted my dogs out of their slough. In about
ten minutes, we were sweating along at eight miles an
hour."

Every thing looked promising, and we were only
waiting for intelligence that our advance party had de-
posited its provisions in safety to begin our transit of
the bay. Except a few sledge-lashings and some trifling
accoutrements to finish, all was ready.

We were at work cheerfully, sewing away at the
gkins of some moccasins by the blaze of our lamps,
when, toward midnight, we heard the noise of steps
above, and the next minute Sontag, Ohlsen, and Peter-
sen came down into the cabin. Their manner startled
me even more than their unexpected appearance on
board. They were swollen and haggard, and hardly
able to speak.

Their story was a fearful one. They had left their
companions in the ice, risking tl^eir own lives to bring

'■^•*%,t,^*^>»-

. .u/t*^;^>;j»lfc^.

188

PARTY ON THE FLOES.

US the news : Brooks, Baker, Wilson, and Pierre were
all lying frozen and disabled. Where? They could
not tell: somewhere in among the hummocks to the
north and east; it was drifting heavily round them
when they parted. Irish Tom had stayed by to feed
and care for the others; but the chances were sorely
against them. It was in vain to question them fur-
ther. They had evidently travelled a great distance,
for they were sinking with fatigue and hunger, and
could hardly be rallied enough to tell us the direction
in Avhich they had come. i -

TH( RESCUC PARTY.

My first impulse was to move on the instant with an
unencumbered party: a rescue, to be effective or even
hopeful, could not be too prompt. What pressed on
my mind most was, where the sufferers were to be
looked for among the drifls. Ohlsen seemed to have
his faculties rather more at command than his asso-
ciates, and I thought that he might assist us as a
guide ; but he was sinking with exhaustion, and if he
went with us we must carry him.

^,:yf--

RESCUE PARTT.

189

There was not a moment to be lost. While some
were still busy with the new-comers and getting ready
a hasty meal, others were rigging out the '^Little
Willie" with a bufifalo-cover, a small tent, and a pack-
age of pemmican; and, as soon as we could hurry
through our arrangements, Ohlsen was strapped on in
a fur bag, his legs wrapped in dog-skins and eider-
down, and we were off upon the ice. Our party con-
sisted of nine men and myself. We carried only the
clothes on our backs. The thermometer stood at
— 46°, seventy-eight degrees below the freezing-point.

A well-known peculiar tower of ice, called by the
men the "Pinnacly Berg," served as our first land-
mark : other icebergs of colossal size, which stretched
in long beaded lines across the bay, helped to guide us
afterward ; and it was not until we had travelled for
sixteen hours that we began to lose > our way.

We knew that our lost companions must be some-
where in the area before us, within a radius of forty
miles. Mr. Ohlsen, who had been for fifty hours with-
out rest, fell asleep as soon as we began to mG/e, and
awoke now with unequivocal signs of mental disturb-
ance. It became evident that he had lost the bearing
of the icebergs, which in form and color endlessly re-
peated themselves ; and the uniformity of the vast field
of snow utterly forbade the hope of local landmarks.

Pushing ahead of the party, and clambering over
some rugged ice-piles, I came to a long level floe, which
I thought might probably have attracted the eyes of
weary men in circumstances like our own. It was a

«« - ■• -.*«« -^a^ :<»^»

i '■

-" 1

^*l

', !

190

RESCUE PARTY.

light conjecture ; but it was enough to turn the scale,
for there was no other to balance it. I gave orders to
abandon the sledge, and disperse in search of foot-
marks. We raised our tent, placed our pemmican in
cacTief except a small allowance for each man to carry

PINNACLY DERQ.

on his person ; and poor Ohlsen, now just able to keep
his legs, was liberated from his bag. The thermometer
had fallen by this time to — 49°. 3, and the wind was
setting in sharply from the northwest. It was out of
the question to halt : it required brisk exercise to keep
us from freezing. I could not even melt ice for water ;
and, at these temperatures, any resort to snow for the

LOST ON THE FLOES.

191

purpose of allaying thirst was followed by bloody lips
and tongue : it burnt like caustic.

It was indispensable then that we should move on,
looking out for traces as we went. Yet when the men
were ordered to spread themselves, so as to multiply
the chances, though they all obeyed heartily, some
painful impress of solitary danger, or perhaps it may
have been the varying configuration of the ice-field,
kept them closing up continually into a single group.
The strange manner in which some of us were affected
I now attribute as much to shattered nerves as to the
direct influence of the cold. Men like McGary and
Bonsall, who had stood out our severest marches, were
seized with trembling-fits and short breath; and, in
spite of all my efforts to keep up an example of sound
bearing, I fainted twico on the snow.

We had been nearly eighteen hours out without
water or food, when a new hope cheered us. I think
it was Hans, our Esquimaux hunter, who thought he
saw a broad sledge-track. The drift had nearly effaced
it, and we were some of us doubtful at first whether it
was not one of those accidental rifts which the gales
make in the surface-snow. But, as we traced it on to
the deep snow among the hummocks, we were led to
footsteps ; and, following these with religious care, we
at last came in sight of a small American flag flutter-
ing from a hummock, and lower down a little Masonic
banner hanging from a tent-pole hardly above the drift.
It was the camp of our disabled comrades : we reached
it after an unbroken march of twenty-one hours.

I -J ?.'»

Wi'i'TlTfllMril

192

PARTY FOUND.

f ii

i 1

The little tent was nearly covered. I was not among
the j&rst to come up ; but, when I reached the tentniur-
tain, the men were standing in silent file on each side
of it. With more kindness and delicacy of feeling than
is often supposed to belong to sailors, but which is
almost characteristic, they intimated their wish that I
should go in alone. As I crawled in, and, coming upon
the darkness, heard before me the burst of welcome
gladness that came from the four poor fellows stretched
on their backs, and then for the first time the cheer
outside, my weakness and my gratitude together almost
overcame me. "They had expected me: they were
sure I would come!"

We were now fifteen souls; the thermometer se-
venty-five degrees below the freezing-point; and our
sole accommodation a tent barely able to contain eight
persons : more than half our party were obliged to keep
fix)m freezing by walking outside while the others
slept. We could not halt long. Each of us took a
turn of two hours' sleep; and we prepared for our
homeward march.

We took with us nothing but the tent, furs to pro-
tect the rescued party, and food for a journey of fifby
hours. Every thing else was abandoned. Two large
bufifalo-bags, each made of four skins, were doubled up,
BO as to form a sort of sack, lined on each side by fur,
closed at the bottom but opened at the top. This was
laid on the sledge; the tent, smoothly folded, serving as
a floor. The sick, with their limbs sewed up carefully
in reindeer-skins, were placed upon the bed of buffalo-

, :

PERILOUS BETURN.

193

robes, in a half-reclining posture; other skins and
blanket-bags were thrown above them; and the whole
litter was lashed together so as to allow but a single
opening opposite the mouth for breathing.

This necessary work cost us a great deal of time and
effort; but it was essential to the lives of the sufferers.
It took us no less than four hours to strip and refresh
them, and then to embale them in the manner I have
described. Few of us escaped without frost-bitten
fingers : the thermometer was at 55°.6 below zero, and
a slight wind added to the severity of the cold.

It was completed at last, however; all hands stood
round; and, after repeating a short prayer, we set out
on our retrcvi.^ It was fortunate indeed that we were
not inexpe ' .1 in sledging over the ice. A great
part of our tiapck lay among a succession of hummocks;
some of them extending in long lines, fifteen and
twenty feet high, and so uniformly steep that we had
to turn them by a considerable deviation from our
direct course; others that we forced our way through,
far above our heads in height, lying in parallel ridges,
with the space between too narrow for the sledge to be
lowered into it safely, and yet not wide enough for the
runners to cross without the aid of ropes to stay them.
These spaces too. were generally choked with light
snow, hiding the openings between the ice-fragments.
They were fearful traps to disengage a limb from, for
every man knew that a fracture or a sprain even would
cost him his life. Besides all this, the sledge was top-
heavy with its load : the maimed men could not bear

Vol. I.— 18

194

SUDDEN SUCCUMBING.

to be lashed down tight enough to secure them against
falling ofif. Notwithstanding our caution in rejecting
every superfluous burden, the weight, including bags
and tent, was eleven hundred pounds.

And yet our march for the first six hours was very
cheering. We made by vigorous pulls and lifts nearly
a mile an hour, and reached the new floes before we
were absolutely weary. Our sledge sustained the trial
admirably. Ohlsen, restored by hope, walked steadily
at the leading belt of the sledge-lines ; and I began to
feel certain of reaching our halfway station of the day
before, where we had left our tent. But we were still
nine miles from it, when, almost without premonition,
we all became aware of an alarming failure of our
energies.

I was of course familiar with the benumbed and
almost lethargic sensation of extreme cold; and once,
when exposed for some hours in the midwinter of
Baffin's Bay, I had experienced symptoms which I
compared to the diffused paralysis of the electro-gal-
vanic shock. But I had treated the sleepy comfort of
freezing as something like the embellishment of ro-
mance. I had evidence now to the contrary.

Bonsall and Morton, two of our stoutest men, came
to me, begging permission to sleep: "they were not
cold : the wind did not enter them now : a little sleep
was all they wanted." Presently Hans was found
nearly stiff* under a drift; and Thomas, bolt upright,
had his eyes closed, and could hardly articulate. At
last, John Blake threw himself on the snow, and re-

- ■-'-'•^■..y

.,..• U,.

RETURNING CAMP.

195

of
ro-

re-

fused to rise. They did not complain of feeling cold ;
but it was in vain that I wrestled, boxed, ran, argued,
jeered, or reprimanded: an immediate halt could not
be avoided.

We pitched our tent with much difficulty. Our
hands were too powerless to strike a fire: we were
obliged to do without water or food. Even the spirits
(whisky) had frozen at the men's feet, under all the
coverings. "We put Bonsall, Ohlsen, Thomas, and Hans,
with the other sick men, well inside the tent, and
crowded in as many others as we could. Then, leaving
the party in charge of Mr. McGary, with orders to
come on after four hours* rest, I pushed ahead with
William Godfrey, who volunteered to be my com-
panion. My aim was to reach the halfway tent, and
thaw some ice and pemmican before the others arrived.

The floe was of level ice, and the walking excellent.
I cannot tell ho' v long it took us to make the nine
miles; for we were in a strange sort of stupor, and had
little apprehension of time. It was probably about
four hours. We kept ourselves awake by imposing on
each other a continued articulation of words; they
must have been incoherent enough. I recall these
hours as among the most wretched I have ever gone
through: we were neither of us in our right senses,
and retained a very confused recollection of what pre-
ceded our arrival at the tent. We both of us, however,
remember a bear, who walked leisurely before us and
tore up as he went a jumper that Mr. McGary had
imptovidently thrown off" the day before^ He tore it

196

A BIVOUAC.

\ f|

into shreds and rolled it into a ball, but never offered
to interfere with our progress. I remember this, and
with it a confused sentiment that our tent and buffalo-
robes might probably share the same fate. Godfrey,
with whom the memory of this day's work may atone
for many faults of a later time, had a better eye than
myself; and, looking some miles ahead, he could see
that our tent was undergoing the same unceremonious
treatment. I thought I saw it too, but we were so
drunken with cold that we strode on steadily, and, for
aught I know, without quickening our pace.

Probably our approach saved the contents of the
tent; for when we reached it the tent was uninjured,
though the bear had overturned it, tossing the buffalo-
robes and pemmican into the snow; we missed only a
couple of blanket-bags. What we recollect, however,
and perhaps all we recollect, is, that we had great diffi-
culty in raising it. We crawled into our reindeer
sleeping-bags, without speaking, and for the next three
hours slept on in a dreamy but intense slumber.
When I awoke, my long beard was a mass of ice,
frozen fast to the buffalo-skin : Grodfrey had to cut me
out with his jack-knife. Four days after our escape, I
found my woollen comfortable with a goodly share of
my beard still adhering to it.

We were able to melt water and get some soup
cooked before, the rest of our party arrived: it took
them but five hours to walk the nine miles. They
were doing well, and, considering the circumstances, in
wonderful spirits. The day was most providentially

EXHAUSTED.

197

windless, with a clear sun. All enjoyed the refresh-
ment we had got ready : the crippled were repacked in
their robes ; and we sped briskly toward the hummock-
ridges which lay between us and the Pinnacly Berg.

The hummocks we had now to meet came properly
under the designation of squeezed ice. A great chain
of bergs stretching from northwest to southeast, moving
with the tides, had compressed the surface-floes ; and,
rearing them up on their edges, produced an area more
like the volcanic pedragal of the basin of Mexico than
any thing else I can compare it to.

It required desperate eflforts to work our way over
it, — ^literally desperate, for our strength failed us anew,
and we began to lose our self-control. We could not
abstain any longer from eating snow: our mouths
swelled, and some of us became speechless. Happily
the day was warmed by a clear sunshine, and the
thermometer rose to — 4° in the shade : otherwise we
must have frozen.

Our halts multiplied, and we fell half-sleeping on
the snow. I could not prevent it. Strange to say, it
refreshed us. I ventured upon the experiment myself,
making Riley wake me at the end of three minutes ;
and I felt so much benefited by it that I timed the
men in the same way. They sat on the runners of the
sledge, fell asleep instantly, and were forced to wake-
fulness when their three minutes were out.

By eight in the evening we emerged from the floes.
The sight of the Pinnacly Berg revived us. Brandy,
an invaluable resource in emergency, had already been

i«'

,ft

198

ESCA-PiJ — TREATMENT.

served out in tablespoonful doses. We now took a
longer rest, and a last but stouter dram, and reached
the brig at 1 p. m., we believe without a halt.

I say we believe; and here perhaps is the most de-
cided proof of our sufferings : we were quite delirious,
and had ceased to entertain a sane apprehension of the
circumstances about us. We moved on* like men in a
dream. Our footmarks seen afterward showed that we
had steered a bee-line for the brig. It must have been
by a sort of instinct, for it left no impress on the
memory. Bonsall was sent staggering ahead, and
reached the brig, God knows how, for he had fallen
repeatedly at the track-lines; but he delivered with
punctilious accuracy the messages I had sent by him
to Dr. Hayes. I thought myself the soundest of all,
for I went through all the formula of sanity, and can
recall the muttering delirium of my comrades when we
got back into the cabin of our brig. Yet I have been
told since of some speeches and some orders too of
mine, which I should have remembered for their ab-
surdity if my mind had retained its balance.

Petersen and Whipple came out to meet us about
two miles from the brig. They brought my dog-team,
with the restoratives I had sent for by Bonsall. I do
not remember their coming. Dr. Hayes entered with
judicious energy upon the treatment our condition
called for, administering morphine freely, after the
usual frictions. He reported none of our brain-symp
toms as serious, referring them properly to the class of
those indications of exhausted power which yield to

CONSEQUENCES.

199

generous diet and rest. Mr. Ohlsen suffered some time
from strabismus and blindness: two others underwent
amputation of parts of the foot, without unpleasant
consequences ; and two died in spite of all our efforts.
This rescue party had been out for seventy-two hours.
We had halted in all eight hours, half of our number
sleeping at a time. We travelled between eighty and
ninety miles, most of the way dragging a heavy sledge.
The mean temperature of the whole time, including
the warmest hours of three days, was at minus 41°.2.
We had no water except at our two halts, and were at
no time able to intermit vigorous exercise without
freezing.

"April 4, Tuesday. — Four days have passed, and I
am again at my record of failures, sound but aching
still in every joint. The rescued men are not out of
danger, but their gratitude is very touching. Pray
God that they may live !" • ,

'•

INSIDE OF TENT.

1 1

CHAPTER XVn.

baker's death — A YISIT — THE ESQUIMAUX — A NEGOTIATION —
THEIR EQUIPMENT — THEIR DEPORTMENT — A TREATY — THE
FAREWELL — THE SEQUEL — MTOUK — HIS ESCAPE — SOHUBERT'S
ILLNESS.

The week that followed has left me nothing to re-
member but anxieties and sorrow. Nearly all our
party, as well the rescuers as the rescued, were tossing
in their sick-bunks, some frozen, ot;hers undergoing
amputations, several with dreadful premonitions of
tetanus. I was myself among the first to be about:
the necessities of the others claimed it of me.

Early in the morning of the 7th I was awakened by
a sound &om Baker's throat, one of those the most
frightful and ominous that ever startle a physician's
ear. The lock-jaw had seized him, — ^that dark visitant
whose foreshadowings were on so many of us. His
83rmptoms marched rapidly to their result : he died on
the 8th of April. We placed him the next day in his
coffin, and, forming a rude but heartfuU procession,
bore him over the broken ice and up the steep side of
the ice-foot to Butler Island ; then, passing along the

200

r's

•e-
iir

s
t
s
1

BAKER S DEATH.

201

snow-level to Fern Bock, and, climbing the slope of the
Observatory, we deposited his corpse upon the pedestals
which had served to support our transit-instrument
and theodolite. We read the service for the burial of
the dead, sprinkling over him snow for dust, and re-
peated the Lord's Prayer; and then, icing up again
the opening in the walls we had made to admit the
coffin, left him in his narrow house.

Jefferson Baker was a man of kind heart and true
principles. I knew him when we were both younger.
I passed two happy seasons at a little cottage adjoining
his father^s farm. He thought it a privilege to join
this expedition, as in those green summer days when
I had allowed him to take a gun with me on some
shooting-party. He relied on me with the affectionate
confidence of boyhood, and I never gave him a harsh
word or a hard thought.

We were watching in the morning at Baker's death-
bed, when one of our deck-watch, who had been cutting
ice for the melter, came hurrying down into the cabin
with the report, "People hollaing ashore 1" I went up,
followed by as many as could mount the gangway;
and there they were, on all sides of our rocky harbor,
dotting the snow-shores and emerging from the black-
ness of the cliffii, — ^wild and uncouth, but evidently
human beings.

As we gathered on the deck, they rose upon the
more elevated fragments of the land-ice, stimding singly
and conspicuously like the figures in a tableau of the
opera, and distributing themselves around almost in a

202

ESQUIMAUX VISITORS.

half-circle. They were vociferating as if to attract our
attention, or perhaps only to give vent to their sur-
prise; but I could make nothing out of their cries,
except ''Hoah, ha, ha!" and "Ka, kfiHh! ka, kfiah!"
repeated over and over again.

MCETINQ THE ESQUIMAUX.

There was light enough for me to see that they
brandished no weapons, and were only tossing their
heads and arms about in violent gesticulations. A
more unexcited inspection showed us, too, that their
numbers were not as great nor their size as Pata-

THE ESQUIMAUX.

203

our
Hir-
iea,

7
ir

gonian as some of us had been disposed to fancy at
first. In a word, I was satisfied that they we'^e natives
of the country ; and, calling Petersen from his bunk to
be my interpreter, I proceeded, unarmed and waving
my open hands, toward a stout figure who made him-
self conspicuous and seemed to have a greater number
near him than the rest. He evidently understood the
movement, for he at once, like a brave fellow, leaped
down upon the floe and advanced to meet me fully
half-way.

He was nearly a head taller than myself, extremely
powerful and well-built, with swarthy complexion and
piercing black eyes. His dress was a hooded capote
or jumper of mixed white and blue fox-pelts, arranged
with something of fancy, and booted trousers of white
bear-skin, which at the end of the foot were made to
terminate with the claws of the animal.

I soon came to an understanding with this gallant
diplomatist. Almost as soon as we commenced our
parley, his companions, probably receiving signals
from him, flocked in and surrounded us; but we had
no difficulty in making them know positively that they
must remain where they were, while Metek went with
me on board the ship. This gave me the advantage
of negotiating, with an important hostage.

Although this was the first time he had ever seen
a white man, he went with me fearlessly; his com-
panions staying behind on the ice. Hickey took them
out what he esteemed our greatest delicacies, — slices
of good wheat bread, and corned pork, with exorbitant

204

A NEGOTIATION.

lumps of white sugar ; but they refused to touch them.
They had evidently no apprehension of open violence
from us. I found afterward that several among them
were singly a match for the white bear and the walrus,
and that they thought us a very pale-faced crew.

METEK.

Being satisfied with my interview in the cabin, I
sent out word that the rest might be admitted to the
ship; and, although they, of course, could not know
how their chief had been dealt with, some nine or ten
of them followed with boisterous readiness upon the
bidding. Others in the mean time, as if disposed to

tice
em

us.

THEIR EQUIPMENT.

205

give us their company for the full time of a visit,
brought up from behind the land-ice as many as fifty-
six fine dogs, with their sledges, and secured them
within two hundred feet of the brig, driving their
lances into the ice, and picketing the dogs to them by
the seal-skin traces. The animals understood the
operation perfectly, and lay down as soon as it com-
menced. The sledges were made up of small frag-

: :i

NATIVE SLE06E, (KOOMETIK,) — CELLULAR BONE OF WHALE.

le
w
in
le
to

ments of porous bone, admirably knit together by
thongs of hide ; the runners, which glistened like bur-
nished steel, were of highly-polished ivory, obtained
from the tusks of the walrus.

The only arms they carried were knives, concealed
in their boots ; but their lances, which were lashed to
the sledges, were quite a formidable weapon. The
staff was of the horn of the narwhal, or else of the
thigh-bones of the bear, two lashed together, or some-
times the mirabilis of the walrus, three or four of them

206

THEIR EQUIPMENT.

united. This last was a favorite material also for the
cross-bars of their sledges. They had no wood. A
single rusty hoop from a current-drifted cask might
have furnished all the knives of the party; but the

HOOP-IRON KNIFE, (SEVIK.)

fleam-shaped tips of their lances were of unmistakable
steel, and were riveted to the tapering bony point
with no mean skill. I learned afterward that the
metal was obtained in traffic from the more southern
tribes.

WALRUS LANCE.

I give drawings of the lance-head, and of the knives
which the party carried. They were clad much as I
have described Metek, in jumpers, boots, and white
bear-skin breeches, with their feet decorated like his.

THEIR DEPORTMENT.

207

en griffe. A strip of knotted leather worn round the
neck; very greasy and dirty-looking, which no one
could be persuaded to part with for an instant, was
mistaken at first for an ornament by the jrew: it
was not until mutual hardships had made us better
acquainted that we learned its mysterious uses.

NESSARK, (JUMPER-HOOD,) IN HIS TRAVELLINQ DRESS.

When they were first allowed to come on board,
they were very rude and difficult to manage. They
spoke three or four at a time, to each other and to us,
laughing heartily at our ignorance in not understand-
ing them, and then talking away as before. They
were incessantly in motion, going everywhere, trying
doors, and squeezing themselves through dark passages,

208

THEIR DEPORTMENT.

(.#

round casks and boxes, and out into the light again,
anxious to touch and handle every thing they saw,
and asking for, or else endeavoring to steal, every thing
they touched. It was the more difficult to restrain
them, as I did not wish them Ho suppose that we were
at all intimidated. But there were some signs of our
disabled condition which it was important they should
not see : it was especially necessary to keep them out
of the forecastle, where the dead body of poor Baker
was lying: and, as it was in vain to reason or per-
suade, we had at last to employ the " gentle laying-on
of hands," which, I believe, the laws of all countries
tolerate, to keep them in order.

Our whole force was mustered and kept constantly
on the alert; but, though there may have been some-
thing of discourtesy in the occasional shoulderings and
bustlings that enforced the police of the ship, things
went on good-humouredly. Our guests continued
running in and out and about the vessel, bringing in
provisions, and carrying them out again to their dogs
on the ice, in fact, stealing all the time, until the
afternoon; when, like tired children, they threw them-
selves down to sleep. I ordered them to be made
comfortable in the hold; and Morton spread a large
buffalo-robe for them, not far from a coal-fire in the
galley-stove.

They were lost in barbarous amaze at the new fuel,
— too hard for blubber, too soft for firestone; — ^but they
were content to believe it might cook as well as seals'-
fat. They borrowed from us an iron pot and some

A TREATY FORMED.

209

melted water, and parboiled a couple of pieces of
walrus-meat; but the real pUce de resisiance, some five
pounds a head, they preferred to eat raw. Yet there
was something of the gourmet in their mode of assorting
their mouthfuls of beef and blubber. Slices of each,
or rather strips, passed between the lips, either to-
gether or in strict alternation, and with a regularity of
sequence that kept the molars well to their work.

They did not eat all at once, but each man when
and as often as the impulse prompted. Each slept after
eating, his raw chunk lying beside him on the buflfalo-
skin; and, as he woke, the first act was to eat, and the
next to sleep again. They did not lie down, but slum-
bered away in a sitting posture, with the head declined
upon the breast, some of them snoring famously.

In the morning they were anxious to go; but I had
given orders to detain them for a parting interview
with myself. It resulted in a treaty, brief in its terms,
that it might be certainly remembered, and mutually
beneficial, that it might possibly be kept. I tried to
make them understand what a powerful Prospero they
had had for a host, and how beneficent he would prove
himself so long as they did his bidding. And, as an
earnest of my favor, I bought all the walrus-meat they
had to spare, and four of their dogs, enriching them in
return with needles and beads and a treasure of old
cask-staves.

In the fulness of their gratitude, they pledged them-
selves emphatically to return in a few days with more
meat, and to allow me to use their dogs and sledges for

Vot. I.— 14

■MmnsM

210

THE FAREWELL.

my excursions to the north. I then gave them leave
to go. They yoked in their dogs in less than two
minutes, got on their sledges, cracked their two-fathom-
and-a-half-long seal-skin whips, and were off down the
ice to the southwest at a rate of seven knots an hour.

n ,

WILD OOQ TEAM.

They did not return : I had read enough of treaty-
makings not to expect them too confidently. But the
next day came a party of five, on foot ; two old men,
one of middle age, and a couple of gawky boys. We
had missed a number of articles soon after the first
party left us, an axe, a saw, and some knives. We
found afterward that our storehouse at Butler Island
had been entered: we were too short-handed to guard

THE SEQUEL.

211

it by a special watch. Besides all this, Feconnoitring
stealthily beyond Sylvia Head, we discovered a train
;. f sledges drawn up behind the hummocks.

There was cause for apprehension in all this ; but I
felt that I could not aflford to break with the rogues.
They had it in their power to molest us seriously in
our sledge-travel; they could make our hunts around
the harbor dangerous ; and my best chance of obtain-
ing an abundant supply of fresh meat, our great desi-
deratum, was by their agency. I treated the new
party with marked kindness, and gave them many
presents; but took care to make them aware that^ until
all the missing articles were restored, no member of
the tribe would be admitted again as a guest on board
the brig. They went off with many pantomimic pro-
testations of innocence; but McGary, nevertheless,
caught the incorrigible scamps stealing a coal-barrel as
they passed Butler Island, and expedited their journey
homeward by firing among them a charge of small
shot.

Still, one peculiar worthy — ^we thought it must have
been the venerable of the party, whom I knew after-
ward as a stanch friend, old Shang-huh — ^managed to
work round in a westerly direction, and to cut to pieces
my India-rubber boat, which had been left on the floe
since Mr. Brooks's disaster, and to carry off every par-
ticle of the wood.

A few days after this, an agile, elfin youth drove up
to our floe in open day. He was sprightly and good-
looking, and had quite a neat turn-out of sledge and

' I

! ii

^•r

212

MYOUK DETAINED.

dogs. He told his name with frankness, ^^Myouk,
I am," — and where he lived. We asked him about
the boat; but he denied all knowledge of it, and re-
fused either to confess or repent. He was surprised
when I ordered him to be confined to the hold. At
first he refused to eat, and sat down in the deepest

y-^

MYOUK.

grief J but after a while he began to sing, and then to
talk and cry, and then to sing again ; and so he kept
on rehearsing his limited aolfeggioy —

i^^

and crying and talking by turns, till a late hour of the

HIS ESCAPE.

213

night. When I turned in, he was still noisily discon-
solate.

There was a simplicity and bonliommie about this
boy that interested me much; and I confess that
when I made my appearance next morning — I could
hardly conceal it from the gentleman on duty, whom
I affected to censure — I was glad my bird had flown.
Some time during the morning-watch, he had succeeded
in throwing off the hatch and escaping. We sus-
pected that he had confederates ashore, for his dogs
had escaped with as much address as himself. I was
convinced, however, that I had the truth from him,
where he lived and how many lived with him; my
cross-examination on these points having been very
complete and satisfactory.

It was a sad business for some time after these Es-
quimaux left us, to go on making and registering our
observations at Fern Rock. Baker's corpse still lay in
the vestibule, and it was not long before another was
placed by the side of it. We had to pass the bodies as
often as we went in or out ; but the men, grown feeble
and nervous, disliked going near them in the night-
time. When the summer thaw came and we could
gather stones enough, we built up a grave on a de-
pression of the rocks, and raised a substantial cairn
above it.

"April 19, Wednesday. — ^I have been out on the
floe again, breaking in my dogs. My reinforcement
from the Esquimaux makes a noble team for me. For
the last five days I have been striving with them, just

■

214

SCHUBERT S ILLNESS.

as often and as long as my strength allowed me ; and
to-day I have my victory. The Society for Preventing
Cruelty to Animals would have put me in custody, if
they had heen near enough ; but, thanks to a merciless
whip freely administered, I have been dashing along
twelve miles in the last hour, and am back again;
harness, sledge, and bones all unbroken. I am ready
for another journey.

"April 22, Saturday. — Schubert has increasing symp-
toms of erysipelas around his amputated stump; and
every one on board is depressed and silent except
himself. He is singing in his bunk, as joyously as
ever, * Aux gens atrabilaires,' &c. Poor fellow ! I am
alarmed about him : it is a hard duty which compels
me to take the field while my presence might cheer
his last moments."

X¥y

%4;'\''/^ "' "^ ^^

"■■ ^!'.

THe RAPETAH, OR JUMPER.

•

1 .

e I

i\ri,> '

- ■ ■ , V*' : . • ■ " '

, * ■ . ' • • tr

CHAPTER XVm. ^

▲N XXPLOBATIOM — EQUIPMENT — OUTFIT— DEPARTUBB — ^RESULTS —
niATURES OF COAST — ARCHITECTURAL ROCKS — THREE BROTHER
TURRETS — TENMTSON's MONUMENT — THE GREAT QLAOIER OF
HUMBOLDT.

The month of April was about to close, and the
short season available for Arctic search was upon us.
The condition of things on board the brig was not
such as I could have wished for; but there was
nothing to exact my presence, and it seemed to me
clear that the time had come for pressing on the work
of the expedition. The arrangements for our renewed
exploration had not been intermitted, and were soon
complete. I leave to my journal its own story.

"April 25, Tuesday. — ^A journey on the carpet; and
the crew busy with the little details of their outfit:
the officers the same.

"I have made a log-line for sledge-travel, with a
contrivance for fastening it to the ice and liberating it
at pleasure. It will give me my dead reckoning quite
as well as on the water. I have a team now of seven
dogs, four that I bought of the Esquimaux, and three

216

AN EXPLORATION.

of my old stock. They go together quite respectably.
Godfrey and myself will go with them on foot, follow-
ing the first sledge on Thursday.

"April 26, Wednesday. — McGary went yesterday
with the leading sledge ; and, as Brooks is still on his
back in consequence of the amputation, I leave Ohlsen
in charge of the brig. He has my instructions in full :
among them I have dwelt largely upon the treatment
of the natives.

"These Esquimaux must be watched carefully, at
the same time that they are to be dealt with kindly,
though with a strict enforcement of our police-regulor
tions and some caution as to the freedom with which
they may come on board. No punishments must be
permitted, either of them or in their presence, and no
resort to fire-arms unless to repel a serious attack. I
have given orders, however, that if the contingency
does occur there shall be no firing over head. The
prestige of the gun with a savage is in his notion of
its infallibility. You may spare bloodshed by killing
a dog or even wounding him ; but in no event should
you throw away your ball. It is neither politic nor
humane.

" Our stowage-precautions are all arranged, to meet
the chance of the ice breaking up while I am away;
and a boat is placed ashore with stores, as the brig
may be forced from her moorings.

" The worst thought I have now in setting out is,
that of the entire crew I can leave but two behind in
able condition, and the doctor and Bonsall are the only

EQUIPMENT.

217

two officers who can help Ohlsen. This is our force,
four able-bodied and six disabled to keep the brig : the
commander and seven men, scarcely better upon the
average, out upon the ice. Eighteen souls, thank God !
certainly not eighteen bodies !

" I am going this time to follow the ice-belt (Eis-fod)
to the Great Glacier of Humboldt, and there load up
with pemmican from our cache of last October. From
this point I expect to stretch along the face of the
glacier inclining to the west of north, and make an
attempt to cross the ice to the American side. Once
on smooth ice, near this shore, I may pass to the west,
and enter the large indentation whose existence I can
infer with nearly positive certainty. In this I may
find an outlet, and determine the state of things
beyond the ice-clogged area of this bay.

'^I take with me pemmican and bread and tea, a
canvas tent, five feet by six, and two sleeping-bags of
reindeer-skin. The sledge has been built on board by
Mr. Ohlsen. It is very light, of hickory, and but nine
feet long. Our kitchen is a soup-kettle for melting
snow and making tea, arranged so as to boil with
either lard or spirits."

The pattern of the tent was suggested by our expe-
rience during the fall journeys. The greatest discom-
fort of the Arctic traveller when camping out is from
the congealed moisture of the breath forming long
feathers of frost against the low shelving roof of the
tent within a few inches of his face. The remedy
which I adopted was to run the tent-poles through

I ' .(i

218

THE OUTTIT.

grummet-holes in the canvas about eighteen inches
above the floor, and allow the lower part of the sides
to hang down vertically like a valance, before forming
the floor-cloth. This arrangement gave ample room
for breathing; it prevented the ice forming above the

THE TENT.

sleeper's head, and the melted rime from trickling
down upon it.

" For instruments I have a fine Gambey sextant, in
addition to my ordinary pocket-instrument, an artificial
horizon, and a Barrow's dip-circle. These occupy little
room upon the sledge. My telescope and chronometer
I carry on my person.

"McGary has taken the * Faith.* He carries few

THE DEPARTURE.

219

stores, intending to replenish at the cache of Bonsall
Po'iio, and to lay in pemmican at McGary Island.
Most of his cargo consists of bread, which we find it
hard to dispense with in eating cooked food. It has a
good eflfect in absorbing the fat of the pemmican, which
is apt to disagree with the stomach."

i <

THE FAITH.

Godfrey and myself followed on the 27th, as I had '
intended. The journey was an arduous one to be un-
dertaken, even under the most favoring circumstances
and by unbroken men. It was to be the crowning
expedition of the campaign, to attain the Ultima
Thule of the Greenland shore, measure the waste that
lay between it and the unknown West, and seek round

220

GENERAL RESULTS.

the farthest circle of the ice for an outlet to the mys-
terious channeld beyond. The scheme could not be
carried out in its details. Yet it was prosecuted far
enough to indicate what must be our future fields of
labour, and to determine many points of geographical
interest. Our observations were in general confirma-
tory of those which had been made by Mr. Bonsallj
and they accorded so well with our subsequent surveys
as to trace for us the outline of the coast with great
certainty.

If the reader has had the patience to follow the
pathway of our little brig, he has perceived that at
Refuge Harbor, our first asylum, a marked change
takes place in the line of direction of the coast.
From Cape Alexander, which may be regarded as the
westernmost cape of Greenland, the shore runs nearly
north and south, like the broad channel of which it is
the boundary; but on reaching Refuge Inlet it bends
nearly at a right angle, and follows on from west to
cast till it has passed the 65th degree of longitude.
Between Cape Alexander and the inlet it is broken
by two indentations, the first of them near the Etah
settlement, which was visited in 1855 by the Rescue
Expedition under Lieutenant Hartstene, and which
bears on my charts the name of that noble-spirited
commander; the other remembered by iis as Lifeboat
Cove. In both of these the glaciers descend to the
water-line, from an interior of lofty rock-clad hills.^''^
My sketches give but a rude idea of their picturesque
sublimity.

TEATURES OF COAST.

221

The coast-line is diversifisd, however, by numerous
water-worn headlands/^^ which on reaching Cape
Hatherton decline into rolling hills/^^ their margins
studded with islands, which are the favorite breeding-
places of the eider, the glaucous gull, and the tern.

ETAH, ANO MY BROTHF'f JOHN'S GLACIER.

Cape Hatherton rises boldly above these, a mass of
porphyritic rock.^^'

After leaving Refuge Harbor, the features of the
coast undergo a change. There are no deep bays or
discharging glaciers; and it is only as we approach
Rensselaer Harbor, where the shore-line begins to
incline once more to the north, that the deep recesses
and ice-lined fiords make their appearance again.

The geological structure changes also,^'®^ and the

222

ARCHITECTURAL ROCKS.

i
i

cliffs begin to assume a series of varied and picturesque
outlines along the coast, that scarcely require the aid of
imagination to trace in them the ruins of architectural
structure. They come dowT> boldly to the shore-line,
their summits rising sometimes more than a thousand
feet above the eye, and the long cones of rubbish at
their base mingling themselves with the ice-foot.^*"^

The coast retains the same character as far as the
Great Glacier. It is indented by four great bays, all
of them communicating with deep gorges, which are
watered by streams from the interior ice-fields; yet
none of them exhibit glaciers of any magnitude at the
water-line. Dallas Bay shows a similar formation, and
the archipelago beyond Cape Hunter retains it almost
without change.^*^^ '

The mean height of the table-land till it reaches
the bed of the Great Glacier may be stated in round
numbers at nine hundred feet, its tallest summit near
the water at thirteen hundred, and the rise of the
background above the general level at six hundred
more.^*^^ The face of this stupendous ice-mass, as it
defined the coast, was evcr^^where an abrupt and
threatening precipice, only broken by clefts and deep
ravines, giving breadth and interest to its wild ex-
pression.

The most picturesque portion of the North Green-
land coast is to be found after leaving Cape George Rus-
sell and approaching Dallas Bay. The red sandstones
contrast most favorably with the blank whiteness, asso-
ciating the cold tints of the dreary Arctic landscape

THREE BROTHER TURRETS.

223

with the warm coloring of more southern lands. The
seasons have acted on the diflferent layers of the cliff
so as to give them the appearance of jointed masonry,
and the narrow line of greenstone at the top caps
them with well-simulated battlements.

THREE BROTHER TURRETS.

One of these interesting freaks of nature became
known to us as the " Three Brother Turrets."

The sloping rubbish at the foot of the coitst-wall led
up, like an artificial causeway, to a gorge that was
streaming at noonday with the southern sun; while
everywhere else the rock stood out in the blackest
shadow. Just at the edge of this bright opening rose

224

TENNYSON S MONUMENT.

the dreamy semblance of a castle, flanked with triple
towers, completely isolated and defined. These were
the "Three Brother Turrets."

I was still more struck with another of the same
sort, in the immediate neighborhood of my halting-
ground beyond Sunny Gorge, to the north of latitude
79°. A single cliff of greenstone, marked by the slaty
limestone that once encased it, rears itself from a
crumbled base of sandstones, like the boldly-chiselled
rampart of an ancient city. At its northern extremity,
on the brink of a deep ravine which has worn its way
among the ruins, there stands a solitary column or
minaret-tower, as sharply finished as if it had been
cast for the Place VendCme. Yet the length of the
shaft alone is four hundred and eighty feet; and it
rises on a plinth or pedestal itself two hundred and
eighty feet high.

I remember well the emotions of my party as it
first broke upon our view. Cold and sick as I was, I
brought back a sketch of it, which may have interest
for the reader, though it scarcely suggests the imposing
dignity of this magnificent landmark. Those who are
happily familiar with the writings of Tennyson, and
have communed with his spirit in the solitudes of a
wilderness, will apprehend the impulse thai inscribed
the scene with his name.

Still beyond this, comes the archipelago which bfcurs
the name of our brig, studded with the names of those
on board of her who adhered to all the fortunes of the
expedition; and at its eastern cape spreads out the

" !

pie

ere

irvM%

i From a, sire-trh Ir? pr Kaii<> J

224

the dr
tower
the "

I
sort,
groi
79«
liir
cr
ro
o:

Oix

expedition; ana ac

•-. i ': r^

THE GREAT GLACIER.

226

Great Glacier of Humboldt. My recollections oi" this
glacier are very distinct. The day was beautifully
clear on which I first saw it; and T have a number of
sketches made as we drove along in view of its mag-
nificent face. They disappoint me, giving too much
white surface and badly-fading distances, the gran-
deur of the few bold and simple lines of nature being
almost entirely lost.

I will not attempt to do better by florid description.
Men only rjiapsodize about Niagara and the ocean.
My notes speak simply of the " long ever-shining line
of cliflf diminished to a well-pointed wedge in the per-
spective;" and again, of "the face of glistening ice,
sweeping in a long curve from the low interior, the
facets in front intensely illuminated by the sun."
But this line of cliflf rose in solid glassy wall three
hundred feet above the water-level, with an unknown
unfathomable depth below it; and its curved face,
sixty miles in length from Cape Agassiz to Cape
Forbes, vanished into unknown space at not more
than a single day's railroad-travel from the Pole.
The interior with which it communicated, and from
which it issued, was an unsurveyed mer de glcLce, an
ice-ocean, to the eye of boundless dimensiqns.^**^

It was in full sight — the mighty crystal bridge
which connects the two continents of America and
Greenland. I say continents ; for Greenland, however
insulated it may ultimately prove to be, is in mass
strictly continental. Its least possible axis, measured
from Cape Farewell to the line of this glacier, in the

Vol. L— 15

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1.0 :?Ki Ui

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(7I*)«72-4S03

226

THE GREAT GLACIER

neighborhood of the 80th parallel, gives a length of
more than twelve hundred miles, not materially less
than that of Australia from its northern to its southern

cape

(44)

GREAT GLACIER.

Imagine, now, the centre of such a continent, occu-
pied through nearly its whole extent by a deep un-
broken sea of ice, that gathers perennial increase from
the water-shed of vast snow-covered mountains and all
the precipitations of the atmosphere upon its own sur-
face. Imagine this, moving onward like a great glacial
river, seeking outlets at every fiord and valley, rolling

OP HUMBOLDT.

227

icy cataracts into the Atlantic and Greenland seas;
and, having at last reached the northern limit of the
land that has borne it up, pouring out a mighty frozen
torrent into unknown Arctic space/")

It is thus, and only thus, that we must form a just
conception of a phenomenon like this Great Glacier.
I had looked in my own mind for such an appearance,

GLACIER PROTRUOINQ AT CACHE (SLAND.

should I ever be fortunate enough to reach the north-
em coast of Greenland. But now that it was before
me, I could hardly realize it. I had recognised, in my
quiet library at home, the beautiful analogies which
Forbes and Studer have developed between the glacier
and the river. But I could not comprehend at first
this complete substitution of ice for water.

It was slowly that the conviction dawned on me,

228

THE GREAT GLACIER.

that I was looking upon the counterpart of the great
river-system of Arctic Asia and America. Yet here
were no water-feeders from the south. Every particle
of moisture had its origin within the Polar circle, and
had been converted into ice. There were no vast allu-
vions, no forest or animal traces borne down by liquid
torrents. Here was a plastic, moving, semi-solid mass,
obliterating life, swallowing rocks and islands, and
ploughing its way with irresistible march through the
crust of an investing sea.

< '^siSki.

CHAPTER XIX.

PROGRESS or THE PARTT — PROSTRATION — DALLAS BAT — IDEATE
OF SCHUBERT — THE BRIO IN MAY — PROGRESS OP SPRING —
M«0ART'S RETURN — DR. HATXS'S PARTY — EQUIPMENT — SOHU-
BERT'S FUNERAL.

" It is now the 20th of May, and for the first time I
am able, propped up by pillows and surrounded by sick
messmates, to note the fact that we have failed again
to force the passage to the north.

"Godfrey and myself overtook the advance party
under McGary two days after leaving the brig. Our
dogs were in fair travelling condition, and, except
snow-blindness, there seemed to be no drawback to
our efficiency. In crossing Marshall Bay, we found
the snow so accumulated in drifts, that, with all our
efforts to pick out a track, we became involved: we
could not force our sledges through. We were forced
to unload and carry forward the cargo on our backs,
beating a path for the dogs to follow in. In this way
we plodded on to the opposite headland, Cape Wil-
liam Wood, where the waters of Mary Mintum River,
which had delayed the freezing of the ice, gave us a

229

230

PROGRESS OF THE PARTY.

long reach of level travel. We then made a better
rate ; and our days* man^hea were such as to carry us
by the 4 th of May nearly to the glacier.

"T!iis progress, however, was dearly earned. As
early as the 3d of May, the winter's scurvy reap-
peared painfully among our party. As we struggled
through the snow along the Greenland coast we sank
up to our middle, and the dogs, floundering about, were
so buried as to preclude any attempts at hauling. This
excessive snow-deposit seemed to be due to the pre-
cipitation of cold condensing wind suddenl}'^ wafted
from the neighboring glacier; for at Rensselaer Har-
bor we had only four inches of general snow depth.
It obliged us to unload our sledges again, and carry
their carj'o, a labor which resulted in dropsical swell-
ings with painful prostration. Here three of the party
were taken with snow-blindness, and George Stephen-
son had to be condemned as unfit for travel altogether,
on account of chest-symptoms accompanying his scor-
butic troubles. On the 4th, Thomas Hickey also gave
in, although not quite disabled for labor at the track-
lines. • ' ' ; . .

" Perhaps we would still have got on ; but, to crown
all, we found that the bears had effected an entrance
into our pemmican-casks, and destroyed our chances of
reinforcing our provisions at the several caches. This
great calamity was certainly inevitable ; for it is simple
justice to the oflBcers under whose charge the provision-
dep6ts were constructed, to say that no means in their
power could have prevented the result. The pemmican

PROSTUATION.

231

was covoitnl with blocks of stone which it had required
the labor of three men to adjust; but the extraordi-
nary strength of the bear had enabled him to force
aside the heaviest rocks, and his pawing had broken
the iron casks which held our pemmican literally into
chips. Our alcohol-cask, which it had cost me a sepa-
rate and special journey in the late fall to deposit, was
so completely destroyed that we could not find a stave
of it. . ' ' f •

APPROACHINQ DALLAS BAY.

"Off Cape James Kent, about eight miles from ' Sunny
Gorge,' while taking an observation for latitude, I was
myself seized with a sudden pain and fainted. My
limbs became rigid, and certain obscure tetanoid symp-
toms of our late winter's enemy disclosed themselves.
In this condition I was unable to make more than nine
miles a day. I was strapped upon the sledge, and the
march continued as usual; but my powers diminished
so rapidly that I could not resist even the otherwise
comfortable temperature of 6® below zero. My left foot
becoming frozen up to the metatarsal joint, caused a

.^-

232

DALLAS BAT.

vexatious delay; and the same night it hecame evident
that the immovability of my limbs was due to drop-
sical effusion*

"On the 5th, becoming delirious, and fainting every
time that I was taken from the tent to the sledge, I
succumbed entirely. I append the report of our sur-
geon made upon my return. This will best exhibit the
diseased condition of myself and party, and explain, in
stronger terms than I can allow myself to use, the
extent of my efforts to contend against it.^*"^

" My comrades would kindly persuade me that, even
had I continued sound, we could not have proceeded
on our journey. The snows were very heavy, and
increasing as we went; some of the drifts perfectly
impassable, and the level floes often four feet deep in
yielding snow. The scurvy had already broken out
among the men, with symptoms like my own; and
Morton, our strongest man, was beginning to give way.
It is the reverse of comfort to me that they shared my
weakness. All that I should remember with pleasu-
rable feeling is, that to five brave men, Morton, Riley,
Hickey, Stephenson, arid Hans, themselves scarcely
able to travel, I owe my preservation. They carried
me back by forced marches, after cacheing our stores
and Indiarrubber boat near Dallas Bay, in lat. 79°.5,
Ion. 66°.

"I was taken into the brig on the 14th. Since then,
fluctuating between life and death, I have by the bless-
ing of God reached the present date, and see feebly
in prospect my recovery. Dr. Hayes regards my attack

DEATH OF SCHUBERT.

233

as one of scurvy, complicated by typhoid fever. George
Stephenson is similarly affected. Our worst symptoms
are dropsical eiSusion and nightrsweats.

" May 22, Monday. — Let me, if I can, make up my
record for the time I have been away or on my back.

" Poor Schubert is gone. Our gallant merry-hearted
companion left us some ten days ago, for, I trust, a
more genial world. It is sad, in this dreary little
homestead of ours, to miss his contented face and the
joyous troll of his ballads.

" The health of the rest has, if any thing, improved.
Their complexions show the influence of sunlight, and
I think several have a firmer and more elastic step.
Stephenson and Thomas are the only two beside my-
self who are likely to suffer permanently from the
effects of our break-down. Bad scurvy both : symptoms
still serious.

" Before setting out a month ago, on a journey that
should have extended into the middle of June, I had
broken up the establishment of Butler Island, and
placed all the stores around the br upon the heavy
ice. My object in this was a double 0113. First, to re-
move from the Esquimaux the temptation and ability
to pilfer. Second, to deposit our cargo where it could
be re-stowed by very few men, if any unforeseen change
in the ice made it necessary. Mr. Ohlsen, to whose
charge the brig was committed, had orders to stow the
hold slowly, remove the forward housing, and fit up
the forecastle for the men to inhabit it again.

"All of these he carried out with judgment and

234

THE BRIG IN MAY.

energy. I Cnd upon my return the brig so stowed and
refitted that four days would prepare us for sea. The
quarter-deck alone is now boarded in; and here all the
officers and sick are sojourning. The wind makes this
wooden shanty a somewhat airy retreat; but, for the

THC BRia IN MAY.

health of our maimed scorbutic men, it is infinitely
preferable to the less-ventilated quarters below. Some
of the crew, with one stove, are still in the forecastle;
but the old cabin is deserted.

"I left Hans as hunter. I gave him a regular ex-
emption from all other labor, and a promised present to
his lady-love on reaching Fiskemaes. He signalized his

PROGRESS OF SPRING.

235

promotion by shooting two deer, Jhikkuky the first yet
shot. We have now on hand one hundred and forty-
five pounds of fine venison, a very gift of grace to our
diseased crew. But, indeed, we are not likely to want
for wholesome food, now that the night is gone, which
made our need of it so pressing. On the first of May,
those charming little migrants the snow-birds, ultima
coelicolumf which only left us on the 4 th of November,
returned to our ice-crusted rocks, whence they seem to
*fill the sea and air with their sweet jargoning.' Seal
literally abound too. I have learned to p^.'efer this flesh
to the reindeer's, at least that of the female seal, which
has not the fetor of her mate's.

"By the 12th, the sides of the Advance were free
from snow, and her rigging clean and dry. The floe is
rapidly undergoing its wonderful processes of decay;
and the level ice measures but six feet in thickness.
To-day they report a burgomaster gull seen : one of the
earliest but surest indications of returning open water.
It is not strange, ice-leaguered exiles as we are, that
we observe and exult in these things. They are the
pledges of renewed life, the olive-branch of this dreary
waste : we feel the spring in all our pulses.

" The first thing I did after my return was to send
McGary to Life-boat Cove, to see that our boat and its
buried provisions were secure. He made the journey
by dog-sledge in four days, and has returned reporting
that all is safe: an important help for us, should
this heavy ice of our more northern prison refuse to
release us. r- - v

236

MCGART*S RETURN.

'' But the pleasantest feature of his journey was the
disclosure of open water, extending up in a sort of
tongue, with a trend of north by east to within two
miles of Refuge Harbor, and there widening as it ex-
panded to the south and west.

" Indeed, some circumstances which he reports seem
to point to the existence of a north water all the year
round; and tlie frequent water-skies, fogs, &c., that we
have seen to the southwest during the winter, go to
confirm the fact. The breaking up of the Smith Strait's
ice commences much earlier than this; but as yet it
has not extended farther than Littleton Island, where
I should have wintered if my fall journey had not
pointed to the policy of remaining here. The open
water undoubtedly has been the cause of the retreat of
the Esquimaux. Their sledge-tracks have been seen
all along the land-foot; but, except a snow house at
Esquimaux Point, we have met nothing which to the
uninitiated traveller would indicate that they hod
rested upon this desert coast.

"As soon as I had recovered enough to be aware of
my failure, I began to devise means for remedying it.
But I found the resources of the party shattered.
Pierre had died but a week before, and his death ex-
erted ah unfavorable influence. There were only three
men able to do duty. Of the officers, Wilson, Brooks,
Sontag, and Petersen were knocked up. There was no
one except Sontag, Hayes, or myself, who was qualified
to conduct a survey ; and, of us three, Dr. Hayes was
the only one on his feet.

DR. HAYES S PARTY.

237

" The quarter to which our remaining observations
were to be directed lay to the north and east of the
Cape Sabine of Captain Inglefield. The interruption
our progress along the coast of Greenland had met from
the Groat Glacier, and the destruction of our provision-
caches by the bears, left a blank for us of the entire
northern coastrline. It was necessary to ascertain
whether the farthermost expansion of Smith's Strait
did not find an outlet in still more remote channels;
and this became our duty the more plainly, since our
theodolite had shown us that the northern coast trended
off to the eastward, and not toward the west, as our
predecessor had supposed. The angular difference of
sixty degrees between its bearings on his charts and
our own left me completely in the dark as to what
might be the condition of this unknown area.

" I determined to trust almost entirely to the dogs
for our travel in the future, and to send our parties of
exploration, one after the other, as rapidly as the
strength and refreshing of our team would permit.

"Dr. Hayes was selected for that purpose; and I
satisfied myself that, with a little assistance from my
comrades, I could be carried round to the cots of the
sick, and so avail myself of his services in the field.

" He was a perfectly fresh man, not having yet un-
dertaken a journey. I gave him a team and my best
driver, William Godfrey. He is to cross Smith's Straits
above the inlet, and make as near as may be a straight
course for Cape Sabine. My opinion is that by keep-
ing well south he will find the ice less clogged and

238

EQUIPMENT.

easier sledging. Our experience proves, I think, that
the transit of this broken area must be most impeded
as we approach the glacier. The immense discharge
of icebergs cannot fail to break it up seriously for
travel.

" I gave him the small sledge which was built by Mr.
Ohlsen. The snow was sufficiently thawed to make it
almost unnecessary to use fire as a means of obtaining
water: they could therefore dispense with tallow or

"JiMM

^-T^

THE TEAM.

alcohol, and were able to carry pemmican in larger
quantities. Their sleeping-bags were a very neat arti-
cle of a light reindeer-skin. The dogs were in excel-
lent condition too, no longer foot-sore, but well rested
and completely broken, including the four from the
Esquimaux, animals of great power and size. Two
of these, the stylish leaderu of the team, a span of
thoroughly wolfish iron-grays, have the most powerful
and wild-beast-like bound that I have seen in animcL
of their kind.

PROGRESS or SPRING.

239

"I made up the orders of the party on the 19th, the
first day that I was able to mature a plan; and with
commendable zeal they left the brig on the 20th.

" May 23, Tuesday. — They have had superb weather,
thank heaven! — a profusion of the most genial sun-
shine, bringing out the seals in crowds to bask around
their breathing-holes. A ptarmigan was killed to-day,
a male, with but two brown feathers on the back of
his little neck to indicate the return of his summer-
plumage.

"The winter is gone! The Andromeda has been
found on shore under the snow, with tops vegetating
and green ! I have a shoot of it in my hand.

"May 25, Thursday. — Bands of soft mist hide the
tops of the hills: the unbroken transparency of last
month's atmosphere has disappeared, and the sky has
all the ashen or pearly obscurity of the Arctic summer.

" May 26, Friday. — I get little done ; but I have too
much to attend to in my weak state to journalize.
Thermometer above freezing-point, without the sun to-
day.

" May 27, Saturday. — Every thing showing that the
summer changes have commenced. The ice is rapidly
losing its integrity, and a melting snow has fallen for
the last two days, — one of those comforting home-
snows that we have not seen for ao long.

" May 28, Sunday. — Our day of rest and devotion.
It was a fortnight ago last Friday since our poor
friend Pierre died. For nearly two months he had
been struggling against the enemy with a resolute will

240

SCHUBERT S FUNERAL.

and mirthful spirit, that seemed sure of victory. But
he sunk in spite of them.

"The last offices were rendered to him with the
same careful ceremonial that we observed at Baker's
funeral. There were fewer to walk in the procession ;
but the body was encased in a decent pine coffin and
carried to Observatory Island, where it was placed side-
by-side with that of his messmate. Neither could yet
be buried ; but it is hardly necessary to say that the
frost has embalmed their remains. Dr. Hayes read
the chapter from Job which has consigned so many to
their last resting-place, and a little snow was sprinkled
upon the face of the coffin. Pierre was a volunteer
not only of our general expedition, but of the party
with which he met his death-blow. He was a gallant
man, a universal favorite on board, always singing
some B4ranger ballad or other, and so elastic in his
merriment that even in his last sickness he cheered
all that were about him."

j I

CHAPTER XX.

SEAIrHTJNTINCI — SIE JOHN fRANKLIN — ^BESOUROES — ACCLIMATIZA-
TION — THE HOPE — ^DE. HAYES'S RETURN — HIS JOURNEY — SNOW-
BLINDNESS— CAPE HAYES — THE DOGS TANGLED — MENDING THE
HARNESS— CAPES LEIDY AND FRAZER — ^DOBBIN BAY — FLETCHER
WEBSTER HEADLAND — ^PETER FORCE BAY — NEW PARTIES — THEIR
ORDERS — PROGRESS OF SEASON — THE SEAL — THE NETSIK AND
USUK — A BEAR — OUR ENCOUNTER— CHANGE IN THE FLOE.

"Mat 30, Tuesday. — We are gleaning fresh water
from the rocks, and the icebergs begin to show com-
mencing streamlets. The great floe is no longer a
Sahara, if still a desert. The floes are wet, and their
snows dissolve readily under the warmth of the foot,
and the old floe begins to shed fresh water into its
hollows. Puddles of salt water collect around the
ice-foot. It is now hardly recognizable, — rounded,
sunken, broken up with water-pools overflowing its
base. Its diminished crusts are so percolated by the
saline tides, that neither tables nor broken fragments
unite any longer by freezing. It is lessening so rapidly
that we do not fear it any longer as an enemy to

Vol. I.— 16

241

242

SEAL-HUNTING.

the brig. The berg indeed vanished long before the
sun-thermometers indicated a noon-temperature above
32°.

" The changes of this ice at temperatures far below
the freezing-point confirm the views I formed upon my
last cruise as to the limited influence of direct thaw.
I am convinced that the expansion of the ice after the
contraction of low temperatures, and the infiltrative
or endosmometric changes thus induced, — ^the differing
temperatures of sea-water and ice, and their chemical
relations, — ^the mechanical action of pressure, collapse,
fracture, and disruption, — the effects of sun-heated
snow-surfaces, falls of warm snow, currents, wind,
drifts, and wave-action,-— all these leave the great
mass of the Polar ice-surfaces so broken, disintegrated,
and reduced, when the extreme cold abates, and so
changed in structure and molecular character, that
the few weeks of summer thaw have but a subsidiary
o£Bce to perform in completing their destruction.

"Seal of the Hispid variety,
the Netsik of the Esquimaux and
Danes, grow still more numerous
on the level does, lying cautiously
in the sun beside their ailuksS*^^
By means of the Esquimaux stra-
tagem of a white screen pushed
forward on a sledge until the
SEAL SCREEN. couccalcd huutcr comes within

range, Hans has shot four of
them. We have more fresh meat than we can eat.

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

243

For the past three weeks we have been living on ptar-
migan, rabbits, two reindeer, and seal.

SHOOTINQ SEAL.

" They are fast curing our scurvy. With all these
resources,— coming to our relief so suddenly too, — how
can my thoughts turn despairingly to poor Franklin
and his crew?

" .... Can they have survived? No man can
answer with certainty ; but no man without presump-
tion can answer in the negative.

"If, four months ago, — surrounded by darkness and
bowed down by disease, — ^I had been asked the ques-
tion, I would have turned toward the black hills and
the frozen sea, and responded in sympathy with them,
* No.' But with the return of light a savage people
come down upon us, destitute of any but the rudest

244

RESOURCES.

appliances of the chase, who were fattening on the
most wholesome diet of the region, only forty miles
from our anchorage, while I was denouncing its
scarcity.

"For Franklin, every thing depends upon locality:
but, from what I can see of Arctic exploration thus
far, it would be hard to find a circle of fifty miles'
diameter entirely destitute of animal resources. The
most solid winter-ice is open here and there in pools
and patches worn by currents and tides. Such were
the open spaces that Parry found in Wellington Chan-
nel; such are the stream-holes (stromhols) of the
Greenland coast, the polynia of the Russians; and
such we have ourselves found in the most rigorous
cold of all.

"To these spots, the seal, walrus, and the early
birds crowd in numbers. One which kept open, as
we find from the Esquimaux, at Littleton Island,
only forty miles from us, sustained three families last
winter until the opening of the north water. Now,
if we have been entirely supported for the past three
weeks by the hunting of a single man, — seal-meat
alone being plentiful enough to subsist us till we
turn homeward, — certainly a party of tolerably skilful
hunters might lay up an abundant stock for the win-
ter. As it is, we are making caches of meat under
the snow, to prevent its spoiling on our hands, in the
very spot which a few days ago I described as a Sa-
hara. And, indeed, it was so for nine whole months,
when this flood of animal life burst upon us like foun-

ACCLIMATIZATION.

245

tains of water and pastures and date-trees in a south-
em desert.

" I have undergone one change in opinion. It is of
the ability of Europeans or Americans to inure them-
selves to an ultra-Arctic climate. God forbid, indeed,
that civilized man should be exposed for successive
years to this blighting darkness! But around the
Arctic circle, even as high as 72°, where cold and
cold only is to be encountered, men may be acclima-
tized, for there is light enough for out-door labor.

"Of the one hundred and thirty-six picked men of
Sir John Franklin in 1846, Northern Orkney men,
Greenland whalers, so many young and hardy constitu-
tions, with so much intelligent experience to guide
them, I cannot realize that some may not yet be alive;
that some small squad or squads, aided or not aided by
the Esquimaux of the expedition, may not have found
a hunting-ground, and laid up from summer to summer
enough of fuel and food and seal-skins to brave three
or even four more winters in succession.

"I speak of the miracle of this bountiful fair season.
I could hardly have been much more surprised if these
black rocks, instead of sending out upon our solitude
the late inroad of yelling Esquimaux, had sent us na-
turalized Saxons. Two of our party at first fancied
they were such.

" The mysterious compensations by which we adapt
ourselves to climate are more striking here than in the
tropics. In the Polar zone the assault is immediate
and sudden, and, unlike the insidious fatality of hot

246

GROUNDS OF HOPE.

countries, produces its results rapidly. It requires
hardly a single wint)r to tell who are to be the heat-
making and acclimaxized men. Petersen, for instance,
«vho has resided for two years at Upemavik, seldom
enters a room with a fire. Another of our party, George
Riley, with a vigorous constitution, established habits
of free exposure, and active cheerful temperament, has
so inured himself to the cold, that he sleeps on our
sledge-journeys without a blanket or any other covering
than his walking-suit, while the outside temperature is
30° below zero. The half-breeds of the coast rival the
Esquimaux in their powers of endurance. -

" There must be many such men with Franklin. The
North British sailors of the Greenland seal and whale
fisheries I look upon as inferior to none in capacity to
resist the Arctic climates.

" My mind never realizes the complete catastrophe,
the destruction of all Franklin's crews. I picture them
to myself broken into detachments, and my mind fixes
itself on one little group of some thirty, who have found
the open spot of some tidal eddy, and under the teach-
ings of an Esquimaux or perhaps one of their own
Greenland whalers, have set bravely to work, and
trapped the fox, speared the bear, and killed the seal
and walrus and whale. I think of them ever with
hope. I sicken not to be able to reach them.

"It is a year .go to-day since we left New York. I
am not as sanguine as I was then : time and experience
have chastened me. There is every thing about me to
check enthusiasm and moderate hope. I am here in

DR. HAYES'S RETURN. *

247

forced inaction, a broken-down man, oppressed by cares,
with many dangers before me, and still under the sha-
dow of a hard wearing winter, which has crushed two
of my best associates. Here on the spot, after two
unavailing expeditions of search, I hold my opinions
unchanged; and I record them as a matter of duty
upon a manuscript which may speak the truth when 1
can do so no longer.

"June 1, Thursday. — ^At ten o'clock this morning
the wail of the dogs outside announced the return of
Dr. Hayes and William Godfrey. Both of them were
completely snow-blind, and the doctor had to be led to
my bedside to make his report. In fact, so exhausted
was he, that in spite of my anxiety I forbore to question
him until he had rested. I venture to say, that both
he and his companion well remember their astonishing
performance over stewed apples and seal-meat.

"The dogs were not so foot-sore as might have been
expected; but two of them, including poor little
* Jenny,' were completely knocked up. All attention
was bestowed upon these indispensable essentials of
Arctic search, and soon they were more happy than
their masters."

Jr. Jap's |0ttrnc2.

Dr. Hayes made a due north line on leaving the brig;
but, encountering the "squeezed ices" of my own party
in March, he wisely worked to the eastward. I had
advised him to descend to Smith's Sound, under a con-
viction that the icebergs there would be less numerous,

248

UIS JOURNEY.

and that the diminished distance from land to land
would make his transit more easy. But he managed
to efFect the object by a less circuitous route than I had
anticipated; for, although he made but fifteen miles on
the 20th, he emerged the next day from the heavy ice,
and made at least fifty. On this day his meridian ob-
servation gave the latitude of 79° 8' 6", and from a
large berg he sighted many points of the coast.

On the 22d, he encountere a wall of hummocks,
exceeding twenty feet in height, and extending in a
long line to the northeast.

After vain attempts to force them, becoming em-
barrassed in fragmentary ice, worn, to use his own
words, into "deep pits and valleys," he was obliged to
camp, surrounded by masses of the wildest character,
some of them thirty feet in height.

The next three days were spent in struggles through
this broken plain; fogs sometimes embarrassed them,
but at intervals land could be seen to the northwest.
On the 27th, they reached the north side of the bay,
passing over but few miles of new and unbroken floe.

The excessively broken and rugged character of this
ice they had encountered must be due to the discharges
from the Great Glacier of Humboldt, which arrest the
does and make them liable to excessive disruption
under the influence of winds and currents.

Dr. Hayes told me, that in many places they could
not have advanced a step but for the dogs. Deep
cavities filled with snow intervened between lines of
ice-barricades, making their travel as slow and tedious

SNOW-BLINDNESS.

249

as the same obstructions had done to the party of poor
Brooks before their eventful rescue last March.

Their course was now extremely tortuous; for, al-
though from the headlands of Rensselaer Harbor to the
point which they first reached on the northern coast

DOGS AMONQ BERQS.

was not more than ninety miles as the crow flies,
yet by the dead reckoning of the party they must
have had an actual travel of two hundred and seventy.
For the details of this passage I refer the reader to
the appe^ided report of Dr. Hayes. His gravest and
most insurmountable difficulty was snow-blindness,
which so affected him that for some time he was not

250

CAPE HAYES.

able to use the sextant. His joumal-entry referring
to the 23d, while tangled in the ice, says, " I was so
snow-blind that I could not see ; and as riding, owing
to the jaded condition of the dogs, was seldom possible,
we were obliged to lay to."

It was not until the 25th that their eyesight was
suflBciently restored to enable them to push on. In
these devious and untrodden ice-fields, even the in-
stinct of the dogs would have been of little avail to
direct their course. It was well for the party that
during this compulsory halt the temperatures were
mild and endurable. From their station of the 25th,
they obtained reliable sights of the coast, trending to
the northward and eastward, and a reliable determina-
tion of latitude, in 79° 24' 4*. A fine headland, bear-
ing nearly due northwest, I named Cape Hayes, in
commemoration of the gentleman who discovered it.

Instead, however, of making for the land, which
could not have aided their survey, they followed the
outer ice, at the same time edging in toward a lofty
bluff whose position they had determined by inter-
section. They hoped here to effect a landing, but en-
countered a fresh zone of broken ice in the attempt.
The hummocks could not be turned. The sledge had
to be lifted over them by main strength, and it required
the most painful efforts of the whole party to liberate
it from the snow between them.

On the 26th, disasters accumulated. William God-
frey, one of the sturdiest travellers, broke down ; and

■■'...,* -i »."

TUE DOGS TANGLED.

201

the (logs, the indispensable reliance of the party, were
in bad worlting trim. The rude harness, always apt
to becoinf^ tangled »nd broken, had been mended so
often and with such imporfieGt means as to be scarcely
serviceable.

CAPK HAYIt.

This evil would seem the annoyance of an hour to
the travellers in a stage-coach, but to a sledge-party
on the ice-waste it is the gravest that can be con-
ceived. The Esquimaux dog, as I before mentioned,
is driven by a single trace, a long thin thong of seal
or walrus-hide, which passes from his chest over his
haunches to the sledge. The team is always driven
abreast, and the traces are of course tangling and

252

MENDING THE HARNESS.

twisting themselves up incessantly, as the half-wild
or terrified brutes bound right or left from their pre-
scribed positions. The consequence is, that the seven
or nine or fourteen lines have a marvellous aptitude at
knotting themselves up beyond the reach of skill and
patience. If the weather is warm enough to thaw the
snow, they become utterly soft and flaccid, and the
naked hand, if applied ingeniously, may dispense with
a resort to the Gordian process. But in the severe
cold, such as I experienced in my winter journeys of
1854, the knife is often the only appliance; an unsafe
one if invoked too often, for every new attachment
shortens your harness, and you may end by drawing
your dogs so close that they cannot pull. I have been
obliged to halt and camp on the open floe, till I could
renew enough of warmth and energy and patience to
disentangle the knots of my harness. Oh, how cha-
ritably have I remembered Doctor Slop !

It was only after appropriating an undue share of
his seal skin breeches that the leader of the party suc-
ceeded in patching up his mutilated dog-lines. He
was rewarded, however, for he shortly after found an
old floe, over which his sledge passed happily to the
north coast. It was the first time that any of our
parties had succeeded in penetrating the area to the
aorth. The ice had baffled three organized foot-
parties. It could certainly never have been traversed
without the aid of dogs ; but it is equally certain that
the effort must again have failed, even with their aid,
but for the energy and determination o2 Dr. Hayes,

CAPES LEIDT AND FRAZER.

253

and the endurance of his partner, William Godfrey.
The latitude by observation was 79° 45' N., the longi-
tude 69° 12' W. The coast here trended more to the
westward than it had done. It was sighted for thirty
miles to the northward and eastward. This was the
culminating point of his survey, beyond which his
observations did not extend. Two large headlands,
Capes Joseph Leidy and John Frazer, indicate it.

The cliffs were of mingled limestone and sandstone,
corresponding to those on the southern side of Peabody
Bay. To the north they exceeded two thousand feet
in height, while to the southward they diminished to
twelve hundred. The ice-foot varied from fifty to one
hundred and fifty feet in width, and stood out against
the dark debris thrown down by the cliffs in a clean
naked shelf of dazzling white.

The party spent the 28th in mending the sledge,
which was completely broken, and feeding up their
dogs for a renewal of the journey. But, their pro-
visions being limited. Dr. Hayes did not deem him-
self justified in continuing to the north. He deter-
mined to follow and survey the coast toward Cape
Sabine.

His pemmican was reduced to eighteen pounds;
there was apparently no hope of deriving resources
from the hunt ; and the coasts were even more covered
with snow than those he had left on the southern side.
His return was a thing of necessity.

The course of the party to the westward along the
land-ice was interrupted by a large indentation, which

254

DOBBIN BAT.

they had seen and charted while approaching the
coast. It is the same which I surveyed in April,
1855, and which now bears the name of the Secretary
of the Navy, Mr. Dobbin. A sketch which I made of
it gives an idea of the appearance of the bay and

DOBBIN BAY.

of two islands which Dr. Hayes discovered near its
entrance. He saw also on its southwestern side a
lofty pyramid, truncated at its summit, which corre-
sponded both in its bearings and position with the
survey of my April journey. I append a sketch of
this interesting landmark.
The latter portion of Dr. Hayes's journey was full

.^■4 . ' .v c Jr ^

FLETCHER WEBSTER HEADLAND.

255

of incident. The land-ice was travelled for a while at
the rate of five or six miles an hour; but, after crossing
Dobbin Bay, the snows were an unexpected impedi-
ment, and the ice-foot was so clogged that they made
but fifteen miles from camp to camp on the floes. After

FLETCHER WEBSTER HEADLAND.

fixing the position of Cape Sabine, and connecting it
with the newly-discovered coast-line to the north and
east, he prepared to cross the bay farther to the south.
Most providentially they found this passage free
from bergs; but their provisions were nearly gone, and
their dogs were exhausted. They threw away their
sleeping-bags, which were of reindeer-skin and weighed

256

PETER FORCE BAT.

f I

about twelve pounds each, and abandoned besides
clothing enough to make up a reduction in weight of
nearly fifty pounds. With their load so lightened, they
were enabled to make good the crossing of the bay.
They landed at Peter Force Bay, and reached the brig
on the 1st of June.

This journey connected the northern coast with the
survey of my predecessor; but it disclosed no channel
or any form of exit from this bay.

It convinced me, however, that such a channel must
exist; for this great curve could be no cul-de-sac. Even
were my observations since my first fall journey of
September, 1853, not decisive on this head, the general
movement of the icebergs, the character of the tides,
and the equally sure analogies of physical geography,
would point unmistakably to such a conclusion.

To verify it, I at once commenced the organization
of a double party. This, which is called in my Report
the Northeast Party, was to be assisted by dogs, but
was to be subsisted as far as the Great Glacier by pro-
visions carried by a foot-party in advance.

For the continuation of my plans I again refer to
my journal.

"June 2, Friday. — There is still this hundred miles
wanting to the northwest to complete our entire circuit
of this frozen water. This is to be the field for our
next party. I am at some loss how to organize it; for
myself, I am down with scurvy. Dr. Hayes is just
from the field, worn out and snow-blind. His health-
roll makes a sorry parade. It runs thus : —

• ,— I n i M,j»rr.', -" < 't"W"i-» ;-

! .\ ■■■■ _ ' ' ' •

NEW PARTIES. 257

Ojfficer$.

Mr. Brooks Unbealed stump.

Mr. Wilson do. . ,

Mr. Sontag .Down with scurvy

Mr. Bonsall Scurvy knee, but mending.

Mr. Petersen General scurvy.

Mr. Goodpellow Scurvy.

Mr. Ohlsen Well.

Mr. MoGart Well.

.:., Crew.

Wn-LiAM Morton Nearly recovered.

Thomas Hioket Well.

George Whipple Scurvy.

John Blake Scurvy.

Hans Oristian Well.

, George RiLET Sound.

George Stephenson Scurvy from last journey.

William Godfrey Snow-blind.

"June 3, Saturday. — McGary, Bonsall, Hickey, and
Kiley were detailed for the first section of the new
parties : they will be accompanied by Morton, who has
orders to keep himself as fresh as possible, so as to
enter on his own line of search to the greatest possible
advantage. I keep Hans a while to recruit the dogs,
and do the hunting and locomotion generally for the
rest of us; but I shall soon let him follow, unless things
grow so much worse on board as to make it impossible

"They start light, with a large thirteen-feet sledge,
arranged with broad runners on account of the snow,
and are to pursue my own last track, feeding at the
caches which I deposited, and aiming directly for the
glacier-barrier on the Greenland side. Here, sustained

Vol. I.— 17

258

THEIR ORDERS.

843 1 hope by the remnants of the great cache of last
fall, they will survey and attempt to scale the ice, to
look into the interior of the great mer de glaoe.

*' My notion is, that the drift to the southward both
of berg and floe, not being reinforced from the glacier,
may leave an interval of smooth frozen ice; but, if this
route should fail, there ought still to be a chance by
sheering to the southward and westward and looking
out for openings among the hummocks.

'^I am intensely anxious that this party should suc-
ceed : it is my last throw. They have all my views,
and I believe they will carry them out unless overruled
by a higher Power.

" Their orders are, to carry the sledge forward as far
as the base of the Great Glacier, and fill up their pro-
visions from the cache of my own party of last May.
Hans will then join them with the dogs; and, while
McGary and three men attempt to scale and survey
the glacier, Morton and Hans will push to the north
across the bay with the dog-sledge, and advance along
the more distant coast. Both divisions are provided
with clampers, to steady them and their sledges on the
irregular ice-surfaces; but I am not without apprehen-
sions that, with all their efforts, the glacier cannot be
surmounted.

"In this event, the main reliance must be on Mr.
Morton : he takes with him a sextant, artificial horizon,
and pocket chronometer, and has intelligence^ courage,
and the spirit of endurance, in full measure. He is
withal a long-tried and trustworthy follower.

PROGRESS OF SEASON.

259

* "June 5, Monday. — The last party are oflf: they left
yesterday at 2 p. m. I can do nothing more but await
the ice-changes that are to determine for us our libera-
tion or continued imprisonment.

"The sun is shining bravely, and the temperature
feels like a home summer.

"A Sanderling, the second migratory land-bird we
have seen, came to our brig to-day, — and is now a
specimen.

"June 6, Tuesday. — We are a parcel of sick men,
affecting to keep ship till our comrades get back.
Except Mr. Ohlsen and George Whipple, there is not a
sound man among us. Thus wearily in our Castle of
Indolence, for * labor dire it was, and weary woe,' we
have been watching the changing days, and noting
bird and insect and vegetable, as it tells us of the
coming summer. One fly buzzed around William God-
frey's head to-day, — ^he could not tell what the species
was ; and Mr. Petersen brought in a cocoon from which
the grub had eaten its way to liberty. Hans gives
us a seal almost daily, and for a passing luxury we
have ptarmigan and hare. The little snow-birds have
crowded to Butler Island, and their songs penetrate
the cracks of our rude housing. Another snipe too
was mercilessly shot the very day of his arrival.

" The andromeda shows green under its rusty T^dnter-
dried stems; the willows are sappy and puffing, their
catskins of last year dropping off. Draba, lichens,
and stellaria, can be detected by an eye accustomed to
this dormant vegetation, and the stonecrops are really

•• \

^j'

260

THE SEAL.

green and juicy in their centres: all this under the
snow. So we have assurance that summer is coming;
though our tide-hole freezes every night alongside, and
the ice-floe seems to be as fast as ever.

"June 8, Thursday. — Hans brings us in to-day a
couple of seal: all of them as yet are of the Rough
or Hispid species. The flesh of this seal is eaten uni-
versally by the Danes of Greenland, and is almost the
staple diet of the Esq^uimaux. When raw, it has a
flabby look, more like coagulated blood than muscular
fibre: cooking gives it a dark soot-color. It is close-
grained, but soft and tender, with a flavor of lamp-
oil — a mere soupgoTif however, for the blubber, when
fresh, is at this season sweet and delicious.

" The seal are shot lying by their atluk or breath-
ing-holes. As the season draws near midsummer,
they are more approachable; their eyes being so con-
gested by the glare of the sun that they are sometimes
nearly blind. Strange to say, a fctv hours' exposure
of a recently-killed animal to the sun blisters and
destroys the hide; or, as the sealers say, cooks it.
We have lost several skins in this way. Each seal
yields a liberal supply of oil, the average thus far
being five gallons each." * i vv

Besides the Hispid seal, the only species which
visited Bensselaer Harbor was the Phoca harhata, the
large bearded seal, or vmik of the Esquimaux. I have
measured these ten feet in length and eight in circum-
ference, of such unwieldy bulk as not unfrequently to
be mistaken for the walrus. v

THE NETSIK AND USUK.

261

- The Netsik will not perforate ice of more than one
season's growth, and are looked for, therefore, where
there was open water the previous year. But the
bearded seals have no atluk. They depend for respi-
ration upon the accidental chasms in the ice, and are
found wherever the bergs or floes have been in motion.
They are thus more diffused in their range than their
sun-basking little brethren, who crowd together in com-
munities, and in some places absolutely throng the
level ices.

The Usuk appears a little later than the Netsik,
and his coming is looked for anxiously by the Esqui-
maux. The lines, atlunak, which are made from his
skin, are the lightest and strongest and most durable
of any in use. They are prized by the himters in
their contests with the walrus.

To obtain the atlunak in full perfection, the ani-
mal is skinned in a spiral, so as to give a continuous
coil from head to tail. This is carefully chewed by
the teeth of the matrons, and, after being well greased
with the burnt oil of their lamps, is hung up in their
huts to season. At the time referred to in my journal,
Anoatok was completely festooned with them.

On one occasion, while working my way toward the
Esquimaux huts, I saw a large Usuk basking asleep
upon the ice. Taking off my shoes, I commenced a
somewhat refrigerating process of stalking, lying upon
my belly, and crawling along step by step behind the
little knobs of floe. At last, when I was within long
rifle-shot, the animal gave a sluggish roll to one side,

^11

262

A RIVAL SEAL-HUNTEB.

and suddenly lifled his head. The movement was
evidently independent of me, for he strained his neck
in nearly the opposite direction. Then, for the first
time, I fomid that I had a rival seal-hunter in a large
bear, who was, on his belly like myself, waiting with

( I

THE ATLUK, OR SEAL-HOLE.

commendable patience and cold feet for a chance of
nearer approach.

What should I do? — ^the bear was doubtless worth
more to me than the seal : but the seal was now within
shot, and the bear "a bird in the bush." Besides,
my bullet once invested in the seal would leave me
defenceless. I might be giving a dinner to the bear

OUR ENCOUNTER.

263

and saving myself for his dessert. These meditations
were soon brought to a close ; for a second movement
of the seal so aroused my hunter's instincts that I
pulled the trigger. My cap alone exploded. Instantly,
with a floundering splash, the seal descended into the
deep, and the bear, with three or four rapid leaps,
stood disconsolately by the place of his descent. For
a single moment we stared each other in the face, and
then, with that discretion which is the better part of
valor, the bear ran off in one direction, and I followed
his example in the other.

The generally-received idea of the Polar bear
battling with the walrus meets little favor among
the Esquimaux of Smith's Straits. My own expe-
rience is directly adverse to the truth of the story.
The walrus is never out of reach of water, and, in
his peculiar element, is without a rival. I have seen
the bear follow the ussuk by diving; but the tough
hide and great power of the walrus forbid such an
attack.

"June 9, Friday. — To-day I was able to walk out
upon the floe for the first time. My steps were
turned to the observatory, where, close beside the
coffins of Baker and Schubert, Sontag was at work
with the unifilar, correcting the winter disturbances.
Our local deviation seems to have corrected itself:
the iron in our comfortless little cell seems to have
been so distributed that our results were not affected
by it.

" I was very much struck by the condition of the

•-«.•. ^ —

264

CHANGE IN THE FLOE.

floe-ice. Hitherto I have been dependent upon the
accounts of my messifiates, and believed that the work
of thaw was going on with extreme rapidity. They
are mistaken: we have a late season. The ice-foot
has not materially changed either in breadth or level,
and its base has been hardly affected at all, except by
the overflow of the tides. The floe, though under-
going the ordinary molecular changes which accom-
pany elevation of temperature, shows less surface-
change than the Lancaster Sound ices in early May.
All this, but especially the condition of the ice-foot,
warns me to prepare for the contingency of not escap-
ing. It is a momentous warning. We have no coal
for a second winter here ; our stock of fresh provisions
is utterly exhausted; and our sick need change, as
essential to their recovery.

" The willows are tolerably forward on Butler Island.
Poor, stunted crawlers, they show their expanded leaf-
lets against the gray rocks. Among these was the
Bear berry, {S. uva urai:) knowing its reputation with
the Esquimaux to the south as a remedy for scurvy, I
gleaned leaves enough for a few scanty mouthfuls.
The lichens are very conspicuous ; but the mosses and
grasses and heaths have not yet made their appearance
in the little valley between the rocks."

■M

ORAOaiNa SIAU

CHAPTER XXI.

PBOQRESS OP SEASON — PLANTS IN WINTBE — BIRDS REIUBNINO —
COOHLEARIA — THE PLANTS.

"June 10, Saturday. — Hans was ordered yestei*day
to hunt in the direction of the Esquimaux huts, in the
hope of determining the position of the open water.
He did not return last night ; but Dr. Hayes and Mr.
Ohlsen, who were sent after him this morning with
the dog-sledge, found the hardy savage fast asleep not

266

PROGRESS or SEASON.

I I

five miles from the brig. Alongside of him was a
large usuk or bearded seal, (P. barbata,) shot, as usual,
in the head. He had dragged it for seven hours over
the ice-foot. The dogs having now recruited, he started
light to join Morton at the glacier.

"June 11, Sunday. — Another walk on shore showed
me the andromeda in flower, and the saxifrages and
carices green under the dried tufts of last year. This
rapidly-maturing vegetation is of curious interest. The
andromeda tetragona had advanced rapidly toward
fructification without a corresponding development of
either stalk or leaflet. In fact, all the heaths — and
there were three species around our harbor — ^had a
thoroughly moorland and stunted aspect. Instead of
the graceful growth which should characterize them,
they showed only a low scrubby sod or turf, yet
studded with flowers. The spots from which I ga-
thered them were well infiltrated with melted snows,
and the rocks enclosed them so as to aid the solar
heat by reverberation. Here, too, silene and cera-
thium, as well as the characteristic flower-growths of
the later summer, the poppy, and sorrel, and saxi-
frages, were already recognisable.

" Few of us at home can realize the protecting value
of this warm coverlet of snow. No eider-down in the
cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than the
sleeping-dress of winter about this feeb^a flower-life.
The first warm snows of A ugust and September falling
on a thickly-pleached carpet of grasses, heaths, and
willows, enshrine the flowery growths which nestle

PLANTS IN WINTER.

267

round them in a non-conducting air-chamber; and, as
each successive snow increases the thickness of the
cover, we have, before the intense cold of winter sets
in, a light cellular bed covered by drift, six, eight, or
ten feet deep, in which the plant retains its vitality.
The frozen subsoil does not encroach upon this narrow
zone of vegetation. I have found in midwinter, in this
high latitude of 78° 50', the surface so nearly moist as
to be friable to the touch; and upon the ice-floes,
commencing with a surface-temperature of — 30°, I
found at two feet deep a temperature of — 8°, at four
feet +2°, and at eight feet +26°. This was on the
largest of a range of east and west hummock-drifts in
the open way off Cape Staflford. The glacier which we
became so familiar with afterward at Etah yields an
uninterrupted stream throughout the year.

"My experiments prove that the conducting power
of the snow is proportioned to its compression by winds,
rains, drifts, and congelation. The early spring and
late fall and summer snows are more cellular and less
condensed than the nearly impalpable powder of
winter. The drifts, therefore, that accumulate during
nine months of the year, are dispersed in well-defined
layers of diflfering density. We have first the warm
cellular snows of fall which surround the plant, next
the fine impacted snow-dust of winter, and above these
the later humid deposits of the spring.

" It is interesting to observe the effects of this dispo-
sition of layers upon the safety of the vegetable growths
below them. These, at least in the earlier summer,

268

BIRDS RETURNING.

occupy the inclined slopes that face the sun, and the
several strata of snow take of course the same inclina-
tion. The consequence is that as the upper snow is
dissipated by the early thawings, and sinks upon the
more compact layer below, it is to a great extent ar-
rested, and runs oflf like rain from a slope of clay.
The plant reposes thus in its cellular bed, guarded
from the rush of waters, and protected too from the
nightly frosts by the icy roof above it.

"June 16, Friday. — Two long-tailed ducks {Harelda
gladalis) visited us, evidently seeking their breeding-
grounds. They are beautiful birds, either at rest or on
the wing. We now have the snow-birds^ the snipe,
the burgomaster gull, and the long-tailed duck, enliven-
ing our solitude; but the snow-birds are the only ones
in numbers, crowding our rocky islands, and making
our sunny night-time musical with home-remembered
songs. Of each of the others we have but a solitary
pair, who seem to have left their fellows for this far
northern mating-ground in order to live unmolested.
I long for specimens; but they shall not be fired at.

The ptarmigan show a singular backwardness in
assuming the summer feathering. The male id still
entirely white ; except, in some specimens, a few brown
feathers on the crown of the head. The female has
made more progress, and is now well coated with her
new plumage, the coverts and quill-feathers still re-
maining white. At Upernavik, in lat. 73°, they are
already in full summer costume.

"June 18, Sunday. — ^Another pair of long-tailed

GOGHLEARIA.

269

ducks passed over our bay, bound for farther breeding-
grounds; we saw also an ivory-gull and two great
northern divers, ( Golymbua glacialis,) the most imposing
birds of their tribe. These last flew very high, emit-
ting at regular intervals their reed-like *kawk.'

" Mr. Ohlsen and Dr. Hayes are off on an overland
tramp. I sent them to inspect the open water to the
southward. The immovable state of the ice-foot gives
me anxiety : last year, a large bay above us was closed
all summer; and the land-ice, as we find it here, is as
perennial as the glacier.

"June 20, Tuesday. — This morning, to my great sur-
prise, Petersen brought me quite a handful of scurvy-
grass, (C fenestrata.) In my fall list of the stinted
flora here, it had quite escaped my notice. I felt grate-
ful to him for his kindness, and, without the affectation
of offering it to any one else, ate it at once. Each plant
stood about one inch high, the miniature leaves ex-
panding throughout a little radius of hardly one inch
more. Yet, dwarfed as it was, the fructifying process
was nearly perfected ; the buds already expanding and
nearly ready to burst. We found cochlearia afterward
at Littleton Island, but never in any quantity north of
Cape Alexander. Although the melted snows distil
freely over the darker rocks, (porphyries and green-
stones,) it is a rare exception to note any vegetable dis-
coloration of the surface beneath. There are few signs of
those confervaceous growths which are universal as high
as Upemavik. The nature of this narrative does not
permit me to indulge in matters unconnected with my

270

THE PLANTS.

story : I cite these in passing as among the indications
of our high northern latitude.

"June 21, Wednesday. — A snow, moist and flaky,
melting upon our decks, and cleaning up the dingy sur-
face of the great ice-plain with a new garment. We
are at the summer solstice, the day of greatest solar
light! Would that the traditionally-verified but me-
teorologically-disproved equinoctial storm could break
upon us, to destroy the tenacious floes !

"June 22, Thursday. — The ice changes slowly, but
the progress of vegetation is excessively rapid. The
growth on the rocky group near our brig is surprising.

"June 23, Friday. — The eiders have come back: a
pair were seen in the morning, soon followed by four
ducks and drakes. The poor things seemed to be seek-
ing breeding-grounds, but the ice must have scared
them. They were flying southward.

"June 25, Sunday. — Walked on shore and watched
the changes: andromeda in flower, poppy and ranun-
culus the same : saw two snipe and some tern.

" Mr. Ohlsen returned from a walk with Mr. Peter-
sen. They saw reindeer, and brought back a noble
specimen of the king duck. It was a solitary male,
resplendent with the orange, black, and green of his
head and neck.

"Stephenson is better; and I think that a marked
improvement, although a slow one, shows itself in all
of us. I work the men lightly, and allow plenty of
basking in the sun. In the afternoon we walk on
shore, to eat such succulent plants as we can find amid

THE PLANTS.

271

the snow. The pyrola I have not found, nor the coch-
learia, save in one ^pot, and then dwarfed. But we
have the lychnis, the young sorrel, the andromeda, the
draba, and the willow-bark; this last an excellent
tonic, and, in common with all the Arctic vegetable
astringents, I think, powerfully antiscorbutic."

CHAPTER XXn.

MB. BONSAIiL'S BETUBN — HIS 8T0RT— THE BEAB IN OAMP — HIS
FATE — BEABS AT 8P0BT — THE THAWS.

!►

"June 27, Tuesday. — ^McGary and Bonsall are back
with Hickey and Biley. They arrived last evening:
all well, except that the snow has affected their eye-
sight badly, owing to the scorbutic condition of their
systems. Mr. McGary is entirely blind, and I fear will
be found slow to cure. They have done admirably.
They bring back a continued series of observations,
perfectly well kept up, for the further authentication
of our survey. They had a good chronometer, arti-
ficial horizon, and sextant, and their results correspond
entirely with those of Mr. Sontag and myself. They
are connected too with the station at Chimney Rock,
Cape Thackeray, which we have established by theo-
dolite. I may be satisfied now with our projection of
the Greenland coast. The different localities to the
south have been referred to the position of our winter

272

MR. BONSALL S RETURN.

273

harbor, ind this has been definitely fixed by the labors
of Mr. Sontag, our astronomer. We have therefore not
only a reliable base, but a set of primary triangula-
tions which, though limited, may support the minor
field-work of our sextants.

Iflttrnfg of '§imxs, ilt^arg ami ^amll

" They left the brig on the 3d, and reached the Great
Glacier on the 15th, after only twelve days of travel.
They showed great judgment in passing the bays ; and,
although impeded by the heavy snows, would have
been able to remain much longer in the field, but for
the destruction of our provision-depOts by the bears.

"I am convinced, however, that no efforts of theirs
could have scaled the Great Glacier; so that the loss
of pur provisions, though certainly a very serious mis-
hap, cannot be said to have caused their failure. They
were well provided with pointed staves, footrclampers,
and other apparatus for climbing ice; but, from all
they tell me, any attempt to scale this stupendous
glacial mass would have been madness, and I am truly
glad that they desisted from it before fatal accident
befell them.

" Mr. Bonsaii is making out his report of the daily
operations of this party. It seems that the same heavy
snow which had so much interfered with my travel in
April and May still proved their greatest drawback.
It was accumulated particularly between the headlands

Vol. I.— 18

274

BONSALLS STORY.

«j

of the bays; and, as it was already affected by the
warm sun, it called for great care in crossing it. They
encountered drifts which were altogether impenetrable,
and in such cases could only advance by long circuits,
after reconnoitring from the top of icebergs.

" I have tried in vain to find out some good general
rule, when traversing the ice near the coast, to avoid
the accumulation of snows and hummock-ridges. It
appears that the direct line between headland and
headland or cape and cape is nearly always obstructed
by broken ice ; while in the deep recesses the grounded
ice is even worse. I prefer a track across the middle
of the bay, outside of the grounded ices and inside of
the hummock-ridges; unless, as sometimes happens,
the late fall-ice is to be found extending in level flats
outside. , '

" This is evidently the season when the bears are in
most abundance. Their tracks were everywhere, both
on shore and upon the floes. One of them had the
audacity to attempt intruding itself upon the party
during one of their halts upon the ice ; and Bonsall
tells a good story of the manner in which they received
and returned his salutations. It was about half an
hour after midnight, and they were all sleeping away
a long day's fatigue, when McGary either heard or felt,
he could hardly tell which, something that was scratch-
ing at the snow immediately by his head. It waked
him just enough to allow him to recognise a huge
animal actively engaged in reconnoitring the circuit of
the tent. His startled outcry aroused his companion-

THE BEAR IN CAMP.

275

inmates, but without in any degree disturbing the un-
welcome visitor ; specially unwelcome at that time and
place, for all the guns had been left on the sledge, a
little distance oflf, and there was not so much as a
walking-pole inside. There was of course something

THE BEAR IN CAMP.

of natural confusion in the little council of war. The
first impulse was to make a rush for the arms; but
this was soon decided to be very doubtfully practicable,
if at all, for the bear, having satisfied himself with his
observations of the exterior, now presented himself at
the tent-opening. Sundry volleys of lucifer matches
and some impromptu torches of newspaper were fired

276

CACHE DESTROYED.

' I

^ it

without alarming him, and, after a little while, he
planted himself at the doorway and began making his
supper upon the carcass of a seal which had been shot
the day before.

" Tom Hickey was the first to bethink him of the
military device of a sortie from the postern, and, cutting
a hole with his knife, crawled out at the rear of the
tent. Here he extricated a boat-hook, that formed one
of the supporters of the ridge-pole, and made it the
instrument of a right valorous attack. A blow well
administered on the nose caused the animal to retreat
for the moment a few paces beyond the sledge, and
Tom, calculating his distance nicely, sprang forward,
Beized a rifle, and feU back in safety upon his comrades.
In a few seconds more, Mr. Bonsall had sent a ball
through and through the body of his enemy. I was
assured that after this adventure the party adhered to
the custom I had enjoined, of keeping at all times a
watch and fire-arms inside the camping-tent.

" The final cache, which I relied so much upon, was
entirely destroyed. It had been built with extreme
care, of rocks which had been assembled by very heavy
labor, and adjusted with much aid often from capstan-
bars as levers. The entire construction was, so far as
our means permitted, most effective and resisting.
Yet these tigers of the ice seemed to have scarcely
encountered an obstaclo. Not a morsel of pemmican
remained except in the iron cases, which, being round
with conical ends, defied both ciaws and teeth. They
had rolled and pawed them in every direction, tossing

BEARS AT SPORT.

277

them about like footballs, although over eighty pounds
in weight. An alcohol-case, strongly iron-bound, was
dashed into small fragments, and a tin can of liquor
mashed and twisted almost into a ball. The claws of

THE CACHE DESTROYED.

the beast had perforated the metal, and torn it up as
with a cold chisel.

"They were too dainty for salt meats: ground coffee
they had an evident relish for: old canvas was a favor-
ite for some reason or other; even our flag, which had
been reared *to take possession' of the waste, was
gnawed down to the very staff. They had made a
regular frolic of it; rolling our bread-barrels over the

278

THE THAWS.

ice-foot and into the broken outside ice; and, unable to
masticate our heavy India-rubber cloth, they had tied
it up in unimaginable hard knots.

" McGary describes the whole area around the cache
as marked by the well-worn paths of these animals;
and an adjacent slope of ice-covered rock, with an
angle of 45°, was so worn and covered with their hair,
as to suggest the idea that they had been amusing
themselves by sliding down it on their haunches. A
performance, by-the-way, in which I afterward caught
them myself.

"June 28, Wednesday. — Hans come up with the
party on the 17th. Morton and he are still out. They
took a day's rest; and then, * following the old tracks,'
as McGary reports, * till they were clear of the cracks
near the islands, pushed northward at double-quick
time. When last seen, they were both of them walk-
ing, for the snow was too soft and deep for them to
ride with their heavy load.* Fine weather, but the ice
yields reluctantly."

While thus watching the indications of advancing
summer, my mind turned anxiously to the continued
absence of Morton and Hans. We were already beyond
the season when travel upon the ice was considered
practicable by our English predecessors in Wellington
Channel, and, in spite of the continued solidity around
us, it was unsafe to presume too much upon our high
northern position.

The ice, although seemingly as unbroken as ever,
was no longer fit for dog-travel; the floes were covered

TUE RETURN,

271)

with water-pools, many of which could not be forded
by our team; and, as these multiplied with the rapidly-
advancing thaws, they united one with another,
(jhequering the level waste with an interminable repe-
tition of confluent lakes. These were both embarrassing
and dangerous. Our little brig was already so thawed
out where her sides came in contact with her icy cradle
as to make it dangerous to descend without a gangway,
and our hunting parties came back wet to the skin.

It was, therefore, with no slight joy that on the
evening of the 10th, w^ile walking with Mr. Bonsall,
a distant sound of dogs caught my ear. These faithful
servants generally bayed their full-mouthed welcome
from afar off, but they always dashed in with a wild
speed which made their outcry a direct precursor of
their arrival. Not so these well-worn travellers. Hans
and Morton staggered beside the limping dogs, and
poor Jenny was riding as a passenger upon the sledge.
Ft Was many hours before they shared the rest and com-
fort of our ship.

CHAPTER XXm.

Morton's return — his narrative — peabodt bat — through
the beros — bridqina the chasms — the west land — the
dogs in ihioht — open water — the loe-foot — the polar
tides — oapes jackson and morris — the channel — free of
ice — birds and plants — bear and cub — the hunt — the
death — franklin and lafayette — the antarctic flag —
course of tides — mount parry — victoria and albert

MOUNTAINS — RESUM£ — THE BIRDS APPEAR — THE VEGETATION
— THE PETREL — CAPE CONSTITUTION — THEORIES OF AN OPEN
SEA — ILLUSORY DISCOVERIES — CHANGES OF CLIMATE — A SUG-
GESTION, .r . ■'. ••

Mr. Morton left the brig with the relief party of
McGary on the 4th of June. He took his place at the
track-lines like the others ; but he was ordered to avoid
all extra labor, so as to husband his strength for the
final passage of the ice.

On the 15th he reached the base of the Great Gla-
cier, and on the 16th was joined by Hans with the
dogs. A single day was given to feed and refresh the
animals, and on the 18th the two companies parted.
Morton's account I have not felt myself at liberty to

280

PEABODT BAT.

281

alter. I give it as nearly as possible in his own words,
without affecting any modification of his style.

Il[0rt0tt'8 80«rnjj.

The party left Cache Island at 12.35 A. h., crossing
the land-ices by portage, and going south for about a
mile to avoid a couple of bad seams caused by the
breakage of the glacier. Here Morton and Hans sepa-
rated from the land-party, and went northward, keep-
ing parallel with the glacier, and from five to seven
miles distant. The ice was free from hummocks, but
heavily covered with snow, through which they walked
knee deep. They camped about eight miles from the
glacier, at 7.45, travelHng that night about twenty-
eight miles. Here a crack allowed them to measure
the thickness of the ice : it was seven feet five inches.
The thermometer at 6 A. m. gave +28° for the tem-
perature of the air; 29.2 for the water.

They started again at half-past nine. The ice, at
first, was very heavy, and they were frequently over
their knees in the dry snow ; but, after crossing certain
drifts, it became hard enough to bear the sledge, and
the dogs made four miles an hour until twenty minutes
past four, when they reached the middle of Peabody
Bay. They then found themselves among the bergs
which on former occasions had prevented other parties
from getting through. These were generally very
high, evidently newly separated from the glacier.
Their surfaces were fresh and glassy, and not like

282

THROUGH THE BERGS.

those generally met with in Baffin's Bay, — less worn,
and bluer, and looking in all respects like the face of
the Grand Glacier. Many were rectangular, some of
them regular squares, a quarter of a mile each way;
others, more than a mile long.

They could not see more than a ship's-length ahead,
the icebergs were so unusually close together. Old
icebergs bulge and tongue out below, and are thus pre-
vented from uniting ; but these showed that they were
lately launched, for they approached each other so
nearly that the party were sometimes forced to squeeze
through places less than four feet wide, through which
the dogs could just draw the sledge. Sometimes they
could find no passage between two bergs, the ice being
so crunched up between them that they could not force
their way. Under these circumstances, they would
either haul the sledge over the low tongues of the
berg, or retrace their steps, searching through the
drift for a practicable road.

This they were not always fortunate in finding, and
it was at best a tedious and in some cases a dangerous
alternative, for oftentimes they could not cross them ;
and, when they tried to double, the compass, their
only guide, confused them by its variation.

, It took them a long while to get through into
smoother ice. A tolerably wide passage would appear
between two bergs, which they would gladly follow;
then a narrower one; then no opening in front, but
one to the side. Following that a little distance, a
blank ice-cliflf would close the way altogether, and they

BRIDGING THE CHASMS.

283

were forced to retrace their steps and begin again.
Constantly baffled, but, like true fellows, determined
to " go ahead," they at last found a lane some six miles
to the west, which led upon their right course. But
they were from eight o'clock at night till two or three
of the next morning, puzzling their way out of the
maze, like a blind man in the streets of a strange city.

June 19, Monday. — ^At 8.45 a.m. they encamped.
Morton then climbed a berg, in order to select their
best road. Beyond some bergs he caught glimpses of
a great white plain, which proved to be the glacier
seen far into the interior; for, on getting up another
berg farther on, he saw its face as it fronted on the
bay. This was near its northern end. It looked full
of stones and earth, while large rocks projected out
from it and rose above it here and there.

They rested till half-past ten, having walked all the
time to spare the dogs. After starting, they went on
for ten miles, but were then arrested by wide seams in
the ice, bergs, and much broken ice. So they turned
about, and reached their last camp by twelve, mid-
night. They then went westward, and, after several
trials, made a way, the dogs running well. It took
them but two hours to reach the better ice, for the
bergs were in a narrow belt.

The chasms between them were sometimes four feet
wide, with water at the bottom. These they bridged
in our usual manner ; that is to say, they attacked the
nearest large hummocks with their axes, and, chopping
them down, rolled the heaviest pieces they could move

284

THE WEST LAND.

into the fissure, so that they wedged each other in.
They then filled up the spaces between the blocks
with smaller lumps of ice as well as they could, and
so contrived a rough sort of bridge to coax the dogs
over. Such a seam would take about an hour and a
half to fill up well and cross.

On quitting the berg-field, they saw two dovekies in a
crack, and shot one. The other flew to the northeast.
Here they sighted the northern shore, (" West Land,")
mountainous, rolling, but very distant, perhaps fifty or
sixty miles off. They drove on over the best ice they
had met due north. After passing about twelve miles
of glacier, and seeing thirty of opposite shore, they
camped at 7.20 A. m.

They were now nearly abreast of the termination
of the Great Glacier. It was mixed with earth and
rocks. The snow sloped from the land to the ice, and
the two seemed to be mingled together for eight or ten
miles to the north, when the land became solid, and
the glacier was lost. The height of this land seemed
about four hundred feet, and the glacier lower.

June 21, Wednesday. — They stood to the north at
11.30 P.M., and made for what Morton thought a cape,
seeing a vacancy between it and the West Land. The
ice was good, even, and free from bergs, only two or
three being in sight. The atmosphere became thick
and misty, and the west shore, which they saw faintly
on Tuesday, was not visible. They could only see the
cape for which they steered. The cold was sensibly
felt, a very cutting wind blowing N.E. by N. They

THE DOGS IN FRIGHT.

285

reached the opening seen to the westward of the cape
by Thursday, 7 A. M. It proved to be a channel ; for,
as they moved on in the misty weather, a sudden lift-
ing of the fog showed them the cape and the western
shore.

1 1 '[.

:' (

ENTERINQ THE CHANNEL-CAPES ANDREW JACKSON AND JOHN BARROW.

The ice was weak and rotten, and the dogs began
to tremble. Proceeding at a brisk rate, they had got
upon unsafe ice before they were aware of it. Their
course was at the time nearly up the middle of the
channel; but, as soon as possible, they turned, and,
b}^ a backward circuit, reached the shore. The dogs,
as their fashion is, at first lay down and refused to

286

OPEN WATER.

i ■ il

proceed, trembling violently. The only way to in-
duce the terrified, obstinate brutes to get on was for
Hans to go to a white-looking spot where the ice was
thicker, the soft stuff looking dark ; then, calling the
dogs coaxingly by name, they would crawl to him on
their bellies. So they retreated from place to place,
until they reached the firm ice they had quitted. A
half-mile brought them to comparatively safe ice, a
mile more to good ice again.

In the midst of this danger they had during the lift-
ings of the fog sighted open water, and .they now saw
it plainly. There was no wind stirring, and its face
was perfectly smooth. It was two miles farther up the
channel than the firm ice to which they had retreated.
Hans could hardly believe it. But for the birds that
were seen in great numbers, Morton says he would not
have believed it himself.

The ice covered the mouth of the channel like a
horseshoe. One end lapped into the west side a con-
siderable distance up the channel, the other covered
the cape for about a mile and a half, so that they
could not land opposite their camp, which was about a
mile and a half from the cape.

That night they succeeded in climbing on to the
level by the floe-pieces, and walked around the turn of
the cape for some distance, leaving their dogs behind.
They found a good ico-foot, very wide, which extended
as far as the cape. They saw a good many birds on
the water, both eider-ducks and dovekies, and the rocks
on shore were full of sea-swallows. There was no ice.

Ill

THE ICE-FOOT.

287

A fog coming on, they turned back to where the dogs
had been left.

They started again at 11.30 A.M. of the 21st. On
reaching the land-ice they unloaded, and threw each
package of provision from the floe up to the ice-foot,

I I

'I i

MAKING THE LANO-ICE, (CLIMBING.)

which was eight or nine feet above them. Morton
then climbed up with the aid of the sledge, which they
converted into a ladder for the occasion. He then
pulled the dogs up by the lines fastened round their
bodies, Hans lending a helping hand and then climb-
ing up himself They then drew up the sledge. The
water was very deep, a stone the size of Morton's head

288

THE POLAR TIDES.

I ' - !

taking twenty-eight seconds to reach the bottom, which
was seen very clearly.

As they had noticed the night before, the ice-foot
lost its good character on reaching the cape, becoming
a mere narrow ledge hugging the cliffs, and looking as
if it might crumble off altogether into the water at
any moment. Morton was greatly afraid there would
be no land-ice there at all when they came back.
Hans and he thought they might pass on by climbing
along the face of the crag ; in fact they tried a path
about fifty feet high, but it grew so narrow that they
saw they could not get the dogs past with their sledge-
load of provisions. He therefore thought it safest to
leave some food, that they might not starve on the
return in case the ice-foot should disappear. He ac-
cordingly cached enough provision to last them back,
with four days' dog-meat.

At the pitch of the cape the ice-ledge was hardly
three feet wide ; and they were obliged to unloose the
dogs and drive them forward alone. Hans and he
then tilted the sledge up, and succeeded in carrying it
past the narrowest place. The ice-foot was firm under
their tread, though it crumbled on the verge.

The tide was running very fast. The pieces of
heaviest draught floated by nearly as fast as the ordi-
nary walk of a man, and the surface-pieces passed
them much faster, at least four knots. On their
examination the night before, the tide was from the
north, running southward, carrying very little ice.
The ice which was now moving so fast to northward

,'l

1 1' I

CAPES JACKSON AND MORRIS.

289

seemed to be the broken land-ice around the cape, and
the loose edge of the south ice. The thermometer in
the water gave +36°, seven degrees above the freezing-
point of sea-water at Rensselaer Harbor.

They now yoked in the dogs, and set forward over
the worst sort of mashed ice for three-quarters of a
mile. After passing the cape, they looked ahead, and
saw nothing but open water. The land to the west-
ward seemed to overlap the land on which they stood,
a long distance ahead : all the space between was open
water. After turning the cape, — that which is marked
on the chart as Cape Andrew Jackson, — ^they found a
good smooth ice-foot in the entering curve of a bay,
since named after the great financier of the American
Revolution, Robert Morris. It was glassy ice, and the
dogs ran on it full speed. Here the sledge made at
least six miles an hour. It was the best day's travel
they made on the journey.

After passing four bluffs at the bottom and sides of
the bay, the land grew lower; and presently a long low
country opened on the land-ice, a wide plain between
large headlands, with rolling hills through it. A flock
of Brent geese were coming down the valley of this low
land, and ducks were seen in crowds upon the open
water. When they saw the geese first, they were ap-
parently coming from the eastward; they made a curve
out to seaward, and then, turning, flew far ahead over
the plain, until they were lost to view, showing that
their destination was inland. The general line of flight
of the flock was to the northeast. Eiders and dove-

VoL. I— 19

i.(

290

THE CHANNEL.

kies were also seen; and tern were very numerous,
hundreds of them squealing aLd screeching in flocks.
They were so tame that they cai le within a few yards
of the party. Flying high overhead, their notes echo-
ing from the rocks, were large white birds, which they
took for burgomasters. Ivory gulls and mollemokes
were seen farther on. They did not lose sight of the
birds after this, as far as they went. The ivory gulls
flew very high, but the mollemokes alit, and fed on the
water, flying over it well out to sea, as we had seen
them do in Baffin's Bay. Separate from these flew a
dingy bird unknown to Morton. Never had they seen
the birds so numerous : the water was actually black
with dovekies, and the rocks crowded.^**^

The part of the channel they were now coasting was
narrower, but as they proceeded it seemed to widen
again. There was some ice arrested by a bend of the
channel on the eastern shore; and, on reaching a low
gravel point, they saw that a projection of land shut
them in just ahead to the north. Upon this ice nume-
rous seal were basking, both the netsik and ussuk.

To the left of this, toward the "West Land, the great
channel (Kennedy Channel) of open water continued.
There was broken ice floating in it, but with passages
fifteen miles in width and perfectly clear. The end of
the point — "Gravel Point," as Morton called it^-^was
covered with hummocks and broken ice for about two
miles from the water. This ice was worn and full of
gravel. Six miles inland, the point was flanked by
mountains.

i ;|

n *

FREE OF ICE.

201

A little higher up, they noticed that the pieces of ice
in the middle of the channel were moving up, while
the lumps near shore were floating down. The channel
was completely broken up, and there would have been
no difficulty in a frigate standing anywhere. The little

APPEARANCE OF CHANNEL.

brig, or " a fleet of her like," could have beat easily to
the northward.

The wind blew strong from the north, and continued
to do so for three days, sometimes blowing a gale, and
very damp, the tops of the hills becoming fixed with
dark foggy clouds. The damp falling mist prevented
their seeing any distance. Yet they saw no ice borne

' i

.--'> ■^. .^, ^^,,

A«^^ .•^-»■^, ^„ii..rv,i% ...^&'^.»,_,,»*

'■/I

I-

f-l

i 'rl

rl, ;i ;

292

BIRDS AND PLANTS.

down from the northward during all this time; and,
what was more curious, they found, on their return
south, that no ice had been sent down during the gale.
On the contrary, they then found the channel perfectly
clear from shore to shore.

June 22, Thursday. — They camped at 8.30 A. m., on
a ledge of low rock, having made in the day's journey
forty-eight miles in a straight line. Morton thought
they were at least forty miles up the channel. The ice
was here moving to the southward with the tide. The
channel runs northwardly, and is about thirty-five
miles wide. The opposite coast appears straight, but
still sloping, its head being a little to the west of north.
This shore is high, with lofty mountains of sugar-loaf
shape at the tops, which, set together in ranges, looked
like piles of stacked cannon-balls. It was too cloudy
for observations when they camped, but they obtained
several higher up. The eider were in such numbers
here that Hans fired into the flocks, and killed two
birds with one shot.

June 23, Friday. — In consequence of the gale of
wind, they did not start till 12.30 midnight. They
made about eight miles, and were arrested by the
broken ice of the shore. Their utmost efforts could
not pass the sledge over this; so they tied the dogs to
it, and went ahead to see how things looked. They
found the land-ice growing worse and worse, until at
last it ceased, and the water broke directly against the
steep cliffs.

They continued their course overland until they

:^-

BEAR AND CUB.

293

came to the entrance of a bay, whence they could see
a cape and an island to the northward. They then
turned back, seeing numbers of birds on their way,
and, leaving the dogs to await their return, prepared
to proceed on foot.

This spot was the greenest that they had seen since
leaving the headlands of the channel. Snow patched the
valleys, and water was trickling from the rocks. Early
as it was, Hans was able to recognise some of the flower-
life. He eat of the young shoots of the lychnis, and
brought home to me the dried pod (siliqua) of a hcs-
peris, which had survived the wear and tear of winter.
Morton was struck with the abundance of little stone-
crops, " about the size of a pea." I give in the appendix
his scanty list of recognised but not collected plants.

June 23, 24, Friday, Saturday. — At 3 a.m. they
started again, carrying eight pounds of pemmican and
two of bread, besides the artificial horizon, sextant, and
compass, a rifle, and the boat-hook. After two hours'
walking the travel improved, and, on nearing a plain
about nine miles from where they had left the sledge,
they were rejoiced to see a she-bear and her cub.
They had tied the dogs securely, as they thought ; but
Toodla and four others had broken loose and followed
them, making their appearance within an hour. They
were thus able to attack the bear at once.

Hans, who to the simplicity of an Esquimaux united
the shrewd observation of a hunter, describes the con-
test which followed so graphically that I try to engraft
some of the quaintness of his description upon Mr.

'. '

» i i

294

THE HUNT.

Morton's report. The bear fled; but the little one
being unable either to keep ahead of the dogs or to
keep pace with her, she turned back, and, putting her
head under its haunches, threw it some distance ahead.
The cub safe for the moment, she would wheel round
and face the dogs, so as to give it a chance to run
away; but it always stopped just as it alighted, till
she came up and threw it ahead again : it seemed to
expect her aid, and would not go on without it.
Sometimes the mother would run a few yards ahead,
as if to coax the young one up to her, and when the
dogs came up she would turn on them and drive
the^n back ; then, as they dodged her blows, she would
rejoin the cub and push it on, sometimes putting her
head under it, sometimes catching it in her mouth by
the nape of the neck.

For a time she managed her retreat with great
celerity, leaving the two men far in the rear. They
had engaged her on the land-ice ; but she led the dogs
in-shore, up a small stony valley which opened into
the interior. But, after she had gone a mile and a
half, her pace slackened, and, the little one being jaded,
she soon came to a halt.

The men were then only half a mile behind ; and,
running at full speed, they soon came up to where the
dogs were holding her at bay. The fight was now a
desperate one. The mother never went more than two
yards ahead, constantly looking at the cub. When the
dogs came near her, she would sit upon her haunches
and take the little one between her hind legs, fighting

THE DEATH.

295

■n

the dogs with her paws, and roaring so that she could
have been heard a mile off. "Never," said Morton,
"was an animal more distressed." She would stretch
her neck and snap at the nearest dog with her shining
teeth, whirling her paws like the arms of a windmill.
If she missed her aim, not daring to pursue one dog
lest the others should harm the cub, she would give a
great roar of baffled rage, and go on pawing, and snap-
ping, and facing the ring, grinning at them with her
mouth stretched wide.

When the men came up, the little one was perhaps
rested, for it was able to turn round with her dam, no
matter how quick she moved, so as to keep always
in front of her belly. The five dogs were all the time
frisking about her actively, tormenting her like so
many gad-flies ; indeed, they made it difiicult to draw
a bead on at her without killing them. But Hans,
lying on his elbow, took a quiet aim and shot her
through the head. She dropped and rolled over dead
without moving a muscle.

The dogs sprang toward her at once; but the cub
jumped upon her body and reared up, for the first
time growling hoarsely. They seemed quite afraid
of the little creature, she fought so actively and made
so much noise ; and, while tearing mouthfuls of hair
from the dead mother, they would spring aside the
minute the cub turned toward them. The men drove
the dogs off" for a time, but were obliged to shoot the
cub at last, as she would not quit the body.

Hans fired into her head. It did not reach the

"■^M

1 '

1 ' ^'

f/i I .J lit

i: if

296

FRANKLIN AND LAFAYETTE.

brain, though it knocked her down ; but she was still
able to climb on her mother's body and try to defend
it still, "her mouth bleeding like a gutter-spout."
They were obliged to despatch her with stones.

After skinning the old one they gashed its body, and
the dogs fed upon it ravenously. The little one they
cached for themselves on the return ; and, with diffi-
culty taking the dogs off, pushed on, crossing a small
bay which extended from the level ground and had
still some broken ice upon it. Hans was tired out, and
was sent on shore to follow the curve of the bay, where
the road was easier.

The ice over the shallow bay which Morton crossed
was hummocked, with rents through it, making very
hard travel. He walked on over this, and saw an
opening not quite eight miles across, separating the two
islands, which I have named after Sir John Franklin
and his comrade Captain Crozier. He had seen them
before from the entrance of the larger bay, — Lafayette
Bay, — but had taken them for a single island, the chan-
nel between them not being then in sight. As he
neared the northern land, at the east shore which led
to the cape, (Cape Constitution,) which terminated
his labors, he found only a very small ice-foot, under
the lee of the headland and crushed up against the
Bide of the rock. He went on; but the strip of
land-ice broke more and more, until about a mile
from the cape it terminated altogether, the waves
breaking with a cross sea directly against the cape.
The wind had moderated, but was still from the north,

CAPE CONSTITUTION.

297

and the current ran up very fast, four or five knots
perhaps.

The cliffs were here very high : at a short distance
they seemed ahout two tiionsand feet; but the crags were
so overhanging that Morton could not see the tops as

A SKETCH.

he drew closer. The echoes were confusing, and the
clamor of half a dozen ivory gulls, who were frightened
from their sheltered nooks, was multiplied a hundred-
fold. The moUemokes were still numerous; but he now
saw no ducks.

He tried to pass round the cape. It was in vain :
there was no ice-foot; and, trying his best to ascend the

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298

THE ANTARCTIC FLAG.

cliffs, he could get up but a few hundred feet. Here he
fastened to his walking-pole the Grinnell flag of the
Antarctic — a well-cherished little relic, which had now
"followed me on two Polar voyages. This flag had been
saved from the wreck of the United States sloop-of-war
Peacock, when she stranded off the Columbia River; it
had accompanied Commodore Wilkes in his far-southern
discovery of an Antarctic continent. It was now its
strange destiny to float over the highest northern land,
not only of America but of our globe. Side by side
with this were our Masonic emblems of the compass
and the square. He let them fly for an hour and a half
from the black cliff over the dark rock-shadowed
waters, which rolled up and broke in white caps at its
base

He was bitterly disappointed that he could not get
round the cape, to see whether there was any land
beyond J but it was impossible. Rejoining Hans, they
supped off their bread and pemmican, and, after a good
nap, started on their return on Sunday, the 25th, at
1.30 P.M. From Thursday night, the 22d, up to Sunday
at noon, the wind had been blowing steadily from the
north, and for thirty-six hours of the time it blew a
gale. But as he returned, he remarked that the more
southern ice toward Kennedy Channel was less than it
had been when he passed up. At the mouth of the
channel it was more broken than when he saw it
before, but the passage above was clear. About half-
way between the farthest point which he reached and
the channel, the few small lumps of ice which he ob-

TIDES — MOUNT PARRY.

299

served floating — they were not more than half a dozen
— were standing with the wind to the southward, while
the shore-current or tide was driving north.

His journal of Monday, 26th, says, "As far as I could
see, the open passages were fifteen miles or more wide,
with sometimes mashed ice separating them. But it is
all small ice, and I think it either drives out to the
open space to the north, or rots and sinks,* as I could
see none ahead to the far north."^"^

The coast after passing the cape, he thought, must
trend to the eastward, as he could at no time when
below it see any land beyond. But the west coast still
opened to the north : he traced it for about fifty miles.
The day was very clear, and he was able to follow the
range of mountains which crowns it much farther.
They were very high, rounded at their summits, not
peaked like those immediately abreast of him; though,
as he remarked, this apparent change of their character
might be referred to distance, for their undulations lost
themselves like a wedge in the northern horizon.

His highest station of outlook at the point where his
progress was arrested he supposed to be about three
hundred feet above the sea. From this point, some six
degrees to the west of north, he remarked in the
farthest distance a peak truncated at its top like the
cliffs of Magdalena Bay. It was bare at its summit,
but striated vertically with protruding ridges. Our

* As I quote his own words, I do not think it advisable to comment
upon his view. Ice never sinks in a liquid of the same density as that
ill which it formed.

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300 VICTORIA AND ALBERT MOUNTAINS.

united estimate assigned to it an elevation of from
twenty-five hundred to three thousand feet. This peak,
the most remote northern land known upon our globe,
takes its name from the great pioneer of Arctic travel.
Sir Edward Parry.

MOUNT PARRY AND VICTORIA RANQE, (ROUQH SKETCH BY MORTON.)

I> I

The range with which it was connected was much
higher, Mr. Morton thought, than any we had seen on
the southern or Greenland side of the bay. The sum-
mits were generally rounded, resembling, to use his
own expression, a succession of sugar-loaves and stacked
cannon-balls declining slowly in the perspective. 1
have named these mountains after the name of the lady

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GENERAL REMARKS.

301

aovoreign under whose orders Sir John Franklin sailed,
and the prince her consort. They are similar in their
features to those of Spitzbergen; and, though I am
aware how easy it is to be deceived in our judgment of
distant heights, I am satisfied from the estimate of Mr.
Morton, as well as from our measurements of the same
range farther to the south, that they equal them in
elevation, 2500 feet.

Two large indentations broke in upon the uniform
margin of the coast. Everywhere else the spinal ridge
seemed unbroken. Mr. Morton saw no ice.

It will be seen by the abstract of our " field-notes'*
in the Appendix, as well as by an analysis of the
results which I have here rendered nearly in the very
words of Mr. Morton, that, after travelling due north
over a solid area choked with bergs and frozen fields,
he was startled by the growing weakness of the ice :
its surface became rotten, and the snow wet and pulpy.
His dogs, seized with terror, refused to advance. Then
for the first time the fact broke upon him, that a long
dark band seen to the north beyond a protruding cape
— Cape Andrew Jackson — ^was water. With danger
and difficulty he retraced his steps, and, reaching sound
ice, made good his landing on a new coast.

The journeys which I had made myself, and those
of my different parties, had shown that an unbroken
surface of ice covered the entire sea to the east, west,
and south. From the southernmost ice, seen by Dr.
Hayes only a few weeks before, to the region of this

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THE BIRDS APPEAR.

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mysterious water, was, as the crow flies, one hundred
and six miles. But for the unusual sight of birds and
the unmistakable giving way of the ice beneath them,
they would not have believed in the evidence of eye-
sight. Neither Hans nor Morton was prepared for it.

Landing on the cape, and continuing their explora-
tion, new phenomena broke upon them. They were
on the shores of a channel, so open that a frigate, or a
fleet of frigates, might have sailed up it. The ice,
already broken and decayed, formed a sort of horse-
shoe-shaped beach, against which the waves broke in
surf. As they travelled north, this channel expanded
into an iceless area ; " for four or five small pieces" —
lumps — ^were all that could be seen over the entire
surface of its white-capped waters. Viewed from the
clifis, and taking thirty-six miles as the mean radius
open to reliable survey, this sea had a justly-estimated
extent of more than four thousand square miles.

Animal life, which had so long been a stranger to us
to the south, now burst upon them. At Kensselaer
Harbor, except the Netsik seal or a rarely-encountered
Harelda, we had no life available for the hunt. But
here the Brent goose, (Anas hemicla^ the eider, and
the king duck, were so crowded together that our
Esquimaux killed two at a shot with a single rifle-ball.

The Brent goose had not been seen before since
entering Smith's Straits. It is well known to the
Polar traveller as a migratory bird of the American
continent. Like the others of the same family, it
feeds upon vegetable matter, generally on marine

THE VEGETATION.

303

plants with their adherent molluscous life. It is rarely
or never seen in the interior, and from its habits may
be regarded as singularly indicative of open water.
The flocks of this bird, easily distinguished by their
wedge-shaped line of flight, now crossed the water
obliquely, and disappeared over the land to the north
and east. I had shot these birds on the coast cf Wel-
lington Channel in latitude 74° 50', nearly six de-
grees to the south : they were then flying in the same
direction.

The rocks on shore were crowded with sea-swal-
lows, (Sterna Arctica,) birds whose habits require open
water, and they were already breeding.

It may interest others besides the naturalist to state,
that all of these birds occupied the southern limits of
the channel for the first few miles after reaching open
water, but, as the party continued their progress to the
north, they disappeared, and marine birds took their
place. The gulls were now represented by no less
than four species. The kittiwakes (Lams tridac-
tylia) — ^reminding Morton of ''old times in Baffin's
Bay" — ^were again stealing fish from the water, pro-
bably the small whiting, (Merlangua Polaria^ and their
grim cousins, the burgomasters, enjoying the dinner
thus provided at so little cost to themselves. It was
a picture of life all round.

Of the flora and its indications I can say but little ;
still less can I feel justified in drawing from them any
thermal inferences. The season was too early for a
display of Arctic vegetation; and, in the absence of

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304

THE PETREL.

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specimens, I am unwilling to adopt the observations
of Mr. Morton, who was no botanist. It seems clear,
however, that many flowering plants, at least as de-
veloped as those of Rensselaer Harbor, had already
made themselves recognisable; and, strange to say,
the only specimen brought back was a crucifer, (Hea-
perie pygmcBa — Durand,) the siliquoB of which, still
containing seed, had thus survived the winter, to give
evidence of its perfected growth. This plant I have
traced to the Great Glacier, thus extending its range
from the South Greenland zone. It has not, I believe,
been described at Upemavik.^**^

It is another remarkable fact that, as they continued
their journey, the land-ice and snow, which had served
as a sort of pathway for their dogs, crumbled and
melted, and at last ceased altogether; so that, during
the final stages of their progress, the sledge was ren-
dered useless, and Morton found himself at last toil-
ing over rocks and along the beach of a sea, which,
like the familiar waters of the south, dashed in waves
at his feet.

Here for the first time he noticed the Arctic Petrel,
(Procellaria gladalia,) a fact which shows the accuracy
of his observation, though he was then unaware of its
importance. This bird had not been met with since
we left the North Water of the English whalers, more
than two hundred miles south of the position on which
he stood. Its food is essentially marine, the acalephse,
&c. &c.; and it is seldom seen in numbers, except in the
highways of open water frequented by the whale and

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CAPE CONSTITUTION.

305

11'

the larger representatives of ocean life. They were in
numbers, flitting and hovering over the crests of the
waves, like their relatives of kinder climates, the Cape
of Good Hope Pigeons, Mother Carey's Chickens, and
the petrels everywhere else.

As Morton, leaving Hans and his dogs, passed be-
tween Sir John Franklin Island and the narrow beach-
line, the coast became more wall-like, and dark masses
of porphyritic rock abutted into the sea. With grow-
ing difficulty, he managed to climb from rock to rock,
in hopes of doubling the promontory and sighting the
coasts beyond, but the water kept encroaching more
and more on his track.

It must have been an imposing sight, as he stood at
this termination of his journey, looking out upon the
great waste of waters before him. Not a "speck of
ice/' to use his own words, could be seen. There, from
a height of four hundred and eighty feet, which com-
manded a horizon of almost forty miles, his ears were
gladdened with the novel music of dashing waves;
and a surf, breaking in among the rocks at his feet,
stayed his farther progress.

Beyond this cape all is surmise. The high ridges
to the northwest dwindled off into low blue knobs,
which blended finally with the air. Morton called
the cape, which baffled his labors, after his commander;
but I have given it the more enduring name of Cape
Constitution.

The homeward journey, as it was devoted to the
completion of his survey and developed no new facts.

Vol. I.— 20

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206

THEORIES OF AN OPEN SEA.

111 1

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I need not give. But I am reluctant to close my notice
of this discovery of an open sea, without adding that
the details of Mr. Morton's narrative harmonized with
the observations of all our party. I do not propose to
discuss here the causes or conditions of this pheno-
menon. How far it may extend, — whether it exists
simply as a feature of the immediate region, or as part
of a great and unexplored area communicating with a
Polar basin, — and what may be the argument in favor
of one or the other hypothesis, or the explanation
which reconciles it with established laws, — may be
questions for men skilled in scientific deductions. Mine
has been the more humble duty of recording what we
saw. Coming as it did, a mysterious fluidity in the
midbt of vast plains of solid ice, it was well calculated
to arouse emotions of the highest order, and I do not
believe there was a man among us who did not long for
the means of embarking upon its bright and lonely
waters. But he who may be content to follow ©ur
story for the next few months will feel, as we did,
that a controlling necessity made the desire a fruitless
one.

An open sea near the Pole, or even an open Polar
basin, has been a topic of theory for a long time, and
has been shadowed forth to some extent by actual or
supposed discoveries. As far back as the days of
Barentz, in 1696, without referring to the earlier and
more uncertain chronicles, water was seen to the east-
ward of the northernmost cape of Novaia Zemlia; and,
until its limited extent was defined by direct observa-

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ILLUSORY DISCOYERIES.

307

tion, it was assumed to be the sea itself. The Dutch
fishermen above and around Spitzbergen pushed their
adventurous cruises through the ice into open spaces
varying in size and form with the season and the
winds; and Dr. Scoresby, a venerated authority, alludes
tx) such vacancies in the floe as pointing in argument
to a freedom of movement from the north, inducing
open water in the neighborhood of the Pole. Baron
Wrangell, when forty miles from the coast of Arctic
Asia, saw, as he thought, a "vast, illimitable ocean,"
forgetting for the moment how narrow are the limits
of human vision on a sphere. So, still more recently,
Captain Penny proclaimed a sea in Wellington Sound,
on the very spot where Sir Edward Belcher has since
left his frozen ships; and my predecessor Captain Ingle-
field, from the mast-head of his little vessel, announced
an "open Polar basin," but fifteen miles off from the
ice which arrested our progress the next year.

All these illusory discoveries were no doubt chro-
nicled with perfect integrity ; and it may seem to others,
as since I have left the field it sometimes does to my-
self, that my own, though on a larger scale, may one
day pass within the same category. Unlike the others,
however, that which I have ventured to call an open
sea has been travelled for many miles along its coast,
and was viewed from an elevation of five hundred and
eighty feet, still without a limit, moved by a heavy
swell, free of ice, and dashing in surf against a rock-
bound shore.

It is impossible, in reviewing the facts which con-

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308

CHANGES OF CLIMATE.

nect themselves with this discovery, — ^the melted snow
upon the rocks, the crowds of marine birds, the limited
but still advancing vegetable life, the rise of the ther-
mometer 7T> the water, — ^not to be struck with their
bearing on the question of a milder climate near the
Pole. To refer them all to the modification of tempera-
ture induced by the proximity of open water is only to
change the form of the question ; for it leaves the inquiry
unsatisfied — What is the cause of the open water ?

This, however, is not the place to enter upon such
a discussion. There is no doubt on my mind, that
at a time within historical and even recent limits,
the climate of this region was milder than* it is now.
I might base this opinion on the fact, abundantly de-
veloped bv our expedition, of a secular elevation of the
coast-line. But, independently of the ancient beaches
and terraces and other geological marks which show
that the shore has risen, the stone huts of the natives
are found scattered along the line of the bay in spots
now so fenced in by ice as to preclude all possibility
of the hunt, and of course of habitation by mcsn who
rely on it for subsistence.^"^ ^

Tradition points to these as once favorite hunting-
grounds near open water. At Rensselaer Harbor,
called by the natives Aimatok, or the Thawing-Place,
we met with huts in quite tolerable preservation, with
the stone pedestals still standing which used to sustain
the carcases of the captured seals and walrus. Sunny
Gorge, and a large indentation in Dallas Bay which
bears the Esquimaux name of the Inhabited Place,

■i )

A SUGGESTION.

309

showed us the remains of a village, surrounded by the
bones of seals, walrus, and whales — all now cased in
ice. In impressive connection with the same facts,
showing not only the former extension of the Esqui-
maux race to the higher north, but the climatic
changes which may perhaps be still in progress there,
is the sledge-runner which Mr. Morton saw on the
shores of Morris Bay, in latitude 81°. It was made
of the bone of a whale, and worked out with skilful
labor.<^2'^

In this recapitulation of facts, I am not entering
upon the question of a warmer climate impressed upon
this regiv^n in virtue of a physical law which extends
the isotherms toward the Pole. Still less am I dis-
posed to express an opinion as to the influence which
ocean-currents may exert on the temperature of these
far-northern regions: there is at least one man, an
officer in the same service with myself, and whose
scientific investigations do it honor, with whom I am
content to leave that discussion. But I would respect-
fully suggest to those whose opportunities facilitate the
inquiry, whether it may not be that the Gulf Stream,
traced already to the coast of Novaia Zemlia, is de-
flected by that peninsula into the space around the Pole.
It would require a change in the mean summer tem-
perature of only a few degrees to develop the periodical
recurrence of open water. The conditions which define
the line of perpetual snow and the limits of the glacier
formation may have certainly a proximate application
to the problem of such water-spaces near the Pole.^*^^

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CHAPTER XXIV.

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PROSPECTS — SPECULATIONS — THE ARGUMENT — THE CONCLUSION —
THE RECONNOISSANCE — THE SCHEME — EQUIPMENT OF BOAT
PARTY — EIDER ISLAND — HANS ISLAND — THE CORMORANT GULL
— SENTIMENT — OUR CHARTS — CAPTAIN INOLEFIELD — DISCRE-
PANCIES — A GALE — PAST TO A FLOE.

attempt ia xm\ §t«te |slanir.

All the sledge-parties were now once more aboard
ship, and the season of Arctic travel had ended. For
more than two months we had been imprisoned in ice,
and throughout all that period, except during the en-
forced holiday of the midwinter darkness or while
repairing from actual disaster, had been constantly in
the field. The summer was wearing on, but still the
ice did not break up as it should. As far as we could
see, it remained inflexibly solid between us and the
North Water of Baffin's Bay. The questioT3 and
speculations of those around mo began to show that
they too had anxious thoughts for the coming year.
There was reason for all our apprehensions, as some
of my notes may show.

THE ARGUMENT.

311

"July 8, Saturday. — Penny saw water to the south-
ward in Barrow's Straits as early as June ; and by the
1st of July the leads wero within a mile of his harbor
in Wellington Channel. Dr. Sutherland says he could
have cut his way out by the 15th. Austin was not
liberated till the 10th of August; but the water had
worked up to within three miles and a half of him as
early as the 1st, having advanced twenty miles in the
preceding month. If, now, we might assume that the
ice between us and the nearest water would give way
as rapidly as it did in these two cases, — an assumption,
by-the-way, which the diflference of the localities is all
against, — the mouth of our harbor should be reached
in fifty days, or by the last day of August ; and after
that, several days or perhaps weeks must go by before
the inside ice yields around our brig.

" I know by experience how soon the ice breaks up
after it once begins to go, and I hardly think that it
can continue advancing so slowly much longer. In-
deed, I look for it to open, if it opens at all, about the
beginning of September at farthest, somewhere near
the date of Sir James Ross's liberation at Leopold.
But then I have to remember that I am much farther
to the north than my predecessors, and that by the
28th of last August I had already, after twenty days
of unremitting labor, forced the brig nearly forty miles
through the pack, and that the pack began to close on
us only six days later, and that on the 7th of Septem-
ber we were fairly frozen in. Yet last summer was a

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312

THE CONCLUSION.

most favorable one for ice-melting. Putting all this
together, it looks as if the winter must catch us before
we can get halfway through the pack, even though
we should begin warping to the south at the earliest
moment that we can hope for water.

"It is not a pleasant conclusion of the argument;
for there never was, and I trust never will be, a partj
worse armed for the encounter of a second Arctic
winter. We have neither health, fuel, nor provisions.
Dr. Hayes, and indeed all I have consulted about it
indirectly, despond at the thought; and when I look
round upon our diseased and disabled men, and think
of the fearful work of the last long night, I am tempted
to feel as they do.

"The alternative of abandoning the vessel at this
early stage of our absence, even were it possible, would,
I feel, be dishonoring ; but, revolving the question as
one of practicability alone, I would not undertake it.
In the first place, how are we to get along with our
sick and newly-amputated men? It is a dreary dis-
tance at the best to Upernavik or Beechy Island, our
only seats of refuge, and a precarious traverse if we
were all of us fit for moving ; but we are hardly one-
half in efficiency of what we count in number. Be-
sides, how can I desert the brig while there is still a
chance of saving her? There is no use of noting
proa and ccma: my mind is made up; I will not
do it.

"But I must examine this ice-field for myself. I
have been maturing through the last fortnight a

THE RECONNOISSANCE.

313

scheme of relief, based upon a communication with
the English squadron to the south, and to-morrow I
set out to reconnoitre. Hans will go with me. We
will fit out our poor travel-worn dogs with canvas
shoes, and cross the floes to the true water-edge, or at
least be satisfied that it is impossible. *He sees best
who uses his own eyes.* After that I have my course
resolved on.

"July 11, Tuesday. — We got back last night: a
sixty miles' journey,— comfortless enough, with only
three hours' sleep on the ice. For thirty-five miles
south the straits are absolutely tight. Off" Refuge Inlet
and Esquimaux Point we found driving leads; but
between these points and the brig, not a crack. I
pushed the dogs over the drift-ice, and, after a fair
number of mischances, found the North Water. It
was flowing and free; but since McGary saw it last
May it has not advanced more than four miles. It
would be absurd at this season of the year to attempt
escaping in open boats with this ice between us and
water. All that can be done is to reinforce our
energies as we may, and look the worst in the face.

"In view of these contingencies, I have determined
to attempt in person to communicate with Beechy
Island, or at least make the effort. If I can reach
Sir Edward Belcher's squadron, I am sure of all I
want. I will take a light whaleboat, and pick my
companions for a journey to the south and west. I
may find perhaps the stores of the North Star at
the Wostenholm Islands, or by great good luck come

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314

THE SCHEME.

across some passing vessel of the squadron, and make
known our whereabouts and wants; or, failing these,
we will try and coast it along to Wellington Channel.

"A depot of provisions and a seaworthy craft large
enough to carry us, — if I had these, every thing would
be right. Even Sir John Ross's launch, the Little
Mary, that he left at Union Bay, would serve our
purpose. If I had her, I could make a southern
passage after the fall tides. The great enemy of that
season is the young shore-ice, that would cut through
our frail boats like a saw. Or, if we can only renew
our stock of provisions for the winter, we may await
the chances of next year.

"I know it is a hazardous venture, but it is a neces-
sary one, and under the circumstances an incumbent
duty. I should have been glad, for some reasons, if the
command of such an attempt could have been delegated
to a subordinate; but I feel that I have no right to
devolve this risk upon another, and I am, besides, the
only one possessed of the necessary local knowledge of
Lancaster Sound and its ice-movements.

"As a prelude to this solemn undertaking, I met my
officers in the evening, and showed them my ice-charts;
explaining, what I found needed little explanation, the
prospect immediately before us. I then discussed the
probable changes, and, giving them my personal opi-
nion that the brig might after all be liberated at a late
date, I announced my project. I will not say how
gratified I was with the manner in which they received
it. It struck me that there was a sense of personal

EQUIPMENT OF BOAT PARTY.

315

relief experienced everywhere. I told them that I did
not choose to call a council or connect any of them
with the responsibilities of the measure, for it involved
only the personal safety of those who chose to share
the risk. Full instructions were then left for their
guidance during my absence.

"It was the pleasantest interview I ever had with
my associates. I believe every man on board would
have volunteered, but I confined myself to five active
men: James McGary, William Morton, George Riley,
Hans Christian, and Thomas Hickey, make up my
party."

Our equipment had been getting ready for some
time, though without its object being understood or
announced. The boat was our old "Forlorn Hope,"
mended up and revised for her new destinies. She was
twenty-three feet long, had six-feet-and-a-half beam,
and was two feet six inches deep. Her build was the
characteristic one of the American whaleboats, too flair
bottomed for ordinary use, but much improved by a
false keel, which Ohlsen had given her throughout her
entire length. After all, she was a mere cockle-shell.

Her great fault was her knife-like bow, which cut
into the short seas most cruelly. To remedy this in
some degree, and to make up for her want of height,
I devised a sort of half-deck of canvas and gum-elastic
cloth, extending back beyond the foremast, and con-
tinued along the gunwale; a sort of weather-cloth,
which might possibly add to her safety, and would
certainly make her more comfortable in heavy weather.

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PREPARATIONS.

I left ,her rig altogether to McGary. She carried
what any one but a New London whaler would caP an
inordinate spread of canvas, a light cotton foresail of
twelve-feet lift, a stouter mainsail of fourteen-feet lift
with a spreet eighteen feet long, and a snug little jib.
Her masts were of course selected very carefully, for
we could not carry extra sticks : and we trusted to the
good old-fashioned steering-oar rather than a rudder.

Morton, who was in my confidence from the firsts
had all our stores ready. We had no game, and no
meat but pork, of which we took some hundred and
fifty pounds. I wanted pemmican, and sent the men
out in search of the cases which were left on the floe
by the frozen dep6t-party during the rescue of last
March; but they could not find a trace of them, or
indeed of any thing else we abandoned at that time : a
proof, if we wanted one, how blurred all our faculties
must have been by sufiering, for we marked them as
we thought with marvellous care.

We lifted our boat over the side in the afternoon,
and floated her to the crack at the Observatory Island;
mounted her there on our large sledge ''The Faith,"
by an arrangement of cradles of Mr. Ohlsen's devising;
stowed in every thing but the provisions, and carried
her on to the bluff of Sylvia Headland: and the next
morning a party consisting of all but the sick was
detailed to transport her to open water; while McGary,
Hans and myself followed with our St. John's sledge,
carrying our stores.

The surface of the ice was very irregular and covered

LITTLETON ISLAND.

317

with water-pools. Our sledge broke down with re-
peated strainings, and we had a fatiguing walk of thirty-
six miles to get another. We passed the first night
wet and supperless on the rocks; a bad beginning, for
the next day found us stiff and out of sorts.

The ice continued troublesome, the land-ices swaying
hither and thither with the tide. The second day's
progress, little as it was, cost us very hard labor. But
another night of repose on the rocks refreshed us; so
that, the day after, we were able to make about seven
miles along the ice-belt. Two days more, and we had
carried the boat across twenty miles of heavy ice-floe,
and launched her in open water. It was not far from
the hut on Esquimaux Point.

The straits were much clogged with drift, but I
followed the coast southward without difficulty. We
travelled at night, resting when the sun was hottest.
I had every reason to be pleased with the performance
of the whaleboat, and the men kept up their spirits
well. We landed at the point where we left our life-
boat a year ago, and to our great joy found it un-
touched : the cove and inlet were still fast in ice.

We now neared the Littleton Island of Captain
Inglefield, where a piece of good fortune awaited us.
We saw a number of ducks, both eiders and hareldas;
and it occurred to me that by tracking their flight we
should reach their breeding-grounds. There was no
trouble in doing so, for they flew in a bee-line to a
group of rocky islets, above which the whole horizon was
studded with birds. A rugged little ledge, which I

•I

318

EIDER ISLAND.

named Eider Island, was so thickly colonized that we
could hardly walk without treading on a nest. We
killed with guns and stones over two hundred birds in
a few hours.

EIDER ISLArtO.

It was near the close of the breeding-season. The
nests were still occupied by the mother-birds, but many
of the young had burst the shell, and were nestling
under the wing, or taking their first lessons in the
water-pools. Some, more advanced, were already in the
ice-sheltered channels, greedily waiting for the shell-fish
and searurchins, which the old bird busied herself in
procuring for them.

THE CORMORANT GULL.

319

Near by was a low and isolated rock-ledge, which we
called Hans Island. The glaucous gulls, those cormo-
rants of the Arctic seas, had made it their peculiar
homestead. Their progeny, already full-fledged and
voracious, crowded the guano-whitened rocks; and the

GLAUCOUS AND TRIOACTYL QULL8.

mothers, with long necks and gaping yellow bills,
swooped above the peaceful shallows of the eiders,
carrjang off the young birds, seemingly just as their
wants required. A more domineering and insatiable
rapacity I have never witnessed. The gull would
gobble up and swallow a young eider in less time than

''L

820

PREDATORY INSTINCTS.

it takes me to describe the act. For a moment you
would see the paddling feet of the poor littje wretch
protruding from the mouth; then came a distension of
the neck as it descended into the stomach; a few
moments more, and the young gulls were feeding on
the ejected morsel.

The mother-duck, of course nearly distracted, battles,
and battles well; but she cannot always reassemble
her brood; and in her efforts to defend one, un-
covering the others, I have seen her left as destitute
as Niobe. Hans tells me that in such cases she
adopts a new progeny; and, as he is well versed in
the habits of the bird, I see no reason to doubt his
assertion. v

The glaucous is not the only predatory gull of Smith's
Strait. In fact, all the Arctic species, without including
their cousins the jagers, have the propensity strongly
marked. I have seen the ivory gull, the most beautiful
and snowy St. Agnes of the ice-fields, seize our wounded
awks, and, after a sharp battle, carry them off in her
talons. A novel use of a palmated foot.

I could sentimentalize on these bereavements of the
ducks and their companions in diet: it would be only
the every-day sermonizing of the world. But while
the gulls were fattening their young on the eiders, the
eiders were fattening theirs on the lesser life of the sea,
and we were as busily engaged upon both in true pre-
datory sympathy. The squab-gull of Hans Mand has
a well-earned reputation in South Greenland for its
delicious juices, and the eggs of Eider Island can well

OUR CHARTS.

321

:a,,

afiford to suffer from the occasional visits of gulls and
other bipeds; for a locust-swarm of foragers might
fatten without stint on their surplus abundance.

We camped at this nursery of wild-fowl, and laid in
four large India-rubber bags full, cleaned and rudely
boned. Our boat was hauled up and refitted ; and, the
trial having shown us that she was too heavily laden
for safety, I made a general reduction of our stores,
and cached the surplus under the rocks.

On Wednesday, the 19th, we left Flagstaff Point,
where we fixed our beacon last year; and stood W. 10° S.
under full canvas. My aim was to take the channel
obliquely at Littleton Island; and, making the drift-ice
or the land to the southwest in the neighborhood of
Cape Combermere, push on for Kent Island and leave
a cairn there.

I had the good fortune to get satisfactory meridian
observations, as well as angular bearings between Cape
Alexander and Flagstaff Point, and found, as our
operations by theodolite had already indicated, that the
entire coast-line upon the Admiralty Charts of my pre-
decessor would have to be altered.

Cape Isabella, the western headland of the strait,
whose discovery, by-the-way, is due rather to old Baffin
than his follower Sir John Boss, bears W. 22° N. (solar)
from Cape Alexander; its former location being some
20° to the south of west. The narrowest part of
Smith's 'Straits is not, as has been considered, between
these two capes, but upon the parallel of 78° 24', where
Cape Isabella bears due west of Littleton Island, and

Vol. I.— 21

322

CAPTAIN INOLEFIELD.

the diameter of the channel is reduced to thirty-seven
miles.

The difference between our projection of this coast
and Captain Inglefield's, refers itself naturally to the

CAPE ISABELLA.

differing circumstances under which the two were
framed. The sluggishness of the compass, and the
eccentricities of refraction in the Arctic seas, are well
fitted to embarrass and mislead a navigator. I might
hesitate to assert the greater certainty for our results,
had not the position of our observatory at Fern Rock,
to which our survey is referred, been determined by a
careful series of astronomical observations.<">

Captain Inglefield gives the mean trend of the east
coast about 20° too much to the north; in consequence

DISCREPANCIES.

323

of which the capes and indentations sighted by him
are too high in latitude.

Cape Frederick VII., his highest northern point,
is placed in lat. 79° Z(y, while no land — the glacier
not being considered as such — ^is found on that coast
beyond 79° 13'. The same cape as laid down in
the Admiralty Chart of 1852 is about eighty miles
from the farthest position reached by Captain Ingle-
field. To see land upon the horizon at this distance,
even from a mast-head eighty feet high, would require
it to be a mountain whose altitude exceeded three
thousand five hundred feet. An island similar in posi-
tion to that designated by Captain Inglefield as Louis
Napoleon does not exist. The land sighted in that
direction may have been the top of a high mountain
on the north side of Franklin Pierce Bay, though this
supposition requires us to assume an error in the bear-
ing ; for, as given in the chart, no land could be within
the range of sight. In deference to Captain Inglefield,
I have continued for this promontory the name which
he had impressed upon it as an isla). i.

Toward night the wind freshened from the north-
ward, and we passed beyond the protection of the
straits into the open seaway. My journal gives no
picture of the life we now entered on. The oldest
sailor, who treads the deck of his ship with the familiar
confidence of a man at home, has a distrust of open-
boat navigation which a landsman hardly shares. The
feeling grew upon us as we lost the land. McGary

iil

824

A VIOLENT GALE.

■,

was an old Behring's Straits whaler, and there is no
better boatman in the world than he; but I know
that he shared my doubts, as the boat buried herself
again and again in the trough of a short chopping
sea, which it taxed all his dexterity in steering to
meet.

Baffin passed around this gulf in 1616 with two
small vessels; but they were giants beside ours. 1
thought of them as we crossed his track steering for
Cape Combermere, then about sixty miles distant, with
every prospect of a heavy gale.

We were in the centre of this large area of open
water when the gale broke upon us from the north.
We were near foundering. Our false bow of India-
rubber cloth was beaten in, and our frail weather-
boarding soon followed it. With the utmost exertion
we could hardly keep our boat from broaching to: a
broken oar or an accidental twitch would have been
fatal to us at any time. But McGary handled that
whaler's marvel, the long steering-oar, with admirable
skill. None of us could pretend to take his place. For
twenty-two unbroken hours he stuck to his post with-
out relaxing his attention or his efforts.

I was not prepared for such a storm. I do not think
I have seen a worse sea raised by the northers of the
Gulf of Mexico. At last the wind hauled to the east-
ward, and we were glad to drive before it for the
in-shore floes. We had passed several bergs; but
the sea dashed against their sides so furiously as to

PAST TO A FLOE.

325

negative all hope of protection at their base : the
pack or floe, so much feared before, was now looked
to for a refuge.

I remember well our anxiety as we entered the
loose streams of drift after four hours' scudding, and
our relief when we felt their influence upon the sea.
We fastened to an old floe, not fifty yards in dia-
meter, and, with the weather-surf breaking over our
heads, rode out the storm under a warp and grapnel.

!:;■

I I

ii;

yXi"

,«."

•k-^r.^X:".,.**.

(

CHAPTER XXV.

WORKINO ON — A BOAT NIP — lOE-BARBIER — THE BARRIER PACK—
PROORESS HOPELESS — NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND— NORTHUMBER-
LAND GLACIER— lOB-OASOADES — NEVE.

The obstacle we had now to encounter was the pock
that stretched between us and the south.

When the storm abated, we commenced boring into
it, — slow work at the best of times; but my com-
panions encountered it with a persevering activity
quite as admirable as their fortitude in danger. It
had its own hazards too; and more than once it
looked as if we were permanently beset. I myself
knew that we might rely on the southerly wind to
liberate us from such an imprisonment; but I saw
that the men thought otherwise, as the ice-fields closed
around us and th^ horizon showed an unchanging circle
of ice.

We were still laboring on, hardly past the middle
of the bay, when the floes began to relax. On Sunday,
the 23d of July, the whole aspect around us changed.
The sun came out cheeringly, the leads opened more
and more, and, as we pulled through them to the

826

WORKING ON.

327

south, each ice-tongue that we doubled brought us
nearer to the Greenland shore. A slackening of the
ice to the east enabled us after a while to lay our
course for Ilakluyt Island. We spread our canvas
again, and reached the in-shore fields by one in the
afternoon. We made our camp, dried our bufTalo-
skins, and sunned and slept away our fatigue.

We renewed our labors in the morning. Keeping
inside the pack, we coasted along for the Gary Islands,
encountering now and then a projecting floe, and
either boring or passing around it, but making a satis-
factory progress on the whole toward Lancaster Sound.
But at the south point of Northumberland Island the
pack arrested us once more. The seam by which we
had come east lay between Whale Sound and Murchison
Inlet, and the ice-drift from the southern of these had
now piled itself in our way.

I was confident that I should find the "Eastern
Water" if I could only reach Gape Parry, and that this
would give me a free track to Gary Islands. I there-
fore looked anxiously for a fissure in the pack, and
pressed our little craft into the first one that seemed at
all practicable.

For the next three days we worked painfully through
the half-open leads, making in all some fifteen miles to
the south. We had very seldom room enough to row;
but, as we tracked along, it was not difiicult to escape
nippings, by hauling up the boat on the ice. Still she
received some hard knocks, and a twist or two that did
not help her sea-worthiness; for she began to leak; and

(41

■ '■!

328

STILL WORKING ON.

this, with the rain which fell heavily, forced us to bale
her out every other hour. Of course, we could not
sleep, and one of our little party fell sick with the
liamitigated fatigue. ^ - r' >? -«

On the twenty-ninth, it came on to blow, the wind

SOUTH POINT OF NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND.

still keeping from the southwest, but cold and almost
rising to a gale. We had had another wet and sleep-
less night, for the floes still baffled us by their capricious
movements. But at three in the afternoon we hau
the sun again, and the ice opened just enough to tempt

i r.--..

■J/^-

A BOAT-NIP.

329

le
id

us. It was uncomfortable toil. We pushed forward
our little weather-worn craft, her gunwales touching on
both sides, till the toppling ice began to break down
on us, and sometimes, critically suspended, met above
our heads. , ^

One of these passages I am sure we all of us re-
member. We were in an alley of pounded ice-masses,
such as the receding floes leave when they have crushed
the tables that were between them, and had pushed
our way far enough to make retreat impossible, when
the fields began to close in. There was no escaping a
nip, for every thing was loose and rolling around us,
and the floes broke into hummock-ridges as they came
together. They met just ahead of us, and gradually
swayed in toward our boat. The fragments were
ah-eady splitting off and spinnmg over us, when we
found ourselves borne up by the accumulating rubbish,
Uke the Advance in her winter drift; and, after resting
for twenty minutes high out of water, quietly lowered
again as the fields relaxed their pressure.

Generally, however, the ice-fields came together
directly, and so gradually as to enable us to anticipate
their contact. In such cases, as we were short-handed
and our boat heavily laden, we were glad to avail our-
selves of the motion of the floes to assist in lifting her
upon them. We threw her across the lead by a small
pull of the steering-oar, and let her meet the approach-
ing ice upon her bow. The effect, as we found in every
instance, was to press her down forward as the floe
advanced against her, and to raise her stem above the

1 i

«-

330

ICE-BARRIER.

level of the other field. We held ourselves ready for
the spring as she began to rise.

It was a time of almost unbroken excitement; yet I
am not surprised, as I turn over the notes of my
meagre diary, to find how little of stirring incident it
records. The story of one day's strife with the ice-floes
might almost serve for those which followed it: I
remember that we were four times nipped before we
succeeded in releasing ourselves, and that we were glad
to haul upon the floes as often as a dozen times a day.
We attempted to drag forward on the occasional fields;
but we had to give it up, for it strained the boat so
much that she was barely sea-worthy : it kept one man
busy the last six days baling her out.

On the 31st, at the distance of ten miles from Cape
Parry, we came to a dead halt. A solid mass lay
directly across our path, extending onward to our
farthest horizon. There were bergs in sight to the
westward, and by walking for some four miles over
the moving floe in that direction, McGary and myself
succeeded in reaching one. We climbed it to the height
of a hundred and twenty feet, and, looking out from it
with my excellent spy-glass to the south and west, we
saw that all within a radius of thirty miles was a mo-
tionless, unbroken, and impenetrable sea.

I had not counted on this. Captain Inglefield found
open water two years before at this very point. I
myself met no ice here only seven days later in 1853.
Yet it was plain, that from C^pe Combermere on the
west side, and an unnamed bay immediately to the

THE BARRIER PACK.

331

e
e

north of it, across to Hackluyt Island, there extended
a continuous barrier of ice. We had scarcely pene-
trated beyond its margin.

We had, in fact, reached the dividing pack of the
two great open waters of Baffin's Bay. The expe-
rience of the whalers and of the expedition-ships that
have traversed this region have made all of us fami-
liar with that great expanse of open sea, to the north
of Cape Dudley Diggs, which has received the name
of the North Water. Combining the observations of
Baffin, Eoss, and Inglefield, we know that this some-
times extends as far north as Littleton Island, em-
bracing an area of ninety thousand square miles. The
voyagers I have named could not, of course, be aware
of the interesting fact that this water is divided, at
least occasionally, into two distinct bodies; the one
comprehended between Lancaster and Jones's Sounds,
the other extending from the point we had now
reached to the upper pack of Smith's Straits. But it
was evident to all of our party that the barrier which
now arrested us was made up of the ices which Jones's
Sound on the west and Murchison's on the east had
discharged and driven together.

I may mention, as bearing on the physical geogra-
phy of the region, that south of Cape Isabella the
western shore is invested by a zone of unbroken ice.
We encountered it when we were about twenty miles
from the land. It followed the curves of three great
indentations, whose bases were lined with glaciers
rivalling those of Melville Bay. The bergs from them

I
'I

332

PROGRESS HOPELESS.

were numerous and large, entangling the floating floes,
and contributing as much as the currents to the ice-
clad character of this most dreary coast. The currents
alone would not explain it. Yet when we recur to
the observations of Graah, who describes a similar belt
on the eastern coast of Greenland, and to the observa-
tions of the same character that have been made on
the coasts of Arctic America to the southeast, it is not
easy to escape the thought that this accumulation of
ice on the western shores must be due, in part at
least, to the rotary movements of the earth, whose
increasing radius as we recede from the Pole gives
increased velocity to the southern ice-pack.

To return to our narrative. It was obvious that a
further attempt to penetrate to the south must be
hopeless till the ice-barrier before us should undergo
a change. I had observed, when passing Northumber-
land Island, that some of its glacier-slopes were mar-
gined with verdure, an almost unfailing indication of
animal life; and, as my men were much wasted by
diarrhoea, and our supplies of food had become scanty,
I resolved to work my way to the island and recruit
there for another effort.

Tracking and sometimes rowing through a heavy
rain, we traversed the leads for two days, working
eastward ; and on the morning of the third gained the
open water near the shore. Here a breeze came to our
aid, and in a couple of hours more we passed with now
unwonted facility to the southern face of the island.
We met several flocks of little auks as we approached

.-. ^ >«.*^-. .-.-I

NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND.

333

it, and found on landing that it was one enormous
homestead of the auks, dovekies, and gulls.

We encamped on the 31st, on a low beach at the foot
of a moraine that came down between precipitous cliffs
of surpassing wildness. It had evidently been selected
by the Esquimaux for a winter settlement : five well-

NORTHUMBERLANO ISLAND.

built huts of stone attested this. Three of them were
still tolerably perfect, and bore marks of recent habita-
tion. The droppings of the birds had fertilized the
soil, and it abounded in grasses, sorrel, and cochlearia,
to the water's edge. The foxes were about in great
numbers, attracted, of course, by the abundance of
birds. They were all of them of the lead-colored
variety, without a white one among them. The young

334

NORTHUMBERLAND GLACIER.

ones, as yet lean and seemingly unskilled in hospitable
courtesies, barked at us as we walked about.

I was greatly interested by a glacier that occupied
the head of the moraine. It came down abruptly from

OLACIER OF NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND.

the central plateau of the island, with an angle of
descent of more than seventy degrees. I have never
seen one that illustrated more beautifully the viscous
or semi-solid movement of these masses. Like a well-
known glacier of the Alps, it had two planes of descent;
the upper nearly precipitous for about four hundred

ICE-CASCADES.

335

feet from the summit; the lower of about the same
height, but with an angle of some fifty degrees; the
two communicating by a slightly-inclined platform per-
haps half a mile long. This ice was unbroken through
its entire extent. It came down from the level of the
upper country, a vast icicle, with the folds or waves
impressed upon it by its onward motion undisturbed
by any apparent fracture or crevasse. Thus it rolled
onward over the rugged and contracting platform below,
and thence poured its semi-solid mass down upon the
plain. Where it encountered occasional knobs of rock
it passed round them, bearing still the distinctive
marks of an imperfect fluid obstructed in its descent;
and its lower fall described a dome, or, to use the more
accurate simile of Forbes, a great outspread clam-shell
of ice.

It seemed as if an interior ice-lake was rising above
the brink of the cliffs that confined it. In many places
it could be seen exuding or forcing its way over the
very crest of the rocks, and hanging down in huge icy
stalactites seventy and a hundred feet long. These
were still lengthening out by the continuous overflow,
some of them breaking off as their weight became too
great for their tenacity, others swelling by constant
supplies fi'om the interior, but spitting off fragmentary
masses with an unremitting clamor. The plain below
these cataractine glaciers was piling up with the debris,
while torrents of the melted rubbish found their way,
foaming and muddy, to the sea, carrying gravel and
rocks along with them.

1, *

- — '%-•*•

■IW

r^m&m

■p

■M

336

IGE-OASGADES.

These ice-cascades, as we called them, kept up their
din the whole night, sometimes startling us with a
heavy booming sound, as the larger masses fell, but
more generally rattling away like the random fires of a
militia parade. On examining the ice of which they
were made up, I found grains of neve larger than a
walnut; so large, indeed, that it was hard to realize that
they could be formed by the ordinary granulating pro-
cesses of the winter snows. My impression is, that the
surface of the plateau-ice, the mer de glace cf the island,
is made up of these agglomerated nodules, and that
they are forced out and discarded by the advance of
the more compact ice from higher levels.^"*'^

■•■■ : Ci-

'■! , -■', ,t... .^ > sf \

1 I:

\ II

■/ r^ -

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE ICE-FOOT IN AUGUST — THE PACK IN AUGUST — ICE-BLASTING
— FOX-TRAP POINT — WARPING — THE PROSPECT — APPROACHING
CLIMAX — SIGNAL CAIRN — THE RECORD— PROJECTED WITHDRAWAL
— THE QUESTION — THE DETERMINATION — THE RESULT.

It was with mingled feelings that we neared the
brig. Our little party had grown fat and strong upon
the auks and eiders and scurvy-grass; and surmises
were rife among us as to the condition of our comrades
and the prospects of our ice-bound little ship.

The tide-leads, which one year ago had afforded a
precarious passage to the vessel, now barely admitted
our whaleboat; and, as we forced her through the
broken ice, she showed such signs of hard usage, that
I had her hauled up upon the land-belt and housed
under the cliffs at Six-mile Ravine. We crossed the
rocks on foot, aided by our jumping-poles, and startled
our shipmates by our sudden appearance.

In the midst of the greeting which always met our
returning parties, and which gave to our little vessel
the endearing associations of a homestead, our thoughts
reverted to the feeble chances of our liberation, and

Vol. I.— 22

837

338

THE ICE-FOOT IN AUGUST.

■If:'

the failure of our recent effort to secure the means of a
retreat.

The brig had been imprisoned by closely-cementing

'ice for eleven months, during which period she had not

budged an inch from her icy cradle. My journal will

show the efforts and the hopes which engrossed our

few remaining days of uncertainty and suspense : —

"August 8, Tuesday. — This morning two saw-lines
were passed from the open-water pools at the sides of
our stempost, and the ice was bored for blasting. In
the course of our operations the brig surged and righted,
rising two and a half feet. We are now tiying to warp
her a few yards toward Butler Island, where we again
go to work with our powder-canisters.

"August 11, Friday. — Returned yesterday from an
inspection of the ice toward the Esquimaux settlements;
but, absorbing as was my errand, I managed to take
geognostical sections and profiles of the coast as far
south as Peter Force Bay, beyond which the ice was
impenetrable.

"I have often referred to the massive character of the
ice in that neighborhood. The ice-foot, by our winter
measurement twenty-seven feet in mean thickness by
forty yards in width, is now of dimensions still more
formidable. Large masses, released like land-slides by
the action of torrents from the coast, form here and
there a belt or reef, which clogs the shoal water near
the shore and prevents a passage. Such ice I have
seen thirty-six feet in height; and when subjected, as
it often is, to hummock-squeezing, sixty and seventy

J6>

f I

THE PACK IN AUGUST.

339

feet. It requires experience to distinguish it from the
true iceberg.

" When I passed up the Sound on the 6th of August,
after my long southern journey, I found the ice-foot
comparatively unbroken, and a fine interval of open
water between it and the large floes of the pack. Since
then, this pack has been broken up, and the commi-
nuted fragments, forming a great drift, move with tides
and currents in such a way as to obliterate the * land-
water' at high tide, and under some circumstances at
other times. This broken rubbish occasionally expands
enough to permit a boat to pass through; but, as we
found it, a passage could only be effected by heavy
labor, and at great expense to our boat, nearly unseor
worthy nov^ftom her former trials. We hauled her up
near Bedevilled Headland, and returned to the brig
on foot.

"As I travelled back along the coast, I observed the
wonderful changes brought about by the disruption of
the pack. It was my hope to have extricated the brig,
if she was ever to be liberated, before the drift had
choked the land-leads; but now they are closely jammed
with stupendous ice-fragments, records of inconceivable
pressures. The bergs, released from their winter
cement, have driven down in crowds, grounding on the
shallows, and extending in reefs or chains out to sea-
ward, where they have caught and retained the floating
ices. The prospect was really desolation itself. One
floe measured nine feet in mean elevation above the
water-level; thus impljdng a tabular thickness by

<'ii

840

ICE-BLASTING.

direct congelation of sixty-three feet. It had so closed
in with the shore, too, as to rear up a barricade of
crushed ice which it was futile to attempt to pass. All
prospect of forcing a passage ceased north of Six-mile
Ravine.

APPROACH TO OBSERVATORY.

"On reaching the brig, I found that the blasting had
succeeded: one canister cracked and uplifted two
hundred square yards of ice with but five pounds of
powder. A prospect showed itself of getting inside the
island at high-water; and I determined to attempt it at
the highest spring-tide, which takes place on the 12th.

"August 12, Saturday. — The brig bore the strain of

roX-TRAP POINT.

341

sed

All

lile

ad
wo
of
he
at
h.
of

her new poHition very well. The tide fell fifteen feet,
leaving her liigh and dry; but, as the water rose, every
thing was replttcod, and the deck put in order for
warping ag*<in. Every one in the little vessel turned
to; and after mwh excitement, at the very top of the
tide, she passed 'by the skin of her teeth.* She was
then 'warped into a bight of the floe, near Fox-Trap
Point, and there she now lies.

"We congratulate ourselves upon effecting this cross-
ing. Had we failed, we should have had to remain
fast probably for the high tides a fortnight hence. The
young ice is already making, and our hopes rest mainly
upon the gales of late August and September.

"August 13, Sunday. — Still fast to the old floe near
Fox-Trap Point, waiting a heavy wind as our only
means of liberation. The land-trash is cemented by
young ice, which is already an inch and a half thick.
The thermometer has been as low as 29° ; but the fog
and mist which prevail to-day are in our favor. The
perfect clearness of the past fiye days hastened the
growth of young ice, and it has been forming without
intermission.

"I took a long walk to inspect the ice toward Six-
mile Ravine. This ice has never been moved either
by wind or water since its formation. I found that it
lined the entire shore with long ridges of detached
fragments : a discouraging obstacle, if it should remain,
in the way of our future liberation. It is in direct
contact with the big floe that we are now fast to, and
is the remnant of the triple lines of ' land-ices* which I

342

ICE INSPECTION.

I ,

%#..

have described already. I attribute its permanency to
the almost constant shadow of the mountains near it.

"August 15, Tuesday. — To-day I made another ice-
inspection to the N.E. The floe on which I have
trudged so often, the big bay-floe of our former moor-
ing, is nearly the same as when we left it. I recog-
nised the holes and cracks, through the fog, by a sort
of instinct. McGary and myself had little difiiculty in
reaching the Fiord Water by our jumping-poles.

"I have my eye on this water; for it may connect
with the Northeast Headland and hereafter give us a
passage. , ^ r . ; , • f

" The season travels on : the young ice grows thicker,
and my messmates' faces grow longer, every day. I
have again to play bufibon to keep up the spirits of
the party.

"A raven ! The snow-birds begin to fly to the south
in groups, coming at night to our brig to hover on the
rigging. Winter is hurrying upon us. The poppies
are quite wilted. i v-^.r i;:; ,

"Examined ice with Mr. Bonsall, and determined to
enter the broken land-ices by warping ; not that there
is the slightest probability of getting through, but it
aflbrds moral aid and comfort to the men and officers :
it looks as if we were doing something.

■

"August 17, Thursday. — Warped about one hundred
yards into the trash, and, after a long day of labor,
have turned in, hoping to recommence at 5 a.m. to-
morrow.

"In five days the spring-tides come back: should

THE PROSPECT.

343

jre

fs:

we fail in passing with them, I think our fortunes are
fixed. The young ice bore a man this morning : it
had a bad look, this man-supporting August ice ! The
temperature never falls below 28° j but it is cold
o' nights with no fire.

"August 18, Friday. — Reduced our allowance of
wood to six pounds a meal. This, among eighteen
mouths, is one-third of a pound of fuel for each. It
allows us cofifee twice a day, and soup once. Our fare
besides this is cold pork boiled in quantity and eaten
as required. This sort of thing works badly; but I
must save coal for other emergencies. I see * darkness
ahead.'

"I inspected the ice again to-day. Bad! bad! — ^I
must look another winter in the face. I do not shrink
from the thought ; but, while we have a chance ahead,
it is my first duty to have all things in readiness to
meet it. It is horrible — yes, that is the word — ^to look
forward to another year of disease and darkness to be
met without fresh food and without fuel. I should
meet it with a more tempered sadness if I had no
comrades to think for and protect.

"August 20, Sunday. — Rest for ali hands. The
daily prayer is no longer *Lord, accept our gratitude
and bless our undertaking,' but ' Lord, accept our grati-
tude and restore us to our homes.' The ice shows no
change : after a boat and foot journey around the entire
southeastern curve of the bay, no signs! •

"I was out in the Red Eric with Bonsall, McGary,
Hans, Riley, and John. We tracked her over the ice

344

APPROACHING CLIMAX.

to the Burgomaster Cove, the flanking cape of Char-
lotte Wood Fiord and its river. Here we launched
her, and went all round the long canal which the
running waters have eaten into the otherwise un-
changed ice. Charlotte Wood Fiord is a commanding
sheet of water, nearly as wide as the Delaware : in the
midst of the extreme solidity around us, it looked de-
ceitfully gladdening. After getting to the other side,
near Little Willie's Monument, we ascended a high
bluflf, and saw every thing weary and discouraging
beyond. Our party returned quite crestfallen."

My attempt to reach Beechy Island had disclosed,
as I thought it would, the impossibility of reaching
the settlements of Greenland. Between the American
and the opposite side of the bay was one continuous
pack of ice, which, after I had travelled on it for many
miles to the south, was still of undefined extent before
me. The birds had left their colonies. The water-
streams from the bergs and of the shore were freezing
up rapidly. The young ice made the water-surface
impassable even to a whaleboat. It was clear to me
that without an absolute change of circumstances, such
as it was vain to look for any longer, to leave the ship
would be to enter upon a wilderness destitute of re-
sources, and from which it would be difficult, if not
impracticable, to return.

Every thing before us was involved in gloomy doubt.
Hopeful as I had been, it was impossible not to feel
that we were near the climax of the expedition.

I determined to place upon Observatory Island a

SIGNAL CAIRN.

345

large signal-beacon or cairn, and to bury under it docu-
ments which, in case of disaster to our party, would
convey to any who might seek us intelligehce of our
proceedings and our fate. The memory of the first
winter quarters of Sir John Franklin, and the painful
feelings with which, while standing by the graves of
his dead, I had five years before sought for written
signs pointing to the fate of the living, made me care-
ful to avoid a similar neglect.

A conspicuous spot was selected upon a cliff looking
out upon the icy desert, and on a broad face of rock
the words

ADVANCE,

A. D. 1858-64,

were painted in letters which could be read at a dis-
tance. A pyramid of heavy stones, perched above it,
was marked with the Christian symbol of the cross.
It was not without a holier sentiment than that of
mere utility that I placed under this the coffins of our
two poor comrades. It was our beacon and their
gravestone.

Near this a hole was worked into the rock, and a
paper, enclosed in glass, sealed in with melted lead.

It read as follows : —

" Beio Advance, August 14, 1854.

"E. K. Kane, with his comrades Henry Brooks,
John Wall Wilson, James McGary, I. I. Hayes, Chris-
tian Ohlsen, Amos Bonsall, Henry Goodfellow, August
Sontag, William Morton, J. Carl Petersen, George

:ir>l|

346

THE RECORD.

l-^

Stephenson, Jeflferson Temple Baker, George Riley,
Peter Schubert, George Whipple, John Blake, Thomas
Hickey, William Godfrey, and Hans Christian, mem-
bers of the Second Grinnell Expedition in search of
Sir John Franklin and the missing crews of the Erebus
and Terror, were forced into this harbor while endea-
voring to bore the ice to the north and east.

"They were frozen in on the 8th of September,
1853, and liberated

"During this period the labors of the expedition
have delineated nine hundred and si^ty miles of coast-
line, without developing any traces of the missing ships
or the slightest information bearing upon their fate.
The amount of travel to eJQfect this exploration ex-
ceeded two thousand miles, all of which was upon foot
or b}"^ the aid of dogs.

"Greenland has been traced to its northern face,
whence it is connected with the farther north of the
opposite coast by a great glacier. This coast has been
charted as high as lat. 82° 27'. Smith's Sound ex-
pands into a capacious bay: it has been surveyed
throughout its entire extent. From its northern and
eastern corner, in lat. 80° 10', long. 66°, a channel has
been discovered and followed until farther progress
was checked by water free from ice. This channel
trended nearly due north, and expanded into an appa-
rently open sea, which abounded with birds and bears
and marine life.

"The death of the dogs during the winter threw
the travel essential to the above discoveries upon the

THE RECORD.

847

:Jil

personal efforts of the officers and men. The summer
finds them much broken in health and strength.

"Jefferson Temple Baker ovid Peter Schubert died
from injuries received from coid while in manly per-
formance of their duty. Their remains are deposited
under a cairn at the north point of Observatory Island.

" The site of the observatory is seventy-six English
feet from the northernmost salient point of this island,
in a. direction S. 14° E. Its position is in lat. 78° 37'
10", long. 70° 40'. The mean tidal level is twenty-
nine feet below the highest point upon this island.
Both of these sites are further designated by copper
bolts sealed with melted lead into holes upon the
rocks. '

" On the 12th of August, 1854, the brig warped from

her position, and, after passing inside the group of

islands, fastened to the outer floe about a mile to the

northwest, where she is now awaiting further changes

in the ice. «q:«„«j

"Signed, «e.K.Kane,

« CommaQding Expedition.
"Fox-Trap Point, August 14, 1854."

Some hours later, the following note was added.

"The young ice having formed between the brig
and this island, and prospects of a gale showing them-
selves, the date of departure is left unfilled. If pos-
sible, a second visit will be made to insert our dates,
our final escape being still dependent upon the course
of the season. E. K. Kane."

348

r U <) J K V T K I) W I T II I) U A W A L.

I !

I
I,

Ami now otuiio the quoHtioii of (ho bocoiuI wiiiior:
how to U)ok our onoiuy in tlio faoo, and how to moot
him. Any tiling wan In'ttiM* tlian inaction; ami, in Hpito
oftlio nnoortainty which yot attcndod our plann, a howt
ofoxpodiont^ woiv to ho iVKortod to, and much Hol)inHon
Crusoe lahor ahead. Mohh waw to Ik3 gatiicivd lor okiiig
out our M'intcr rucl, and willow-slomH and Htonocrop»
and Borivl, an antiHcorhulics, collected and huried in
the snow. Ihit while all thcHO were in i)i\)giVHH came
other and gniver (luestions. .

St)me of my party had entertained the idea that an
escape to the south was still practicahle; and this
opinion was sui>ported hy Mr. Petersen, our Danish
interpivter, who had accompanied the Sear(diing Kxpe-
dition of Captain Penny, and had a nnitured expcrieneo
in the changes of Aivtic ice. They even thought that
the safety of all would bo promoted hy a withdrawal
fix)m the brig.

"August 21, Monday. — The question of detaching a
party was in my mind some time ago; but the more 1
thought it over, the more I was convinced that it would
be neither right in itself nor practically safe. For my-
self personally, it is a simple duty of honor to remain
by the brig : I could not think of leaving her till I had
piwed the effect of the later tides ; and after that, as I
have known all along, it would be too late. — Come
what may, I share her fortunes.

"But it is i* different question with mv "'•soci-
atcs. I cannot expect them to adopt my impulses;
and I am by no means sure that I ought to hold them

T 11 R Q U K H T I O N.

349

a
1

bound by my conchininnH. llavo I tho moral riffht? for,
M to niiuiical ruIcH, iboy do not fit tbc circuin«t(ifico«:
. anion^ tbo wbalorw, wluui a Hbi[» \h bopc^b'HHly bow't,
tbo nuiHtor'H aiitbority giv«H wjiy, and tlio <;row tak(!
couMHid for tbuniNolvuH wbc^tbor to go or ntny by biT.
My [larty \h Hubonlinat^? and woll <liHpoH('<l; but if tbc
roHtb'HHudHH of Hull'cring uudtcH Honio of tboni anxi(»uH
to bravo tbo cbancoH, tboy iruiy cortaijdy pksad tbat a
Hoc.ond wiiit(?r in tlio ioo waH no part of tbo cruino tboy
bargainod for.

"Jbit wliat prosBOB on mo Ib of anotlicr cbaracter. I
cantu)t diBguiBo it from myHolf tbat wo aro wrot<;bodiy
[)roparod for anotbor wintor on l)oard. Wo aro a Hot of
Bcurvy-riddb^d, brokon-down mon; our proviHions aro
Boroly roducod in quantity, and aro altogotbor uiiHuitod
to our condition. My only liopo of nuiintaining or
roHtoring Hiicb a dogrco of lioaltb among ub as \h indiB-
pouHablo to our oHcapo in tlio Bpring baB boon and muat
bo in a wboloHomo cbiHtio tono of fooling among tbo
men : a reluctant, brooding, diBboartonod spirit woidd
swoop our doclcB like a po8tilon(30. I foar tbo bane of
depressing example.

"I know all tbis as a medical man and an officer;
and I foci tbat wo migbt bo wearing away the hearts
and energies, if not the lives of all, by forcing those
who were reluctant to remain. With half a dozen con-
fiding resolute men, I have no fears of ultimate safety.

"1 will make a thorough inspection of the ice to-
morrow, and decide finally the prospects of our
liberation.

HP^"

*^>

I %^

d-'"

"^ fc .-"

350

THE DETERMINATION.

'August 23, Wednesday. — The brig cannot escape.
I got an eligible position with my sledge to review the
floes, and returned this morning at two o'clock. There
is no possibility of our release, unless by some extreme
intervention of the coming tides. I doubt whether a
boat could be forced as far as the Southern "Water.
When I think of the extraordinary way in ifhich the
ice was impacted last winter, how very little it has
yielded through the summer, and how early another
winter is making its onset upon us, I am very doubtful,
indeed, whether our brig can get away at all. It would
be inexpedient to attempt leaving her now in boats;
the water-streams closing, the pack nearly fast again,
and the young ice almost impenetrable.

''I shall call the officers and crew together, and make
known to them very fully how things look, and what
hazards must attend such an effort as has been proposed
among them. They shall have my views unequivocally
expressed. I will then give them *wenty-four hours to
deliberate; and at the end of that time all who deter-
mine to go shall say so in writing, with a full exposi-
tion of the circumstances of the case. They shall have
the best outfit I can give, an abundant share of our
remaining stores, and my good-bye blessing.

"August 24, Thursday. — At noon to-day I had all
hands called, and explained to them frankly the consi-
derations which have determined me to remain where
we are. I endeavored to show them that an escape
to open water could not succeed, and that the effort
must be exceedingly hazardous: I alluded to our

THE RESULT.

351

duties ix> the ship : in a word, I advised them strenuously
to forego the project. I then told them that I should
freely give my permission to such as were desirous of
making the attempt, hut that I should require them to
place themselves under the command of officers selected
by them before setting out, and to renounce in writing
all claims upon myself and the rest who were resolved
to stay by the vessel. Having done this, I directed the
roll to be called, and each man to answer for himself."

In the result, eight out of the seventeen survivors of
my party resolved to stand by the brig. It is just that
I should record their names. They were Henry Brooks,
James McGary, J. W. Wilson, Henry Goodfellow, Wil-
liam Morton, Christian Ohlsen, Thomas Hickey, Hans
Christian.

I divided to the others their portion of our resources
justly and even liberally; and they left us on Monday,
the 28th, with every appliance our narrow circum-
stances could furnish to speed and guard them. One
of them, George Riley, returned a few days afterward ;
but weary months went by before we saw the rest
again. They carried with them a written assurance of
a brother*s welcome should they be driven back ; and
this assurance was redeemed when hard trials had pre-
pared them to share again our fortunes.

#■'-

!iM

^»- I'l

ill

CHAPTER XXVII.

"%*

DISCIPLINE — BUILDINa IGLOB — T088UT — M088INO — AFTER SEAL
— ON THE YOUNG ICE — GOING TOO PAR — 8EALS AT HOME — IN
THE WATER— IN SAFETY — DEATH OP TIGER.

The party moved off with the elastic step of men
confident in their purpose, and were out of sight in a
few hours. As we lost them among the hummocks, the
stem realities of our condition pressed themselves upon
us anewv The reduced numbers of our party, the help-
lessness of many, the waning effic;\icy of all, the im-
pending winter with its cold, dark night, our penury
of resources, the dreary sense of increased isolation, —
these made the staple of our thoughts. For a time, Sir
John Franklin and his party, our daily topic through
so many months, gave place to the question of our own
fortunes, — ^how we were to escape, how to live. The

summer had gone, the harvest was ended, and

We did not care to finish the sentence.

Following close on this gloomy train, and in fact
blending with it, came the more important discussion
of our duties. We were like men driven to the wall,
quickened, not depressed. Our plans were formed at

352

DISCIPLINE.

353

once : there is nothing like emergency to speed, if mit
to instruct, the energies.

It was my first definite resolve that, come what might,
our organization and its routine of observances should
Jbo adhered to strictly. It is the experience of every
man who has either combated difficulties himself or
attempted* to guide others through them, that the con-
trolling law shall be systematic action. Notliing de-
presses and demoralizes so much as a surrender of the
approved and habitual forms of life. I resolved that
every thing should go on as it had done. The arrange-
ment of hours, the distribution and details of duty, the
religious exercises, the ceremonials of the table, the
fires, the lights, the watch, even the labors of the
observatory and the notation of the tides and the
sky, — ^nothing should be intermitted that had contri-
buted to make up the day. * ,„

My next was to practise on the lessons we had
learned from the Esquimaux. I had studied them
carefully, and determined that their form of habita-
tions and their peculiarities of diet, without their
Vinthrift and filth, were the safest and best to which
the nec^^ssitv of our circumstances invited us.

My journal tells how these resolves were carried
out : —

" September 6, Wednesday. — We are at it, all hands,
sick and well, each man according to his measure,
working at our winter's home. We are none of us
in condition to brave the frost, and our fuel is nearly

Vol. I.— 23

3o4

UUILDING IGLO£.

out. I have determined to borrow a lesson from our
ICsquimaux neighbors^ and am turning the brig into an
igloii,

"The sledge is to bring us moss and turf from
wherever the men can scrape it. This is an excellent^
non-conductor; and when we get the quarter-deck

^^^

OATHCRINa MQ8S.

well padded with it we shall have a nearly cold-proof
covering. Down below we will enclose a space some
eighteen feet square, and pack it from floor to ceiling
with inner walls of the same material. The floor itself
we are calking carefully with plaster of Paris and
common paste, and will cover it when we have done
with Manilla oakum a couple of inches deep, and a

.-i--i»

THE TOSSUT — MOSSING.

855

oanvaB carpet. The entrance is to be from the hold,
\)y a low moss-lined tunnel, the tossut of the native
huts, with as many doors and curtains to close it up as
our ingenuity can devise. This is to be our apartment
w all uses, — not a very large one ; but we are only ten
to stow away, and the closer the warmer.

"September 9, Saturday. — All hands but the car-
penter and Morton are out 'mossing.* This mossing,
though it has a very May-day sound, is a frightfully
wintry operation. The mixed turf of willows, heaths,
grasses, and moss, is frozen solid. We cannot cut it out
from the beds of the snow-streams any longer, and are
obliged to seek for it on the ledges of the rocks, quarry-
ing it with crowbars and carrying it to the ship like
so much stone. I would escape this labor if I could,
for our party have all of them more or less scurvy in
their systems, and the thermometer is often below zero.
But there is no help for it. I have some eight sledge-
loads more to collect before our little home can be
called wind-proof: and then, if we only have snow
enough to bank up against the brig's sides, I shall have
no fear either for height or uniformity of temperature.

"September 10, Sunday. — *The work goes bravely
on.' We have got moss enough for our roof, and some-
thing to spare for below. To-morrow we begin to strip
off the outer-deck planking of the brig, and to stack it
for firewood. It is cold work, hatches open and no
fires going ; but we saved time enough for our Sunday's
exercises, though we forego its rest.

"It is twelve months to-day since I returned from

i ■■■,

V-

<i-h

Y i

356

GAME DECREASING.

the weary foot-tramp that determined me to try the
winter search. Things have changed since then, and
the prospect ahead is less cheery. But I close my
pilgrim-experience of the year with devout gratitude
for the blessings it has registered, and an earnest faith
in the support it pledges for the times to come.

"September 11, Monday. — ^Our stock of game is
down to a mere mouthful, — six long-tailed ducks not
larger than a partridge, and three ptarmigan. The
rabbits have not yet come to us, and the foxes seem
tired of touching our trap-baits.

"I determined last Saturday to try a novel expedient
for catching seal. Not more than ten miles to seaward
the icebergs keep up a rude stream of broken ice and
water, and the seals resort there in scanty numbers to
breathe. I drove out with my dogs, taking Hans
along ; but we found the spot so hemmed in by loose
and fragile ice that there was no approaching it. The
thermometer was 8°, and a light breeze increased my
difficulties.

^'Deo volente, I will be more lucky to-morrow. I am
going to take my long Kentucky rifle, the kaj^^ack, an
Esquimaux harpoon with its attached line and bladder,
naligeit and awahtok, and a pair of large snow-shoes to
boot. My plan this time is to kneel where the ice is
unsafe, resting my weight on the broad surface of the
snow-shoes, Hans following astride of his kayack, as a
sort of life-preserver in 'ase of breaking in. If I am
fort'Tuate enough to stalk within gun-range, Hans will
take to the water and secure the game before it sinks.

^>-#-»'*»:*.*-*-% —J^'

AFTEfl SEAL.

357

"We will be gone for some days probably, tenting it in
the open air; but our sick men — that is- to say, all
of us — are languishing for fresh meat."

I started with Hans and five dogs, all we could
muster from our disabled pack, and reached the " Pin-
nacly Berg" in a single hour's run. But where was
the water ? where were the seal ? The floes had closed,

\ W

STARTING TO HUNT.

to
is
le
a
<m
ill

and the crushed ice was all that told of our intended
hunting-ground.

Ascending a berg, however, we could see to the
north anJ west the dark cloud-stratus which betokens
water. It ran through our old battle-ground, the " Bergy
Belt," — the labyrinth of our wanderings after the frozen
party of last winter. I had not been over it since, and
the feeling it gave me was any thing but joyous.

J' 'J'

S58

THE ICE«PLAIK.

But in a couple of hours we emerged upon a plain
unlimited to the eye and smooth as a billiard-table.
Feathers of young frosting gave a plush-like nap to its
""surface, and toward the horizon dark columns of frost-
smoke pointed clearly to the open water. This ice was
firm enough : our experience satisfied us that it was
not a very recent freezing. We pushed on without

THE ICE-PLAIN.

hesitation, cheering ourselves with the expectation of
coming every minute to the seals. We passed a
second ice-growth : it was not so strong as the one we
had just come over, but still safe for a party like ours.
On we went, at a brisker gallop, maybe for another
mile, when Hans sang out, at the top of his voice,
<^Pusey! puse3nnut! seal, seal!" At the same instant
the dogs bounded forward, and, as I looked up, I saw

;

laiD
ble.
• its
ost-
was
waa
out

wit'

of
a
Wfe

s.
ler

■9
lit

ON THE .rOUNG ICE.

359

crowds of gray netsik, the rough or hispid seal of th*
whalers, disporting in an open sea of water.

I had hardly welcomed the spectacle when I saw
that we had passed upon a new belt of ice that was
obviously unsafe. To the right and left and front was
one great expanse of snow-flowered ice. The nearest
solid floe was a mere lump, which stood like an island
in the white level. To turn was impossible : we had
to keep up our gait. We urged on the dogs with whip

SEALS SPORTING.

and voice, the ice rolling like leather beneath the
sledge-runners : it was more than a mile to the lump
of solid ice. Fear gave to the poor beasts their utmost
speed, and our voices were soon hushed to silence.

The suspense, unrelieved by action or efibrt, was in-
toleraule : we knew that there was no remedy but to
reach the floe, and that every thing depended upon
our dogs, and our dogs alone. A moment's check
would plunge the whole concern into the rapid tide-
way : no presence of mind or resource bodily or mental
could avail us. The seals — ^for we were now near

I ■

360

IN THE WATER.

enough to see their expressive faces — ^were looking at
us with that strange curiosity which seems to be their
characteristic expression: we must have passed some
fifty of them, breast-high out of water, mocking us by
their self-complacency.

This desperate race against fate could not last:
the rolling of the tough salt-water ice terrified our
dogs; and when within fifty paces from the floe
they paused. The left-hand runner went through:
our leader " Toodlamick" followed, and in one second
the entire left of the sledge was submerged. My
first thought was to liberate the dogs. I leaned for-
ward to cut poor Tood's traces, and the next minute
was swimming in a little circle of pasty ice and water
alongside him. Hans, dear good fellow, drew near to
help me, uttering piteous expressions in broken Eng-
lish ; but I ordered him to throw himself on his belly,
with his hands and legs extended, and to make for
the island by cogging himself forward with his jack-
knife. In the mean time — a mere instant — I was
floundering about with sledge, dogs, and lines, in con-
fused puddle around me.

I succeeded in cutting poor Tood's lines and letting
him scramble to the ice, for the poor fellow was drown-
ing me with his piteous caresses, and made my way for
the sledge ; but I found that it would not buoy me, and
that I had no resource but to try the circumference of
the hole. Around this I paddled faithfully, the miser-
able ice always yielding when my hopes of a lodge-
ment were greatest. During this process I enlarged

SAFELT LANDED.

361

my circle of operations to a very uncomfortable dia-
meter, and was beginning to feel weaker after every
effort. Hans meajiwhile had reached the firm ice, and
was on his knees, like a good Moravian, praying inco-
herently in English and Esquimaux; at every fresh
crushing-in of the ice he would ejaculate " God !" and
when I recommenced my paddling he recommenced
his prayers.

I was nearly gone. My knife had been lost in
cutting out the dogs ; and a spare one which I carried
in my trousers-pocket was so enveloped in the wet
skins that I could not reach it. I owed my extrication
at last to a newly-broken team-dog, who was still fast
to the sledge and in struggling carried one of the run-
ners chock against the edge of the circle. All my pre-
vious attempts to use the sledge as a bridge had failed,
for it broke through, to the much greater injury of the
ice. I felt that it was a last chance. I threw myself
on my back, so as to lessen as much as possible my
weight, and placed the nape of my neck against the
rim or edge of the ice; then with caution slowly bent
my leg, and, placing the ball of my moccasined foot
against the sle'dge, I pressed steadily against the run-
ner, listening to the half-yielding crunch of the ice
beneath.

Presently I felt that my head was pillowed by the
ice, and that my wet fur jumper was sliding up the
surface. Next came my shoulders; they were fairly on.
One more decided push, and I was launched up on the
ice and safe. I reached the ice-floe, and was frictioned

362

DEATH OF TIGER.

by Hans with frightful zeal. We saved all the dogs;
but the sledge, kayack, tent, guns, snow-shoes, and
every thing besides, were left behind. The thermo-
meter at 8° will keep them frozen fast in the sledge
till we can come and cut them out.

On reaching the ship, after a twelve-mile trot, I
found so much of comfort and warm welcome that I
forgot my failure. The fire was lit up, and one of our
few birds slaughtered forthwith. It is with real grati-
tude that I look back upon my escape, and bless the
great presiding Goodn Jfor the very ma^y resource,
which remain to us.

"September 14, Thursday. — Tiger, our best remain-
ing dog, the partner of poor Bruiser, was seized with a
fit, ominously resembling the last winter's curse. In
the delirium which followed his seizure, he ran into the
water and drowned himself, like a sailor with the hor-
rors. The other dogs are all doing well."

CHAPTER XXVm.

THE ESQUIMAUX — LABOENT — THE ARREST — THE PUNISHMENT —
THE TREATY — "UNBROKEN PAITH" — MY BROTHER — RETURN
raOM A HUNT — OUR LIFE — ANOATOK — ^A WELCOME — TREATY
OONFIRMED. , ,,,, ,.,„,^ ,j. - .,- .. .,. ,,.,..,

It is, I suppose, the fortuiae of every one who affects
to register the story of an active life, that his record
becomes briefer and more imperfect in proportion as
the incidents press upon each other more rapidly and
with increasing excitement. The narrative is arrested
as soon as the faculties are claimed for action, and the
memory brings back reluctantly afterward those details
which, though interesting at the moment, have not re-
flected themselves in the result. 1 find that my journal
is exceedingly meagre for the period of our anxious
preparations to meet the winter, and that I have
omitted to mention the course of circumstances which
led us step by step into familiar communication with
the Esquimaux. >

My last notice of this strange people, whose for-
tunes became afterward so closely connected with our
own, was at the time of Myouk's esqape from imprison-

8G8

364

THE ESQUIMAUX.

ment on board the brig. Although during my absence
on the attempted visit to Beechy Island, the men I had
left behind had frequent and unrestrained intercourse
with them, I myself saw no natives in Rensselaer Bay
till immediately after the departure of Petersen and his
companions. Just then, by a coincidence which con-
vinced me how closely we had been under surveillance,
a party of three made their appearance, as if to note
for themselves our condition and resources.

Times had indeed altered with us. We had parted
with half our provisions, half our boats and sledges,
and more than half our able-bodied men. It looked
very much as if we were to lie ensconced in our ice-
battered citadel, rarely venturing to sally out for explo-
ration or supplies. We feared nothing of course but
the want of fresh meat, and it was much less important
that our neighbors should fear us than that we should
secure from them offices of kindness. They were over-
bearing sometimes, and needed the instruction of
rebuke; but I treated them with carefully-regulated
hospitality.

When the three visitors came to us near the end
of August, I established them in a tent below deck,
with a copper lamp, a cooking-basin, and a liberal sup-
ply of slush for fuel. I left them under guard when I
went to bed at two in the morning, contentedly eating
and cooking and eating again without the promise of
an intermission. An American or a European would
have slept after such a debauch till the recognised hour
for hock and seltzer-water. But our guests managed

THE LARCENY.

365

to elude the officer of the deck and escape unsearched.
They repaid my liberality by stealing not only the
lamp, boiler, and cooking-pot they had used for the
feast, but Nannook also, my best dog. If the rest of
my team had not been worn down by over-travel, no
doubt they would have taken them all. Besides this,
we discovered the next morning that they had found
the buffalo-robes and India-rubber cloth which McGary
had left a few days before on the ice-foot near Six-mile
Ravine, and had added the whole to the spoils of their
visit.

The theft of these articles embarrassed me. I was
indisposed to take it as an act of hostility. Their pil-
ferings before this had been conducted with such a
superb simplicity, the detection followed by such honest
explosions of laughter, that I could not help thinking
they had some law of general appropriation, less re-
moved from the Lycurgan than the Mosaic code. But
it was plain at least that we were now too few to watch
our property as we had done, and that our gentleness
was to some extent misunderstood.

I was puzzled how to inflict punishment, but saw
that I must act vigorously, even at a venture. I de-
spatched my two best walkers, Morton and Riley, as
soon as I heard of the theft of the stores, with orders
to make all speed to Anoatok, and overtake the thieves,
who, I thought, would probably halt there to rest.
They found young Myouk making himself quite com-
fortable in the hut, in company with Sievu, the wife
of Metek, and Aningna, the wife of Marsinga, and my

Hi i I. •

l\'

366

THE ARREST.

buffalo-robes already tailored into kapetahs on their
backs.

A continued search of the premises recovered the
cooking-utensils, and a number of other things of

AN I NONA.

greater or less value that we had not missed from the
brig. With the prompt ceremonial which outraged law
delights in among the oflicials of the police everywhere,
the women were stripped and tied; and then, laden
with their stolen goods and as much walrus-beef besides

Ktgti

iUiU^

THE PUNISHMENT.

367

from their own stores as would pay for their board,
they were marched on the instant back to the brig.

The thirty miles was a hard walk for them; but
they did not complain, nor did their constabulary
guardians, who had marched thirty miles already to
apprehend them. It was hardly twenty-four hours
since they left the brig with their booty before they
were prisoners in the hold, with a dreadful white man
for keeper, who never addressed to them a word that
had not all the terrors of an unintelligible reproof, and
whose scowl, I flatter myself, exhibited a well-arranged
variety of menacing and demoniacal expressions.

They had not even the companionship of Myouk.
Him I had despatched to Metek, ^' head-man of Etah,
and others," with the message of a melo-dramatic
tyrant, to negotiate for their ransom. For five long
days the women had to sigh and sing and cry in soli-
tary converse, — ^their appetite continuing excellent, it
should be remarked, though mourning the while a
rightfully-impending doom. At last the great Metek
arrived. He brought with him Ootuniah, another man
of elevated social position, and quite a sledge-load of
kni^'^es, tin cups, and other stolen goods, refuse of
wood and scraps of iron, the sinful prizes of many
covetings.

I may pass over our peace conferences and the indi-
rect advantages which I of course derived from having
the opposing powers represented in my own capital.
But the splendors of our Arctic centre of civilization,
with its wonders of art and science,— our " fire-death"

V.-i*-..

..^:i'^^^'-.'„. ."v .

t !

S68

THE TREATY.

ordnance included, — could not all of them impresfi
Metek so much as the intimations he had received
of our superior physical endowments. Nomads as
they are, these people know better than all the world
besides what endurance and energy it requires to
brave the moving ice and snow-drifts. Metek thought,
no doubt, that our strength was gone with the with-
drawing party: but the fact that within ten hours
afker the loss of our buffalo-skins we had marched to
their hut, seized three of their culprits, and marched
them back to the brig as prisoners, — such a sixty miles*
achievement as this they thoroughly understood. It
confirmed them in the faith that the whites are and
of right ought to be everywhere the dominant tribe.

The protocol was arranged without difficulty, though
not without the accustomed number of adjournments
for festivity and repose. It abounded in protestations
of power, fearlessness, and good-will by each of the
contracting parties, which meant as much as such pro-
testations usually do on both sides the Arctic circle.
I could give a summary of it without invading the
privacy of a diplomatic bureau, for I have notes of it
that were taken by a subordinate ; but I prefer passing
at once to the reciprocal engagements in which it
resulted.

On the part of the InuUj the Esquimaux, they Mfi re
after this fashion : —

"We promise that we will not steal. We promise
we will bring you fresh meat. We promise we will
sell or lend you dogs. We will keep you company

iMii

» ^

"UXBROKKN FAITH.'

369

whenever you want uh, and show you where to find
the game."

On the part of the Kahlunahj the white men, the
stipulation was of this ample equivalent : —

" We promise that we will not visit you with death
or sorcery, nor do you any hurt or mischief whatsoever.
We will shoot for you on our hunts. You shall be
made welcome aboard ship. We will give you pre-
sents of needles, pins, two kinds of knife, a hoop, three
bits of hard wood, some fat, an awl, and some sewing-
thread ; and we will trade with you of these and every
thing else you want for walrus and seal-meat of the
first quality."

And the closing formula might have read, if the
Esquimaux political system had included reading
among its qualifications for diplomacy, in this time-
consecrated and, in civilized regions, veracious assui-
ance : —

" We, the high contracting parties, pledge ourselves
now and forever brothers and friends.

This treaty — which, though I have spoken of it
jocosely, was really an affair of much interest to us —
was ratified, with Hans and Morton as my accredited
representatives, by a full assembly of the people at
Etah. All our future intercourse was conducted under
it. It was not solemnized by an oath; but it was
never broken. We went to and fro between the
villages and the brig, paid our visits of courtesy and
necessity on both sides, met each other in hunting
parties on the floe and the ice-foot, organized a general

Vol. I.— 24

■ili

♦ -r

«-,..'■.> ■'■« *» — '■-'- •■ ■ v », ^».,._

5i|

m '^

370

MY BROTHER.

community of interests, and really, I believe, esta-
blished some personal attachments deserving of the
name. As long as we remained prisoners of the ice,
we were indebted to them for invaluable counsel in
relation to our hunting expeditions ; and in the joint
hunt we shared alike, according to their own laws.

HANQINQ GLACIER.

Our dogs were in one sense common property; and
often have they robbed themselves to offer supplies
of food to our starving teams. They gave us sup-
plies of meat at critical periods : we were able to do
as much for them. They learned to look on us only
as benefactors; and, I know, mourned our departure
bitterly. The greeting which they gave my brother
John, when he ^ame out after me to Etah with the

JMM

ifiMMi

•«..-•.

!,-,->»♦<

RETURN FROM A HUNT.

371

!sta-
the
ice,
I in
Dint
iws.

lid

es -

P-
lo

Rescue Expedition, should be of itself enough to sa-
tisfy me of this. I should be glad to borrow from his
ingenuous narrative the story of his meeting with
Myouk and Metek and Ootuniah, and of the almost
affectionate confidence with which the maimed and
sick invited his professional succor, as the representa-
tive of the elder " Docto Kayen."

" September 16, Saturday. — Back last night from a
walrus-hunt. I brought in the spoil with my dogs,
leaving Hans and Ohlsen to follow afoot. This Mars-
ton rifle is an admirable substitute for the primitive
lance-head. It killed at the first fire. Five nights'
camping out in the snow, with hard-working days be-
tween, have made me ache a little in the joints; but,
strange to say, I feel better than when I left the vessel.
This climate exacts heavy feeding, but it invites to
muscular energy. McGary and Morton are off at
Anoatok. From what I gathered on the hunt, they
will find the council very willing to ratify our alliance.
But they should have been at home before this.

"September 17, Sunday. — Writing by this miserable
flicker of my pork-fat lamp, I can hardly steady pen,
paper, or thought. All hands have rested after a heavy
week's work, which has advanced us nobly in our ar-
rangements for the winter. The season is by our
tables at least three weeks earlier than the last, and
every thing indicates a severe ordeal ahead of us.

"Just as we were finishing our chapter this morning
in the *Book of Ruth,' McGary and Morton came in
triumphantly, pretty well worn down»by their fifty

v ..f-V.,.^_,.

■-- Wi-. ..^

372

NOMADIC LIFE.

3 I ^

!■.

miles' travel, but with good news, and a flipper of
walrus that must weigh some forty pounds. Ohlsen
and Hans are in too. They arrived as we were sitting
down to celebrate the Anoatok ratification of our treaty
of the 6th.

" It is a strange life we are leading. We are abso-
lutely nomads, so far as there can be any thing of
pastoral life in this region; and our wild encounter with
the elements seems to agree with us all. Our table-talk
at supper was as merry as a marriage-bell. One party
was just in from a seventy-four miles' trip with the
dogs; another from a foot-journey of a hundred and
sixty, with five nights on the floe. Each had his story
to tell; and while the story was telling some at least
were projecting new expeditions. I have one myself
in my mind's eye, that may peradventure cover some
lines of my journal before the winter ends.

"McGary and Morton sledged it along the ice-foot
completely round the Reach, and made the huts by ten
o'clock the night after they left us. They found only
three men, Ootuniah, our elfish rogue Myouk, and a
stranger who has not been with us that we know of
It looked at first a little doubtful whether the visit was
not to be misunderstood. Myouk particularly was an
awkward party to negotiate with. He had been our
prisoner for stealing only a little while before, and at
this very moment is an escaped hostage. He was in
pawn to us for a lot of walrus-beef, as indemnity for
our boat. He thought naturally enough that the visit
might have something more than a representative

RECEPTION AT ANOATOK.

373

ll.!
'I

bearing on his interests. Both our men had been his
jailers on board the brig, and he was the i&rst person
they met as they came upon the village.

" But when he found, by McGary's expressive panto-
mime, that the visit was not specially to him, and that
the first appeal was to his hospitality and his fellows',
his entire demeanor underwent a change. He seemed
to take a new character, as if, said Morton, he had
dropped a mask. He gave them welcome with un-
mixed cordiality, carried them to his hut, cleared away
the end farthest from the opening for their reception,
and filled up the fire of moss and blubber.

"The others joined him, and the attention of the
whole settlement was directed at once to the wants of
the visitors. Their wet boots were turned toward the
fire, their woollen socks wrung out and placed on a
heated stone, dry grass was padded round their feet,
and the choicest cuts of walrus-liver were put into the
cooking-pot. Whatever might be the infirmity of their
notions of honesty, it was plain that we had no lessons
to give them in the virtues of hospitable welcome.
Indeed, there was a frankness and cordiality in the
mode of receiving their guests, that explained the un-
reserve and conscious security which they showed
when they first visited us.

"I could hardly guess at that time, when we saw
them practising antics and grimaces among the rocks,
what was the meaning of their harlequin gestures, and
how they could venture afterward so fearlessly on
board. I have imderstood the riddle Since. It was a

lili .V

ri: .

374

TREATY CONFIRMED.

display of their powers of entertainment, intended to
solicit from us a reception; and the invitation once
given, all their experience and impulses assured them
of safety. • >

"Every thing they had, cooking-utensils, snow-melt-
ing stone, scanty weapons of the chase, personal ser-
^4ce, pledges of grateful welcome, — ^they gave them all.

1 1

't ; , KOTLIK, WITH OUR OWN KOLUP SOOT.

They confirmed all Metek's engagements, as if the
whole favor was for them; and when our party was
coming away they placed on the sledge, seemingly as
a matter of course, all the meat that was left.

"September 20, "Wednesday. — The natives are really
acting up to contract. They are on board to-day, and
I have been off with a party of them on a hunt inland.
We had no grtfat luck; the weather was against us,

HUNT WITH ALLIES.

375

and there are signs of a gale. The thermometer has
been two degrees below zero for the entire twenty-four
hours. This is September with a vengeance !

'•'September 22, Friday. — I am off for the walrus-
grounds with ^ our wild allies. It will be my sixth
trip. I know the country and its landmarks now as
well as any of them, and can name every rock and
chasm and watercourse, in night or fog, just as I could
the familiar spots about the dear Old Mills where I
passed my childhood.

"The weather does not promise well; but the state
of our larder makes the jaunt necessary."

f I

SECTION OF WINTER APARTMENT.

II' f>

CHAPTER XXIX.

(V^ALRUS-OROUNDS — LOST ON THE ICE — A BREAK UP — lOLOS
OF ANOATOK — ITS GARNITURE — CREATURE COMFORTS — ESQUI-
MAUX MUSIC — USaOES of the TABLE — NEW LONDON AVENUE
— SCANT DIET LIST — BEAR AND CUB — A HUNT — CLOSE QUARTERS
I — BEAR-FIQHTINa — BEAR-HABITS — BEAR's LIVER — RATS — THE
TERRIER FOX — THE ARCTIC HARE — THE ICE-FOOT CANOPY — A
WOLF — DOGS AND WOLVES — ^BEAR AND FOX — THE NATIVES AND

. OURSELVES — ^WINTER QUARTERS — MORTON's RETURN — THE LIGHT.

"September 29, Friday. — I returned last night from
Anoatok, after a journey of much risk and exposure,
that I should have avoided but for the insuperable
obstinacy of our savage friends.

"I set out for the walrus-grounds at noon, by the
track of the 'Wind Point* of Anoatok, known to us as
Esquimaux Point. I took the light sledge, and, in
addition to the five of my available team, harnessed in
two animals belonging to the Esquimaux. Ootuniah,
Myouk, and the dark stranger accompanied me, with
Morton and Hans.

"Our sledge was overladen: I could not persuade
the Esquimaux to reduce its weight; and the conse-
quence was that we failed to reach Force Bay in time

876

LOST ON THE ICE.

377

for a daylight crossing. To follow the indentations of
the land was to make the travel long and dangerous.
We trusted to the tracks of our former journeys, and
pushed out on the ice. But the darkness came on us
rapidly, and the snow began to drift before a heavy
north wind.

"At about 10 P.M. we had lost the land, and, while
driving the dogs rapidly, all of us running alongside of
them, we took a wrong direction, and travelled out
toward the floating ice of the Sound. There was no
guide to the points of the compass; our Esquimaux
were completely at fault; and the alarm of the dogs,
which became every moment more manifest, extended
itself to our party. The instinct of a sledge-dog makes
him perfectly aware of unsafe ice, and I know nothing
more subduing to a man than the warnings of an
unseen peril conveyed by the instinctive fears of the
lower animals.

" We had to keep moving, for we could not camp in
the gale, that blew around us so fiercely that we could
scarcely hold down the sledge. But we moved with
caution, feeling our way with the tent-poles, which I
distributed among the party for the purpose. A mur-
mur had reached my ear for some time in the cadences
of the storm, steadier and deeper, I thought, than the
tone of the wind: on a sudden it struck me that I
heard the noise of waves, and that we must be coming
close on the open water. I had hardly time for the
hurried order, * Turn the dogs,* before a wreath of wet
frost-smoke swept over us, and the sea showed itself,

)

378

A BREAK UP.

jit

i I

with a great fringe of foam, hardly a quarter of a mile
ahead. We could now guess our position and its dan-
gers. The ice was breaking up before the storm, and
it was not certain that even a direct retreat in the
face of the gale would extricate us. I determined
to run to the south for Godsend Island. The floes
were heavy in that direction, and less likely to give
way in a northerly gale. It was at best a dreary
venture.

" The surf-line kept encroaching on us till we could
feel the ice undulating under our feet. Very soon it
began to give way. Lines of hummocks rose before
us, and we had to run the gauntlet between them as
they closed. Escaping these, we toiled over the
crushed fragments that lay between them and the
shore, stumbling over the projecting crags, or sinking
in the water that rose among them. It was too dark
to see the island which we were steering for ; but the
black loom of a lofty cape broke the line of the horizon
and served as a landmark. The dogs, relieved from
the burden of carrying us, moved with more spirit.
We began to draw near the shore, the ice-storm still
raging behind us. But our difficulties were only reach-
ing their climax. We knew as icemen that the access
to the land-ice from the floe was, under the most favor-
ing circumstances, both toilsome and dangerous. The
rise and fall of the tides always breaks up the ice at
the margin of the ice-belt in a tangle of irregular, half-
floating masses; and these were now surging under
the energies of the gale. It was pitchy dark. I per-

ESQUIMAUX HOMESTEAD.

379

suaded Ootuniah, the eldest of the Esquimaux, to
have a tent-pole lashed horizontally across his shoul-
ders. I gave him the end of a line, which I had fast-
ened at the other end round my waist. The rest of
the party followed him.

"As I moved ahead, feeling round me for a prac-
ticable way, Ootuniah followed ; and when a table of
ice was found large enough, the others would urge
forward the dogs, pushing the sledge themselves, or
clinging to it, as the moment prompted. We had acci-
dents of course, some of them menacing for the time,
but none to be remembered for their consequences;
and at last one after another succeeded in clambering
after me upon the ice-foot, driving the dogs before
them. • - , i

"Providence had been our guide. The shore on
which we landed was Anoatok, not four hundred yards
from the familiar Esquimaux homestead. With a
shout of joy, each man in his own dialect, we hastened
to the * wind-loved spot;' and in less than an hour, our
lamps burning cheerfully, we were discussing a famous
stew of walrus-steaks, none the less relished for an
unbroken ice-walk of forty-eight miles and twenty halt-
less hours.

"When I reached the hut, our stranger Esquimaux,
whose name we found to be Awahtok, or * Seal-bladder
float,' was striking a fire from two stories, one a plain
piece of angular milky quartz, held in the right hand,
the other apparently an oxide of iron. He struck
them together after the true tinder-box fashion, throw-

380

IGLOE OF ANOATOK.

ing a scanty supply of sparks on a tinder composed of
the silky down of the willow-catkins, {S. lanatay) which
he held on a lump of dried moss.

"The hut or igloe at Anoatok was a single rude
elliptical apartment, built not unskilfully of stone, the
outside lined with sods. At its farther end a rude
platform, also of stone, was lifted about a foot above
the entering floor. The roof formed something of a
curve : it was composed of flat stones, remarkably large
and heavy, arranged so as to overlap each other, but
apparently without any intelligent application of the
principle of the arch. The height of this cave-like
abode barely permitted one to sit upright. Its length
was eight feet, its breadth seven feet, and an expansion
of the tunnelled entrance made ai* appendage of per-
haps two feet more.

"The true winter entrance is called the toamit It
is a walled tunnel, ten feet long, and so narrow that a
man can hardly crawl along it. It opens outside below
the level of the igloe, into which it leads by a gradual
ascent.

" Time had done its work on the igloe of Anoatok,
as among the palatial structures of more southern de-
serts. The entire front of the dome had fallen in,
closing up the tossut, and forcing us to enter at the soli-
tary window above it. The breach was large enough
to admit a sledge-team; but our Arctic comrades showed
no anxiety to close it up. Their clothes saturated with
the freezing water of the floes, these iron men gathered
themselves round the blubber-fire and steamed away

ITS GARNITURE.

881

in apparent comfort. The only departure from their
practised routine, which the bleak night and open roof
seemed to suggest to them, was that they did not strip
themselves naked before coming into the hut, and hang
up their vestments in the air to dry, like a votive offer-
ing to the god of the sea.

" Their kitchen-implements
were even more simple than
our own. A rude saucer-
shaped cup of seal-skin, to
gather and hold water in, was

the solitary utensil that could be dignified as table-
furniture. A flat stone, a fixture of the hut, supported
by other stones just above the shoulder-blade of a wal-

SEAL-SKIN CUP.

SNOW-MELTER, ANOATOK.

ms, — the stone slightly inclined, the cavity of the bone
large enough to hold a moss-wick and some blubber ; —
a square block of snow was placed on the stone, and,

.'-«<

882

CREATURE COMFORTS.

as the hot smoke circled round it, the seal-skin saucer
caught tlie water that dripped from the edge. They
had no vessel for boiling ; what they did not eat raw
they baked upon a hot stone. A solitary coil of walrus-
line, fastened to a movable lance-head, (noon-ghak,)
with the well-worn and well-soaked clothes on their
backs, completed the inventory of their effects.

STAND OF WALRUS-BONES

" We felt that we were more civilized than our poor
^- cousins, as we fell to work making ourselves comfort-
able after our own fashion. The dais was scraped, and
its accumulated filth of years removed ; a canvas tent
was folded double over the dry, frozen stones, our buf-
falo-bag spread over this, and dry socks and moccasins
were drawn from under our wet overclothes. My
copper lamp, a true Berzelius Argand, invaluable for

ESQUIMAUX MUSIC.

383

short journeys, soon iSamed with a cheerful fire. The
soup-pot, the walrus-steak, and the hot co£fee were the
next things to he thought of; and, while these were
getting ready, an Indiorrubber floor-cloth was fastened
over the gaping entrance of the cave.

" During our long march and its series of ice-fights
we had taken care to manifest no weariness, and had,
indeed, borne both Ootuniah and Myouk at times upon
our shoulders. We showed no signs either of cold ; so
that all this preparation and rich* store of appliances
could not be attributed by the Esquimaux to effemi-
nacy or inferior power. I could see that they were
profoundly impressed with a conviction of our supe-
riority, the last feeling which the egotistical self-conceit
of savage life admits.

"I felt sure now that they were our more than
sworn friends. They sang *Amna Ayah* for us, their
rude, monotonous song, till our ears cracked with the
discord; and improvised a special eulogistic chant,

^^i^sr z'~^W^hJ^j:Aj^j^

Am - na - yah, Am - na - yah, Am - na - yah, Am - na - yah,

which they repeated over and over again with laugh-
able gravity of utterance, subsiding always into the
re/rain oi * Nalegak! nalegak! nalegahsoakf * Captain!
captain ! great captain !' They nicknamed and adopted
all of us as members of their fraternity, with grave
and abundant form; reminding me through all their

••^..^i. —

"V^

"V./5!;-.;

I J

384

SOUND ASLEEP.

mummery, solemn and ludicrous at once, of the analo-
gous ceremonies of our North American Indians.

" The chant and the feed and the ceremony all com-
pleted, Hans, Morton, and myself crawled feet-foremost
into our buffalo-bag, and Ootuniah, Awahtok, and

PARHELIA, DRAWN BY MR. SONTAQ.

Myouk flung themselves outside the skin between us.
The last I heard of them or any thing else was the
renewed chorus of ' Nalegak ! nalegak ! nalegak-soak !*
mingling itself sleepily in my dreams with school-boy
memories of Aristophanes and The Frogs. I slept
eleven hours.

" They were up long before us, and had breakfasted

USAGES OF THE TABLE.

385

alo-
om-

lOSt

Etnd

us.
the

x)y
ept

ted

on raw meat cut from a large joint, which lay, without
regard to cleanliness, among the deposits on the floor
of the igloe. Their mode of eating was ingeniously
active. They cut the meat in long strips, introduced
one end into the mouth, swallowed it as far as the
powers of deglutition would allow, and then, cutting off
the protruding portion close to the lips, prepared them-
selves for a second mouthful. It was really a feat of
address: those of us who tried it failed awkwardly;
and yet I have sf^n infants in the mother's hood, not
two years old, who managed to perform it without
accident."

I pass ovfer the story of the hunt that followed. It
had nothing to distinguish it from many others, and
I find in my journal of a few days later the fresh nar-
rative of Morton, after he had seen one for the first
time.

My next extracts show the progress of our winter
arrangements.

"September 30, Saturday. — We have been clearing
up on the ice. Our system for the winter has not the
dignity of a year ago. "We have no Butler Storehouse,
no Medary, no Fern Kock, with their appliances. We
are ten men in a casemate, with all our energies con^
centrated against the enemy outside.

" Our beef-house is now a pile of barrels holding our
water-soaked beef and pork. Flour, beans, and dried
apples make a quadrangular blockhouse on the floe:
from one comer of it rises our flagstaff, lighting up the
dusky gray with its red and white ensign, only on

Vol. I.— 25

ii'i.

\}^

386

NEW LONDON AVENUE.

Sunday giving place to the Henry Grinnell flag, of
happy memories.

«From this, along an avenue that opens abeam of
the brig,-— New London Avenue, named after McGary's
town at home, — are our boats and square cordage.
Outside of all these is a magnificent hut of barrel-
frames and snow, to accommodate our Esquimaux
visitors; the only thing about it exposed to hazard
being the tempting woodwork. What remains to
complete our camp-plot is the rope barrier that is to
mark out our little curtilage around the vessel: this,
when finished, is to be the dividing-line between us
and the rest of mankind.

'< There is something in the simplicity of all this,
'simplex munditiis,' which might commend itself to
the most rigorous taste. Nothing is wasted on orna-
ment.

" October 4, Wednesday. — ^I sent Hans and Hickey
two days ago out to the hunting-ice, to see if the
natives have had any luck with the walrus. They are
back to night with bad news, — ^no meat, no Esquimaux.
These strange children of the snow have made a mys-
terious flitting. Where or how, it is hard to guess, for
they have no sledges. They cannot have travelled
very lar; and yet they have such unquiet impulses,
that, once on the track, no civilized man can say where
they will bring up.

'^Ohlsen had just completed a sledge, fashioned like
the Smith Sound hanfmetik, with an improved curva*
ture of the runners. It weighs only twenty-four

of
y's
ge.
«1.
ux
ird
to
to
lis,
us

lis,
to
la-

ey
he
ire

IX.
jrs-
for
ed

ire

III.

■3?

>rs

>
is-

^•1.

BEAR AND CUB.

887

' 1

pounds, and, though I think it 'too short for light
draught, it is just the article our Etah neighbors
would delight in for their land-portages. I intended it
for them, as a great price for a great stock of walrus-
meat: but the other parties to the bargain have flown.

" October 5, Thursday. — We are nearly out of fresh
meat again, one rabbit and three ducks being our sum
total. We have been on short allowance for several
days. What vegetables we have — the dried apples and
peaches, and pickled cabbage — have lost much of their
anti-scorbutic virtue by constant use. Our spices are
all gone. Except four small bottles of horse-radish,
our carte is comprised in three lines — ^bread, beef, pork.

"I must be oflf after these Esquimaux. They cer-
tainly have meat, and wherever they have gone we can
follow. Once upon their trail, our hungry instincts
will not risk being baffled. I will stay only long
enough to complete my latest root-beer brewage. Its
basis is the big crawling willow, the miniature giant of
our Arctic forests, of which we laid in a stock some
weeks ago. It is quite pleasantly bitter, and I hope
to get it fermenting in the deck-house without extra
fuel, by heat from below.

"October 7, Saturday. — ^Lively sensation, as they
say in the land of olives and champagne. * Nannook,
nannook!' — *A bear, a bear!' — Hans and Morton in a
breath !

"To the scandal of our domestic regulations, the
guns were all impracticable. While the men were*
loading and capping anew, I seized my pillow-com-

i 1

i'i ■

)1.

888

A BEAR-FIGHT.

panion sixHshooter, 'and ran on deck. A medium-sized
bear, with a four months' cub, was in active warfare
with our dogs. They were hanging on her skirts, and
she with wonderful alertness was picking out one vic-
tim after another, snatching him by the nape of the
neck, and flinging him many feet or rather yards, by a
barely perceptible movement of her head.

"Tudla, our master dog, was already Jiora de combat:
he had been tossed twice. Jenny, just as I emerged
from the hatch, was making an extraordinary somerset
of some eight fathoms, and alighted senseless. Old
Whitey, stanch but not bear-wise, had been the first
in the battle: he was yelping in helplessness on the
snow.

" It seemed as if the controversy was adjourned : and
Nannook evidently thought so; for she turned off to
our beef-barrels, and began in the most unconcerned
manner to turn them over and nose out their fatness.
She was apparently as devoid of fear as any of the
bears in the stories of old Barentz and the Spitzbergen
voyagers.

"I lodged a pistol-ball in the side of the cub. At
once the mother placed her little one between her
hind-legs, and, shoving it along, made her way behind
the beef-house. Mr. Ohlsen woimded her as she went
with my Webster rifle; but she scarcely noticed it.
She tore down by single efforts of her forearms the
barrels of frozen beef which made the triple walls of
•the storehouse, mounted the rubbish, and, snatching
up a half-barrel of herrings, carried it down by her

CLOSE QUARTERS.

389

teeth, and was making off. It was time to close, 1
thought. Going up within half pistol-range, I gave
her six buckshot. She dropped, but instantly rose,
and, getting her cub into its former position, moved
off once more.

"This time she would really have escaped l/.it for
the admirable tactics of our new recruits from the
Esquimaux. The dogs of Smith's Sound are educated
more thoroughly than any of their more southern
brethren. Next to the walrus, the bear is the staple
of diet to the north, and, except the fox, supplies the
most important element of the wardrobe. Unlike the
dogs we had brought with us from Baffin's ^ay, these
were trained not to attack, but to embarrass. They
ran in circles round the bear, and when pursued would
keep ahead with regulated gait, their comrades effect-
ing a diversion at the critical moment by a nip at her
hind-quarters. This was done so systematically and
with so little seeming excitement as to strike every
one on board. I have seen bear-dogs elsewhere that
had been drilled to relieve each other in the meUe and
avoid the direct assault; but here, two dogs without
even a demonstration of attack would put themselves
before the path of the animal, and, retreating right
and left, lead him into a profitless pursuit that checked
his advance completely.

"The poor animal was still backing out, yet still
fighting, carrying along her wounded cub, embarrassed
by the dogs yet gaining distance from the brig, when
Hans and myself threw in the odds in the shape of a

390

CAPTURE OF THE CUB.

couple of rifle-balls. She staggered in front of her
young one, faced us in deathlike defiance, and only
sank when pierced by six more bullets.

"We found nine balls in skinning her body. She
was of medium size, very lean, and without a particle
of food in her stomach. Hunger must have caused her
boldness. The net weight of the cleansed carcass was
three hundred pounds ; that of the entire animal, six
hundred and fifty; her length, but seven feet eight
inches.

"Bears in this lean condition are much the most
palatable food. The impregnation of fatty oil through
the cellular tissue makes a well-fed bear nearly uneat-
able. The flesh of a famished beast, although less
nutritious as a fuel diet, is rather sweet and tender
than otherwise.

" The little cub is larger than the adjective implies.
She was taller than a dog, and weighs one hundred
and fourteen pounds. Like Morton's bear in Kennedy's
Channel, she sprang upon the corpse of her mother,
and raised a woful lamentation over her wounds. She
repelled my efforts to noose her with great ferocity;
but at last, completely muzzled with a line fastened by
a running knot between her jaws and the back of her
head, she moved off" to the brig amid the clamor of
the dogs. We have her now chained alongside, but
snarling and snapping constantly, evidently suffering

from her wound.

"Of the eight dogs who took part in this passage of
arms, only one — 'Sneak,* as the men call him, * Young

BEAR-HABITS.

391

Whitey,' as he figures in this journal — lost a flower
from his chaplet. But two of the rest escaped with-
out a grip.

" Strange to say, in spite of the powerful flings which
they were subjected to in the fight, not a dog suflora
seriously. I expected, from my knowledge of the
hugging propensity of the plantigrades, that the ani-
mal would rear, or at least use her forearm; but she
invariably seized the dogs with her teeth, and, after
disposing of them for the time, abstained from follow-
ing up the advantage. The Esquimaux assert that
this is the habit of the hunted bear. One of our Smith
Sound dogs, *Jack,' made no struggle when he was
seized, but was flung, with all his muscles relaxed, I
hardly dare to say how far : the next instant he rose
and renewed the attack. The Esquimaux both of
Proven and of this country say that the dogs soon
learn this Opossum-playing' habit. Jack was an old
bear-dog.

" The bear seems to be more ferocious as he increases
his latitude, or more probably as he recedes from the
hunting-fields.

"At Oominak, last winter, (1852,) an Esquimaux
and his son were nearly killed by a bear that had
housed himself in an iceberg. They attacked him
with the lance, but he turned on them and worsted
them badly before making his escape.

"But the continued pursuit of man seems to have
exerted already a modifjdng influence upon the ursine
character in South Greenland ; at all events, the bears

' 1

392

bear's liver.

there never attack, and even in self-defence seldom
inflict injury upon the hunter. Many instances have
occurred where they have defended themselves and
even charged after being wounded, but in none of them
was life lost. I have myself shot as many as a dozen
bears near at hand, and never but once received a
charge in return.

^^I heard another adventure from the Danes as oc-
curring in 1834 : —

''A stout Esquimaux, an assistant to the cooper
of Upemavik, — ^not a Christian, but a stout, manly
savage, — fired at a she-bear, and the animal closed on
the instant of receiving the ball. The man flung him-
self on the ground, putting forward his arm to protect
his head, but lying afterward perfectly motionless.
The beast was taken in. She gave the arm a bite or
two, but, finding her enemy did not move, she retired a
few paces and sat upon her haunches to watch. But
she did not watch as carefully as she should have done,
for the hunter adroitly reloaded his rifle and killed her
with the second shot.

"October 8, Sunday. — When I was out in the Ad-
vance, with Captain De Haven, I satisfied myself that
it was a vulgar prejudice to regard the liver of the
bear as poisonous. I ate of it freely myself, and suc-
ceeded in making it a favorite dish with the mess.
But I find to my cost that it may sometimes be more
savory than safe. The cub's liver was my supper last
night, and to-day I have the symptoms of poison in full
measure — ^vertigo, diarrhoea, and their concomitants."

••

DOUBTFUL DIET.

393

I may mention, in cunnection with the fact which I
• have given from my jounial, that I repeated the ex-
periment several times afterward, and sometimes, but
not always, with the same result. I remember once,
near the Great Glacier, all our party sickened after
feeding on the liver of a bear that we had killed; and
a few weeks afterward, when we were tempted into a
similar indulgence, v/e were forced to undergo the same
penance. The animal in both cases was old and fat.
The dogs ate to repletion, without injury.

Another article of diet, less inviting at first, but
which I found more innocuous, was the rat. We had
failed to exterminate this animal by our varied and
perilous efforts of the year before, and a well-justified
fear forbade our renewing the crusade. It was mar-
velloiis, in a region apparently so unfavorable to repro-
duction, what a perfect warren we soon had on board.
Their impudence and address increased with their
numbers. It became impossible to stow any thing be-
low decks. Furs, woollens, shoes, specimens of natural
history, every thing we disliked to lose, however little
valuable to them, was gnawed into and destroyed.
They harbored among the men's bedding in the fore-
castle, and showed such boldness in fight and such
dexterity in dodging missiles that they were tolerated
at last as inevitable nuisances. Before the winter
ended, I avenged our griefs by decimating them for my
private table. I find in my journal of the 10th of
October an anecdote that illustrates their boldness : —

" We have moved every thing movable out upon the

394

BATS, RATS, RATS.

ice, and, besides our dividing moss wall between our
sanctum and the forecastle, we have built up a rude
barrier of our iron sheathing to prevent these abomi-
nable rats from gnawing through. It is all in vain.
They are everywhere already, under the stove, in the
steward's lockers, in our cushions, about our beds. If I
was asked what, after darkness and cold and scurvy,
are the three besetting curses of our Arctic sojourn, I
should say, Rats, Rats, Rats. A mother-rat bit my
finger to the bone last Friday, as I was intruding my
hand into a bear-skin mitten which she had chosen as
a homestead for her little family. I withdrew it of
course with instinctive courtesy; but among them they
carried off the mitten before I could suck the finger.

" Last week, I sent down Rhina, the most intelligent
dog of our whole pack, to bivouac in their citadel for-
ward : I thought she might at least be able to defend
herself against them, for she had distinguished herself
in the bear-hunt. She slept very well for a couple of
hours on a bed she had chosen for herself on the top
of some iron spikes. But the rats could not or would
not forego the homy skin about her paws; and they
gnawed her feet and nails so ferociously that we drew
her up yelping and vanquished."

Before I pass from these intrepid and pertinacious
visitors, let me add that on the whole I am personally
much their debtor. Through the long winter night,
Hans used to beguile his lonely hours of watch by
shooting them with the bow and arrow. The repug-
nance of my associates to share with me the table

mm.

THE ARCTIC HARE.

395

••

luxury of "such small deer" gave me the frequent
advantage of a fresh-meat soup, which contributed no
doubt to my comparative immunity from scurvy. I
had only one competitor in the dispensation of this
entremet, or rather one companion; for there was an
abundance for both. It was a fox: — we caught and
domesticated him late in the winter; but the scantiness
of our resources, and of course his own, soon instructed
him in all the antipathies of a terrier. He had only
one fault as a rat<;atcher: he would never catch a
second till he had eaten the first.

At the date of these entries thv^ Arctic hares had
not ceased to be numerous about our harbor They
were very beautiful, as white as swans' down, with a
crescent of black marking the ear-tips. They feed on
the bark and catkins of the willow, and aftiect the
stony sides of the worn-down rocks, where they find
protection from the wind and snow-driftr They do not
burrow like our hares at home, but squat in crevices or
under large stones. Their average weight is about
nine pounds. They would have entered largely into
our dietrlist but for our Esquimaux dogs, who regarded
them with relishing appetite. Parry found the hare at
Melville Island, in latitude 75° ; but we have traced it
from Littleton Island as far north as 79° 08', and its
range probably extends still farther toward the Pole.
Its structure and habits enable it to nenetrate the

snow-crusts, and obtain food where the reindeer and
the musk-ox perish in consequencf of the glazed cover-
ing of their feeding-grounds.

396

THE ICE-FOOT CANOPY.

"October 11, "Wednesday. — There is no need of look-
ing at the thermometer and comparing registers, to
show how far this season has advanced beyond its
fellow of last year. The ice-foot is more easily read,
and quite as certain.

THE ICE-FOOT CANOPY.

" The under part of it is covered now with long sta-
lactitic columns of ice, unlike the ordinary icicle in
shape, for they have the characteristic bulge of the
carbonate-of-lime stalactite. They look like the fan-
tastic columns hanging from the roof of a frozen
temple, the dark recess behind them giving all the

SEARCH FOR ESQUIMAUX.

397

ts
d,

:-y

effect of a grotto. There is one that brings back to
me saddened memories of Elephanta and the merry
friends that bore me company under its rock-chiselled
portico. The fig-trees and the palms, and the gallant
major's curries and his old India ale, are wanting in
the picture. Sometimes again it is a canopy fringed
with gems in the moonlight. Nothing can be purer or
more beautiful. ,

"The ice has begun to fasten on our brig: I have
called a consultation of officers to determine how she
may be best secured.

"October 13, Friday. — The ^tfsquimaux have not
been near us, and it is a puzzle of some interest where
they have retreated to. Wherever they are, there
must be our hunting-grounds, for they certainly have
not changed their quarters to a more destitute region.
I have sent Morton and Hans to-day to track them out
if they can. They carry a hand-sledge with them,
Ohlsen's last manufacture, ride with the dog-sledge as
far as Anoatok, and leave the old dogs of our team
there. From that point they are to try a device of my
own. We have a couple of dogs that we got from
these same Esquimaux, who are at least as instinctive
as their former masters. One of these they are to let
run, holding the other by a long leash. I feel confident
that the free dog will find the camping-ground, and I
think it probable the other will follow. I thought of
tying the two together; but it would embarrass tneir
movements, and give them something to occupy their
minds besides the leading object of their mission.

' 1

398

DOGS AND WOLVES.

" October 14, Saturday. — Mr. Wilson and Hickey re-
ported last night a wolf at the meat-house. Now, the
meat-house is a thing of too much worth to be left to
casualty, and a wolf might incidentally add some fresh-
ness of flavor to its contents. So I went out in all
haste with the Marston rifle, but without my mittens
and with only a single cartridge. The metal burnt my
hands, as metal is apt to do at fifty degrees below
the point of freezing; but I got a somewhat rapid
shot. I hit one of our dogs, a truant from Mor-
ton's team; luckily a flesh-wound only, for he is too
good a beast to los^. I could have sworn he was a

wolf" ;: '

There is so much of identical character between our
Arctic dOgS and wolves, that I am inclined to agree
with Mr. Broderip, who in the "Zoological Recrea-
tions" assigns to them a family origin. The oblique
position of the wolf's eye is not uncommon among
the dogs of my team. I have a slut, one of the tamest
and most affectionate of the whole of them, who has
the long legs, and compact body, and drooping tail,
and wild, scared expression of the eye, which some
naturalists have supposed to characterize the wolf
alone. When domesticated early, — and it is easy to
domesticate him, — the wolf follows and loves you like
a dog. That they are fond of a loose foot proves
nothing : many of our pack will run away for weeks
into the wilderness of ice; yet they cannot be per-
suaded when they come back to inhabit the kennel we
have built for them only a hundred yards off". They

, 'M

THEIR SIMILARITY.

399

crouch around for the companionship of men. Both
animals howl in unison alike : the bell at the settle-
ments of South Greenland always starts them. Their
footprint is the same, at least in Smith's Sound. Dr.
Richardson's remark to the contrary made me observe
the fact that our northern dogs leave the same " spread
track" of the toes when running, though not perhaps
as well marked as the wolf's.

The old proverb, and the circumstance of the wolf
having sometimes carried off an Esquimaux dog, has
been alluded to by the editors of the "Diffusion of
Knowledge Library." But this too is inconclusive, for
the proverb is false. It is not quite a month ago since
I found five of our dogs gluttonizing on the carcasses
of their dead companions who had been thrown out
on a rubbish-heap; and I have seen pups only two
months old risk an indigestion by overfeeding on their
twin brethren who had preceded them in a like im-
prudence.

Nor is there any thing in the supposed difference of
strength. The Esquimaux dog of Smith's Sound en-
counters the wolf fearlessly and with success. The
wolves of Northern America never venture near the
huts ; but it is well known that when they have been
chasing the deer or the moose, the dogs have come up
as rivals in the hunt, beaten them off, and appropriated
the prey to themselves.

"October 16, Monday. — I have been wearied and
vexed for half a day by a vain chase after some

!»■—><§» " »'<*■ . -• I* II lail— iW^M

400

BEAR AND FOX.

I' i I

bear-tracks. There was a fox evidently following
them, (C. lagqpus.y*

There are fables about the relation between these
two animals which I once thought my observations
had confirmed. They are very often found together:
the bear striding on ahead with his prey; the fox
behind gathering in the crumbs as they fall; and I
have often seen the parasite licking at the traces of
a wounded seal which his champion had borne off
over the snow. The story is that the two hunt in
couples. I doubt this now, though it is certain that
the inferior Piiimal rejoices in his association with the
superior, at least for the profits, if not the sympathy it
brings to him. I once wounded a bear when I was out
with Morton during our former voyage, and followed
him for twelve miles over the ice. A miserable little
fox travelled close behind his patron, and licked up
the blood wherever he lay down. The bear at last
made the water ; and, as we returned from our fruitless
chase, we saw tho fox running at full speed along the
edge of the thin ice, as if to rejoin him. It is a mis-
take to suppose he cannot swim: he does, and that
boldly.

"October 19, Thursday. — Our black dog Erebus has
come back to the brig. Morton has perhaps released
him, but he has more probably brokcTi loose.

"I have no doubt Morton is making the best of his
way after the Esquimaux. These trips are valuable to
us, even when they fail of their immediate object.
They keep the natives in wholesome respect for us

AV INTER QUARTERS.

401

We are careful to impress them with our physical
prowess, and avoid showing either fatigue or cold when
we are travelling together. I could not help being
amused some ten days ago with the complacent manner
of Myouk, as he hooked himself to me for support after
I had been walking for thirty miles ahead of the sledge.
The fellow was worth four of me; but he let me carry
him almost as far as the land-ice.

THE BRIQ IN HER SECOND WINTER.

'■We have been completing our arrangements for
raising the brig. The heavy masses of ice that adhere
to her in the winter make her condition dangerous at
seasons of low tide. Her frame could not sustain the
pressure of such a weight. Our object, therefore, has
been to lift her mechanically above her line of flotation,
and let her freeze in on a sort of ice-dock; so that the

Vol. I.— 2(1

Iil

402

MORTON S RE7URN.

ice around her as it sinks may take the bottom and
hold her up clear of the danger. We have detached
four of the massive beams that were intended to resist
the lateral pressure of nips, and have placed them as
shores, two on each side of the vessel, opposite the
channels. Brooks has rigged a crab or capstan on the
floe, and has passed the chain cable under the keel at
four bearing-points. As these are hauled in by the crab
and the vessel rises, the shores are made to take hold
under heavy cleats spiked below the bulwarks, and in
this manner to sustain her weight.

"We made our first trial of the apparatus to-day.
The chains held perfectly, and had raised the brig
nearly three feet, when away went one of our chain-
slings, and she fell back of course to her more familiar
bearings. We will repeat the experiment to-morrow,
using six chains, two at each line of stress.

"October 21, Saturday. — Hard at it still, slinging
chains and planting shores. The thermometer is too
near zero for work like this. We swaddle our feet in
old cloth, and guard our hands with fur mits; but the
cold iron bites through them all.

"6.30 P.M. — Morton and Hans are in, after tracking
the Esquimaux to the lower settlement of Etah. I
cannot give their report to-night: the poor fellows are
completely knocked up by the hardships of their march.
Hans, who is always careless of powder and fire-arms, —
a trait which I have observed among both the Ame-
rican and the Oriental savages,— exploded his powder-
flask while attempting to kindle a tinder-fire. The

THE LIGHT RECEDING.

403

explosion has risked his hand. I have dressed it, ex-
tracting several pieces of foreign matter and poulticing
it in yeast and charcoal. Morton has frostbitten both
his heels; I hope not too severely, for the indurated
skin of the heel makes it a bad region for suppuration.
But they bring us two hundred and seventy pounds of
walrus-meat and a couple of foxes. This supply, with
what we have remaining of our two bears, must last us
till the return of daylight allows us to join the natives
in their hunts.

" The light is fast leaving us. The sun has ceased
to reach the vessel. The northeastern headlands or
their southern faces up the fiords have still a warm
yellow tint, and the pinnacles of the icebergs far out
on the floes are lighted up at noonday : but all else is
dark shadow."

OUR GREENLAND SLEDGES.

■

CHAPTER XXX.

JOUBNET OF MORTON AND HANS — RECEPTION — THE HUT — THE
WALRUS — WAIiRUS-HUNT — THE CONTEST — HABITS OF WALRUS-
FEROCITY OP THE WALRUS — THE VICTORY — THE JUBILEE — A
SIPAK.

|fl«rnfg 0f Uorton anlr fans.

Morton reached the huts beyond Anoatok upon the
fourth day after leaving the brig.

The little settlement is inside the northeastern
islands of Hartstene Bay, about five miles from Gray's
Fiord, and some sixty-five or seventy from our brig.
The slope on which it stands fronts the southwest, and
is protected from the north and northeast by a rocky
island and the hills of the mainland.

There were four huts; but two of them are in ruins.
They were all of them the homes of families only four
winters ago. Of the two which are still habitable,
Myouk, his father, mother, brother, and sister occupied
one ; and Awahtok and Ootuniah, with their wives and
three young ones, the other. The little community
had lost two of its members by death since the spring.

They received Morton and his companion with

404

I I

THEIR RECEPTION.

405

much kindness, giving them water to drink, rubbing
their feet, drying their moccasins, and the like. The
women, who did this with something of the good-wife's
air of prerogative, seemed to have toned down much of

PORTRAIT OF OOTUNIAH.

the rudeness which characterized the bachelor settle-
ment at Anoatok. The lamps were cheerful and smoke-
less, and the huts much less filthy. Each had its two
lamp-fires constantly burning, with a framework of
bone hooks and walrus-line above them for drying the
wet clothes of the household. Except a few dog-skins.

SI*.

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

1.1

■ 4.0

1^ iiyi4 ^

I^iolDgFaphic

Sdences

Corporation

23 WIST MAM STRUT

WIUTn,N.Y. MStO

(71«)l7a-4»03

I' > I

406

MORTON S JOURNEY.

which are used as a support to the small of the back,
the dais was destitute of sleeping-accommodations
altogether: a single walrus-hide was spread out for
"Morton and Hans. The hut had the usual tossut, at
least twelve (eet long, — very low, straight, and level,
until it reached the inner part of the chamber, when
it rose abruptly by a small hole, through which with

ETAH, AWAKTOK'S HUT.

some squeezing was the entrance into the true apart-
ment. Over this entrance was the rude window, with
its scraped seal-intestine instead of glass, heavily coated
with frost of course; but a small eye-hole commanding
the bay enabled the in-dwellers to peep out and speak
or call to any who were outside. A smoke-hole passed
through the roof.

When all the family, with Morton and Hans, were
gathered together, the two lamps in full blaze and the

AWAHTOKS HUT.

407

narrow hole of entrance covered by a flat stone, the
heat became insupportable. Outside, the thermometer
stood at 30° below zero ; within, 90° above : a differ-
ence of one hundred and twenty degrees.

The vermin were not as troublesome as in the
Anoatok dormitory, the natives hanging their clothing
over the lamp-frames, and lying down to sleep per-
fectly naked, with the exception of a sort of T bandage,
as surgeons call it, of seal-skin, three inches wide, worn
by the women as a badge of their sex, and supported
by a mere strip around the hips.

After sharing the supper of their hosts, — that is to
say, after disposing of six frozen auks apiece, — the
visitors stretched themselves out and passed the night
in unbroken perspiration and slumber. It was evident
from the meagreness of the larder that the hunters of
the family had work to do ; and from some signs, which
did not escape the sagacity of Morton, it was plain that
Myouk and his father had determined to seek their
next dinner upon the floes. They were going upon a
walrus-hunt; and Morton, true to the mission with
which I had charged him, invited himself and Hans to
be of the party.

I have not yet described one of these exciting inci-
dents of Esquimaux life. Morton was full of the one
he witnessed ; and his account of it when he came back
was so graphic that I should be glad to escape from
the egotism of personal narrative by giving it in his
own words. Let me first, however, endeavor to de-
««cribe the animal.

408

MORTON S JOURNEY.

His portraii on a neighboring page is truer to nature
than any I have seen in the books : the specimens in
the museums of collectors are imperfect, on account of
the drying of the skin of the face against the skull.
The head of the walrus has not the characteristic oval
of the seal: on the contrary, the frontal bone is so
covered as to present a steep descent to the eyes and
a square, blocked-out aspect to the upper face. The
muzzle is less protruding than the seal's, and the cheeks
and lips are completely masked by the heavy quill-like

»?*

ESQUIMAUX SLEDGE.

bristles. Add to this the tusks as a garniture to the
lower face ; and you have for the walrus a grim, fero-
cious aspect peculiarly his own. I have seen him with
tusks nearly thirty inches long; his body not less than
eighteen feet. When of this size he certainly reminds
you of the elephant more than any other living
monster.

The resemblance of the walrus to man has been
greatly overrated. The notion occurs in our systematic
treatises, accompanied with the suggestion that this
animal may have represented the merman and mer-

THE WALRUS.

409

maid. The square, blocked-out head which I have
noticed, effectually destroys the resemblance to hu-
manity when distant, and the colossal size does the
same when near. Some of the seals deserve the dis-
tinction much more : the size of the head, the regularity
of the facial oval, the droop
of the shoulders, even the
movements of this animal,
whether singly or in group,
remind you strikingly of
man.

The party which Morton
attended upon their walrus-
hunt had three sledges. One
was to be taken to a cache
in the neighborhood; the
other two dragged at a quick
run toward the open water,
about ten miles off to the
southwest. They had but
nine dogs to these two
sledges, one man only riding,
the others running by turns.
As they neared the new ice,
and where the black wastes
of mingled cloud and water
betokened the open sea, they

would from time to time remove their hoods and listen
intently for the animal's voice.

After a while Myouk became convinced, from signs

ESQUIMAUX WHIP,
WOOD AND BONE PIECED.

410

MORTON S JOURNEY.

or sounds, or both, — ^for they were inappreciable by
Morton, — that the walrus were waiting for him in a
small space of recently-open water that was glazed over
with a few days* growth of ice; and, moving gently
on, they soon heard the characteristic bellow of a bull
awuk. The walrus, like some of the higher order of
beings to which he has been compared, is fond of his
own music, and will lie for hours listening to himself.
His vocalization is something between the mooing of a

WATCHINQ AT THE WALRUS-HOLE.

COW and the deepest baying of a mastifif : very round
and full, with its barks or detached notes repeated
rather quickly seven to nine times in succession.

The party now formed in single file, following in
each other's steps; and, guided by an admirable know-
ledge of ice-topography, wound behind hummocks and
ridges in a serpentine approach toward a group of
pond-like discolorations, recently-frozen ice-spots, but
surrounded by firmer and older ice.

When within half a mile of these, the line broke,
and each man crawled toward a separate pool ; Morton

WALRUS-UUNT.

411

on his hands and knees following Myouk. In a few
minutes the walrus were in sight. They were five in
number, rising at intervals through the ice in a body,
and breaking it up with an explosive puff that might
have been heard for miles. Two large grim-looking
males were conspicuous as the leaders of the group.

MYOUK

Now for the marvel of the craft. When the walrus
is above water, the hunter is flat and motionless; as he
begins to sink, alert and ready for a spring. The ani-
maVs head is hardly below the water-line before every
man is in a rapid run; and again, as if by instinct,
before the beast returns, all are motionless behind prcv-
tecting knolls of ice. They seem to know beforehand

412

MORTON S JOURNEY.

not only the time he will be absent, but the very spot
at which he will reappear. In this way, hiding and
advancing by turns, Myouk, with Morton at his heels,
has reached a plate of thin ice, hardly strong enough
to bear them, at the very brink of the water-pool the
walrus are curvetting in.

WALRUS-HARrOON.

HARPOON'HEAO.

Myouk, till now phlegmatic, seems to waken with
excitement. His coil of walrus-hide, a well-trimmed
line of many fathoms' length, is lying at his side. He
fixes one end of it in an iron barb, and fastens this
loosely by a socket upon a shaft of unicorn's horn : the
other end is already looped, or, as sailors would say,

lii

lili

THE CONTEST.

413

"doubled in a bight." It is the work of a moment.
He has grasped the harpoon: the water is in mo-
tion. Puffing with pent-up respiration, the walrus is
within a couple of fathoms, close before him. Myouk
rises slowly; his right arm thrown back, the lelt flat
at his side. The walrus looks about him, shaking the
water from his crest : Myouk throws up his left arm ;

NOXZLI OP HARPOON-HEAD.

HARPOON-HEAD, FRET

and the animal, rising breast-high, fixes one look before
he plunges. It has cost him all that curiosity can
cost: the harpoon is buried under his left flipper.

Though the awuk is down in a moment, Myouk is
running at desperate speed from the scene of his vic-
tory, paying oflf his coil freely, but clutching the end
by its loop. He seizes as he runs a small stick of
bone, rudely pointed with iron, and by a sudden

414

MORTONS JOURNEY.

movement drives it into the ice: to this he secures
his line, pressing it down close to the ice-surface with
his feet. •

Now comes the struggle. The hole is dashed in mad
commotion with the struggles of the wounded beast;
the line is drawn tight at one moment, the next re-
laxed : the hunter has not left his station. There is a
crash of the ice; and rearing up through it are two
walruses, not many yards from where he stands. One
of them, the male, is excited and seemingly terrified:
the other, the female, collected and vengeful. Down
they go again, after one grim survey of the field; and
on the instant Myouk has changed his position, carry-
ing his coil with him and fixing it anew.

He has hardly fixed it before the pair have again
risen, breaking up an area of ten feet diameter about
the very spot he left. As they sink once more he
again changes his place. And so the conflict goes on
between address and force, till the victim, half ex-
hausted, receives a second wound, and is played like a
trout by the angler's reel.

The instinct of attack which characterizes the walrus
is interesting to the naturalist, as it is characteristic
also of the land animals, the pachyderms, with which
he is classed. When wounded, he rises high out of the
water, plunges heavily against the ice, and strives^ to
raise himself with" his fore-flippers upon its surface.
As it breaks under his weight, his countenance assumes
a still more vindictive expression, his bark changes to

HABITS OF WALRUS.

415

a roar, and the foam pours out from his jaws till it
froths his beard.

Even when not excited, he manages his tusks
bravely. They are so strong that he uses them to
grapple the rocks with, and climbs steeps of ice and
land which would be inaccessible to him without their
aid. He ascends in this way rocky islands that are
sixty and a hundred feet above the level of the sea ;
and I have myself seen him in these elevated positions
basking with his young in the cool sunshine of August
and September.

He can strike a fearful blow; but prefers charging
with his tusks in a soldierly manner. I do not doubt
the old stories of the Spitzbergen fisheries and Cherie
Island, where the walrus put to flight the crowds of
European boats. Awuk is the lion of the Danish
Esquimaux, and they always speak of him with the
highest respect.

I have heard of oomiaks being detained for days at
a time at the crossings of straits and passages which he
infested. Governor Flaischer told me that, in 1830, a
brown walrus, which, according to the Esquimaux, is
the fiercest, after being lanced and maimed near Uper-
navik, routed his numerous assailants, and drove them
in fear to seek for help from the settlement. His
movements were so violent as to jerk out the harpoons
that were stuck into him. The governor slew him
with great difficulty after several rifle-shots and lance-
wounds from his whaleboat.

On another occasion, a young and adventurous Inuit

416

MORTON S JOURNEY.

plunged his nalegeit into a brown walrus ; but, startled
by the savage demeanor of the beast, called for help
before using the lance. The older men in vain cau-
tioned him to desist. "It is a brown walrus," said
they: ^^Auvek-KaiokT "Holdback!" Finding the cau-

■J>^

LANCE -HEAD, FROM MARSHALL BAY.

LANCE-HEAO, FROM SUNNY QORQE.

tion disregarded, his only brother rowed forward and
plunged the second harpoon. Almost in an instant the
animal charged upon the kayacker, ripping him up, as
the description went, after the fashion of his sylvan

ESQUIMAUX LANCE-HEAD, "AKBAH."

brother, the wild boar. The story was told to me with
much animation; how the brother remaining rescued
the corpse of the brother dead; and how, as they
hauled it up on the ice-floes, the ferocious beast plunged

TIIK VICTORY.

in foaming circles, .seeking fresh victims in that part of
the sea which was discolored hy his blood.

Some idea may he formed of the ferocity of the wal-
rus, from the fact that the battle which Morton wit-
nessed, not without sharing some of its danger, lasted
four hours; during which the animal rushed con-
tinually at the Esquimaux as they approached, tearing
off great tables of ice with his tusks, and showing no
indications of fear whatever. lie received upward
of seventy hince-wounds, — Morton counted over sixty;
and even then he remained hooked by his tusks to
the margin of the ice, unable or unwilling to retire.
His female fought in the same manner, but fled on
receiving a lance-wound.

The Esquimaux seemed to be fully aware of the
danger of venturing too near; for at the first onset
of the walrus they jumped back far enough to be clear
of the broken ice. Morton described the last three
hours as wearing, on both sides, the aspect of an un-
broken and seemingly doubtful combat.

The method of landing the beast upon the ice, too,
showed a great deal of clever contrivance. They made
two pair of incisions in the neck, where the hide is very
thick, about six inches apart and parallel to each other,
so as to form a couple of bands. A line of cut hide,
about a quarter of an inch in diameter, was passed
under one of these bands and carried up on the ice to a
firm stick well secured in the floe, where it went through
a loop, and was then taken back to the animal, made
to pass under the second band, and led off to the

Vol. I.— 27

«; I

III i

fi! ^

I i|

i,&

418

MORTONS JOURNEY.

Esquimaux. This formed a sort of " double purchase/*
the blubber so lubricating the cord as to admit of a
free movement. By this contrivance the beast, weigh-
ing some seven hundred pounds, was hauled up and
butchered at leisure.

The two sledges now journeyed homeward, carrying
the more valued parts of their prize. The intestines
and a large share of the carcass were buried up in the
cavities of a berg: LucuUus himself could not have
dreamed of a grander icehouse.

As they doubled the little island which stood in

SOUTHERN KNIFE, "AWAYU."

FROM GRAVE, BUSHNALL ISLAND.

front of their settlement, the women ran down the
rocks to meet them. A long hail carried the good
news ; and, as the party alighted on the beach, knives
were quickly at work, the allotment of the meat being
determined by well-understood hunter laws. The
Esquimaux, however gluttonously they may eat, evi-
dently bear hunger with as little difficulty as excess.
None of the morning party had breakfasted; yet it
was after ten o'clock at night before they sat down
to dinner. " Sat down to dinner !" This is the only
expression of our own gastrology which is applicable
to an Esquimaux feast. They truly sit down, man.

JUBILEE — A SIPAK.

419

woman, and child, knife in hand, squatting cross-legged
around a formidable joint, — say forty pounds, — and,
without waiting for the tardy coction of the lamp,
falling to like college commoners after grace. I have
seen many such feeds. Hans's account, however, of
the glutton-festival at Etah is too characteristic to be
omitted.

"Why, Cappen Ken, sir, even the children ate all
night: — ^you know the little two-year-old that Awiu
carried in her hood — the one that bit you, when you
tickled it? — ^yes. Well, Cappen Ken, sir, that baby cut
for herself, with a knife made out of an iron hoop and
so heavy that it could barely lift it, and cut and ate,
and ate and cut, as long as I looked at it."

" Well, Hans, try now and think ; for I want an ac-
curate answer: how much as to weight or quantity
would you say that child ate ?" Hans is an exact and
truthful man: he pondered a little and said that he
could not answer my question. " But I know this, sir,
that it ate a sipaK* — ^the Esquimaux name for the lump
which is cut oflF close to the lips — " as large as its own
head; and three hours afterward, when I went to bed,
it was cutting off another lump and eating still." — A
sipak, like the Dutch governor's foot, is, however, a
var3dng unit of weight.

man.

" I

CHAPTER XXXL

AN AURORA — WOOD-CUTTING — FUEL ESTIMATE — THE STOVE-PIPES

THE ARCTIC FIRMAMENT — ESQUIMAUX ASTRONOMY — HEATINQ

APPARATUS — METEORIC SHOWER — A BEAR — HASTY RETREAT —
THE CABIN BY NIGHT — SICKNESS INCREASING — -CUTTING. INTO
THE BRIG — THE NIGHT-WATCH. / '

4; ,

If,

"October 24, Tuesday. — We are at work that makes
us realize how short-handed we are. The brig was
lifted for the third time to day, with double chains
passed under her at low tide, both astern and amid-
ships. Her bows were already raised three feet above
the water, and nothing seemed wanting to our complete
success, when at, the critical moment one of the after-
shores parted, and she fell over about five streaks to
starboard. The slings were hove to by the crab, and
luckily held her from going farther, so that she now
stands about three feet above her flotation-line, drawing
four feet forward, but four and a half aft. She has
righted a little with the return of tide, and now awaits
the freezing-in of her winter cradle. She is well out
of water; and, if the chains only hold, we shall have

420

AN AURORA.

421

the spectacle of a brig, high and dry, spending an
Arctic winter over an Arctic ice-bed.

" We shall be engaged now at the hold and with the
housing on deck. From our lodge-room to the forward
timbers every thing is clear already. We have moved
the carpenter's bench into our little dormitorium:
everywhere else it is too cold for handling tools.

" 9 p. M. — ^A true and unbroken auroral arch : the first
we have seen in Smith's Sound. It was colorless, but

--•-«»

THE BRIO CRADLED.

extremely bright. There was no pendant from the
lower curve of the arc; but from its outer, an active
wavy movement, dissipating itself into barely-percepti-
ble cirrhus, was broken here and there by rays nearly
perpendicular, with a slight inclination to the east.
The atmosphere was beautifully clear.

"October 26, Thursday.— -The thermometer at 34°
below zero, but fortunately no wind blowing. We go
on with the out-door work. The gangway of ice is
finished, and we have passed wooden steam-tubes
through the deck-house to carry off the vapors of our

422

WOOD-CUTTING.

cooking-stove and the lighter impurities of the crowded
cabin.

" We bum but seventy pounds of fuel a day, most of
'it in the galley; the fire being allowed to go out be-
tween meals. We go without fire altogether for four
hours of the night; yet such is the excellence of our
moss walls, and th^ air-proof of our tossut, that the
thermometer in-doors never indicates less than 45°
above zero, with the outside air at 30° below. When
our housing is arranged and the main hatch secured
with a proper weather-tight screen of canvas, we shall
be able, I hope, to meet the extreme cold of February
and March without fear.

" Darkness is the worst enemy we have to facC'; but
we will strive against the scurvy in spite of him, till
the light days of sun and vegetation. The spring hunt
will open in March, though it will avail us very little
till late in April.

"Wilson and Brooks are my principal subjects of
anxiety; for, although Morton and Hans are on their
backs, making four of our ten, I can see strength of
system in their cheerfulness of heart. The best pro-
phylactic is a hopeful, sanguine temperament; the best
cure, moral resistance, that spirit of combat against
every trial which is alone true bravery.

"October 27, Friday. — The work is going on: we
are ripping off the extra planking of our deck for fuel
during the winter. The cold increases fast, verging
now upon 40° below zero; and in spite of all my efforts
we will have to burn largely into the brig. I prepared

FUEL ESTIMATE.

423

for this two months ago, and satisfied myself, after a
consultation with the carpenter, that we may cut away
some seven or eight tons of fuel without absolutely
destroying her sea-worthiness. Ohlsen's report marked
out the order in which her timbers should be appro-
priated to uses of necessity : — 1, The monkey-rail ; 2,
the bulwarks ; 3, the upper ceiling of the deck ; 4, eight
extra cross-beams ; 5, the flooring and remaining wood-
work of the forecastle; 6, the square girders of the
forepeak ; 7, the main topsail-yard and topmast ; 8, the
outside trebling or oak sheathing.

" We had then but thirty buckets of coal remaining,
and had already burnt up the bulkheads. Since then
we have made some additional inroads on our stock;
but, unless there is an error in the estimate, we can go
on at the rate of seventy pounds a day. Close house-
keeping this; but we cannot do better. We must
remodel our heating-arrangements. The scurvy exacts
a comfortable temperature and a drying one. Our
mean thus far has been 47°, — decidedly too low ; and
by the clogging of our worn-out pipe it is now re-
duced to 42°.

"The ice-belt, sorry chronicler of winter progress,
has begun to widen with the rise and fall of the
sludgy water.

"October 31, Tuesday. — ^We have had a scene on
board. We play many parts on this Arctic stage of
ours, and can hardly be expected to be at home in all
of them.

" To-day was appropriated to the reformation of the

424

THE STOVE-PIPES.

stoves, and there was demand, of course, for all our
ingenuity both as tinkers and chimney-sweeps. Of my
company of nine, Hans had the good luck to be out on
the hunt, and Brooks, Morton, Wilson, and Goodfellow
were scurvy-ridden in their bunks. The other four
and the commanding officer made up the detail of
duty. Pirst, we were to give the smoke-tubes of the
stove a thorough cleansing, the first they have had
for now seventeen months; next, to reduce our effete
snow-melter to its elements of imperfect pipes and
pans; and, last, to combine the practicable remains
of the two into one efficient system for warming and
melting.

"Of these, the first has been executed most gal-
lantly. * Glory enough for one day!' The work with
the scrapers on the heated pipes — for the accumula-
tion inside of them was as hard as the iron itself till
we melted it down — was decidedly unpleasant to our
gentle senses; and we were glad when it had advanced
far enough to authorize a resort to the good old-
fashioned country custom of firing. But we had not
calculated the quantity of the gases, combustible and
incombustible, which this process was to evolve, with
duly scientific reference to the size of their outlet. In
a word, they were smothering us, and, in a fit of despe-
ration, we threw open our apartment to the atmosphere
outside. This made short work of the smoky flocculi ;
the dormitory decked itself on the instant with a frosty
forest of feathers, and it now rejoices in a drapery as
gray as a cygnet's breast.

THE ARCTIC FIRMAMENT.

425

"It was cold work reorganizing the stove for the
nonce; but we have got it going again, as red as a
cherry, and my well-worn dog-skin suit is drying before
it. The blackened water is just beginning to drip,
drip, drop, from the walls and ceiling, and the bed-
clothes and the table on which I write."

My narrative has reached a period at which every
thing like progress was suspended. The increasing
cold and brightening stars, the labors and anxieties
and sickness that pressed upon us, — these almost en-
gross the pages of my journal. Now and then I find
some marvel of Petersen's about the fox's dexterity as
a hunter ; and Hans tells me of domestic life in South
Greenland, or of a seal-hunt and a wrecked kayack ; or
perhaps McGary repeats his thrice-told tale of humor ;
but the night has closed down upon us, and we are
hibernating through it.

Yet some of these were topics of, interest. The
intense beauty of the Arctic firmament can hardly be
imagined. It looked close above our heads, with its
stars magnified in glory and the very planets twinkling
so much as to baffle the observations of our astronomer.
I am afraid to speak of some of these night-scenes. I
have trodden the deck and the floes, when the life of
earth seemed suspended, its movements, its sounds, its
coloring, its companionships; and as I looked on the
radiant hemisphere, circling above me as if rendering
worship to the unseen Centre of light, I have ejacu-
lated in humility of spirit, "Lord, what is man that

426

ESQUIMAUX ASTRONOMT.

m ill

thou art mindful of him ?" And then I have thought
of the kindly world we had left, with its revolving sun-
shine and shadow, and the other stars that gladden it
in their changes, and the hearts that warmed to us
there; till I lost myself in memories of those who are
not; — and they bore me back to the stars again.

The Esquimaux, like other nomads, are careful
observers of the heavenly bodies. An illustration of
the confidence with which they avail themselves of
this knowledge occurred while Petersen's party were
at Tessieusak. I copy it from my journal of Novem-
ber 6.

"A number of Esquimaux sought sleeping-quarters
in the hut, much to the annoyance of the earlier visit*
ors. The night was clear; and Petersen, anxious to
hasten their departure, pointed to the horizon, saying
it would soon be daylight. * No,' said the savage ; * when
that star there gets round to that point,' indicating the
quarter of the heavens, ' and is no higher than this star,*
naming it, 'will be the time to harness up my dogs.*
Petersen was astounded; but he went out the next
morning and verified the sidereal fact.

" I have been shooting a hare to-day up the ravine
pointed out by Ootuniah. It has been quite a pleasant
incident. I can hardly say how valuable the advice
of our Esquimaux friends has been to us upon our
hunts. This desert homestead of theirs is as thoroughly
travelled over as a sheepwalk. Every movement of
the ice or wind or season is noted; and they predict
its influeace upon the course of the birds of passage

HEATING APPARATUS.

427

ought
g sun-
den it
to us
[lo are

jareful
ion of
ves of
J were
fovem-

aarters
r visit-
ious to
saying
*when
ing the
is star,'
dogs/
e next

ravine
leasant

advice
lon our
'oughly
lent of

predict
passage

with the same sagacity that has taught them the hahits
of the resident animals.

" They foretold to me the exact range of the water
off Cape Alexander during September, October, No-
vember and December, and anticipated the excessive
fall of snow which has taken place this winter, by
reference to this mysterious water.

"In the darkest weather of October, when every
thing around is apparently congealed and solid, they
discover water by means as inscrutable as the divining-
rod. I was once journeying to Anoatok, and completely
enveloped in darkness among the rolled-ice off Godsend
Island. My dogs were suffering for water. September
was half gone, and the water-streams both on shore
and on the bergs had been solid for nearly a fortnight.
Myouk, my companion, began climbing the dune-like
summits of the ice-hills, tapping with his ice-pole and
occasionally applying his ear to parts of the surface.
He did so to three hills without any result, but at the
fourth he called out, * Water!* I examined the spot by
hand and tongue, for it was too dark to see; but I could
detect no liquid. Lying down and listening, I first
perceived the metallic tinkle of a rivulet. A few
minutes' digging brought us down to a scanty infil*
tration of drinkable water.

"November 8, Wednesday. — .Still tinkering at our
stove and ice-melter; at last successful. Old iron pipes,
and tin kettles, and all the refuse kitchen-ware of the
brig figure now in picturesque association and rejoice
in the title of our heating-apparatus. It is a great

428

METEORIC SHOTTER.

!, !

1 f

result. We have burnt from 6 A. m. to 10 p. m. but
seventy-five pounds, and will finish the twenty-four
hours with fifteen pounds more. It has been a mild
day, the thermometer keeping some tenths above 13°
below zero; but then we have maintained a tempera-
ture inside of 55° above. With our old contrivances we
could never get higher than 47°, and that without any
certainty, though it cost us a hundred and fifty-four
pounds a day. A vast increase of comfort, and still
greater saving of fuel. This last is a most important
consideration. Not a stick of wood comes below with-
out my eyes following it through the .scales to the
wood-stack. I weigh it to the very ounce.

" The tide-register, with its new wheel-and-axle ar-
rangements, has given us outxioor work for the day.
Inside, after rigging the stove, we have been busy
chopping wood. The ice is already three feet thick
at our tide-hole.

"November 15, Wednesday. — The last forty-eight
hours should have given us the annual meteoric shower.
We were fully prepared to observe it; but it would not
come off. It would have been a godsend variety. In
eight hours that I helped to watch, from nine of last
night until five this morning, there were only fifty-one
shooting stars. I have seen as many between the same
hours in December and February of last winter.

" Our traps have been empty for ten days past : but
for the pittance of excitement which the visit to them
gives, we might as well be without them.

" The men are getting nervous and depressed. Mc-

A beak! — A bear!

429

Mc-

Gary paced the deck all last Sunday in a fit of home-
sickness, without eating a meal. I do my best to cheer
them ; but it is hard work to hide one's own trials for
the sake of others who have not as many. I am glad
of my professional drill and its companion influence
over the sick and toil-worn. I could not get along at
all unless I combined the offices of physician and com-
mander. You cannot punish sick men.

"November 20, Monday. — I was out to-day looking
over the empty traps with Hans, and when about two
miles off the brig — luckily not more — I heard what
I thought was the bellow of a walrus on the floe-ice.
* Hark there, Hans !' The words were scarcely uttered
before we had a second roar, altogether unmistakable.
No walrus at all : a bear, a bear ! We had jumped to
the ice-foot already. The day was just thirty minutes
past the hour of noon; but, practised as we all are
to see through the darkness, it was impossible to make
out an object two hundred yards ofl*. What to do ? —
we had no arms.

" We were both of us afraid to run, for we knew that
the sight of a runner would be the signal for a chase ;
and, besides, it went to our hearts to lose such a provi-
dential accession to our means of life. A second roar,
well pitched amd abundant in volume, assured us that
the game was coming nearer, and that he was large
and of no doubt corresponding flavor. *Run for the
brig, Hans,' — he is a noble runner, — *and I will play
decoy.' Oflf went Hans like a deer. Another roar;
but he was already out of sight.

.*» . '"-i^V-. ,

430

HASTY RETREAT.

"I may confess it to these well-worn pages: there
was something not altogether pleasant in the silent
communings of the next few minutes ; but they were
silent ones.

"I had no stimulus to loquacity, and the bear had
ceased to be communicative. The floe was about
three-quarters of a tide ; some ten feet it may be, lower
than the ice-foot on which I lay. The bear was of
course below my horizon. I began after a while to
think over the reality of what I had heard, and to
doubt whether it might not be after all a creature of
the brain. It was very cold on that ice-foot. I re-
solved to crawl to the edge of it and peer under my
hands Into the dark shadow of the hummock-ridges.

"I did so. One look : nothing. A second : no bear
after all. A third : what is that long rounded shade ?
Stained ice ? Yes : stained ice. The stained ice gave
a gross menagerie roar, and charged on the instant for
my position. I had not even a knife, and did not wait
to think what would have been appropriate if I had
had one. I ran, — ran as I never expect these scurvy-
BtifFened knees to run again, — throwing off first one
mitten and then its fellow to avoid pursuit. I gained
the brig, and the bear ray mittens. I got back one
of them an hour afterward, but the other was carried
off as a trophy in spite of all the rifles we could bring
to the rescue.^'"^

"November 24, Friday. — The weather still mild.
I attempted to work to-day at charting. I placed a
large board on our stove, and pasted my paper to it.

THE CABIN BY NIGHT.

431

My lamp reposed on the lid of the cofTee-kottle, my
instruments in the slush-boiler, my feet in the ash-
pan; and thus I drew the first const-line of Grinnell
Land. The stove, by "lose watthing and niggard
feeding, has burnt only sixty-five pounds in the last
twenty-four hours. Of course, working by night I
work without fire. In the daytime our little company
take every man his share of duty as he is able. Poor
Wilson, just able to stump about after his late attack
of scurvy, helps to wash the dishes. Morton and
Brooks sew at sledge-clothing, while Riley, McGary,
and Ohlsen, our only really able-bodied men, cut the
ice and firewood.

"December 1, Friday. — I am writing at midnight.
I have the watch from eight to two. It is day in
the moonlight on deck, the thermometer getting up
again to 36° below zero. As I come down to the
cabin — for so we still call this little moss-lined igloe of
ours— every one is asleep, snoring, gritting his teeth,
or talking in his dreams. This is pathognomonic;
it tells of Arctic winter and its companion scurvy.
Tom Hickey, our good-humored, blundering cabin-boy,
decorated since poor Schubert's death vdth the dig-
nities of cook, is in that little dirty cot on the star-
board side; the rest are bedded in rows, Mr. Brooks
and myself chock aft. Our bunks are close against the
frozen moss wall, where we can take in the entire
family at a glance. The apartment measures twenty
feet by eighteen ; its height six feet four inches at one
place, but diversified elsewhere by beams crossing at

f
i
I

432

SICKNESS INC Xi EASING.

different distances from the floor. The avenue by
which it is approached is barely to be seen in the
moss wall forward: — ^twenty feet of air-tight space
make misty distance, for the puff of outside-tempera-
ture that came in with me has filled our atmosphere
with vesicles of vapor. The avenue — Ben-Djerback is
our poetic name for it— closes on the inside with a
door well patched with flannel, from which, stooping
upon all-fours, you back down a descent of four feet in
twelve through a tunnel three feet high and two feet
six inches broad. It would have been a tight squeeze
for a man like Mr. Brooks when he was better fed and
fatter. Arrived at the bottom, you straighten your-
self, and a second door admits you into the dark and
sorrowing hold, empty of stores and stripped to its
naked ceiling for firewood. From this we grope our
way to the main hatch, and mount by a rude stairway
of boxes into the open air.

"December 2, Saturday. — Had to put Mr. McGary
and Riley under active treatment for scurvy. Gums
retracted, ankles swollen, and bad lumbago. Mr. Wil-
son's case, a still worse one, has been brought under.
Morton's is a saddening one: I cannot afford to lose
him. He is not only one of my most intelligent
men, but he is daring, cool, and everjrway trustworthy.
His tendon Achilles has been completely perforated,
and the surface of the heel-bone exposed. An opera-
tion in cold, darkness, and privation, would probably
bring on locked-jaw. Brooks grows discouraged : the
poor fellow has scurvy in his stump, and his leg is

CUTTING INTO THE BRIG.

433

nue by
in the
t space
empera-
osphere
rback is
with a
jtooping
r feet in
mo feet
squeeze
fed and
n your-
ark and
i to its
ope our
itairwav

McGary
Gums
Ar. Wil-
under.
to lose
telligent
worthy,
forated,
a opera-
)robably
ed: the
s leg is

drawn up by the contraction of the flexors at the knee-
joint. This is the third case on board, — the fourth if
T include my own,— of contracted tendons.

" December 3, Sunday. — I have now on hand twenty-
four hundred pounds of chopped wood, a store collected
with great difficulty; and yet how inadequate a pro-
vision for the sickness and accident we must look for
through the rest of the dark days! It requires the
most vigorous effort of what we call a healthy man to
tear from the oak ribs of our stout little vessel a single
day's firewood. We have but three left who can
manage even this; and we cannot spare more than
one for the daily duty. Two thousand pounds will
barely carry us to the end of January, and the two
severest months of the Arctic year, February and
March, will still be ahead of us.

" To carry us over these, our days of greatest antici-
pated trial, we have the outside oak sheathing, — or
trebling, as the carpenters call it, — a sort of extra skin
to protect the brig against the shocks of the ice.
Although nearly three inches thick, it is only spiked
to her sides, and carpenter Ohlsen is sure that its
removal will not interfere with her searworthiness.
Cut the trebling only to the water-line, and it will
give me at least two and a half tons ; and with this —
God willing — I may get through this awful winter, and
save the brig besides !

"December 4, Monday. — That stove is smoking so
that three of our party are down with acute inflammar
tion of the eyes. I fear I must increase the diameter

Vol. I.— 28

» -

i lii

ii!i

■ !!

434

THE NIGHT-WATCH.

of our smoke-pipes, for the pitch-pine which we bum,
to save up our oak for the greater cold, is redundantly
charged with turpentine. Yet we do not want an in-
creased draught to consume our seventy pounds; the
fiat * No more wood' comes soon enough.

" Then for the night-watch. I have generally some-
thing on hand to occupy me, and can volunteer for
the hours before my regular term. Every thing is
closed tight ; I muffle myself in furs, and write ; or, if
the cold denies me that pleasure, I read, or at least
think. Thank heaven, even an Arctic temperature
leaves the mind unchilled. But in truth, though our
hourly observations in the air range between — 46° and
— 30°, we seldom register less than +36° below.

" December 5, Tuesday. — McGary is no better, but
happily has no notion how bad he is. I have to give
him a grating of our treasured potatoes. He and
Brooks will doubtless finish the two I have got out,
and then there will be left twelve. They are now
three years old, poor old frozen memorials of the dear
land they grew in. They are worth more than their
weight in gold." ;•

CHAPTER XXXII.

K8QUIMAUX SLEDGES — ^BONSALL's RETURN — ^RESULTS OW THE HUNT
— RETURN OF WITHDRAWING PARTY — THEIR RECEPTION — THE
ESQUIMAUX ESCORT — CONFERENCE — CONCILIATION — ON FIRE —
CASUALTY — CHRISTMAS — OLE BEN — A JOURNEY AHEAD — SET-
TING OUT — A DREARY NIGHT — STRIKING A LIGHT — END OF
1854.

I WAS asleep in the forenoon of the 7th, after the
fatigue of an extra night-watch, when I was called to
the deck by the report of " Esquimaux sledges." They
came on rapidly, five sledges, with teams of six dogs
each, most of the drivers strangers to us; and in a
few minutes were at the brig. Their errand was of
charity: they were bringing back to us Bonsall and
Petersen, two of the party that left us on the 28th of
August.

The party had many adventures and much suffering
to tell of. They had verified by painful and perilous
experience all I had anticipated for them. But the
most stirring of their announcements was the condition
they had left their associates in, two hundred miles off,
divided in their counsels, their energies broken, and

436

BONSALL*S RETURN.

their provisions nearly gone. I reserve for another
page the history of their wanderings. My first thought
was of the means of rescuing and relieving them.

I resolved to despatch the Esquimaux escort at once
with such supplies as our miserably-imperfect stores
allowed, they. giving their pledge to carry them with
all speed, and, what I felt to be much less certain,
with all honesty. But neither of the gentlemen who
had come with them felt himself in condition to repeat
the journey. Mr. Bonsall was evidently broken down,
and Petersen, never too reliable in emergency, was for
postponing the time of setting out. Of our own party —
those who had remained with the brig — McGary, Hans,
and myself were the only ones able to move, and of
these McGary was now fairly on the sick list. We
could not be absent for a single day without jeoparding
the lives of the rest.

" December 8, Friday. — I am much afraid these pro-
visions will never reach the wanderers. We were *
busy every hour since Bonsall arrived getting them
ready. We cleaned and boiled and packed a hundred
pounds of pork, and sewed up smaller packages of
meat-biscuit, bread-dust, and tea; and despatched the
whole, some three hundred and fifty pounds, by the
returning convoy. But I have no faith in an Esqui-
maux under temptation, and I almost regret that I
did not accompany them myself. It might have been
wiser. But I will set Hans on the track in the morn-
ing ; and, if I do not hear within four days that the
stores are fairly on their way, coiite qui coUte, I will be

RESULTS OF THE HUNT.

437

another
thought
m.

at once
b stores
m with
certain,
en who
) repeat
a down,
was for
party—
1, Hans,
and of
St. We
parding

ese pro-
were*
g them
Lundred
iges of
led the
by the
Esqui-
that I
'^e been
J mom-
lat the
will be

off to the lower bay and hold the whole tribe as host-
ages for the absent party.

" Brooks is wasting with night-sweats ; a'ad my iron
man, McGary, has been suffering for two days with
anomalous cramps from exposure.

"These Esquimaux have left us some walrus-beef;
and poor little Myouk, who is unabated in his affec-
tion for me, made me a special present of half a liver.
These go of course to the hospital. God knows they
are needed there !

"December 9, Saturday. — The superabundant life
of Northumberland Island has impressed Petersen as
much as it did me. I cannot think of it without
recurring to the fortunes of Franklin's party. Our
own sickness I attribute to our civilized diet ; had we
plenty of frozen walrus I would laugh at the scurvy.
And it was only because I was looking to other objects —
summer researches, and explorations in the fall with
the single view to escape — that I failed to secure an
abundance of fresh food. Even in August I could
have gathered a winter's supply of birds and cochlearia.

" From May to August we lived on seal, twenty-five
before the middle of July, all brought in by one man :
a more assiduous and better-organized hunt would
have swelled the number without a limit. A few boat-
parties in June would have stocked us with eider-eggs
for winter use, three thousand to the trip; and the
snowdrifts would have kept them fresh for the break-
fast-table. I loaded my boat with ducks in three
hourS; as late as the middle of July and not more than

438 RETURN OP WITHDRAWING PARTY.

I
ilii

illllli:

i ^i'

|l-'

I i

thirty-five miles from our anchorage. And even now,
here are these Esquimaux, sleek and oily with their
walrus-blubber, only seventy miles off. It is not a
region for starvation, nor ought it to be for scurvy.

CLIFFS, NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND.

/"-

"December 12, Tuesday. — Brooka awoke me at
three this morning with the cry of * Esquimaux again !*
I dressed hastily, and, groping my way over the pile of
boxes that leads up from the hold into the darknesb
above, made out a group of human figures, masked by
the hooded jumpers of the natives. They stopped at

>n now,
;h their
I not a
curvy.

;-,-!

me at

again

pile of
Eirknesb
ked by
)ped at

THEIR RECEPTION.

439

the gangway, and, as I was about to challenge, one of
them sprang forward and grasped my hand. It was
Doctor Hayes. A few words, dictated hy suflfering,
certainly not by any anxiety as to his reception, and
at his bidding the whole party came upon deck. Poor
fellows ! I could only grasp their hands and give them
a brother's welcome.

"The thermometer was at minus 50°; they were
covered with rime and snow, and were fainting with
hunger. It was necessary to use caution in taking
them below; for, after an exposure of such fearful
intensity and duration as they had gone through, the
warmth of the cabin would have prostrated them com-
pletely. They had journeyed three hundred and fifty
miles; and their last run from the bay near Etah, some
seventy miles in a right line, was through the hum-
mocks at this appalling temperature. \

"One by one they all came in and were housed.
Poor fellows! as they threw open their Esquimaux
garments by the stove, how they relished the scanty
luxuries which we had to offer them I The coffee and
the meat-biscuit soup, and the molasses and the wheat
bread, even the salt pork which our scurvy forbade the
rest of us to touch, — how they relished it all ! For
more than two months they had lived on frozen seal
and walrus-meat.

" They are almost all of them in danger of collapse,
but I have no apprehension of life unless from tetanus.
Stephenson is prostrate with pericarditis. I resigned
my own bunk to Dr. Hayes, who is much prostrated :

440

THE ESQUIMAUX ESCORT.

he will probably lose two of his toes, perhaps a third.
The rest have no special injury.

" I cannot crowd the details of their journey into my
diary. I have noted some of them from Dr. Hayes's
words ; but he has promised me a written report, and 1
wait for it. It was providential that they did not stop
for Petersen's return or rely on the engagements which
his Esquimaux attendants had made to them as well
as to us. The sledges that carried our relief of provi-
sions passed through the Etah settlement empty, on
some furtive project, we know not what.

"December 13, Wednesday. — The Esquimaux who
accompanied the returning party are nearly all of them
well-known friends. They were engaged from different
settlements, but, as they neared the brig, volunteers
added themselves to the escort till they numbered six
drivers and as many as forty-two dogs. Whatever
may have been their motive, their conduct to our poor
friends was certainly full of humanity. They drove
at flying speed; every hut gave its welcome as they
halted; the women were ready without invitation to
dry and. chafe their worn-out guests.

"I found, however, that there were other objects
connected with their visit to the brig. Suffering and
a sense of necessity had involved some of our foot-
worn absentees in a breach of hospitality. While
resting at Kalutunah's hut, they had found opportunity
of appropriating to their own use certain articles of
clothing, fox-skins and the like, under circumstances
which admitted of justification only by the law of the

CONFERENCE.

441

more sagacious and the stronger. It was apparent
that our savage friends had their plaint to make, or, it
might be, to avenge.

''My first attention, after ministering to the imme-
diate wants of all, was turned to the office of conciliat-
ing our Esquimaux benefactors. Though they wore
their habitual faces of smiling satisfaction, I could read
them too well to be deceived. Policy as well as moral
duty have made me anxious always to deserve their
respect; but I had seen enough of mankind in its
varied relations not to know that respect is little else
than a tribute to superiority either real or supposed, —
and that among the rude at least, one of its elements
is fear.

"I therefore called them together in stem and
cheerless conference on the deck, as if to inquire into
the truth of transactions that I had heard of, leaving
it doubtful from my manner which was the party I
proposed to implicate. Then, by the intervention of
Petersen, I called on Kalutunah for his story, and went
through a full train of questionings on both sides. It
was not difficult to satisfy them that it was my
purpose to do justice all round. The subject of con-
troversy was set out fully, and in such a manner as to
convince me that an appeal to kind feeling might have
been substituted with all effect for the resort to artifice
or force. I therefore, to the immense satisfaction of
our stranger guests, assured them of my approval, and
pulled their hair all around.

"They were introduced into the oriental recess of

442

CONCILIATION.

our dormitory, — ^hitherto an unsolved mystery. There,
seated on a red blanket, with four pork-fat lamps,
throwing an illumination over old worsted damask
curtains, hunting-knives, rifles, beer-barrels, galleynstove
and chronometers, I dealt out to each man five needles,
a file, and a stick of wood. To Kalutunah and Shunghu

i -i

SHUNflHU.

I gave knives and other extras; and in conclusion
spread out our one remaining buffalo close to the stove,
built a roaring fire, cooked a hearty supper, and by
noonday they were sleeping away in a state of thorough
content. I explained to them further that my people
did not steal; that the fox-jumpers and boots and

. There,
t lamps,

damask
ley-Btove

needles,
Shunghu

slusion
stove,
nd by
)rough
people
:s and

i
4 >

* A

4 --.

•' ^1

"■^■^. ^

■*-;^j;js«feg^«?i^;

%. ^

>'..

^i-''

<--'is

f J.

. 1
■f,

4};a"C5<^

lUi-'it.

^ii«^-ft

:> .\ V*

^'<'u-]k Wii

COOKING-ROOM ON FIRE.

443

sledges were only taken to save their lives; and I there-
upon returned them.

"The party took a sound sleep, and a second or
rather a continuous feed, and left again on their return
through the hummocks with apparent confidence and
good-humor. Of course they prigged a few knives and
forks; — ^but that refers itself to a national trait.

"December 23, Saturday. — This uncalculated acces-
sion of numbers makes our little room too crowded
to be wholesome: I have to guard its ventilation
with all the severity that would befit a surgical
ward of our Blockley Hospital. We are using the
Esquimaux lamp as an accessory to our stove : it
helps out the cooking and water-making, without
encroaching upon our rigorously-meted allowance of
wood. But the odor of pork-fat, our only oil, we
have found to be injurious ; and our lamps are there-
fore placed outside the tosauty in a small room bulk-
headed off for their use.

"This new arrangement gave rise yesterday to a
nearly fatal disaster. A watch had been stationed in
charge of the lamp, with the usual order of *No un-
covered lights.' He deserted his post. Soon afterward,
Hans found the cooking-room on fire. It was a hor-
rible crisis ; for no less than eight of our party were
absolutely nailed to their beds, and there was nothing
but a bulkhead between them and the fire. I gave
short but instant orders, stationing a line between the
tide-hole and the main hatch, detailing two men to
work with me, and ordering all the rest who could

444

CASUALTY.

; I.I

move to their quarters. Dr. Hayes with his maimed
foot, Mr. Brooks with his contracted legs, and poor
Morton, otherwise among our best men, could do
nothing.

"Before we reached the fire, the entire bulkhead
was in a blaze, as well as the dry timbers and skin of
the brig. Our moss walls, with their own tinder-like
material and their light casing of inflammable wood,
were entirely hidden by the flames. Fortunately the
furs of the recently-returned party were at hand, and
with them I succeeded in smothering the fire. But I was
obliged to push through the blaze of our sailcloth bulk-
head in order to defend the wall ; and, in my anxiety
to save time, I had left the cabin without either cap or
mittens. I got through somehow or other, and tore
down the canvas which hung against that dangerous
locaHty. Our rifles were in this comer, and their
muzzles pointing in all directions.

" The water now began to pass down ; but with the
discharge of the first bucketful the smoke overcame
me. As I found myself going, I pushed for the hatch-
way, knowing that the bucket-line would feel me.
Seeing was impossible ; but, striking Ohlsen's legs as I
fell, I was passed up to the deck, minus beard, eye-
brows, and forelock, jaltis two bums on the forehead
and one on each palm.

"In about three minutes after making way with the
canvas, the fire was got under, and in less than half an
hour all was safe again. But the transition, for even
the shortest time, from the fiery Shadrachian furnace-

CHRISTMAS DINNER.

445

temperature below, to 46° below zero above, was in-
tolerably trying. Every man suffered, and few escaped
without frost-bitten fingers.

"The remembrance of the danger and its horrible
results almost miraculously averted shocks us all.
Had we lost our brig, not a man could have survived :
without shelter, clothing, or food, the thermometer
almost eighty degrees below the freezing point, and a
brisk wind stirring, what hope could we have on the
open ice-field ?

"December 25, Christmas, Monday. — ^AU together
again, the returned and the steadfast, we sat down to
our Christmas dinner. There was more love than with
the stalled ox of former times ; but of herbs none. We
forgot our discomforts in the blessings which adhered
to us still; and when we thought of the long road
ahead of us, we thought of it hopefully. I pledged
myself to give them their next Christmas with their
homes; and each of us drank his * absent friends' with
ferocious zest over one-eighteenth part of a bottle of
sillery, — ^the last of its hamper, and, alas ! no longer
motisseux.

" But if this solitary relic of festival days had lost
its sparkle, we bad not. We passed around merrily
our turkeys roast and boiled, roast-beef, onions, pota-
toes and cucumbers, watermelons, and God knows
what other cravings of the scurvy-sickened palate,
with entire exclusion of the fact that each one of these
was variously represented by pork and beans. Lord
Peter himself was not more cordial in his dispensa-

446

OLE BEN S HOSPITALITY.

tion of plum-pudding, mutton, and custard to his
unbelieving brothers.

" McGary, of course, told us his story : we hear it
every day, and laugh at it almost as heartily as he
does himself. Caesar Johnson is the guest of 'Ole
Ben,' colored gentlemen both, who do occasional white-
washing. The worthies have dined stanchly on the
dish of beans, browned and relished by its surmount-
ing cube of pork. A hospitable pause, and, with a
complacent wave of the hand, Ole Ben addresses the
lady hostess: — *01e woman! bring on de resarve.'
*Ha'n't got no resarve.' *Well, den,' — ^with a placid
smile, — 'bring on de beans!'

" So much for the Merrie Christmas. What portion
of its mirth was genuine with the rest I cannot tell,
for we are practised actors some of us; but there was
no heart in my share of it. My thoughts were with
those far oflf, who are thinking, I know, of me. I
could bear my own troubles as I do my eider-down
coverlet; for I can see myself as I am, and feel sus-
tained by the knowledge that I have fought my battle
well. But there is no one to tell of this at the home-
table. Pertinacity, unwise daring, calamity, — any of
these may come up unbidden, as my name circles
round, to explain why I am still away." ,

For some days before Christmas I had been medi-
tating a sledge-journey to our Esquimaux neighbors.
The condition of the little party under my charge left
me no alternative, uncomfortable and hazardous as I
knew that it must be. I failed in the first ejSbrt ; but

A JOURNEY AHEAD.

447

there were incidents connected with it which may
deserve a place in this volume. I recur to my
journal for a succinct record of my motives in set-
ting out: —

"December 26, Tuesday. — The moon is nearly above
the cliffs; the thermometer — 57° to — 45°, the mean
of the past four days. In the midst of this cheering
conjunction, I have ahead of me a journey of a hundred
miles J to say nothing of the return. Worse than this,
I have no landmarks to guide me, and must be my own
pioneer.

"But there is a duty in the case. McGary and
Brooks are sinking, and that rapidly. Walrus-beef
alone can sustain them, and it is to be got from the
natives and nowhere else. It is a merciful change of
conditions that I am the strongest now of the whole
party, as last winter I was the weakest. The duty of
collecting food is on me. I shall go first to the lower
Bay Esquimaux, and thence, if the hunt has failed
there, to Cape Robertson.

"My misgivings are mostly on account of the dogs;
for it is a rugged, hummocked drive of twenty-two
hours, even with strong teams and Esquimaux drivers.
We have been feeding them on salt meat, for we have
had nothing else to give them; and they are out of
health; and there are hardly enough of them at best
to carry our lightest load. If one of these tetanoids
should attack them on the road, it may bs game up for
all of us.

"But it is to be tried at last: Petersen will go with

448

SETTING OUT.

me, and we will club our wits. I do not fear the cold :
we are impregnable in our furs while under exercise,
though if we should be forced to walk, and give out, it
might be a different matter. We shall have, I imagine,
a temperature not much above — 54°, and I do not see
how we are to carry heating-apparatus. We have load
enough without it. Our only diet will be a stock of
meat-biscuit, to which I shall add for myself — Peter-
sen's taste is less educated — a few rats, chopped up
and frozen into the tallow-balls.

"December 28, Thursday. — I have fed the dogs the
last two days on their dead brethren. Spite of all
proverbs, dog will eat dog, if properly cooked. I have
been saving up some who died of fits, intending to use
their skins, and these have come in very opportunely.
I boil them into a sort of bloody soup, and deal them
out twice a day in chunks and solid jelly; for of course
they are frozen like quartz rock. These salt meats are
absolutely poisonous to the Northern Esquimaux dog.
We have now lost fifty odd, and one died yesterday in
the very act of eating his reformed diet.

" The moon to-morrow will be for twelve hours above
the horizon, and so nearly circumpolar afterward as to
justify me in the attempt to reach the Esquimaux
hunting-ground about Cape Alexander. Every thing is
ready; and, God willing, I start to-morrow, and pass the
four-hours' dog-halt in the untenanted hut of Anoatok.
Then we have, as it may be, a fifteen, eighteen, or
twenty hours' march, run and drive, before we reach a
shelter among the heathen of the Bay.

[[

A DREARY NIGHT.

449

the cold:
exercise,
ve out, it
'. imagine,
o not see
xave load
stock of
f— Peter-
)pped up

dogs the
te of all
I have
ag to use
ortunely.
eal them
of course
neats are
aux dog.
;erday in

irs above
krd as to
[juimaux
thing is
pass the
Inoatok.
teen, or
reach a

"January 2, Tuesday. — The dogs began to show
signs of that accursed tetanoid spasm of theirs before
we passed Ten-mile Ravine. When we reached Basalt
Camp, six out of eight were nearly useless. Our thermo-
meter was at — 44°, and the wind was blowing sharply
out of the gorge from the glacier. Petersen wanted to
return, but was persuaded by me to walk on to the huts
at Anoatok, in the hope that a halt might restore the
animals. We reached them after a thirty miles' march.

" The sinuosities of this bay gave fearful travel : the
broken ice clung to the rocks; and we could only
advance by climbing up the ice-foot and down again
upon the floe, as one or the other gave us the chance
of passing. It was eleven hours and over before we
were at the huts, having made by sledge and foot^tramp
forty-five miles. We took to the best hut, filled in its
broken front with snow, housed our dogs, and crawled
in among them.

"It was too cold to sleep. Next morning we broke
down our door and tried the dogs again: they could
hardly stand. A gale now set in from the southwest,
obscuring the moon and blowing very hard. We were
forced back into the hut ; but, after corking up all open-
ings with snow and making a fire with our Esquimaux
lamp, we got up the temperature to 30° below zero,
cooked cofiee, and fed the dogs freely. This done,
both Petersen and myself, our clothing frozen stiff", fell
asleep through sheer exhaustion; the wind outside
blowing death to all that might be exposed to its in-
fluence.

Vol. I.— 29

450

STRIKING A LIGHT.

i it

"I do not know how long we slept, but my admi-
rable clothing kept me up. I was cold, but far from
dangerously so ; and was in a fair way of sleeping out
a refreshing night, when Petersen waked me with —
* Captain Kane, the lamp's out.* I heard him with a
thrill of horror. The gale had increased ; the cold was
piercing, the darkness intense ; our tinder had become
moist, and was now like an icicle. All our fire-arms
were stacked outside, for no Arctic man will trust
powder in a condensing temperature. "We did not
dare to break down our doorway, for that would admit
the gale ; our only hope of heat was in re-lighting our
lamp. Petersen, acting by my directions, made several
attempts to obtain fire from a pocket-pistol; but his
only tinder was moss, and our heavily stone-roofed hut
or cave would not bear the concussion of a rammed
wad.

" By good luck I found a bit of tolerably dry paper
in my jumper ; and, becoming apprehensive that Peter-
sen would waste our few percussion-caps with his in-
effectual snappings, I determined to take the pistol
myself. It was so intensely dark that I had to grope
for it, and in doing so touched his hand. At that
instant the pistol became distinctly visible. A pale
bluish light, slightly tremulous but not broken, covered
the metallic parts of it, the barrel, lock, and trigger.
The stock too, was clearly discernible as if by the
reflected light, and, to the amazement of both of us,
the thumb and two fingers with which Petersen was
holding it, the creases, wrinkles, and circuit of the

END OF 1854.

451

nails clearly defined upon the skin. The phospho-
rescence was not unlike the ineffectual fire of the glow-
worm. As I took the pistol my hand became illu-
minated also, and so did the powder-rubbed paper
when I raised it against the muzzle.

" The paper did not ignite at the first trial, but, the
light from it continuing, I was able to charge the pistol
without difficulty, rolled up my paper into a cone,
filled it with moss sprinkled over with powder, and
held it in my hand while I fired. This time I suc-
ceeded in producing flame, and we saw no more of the
phosphorescence. I do not stop for theory or argu-
ment to explain this opportune phenomenon ; our fur
clothing and the state of the atmosphere may refer it
plausibly enough to our electrical condition.

"As soon as the wind had partially subsided, we
broke out of the hut and tried the dogs toward Refuge
Inlet ; but the poor broken-down animals could not sur-
mount the hummocks; and, as a forced necessity to
save their lives and ours, we resolved to push for the
brig on foot, driving them before us. We made the
walk of forty-four miles in sixteen hours, almost scud-
ding before the gale, and arrived safely at 7 p.m. of
Sunday ; the temperature — 40°."

With this fruitless adventure closed the year 1854.

BARROW'S STRAITS.

THE

SOLID

SMITH'S STRAITS.
Sketch thowing fht Oonditton 0/ Ms Ice of Barrtvi't and SmUh'i BtraUi for tht ytan I8S4-S5,

8E> PAOI 314 £0.

NOTES.

Note 1, p. 21.

Spkihqs, properly speaking, as outleto of subterranean drainage, are almost
unknown in Nortli Greenland. At Qodhavn, Disco, at the line of junction of
the greenstones and the basis-granites, there is a permanent spring, with a
winter temperature of 38-5° Fahr. ; but the so-called springs of the Danish
settlements, as far north as 73», are derived from a surface-drainage which is
suspended during the colder months of the year.

Note 2, p. 23.

The shark-oil trade is of recent growth in North Greenland. It has lately
been extended as far north as Proven. At Neorkanek, the seat of greatest
yield, about three hundred fish are taken annually. The oil is expressed from
the Uver of the Arctic shark, (S. borealis,) the Hvowcalder of the Icelanders:
it is extremely pui-e, resisting cold, and well adapted to lubrication. It brings
a higher price in the Copenhagen market than the best seal-oils.

Note 3, p. 25.

There are no Moravian missions in North Greenland, and but three of their
settlements in the south. Named in the order of their date of colonization,
they are New Hernhut, Lichtenfels, and Frederickstahl. With these excepl
tions, the entire coast is Lutheran. The Lutheran mis.sions, although distinct
in organization from the Royal Greenland Company, are nevertheless under the
direct patronage of government, and administered by a board appointed by the
crown. The Moravians have no special facilities, and are dependent for their
supplies upon private negotiations and the courtesy of the Danish trading-

Note 4, p. 29.

There are four sizes of reindeer-skins, of distinct qualities and marked values
among the Esquimaux:—!. Bennesoak: the largest males, generally without
antlers. 2. Nersutok: males of lesser size, retaining their antlers during the

453

464

NOTES.

winter. 8. Koluak : femalei still imaller, but not materially so. 4. Nohkak :
the yearlings or younger animals. These lust are prised for children's clothing.
It is the Beunesoak whiub is so useful as an Arctic sleeping-bag in the sledge*
journeys.

Note 6, p. 82.

Within oomparatiTely recent periods the Esquimaux had summer settlements
around Wilcox Point and the Melville Q lacier ; but in 1820 the small-pox so
reduced them that they wore concentrated about Upemavik. Except occasional
parties for the chase of the white bear or the collection of eider-down, there are
no natives north of Yotlik. Cape Shackleton and Horse's Head arc, however,
visited annually for eggs and down. By the tortuous route of the Colonial
Itinerary, the latter is rated at twenty-eight Danish, or about one hundred and
thirty-five statute, miles ftom Upemavik.

Note 6, p. 48.

The North Water, although its position varies with the character and period
of the season, may be found, under ordinary conditions, in the month of August
off Cape York. The local name given to it by the whalers is the Cape York
Water.

Note 7, p. 46.

This moss — an unrecognised sphagnum — was studded with the pale-yellow
flowers of the Ranunculus sabinii. No less than four species of Draba were
afterward found on the island.

Note 8, p. 46.

Poa and alopecurus, with their accompanying bird-life, are abundant on the
southern faces of Cape Alexander; but all the headlands to the north are
utterly destitute of apparent vegetation. On Sutherland's Island a scanty
supply of sourvy-grass (^CoehUaria fenestrata) may be found.

Note 9, p. 49.
This ice was not distinguishable from aloft at the time of leaving the brig.

Note 10, p. 55.

My survey of this harbor shows forty fathoms water to within a bisouit-toss
of its northern headland, — a square face of gneiss rock ; thence £. by S., (true,)
heading for a small glacier, you may carry seven fathoms to within two hun-
dred yards of land. The southern side is shoal and rocky. The holding-
ground is good, and the cove completely landlocked, except a small channel

NOTES.

455

fW)m the westward ; but, owing to tho provnlcnco of fogs as well ns wind-eddies
from the oliffs and porHiatonce of local ice, I cannot rooommond it for a winter
harbor.

Note 11, p. 66.

This animal presented one of those rare cases of a well-doTelopcd second pro-
oeM protruding about six inches. I was unable to preierre the specimen.

Note 12, p. 68.

These were the results of direct pressure, — more properly, " crushed ice."
The ice-hills of Von Wrangell and American authorities are grounded ices
upreared by wave and tidal actions.

NoTBlS, p. 68.

These are arranged in lines not unlike those described by Captain Bayfield
on the Labrador coast. They are undoubtedly the result of ice-transportation,
the process being still going on. At the head of Force Bay are traces of an
ancient moraine.

Note 14, p. 66.

My note-books contain many instances of the facility with which the Esqui-
maux dog relapses into a savage state. There is anibland near the Holatein-
berg fiords where such animals hunt the reindeer in packs, and are habitually
shot by the natives.

Note 15, p. 68.

See page 323 and Appendix No. VI. For comparisons of difference of longi-
tude between my own and Captain Inglefield's surveys, consult any point on
Admiralty charts north of 78° 87^, — the latitude of Rensselaer Harbor, which
was regarded as our prime meridian.

Note 16, p. 71.

This valley is flanked by terraced beach-lines :
an ancient moraine worthy of study.

its background is the seat of

Note 17, p. 77.

A case of similar peril is reported by Captain Cator, of H. B. M. steamer
Intrepid. His vessel was carried bodily up the inclined face of an iceberg, and,
after being high and dry out of water, launched again without injury.
•'Nautical Magazine."

456

NOTES.

Note 18, p. 81. , .

The observations of our parties extended the range of the musk-ox (Ovibob
motchatus) to the Greenland coast. None of us saw a living specimen ; but the
great number of skeletons, their state of preservation and probable foot-tracks,
when taken in conjunction with the information of the Esquimaux, leave me no
room to doubt but that these animals have been recent visitors.

Note 19, p, 82.
See "Examination of Plants," by Elias Durand, Esq., in Appendix No. XYIIL

Note 20, p. 87.

Except for cases of sudden effort and not calling for continued exertion or
exposure, grog was not looked upon as advisable. Hot coffee was a frequent
and valuable stimulus.

Note 21, p. 93.

The tenacity with which the ice-belt adheres to the rocks is well shown by
its ability to resist the overflow of the tides. The displacement thus occa-
sioned is sometimes, however, so excessive that the entire mass is floated away,
carrying with it the fragments which had been luted to it from below, as well
as those incorporated with its mass by deposits from above.

Note 22, p. 95.

A reindeer-skull found in the same gorge was completely fossilized. That
the snow-waters around Rensselaer Harbor held large quantities of carbonate
of lime in solution was proved not only by the tufaceous deposit which in-
crusted the masses, but by actual tests. The broken-down magnesian lime-
stones of the upper plateaux readily explain this.

Note 23, p. 97.

The several minor streams which make up Mary Mintum River run nearly
parallel with the axis of the interior glacier from which they take their origin,
and unite in a single canal without intermediate lakes.

Note 24, p. 99.

The flower-growth of the valley of Mary Mintum River proves that oerfiain
favoring influences — especially those of reverberation of heat from the rocks

i I

NOTES.

457

and continued distillation of water through protecting mossefl — give a local
richness to the Arctic flora which seems to render it independent of arbitrary
zones. No less than fire Crucifers were collected at this favored spot, two
species of Draba, the Gochlearia fenestrata, Hesperis pallasii, and Yesicaria
arctica. The poppy grew at a little distance from the stream ; and, still further
shaded by the rocks, was the Oxyria digyna in such quantities as to afford
bountiful salads to our party. The immediate neighborhood of the water-
course presented a beautiful carpet of Lychnis and Ranunculus, varied by Dryas
octopetala and PotentiUa pulchella growing from beds of richest moss. For the
determinatioq of the species of the^^e plants I am indebted to Mr. Durand : it
was not until my return and my plants had been subjected to his able analysis
that I was aware that Yesicaria was upon my list. I had never seen it north
of Egedesminde, latitude 68° ; yet both it and Hesperis are also among Dr.
Hayes's collections.

Note 25, p. 101.

The lines of junction of floes serve rudely as an index to the direction of drift
The hummocks are generally at right angles to the axis of drift.

Note 26, p. 110.

The dimensions and general structure of the sledge are of vital importance
for a successful journey. Yery slight, almost imperceptible, differences cause
an increase of friction more than equal to the draught of an additional man or
dog. The curvature of the runners — that of minimum resistance — depends
upon elements not easily computed : it is best determined experimentally. The
" Faith" — which for the heavy and snow-covered ice of Smith's Straits was the
best sledge I ever saw— differed somewhat from the excellent model of Captain
McClintock, furnished me by the British Admiralty : its increased breadth of
runner kept it from burying in the snow ; while its lesser height made it
stronger and diminished the strain upon the lashings. I subjoin the dimensions
of two nearly similar s' )dges, — Mr. McClintock's and my own : —

MeClintoctc't.

ft. In.

Length of runner 13

Height of do Hi

Horizontal width of aU parts 2}

Thickness of all parts 1^

Length, rebting on a plane surface 6

Oross-bars, six in number, making a

width of. - 3

The Faith.

ft. in.

Length of runner 13

Height of do 8

Horizontal width of rail 2}

" " base of runner. 3^

« «< other parts 2

Thickness of all parts 1|

Length, resting on a plane surfikce 6

Cross-bars, five in number, making a

width of 3 8

erfiain
rocks

The shoeing of the large sledges of English expeditions was of burnished one*
eighth-inch iron ; our own were of annealed three-sixteenths-inch steel, as light
as possible, to admit of slightly countersunk rivets. Seal-skin lashings were

458

NOTES.

ill
I

It :■%

used for the oross-bars, applied wet; the wood was hickory and oak, not the
Canada elm used by the Lancaster Sound parties.

A sledge thus constructed, with a canvas cover on which to place and confine
the cargo, would readily load, according to the state of the travel, from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per man. The "Faith" has carried
sixteen hundred pounds.

Note 27, p. 113.

These boats were not well adapted to their purpose, their bulk being too
great for portability. The casing of basket-willow I regard as better than a
wooden firame or distension by simple inflation with air. No sledge, however,
should be without the India-rubber floats or portable boat of Lieutenant
Halkett.

Note 28, p. 114.

This is quoted firom the original report of the party. There are no syenites
upon this plain : the rocks are entirely destitute of hornblende. They are of
the same bottom-series as the fiords about our harbor, highly feldspathio and
sometimes porphyritio granites passing into coarse gneisses.

Note 29, p. 117.

One end of the cord represented a fixed point, by being anchored to the
bottom ; the free end, with an attached weight, rose and fell with the brig, and
recorded its motion on the grooved circumference of a wheel. This method was
liable to objections ; but it was corrected by daily soundings. The movements
of our vessel partook of those of the floe in which she was imbedded, and were
unaccompanied by any lateral deviation.

Note 30, p. 118.
For methods of observation, see Appendix No. XL Vol. II.

Note 31, p. 122.

The almost incomprehensible use of these small kennels as dormitories was
afterward satisfactorily ascertained from the Esquimaux themselves. They are
spoken of as far south as Karsnk, (near Upernavik,) and are at this moment
resorted to in case of arrivals of hiuting-parties, &c. Unlike the Siberian
pologs, they are not enclosed by a second chamber. The hardy tenant, mu£3ed
in furs, at a temperature of — 60° is dependent for warmth upon his own
powers and the slow conduction of the thick walls.

NOTES.

459

Note 82, p. 126.

Hair evidently from the musk-ox was found near Refuge Inlet. Thelastof
these ammals seen by the Esquimaux was in the late spring of 1850, near Cape
George Russell. Here Metek saw a group of six. ".near cape

Note 33, p. 138.

ren^r'L'^f T'"- ''/^,* **« ™"*^°° '' provision.dep6ts by bears, see the
Xwn/ r'n Jx'^"''"* sledge-operations of Commodore Austin,

tove ammal to Arctic caches, is not found north of Lancaster Sound So
cylinder with corneal terminations gave any protection against their assaultr^

Note 34, p. 155.

The liquids subjected to these low temperatures were for the most part tke
ethers and volatUe oils. The results will be pubUshed elsewhere.

Pagk158.

tl.f ?V "'**; ,5^V*P*^°'! ^' *^« ^""^ ^^ th« page is not intended to affirm
tiie ex tence of this disease in this high No.*. Some of the tetanoid s^
toms attendant upon tonic spasm closely simulated it ; but the disease. strS
speakmg, is unknown there. •^i-uj'

Note 85, p. 220.
There is a local reservoir of interior ice around Cape Alexander and toward

of'i rZir* "'^ ''' ''"""• ' ^"°^" '^°" *'^ «^-* -- *^^

Notes 86 to 41 inclusive, pp. 221, 222.

I intended to refer by these numerals to a somewhat enlarged summary of
the geognostic characters of this coast; but I find it impracticable to condense
my observations into the narrow limits which have been reserved for these
notes Like many other topics of more scientific than popular interest, they
may find a place m the Official Reports upon which I am now engaged under
the orders of the Navy Department.

Note 42, p. 222

Where this face came in contact with opposing masses of rocks.-as at islands
or at the sides of its is8uing-trough,--abrupt fractures and excessive crevassing

460

NOTES.

I ' ^

indicated the resistanoe to the passage of the ice-stream. I think I have men-
tioned a small island near the cache that was already partially buried by the
advance of the glacier and the discharged fragments at its base.

Note 43, p. 225.

Our surreys give four points for the determination of the trend of this interior
mer de glace: — 1. Up the fiord of Marshall Bay; 2. In the interior, about lat.
78° 32'', as observed by Dr. Hayes ; 3. South of Force Bay ; 4. Near Etah.
These give the axis of the stream nearly due north and south.

Note 44, p. 226.

Australia, between Bass and Torres Straits, measures about sixteen hun-
dred miles.

Note 45, p. 227.

Looking upon the glaciers of Greenland as canals of exudation, for the most
part at right angles to the general axis of the interior ice, we have a system
of discharge, both on the east and west coasts, coincident in direction with the
fiords, which themselves bear a fixed relation to the coast-line. This coast-
line, however, having now been traced to its northern face, analogy would sus-
tain the view of the central mer de glace finding its exit into an unknown Polar
space.

I have spoken of Humboldt Glacier as connecting the two continents of
America and Greenland. The expression requires explanation: —

All of Arctic America north of Dolphin and Union Straits is broken up into
large insular masses, and may be considered aa a vast archipelago. While,
therefore, a liberal definition would assign these land-masses to the American
continent, Grinnell Land cannot strictly be regarded as part of the continent
of America. Washington Land seems, in physical characters and position, to
be a sort of middle ground, which, according to the different views of geo-
graphers, may be assigned indifferently to either of the two great divisions.
From the American land-masses it is separated by a channel of but thirty-five
miles in width ; and, at this point, Greenland, losing its peninsular character,
partakes in general character with the land-masses of the West. A water-
channel not wider than Lancaster Sound or Murchison's, which have heretofore
not been regarded as breaking a geographical continuity, is all that intervenes.

Note 46, p. 232.

Extract from Report of 1. 1. Hayes, M.D., Surgeon to Expedition.

"You were carried to the brig nearly insensible by the more able men of the
party, and so swollen from scurvy as to be hardly recognisable. I believe that
a few hours' more exposure would have terminated your life, and at the time
regarded your ultimate recovery as nearly hopeless."

Ii !

NOTES. 461

Note 47, p. 242.

This term is applied to the circular hole which the fetid seal (P. hispida) con-
structs in the younger floes, and through which it finds access to the air and
sun. The term atluk is applied also to the seal itself when killed beside its
retreat, I find I have sometimes written the word as attuk. He who has
attempted the orthography of an unwritten language will excuse the variation.

Note 48, p. 290.

Thedovekie {Uriagrylle) not unfrequently winters among the open ice to the
southward. I killed a specimen in full winter plumage, in the middle pack of
BafiBn's Bay, late in February.

Note 49, p. 299.

The immediate appearance of drifting ice under the influence of winds is well
known to Arctic navigators ; and this entire absence of it during a continued
gale from the north seems to indicate either a far-extended open water, or ice
80 solid and unbroken as to be incapable of motion.

Note 50, p. 304.

The frequency with which the seal— both the hispid and bearded species

occurred in the open channel may explain why it is so favorite a resort of the
white bear. No less than five of these animals were counted, and two were
killed. They seemed, however, generally to seek the inland ravines which
were the breeding-grounds of fowl. No marine life was reported, unless a
small fish — pnbably a cottus — which was caught by the kittiwake gull; yet,
from the bones if cetaceans found on the beach, I do not doubt but that both
the sea-unicorn (Monodon monoceros) and white whale frequent the channel.

The bird-life was more extended. I throw into tabular form a list of the

Birds seen about the Open Water.

Brent goose

Anas bernicla

Flying diagonally across channel

to N. and E.
In grent numbers in southern

part of Kennedy Channel.
Flying inland up Morris Bayj

probably breeding.
Breeding in rock N. of Cape

Jackson ; very numerous.
North of Cape Jefferson and out

to seaward.

Eider-duck

S. mollissima

Eing-duck

S. snectabilis

Dovekie

Uria irrvlle

Arctic petrel

Procellaria glacialis....
Larus eburneus.,.,.,..

Ivory-gull

An ash-backed gull, 1
(unrecognised).... j
Burgomaster

L, argentalus ?

Same.

L. glaucus

Southern parts of channel.

Kittiwake

L. trydactylus ,

Sea-swallow

Sterna arctica ,

Breeding in great numbers S. of
Cape Jefferson.

482

NOTES.

The season was not sufficiently advanced to allow me to judge of the charac-
ters of the flora ; but both Morton and Hans think that the growth was much
more forward than that of our own harbor. They describe the recesses of
Lafayette Bay as rivalling in richness the growths of Minturn River. They
brought back no collections ; and it was only by carefully comparing known
specimens found about Rensselaer Bay with those seen and recognised to the
north by Hans that I was able to determine upon a certain number of plants.
Some others — after availing myself of the advice of my friend Mr. Durand, to
whose courtesy as well as patient skill I am glad to bear tribute — I have not
felt myself at liberty to insert in this limited list. This enumeration must not
be regarded as an index of the actual vegetation ; but, with every reservation
for the imperfect observation and the early season, I am not satisfied that the
flora of Kennedy Channel indicates a milder climate to the north of our winter
harbor. I subjoin my scanty list: —

Ranunculus nivalis In quantities about the mossy slopes of Lafayette Bay.

Papaver nudicaule Well advanced and recognisable.

Hesperis pallasii Found in Lafayette Bay; the silique recognised by Mr.

Durand.

Draba Two furms, (one probably alpina,) associated with re-
cognisable lychnis and cerastium.

Saxifraga oppositifolia Beginning to show itself.

" flagellaris This latter in dried state.

Oxyria digynus In quantities adequate for food.

^'*«^ oJcUca ' 1 ^®^° '^"®*^ ^°^ budding along the channel.

If we add to these three grasses, poa, alopecurus, and festuca, with the usual
Arctic cryptogams, we have, except in the anomalous case of Hesperis, no
plants not common to Lower Smith's Straits and Green's Channel.

Note 51, p. 308.

These remarks will be expanded elsewhere. The presence of marine shells
(Saxicava and Astarte) on the upper terrace-levels about Dallas Bay, and simi-
lar facts noticed by Sir Edward Belcher and the Barrow's Straits observers,
leave little room to doubt the conclusion. But I do not cite the elevation of the
coast, either as deduced from the Esquimaux habitations or otherwise, except
as it illustrates changes in the relations which the water and ice once bore to
each other. I do not connect it with the question of an open sea.

Note 52, p. 309.

This sledge-runner was of wood and bone together, with holes perforated for
the seal-skin lashings used by the natives to scarf their work. It affords un-
mistakable evidence either of a current-drift and occasional open water from
the sound, or of the former presence of natives to the north, — this latter imply-
ing competent hunting-resources.

■.\

NOTES. 463

Note 53, p. 309.

A popular analysis of these conditions may be seen in Professor Forbes's
recent work on the glaciers of Norway. We cannot refer this open water to
any analogous causes with those which explain the other polynias ou this
estuary. Davis Straits, off Gape Walsin£;ham, where the channel narrows to
one hundred and twenty miles, and Smith's Straits, which between Gapes Isa-
bella and Ohlsen have a breadth of only thirty-six, are at those points clogged
with immense fields of ice, extending in the earlier season from shore to shore
and arresting the passage of the drift from above. It is easy to explain the
occurrence of polynia below these two barriers, — the North Water of the whalers
and the upper water which I met in my unsuccessful effort to reach Beechy
Island. But between Gapes Barrow and Jackson, where Kennedy Channel is
contracted to thirty-five miles across, and where the ices from above, if there
were such, ought to be arrested as in the other two cases, we found this open
water ; while below it, in Peabody Bay, where analogies would suggest the
probability of another polynia, we found a densely-impacted solid mass. I do
not see how, independently of direct observation, this state of facts could be
explained without supposing an iceless area to the farther North.

How far this may extend, — ^whether it does or does not communicate with a
Polar basin, — we are without facts to determine. I would say, however, as a
cautionary check to some theories in connection with such an open basin, that
the influence of rapid tides and currents in destroying ice by abrasion can
hardly be realized by those who have not witnessed their action. It is not on-
common to see such tidal sluices remain open in the midst of winter. Such,
indeed, are the polynia of the Russians, the stromhols of the Qreenland Danes,
and the familiar " open holes" of the whalers. ^

NoTB 54, p. 322.

I regret that, after a careful study of the work of my predecessor. Captain
Inglefield, I am unable to make his landmarks on the E. coast of Greenland
correspond with my own. The few short hours spent by the "Isabel" on
Smith's Straits, and the many difficulties which we know to be attendant upon
a hurried survey, readily account for discrepancies of bearing and position. A
sketch inserted by Gaptain Inglefield, in his narrative at page 70, locates Gape
Frederick VII. as the first headland to the N. of the second indentation, which,
according to my survey, should be " Force Bay." But the absence of Pekiutlik,
(Littleton Island,) which is unmistakably prominent as a feature of the coast,
embarrasses mo. My sketches of this coast are in detail.

Note 55, p. 336.

The entire coast between Whale Sound and Gape Alexander is studded with
small glaciers. Some of these are of Saussure's second order, — mere troughs
upon the flanks of the coast-ridge ; but, for the most part, they are connected

Iff

>i if

464

NOTES.

with interior men de glace, and are urged forward in their descent by the glacial
aocnmulations of large areas. The mer de glace which occupies the central
plateau of Northumberland is completely isolated and washed by the sea, and
is necessarily dependent for its increments upon the atmospheric precipitation
of a very limited surface ; yet it sustains in its discharge no less than seyen
glaciers, — perhaps more,^K)ne of which is half a mile in diameter by two hun-
dred feet in depth. It is a startling instance of the redundance of Arctic
ice-growth.

Note 66, p. 430.

This propensity of the bear — in fact, of all predatory animals — ^is alluded to
by Scoresby and others. It was curiously shown in the March journey of 1854,
when a woollen shirt of Mr. McQary's was actually torn to shreds and twisted
into coils.

The subjoined are given as aids to physical inquiry on the part of future

travellers : —

Directions to Sites of Rensselaer Harbor.

1. The observatory was placed upon the northernmost of the rocky group of
islets that formed our harbor. It is seventy-six English feet from the highest
and northernmost salient point of this island, in a direction S. 14° E., or in one
with said point and the S.E. projection of the southernmost islet of the group.

2. A natural face of gneiss rock formed the western wall of the observatory.
A crevice in this rock has been filled with melted lead, in the centre of which
is a copper bolt. Eight feet from this bolt, and in the direction indicated by
the crevice, stood the magnetometer. This direction is given in case of local
disturbance from the nature of the surrounding rocks.

8. On the highest point of the island mentioned in paragraph 1 is a deeply-
ohiselled arrow-mark filled with lead. This is twenty-nine feet above the mean
tidal plane of our winter quarters for the years 1853-54. The arrow points to
0, mark on a rocky face denoting the lowest tide of the season : both of these
are referred by sextant to known points.

4. In an enlarged crack five feet due west of above arrow is a glass jar
containing documents. (Seep. 345.)

5. A cairn calls attention to these marks : nothing is placed within it.

Note. — The author is not responsible for the accuracy of the sketches on
pages 291 and 800, the rough original sketches having been modified by th«
artist.

END OF VOL. I.