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N. jVlTH ^EVENTY-^IX J LL U STR ATIONS, A N D A M A P. 12: on tier n; T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW. EDIXliURGH ; AND NEW YORK. 1882. -/^^J'^/ ■ PREFACE. -»♦- HIS book is not a record of scientific investigations. While eiigageil, luidcr tlie orders of tlie 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 "■eneral reader, and to publish them as a narrative of the adventures of my party. I have attempted very little else. The Engravings with which the work is illustrated will add greatly to any value the text may possess. Although largely, and in some instances exclusively, uidebted for their hiterest to the skill of the artist, they arc, with scarcely an exception, from sketches made on the spot. E, £[• Kd m "% i\ "% CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Organization— Equipment— St. John's— Baffin's Bay— Sounding 11 CHAPTER II. Fiskernaes-Tho Fishery— Mr. Lassen— Hans Crlstlan— L'chtenfels-Sukkertoppen ... CHAPTER III, Coast of Greenland— Swarte-huk— Last Danish Outposts— MeiviUe Bay— In the Ice- Bears— Bergs— Anchor to a berg— Midnight Sunshine 15 20 CHAPTER IV. Boring the Floes— Suet sful Passage through Melville Bay — Ice-navigation-Passage of the Middle Pack— The North Water 25 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 28 CHAPTER VL Closing with the Ice— Refuge Harbour— Dogs- Walrus-Narwhal— Ice-hills— Beacon- cairn— Anchored to a Berg— Esquimaux Huts— Peter Force Bay— Capd CorneJius Grinnell— Shallows— A Gale— The Recreant Dogs 33 CHAPTER VII. The Erie on a Berg-Godsend Ledge-Holding on-Adrift- -Scudding— Towed by a Berg — Under the Cliflfs—Nipplngs — Aground— Ice-pressure— At Rest 40 CHAPTER VIIL Tracking— Inspecting a Harbour— The Musk-ox- 3t!ll Tracking— Consultation- Warping Again— Aground near the Ice-foot— A Breathing-spell- The Boat-expe- dition— Departure 4R CHAPTER IX, The Depot Journey— The Ice-belt-Crosaing Mlnturn River-Skeleton Musk-ox- Crossing the Glacier— Portage of Instruments— Excessive Burden— Mary Minturn River- Fording the River— Thackeray Headland— Cape George Russell— Return to the Brig -The Winter Harbour 54 CHAPTER X. Approaching Winter— Storing Provisions— Butler Storehouse-Sunday at Rest- Building Observatory-Training the Dogs-The Little Willie— The Road— The Faith — Sledging — ReeoiiuolsSttuce — Depot-party „ (jl CONTENTS. CIIAPTKR XI. The Obsurvatory-Tlicrmomcters— The Kuts-Tlie Mr on Fire- Ancient SledKC- tiacks- Esquimaux Huts— Hyarophoblu-Sludge-ailviiiK-Musk-ox Tracks—A Slcdtic-piirty **'' CHAPTER XII. LeapliiK a Chusm— Tlio Ice-belt— Cape William Wood-Camp on the Floes— Return of Depot-party— Boiisall's Advciituro-Hesiilts- An Escape— The Third Cache- M'Gary Island ^'^ CHAPTER XIII. Walrus-holes-Advanco of narknoss— Darkncss-Tlic Cold— "The Ioe-bllnk"—Fox- chase- Esquimaux Huts-Occultatlon of Saturn— Portrait of Old Grim 82 CHAPTER XIV. MaKiietic Observatory -Temperatnrcs--Returnliig LlBlit—Df.rknpss and the Dogs — Hydrophobia- Ice-changes- The Ice-foot— The Ice-beit— The SunllRht— March... 89 CHAPTER XV. Arctic Observations — Travel to Observatory— Its Hazards — Arctic Life— The Day— The Diet- The Amusements— The Labours — The Teinperature--Tho "Eis-fod"— The Ice-belt— The Ice-belt encroatlilnR- Expedition preparing— Good-bye— A Surprise — A Second Good-bye ^^ CHAPTER XVL Preparation— Temperatures -Adventure— An Alarm— Party on the Floes— Rcacne- ,,^,t) — Lost on the Floes— Party found— Return— Freezing— ReturnhiK Camp— A Bivouac— Exhausted— Escape— Consequences 107 CHAPTFR XVn. Baker's Death— A Visit— The Esquimaux— A NeKofiation- Their Equipment— Their Deportment— A Treaty— The Farewell- The Sequel-Myouk— His Escape— Schu- bert's illness ^1* CHAPTER XVIII. An Exploration — Equipment— Outfit — Departure— Results- Features of Coast- Architectural Rocks— Three Brother Turrets— Tennyson's Monument- The Great Glacier of Humboldt 127 CHAPTER XIX. Progress of the Party -Prostration -Dallas Bay-Death of Schubert— Tho B'-lg in May —Progress of Sp,ing—.M 'Gary's Return— Dr. Hayes's Party-Equipment— Schu- bert's Funeral 13^ CHAPTER XX. Seai-liuntlng — Sir John I'ranklln— Resources — Acclimatization— The flopt—Dv. Hayes's Return— His Journey— Snow-blindness— Cape Hayes-The Dogs Tanrjled —Mending the Hiirncss— Capes Leidy and Frazer— Dobbin Bay— Fletcher Webster Headland— Peter Force Bay —New Parties-Tlu'lr Orders- Progress ofSuHSon— The Seal— The Netsik and Usuk— A Bear— Our Encounter-Change in tlie Floe 143 CHAPTER XXL Process of Season— Plants in Winter— Birds Returning- 'Cochlearia— The Plants 157 CONTKNTH. Vtt ClfAPTEU XXII. Mr. Hon»«n'8 Return Ills Story— Tlio Bear In Camp— Ills l-iifu— Bears ntSpott— The riiuwB ' '^ CHAPTER XXllI. Morton's Return- II Is Narrative— Pealiody Bay Tlirough the BerRS-BrldgluK the Chasms— The West Land— The Dojjs In Flight— Open Water-Tlie Ice-foot— The Polar Tides— Capes Jackson and Moiiis— The Cliannel— Free of Ice— Birds and Plants— Bear and Cub— The lIunt^Tlic Death— Franklin and Lafayette— The An- tarctic Flag-Course of Tides- Mount Parry— Victoria and Albert Mountains— Resumd- The Birds Appear— The Vegetation— The Petrel Capo Constitution- Theories of an Open Sea- Illusory Discoveries- Changes of Climate— A SugKCstlon 167 CHAPTER XXIV. Prospects-Speculations— The Argument— The Conclusion— The Reconnolssance- The Scheme— Equipment of Boat-party- Elder Island— Hano Island— The Cormorant Gull— Sentiment- Our Charts-Captain Ingleflcld -Discrepancies— A Gale- Fast to ft Floe 1"^ CHAPTER XXV. Working on -A Boat-nip— Ice-barrier— The Barrier Pack thumberland Glacier— Ice-cascades— Neve -Progress Hopeless— Nor- 194 CHAPTER XXVL The Ice-foot In August- The Pack in August— Ice-blasting- Fox-trap Point— Warp- ing— The Prosi)ect— Approaching Climax— Slgnal-calrn— The Record— Projected Withdrawal— The Question— The Determination— The Result 201 CHAPTER XXVII. Tossul>— Mossing— After Seal— On the Young Ice— Going Discipline -Building Igloe too far-Seals at Home— In the Water— In Safety -Death of Tiger 211 CHAPTER XXVIII. The Esquimaux— Larceny— The Arrest— The Punishment— The Treaty—" Unbroken Faith"— My Brother— Return from a Hunt— Our Llfe-Anoafok— A Welcome- Treaty Conflrmed - ^^^ CHAPTER XXI.X. Walrus-grounds— Lost on the Ice— A Break-up— Igloe ot Anoatnk— Its Garnlturu- Creature Comforts— Esquimaux Music— Usages of the Table-New London Avenue —Scant Diet-list— Bear and Cub— A Hunt— Close Quarters-Bear-flghtlng- 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 226 CHAPTER XXX. Jounicyof Morton and Hans— Reception—The Hut-The Walrus— Wall us-hunt— The Contest— Habits of Walrus-Ferocity of the Walrus— The Victory— The Jubilee A Sipak ' 242 CHAPTER XX XL An Aurora— Wood-cutting- -Fuel-estimate— The Stove-pipes-Tlie Arctic Firmament- Esquimaux Astronomy— Heating-apparatus— Meteoric Shower— A Bear-Hasty Retreat— The Cabin by Night-Sickness Increa.sing— Cutting Into the Brig— The Night-watch o.sn ▼IB C0NTRNT8. CHATTER XXXli. Esquimaux SIoUkc*- Bonwir* Uutuin-ltcsulti of tlio Hunt -Hetuin of Withdrawing Party- Their Kuceptlon— The Kmiuliniiux Ksioit-Confurunco- -Conclllutlon On Flio— Casualty— Chrlatiuas—Olu Hen— A Jouriiuy Alicad -Setting Out— A Uruary Nlifh^-Striklng a Light-End of 1864 iOO ClIAPTEIt xxxiir. Modes of Life -The Insldo Dog -Projected Journey— Dog-hablta—' o Darkness- Raw Meat— Plans for Sledging- Tlie South-east Winds— Plan of Journey— A llolishing Lunch— Itinerary - Oiitflt— Cargo and Clotlilng— Kapetah and Nossak- Foot-gear —The Fox-tall— Carpet-knights-burning Cables 371 CHAPTER XXXIV. A Breakduwn-The Hut in a Storm-Two Nights In the Hut— Frost Agiiin-Tlie Hack Track— Healtli-roll— Medical Treatment — Health Falling- Unsuccessful Uunt- The Last Bottles „ , 282 CHAl'TER XXXV. The Firo-clothod Jag -The Wraith— Cookery— A Respite— The Coming Dawn-The Trust— Prospects -Argument- Coloured Skies— Stove-flttlng a88 CHAl'TER XXXVL The Benncsoak— A Dilemma— The Sun-End of February— Our Condition -The Warm South-easter— Moonlight-Tho Landscape ,^95 CUAITER XXXVIL Our Condltion-Thc Resorts-The SIck-The R:;t In the Insect-box-Antldpatlons- Han's Return-Famine at Efah— Myouk on Board- Walrus-taekle-The Meat-dJet 801 CHAPTER XXXVIIL Line of Open Water— Awahtok—Hla Flrst-born-Insubordlnatlon— The Plot -The Development— Tlie Desertion 308 CHAPTER XXXIX. Colloquy In the Bunks— Winter Trayel— Preparations— Reindeer Feeding grounds- Tcnaced Beaches— A Walk— Occupations „ 318 CHAPTER XL The Delectable Mountains-Review of March -The Deserter again- His Escape-God- frey's Meat— Convalescent „ 818 CHAPTER XLL Routine-Getting up -Breakfast— Work— Turning in-Hans still mIsslng-The De- termination 322 • CHAPTER XLIL Journey after Hans— Esquimanx Sledging— Hans found— Recepto Amico— Explana- tion— Further Search-Maturing Plans— Cliances of Escape— Food plenty— Paulik -Famine among the Esquimaux— ExtincUon— Light HearU— Deserter Recovered 8k6 CHAl'TER XLin. Hartetene Bay— Esquimaux Dwelllngs-A crowded Interior-The Night's Lodging— A Morning Repast — Mouralng for the Dead — Funorai Rites — Penance n 334 ^ EHI CONTENTS. MO 371 CIIAPTKK XLIV. The E^nlinanx of Greenland— CliaiiKe of Cliiimctcr Lnbourg of tlio MlMjonaHc*-- Nliluk— Tho On.lnakn-rinKelak uml Jeiis-The Anfrtkoks-lMlutok - Iho Inina- pjk— The Decrcn . 335 CIIAPTEU XLV. \valrii8-huntlnK-Ksqulnifttix IIablf»--I{cturn fi-oin Ktah— rreparlng for Escape- Making Sic Iges-Ur. Hayes 345 CIIAPTEK XIV' K;ilutunah-The huntlnB-party-Settlnjt out— My .ai.ow-ball— A Wllil Chase— Hunt- liiK still— The treat Glacier— The Escaladed Structure-Formation of UorRs- Tlio Viscous Flow— Crevices— The Frozen Water-tunnel— Cape Forbes-Fnce of Glacier . 3fil CHAPTEU XLVII. Crtpe James Kent— Marshall Bay— Ice-rafls-Strlated Boulders- Antiquities— Tho Bcar-chaso-The Bear at Bay— The Single IIunt-Teeth-wounds-Tho Last Effort —Close of the Search 3^g CHAPTEU XLVIH. Preparations for Escape-rrovlslons-Boats-The SIcd;?e»-In«tniments and Arms— CookInK Apparatus— Table Furniture— Cradling the Boats— Tho Sledges moving — Tho Kccreatlon. CHAPTEU XLIX. The Pledges- The Argument Farewell to the lirlg-Tho Muster-The Routine— The jf esses 3tiG 371 CHAPTER L. Tho Sick-hut— To First Rav, ic— Moving the Sick— The Iloalth-stallon-Convalescencc 376 CHAPTEU LI. To the Brig again- Welcome at the Hut-Log of the Sledges-Educated Faith- Good-bye to the Brig— Metek'8 Prayer 379 CHAPTER LIL New Stations— The Icc-Marshcs— Point Security-Oopcgsoak-Catchhih' Auks- Aningnah— Nessark 3gj CHAPTER LIIL The Game of Ball-My Brother's Lako-The Polar Seasons-Fate of the Esqulmaux- The Esquimaux Limits— Esquimaux Endurance— A wahtok's Hunt— His Eacape- The Guardian Walrus 390 CHAFrER LIV. Tlie Bakery-The Guitar Ghost— Tlie Boat Camp-Ncssark's Wife— Out in a Gale- Cape Misery— The Burrow— the Retreat 39C CHAPTEU LV Fresh Dogs -The Slides— Rocklng-Stoncs-Ohlsen's Accident-Ice-Saillng-Monnting the Belt — The Icr MarshpR — I>i.kiiiHik_Hona ♦!.« nann,ii„i. the Belt — The Ice Marshes— Pckiutlik— Hans the Benedick 401 ;| CONTENTS. CHAPTKU LVI. The Red Boat Sinking— Tlie Life-Boat Cacho-Tiie Open Water- Ohlsen's Dcath-Hls J-uneral-Baiei.tz, our Precursor-Ac.omodati-Tho PrcscHption- Cape Welcome ^^^ —The Resolve CHAPTER LVII. 414 The Farewell— Attempt to Embark CHAPTER LVIII. Sutherlard Island-Hakluyt Islanil-Northuinlierland Island-Fitz-Clarcnce Rock- Dalrymple liock-Glving Out— Break-up of the Floe-Broken Do>vn-\Veary Man s Rest— The Fourth— Short Commons CHAPTER LIX, A Look-Out— Providence Halt-The Glacier-Providence Diet 426 CHAPTER LX. The Crimson Cliffs- The Esquimaux Eden-Depression of the Coast-Inventory- Imalik-Losing our Way-At the Rue-raddies— The Open Sen— Effects of Hunger ^^ —Rescue otthoFatlh CHAPTER LXI. The Seal! the Seall-Tlio Festival -Terra Firma-Paul Zacharlas-The Fr»ulein Flaischer— The News— At the Settlements— The Welcome *'^< 442 Conclusion 445 Glossabi lii ■ Jlxtst of 5^Uu$tviitiou5. .. 442 .. 445 PETEnSEN SlIOOTINfi THE SEAL; rllAUT OK msfOVERIES IIY EXl'ETlITroV I' JIOHAVIAN SETTLEMENT OE LICHTEN KKLS, TAILriECE— OOMIAK, Oil WOMEN'S liOAT, FASTENED TO AN ICEBEKll, TAILPIECE— ESQUIMAUX liOY ON l)0(l, ... ESQUIMAUX IMl'LKMENTS, EUOM (IliAVKS, ESQUIMAUX DOtiS, TAIM'TECE— THE NAUWHAL, TUAC'KINO ALONC THE ICE-IiELT, AGROUND NEAIl THE ICE-FOOT, THE I'OItLOIlN HOI'E, TAILl'IFX'E -THE KEINDEEH, ... TAILPIECE— AN ARCTIC SCENE, RENSSELAER HARBOUl!, butler's ISLAND STOREHOUSE, THE RUE-RADDY, TAILPIECE -THE COMMON SEAL, NEWFOUNDLAND DO(i TEAM, ... TAILPIKCE— ^THE I'OllI'OISE, WALRUS Si'OUTINll, ... TAILIMKCE -THE CIMKNI.ANI) WHALE, .. THE oliSI'.rtVAToRV, ... THE DECKS liV LAMI'LKiHT, TAILPIECE— THE URSAL SEAL, THK MAdNETIl' oltSEKVATOKV, WINTER LIFE ON ISOARU SHIP, THK IlKSCUE PARTY, ... INSIDE THE TI;NT, TAILPIECE- THE POLAR REAR, MEEllNd THE ESliUIMAirX, WILD DOG TEAM, TAILPIECE— THE COMMON SEAL, THE " FAITH," NDER DR. KANE, Frnniinp'ii'Cf Fdi'iiKj iKiije 11 ... 17 ... 19 O.J ... 'H ... 32 ... 34 ... 39 ... 47 ... 50 ... 52 ... (^'i ... 60 ... 01 ... (i-i ... GO ... 08 ... 78 ... 81 ... 8;{ ... 88 !>0 ... 02 ... iH) ... 97 ... 101 ... 110 ... 114 ... 117 ... 119 .,. 123 ... 120 ... 129 I Xll LIST OF ILLL'STHATION.S. TIlltKE BUOTIIKR TUft UKTS, TAILPIECE— TIIK I'OKK F.D-TAIM'.D C.Vl.h, ArrilOACMINd l>AI.I.AS l!AY, SHOUTINO SEAL, iPOlJS AJIDNO ItEliliS, ESQUIMAUX AI-riioAflllVii A SEAL, !)HA si,i:ik;i:s, ... TATLPIKCE— sl'E\i:r.S(i WALK US, THE BRK( CHAIILEIJ, ... TAILPIECE— KAYACK, OH <1UEEN LAN OEIl'.S CANOE, CLIFFS, NORTHUMUEItLANn ISLAND, FOX-TKAPS, TAILPIECE— TIIK ARCTIC FOX, ... THE CIRAVES liV MOONLKIHT, ... TAILPIECE— ESQUIMAUX WATCIIIN MOULDER, A SKETCH, ... CATCHINfl AUKS, ISOAT's CA.MP in A .SToKAI, THE SLIDE, ... .,. CARKYINO THE SICK, ... .^,. ... PROVIDENCE HALT, ... PA.S,SINO THE CRIMSON CLIFFS, TAILPIECE— (JREENLANDER's CANoE, TAIIPIECE— THE "faith," 131 i;u 11!" 147 l.-.,-| iri7 Kit 1(15 171 1.^4 108 212 •2-Jl 2l'4 ■J27 •j:!7 •-'41 L'4i» 250 2'.!) 2(12 28,'. 287 ^500 HOT :)4(j 3r.o H52 ;ir.8 ;?(io ;5(;i ;f82 388 ;i!)8 402 412 427 431 441 443 I 131 117 KU 171 1S4 108 '212 •_'-Jl 2-'4 ■J27 •_'ll •Jl'.t '.'r>o •2(1'J ■28') :ioo H07 :iiu 3r.o ;i62 ;fr>8 3(11 382 388 3!)8 102 431 441 443 / / --Mi a ^ ^" i"E I? „ .- M-g----A I I. "^ ^^v/S^' . A. ■ -- _ J; " (I r i "^ I > ^^'?fc'~— ■ >V !5 6 E ' V ' — "— — ^ y" S - ti I V , .r^,.T S'Ac-3 .= F . , ; ^ '^' I -'\r, T"' V2 ta ,,5! X " B i . y^^ ^ i '^Fl^^;^iA -I LLSL 1 KANE'S ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. CHAPTER I. OHOANIZATION- PLAN OP 0PERATI0N3-C0MPLEMKNT- EQUIPMENT- ST. John's. Tn the month of December 1852. I had the honour of receiving ohaptkk special orders from the Secretaiy of the Navy, to "conduct an ^• expedition to tlie Arctic Seas in search of S'V John Franklin." I JiJid boon engaged, under Lieutenant De Haven, in the G.in- nell Expedition, which sailed from tlie United States in 1850 on the same errand ; and I had occupied myself for some months after our return in maturing the scheme of a renewed effort to Anew rescue the missing party, or at Joast to resolve tlie mystorv of its ^^i^^'''""" fate Mr. Grinnell, with a liberality altogether characteristic, liad 0^'"' placed the Advance, in which I sailed before, at my disposal for he crmse; and Mr. Peabody of London, the generous representa- tive of many American sympathies, had proffered his aid largely toward her outfit. The Geographical Society of New York, the bmithsonian Institution, the American PhHosophical Society— I name them in the order in which they announced their contribu- tions,-and a number of scientific associations and friends of science besides, had come forward to help me; and by theh- aid 1 manned to secure a better outfit for purposes of observation than would otherwise have been possible to a party so limited in num- bers and absorbed in other objects. Ten of our Uttle party belonged to tlie United States Navy, and were attached to my command by orders from the Department; 12 1'LA.N OF OPKRATIONS, CHAPTER I. Rules and rcKula- tiona of the exjie- dltloii. Plan of the expedl- tiDll- Proposed route easy from Greenland to fur north. the otlws w.re »Uipped by me for the —• ^^"^_;' ^^'^^ entirely di.proportioncd U, tl.oir services •. all were volunteers. We 2l n oMlifu, der the rules that govern o>,r national ships ; but t'lad on'own regulations, well considered -;<>-"--, S:, l.aud and ri.'idly adhered to afterward through all tlie vici itmlcs nl'e xpedition. These ineluded-first. absolute subordmatum U, tie officer in eon.maudor his delegate; second, abstmence from 1 toSng liquors, except when dispensed '^;.;- - third, the habitual disuse of profane language, Wc had no other 'Thad developed our plan of search in a paper read before the C,eo<''^,id II Sliciety. 'it was based upon the pr..b:,blc extension of the and-m,asses of Greenland to the Far North,- a fiu^t at tlut th, e not verified by travel, but sustained by tlie aiudogies of pliysi- c - otu.hy Greenland, though looked upon as a congenes of MmdStcted by interior glaciers, was still to be regarded as a :!lsuK whose fifrination recognised the same general laws as nthor neninsulas having a southern trend. °" ■ om"he alternatingTaltitudes of its mountaiu -"S-;-'^^^ without depression throughout a meridional Une »« --^^1;™ hundred miles, I inferred that this cliam must extend very far to r north, and that Greenland might not improbably approach nearer the role than any other known land. BeUeving, then, iu such an extension of this peiunsula, and feeb ing h.™h seark for Sir John FrankUn would be best promo ty\ course that might lead most directly to the open »- of wh ^ I ha.1 inferred the existence, and that the approximation of the 1 -dilllfwould m.ako access to the West as -y f- Nort - Greenland as from Wellington Channel, .and .access to the E.-«t tar more el,-feeling, too, that the highest protruding headland wouldTf most likely to afford some traces of the lost party,-I mamed as the induceiueuts in favour of my scheme,— T Terra ftrma ,as the basis of onr operations, ohv.atmg the capricious character of ice-travel. , , . a * 2 A due northern line, which, throwing aside the influences ot terrestrial radiation, would lead soonest to the open sea, should ™t Tte benefit of the fandike abutn.ent of land, on the north face of Greenland, to check the ice in the course of its southern or i COMPLEMKNT — KQUIPMENT. ,t salaries ;eer3. We hips ; but ed before- icissitudcs ordination lence from ;ial order; ,d no otiier lioforc tlie ■i extension fact at til at BS of i>iiysi- ;ongerics of gardcd as a ral laws as 3, continued early eleven very far to ly approach ila, and feel- jst promoted sea of which lation of the )m Northern the East far ng headland -)st party, — I )bviating the influences of n sea, should the north face 3 southern or n equatorial drift, thus obviating the gi-eat drawback of Parry in his ohaptbe attempts to reach the Pole by the Spitzbergen Sea. ^- 4. Animal life to sustaui tfiivelliiig parties, 5. 1'hc co-operation of the Esquimaux; settlements of these people having been found as high as Whale Sound, and probably extending still further along the coast. We were to pass up Baffin's Bay, therefore, to its most northern Line of attainable point ; and thence, pressing on toward the Pole as fiir """"'^ 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. Names of Another joined us a few days afterward ; so that the party under "'^ P'*''^y my command, as it reached the coast of Greenland, consisted of— Henry Brooks, First OfScer John Wall Wilson, James M'Gary, Georoe Hi ley, William Morton, Christian Ohlsen. Henry (iooDFELLow, IsAAoI. Hayks, M.D., Surgeon, August Sontao, Astronomer. Amos Bonsall, Gborqe Stei'iienson, Gkoroe Whipplb, William Godfrey, JouN Blake, Jefferson Baker, Peter Sciiubkrt, Thomas Hiokey. Two of these, Brooks and Morton, had been my associates 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 Ad- the Arctic ice. She waa carefully inspected, and needed very '^^'"'"" little to make her all a seaman could wish. She was a herma- phrodite brig of one hundred and forty-four tons, intended origi- nally 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 m& ', life-boat, the gift of tha maker, Mr. Francis. Our equipment was simple. It consisted of httle else than a The equip 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 tlem on a model furnished me by the kindness of the British Admiralty, others of my own devishig. I I 14 THE DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION. CHAPTER I. Provision* Wardrobe. The expe- dition sails. They reach St. John's. Decp-8ca- Boundings In liafDii's Bay. Our stcre of provisions was chosen with Uttle regard to hixury. We took with us some two thousand pounds of well-made pem- mican, a parcel of Borden's meat-biscuit, some packages of an exsiccated potato, resembling Edwards's, some pickled cabbage, and a Uberal quantity of American dried fruits and vegetables ; besides these, we had the salt beet 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-hst. i hoped to procure some fresn 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 supply of knives, needles, and other articles for barter, a large, well-chosen Hbrary, and a valuable set of instraments for scientific observations. We left New York on the 30th of May 1853, escorted 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. , ^^ ,. n j It took us eighteen days to reach St. John's, Newfoundland. The Governor, Mr. Ha,milton, a brother of the Secretary of the Admiralty, received us with a hearty EngUsh welcome ; and aU the officials, indeed aU 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 marlincf, and hung it up m 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 HamUton, 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 fathoms: an interesting result, as it shows that the ridge which is known to extend between Ireland and New- foundland in tli<^ bed of the Atlantic is depressed as it passes further to the noriL. A few days more found us off the coast of Greenland, making our way toward Fiskernaes. FI&KERNAE8. m .) luxury, kde pem- ea of an cabbage, Tctiibles ; ry ration, lors, with iet-list. I reaching 3 of malt, of knives, in library, ms. by several 0W3 amid he steara- ■oundland. ary of the 5 ; and all 1 other in ;k of fresh lompressed ing to the ng- city; and, the gift of eenland. k deep-sea- )le depth of shows that and New- s it passes he coast of CHAPTER II. FISKKIINAES- THE FISIIKIIY— Mil. LASSEN— HANS CIlISTrAN— LICUTE.VFELS — SUKKEHTOPPEN. We entered the harbour of Fiskemaes on the 1st of July, amid the clamour of its entire population, assembled on the rocks to greet ua This place has an enviable reputation for climate and health. Except perhaps Holsteinberg, it is the driest station upon the coast ; and the springs, which well through the mosses, fre- quently remain unfrozen throughout the year. The sites of the different Greenland colonics seem to have been chosen with reference to their trading resources. The southern posts around Julianshaab and Fredericstahl supply the Danish market with the valued furs of the saddle-back seal ; Sukkertoppen and Holsteinberg with reindeer skins ; Disco and the northern dis- tricts with the seal and other oils. The little settlement of Fisker- naes 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. We saw the codfish here in all the stage-s of preparation for the table and the market ; the stockfish, dried in the open air, without salt ; crapefish, salted and pressed ; fresh fish, a lucus a non lucendo, as salt as a Mediterranean anchovy : we laid in supplies of all of them. The exemption of Fiskernaes from the continued fogs, and its free exposure to the winds as they draw up the fiord, make it a very favourable place for drying cod. The backbone is cut out, with the exception of about four inches near the tail ; the body expanded and simply hung upon a frame : the head, a luxury neglected with us, is carefully dried in a separate piece. Seal and shark oils are the next in importance among the staples of Fiskernaes. The spec or blubber is purchased from the natives with the usual articles of exchange, 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 OnAPTKR II. Fisker- naes. Sites of tlie Greenland colonics Prepara- tion of fis) for the market. Seal find Rhark oils It ESQUIMAUX ASSIMTANT-I'UOVISIONH. CHAPTKu have introduced at St. John'. sconUo have ^^-^'\l^^^;^'^ £ the-way coast. Even the cod-livers are given to the dog,, or thrown into the general vat. Danish w f^,„u1 \fi- T/iHsen the superintending ollieial ot the i^au s i viMttothe We found Mi. L.ihsc n, uic i ^ j^.^ Iven b foro I had shown hiu. n.y official letter from th. Cmut o Dcnnmk ha had most ho,pit..l,ly ,,roffe.ea evo-tl."* fo "" UenniaiK, no ,^^^^, interchanged pre- ::::;:; t he oXrl-et «.» -..t transaction enahUng rl to say with confidence, that the inner fiords produce noble Lon t™, ind that the reindeer-tongue, a recognised delicacy :;;":,; oid;,:^ net Arctic continent, is Justly appreciated at ''M:;thatourdo^wo,.,d rcqulrefrcsh provisions w^^^^^^^^ hardly be spared from our supplies on shipboard, I av.u ed raysU ...,- TZ LasL-s influence to obUin - Es,— hun r f„ ou, - part, H"'™— xta;r::i ;^ engacea. teen, as an expert With the kayak ami javt i ^ , • j rate vats I should leave a couple of barrels of bread and fifty- :: Ss of por. with his mother ; and I be-e -mnifi^^^^^^^^ his eves when I added the gift of a rifle and a new kajak. vve tind iiin, very useful ; our dogs required his services as a ea . . ,.nd our own table was more than once dependent on h s energies No one can know so well as an Arctic voy.oger the value of for!« J y conscience has often called for the exercise of .. lut'^y habits'make it an effort. I can hardly claim to be pro^^ dent either by impulse or education. Yet, for some of the de dels of'ourUfit. I ought not, P->"^1». *»/-'* ^^ responsible Our stock of fresh meats was too small, and we had no preserved vegetables; but my personal means were hmited ; ZilZl not "press more severely than a strict necessity exacted .1 - „„.,,.,„„t;oninff liKprnlit.v of mv friends. "" Wlt :rre Sng ;;ir„f the Aord of Fiskeniaes. 1 bad an Value of foresight. LlCHTKNKKrfl. If \ oin-of [logi, 01 ! Danish ^'ife, hifl mrse, an iiy; and, Conrt nf for our ged pre- enabling [Ce noble I delicacy iciated at licli coiild od myself Br for oui ly of nine- ITana had lie wing, 1 under the one of our ^ery niode- and fifty- mificent in ayak. We a a caterer, lis energies. :he value of ercise of it, to be provi- mie of the liold myself and we had ere limited ; jsity exacted ,es, I had an opportunity of visiting Lichtenfols, tiio ancient seat of the Oreon- odaptki land congregatit)nH. and one of tlie tliree Moravian settleinenlH. I had read much of the liistoiy of its founders ; and it was with i.iciiteD- foolings almost of devotion, that I drew near the scene their labours had consecrated. MORAVIAN aKTXLEMKNT OF LlCIITKNKBIja. As we rowed into the shadow of its rock- embayed cove, eveiy- Mora\iHii thhig 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 clifl' brought into view a quaint old Silesian mansion, bristling with irregularly-disposed chimneys, its black, overhanging rool 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 skull-caps, such as Vandyke or Rembrandt liirnself might have painted, who gave ns a quiet, but 18 OLD MANSION-nOUSE. OBAPTKR II. The old mansion- house. Liberal spirit of the Mora The "Sut kertop." g kindly welcome. All inside of the nian«ion-liouse-the furniture, tbe matron, even the cliildren-had the same time-sobered look The sanded floor was dried by one of those huge, whitc-tiled stoves, which have been known for generations in the north of Europe ; and the stiff-backed chairs were evidently coeval with the first days of the settlement. The heavy-built table m the middle of the room was soon covered with its simple offerings ot hosritality ; and we sat around to talk of the lands we had come from, and the changing wonders of the times. ,, . . We learned that the house dated back as far as the days of Matthew 8tach ; built, no doubt, mtli the beams that floated so providentially to the shore some twenty-five years after the first landing of Eged6 ; and that it had been the home of the brethren who now gi-eeted us, one for twenty-nine, and the other twenty- seven years. The " Congregation Hall" wiis within the buildmg, cheerless now with its empty benches ; a couple of French horns, —all that I could associate with the gladsome piety ot the Moravians,-hung on each side the altar. Two dwelling-rooms, three chambers, and a kitchen, all under the same roof, made up the one structure of Lichtenfels. Its kind-hearted inmates were not without intelligence and edu- cation In spite of the formal cut of their dress, and somethmg ■ of the stiffness that belongs to a protracted sohtary life, it was impossible not to recognise, in their demeanour 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 receivmg a scanty supply of potatoes as a present from our store. , ,„ , , We lingered along the coast for the next nine days, battled by calms and Hght, adverse winds ; and it was only on the 10th of July that we reached the settlement of Sukkerto])pen. The Sukkertop, or Sugar-loaf, a noted landmark, is a wild, isolated peak, rising some 3000 feet from the sea. The httle colony which nestles at its base occupies a 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 groundplot into a temporary island. Of aU the Danish settlements on this coast, it struck me as tne most picturesque. The rugged clirts seemed to blend with tlie SUKKERTOPPEN. 1# rnitiire, ;d look. Lto-tiled lorth of al with in the rings of id come days of )ated so the first brethren twenty- Hiilding, ;h horns, r of the g-rooms, made up and cdii- oniething fe, it was course of jcd their to God" ; a scanty grotesque structures about their base. The trim red and white chapteb painted frame mansion, which, in virtue of its green blinds and j[i_ flagstaff, asserted the 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 Uru at peculiar light of the Arctic summer at this hour — which reminds ™"i"'s'>* one of the effect of an eclipse, so unlike our orthodox twilight — bathed everything in grey but the northern background — an Alpine chain standing out against a blazing crimson sky. Sukkertoppen is a principal depot for reindeer-skins ; and the Sukker- natives were at this season engaged in their summer hunt, collect- '°Pr'^"' ing 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 for some weeks. Bidding good-bye to the governor, whose hospitality we had shared liberally, we put to sea on Saturday, the lOtli, beating to tlie northward and westward in the teeth of a heavy gale, batUed by e 10th of s a wild, The little so narrow s of huts, jlot into a me as the L with tlie ^'it^i OOMIAK, Oa WOMKK H BOAT 20 COAST OP GKEKNIAND. CHAPTEK III. COAST OP flUEENIiAND- BAY — IN THK ICE- SUNSHINE. -SWARTE-UUK— LAST DANISH OUTPOSTS— MELVILLE -BEAKS— BEUaS—ANOHOU TO A UEKU— MIDNIGHT at Proven. CHAPTER T'lij^ lower ami middle coast of Gieculand lias been visited by so III. ... — many voyagers, and its points of interest have been so often described, that I need not dwell upon them. From the tune we left Sukkertoppen, we had the usual delays from fogs and adverse currents, and did not reach the neighbourhood of Wilcox Point, wliicli defines Mehille Bay, until the 27th of July. Old friends On the IGtli we passed the promontory of Swarte-huk, and were welcomed the next day at Proven by my old friend Christiansen, the supeiintendent, and found liis family much as I left them three years before. Frederick, liis 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 and warm-hearted as ever. She led the household in sewing up my skins into various serviceable garme.its ; and I had the satisfaction, before I left, of completing my stock of furs for our sledge parties. While our brig passed, half sailhig, half drifting, up the coast, I left her under the charge of Mr. Brooks, and set out in the whale-boat to make my purchases of dogs among the natives. Gathering them as we went along from the diiferent settlements, we reached Upernavik, the resting-place of the Grinnell Expedition hi 1851 after its winter drift, and for a couple of days shared, as we were sure to do, the generous hospitahty of Governor Flaischer. Still coasting along, we passed in succession the Esciuiinaux settlement of Kingatok, the Kettle— a mountain-top so named from the resemblances of its profile — and tinally Yotlik, the furthest point of colonization; beyond which, save the sparse headlands of the charts, the coast may be regarded as unknown. Reucli Upper- iiavik. Last Danish outposts. 4 M ELVILLE BAY. Ml -MELVILLB -MIDNIGHT ited by so so often i time we id adverse cox Point, , and were ansen, the ;Lree years and added is stock of les with a little girl, my others ver. She lerviceable onipleting the coast, lut in the e natives, ttlenients, i^xpedition shared, as Flaischer. Isiiuiniaux so named otlik, the he sparse uiiknowa Then, mchnmg more directly toward the north, we ran close to the Baflm Islands,— clogged witli 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 Advance grounded in 1851, bore away for Wilcox Point. We stood lazily along the coast, with alternations of perfect calm and off-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 T have described m 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 Ly 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 tair 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 ot the Bergy Hole," showed themselves all around us : we had come in among them in the fog. It was a whole day's work, tomng with both boats ; but toward evening we had succeeded in crawling off shore, and were doubly rewarued for our labour with a wind. I had observed with surpnse, 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 navigation, that the in-shore trade was m 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 endeavour to double Melville Bay by an outside passage. A chronicle of this transit, condensed from n.y log-book, will have interest for navigators :— ''Jul!/ 2S Thursday;, G A.M.-Made the offsetting streams of he pack, and bore up to the northward and eastward ; heading, for Cape York m tolerably free water ° "././^ 29, Frlda,, 91 A.M.-Made loose ice, and very rotten; the tables nearly destroyed, and much broken by wave action- VH er-sky to the northward. Entered this ice, intending to work to the n^thward and eastward, above or about Sabine Islands, in search of the north-eastern land-ice. The breeze freshened off CHAPTEB III. Melville Buy. Among the bergr Doubling Melville Bay. I •ffSH^WHWHWHI^ ^ 22 FASTENED TO AN ICE-BKRG. # fl I CHAPTER shore, breaking up and sending out the floes, the leads rapidij closing. Fearing a besetment, I determined to fasten to an ice- berg ; and after eight hours of very heavy labour, wai-ping, heaving, and planting ice-anchors, succeeded in effecting it. « We had hardly a breathing spell, before we were startled by a set of loud, crackhng sounds above us; and small fragments of ice, not larger than a walnut, began to dot the watev like the first drops of a summer 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. III. Breaking of an Ice- berg. FASTENED TO AN ICKBERQ. A critical « 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 Une, which were caught in the floes, and had to be cut away to release ^ BEARS— TlERGS. Is rapidij to an ice- g, heaving, titled by a gments of ce the first plain ; we 11 in ruhis, 23 ical, a gale [ing rapidly whale line, ly to release us fron, the drift. It was a hard night for boat-work, particularly ohapt^e witli those of the party who were taking their first lessons in floe "^• navigation. " July 30, Saturday.—Agiim moored alongside of an iceberg The wnid offshore, but hauUng to the southward, with much free water. M2 M.~The fog too dense to see more than a quarter of a mile a head ; occasional glimpses through it show no practicable leads. Land to the north-east very rugged ; I do not recognise Its marks. Two lively bears seen about 2 a.m. The ' Red Boat,' Bearsseen A wTf" '; ^^•'^''' ^'^ """' ^ *°"^ °"« °f t^^e quarter-boats, and shot the other. " Holding on for clearer weather. ''July 31, Sunday.~Om open water beginning to fill up very fast with loose ice from the south, went around the edges of the lake m my gig, to hunt for a more favourable spot for the hvm ■ and, after five hours' hard heaving, we succeeded in changing ou^ fasts to another berg, quite near the free water. Li our present 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 he attached to a low and safe iceberg, only two miles AnCo.- to hom the open sea, which is rapidly widening toward us under the '^"'^^^^''e influence 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, earned away our jib-boom and shrouds, and destroyed one of our quarter-boats. '^August 1, i/oncZa^.-Beset thoroughly with drifting ice, small m the ice rotten floe-pieces. But for our berg, we would now be carried to the^ south ; as it is, we drift with it to the north and east. "2 A.M.— The continued pressure against our berg has begun to affect It; and, hke the great floe all around us, it has taken up 1 ts 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' labour, 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 drifts by on each side, leavmg a wake of black water for a mile behind us " Our position last night, by midnight altitude of the sun, gave 24 MIDNIGHT SUNSHINE. CHAPTER US 75° 27'; to-day at noon, with a more reliable 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, espynig a lead to the north-east, we got under weigh, and pushed over in spite of the drifting trash. The men worked ^vith a wUl, and we bored through the floes in excellent style." On our road we were favoured with a gorgeous spectacle, which hardly any excitement of peril could have made us overlook. The midnight sun came out over the northern crest of the great berg, our late " fast friend," kindling variously-coloured 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. Midnipht. sunshine. II ESOniMAUX BOY ON DOO. we made , we still cl wish to '">!«, noRT>ra the floes, 81 I, espying :d over in 1, and we cle, which ook. The Teat berg, on every one great iibies and CHAPTER IV. BORING THE FLOES— SDCCESSFUL PASSAGE THROUGH MELVILLE BAY— ICE NAVIGATION— PASSAGE OF THE MIDDLE PACK— THE NORTH WATER. Our brig went cruncliing through aU this jewelleiy ; and, after a ouaptzr tortuous progress of five miles, arrested here and there by tongues JIl which required the saw and ice-chisels, fitted herself neatly between Boring the 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 back- ward and forward, like China fish seeking an outlet from a glass jar, till the fog caught us again; and so the day ended. ''Augusts, Wednesday.-TlxQ day did not promise well; but as the wind was blowing in feeble airs from the N.N.W., I thought it miglit 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. Everything now depended upon practical ice knowledge; and, as I was not willing to trust any one else in selecting the leads for our course, I have spent the whole day with M'Gary at mast-head,— a rimewhat confined and unfavourable preparation for a journal entry. ^ " I am much encouraged, however ; this off'-shore wind is favour- Prospect mg 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 them carefully and boldly. As for the ice-necks, and prongs, and rafts, and tongues, the capstan and windlass have done a great deal to work us through them; but a great deal more, a brave headway and our little brig's liard head of oak '^ Mulnight.-We are clear of the bay and its myriads of dis- cearc couragements. The North Water, our highway to Smith's Sound ".ebaj' IS fairly ahead. ' "It is only eight days ago that we (uade Wilcox Point and BBven since we fairly left the inside track of the whalers, and made 26 ICE NAVIGATION. CHAPTER 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. Ice In Mel Tille Bay III The indentation known as Melville Bay is protected by its northern and north-eastern coast from the groat ice and current drifts which follow the axis of Baflin's Bay. The interior of the country which bounds upon it is the seat of extensive glaciers, which are constantly shedding off icebergs of the largest dimen- sions The greater bulk of these is below tlie water-hne, 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 they 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 thorougUy 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 renew their action ; and that portion of the ice which is protectea 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 "Fasticc" entire summer. This is the " fast ice" of the whalers, so impor- tant to their progress in the earlier portions of the season; tor, however it may be encroached upon by storms or currents, they can generally find room to track their ve.-sels along its solid margm ; or if .ne outside ice, yielding to off-shore winds, happens to recede, the interval of water between the fast and the drift allows them not unfrequently to use their sails. It is therefore one of the whalers' canons of navigatwn, which they hold to most rigidly, to follow the shore. But it is obvious that this apphes 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, varj'ing of course with the cir- cumstances. Indeed, the bay i^ coldoni traversed except m these months, the north-west fisheries of Pond's Bay, and the rest, ceas- ing to be of value afterward. Later in the summer, the inner ice breaks up into large floes, moving mth wind and tide, that embar- rass the navigator, misleading lam into the notion that he is J ce navi- gation. PASSAGE OF THE MIDDLE PACK. 27 leration of i ar e. ed by its id current ior of the e glaciers, 3st dimen- le, and the I the action above the therefore, ; directions time from , when the nuous field ■enew their I from the crowd the tside is in edge breaks lu-ough the so impor- jeason; for, rrents, they lid marghi ; is to recede, illows them ition, which .t is obvious •ctic season, nibroken, as vith the cir- ;ept in these le rest, ceas- ;he inner ice that embar- i that he is attached to his " fast," when in reality he is accompanying the ohaptbk movements of an immense floating ice-field. J^ I have been surprised sometimes that our national ships of Common discovery and search have not been more generally impressed by u!ilTmr\ these views. Whether the season has been mild or severe, the ice ^'""''"• fast and soUd, or broken and in drift, they have followed in August the same course wliich the whalers do in June, running their ves- sels into the curve of the bay in search of the fast ice which had disappeared a month before, and involving themselves in a laby- rinth of floes. It was thus the Advance was caught in her second season, under Captain do 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 en- tangled 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 following 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 west- ward, until we made the first streams of the middle pack ; and PassaRoof then, skirting the pack to the northward, headed in slowly for the ['leiT'"'"' middle portion of the bay above Sabine Islands. My object was '*' to double, as it were, the loose and drifting ice that hUd 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 seri- ous risks of entanglement amcng the broken icefields. But we managed, in every instance, to combat this last form of difliculty by attaching our vessel to large icebergs, which enabled us to hold our own, however swiftly the surface floes were pressing by us to tho south. Four days of this scarcely varied yet exciting naviga- tion 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. THR "crimson cliffs.'' CHAPTER V. ! 1 CRIMSON OlilPFS OP nEVERT.EV— IIAKLUYT AND NOHTHUMnEKIiAND— IlKD gUOW — THE OATES OF SMITIl's STRAITS — CAPE ALEXANDER — CAPR HATHERTON— FAHKWEIJi CAIRN— LIFE-BOAT DEP6t— ESQUIMAUX RUINS FOUND— -GRAVES — FLAGSTAFF POINT. OHAPTKR V. The Crim- son Cliffs. Pass Conl- CAl Rock. Reacli Hiikluyt Island. Bed uncw. !My diary continues : — "We passed the ' Crimson ClilTs' of >Slr John Ro.ss in tlie fore- noon of August r)tU. The patclies of red snow, from which they derive tlicir 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 justifying the .some- what poetical nomenclature which Sir John Franklin applied to this k)cality ; for if the snowy surface were more diffused, as it ia no doubt earlier m the season, crimson would be the prevailing colour. " Late at night we passed Conical Hock, the most insulated and conspicuous landmark of this coast ; and, still later, Wolstenholme and Saunder's Islands, and Oomenak, the place of the North Star's winter-quarters — an admirable day's run ; and so ends the Hth of August. We are standing along, with studding-sails set, and oi)en water before us, fast nearing our scene of labour. We have already got to work, sewhig up blanket bags and preparing sledges for our cainpaignings on the ice." We reached Hakluyt Island in the course of the next day. A tall spire on it, probably of gneiss, rises 600 feet above the water-level, and is a valuable landmark for very many miles around. We were destined to become familiar with it before leaving this region. Both it and Northumberland, to the south-east of it, afforded studies of colour that would have rewarded an artist. The red snow was diversified with large surfaces of beautifully- green mosses and alopecurus, and where the sandstone was bare, it threw in a rich shade of brown. GATES OF SMITFI 8 STRAITS. 80 EHIiAND— llED ^NDER — CAPK riMAUX RUINS \ in the fore- i which they tance of ten ot at all like )re. All the were deeply s the sonie- 1 applied to sed, as it is le prevailing iisulated and rolstenhohne North aSV^/s s the nth of set, and oi)en We have aring sledges ext day. A ct above the nilcs around. 1 leaving this ;h-east of it, ed an artist, f beautifully- ne was bare, The coaHt to the north of Cape Atiioll is of broken greenstone, chaptek in terraces. Ncaring Hakluyt Island, the truncated and pyramidal ^' shapes of these rocks may still be recognised in the interior; but feoioRyo: tlie coast presents a coarse red sandstone, which continues well characterized as far as Cape Saumarcz. The nearly horizontal strata of the sandstone thus exhibited contrast conspicuously with the snow which gathers upon their exposed ledges. In fact, the parallelism and distinctness of the lines of white and black would have dissatisfied a lover of the picturesque. Porphyritic rocks, however, occasionally broke their too great uniformity ; occasion- ally, too, the red snow showed its colours ; and at intervals of very few miles — indeed, wherever the disrupted masses offered a pass- age-way — glaciers were seen descending toward the water's edgo. All the back country appeared one great rolling distance of glacier. '^August 6, Saturday. — Cape jVlexander and Cape Isabella, the The gates headlands of Smith's Sound, are now in sight ; and, in addition soumi '" to these indications of our progress 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 Ca[)tain inglefield saw it a Aspect of 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 uniform- ity to the Avater's edg*- and the patches of land seem as rare as the summer's snow on tl.., iiills about Sukkcrtoi>pen and Fiskernaes. On the right we have an array of cliffs, whose froAming grandeur might dignify the entrance to the proudest of southern seas. I should say they would average from 400 to 500 yards in height, with some of their precipices 800 feet at a single steep. They have been until now die 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 sha - dow. One 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 rejoined with sincere gravity; 'yes, sir, in proportion to their size.'" " August 7, Sunday. — We have loft Cape Alexander to the south ; and Littleton Island is before us, hiding Cape Hatherton, the latest 3 an FAUEWKrX CAIRN. i^ Smith's Sound. jnAPTKR of Captiiiii Till Iffu'ld's jHwitively-iktoniiinod he:i(l lands. We are ^' fairly iiisklu of Sniith's Sound. "On our left irt a capacious bay; and deep in its north-eaHtern recesses we can sec a glacier issuing from a fiord." Wc knew this bay familiarly afterwards as the residence of a body of Ks(piiiiiaux with whom wo 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 iloes on us. " My mind has been made up from the first that we arc 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 depo.sit a boat with a supply of stores in some convenient place near it. One of our whale-boats had been crushed hi 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 the:nselves in it with even a few days' rations ; but it vvas air-chambered and buoyant. Selecting from our stock of provisions and field equipage such portions as we might by good luck be able to dispense with, and adding with reluctant liberality some blankets and a few yards of india-rubber cloth, we set out in search of a spot for our first depot. It was essential that it should be upon the mainland, for the rapid tides might so wear away the ice as to make on 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 north-east cape of Littleton, and bore S.S.E. from Cape Hatherton, wliich loomed in the distance above the fog Cairn on Littleton Isiaiul. LI FK- no AT DKPOT. 31 (Is. Wo are lorth-eaHteni sidcnco of a iations ; but 1 of a gallant le. A small Jcnce of the ■ter breakfast to my sorrow cu freshening tinues, it will e are to force s ; and I feel reat, that in Besides, we my one is to uid to deposit place near it. /ille Bay, and id spare. Its twenty could itions ; but it equipage such nse with, and I few yards of )t for our (Irst mainland, for lake on island )le that, while 1 approachable y cold rowing, •e S.S.E. from bove the fog Here we buried oiu' life boat with iier little cargo. We placed along her gunwale the heaviest rocks wo 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, wo hoped, to resist the claws of the polar bear. Wo found to our surprise that we wei'o not the first human beings who had sought a shelter in this desolate spot. A few ruined walls here and the^e .^.bowed that it had (mce been the seat of a rude settlement; and in the little knoll which we cleared away to cover in our storehcmso of valuables, wo found the mortal remains of their former inhabitants. Nothing can be imagined more sad and homeless than these memorials of extinct life. Hardly a vestige of growth was trace- able on the bare ice-rubbed rocks; and the huts resembled so nmch the broken 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. 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 im[)lements of the living man are then groui)ed around him ; they are covered with a rude dome of stones, and a cairn is piled above. This simple cenotaph will remain intact for generation after genera- tion. The Esquiniaiix never distiu-b a grave. From one of the graves I took several perforated and rudely- fashioned pieces of walnis ivory, evidently part of sledge and lance gear. But wood must have been even more scarce with them than with the natives of Baffin's Bay north of the Melville glacier. We found, for instance, a child's toy spear, which, though elabor- ately 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. We found other traces of Esquimaux, both on Littleton Island and in Shoal- Water Cove, near it. They consisted of huts, graves, p]ace.=' of deposit for meat, and rocks arranged as foxtraps. These c^APTK^ V. I.lfo-boat itnd ciirKfi Imrlcil. liuinn of a ru(les(.'tt!e mcnt. Esqul- nmux. calms. Traces oi Ksqui- maux. ^ ESQUIMAUX RELICS. CHAVT.B were evidently very ancient ; but they were so well preserved that ±_ it was impossible to say how long they had been abando:ied there, whether for fifty or a hundred years before. Child's Spear. I '.'it ■ I 1.1 \ '\ \ :Jl^i4!^ Bone Spear He.\d. /' Sewing IrapleraeT>ta Pot Hook. KSQUIMAUX IMPLEMENTS, FROM QRAVKS. Erection of a beacon over the cairn Our stores deposited, it was our next office to ereci 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 stalf into the crevices of the rocks; and, sjtreading 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 on the morning of the 7th, and forced on again towards the north, beatuig against wind and tide. i RRFUGK HARHOUR. m ^served that .lo:ied there, CHAPTER. VI. )V\S •eci a beacon, 5 purpose the II IS than Cape le crevices of its folds with )rceze. These e say, for this early on the north, beatuig CLOSING WITU THE ICE— KEFUGB UARBOUll— DOQS— WALUUS — NARWHAL — ICE-lllLIiS — BEACON CAIRN— ANOUORBD TO A HEKQ — ESQUIJIAUX HUTS —PETER FORCE BAY— CAPE CORNELIUS GRINNEI.L—SUALLOWS- A GALE —THE RECREANT DOGS. " August 8, Mondcaj. — I had seen the ominous blink ahead of us cnAPTBi; from the Flagstaff Pohit of Littleton Island ; and before two hours ^'• were over we closed with ice to the westward. It was in the ice and tbrni 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 became impos- sible to force our way further ; 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-lhie to the rocks, and warp hito 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, encoun- tering the southward movement of the floes, drove them in upon the shore, and with such rapidity and force as to carry the smaller bergs along with them. We were too happy, when, after Escape 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 we had left. It was in a beautiful cove, 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 tlie narrow entrance. At M'Gary's suggestion, I called it ' Fog Inlet;' but we afterwards remembered it more thankfully as Refuge Refuge Harbour. Haibom " Augxist 9, Tuesday.— li may be noted among our little miseries that we have more than fifty dogs on board, the majority of whom might rather be characterized as ' ravening wolves.' To u HUNTING AVALKU3. of dugs. cnAPTEK feed this family, upon whose strength our progress and success J±_ depend, is really a difficult matter. The absence of shore or land Voracity ico to the soutli in Baffin's Bay has prevented our rifles from con- tributing any material aid to our commissariat. Our two bears lasted the connorants but eight days ; and to feed them iipon 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 juidc woidd kill them. i 1 1 1 1 'i ' ; i * * li WiihiiB tunt ESQUIMAUX D0U3. " Accordingly I started out this morning to hunt walrus, with wliich the Sound is teenung. We saw at least fifty of these dusky monsters, and approiiched many groups within twenty paces; but our rifle balls reverberated from their hides like cork pellets from a popgun target, and we could not get within harpoon-distance of one. Later in the day, however, Ohlsen, climbing a neigh- bouring liill to scan the horizon, and see if the ice had slackened, found the dead carcase of a narwhal or sea-unicorn— a happy discovery, which has secured for us at least six hundred pounds III I d NAllAVHAL— ICE-H ILLS. 36 and succcsa liore or land cs from con- ) bears lasted n tlie meagre ■ day is an ^erc ready to lican. Corn ain to touch, ir~- walrus, witli f these dusky ty paces ; but pellets from poou-distance jing a neigh - lad slack oned, )rn — a happy [idred pounds of good foitid wholesome flesh. The length of the narwhal was cuaptei. fourteen feet, and his process, or ' horn,' from the tip to its bony '_ encasement, four foet— hardly half the size of the noble specimen NaiwhuL I presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences after my last cruise. We built a fire 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 south-west, and the ice began to travel back rapidly to the north. This looks as if tlie resistance to the northward was not very permanent. There must be either great areas of relaxed ice or open water leads along the shore. But the choking u^^ of the floes on our eastern side still prevents an attempt at progress. This ice is the heaviest I have seen ; and its accunuilation on the coast produces barricades more like bergs than hummocks. One of those rose perpendicularly more than sixty feet. Except the ' ice-hills ' of Admiral Wrangell, on the ice-hUiA coast of Arctic Asia, nothing of ice-upheaval has ever been de- scribed equal to this. " Still anxious beyond measure to get the vessel released, I forced a boat through the drift to a point about a mile north of us, from Avhich I could overlook the Sound. There was nothing to be seen but a melancholy extent of impacted drift, stretching northward as far as the eye could reach. I erected a small a beacou beacon-cairn on the pohit ; and, as I had neither paper, pencil, '^"""" I'or pennant, I burnt a K with powder on tne rock, and scratch- hig O. K. with a pointed bullet on my cap-lining, hoisted it as the representative of a flag." '" AVith the small hours of Wednesday morning came a breeze from the south-west, 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. Vie soon warped to a narrow cul- de-sac between the main pack on one side and the rocks on the other, Anchoica and after a little trouble made ourselves ftist to a berg. *° * ^'^' There was a small indentation ahead, which I had noticed on my boat rectmnoissance ; and, as the breeze seemed to be freshening, I * Ik was our custom, in obedience to a general order, to build cairns and leave notices at every eligible point. One of tlicse, rudely marked, much as 1 have described this one, was found by Captain Hartstenc, and, strange to say, was the only direct memorial of my wLereabouts communicated from some hundreds of beacons. r m ESQUIMAUX HUT. SUAPTER VI. Working thinugli fho flo'cs. w Esqui- maux hut. Scenery on iilioi'e. ■ thought we might venture for it. But the floes were too strong for us; our eight-inch hawser parted like a whip-cord. There waa no time for hesitation. I crowded sail, and bored into the drift, leaving Mr, Sontag and three men upon the ice. We did not recLdm them till, after some hours of adventure, we brought up under the lee of a grounded berg. I pass without notice our successive etforts to work the vessel U) seaward through the loe.s. Each had its somewhat varied in- cidents, but all ended in failure to make progress. We found our- selves at the end of the day's struggles close to the same imper- fectly-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 atteuipts which I made with my b(jat 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 vegetation to the fertilizing action of the refuse v/hich gathers about the habitations of men. Yet I was startled, as I walked round its narrow and dreary limits, to find an Esquimaux h\it, so perfect in its preservation that a few hours' labour would have rendered it habitable. There were bones of the walrus, fox, .and seal, scattered round it iii small quantities ; a dead dog was found close by, with the flesh still on his bones, and, a little fur- ther off, a bear- skill 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 have impressed men whose thoughts were not otherwise absorbed. An opening through the cliffs of trap rock disclosed a valley slope and distant 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 clamour intermitted. The water around was so shoal that at three hundred yards fionj the shore we had but twelve-feet soundings at low tide. Great 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 KNTANGLEB IN THE SHALLOWS. 37 strong for There was to the drift, Ve did not brought lip k the vessel it varied in- e found our- iame iinper- lart as Cape ■ of ice, and it to detect long rocky ingely green lese unusual •efuse v/hich tar tied, as I Esquimaux ibour would walrus, fox, ;ad dog was a little fur- [n fact, for a if desolation /e impressed An opening and distant 3 in front, — s ; we could hen the ice 1 yards iVonj tide. Great 3ated out by a half mile's Dut them in fantastic shapes. The bergs, too, were aground well out to sea- ward ; and the cape ahead was completely packed with the ice which they hemmed 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 progress in the wrong direction. "August 12, Friday. — After careful consideration, I have deter- mined to try for a further northing, by following the coast-line. At certain stages of the tides — generally from three-quarters flood to the conmiencement 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 thoroughly ; 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 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 preparhig the little brig for this novel navigation, clearing her decks, securing tilings below with extra lashings, and getting out spars, to serve in case of necessity as shores to keep her on an even keel. ^^ August 13, Saturday. — As long as we remain entangled in the wretched shallows of this bight, the long, precipitous cape ahead 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 sea- ward show that these latter do not budge with either wind or tide. It looks as if we were to 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 tlie entire twenty-four hours. August 14, Sunday. — The change of weather yesterday 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 j but the weather looked so threatening, that I had them up agahi at three o'clock this morn- ing. 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 OUAPTER VI. Sailing along the coast line Entangled in tlie shallows. Another tussle Witt tlie ice. \ r? ! I li ' 38 FAST AGAIN IN TUB ICE. A gale. CHAPTKii foreign materials disrliar>ed from tlie great valley. It is impos- H sible to pa3.s insiile of -le n, 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 wc can o!ily reach the little islet ahead of us, make a lee of its rocky crests, and hold on there until the Avinds give us fairer prospects ! "JIldnl[/ht.~\ye did reach it; and ju.st 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 ice driving to the northward before it ; but we can rely upon our hawsers. All behind us is now solid pack. Auit 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, unless Providence shall send a smart, ice- shattering breeze, to open a road for us to the northward. " More bother with these wretched dogs ! worse than a street of Constantinople emptied upon our decks; the unruly, thieving, wild-beast i)ack ! Not a bear's paw, nor 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 gul[). I have seen them at- temi)t 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 burgomaster. " When we reach a floe, or berg, or temporary harbour, they start out in a body, neither voice nor lash restraining them, and scamper off like a drove of hogs hi an Illinois oak-opening. Two of our largest left themselves behind at Fog Inlet, and we had to The ice closing round. Trouble with the dogs. i ^ It is impos- close to the em outside, irusting our- 1 only read) ts, and hold THI5 RECREANT DOGS. 39 VI. send oil" a boat party to-day to their rescue. It cost a pull through ouAPust 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 to Ilia late." At 11-30 Ten mimites eth that we jwing a gale but we can ick. the grinding tles.sly blow- his morning, tn the north- ks. Though out a stern- out, and the see, we must a smart, ice- ard. [in a street of ily, thieving, aux cranium, [1 leave your it, and, after iecu them at- ig, one of my which I had pebbles, and cinien of the r. larbour, they ig them, and )ening. Two nd we had to 1 ^s )i j i: :' 11. 1 4d THh ERIO ON A BKRO. CnAPTER VII. Prospect of escape. CHAPTER VII. TUB ERIC ON A BEIW— GODSEND LFDOE— llOIiDlNQ ON— ADRIFT— SCUDDING —TOWED HY A HERO -UNDER TUB CLIFFS— Niri'INQS— AGROUND — lOii PRESSURE -AT REST. ''August 16, Tuesdmj. — The formation of tlie young ice seonis to be retarded by the ck)uds ; its greate.st nightly freezing has been three-quarters of an inch. But I have no doubt, if we had continued till now in our little Refuge Harbour, the winter would liave closed around us, without a single resource or chance for esca})e. Where we are now I cannot lielp thinldng our embargo must be tempo- rary. Ahead of us, to the north-east, is the projecting headland which terminates the long, shallow curve of J3edevilled Reach. Tiiis 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 arc aground outside of us have encroached upon the lighter ice of tiic reach, and choke its outlet to the sea. But a wind off shore woidd start this whole pack, and leave us free. Meanwhile, for our com- fort, a strong breeze is sotting in from the southward, and the pro- babilities are that it will freshen to a gale. ''August 17, Wednesdcn/, — This morning I pushed out into the drift, with the useful little specimen of naval architecture, which I "Eiicths call Uric the Red, but which the crew have named, less poeti- ^^'^•" cally, the Red Boat, We succeeded in forcing her on to one of the largest bergs of the cliahi ahead, and I climbed it, in the hope of seeing something like a lead outside, which might be i cached by boring. But there was nothing of the sort. The ice looked as if perhaps an off-shore wind might spread it ; but, save a few View from meagre pools, which from our lofty eminence looked like the iin iceberg, merest ink-spots on a table-cloth, not a mark of water could be seen. I could see our eastern or Greenland coast extending on, headland after headland, no less than five of them in number, until they faded into the mysterious North. Everything else, Ice! " Up to this time we have had but two reliable observations to GODSEND LEDOK, 41 —SCUDDING UOUND — KJJi ;e seems to f has been I contimu'd liave closed le. Wlicie be tenipo- y headhuKl acli. This into which gs that are r ice of the hore would Dr our coni- id the pro- ut into the ire, which I less poeti- 1 to one of in the hope be I cached e looked as save a few id like the er could be :endhig on, in number, ^thing else, rvatioufi to I letermine our geographical position since entering Smith's Sound, oiiaptkr These, however, were carefully made on shore by tlieodolite and ^"' ' artificial horizons ; and, if our five chronometers, rated but two X weeks ago at Upernavik, are to be depended upon, there can be no niffevcnce "^ c wacldliiit; ivoii't hold n afraid to L I reached ire loud in iig through irouds. It noise of a •il, we were the brig a :hing. We cjcd water- ctween the I labour, I lie we were e centre of [1, we could y ice-tables n one side, ; left for U3 going freely ler to scud lemy, as we the piling le desperate tanding the isten a spar nt our best caping along 36, measured i by a line as we tried to fastcJi to it, more than forty. I Iwid seen ohai'tkh such ice only once before, and never in such rapid motion. One 1[^ upturned mass rose above our gunwale, smashing in our bulwarks, and depositing half a ton of ice in a lump upon our decks. Oiu* stanch little brig bore herself through all this wild adventure as if she had a charmed life. "But a new enemy came in sight ahead. Directly in our way, ARioupof just beyond the line of floe-ice again.st which we were alternately '"'''''' sliding and thumiting, was a grouj) of bergs. We had no power to avoid them; and the only (juestion was, wlu ther we were to l>e dashed in pieces against tliem, 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 I'ose as the gale drove us toward this passage and into it; and we were ready to exult, when, from some unexplain'^d 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 beaiing down upofi the other ice, and that it nuist be our fate to be crushed between the two. " Just then a broad sconce-piece or low water-washed berg came drivhig 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, M'Gary managed to plant an anchor on its slope and hold on to it by a whale line. It was an anxious moment. Our noble tow-horse, whiter than the pale Towed by iiorse that seemed to be pursuing us, hauled us bravely on ; the spray dashing over his windward flanks, and his 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 tu 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 deliverance from a wretched death. ... " The day had already its full share of trials; but there were a berg. m nAN(5KU» IN THK ICE. ciiAi'TER more to come. A flaw drove ua from oiir Hhelter, and the palo e were nj^aiti m Ell cUfTs. V"- soon carried us beyond tlie md of tlie lead. W the ice, 8t)metiiiie.s eaw\]>iiij' its onset by warping, sometimes foreed to rely on tlie strenrjth and l)U<)yaney of the brig to stand its pressure, sometimes scuddiiig wildly through the half-open drift. Our jib-boom wa.s snapped off in the eap ; we carried away our barricade stanchions, and were f..rced 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 rTndcrthe under the frowning shore of Greenland, ten miles nearer the Tole than our holding-ground of the morning, the me.n have turned in to rest. " I was afraid to join them, for the gale was unbroken, ajid the floes kept pressing heavily upon our berg,— at one time so heavily as to sway it mi its vertical axis toward the shore, and make its piimacle overhang our vessel. My poor fellows had but a precarious sleep before our little harbour was broken up. They hardly reached the deck when we were driven astern, (.ur rudder splintered, and the pintles torn from their boltings. " Now began the nippings. The first shock took us on our port-quarter; the brig bearing it well, and, after a moment of the old-fashioned suspense, rising by jeiks handsomely. The next was from a veteran floe, tongucd and honeycombed, but floating in a single tal)le over twenty feet in thickness. Of course, no wood or Iron could stand this; but the shoreward face of our ice- berg happened to present an inclined plane, descending deep into the^vater; and up this the brig was driven, as if some great steam screw-power was forcing lier 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 mysterimis 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. AYri grounded as the tide fell; and would have heeled over to seaward,^ but for a mass of detached land-ica that grounded alongside of Nipping*. I 4 AT RKST AT LAST. 4A 1 the pale re nf^ain in mos forced stand its open drift. [ away our little Eric, I the floe3 t was just an iceberg here, close er the Pole B turned in )roken, and ne time so shore, and ws had but up. They our rudder us on our lent of the The next but floating course, no of our ice- g deep into great steam f up its face mysteiious of the ice, ish, and we liore. Here ; fast. Wri to seaward, alongside of as, anil, although it stove our bulwarks as we rolled over it, shored us up." T coidd hardly get to my bunk, as I went down into our littered cabin ou the Sunday morning after our hard-working vigil of thirty-six hours. IJags of clothing, food, tents, I ndi»\ - rubber l>laiikets, and the lunidred little personal matters which every man likes to save \v. a time of trouble, were scattered around in places where the ownei.'. thought they might have them at hand. The pemmican had been m deck, the boats e(pii[)ped, and everything of real importance rea(iy for a march, many hours before. During the whole of the scenes I have been trying to describe, I could not help being struck by the composed and manly de- meanour of my comrades. The turmoil of ice under a heav}^ sea often conveys the impression of danger when the reality is absent; but in this fearful passage, the i)arting of our hawsers, the loss of our anchors, the abrupt cnishing of our stovcn bulwarks, and the actual deposit of ice upon our di^cks, would have tried the nerves of the most experienced ice-men. All — olRccrs 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 }>arties leading them mto positions of danger. Mr. Bonsall avoided being crushed by leai)ing to a floating 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 immense blocks piled against her, range upon range, pressing themselves under her keel and throwiu" her over upon her side, till, urged by the successive accumulations, she rose slowly and as if with convulsive efforts along the sloping wall. Still there was no relaxation of the im- pelling 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, wc might have heard a pin drop. And then, as she settled 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 clamour of congratulation and comment could burst forth. OnAFTBh VII. F.ffuctd of Uic storm Brnvcry of tho sulloia TRACKING. CHAPTER VIII. 1 I :! ! 3HAPTER viir. Tracking. The brig KiouniU ugain. Inclina- tion of the shore to (he cast. TRACKING— INSPECTING A EARBOUK— THE MUSK OX— STILL TRACKING— COXSPLTATION— WARPING AGAIN— AGROUND NEAR THE ICE-FOOT— A BREATHING SPELL— THE BOAT EXPEDITION— DEPARTURE. It was not until the 2 2d that the storm abated, and our absent men were once more gathered back into their mess. During the interval of forced inaction, 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, MonJai/.— 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 sliould save time if I cou'd cross fror/i headland to headland ; but I am obliiied to follow the tortuous land-belt, witliout whose aid we would go adrift in the pack again. "The trend of our line of operations to-day is almost 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 grt)uuded, heeling over until she reached her bearings. Slie rose again at 10 P.M., and the crew turned out upon the ice-belt. " The decided inclination to the eastward which the shore shows here is hnportant as a geographical iture ; but it has :nade our progress to the actual north much less than our wiiarily-earned miles should count for us. Our latitude, determined by the sim's lower culmination, if such a term can be applied to his midnight depression, gives 78° 41'. We are further north, therefore, than any of our predecessors, except Parry on his Spitzbergen foot- tramp. There are those with whom, no matter how insuperablf •I INSPECTING A HARBOUR. 49 tlie obstacle, fiulure involves disLn-ace: we are safe at least from chaptbb VIII. their censure. " Last nin'ht I sent out ^Tessrs. Wilson, Petersen, and Bonsall, to icspectin> inspect a harbour which seems to he between a small ishmd and a TRaCKINO— ICE-FOOT — A our absent During the the ice-belt 2d ; but as ide to pass ves in like g aUnig the base of a i bay which t. I should ; but I am ose aid we almost due ut fearfully tunav.ely no 3lt for about leeling over '.M., and the shore shows IS }nade ojr larily-earned by the sun's lis midnight jrefore, than bergon foot- insuperablf TUACKINQ ALONO THB ICR-BELT. valley that forms the inner slope of our bay. They report recent skuiiota traces of deer, and bring back tlb^ skull of a musk ox. found"' " Hitherto this animal has !iever 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 pouits to some pro- bable land connection between Greeidand and America, or an ap- prou'^h sufficiently close to allow these animals to migrate between the two. "The head is that of a male, well marked, but old ; the teeth deficient, but the horns very perfect. These last measure 2 feet 3 inches across from tip to tip, and arc each 1 foot U) inches in length measured to the medium line of the forehead, u]) to which they are contimied in the characteristic boss or protuberance. Our winter may be greatly cheered by their beef, should they revisit this solitude. r 48 mFFICULTIES AND DEPRESSlOiTS. CHAPTKU vin. Flora of the shove. Still truck lug. " We have collected thus far no less than twenty-two species of flowering plants on tlie shores of this bay. Scanty as this starved flora may seem to the botanists of more favoured zones, it was not without surprise and interest that I recognised among its thoroughly Arctic types many plants which had before been considered as in- dif'cnous only to more southern latitudes. "" The thermometer gave 25° last night, and the young ice formed without intermission ; it is neariy two inches alongside the bric^ I am loth to recognise these signs of the advancmg coxd. Our latitude to-day gives us 78^ 37', taken from a station some tliree miles inside tlie indentaticm to the south. ^^Avgust 24, Wednesday.— We have kept at it, tracking 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 the 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 tlie interstices of the floes. Notliing but a strong south wind can give us further progi'ess to the north. The young » A vgust 25, Thursday. -Tho snow of yesterday has surromidcd '"• 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 not like being caught by winter before attaining a higher northern latitude than this, but it appears almost inevitable. Favoured as we have been by the mildness of the summer and by the abraiding action of the tides, there are indications around us which point to an eariy winter. " We are sufficiently surrounded by ice to make our chances of escape next year uncertain, and yet not as lar as I could wish for our spring journeys by the sledge. " Avqxsl 2G, Fridaf/.~Uy officers and crew are stanch and lirm men; but the depressing influences of want of rest, the rapid ad- vance of winter, and, above all, our slow progress, make them sympathize but little with this continued cff-ort to force a way to the north. One of them, an excellent member of the party, volunteered an expression of opinion this morning in favour of re- turning to the south and giving up the attempt to winter." Proposal to return. 'W CONSULTATION AND DECISION. m pedes of IS starved t was not lorougbly red as iii- ,'oung ice alongside icing cold, ion some ,ng along, the tides >ni of this le terrace, low rocks lieavy, and owed hard terstices of us furtlier iirroundcd to be our f the 22d ing caught ui this, but len by the ' tlie tides, winter, chances of d wish for ;h and fmn ; rapid ad- nake tliem ;e a way to the party, ivour of re- ier." (leoisloii It is unjust for a commander to measure his subordinates in chavtbk such exigencies by his own standard. The interest which they — '. feel in an undertaking is of a different nature from his own. With him there are always personal motives, apart from official duty, to stinuilate ellbrt. 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 uie to consider the opinions of my officers with much respect I called them togetlier at once, in a formal council, and listened to a council their views in full. With but one exception, Mr. Henry *'^'''- Brooks, tliey were convinced that a further progress to the north was impossible, and v/ere in favour of returning southward to winter. Not being able conscientiously to take the same view, I ex- plained to them the importance of securing a position which might expedite our sledge journeys in the future; and, after assuring them that such a position could only be attained by continuing our eftbrts, announced my intention of warping toward the northern headland of the bay. " Once there, I shall be able to determine Tiie from actual inspection the best point for setting out on the opera- tions of the spring ; and at the nearest possible shelter to that point I will put the brig into winter harbour." My comrades received tliis decision in a maimer that was most gratifying, and entered zealously upon the hard and cheerless duty it involved. Tlie warping began again, each man, myself included, talcing his Warping turn at the capstan. The ice seemed less heavy as we penetrated [,|e"|.e.' into the recess of the bay; our track-lines and shoulder-belts re- placed the warps. Hot cotfee 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 cliifs, and trust to the noble little craft's unassisted strength. " AiKjnd 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 libera- tion. 50 AGROUND NEAR T!IK ICE FOUT. OHAPTKR VIII. Hi! " We have landed everything we could get ui* on the rooks, put out all our boats and filled theui with ponderables alongside, sunk our rudder astern, and lowered our remaining heavy anchor into one of on. quarter-boats. Heavy hawsers are out to a grounded lump of uerg-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 The ship deck blazed smartly for a while ; but, by sacrificing Mr. Sontag's on fl.e. ij^.,^^,y pilut-cloth coat to the pidtlic good, I choked it down till water could be passed from above to extinguish it. It was for- tunate we had water near at hand, for the powder was not far off. " 3 p_M. — The ground-ice is forced in upon our stern, splintering our luddcr, and drawing again the bolts of the pintle-casings. ■j.3'jnt -e. AiiBOrNn KEAR THE ICK-FOOT. AfioKtand /) P.M. — She floats again, and our track-lines are manned. The ''*^''°'""^ men work with a will, and the brig moves along bravely. again. " 10 P.M.- Aground iigain; and the men, after a hot suppei, IIA.ZARDOUS NAVIGATION. 61 3cks, put iide, sunk rinto one :led lump ) were .all ibin stove ,vn. The Son tag's down till was for- ot far otl'. [ilintcrin^ ings. ned. The lot supper, 4 have turned in to take a spell of sleep. The biig has a hard time of it with the rocks. She lias 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 con- vinced it is my duty to keep on. Except the loss of a portion 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, Sundui/.— By a complication of purchases, jumpers, and shores, we stjirted the brig at 4.10; and, Mr. Ohlsen having temporarily secured the rudder, I determined to enter the floe and tnist to the calm of the morning for a chance of penetrating to the northern land-ice ahead. "This land-ice is veiy 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 ominous nods of my officers, have a fair pros- pect of reaching it. Here it is that splicing the mahi-brace is of service ! " I took the boat this morning with ^Ir. M'Gary, and sounded along outside the land-floe. I am satisfied the passage is practic- able, and, by the aid of tide, wind, and springs, have advanced hito the trash some two hundred 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 breatliing spell, and I could find time to look out again upon the future. The broken and distorted area around us gave little promise of successful 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 further north would have the same rugged and dispiriting character. Besides, the ice- belt was still before us, broken sometimes and difficult to traverse, but practicable for a party on foot, apparently for miles alieax;! ; 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 our wintering ground from a per- sonal inspection of the coast. I had been qnietly preparing for such an expedition for some CUAPTKF VITI. Hazlll•liou^ iiiwigft- tioii. k\ Jf A 8liort vest. Plans for the futui e. 52 THE " FORLOllN HOPE." CDAi'TER time. Our best and lightest whale boat had been fitted with a ^"'' canvass cover, that gave it all the comfort of a tent. We had a II ! i! '! I J' I : THE FORI.OKN HOPB. supply of pemmican ready packed in small cases, and a .sledgp taken to pieces was stowed away under the thwarts. In the morning of the 29th, Mr. Brooks. M'Gary, and myself, walked fourteen miles along the marginal ice ; it was heavy and compli- cated with drift, but there was nothing about it to make me change my purpose. The boat My boat crew consisted of seven, all of them volunteers and S'""^ reliable :— Brooks, Bonsall, M'Gary, Sontag, Biley, Blake, and equipmeut ]Skirton. "Wc had buffalo-robes for our slccping-gear, and a single extra day suit was put on board as common property. Each nuvn carried his 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 completed our outfit. Departure I^ less than three liours from my first order, the Forlorn Ilopt of the For. ^..^^^ ready for her work, covered with tin to lu-event 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. Hayea THE FAREWELL. 63 in charge of her log; Mr. Olilsen with orderH to haul the brig to odaptki. the southward and eastward into a safe berth, and there to await ^"' my return. Many a warm shake of the hand from the crew \vc left showed a fricnab mo that our good-bye was not a mere formality. Three hearty P'""''"k cheers from all hands followed us, — a God-speed as we pushed otJ' fi iiango 64 THE DEPOT JOURNK.y. I iiUAPTEB IX. The nlt;ht encamp- ment. The boat left on the Ice. Ahi^_hway of ice. CHAPTER IX. THE DE1'6t JOl'HNEY— Tin; IClMtKl.T— CKOf;SINa MINPUHN KIVKK— ."KKIiE- TON MUSIC OX -CKOofilNcl THE GLACIEK— I'OHTAtiE OF INSTKUME.VTS — EXCEiS.'^lVE UUUDKN- MAKY MINTUHN IIIVEK— KOIIDIXO THE HIVEK— TUACKEKAY HEADI-A.NP—CAl'E GEUKQE UUSSELL— KETUU^ TO THE HKIfl — THE WINTER HAUBODR. In tlie fii'.st portions of our journey, we found a narrow but ob- structed passage between the ice-l)clt and the outside i)ack. 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 eftbrt 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 aft, 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 followed; and very soon we forgot the discomforts of the day,— the smokers musing over their pipes, and the sleepers snoring in dreamless forgetfulness. We had been out something less than twenty-four hours when we came to the end of our boating. In front and on one side waa the pack, and on the other a wall some ten feet above our heads, the impracticable ice-belt. By waiting for high tide, and tixking advantage of a chasm which a water-stream had worn in the ice, we inanaged to haul up our l)oat on its surface ; but it was appa- rent 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. Here, for the first time, we were made aware of a remarkablt feature of our travel. We were on a table or shelt of ice, which clung to the base of the rocks overlooking the sea, but itself over- hung by steep and lofty cliffs. 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 woni-down rock occasionally issued from the sides of the cliffs, and extended li THR IC1>HKLT. 00 The (litis luoasuiud lUlO toet t«> tli )f. jicross our course the phiteau above them.* '•''• We pushed forward on tliis ice-table shelf as rai)idiy as the TiavfiiinB obstacles would jieruiit, though embarrassed a good deal by the 'i|"i[,'""^'^ tVequent watercourses, which created large gorges in our path, winding occasionally, and generally steep-sided. We had to pass our sledge carefully down such interruptions, and bear it '..pon our shoulders, wading, of course, through water of an extremely low temi»erature. Our night halts were u[Hin knolls of snow under the rocks. At one of these the tide ttvertlowed our tent, and forced us to save our luiilald sleeping-gear by holding it u[) until the water subsided. This exercise, as it turned out, was nunc of a trial to our patience than to our health. The circulation was assisted [)erhai»s by a }»erceiiti;:: of the ludicrous. Eight Yankee Caryatides, up to their knees in water, and an entablature sustain- ing such of their household gods as coulil not bear inuuersion! 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 Limestone synmetrical regularity, lost themselves in long parallel lines in the "^''''''<-"'-'s- distance. They were of limestone shingle, and wet with the per- colation of the melted ice of the glacier. Where the last of these terraced faces abutted upon the sea, it blended with the ice-foot, cliffs of so as to make a frozen compound of rock and ice. Here, lying in rofkand a pa.sty slit, I found the skeleton of a musk ox. The hetid was united to the atlas ; but the bones of the spine were separated skeleton about two inches apart, and conveyed the idea of a dis))lacement °'^"'""^'' ' _ -^ i ox. [)ruduced rather l)y the sliding of the bed beneath, than by a force from without. The paste, frozen so as to resemble hmestone rock, had filled the costal cavity, and the ribs were beautifully polished. It was to the eye an embedded fossil, ready for the museum of the collector. I am minute in detailing these appearances, for they connect '' ''J < 11 I * The cliffs were of tabular iiiaKnesian limestone, with interlaid uiul iiilerior sanastones. Their height, measured to the crest of the plateau, was 900 feet — a fair mean of the profile of the coast. The height of the talus of debris, where it united with the face of tlie cliff, was 690 feet, and its angle of inclination between S8° and 45°. 06 CUOSSINO A GLACIKU. I nil 1^1 OUAPTEK IX. Organic remains uf limestone Aud Ice. Ciossini; a gUioier. Mean ele- vation of the coiist. Tilt sledge left bchiad themselves in my mind with the fo.s.sils of the Eisclioltz cliffs, antl the Siberiiin ;illuvion8. I was stiirtled at the facility with which tlic isilicioua limestone, under the alternate encipcs of frost and thaw, had been incorporated with the organic remains. It had already begun to alter the structure of the bones, and in several instances the vertebne were entirely enveloped in travertin. The table-lands and ravines round about this coast abound in such reuKuns. Their numbers and the manner in which they are scattered imply that the animals uiade their migrations in droves, as is the case with 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 into the water below. Our shoes were smooth, unfortunately ; 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 nuies ; the sledge being unladen and the baggage carried on our backs. To Mr. Brooks, admitted with unanimity to be the strongest man of our party, was voted our theodolite, about sixty pounds of well-polished mechanism, in an angular mahogany box. Our dip-circle, ecpially far from being an honorary tribute, fell to the lot of a party of volunteers, who bore it by turns. During this inland crokiiing, I had fine opportunities of making sections of the ten'aces. We ascertained the mean elevation of the face of the coast to be 1300 feet. On regaining the seaboard the same frowning cliffs and rock-covered ice-belt that we had left greeted us. After an absence of five days, we found by observation that we were but forty miles from the brig. Besides our snuiU daily pro- gress, we had lost nnich by the tortuous windings of the coast. Tlie ice outside did not invite a change of plan in that direction; but I determined to leave the sledge and proceed overland on foot. With the exception of our instruments, we carried no weight but pemmican and one buffalo-robe. The weather, as yet not far below the fieezing-point, did not make a tent essential to the bivouac; and. « M::}: .im>^u^.j. JOURNEY ON FOOT. «7 with this lif,'lit equipment, we could travel readily two miles to otie phapter with our entire outfit. On the 4th of September we made twenty- _1^ four mile.s with c()iii[)arativo ease, and were refre,shed by a com- fortable sleep after tlie toils of the day.* Tlie only drawback to tliis new method oi advance was the Loaiiof inability to carry a suflicient quantity of food. Each man at ''"^'""""• starting had a fixed allowance of pemmican, which, with his other load, made an average weight of thirty-five pound.s. 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 — tliat a very few pounds overweight broke us down. Our progi-ess on the 5tli was arrested by another bay nmch Discovery larger than any we liad seen since entering Smith's Straits, j^^fi'^ay. was a noble sheet of water, perfectly open, and thus in .strange con- trast to the ice outside. The cause of this at the time inexplicable liheuomenon was found in a roaring and tumultuous river, which, issuing from a fiord at the inner sweej) of the bay, rolled with the violence of a snow-torrent over a l)roken bed of rocks. This river, Mmy Min. the largest probably yet known in North Grv land, was about three- *"'"" '''^*' quarters of a ndlc wide at its mouth, and a mitted the tides for about three miles, when its bed rapidly a.scended, and could be traced by the configin-ation of the hills as far as a large inner fiord, I called it Mary Minturn River, after the sister of Mrs. Henry Grinnell. Its course was afterwards pursued to an interior glacier, from the base of wliicli it was found to issue in numerous streams, that united into a single trunk about forty miles above its mouth. By the banks of this stream we encawiped, lulled by the unusual nnisic of running waters. Here, protected from the frost by the infiltration of the melted Flowers on snows, and fostered by the reverberation of solar heat from the ^'j;^^'^"'^^ ' '' of the rocks, we met a flower-growth, which, though drearily Arctic in stream, its ty])e, Avas rich in variety and colouiing. Amid festuca and other tufted grasses, twiidcled the purple lyclniis and the white star of the duckweed ; and not without its pleashig associations ♦ This hiilt was under the lee of a large boulder of preenstone, measuring 14 feet in its kiiiK diameter. It had the nule Idockinf; out of a cube, tint was ruuiidod at the edges. The country for fourteen miles around was of the low-bottom .series; the nearest greenstone must have been many miles remote. Ponlilers of syenite were numerous; tlieir line of deposit nearly due north and south. IIm !■ I OnAI'TRR IX. Wording tlio river. Direction of the cniiflt. Capo William Make- peace Thiickcrny HelRht of the table- lands and plateaus. gg CAPE TH.\CKKRAY. I rec..gni.scd a solitary l.csperis,-thc Arctic rerrcsentative ..f tl.c wallflowers of lioine. Wo fonlcl our way across tl.l. river in tlu- .nnn.in-, carryii.t,' our ponunicati as well as wc rouhl o,tt of w.ter, l.i.t sul.utittmg our- selves to a sucoe.ssion of ,.l..n,^e hatl.s as ofteu as wo trusted our weicM.t on the icc-ci.i.pe.l atones above the snrfare. I ho avera-e depth was not over our hips; but the cro.s.sing cost us so niuoh labour that we were willing to halt half a .h.y to rest. Some seven miles further on a large rape projects into this bay and divides it into two indentati.u.s, each of tho.u the seat ot minor watercourses, fed by the gla<-iers. Im-oiu the numerous tracks foun.l in the moss-beds, thoy would seem to bo the report of doer. (_)ur meridian obsorvations by theodolite gave tlu.' hititudo of but .8 r)2' : the maiznetic dip was 8 1-° '19'. It was plain that the coast of Greenland here face.l toward the north. The axis of both these bays and the gi«noral .liroction of tiie watercourses pointed to the same conolu.sion. Oi.r longitiide was 78= 41' W. . t . . i .i Leavin- f..ur of my party to recruit at this station, I started the next mornin-, with throe volunteers, t.. .■ro.ss the ice to the north- eastern headland, and thus save the almo.st impossible circuit by the .shores of the bay. This ice was now, and far from safi! : its man-dn along the open water made by Minturn River required both care'and tact in passing over it. We loft the heavy thoo.loiite l)e- hind us, and carried nothing e.v.>opt a pockot-soxtant, my iM'aun- j.lifor, a walkin- polo, and three days' allowance of raw pemmican. We reached the hoa.lland after sixteen miles .^f walk, and found the ice-foot in good condition, evidently bettor fitted for .sledge- travel than it was to the south. This point I named Cape William Makepeace Thackeray. Our party knew it as Chimney Ibx-k. It was the last stathui on the coast <»f Greenlan.l, i, boyond the oightiith parallel of latitude. |''ar olf ou my left was the western shore of the SoiukI, lo.sinj.; itself in distance toward the north. To luy ri.^lit a rolliurj primary country U'd on to a low dusky Avail like ridi,'e, which \ afterwards reco(,'niscd as the Groat The Urent (ilacier of Humboldt; and still beyond this, reachiui' northward **'"'"''''' "^ /. 1 XT XT fi 1 1 1 1 • 1 , ' Hmnbol.lt from tlic N.N.I"^., was the land which now bears the name of Washiu^'ton ; itH most projectiui,' ht>adland. Cape Andrew Jack- son, bore 14^ l)y sextant from the furthest hill, ("apo John IJarrow, on the o[iposite side. The great area between was a solid sea of ice. Close along its shore, almost looking down upon it from the cre.st of our lofty station, we could see the long lines of hummocks dividing tlu^ tloes like the trenches of a be- leaguered city. Further out, a streani of icebergs, increasiuor in mnnbers as they receded, showed an almost imi»enetrab]e barrier, (iincc! I could not doubt that among their recesses the ice was so crushed as to be impas.sable by the .sledge. Nevertheless, l»eyond these again the ice seemed less obstructed. Distance is very deceptive upoti the ice, subduing its salient fea- tures, and reducing even lofty liergs to the appearance of a smooth and attractive plain. Tiut, aided by my Frauidiiifer telescope, I could see that traversable areas were still attainable. Slowly, and ahuost with a sigh, I laid the glass down and made j; my mind for a winter search. 1 had .seen no place combining so many of the requisites of a a wintei good winter harbour as the bay in which we left the Adcance. '"""'">"'• Near its south-western corner the wide streams and the water- co\irses on the shore promised the earliest chances of liberation in the coming summer. It was secure against the moving ice : lofty headlands walled it in beautifully to .seaward, enclosing an luichor- age with a moderate depth of water ; yet it was open to the meri- dian sunlight, and giuu'ded from winds, eddies, and drift. The space enclosed was only occupied b'; a few rocky islets and our brig. We soon came in sight of her on our return march, as she Return to lay at anchor in its .southern swee[), w'th her nuists cutting sharply ti'^bng. against the white glacier ; and, hurrjing on through a gale, were taken on board without accident. My comrades gathered anxiou.sly around me, waiting for the e0 THE BRIG LAID UP FOR TUE WINTKR. OHAPXKU news. I told theiu in a few words of the results of our journey, '^- and why I had dciteruuned upon remaining, and gave at once the "" order to warp in between the inlands. We found seven-fathom soundings and a perfect sheltei from the outside ice ; and thus laid our little brig in the harbour, wkich we were fated never to leave together,— a long resting-place to her indeed, for the sanie ice is around her still. i ' APPROACHING WINTRU m. CHAPTFR X. APPROACIIINO WINTEH— STORING PROVISIONS — BUTLni STOKEIIODSE— SUN- DAY AT REST— BUILDING OBSEHVATORY— TRAINING THE DOGS— THE LITTl-E WILLIE— THE ROAD— THE PAITU- SLEDGING— RECONNOFSSANCE —DEPOT PARTY. The winter was now approacliing rapidly. The tliermometer had chapikf fallen by the 10th of September to 14°, and the young ice had ^- cemented tlie floes so that we could walk and sledge round the Anuoacii brig. About sixty paces north of us an iceberg had been caught, °.i„||;, and was frozen in ; it was our neighbour while we remained in Rensselaer Harbour. The rocky islets around us were fringed ""J'^S'St. i .-,JX^ «/*> RBNgSELABR IIAHBUUR. with hummocks ; and, as the tide fell, their sides were coated wltti )paque crystals of bright white. The birds had gona The sea- CUAPTEll X. Migratloi of the birds. Probable time of the sun's disappear- ance. (J2 STOETNO PR0VTSTT>-N3. swalloAvs, Avliich abounded when we first reached here, and even vhe youn- burgomasters that lingered after them, had aU taken thoir departure for tlie soutli. Except the snow-bh'ds, these are the la^<- to migrate of all the Arctic birds. " September 10, Sa(>n^da>/.-^Ye have plenty of responsible work before us. The long ' night in which im man can work' is_ close at hand : in another month we shall lose the sun. Astronomically, he should disappear on the 24th of Oct..ber, if our horizon were free ; but it is obstructed by a mountain ridge, and, making all alhnvance for refraction, we cannot count on seeing him after the 10th. 1,1-. » First and foremost, we have to unstow the hold, and deposit its contents in the storehouse on Butler Island. Brooks and a ---:-ai- '^._ ^fS: .-,-->^"vJ K8j= I Catering for winter Jiet. BOTLKKS IHLAJID 8TOREII0U8K, party are now briskly engaged in this double labour, ninning loaded boats alonj canoJ that has to be recut every morning. " Next comes th. 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 followed by the animals tliemselves, I cannot calculate upon thi.-m as a resource. 1 am without the her- metically-sealed meats of our last voyage ; and the use of salt meat PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER. 63 in circumstances like ours is never safe. A fresh-water pond, which chaptkf fortunately remains open at Afedary, gives me a cliance for some ±_ further experiments in freshening tliis portion of our stock. Steaks of salt junk, artistically cut, are strung on Uncs like a country- woman's dried apples, and soaked in festoons under the ice. The salmon-trout and salt codfish which we bought at Fiskernaes 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 neutraUze the acid. All these are submitted to twelve hours of alternate soaking and freezing, tiie crust of ice being removed from tliem before°each immersion. Tiiis is the steward's province, and a most important one it is. "Every one else is well employed,— M'Gary arranging an-l Bonsall making the inventory of our stores ; Ohlsen and Pc'tersen building our deck-house; while I am devising the plan of an archi- tectural interior, wliich is to combine, of course, the utmost venti- lation, room, dryness, warmth, general accommodation, comfort,— in a word, all the appliances of health. " We have made a comfortiible dog-house on Butler Island ; but though our Esquimaux canaille are within scent of our cheeses there, one of which they ate yesterday 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-distinguish- Affection ing trait of affection for man should show itself in an animal so °*'»'edogfl imperfectly reclaimed from a savage state that he can hardly be caught when wanted ! ''September 11, SundaT/.— Today came to us the first quiet Sunday Sunday of harbour life. We changed our log registration from ''^''*^ sea-time to the familiar home series that begins at midnight. It is not only that the season has given us once more a local habita- tion ; but there is something in the return of varying day and night that makes it grateful to reinstate this domestic observance. The long staring day, which has clung to us for more tiian two months, to the exclusion of the stars, has begun to intermit its brightness. Even Aldebaran, the red eye of the Bull, flared out into familiar recollection as early as ten o'clock ; and the heavens, though still somewhat reddened by the gaudy tints of midnight, 64 "fkrn rock. 11 CHAI'TER X. The roLiv Star. Site of ttie observa- tory. " Fern Rock." Provision depots. Plans of future search. gave us Capella and Arcturu.s, and even that le.'iser light of home memories, the Pobir Star. Stretching my neck to look uncomfort- ably at this indication of our extreme northenniess, it was hard to realize that he was not aturday s opcra- tion.s, amid the thousand discomforts of house-cleaning and mov- ing combined. I dodged them for an hour this morning, to fix wiUi Mr. Sontag upon a site for our observatory; and the men are already at work hauling the st My dugs wore hotli I'^sciuiinaux and Newfoundlanders. Of tliese cuaptei, last 1 had ten : they Avere to be carefully broken, to ti'avel by voice ^• without the whip, and were expected to be very u.scful for heavy Training draught, as their tractability would allow the driver to regu- "'*"'°*^' late their pace. I was already training them in a light sledge, to drive, unlike the Estpiiniaux, two abreast, with a regular harness, a breast-collar of flat leather, and a pair of traces. 8ix of them made a powerful travelling-team ; and four could cany me and my instruments, for short journeys around the brig, with great ease. The sledge I used for them was built, with the care of cabinet- ■ihcLittk > ork, of American hickory, thoroughly seasoned. The curvature "''""^■ of the rumiers was determined experimentally ; they were shod with annealed steel, and fastened by copper rivets, which could be renewed at pleasure. Except this, no metal entered into its oonstru(;tion. All its parts were held together by seal-skin lash- ings, so that it yielded to inequalities of surface and to sudden shock. The three paramount considerations of lifditness, strength and dnninished friction, were well combined in it. This beautiful and, as we afterwards found, efficient and enduring sledge was named the Little Willie. The Esquimaux dogs were reserved for the great tug of the Tiie Esqm actual journeys of search. They were now in the semi-savage "ogl" condition which marks their close approach to the Avolf; and, according to Mr. Tetersen, under whose care they were placed, were totally useless ft)r journeys over such ice as was now before us. A hard experience had not then opened my eyes to the inestimable value of these dogs : I had yet to learn their power and speed, their patient, enduring fortitude, their sagacity in tracking these icy morasses, among which they had been born and bred. I determined to hold back my more distant provision parties as The roaii long as the continued daylight would permit ; making the New- foundland dogs establish the depots within sixty miles of the brig. My previous journey had shown me that the ice-belt, clogged with the foreign matters dislodged from the cliffs, 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 continuity. It was now so consolidated by advanc- 66 THE "FAITH. X. M 11^ lit i I"-: Descrip- tion of the Failft. a model eledue 11 III iiig cold 113 to have stopped its drift to the south ; but the large fioes 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 momcntuin through the ice-tables, and rearing up barricades that defied the passage of a sledge. It was desirable, therefore, that our depot parties should not enter upon their work until they could avail themselves of the young ice. This now occupied a belt about 100 yards in mean breadth, 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 depot was furnished with a sledge, the admirable model of which I obtained through the British Admiralty. The only liberty tliat I ventured to take with this model — which had been previously tested by the adventurous journeys of M'Clintock in Lancaster Sound — was to lessen the height, and somewhat increase the breadth of the runner ; both of which, I think, were improvements, giving increased strength, and preventing too 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 Stoi'CS. This noble old sledge, which is now en- deared to me by every pleasant association, bore the brunt of the heaviest parties, and came back, after the descent of the coast, comparatively sound. The men were at- tached in her in such a way as to make the line of draught or traction as near as pos- sible in the axis of the wei;.'ht. Each man bad his own shoulder-belt, or "rue-raddy," as we used to call it, and his own track-line, which, for want of horse-hair, was made of * Tlie general drift of tliese great masses wa.< to tlic soutli, — a plain indication of deep Bea-currents in that direction, and a convincing proof, to me, of a discharge from some liortliera water. %>^Mm^' THE RUE-RAUDY, CARfiO A.ND OUTFIT 67 Manilla rope; it traversed fii cly by a ring on a loop or bridle, chapter 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 liom iiu.rfering with each other by walking abreast. The longest was three fathoms, eighteen feet, in length ; the shortest, directly) fa>tc'ned to the sledge runner, as a means of guiding or suddenly arresting and turning the vehicle. The cargo for this journey, wiLliout including the provisions of the cargo. party, was lalmost exrlusivdy pemmican. Some of this was put up in cylinders of tinned in^n with conical terminations, so as to resist the assaults of tlu' white bear ; but the larger quantity was in strong wooden cases or kegs, well hooped with iron, holding about seventy pounds ein'h. Surmounting tlds load was a light india- rubber boatj made quite portaljle by a frame of basket willow, which I hoped to launch on reaching open water. The personal equipment of the men was a buffalo-robe for the outfit, party to lie upon, and a b;ig of Mackinaw blanket for each man to crawl into at night. India rubber cloth was to be the p)rotection 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 travelUng 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 efficiency. Step by step, as long as our Arctic service continued, we went on re- ducing our sledging outfit, until at last we came to the Esquimaux ultimatum of sinijdicity — raw meat and a fur bag. While our arrangements for the winter were still in progress, I ueconnais sent out Mr. Wilson and Dr. Hayes, accompanied by our Esqui- ^''°"' maux, 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 IGth of September, after a hard travel, made with excellent judgment and abundant zeal. They i)enetrated into the interior about ninety miles, Avhen their progress was arrested by a glacier, -100 feet high, and extend- ing to the north and west as far as the eye could reach. This magnificent body of interior ice forn 1 on its summit a complete plateau, — a mer de glace, abutting upi n a broken plahi of syenite. They found no large lakes. They saw a few reindeer at a distance, and numerous liares and rabbits, but no ptarmigan. ii'ii i A u «8 I DKPARTURE OF THE DEPOT PARTY. OHAPTEH " September 20, Tuesday. — I was unwilling to delay my depot JL party any longer. They left the brig, M'Gary, and Bon.sall, with DepHi tare five men, at half-past one to-day. We gave them three cheers, and of the ^ ■ 1 1 ■/ o ) dep6t A accompanied them with my dogs as a farewell escort for some P^^y- 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 ob- servatory and its arrangements." Pi \ m • m -j^t W^Mr'c THE OBSKRVATORY. 69 pot nth ind )ine the ob- CHAPTER XI. TUE OBSKllVATOKY— TIIKKMOMETERS— THE KATS— THE BllIQ ON FIK.E— ANCIENT SM;1>G1;-TKA0KS— ESQUIMAUX HUTS— IiyDllOI'IIOBIA oth Ohlsen Effect of and myself were greatly oppressed until the first bucket was poured f,',^^™"" on ; but as I did this, directly over the burnhig coal, raising chnids of steam, we at once experienced relief : the fine aqueous particles seemed to ab.sorb the carbonic acid instantly. We found the fire had originated in the remains of a barrel of charcoal, which Origin of had been left in the carpenter's room, ten feet from the stoves, and *''°*^''°' with a bulkliead separating it from them. ]low it had been ignited it was iiiq)os.sible to know. Our safety was due to the dense charge of carbonic acid gas which surrounded the fire, and the exclusion of atmospheric air. When the hatches were opened Means of the flame burst out with energy. Our fire-hole was invaluable ; ^'"^'^* and I rejoiced that, hi the midst of our heavy duties, this essential of an Arctic winter harbour had not been neglected. The ice around the brig was already fourteiii inches thick, '^October 1, Saturday. Upon in.specthig the scene of yester- day's operations, we found twenty-eight well-fed rats of all varieties of age. The cook, though unable to do duty, is better ; I can hear him chanting his Beranger through the blankets in his bunk, happy over his holiday, happy to be happy at everything. I had 72 KSQiriMAlTX HUTS. trucks. F:.si|ui- iiiiuixlmtb. I cHAPTEu ;i larger dose of carbonic acid even than he, and am suffering con- 1 Hidenihly with palpitations and vertigo. If the sentimental as- phyxia of Parisian charcoal resembles in its advent that of the Arctic zone, it must be, I think, a ])oor way of dying. OlcUiedKo ^^ October .i, Mondai). — On shore to the south-east, al)ove the first terrace, Mr Petersen found unmistakable signs of a sledge- passage. The tracks were deeply impressed, but certainly more than one season old. This adds to our hoi)e that tho natives, whose ancient traces we saw on the point south of (Jodsend Ledge, may return this winter. '^ Odohrr n, Wedncsdai/. — I walked this afternoon to another group of f]s(piimaux huts, about three miles fi'om the l>rig. They are four in number, long deserted, 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. TJiese are about four feet by three in ground plan, and some three feet liigh ; 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, without excej>tion, of water-washed limestone. They are heavily sodded with turf, and a narrow slab of clay-slate serves as a door. No doubt they are human habita- tions, — retiring chambers, into which, away from the crowded families of the hut, one or even two Esquimaux have bun-owed for sleep, — chilly dormitories in the winter of this high latitude. " A circumstance that happened to-day is of serious 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. A dog at- Kane, and seven eaten by their mammas. Yesterday the mother hlS ^^ "^ °"^ batch, a pair of fine white pu[)s, showed peculiar symptoms. We recalled the fact that for days past she had avoided water, cr had drunk with spasm and evident aversion ; but hy inches in length than those noticed by ])r. Richardson. Mr. Petersen is quite successful 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 ^, Saturday. — I have been practising with my dog- tiio doff sledge and an Esquinuuix team till my arms ache. To drive such *''"'^'' an equipage a certain proficiency with the whip is indispensable ; which, like all proficiency, must be worked for. In fiict the weapon has an exercise of its own, quite peculiar, and as hard to learn as single-stick or broadsword. "The whip is G yards long, and the handle but IG inches, — a short lever, of course, to throw out such a length of seal-hide. Learn to do it, however, with a masterly sweej), 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 particular 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 dogf5 and lines, or to fasten itself cunnhigly round bits of ice, so as to drag you head over heels into the snow. " The secret by which this complicated set of requirements is fulfilled consists in properly describing an arc from the shoulder, with a stiff elbow, giving the jerk to the wliip handle from the hand and wrist alone. The lash trails behind as you travel, ;;nd f»\.v J; i Wild ani ojals. '4 WILD ANIMALS. OHAPTKR when tin own forward is allowed to extend itself witliout an effort — L to bring it back. You wait patiently after giving the projectile The^dog impulse rntil 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 forefoot of an unfortunate dog is signalized by a howl quite unmistakable in its inii)ort. " The mere labour of using this whip is .such that the Esquimaux travel in couples, one sledge after the other. The hinder dogs Iblhnv 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. I have not quite got the knack of it yet, though I might venture a trial of cracking against the postilion college of Lonjumeau. ''October 9, Sundai/.—^lr. Petersen shot a hare yesterday. TJiey are very scarce now, for he travelled some five hours without seeing another. He makes the important leport of musk ox tracks on the recent snow. Dr. Ki'-hardson says that these are scarcely distinguishable from the reindeer's except by the practised eye : be characterizes them as larger, but not wider. The tracks that Petersen saw had an interesting confirmation of their being those of the musk ox, for they were accompanied by a second set of footprints, evidently belonging to a young one of the same species, and about as large as a middle-sized reindeer's. Both impressions also were marked as if by hair growing from the pastern joint, for behind the hoof was a line brushed in the snow. " To-day Hans brou-ht in another hare he had shot. He saw seven reindeer in a large valley off Bedevilled Reach, and wounded one of them. This looks promising for our winter commissariat. ''October 10, Monday.— Om depot party has been out twenty days, and it is time they were back : their provisions must liave run very low, for I enjoined them to leave every pound at the depot 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 accompany me with his skate.s. We have not hands enough to equip a sledge party, and the ice is too uns imid for us to attempt to ride with a large team. The thermometer is still 4° above zero." I 'l- LEAPTNO A CHASM. m CHAPTER XII. LEAPING A CHASM — THE ICE-BELT — CAPE WILLIAM WOOD— CAMP ON THE FLOES— RETUUX OF DEPOT PARTY — HONSALl's ADVENTUHE— RESULTS— AN ESCAPE — TUB THIRD CACHE — M'uARY ISLAND. I FOUND little or no trouble in crossing tlie ice until we passed be- ciiapteu yond the north-east headland, which I liave named Cape William f!^ Wood. But, on emerging into the channel, we found tliat the Travelling spring tides had bri)ken up the great area around us, and that the °^ ^'"^ '" {)assage of the sledge was interrupted by fissures, which were be- ginning to break in every direction through the young ice. My first effort was of course to reach the land ; but it was im- fortunately low tide, and the ice-belt rose up before me like a wall. 'J'lie 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 tliat in doing so we should risk beinw carried down by the drift. The dogs began to flag ; but we had to press them ;— we were only two men ; and, in the event of the animals 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 ; and John and myself, who had been trotting alongside the sledge for sixteen 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 a piunpe c lasm 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 companion, hauled the poor animals out. We owed the preservation of the sledge to their admirable docility and perseverance. Tlie 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 un- water. 76 CAM I' ON THK FT,OKK. floe. • CHAPTER certain support-from the two edges of the openinf', till the dom 1 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 posi- tion left no room for thoughts of cold. We started at a run, men and dogs, for the solid ice ; and by the time wc had gained it we were steaming in the cold atmosphere like a couple of Nootka Sound vapour-baths, nestonthe We rcstcd on the floe. We could not raise our tent, for it had frozen as hard as a shingle. But our buffalo-robe bags gave us protection ; and, though we were too wet inside to be absolutely comfortable, we managed to get something like sleep before it was light enough for us to inove on again. The journey was continued in the same way ; but we found, to our groat 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 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 journey's experience were now fringed with icicles. I saw with great pleasure that this ice-belt would serve as a high- way for our future oi)erations. The nights which followed were not so bad as one would sup]>ose from the saturated condition of our equi[)ment. Evaporation is not so inappreciable in this Arctic region as some theorists ima- gine. By alternately exposing the tent and furs to the air, and * beating the ice out of them we dried them enough to permit sleei). The dogs slept in the tent with us, giving it warmth as well as fragrance. What perfumes of nature are lost at home upon out ungrateful senses ! How we rehshed the companionship ! We liad 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, t)r dived into the shoreward re- stoppedby cesses of the bay : the ice everywhere presented the same impass- aciasm. ^-^^^ fissures. We had no alternative but to retrace our steps and seek among the bergs some place of security. We found a camp Nights on the ice. RETURN OF THE DEPOT PARTY. 77 for the night on the old floe-ices to the westward, gaining them chapter some time after the darkness had closed in. *"• On the morning of the 15th, about two hours before the late " sunrise, as I was preparing to climb a 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 compact mass. It was the returning sledge party. They had seen our black tent of Kedar, and ferried acro°s to seek it. They were most welcome ; for their absence, in the fearfully Return of 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 breatli- less with gratulation, that I could not get him to blow his signal- horn. We gave them, instead, the good old Anglo-Saxon g'reet- ing, « three cheers ! " and in a few minutes were among them. They h.ad made a creditable journey, and were, on the whole, In sufferings good condition. They had no injuries worth talking about, al- ^'■°™ '*>« though not a man had escaped some touches of the frost. Bon- °*^' sail was mrous a big Koe-nail, and plus a scar upon the nose, AI'Ga'-T had attempted, as Tom Hickey told us, to pluck a fox it being so frozen as to defy skinning by his knife ; and his finger; had bo n tolerably frost-bitten in the operation. "Thev'i. ry hornv, sir, are my fingers," said M'Gary, who was v-oiii down to a mere shadow of liis former rotundity ; " very horny, and they water up like bladders." The re.st had suffered in their feet ; but like good fe Ijws, postponed limping until they reached the s?iip. ^ WitMn the last three days they had marched fifty-four miles, or R^teof eighteen a day. Their sledge being empty, and the youn'^ ice north travelling of Cape Brjicroft smooth as a -..ror, thf-y had travelled, the day S'e'!''"'' before we met tuem, nearly twenty-five miles. A \. y remarkable pace for men who had been twenty-eight days in thn ri-ld. My supplies of hot food, coffee, and marled beef .^ou ., which x had brought ^vlth me, were very opportune. Th.-j had almost ex- hausted their bread ; and, being unwilling to encroach on the de^ pot stores, had gone without fuel in order to save alcohol. Le? nncr 6 ^m 78 NEWFOUNDLAND DOO TKAM ouAPTER orders to place my own sledge stores in cachc^ I reiiu'iied to tlit ^"' brig, fihcad of the party, with my dog-sledge, carrying Mr. Bon.^aLl wth me. Uapinjj On this return 1 had much less ditllculty with the ice cracks j ice cracks. ^^^^ ^^.^^^^ ^£ Newfoundlanders leaping tliem in almost every instance, and the impulse of our sledge carrying it across. On one occasion, while we were making these flying leaps, poor Ronsall was tossed out, and came very near 1 icing carried under by the rapid tide- He fortunately caught the runner of the sledge as he fell; and 1 a* The spar- lock. NBWPOrSDLAND DOG TRAM, 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 return to my journal. "The s})ar-deck — or, as we call it from its wooden covering, the 'house' — is steaming with the buffalo-robes, tents, boots, socks, and heterogeneous costumings of our returned ]->artics. 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 card.s, grof^ at dinner, and the ju-omise of a three days' holiday, have made the decks bappy with idleness and laughter." ^ JOURNEY OF THE DEPOT PARTY. 79 ] i I give the general results of the party; referring to the Appendix oHAi-TKi-, for the detailed account of Messrs. M'Gary and Bonsall. ^"• Tliey left the brig, as may be remembered, on the 20th of Sep- Cache tember, and they reached Cape Hussell on the 25th. Near tliis UscS."' spot I had, in my former journey of reconnoissance, established a cairn ; and here, as by previously concerted arrangement, they left their first cache of pemmican, together witli some bread, and alco- hol for fuel. On the 28th, after crossing a large bay, they met a low cape about thirty miles to the north-east of the first depot. Here they made a second cache of a hundred and ten pounds of beef and pemmican, and about thirty of a mixture of pennnican and Indian meal, with a bag of bread. The (lay being too foggy for sextant obijervations for position, or even for a reliable view of the landmarks, they built a substartial cairn, and buried the provision at a distance of ten paces from its a cai,„ f outre, bearing by compass, E. by N. i N. The jKunt on which ''"",' "j;^', thi.s cache stood I subsequently named after Mr. Bonsall, one ,^f *'"""'""' the indefatigable leaders of the party. r wUl give the geographical outline of the track of this party hi a subsequent i)art 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 dfliculties which they en- countered. On tJie twenty-fiftli day of their outward journey they met a stop,,c«ary cache was named after my f.uthful fiiend and exceUent second '*"""'» officer, Mr. James M'Gary of New Ix>nion. I \ 'i 82 WA.LKTTS nOLBft. CHAPTER XIII. \m OHAPTER XIII. WAIjKUS holes — ADVANCE OF DAKKNESS— DARKNESS THE COLD — " THE ICB blink" — EOX-CHASE— EStiUIMAUX HUTS— OUOULTATION OF SAT- UUN— I'OUTIIAIT OF OLD GUIM. ^'October 2S, Fridcnj. — The moon has reached her gi'eatest northern declination of about 25° 35', She is a glorious object : sweeping The moon, around the heavens, at the loAvcst part of her curve, she is still 14° above the horizon. For eight days she has been making her circuit with nearly unvarying brightness. It is one of those spark- ling nights that bring back the memory of sleigh-bells and songs and glad communings of hearts in lands that are far 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 water enough to sport and even bleep 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 inside the capes of Rensselaer Harbour. They liad the same circular, cleanly-finished margin as the seals', but they were in much thicker ice, and the radiathig 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 discoloured : 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 The tern perature. Walrus holes. * The walrus often sleeps on tlie surface of the water while his lellows are playing arouud Jiim. In this condition I frequently surprised the young ones, whoso mothers were aslee}; by Iheir side. NVALUL'S .Sl'OmiNU, 83 an interesting question. Tlio ussuk or hvunhd seal Ims tlie same cu habit. APTEB Zlll. WAI-RU8 SPORTING. '^Kovemha- 7, Muiuiai/.—Tlm darkness is coming on with in- sidious steadiness, and its advances can only be perceived by com- paring one day with its fellow of some time back. We still read tiie thermometer at noonday without a light, and the black masses of the hills are plahi 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 extinguished below. The stars of the sixth magnitude shine out at noonday. " Excei)t upon the island of Spitzbergen, which has the advan- tages of an insular climate and tempered by ocean currents, no Christians have wintered in so liigh a latitude as this. They are Russian sailors who nuike the encounter there, men inured to hard- ships and cold. I cannot help thinking of the sad chronicles of the early Dutch, who perished year after year, without leaving a comrade to record their fate. " Our darkness lias ninety days to run before we shall get back again even to the contested twilight of to-day. Altogether, our winter A\ill have been sunless for oui buudred and forty days. '• It requiies neither the ' Ice-fuut with its growing ramparts. Darluiebf increas- ing. Duration of winter W^" 84 DARKNK8S AND COLD. The cold. cuAPTER nor the rapid eiicroachnieuts of the night, nor the record of oui — 1 thermometers, to portend for us a winter of unusual severity. The mean temperatures of October and 8e[)teniber are lower than those of Parry for the same uionths at Melville Island. Thus far we have no indications of that deferred fall cold which marks the in- sular climate. " November 9, Wednesday.— Wi^hm^ to get the altitude of the cliiFs on the south-west cape of our bay before the darkness set in thorouglily, I started in time to reach them with my Newfound- landers 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 fi-lt that daily exposure was necessary to enable me to bear up against the cold. The thermometer indicated 23° below zero. " Fireside astronomers can hardly realize the difficulties in the way of observations at such low temperatures. The mere burning of the hands is obviated by covering the metal with chamois-skin ; but the breath, and even the warmth of the fjice and body, cloud the sextant-arc and glasses with a fine hoar-frost. Though I hod nmch clear weather, we barely succeeded by magnifiers in n ading the verniers. It is, moreover, an unusual feat to measure a base- line in the snow at 55° below freezing. ''November IG, Wednesday. — The gi-eat dilliculty is to keep up Poor Hans a cheery tone among the men. Poor Hans h;is been sorely home- """■ sick. Three days ago he bundled up his clothes and took his rifle, to bid us all good-bye. It turns out that besides his mother there is another one of the softer sex at Fiskernaes 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 a 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 innumerable to cheat the monotonous solitude of our mnter. 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 servarb FiDEM.' The articles are by authors of every nautical grade : some tlie Esqui maux. rhe "Ice- Blink." ii m LONO JOUKNKYS OVKU THE SNOW. 80 1 tian.stur ii lew of them to my of the beat from the forecastle Appendix. ''November L'l\ Tuesda;/. — I ollered a prize to-day of a Guenjaey shirt to the man who held out longest in a ' fox-chase ' round the deck.s. The rule of the sport was, that * Fox ' was to run a given circuit between galley and cap.stai., 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 the crew t(j run as fox in turn. William CJodtVcy sustained the chase for fourteen minutes, and rvore off the shirt. ''Novemhcr 27, i^unday. — 1 sent out a volunteer party some days ago with Mr. Bonsall, to see whether the l':s(piimaux have returned to the huts we saw empty at the c:ipe. The thermometer was in the neighbourhood of 40° below zero, and the day was too dark to read at noon. I was hardly suriirisod when they returned after cami.ing one night upon the snow. Their sledge broke down, and they were obliged to leave tents and everything else behind them. It must have been very cold, for a bottle of Monongahela whisky of good stiff proof froze under Mr. Bonsall's head. " Morton went out on Friday to reclaim the things they had left ; and to day at 1 p.af. he returned successful. He reached the wreck of the former party, nuiking nine miles in three hours,— pushed on six miles further on the ice- foot,— then camped for the night ; and, making a sturdy march the next day without luggage, reached the hut.s, and got back to his camp to sleep. This jour- ney of his was, we then thought, really an achievement,— sLxty-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 pacos ahead. " Under more fav. ruing circumstances, Bonsall, Morton, and my- self made eighty-foui miles in three consecutive 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. " Mort(jn found no natives ; but he saw enough to satisfy me that the huts could not have been deserted long before we came to t his region. The foxes had been at work upon the animal remains that we found there, and the appearances which we noted of recent CHAVTKR XIII. A fox CllllHC. A volun- teer party A loiifi journey \n. Forced inarchsa IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ,

AV -nil: !>ikt-ti(k a .jMi.rrs tub lauuimih niK TKMl'l'.UATUUK-TUB " KIS-1.01>"-T11K ICK-I.Kl.T • TllK irlMlKI.T KN- CllOAOlllNU - KXI-KKITION HVKI'AUINO - OUUU- DYE - A SUUl'lSE - A 8Et'0NI> (lOUD-IIY.:. " ]Iarch 7 7'».'*-(/('V.-"l liavc said very little in thin business jouriuil oiui n.. about oui' daily Arctic life. I have had no time to draw pictures. ^ " But wc have some trials which might make up a day s adven- naiiy TUR MAONBTIC 0B8RRVAT0RY. tures. Our Arctic observatory is cold bey.ock opposite; it is the san.e luunmock you -..so, 'skinned your shh.s upon the last night you .'ere here. Now wmd aloncr, half serpentine, half zigzag, and you cannot_ mistake that twei^y feet wall just beyond, creakh.g and groanmg, and even nodding its crest with a grave cold welcome; it is the 'seam of the second ice.' Tumble over it at the first gap, and vou are upon the first ice ; tumble over that and you are at [he ice-foot; and there is nothing else now between you and the rocks, and nothing after them between you and the observa- ''"^But be a little careful as you come near this ice-foot It is Sc^nj^^ 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 foot. haLf-balanccd, half-fixed, half-fioating ice-lumps, unless you relish ■t bath like Marshal Suwarrow's-it might be more pleasant it 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 putts of steam into the cold air, is the seair. of the ice-foot;' you have only to jump it and you are on the smooth, level icefoot itself. Scrau.ble 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 inm-^ '' . .1 • _ _1 T4- ■..•no +llO inlST.n fR i ^^., ^, cultiesof all its powers of observation on things above. It was the mistake ,,, of Mr Sontag some months ago, when he wandered about for an --^.^j hour on his way to the observatoiy, and was afraid ^^fter finding ^^^ it to trv and wander back. I myself had a slide down an inclined ^^^,p plan., Avhose well-graded talus gave me ample time to contem- plate 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 beh)w ; or by good luck it was only a water-pool m which my lantern made the glitter. I exulted to find myself m a cushion ° "Tarc-A 9, Thnrsda1/.-l^o^y do we spend the day when it is not term-day, or rather the twenty-four hours] for it is either 1 ^iS I! 1(">0 A DAY IN TllK ARCTIC REOIOXS. if both. How do I I OHAPTER all day here, or all night, or a twilight mixture ^^' wc spend the twenty-tour hours ? Mcniiiiff. " At six in the morning j\I'Gary is called, with all hands who have sf'-pt 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 break- fast. We are short of fuel, and theretbre cook in the cabin. Onr Brwiktast. breakfast, for all fare alike, is hard tack, pork, stew<,d ai)ples 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, M'Gary 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 chlori- nated flame, 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 ; Son- tag reducing his work at Fern llock. A fourth, as one of the working members of the hive, has long been defunct ; you will find hiin in bed, or studying ' Littell's Living Age.' At twelve a husiness round of inspection, and orders enough to fill up the day with work. Next, the drill cf the Esquimaux dogs— my own peculiar recreation — a dog-trot specially refreshing to legs that creak with every kick, and rheumatic shoulders that chronicle every descent of the whip. And so we get on to dinner-time — the occasion of another gathering, which misses the tea and coffece of breakfast, but rejoices in pickled cabbage and dried peaches instead. Dinner. " 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 mu(!h as I can do to persuade the mess to shut their eyes and holt it, like j\Irs. Squeers's molasses and brimstone at Dotheboys Hail. Two absolutely refuse to taste it, I tell them of the Silesians using its leaves as spinach, of the wliHlers in the South Seas Employ' mente. WINTKR LIFE ON IJOARP SlUr. 101 getting drunk on the molasses which li;ul preserved the kirge chai^tkk potato°es of the Azures— I point to this gum, so fungoid and angry ._! the day before yesterday, and so Hat and amiable to-day—all by a potato poultice ; my eloiiuence is wasted ; they persevere hi reject- ing the admirable comi)ound. " Sleep, exercise, amusement, and work at will, carry on the day supr«r till our six o'clock supper, a meal somethhig like brealdast and something like dhiiier, only a little more scant ; and the otlicers come in with the reports of the day. Dr. Hayes shows me the log, I sign it; Sontag the weather, I sign the weather; Mr. Bon- sail the tides and thermometers. Thereupon comes in mine anciout. WINTKR LIKK ON BOARD Sill!'. Brooks; and I enter hi his journal No. 3 all the work done under hi.s charge, and discuss his labours for the morrow. "AI'Garv comes next, with the cleaning-up arrangement, inside, Close of outside, and (jii decks ; and Mr, Wilson follows with ice-measure- ments. And last of all comes my own record of the day gone by ; f m I HAPTER XV. oiciita Piiva- tions. Lbeose. Prepara- tions for travel Mean tern- peratura 102 HAKDSHII'S AND UlSEASK. every line, as I look buck upon its pages, giving evidence of a weak ened body and harassed mind. " We have cards sometimes, and cbess sometimes, — and a few magazines, Mr. Littell's thoughtful present to clieer away the evening. ^^ March 11, Saturdaj/. — All this seems tolerable for common- place routine ; but there is a lack of comfort whicli it does not tell of. Our fuel is limited to three bucketFuls of coal a-day, and our mean temperature outside is 40° below aero ; 4G° below as I write. London ]]rown Stont, and somebody's Old Brown Sherry, freeze in the cabin lockers ; and tlie carlines overhead are liung with tubs of cliopped ice, to make water for our daily drinli. Our lamps cannot be persuaded to burn salt lard; our oil is exliausted; 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. " Not a man now, except Pierre and Morton, is exempt 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 niglit and an Arctic day age a man more rapidly and harshly than a year anywhere else hi 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 re-organize our whole equipment. We have had to discard all our India-rubber fancy-work ; canvas shoe-making, fur- socking, scAAdng, carpentering, are all gf»ing on ; and the cabin, our only fife-warmed apartnlent, is the worksliop, kitchen, parlour, and hall. Pemmican cases are thawing on the lockers ; buffalo robes are drying around the stove ; camp equipments occui)y the corners; and our woe-begone French cook, with an infinitude of useless saucepans, insists on monopolizing the stove. '■'■March 15, Wednesday. — The mean tempeiature of the last five days has been, — Marcli 10 — 46°.03 11 - 45°.60 12 -i^^SA 13 — 46°.66 14 - 46-.66 sr TKMl'ERATUEK. 103 giving an average of — 4G° 30', with a variation between llie uua^pi^eh extremes of less than three-quarters of a degree. __ •'These records are remarkahle. 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 Tolc. It will extend the isotherm of the solstitial month higher than ever before projected. "Tlie mean temperature of Parry for March (in lat. 74^ 30') «;;-;-■■ was — aO''; our own will be at least 41° below zero. " At such temperatures the ice or snow covering oilers a great resistance to the sledge-runners. I have noticed this in training my dogs. The dry snow in its fmely-divided state resembles sand, and tlie runners creak as they pass over it. Baron Wrangell notes the same fact in Siljeria at — 40°. " The difliculties of draught, however, must not interfere with my parties. I am only waiting until the sun, now Kr high at n.ion, brings back a little warmth to the men in sleeph.g. The SHgi.t^ro mean diiference between bright clear sunshine and shade is now ^^^"Jjj,_ 5°. J5ut on the 10th, at noon, the shade gave —42° 2', and the ^sun —28° ; a difference of more than 14°. This must make an impression before long. ''March 17, Fridai/.—lt is nine o'clock, p.m., and the thermo- meter outside at —40°. I am anxious to have this depot party off ; but I must wait mitil 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 vapours of the ice-foot, and the frost-smoke exhaling m wreaths like those from the house- chimneys a man sees in the valleys as he comes do\yn a mountain- side." I nmst reserve for my oflicial report the detailed story of this ice-foot and its changes. The name is adopted on board ship from the Danish « Eis-fod," The^Eb 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 104 THE ICK-HKLT. 7HAPTEK XV, i m ••II Highway -flee. Tlie Ice- belt meti- Bures the severity of the year. Upenuivik or even Cape Alexander ; but in this our high northern winter haroour, it is a peiennial growth, clinging to the bold faces of the cliffs, following the sweeps of the bays and the indentationa of rivers. This broad platform, although changing with the seasons, never disap[)ears. It served as our highway 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 exi)lorers, and had personally studied the same forma- tions in Wellington Channel, where, previous to the present voyage, they might have been sup[)Osed to reach their greatest develo[»- ment. But this wcmderCul structure has here assumed a form which none of its lesser growths to the south had exhibited. As a physical feature, it may be regarded as hardly second, cither 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. Kising with the first freezings of the late summer, it crusts the sea-line Avith curious fretwork and arabesipics ; 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 from the suc- cessive freezing of the tides, until the melted snows and water-tor- rents of summer for a time check its progress. During our first winter at Rensselaer Harbour, the ice-belt grew to three times the size 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 .3U feet high (27 feet) and 120 wide. The ice-foot at this season was not, however, an unbroken level. It had, like the floes, its barricades, serried and irregular — which it was a work of great labour and some difficulty to traverse. Our stores were in consequence 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 DKPARTURK OF THR DEPOT PARTY. 105 of the vessel. The ridges were already within twenty feet of her, ohaptku and her stern was sensibly Ufted np by their pressure. We had, _ indeed, been pu/./lod for six weeks befo.e, by remarking that the i;;^^";«^ floe we were imbedded in was gi-adnally receding fr.^n the sh.^-e; and had recalled the observation of the Danes of Upernavik, that their nets were sometimes forced away strangely from the land. The exphmation is, perhaps, to be found in the alternate ac^tion of the tides and frost ; but it would bo out of place to enter upon the discussion here. ''March 18, Sei«i'" crave the usual three cheers, with three for myself. I gave them the whole of my brother's great wedding-cake and my last two bottles of Port, and they pulled the sledge they were harnessed to tamously. But I was not satisfied. I could see it was hard work ; and, besides, they were without the boat, or enough extra pemmi- can'to make their deposit of importance. I followed them, there- J 106 A NIGHT EXPETDITION. m ■3 . :,i I li ■< I CHAPTRI XT. fore, and found that they encamped at 8 r.M. only five niUes from the brig. " When I overtook them I said notliing to discourage them, and gave no new orders for tlie morning ; but 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 Grceidand sledge, and that no sledge of any other construction could luvo been moved at all through — 40° snow, I quietly bade them good- night, leaving all hands under their buftaloes. A sled " Once returned to the brig, all my tired remainder-men were prcimieu. m^,„„iyiic(i • ^ ];vrgo sled with broad rumiers, 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 trackropes and rue-raddies — the lines arranged to draw as near as possible in a lino 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 pcmmioan 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 northern horizon like a smelting-furnace. We found the tent of the party by the bearings of the stranded bergs. Quietly and stealthily we hauled away their Esquimaux sledge, and i)laced her carg(j u[)on the Faith. Five men were then rne- raddied to the track-lines ; and with the whispered word, ' Now, boys, when Mr. Brooks gives liis third snore, off with you ! ' v\1 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 dishonoured vehicle along with us. And now, bat- ing mishaps past anticipation, I shall have a depot for my long trip. " The party were seen by M'Gary from aloft, at noon to-day, moving easily, and about twelve miles from the brig. The tem- perature too is rising, or rather unmistakably about to rise. Our lowest was — 43°, but (mr highest reached — 22* ; this extreme range, with the excessive refraction and a gentle misty air from about the south-east, makes me ho])e that we are going to have a vrarm spell. The party is well off. Now for my own to follow them." A . ight surprise Lost si gilt of tlie party. •! HOUSE CLEA.NINO ON BOARD. J 07 CHAPTER XVI. PREPARATION— TEMPERATUUKS—ADVF.NTURR- AN ALARM — PARTV ON THE FLOES - IlESCUE PARTY— LOST ON THE FLOES - PARTY FOUND— RETURN —FREEZINU— RETURNING CAHP— A RIVOUAO— EXHAUSTED— ESCAPE- CONSEQUENCES. " March 21, Tuesday.— k\\ liands at work house cleaning. Thor- '"'^JJ''^" uioineter — 48". Visited the fox-traps with Hans in the afternoon, — 1 and found one poor animal frozen dead. He was coiled up, witli J"^"^ [j;"^'«"= his nose buried in his bushy tail, like a fancy foot-nmff, or tlie irrie-dleii 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 underneath, 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-gahied liberty. These saddening thoughts did not impair my appetite at supper, where the little creature looked handsomer than ever. " March 22, WedneHlay.—SNa took down the forward bulkhead to-day, and moved the men aft, to save fuel. AH hands are still at work clearing up the decks, the scrapers sounduig overhead, and the hickory brooiiis crackling against the frozen woodwork. Afternoon comes, and ]\I'Gary brings from the traps two foxes, a blue and a white. Afternoon passes, and we skin them. Evening welcome passes, and we eat them. Never were foxes more welcome visitors, ^''^'t"'^- or treated more like domestic animals. « March 23, Thursday.— "YIiq accumulated ice upon our housing shows what the condensed and frozen moisture of the winter has been. TV e average thickness of this curiou?. deposit is five inches, very 1: and well ciystallized. 8ix 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 An ice as this. In a cUmate where the intense cold approximates all ice ^°° to granite, its tliick air-tight coathig contributes to our warmth, gives a beautiful and cheerful lustre to our walls, and condenses K I 108 TRMPEHATUKK. ciiAPTKii iiny vapours wliicli our cooks allow to escape the funnels. I only ^^ runiove it now because I fear the effects of damp in the season of sinishiuc. ^^ March 27, Mondait. —We have boeii for sonic days in all the Hui-ry of preparation for our ex[)loratiou trip : bullalo-hidcs, leather, and tailorin;,' utensils everywhere. Every particle of fur comes in play for mits, and niuff^, and wrappers. Poor Flora is turned into a pair of socks, and looks almost as pretty as wlit.-n she was headini' the team. Intense " Tlic wind to-day UKuL it intensely cold. In riding but four ''°'*'' miles to inspect a fox-trap, the movement froze my cheeks twice. We avoid masks 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 nintli day. Tt has had some trying weather : — OnthelOth — 42°.3 20th -35°.4 21st -19°.37 22a — TAI 23,1 — 9°.07 24tli -18°.32 25th -34°.80 26th — 42°.8 27th — 34°.38 of mean daily temperature ; making an average of 27°.13 beknv zero. inspcctiiiR " March 29, Wednesday/. — I have been out with my dog-sledge the ice. iiiypecting the ice to-day from the north-western headland. There seems a marked difference between this sound and other estuaries, in the number of icebergs. Unlike Prince Regent'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 apparent 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 con tinuous ice runni.ng on toward the north until it was lost in illimitable distance. "March 31, Friday. — I was within an ace to-day of losing my dogs, every one of them. When I reached tlie ice- foot, they AT)VENTURF ON THK TCR-FOOT. ion b.-illuMl • — wlio would not J— the tlilo was low, tlic ice rampant, ciiAinKh and a jump of lour feet neccssaiy ti> reach the crest. The howling 1 of the wind and the whirl of the snowdrift confused the l""'!' J^^']j;||'« " creatures ; but it was valuable training fur 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, Wh.itey !' 'Good dogs ! ' * Tu-Iee-ee-ee ! Tuh ! ' They went at it like good stanch brutes, and the next nnnute the whole team was rolling in a lump, some sixteen feet below me, in the chasni of the ice-foot. The drift was such that at first I could not see them. The roaring (^f the tide, and the subdued w.iil of the dogs, made me fiar 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 1 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 n\e, 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." Everj'thing looked promising, and we were only waiting for intelligence that our advance party had deposited 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 skins of some moccasins by tlie blaze of our lamps, when, toward midnight, we heard the noise of steps above, and the next minute Sontag, Ohlsen, \n aiam-, and Petersen, 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 their own lives to bring us the news ; Erooks, 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 cliiuices were sorely against them. It was in vain 8 li ffjij ll V'. TI,^., '^ II I' i no TIIK ItKSrUK PARTY. CHAPTKB to question tliein fiirtlior. Tlioy had evidently travollcd a "reat XVI — 1 distance, for tlioy were sinkin,;,' with f'atiicuo and hnntjor, and could hardly be rallied enough to toll us the direction in which they had conn". My first impulse was to move on the instant with an unencum- bered party; a rescue, to be eflectivo or even hopefid, could not be too pron)pt. What pressed on my mind most was where the Buffercrs were to be looked for amonc; the drift>;. Ohlsen seemed to have his faculties rather more at command than his associates, and [ thouijht that he nn,£,'iit assist us as a guide ; but he was sinking with exhaustion, and if he went with us we nuist carry him. Aimsty There was not a moment to be lost. While some were still departure, )j„j^y ^^.j^ij ^),e new-comers and getting ready a hasty meal, others were rigging out the Little Willie with a buffalo cover, a small t(!Mt, and a package of pemmican; and, as soon as we could hurry through our airangements, Ohlsen was strapped on in a fur bai, his legs wrapped in dog-skins and eider down, and we were ofT upcm the ice. Our party consisted of nine men and myself Wo carried oidy the clothes on our backs. The thermometer stood .at — 46^ seventy-eight below the freezing point i TllK RBSCL'E PARTY. le A well known peculiar tower of ice, called by the men tl "Pinnacly Berg," served as our first landmark ; otJier icebergs of TIIK SEARCH. Ill vc,> l.c.r,„-e «», witl.in a r.uliuH of forty .nilcs. Mr. Ol.lsn,, vvlu. „.,„„„. been for fifty bo..- witl,o,.t rest, fell asleep a» .».,, as .„ bc..a.. to ...ovo, ....a awoke ,.ow witl, u„..,...vocal ».«..» ol .ml.tal .lis" trlwe it beea,„e evi,le„t that ho l.a.l lost tl.e l,em„,^ of t W^^ »1-'. i" f-™ ""'1 '"'"'" ^"'"'""'^ ropeate, It 0,,,. 'elvls ; ,u:i tl,e ....Ifor.oity of tho v»t Held of .u.w ..tterly lo,l,a,le Ihii hone of local laiKlmarks. I'us u,..r ahead of the party, ..,.d cl».„hcri,.a over »o,„o n.gged ieo ,C ! «no to a lo.,g level floe, which I tho,.«ht ,„„h pm- bly hive attracted the eyes of weary .nc. ... eneua.sta ,e l.U ow... It was a light conjecture ; Imt ,t wa, eno,.gl. to t.un lie, for there wa, no other to balance it l^^"^ abandon tb. sledge, and disperse in search of f,»t,na ks. We ". rLr te,.t, placed o..r pcn.uica,. in cache, except as ..all I va..c tor ci n,a„ to car.7 on his person; a,.d poor Ohlsen, .dlowa..ce r ^,^^^_^^^^ ^^^^^ ,^^^ ,^.^^, j,,„ now j.ist able to Keep ...» o-^ ni,d the wind * .. ....,1 f-illeii bv this t.me to — 4^ .0, aiul l..e wniu T:::^ l 1 : l V'.™ U.e nortl..west. It was ont of tl.e s*,;. was "»"=• it ' „i,.,d brisk exercise to keep ..s fro.n frecz- ,„,„.„,„ ?:r7e!:;.U ttr.':eH Icc for water ; and at these ten,pe r*..es any .'esort to snow for the purpose of allayn..; th,.»t «,is oZ ed by bloody lips and tongne ; it b„.-..t like cans ,c It ™ ^dispensable, then, that we should ,nove on, lo..k...g o rt Jlnttercd nerve, as to the direct infiuccc of tl.e cold. Ma ke S'-U ry and Bonsall, «ho bad stood out our severest n a ehcs „i.ed witl. trembli,.g fite a.,d short breath ; and, n. s^^ of all n.y efforts to keep up an example of scmd bearing, I fa.nted '"■weTad berlearly eighteen hour, out without water or fo«.. m 1 :■§ . 1 112 PARTY FOUND. ■0 ' i ' ' iifl I CHAPTKR XVI. Tracing a sledge- track. A Joyful welcome Prepara- tions for return. whon a ncAv liopc cheered ns. I think it was Hans, our E.squi- niaux hunter, who thoiiglit lie saw a broad .slcdge-tmck. The drift had nearly effaced it, and wo were some of uh doul^tful at first whether it was not one of those accidental rifts which tlie gales make in tlie surface snow. ]5ut, as we traced it on to tlie deep snow among tlie hummocks, we were led to footsteps ; and, fol- Jowmg these with religious care, we at last came in si-dit of a small American flag fluttering from a hummock, and lowei' down a little Masonic banner hanging from a tent-pole liardly above the drift It was the camp of our disabled comrades ; we reached it after an unbroken march of twenty-one hours. The little tent was nearly covered. I was not among the flrst to come up; but, when I reached the tent-curtaui, the"men were standing in silent file on each side of it. With more kindness and dehcacy of feeling than is often supposed to belong to sailors, but which IS almost characteristic, tliey intimated their wish that I should go in alone. As I crawled in, and, coming upon the dark- uess, heard before me the burst of welcome gladness that came h-om the four poor fellows stretched on their backs, and then for the first tune 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 75° below the freezing point; and our sole accommodation a tent barely able to contain eight persons : more than half our party were obhVed to keep from freezing by walking outside while the others sle^ot We could not halt long. Each of us took a turn of two hours- sleep ; and we i)repared for our homeward march. We took with us nothing but the tent, furs to protect the res- cued party, and food for a journey of fifty hours. Everything else was abandoned. Two large buflalo-bags, each made of four skins, were doubled up, so as to form a sort of sack, lined on each side by fur, closed at the bottom, but opened at the toi) This was laid on the sledge; the tent, smoothly folded, serving as a floor, llie sick, with their limbs sewed up carefully in rehideer- skins, were placed upon the bed of buffah.-robes, in a half-recUnins posture ; other skins and blanket-bags were thrown above them and the whole litter was lashed together so as to allow but a siiude opening opposite the mouth for breathing. TIIK KKTUl'.N JOURNEY, 113 This necessary work cost us a great deal of ti.ne and etlort ; but cnAVT.« it was esseutial to the lives of the suifcre.u It took us no .ess _ than four hour, to strip and refresh then, and then to ^m- e - in the n.anner I have described. Few of us escaped w.thou frost-bitten fingers : tlie thermometer was at 5.V.G 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 retreat It was fortunate indeed that we were not inexperienced m sledging over the ice A great part of our track lay among a succession ot hummocks, some of them extending in long lines, fifteen or twenty D.m-^^^^^ feet liigh, and so uniformly steep that we had to tivrn them by a , ilaiigeis. considerable deviation from our direct course; ..tliers tha we forced our way through, far above our heads m height lying in parallel ridges, with the space between too narrow for the sledge to be lowered into it .afely, and yet not wide enough for the runners to cross without the aid of ropes to stay them ihese spaces, too, were generally choked with light snow, hidmg the openings between the ice-fragments. They were feru-ful traps to d seng^ge a limb from, for every man knew that a fracture or a strain e'ven would cost him his life. Besides all this, the sledge L top-heavy with its load : the maimed men ^ould no be., to be lashed down tight enough to secure them agamst fallmg o.i. Notwithstanding our caution in rejecting every superfluous bur- den, the weight, including bags and tent, was eleven hundred ^Tifd'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. Ou. sledoe sustained the trial admirably. Ohlsen, rcstoml by hope ..vlked steadily at the leading belt of the sledge !"-« y'-^ ^ becran to feel certain of reaching our lialf-way station of the day before where we had left our tent. But we were stUl lune miles from It, when, almost without premonition, we all became aware K.hau. 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 symptonis which I compared to the diff-used paralysis of the electro-galvamc A lilVOUAC. Sleepiness caused by cold. OBAPTEii shock. I'ut I had treated the sleepi/ comfort of freezing as aome- ^^^' thing like tlie cnibclli.shnient of romance. I had evidence now to the contrary. Bon.sall and Morton, two of our stoutest men, came to me, hegging permission to slecj) : " tliey were not cokl : the wind did not enter them now : a little sleep was all they wanted." Pre- sently Hans was found nearly stitf 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 refused to rise. They did not complain of feeling cold ; but it was in vain that 1 wrestled, boxed, ran, argued, jeered, or reprimanded : an imme- diate halt could not be avoided. ^Ve 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, ''''^%^.Vn, ,V^^ IK8IDB OF TENT. under all the coverings. We put lionsall, 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 .Air. M'Gary, with t)rders to come on after Ibiu- hours' rest, I pushed ahead with William Godfrey, who volunteered to be my companion. My aim was to reach the half-way tent, and thaw some ice and peuimican before the others arrived. TKNT OVERTUUNEB BY A BEAU. 115 The Hoe was of level ice, and the walking excellent. I cannot chapt.> tell how long it took us to m ike the nine niUes, for we were m ,trmL.e sort ot slapor, and had littlo al.l>.Tl.c..sio.. of tmio. it f™ ,b b y"vb„ut fo^ Lour. AYe kept o„r.dvo» ,uv,to by n«- noiron Ich other a continued articuhrtion of ^vord» ; they u, .t C bl ncoherent enough. I rceaU these hours as amou, the ;:st wretched I have ever gone through : we -.ere -*'-';- Tour ri.-ht senses, and retained a very eontused recoil ctro, of W,U .ree«led our arrival at the tent. We both of us, however, :^: , rt bear, who walked leisurely 1>ctore us, and tore up as ..» "nt a jumper that Mr. M'Gary had ""P-v" -^ y t'''-" * le day before He tore it into shreds and rolled It uito a ball, btnver offered to interfere with our progress. I rerneurber tins, 'Id with it a contused sentiment that our tent and buflalo-roW dgU^ probably share the same fate. Godfrey, '^'^^ ^ nremory of this day's work may atone tor many faults of a la c tm Tad a better eye than n.yself; and, looking some >nUes trad he could see that our tent was m,dergo,.,g the same un- remonLs tre,rtnre„t. I thought I s.™ it too, but we were so drunln with cold that we strode on steadrly, and, for aught I know, without quickening our pace ^._^^^^^^_^ PrnViihlv our appi'oach saved tne coiueius ; ,vh! we cached i"thetc,rt was uninjured, though the bear h. -„, : Zrned it, tossing the b„mao-robes and pcm.nrean to the snow • we missed only a couple of blanket-bags. What w e recol ect ho ver, and perkH» "11 we recollect, is, that we had great bffi. 'Z in Vaisinc- it We crawled into our reurdeer sleepmg- t^^ speaking, ^ncHor ^^ - - ^^IJ^^ZZ^ :!r:rii;t;:e;t:t t: thri'il::^;: •. o^o^-e; ,.. to c. » -.1, l,w i.,ck-kuifc Four days after our escape I found A sken 01 mo out with lu» jack kniic. lu j .hII "'«'««• „y- woollen comfortable with a goodly share of mj heard still "' Weire "ble to melt water and get some soup cooked before the rest of our pariy arrived : it took them but five hours to walk To 2e miles They were doing well, and, considering the eir- clsrnce,n wonderful spirits. The day was ahnost providen- rX vTndless, with a clear sun. All enjoyed the refreshment we h 'g ead; : the crippled were repacked in their robes ; and 116 REACH THE BRIG AT LAST. 1^, i 1 i r i > ■ V OHAPTKR we sped briskly toward the liumniock-ridges which lay between us J)es| crate elfuiiy. Slueiiiiig an tlie snutv. Deli lions- ness from sufforing. and the rinii.acly Berg. " The huinmocks we had now to meet came i^roperly under the designation of squeezed ice. A great chain of bergs stretching from north-west to south-east, moving with the tides, had coiii^ pressed the surface floes; and rearing them upon their edges, pro- duced an area more like the volcanic pedragal of the basin of Mexico than anytliing else I can compare it to. It required desperate efforts to work our way over it— literally desperate, for our strength failed us anew, and we began to lose our self-control. We coilld not abstain any longer from eatin<' snow; our mouths swelled, and some of us became speechless* Happily the day was warmed by a clear sunsliine, and the thermo- mometcr 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 ven- tured upon the experiment myself, making Tviley wake me at the end of three minutes; and I felt so much benefited by it that I timed the nun in the same way. They sat on the runners of the sledge, fell asleep instantly, and were forced to wakefulness when their three minutes were out. By eight in the evening wo emerged from the floes. The sight of the Pinnacly Berg revived us. Brandy, an invaluable resource in emergency, had already been served out in table-spoonful 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 tve believe; and here perhaps is the most decided proof of our sufferings; we were quite delirious, and had ceased to enter- tain a sane apprehension of the circumstances aboi t 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 brirr God knows how, for he had faUen repeatedly at the track-lines ; but he delivered with pmictiUous accuracy the messages I had sent by lum to Dr. Hayes. I thought myself the soundest of all, for I went through all the formula of sanity, and can recall the mutter- mg delirium of my comrades when we got back into the cabin of CONSI'^QUENCES. 117 iS our brig. Yet I have been told since of some speeches and some onAPTSf orders too of mine, which I shoukl have renie.nbered for their — : absurdity if my mind had retained its bahuice. Petersen and Whipple came out to meet us about two miles from the brig. Tlay brought my dog-team, with the restoratives I had sent for by Bonsall. I do not remember their coming. Dr. Hayes entered with judichnis energy upon the treatment our con- dition called for. administering morphine freely, after the usual frictions. He reported none of our brain-symptoms as serious, ni„u..i. refeniii" them properly to the class of those indications of ex- ^^^^^^^ hausted'power which yield to generous diet and rest. Mr. Ohlsen «nhc. ^ sulVered some time from strabismus and bhndness; two others underwent amputation of parts of the foot, without unpleasant consequences; and two died in spite of all our eftbrts. 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 tlie way drag- oing a heavy sledge. The mean temperature of the whole tune, Uichiding the warmest hours of three days, was at minus i\V2. We had no water except at our two halts, and ^\'ere at no time able to intermit vigorous exercise without freezing. ''April i, Tuesdai/.—Yonv 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 Uve!" 5 -Tsrrraawwww 118 ANXIETY AND SOUROW. if ■"7 I il; 1 ; 1 ' i t-v it m «;- 1 baker's Illness and (Icatli. I CHAITEK XYIl. baker's death— a visit— the Esquimaux — a neuotiatiun — thkim eyuil'jient— tiieik depuutment— a tkeatv — the fauewell— tuk SEQUEL — MYOUK— Ills ESCAPE— SCUUIIEKT'S ILLNESS. niiAi-TER TfiE week that followed lias loft me nothing to remember but ^^"- anxieties and sornjw. Nearly all our party, as well the rescuers as the rescued, were tossing in their sick-bunks, some frozen, others undergoing amputations, several with dreadful premonitions of tetanus. I was myself among the llrst to be about ; the uecessitied of the others claimed it of me. Early in the morning of the 7th I was awakened by a sound from Baker's throat, one of those the most friglitful 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 symptoms marched rapidly to their result ; he died on the 8th of April. We placed him the next day in liis cofRn, and, forming a rude, but heart-full procession, bore him over the broken ice and up the steep side of the ice-foot to Butler Island; then, passing along the snow-level to Fern-Rock, and, climbing the slope of the Observatory, we deposited his corpse upon the pedestals whi,l Wm cuUu.g ico fo.- tin. ,n,.l.v. c,,.,.. relay; a.,a tl,cvo they were, ou all side. „t o,u- voeky l,;n- „„. „r lotthf, tl,e ,s,K,w.sl,„res a,,,! emerging fro.n tl.e V.laeU„e»» ,.. t ,e clillk-til.l a„a u.,e„utl,, U.t evi.lently hu"«m l.eu.g., X "o gatheml „,> tl.o deck they ,-„se upon the ,nore eleva « IVa-menhot tlie Ian.!-,,., .Unding singly -"-1 c..nsi,.cu«u.ly k ; g ,-e. in a .al.loau „f the opera, a,„l ai»t„lm.,ng . en.e ve a olUHl almost i„ a l,alt-ci,-elo. They were voe.leratmg a. if to X ,ouratte,>tion,or i,erl>ai« -'y ^' «>- -"' '" "-"'■'"■ -=^^; MEKTING TUB ESQUIMAUX. nrl8e • but I could make uothiug out of their cries, except '' IJoab, ka, liu!" and Mva.kardi! ka, krudi!" repeated over and over again There was Ught enough for me to see that they brandished no ^I'l •! i 120 AN ESQUIMAUX DIPLOMATIST. CHAPTER ii Avu. <^''^P'^"'^' •'^"t^ were only tossing their heacls and arms about in ' violent gesticulations. A more unexcited inspection showed us, too, that their mnnbers were not as great nor their size as Pativ- gonian as some of us had been disposed to fancy at first. In a word, I was satisfied that they were 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 whti made himself 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 u])on the floe and' advanced to meet me fully half way. uTLti- "' ''''' ""'"'^^ '' ^''''"^ *''"'' *'''''" "'^'^^^' ^^-^tremely powerful man J. ^"^ well-built, with swarthy complexion and piercing black eyes. His dress was a hooded ccfpdte or jumper of nuxed white and blue fox-pelts, arranged with something of fancy, and booted trousers of wJiite 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, pro- bably receiving signals from him, flocked in and surrounded us ; but we had no difficulty in making them know positively that they A^negotia- must remain where they were, while Metek went with me on board the ship. Tliis gave me the advantage of negotiating, with an important hostage. Although this was the first time he had ever seen a white man S'oTti,e ^'' ^'"* 7*^^ ^"^ fearlessly; his companions staying behind on the nessofthe-^ ii-i i. i ,, " ' , ^ v-"fc) ^^""^v* un mu ice. Jlickey took them out what he esteemed our greatest deli- Eaqui- niaiix. cacies,-shces of good wheat bread, and corned pork, with exhor- bltan^ 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. "^ 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 give us their company for the full time of a visit, brought up frmn h.^u.,A tiif; ksquimaux on hoakd. 121 the land-ice as many as fifty-six fine dogs, with tlien slnl^c, and cum;tkr secured them within two Inuulrcd feet of tiie brig, driving then- hvnces into the ice, and picketing the dog. to them by the se:d- sl'in traces Tlie animals understood tlie operation perfectly, and l,y down as soon as it coimnenced. The sledges were made np sicd«c, of snudl fragments of porous bone, admirably knit together by tl-on"s of hide; tiie runners, which glistened like burnished ste...!, were" of highly-polished ivory, obtained from the tusks of the walruf.. , , . ,, . . The only arms they carried were knives, concealed m their Ams 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 to.'ether, or sometimes the mirabilis of the walrus, three or four of" them united. This last was a favourite material also for the cross-bars of their sledges. They had no wood. A single rusty lioop from a current-drifted cask might have furnished all the knives of the party ; but the fleam-shaped tips of their lances were of unmistakable steel, and were rivetted to the tapermg bony point with no mean skill. I learned afterward that the metal was obtained in traffic from the more southern tribes. They were clad much as I have described Metek, in jumpers, i)re.a. boots and white bear-skin breeches, with their feet decorated like bis m grlffe. A strip of knotted leather worn round the neck, very greasy and dirty-looking, wluch no one could be persuaded to part with for an instant, was mistaken at first for an ornament by the crew: it was not until mutual hardships had made us better acquainted that we learned its mysterious uses. When they were first allowed to come on board, they were very BoUaviom rude and difficult to manage. They spoke three or four at a , time to each other an.l to us, laughing heartily at our ignorance hi not understanding them, and then talking away as before. They were incessantly in motion, going everywhere, trymg doors, and squeezing themselves through dark passages, round casks and boxes, and out into the light again, anxious to touch and handle everythinc^ they saw, and asking for, or else endeavouring to steal, everything they touched. It was the more difficult to restrain them, as I did not wish them to suppose that we were at ■ill intimidated, lint there were some signs cf our disabled con- 122 THK KSQUIMAUX ON nnARB. Ill I onArTnii dition wliicli it was impnitant tliey should not sec; it was cspeoi- ]^^' ally iiccL'Hsiiry to koop them out of the forecastle, where the dead l)o(]y of poor HalviT was lyiiii,'; and, as it was in vain to reason or persuade, we had at last to eniph)y the " j^'cntle hiyin;,' on of hands," which, I helievc, the huvs of all countries tolerate, to keep tlit'Ui in order. Oin* whole foice was mustered and kejjt constantly on the alci't ; but thoui^di there may have l)een sometliini,' of discourtesy in the oreasional shouldcrinuis and hustlin^s that enforced the police of the ship, things went on arting interview with myself. It resulted in a treaty, brief in its terms, that it might be certahily remembered, and nuitually beneficial, that it might po.ssibly be kept. I tried to make them understand what a powerful IVospero they had had for a host, and how beneficent he would prove him- Iff Esqui- maux cookiii).' and f'fit Ing. A treaty. WILD DOC. TKAM. r«a Htlf so long as they ditl his hidiliiig. And, as !Ui earnest of my ouai-ti h favour, I bought all the wah'us-nu'at they had to spare, and fuur xvii. PurchuH.^' WILD DOO TEAM. of their dogs, enriching thcni in return with needles and beads, and a treasure of old cask staves. I' 124 DITARTURE OF KSQiriMAUX. OHAFTEK ZVII. f^li Visit from B scconil party. I Tlilevlsh propensi- ties. In the fulness of tlicir gratitiulc, tlioy plodgcil tlicniHelvcs emidiiiticiilly to return in a f«nv djiy.s with more meat, and to allow me to nse tlitir dogs and .sledges for my excnr.sions to the north. I then gave them leave to go. They yoked in their dogs in Ics.s than two mimite.s, got on their .'pledges, cracked their two-fathom- and-a-half-long Kealskin ^1111)8, and weie off down the ice to tho ^oiith-west at a rate of seven knots an honr. They did not rctnrn. I had read enongh of treaty-makings not to cxjiect them too confidently. But the next day came a party of five, on foot— two old men, one of middle age, and a oonplc of gawky hoys. Wc had mi.s.sed a number of articles soon after the first paity left us, an axe, a saw, and some knives. We found aftoi'ward that our storehouse at Butler Island had been entered ; we were too short-handed to guard it by a special watch. Besides all this, recoimoitring stealthily beyond Sylvia Head, we dis- covered a train of sledges drawn up behind the hummocks. There was cause for apprehension in all this ; but I felt that I could not afford to break with the rogues. They had it in their power to molest ns seriously in our sledge-travel ; they could make our hunts around the harbour dangerous; and my best chance of obtaining an abundant supply of fresh meat, our great desideratum, 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 protesta- tions of innocence; but M 'Gary, nevertheless, caught the incor- rigible 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 kncAV afterwards as a stanch friend, old Shang-huii —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 particle 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. liad quite a neat turn-out of sledge and dogs. He told his name with MYOUK. 1 2ft and crying and talking by tunis, till a late hour of the night. When I turned in, he was still noisily disconsolate. There was a simplicity and hmhommie about tiiis boy that interested me much; and I confess that when I made my appear- .ncc next morning-I could hardly cnceal it from the gentleman en duty, whom I affected to censure -I was glad my bird had flown S.)me time during the morning-watch he had succeeded ,n>.e*c*,x in throwing otV the luitch and escaping. We suspected that he had confederates ashore, for his dogs had escaped with as imuh address as himself. I was convinced, however, that I had the truth from him, where he lived, and how many Uved with lum- „,y cross-examination on these points having been very complete and satisfactory. . It was a sad business for some tunc after these Esquimaux left „s to go on maldng and registering our observations at Fern Hock taker's coiTse still lay in the vestibule, and it was not l„n.' before another was placed by the side of it. We h.ad to pass the%odies 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 gi-ave on a depression of the rocks, and raised a substantial cairn above it. ,/,•„,.. ^^ April 19, Wednesday.-l have been out on the floe agam, jrcai^.n, breaking in my dogs. My re-inforcement from the Esqunnaux makes a noble team for me. For the last five days I have been striving with them, just as often and as long as my strength allowed me ; and to-day I have my victory. Ihe Society for Preventing Cruelty to Animals would have put me m custody it they had been near enough ; but, thanks to a merciless whip freely l f i^ i i i i i y i Li'u''W^{i't^^ 4^ -'~.«^mi-«^^sa:^^g£^^^i^ \ " 126 SCHUHKRT S ILLNESS. CHAPTER adniini.stored, I have been dashing along twelve miles in the last Y" ' hour, and ain back again ; harness, sledge, and bones all \nibrr)ken. I am ready for another journey. " April 22, S'ltitrdai/. — Schubert has increasing symptoms of erysipelas around his amputated stump ; and evory one on board is depressed and silent except himself, lie is singing hi 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 ray presence might cheer his last moments." Elflt en. ililij ARRANQEMKNTS FOR EXPLORATION. m of ird ok, ! I to CHAPTER XVITI. AN EXPLORATION — EQUIPMENT — OUTFIT — DEPARTURE — RESULTS — FEA- TURES OF COAST— ARCUITECTURAL ROCKS-THREE BROTHER TURRETS- TENNYSON's monument— the great GLACIER OP HUMBOLDT. The month of April was about to close, and the short season cha^ptki available for Arctic search was upon us. The condition of tilings ' 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 Prepara- intermitted, and were soon complete. I leave to my journal its own story. " April 25, Tuesday.— k 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 wiU 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 of my old stock. They go together quite respectably. Godfrey and myself will go with them on foot, following the first sledge on Thursday. ''April 26, Wednesday.— WQt\xy 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 fuU ; among them I have dwelt largely upon the treatment of the natives. " These Esquimaux must be watched carefully, at the same Rui^esjor^ time they are to be dealt wich kindly, though with a strict en- ^^^^^ forcement of our police regulations, and some caution as to the natives 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 m 128 PLAN OF JOURNEY. Force left in the brig. I CHAPTER his notion of its infallibility. You may spare bloodshed by killing ^ZUl' 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 Avhilc I am away ; and a boat is placed ashore with stores, as the brig may be forced from her moormgs. " 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 two officers who can help Ohlscn. This is our force, four able-bodied, and six disabled, to keep the brig; the commander and sevci 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. Equipment " I take with me penmiican, and bread, and tea, a canvas tent, Sgpany ^^^ ^^^* ^y ^^^' ^^^ ^^^'° 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 experience during the fall journeys. The greatest discomfort 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 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 sleeper's head, and the melted rime from trickling down upon it. 'if|{ TIIK FAITH. I2n stores. " For instruments, I have a fine Gauiboy .sextant, in addition U) chai-tkh ... XVIII my ordinary pocket-instninicnt, an artiticial horizon, and a Harrow's ' dip-circle. These (.ccupy little room upon the .sledge. My tele- Kquii--^^^^^ scope and clironometer I carry on my person. s " M'Gary has taken the Faith. He carries few stores, intending to replenish at the cache of Bonsall Point, and to lay in pemmican at M'Gary Island. Most of his cargo consists of bread, which we find it hard to dispense with in eating cooked food. It has a good effect in absorbing the fat of the pemmican, which is apt to disagree with the stoniacli." TIIK FAITH. Godfrey and myself followed on the liTtli, as 1 had intended. The journey was an arduous one to be undertaken, even under the most favouring circumstances, and by unbroken men. It was to be the crowning expedition of the campaign, to attain the Ultima t»'«^^^_^ Thule of the Greenland shore, measure the waste that lay between ™di-'* it and the unknown West, and seek round the furthest circle of tio... the ice for an outlet to the mysterious channels beyond. The scheme could not be carried out in its details ; yet it was pro- secuted far enough to indicate what must be oifi- future fields of labour, and to determine many points of geographical interest. Our observations were in general confirmatory of those which had 130 THE COAST LINE. CHAPTER xviir. The out- line of tlie ionst. I! ; 5;5 n i ^ 1 i 1- i llcail- Innds. Geological structure. been made by Mr. Bonsall ; and they accorded so well with oui 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 Refuse Harbour, 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 chaanel of which it is the boundary ; but on reaching Refuge Inlet it bends nearly at a right angle, and follows on from west to east till it has passed the G5th degree of longi- tude. Between Cape Alexander and the inlet it is broken by two indentiitions, the first of them near the Etah settlement, which was visited in 1855 by the Rescue Expedition under Lieutenant ITartstene, and which bears on my charts the name of that noble - spirited commander ; the other remembered by us as Lifeboat Cove. In both of these the glaciers descend to the water-line, from an interior of lofty, rock-clad hills. The coast-line is diversified, however, by numerous water-worn headlands, which, on reaching Cape Hatherton, decline into rolling hills, their margins studded with islands, which are the favourite breeding-places of the eider, the glaucous gull, and the tern. Cape Hatherton rises boldly above these, a mass of por- phyritic rock. After leaving Refuge Harbour, the features of the coast undergo a change. There are no deep bays or discharging glaciers ; and it is only as we approach Rensselaer Harbour, 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 clili's 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 ruhis of architectural structure. They come down boldly to the shore-line, their summits rishig sometimes more than a thousand feet above the eye, and the long cones of rubbish at their base mingUng 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 conuuuni- cating with deep gorges, which are watered by streams from the Tnui:i': uiioTiiKii tukrets. 131 interior ice-fields; yet none of them exhibit ghvcicrs of any m.vgni- ouapxk. tude at the ^v.ater-Une. Dallas Bay shows a sunilar torma ion, _ and the archipelago beyond Cape Hunter retains it almost without '^^Then^ean height of the table-land, till it reaches the bed of j^an^^^ the Great Glacier, may be stated, in round numbers, at JUU ,^,„,„. feet, its tallest sunni near the water at 1300 and the >ana. rise of the background above the general level at 000 more. Tlie face of this stupendous ice-mass, as it defined the coast, was everywhere an abrupt and threatening precipice, only broken by clefts and deep ravines, givhig breadth and interest to its wild expression. , ^ l • The most picturesque portion of the North Greenland coast is to be found after leaving Cape George Ilussell and approaching M M;.^^M THRRE BROTIIRR TURRKTB. Dallas Bay. The red sandstones contrast most favourably with Contr^toi the blank whiteness, associating the cold tints of the dreary Arctic landscape with the warm colourhig of more southern lands. The seasons have acted on the difteraat layers of the cliff so as to give 13:^ MAGNIFICENT SCENKRY. r i \m I i V ' I CMAPTSR XVllI. Til ice IJrotlier Turrets. A natural minai'ut tower. Tlie arclii pelago. tbem the appearance of jointed masonry, and the narrow line of greenstone at tlie top ''us them with well-simulated battlements. One of tlie.se interest 1:.. freaks of nature became known to us as the "Three Brother Turrets." The sloping rubbish at the foot of the coast-wall led up, like an artificial causeway, to a gorge that was streaming at noon-day with the southern sun, while everywhere else the rock stood out in the blackest shadow. Just at the edge of this bright openini^ rose the dreamy semblance of a castle, Hanked with triple towers, completely isolated and defined. The.se were the " Three ]5rother Turrets." I was still more struck with another of the same sort, in the inunediate neighbourhood 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 ram- part of an ancient city. At its nortliern extremity, on the brink of a deep ravine whicii has worn its way among the ruins, there stands a solitary colui.m, or minaret-tower, as shar})ly finished as if it had been cast for the Place Vendome. Yet the length of the shaft alone is 480 feet, and it rises on a plinth or pedestal itself 280 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 imposhig dignity of this magnificent landmark. Those who are happily Ijiniiliar with the writings of Tennyson, and have connnuned with his spirit in the solitudes of a wilderness, will apprehend the impulse that inscribed tlie scene with liis name. Still beyond this comes the archipelago which bears the name of our brig, studded with the names of those on board of her who adhered to all the fcjrtunes of the expedition ; and at its eastern cape spreads out the Great Glacier of Humboldt. My recollec- tions of this glacier are very distinct. The day was beautifully clear on which I first saw it, and I have a number of sketches made as we drove along in view of its magnificent face. They disappoint me, giving too mncli white surface and badly-fading distances, the grandeur of the few bold and sin)ple lines of nature being almost entirely lost. -if TIIK GREAT GLACIKU. 133 mil not attempt to do better by florid description. ISIcn only cuaptk*. ant :l the ocean. My notes speak simply rhapsodize about Niagara . . , i , of the " l.)nc;, ever-shining line of cliff diminished to a well-pomted i;^«sc.rp-^_^ wedge in the perspective ; " and again, of " the face of glistening ice, Great^^ sweeping in a long curve from the low interior, the facets in front ""^^•' intensely illuminated by the sun." But this line of cliff rose in solid glassy ^Yall 300 feet above the water-level, with an unknown, unfathomable depth below it ; and its curved face, GO 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 merde glace, an ice-ocean, to the eye of boundless dimensions. It was in full sight— the mighty crystal bridge which connects the two continents of America and Greenland. I say cont-'.-nts ; for Greenland, however insulated it may ultimately prove to be, is m mass strictly continental. Its least possible axis, measured from itsa.sis. Cape Farewell to the line of this glacier, in the neighbourhood of the 80th parallel gives a length of more than 1200 miles, not materially less than that of Australia, from its northern to its southern cape. Imagine, now, the centre of such a continent, occupied through nearly its whole extent by a deep, unbroken sea of ice, that gathers perennial increase from the water-shed of vast snow-covered moun- tains and all the precipitations of the atmosphere upon its own surface. Imagine tliis, moving onward like a great glacial river, itsmotior. seeking outlets at every fiord and valley, rolling 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 hi my own imnd for such an appearance, should I ever be fortunate enough to reach the northern 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 that I was 134 A MOVING MASS OF ICE. I '1 ^ CHAPTER looking n[)on tho counterpart of the great river-system of Arctic xvm. ^gj,^ ,^jjj America. Yet here were no water-feeders from the soutli. ThP Every particle of moisture had its origin within the Pohir circle, and partoftiie^i'^'l ^'^eu converted into ice. There Avere no vast alluvions, no great forest or animal traces borne down by liquid torrents. Here was river sys- . . .1.1 1 tein. 11. i)lastic, movmg, senu-solid mass, obliterating life, swallowing rocks and islands, and ploughing its way with irresistible march through the crust of an investing sea. I PROOKKSS OF THK I'ART"*. ur> CHArTER. XTX. PROOUKSS OF THE PAUTY— PKOSTRATION— PAU,AS BAI— DKATH OF SCHU- DEKT— THE BRIO IX MAY PROGRESS OF SPRINO— M'aARY'a RETURN — DR. HAYEs's PARTY— EQUU'MENT—SOIIURERT's FONERAIi. "It is now tlic 20th of ISIay, and for the first time, I *"" <^"*,'J'''* 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 ]\I'Oary two days after leaving the brig. Our dogs were in fair travelling condition, and, except snow-blindness, there seemed to be no draw- back to our efficiency. In crossing ISIarshall Bay we found the involved snow so accumulated in drifts that, with all our efforts to pick out a track, we became involved ; we could not force our sledges throxigh. 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 William Wood, where the waters of Mary ^linturn Eiver, which had delayed the freezing of the ice, gave us a long reach of level travel. We then made T better rate ; and our days' marches were such as to carry us by the 4th of ^lay nearly to the glacier. " This i)ro» ing between life and death, I have by the blessing of God reached '"^'"''"'^^• the present date, and see feebly in prospect my recovery. Dr. Hayes regards my attack as one of scurvy, complicated by typlioid fever. George Stephenson is similarly afiected. Our worst symptoms are dropsical effusion and night-sweats. « J/o2/ 22, Mondmj.— Let me, if I can, make up my record for the time I have bjcn away or on my back. " Poor Schubert is gone. Our gallant, merry-hearted companion Dcath^of^ 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 fiice and the joyous troll of his ballads. "The health of the rest has, if anything, improved. Their complexions show the influence of sunlight, and I think several I . ' ?: '^ ^ i:js THK BRIO IN MAY. i • ArrniiRo- mcnts on linarcl tlio bvig. • "s i\ ; i . i ■| I . i ■ \ It 1 1 CHAPTER liiive a firmer and more elastic step. Stepl.cnson and Thomas are x'x- the only two be.sido myself who arc likely to suffer permanently from the effects of our break-down. TJiid wcurvy both : .symptonia still serious. '< Before setting out, a month ago, on a journey that should have extended uito the middle of June, I had broken up the establish- ment of Butler Island, and placed all the stores around the brig, upon the heavy ice. My ol)jcct in this was a double one. First, to remove 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 c(nnniitted, had orders to stow tlie hold slowly, remove the forward bousing, and fit up the forecastle for the men to iidiabit it again. All these he carried out with judgment and energy. I find, upon my return, the brig so stowed and refitted that four days would prepare us for sea. The quarter-deck alone is now ])oarded in ; and here all the officers and sick are sojourning.* The wind makes this wooden shanty a somewhat airy retreat ; but, for the health of our maimed, scorbutic men, it is infinitely preferable to the less- ventilated quarters below. Some of the crew, witli one stove, are still in the forecastle, but the old cabin is deserted. " I left Hans as hunter. I gave him a regular exemption from all other labour, and a promised present to his lady-love on reach- ing Fiskernaes. He signalized bis promotion by shooting two deer, Tukhik, the first yet shot. We have now on hand one hun- dred and forty-five pounds of venison, a very gift of grace to our diseased crew. But, indeed, we are not likely to want for whole- some 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, ^dtima coelicolum, which only left us on tlie 4th oi November, returned to our ice-crusted rocks, whence tliey seem to ' fill the sea and air with their sweet jargoning.' Seal literally abound, too. I have learned to prefer 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 diy. 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 Hans the hunter. M'OARY's KXPKDITION. 1?'.) f^cen, one of the earliest but surest iiulicatioiiH of returjiin,-,' open cnAPTK: water. It is not strange, ice-leaguerod exiles as we are, that vo observe and exult in these things. 'I'liey are the pKdges of re- newed life, tlie olive-branch of this dreary waste : we feel the spring in all our pulsea. "The first thinu I did after my return was to send iM 'Gary to the M'G;iry'» ° . , . 1 ■ 1 • • expedi- Lilb-boat Cove, to see that o\u' boat and its l)inied provisions were „„„ secure. He made the journey by (h)g-sledge in four days, and has returned reporting that all is safe : an important heli> for us, should this heavy ice of our more northern prison refuse to release us. " But the pltasantest feature of his journey was the disclosure Discovery of open water, extending up in a sort of tongue, with a trend of l^^T north by east to within two miles of Refuge Harbour, and there widening as it expanded 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 the frequent water-skies, fogs, &c., that we have seen to the south-west during the winter, go to confirm the fact. The breaking up of the Smith Strait's ice connnences much earlier than this ; but as yet it has not extended further than Littleton Island, where I should have wintered if my fall journey had not pointed to the policy of re- maining 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 I'^siiui- maux Point, we have met nothing which to the uninitiatt ;;ra- vcUer would indicate that they had 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 re- sources of the party shattered. Pierre had died but a week be- Disease forr and his death exerted an unfavourable hifiuence 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. •' 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 Great Glacier, and the destruction of our provision-caches by the bears, left a blank for us of the entire There were ZZ. '(! ,' 140 DR. HAYEs's FXPEDITION. CHAPTER Object of the expe- dition. Dr. Hayes's route. I , Equip- ment I M' nortliern coast-line. It was necessary to ascertain whether tlie furthermost expansion of Sniitli'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 tliat the northci'U coast trended off to the eastward, and not toward tlie west, as our predecessor had supposed. Tlie angular difference of 60' between its bearings on liis 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 oui team would permit. " Dr. Hayes was selected for that purpose ; and I satisfied my- self that, A■ SHOOTINO aEALi cautiously in the sun beside their athiks. By means of the Escinimaux stratagem of a wliite screen pushed forward on a ■ Bj ! > i wn"jr i tiniiy a .siugle trace, a long thin thong of seal or ,„,„. rMdc';';::: ,.l ^o™ hi, che. „ver H» ^™;;;- -; ,^; ,|«l..e. The team i» always driven abreast, and the '•"•'•>•■''■ t^e tangling and twisting then.se.ve. up ---'•- ^ ^ l,df OTld or terrified brutes bound right or lelt lioni tlitir lie t;i b d llions. The consequence is, that the seven or mne or rtl'lineshavean,arvell„ns aptitude at knotting t e,n.^ „„ beyond the reach of skill and patience. It the x>e.v he. . In, Enough to thaw the snow, they become utterly solt and Zid .and the naked Irnul, if applied ingeuionsly may dispense :t resort to the Gordiau process; but in t e .ov... c^ , such as I expericnc-'. in my winter journeys ol 18.54, the knile^is t n t re o,Ty appliauce,-a„ ru.safe one it u.voked too often te I ew atLcl meut shortens your harness, .and you n.ay end by evtiy in,-" «'■»"' n-mnnt iMill 1 luivc Decii Trial of dnuving your dog. so close tha they cannot pi. i ^^^^^^^^ obli<^ed to halt and camp on the open tloe, till I ^^f^ renew enmi'h of warmth and energy and patience to disentangl tlu S of my harness. Oh, how charitably have I remembered ^ t:f :nly after appropriating an undue sl^re ^J^^ ZS breeches that the leader of the party succeeded m V^^^^Z '''''' .•1 ^.A Ana IhiPs He was rewarded, however, for he sliortiy r Wt M floe, over which his sledge passed happily to t no::;r co.ast. It w.a, the first ti.ne that any of our l«u r^ ^ succeeded in penetrating the area to the nortlr, Ure ice i.,« Tffled Irree organized toot-p.arties. It could certa.nly never ha e b" traversed without the aid of dogs ; but it is equa y ce rtau tl.U tl eifort must again have failed even with "- ^ ;- the ener^v and determination of Dr. Hayes, .and the endu .rncc hsZ^r William Godfrey. The latitude by observation wa 7U« « N The longitude C9° f." W. The coast here trended let tl' westward than it h.ad done. ^^^— 1 1 ^ U^ miles to the northward and eastward. Hu. ^ as ^^^e/-^"" | p :: of his survey, beyond which his o^^^^^^^:^^. c.. Two large headlands, Capes Joseph Leidy and John iiazer, ^^, catc it. 1111111 p 150 DOUUIX HAY, CnAl'TRB XX. .Mcndinff the slmlge H 'f! Fcrcod to return. Dobbin tiny. llfj Cnpo Sabine. I ! I The clills were of niinglod liiiicstoiie jukI sundstone, corrcspoiul- ing to those on the southern side of Peabody 15ay. To the north ihey exceeded 2000 feet in Iieight, while to the southward tliey diniished to 1200. The ice-foot varied from 50 to 150 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 .sjient the 28th in mending the sledge, which wa.s completely broken, and feeding up their dogs for a renewal of the journey. But, their provisions being limited. Dr. Hayes did not deem hhnself justified in continuing to the north. He determined to follow and survey the coast toward Cape Sabine. His pemmican was leduced 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 aide. 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 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. Dr. Hayes discovered two islands ntar its entrance. He saw also on its south-western side a lofty pyramid, truncated at its summit, which corresponded both in its bearings and position with the survey of my April journey. The latter portion of Dr. Hayes's journey was full 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 impediment, and the ice-foot was so clogged that they made but fifteen miles from camp to camp on the floes. After fixing the position of Cape Sabine, and connecting it ^vith the newly-discovered coast-line to the north and east, he prepared to cross the bay further to the south. Most providentially they found this passage free from bergs ; l>ut their provisions were nearly gone, and their dogs were exhausted. They threw away their sleeping-bags, which were of reindeer-skin and weighed 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 PLAN OV A NKW KXPEDITION ^^^ landed at Peter Force Bay, and reached the Inig on the l.tofcu^. June. . ^ .,, .1 , ^nrvnv , ,f It'^'"''" *" This iourney connected the northern coast with the ^m^ >*„„,.„. n.y predecessor ; but it disclosed no channel or any form ot exit '^B lol^lld n.J.o.ever, that snch a channel nu.t exi^; t^ this ereat curve could be no cul-de-sac. Even were my ..bsei n a- t;:'lce my first .dl journey of Se^.tember 1^^:^, not^ -^ on this head, the general movemei.t o the -f -^^J ^^ ,; .["^ " of tlie tides, and the equally sure analogies of physical geogiaphj, would point unmistakably to such a conclusion » , i, I ^!erity it, I at once commenced the org.uuzation of a doi.b e a .w party This, which is called in my Report the North-east 1 ai y, ^;:^'to be assisted by dogs, but was to be subsisted as far as the Great Glacier by provisions carried by a foot-party in advance For the continuation of my plans I again refer to my journal. " rune 2 /Va/.y. -There is still this hundred miles wanting to the north-west to complete our entire circuit of this frozen water. Tl-sTto be the field for our next party. I am at some loss how to or<.ani/e it For myself, I am down with scurvy. Di. llaycs i. ;:r^ t^!e fi^d, Ln-out . ^ snow-bUnd. His health-roll n...;.. makes a sorry parade. It runs . as :- naycB> Oificcrs. Mn.BKOOKs Unhealal stump. j;^- '?''''''' ::::z:::::Down ^^■lih scuwy. J «• f ™ Scurvy knee, but meucUng. T P?.™ ; «e"«ral scurvy. Mr. Pkteusen MU. GOODFELLOW W l7^' MU. OlILSEN ]i^ ■ Mb. M'Wary ^^^"• Creiv. WiLUAM MORTON Nearly recovered. Thomas IIiCKEY ^^^^^• George WuiPPLE feeurvy. J0HN13.AKE ^eurvy. Hans Ckistian ;^*^''- „„ i>,,„v Sound. Georoe Riley Scurw from last journey. Gkorqe Stephenson fecurv} iiom i j William Godfrey Snow-bhnd. 'Vune 3, ^'at«rc/a2/.-M'Gary, Bonsall, Hickey, and Riley were 'I ki 1' 'if II 1A2 AFIRAN(!KMKNTM I'OI! ANOTHER KXI'KDITIO.V. Uuiito. Arrange niuiiis. ouAPTKR detailcl for tlif fi.Ht section c.f the new parties : tliey will be — : iiiooinpaniod by Morton, who lia.s onlers to kw]) hiiii.solf 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, uidoss things grow so much worse on board as to make it impossible. "They start light, with a large thirteen-feet sledge, arranged with broad rnnner.s on account of the snow, and are to pursuj my own last track, feeding at the caches which I deposited, and auning directly for the glacier barrier on the Greenland side. Here, sus° tained as I hope by the remnants of the great cache of last fall, they will survey and attempt to scale the ice, to look into th(i interior of the great 7ner de (jluce. " 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 'unooth 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 succeed; it is my last throw. They have all my views, and I believe they will cany 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 provisions from the cache of my own party of last May. Hans will then join them with the dogs; and, while M'Gary and three men attempt to scale and survey the glacier, Morton and Hans wili push to the north across the bay uith 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-surtaces ; but I am not without apprehensions that, with all their etf rts. the glacier can- not be surmounted. " In this event, the main reliance must be on Mr. Morton. He he takes with him a sextant, artificial horizon, and pocket chrono- meter, and has intelligence, courage, and the spirit of endurance, in full measure. He is withal a long-tried and trust-worthy fol- lower. ^ ''June 5, Monday.— The last party are off; they left yesterday at 2 i-.M. I can do nothing more but await the ice-changes PROGRESS OF Tin'. SEASON, 163 that are to tk'termine for us our lihoration or continued unpri ouaptkh tionnient. " The sun is shining bravely, and the temperature feels like a Suusuine home summer. " A sanderling, the second migratory land bird we have seen, came to our brig today, and is no'w a specimen. ^'Jiine G, Tuesdai/.—Wa are a parcel of sick men, artecting to keep ship till our comrades get back. Except Mr. Ohlsen and George Whipi)le, there is not a soimd man among us. Thus wearily in our Castle of Indolence, for ' labour dire it was, and weary woe,' we have been watching the changing days, and not- ing bird and insect and vegetable, as it tells us of the coming summer. One fly buzzed around William Godfrey's lu'ad to- j.iy^_he could not tell what the species was; and Mr. Peter- sen brought in a cocoon from which the grub had eaten its way Animals to liberty. Hans gives us a seal almost daily, and for a pass- ^^JlJ^^';;''" ing luxury we have ptarmigan and hare. The little snow-birds ha've 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 winter-dried QrowUi oi stems ; the willows are sappy and puffing, their catskins of last J.';'^^^"*' year dropping off. Draba, lichens, and stellaria, can be detected by an eye accustomed to this dormant vegetation, and the stone- crops are really green and juicy in their c li'r-;,: ; all this imder the snow. So we have assurance that summ-r '« ;oming; though our tide-hole freezes every night along.side, and the ice-floe seems to be a.:) fast as ever. ''June 8, ThuvRday. — Hans brings us in to-day a couple ofscai. seal ; all of them as yet are of the Rough or Hispid species. The flesh of this seal is eaten universally by the Danes of Greenland, and is almost the staple diet of the Esquinuiux. When raw, it has a flabby look, more like coagulated blood than muscular fibre ; cooking gives it a dark soot-colour. It is close-grained, but soft and tender, with a flavour of lamp-oil— a mere soupgon, how- ever, for the blubber, when fresh, is at this season sweet and deli- cious. " The seal are shot lying by their atluk or breathing-holes. As the season draws near midsummer, they are more approachable ; 154 THE NETSIK AND DSUK. Seal cooked in the aim. The netsik. \i ' i Tlie usuk. OHAPTKR their eyes being so congested by the glare of the sun that they are sometimes nearly blind. Strange to say, a few 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 Uberal supply of oil, the average thus far being five gallons each." Besides the Hispid seal, the only species which visited Rensse- laer Harbour was the P/wca barbata, the large bearded seal, or nsuk of the Esquimaux. I have measured these ten feet in length, and eight in circumference, of such unwieldy bulk as not unfre- quently to be mistaken for the walrus. 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 atlid: They depend for respiration 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-baskina little brethren, who crowd together in comnuuiities, and in some°places absolutely throng the level ices. The usuk appears a Uttle later than the netsik, and his com- mg is looked for anxiously by the Esquimaux. The lines, atlu- nak, which are made from liis skin, are the lightest and strongest and most durable of any in use. They are prized by the hunters in their contests with the walrus. To obtain the atlunak in full perfection, the animal is skinned m a sinral, so as to give a continuous coil from head to tail This IS carefully chewed by the teeth of the matrons, and after bemg well greased with the burnt oil of their lamps, is hung up m 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 Esqui- maux huts, I saw a large iisuk basking asleep upon the ice. Ta' ^.ng off my shoes, I commenced a somewlu-t refrigerating process of stalkhig, lyhig upon my belly, and crawling along step by step behind the little knobs of floe. At last, wher I was within long riib shot, the animal gave a sluggish roll to one side, and suddenly lifted his head. The movement was evidently mdependent of me, for he strained his neck in nearly the oppo- site du-ection. Then, for the first time, I found that I had a Athiniik now made. ii^-i- 14 - I A RIVAL SEAL IIUNTEK. 155 rival seal-hunter in a large bear, who was, on his belly like my- ohaptkr self, waiting with commendable patience and cold feet for a ^ chance of nearer approach. a bear watcliiiit; . _•_ -— .- _ -•^r-r- seal If: KSQITIMAUX APPROACIIlMi A SKAI,. What should I do 1 the bear was doubtless worth more to a ditiicui nie than the seal ; but the seal Avas 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 and saving myself for his dessert. These medita- tions 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 wdiich is the better part of valour, the bear ran ofi in cue direction, and I followed his example in the other. The generally-received idea of the Polar bear battling with the walrus meets little favour among the Esquimaux of Smith's Straits. I 15G CHANGE IN THE FLOE. Obscvva tory. Cliangc on tliDtloe- ice. CHAPTER :\ry own experience is directly adverse to the truth of the stoi7, XX. Tj'jg ^,^|j.^^3 -^ „pver out of reach of water, and, in his peculiai element, is witliout a rival. I have seen the bear follow the usuk by diving ; but the tough hide and great power of the walrus for- bid such an attack. " June 9, Friday.— To-^ixy I was able to walk out upon the floe for the first time. I\Iy 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 com- fortless 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 floe-ice. Hitherto I have been dependent upon the accounts of my mess- mates, 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 ov?rflow of the tides. The floe, though undergoing the ordinary molecular changes which accompany 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 escaping. It is a moment- ous 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 leaflets against the grey rocks. Among these was the Bear berry (.9. nvn nrsi), know- ing 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." Plants Wl!, ■ DRAGGING SEAL. io: CHAPTER XXI. PROOUKSS OP SEASON — PLANTS IN WINTER — BIHDS BETDRNINQ — OOCII LEAUIA— THE PLANTS, ''June 10, S'.iturdai/. — Hans wa ordered yesterday to hunt in tlic chapt£s direction of tlie Esquimaux huts, in tlie liope of determining the f!li" position of the open water. He did not return histnififht; but "ansout T\ TT 1 -nr /^i 1 o ;> hunting, Dr. Hayes and .Mr. Ohlscn, wlio were sent after liim tins morning with the dog-sledge, found the hardy savage fast asleep not five DRAQQlNtt SKAL miles from the brig. Along side of him was a large usuk or bearded seal (P. harbata), shot, as usual, in the head. He had dragged it ft)r seven hours over the ice-foot. The dogs hav- ing now recruited, he started light to join iMorton\t the glacier. ''June 11, Snnda}/.—kxiot\\QY walk on shore showed me thev^peta 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 tetragon;; had advanced U fU, 158 THE SNOW BLANKET. WIAPTKU XXI. Vlants. Value of the snow ooverinK. } ! 1 Conduct- ing power of snow. I 'i'\ #1 rapidly toward fructification without a corresponding development of either stalk or leaflet. In fact, all the heaths— and there were three species around our harbour— 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 gathered 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 cerathium, as well as the characteristic flower-growths of the later summer, the poppy, and sorrel, and saxifrages, 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 feeble flower-life. The first warm snows of August and Sep- tember falling on a thickly -pleached carpet of grasses, luaths, and willows, enshrine the flowery growths which nestle 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 wliich 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 sur- face 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 of Cape Staff'ord. 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 con- gelation. The early spring and late fall and sunnner 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 hi well-defined layers of difter- inw density. We have first the warm (•cllular 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, BIRDS r.KTURNINO. 16?) "Tt is interesting to observe the effects of tlrls disposition of Inyors oHAvrFh upon the safety of tlie vegetable growths below tlicni. Tliesu, at ^^'• least in the earlier summer, occupy the inclined slopes that taoe mTiT the sun, and the several strata of snow take of course the same in- s""'" clination. The consequence is, that as the upper snow is dissipated '""" by the early thawings, and sinks upon the more compact layer be- low, it is to a great extent arrested, and runs off like rain from i 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, Fridu%._Another pair of long-tailed ducks passed Dnci.s nro over our bay, bound for further breeding-grounds ; we saw also an ^'""" ivory-gull and two gi'eat northern divers {Colymhus glaciaUs) the most imposing birds of their tribe. These last flew very lii-h, emitting at regular intervals tlieir reed-lilce 'kawk.' "^ ' " Mr. Ohlsen and Dr. Hayes are off on an overland tramp I sent them to inspect the open water to the southward. The im- movable state of the ice-foot gives me anxiety : last year, a lar-rc bay above us was closed all summer ; and the land-ice, as we find It liere, is as perennial as the glacier. ''June 20, Tuesday. -^^],[^ morning, to my great surprise, \m PLANTS ANP mnns. Coclilea ria. I i cnAi'TKit Petersen hrouglit me quite a Jiandful of scurvy-grass (C. fenesirata). ^^ Jn my fall list of the stinted flora here, it had quite escaped my notice. I felt grateful to him for his kindness, and, without tlu affectation of oftcring it to any one else, ate it at once. Each plant stood ahout one inch high, the miniature leaves expanding through- out a little radius of hardly ono inch more. Yet, dwarfed as it was. the fructifying process was nearly perfected ; the buds already ex- panding and nearly ready to burst. We found cochlearia after- ward at Littleton Island, but never in any quantity north of Cape Alexander. Although the melted snows distil freely over the darker rocks (pori)hyries and gi-eenstoncs), it is a rai-e exception to note any vegetable discoloration of the surface beneath. There are few signs of those confervaceous growths which are universal as high as Upcrnavik. The nature of this narrative does not permit me to indulge in matters unconnected with my story . I cite these in passing, as among the indications of our high northern lati- tude. ^^ June 21, Wednesda//. — A snow, moist and flaky, melting u[)on our decks, and cleaning up the dingy surface of the great ice-plain with a new garment. We are at the summer solstice, the day pliint throuixli- as it was. •eady ex- ■ia aftcr- i of Cajie over tlie eption to . There iversal as )t permit iite tliese liern lati- lightly, and allow plenty of basking in the sun. In the afternoon cuaptku we walk on shore, to eat such succulent plants us we can find amid ^ the snow. The i)yrola I have not found, nor the cochlearia, save Succulent in one sput, and then dwarfed. But we have the lychnis, the '''"""" young snr-rel, the andromeda, the druba, and the willow-bark ; this last an excellent tonic, and, in common with all the Arctic vege- table astringents, I think, powerfully antiscorbutic." nig \i[)on ice-plain le day of ified but upon us, ! progress ;ky grouj) ])air were d drakes, but the 1. changes : two snipe n. They ing duck, ilack, and rovement, : the men # "1! mr 'n Vs 1 I 1 1 • i i 1 ■' i [ j(;2 mi:, t'.onsall's rkturn tK..' I CHAl'TKR XXII. Uetiii'ii ut .iI'Giily anil lioii- Satisfac- tory obscr Ttttions. CHAPTER XXII. MK. HONSALl's KKTDllN-HIS STOHV- TlIK IlEAIl IN OAMP— JU8 fATB- BKAllS AT Sl'OllT— TJIE THAWS. ''J^nie 27, rww^.-M'Gary and EoiLsall arc Lack with Jlickey ami Ililey. They ariived la.st evening : all well, except that the ■snow has affected their eyesight badly, owing to the scoibutic con- .htio.i of their .sy,steni.s. Mr. M'Gary is entirely blind, and I fear will bo found slow to cure. They have done admirably. They bring back a continued scries of observations, perfectly well kept up, for the furtlier authentication of our survey. They ^lad a "ood chronometer, artificial horizon, and sextant, and their results corre- spond entirely with those of Mr. Sontag and myself. Tliey are connected, too, with the station at Chimney Rock, Capo Thackeray which we have established by theodolite. I may be satisfied now with our projection of the Greenland coast. The different locali- ties to the south have been referred to the position of our winter liarbour, and this has been definitely fixed by the labours of Mr Sontag, our astronoT>^er. Wo liave, therefore, not only a reliable base, but a set of primary triangulations, which, though limited may support the minor field-work of our sextants. i:h JACKSoN AM) MUUIIIS- THE CIIANNEI^FUKE OF ICK- mUD.S AND I'l-ANTS- UKAll AM. cun— Tin; hunt- the death— fuankmn and lafayette— the ant- AIICTIC FI,A(;-(0UU>E OF TILES- MoUNT I'AllUY- VICTOKIA AM; AI.HEHT RIOUNTAINS — llESUME— THE lilJU.S AITEAK-THE VEGETATION- THE I-ETUEL— CAPE CONSTITUTION— TIIEOUIES OF AN (•! EN SEA— IJ.I.USOItX PISCOVEKIES-CIIANOES OF CLIMATE— A SUGGESTION. mi. Morton left the bng v'itli tJ.e relief imvty of MViny on ..iaptkh the 4tli of Juui}. Jle took his place at the track-lines like the ^^'"• others; bnt he was ordered to avoid all extra labour, so as to hus- Ti.;;7o7dc. band his strength for the final i)assage of the ice. puituie. On the ir)th he reached the base of the Great Glacier, and on the IGth was joined by Hans with the dogs. A single day was given to feed and refresh the aniinals, and on the 18th the two cuinpanies parted. Morton's account I have not felt myself at liberty to alter. I give it as nearly as possible in his own words, without aifecting any modification of his style. Morton's journey. The party left Cache Island at 12.35 a.m., crossing the land- Route, ices by portage, and going south for about a mile to avoid a couple of bad seams caused by the breaknge of the glacier. Here Mor- ton and Hans separated from the land-party, and went northward, keeping parallel with the glacier, and from five to seven miles dis- tant. The ice was free from hunnnocks, but heavily covered with snow, through which they walked knee deep. They camped about First eight miles from the glacier, at 7.45, travelling that night about «"<^«"'P twenty-eight miles. Here a crack allowed them to measure the thickness of the ice : it was seven feet five inches. The thermometer nt G A.M. gave + 28^' for the temperature of the air; 29.^? for the water. They started again at half-past nine. The ice, at first, vv.is very 'I' mcut. Iftff**"^ 168 PKABODY BAY. CIIAPTKR XXIII. Difflcultie of the jouiiK'y. Narrow [lilSSKRCS between the bergs. Perse ver- tince. heavy, .and they weit- frcquontly over their knees in the dry snow ; but, after cro.s.sing certain drifts, it beciune li;u-d euou.^li to bear tlic sledge, and tlie dogs ni.ide t\)ur miles an hour until twenty minutes jjast four, when they reached the middle of Peabody JJay. They then found them.selves among the bergs which on former ooca.sions had prevented other parties from getting through. These were generally veiy higli, evidently newly separated from the glacier. Their surfaces A\ere fresh and glas.sy, and not like those generally met with in IJalHn's Bay, — less worn, and bluer, and lookhig in all respects like the lace of the Grand Glacier. :Many were rectan- gular, some of them regular squares, a quarter of a mile each way; other.s, more than a mile lone They could not see more than a ship's-length ahead, the icebergs were .so unusually close together. Old ieel)ergs bulge and tongue out below, and are thus prevented from uniting ; but these showed that they were lately Iramched, 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 coidd just draw the sledge. Sometimes they could find no passage between two bergs, the ice being so crunched up between them that they coukl not force their way. Under these cii'cumstances, 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, I'or often- times 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 ^v'u\<, passage would appear between two bergs, which they would gladly follow; then a narrower one; then no openmg in front, but one to the side. Following that a little distance, a blank ice-cliff would close the way altogether, and they were forced to retrace their steps and begin again. Constantly bafUed, but, like true •'"-llow.s, determined to "go ahead," they at la.st found a lane some six miles to the west, which led u[)()n their right course. But they Avcre from eight o'clock at night till two or three the next morning, puzzling their way out of the maze, like a blind man in the streets of a strange city. June 19, J-oudaf/.— At 8.45 a.m. they encamped. Morton then RRTDr.TXO TriK CHASMS. 10!) climbed a berg, in order to select their best road. Beyond some chaptei l)erg.s he caught glimpses of a great white plain, whicl/ proved to ^^"' - be the glacier .seen far into the interior ; for, on getting up another '^"''^ berg further on, he saw it.s face as it fronted on the bay. This fhelu-"' was near its noithern 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 vcit on for ten miles, but were then arrested l>y wide seams in the ice, bergs, and much l)roken ice. So they turned about, and reached their last camp by twelve, midnight. They then went westward, and, after several trials, made a way, the dogs running well. It took them Imt 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 Ti.e uater at the bottom. These they bridged in our usual manner ; '^'"*^'"* that is to say, they attacked the n.earest large hummocks with their axes, and, chopping them down, rolled the heaviest pieces they could move into the fissure, so that they wedged each other in. They then fdled 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 quiting the berg-field, they saw two dovekies in a crack, and Dovekies shot one. The other flew to the north-east. Here they sighted the northern shore (" West Land"), mountainous, rolling, bu^very distant, perhaps fifty or sixty miles off. They drove on over the the best ice they had met due north. After passing about twelve miles of glacier, and seeiiig thirty of opposite shore, they camped at 7.20 A.M. They were now nearly abreast of the termination of the Great The temi Glacier. It Avas mixed with earth and rocks. The snow .sloped "''"°" "^ f. , 1 T J . , , 1 tlie Groat irom tlie iand to the ice, and the two seemed to bo mingled Glacier, together for eight or ten miles to the north, when the land became solid, and the glacier Avas lost. The height of this land seemed about 400 feet, and the glacier lower. June 21, UW/if.sY^/y. --They stood to the north at 11.30 p.m., and made for what ]\[orton thougiit a cape, seeing a vacancy 170 4 , THK DOGS IN FRIGHT. Tlio (Iocs tremble. i i! OHAPTKu between it and tl.e ^^^e.st Land. The ice was good, even, and free tmni bergs, only two or three being in sight. The atmosphere cold ^'''''^'^ *'"^'^ '-^"^1 i"i«ty> and the west sliore, wliioh they saw faintly on Tuesday, was not visible. They couhl only see tiie cape for which they steei-ed. The cold was ;,ensibly felt, a very cutting wind blowing north-east by north. They reached tl.p opening seen to the westward of the cai)e by Thurs(iay, 7 a.m It l.roved to be a chamiel ; for, as they moved on in the misty weather, a sudden lifting of the fog showed them the cnpe and the western shore. 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 inuldle of the channel ; but, as soon as possible, they turned, and, by a backward circuit, reached the shore. The .locr.s, as their fashion 1.S, at first lay down and refused to procee.I,' tremblin- violently. The only way to induce the terrified, obstinate brntc^ to get on was for Ifans to go to a white-looking spot where the ice was thicker, the soft stuff looking dark ; then, calling the dor-s coaxingly by name, they would crawl to him on their bellies So they retreated from ],lace to place, until they reached the firm ice theyhad quitted. A half-n.ile brought them to comparatively sate ice, a mile more to good ice again. In the midst of this danger they had during the liftings of the fog sighted open water, and they now saw it plainly. There was n<) wind stirring, and its face was perfectly smooth. Tt was two miles further 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 numbln-s, Morton says he would not have believed it himself. The ice covered the mouth of the channel like a horse-shoe Une end lapped into the west side a considerable 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 ahoni a mile and a half from the cape. That night they succeeded in climbing on to the level by the fioe-pieces, and walked around the turn of the cape for some dis- tance, leaving their dogs behind. They found a good ice -foot veiy wide, which extended as far as the cape. They saw a good Safe ice agiiiii. I t 1 ( L Jj l ^n t w c If -r MAKINO THE LAND-ICK 17i many birds on tlie water, botli oi.ler-clucks and doxekies, und the ciuptv rocks on sliore were full of sea swallows. There was no ice A ^_^'- fog coming on, they turned back to wliere tlio dogs had been 'left a :<^,, They started again at ll.;;o a.m. of tlie 21st. On I'cachin'^ the """• land-ice they uidoaded, and tlirow each package of provision in.ni the floe up to the ice-foot, which was eight or nine feet above i i il .■"■SJE^S? MAKIKO TIIR LAKD-ICR, (CUMniN-o). tlieni Morton then climbed up with the aid of the sleJ <• which the y converted into a ladder for the occasion. He then pulled the puim, . dors up by the lines fastened round their bodies, Hans lei'din-- a "'"""';•'" iiclpi;:g hand and then climbing up himself Tlu-v then drew'up °" "" '" t!.e sledge. The water was very deep, a «tone tl.;. si^e of Mor- tons head takmg twenty-eight seconds to ror.ch tlie bottom, which was seen very clearly. As they had noticed the night before, the icr-i...t, lost its -ood cliaracier en reaching the cape, becoming a mere larrow ledas.sing the atcr. Tiie vhich tliey Was open 'd on tlie inooth ice- ' the great It was he sledge BIRDS ON THE OPEN WATF;'. 173 ravel th ey e bay, the ed oa tlie ling hills lie valley of flight of tbe ficck was to tl:c .ortl^Z^^a^'l^^t^ ^^^^ wee also seen ; and ten. wore ve,y „„„,cr„„s, iZZs o7ttZ ''"'" " squealing and screeoluii<. in flocks Tl.nv „J . , ca,«ewit,,i„afew,a,.d.^oft,,et:t/'F[; lil ~*^^^^ notes echoing from the rocks, were large thite birds wLioi; U ev ' took for burgomasters. Ivorv ,n,Us and n,„Il i ^ fiirtliernn Ti,». J- 1 /, "v o'""' -ind moUcmokes were seen as they went. The ivory gulls flew very high, but the mollemokes aht and fed on the w.ater, flying over it well out to se.a, aw" 1™ s n them do m Baffin'. Bay Separate from these fle w a di f bird unknown to Morton. Never had they seen tirbt S reader ™" - -'-"^ "-^ -^ '^^. ^^^ The part of the ehaunel they were now eo,,sti„g was narrower . , but as they proceeded it seemed to widen again. There wTssome "•"'.»■ lee arrested by a bend of the channel on tlfe eastern shoTe ,nT "''■ on reaching a low gravel point, they saw that a projectio , rf iand shut them m ust ahead to the north Unon this l! seal were basking, both the netsik and us^k " "'"""""^ lefloatlL'^^rt, r" °"°"''''"'''- There was broken fcetfy e e ? The ^ "f T"^-' """" ""'«^ "' ^«<"1' -^ per- lectiy clear. The end of the pomt-" Gr,avel Point," as Morton cahcd It-was covered with humiuoeks and broken ee for 2u n , o miles from the water. This ice was worn and full of "avT, bix miles inland the point was flanked by mountains. ° A httle lugaer up they noticed that the pieces of ice in the ., .mddle of the channel were moving up, while the lump nea «"^""' shore were floating down. The ehaunel w.as completerbroktn SX to^the northwtl" " '"" °' ""• "^'■■' -»''• "- The wind blew strong from the north, and continued to do so for three d,ays, sometimes blowing a gale, and ve.y damp, the tops I ice r 174 KENNEDY CIIANNKL. ■f 4 CHAPTER XXIII. Fops and mist. Sliores of the chan- nel. ^^? SUrt at midnight. J;- Krjrly flower-life. of the hills becoming fixed witli dark foggy clouds. The damp falling mist jircventcd their seeing any distance. Yet they saw no ice borne down from the northward during all this time ; and, what was more curiou.s, they found, on their return south, that no i(.'e had been sent down during the gale. On the contrary, they then found the channel i>crfc)ctly clear from shore to .shore. June 22, Thursdm/. — They camped at 8. ,'50 a.m, on a ledge of low rock, having made in the day's j(mrney 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 hifh, 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 Avhen they camped, but they ob- tained several higher up. The eider were in such numbers here that Hans tired into the flocks, and killed two birds wdth one shot. Jitve 23, Fridai/.— 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 dog.s 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 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, pre- pared to proceed on foot. This spot was the greenest that they had seen since leaving the lieadlands of the channel. Snow patched the valleys, and water was trickling from the rocks. Early . s it was, Hans was able to recognise some of the flower-life. TTe ate of the young shoots of the lychnis, and brought home to me the dried pod {siliqHa) of a hcsperis, which had survived the wear and tear of winter. I\Iorton was struck with the abundance of little stone- crops, "about the size of .i pea." I'll BRAR AND CUB. 17 r, Jtme 23 24, FriJa>,, Saturday. --M 3 a.m. tl.oy started again, ohaptkb carrying eiglit pounds of penunican and two of bread besides the ''''"'• artilicial J,ori.on, sextant, and eonipass, a, rille, and tl.e bont-hook.' AulTand .Vfter two hours walking the travel improved, and, on nearin-i ^"»"" plain about nine miles Crom where they had left the sled-^e they "'"''" were rejoiced to see a she-be.r and her cub. They had tic'd the dogs .securely, as they thought ; but Toodla and four others had broken loose and followed them, making their appearance within an hour. Tliey were tlius able to attack tlie bear at once. Hans, who to tlie simplicity of an Esquimaux united the shrewd observation of a hunter, describes the contest which followed so graphically, that I try to engraft some of the quaintness of his descnpt.un i.pon Mr. Morton's report. The bear fled; but thexhoro little one being unable either to keep ahead of the ' °f keep pace with her, she turned back, and, putting her he^ul un.ler ""'""■ Its haunches, threw it some distance ahead. The cub safe for the moment, she ^^•ould wheel round and f^ice the dogs, so as to oive It a chance to run away; but it always stopped just as it aligh'ted, ill she came up and threw it ahead again : it seemed to exp«.-t h(>r aid, and would not go on without it. Sometimes the motlier would run a few yards ahead, as if to coax the young one up to Jier, and when the dogs came up she would turn on them anrl ^ drive them back ; then, as they dodged her blows, she would rejoin the cub and push it on, sometimes putting her head under It, sometimes oatching 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 i>ace 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 r.. tull speed, tliey soon came up to where the dogs were holdiiu. her '"""'" at bay. The fight was now a desperate one. The mother never '^^nT' went more than two yards ahead, constantly looking at thd cub '•""^' When the dogs came near her, she would sit upon her haunches and take the little one between her hind legs, fighting the dogs with her paws, and roaring so that she could have been heard a n.xJe off. " Never," said Morton, " was an animal more distressed " ##^4 I i, ! I 1^ 176 A dksperatp: fight. CHAPTKR XXIII. She would stretch her neck and snap at the nearest d(>c» with 1 ler ■ shining teeth, wliirling lier paws like the arms of a windmill. If she misscil her aim, not daring to pursue one dog lest the others The motlier _ benififiiits should harm tlie cub, she would give a great roar of baftled desper- ately for her cub. rage, The death of the mother. Tlie deritli of the cub, Franklin and Cro- zler Islands. and go on pawing, and snapping, and facing the ring, grinning at them witli 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 dog.s were all the time frisking about her actively, tormenting her like so many gad-dies ; indeed, they made it diflicult to draw a bea under whose ordtTS Sir John Franklin sailed, and the i.rinco her consort. They are siniihir in their features to those of Spitz- bergcn ; 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 further to the south, that they equal them in elevation, 2500 feet. Two iirge indentations broke in upon the uniform nuirgin of the coast. Everywhere else the spinal ridge seemed unbroken. Mr. Morton saw no ice. CHAI'TKR XXIII. Victoria unJ Albert inoun- titiiis. Ice It will be seen by the abstract of our " field-notes" in the Appcn dix, as well as by an analysis of the results which I have here rendered nearly iu the very wor.Is of Mr. Morton, that, after travel- Ung due north over a solid area choked with bergs and frozen fields, he was startled by the growing weakness of the ice : its sur- face became rotten, and the snow wet and pulpy. His dogs, seized with terror, refused to advance. Tlicn for the first time'the fiict broke upon him, that a long dark band seen to the north beyond a i)ortruding 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 diffe- rent 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 mysterious water, was, as the crow files, lOG miles. But for the unusual sight of birds and the unmistakeable giving way of the ice beneath thein, they would not have believed in the evidence of eyesight. Neither Hans nor Morton was prepared for it. Landing on the cape, and continuing their exploration, new phenomena broke upon them. They were on the shores of a channel, so open that a frigate, or a fieet of frigates, might have sailed u/) 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 clifi's, and taking 36 miles as the mean radius open to reliable Hesurud u Mtiitun'a jourimL Explora- tion on the shores of the chan- nel of opct water. .«^. i^. %. ^y'^ '^^' nO. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) y "SS ^ /. 4ls f^^^ MP... ^ 'ft 1.0 I.I |50 1.25 III 1.4 1^ M 1.6 P»/ v. <^ w /a 7: %- M '> Sciences Corooration 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 MP... 180 ANIMAL LIFE APPEARS. CHAPTEK XXIK. Extent of open sea. The Brent goose. Sea swal- lows. If Marine birds. Flora. ■ g duck, were so crowded together that our Esqui- survey, this sea had a justly-estimated extent of more than 4000 square mile.s. Animal life, which hud so long been a stranger to us to the south, now burst upon them. At Kensselacr Harbour, except the Netsik seal or a rarely encountered Ilarelda, we had no life avail- able for the hunt. But here the Brent goose (Anas hernicla), the eider, and the Icin maux killed two at a shot with a single rifle-ball. The I'jrcnt goo.-st 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 plants with their adherent molluscous life. It is rarely or never seen in the interior, and from its habits may be regarded as singularly in- dicative of open water. The flocks of tins bird, easily distinguished by their wr Jge-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 of Wellington Channel in latitude 74° 50', nearly six degrees to the south : they were then flying in the same direction. The rocks on shore wore crowded with sea-swallows {Sterna Arctica), birds whose habits require open water, and they were al- ready breeding. It may interest others besides the naturalist to state, that all of these 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 (Larus tridacf)/lis)~Temindmg Morton of "old times in Baffin's Bay"— were again stealing fish from the water, probably the small whiting {Merlaiif/us Polaris), 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 indioitions 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 specimens, I am unwilUng to adopt the observations of Mr. Morton, who was no botanist. It seems clear, however, that many flowering plants, at least as developed as those of Reus- TIIK PETREL. 181 selaer Harbour, had already made themselves recognisable ; and, strange to say, the only specimen brought back was a crueller (Hesperis pi/i/nicea—DnYmd), the sillqucc 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 ex- tendhig its range from the South Greenland zone. It has not, I believe, been described at Upernavik. It is another remarkable fact, that as they conthuied their jour- ney, the land-ice and snow, which had served as a sort of pathvv'ay for their dogs, crumbled and melted, and at last ceased altogether ; so that, during the final stages of their pi-ogress, the sledge was rendered useless, and Morton found himself at last toiling 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 glacialis), a fact which shows the accuracy of his observation, though he was then unaware of its importance. Tlds 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 acalephae, &c. &c. ; and it is seldom seen in numbers, except in the highways of open water frequented by the whale and the lavger representatives of ocean life. They were in numbers flitting and hovering over the crests of the waves, like their relatives of khider climates, the Cape of Good Hope Pigeons, Mother Carey's Cliickens, and the petrels everywhere else. As Morton, leaving Hans and his dogs, passed between 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 growing difficulty he managed to climb from rock to rock, in hopes of doubling the promontory and sighting the coasts be- yond, but the water kept encroachhig more and more on his track. It must have been an imposing sight, as he stood at this termi- nation 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 480 feet, which commanded 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 further progress. CHAPTER XXIII. Hesperis pygmaea. The Arctic PetrcL Morton and Haiib separate. The termi nation of Morton's journey. 182 TIIEORIKS OF AN OPEN SEA. CHAPTER XXIII. Cape Con- stitution. ■Iff Conjec- tures about iin open sea near the Pole. Beyond t'liis cape all is suiniise. Tlie high ridges to the north- west dwindled off into low blue knobs, which blended finally with the air. Morton called the cape, which baffled his labours, 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, I need not giv?. But I am reluctant to close my notice of this discovery of an open sea, with- out 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 tliis phenomenon. How far it may extend, — whether it exists simply as a feature of the imme- diate region, or as part of a great and unexplored area communicating with a Polar basin, — and what may be the argument in favour of one or the other hypothesis, or the explanation which reconciles it with established laws, — may be questions for men skilled in scien- tific deductions. Mine has been the more humble duty of record- ing what we saw. Coming as it did, a mysterious fluidity in the midst of vast plains of solid ice, it was well calculated to arouse emotions of the highest order ; and I do not believe th ere 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 our story for the next few months will feel, as we did, that a con- trolling 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 159G, without referring to the ear- lier and more uncertain chronicles, water was seen to the eastward of the northernmost cape of Novaia Zemlia ; and, until its limited extent was defined by direct observation, it was assumed to be the sea itself. The Dutch fisherman above and around Spitzbergen pushed their adventurous cruises through the ice into open spaces varying in size and form with the season and the wdnds ; and Dr. Scoresby, a venerated authority, alludes to such vacancies in t.he floe as pointing in argument to a freedom of movement from the north, inducing open water in the neighbourhood 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 to t ! Ij lili ILLUSORY DISCOVEKIES. im how narrow are the limits of human vision on a sphere. So, still more recently, Captain Tenny proclaimed a sea hi Wellington Sound, on the very spot where Sir Edward Belcher has since left his frozen ships ; and my predecessor, Captahi Ingleheld, 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 chronicled with perfect integrity ; and it may seem to others, as since I have left the field it sometimes does to myself, that my own, though on a hirger scale, may one day pass within tW .'ume 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 a!i elevation of 580 feet, still without a Umit, 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 connect themselves with this discovery, — the melted snow upon the rocks, the crowds of maruie birds, the limited, but still advancing vegetable life, the rise of the thermometer in 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 temperature induced by the proximity of open water is only to change the form of the ques- tion; for it leaves the inquiry imsatisfied — What is the cause of the open water 1 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 developed by our expedition, of a secular elevation of the coast line. But, independently of the ancient beaches and terraces, and other geo- logical marks which show that the shore has risen, the stone huts of the natives are found scattered along the hue 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 men who rely on it for subsistence. Tradition points to these as once favourite hunting-grounds near open water. At Rensselaer Harbour, called by the natives AunatoJc, or the Thawing-Place, we met with huts in quite tolerable preser- vation, with the stone pedestals still standing which used to sustain CnAPTKH XXIII. Conjec- tures of different voyiigera Theory ol a miUler climute near the role. Favourite hunting grounds I 11 i 1 ! \ flvi , 1 ; I V I [Hi' m li' im A SUGGESTION. OHAPTKB xxiir. Climatic cliaiigus. Possible deflection of the Gulf Stream. tlie carcases of the cajttured seals and walrus. Sunny Gorge, and a large indentation in Dallas Bay, which bears the Esquimaux name of the Inhabited Place, showed us the remains of a village, sur- rounded 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 Esquimaux race to the higher north, but the climatic changes which may perhaps be still in pro- gress there, is the sledge-rumier 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 labour. In this recapitulation of facts, I am not entering upon the ques- tion of a warmer climate impressed upon this region in virtue of a physical law which extends the isotherms toward the Pole. Still less am I disposed 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 Avith myself, and whose scientific investigations do it honour, 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 the coast of Novaia Zemlia, is deflected by that peninsula into the space around the Pole. It would require a change in the mean summer temperature of only a few degrees to develop the periodi- cal reciirrence 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. I 1 w PROSPECTS AND SPECULATIONS. IfiS CHAPTER XXIV. PROSPECTS -SPECUIiATIONS— THE AROnMENT— TUB CONCLUSION— THE RE- CONNOISSANCE — THE SCHEME— EQUIPMENT OP BOAT PARTY— EIDFR ISIiAND — HANS ISLAND — THE CORMORANT GULL— SENTIMENT— OUR CHARTS— CAPTAIN INOLEFIELD— DISCREPANCIES— A OALE— FAST TO A FLOE. ATTEMPT TO REACH BEECHY ISLAND. All the slcdge-partios were now once more aboard sliip, and the season of Arctic travel had ended. For more than two month- we had been imprisoned in ice, and throughout all that period, except during the enforced holiday of the midwinter darkness, or while repaiiing 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 questions and speculations of those around me began to show chat they too had anxious thoughts for the coming year. There was reason for all our apprehensions, as some of my notes may show. ''July 8, Saturday. — Penny saw water to the southward in Barrow's Straits as early as June ; and by the first of July the leads were within a mile of his harbour in Wellington Channel. Dr. Sutherland says he could have cut liis way out by the 1 5th. 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 caF'^s,— an as- sumption, by-the-way, which the difference of the localities is all against, the mouth of our harbour should be reached in fifty days, or by the last day of August ; and after that, several days, or per- haps 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. Indeed, I look for it to open, if it opens CHAPTKH XXIV, Impri- soned again in tlie ice. Specula- tionsabout tlie breali- ing up of tlie ice. r"' CHAPTER XXIV Feara about l)i\s.sinfr thrmiKh tlic ice. Despon- dency. ri Difti- oulties. lift THK ARfJUMKNT ANT) PKCISION. \ The deci- sion. I at all, about tlie l)eifiimin;j; of Sopti'iiibi'!' at furthest, fiomcwliere iioar the date of Sir Jaine.s J\oi.s's liberation at Leopold. But then, I have to reiuember that I am much further to the north than my in'edcce.s.sor.«i, and that by the 28th of last August I had already, after twenty day.s of unremitting labour, forced tlie 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 Se[ttcmber we were fairly frozen in. Yet last summer was a most favourable one for ice-melting. Putting all this together, it looks as if the winter must catch us l)efore we can get halfway tlirough the pack, even though we should begin warping to the south at the earliest moment that we can liope for water. " It is not a pleasant conclusion of the argument ; for tliere never was, and I trust never will be, a party worse armed for the en- counter 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 dishonouring ; 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 1 It is a dreary distance 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 efllciency of what we count in number. Besides, how can I desert the brig while there is still a chance of saving her ] There is no use of noting ;)?-os and cons : my mind is made up ; I \n\\ not do it. " But I must • examine^, this ice-field for myself. I have been maturing through the last fortnight a 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 wiU fit out our poor travel-worn dogs with canvas shoes, and cross the iloes to the true water edge, or at least be satisfied that it is impos- sible. * He sees best who uses his own eyes.' After that I have my course resolved on. Jidy 11, Tuesdai/. — We got back last night : a sixty miles' jour \ PUKPARATIONS FOll A NEW KXPKDITION. tm ney, — comfortless euougli, with only three hours' .'ih'i'p on tlie ice. onAPTtR XXIV. For thiry-five miles south tliu .sti-iut.s arc absolutoly tight. OlV Refuge Inlet and Esquimaux Point wo found driving leads ; but nosuUs of between these points and the lu'ig not a crack. 1 pushed the dogs nej._ over the drift-ice, and, after a fair nund)cr of mischances, found the North Water. It was ilowing and free ; but since M'Ciary saw it last May it has not advanced more than four miles. It would bo absurd at this season of the year to attemi)t escaping in open boats with this ice between us and water. All that can be done is to re-inforce our energies as we may, and look the worst in the face. " In view of these contingencies, I have determined to attempt ResoinUon in person to communicate with Ijcechy Island, or at least make '"^4','^™^' the ctfort. If I can reach >Sir Edward Belcher's squadron, I am exredi- sure of all I want. I \vill take a light whaleboat, and pick my com- panions 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 across some passing v<>ssel of the squadron, and make known our whereabouts and want.^ , or, failing these, we will tiy and coast it along to Wellington Channel. " A depot of provisions and a seaworthy craft large enough to carry us, — if I had these, everything 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 necessary 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 prciude to the evening, and showed them my ice-charts ; explaining, what found needed little explanation, the prospect unmediately before us. I theii discussed the prtjbable changes, and, giving them my personal opinion that the brig might after all be liberated at a ' 1 1 J the under- taking. sms&' 188 EQUIPMENT OF THK * FORLORN HOPE.' if ,•1 M )■ f '■ I , V, i I CHAPTEH XXIV. Announce, mcnt of the pro- ject Volun- teers. The For. lorn Hope. -r Her rtg. Her stores. liite (lute, I announced my project. I will not say liow gratified I was witli tlio manner in wiiicli they received it. It struck me tlint there was a sense of personal relief expei-ienced everywhere. I told them that I did not choo.se to call a council or connect any of them with the responsibilities of the measure, for it involved oiily 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 plcasantest interview I ever had with my associates. I believe every man on board would have volunteered, but I con- fined myself to five active men : James M'Gary, William Morton, George Riley, Hans Christian, and Thomas Plickey, made up my party." Our equipment had hem getting ready for some time, though without its object being understood or announced. The boat was our old Forlorn J/ope, mended up and revised for her new des- tinies. She was 23 feet long, had G§ feet beam, and was 2 feet G inches deep. Iler build was the characteristic one of the Ameri- can whaleboats, too flat-bottomed for ordinary use, but much improved by a false keel, which Olilsen had given her through- out 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 cf height, I devised a sort of half-deck of canvas and gum-elastic cloth, extending back beyond the fore-mast, 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. I left her rig altogether to M'Gary. She carried what any one but a New London whaler would call an inordinate spread of can- vas, a light cotton fore-sail of 1 2 feet lift, a stouter main-sail of 14 feet lift with a spreet 18 feet long, and a snug little jib. Her masts were of course selected very carefully, for we could not carry extra sticks : raid we trusted to the good old-fashioned ?teering-oar rather than a rudder. Morton, who was in my confidence from the first, 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 depot-party during the rescue of last March ; but I TITK SLKDOKS '* FAITIl" AND " ST. JOHN's." 18» they could not find n tmre of them, or indeed of anj^hin^ else we chaptsr abandoned at that time — a proof, if we wanted one, lio.v blurred ^^' all our faculties must have been by suffering, for we marked then\, as we thought, with marvellous care. We lifted our boat over the side in the afternoon, and floated The boat her to the crack at the Observatory Island ; mount^^d her there on IJ),*'||"'"^ our large sledge IVie Faith, by an arrangement of cradles of Mr. Mirige. Ohlscn's devising ; stowed in everything 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 M'Gary, Hans, and myself, fol- lowed with our St. John's sledge, carrying our stores. The surface of the ice was very irregular and covered with water- pools. Our sledge broke down with repeated 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 The ice thither with the tide. The second day's i)rogress, little as it was, ;^o""""e» •^ ^ ,° ' trouble- cost US very hard labour. But another night of repose on the some. 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 difliculty. 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 tago, and to our great joy found it untouched : the cove and inlet were still fast in ice. We now neared the Littleton Island of Captain Inglefield, where uttietor a piece of good fortune awaited us. We saw a number of ducks, ^^'""^ both eiders and heraldas ; and it occurred to me that by tracking their flight we should reach tlieir breeding-grounds. There was no trouble in doing so, for they flew in a bee-line to a group of rocky islets, above Avhich the whole horizen'was studded with birds. A rugged little ledge, which I named Eider Island, was so 13 ! M It ^.| r^ 19() TIIK DUCKS ON HANS ISLANO. !i:|' -.■Wl'j , £, H^ 1 hi:! CHAi'TKR thickly colonized that we could hardly walk without treading on a ^^"'- ne.st. We killed with guns and stones over two hundred birds in a few hours. The breed- It was near the close of the breeding season. The nests were inRsenson. ^^^y^ 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 ahoady in the ice-sheltered channels, greedily waiting for the shell- fish und sea-urchins, which the old bird busied herself in procuring for them. Near by was a low and isolated rock-ledge, which we called Han, Hans Island. The glaucous gulls, those ccmorants of the Arctic Island und ggas, had made it their peculiar honiestead. Their progeny, already tiints! "* full-fledged and voracious, crowded the guano-whitened rocks ; and the mothers, with long necks and gaping yellow bills, swooped above the peaceful shallows of the ciders, carrying off the young birds, seemingly just as their wants required. A more domineer- ing and insatiable rapacity I have never witnessed. The gull would gobble up and swallow a young cider in less time than it takes me to describe the act. For a moment you would see the paddling feet of the poor li! tie 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 nearh- distracted, battles, and battles well 3 but she cannot always re-assemble her brood ; and in her efforts to defend one, uncovering 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. 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 everyday ser- monizing of the world. But while the gulls were fattening their I &. ' r.S OBSKRVATIONS ON THE COAST LINE. 191 young on the eiders, the eiders wero fattening theirs on the les.'>er life of tlie sea, and we were as busily engaged upon both Ij true predatory sympathy. The squab-gull of Hans Island has a wi'U- earncd reputation in South Greenland for its delicious juices, and the eggs of Eider Island can well aft )rd to sufl'er from the occa- sional visits of gulls and other bip. ds; for a locust-swarm of foragers might fatten without stint on ^heir surplus abundauv 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 cf our stores, ai?d cached the surplus under the rocks. On Wedne.sday, the 19th, we left Flagstaft' Point, where we fixed our beacon last year; and stood west 10° south under full canvas My aim was to take the channel obliquely at Littleton Island ; and, making the drift-ice or the land to the south-west in the neighbourhood of Cape Combermere, push on for Kent Island and leave a cairn there. I had the good fortune to ^et satisfiictory meridian observations, as well as angular bearings between Cape Alexander and Flagstaff Point, and found, as our operations by theodolite had already indi- cated, that the entire coast-line upon the Adi \iralty charts of my predecessor would have to be altered. Cape Isabella, the western headland of the strait, whose dis- covery, by-the-way, is due rather to old Baffin than his follower, Sir John Ross, bears west 22" north (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 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 differing circumstances under wliich the two were framed. The sluggishness of the com- pass, and the eccentricities of refraction in the Arctic seas, are veil iitted 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 bv a careful series nf .afitronomical observations. CHAI'TEll xxrv. Gull!* iinl eidi'i's. M W Meridian observa- tions. Situation of Cape Isabella. CAPTAIN INGLEFELD'S CHARTS. CHAPTER Captain Inglefield gives the mean trend of the east joast about i.a i i xxiY . 20" too much to the north, in consequence of which the capes and indentations sighted by h.iui are too high in latitude, ca e Fre C'^P^ Frederick VIL, his highest northern point, is placed in deiickvii. i;,^t. 79° 30', 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 tl.< Admiralty Chart of 1852, is about eighty miles from the furth^.^t position reached by Captain Inglefield. To see land upon the horizon at this distance, even fron. a mast-head 80 feet high, would require it to be a mountain whose altitude exceeded .3500 feet. An island similar in position to that desig- nated 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 thts supposition requires \u to assume an eiTor in the bearing ; for, as given in the chart, no land could be within the range of sight. In deference to Captain Inglefield, I have rontinued for this promontory the name which he had impressed upon it as an island. Toward night the wind freshened from the northward, and we Sontn' passed beyond the protection of the straits into the open sea-way. the open ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^f the life we now entered on. The oldest sailor, who treads the deck of his ship with the familiar confidence of a man at liome, has a distrust of open-boat naviga- tion which a landsman hardly shares. The feeling grew upon us as we lost the land. M'Gary 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 IGIG with two smaU vessels ; but they were giants beside ours. I thought of them as we crossed his track steering for Cape Combermere, then about sixty mUes 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 foundermg. 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 sea. A 8T0RW. 193 accidental twitch would have been fatal to us at any time, ogaptkr 3CXI V But M'Gary 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 without re- laxing his attention or liis efforts. I was not prepared for such a storm. I do not tliink I have a storm seen a worse sea raised by the northers of the Gulf of Mexico. At last the wind hauled to the eastward, 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 negative all hope of protection at their base ; the pack or floe, so nmch feared before, was now looked to for a refuge, I remember well our anxiety as we entered the loose streams of y^gt to a drift after four hours' scudding, and our relief when we felt their ♦'"e- influence upon the sea. We fastened to an old floe, not 50 yards in diameter, and, with the weather-surf breaking over our heads, rode out the storm under a warp and grapnel. — r I&4 BORING INTO THE ICE-PACK. CHAPTER XXV. % ti i ; ml U -J I'' tw CHAPTKR XXV. Boring into tlic Ice-pack. The sun appears. Working cn. WORKING ON— A BOAT NIP— ICE-BAERIER— THE BARRIER PACK — PROGRESS HOPELESS- NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND— NORTHUMBERLAND GLACIER— ICE-CASCADES — KEVE. The obstacle we Lad now to encounter was the pack 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 companions 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 im- prisonment ; but I saw that the men thought otherwise, as the ice-fields closed around us and the horizon showed an unchanging circle of ice. We were still labouring 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 south, each ice-tongue that we doubled brought us nearer to the Greenland shore. A slackening of the ice to the east en- abled us after a while to lay our course for PTakluyt Island. We spread our canvas again, and reached the in- shore fields by one in the afternoon. We made our camp, dried our buffalo -skins, and sunned and slept away our fatigue. We renewed our labours in the morning. Keeping inside the pack, we coasted along for the Gary Islands, encountering now and thcii a projecting floe, and either boring or passing around it, but making a satisfactory progress on the whole toward Lancaster Sound. But at the south point of Northumberland Island the pack arrested us once more. The seam by wliich 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 out way. A GALE AND A BOAT NIP. 196 I was confident that I should find the " Eastern Water" if I ohapteb could only reach Cape Parry, and that this would give nie a free ; track to Gary Islands. I therefore looked anxiously for a fissure in the pack, and pressed our little craft into the first one that seemed a\; all practicable. For the next three days we worked painfully through the half- Painful open leads, making in all some fifteen miles to the south. We '''°^ " had very peldora room enough to row ; but, as we tracked along, it was not difficult 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 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 unmitigated fatigue. On the 29th it came on to blow, the \\ind stiU keeping from a gaie. the south-west, but cold and almost rising to a gale. We had had another wet and sleepless night, for the floes still baffled us by their capricious movements. But at three in the afternoon we had the sun again, and the ice opened just enough to tempt 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 sus- pended, met above our heads. One of these passages I am sure we all of us remember. We were in an alley of pounded ice-masses, such is the receding floes a boat leave when they have crushed the tables that were between them, "'p- and had pushed our way far enough to make retreat impossible, when tlie fields began to close in. There was no escapuig a nip, for everything was loose and rolling around us, and the floes broke hito hummock ridges as they came together. They met just ahead of us, and gradually swayed in toward our boat. The fragments were already splitting off and spinning over us, when we found ourselves borne up by the accumulating rubbish, like 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 caaos, as we were short-handed and our boat heavily laden, we 196 STRIFE WITH THE ICE-FLOES. I'Sl ill :J • I 1 OHAPTER XXV. Plan of getting through the Ice. An ice barrier. The divid. ing p.ick of Baffin's Bay. were glad to avail ourselves 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 approacliing 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 stern above the 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 stu-ring 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 for- ward 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 on id to our furthest horizf n. There were bergs in sight to the westward, and by walking for some four miles over the moving floe in that direction, M'Gary 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 motionless, 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 Cape Combermere on the west side, and an unnamed bay imme- diately to the north of it, across to Hackluyt Island, there ex- tended a continuous barrier of ice. We had scarcely penetrated beyond its margin. We had, in fact, reached the dividing pack of the two great open waters of Baffin's Bay. The experience of the whalers and of the expedition-ships that have traversed this region have made all of us familiar 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, Ross, and Ingle ' 1; ICE-BELTS. 197 field, we know that this sometimes extends as far north as Littleton Island, embradng an area of 90,000 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 geography 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 were numerous and large, entangling the floating floes, and contributing as much as the cur- rents 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 observations of the same character that have been made on the coasts of Arctic America to the south- east, 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 rotaiy 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 Northumberland Island, tliat some of its glacier-slopes were margined with verdure, an almost unfailing indication of animal life ; and, as my men were much wasted with 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 tra- versed the leads for two days, working eastward ; and on the morn- ing 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 OHAPIKH XXV. The divi- sion of thp open water. A zone of unbioken ice. Further progress hopeless nw:y: m^^ WM 198 NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND. CHAPTER "witli now unwonted facility to the southern ftice of the island. We ^^^'' met several flocks of little auks as we approached it, and found on landing that it was one enormous homestead of the auks, dovekies, and gulls. Traces of We encamped on the 31.st, on a low beach at the foot of a ^ Esqni- ii^oi-iiine thnt came down between precipitous cliffs of surpassing wildness. ^t had evidently been selected by the Esquimaux for a winter settlement : five well-built huts of stone attested this. Three of them were still tolerably perfect, and bore marks of recent habi- tation. The droppings of the birds had fertilized the soil, and it abounded in grasses, sorrel, and cochleiuia, to the water's edge. maux settle- ment. foxes. GLACIBK OF NORTUUMBERLAND ISLAND. The foxes were about in great numbers, attracted, of course, by the abundance of birds. They were all of them of the lead-coloured variety, without a white one among thom. The yoimg ones, as A OREAT GLACIKR. 199 yet lean and seemingly iniskilled in hospitable courtesies, barked ohaptfh at us as we walked about, 1 I was greatly interested by a glacier that occupied the head of An inter- the moraine. It came down abruptly from the central plateau of g*g"pg,, the island, with an angle of descent of more than 70°. 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 abi ut 400 feet from the summit, the lower of about the same height, Ijut with an angle of some 50°, — the two communicating by a slightly- inclined platform perhaps 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 frac- ture or crevasse. Thus it rolled onward over the rugged and con- tracting 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 Forb s, a great outspread clamshell of ice. It seemed as if an interior ice-lake was rising above the brink Progress of the cliffs that confined it. In many places it could be seen ex- gi^cier uding or forcing its way over the very crest of the rocks, and hanging down in huge icy stalactites 70 and 100 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 from the interior, but spitting off fragmentary masses with an umemitting clamour. The plain below these cataractine glaciers was pilixig 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. These ice-cascades, as we called them, kept up their din the ice-cas 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 larc;e, indeed, that it was hard to realize that they could be cades. 200 "NEVE." OHAMER formed by the ordinary granulating processes of the winter snows. 1' My impression is, that the surface of the plateau-ice, the mer de glace of 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. vm U-i, u 10W8. ?r dt , and more RBTUHN TO THK BRIO. 801 CHAPTER XXVI. THE ICE-FOOT IN AUGUST — THE PACK IN AUOU.ST — ICE-BIjASTINQ — FOX- TKAP POINT— WARPING— TIIH PROSPECT— APPUOACUING CLIMAX— SIG- NAL CAIRN- THE RECORD — PROJECTED WITHDRAWAL — THE QUESTION — THE DETERMINATION — THK RESULT. It was with mingled feelings that we neared the brig. Our little chapter XXVI. party had grown fat and strong upon the auks and eiders and scurvy -grass ; and surmises were rife among us as to the condition Return to 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 whale-boat , 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 noused 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 associa- tions of a homestead, our thoughts reverted to the feeble chances of our liberation, and the failure of our recent effort to secure the means of a retreat. The brig had been imprisoned by closely-cementing ice for eleven Time of months, during which period she had not budged an inch from her |^eat^" icy cradle. My journal will show the efforts and the hopes which the ice. engrossed our few remaining days of uncertainty and suspense : — ^^ August 8, Tuesday. — This morning two saw -lines were passed operationf from the open -water pools at the sides of our stern-post, and the ice '" ■'^"^^st was bored for blasting. In th' urse of our operations the brig surged and righted, rising two ana a half feet. We are now trying 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 pro- h I 202 THR ICK-FOOT TN AUOU8T. CHAPTCR XXVT. Thickness of the Ice- root Drift Ice. Changes from the disruption of the pack. 1 files of the coast as far south as Peter Force Ray, beyond which the ice was xiiipenetral>le, " I have often refoircd to the massive character of the ice in tliat neighbourhood. The ice-foot, by our winter nieasurenient 27 feet in mean thickness by 40 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, whicli clogs the shoal water near the shore and prevents a passage. Such ice I have seen 3G feet in heiglit ; and when sub- jected, as it often is, to hummock-squeezing, GO and 70 feet. It requires experience to distinguish it from the true iceberg. " When I passed up the sound on the Gth of August, aftei my long southern journey, I found the ice-foot comparatively un- broken, and a fine interval of open water between it and the large floes of the pack. Since then this pack has been broken np, and the comminuted fragments, forming a great drift, move with tides and currents in such a way as to obliterate the ' landwater' 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 oidy be effected by heavy labour, and at great expense to our boat, nearly unseaworthy now from 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 incon- ceivable pressures. The bergs, released from their winter cement, have driven down in crowds, grounding on the shallows, and ex- tending in roofs or chains out to seaward, 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 implying a tabular tliicknecs by direct congela- tion of 63 feet. It had so closed in with the shore, too, as to rear up a barricade of crushed ice which it wat; futile to attempt to pass. All prospect of forcing a passage ceased north of Six-mile Ravine. " On reaching tL« brig I found that the blasting had succeeded ; FOX-TRAP POINT, 108 floe near Fox-Trap one canister crackorl and uplifted 200 square yards of ice with hut ohaptbi five pounds of powdor. A pro.s[){!ct showed itself of getting inside ^^^' ' the island at high watt-r ; and 1 dctenninod to attempt it at the ice blast- highest spring-tide, whicii takes place on the 12th. "''' '' AtKjHst 12, Salurdai/. — The brig bore the strain of her new position very well. The tide fell 15 feet, leaving her high and dry ; but, as the water rose, everything was replaced, and the deck put in order for warping again. Every one in the little vessel turned to ; and after niuch 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 Hoe, near Fox-Trap Puuit, and there she now lies. " We congratulate ourselves upon effecting this crossing. Had we fiiiled, 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. " Ai(i/ust 13, Sunday. — Still fast to the old floe near Fox-Trap Fust to a 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 Pol"'' a half tliick. The thermometer has been as low as 29° ; but the fog and mist which prevail to-day are in our favour. The perfect clearness of the past five days hastened the gi-owth of young ice, and it has been forming without intermission. " I took a long walk to inspect the ice towards Six-mile Ravine, ico inspec Tliis ice has never been moved either by whid 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 have described already. I attri- bute its permanency to the almost constant shadow of the moun- tains near it. ^^ August 15, Tuesday. — To-day 1 made another ice-inspection to the north-east. The floe on which I have trudged so often, the big bay-floe of our former mooring, is nearly the same as when we left it. I recognised the holes and cracks, through the fog, by a sort of instinct. M'Gary and myself had little difficulty in reach- ing the Fiord Water by our jumping-poles. " I have my eye on this water ; for it may connect with the North east Headland, and hereafter give us a passage, triu 204 TKRRIBLK I'ROSPECT. 'it m --^ OHAPTKR XXVI. Signs of approach- ing winter, Warping. Allowance of fuel rertnced. A horriWe prospect. i Sunday rest and daily prayer. " The season travels on : the young ice grows thicker, and mj niessiimtcs' faces gi-ow longer every day. I have again to play buffoon to keep up tiie s[)irits of the party. " A raven ! The sno\v-l)irds begin to Hy to the south in groups, coming at night to our brig to hover on the rigging. Winter is hurrying upon uh. The popi)ie.s are quite wilted. " Examined ice with Mr. Bonsall, and determined to enter the broken land-ices by warping ; not that there is the .slightest pro- bability of getting through, but it affords moral aid and comfort to the men and officers : it looks as if we were doinff something. " Auiyiist 17, Thursdat/.~Wari)ed about 100 yards into the trash, and, after a long day of labour, have turned in, hoping to recommence .at 5 a.m. to-morrow. " In five days the spring-tides come back : should we fail in passing with them, I think our fortunes are fixed. The young ico bore a man this morning : it had a bad look, tliis man-supporting August ice ! The temperaturs never falls below 28° ; but it is cold o' nights with no fire. ''August 18, Friihaj. — 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 coffee twice a day, and soup onto. Our fare besides this is cold pork boiled in quantity and eaten as required. This sort of thing works badly I ni. I wast save coal for other emergencies. I see ' darkness a-head.' " 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 ir. readiness to meet it. It is horrible— ya^, that is the word — to IcA: forward to another year of disease and darkness to be met with nit fresh food and without fuel. I should meet it with a more tempered sadness if I had no comrades to tliink for and protect. " August 20, Sunday.— Ra^t for all hands. The daily prayer is no longer, ' Lord, accept our gratitude and bless our undertaking,' but, ' Lord, accept our gratitude and restore us to our homes.' The ice shows no change : after a boat and foot journey around the entire south-eastern ciuve of the bay, no signs ! " I was out in the Red Eric with Bonsall, M'Gary, Hans, Kiley and John. We tracked her over the ice to the Burgomaster Cove * , A SIGNAL CAIUN. 206 the flunking cape of Chiirlotte Wood Fiord and its river. Here we launched her, and went all round the long canal which the running waters have oaten into the otherwise unchanged ice. Charlotte Wood Fiord in a commanding Hheet of water, nearly as wide as the Delaware : in the midst of the extreme solidity around uh, it looked deceitfully gladdening. After getting to the other side, near Little .Villie's Monument, we ascended a high blutf, and saw everything weary and discouraging beyond. Our party returned quite crestfallen." My attempt to reach Bcechy Island had disclosed, as I thought it would, the impossibility of reachhig the settlements of Green- land. 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. Tt was clear to me that without an absolute cha ^e 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 resources, and from which it would be difficult, if not impracticable, to return. Everything before us was involved in gloomy doubt. Hopeful as 1 had been, it was impossible not to feel that we were near the climax of tlie expedition. I determined to place upon Observatory Island a large signal- beacon or cairn, and to bury under it documents which, in case of disaster to our party, would convey to any who might seek us in- telligence 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 careful to avoid a similar neglect. A conspicuous spot was selected upon a cliiF looking out upon the icy desert, and on a broad face of rock the words : — ADVANCE, A.D. 1853-54. were painted in letters which could be read at a distance. A pyramid of heavy stones, perched above it, was marked with the 14 " CnAPTKh XXVI. Expedi- tion in til lied Eric. Gloomy prospoctn. A signal cftirn. The In- scription on the rock. > JUJMJM 206 TUF RECORD IN THE CAIRN. CHAPTER XXVI. A beacon and a grave- stone. Names of the mem- beis of til e expedi- tion. When froien in. Labours of the expe- dition. Christian symbol of the cros.s. It was not without a holier senti- ment than that of mere utility tliat I placed under tliis the coffins of our two poor comrades. It was our beacon and their grave- stone. Near this a hole was worked into the rock, and a paper, enclosed in glass, sealed in with melted lead. It read as fol- lows : — Brio Advance, Aur/ust 14, 1854. " E. K. Kane, with his comrades, Henry Brooks, John Wall Wil-on, James M'Gary, I. I. Hayes, Christian Ohlsen, Amos Bon sail, Henry Goodfellow, August Sontag, William Morton, J. Cari Petersen, Geoi-ge Steplienson, Jefferson Temple Baker, George Riley, Pete; Schubert, George Whipple, John Blake, Thomas Hickey, William Godfrey, and Hans Cristian, members of the Second Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin and the missing crews of the Erebus and Terror, were forced into this harbour while endeavouring to bore the ice to the north and east. "They were frozen in on the 8th of September, 1853, and libei-ated " During this period the labours of the expedition have deli- neated 960 iiiiles of coast-line, without developing any traces of the missing ships or the slightest information bearing upon their fate. The amount of travel to effect this exploration exceeded 2000 miles, all of which was upon foot or by the aid of dogs. " Greenland has been traced to its northern face, whence it is connected with the further north of the opposite coa&t by a great glacier. This coast has been charted as high as lat. 82° 27'. Smith's Sound expands into a capacious bay : it has been surveyed throughout its entire extent. From its northern and eastern cor- ner, in lat. 80° 10', long. 66°, a channel has been discovered and followed until further progress was checked by water free from ice. This channel trended nearly due north, and expanded into an ap- parently open sea, which abounded with bi.ds and bears and marine life. " The death of the dogs during the winter threw the travel essential to the above discoveries upon the personal efforts of the officers and men. The summer finds them much broken in health and strength. ON FOX-TRAP POINT. 201 OHAPTEB XXVI. Deaths from cold. Site of the observa- tory. Position of the brig. " Jeffer.son Temple Baker and Peter Schubert died from injuiies received from cold while in manly performance of their duty. Tiieir remain.s are deposited under a cairn at the north point (>f Ob.servatory Island. "The site of the observatory is 7G English feet from the northernmost saliert point of this island, in a direction south li^ east. Its position is in lat. 78° 37' 10", long. 70^ 40'. The mean tidal level is 29 feet below the highest ])oint upon this island. Both of these sites arc further designated by copper bolts sealed with melted lead into holes upon the rocks. " On the ll!th of August, 1854, the brig warped from her posi- tion, and, after passing inside the group of islands, fostened to tlie outer Hoe about a mile to the north-west, where she is now await- ing further changes in the ice. (Signed) "E.K.Kane, „ T, m n . , - " (-'omiuaiiding Expedition. " Fox-Tkap Point, Amjmt 14, 1854." Some hours later, the following note was added : «' The young ice having formed between the brig and this island, and prcspects of a gale showing themselves, the date of departure is left unfilled. If possible, a second visit will be made to insert our dates, our final escape being still dependent upon the cour.se of the season. E_ X. Kane." And now came the question of the second winter : how to look Prospect our enemy in the face, and how to meet him. Anything was bet- "'il'ter""'' ter than inaction; and, in spite of the uncertainty which yet attended our plans, a host of expedients were to be resorted to, and nmch Robinson Crusoe labour ahead. Moss was to be tjathered for eking out our winter fuel, and willow-stems, and stonecrops, and sorrel, as antiscorbutics, collected and buried in the snow. But while all these were in progress came other and graver questions Some of iiiy party had entertained the idea that an escape to the south was still practicable ; and this opinion was supported by Mr. Petersen, our Danish interpreter, who had accompanied the Searching Expedititm of Captain Penny, and had a n.atured expe- rience in the changes of Arctic ice. They even thought that the safety of all would be promoted by a withdrawal from the bri^ Additloniil note. 208 II Hi CHAPTER XXVI. The cap- tain's duty. What ought tlie ci'cw to ao? Bad pro- spect for winter. Escape of the brig bopelesa PROJECTED WITHDRAWAL FROM THE BRIG. " August, 21, Monday. — The question of detaching a party was in my mind some time ago ; but tiie more I thought it over, the more I was convinced that it would be neither right in itself nor practically safe. For myself personally, it is a simple duty of honour to remain by the brig : I could not think of leaving her till I had proved the effect of the latter 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 a diftorent question with my associates. I cannot expect them to adopt my impulses ; and I am by no means sure that I ought to hold them bound by my conclusions. Have I the moral right ? for, as to nautical rules, they do not fit the circum- stances ; among the whalers, when a ship is hopelessly beset, the master's authority gives way, and the crew take counsel for them- selves whether to go or stay by her. My party is subordinate and well-disposed ; but if the restlessness of sutFering makes some of them anxious to brave the chances, they may certainly plead that a second winter in the ice was no part of the cruise they bargained for. " But what presses on me is of another character. I cannot disguise it from myself that we are wretchedly prepared for an- other winter on board. We are a set of scurvy-riddled, broken- down men ; our provisions are sorely reduced in quantity, and are altogether unsuited to our condition. My only hope of maintain- ing or restoring such a degree of health among us as is indispens- able to our escape in tne spring has been and must be in a whole- some, elastic tone of feeling among the men : a reluctant, brooding, disheartened spirit would sweep our decks like a pestilence. I fear the bane of depressing example. " I know all this as a medical man and an officer ; and I feel that we might be wearing away the hearts and energies, if not the lives of all, by forcing those who were reluctant to remain. With half a dozen confiding, resolute men, I have no fears of ulti- mate safety. " I will make a thorough inspection of the ice to-morrow, and decide finally the prospects of our liberation. '■August 23, Wechiesday,~1\\Q 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 re- I !1 THE COUNCIL AND THE DECISION. 209 lease, unless by some extreme intervention of the coming tides, chapter I doubt whether a boat could be forced as far as the Southern ^^* Water. When I think of tlie extraordinary way in which the ice was impacted last winter, how very little it has yielded through the summer, and how early anotlier 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 The cap- them very fully how things look, and what hazards must attend ta'w's'eso 1 lution. such an effort as has been proposed among them. They shall have my views unequivocally expressed. I will then give them twenty-four hours to deliberate ; and at the end of that time all who determine to go shaP say so in writing, with a full exposition 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.— kt noon to-day I had all hands called, a council and explained to them frankly the considerations which have de- ''""'"'• termined me to remain where we are. I endeavoured to show them that an escape to open water could not succeed, and that the effort must be exceedingly hazardous : I alluded to our duties to the ship : in a word, I advised them strenuously to forego the project. I then told them that I should freely give my permis- sion to such as were desirous of making the attempt, but that I should require them to place themselves under the connnand 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 The deci- resolved to stand by the brig. It is just that I should record ^^'^^^^^ their names. They were Henry Brooks, James M'Gary, J. W. Wilson, Henry Goodfellow, William Morton, Christian Ohlsen, Thomas Hickey, Hans Cristian. 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 circumstances could furnish to speed and 210 DEPARTUIIE OF A PARTY. CHAPTER guard them. One of them, George Hiley, returned a few days ^[^' afterward ; but weary niontlis went by before we saw the rest again. Tliey carried with tlieni a written assurance of a brother's welcome should they be driven back ; and this assurance was re- deemed when hard trials had prepared them to share again our fortunes. i ' rf m days 3 rest itber'a as re- in our PKEPARATIONS FOR WINTER. 211 CHAPTER XXVII. DISCIPIilNi:— BUTLDINa IQLOE—TOSSUT— MOSSING — AFTER SEAL — ON THE yoUNQ ICE— GOING TOO FAR— SEALS AT HOME — IN THE WATER— IN SAFETY— DEATH OF TIGER. The party moved off witli the elastic step of men confident in their chaptkf XXVII purpose, and were out of sight in a few hours. As we lost them ' among the hummocks, the stern realities of our condition pressed f^^l^J. themselves upon us anew. The reduced numbers of our party, ings. the helplessness of many, the waning efiiciency of all, the impend- ing \vinter, 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 Uke men driven to the wall, quickened, not depressed. Our plans were formed at once : there is notliing like emergency to speed, if not to instruct, the energies. It was my first definite resolve that, come what might, our Arrange organization and its routine of observances should be adhered to ™';"' °^ . . duties. Strictly. It is the experience of every man who has either com- bated difficulties himself, or attempted to guide others through them, that the controlling law shall be systematic action. No- thing depresses and demoralizes so much as a surrender of the approved and habitual forms of life. I resolved that everything should go on as it had done. The arrangement of hours, the dis- tribution and details of duty, the religious exercises, the cere- mc«iials of the table, the fires, the lights, the watch, even the labours of the observatory and the notation of the tides and the sky, — nothing should be intermitted that had contributed to make up the day. f« -il 212 BUILDING AN INGLOK. $' OHAPTKR XXVII. Lessons learned from Esqui- maux. i il ' 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 habitation and their pecuUarities of diet, without their unthrift and filth, were the safest and best to which the necessity of our circumstances invited us. My journal tells how these resolves were carried out : — ^^ September 6, Wednesday. — Wc 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 out. I have determined to borrow a lesson from our Esquimaux neighbours, and am turning the brig into an igloe. " The sledge is to bring us moss and turf from wherever the men can scrape it. This is an excellent non-conductor ; and when OATHERINQ MOSS. I Aningioe We get the quarter-deck well padded with it \.'e shall have a m"!^ 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 Pari.i and common paste, and will cover it, when we have done, with Manilla oakum a couple of inches deep, and a canvas carpet. The entrance is to be from the hold, . by a low, moss-lined tunnel, the tossut of the native huts, with as •± li. r THK BRIG PREPARED FOR WINTER. 213 many doors and curtains to close it up as our ingenuity can de- ohaptej vise. This is to be our apartment of all uses, — not a very liir"-e ''*^"- one; but we are only ten to stow away, and the closer the warmer. " September 9, Saturday/. — All hands but the carpenter and Mossinp 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 can- not 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, quarrying it with crowbars, and carrying it to the ship like so much stone. I would escape this labour 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 eicht 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, S^indai/.—'Tho. work goes bravely on.' We Fhewooti have got moss enough for our roof, and something 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 returnod from the weary Experi- foot-tramp that determined me to try the winter search. Thintrs f""^ °\ have changed since then, and the prospect ahead is less cheery, yeav. But I close my pilgrim-experience of the year with devout grati- tude for the blessings it has registered, and an earnest faith in the support it pledges for the times lo come. ''September 11, Monday.— Oxxv 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 catch- ing seal. Not more than ten miles to seaward the icebergs keep up a rade 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 l:i w I?, I 214 SEAL HUNTING. iU) ii i < Ii OHAPTKR XXVII. E(iuip- nicnt for seal hniit- ing. Mi 1 .1^ '. 4 i; I' The " Bergy Belt." Seals in sight fragile ice that tliere was no approaching it. The theriuometer wiw 8', and a liglit breeze increased my difticnlties. " /Jeo vu(enti\ I will be more lucky to-morrow. I am going to take my long Kentucky rifle, the kayack, an Esquimaux harpoon with its attached line and bladder, iKi/lf/eit and awahtok, and a pair of large snow-shoes to boot. Aly plan this time is to kneel wheie 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 case of breaking in. If I am fortunate enough to stalk within gun-range, Hans will take to the water and secure the game before it sinks. 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 " Pinnacly Berg " in a single hour's run. But where was the water 1 where were the seal ] The floes had closed, and the crushed ice was all that told of our intended hunting-ground. Ascending a berg, however, we could see to the north and west the dark cloud-stratus which betokens water. It ran through our old battle-ground, the " Bergy Belt," — the labyrinth of our wan derings after the frozen party of last winter. I had not been over it since, and the feeling it gave me wis anything but joyous. 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 hesitation, cheering ourselves with the expectation of condng 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 oiu's. On we went at a brisker gallop, maybe for another mile, when Hans sang out, at the top of liis voice, " Pusey ! puseymut ! seal, seal ! " At the same instant the dogs bounded forward, and, as I looked up, I saw crowds of grey netsik, the rough or hispid seal ol the whalers, disporting in an open sea of water. I had hardly welcomed the spectacle when I saw that we had new belt of ice that was obviously unsafe. upon THK 8KAT,S AT HOMK. '2\r, right and left ami frunt was one ^leat exijaiisc of sncjw Howtrcd ice. The nearest holid floe was a mere liunp, which stood like an inland in the white level. To turn was impossible ; we had to keep up our gait. We urged on the dogs with whip 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, uiirelievetl by action or eflbrt, was intolerable ; we knew that there was no remedy but to reach the floe, and that everything depended upon our dogs, and our dogs jdone. A moment's check would plunge the whole concern into the rapid tideway; no presence of mind or resource, bodily or mental, could avail us. The seals — for we were now near enough to see their expressive faces — were looking at us Avith 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 libe- rate the dogs. I leaned forward 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 lielp me, uttering piteous expressions in broken English ; but I ordered him to throw himself on his belly, with his hands and legs extended, and to nuike for the island by cogging himself forward with his jack-knife. In the meantime— a mere instant — I was floundering about with sledge, dogs, and lines, in confusfid puddle around me. I succeeded hi cutting poor Tood's lines and letting him scramble to the ice, for the poor fellow was drowning me with his piteous caresses, and made :ny 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 miserable ice always yielding when juy hopes of a lodgment were greatest. During this process 1 enlarged my circle of operations to a very uncomfortable diameter, and was beginning to feel wea,ker COAPTKK XXVIJ. Uiimifo l(!e. Tlio seals ill safety. The sled£e and dugs in tlie water. 216 A NARROW lOSCAl'K. CBAl-TER XXVIl. Hans In the water. A narrow esenpe. i;« H> Return to the brig. Death of Tiger. after every effort. Hans meanwhile had reached the firm ice, and was on his knee.s, like a good ^loravian, praying incoherently in English and E.squimau.x ; at every fresh cru.shing-in of the ice ho would ejaculate " God ! " and when I recommenced my puddling he recommenced his prayers. I was nearly gone. My knife had been lost in cutting out the dogs; and a spare one wliich 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 runners chock against the edge of the circle. All my previous 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 ly 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 mocassined foot against the sledge, T pressed steadily against the runner, 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 by Hans with frightful zeal. We saved all the dogs; but the sledge, kayack, tent, gun, snow-shoes, and every- thing besides, were left behind. Tlie thermometer at 8° will keep them frozen fast in the sledge till we can come and cut them out. On reacliing 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 gratitude that I look back upon my escape, and bless the great presiding Goodness for the very many resources which remain to us. "September U, Thursdaij.—Tiger, our best remaining dog. the partner of poor Bruiser, was seized with a fit, ominously resem- bling 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 horrors. The other dogs are all doing well." THK ESQUIMAUX. 217 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE KBiiUIMAUX— LARCENY— TTIKARUEST—TIIK PUNISHMENT— THE THEATY — " CNnnOKEN faith"— MY nUOTHEK — KETUUN FUOM A HUNT— OUK LIFE— ANOATOK— A WELCOME — TREATY CONFIRMED. It is, I sujjpose, the fortune of every one who affect.s to regi.ster the story of an active life, that his record becomes briefer and :nore imperfect in proportion as the incidents press upon eacli other more rapidly and with increasing excitement. The narra- tive 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 reflected them- selves in the result. I find that my journal is exceedingly meagre for the i)eriod 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 fortunes became afterward so closely connected with our own, was at the time of Myouk's escape from imprisonment on board the brig. Al- though during my absence on the r '^mpted visit to Beechy Island, the men I had left behind luui frequent and unrestrained intercourse with them, I myself saw no natives in Rensselaer Bay till immediately after the departure of Petersen and his com- panions. Just then, by a coincidence which convinced 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 exploration or suppHes. We feared nothing, of course, but the want of fresh meat, and it was much less important that our neighbours should fear us than that we should secure from them CHAPTKli xxvni. JoTirnftl writinK- Appear- ance of a party of Esqui- maux. 2IS HOSPITALITY ILL RKI'Ain. fl CHAPTKR XXVIII. Entertain- ment of the visi- tors. IM Theft. Pursuit oftho thievea nllicas (if kindness. Tlicy were overl»eiiiin^ sometimes, and nocdfld tlie instnu'tion of rcbnko; but 1 tieati'd tlifui with ciirofully re;,'ulatt'd ht».spitiility. When tiic tlirot! visitors came to us near tlic end of Au^nst, I ostalilishod tiioiii in a tent l)elow deck, with a copper lamp, a cooking-liasin, and a liberal supply of slush for fuel. 1 left them under guiird when [ went to bed at two in the nu)rnin,!.,', con- tentedly eating iuid cooking and eating again without the pro- mise of an intermission. An American or a Muropoan would have slept after such a debauch till the recognised hour for liock and seltzor-water. Ihit our guests managed to elude the otKcer of the deck and escape unsoarched. They repaid my libe rality by stealing not only the lamp, boiler, and cooking pot they had used I'or the feast, but Natmook also, my Itest dog. If the rest of my team had not been worn down by over-travel, no doubt they would have taken them all. Besides thi.s, wo dis- covo'-ed the next i>' )rning that they had fouiul tlie biill'alo-robes and India-ruliber (doth which M'(3ary had left a few days before on the icefoot near Six-mile llavine, and had added the whole to the spoils of their visit. The theft of these articles cnd)arrassed mo. I was indisposed to take it as an act of hostility. Their pilferings before this hiid been conducted with such a superb simplicity, the detection fol- lowed by .such honest explosions of laughter, that I could not help thiukuig they had some law of general appropiiatiou, less removed from the Lycurgan than tlu^ ^fo.saic code. But it was plain, at least, that we were now too few to wauch our property as we had done, and that (mr gentleness was to some extent misundcretood. I was puzzled how to inflict punishment, but saw that I must act vigorously, eveti at a venture. I des])atched my two best walkers, Mort(m and lliley, as soon as I heard of the theft of the stores, with orders to nuike all sjjecd to Anoatok, and overtake the thieves, who, I thought, would proliably bait there to rest. They found young iSIyouk making himself quite comfortable in the luit, in co!ii[»any with Sievu, the wife of Metck, and Aningna, the wife of Marsinga; and my 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 tcreater or less value that TIIK ITNIHIIMENT. •2l!» we had not niissid IVnni the Ini','. With the pioiupt ceiciiiuiiial which ontriij,'C'(l law delights in among the oflicialn of the police eveiyvvherc, the women wore stiijjpcd and tied; and then, laden mth their stolen goods an\\' SECTION OF WINTER APARTMENT. WALBUS-GROUNDS. 225 CHAPTER XXIX. WAinUS-GROUNDS— LOST ON THE ICE— A BREAK UP— IGLOE OF ANOATOK — ITS GAUNITUUE — CREATURE COMFORTS— ESQUIMAUX MUSIC— USAGES OF THE TABLE— NEW LONDON AVENUE— SCANT DIET LIST— BEAR AND CUB— A HUNT — CLOSE QUARTERS — BEAR FIGHTING— 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, Fridai/.—l returned lust night fruni 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 belonghig to the Esquimaux. Ootuniah, Myouk, and the dark stranger accompanied me, with Morton and Hans. " Our sledge was overladen ; I could not persuade the Esqui- maux to reduce its weight; and the consequence was, that we failed to reach Force Bay in time for a day-light crossing. To follow the indentations of the land was to make the travel loiiir 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 Avind. "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 uistinctive feai-s of the lower animals. " We had to keep moving, for we could not camp in the g:ile, CUAl'TliR XXIX. A party set out for tlie walrus grouniis. Dlfflcultieti of the journey. Lost on the ice. 226 A BRKAK UP. CDAPTKR XXIX. n 'i ti 1 f The sound of the open water. The ice breaking Travelling over tlie brolien ice. Vlie ice Btorni. that blew around us so fiercely that we c 'Au scarcely hold down the sledge. But we moved with caution, f'.o'iiig our way with the tent-poles, whicli I distributed among the party for the purpose. A murmur had reached my car 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 iKnse of waves, and that we must be coming close on the open water. I had hardly time for the hunied order, ' Turn the dogs,' before a wreath of wet frost-smoke swept over us, and the sea showed itself, witli a great fringe of foam, hardly a quarter of a mile ahead. We could now guess our position and its dangers. The ice was break- ing up before the storm, and it was not certain tliat 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 be- tween 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 hori- zon, and served as a landmark. The dogs, relieved from the bur- den of carrying us, moved with more spirit. We began to draw near the shore, the ice-storm still raging behind us. But our dif- ficulties were only reaching their climax. We knew as icemen that the access to the land-ice from the floe was, under the most favouring 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 persuaded Ootuniah, the eldest of the Esquimaux, to have a tent-pole lashed horizontally across his shoulders. I gave liim the end of a line, which I had fastened at the other end round my waist. The rest of the party followed him. " As I moved ahead, feeling round me for a practicable way, Ootuniah followed ; aud when a table of ice was found large 11^ [I'fi ' 1 1 THE lOLOE OF ANOATOK. 227 enough, the others would urge forward the dogs, pushing the sledge themselves, or clinging to it, as the momoit prompted. We had accidents, 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. " 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 haltless 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 stones — 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 ftisliion, throwing a scanty supply of sparks on a tinder composed of the silky down of the willow-catkins [S. lanata), which he held on a lump of dried moss. " The hut or igloe at Anoatok was a single rude elliptical apart- ment, built not unskilfully of stone, the outside lined with sods. CHAPTKR XXIX. Safe on the ice-foot. Anoatok. Esqui- maux way of striking flie. Desciip- tiun o'l tlic iglog. ESQUIUAUX IQLOIS. At its further end a rude platform, also of stone, was lifted about a foot above the entering floor. The roof fonned something of a !i ftl [., [■ ^^^B 1 ■ 228 IGIOE AND ITS GARNITURK. 'A 1 if: I CHAPTER XXIX. Dimen- sions. Winter entrance Dilapida- tion of the etructure. Furniture. t^. r I curve. It was composed of flat stones, remarkably large and heavy, arranged so as to overlap each other, but apparently with- out any mtelligent 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 an appendage of perhaps two feet more. " T'le true winter entrance is called the tossut. It is a walled tunne., 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 deserts. The entire front of the dome had fallen in, closing up the tossut, and forcing us to enter at the solitary 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 freez- ing water of the floes, these iron men gathered themselves round the blubber-fire, and steamed away 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 off^ering 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 wahus,— the stone sUghtly inchned, 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, as tLe hot smoke circled round it, the seal-skin saucer caught the 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 inventoiy of their effects. "We felt that we were more civilized than our poor cousins, as we feU to work making ourselves comfortable after our own fashion. ■4^ ESCiUIMAUX MUSIC. 229 The duis was scraped, and its accumulated filth of years re- ohaptei' moved j a canvas tent was folded double over the dry, frozen ^^' stones, our buffalo-bag spread over this, and dry socks and nioc- rrepam- casins were drawn from under our wet overclothes. My copper "tapper"' lamp, a true Berzelius Argand, invaluable for short journeys, soon flamed with a cheerful fire. The soup-pot, the walrus-steak, and the hot coffee, were the next things to be though L of; and, while these were getthig ready, an India-rubber tloor-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 wearmess, 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 superiority, the last feeling which the egotistical self-conceit of savage life admits. " I felt sure now that they were our more than sworn friends. The They sang ' Amna Ayah' for us— their rude, monotonous song— "^'"':» till our ears cracked with the discord, and improvised a special '^^'"'" ' eulogistic chant, §^^^^ yiili, Am - na - yali, Am - iia - yah, Am - iw - yali. which they repeated over and over again with laughable gi-avity of utterance, subsiding always into the refrain of ' Nalegak! nalegak.f ncdegak-soak !' ' Captaui ! captain! great captain!' They nicknamed and adopted all of us as members of their frater- nity, with grave and abundant form ; reminding me through all their mummery, solemn and ludicrous at once, of the analogous cere- monies of our North American Indians. " The chant, and the feed, and the ceremony all completed, a night in Hans, Morton, and myself crawled feet-foremost into our buffalo- "'«> '^^ bag, and Ootuniah, Awahtok, and Myouk flung themselves out- side the skin between us. The last I heard of them or anything 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. -fF"'" 230 WINTER AURANOKMKNT8. .1 ^ Ir"^ i I OUAPTSK XXIX. Esqui- maux breukfiiHt. Winter arranKO- meiits. Provision Btoi'es. New London Avenue *' I'liey were up long before us, and had breakfasted 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 eat- ing was ingeniously active. They cut the meat in long strips, in- troduced 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 themselves for a second mouth- ful. It was really a feat of address : those of us Avho tried it failed awkwardly; and yet I have seen infants in the mother's hood, not two years old, who managed to perform it without accident." I pass over the story of the hunt that followed. It had notliing to distinguish it from many others, and I find in my journal of a few days later the fresh narrative of Morton, after he had seen one for the first time. My next extracts show the progress of our winter arrangements. " Septemher .'^O, Saturday. — We liave 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 Rock, with their appliances. We are ten men in a casemate, with all our energies concentrated against the enemy outside. " Our beef hou.se 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 corner of it rises our flagstaff", lighting up the dusky grey with its red and white ensign, only on 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 M'Gary's town at home, — are our boats and square cordage. Outside of all these is a magni- .'icent hut of barrel-frames and snow, to accommodate our Esqui- maux visitors — the only thing about it exposed to hazard being the lempting woodwork. What remains to complete our camp- plot 13 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 ornament. " October 4, Wednesday. — I sent Hans and Hickey two days 8(;ant Id it at last. 231 ago out to the hunting-ice, to see if the iiiitives have had any luck with the wahns. 'I'hcy are back to-niglit with bad news,— no meat, no Es(juin>.aux. These strange children of the snow have made a mysterious flitting. Where or liow it is hiird to guess, for they liave no sledges. They cannot have travelled very far; and yet they have such uiKiuiet impulses, that, once on the track, no civilized man can say where they will biing up. " Ohiscn had just completed a sledge, hishioned like the Smith Sound kommctik, with an improved curvature of the runners. It weighs only twenty-four pounds, and, though 1 thiidc it too short for light dniught, it is just the article our Etah neighbours would delight in for tlieir land-i)ortages. I intended it for them, as a great price for a great stock of walrus meat ; but the other parties to the barg.'un have flown. " October 5, 7'hurisdai/.~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. ]<:xccpt four small bottles of horse-radish, our carte is comprised in three lines — bread, beef, pork. " I must be off after these Esquimaux They certainly have moat, and wherever they have gone we can follow. Once upon their trail, our liungry instincts will not risk being baffled. I will stay only long enough to conii)lete my latest root-beer brewage. Its basis is the big crawling willow, tlie miniature giant of our Arctic forests, of which we laid in a stock some weeks ngo. It is quite pleasantly bitter, and I hope to get it fermenting in the deck- house Avithout extra fuel, by heat from below. " October 7, Saturday. — Lively sensation, as they say in the land of olives and champagne. ' Nannook, nainiook ! ' — ' A bear, a bear ! ' — Hans and ]\Iorton in a breath ! "To the scandal of our domestic regidations, the guns were all impracticable. While the men were loading and capping anew, I seized my pillow-companion six-shooter, and ran on deck. A medhim -sized bear, with a four months' cub, was in active warfare with our dogs. They were hanging on her skirts, and she with wonderfnl alertness was picking out one victim after another, snatching him by the nape of the neck, and flinging him many feet, CHAPTKR XXIX, Dlsappcai r.iico of the Esfjiit- IIUlllX. Short al- lowance of food. Hoot-beei brewing. A bear in sight Mi ii i l\ f 'm I I I 1-* if gi 83S KIOIIT WITH A BEAR, CHAPTER XXIX. Tlie (logK dcfeatcil. Wonderful strength of tile bear. New plar of bear fl^htinf;. or rather yards, by a barely perceptible movement of lier head. "Tiidia, our master dog, was already /tnrs de combat; he had been tossed twioe. Jenny, just aa I emerged from the hatch, was making an extraordinary somer.set of some eight fathoms, and alighted senseless. Old Whitey, stanch, but not bear-wise, had been the fir.st in the battle ; he was yelping in lielplessness on the snow. " It seemed as if the controversy was adjourned ; and Namiook 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 wounded 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 trii)le walls of the store- house, mounted the rubbish, and snatching up a half barrel of her- rings, carried it down by her teeth, and was making off. It was time to close, I thought. Ooing 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 but 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 Bay, 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 com- rades effecting 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 th.at had been drilled to relieve each other in the n>dee and avoid the direct assault; but here, two dogs without I BKAR KILLED. 238 even a demonstration of attack, would put tliciiiselvcs liefoiu the path of the animal, and rotrcating right and lift, lead liini into a profitless pursuit that cliecked his advance completely. " The poor animal was still backing out, yet still fighting, carrying along her wounded cub, embarras.sed by the dogs, yet gaining distance from the brig, when Hans and myself throw in the odds in the shape of a couple of rillu balls. She staggered in front of her young one, faced us in deathlike defiance, and oidy .sank when pierced by six more bullet*. " We found nine balls in skinning htr body. She was of me- dium 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 300 lbs. ; that of the entire animal, 650 ; her length, but 7 feet 8 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 uneatable. The flesh of a famished beast, altliough 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 1 1 4 lbs. Like Morton's bear in Kennedy's Channel, she sprang upon the corpse of her mother, and raised a woeful 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 brij^- amid the clamour 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 Whitey,' as he figures in tliis journal — lost a flower from his chaplet. But two of the rest escaped without a grip. " Strange to say, in spite of the powerful flings wliich they were subjected to in the fight, not a dog suffers seriously. I expected, from my knowledge of the hugging propensity of the plantigrades, that the animal would rear, or at least use her fore- arm ; but she inv.nri.ably seized the do2S with her taeth. and after disposing of them for the time, abstained from tollo-sving up the OUAPTBR XXIX. The bear'a Size and weiglU of tlio boar. Tlie cab a prisoner. Tlie dogH after tlie flght. If V Am k 234 BEAR HABITS, advantage. The Esquimaux assert that this is the habit of the !^f^" hunted bear. One of our Smith Sound dogs, ' Jack,' made no CHAPTER XXIX. "Jhck" the old bear dog. Bear liubits. i struggle when lie was seized, but was Hung, witli 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 ' possum-playing ' habit. Jack was an old bear-dog. " The bear seems to be more ferocious as he increases his lati- tude, or more probably as he recedes from the hunting-fields. " At Ooininak, last winter (1852), an Esqmmaux and his son were nearly killed by a bear that had housed himself in an ice- berg. 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 modifying influence upon the ursine character in South Greenland ; at all events, the bears 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 o, charge in return. "I 1834 heard another adventure from the Danes as occurring lU ! An adven- ture with a bear. 4 Bear liver. " A stout Esquimaux, an assistant to the cooper of Upernavik, — 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 himself on the ground, putting forward his arm to pro- tect 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 liis rifle and killed her with the second shot. " October 8, Sunday. — When I was out in the Advaiice, 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 rayself, and succeeded in making it a favourite dish with the mess. But I find to my cost that it may sometimes be more savoury than safe. The cub's liver was my s"Dper last night, RATS, RATS, RATS. 23fi and to-day I have the symptoms of poison iu full measure — chaptiie vertigo, diarrhoea, and their concomitants." ^^'x - I may mention, in connection with the fact which I have given Bear's from my journal, that I repeated the experiment several times ^^oZnt' afterward, and sometimes, but not alway.s, 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 simila mdulgence, we were forced to undergo the same penance. The animal in both c?,ses 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 Rats on animal by our varied and perilous efforts of the year before, and ^°'*'''^- a well-justified fear forbade our rene^ving the crusade. It was marvellous, in a region apparently so unfavourable to reproduction, what a perfect warren we soon had on board. Their impudence and address increased with their numbers. It became impossible to stow anything below decks. Fur.s, woollens, shoes, specimens of natural history, -rything we disliked to lose, however little valuable to them, was gnawed into and destroyed. They har- boured among the men's bedding in the forecastle, 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 giiefs by decimating them for my private table. I find in my journal of the IQili of October an anecdote that illustrates their boldness : — " We have moved everything movable out upon the ice, and, Thepiaguc besides our dividing moss wall between our sanctum and the fore- "'" ' castle, we have built up a rude barrier of our iron sheathing to prevent these abominable rats from gnawing through. It is all in vain. They are everywhere already, under the stove, in the steward's lockers, in ou^ cushions, about our beds. If I was asked what, after darJiness and cold and scurvy, are the three besetting curses of our Arctic sojourn, I should say, Eats, 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. of rats. 23R FOX AND HARES. Ml '\ t» ii H\ m ! I iU . I i K \ CHAPTER XXIX. The dof? vanquish- ed by rats. Shooting rats. Tenlei fox. Arctic bares. fi'^ \m "Last week I sent down Rhina, the most intelligent dog of our whole pack, to bivouac in their citadel forward : I thought she might at least be able to defend herself against tliem, 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 lioiny skin about her paws ; and they gnawed her feet and nails so ferociously that we drew her up yelping and van- quished." 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 repugnance of my associates to share with me the table 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-catcher ; he would never catch a second till he had eaten the first. At the date of these entries the Arctic hares had not ceased to be numerous about our harbour. 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 affect the stony sides of the worn down rocks, where they find protec- tion from the wind and snow-drifts. They do not burrow like our hares at home, but squat in crevices or under large stones. Their average weight is about 9 lbs. They would have entered largely into our diet-list but for our Esquimaux dogs, who regarded them with reli.shing 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 further toward the Pole. Its structure and habits enable it to penetrate the snow '^rusts, and obtain food where the reindeer and the musk- ox perish in consequence of the glazed covering of their feeding- grounds. I lug THE ICE-FOOT CANOPY. 237 '^October 11, Wednesday. — There is no need of looking at the ohaptkb thermometer and comparing registers, to show how far this season ^f • has advanced beyond its fellow of last year. The ice-foot is more Reaching easily read, and quite ns certain. the ice- foot if; .11 THK ICK-FOOT CANOPY. " The under part of it is covereu now with long stalactitic Descrip. columns of ice, unlike the ordinary icic'e in shape, for they have ""°°' "'o the characteristic bulge of the carbonate-of-lime stalactite. They look like the fantastic columns hanging from the roof of a frozen temple, the dark recess behind them giving all the 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. 16 .ilk. 1 fi 238 TRACKING THK ESQUIMAUX. hi r ilpi , 'ii OHAPTER XXIX. Searcli for the Esqul- maax. 1 I A wolf. Similarity tfdogs tnd solves. " The ice has begun to fasten on our brig : I have called a con- sultation of officers to determine how she may be best secured. "October 13, Friday/. — The Esquimaux have not been near us, and it is a puzzle of . ome interest where they have retreated to. Wherever they are, there must be our hunting-gi'ounds, for they certainly have not changed their quarters to a more destitute reoion. 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 tAvo together ; but it would embar- rass their movements, and give them something to occupy their minds besides the leading object of their mission. " October 14, Saturday/. — Mr. Wilson and Ilickey reported 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 inci- dentally add some freshness of flavour 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, avS metal is apt to do at 50"" below the point of freezing ; but I got a somewhat rapid shot. I hit one of our dogs, a truant from Morton's team ; luckily a flesh-wound only, for he is too good a beast to lose. 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 Recreations" assigns to them a family origin. The oblique position of the wolfs 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 com- pact body, and drooping tail, and wild, scared expression of the eye, which some naturalists have supposed to characterize the wolf alone. Wlien 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 D008 AND WOLVES. 239 away for weeks into the wilderness of ice ; yet tliey cannot be per- suaded when they come back to inhabit tlie kennel we have built for them only a hundred yards off. They crouch around for the companionsliip of men. Both animals howl in unison alike : the bell at the settlements 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 wolfs. The old proverb, and the circumstance of the wolf having some- times carried off an Es(]uimaux 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 liave seen pups only two months old risk an indigestion by overfeeding on their twin brethren who had preceded them in a like imprudence. Nor is there anything in the supposed difference of strength. The Plsquimaux dog of Smith's Sound encounters the wolf fear- lessly 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. ~l have been wearied and vexed for half a day by a vain chase after some bear-tracks. There was a fox evidently following them {C. hgopus):' 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 fiiU ; 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 animal rejoices in his asso- ciation with the superior, at least for the profits, if not the sym- pathy it brings to him. I once wounded a bear when I was out with Morton during our former voyage, and followed him for OHAPTKR XXIX. Dops (inil wolves. Hear and fox. 240 ARRANGEMENTS FOR RAISING THE BRIO. l-.,.i,l i 1 II- 4 i CHAPTEH XXIX. Strange com- panions. Morton in search of tlie Esqui- niiitix. Apparatus for raising the brig. 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 the fox running at full speed along the edge of the thin ice, as if to rejoin him. It is a mistake to sup- pose he cannot swim : he does, and that boldly. " October 19, Thursda//. — Our black dog Erebus has come back to the brig. Morton has perhaps released him, but he has more ])robably broken 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 whole- some respect for us. We are careful to impress them with our physical prowess, and avoid sho^ving 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 liimself 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. "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 tlie 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 ice around her as it sinks may take the bottom and hold her up clear of the danger. We have detached four of tlie massive beams that were intended to resist the lateral pressure of nips, and h.ave 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 tlie vessel rises, the shores are made to take hold under heavy cleats si)iked below the bul- warks, 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 ■V- .'iJtTI Morton's return. 241 ^^Octoba- 21, Saturday.— \Uvii at it still, slinging chains and ohahthu planting shores. The tliermometer 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 Esqui- maux to the lower settlement of Etah. I cannot give their report Suffonng. to-night : the poor fellows are completely knocked up by the hard- °^-'i">''»^ ships of their nuirch. Hans, who is always careless of powder and ""'* """'' fire-arms,— a tivait which I have observed among both the Ameri- can and the Oriental savages,— exploded his powder-flask while attempting to kindle a tinder-fire. The explosion has risked his liand. I have dressed it, extracting several pieces of foreign matter, and poulticing it in yeast and charcoal. Morton has frostbitten both his lieels ; 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, mth what we have remaining of our two bears, nmst 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 Departure vessel. The north-eastern headlands or their southern faces up the °f "'^ fiords have still a warm yellow tint, and the pinnacles of the ice- "^'"" bergs far out on the floes are lighted up at noonday ; but all else is dark shadow." ; 1 iliis ' 1 OUR QREENIiAMD SLULiaKH. 242 MORTON AMONG THK ESQUIMAUX. CHAPTER XXX. Ill M 11 # JOUllNEY OP MOKTON AND HANS— KECEPTION — TUB HUT — THE WALRCa— WALRUS-HUNT— THE CONTEST — HABITS OF WAMiUS — FEUOCITY OF THK WALRUS — THE VICTOIIY — THE JUBILEE — A SIPAK. JOURNEY OF MORTON AND HANS. ouAPTER Morton readied tlie luits beyond Anoatok upon the fourth day XXX ' after leaving the briff. Esqui- maux suttle- mciit. Mortoi.'s reception The little settlement is inside the north-eiistern islands of Hart- stene 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 south-west, and is protected from the north and north-east 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 much kindness, giving them water to druik, rubbing their feet, drying their moc- casins, and the like. The women, who did tliis with something of the good-wife's air of prerogative, seemed to have toned down much of the rudeness which characterized the bachelor settlement at Anoatok. The lamps were cheerful and smokeless, 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, 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 1 2 feet 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 some squeezing was the entrance into the true apartment. Over this entrance was the rude window, ESQUIMAUX LIFE. 243 witli its scraped seal-intestine instead of glass, heavily coated with frost of course ; but a small eye-hole connuanding the bay cnabhid the indwellers to peep out and speak or call to any who were out- side. A smoke-hole passed througli the roof. When all the family, with Morton and Hans, were gathered to- gether, the two lamps in full blaze and the 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 diflference of 120 . The vermni were not as troublesome as in the Anoatok dormi- tory, the natives hanging their clothing over the lamp-frames, and lying down to sleep perfectly 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 r:cx, a ad supported by a mere strip around the hips. After sharing the supper of their hosts, — that is to say, after disposmg of six frozen auks apiece,— the visitors stretched them- Belves out and passed the night in unbroken perspiration and slum- ber. 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 incidents of Esqui- maux life. ]\Iorton was full of the one he witnessed ; and his ac- count 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, endeavour to describe the animal. 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 bristles. Add to this the tusks as a garjuture to the lower face ; and you OHAPTEa XXX. Insuppor- table lieut In the IiuL Niglit In the liuc. I Descrip- tion of tiltJ walrus. d ui r-ff^' II , showed a Method oi great deal of clever contrivance. They made two pair of incisions '""'''"« in the neck, where the hide is very thick, about six uiches apart on^iieTce and parallel to each other, so as to form a couple of bands. A mi m if Till ' h\ 248 RETURN OF THE HUNTING PARTY, CHAPTKR XXX. 1 1 i i !-: 1 A grand Ice-house. Hi Division of the game. Glutton festival at Etah. Jj 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 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, weighing some seven hundred pounds, was hauled up and butchered at leisure. The two sledges now journeyed homeward, carrying tlie more valued parts of their prize. The intestines and a large share of the carcass were buried up in the cavities of a berg ; Lucullus him- self could not have dreamed of a grander icehouse. As they doubled the little island which stood in 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 Esqui- maux, however gluttonously they may eat, evidently 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 expres- sion of our own gfstrology which is applicable to an Esquimaux feast. They truly sit down, man, 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 childien ate all night ; you know the little two-; oar-old that Awiu carried in her hood — the one that bit you when you tickled it 1 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 accurate an- swf i ■ ?;ow much as to weight or quantity would you say that cliild ate V Hans is an exact and trutliful man: he pondered a little and said that he could not answer my question. " But I Jj. A LITTLE GLUTTON. 249 know this, sir, that it ate a sipak"~the Esquimaux name for the oHAPisr lump which is cut off close to tlie 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 r)utch governor's foot, is, however, a varying unit of weight. I.' i _-~^g^ -'^.::^MM^'''' '■ ^^^^kBi mm '*"''! IB fi B' SH ^R '8»i nH !« %m THE BBIG CRADLED, .iiki hi IMI CHAPl'KR XXXI. The rais- CHAPTER XXXI. AX AORORA — WOOD-CUTTINa — FUEL ESTIMATE— THE STOVE-PIPES— THE ARCTIC FIRMAMENT— ESQUIMAUX ASTRONOMY— HEATING APPARATUS- METEORIC SHOWER— A REAR— HASTV RETREAT-THE CABIN BY NIOHT— SICKNESS INCREASING— CUTTING INTO THE BRIG— THE NIGHT WATCH. " October 24, Tuesda>/.~^\e are at work tliat makes us realize how short-handed we are. The brig was Hftcd for tlie tliird time m oftlm ^^'^^'^•^' ^^^^^ ^""^^^ ^^^'"^^"^ ^^^^^"^^ ""^'"' ^^'^^' *^^ ^"^^' *^^^^' '^^»tli bifg" " -astern and amid-ships. Her boAvs were ah-eady 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 furSier, 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 -eturn of tide, and now awaits the freezing-ln of her winter cradle. She is weU out of water ; and, if the "chains only hold, we shall have the spectacle of a brig, higli and dry, spending an Arctic winter over an Arctic ice-bed. 1 .' V . w ' ki m nil || ¥' p. M % ■i "^^ THE BRIG . tADI.UD. "We shall be engaged now at tlie hold and with the housiu" oii deck. From our lodge-room to the forward timbers everythina is clear already. We have moved the carpenter's bench into our PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER. 251 little durmitorium ; everywhere else it is too cold for handling chaptku tools. " XXXI. "9 P.M.— A tnie and unbroken auroral arch— the first we have An aurora seen in Smith's Sound. It was colourless, but 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-perceptible cirrhua, was broken here and there by rays nearly perpendicular, with a slight inclination to the east. The atmosphere was beautifully clear. " October 26, Thursday.— -Tha thermometer at 34° below zero, but fortunately no wind blowing. We go on with the out-door Out-door work. The gangAvay of ice is finished, and we have passed wooden '""'''• steam-tubes through the deck-house, to carry off the vapours of our cooking-stove and the lighter impurities of the crowded cabin. " We burn but seventy pounds of fuel a day, most of it in the galley— the fire being allowed to go out between meals. We go without fire altogether for four hours of the night ; yet such is the excellence of our moss walls and the air-proof of our tossut, that the thermometer in-doors never indicates less than 45= above com- zero, with the outside air at 30° below. When our housing is P^'^t'^e arranged, and the main hatch secured with a pi-oper weather-tight ouTsWe' screen of canvas, we shall be able, I hope, to meet the extreme ""'* '"' cold of February and March r^thout fear. " Darkness is the worst enemy we have to face ; 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 Anxieties 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 prophylactic 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 Fuel for otF the extra planking of our deck for fuel during the winter. The "'"^'~ oold increases fast, verging now upon 40° below zero, and in spite of all my eflforts we will have to burn largely into the brig. I prepared for this two months ago, and satisfied myself, after a con- Bultation with the carpenter, that we may cut away some seven or winter. .ri^' II tl ii 262 FUEL AND STOVES. QHAi-TER eight tons of fuel without absohitely destroying her sea-worthi- ^C3 ness. Fuel esti mate. I Ohlsen's report marked out the order in which her timbers should be appropriated to uses of necessity : 1. The monkey-rail; 2. Tlie bulwarks ; 3. The upper ceiling of the deck; 4. Eight extra cross-beams; 5. The flooring and remaining wood-work of the fore- castle ; G. The square girders of the forepeak ; 7. Tlie main-top- sail-yard and top-mast ; 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 inroad.s 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 caimot do better. We must re- model our heating arrangements. The scurvy exacts a comfort- able 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 reduced to 42°. " The ice-belt, sorry chronicler of winter progress, has begim 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 liome in all of them. " To-day was appropriated to the reformation of the stoves, and ^ ^ there was demand, of course, for all our ingenuity both as tinkers the stoves, and chinmey sweeps. Of my company of nine, Hans had the good luck to be out on the hunt, and Brooks, Morton, Wilson, and Good- fellow, were scurvy-ridden in their bunks. The other four and the commanding officer made up the detail of duty. First, we were to give tlie smoke-tubes of the stove a thorough cleansing, the first they have had for now seventeen months ; next, to reduce our effete snow-nielter to its elements of imperfect pipes and pans ; and last, to combine the practicable remains of tlie two into one efficient system for warming and melting. " Of these, the firrit has been executed most gallantly. ' Gloiy enough for one day ! ' The work with the scrapers on the heated pipes — for the accumulation 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 Cleaning and re- pail' in g firing. But we had not calculat<>d the quantity of the gases, com- THE ARCTIC FIRMAMENT. 253 bustible and incombustible, which this process was to evolve, with chaptep duly scientific reference to the size of their outlet. In a word '^^^i. ' they were smothering us, and, in a fit of desperation, we threw Kx;;;;;^ 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 grey as a cygnet's breast. " It was cold work reorganizing the stove for the nonce ; but we liave got It going again, as red as a cherry, and my well-worn do^- skm suit IS drying befora it. The blackened water is just bec^in- ning 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 everything like Pro.n.s progress was suspended. The increasing cold and bright'eninf '"^"'^"'^'^". stars, the labours, and anxieties, and sickness that pressed upon us'' c"S in. -these almost engross the pages of my journal. Now and then 1 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 ^vrecked kayack ; or perhaps M'Gary repeats his thrice-told tale of humour ; but the night has closed down upon us, and we are liibernating through it. Yet some of these were topics of interest The intense beauty Beauty o, of the Arctic firmament can hardly be imagined. It looked close ^'- a^"! above our heads, with its stars magnified in glory, and the very S" planets twinkling so much as to bafl3e the observations of our astrono- mer. 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 sus- pended. Its movements, its sounds, its colouring, its companion- ships; and as I looked on the radiant hemisphere, circling above me as if rendering worship to the unseen Centre of light, I have ejaculated in humility of spirit, "Lord, what is man that thou art mmdful of him ? " And then I have thought of the kindly world we had left with its revolving sunshine and shadow, and the other stars that gladden it in their changes, and the hearts that warmed to us there, tiU I lost myself in memories of those who are not —and they bore me back to the stars again. The Esquimaux, hke other nomads, are careflil observers of the heavenly bodies. An illustration of the confidence with which 17 2fi4 ESQUIMAUX SCIENCE. CHAPTER XXXI. !■. ilt Esqui- maux Rstro- noiiiy. Esqui- muux oli- 8erv;ition of the seasons and winds. Their in- scrutable means of discover- ing wiiter. 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 visitors. 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 tliis star,* naming it, ' will be the time to harness up my dogs,' Petersen was astounded ; but he Avent out the next morning and verified the sidereal fact. " I have been shouting a hare t(j-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 influence upon the course of the birds of passage with the same sagacity that has taught them the habits of the resident animals. " They foretold to me the exact range of the water off Cape Alexander during September, October, November, 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 everything 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 lb,; nearly a fortnight. Myoiik, my com- panion, began climbhig 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 oixt, 'Water!' I exanuned t> ; 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 infiltration of drinkable water. METEORIC SHOWER. 2/5fl *' November^, Wednesday.— ^m. tinkering at our stove and ice- cnAPTKn melter ; at last successful. Old iron pipes, and tin kettles, and all *j^- the refuse kitclien-wai of tli<^ brig figure now in picturesque as- "eating sociation, and rejoice in the title of our heating apparatus. It is "i'''^''""'* a great result. We have birnt from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. but seventy- five pounds, and will finish the twenty-fours with fifteen pounds more. It has been a mild day, the tliormometer keeping some tenths above W below zero ; but then we have maintained'^a tem- perature inside of 55° above. W ith 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. N(.t 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 arrangements, has given us out-door work for tlie day. Inside, after rigging the stove, we have been busy chopping wood. The ice is already three feet thick at our tide-hole. '' November \5, Wednesday.— The last forty- eight hours should Jr.teoric have given us the annual meteoric shower. We were fully pre- ^''"'*'^'"- pared to observe it; but it would not come oflT. 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. M'Gary paced Depression the deck all last Sunday in a fit of home-sickness, without eatiu" """^ ^""^^ a meal. I do my best to ckeer 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 tlie sick and toil-worn. I could not get along at all unless I com- bined the offices of physician and commander. Yo^ ^annot pmiish sick men. « November 20, Monday.— I was out to-day looking over the empty traps witli Hans, and when about two mHes off the brig — i i iimi 256 A BEAR. CHAVTER XXXI. A bear on the ice. 4Jf Jii Unplea- sant sus- pense. 1 I III A run for life. 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 unmis- takeable. 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 off. 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 providential accession to our means of life. A second roar, well pitched and abundant in volume, assured us that the game was coming nearer, and that he was large and of no doubt corresponding flavour. ' Run for the brig, Hans,' — he is a noble runner, — ' and I will play decoy.' Off went Hans like a deer. Another roar ; but he was already out of sight. " I may confess it to these well-worn pages ; there was some- thing not altogether pleasant in the silent comnmnings of thr r.ext 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 resolved 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 ; notliing. A second ; no bear after all. A third ; what is that long rounded shade ! Stained ice 1 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 curvy-stifFened knees to run again,— throwing off first one mitten and then its fellow to avoid pursuit. I gained the brig, and the bear my 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 couM bring to the rescue. November 24, Friday. — The weather still mild. I attempted TllK CABIN UY NIGHT. 267 to work to-day at charting. I placed a large board on our ohaptkr stove, and pasted my paper to it. My lamp rei)oscd on the lid ^J^' of the cofTee-kettle, my instruments in the slush-boiler, my feet in the ashpan ; and thus I drew the first coast-line of Grimiell Land. The stove, by close watching and niggard feeding, has burnt only sixty-five pounds in the last twenty-four hours. Of PiviMon oi 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, M'Gary, and Ohlsen, our only really able-bodied men, cut the ice and firewood. ''December 1, Friday. — I am writing at midnight. I have the wiitinRai watch from eight to two. It is day in the moonlight on deck, ■"'''"'«''t. the thermometer getting up again to 3G° 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 Ids dreams. This is pathognomonic ; it tells of Arctic winter and its companion, scurvy. Tom Hickey, our gond-humoured, blundering cabin-boy, decorated since poor Schubert's death with the dignities of cook, is in that little dirty cot on the starlx)ard 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 ftimily at a glance. The apartment measures Descrip- twenty feet by eighteen ; its height six feet four inches at one !'T. place, but diversified elsewhere by beams crossing at different board distances from the floor. The avenue by which it is approached is barely to be seen in the moss wall forward ; twenty feet of fir-tight space make misty distance, for the pufl" of outside-tem- perature that came in with me has filled our atmosphere with vesicles of vapour. 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 t^mnel 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 yourself, 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 tion of till oe on ■f-if*" z.rryr^iTJL-'^. .TX:i3 m 258 DRRATIY PR08PKCT8. Inndo- quato provision of fuel oiiAPTKii our way to tlio main hatch, and mount by a rude stairway of '^^^ ' boxes into the open air. Sickness "December 2, Snturday. — Had to put Mr. M'Gary and Riley Increasing, under active treatment for scurvy. Gums retracted, .inkles swollen, and bad lumbago. Mr. Wilson's case, a still worse one, has been brought under. Morton's is a saddening one; I cannot aflbrd to lose him. 1 le is not only one of my most intelligent men, but he is daring, cool, and everyway trustworthy. His tendon Achilles has been completely perforated, and the surface of the heel-bone ex- posed. An operation in cold, darkness, and privation, would pro- bably bring on locked-jaw. Brooks grows discouraged : the poor fellow has scurvy in his stump, and his leg is drawn up by the contraction of the flexors ai the knee-joint. This is the tliird case on board — the fourth, if I include my own — of contracted tendons. "December 3, Sunday. — I have now on hand twenty -four hun- dred pounds of chopped wood, a store collected with gi-eat diffi- culty ; and yet, how inadequate a provision 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 fire- wood. 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 gi'eatest anticipated 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 sea-worthiness. 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 inflammation of the eyes. I fear I must increase the diam^^ter of our smoke-pipes, for the pitch-pine which we burn, to save up our oak for the greater cold, is redundautiy charged with turpentine. Yet we do not want an ICtrect of the smoke. TllK NIOIIT WATCH. SA9 increased draught to con8ume our seventy pounds ; the fiat, ' No ouai-tef niore wood ' comes soon enough. xxxi . " Then for the night-watch. I have generally .something on tiio niKiit hand to occujjy me, and can volunteer for the hours before my "****"''• regular term. Evorj'thing is closed tight ; I muffle myself in furs, and write; or, if the cold denies me that pleasure, I read, or at lea.st think. Thank Heaven, even an Arctic temperature leaves the mind unclulled. But in truth, though our hourly observations in the air range between — 4G° and — 30°, we seldom register less than + 36° below. "December 5, Tuesday. — M'Gary is no better, but happily has nu notion how bad he is. I have to give him a grating of our vuiuo ct treasured potatoes. He and Brooks will doubtless finish the two p<""»«o» I have got out, and then theie will be left twelve. They are now tlu-ee years old, poor old frozen memorials of the dear land they gre^v m. They are worth more than their weight in gold." _ .4J^i&*fcSi RATACK, OR GREENLAMDER'a CAIQOB. ESQUIMAUX SLEDGES II It iHI I CHAl'TKU XXXII. Boii.sall und I'c- terseii brought back by Esqui- maux. CHAPTER XXXII. ESQUIMAUX SLEDGES — BONSAIifi's llETURN— RESULTS OP THE HUNT — KETUhN or WrniDKAWINQ party— TUEIH reception— tub ESQUIMAUX ESCORT — CONFERENCE — CONCILIATION — ON FIRE — CASUALTY — CHRISTMAS- OLE DEN— A JOURNEY AHEAD— SETTING OUT— A DREARY NIOUT — STRIKING A 1.I0HT— END OP 1851. I WAS asleep in the forenoon of the 7 th, after the fatigue of an extra niglit-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 28tli 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 announce- Sad con- ihe a,b«"nt '"^'^^^ ^as the Condition they had left their as.sociates in, two pai'y- hundred miles ofi", divided in their counsels, their energies broken, and their provisions nearly gone. I reserve for another page the Jiistory of their wanderings. My first thought was of the means of rescuing and relieving them. 1 resolved to despatch the Esquimaux escort at once with such supplies as our miserably-imperfect stores allowed, they giving their pledge to cany 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 — M'Gary, Hans, and myself, were the only ones able to move, and of these M'Gary 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 provisions will SUPF'inivn'; FROM SICKNKaS. 261 never reach the wanderors. We were busy every lidur since Bonsall arrived getting them ready. We cleaned and boiled and packed a hundred pounds of pork, and sewed up smaller packau'es 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 faita in an Esquimaux under temi)tation, 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, coitte qui coiXte, I will be off to the lower bay and hold the whole tribe as hostages for the absent party. "Brooks is wasting with night-sweats; and my iron man, M'Gary, 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 affection for nie, 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.— IhQ superabundant life of Northum- berland Island has impressed Petersen as much as it did me. 1 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 serJ, 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 Umit. A lew 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 breakfest-table. I loaded my boat with ducks in three hours as late as the middle of July, and not more than thirty-five miles from our anchorage. And even now, here are these Esquimaux, sleek and oily with their walrus-blubber, only seventy miles off. for starvation, nor onrjlit it to be for scurv^'. ^^ December 12, Tuesday. — Brooks awoke me at three this morn CIIAl'TKR XXXII. rrovlHioim lor tliu ulmcnl paity. Causes of scuvvy. Muuns Oi preserving i'resli ireut. It is not a region ! 262 RETURN OF THE ABSENT PARTY. OUAPTEK XXXII. " Esqui- maux anain." iiig with the cry of * Esquimaux again ! ' I dressed hastily, and, groping my way over the pile of boxes that leads up from tlie hold into the darkness above, made out a group of human figures, CLIFFS, NOHTHL'uiBERLAND ISLAND. masked by the hooded jumpers of the natives. They stopped at 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 by suffering, cerUiinly not by any anxiety as to Ills reception, and at his bidding the whole party came \ipon deck. Tiie absent Poor fellows ! I could Only grasp their hands and give them a party wei- brother's welcome. corned \)dck. " The thermometer was at minus 50° ; they were covered with rime and snow, and were fauitiig with hunger. It was necessary to use caution in taking theri below; for, after an exposure of such fearful intensity and dur.vtiou as they had gone through, the SUFFERINGS OF THE ABSENTEES. 263 warinth of the cabin would liave prosti-ated tlieiii completely. 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 hummocks at this appalling tenii)erature. " 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 ! 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 toucli, — 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 pros- trate with pericarditis. I resigned my own bunk to Dr. Hayes, who is much prostrated : he will probably lose two of liis toes, perhaps a tliird. The rest have no special inj ary. " 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 I wait for it. It was providen- tial that they did not stop for Petersen's return, or rely on the en- gagements which liis Esquimaux attendants had made to them as well as to us. The sledges that carried oi^r relief of provisions passed through the Etah settlement empty, on some furtive pro- ject, 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 num- bered six drivers and as many as forty-two dogs. Whatever may have been their niotive, their conduct to our poor friends was cer- tainly 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 in- volved some of our foot-worn absentees in a bread; of hospitality. Wliile resting at Kalutunah's hut, they had found opportunity of .appropriating to their own upe certain articles of clothing, fox- skins and the like, under circumstances which admitted of justifi- OnAPTKB xxxn. A terrible journey. ■if Sickness Tlic Es(iiii iiiaux escort Tlieir kindness ■^^.,jr^ 264 CONFERENCE AVITIl THE ESQUIMAUX. OnAPTKR XXXII. Necessity for recon- ciliation. Confer- ence and Inquiry. Jjllnpi Tfic dor- mitory. I cation only by the law of the 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 inmiediate wants of all, was turned to the office of conciliating our Esquimaux bene- factors. Though they wore their habitual faces of smiling satis- fiiction, I could read them too well to be deceived. Policy, as well as moral duty, have made me anxious always to deserve their re- spect ; 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 tlierefore called them together in stern and cheerless con- ference 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. Tlie subject of controversy 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 immen.se satisfaction of our stranger guests, as surod them of my approval, and pulled then- hair all round. " They were introduced into the oriental recess of our dormi- tory, — 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, galley-stove, and chronometers, I dealt out to each man five nee 'les, a file, and a stick of wood. To Kalutunah and Shunghu I gave knives and other extras ; and in conclusion spread out our one remaining buffiilo 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 sledges were only taken to save their lives ; and I thereupon returned them. " The party took a sound sleep, and a second or rather a con- timions feed, and left again on their return through the hum- ■"llll BRIG ON FIRK. 266 air. mocks with apparent confidence and good humour. Of course chapter they prigged a few knives and forks ; — but that refers itself to a ^^^" - national trait. ^^ Decemher 23, Saturday. — This uncalculated accession of num- Ciowdand bers 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 Esqui- maux 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 odour of pork-fat, our only oil, we have found to be injurious ; and our lamps are therefore placed outside the tossut, in a small room bulkheaded off for their use. " This new arrangement gave rise yesterday to a nearly fatal Alarm of disaster. A watch had been stationed in charge of the lamp, with '^'"'^ the usual order of ' No uncovered lights.' He deserted his post. Soon afterward Hans found the cooking-room on fire. It was a horrible crisis ; for no less than eight of our party were absolutely nailed to their beds, and there was nothing but a bulkhead be- tween them and the fire. I gave short, but instant orders, station- ing a line between the tide-hole and the main hatch, detailing two men to work with me, and ordering all the rest who could move to their quarters. Dr. Hayes with I is maimed foot, Mr. Brooks with his contracted legs, -^ind poor Morton, otherwise among our best men, could do r.othing. " Before we reac^i jd the fire the entire bulkhead was in a blaze The mess as well as the Axy iliibers and skin of the brig. Our most ^'''^° walls, with their own ti ider-like material and their light casing of inflammable v/ood, were entirely hidden by the flames. For- tunately tije furs of the recently-returned part} were at hand, and with them ] 'ii^ceed'; 1 in smothering the fire. But I was obliged to push through thr blaze of our sailcloth bulkhead in order to defea \ the wall ; and in my anxiety to save time, I had left the cabin without either cap or mittens. I got 'rough somehow or other, and tore do\.ii the ca''.vas which hung against that dan gerous locality. Our rifles were in this corner, and their muzzles pointing in aU directions. " The water now btgan t • pass down ; but with the discharge of the first bucketful the smoke overcame me. As T found myself going T pushed for the hatchway, knowing tluvt th.e bucket-line Our most ^ ;"" 'm \ti CHRISTMAS ON BOARD. cHAPTKR would fccl me. Seeing was impossible ; but, striking Ohlsen's ' legs as I fell, I was passed up to the deck, minm beard, eyebrows, and forelock, plus two burns on the forehead and one on each palm. Thefiie "In about three minutes after making way with the canvas got under. ^\^^ fj^e 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-temperature below, to 4G° below zero above, was intolerably 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 avc lost our brig, not a man could have survived. Without shelter, clothing, or food, the thermometer almost 80° below the freezing point, and a brisk wind stirring, what hope could we have on the open ice field % -All together again, tlie Christmas dinner. ijK M 'Gary '8 story. "December 25, Christmas, Monday. returned and tlie 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 mousseiix. " But if this solitary relic of festival days had lost its sparkle, we had not. We passed around merrily our turkeys roast and boiled, roast beef, onions, potatoes, 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 vari- ously represented by pork and beans. Lord Peter Idmself was not more cordial in liis dispensation of plum-puddhig, mutton, and custard to his unbelieving brothers. " M'Gary, of course, told us his story. We hear it every day, and laugh at it almost as heartily as he does liimself. Caesar Johnson is the guest of ' Ole Ben,' coloured gentlemen both, who do occasional wliite-washing. The worthies have dined stanchly on the dish of beans, browned and relished by its surmounting cube of pork. A hospitable pause, and, with a complacent wave PLAN OF A VISIT TO THE NATIVES. 267 toMlt of the hand, Ole Ben addresses the lady hostess—' Ole woman, chaptkr 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 off, who are thinking, I know, of me. T could bear my own troubles as I do my eider-down coverlet, for I can see myself as I am, and feel sustained 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 meditathig apianofa sledge journey to our Esquimaux neighbours. The condition of«>'=''e« the little party under my charge left me no alternative, uncom- ■'°"'"''^' fortable and hazardous as I knew that it must be. I failed in the first effort ; but there wore incidents connected with it which may deserve a place in this vohime. 1" recur to my journal for a suc- cinct record of my motives in setting out : — " December 26, Tuesdat/.— 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, 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. M'Gary and Brooks areToprocurt sinking, and that rapidiy. Walrus beef alone can sustain them, ^''^^^'^^at and it is to be got Voni 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 col- lecting food is on me. I shall go first to the lower Bay Esqui- maux, and thence, if the hunt has failed there, to Cape Robert- son. "My misgivings are mostly on account of the dogs ; for it is a rugged, hunmiocked drive of twenty-two hours, even with strong teams and Esquimaux drivers. We have been feeding them on salt meat, for we have had nothuig else to give them, and they are out of heiilth ; and there are hardly enough of them at best to carry 268 PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY. OUAPXEH XXXII. A rr.'ir fo- ments. our lightest load. If one of these tetanoids should attack them The dORs and their food. the road, it be for all of us. Ml' Moonliglit for the iourney lil# (/cane " But it is to be tried at last. Petersen will go with me, and we will club our wits. I do not fear the cold. We are impreg- nable 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 d 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 — Petersen's taste is less educated — a few i ats, 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 thenr into a sort of bloody soup, and deal them out twvee a day in chunks and solid jelly; for of course they are frozen like quartz rock. These salt meats are absolutely poi- sonous 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 hori- zon, and so nearly circumpolar afterward as to justify me in the attempt to reach the Esquimaux hunting-ground above Cape Alexander. Everything is ready, and, God willing, I start to-mor- row, and pass the four liours' 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. " 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 thermometer 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 ;i 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 A TERRIBLE NIGHT. 269 up tlie ice-foot and down again upon the floe, as one or the other crupTKR gave us the chance of passing. It was eleven Lours and over ^^^" ' before we were at tlie huts, having made by sledge and fout-tranip 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 a gala now set in from the southwest, obscuring the moon and blowinir very hard. We were forced back into the hut ; but, after corkiiu' uj) all openings Mith snow and making a fire with our Esquimaux lamp, we got up the temperature to 30'' below zero, cooked coffee, and fed the dogs freely. This done, both Petersen and myself, our clothing frozen stiff, fell asleep through sheer ex- haustion ; the wind outside blowing death to all that mi'dit be exposed to its influence. " I do not know how long we slept, but my admirable 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 Coia was now like an icicle. All our fire-arms were stacked outside "°™^ tor no Arctic man vill trust powder m a condensing temperature, darkness. We did not dare to break down our doorway, f./r 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 liis 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, Incoming apprehensive that Petersen would waste our few percussion-caps with his ineffectual snappings, I deter- mined 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 stiiking 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 dis- cernible as if by the reflected light, and, to the amazement of both of us, the thumb and two fingers with which Petersen was holding 18 ;!■(■: hi f^r^' 270 STRANGE PHENOMKNON. CHAPTER XXXII. it, the creases, wrinkles, juid circixit of the nails clearly defined upon the skin. The phosphorescence was not \inlike the uieffectual piiosphor- fire of the glow-worm. As I took the pistol my hand became .«cc.ice. yj^^j^|j^,^|.j,(j j^^go^ j^i^(j go 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 contiiuiing, I was able to charge the pistol without difficulty, rolled up my paper into a cone, filled it with moss sprhikled over with powder, and held it in my hand while I fired. This time I succeeded in producing flame, and we saw no more of the phos- phorescence. I do not stop for theory or argument 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-do^vn animals could not surmount the hummocks ; and as a forced necessity to save their lives and o\irs, we resolved to push for the brig on foot, driving them befiore us. We made the walk of forty-four miles in sixteen hours, almost scudding before the gale, and arrived safely at 7 p.m. of Sunday; the temperature — 40°." "With this fruitless adventure closed the year 1854. Forced to return to the brig. il': LAMPS. 871 CHAPTER XXXIII. MODES OF LIFE— TUB INSIDE DOO — PHOJECTED JOURNEY— DOO-HABITS — THE DARKNESS— HAW MEAT — PLANS FOR SLEDQINQ— THE SODTH-EAST WINDS— PLAN OP JOURXEY— A RELISHING LUNCH— ITINERARY— OUTFIT —CARGO AND CLOTHING— KAPETAU AND NESSAK— FOOT-GEAR — THE FOX TAIL — CARPET-KNIGHTS- BURNING CABLES. ^^ January 6, 1855, Saturday. — If this journal '^ver gets to be inspected by other eyes, the colour of its pages will tell of the atniosi)liere it is written in. We have been emulating tlie Esqui- maux for some time in everything else ; and now, last of uil, this intolerable temperature and our want of fuel have driven us to rely on our lamps for heat. Counting those which I have added since the wanderers came back, we have twelve constantly going, with the grease and soot everywhere in proportion. " I can hardly keep my charts and registers in anything like decent trim. Our beds and bedding are absolutely black, and our faces begiimmed with fatty carbon like the Esquimaux of South Greenland. Nearer to us, our Smith's Straits Esquimaux are much more cleanly in this branch of domestic arrangements. They attend their lamps with assiduous care, using the long ra- dicles of a spongy moss for wick, and preparing the blubber for its office by breaking up the cells between their teeth. The con- densed blubber, or, more properly, fat, of the walrus, is said to give the best flame. " Our party, guided by the experience of the natives, use nearly the same form of wick, but of cotton. Pork fat, boiled to lessen its salt, is our substitute for blubber ; and, guided by a suggestion of Professor Olmstead, I mix a portion of resin with the lard to increase its fluidity. Sundry devices in the way of metal rever- berators conduct and diffuse the heat, and so successfully, that a single wick will keep liquid ten ounces of lard with the air around at minus 30°. "The heat given out by these burners is astonishing. One four-wicked lamp not very well attended gives us six gallons of CnAI'TKt XXXIII, Smoky Irtinps, Esqui- maux lamps Devices to conduct and ditfuse huat. '^^Iifes 272 DAILY LIFE. I'K I 'ffM ■ R •>- CHAPTKU XXXIII. Lamp for cooking;. Kffcct of smoke on health. Avcvape tempera- ture. The dops M' BtC ,ater in Uvelve l.ours from snow .and ice of a temperature of :t:sro^rai»i„«t..e,.eatoft,.e<*i,,t„ac^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ti,e la,„p Wing -'- ^^ W or d her eookery. Cut the rl: 0,0 flat'; r'd t,. cor.e,ne„ee i. that wo have boon more fl.nn Wf the time in an atmosphere of smoke. " Vtl^i, ' the efiect of this on tl>e health of every one, ero.dcd as ZZ. and inhaling so nmeh insoluble f"-S^ -«» "* ^^ • • „ T l,nvp to flav reduced the number oi lights to lour ;::Tr; — ry -^ -.nuieating by tin funnels with bath to-day. and took his i.laee at watch. I have now seven hours continuous watch at one beat. ,.„„.„t„r., t1ie " January 12, Fridai/.-lry reviewing our temperatures, the monttly-d annual means sUrtle me. Wh.atever views we may CI theoretically as to the distribution of heat it w.as to have tin e'p ted tlfat so large a w.ater area but thrrty-hve m.lcs o th soXvest by west of our position would tell upon our reco d and « is supposition was strengthened by the increased faU of s"iicl L clearly due to the neighbourhood of this water. ^}aZr,j 13, S«<«;*y.-I am feeding up my few remaining dogs "efully; but I have no meat for them -ept «.e car ^sses of their Lite companions. These h.ave to be boded for m the frozen state they act as caustics, and, to dogs famislnng a. furs have been, frozen food often proves fatal. abr«l.ng t he sto- S ' Id 0=30 hagus. One of these poor ■'^^^^^ ^^^ ^ oWM\ net amoncr the Esquimaux. Last night I found Her in net* ad'yilg™": .at the 'mouth of our ,»«««, wistfully eyeing « etetices of the door as they emitted their forbidden treasures of light and heat. She could not move, but, complete y subdued. Ucked my baud-the first time I ever had such a emteed greet- utta/an Esquimau, dog. I carried her in -ong the glones of'the moderate paradise she aspired to, and cooked her a dead plipp^ Toup. She is now slowly g.-uning strength, but can b.arely '''"twant .all my scanty dog-force for -""^er f e-npt to eoir. municate with the bay settlements. I am confident we will find K.squiinaux tl ficd with Pet( cautious for ' every risk sh mind is made ful accomplis pletely subjcc temperament " Counting five at all to I tion for the jc as wet-nurse- teams ; little yellow and on recruits we ob " It is a fea miles, where 3 without prote look to it ; w shorter journe provisions, oui " At home c ing, suarluig b wolves as they pcarance of a 1 able to the vei with studied c best days of pi safe companioi ravenous of ev goes about wit like a hyena tl feeding Jenny, one of her pup I have taken t ing puppy. T tolerably milk- '■^ January 1 Brooks, Mortoi PROJECTED JOURNKV. Ksquiinaux there alive, iiiul they shall help us. I am not satis- ciui'tkh ficd with Petersen, the companion of my last journey ; he is too ^^^"'- cautious for the emergency. The occasion is one that calls forCimicoof every risk short of the final one that man cm encounter. ^ly p,mimi. mind is made up, should wind and ice at all point to its success- ful accomplishment, to try the thing with Hans. Hans is com- pletely subject to my will, careful and attached to me, and by temperament daring and adventurous. "Counting my greatest possible number of dogs, we have but Numbuioj five at all to be depended on, and these far from being in condi- ''"*''* tion for the journey. Toodla, Jenny — at this moment ofliciating as wet-nurse — and Ilhina, are the relics of my South Greenliuul teams ; little Whitey is the solitary Newfoundlander ; one big yellow and one feeble little black, all that are left of the i)owcrful recruits we obtahied from our Escpiimaux brethren. " It is a fearful thing to attem^jt a dog-trot of near one hundred miles, where your dogs may drop at any moment, and leave you without protection from 50'' below zero. As to riding, I do n(jt look to it ; we must nm alongside of the sledge, as we do on shorter journeys. Our dogs cannot carry more than our scanty provisions, our sleeping bags, and guns. " At home one would fear to encounter such hoopspincd, spitt- Dog ing, snarlhig beasts as the Esquimaux dogs of Peabody Bay. But, '"'^'^' wolves as they are, they are ftir from dangerous : the slightest ap- pearance of a missile or cudgel subdues them at once. Indispens- able to the very Ufe of their masters, they are treated, of course, with studied care and kindness ; but they are taught from the ear- liest days of puppy life a savoury fear that makes them altogether safe companions even for the children. But they are absolutely ravenous of everything below the human grade. Old Yellow, who goes about with arched back, gliding through the darkness more like a hyena than a dog, made a pounce the other day as I was feeding Jenny, and, almost before I could turn, had gobbled down one of her pups. As none of the litter will ever be of sledging use, I have taken tli'^ hint, and refreshed Old Yellow with a daily morn- ing puppy. The two last of the ftimily, who will then, I hope, be tolerably milk-fed, I shall reserve for my own eating. ''January 14, Sunday — Our sick are about the same ; Wilson, Brooks, Morton, M'Gary, and Riley unserviceable, Dr. Hayes get- I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) .4^1^ 1.0 I.I ■-lis |50 "'"-= ^ m ^ tiS, M 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 — ^ ^ 6" — ► VI '^ 5 ^.^• ■^ •* »' «. -^ ' w Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST jnAiN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872 4503 &? .^ . /«. ^v^ xrry s THE DARKNESS. OHAPTKR tiiig better rapidly. How grateful I oiiglit to be that I, tlie weak- xxxiiT. j.^^^ Qf ^ ygj^j. j^go^ am a well and helping man ! " At noonday, in spite of the mist, I can see the horizon gap ot Charlotte ^Vood Fiord, between Bessie Momxtain and the other hills to the south-east, growing lighter ; its twilight is decidedly less doubtful. In four or five days we will have our noonday sun not more than 8^ below the horizon. This depression, which was Ikiiw meat useful In scoibutic disease. . ... V o lowest, enabled him by turning the paper toward the south to read diamond type. We are looking forward to this morepe- numbral darkness as an era. It has now been fifty-two days smcc we could read such type, even after climbing the dreary Inl s. One hundred and twenty-four days with the sun below the horizon One hundred and forty before he reaches the rocky shadowing ot our brig ! . ■. » i j I found an overlooked godsend this morning,— a bears head, put away for a spechnen, but completely frozen. There is no in- considerable quantity of meat adhering to it, and I serve it out raw to Brooks, Wilson, and Eiley. " I do not know that my journal anywhere mentions our habitua- tion to raw meats, nor does it dweU upon their strange adaptation to scorbutic disease. Our journeys have taught us the msdom o. the Esquimaux appetite, and there are few among us who do not relish a slice of raw blubber or a chunk of frozen walrus-beet. The liver of a walrus (awuktanuk) eaten with little slices of his fat, —of a verity it is a delicious morsel. Fire would ruin the curt, pithy expression of vitahty which belongs to its uncooked juices. Charles Lamb's roast-pig was nothing to awuktanuk. I wonder that raw beef is not eaten at home. Deprived of extraneous fibre it is neither indigestible nor difficult to masticate. With acids and condiments, it makes a salad which an educated palate cannot help ■ehshing ; and as a powerful and condensed heat-making and anti- scorbutic food it has no rival. ... .1 " I make this last broad assertion after carefully testmg its truth. The ". .tivcs of South Greenland prepare themselves for a long journey in the cold by a course of frozen seal. At Upernavik thej do the same with the narwhal, which is thought more heat-making than the seal ; while the bear, to use their own expression, is ♦stronger travel than all' " In Smith's sound, where the use of raw meat seems almost i^^' i PLANS FOR SLEDGING. 275 inevitable from the modes of living of the people, walrus liolds the ^^^^^^^ first rank. Certainly this pachyderm, whose finely-condensed tissue " luid delicately-permeating fat— oh ! call it not blubber— assimilate JJ'^*^'"""' it to the ox, is beyond all others, and is the very best fuel a man can swallow. It became our constant companion whenever we could get it ; and a frozen liver upon our sledge was valued far above the same weight of pemniican. Now as I write, short of all meat, without an ounce of walrus for sick or sound, my thoughts recall tlie frost-tempered junks of this pachydermoid amphibion as the highest of longed-for luxuries. "My plans for sledging, simple as I once thought them, and piansfor simple certainly as compared with those of the English parties, ^'*^''s'"k- have completely changed. Give me an eight-pound reindeer-fur bag to sleep in, an Esquimaux lamp with a lump of moss, a sheet- iron snow-melter or a copper soup-pot, with a tin rylinder to slip over it and defend it from the wind, a good piece de resistance of raw walrus-beef ; and I want nothing more for a long journey, if the thermometer will keep itself as high as minus 30°. Give me a bear-skin bag and coffee to boot ; and vnth. the clothes on my back I am ready for minus 60°, — but no wind. " The programme runs after this fashion. Keep the blood in m otion Rules on without loitering on the march ; and for the halt, raise a snow-house ; g^^, '/^r "" or, if the snow lie scant or impracticable, sconce yourself in atuchait. burrow, or under the hospitable lee of an inclined hummock-slab. The outside fat of your Avalrus sustains your little moss fire ; its frozen slices give you bread, its frozen blubber gives you butter, its scrag ends make the soup. The snow supplies you with water ; and when you are ambitious of coffee there is a bagful stowed away in your boot. Spread out your bear bag, your only heavy move- able ; stuff your reindeer bag inside, hang your boots up outside, take a blade of bone, and scrape off all the ice from your furs. Now crawl in, the whole party of you, feet foremost ; draw the top of your dormitory close, heading to leeward. Fancy yourself in Sy- baris ; and, if you are only tired enough, you may sleep— like St. Lawrence on his gridiron, or even a trifle better. ' January 16, Tuesday, — Again the strange phenomena of the South-eaat south-east winds. The late changes of the barometer ushered them in, and all hands are astir with their novel influences. With minus 16' outside, our cabin ceiling distils dirty drop;:; of water, our eds winds. liil 276 WANT OF PROVISIONS. I- tuic. Want of food. CHAPTER become doubly damp, and our stove oppressive. We are vastly xxxni. ^^j.g comfortable, and therefore more healthy, below hatches, whcw it is at —60° on deck than when it rises above — 30°. The mean heat of our room since the return of the party is, as nearly as can be determined, + 48°. "The sick generally are about the same; but Wilson has symptoms showing themselves that fill me with distress. The state of things on board begins to press upon rae personally ; but by sleeping day- hours I manage well enough. Hans, Ohlsen, and myself are the only three sound men of the organized company. " January 17, Wednesday.— T\\qtq is no evading it any longer ; it has been evident for the past ten days that the 'present state of things can-ot last.' We require meat, and cannot get along with- out it. Our sick have finished the bear's head, and are now eating the condemned abscessed Uver of the animal, including some intes- tines that were not given to the dogs. We have about three days' allowance ; thin chips of raw frozen meat, not exceeding four ounces in weight for each man per diem. Our poor fellows eat it with zest ; but it is lamentably little, piaiiofau "Although I was unsuccessful in my last attempt to reach the expedition i^^ts with the dogs, I am far from sure that with a proper equip- ment it could not be managed by walking. The thought weigki upon me. A foot-travel does not seem to have occurred to my com- rades; and at first sight the idea of making for a point seventy- five miles by the shortest line from oui brig, with this awfully cold darkness on, is gloomy enough. " But I propose walking at first only as far as the broken hut at Anoatok (the ' wind-loved spot '), and giving our poor dogs a chance of refreshing there. After this, Hans and myself will force them forward as far as we can, with nothing but our sleeping gear, and spend the second night wherever ,they happen to break down. After that, we can manage the rest of the journey without any luggage but our personal clothing. " It seems hard to sacrifice the dogs, not to speak of the rest of the party; but the necessity is too palpable and urgent. As we are now, a very few deaths would break us up entirely. Still, the emergency would not move me if I did not feel, after careful, pain- ful thought, that the tiling can be accomplished. If, by the bless- ing of the Great Kuler, it snodd prove successful, the result wUl on foot. ■-^1 A LUNCH WITH IMAGINARY SAUCE. 277 secure the safety of all hands. No one knows as yet of my inten- cnAi'TBP tion except Hans himself. I am quietly preparing a special outfit. ' and will leave with the first return of moonlight. " M'Gary, my relief, calls me ; he has foraged out some raw M'Gary's cabbage and spiced it up with cuny-powder, our only remaining '""''^ pepper. This, with a piece of corn-bread, — no bad article either, — he wants me to share with him. True to my old-times habitude, I hasten to the cabbage, — cold roast-beef, Worcester sauce, a head of endive, and a bottle — not one drop less — of Preston ale (I never drink any other). M'Gary, ' bring on de beans !' ^'■January 18, Thursday, midnight. — Wind howling on deck, — stormy a number nine gale, a warm south-easter directly from the land. ^ The mean tempe Mture of this wind is — 20°. Warm as this may seem, our experience has taught us to prefer — 40° with a calm to — 10° with a gale in the face. " If we only had daylight, I should start as soon as the present wind siibsides, counting on a three days' intermission of atmo- spheric disturbance. But we have no moon, and it is too dark to go tumbling about over the squeezed ice. I must wait. " I alluded yesterday to my special equipment. Let me imagine myself explahiing to the tea-table this evening's outfit, promise, and purposes." I. Itinerary. — From brig Advance, Rensselaer Harbour, to the itinerary. Esquimaux huts of Etah Bay, following the Hue of ice-travel close along the coast : — Miles. 1. From brig to Ten-raile Ravine 10 2. From Teu-raile Ravine to Basalt Camp 6 3. From Basalt Camp to Helen River - 10 4. Helen's River to Devil's Jaws (off Godsend Island) 9 6. Godsend Island to Anoatok and Hummock Pass 7 6. Hummock Pass to Refuge Inlet 7 7. Refuse Inlet to Cape Hatherton 8 8. Cape Hatherton to Second Hummock Pass 12 9. Across Second Pass to south end of Littleton Island 8 10. South end of Littleton Island to Point Salvation 2 11. Point Salvation to Esquimaux huts 12 Total travel in miles 91 II. Temperature.— lie&n, ohont —45°. Range —40° to —60° III. Resources. — Five half-starved dogs ; Hans Cristian, Dr, Kane, a light sledge, and outfit. Temperar tuxe. 278 OUTFIT AND CARGO. HI I ■i) \ H I Journey. onAPTER IV. Outjit. — To encounter broken ice in the midst of darknesa XXXIII. ^^^ ,^|. ^ temperature destructive to life, everytlimg depends upon Outfit for your sledgc. Should, it break down, you might as well break your own leg; there is no hope for you. Our sledge, then, is made of well-tried oak, dovetailed into a runner shod with iron. No metal is used besides, except the screws and rivets which confine the sledge to its runners. In this intense cold, iron snaps like glass, and no immovable or rigidly-fastened wood-work would stand for a moment the fierce concussions of a drive. Everything is put tocrether with lashings of seal-skin, and the whole fabric is the skeleton framework of a sledge as flexible as a lady's work-basket, and weighing only forty pounds. On this we fasten a sacking- bottom of canvas, tightly stretched, like its namesake of the four- post bedstead, around the margin. We call this ticking the apron and cover ; the apron being a flap of sixteen inches high, surround- uig the cover, and either hanghig loose at its sides like a valance, or laced up down the middle. Into this apron and cover you pack your cargo, the less of it the better ; and then lace and lash the wdiole securely together. V. The cargo may consist of,— 1. A blanket-bag of fur, if you can get it ; but on our present sleigh- ie, buflixlo being too heavy and our reindeer-skins all destroyed by wet, I take an eider-down coverlet, adding— 2. A pillow stuffed with straw or shavings, to be placed under the small of the back while sleeping ; 3. An extra pair of boots ; and 4. A snow saw. Cargo. Kitchen furniture and pro- visions. P' ' " Superadd to these the ancient soup-pot, our soap-stone, kol- lopsut, one Esquimaux lamp, one lump of moss, one cup, and a tinder-box, — all these for the kitchen ; a roll of frozen meat-biscuit, some frozen lady-fingers of raw hashed fox, a small bag of coffee, and twenty-four jneces of hard tack (.ship's bread), for the larder ; our fire-arms, and no less essential ice-poles ; — all these, no more nor less, and you have the entirety of our outfit, — the means wherewith we are to track this icy labyrinth, under a frozen sky, for an uncertain asylum some ninety-three miles off. "In general, eight powerful wolf-like dogs will draw such a cargo like the wind : I have but four wretched animals, who can hardly drag themselves. " Tlie clothing or personal outfit demands the nicest study of III / CLOTIIINO. 270 experience. Except a spare pair of boots, it is all upon the back. oiurTKR It requires the energies of tyrant custom to discipline a traveller ' into comfort under these Smith Sound temperatures ; and, let him ^JJ^"^""' dress as he may, his drill will avail but little unless he has a wind- less atmosphere without and a heat-creating body within. " Rightly clad, he is a lump of deformity waddling over the ice, un[)icturesque, uncouth, and seemingly helpless. It is only when you meet him covered with rime, his face peering from an icy halo, his beard glued with frozen respiration, that you look with intelli- gent appreciation on his many-coated panoply against ICing Death. "The Smith's Straits fox-skin jumper, or kapetah, is a closed ciothin),' - shirt, fitting very loosely to the person, but adapted to the head pf.°,..^nj and neck by an almost air-tight hood, nessak. The kapetah is put "nLsa^ik." on from below ; the arms of the man pass through the arms of the garment, and the head rises through a slit at the top; around this slit comes up the hood. It is passed over the head from behind and made to embrace the face and forehead. Underneath the kapetah is i. similar garment, but destitute of the hood, which is put on as we do an irmer shirt. It is made of bird-skins chewed in the mouth by the women till they are perfectly soft, and it is worn with this unequalled down next the body. More than five hundred auks have been known to contribute to a garment of this description. « So far the bust and upper limbs. The lower extremities are Ti>ej!]^"- guarded by a pair of bear-skin breeches, the nannooke,—i\ie charac "° " ' teristic and national vestiture of this strange people. They are literal copies, and in one sense fac-similes, of the courtly knee- buckled ones of our grandfathers, but not rising above the crests of the pelvis, thus leaving exposed those parts which in civilized countries are shielded most carefully. " I regard these strange and apparently-inconvenient articles of dress as "unique. They compressed the muscles, which they affected to cover, in a manner so ungrandisonian that I leave a special description of their structure to my note-book. " The foot-gear consists of a bird-skin short sock, with a padding The^foot of grass nicely distributed over the sole. Outside of this comes a bear-skin leg, sewed with great skUl to the natural sole of the plantigrade, and abundantly wadded about the foot with dry non- conducting straw. 'V .1 'q li il!Nri4 ^ )i'i 13 V*- m I CHAPTKU KXXIII. Iron men. A fox's tail. Ciivpet- kuiglits. Anxiety. 280 CARPKT KNIOIITS AND SAVAGES. " When this simple wardrobe is fully adjusted to the person, we understand sonietliing of the wonderful endurance of these Arctic primates. Wrangell called the Jacuti iron men, because they slept at —50° opposite the fire, with their backs exposed. Now, they of Smith's Sound have always an uncovered space between the waistband of the nannooke and the kapetab. To bend forward exposes the back to partial nudity ; and, no matter what the atti- tude, the entire chest is open to the atmosphere from below. Yet in this well-ventilated costume the man will sleep upon his sledge with the atmosphere 93° below our freezing-point. "The only additional articles of dress are a fox's tail, hold between the teeth to protect the nose in a wind, and mitts of seal- skin well wadded with sledge-straw. " When I saw Kalutunah, who guided the return-party to the brig from Tesseusak, the temperature was below — 50°. He was standing in the open air, comfortably scratcliing Ids naked skin, ready for a second journey ; which, in effect, he made eight hours afterward. " We — I mean our party of American hyperboreans — are mere carpet-knights aside of these indomitable savages. Experience has taught us to follow their guidance in matters of Arctic craft ; but we have to add a host of European appendages to their out- door clothing. " Imagine me, then, externally clad as I have described, but with furs and woollens layer upon layer inside, like the shards of an artichoke, till I am rounded into absolute obesity. Without all this, 1 cannot keep up my circulation on a sledge ; nor indeed without active exercise, if the thermometer is below — 54°, the lowest at which I have taken the floes. I have to run occasion- ally, or I should succumb to the cold." So much for my resources pf travel, as I have thrown them togetlier from different pages of my journal. The apparent levity with wliich I have detailed them seems out of keephig with the date under which they stand. In truth, I was in no mirthful humour at any time during the month of January. I had a grave office to perform, and under grave responsibilities ; and I had measured them well. I come back, after this long digression, to my daily record of anxieties : — " January 19, Friday. — The declining tides allow the ice m^\i\ ILLNESS AND SUFFERING. 281 beiieatli the ship to take the ground at low-water. Tliis occasions, cnAi>TKh of course, a good deal of upheaval and some change of position ^l!^^' along the ice-tables in which we are cradled. :Mr. Ohlscn reports Pj-cscnco^ a bending of our cross-beams of six inches, showing that the pres- sure is becoming dangerous. Anything like leakage would be disastrous in the present condition of the party. Our cabin-floor, howeve-, was so elevated by our carpenter's work of last fall, that it could not be flooded more than six inches ; and I hope that the under-bottom ice exceeds that height. At any rate we can do nothing, but must await the movements of the floe. March is to be our critical month. " George Whipple shows swelled legs and other symptoms of the incicasinp enemy ; Riley continues better ; Brooks weak, but holding his '""*-'*"• ground'; Wilson no better ; if anything, worse. I am myself so disabled in the joints as to be entirely unfit to attend to the traps or do any work. I shall try the vapour-bath and sweat, Indian fashion. ''January 21, S>'ndai/.—We have been using up our tar-laid Turning hemp hawsers for nearly a week, by way of eking cut our firewood, "'^'"*- and have reduced our consumption of pitch-pine to thirty-nine pounds a day. But the fine particles of soot throughout the room have affected the lungs of the sick so much that I shall be obliged to c^ive it up. I am now tryhig the Manilla ; but it consumes too rapidly ; with care we may make something of it. ''January 22, Monday. — Busy preparing for my trip to the lower iieigiit of Esquimaux settlement. The barometer remains at the extraordin- '''°'"'^ " ary height of 30 •85,— a bad prelude to a journey ! " Petersen caught another providential fox. We divided hhn into nine portions, three for each of our scurvied patients. I am olT." 282 THK D008 BREAK DOWN. A break- down. f ' Darkness and cold. CHAPTER XXXIV. A nREAK-DOWN— THE HUT IN A STORM — TWO NIGHTS IN THE HUT— FROST AGAIN — THE BACK TRACK — HEALTH ROLIi — MEDICAL TREATMENT — HEALTH FAILING- UNSUCCESSFUL HUNT— THE LAST BOTTLES. onAPTKR " Jaynrari/ 20, Mondaij. — The clogs carried us to the lower curve XXXIV. ^£^1^^ reach before brcakmg down, I was just beginnmg to hope for an easy voyage, when Toodla and the Big Yellow gave way nearly together — the latter frightfully contorted by convulsions. Tliere was no remedy for it ; the moon went down, and the wretched night was upon us. We groped along the ice-foot, and after fourteen hours' painful walking, reached the old hut. " A dark water-sky extended in a wedge from liittleton to a point nortii of the cape. Everywhere else the firmament was obscured by mist. The height of the barometer continued as we left it at the brig, and our own sensations of warmth convinced us that we were about to have a snow-storm. " We hardly expected to meet the Esquimaux here, and were not disappointed. Hans set to work at once to cut out blocks of snow to close up the entrance to the hut. I carried in our blubber- lamp, food, and bedding, unharnessed the dogs, and took them into the same shelter. We were barely housed before the storm broke upon us, " Here, completely excluded from the knowledge of things with- out, we spent many miserable hours. We could keep no note of time, and, except by the whirring of the drift against the roof of our kennel, had no information of the state of the weather. We slept, and cooked coffee, and diank cofibe, and slept, and cooked coffee, and drank again ; and when by our tired instincts we thought that twelve hours must have passed, we treated ourselves to a meal, — that is to say, we divided impartial bites out of the raw liind-leg of a fox, to give zest to our biscuits spread with frozen Uillow. " We then turned in to sleep again, no longer heedful of the storm, for it had now buried us deep in with the snow. Esqui- maux. The hut in a storm. -tJ-ilM^l . TWO NKilTTS IN THE HUT. 283 "Biit, in the mean time, altliougli the utorm contiimed, the tern- cnxpTKR V V X I V peratures imdcrwent an extraordinary change. I was awakened ' by the dropping of water from the roof above me; and, upon ciinngo oi turning back my slcei)ing-bag, found it saturated by the melting of tmu. its previously-condensed hoar-frost. My eider-down was like a wet swab. I found afterward that the phenomenon of the warm south-east had come unexpectedly upon us. The thermometers at the brig indicated +2^ ; and, closer as we were to the water, the weather was probably above the freezing point. " When we left the brig — how long before it was we did not jjuow — the temperature was — 44°. It had risen at least 70\ I defy the strongest man not to suffer from such a change. A close, us effects oppressive sensation attacked both Hans and myself. We both suffered from cardiac symptoms, and are up to this moment under anxious treatment by our comrades. Mr. Wilson, I find, has had spasmodic asthma from it here, and Brooks has had a renewal of his old dyspnoia, "In the morning — that is to say, when the combined light of the noonday dawn and the circumpolar moon permitted our escape — I found, by comparing the time as indicated by the Great Bear comimta with the present increased altitude of the moon, that we had been JlJ"^."^^ pent up nearly two days. Under these circumstances we made tiio moon directly for the hummocks, en route for the bay. But here was a "" disastrous change. The snow had accumulated under the wind- ward sides of the inclined tables to a height so excessive that we buried sledge, dogs, and drivers, in the effort to work through. It was all in vain that Hans and I harnessed ourselves to, or lifted, levered, twisted, and pulled. Utterly exhausted and sick, I was obliged to give it up. The darkness closed in again, and with difficulty we regained the igloe. " The ensuing night brought a return to hard freezing tempera- Frost tures. Our luxurious and downy coverlet was a stiff, clotted lump "f^''*'" of ice. In spite of our double lamp, it was a miserable halt. Our provisions grew short ; the snow kept on falling, and wc had still 46 miles between us and the Esquimaux. " I determined to try the land-ice (ice-foot) by Fog Inlet ; and we worked four hours upon this without a breathing-spell,— utterly in vain. My poor Esquimaux, Hans, adventurous and buoyant as he was, began to cry like a child. Sick, worn out, strength gone, dogs .^iLLI ill m 'i !■ [• • t 284 THE BACK TRACK. CnAPTEK XXXIV. Hccon- noltiliiK by nuKin- llglit m The back track. In the brig ngiiiu. Health tible. fast iind (IniiiKlcrin^', I iim not asliamcd to admit that, a;H 1 ili«nij,'lit of till' sick )U('ti oil board, my own C(|uaiumity also wa.i at faidt. " Wo had not boon able to got tlie dogs out, wlicii the big moon ai)pcared above the water-smoke. A familiar hill, 'Old Ilcacon Knob,' was near. I scrambled to its top and reconnoitred tiie coast around it. The ridge about Cape Iiather*)n seemed to jut out of a perfect chaos of broken ice. The water—that inexplicable North Water -was there a long black wedge, overhung by crapy wreaths of smoke, running to the northward and eastward. IV'ttcr than all yet,— couUi I be deceived (—a trough through the humuiock-ridges, ami level plains of ice stretching to the south! " Hans heard my h.dloo, and came up to confirm me. But for our disabled dogs and the waning moonlight, we could easily have made our journey. It was with a rejoiced heart that J made my way back to our miserable little cavern, and re-stuiled its gaping entrance with the snow. We had no blubber, and of course no fire ; but I knew that we could gain the brig, and that, after re- freshing the dogs and ourselves, we could now assuredly reach the settlements. " We took the back track next morning over Bedevilled Reach upon die mid-ice floes, and reached the brig by 4 p.m. on Friday ; since when I have been so stiff and scorbutic, so utterly used up, that to-day gives me a first return to my journal. " January/ 30, TvesJai/.—'My companions on board felt all my disappointment at bringing back no meat; but infinite glad- ness took the place of regret when they heard the great news of a passage through the hummocks. Petersen began at once to busy himself with his wardrobe ; and an eight-day party was organized almost before we turned in, to start as soon as the tempestuous weather subsides and the drifts settle down. It is four days since, but as yet we dare not venture out. " That there is no time for delay, this health-table will show :— " Henry Brooks : Unable any longer to go on deck : we carry him with difficulty from his berth to a cushioned locker. "M'Gary: Less helpless; but off duty, and saturated with articular scurvy. Mr. Wilson : In bed. Severe purpuric blotches, and nodes in limbs. Cannot move. MKALTir TAHI.K. 28r, Oedige Uili-y : A I km I ; iiuihs it'ss .siiii, gimis 1 tone r, Hli::l »ie to OUAITKh xxxiv. cook) : C:mnot keep his 1(1 hlistt-rcc'. legs many days Ili'iitth tllbllS. )Wii with a fiozt'ii heel : the hone exfdli- do (Uity. " TlioniaH ] rirkey (our nioro ; already .swelled ai "Williant Morton : !)< ating. " Henry G- odfellow : S(!nrvied gnnia, butg • erally well. "Dr. Ilaye.s is prostrate; with his r 'ut' ^od toes ; Sont.iL^ just able to hobble. In a word, oar effective force is reduced to five, — Mr. Ohlsen, Mr. Jionsall, Tetersen, llan.s, and the t'onnnander ; and even of these smie niight> perhaps, be rightfully transferred t^) the other list. We have the whole bunbn of the hourly obser- vations and the routine of our domestic life, even to the cooking, which wo take in rotation. " 8till this remarkable tcm])croture ; the barometer slowly librating between 29 20 and the old .'10'40. Snow fiill- ing ; wind from the .south-west, hauling by the west to north : yet the therujometer at — 10° and +.T. We long anxiously for weather to enable our meat-party to start. The past two days our sick have been entirely out of meat : the foxes seem to avoid Tumprnt tun- FOX-XRArti. our traps. I gave Wilson one raw meal from the messeter Foxtraps muscle which adhered to another old bear's head I was keeping U) ^K & CHAPTKR XXXIV. Remedies for scor- butic dis- ease- Tlie weather. Increase of llhiL'ss Petersen and Hans start on a 'oumey. 2g6 MKr.IljAL TREATMENT. for a specimen. But otherwise we have had no anti-scorbutic foi three days. , ,. t-u « \moncr other remedies which I oppose to the distemper, I have commenced making sundry salts of iron ; among them the citrate and a chlorohydrated tincture. We have but one bottle of brandy left • my applying a half-pint of it to the tincture shows tne nigh value I set lipon this noble chalybeate. My nose bled to-day and I was stiack A^-ith the fluid brickdusty poverty of the blood, i use iron much among my people : as a single remedy it exceeds all others, except only the specific of raw meat : potash for its own action is well enough to meet some conditions of the disease and we were in the, habit of using freely an extemporaneous citrate prepared from our lime-JHiice ; but, as our cases became more re- duced and complicated with hemorrhages, iron was our one great remedy -Jannary 31, Wednesdmj.-The weather stUl most extraor- dinary The wind has hauled around, and is now blowmg from the north and north-east, usually our coldest and clearest quarter. Yet the diffused mist continues,^ the snow falls, and the thermo- meter never records below —20°. ^ » Our sick are woi^e ; for our traps yield nothing, and we are still mthout fresh food. The absence of raw fox-meat for a smgle day shows itself in our scurvy. Hemorrhages are becoming com- mon My crew,-I have no crew any longer,-the tenants of my bunks cannot bear me to leave them a shigle watch. Yet 1 can- not make Petersen try the new path which I discovered and found practicable. Well, the wretched month is over. It is something to be living, able to write. No one has yet made the dark voyage, and January the 31st is upon us. Imruar, 2, Friday.-The weather clears, the ul moon shows herself, the sledge is packed, and Petersen vnW start to- ''^''- February 3, Saturdai/.-Be is gone with Hans. A bad time with Brooks, in a swoon from exhaustion ! ^^Fehruary 4, Sunday.-Uv. Ohlsen breaks down : the scurvy is in his knee, and he cannot walk. This day, too, Thomas Hickey, our acting cook, gives way completely I can hardly realize that among these strong men I alone shoidd be the borne- «p man,-the only one. except Mr. Bonsall, on his legs. It some- I Vjittii^^ UNSUCCESSFUL HUNT. 287 times makes nie treniblo when I think how necessary I am to chaptkk sustain this state of thhigs. It is a Sunday thouglit, that it must ^^J^- be for some wise and good end I am thus supported. a Sunday " Made an unsuccessful hunt out toward Mary Eivcr ; but, *''°"^''"- although the daylight was more than ample, tracked nothing. Our sick have been on short commons for the last five days ; and shoix we have given up the traps for want of fresh meat to bait them <=°"""°"* with. The fiord looked frightfully desolate. Where once was a torrent fighting among ice and rocks, is now a tunnel of drifted snow. Mary Leiper Iliver is a sinuous ravine, swept dry by the gales which issue from the hills, and its rocky bed patched with the frozen relics of its waters. " I made a dish of freshened codfish-skin for Brooks and Wil- son ; they were hungry enough to relish it. Besides this, I had kept back six bottles of our Scotch ale to meet emergencies, and I riie ia«t am dealing these out to them by the wine-glass. It is too cold ^°"'''* for brewing in our apartment : the water freezes two feet .above the floor. I have given up my writing-table arrangements, and my unfortunate study -lamp is now fixed under a barrel to see if it cannot raise a fermenting temperature. I shall turn brewer to-morrow if it succeeds." ##^.i^'v;ptf^'\ I 111 I 2:m llETURN OF PKTKRSKN AND HANS. CHAPTER XXXV. .„K PTHE-CLOTIIKD BAO-TUK WKAITH-OOOKERY-A KF-SPITE-TnE OOMINO DAWN - THE THUST - PROSPECT. - AKOUMENT - COLOURED SKIES— STOVE-PITTINC. CHAPTKR XXXV. Return of Petersen and Hans. (( A slight Improve- ment. Misty weather and a gale. ^^Fehncary G, Tue.dny.-M ten, last evening, not ^^^g aftei n y jonrnal-re^ord, I heard voices ontside. Petersen and Hans had returned. I met them silently on deck, and heard from poor Petersen how he had broken down. The snows had been jncreasmg ince my own last trial,-his strength had loft him ; the scurvy I'd entered his che.st ; in a word, he had foiled, and Hans could not do the errand alone. Bad enough ! . " But to-day our fortunes are on the mend. It has been beauti- fully clear ; and for the first time a shade of bronzed yellow has wanned our noonday horizon, with a gentle violet runmng mto rich brown clouds, totally unlike our night skies Hans and 1 started for a hunt,-one to explore new grounds, the other to fol- low tracks in the recent snow. The result was two rabbits, he first-fruits of the coming Ught, and the promise of more m the numerous feeding-traces among the rocks of Charlotte Wood Fiord. The meat, our first for ten days, was distributed raw. By keep- inc. the rabbits carefully covered up, they reached the ship suffi- ciently unfrozen to give us about a pint of raw blood. It wa„s a grateful cordial to Brooks, Wilson, and Riley. ^^Febmanj 7, Wednesday. -The weather was misty when I went out this morning, and the twinkling of the stars confirmed Petersen's prognostic of a warm south-easter before evening. Mist, stars, and Petersen were right. The gale is upon us darkening the lir with snow, and singing ih wild discords through the rio'cinff. . ""It is enough to solemnize men of more joyous temperament than ours has been for some months. We are contendmg at odds with angry forces close around us, without one agent or influence within 1800 miles whose sympathy is on our side. " My poor fellows, most of them bred in the superstitions of the THE nUE-CLOTHED BAG. 289 sea, are full of evil bodings. We have a largo old seal-skin bag ciiaptku on deck, tliat holds our remnant of furs. It hangs from the niain- XXXV. rE — THE HiOURED fter my ms had m poor creasing 5 scurvy ns could 1 beauti- llow has ling into IS and 1 ;r to fol- ibits, the re in the od Fiord. By keep- ;hip suffi- It was a ' when I confirmed mg. Mist, darkening rough the iperament ;ending at J agent or iide. ions of the stay, and we have all of us jested in the times of ordinary dark- ^"i >- ness about its grotesque physiognomy, io-night it has worn a fears. new character. One of the crew, crawling outside, saw it swing- ing in the storm with furious energy, and pounding against the mast like a giant boxing-glove. It glowed, too, with supernatural light ; and he is sure it spoke some dreadful message, though he was too much perturbed to give it audience. There is no rcjison- ing with him about it, and his messmates' Liugh, as they attempt to ridicule his fear, is like the ghost story merriment of a mirsery circle." It was an ugly and withal an anxious night. Mr. (Joodfellow, An nnxi- the youngest of our party, had left the cabin soon after dinner for ""* "'*'''''^ an inland stroll with his gun, and he had not returned when the scanty twilight closed before its time. The Aviiid blew off the coast, piling the snow in great hills and changing the whole face of the floe. As the darkness wore on we became uneasy, and at last alarmed, at his absence. We binnt blueliglits and Koinan candles to guide him through the night ; but it was six o'clock in the morning before he came in, happily none the worse for his adventure. Honest Tom Hickey liad been on the deck reconnoitring for a tonnf/i him while the gale was at its height. He came down to the mess just before the alarm of the thumping fur-bag, declaring he had seen Mr. Goodfellow moving cautiously along tlie land-ice and jumping down on the field below. He hurrieil his tea-things to give him a warm supper, but no one came. In the result, though Tom volunteered to make search at the spot where he had seen his messmate, and Riley offered to accompany him, and I myself looked diligently afterward -with a lantern for some hundreds of yards around, we found nothing but fresh-drifted snow, without the trace of a human foot. Tom had seen a vvaitli ; he believes it religiously, and associates its mysterious advent with the lumi- nous fur-bag. "There must be some warm southern area over which this wind comes, some open water, it may be, that is drawing nearer to us, to minister after a time to our escape. But we must go alone. I have given up all hope of rescuing our little vessel. She has been ''■'■W'll ' If ■A > I 11 m I 1 '- I S90 HUNGER AND DISEASK. OHAPTEB XXXV. iftH'uard and home for us tlirongli many lengthened trials ; but h Jiome eom Sh No hope tor the briK. lliius Kot-'S to liiint. V'lihie of ftesh meat. Symptoms of the past. A feathery quut. Three days' re- bjiite. an never float above the waves again. How many of ns are to be more fortunate ] '' Fehriiari/ 0, Frida>/.—Hti\l no supplies. Three of us have been out all day, without getting a shot. Hans thinks he saw a couple of rehuleer at a distance ; and his eyes rarely deceive him. He will try for them to-morrow. I have fitted out for him a tent and a sleeping-bag on the second table-land ; and the thermometer is now so little below zero that he will be able to keep the field for a steady hunt. Our sick are sinking for want of fresh food. It is the only specific : I dislike to use the un- philosophical term ; but in our case it is the true one. In large (luantities it dissipates the disease ; in ordinary rations it prevents its occurrence ; in small doses it checks it while sustaining the patient. We have learned its value too well to waste it ; every part of eveiy animal has its use. The skin makes the basis of a soup, and the claws can be boiled to a jelly. Lungs, larynx, stonuich, and entrails, all are available. I have not permitted myself to taste more than an occasional entrail of our last half- dozen rabbits. Not that I am free from symptoms of the univer- sal pest. I am conscious of a stiflness in the tendons, and a shortness of breath, and a weariness of the bones, that should naturally attend the eruption which covers my body. But I have none of the more fearful signs. I can walk with energy after I get warmed up, I have no bleeding of the gums, and, better than all, thank God, I am without that horrible despondency which the disease nourishes and feeds on. I sleep sound and dream pleasantly— generally about successes in the hunt, or a double ration of reindeer or ptiirmigan. " It has been a true warm south-easter. The housing-sails have been blown off by the storm, and we are buried up in a snow- drift. But one such feathery quilt is worth all the canvas cover- hig in the world. " My brewing apparatus has worked well, thanks to stove and storm ; and I have on hand now as unsavoury a dose of flax- seed and quinine as was ever honoured by the name of beer. " Pcbruari/ 10, Satardat/.— Three days' respite ! Petersen and myself have made a fruitless hunt ; but Hans comes in with three rabbits. Distribution : the blood to Ohlsen and Thomas; and to PROSPECTS AND FEAIW. SM lis ; bill es again. us have he saw deceive out for lid ; and e able to for -want the un- In large prevents ining the it; every asis of a i, larynx, permitted last half- le univer- s, and a it should Lit I have ^ after I jtter than cy which [id dream a double sails have n a snow- vas cover- stove and le of tlax- )eer. :ersen and with three ,s; and to tbe other eight of the sick men full rations ; consuming a rabbit chaptkp. and a half. I cannot risk the depression that a single death would ^^^' bring upon the whole party, and have to deal unfairly with those who can still keep about to save the rest from sinking. Ihooks and Ohlsen are in a precarious condition : they liave lost the entire mucous membrane of the alveoli j and Mr. Wilson requires special attendance every hour to carry him through. "The day is beginning to glow with the approaching sun. The Hope of south at noon has almost an orange tinge. In ten days his direct j^^".'"'"*^ ravs will reach our liill tops ; and in a week after he Avill be dis- pensing his blessed medicine among our sufferers. ^^ February 12, Monday. — Hans is off for his hunthig-lodge, ' over the hills and f:ir away,' beyond Charlotte Wood Fiuid. I have sent Godfrey with him, for I fear the boy has got the taint like the rest of us, and may suffer from the exposure. He thinks he can bring back a deer, and the chances are worth the trial. We can manage the small hunt, Petersen and I, till he comes back, unless we break down too. But I do not like these symptoms of mine, and Petersen is very far from the man he was. We had a tramp to-day, both of us, after an imaginary deer, — a bennisoak that has been supposed for the last three days to be hunthig the neighbourhood of the waterpools of the big fiord, and have come back jaded and sad. If Hans gives way, God help us!" It is hardly worth while to inflict on the reader a succession of joumai journal-records Uke these. They tell of nothing but the varying symptoms of sick men, dreary, profitless hunts, relieved now and then by the signalized incident of a killed rabbit or a deer seen, and the longed-for advent of the solar light. We worked on board — those of us who could work at all — at arranging a new gangway with a more gentle slope, to let some of the party crawl up from their hospital into the air. We were six, all told, out of eighteen, who could affect to hunt, cook, or nurse. Meanwhile we tried to dream of commerce with the Esquimaux, and open water, and home. For myself, my thoughts had occu- pation enough in the question of our closing labours. I never lost my hope. I looked to the coming spring as full of responsi- records of suffering. 202 TRUST IN GOD. CHAPTER XXXV. Trust in God. "5 mi Calcula- tion of time and menus. ■'•'! Two sides to the picture. 1 bilities ; but 1 had bodily strength and moral tone enough to lools through them to the end. A tni.st, based on experience as well as on promises, buoyed me up at the worst of times. Call it fatalism, as you ignorantly may, there is that in the story of every eventful life which teaches the inefficiency of human means and the present control of a Supreme Agency. See how often relief has come at the moment of extremity, in forms strangely unsought, almost at the time unwelcome ; see, still more, how the back has been strengthened to its increasing burden, and the heart cheered by some conscious influence of an unseen Power. Thinking quietly over our condition, I spread out in my diary the results which it seemed to point to. After reviewing our sick list and remarking how little efhciency there was in the other mem- bers of the party, my memorandum went on : — " We have three months before us of intense cold. We have a large and laborious outfit to arrange, — boats, sledges, provisions, and accoutrements for a journey of alternating ice and water of more than 1300 miles. Our carpenter is among the worst of our invalids. Supposing all our men able to move, four at least of them must be carried by the rest, three in consequence of ampu- tation, and one from frost- wounds ; and our boats must be sledged over some sixty or perhaps ninety miles of terrible ice before launching and loading them. Finally, a part of our force, what- ever it may be, must be detailed to guard our property from the Esquimaux while the other detachments are making their successive trips to the open water. So much for the shadow of the picture ! " But it has tAvo sides ; and, whether from constitutional tem- perament or-well reasoned argument, I find our state far from desperate, I cheer my comrades after this fashion : — "1. I am convinced, from a careful analysis of our disease, that under its present aspects it is not beyond control. If with the aid of our present hunting resources, or by any providential accession to them, I can keep the cases from rapid depression, next month ought to give us a bear, and in the meantime Hans may find a deer ; and, with a good stock of fresh meat even for a few days, I can venture away from the vessel to draw supplies from the Esquimaux at Etah, I should have been there before this, if I could have been spared for forty-eight hours. We want nothing but meat. If I ,1 "4^. ■^■^1. . .,— HOPE AND TU;f50LUTI0N, 293 to lools as well Call it story of ti means en relief n sought, lack has cheered ay diary our sick er mem- Ne have o visions, water of t of our ; least of if arapu- ) sledged ;e before e, what- from the uccessive picture ! )nal teni- far from ease, that with the )vidential jpression, ime Hans eat even to draw ave been irty-eight " 2. The coming of the sun will o[)eu a[)|»li;\iic('s of moral help to the sick, and give energy tt) the hygienic resorts which E am arraTiging at this moment. Our miserable little kennel, where eighteen are crowded into the si»ace of ten, is thoronglily begrimed with lampblack from the hievitable smoke of our fuel. The wea- ther has prevented our drying and airing the sloeping-gcar. The floor is damp from the conducted warmth of the sea- water under us, melting the ice that has ccmdensed everywhere l)e]ow. Sun- shine and dry weather will cure all this. I have window-sash ready to fix over the roof and southern side of the galley-house ; and our useless daguerreotype plates, tacked over wooden screens, make admirable mirrois to transfer the sini-rays into the cabin. 1 have manufactured a full-draught pipe for our smoky stove. Chlo- ride of sodium must do the rest. " 3. While we live we will stick together j one fate shall belong to us all, be it what it may. "There is comfort in this review; and, please God in his bene- ficent providence to spare us for the work, I will yet give one more manly tug to search the shores of Kennedy Channel for memorials of the lost ; and then our duties over here, and the brig still prison- bound, enter trustingly upon the ta:^k of our escape. '^February 21, Wednesday. — To-day the crests of the north-east headland were gilded by true sunshine, and all who ^vere able assembled on deck to greet it. The sun rose above the horizon, though still screened from our eyes by intervening hills. Although the powerful refraction of Polar latitudes heralds his direct appear- ance by brilliant light, this is as far removed from the glorioiis tints of day as it is from the mere twilight. Nevertheless, for the past ten days we have been watching the growing warmth of our landscape, as it emerged from buried shadow, through all the stages of distinctness of an India ink washing, step by step, into the sharp, bold definition of our desolate harbour scene. We have marked every dash of colour which the great Painter in his bene- volence vouchsafed to us ; and now the empurpled blues, clear, unmistakeable, the spreading lake, the fiickeri ug yellow; peering at all these, poor wretches ! everythhig seemed superlative lustre and unsurpassable glory. We had so grovelled in darkness that we oversaw the light, " Mr, Wilson has caught cold and relapsed. Yiw Ohlsen, after CHAl'TEl XXXV. 'I'lio mm iiiR of tliu sun. Resolu- tion. Comfort and hoiic Renp- penrance of sun- shine. Colouvei' skies. i!;:u I 294 STOVE-FITTIN«. ttl 1 w^ :';!; : i ,ii Hi •' IK If ■ ^ i ', .1 A new form of disease. Stove- Httiiig. CHAPTER a suspicioub day, startles me by an attack of partial epilepsy— one XXXV. ^j ^i^^gg strange indescribable spells, fits, seizures, whatever name the jargon gives them, which indicate deep disturbance. I conceal his case as far as I can ; but it adds to my heavy pack of troubles to anticipate the gloomy scenes of epileptic transport introduced into our one apartment. M'Oary holds his own. " The work of stove-fitting is completed, and a new era marks its success. The increased draught which the prospective termina- tion of our winter allows me to afford to our fuel brings an un- hoped-for piece of good fortune. We can burn hemp cable and cast-off running-gear. By the aid of a liigli chimney and a good regulating valve, the smoke passes directly into the open air, and tarred junk is as good as oak itself. This will save our trebling, and, what is more, the labour of cutting it. In truth, very little of it has been used up, scarcely more than a single streak. We have been too weak to cut it off. All our disposable force was inadequate last Saturday to cut enough for a day's fuel in advance. "The sickness of a single additional man would have left ua without lire." THE BENNE80AK. '/[)6 CHAPTER XXXVl. THE DENNESOAK— A DILEMMA— THE SUN — ENO OF FEllRUAUY -OUK CONDI- TION-TOE WARM SOUTH-EASTER — MOONIilOlIT— THE LANDSCAPE. " February 22, Thursday. — Washington's birthday : all our colours flying in the new sunlight. A day of good oiucn, even to the sojourners among the ice. 1 fans comes in with great news, lie has had a shot at our bennesoak, a long shot ; but it reached him. The animal made off at a slow run, but we are sure of him now. This same deer has been hanghig round the lake at the fiord through all the dim returning twilight ; and so many stories were told of his appearance and movements, that he had almost grown into a myth. To-morrow Ave shall desire his better acquaintance. "The Esquinuiux call the deer when he is without antlers a bennesoak. The greater number of these animals retain their antlers till the early spring, beginning to drop them about the return of sunshine ; but some of the strongest lose them before the winter sets in. They are gregarious in their habits, and fond of particular localities. Where they have been gathered together year after year, the accumulation of discarded antlers is immense. They tell me at llolsteinberg, where more than four thousand rein- deer-skins find a market annually, that on the fivvourite hunting- grounds these horns are found in vast piles. They bring little or nothing at Copenhagen, but I suppose would find a ready sale among the button -workers of England. ^^ February 23, Friday. — Hans was out early this morning on the trail of the wounded deer. Rhina, the least barbarous of our sledge-dogs, assisted him. He was back by noon, with the joyful news, ' The. tukkuk dead only two miles up big fiord ! ' The cry found i. /ay through the hatch, and came back in a broken huzza from the sick men. " We are so badly off for strong arms that our reindeer threatened to be as great an embarrassment to us as the auction drawn-ele- phant was to his lucky master. We had hard wcrk with our dogs carrying nim tc the brig, and still harder, worn down as we were, CIIAPTKK XXXVI. Washinj,'- ton'sbirtli day. The ben ncsoiik. Good news. I i 9 1 ii 29({ THI5 rniNOKKK. :i j; .i I I "1 n I XXXVI. A (lilcin- niii. k feii!st. Size of the rein- ilcer. cuAi'TER ill getting him over the ship's side. Hut we succeeded, and wea tmiibliiig him down tiie hold, wiieu we found ourselves iti a dilemma, like the Vicar of Wakefield with his ianiily picture. It was impos- sible to drag the [irize into our little moss-liiied dormitory ; the tossnt was not half big enough to let him pass, and it was ccpially impossible to skin him anywhere else without freezing our fingers in the operation. It was a hai»py escape from the endjarrassments of our hungry little council to deternuue that the animal might be carved before skinning as well as he could be afterward ; and in a very few minutes wo proved our united wisdom by a feast on his quartered remains. " It was a glorious meal, such as the compensations of Providence reserve for starving men alone. We ate, forgetful of the past, and almost heedless of the morrow ; cleared away the offal wearily : and now, at 10 p.m., all hands have turned in to sleep, leaving to their commanding officer the solitary honour of an eight hours' vigil. " This deer was among the largest of all the northern specimens I have seen. He measured five feet one inch in girth, and six feet two inches in length, and stood as large as a two years' heifer. We estimated his weight at three huiulred pounds gross, or one hundred and eighty net. The head had a more than u.sually cund)rous character, and a long waving tuft of white hair, that depended from the throat, gave an appearance of excessive weight to the front view. " The reindeer is hi no respect a graceful animal. There is an apparent want of proportion between his cumbrous shoulders and light haunch, which is ungainly even in his rapid movements. But he makes up for all his defects of form when he presents him- self as an article of diet. '^ February 2i, Satnrdai/. — A bitter disappointment met us at pointmeiit. anv evening meal. The flesh of our deer was nearly uneatable from putrefiiction ; the liver and intestines, from which I had expected so much, utterly so. The rai)idity of such a change, in a tempera- ture so low as minus 35'", seems curious ; but the Greenlanders say that extreme cold is rather a promoter than otherwise of the putre- factive process. All the graminivorous animals have the same tendency, as is well known to the butchers. Our bufl"alo-hunters, when tliey condescend to clean a carcass, do it at once ; they have \ disup- RRJOICINO TO SKR THE SUN. 297 told mc that the nmsk-ox is S()metini...s tiiintod after five miniitcH' onAPTKh XXXVI px'poHuro. The I'^squimaiix, with whom there is no fastidious sen- ' sihility of pahite, are in the practieo at Yotlik and Morses' Head, l^l^\l^\!l in latitude 73° 40', even in the severest weather, of withdrawing i;,ction. the viscera immediately after death and filling the cavity with stones. " FebriKir// 25, Smiddi/. — The day of rest for those to wlunu rest wdcomc can bo ; the day of grateful recognition for all ! J(jhn, our volun- JjJ, "' teer cook of yesterday, is down : Aforton, who could crawl out of bed to play baker for the party, and stood to it manfully yesterday, is down too. I have just one man left to help me in caring for the sick, lians and Petersen, thank Ood! have vitality enough left to bear the toils of the hunt. One is out with his riHe, the other searching the traps. "Today, blessed be the Great Author of Light! I hav^e once Tho sun more looked upon the sun. I was standing on deck, thinkmg over "''i"^"'" our prospects, wheii a familiar berg, which had long been hid in shadow. Hashed out in sun-birth. I knew this berg right well : it stood between Charlotte Wood Fiord and Little Willie's Monument. One year and one day ago I travelled toward it from Fern Rock to catch the sunshine. Then I had to climb the hills beyond, to get the luxury of basking in its brightness ; but now, though the sim was but a single degree above the true horizon, it was so much elevated by refraction, that the sheen .stretched across the trough of the fiord like a flaming tongue. I coidd not or would not resist the influence. It was a Sunday act of worship : I started off" at luinnint; an even run, and caught him as he rolled slowly along the horizon, g" *,hinc and before he saidc. I was again the first of my party to rejoice and meditate in sunshine. It is the third sun I have seen rise for a moment above the long night of an Arctic winter. ^^ February 26, Monday. — William Godfrey undertook to act as cook to-day, but fainted before complethig the experiment. The rest of us are little better ; and now it looks as if we were to lose our best caterer, for Hans too shows signs of givhig way to the scurvy. " I have been at work for an hour, cutting up the large Manilla hawser for fuel. I do not know that I have any very remarkable or valuable quality ; but I do know that, however multiform may be my virtues, I am a singidarly awkward hand in chopping up frozen cable.=;. liii: \ I II I .-fffT" 208 OHAMKU XXXVI. Iiiercnso of lliHL'IISC. Labours of those Htm ubiu to work. i;i nrSTRKRSTNO CONPITIftN. Hones for the future, |tr*;t- ^^FthriKin/ 28, Wiifiicsdai/. — Fehniary rlosos : tlwink God f(;r the lap.se of its twcnty-eiglii days ! Should the thiity-oTU! of the coining M.-irch not drag us further downward, wo may hope for a Hucceasfnl close to thi.s dreary drauia. IJy the tenth of April we should have seal ; and when they come, if wo remain to welcome them, we can call ourselves saved. "But a fair review of our pro.spects tells me that I nnist look the lion in the face. The sciu'vy is steadily gaining on u.s. I do my best to sustain the more desperate cases ; but as fast as T l>artially build up one, another is stricken down. The disease is perhaps less malignant than it wa.s, but it is more diffused through- out our party. Except Wi'liam Morton, who is disa1)led by a frozen heel, not one of our eighteen is exempt. Of the six workers of our party, as I counted them a month ago, two are unable to do out-door work, and the remaining four divide the duties of the ship among them. Hans musters his remaining energies to con- duct the hunt. Petersen is his disheartened, moping assistant. The other two, Bonsall and myself, havo all the daily offices of household and hospital. We chop five large sacks of ice, cut six fathoms of eight-inch hawser into junks of a foot each, serve out the meat when we have it, hack at the molasses, and hew out with crowbar and axe the pork and incd apples, pass up the foul slop and cleansings of our dormitory ; i'')J, : i a wore'', cuok, scidUonize, and attend the sick. Added to tiiLs, for five nights running I have kept watch from 8 r.M. to 4 a.m., catching cat-naps as I could in the day without changing my clothes, but carefully waking every hour to note thermometers. *' Such is the condition in which February leaves us, with forty- one days more alidad of just the same character in prospect as the twenty-eight which, thank God ! are numbered now with the past. It is saddening to think how much those twenty-eight days have impaired our capacities of endurance. Yet there are resources — accidental perhaps, mercifully providential let me rather term them, contingent certainly, so far as our prescience goes — which may avail to save us : another reindeer of sound carcass, a con- stant succession of small game, supplies of walrus from the fugitive >]squimaux, or that which I most expect and hope for — a bear. We have already seen some tracks of these animals ; and last March there were many of them off CoflFee Gorge and the ni tlm pe for a \ I till wo wi'lcotne lUst look s. I do fiist as T is ease is thrcMigli- ed Ly a workers ble to do .'s of the ! to ct)n- lasistant. offices of cut six serve out out with foul slop 'ullion'ce, ug I have could in ng every itli forty- Bct as the the past, ays have sources — her term s — which ss, a con- le fugitive • — a bear. and last and the atmosi'iikhic'<'HAN(u;h. 'i.m Tjabyriiilh. If Flans and myself can only hold on, we may work cha»"crr our way through. All rests u|M)n destiny, or tlic pciwcr wiiii'h ^*^^'' controls it. "It will yet be many days before the sun overrides the shadow I'IhIok fu. of lassie Mountain and reaches our brig. The sick pine for him, and T have devised a clever system of mirrors to hasten his visit to their bunks. He will do more for them than all medirine besides. "That strange phenomenon, the warm south and south-east winds wmm which came upon us in January, did not pass away till the nuddle ,^1,^1^ of this month. And, even after it had gone, the weather con- tinued for some days to reflect its hifluence. The thermometer seldom fell below — 40°, and stood sometimes as high as — 30°. It has been growing colder for the last three days, ranging from — 4G° to — 51° ; and the abundant snows of the warm spell are now compacted hard enough to be traversible, or else dissipated by the heavy winds. 'Jhere is nuich to be studied in these atmo- spheric changes. There is a seeming connection between the Atmo- increasing cold and the increasing moonlight, which has some- c{',^,';'p't?, times forced itself on my notice ; but I have barely strength enough to carry on our routine observations, and have no time to discuss phenomena. " Two attempts have been made by n;y orders, since the month began, to communicate with the Esquinuiux at their huts. Both were failures. Petersen, Hans, and Godfrey came back to de- nounce the journey as impracticable. I know better : the ex})eri- ence of my two attempts in the midst of the darkness satisfies me that at this period of the year the tiling can be done ; and, if I might venture to leave our sick-bay for a week, I would prove it. But there arc dispositions and influences here around me, scarcely latent, yet repressed by my presence, which make it my duty at all hazards to stay where I am. ''March 1, Thursday. — A grander scene than our bay by moon- The buy light can hardly be conceived. It is more dream-like and super- )5g,JJ°*"'" natural than a combination of earthly features. " The moon is nearly full, and the dawning sunlight, mingling with hers, invests everytlnng with an atmosphere of ashy grey. It clothes the gnarled hills that make the horizon of our bay, shadows out the terraces in dull definition, grows darker and Wd I 300 A MOONLIOIIT LANDSCAPR. Intense mooK- UK>it. OHAPTKR colder as it sinks ii.to the fiords, ami broods sad and dreary npon XXXVI. ^|,g ^.ijj^.p^ .^,,j mcasnreless i)hiins of ice tliat make up tlie rest of our field of view, llising above all tbis, and sbading down into it in strange combination, is tbo intense moonligbt, glittering on every crag and spire, tracing tbe outline of the background witli contrasted brightness, and printing its fantastic profdcs on the snow-field. It is a landscape such as Milton or Dante might Imaghie,— inorganic, desolate, mysterious. I have come down froni deck with the feelings of a man who has looked upon a world un- finished by the hand of its Creator," TUB 0RAVK8 HV MOONLIOIIT- ry iii>oii rest of m\ into ring on nd wit] I on tlie Q might wn fron) arid nn- A CHRONICLE OF SUFFERINGS. 301 iH ' ' I CHAPTER XXXVII. OUR CONDITION— THE UE.SOKTS— THE SICK— THE RAT IN THE INSECT-ROX— ANTICIPATIONS— IIAn's RETURN— FAMINE AT ETAII— HIYOUIC ON ROARD — WALRUS-TACKLE— THE MEAT DIET. My journal for the beginning of March is little else than a chronicle of sufferings. Our little party was quite broken down. Every man on board was tainted with scurvy, and it was not com- mon to find more than three who could assist in caring for the rest. The greater number were in tlieir bunks, absolutely unable to stir. The circumstances were well fitted to bring out the character of individuals. Some were intensely grateful for every little act of kindness from their more fortunate messmates ; some querulous ; others desponding; others again wanted only strength to become mutinous. Brooks, my first officer, as stalwart a nian-o'- war's man as ever faced an enemy, burst into tears when he first saw himself in the glass. On Sunday, the 4th, our last remnant of fresh meat had been doled out. Our invalids began to sink rapidly. The wounds of our amputated men opened afresh. The region about our har- bour ceased to furnish its scanty contingent of game. One of our huntsmen, Petersen, never very reliable in anything, declared himself unfit for further duty. Hans was unsuccessful : he made several wide circuits, and saw deer twice ; but once they were beyond range, and the next time his rifle missed fire. I tried the hunt for a long moriiing myself, without meeting a single thing of life, and was convinced, by the appearance of things on my return to the brig, that I should peril the morale, and with it the only hope, of my command by repeating the experiment. I laboured, of course, with all the ingenuity of a well-taxed mind, to keep up the spirits of my comrades. I cooked for them all imaginable compounds of our unvaried diet-list, and brewed up tiax-seed and lime-juice and quinhie and willow-stems into an abomination which was dignified as beer, and which some were 20 ti OnAPTKIi XXXVII. Progress of disease Cliaiacter^ of the men. An un- succi .U hunt. •\i: 302 OHAl'TKB XXXVII. Fresh meat absolutely neccssiivy. ipi^ III ■ A despe- rate ven- ture. , , i Severe .Uness. ALMOST DESPAIRING. i^ersuaded for the time to believe such. But it was becoming more Ld more certain every hour, that unless we could renew our sup- pHes of fresh meat, the days of the party were numbered. I spare myself, as well as the readers of this hastily-compiled volume, when I pass summarily over the details of our condition '''* f lookback at it with recollections like those of a nightmare. Yet T was borne ap wonderfully. I never doubted for an instant that the same Providence which had guarded us through the long darkness of winter was still watching over us for good, and that t was yet in reserve for us-for some, I dared not hope for all-to bear back the tidings of our rescue to a Christian land. But how I did not see. , j? i On the Otli ot the mouth I made the desperate venture of sencl- inc- off mv only trusted and effective huntsman on a sledge-joumcy to°find the Esquimaux of Etah. He took ^vith him our two sur- ^L dogs in our lightest sledge. The Aretie day liad hegm> to Tet in ; the ioe-traclc had i.nprovcd with the advance of the season ; and the cold, though stiU intense, had "-"f-f ^^M^. Wt at below the freezing-point. He was to make his first n.ght-halt a Auoatok ■ and, if no misadventure tliwarted his progress we hoped "mi d>t reach the settlemerrt before the end of the second il T^Tthree or at furthest four days more, I counted on h,s rctou. No language can express the anxiety with which our poor suffering crew awaited it. , o r t„ Tf tl,^ Mm-ch 8, 2V«m?«i/.-Hans must now be at the huts If the natives have not gone south, if the walrus and bear have no failed then,, and if they do not refuse to send us supplies, ,^e may have fresh food in three days. God grant it may come " " sJephenson and Pdley are dangerously ill We have moved Palcv from his bunk, which, though lighter than most of the others, L^dampeued by the accumulations of ice. He is now upon a diy ami heated platform close to the .stove. Dr. Hayes s oo Iws some ugly symptoms, which a change of his l" W" may perhaps mitig.ate ; and I have determmed, «'«<=&<'. remove him to the berth Riley has vacated as soon as we can niirifv and dry it for him. . , i i -u ' nn elearii out Eileys bunk, we found that a rat had bull. ng more )ur 8up- ompilerl ondition ^litmare. I instant the long id that it r all — to But how 3 of send- e-journey two sur begun to le season ; [ibout 80° ht-halt at we hojied lie second ed on his h our poor ts. If the have not applies, we may come ive moved the others, now upon ayes's foot iging-place lerefore, to as we can it had built ILLNESS AND DREARY rROSPKCTS. 3(\3 his nest in my insect-box, destroyuig all our specimens. Tl grave loss ; for, besides that they were light of carriage, and mi>dit us IS a OHAPTKR XXXVIl. therefore have accomi)anied us in the retreat which now seems in- evitable, they comprised our entire collection, and, though few in numbers, were rich for this stinted region. I had many spiders and bees. He is welcome to the wliole (jf tliem, however, if I only catch him the fatter for the ration. " March 9, /"/-/(/ay.— Strength going. It was with a feeling nii.ess almost of dismay that I found how difficult it was to got through ''""' ':'^' the day's labours, — Bonsall and myself the sole workers. After cleansing below, dressing and performing the loathsome duties of a nurse to the sick, cutting ice, cooking and serving messes, we could liardly go further. " I realize fully the moral effects of an unl)roken nmtine : sy.s- tematic order once broken in upon, discomfort, despondency, and "^crease of disease must follow of course. It weighed heavily on my spirit to-day when I found my one comrade and myself were barely able to cut the necessary fuel. The hour of routine-night- fall fmds us both stiff and ill at ease. Having to keep the nioht- watch until G a.m., I have plenty of time to revolve my most uncomfortable thoughts. "Be it understood by any who may pcradventure read of these Hopes acd things in my journal, that I express them nowhere else. What [i,e"Jif",',,p secret thoughts my companions may have are concealed from me and from each other ; but none of them can see as I do the alternative future now so close at hand : bright and comforting it nuiy be ; but, if not, black and hopeless altogethei-. " Should Hans come back with a good supply of walrus, and himself unsmitten by the enemy, our sick would rise under the genial specific of meat, and our strength })robably increase enough to convey our boats to the North Water. The Refuge Inlet Polynia will hardly be more than forty miles from our brig, and, step by step, we can sledge our boats and their cargoes down to it. Once at Cape Alexander, we can support our sick by our guns, and make a regular Capua of the bird-colonies of Northumberland Island. This, in honest truth my yet unswerving and unshaken hope and expectation, is what I preach to n y people ; and often in the silent hours of night I chat to some sleepless patient of cochlearia salads and glorious feasts of loons and cider ducks. i * .1 fit 304 THE llETTTRN OF HANS. ■ On the other side, suppose 111 Hans fails : the thought is horrible, about this date, in hotter con- CHAl'TKll XXXVII. mu sipU^jjergen victims were, at -wi 4. *i .«;;77o,. a oX. wo ,„-e : it »,« „«t until t„e n.iadlo „f Afj^^^"^ t, .y ""= ''""" becnn to die off. We have yet forty day. to n l.efo.e ue can cou^ Ion the ,v„ovati„g btesi.igs of animal hie and reatonng "mth Neither Riley nor Wil.on ean last half that tune w.th- outruiH'lyo^'"t---'™'-f°«'' Indeed, there IS not a, nan on bldTo ean hope to lingev on till the spring eon.e. unless we ^-'V put" all this down in no desponding spirit, but as a record to look back upon hereafter, when the innnediate danger has passed away, and some new en.ergency has brought its own array ol cares and trials. My mind is hopeful and reliant : there is something even cheering iu the constant rally of its energies to meet the calls of the hour. ^i 4. i ^^ March 10, Salurdai/.—li'^ns has not yet returned, so that he must have reached the settlement. His orders were, if no meat be obtained of the Esquimaux, to borrow their dogs and try for bears along the open water. In this resource I have confidence. The days are magnificent. , t,- 7 • 7 • r' I had hardly written the above, when Ban, him, bnn ! sounded from the deck, mixed with the chorus of our returning do<'s The next minute Hans and myself were shaking hands. " He had much to tell us ; to men in our condition Hans was as a man from cities. We of the wilderness flocked around him to hear the news. Sugar-teats of raw meat are passed aroun.l ' Speak loud, Hans, that they may hear in t^ie bunks.' "The 'wuid-loved' Anoatok he had reached on the first night after leaving the brig: no Escpiimaux there of course; and he slept not warmly at a temperature of 53° below zero. On the eveninc^ of the next day he reached Etah Bay, and was hailed with joyous welcome. But a new phase of Escpiimaux life IkuI come upon its indolent, happy, blubber-fed denizens. Instead of Etrifay. plump, greasy chndrcn, and round-cheeked matrons, Hans sa^v around him lean figures of misery : the men looked hard and bony, and the children shrivelled in the hoods which cradled them at iheir mothers' backs. Famine had been among them ; and the skin of a young sea-unicorn, lately caught, was all that remahied to them of food. It was the old story of improvidence and its riie return of Hans and hl3 adven- tures. ClianKGS for tlie worse at i liorriblo, tter con- that they •e Ave can restoring ime -vvith- a wan on unless we s .a record bas passed ly of cares somethmg et the calls so that he if no meat and try for confidence. ,him, him.!'' r returning g hands, 1 Hans was around hini ;sed around. e first nigh.t .rse; and hu ro. On the I Avas hailed aux life IkuI Instead of IS, Hans saw ird and bony, died them at em ; and the hat remained lence and its 'A I'able tr; WALRUS HUNTING. had :5(»5 of ])lllbb even eaten tlieir resei and were seated in darkness and cold, waiting gloomily for the sun. Even their dogs, their main reliance for the Inmt and for an escape to some more favoured camping-ground, had fallen a sacrifice to hunger. Only four remained out of thirty : the rest had been eaten. "Hans behaved well, and carried out my orders in their full spirit. He proposed to aid them in the walrus-hunt. They smiled at first with true Indian contempt ; l)ut when they saw my Marston rifle, which he had with him, they changed their tone. When the sea is completely frozen, as it is now, the wal- rus can only be caught by harpooning them at their holes or in temporary cracks. This mode of hunting them is called utok. It requires great skill to enter the harpoon, and often fails from the Une giving way in the struggles of the animal. They had lost a harpoon and line in this manner the very day before }Ians' arrival. It required very little argument to persuade them to accept his oflFered company and try the effect of his cone-ball on the har- pooned animal before he made good his retreat. " I have not time to detail Hans' adventurous hunt, equally im- portant to the scurvied sick of Rensselaer and the starving resi- dents of Etah Bay. Metek (the eider-duck) speared a medium- sized walrus, and Hans gave him no less than five ^Marston balls before he gave up his struggles. The beast was carried back in triumph, and all hands fed as if they could never know famine again. It was a regular feast, and the kablunah interest was exalted to the skies. " Miserable, yet happy wretches, Avithout one thought for the future, fighting against care when it comes unbidden, and enjoy- ing to the full their scanty measure of present good ! As a beast, the Esquimaux is a most sensible beast, worth a thousand Cali- bans, and certainly ahead of his cousin the Polar bear, from whom he borrows his pantaloons. " I had directed Hans to endeavour to engage Myouk, if he could, to assist him in hunting. A most timely thought : for the morning's work made them receive the invitation as a great favour. Hans got his share of the meat, and returned to the brig accom- panied by the boy, who is now under my care on board. This imp — for he is full of the devil — Uas always had a relishing fancy CllAPTBR XXXVII. Miserable ciniditioii of tho Esqul« Mode of luiiitiiig walrus. Successful liiint. Myouk eriKUKed assistant in hunt- ing. 1 I i j \ 11 : :i 1 1 lii'H • ' ' '' If! ■; J n 1 JBtI' i . state of the sick. ■■■a: I * I I 3„(. STATE OP THK SICK. 0HAPT.a for the kicks and cutis with which I recall the forks and tea- -V" spoons when they get astray; and, to tell the trnth, he alway M^;;;;: tLs care to eam thenu He is very happy but so wasted by hunger that the work of fattening hmi will be a co.s ly one. Poor little fellow ! born to toil, and necessity, and peril ; tern hnnter as he already is, the lines of his face are still soft and childlike. I think we understand one another better than our in- ccngriiities would imply. He has fallen asleep in a deer skni at my feet. i • i i. , +i,; . -March 11, ^nnda^/.-'nie sick are not as bnglit as tlu. relief ought to make them. The truth is, they are fearfully down. Neither poor Wilson nor Eiley could bear the meat and they both suffered excessive pain with fever from a mea that was very limited in quantity. Even the stoutest could hardly bear their once solicited allowance of raw meat. 1 dis- pensed it cautiously, for I knew the hazards ; but I am sure it is to be the salvation of all of us. It gives a respite at any rate, and we could not in reason ask for more. « Hans is making a walrus-harpoon and line ; and, as soon a3 he and Myouk have freshened a little, I shall send theni back to Anoatok in search of water-cracks. I am hard worked gettmg Uttle rest, yet gratefully employed, for my people seem to thank me. My cookery unfortunately shows itself on the smeared pages of my journal. n • ^ i tvt i -March 12, Monchn/.-Tho new tackle is finished. Myouk had lost his ussuk-Une upon the icel)erg, but we supphed its place with a light Manilla cord. Hans made the bonework o his naligeit from the reindeer antlers which are abundant about the hills. They both rest to-night, and make an early start m the morning for their working ground. "The less severe cases on our sick list are beginning to feel the influence of their new diet ; but Wilson and Brooks do not react. Their inclination for food, or rather their toleration of it is so much impaired that they reject meat in its raw state, and when cooked it is much less prompt and efficient in its action. My mode of serving it out is this -.-Each man has his saucer of thinly sliced frozen walrus heart, with limejuice or vmegar be- fore breakfast ; at bre.^kftist, blood gra^7 with wheaten bread ; at dinner, steaks slightly stewed or fried, without limit of quantity , New Ash- ing tackle Diet for the sick. DTET OF TllK SICK. and tea- no al\vay;« 'astecl by ).stly one. ril ; tern soft and an our in- ler bkiu at none at tea proper ; but at 8 p.m. a renewed allowance of raw chaptkk slices and vinegar. It shows how broken down the party is, that ^ ^*^" ' under the appetizing stinuilations of an Arctic sky all our conva- lescents and well men together are content with some seven pounds of meat. Their prostrate comrades are sustained by broth." t as this } fearfully the meat, m a meal test could it. I dis- ani sure it tt any rate, li! as soon ri3 em back to ed, getting n to thank eared pages d. Myouk iupplied its onework of idant about ,rly start in r to feel the lo not react. of it, is so :e, and when action. My lis saucer of vinegar, be- en bread ; at of quantity , ESQUIMAUX WATCHINd A SBAlj. 806 LINK OF OPEN WATKK. ' H CHAl-TER XXXVIII. ul] P^i^^ 1 ; 1 f f r I- 1 1 Depaituio of lliiiia And MyoiiU. Sleep in a enow drift. I ■. - ^ An open gca beyond the ice. CHAPTER XXXVIII. LIN« OF OPEN WATKIl-AWAUT0K-ni8 FIUST liOllN-INSUBOKLlNATION - Tim I'LOT— TUB DEVELOPMENT— TIIK DESEHTION. « March 13, Tue^drnj.—l walked out with Hans and Myouk to .ivc them God speed. Myouk had made me dress his frosted leet with rabbit-fur swaddled with alternate folds of flannel and warm .skins The little scamp had not been so comfortable smce his accident. The dogs were only four in number, for 'Young Whitey' had been used up at Etah ; but the load was light, and Myouk managed to get a fair share of riding. Hans, with tlie consequential air of ' big Injin,' walked ahead. " I enjoined on them extreme caution as to their proceedings. Thev are to stretch over to the Bergy ground, of dismal as.socia- tionL and to look for ice-cracks in the level channel way Here, where I so nearly lost my life, they will seek bears and walrus, and, if they fail, work their way downward to the south, iliey sleep to-night in a snow-burrow, but hope to-morrow to reach Anoatok. , i i. • i + -March 15, Thursday.-VL^ri^ and Myouk returned at eight o'clock last night without game. Their sleep, in a snowdrift abou twenty miles to the northward, in temperature of -54 , was not comfortable, as might be expected. The marvel is how life sus- tains itself in such circumstances of cold. I have myself slept m an ordinary canvas tent without discomfort, yet without fire, at a temperature of —52°. "Myouk was very glad to get back to my warm quarters , but Hans was chopfaUen at the dearth of game. They found no open water, but ice, ice, ice, as far to the north and east as the eye could range from an iceberg elevation of eighty feet. It i. the same opposite Anoatok ; and, according to the Esquimaux as fa^ sout of Cape Alexander as a point opposite Akotloowick, the first Bafhn Bay huts. Beyond this, in spite of the severity of the winter, the're is an open sea. It is in the month of M;irch. if at all during the year, that the polynias arc frozen up. Those of Refuge Bay NATION- lyouk to ostcd feet nd warm since his ' Young iiglit, and with the jceedings. 1 associa- y. Here, id walrus, th. They to reach 1 at eight Irift about 1:'^, was not V life sus- jlf slept in it fire, at a rters ; but id no open e eye could ^j the same a far south first Baflin bhe winter, : all during lefuge Bay AWAHTOK. 30S> and Littleton were open during the whole of last winter ; and, con- sidering how very severe the weather is now and has been fur months [)ast, I question very much if such extensive areas as the so-called North Water ever close completely. " Hans saw numerous tracks of bears ; and I have no doubt now but that we can secure some of these animals before the seal sea- son opens. One large beast passed in tlie night close by the snow- burrow in which our would-be hunters were ensconced. They followed his tracks in the morning ; but the dogs were exhausted, and the cold was excessive, and they wisely returned to the brig. " To-day we have finished burning our last MaiiiHa hawser for fuel, the temperature remaining at the extraordinary mean of — 52''. Our next resort must be to the trebling of the brig : Petersen — what remains of him, for the man's energies are gone— is now at work cutting it off. It is a hard trial for me. I have spared neither exertion, thought, nor suflbring, to save the sea-worthiness of our little vessel, but all to no end : slie can never bear us to the sea. Want of provisions alone, if nothing else, will drive us from her ; for this solid case of nine-foot ice cannot possibly give way until the late clianges of fall, nor then unless a hot sunnner and a retarded winter afterward allow the winds to break up its iron casing. '' iMarch IG, Fridaij. — We have just a scant two days' allow- ance of meat for the sick. Hans has done liis best ; but there is nothing to be found on the hUls ; and I fear that a long hunting journey to the south is our only resource. " Awahtok : I have often mentioned him as a plump, good- natured fellow. He was one of my attaches ; by which I mean one of the many Avho stick to me like a plaster, in order to draw or withdraw a share of tlie iron nails, hoops, buttons, and other treasures which I represent. Awahtok always struck me as a lazy, pleasant sort of fellow, a miin who would be glad to bask in sunshine if he could find any. He has a young wife of eighteen, and he himself is but twenty-two. His hut is quite cleanly, and we become his guests there with more satisfaction than at any other hostel in the village of Etah. Awahtok is evidently happy with his wife, and, the last time I saw him, was exulting over the first pledge of their union, a fine little girl. Well, all this about OIIAPTEH XXXVIII Tracks ol bciirs. Wiiiit of fuel Scarcity o( food. A^vahtok. r¥^' — ^j— li m lini ■ '111 4M INSUllORDINATION. OHAPTKR XXXVIII. A child buried alive. elude to the fact that he has just buried Ids Prupaia- tioiis tor limiting. Suspicions of two of tlie men. Kfcessiiry watchful- Deep. 310 Awahtok is a pi dau«;litcr allvtj luider a i)ile of stones. , ,. , , « Myouk, Avho gave us the news to-day, when dehcatcly ques- tioned as to the cause of this little family arrangenient, answered, with all shnplicity of phrase, that the child had certani habits, common, I believe, to all the varieties of intancy. " The month is gliding on, but without any contributions to science, though there are many things about me to suggest luvcsti- gation. . n . 1 1 " It is as much as I can do to complete the routine of the days, and enable them to roll into each other. What a dreary death m life must be that of a maid or man of all work ! « March 17, Saturday.— I have been getting Hans rcn.dy tor the settlement, with a five-sinnet line of Maury's soundn.g t.vme. The natives to the south have lost nearly all their allunaks or walrus-lines by the accidents of December or January, and will be unable to replace them till the return of the seal. A good or even serviceable allunak requires a whole ussuk to cut it trom. It is almost the only article whose manufacture seems to be conducted by the Esquimaux with any care and nicety of process Our sounding-line \/ill be a valuable contribution to them, and inay perchance, like some more ostentatious charities, include the hberal givers among those whom it principally blesses. « March 18, 8undai/.—l have a couple of men on board whose former history I would give sometliing to know,— bad feUows both of them, but daring, energetic, and strong. They gave me trouble before we reached the coast of Greenland ; and they keep me constantly on the watch at this moment, for it is evident to me that they have some secret object in view, involving probably a desertion and escape to the Esquimaux settlements. They are both feigiung sickness this morning ; and, from what I have over- heard, it is with the view of getting thoroughly rested before a start. Hans' departure with the sledge and dogs would give them a fine chance, if they could only waylay him, of securing all our faciUties for travel ; and I should not be surprised if they tried to compel him to go along with them. They cannot succeed in this except by force. • , .-n " I am acting very guardedly with them. I cannot punish tiU I liave the evidence of un overt act Nor can I trust the matter ■ i ■ied Ids ly quc3- iswcred, habits, tioiw to iuveiiti- lie tliiys, Lleath iu ;p.dy for ig-t.viue. maks or 1 will be 1 or even 1. It is juducted ss. Our md may, lie liberal ,rd wliorie i fellows gave me Jicy keep ivident to probably Tliey are lave over- . before a cive tliem ig all our jy tried to 3d in tbis Dunish till the matter THE PLOT mSCOVKUKD. to other hands. It would not do to depress my sick party by chai'tkr discbsiii^ a Kcheme which, ii it could be carried out fully, iiii^ht ^ ^^^" ' be fatal to the whole of us. All this adds to my other duties those of a detective [xiliccnian. I do not lind them agreeable. " JAirc/i 10, Mondiij/, — Hans got otVat eleven. I have been all Suspidon right in my suspicions about John and lUU. They were intensely ^''' anxious to get together this morning, and I was eipially resolveil to prevent any connuunicatiou between them. I did this so inge- niously that they did not suspect my motive, by devising some outside duty for one or the other of them, and keeping his com- rade in the plot at work under my own eye. Their impatience, and cunning little resorts, to procure the chance of a word in pri- vate, were quite amusuig. It might be very far other^vise if they ct)uld manage to rob us of our dogs and gain the Netlik settle- ments. " I hope the danger is over now. I shall keep the whole thing to myself ; for, situated as we are, even the frustration of a muti- nous purpose had best be concealed from the party. "Petersen brought in to-day five ])tarmigan, a cheering day's A supply work, promising for the future, and allowhig me to give an abun- nn,ut,' dant meal to the sickest, and something to the sick. This is enough to keep up the health-working impression of the fresh meat diet. " March 20, Tuesday. — Thin morning I received information from Stephenson that JUll had declaretl his intention of leaving the brig lay at some time uviknown. John, being now really lame, could not accompany kim. This Stephenson overheard in whispers during the night ; and, in faithful execution of his duty, conveyed it to me. " I kept the news to myself ; but there was no time to be lost, '^'''c plot WilUam, therefore, was awakened at G a.m. — after my own night- ed. watch — and ordered to cook breakfast. Meantime I watched him. At first he appeared troubled, and had several stealthily-whispered interviews with John : finally his manner became more easy, and he cooked and served our breakfast meal. I now felt convinced that he would meet John outside as soon as he could leave the room, and that one or both would then desert. I therefore threw on my furs and armed myself, made Bo^isall and Morton ac- quainted with my plans, and then, crawling out of our dark pass- h \ 1 1 i i i 1 ,4^ I i , 1 ' f ' " ' ' 1 1 312 DKSKinrON. defeated. cnAPTBP. ago, concealed iny.selt' near its entrance. I had liardly waited halt xxxvni. ,^n hour,— pretty cold woric too,— when John crawletl out, limping The plot and grunting. Onco fairly out, he looked furtively round, and then, with a sigh of satisfaction, nu)unted our ricketty sttips en- tirely cured of ids lameness. Within ten minutes after he had gained the deck, the door opened again, and William made his appearance, hooted for travel and clad in buffalo. As he emerged into the hold, 1 confronted him. lie was ordered at once to the cabin; and Morton was despatched on deck to compel the presence of the third party ; while Mr. Bonsall took his station at the door, allowing no one to pass out. " In a very few minutes John crawled back again, as lame and exhausted as when he was last below, yet growing lamer rapidly as, recovering from the glare of the light, he saw the tableau. I then explained the state of things to the little company, and de- tailed step by step to the principals in the scene every one of their plans. " Bill was the first to confess. I had prepared myself for the emergency, and punished him on the spot. As he rose with some difhculty, I detailed from the log-book the offences he had com- ndtted, and adduced the proofs. « The short-handed condition of the brig made me unable to confine him; therefore I deemed it best to remove his handcuffs, to accept his protestations of reform, and put him again to work. He accepted my lenity with abundant thanks, went to duty, and in less than an hour deserted. I was hunting at the time, but the watch reported his having first been discovered on the ice-foot, and out of presenting distance. His intention midoubtedly is to reach Etah Bay, and, robbing Hans of sledge and dogs, proceed south to Netlik. " Should he succeed, the result will be a heavy loss to us. The dogs are indispensable in the hunt and hi transporthig us to Anoa- tok. The step, however, is not likely to be successful. At all events, he is off, and I regret that duty prevents my rejoicing at his departure. John remains with us, closely watched, but appa rently sincere in his protestations of absolute reform." Bin con- fesses and is jmnish- ecL He de- Hcrts. COLLOQUY IV Tlir, HUNKS. 313 CHAPTER XXXIX. COLLOQUY IN THE DUNKS— WINTEU TllAVEI/— PRKPAllATIONS- UEINDIKU FEEDINa GROUNDS— TEIIRACED nKACIIES— A WALK— OCCUPATIONS. "}farch 21, Wnlnesdny. — On tliis day one year jigo ^Fr. Brooks iuul his party wore frozen up in tho luniiniockrt. The hal)it of comparing the condition of two periods, of balancing the tiionghts and liopes of one with the realized experience of the other, sccnis to nic a very unprofitable one. It interferes with the practical executive spirit of a man, to mix a bright and happy past with a dim and doubtful present. It's a maudlin piece of work at best, and I'll none of it. "But listen to poor Ih-ooks there, talking, lie is .sitting up, congratulating himself that he can nearly .straighten his worst leg. 'Well, Mr. Olilsen, I thought we would never get through them hummock-s. You know we unloaded three times ; now, I would not say it then, but seeing I am down I'll tell you. When we laid down the last pcnnnican-case, I went beiiind the ice, and don't remember nothing till Petersen called me into the tent. I think I must have strained something, and gone off like in a kind of fit.' " Ohlsen, who is as self-absorbed a man as I ever knew, replies by stating that his boots pinched him; to which poor Brook.s, never dwelling long on his own troubles, says in a quiet, soliloquiz- ing way, 'Yes, and Baker's boots pincjhed him too; but it wasn't the boots, but the killing cold outside of them. There was Pierre, — his boots were moccasins, with deer-skin foot-rags, but he died of cold for all that; and there's Mr. Wilson and me, both hanging on in neither one way nor t'other; it's a cpiestiou which of us lasts the longest.' M'Gary another bedridden, but con- valescent, I hope, here raises himself on his elbows and checks Brooks for being so down in the mouth : and Brooks, after a growling rejoinder, improves his merry reminiscences by turning to me. " ' Captain Kane, five nights to come one year, you came in OIIAPTRR XXXIX. Coniparl- Hons. Colloiiiiy butweuii Hrooks mul Olil- scn. Ruminls cenccs. i -r 314 WINTER TRAVEL. CHAPTER XXXIX. Remem- brances of past times. W'!^ Winter travel. Prospects of the deserter. upon four of us down as flat as flounders. I didn't look at your boots, but I know you wore Esquimaux ones. It was a hard walk for you, the greatest thing I ever heard tell off: but' — here he begins to soliloquize — ' Eaker'n dead, Pierre's dead, and Wilson and I — '. 'Shut up, Brooks, shut up!' I broke in, wliisper- ing across the boards that separated our blankets ; ' you will make the patients uncomfortable.' But no ; the old times were strong upon him; he did not speak loud, but he caught me by both hands, and said, in his low bass, quiet tones, * Doctor, you cried when you saw us, and didn't pull up till we jabbed the stopper down the whisky-tin and gave you a tot of it.' " The general tone of the conversation around is like this speci- men. I am glad to hear my shipmates talking together again, for we have of late been silent. The last year's battle commenced at this time a year ago, and it is natural the men slioidd recall it. Had I succeeded in pushing my party across the bay, our success would have been unequalled ; it was the true plan, the best-con- ceived, and in fact the only one by which, after the death of my dogs, I could hope to carry on the search. The temperatures were frightful, — 40° to — bQ"" ; but my experience of last year on tha rescue-party, where we travelled eighty miles in sixty odd hours, almost without a halt, yet without a frost-bite, shows that such temperatures are no obstacle to travel, provided you have the necessary practical knowledge of the equipment and conduct of your party. I firmly believe that no natural cold as yet known can arrest travel. The whole story of this winter illustrates it. I have both sledged and walked sixty and seventy miles over the roughest ice, in repeated journeys, at fifty degrees below zero, and the two parties from the south reached our brig in the dead of A\inter, after being exposed for three hundred miles to the same horrible cold. " The day has been beautifully clear, and so mild that our mid- day thermometers gave but 7°. This bears badly upon the deser- tion of Godfrey, for the probabilities arc that he will find Ilans's buffalo-robe at the hut, and thus sleep and be refreshed. In that case, he can easily reach the Esquimaux of Etah Bay, and may as easily seize upon the sledge-dogs, rifle, and trading articles. The consequences of such an act would be very disastrous ; nearly all ray hopes of lifting the sick, and therefore of escaping in boats PRIVATIONS AND LABOURS. 315 to the south, rest upon these d(i^"<. By them only can Ave hunt bear and early seal, or rapidly transport ourselves to the tide-holes {polynia) of the si)ring, where Ave can add Avater-foAvl to our game list. I am entirely Avithout a remed}-. We cannot pursue him, nor could Ave Avell have prevented his escape ; it is the most cul- pable desertion I ever kneAV or heard of. Bonsall, Petersen, and myself are the only men noAV on board Avho can work for the rest. Save the Avarnings of a secret trouble, the fox gnaAving under the jacket, I do better than the rest ; but I bear my fox. Bonsall is evidently more disabled. ^^ March 22, Thursday. — Petersen's ptarmigan are all gone (fiA-e of them), and of the rabbit but tAvo rations of eight ounces each remain. We three, Bonsall, Petersen, and myself, have made up our minds to Avalk up Mary Paver Piavine until Ave reach the deer plains, and there separate and close in upon them. To-day is tlierefcn-e a busy one, for Ave nuist prepare beforehand the entire daily requirements of the sick : the ice for melting Avater nmst be cut in blocks and laid near the stove; the Avood, of which it requires one entire day to tear enough out for tAvo days, nnist be chopped and piled within arm-reach ; the bread must be cooked and the provisions arranged, before Ave can leave our conn-ades. When we three leave the brig, there Avill not be a single able man on board. M'Gary is able to leave his bed and stump about a little ; but this is all. Need the dear home-folks, Avho may some day read this, Avonder that I am a little carcAvorn, .and that I leave the brig Avith reluctance 1 Of Ave three God-supported men, each has liis own heavy load of scurvy. ^^ March 23, Fnday. — We started this morning, overAvorked and limping, rather as men enduig a journey than beginning one. After four hours of forced Avalking, Ave reached the reindeer feeding grounds, but Avere too late ; the animals had left at least tAvo hours before our arrival. An extensive rolling country, rather a lacus- trine plain than a true plateau, AA'as covered with traces of life. The snoAv had been turned up in patches of four or five yards in diameter, by the hoofs of the reindeer, over areas of tAventy or fifty acres. The extensive levels Avere studded Avith them ; and Avherever Ave examined the ground surface it was covered Avith grasses and destitute of lichens. We scouted it over the protruding syenites, and found a couple of ptarmigan and three hares j these we secured. CHAl'TEl XXXIX. Evil con- sequences ot tlic dc- scvtion. AVant of food and plenty of work. Start on a journey. Reindeer feeding grounds 316 TERRACED BEACHES. CHAPTER XXXIX. A long Wfilk. TeiTaccd beaches. I A large bonUler " Our little party reached the bripf in the evening, after a walk over a heavy snow-lined country of tliirty miles. Nevertheless, 1 had a walk full of instructive material. The frozen channel of jMary River abounds in noble sections and scenes of splendid wildness and desolation. I am too tired to epitomize here my note-book's record; but I may say that the opportunity which I had to-day of comparing the terrace and boulder lines of Mary River and Charlotte Wood Fiord enables me to assert positively the interesting fact of a secular elevation of the crust, commencing at some as yet undetermined point north of 7G°, and continuing to the Great Glacier and tlv high northern latitudes of GrinncU Land. This elevation, as connected with the equally well sus- tained depression of the Greenland coast south of ICingatok, is in interesting keeping with the same imdulating alternation on the Scandinavian side. Certainly there seems to be in the localities of these elevated and depressed areas a systematic compensation. " I counted to-day forty-one distinct ledges or shelves of terrace embraced between our water-line and the syenitic ridges through which Mary River force ; itself. These shelves, though sometimes merged into each other, presented distinct and recognisable em- bankments or escarps of elevation. Their surfaces were at a nearly imiform inclination of descent of 5°, and their breadth either twelve, twenty-four, thirty-six, or some other multiple of twelve paces. This imposing series of ledges carried you in forty-one gigantic steps to an elevation of 480 feet; and, as the first rudi- ments of these ancient beaches left the granites which had once formed the barrier sea-coast, you could trace them passing from drift-strewn rocky barricades to cleanly-defined and gracefully- curved shelves of shingle and peebles. I have studies of these terraced beaches at various points on the northern coast of Green- land. They are more imposing and on a larger scale than those of Wellington Channel, which are now regarded by geologists as indicative of secular uplift of coast. As these strange structures wound in long spirals around the headlands of the fiords, they reminded me of the parallel roads of Glen Roy,— a con'.parison which I make rather from general resemblance than ascertained analogies of causes. " There is a boulder ten miles from our brig, say seven from the coast,— a mass of rounded syenite — at an altitude of 1100 feet y ,jiiL„ • a walk lelcss, 1 Lunel of 5plendifl lere my which I )f Mary 3sitively mencing atiimhig Grinncll i^cll sus- ok, is in I on the alities of ,tion. if terrace through imetimeiji able em- , a nearly :h cither )f twelve forty-one rst rudi- liad once dng from racefnlly- of these of Green- lian those logists as 5tructure3 )rds, they tn'.parison scertained from the 100 feet. OCCUPATIONS. 317 resting, entirely isolated, upon coarse sandstone ; its cubical con- chatteb tents cannot be less than sixty tons. Tired as T am by this hard ^ ^^^^ - walk, I feel that io has rewarded me well. It was too cold for the pocket-sextant- but I managed to sketch in such features of the opposite coast as were not marked in our charts of last August. Theini.'uid I had a full view of the inland glacier throughout a linear trend of ^•'"'^"'^ twenty miles. I can measure the profitless non-observing routine of the past winter by my joy at this first break in upon its drudgery. God knows I had laid down for myself much experimental obser- vation, and some lines of what I hoped would be valuable travel and search ; but I am thankful that I am here, able to empty a slop-bucket or rub a scurvied leg. ' My people had done Avell during my absence, and welcomed me back impressively. ^^ March '2 \, Saturday. — Our yesterday s ptarmigan gave the Pturma- mo.st sick a raw ration, and to-day we killed a second pair, which '''' will serve thejn for to-morrow. To my great joy, they seem on that limited allowance to hold their groimd. I am the only man now who scents the fresh meat without tasting it. I actually long for it, but am obliged to give way to the sick. " Yesterday's walk makes my scorbutized muscles very stiff. I went through my routine of labour, and, as usual in this strange disease, worked off my stiffness and my pain. " Bonsall and Petersen are now woodmen, preparing our daily <^1""pi""R '■ , ° . '' wood llIK, fuel. My own pleasant duty consists in chopping from an iceberg ico, iiatliy the lesson of sympathy it has taught me with the labouring man. The fatigue, and disgust, and secret trials of the overworked 320 THE DKSKJITER AGAIN. i 1^ 1 li i 1 11 1 ■pi ' 1 f ' ' II J cnArTKH XL. He-ap- peai'iuice of the deserter. His story. '' I ill " 1 ||f i; I * i Ills es- cape. I Anxiety about II an a. hrain are bn.d cnougli, hnt not to me more severe tliiin those wliioli follow the sick and j-'led body to a sleepless bed. I have realized the sweat of the bi.^v,', ind can feel how painful his earning.s must be to whom the grassiiopper lias become a burden. '< April 2, Monday.— Jit eleven o'clock this morning :NTr. Bonsall rei)orted a man about a mile from the brig, apparently lurking on the ice-foot. I thought it was Hans, and we both went for- ward to meet him. As we drew closer we discovered our sledge and dog-team near whei-e he stood; but the man turned and ran to the south. " I pursued him, leaving Mr. Bonsall, who carried a Sharpe rifle, behind; and the man, whom I now recognised to be God- frey, seeing me advance alone, stopped and met me. He told me that he had been to the south as far as Northumberland Island ; that Hans was lying sick at Etah, in consequence of exposure ; that he himself had made up his mind to go back and spend the rest of his life with Kalutunah and the Esquhnaux ; and that neither persuasion nor force should divert him from this pur- pose. " Upon my presenting a pistol, I succeeded in forcing him back to the gangway of the brig ; but he refused to go further ; and being loath to injure him, I left him under the guardianship of Mr. Bonsall's weapon while I went on board for irons ; for both Bonsall and myself were barely able to walk, and utterly incapable of controlling him by manual force, and Petersen was (mt hunting ; the rest, thirteen in all, are down with scurvy. I had just reached the deck when he turned to run. Mr. Bonsall's pistol failed at the cap. I jumped at once to the gun-stand; but my first rifle, affected by the cold, went off in the act of cocking, and a second, aimed in haste at long, but practicalile distance, missed the fugi- tive. He made good his escape before we could lay hold o{ another weapon. " I am now more anxious than ever about Hans. The itast conduct of Godfrey on board, and his mutinous desertion, make me aware that he is capable of daring wrong as well as deception. Hans has been gone more than a fortnight; he has been used to making the same journey in less than a week. His sledge and dogs came back in the possession of the very man whom I suspected of an intention to waylay him ; and this man, after being driven \ \ I ..v__.. A SEASONABLE SUPPLY. 321 by menaces to the ship's side, perils his life rather than phice him- chapter fitlf in my power on board of her. ^^' " Yet he came back to our neighbourhood voluntarily, with sledge ami dogs and walrus-meat! Can it have been that John, his former partner in the })lot, was on the look-out for him, and luul engaged his aid to consunmiate their joint desertion? " One thing is plahi. This man at large and his comrade still Necessity on board, the safety of the whole company exacts the sternest discipline observance of discipline. I have called all hands, and announced it as a standing order of the ship, and one to be observed inflexibly, that desertion, or the attempt to desert, shall be met at once by the sternest penalty, I have no alternative. By the body of my crew, sick, dependent, unable to move, and with everything to lose by the withdrawal of any portion of our efficient force, this an- nouncement was received as a guarantee of their pCiOv-iial safety. But it was called for by other grave considerations. There is at this time on the part of all, men as well as officers, a warm feeling toward myself, and a strict, stanch fidelity to the expedition. But, for moral reasons which would control me, even if my impulse were different, I am constrained for the time to mindc among them without reserve, to act as a servant to their wants, to encou- rage colloquial equality and good humour; and, looking only a little way ahead to the juncture when a ^^ jrfectly-regulated subor- dination will become essential, I know that my present stand will be of value. " This sledge-load of Godfrey's meat, coming as it does, may value of well be called a Godsend : one may forgive the man in considera- „f "(.y*^}/'^ tion of the good which it has done us all. We have had a regular meat. feed all round, and exult to think we need no catering for the morrow. It has cheered our downhearted sick men wonderfully. Our brew of beer, too, — the ' Arctic Linseed Mucilage Adaptation,' — turns out excellent. Our grunts and growls are really begin- ning to have a good-natured twang. Our faces lessen as our sha- dows promise to increase. I think I see a change which points to the happier future. " Our sick, however, are still non-operatives, and our one room convaies- is like the convalescent ward of an hospital, with Bonsall and my- '^*''' self for the only nurses." 322 ROUTINE OF A DAY IN SPRING. M T*i }> 'I ti V 'imp CHAPTER XLI. Qetting CHAPTER XLI. ROUTINE— GETTINQ UP— BREAKFAST— -WOllK— TURNING IN- MISSING— TUE DETERMINATION. -HANS STILL breakfast table. " April 3, Tuesday.— To-diiy I detained Petersen from his hunt, and took'a holiday rest myself,— that is to say, went to bed and sweated : to-morrow I promise as much fur Bonsall. » While here in bed I will give the rontine of a day in this spring-time of year : — "At 7.30 call 'all hands;' which means that one of the well trio wakes the other two. This order is obeyed slowly. The com- mander confesses for himself that the breakfast is well-nigh upon table before he gets his stitf ankles to the floor. Looking around, he sees the usual mosaic of sleepers as ingeniously dovetailed and crowded together as the campers-out in a buffiilo-bag. Tie winds his way through them, and, as he does so, some stereotyped remarks are interchanged. ' Thomas ! '—our ex-cook, now side by side with the first officer of the expedition,--' Thomas, turn out ! ' ' Eugh-ng, sir.' ' Turn out ; get up.' ' Ys-sir ;' (sits bolt upright, and rubs Ids eyes.) 'How d' you feel, Mr. Ohlsenr ' Better, sir.' ' How've you passed the night, Mr. Brooks 1 ' ' Mid- dlin', sir.' And, after a diversified series of spavined efforts, the mystical number forms its triangle at the table. " It still stands in its simple dignity, an unclothed platform of boards, witii a pile of })lates in the centre. Near tuese is a vir- tuoso collection of cups grouped in a tumulus or cairn, commenchig philosophically at the base with heavy stoneware, and ending witii battered tin : the absolute pinnacle a debased dredging-box, which makes a bad goblet, being unpleasantly sharp at its rim. At one end of this table, partly hid by the beer-barrel, stands Petersen; at the side, Bonsall ; and a Uuie-juice cask opposite marks my seat. We are all standhig : a momentary hush is made among the sick : and the daily prayer comes with one heart :— * Accept our gratit vi de, and restore us to our homes S STILL is hunt, bed ill 1(1 ' in this the well ?he com- tIi upon around, iled and [e winds reotyped ow side las, turn (sits bolt Ohlsenr ' 'Mid- brts, the itform of is a vir- imenchig ling witli )x, which At one Petersen ; larks my mong the ccept our BRKAKFAST. 323 " The act of devotion over, we sit down, and look — not at the ciiaptei; breakfast, but at each other. 1 " It may sound absurd to those who cannot understand the nar- Uetaii of rowing interest which we three availables teel ni our contniued „,iii„e„s. mutual ability, for me to say that we spend the fust five nunutes hi a detail of symptoms. The state of each man's gums, and slnns, and ankles, his elbows, lohis, and kidneys, is canvassed minutely and compared with his yesterday's report : the recital might edify a specialist who was anxious to register the Protean indications of scurvy. It is sometimes ludicrous, but always sad. " Now for the bill of fare. ' Who cooked I ' I am describing a gala-day. ' It was Morton : he felt so much Letter that he got up at six ; but he caved in soon after :' — " First, cofl'ee, great comforter to hard-worked men ; one part of luiioffare the genuine berry to three of navy-beans ; next, sugar ; wdiat com- plex memories the word brings back !— the veritable sugar has been long ago defunct ; but we have its representative molasses twice a week in our tea. Third, butter ; there it is in a mutilated vef'ctable-dish ; my own invention, melted from salt beef and washed in many waters: the unskilled might call it tallow. Fourth, a real delicacy, not to be surpassed in court or camp, for jNIorton was up to see to it,— a pile of hot rolls of fine Virginia flour. What else ] Nothing else : the breakfiist resolves itself into beau-coffee, tallow, and hot bread. Yet a cordial meal it is. I am sorry to hurry over it so uncourteously, for I could dwell with Charles Lamb's pensive enthusiasm upon the flesh-pots ; but I have been longer in describing the feast than it takes us to dispose of it. I Imny on with the interesting detail. Dinner is breakfast, with the beans converted into soup instead of coffee ; and supper boasts of stewed apples. " Work commences at nine. Petersen is off with his gun, and work the two remaining dearly-beloved llogers arrange their carte : one makes the round of the sick and deals out their daily allowance of raw meat; the other goes to cutting ice. Those who can sit in bed and work, pick eider-down or cotton, for coverlets to our boat- bedding on the escape ; others sew canvas bags for the same pur- pose ; and Brooks balls off twine in order to lay up ' small stuff.' " At times when the sun comes out very brightly. Brooks and Wilson get permission to go on deck. One of us assists them. J .3-24 IIAN8 STILL MISSING. OnAl'TER XLI. I I n \ U' I 1 •■'13 lU'JiiiciiiK III tliiuliiy- il«lit. A time of rest. After sup- per. Hans still oiissiii^;. iviul, by the aid of creeping iuid cnuvliiig, these poor cripples iiuinage to sit upon the coniltiii^s of the hatch aiul lt)ok arouuil in the gU)rious dayliglit. The sight seldom fails to affect them. There are emotions among rude, roughly-nurtured men which vent themselves in tme poetry. Brooks has ai)out him sen.sibilities that shame me. " The afternoon, save to the cook, is a season of rest ; a real lazy, lounging interval, arrested l>y the call to supper. The coming night-watch obliges me to take an evenhig cat-nap. I state this V)y way of inqtlying that I never sleei) o' daytimes. " After supi)er, we have a better state of things than two weeks ago. Then the few tired outworkers were regaled by the groans and tossings of the sick. There was little conversation, and the j)hysiognomy of our smoke-blackened little den was truly disnuil. Now daylight pours in from the scuttle, the tea-kettle sings upon the stove, the convalescents rise up on their elbows and spin merry yarns. We are not yet sufficiently jolly for cards ; but we are sufficiently thankful to do without them. At nine, silence almost unbroken prevails throughout our dormitory, and the watch- officer slips on his bear-skin, and, full of thoughts of to-morrow, resigns hhnself to a round of little routine observances, the most worthless of which is this unbroken record of the changing days. '^ April G, Fylday, — Our little family is growing more and more uneasy about Hans. William reported him sick at Etah ; but we had no faith in this story, and looked on his absence as merely the result of fatigue from exposure. But there really seems ground for serious apprehension now. My own fear is that William may have conveyed to him some false message, or some threat or re- proof, using my name, and in this way deterred him from returning. Hans is very faithful; but he is entirely unaware of William's desertion, and he is besides both credulous and sensitive. I am attached to Hans : he has always been a sort of henchman, a body-guard, the companion of my walks. He is a devout ^toravian; and when the party withdrew from the brig last fall he refused to accompany them on grounds of religious obligation. The boy has fixed, honourable principles. Petersen thinks that he ought to be sent for, but he has not thought out the question who is to be sent. Bonsail is too lame to travel; Petersen himself is infinitely ODH DRTKItMINATION TO SKKK lOR llAN.s. 8fiS the best fitted, but he .shirks tlie duty, and to-day he tulics to chavtbm hi.s bed : I alone am left. ^^^' " Clearly duty to thi.s poor bj)y calls nie to .sock him, and dearly Conflict- duty to these dependent men calls upon me to .stay. Jau^^ and "^''""'^^'* uncomfortably have I pondered over these op[)osiiii^ calls, but at last have conu to a determination. Hans was faithful to me: the danger to him is innuinent ; the danger to those left beiiind only contingent upon my failure to return. Witii earnest trust in that same su[)ervisi- g Agency which has so often before in graver .straits interfered to protect and cany me through, I have resolved to go after Hans. •' The orders are given. In three hours I will be equipped and rheiie. ready to take advantage of the first practicable moment for the ^''^ • start. It makes me write gravely ; for I am far from well, very far from strong, and am obliged to drive our reduced team twice seventy miles. The latter half of the journey I shall have to do ontii'ely on foot, and our lowest night-temperatures are under -40°." m I mmm 326 JOUKNKY AFTKR HANS. f'l' ,1 'I CHAPTER XLII. JODllNEV At'TKa HANS- ESyillMAUX SLKDUINU— UANS FOUND — RECIOPTO AMICO— EXPLANATION— FUllTlIEU SEAUCll- MATUlllNO PLANS— CHANCES OF ESCAPE — FOolt PLENTY— PAUMK— FAMINE AMONO THE ESQUIMAUX—^ EXTINTTION — LldllT 1IEAUT8 — UESEIITEK UECOVEKEI). CHAPTKU Xlill. Jonniey after Unw*. OuCiU Pro vi- sions. "■April 10, Ttifsdfii/. — I left the brig at 10^ a.m., with but five dogs and a load so light as to be hardly felt. " It requires some suggestive incident to show us how we have gradually become assimilated in our habits to the necessities of our peculiar life. Huch an incident J iind in my equipment. Compare it with similar sledge-outfits of last winter, and you will see that we are now more than half Jvs.|uimaux. It consists of — " 1. One small sledge, five feet six by two. " 2. An extra jumi)er and sack-pants for sleeping. " ',y A ball of raw walrus-meat. — This is all. " The sledge is portable, and adapted to jump over the chasui.s of the land-ice, and to overturn with impunity, save to the luck- less driver. It has two standards, or, as we call them, " U[)- standers," which spring like elbows from its hinder extremity. " They serve as handles, by which, running or walldng behind, yon guide the sledge, lift it over rugged places, or rest yourself and your dogs while in progress together. " The extra jumper is a bear-skin jacket, or rather shirt, which, after being put on is overlapped at the waist by a large pair of footed trousers. No winter traveller should be without these : — at temperatures below — 25° or — 30° they arc invaluable. Blanket- bags are nearly useless below — 30", in a gale of wind; it riddles through them. " The ball of raw meat is made by chopphig into inch-pieces walrus or other meat, and pouring among it hot tallow, by which the pieces are prevented from freezing too hard, so that you can readily cut out your meal as it is required, A little butter, if you have some, will contribute to soften it : olive-oil perhaps would be better ; but without some such luxurious additions a man in too m* HANS FOTTNT>. 327 lip- grt'iit 11 hurry fi)r dinner might be iii)t to risk his teeth. In the present journey, having nothing but tallow, I nmde my nu-at-bull like a twist-loaf, and broke it with a stone. " I have no incidont.s to record hi the nhajie of disaster. My doi's were in excellent »(iiidition, and the ice good for travel. The real incident of the journey was its early 8U<'cess. My dogs, in spite of h)W feeding, carried mo .sixty-four miles in eleven hour.s. *' faithful Hans ! Dear good follower and friend ! I was out on the ii')es just beyond the headlands of our old 'JUjfuge Har- bour,' whei: I made out a black .s[)eck far in to shoreward. Re- fraction will deceive a novice on the ice ; but we have learned to batlle refraction. By sighting the suspected object with your rifle at rest, you soon detect motion. It was a living animal— a man. Shoreward went the sledge; off si)rang the dogs ten miles an hour, their driver yelling the familiar provocative to speed, ' Nan- nook ! nannookl' ' A bear ! a bear !' at the top of his lungs. " There was no room for mistaking the methodical seal-stalking fait of Hans. He hardly varied from it as we came near; but in about fifteen miiuites we were shaking luuids and jabbering, in a patois of Esquimaux and English, our mutual new.s. The poor fellow had been really ill: five days down with severe pains of limbs have left him still a 'little veek;' which means with Hans well used up. I stuck him on the sledge and carried him to Anoatok. •' Fortuiuitely Anoatok for once belied its name ; there was no wind, and the sun broke d(;wn upon us with a genial +14°, although the shade gave — 25°. I had brought with me, expecting tlie boy nught need it, a small mustard-bottle of our treasured molasses, ivdd a little tea. We keep a camp-kettle at this hut, and both of us wore in our belts the inseparable tin-cup. How the boy enjoyed his hot tea ! Metek had given him a few lumps of frozen walrus- liver, the very best provision for cold travel : our appiitites were good; and, the two thus fitly harmonizing, we crunched away right merrily. OH APT IF XLII. A ripiil sluilgu Jounioy Hans I'liuiid Awe Icon* tetv '* Hans reached Etali witli Myouk two days ; "^er leaving us, and "a"*' at once commenced his hunt. In the course of five days ot most hazardous ice-range, he killed two fine young auimuls ; his three 828 HANS AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. CHAPTER I lulls iiinoiis the ICsqui- iiiaiix. His illness. WLlliam's dtb pis- Hans' StHltB again. Drcavy ptospt'L'ta companions in the hunt killing only three. Me had the great advantage of my powerful Mar.ston riHe, but his tackle was very inferior. Our siiniet-laid twine would not stand the powerful struggles of the beast, and on one occasion parted while fast in a large female. Still his success mus^ have acquired for him the good-will of these people, for in the *flens' or hunting-division of spoil they gained by his companionship. " In the sickness that followed his long exposure, he tells me he was waited on most carefully at the settlement. A young daughter of Shunghu elected herself his nurse ; and her sympathies and smiles have, I fear, made an impression on his heart which a certain damsel near Upperuavik might be sorry to hear of. " ITans cached part of his meat at Littleton Island, after send- ing a load by William to the brig. He had no difliculty, I find, in penetrating this man's designs, lie was indeed urged by liim to agree that they should drive off together to the south, and so leave us sledgeless. Upon Hans' refusal, he tried to obtain his rifle ; but this of course was easily prevented. He consented at last to take up the meat, with a view of making terms with me, and securing probably a companion. Baffled in this, as I have mentioned, he made his escape a second time to Etali. There I might be content to leave him, an unwelcome guest, and depen- dent upon the Esquimaux. Strong and healthy as he is, our daily work goes on better for his absence, and the ship seems better when purged by his desertion ; but the example is disastrous, and, cost what it may, I must have him back. ^^ April 11, Wednesday. — Hans started again to bring back the meat from Littleton Island cache. If he feels strengtnened, I have given him a commission to which I attach the greatest importance. " My hopes of again undertaking a spring journey to Keniiedy Channel were strong in the early nwntlis of the winter ; but, as our dogs died away a second time, and the scurvy crept in up(^n us, I became sad and distrust^';! as to the chance of our over living to gain the open water. The return of the withdrawing party absorbed all my thoughts. They brought news of disaster, starva- tion, and los.s of dogs among the natives. Oiu- prospects seemed at the loAvest ebb. Still I cherisl;ed a secret h(»pe of making another journey, and had determined to undertake it alone, with our poor remnant of foiu- dog.s, trusting to my rifle for provision, he groiit i\'a.s very powerful Fust in u lain the vision of tells nie (V young nipathies which a f. ter send- jT, I find, I by him 1, and so btain his lented at with me, 3 I have There I d depen- our daily tter when and, cost back the id, I have iportance. Kemtedy • ; but, as . in iipcMi ver livim.' ing party ir, starva- ts seemed f making lone, with provision, PLANS AND PROSPECTS. 329 In fact, this continuation of my c before me, and I now think that I can manage it great duty has been constantly chapter XLII. Thus :— '1 he Esqnimaux have left Northumberland Island, and are now near Cape Expoii- Alexander, as a better hunting-ground. Kalutunah, the best and seuWhof most provident man among them, has managed to save seven dogs. ''"ks. I have authorized Hans to negotiate carte-hkniclu'^ if necessary, for four of these, even as a loan ; promising as a final bait the con- tin^'ont possession of my whole team when [ reach the open water on my retui'n. On this mission I send my \1ides Achates,' and await his retuin with anxious hope. " I have seen, almost from the first day of our imprisonment by riospectoi tlie ice, the probability, if nothing more, that wc might never be [',','g'''^"*|'"*'' able to liberate the ship, l^^lsewhere in this journal I have ex- plained by what construction of my duty I urged the brig to the north, and why I deemed it impossible honourably to abandon her after a single season. The same train of reasoning now leads me to mature and organize everything for an early departure without her, in case she cannot be released. My hopes of this release are very feeble ; and I know that when it does occur, if ever, the season will, like the last, be too far advanced for me to carry my people homo. All my experience, carefully reviewed from my note-books, and confirmed by consultation with Petersen, convhices me that I must start early, and govern my boat and sledges by the condition of tlie ice and imnting-grounds. " Whatever of executive ability I have picked up during this Necessity brain and body- wearying cruise warns me against immature pre- °Q„{fng paration or vacillating purposes. I nmst have an exact discipline, and disci a rigid routine, and a perfectly-thought-out organization. For the ^ '"°' past six weeks I have, in the intervals between my duty to the sick and the ship, arranged the schedule of our future course. Much of it is already under way. ISIy journal shows what I have done, but what there is to do is appalling. " I state all this to show how much I hazard and possibly sacri- * fice by my intended journey to the north, and to explain why I have so little time and mood for scientific observation or research. My feelings may be understood when I say that ray carpenter and all tlie workinff men, save Bonsall, are still on their backs , and Continued illneHB of that a month's preliminary labour is needed before I can commence the men the heavy work of transporting my three boats over the ice to the 330 CHANCES OF ESCAPE. OHAl'TKR XLII. Hope of the ice breaking lip. State of llie siclt. I ■ I Tlie return of Hans with food in plenty. anticipated water. A.s the moment of my writing this, the water is over eighty miles in a straight line from our brig. ^' April 12, Thnrsdcnj. — The mnd still blowing as yesterday, from the southward and eastward. This is certainly favourable to the advance of open water. The long swell from the open spaces in Baffin's Bay lia.s such a powerful effect upon the ice, that I should not woiider if the floes about Lifeboat Cove, off M'Qary Island, were broken up by the first of ISIay. " Our sick have been without fresh food since the 5th ; but such is the stimulus imparted by our late supply that they as yet show no backward symiitoms. ]\I'Gary, and Ohlsen, and Brooks, and Riley, sun themselves daily, and are able to do much useful job- bing. Thomas begins to relieve me in cooking ; Riley to take a spell at the slops ; jMorton cooks breakfast, and, aided by M'Gary and Ohlsen, has already finished one worsted quilted camp-blanket, with which I intend to cover our last remaining bufliilo-skins. Wilson comes on slowly ; Dr. Hayes' toe begins to heal ; Sontag is more cheery. With the exception of Goodfellow, John, and Whipple, I can feel that those of my little household are fast becoming men again. ^' April 13, Friday. — Our sick — which still means all hands, except the cook, which means the captain —entered thi.s morning on their eighth day of fasting from flesh. One or two have been softening about the gums again for some days past, and all foci weak with involuntary abstinence. The evening comes, and ' Bim ,' bim ! bim !' sounds upon the deck : Hans is back with his dogs. Rabbit-stew and walrus-liver !— a supper for a king ! " This life of ours — for we have been livhig nuich in this way for nine months past — makes me more charitable than I used to be with our Esquimaux neighbours. The day provides for itself; or, if it does not, we trust in the morrow, and are happy till to- morrow disappoints us. Our smoke-dried cabin is a scene worth lookin.({ at : no man with his heart in the right place but would enjoy it. Every man is elbowed up on his platform, with a bowl of rich gravy-soup between his knees, and a stick of frozen liver at his side, gorging himself with the antiscorbutic luxuries, and laughing as if neither ice nor water were before him to traverse, " Hans has brought Metek with him, and Metek's young nephew, a fine-lookmg boy of fourtoci. FAMINE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 331 " I do not know whether I have mentioned that, some little time chapth. before our treaty of alliance and mntnal honesty, Aletek stole the ^^" ' orunwale of the Red Eric. He has been, of course, in something of Metck. uncertainty as to his political and personal relations, and his pre- sent visit to the nalegak with a noble sledge load of walrus-meat is evidently intended as a propitiation for his wrong. " They are welcome, the meat and ^Metek, abundantly, lie is the chieftain of Etali, and, as such, a vassal of him of Aunatok, the ' Open Place,' which we have named Piensselaer Harbour. He speaks sadly, and so does Hans, of the fortunes of the winter. "The Netelik settlement on Northumberland Island was al- ready, when we heard of it last, the refuge of the natives from the further South, even beyond Wolstenholme. It has always been a hunting stronghold; but, as the winter darkness advanced, the pressure of numbers combined with their habitual improvi- dence to dissipate their supplies. "It seems that the poor wretches suffered terribly, — even sutreiingg more than our neighbours of Etah Bay. Their laws exact an '^'^ f' '° '-*' ° _ qiiiinaiix. equal division ; and the success of the best hunters was dissi- pated by the crowds of feeble claimants upon their spoils. At last the broken nature of the ice-margin, and the freezing-up of a large zone of ice, prevented them from seeking walrus. The water was inaccessible, and the last resource pressed itself upon them. They killed their dogs. Fearful as it sounds, when we think how indispensable the services of these animals are to their daily existence, they cannot now number more than twenty in the entire ownership of the tribe. From Glacier South to Glacier North, from Glacier East to the rude ice-bound coast which completes the circuit of their little world, this nation have but twenty dogs. What can they hope for without them 1 " I can already count eight settlements, including about one Diminu- hundred and forty souls. There are more, perhaps, but certainly *J°".j.°^j ^ not many. Out of these I can number five deaths since our ber. arrival ; and I am aware of hardships and disasters encoun- tered by the survivors, which, repeated as they must be in the future, cannot fail to involve a larger mortality. Crime combines with disease and exposure to thin their numbers : I know of three murders within the past two years ; and one infanticide occurred only a few months ago. These facts, wb'ch are open to li 332 PROBABLE EXTINCTION OF THE ESQUIMAUX. OHAVTKK XLIl. TheEsqui- muux tiibps nipidly dying out. Mirth in misery. A melan- choly nii- grution. my limited sources of infonnation, cannot, of course, indiciite tht number of deaths correctly. They confirm, however, a fenrfui conclusion which these poor wretches have themselves communi- cated to U3,— that they are dying out ; not lingeringly, like the American tribes, but so rapidly as to be al)le to mark within a generation their progress toward extinction. Nothing can be more saddening, measured by our own sensibilities, than such a conviction ; but it seems to have no effect upon this remarkable people. Surrounded by the graves of their dead, by huts unten- anted, yet still recent in their memory as homesteads, even by caches of meat wliii'h, frozen under the snow by the dead of one year, are eaten by the living of the next, they show neither apprehension nor regret. Even Kalutunah— a man of fine in- stincts, and, I think, of heart— will retain his apathy of face as, b.\' the aid of Petersen, our interpreter, I point out to him the certainty of their speedy extinction. lie will smile in his efforts to count the years which must obliterate his nation, and break in with a laugh as his children shout out their ' Amna Ayah,' and dance to the tap of his drum. " How wonderful is all this ! Rude as are their ideas of num- bers, there are those among this merry-hearted people who can reckon up to the fate of their last man. " After Netelik, the receptacle of these half-starved fugitives, had been obliged itself to capitulate with famine, the body cor- porate determined, as on like occasions it had often done before, to migrate to the seats of the more northern hunt. " The movements of the walrus, and the condition of the ice, seem to be known to them by a kind of instinct ; so, when the light came, they harnessed in their reserve of dogs, and started for Cape Alexander, " It could not, one might suppose, have been a very cheerful migration, — women, children, and young babies thrusting them- selves into a frozen wilderness at tem])eratures below — 30°, and sometimes verging on — 60°. But Hans, with a laugh that seemed to indicate some exquisite point of concealed appreciation of the ludicrous, said they travelled generally in squads, singing * Arana Ayah,' and, when they reached any of the halting-huts, at« the blubber and liver of the owners and danced all night. fSo at last they came to Utak-soak, the ' great caldron,' which we call '_i- cate tilt I fearful jmmuui- like tlie within a can be n such a iiarkal)le :s initen- even by I of one ' neither fine in- f face as, liim tlie lis efforts break in yah,' and ; of mnn- who can fugitives, body cor- ae before, f the ice, vvlien the d started / cheerful ng them- -30°, and lugh that preciation s, singing ting-huts, light. So ch we call RECAPTURE OF A DESERTER. 333 Cape Alexander, and settled down at Peteravik, or the ' Welcome Halt.' "At first game was scarce here also; but the season came soon when the female walrus is tending her calf on the ice, and then, but for the protracted exposure of the hunt, there was no draw- back to its success. They are desperately merry now, and seem to have forgotten that a second winter is ahead of them. Hans said, with one of his quiet laughs, ' One half of them are sick, and cannot hunt : these do nothing but eat, and sim;, " Anma Aj-ah." ' "April 18, Wednesday/. — I am just off a two hundred miles' journey, bringing back my deserter, and, what is perhaps quite as important, a sledge-load of choice walrus-cuts. '* I found from ITans that his negotiation for the dogs had failed, and that unless I could do something by individual per- suasion, I must give up my scheme of a closing exploration to the north. I learned, too, that Godfrey was playing the great man at Etah, defying reca^^ture ; and I was not willing to trust the influence he might exert on my relations with the tribe. I determined that he should return to the bris. "I began by stratagem. I placed a pair of foot-cuffs on Metek's sledge, and, after looking carefully to my body-com- panion six-shooter, invited myself to ride back with him to Etah. His nephew remained on board in charge of Hans, and I dis- guised myself so well in my nessak that, as we moved off, I could easily have passed for the boy Paulik, whose place I had taken. " As our eighty miles drew to an end, and that which we call the settlement came close in view, its population streamed out to welcome their chief's return. Among the first and most promi- nent was the individual whom I desired to meet, waving his hand and shouting ' Tima ! ' as loudly as the choicest savage of them all. An instant later and I was at his ear, with a short phrase of salutation and its appropriate gesture, He yielded unconditionally at once, and, after walking and running, by turns, for some eighty miles before the sledge, with a short respite at Anoatok, is now a prisoner on board. ** My remaining errand was almost as successful." OHAPTEU XLII. The "Wel- come Halt." Journey to biiiitibiick a ilesei'lcr. Sufcessfiil stiiitajjcm The de- serter a prison p.r. ill 1 534 BTAH. XLIIT. Hartstene Bay. t t 1 i i 1 ,1 1 ; i I 1 i.j ^^^B., m"i H' ' |i i M. iJI A....A.. „ CHAPTER XLIII. HARTSTENE BAY-ESQUIMAUX DWELLINQS-A CUOWDED INTERIOK-TUE night's LODGINQ-A morning REPAST-MOURNING FOR THE DEAD- FUNERAL RITES— PENANCE. OHAPTEB Etah is on the north-eastern curve of Hartstene Bay, facing to """" the south and west. As you stretch over from the south point of Littleton Island to the main, the broken charu-ter of the ice subsides into a traversable plain, and the shore-scenery assumes a singular wildness. The bottom series of plutonics rises to grand'' and mountainous proportions, and in the back-ground, soaring above these, are the escaladed green-stones of the more northern coast. At the very bottom of the bay are two perfora- tions, one a fortress-mantled fiord, the other a sloping ravine: both are occupied by extensions of the same glacier. The fiord points to Peteravik, where Kalutunah and his hungry southern corps have now taken up their quarters ; the other is the oft-mentioned settlement of Etah. A snow-drift, rising at an angle of forty-five degrees, till it mingles with the steep sides of a mo°untain, is dotted by two dark blemishes upon its pure white. Coming nearer, you s.-e that the dirt-spots are perforations of the snow :° nearer still, you see above each opening a smaller one, and a covered roof connecting them. These are the doors and windows of the settlement ; two huts and four families, but for these vent holes, entirely buried in the snow. The inmates of the burrows swarmed around me as I arrived. « Nalegak ! nalegak ! tima !" was yelled in chorus ; never seemed people more anxious to propitiate, or more pleased with an unex- pected visit. But they were airily clad, and it blew a north- wester ; and they soon crowded back into their ant-hill. Mean- time preparations were making for my in-door reception, and after a Uttle while Metek and myself crawled in on our hands and knees, through an extraordinary tossut thirty paces long. As I emerged on the inside, the salute of " nalegak " was repeated witb an increase of energy that was anything but pleasant. p]tah. Kecepu'in by the natives. CROWDED DWELLINGS. -.i-.V) There were giiests before me, — six sturdy donizous of the neighbouring settlement. They had been overtaken by the storm while hunting, and were already crowded upon the central dais of honour. They united in the yell of welcome, and I soon found myself gasping the ammoniacal steam of some fourteen vioc^rous, amply-fed, unwashed, unclothed fellow-lodgers. I had come somewhat exhausted by an eighty miles' journey through the atmosphere of the floes : the thermometer inside was at 4- 90^, and the vault measured fifteen feet by six. Such an amorphous mass of compounded humanity one could see nowhere else : men, women, children, with nothing but their native dirt to cover them, twined and dovetailed together like the worms in a fishing-basket. No hyperbole could exaggerate that which in serious earnest I give as the truth. The platform measured but seven feet in breadth, by six hi depth, the shape being semi-elliptical. Upon this, including children and excluding myself, were bestowed tliirteen persons. The kotluk of each matron was glowing with a flame sixteen inches long. A flipper-quarter of walrus, which lay frozen on the floor of the netek, was cut into steaks ; and the kolopsuts be- gan to smoke with a burden of ten or fifteen pounds apiece. Metek, with a little amateur aid from some of the sleepers, emptied these without my assistance. I had the most cordial invitation to precede them ; but I had seen enough of the culinary regime to render it impossible. I broke my fast on a handful of frozen liver-nuts that Bill brought me, and, bursting out into a [)rofuse perspiration, I stripped like the rest, threw my well-tired carcase across Mrs. Eider-duck's extremities, put her left-hand baby under my armpit, pillowed my head on Myouk's somewhat warm stomach, and thus, an honoured guest and in the place of honour, fell asleep. Next morning, the sun nearly at noonday height, I awoke : Mrs. Eider-duck had my breakfast very temptingly ready. It was forked on the end of a curved piece of bone, — a lump of boiled blubber and a choice cut of meat. The preliminary cookery I had not seen : I am an old traveller, and do not care to intrude into the mysteries of the kitchen. My appetite was in its usual blessed redundance, and I was about to grasp the smiling proffer, when I saw the matron, who was manipulating as chief intendant CHAPTKK XLIII. A crowiU'il interior. An Esqii- iiiaux supper and bed. Amornint repast. 11 »36 DISGUSTING HABITS OF TUK NATIVES. Esqui- maux cookery. m I ii CAPTKR of the other kotluk, performing an operation that arrested me. ^^"'- She had in her hand a counterpart of the curved bone that sup- ported my dejeuner -indoed, it is the universal implement of an i:squimaux cuisine -and, as I turned my head, I saw her quietly withdrawing it from beneath her dress, and then plunging it into the soup-pot before her, to bring out the counterpart of my own smoking morsel. I learned afterward that the utensil has its two recognised uses ; and that, when not immediately wanted for^the purposes of pot or table, it ministers to the " royal luxury of the Scottish Icing. I dare not amplify this description. Dirt or filth in our sense is not a conceived quality with these Esquimaux. Incidentally it may be an annoyance or obstruction ; but their nearest word, " Eberk," expresses no more than this. It is an ethnological trait of these ultra-northern nomads,— so far as I know, a unique one,-and must be attributed nc alone to their predatory diet and peculiar domestic system, but to the ex- treme cold, which.by rapid freezing resists putrefaction and pre- vents the joint accumulation of the dogs and the household froiu beincr intolerable. Their senses seem to take no cognizance o what all instinct and association make revolting to the sight, and touch, and smell of civilized man. My note-book proves this by exact and disgusting details, the very mildest of which I camiot transfer to these pages. I spent some time at Etah in examining the glacier and m making sketches of things about me. I met several old friends. Among the rest was Awahtok, only now recovering from his severe frost-bite, the effect of his fearful adventure with Myouk among the drifting ice. I gave him a piece of red flannel and powwowed him. He resides with Ootuniah in the second hut a smaller one than ^letek's, with his pretty wife, a sister ot Kalutunah's. I could hardly believe the infanticide story which Hans had told me of this young couple ; and, pretending igno- rance of the matter, I asked after the child's health. Their man ner satisfied me that the story was true ; they turned their hand, downward, but without any sign of confusion. They did not even pay its memory the cheap compliment of tears, whicli among these people are always at hand, ^ There is a singular custom which I have often noticed here as well as among some of the Asiatics, and which ha.s its analogies Meeting with Awahtuli. .A ■'•A.^ MOURNING FOK TllK DEAD. 337 KUsli of woe.' in more cultivated centres. I aUude to the regulated fonualitlcs cuPitR of mourning for the dead. They weep according to system • when "'''''"• one begins tliey are all expected to join, and^it is the office of a^i courtesy for the most distinguished of the company to wipe the ^Jir'.'""* eyes of the chief mourner. They often assemble by concert for a " "^"'" general weeping match ; but it happens sometimes that one wiil break out into tears, and others courteously follow, without know- ing at first what is the particular subject of grief. It is not, however, the dead alone who are sorrowed for by such "A gemie a ceremony. Any other calamity may call for it as well : the failure of a hunt, the snapping of a walrus-line, or the death of a dog. Mrs Eider-duck, nee Small Belly (Egurk), once looked ui* at me from her kolupsut and burst into a gentle gush of woe. I was not informed of her immediate topic of thought, but with remark- able present:: ot .nind I took out my handkerchief, — made by Morton out of the body of an unused shirt, — and, after wipin" her eyes politely, wept a few tears myself. This little passage was soon over ; ^[rs. Eider-duck returned to her kolupsut, and Nalegak to his note-book. The ceremonial mourmng, howe\'er, is attended sometimes, if not always, by observances of a more serious character. So far' as my information goes, the religious notions of the Esquimaux ex- tend only to the recognition of supernatural agencies, and to cer- tain usages by which they may be conciliated. The angekok of The ange- the tribe— the prophet, as he is called among our Indians of the Sbe"^""' West— is the general counsellor. He prescribes or powwows in sickness and over wounds, directs the policy and movements of the little state, and, though not the titular chief, is really the power behind the throne. It is among the prerogatives and duties of his office to declare the appropriate oblations and penances of Penances grief. These are sometimes quite oppressive. The bereaved hus- band may be required even to abstain from the seal or walrus-hunt for the whole year, from Okiakut to Okiahit—w'miQY to winter. More generally he is denied the luxury of some article of food, as the rabbit or a favourite part of the walms ; or he may be for- biddden to throw back his nessak, and forced to go with uncovered head. A sister of Kalutunah died suddenly at Peteravik. Her body was sewed up in skinn, not in a sitting posture, like the remains II Ml 338 AN ESQUIMAUX FUNRUAL. CBArTBR XLIII. Funeral cere- monie^ vvliicli wo foiiiul ill the graves at the south, htit with the limba exteiKlod at full length ; and her hiusband bore her unattended to lier resting-place, and covered her, stone by stone, with a rude monumental cairn. The blubber-lamp was kept burning outside the hut while the solitary funeral was in progress ; and when it was over the mourners came together to weep and howl, while the widower recuted his sorrows and her praise. His penance was severe, and combined most of the inflictions which I have de- scribed above. It is almost as difflcult to trace back the customs of the Smith's Sound Esquimaux as it is to describe their religious faith. Tliey are a declining— almost an obsolete— people, " toto orhe divisos;' and too nuich engaged with the necessities of the present to cherish memorials of the past. It was otherwise with those whom we met in the more southern settlements. These are now for t(ie most part concentrated about the Danish posts, in very ditterent circumstances, physical as well a^ moral, from their brethren of the north. > i( THE KHQUIMAUX OF GllKENLANIX \e limbs nidocl to .1 rude ; outsidci wlion it vliile the mee was liave de- 3 Smith's I. They divisos,^^ :esent to th those are now , in very nm their CHAPTER XLTV. TIIK ESQUIMAUX OF GRKENLAND— ClIANUK OF CIIAUACTEH - LABOUKS OF THE MISSIONARIES— NOIiUK — THE OMINAKS — I'INUEIAK AND JENS— THE ANGEKOKS— ISSIUTOK— THE IMNAPOK— THE PECUEE. Some thirty years ago the small-pox found its way among the chaptkr natives of the upper coast, and most of those who escaped or sur- '. vived its ravages sought the protection of the colony. Others Smaii pox , . , , . , , . iimonK the followed from the more inland regions ; and now there is not an imtivLs. Esquimaux, from the Great Glaciers of Melville Bay down to Upcrnavik, who docs not claim fellowship in that community. We found traces of their former haunts much further north Truces o( tiian they appear to have been noticed by others; some of such a |',u^,g'"^'* character as to indicate for them a tolerably recent date. I have already mentioned the deserted huts which we came upon in Shoal -Water Cove, in lat. 78° 27', and the stone fox-traps upon the rocks near them. Ot!'; huts, evidently of Esquimaux con- struction, but very ancient, >\ are found on the in-shore side of Littleton Island; and among the cairns around them that had served to conceal provisions or that now covered the remains of the dead, were numerous implements of the chase. The huts which I saw near Refuge Harbour, in lat. 78° 33', were much more perfect, and had been inhabited very recently. From some of the marks which I have referred to in my journal, there was reason to suppose that the inmates might return before the opening of another season. It was still otherwise with those that we met at Karsuk and elsewhere further to the south. These, though retaining signs of comparatively modern habitation, were plainly deserted homes. I met at Upernavik an ancient woman, the latest survivor of the Tiic only few who escaped from these settlements during the general pestil- ^ triba ence. The labours of the Lutheran and Moravian missionaries have been so far successful among these people that but few of them are now without the pale of professed Christianity, and its re- ^u 940 LAIJOUUS Of TIIK MISSIONAUIKS. CHAFTKH XLIV. Oi'iKiiial Rt.'ttUUftllU riimiBe of rliaiactur, iJunclits of the inis- Hioimry scliool. Traditions and K'liii^'S of tlie Grci'ii- luiului's. forming influences liivvc affected the moral tone of all. Before the arrival of these self-sacrifichig evangelists, murder, incest, burial of the living, and infanticide, were not numbered among crimes. It was unsafe for vessels to touch u^jon the coast ; treachery was as common and as much honoured as among the Polynesians of the Eastern seas. Crantz tells us of a Dutch brig that was seized by the natives at the port of Disco, in 1740, and the wliole crew murdered; and two years later the same fate befell the seamen of another vessel that had accidentally stranded. But for the last hundred years Greenland has been safer for the wrecked mariner than many parts t)f our own coast. Hospitality is the universal characteristic, enjoined upon the con- verted as a Christian duty, but eveiy where a virtue of savage life. From Upernavik to Cape Farewell, llie Esquimaux does not xiesitate to devote his own meal to the necessities of a guest. The benefits of the missionary school are not coi fined to the Christianized natives ; and it is observable that tie virtues of truth, self-reliance, and generous bearing, have been inculcated successfully with men who still cherish the ^vild traditionary superstitions of their fathers. Some of these are persons of strongly-marked character, and are trusted largely by the Danish officials. One of them, the nalegak-soak, or great chief, Noluk, claims to have been the king or " head-man " of his people. But among the native Greenlanders, as among other nomads, there seems to be no recognition of mastership except such as may be claimed by superiority of prowess. They have definite traditions of the organized games and exercises by which this superiority used to be authenticated. Indeed, the custom obtained until within the two last generations, and is traceable still in many of the periodical sports. Wrestling, jumping, tracking by the fingers or with Ivooked arms, pushing heel to heel in a sitting posture, dealing and receiving alternate blows on the left shoulder, shooting further and with the stronger bow, carrying the heavier stone the greater distance, were among their trials of strength. I have seen some of these stones at Fortuna Bay and Disco Fiord, which remain as they were left at the end of the contest, memo- rials of the athlete who sustained their weight. Noluk is a remarkably powerful man, and as straight and graceful as an Iroquois. He is now a grandfather by his second •'! w. (I CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONH o|' TMK NATIVKS, :].[[ wife; but lio is still tlio best liuntor of tlio settlcinont, iuid dis- (liiiiiM to comj.ly with the itsn^e which wouUl triuisfer his (h,;^- teaiuH and apparatus of the hunt to his grown-up son. During the pestilence of 1820 lie resided fifty-six miles north of Uper- navik, at Tcssiusak, in hit. 7.T 30': I have seen the ruins of his hut there. When all the families flod from the sick, Niiluk still drove his sledge homeward and deposited food regularly for his dying wife. On his last visit he saw her through the window a corpse, and his hifant son sucking at her frozen breast. Tarcntal instinct was mastered by panic: he made his way to the south without crossing the threshold. Among the regal perquisites of the nalogak-soak was the questionable privilege ot having as many wives as he conld sui)- port. Besides this, lie had little exceiit an imperfectly-dufmed claim to certain proceeds of the hunt. In old times, the sub- ordinate nalegaks, chieftains of minor settlements, held their office by a similar title of persimal might among their immediate fellows — thus constituting something like a system of feudal sovereignties without hereditary descent. It is related, however, much as it is in histories with which we are more familiar, that the supremacy of the " Great Master " sometimes encountered rebuke from his barons. The Upcrnavik reindeer-hunters used to ascend the Salmon River, near Svartehuk, to a point from which by a single day's "ourney they could reach Okossisak, a hunting-station of the Ouut ak . It so happened upon one occasion, when the Ominaks nud been more than ordinarily successful in the chase, that a baud of Upernaviks, with whom fortune had been less propitious, determined to pay them a predatory visit, attended by their gxeat chief, the liege lord of both tribes. They found the Ominaks with their chief in company, a short chunky fellow, who proifered the accustomed hospitalities of his tent in true knightly style. But, in reply to the salutation, " Be seated and eat," the Great Upernavik, whoso companions were watching for their cue, gave a scowl, the reverse of the uniform formula of acceptance, which is simply to sit down and be filled. Hereupon old Ominak strung silently a heavy bow, and, drawing his arrow to the head, buried it in the narrow cleft of a distant rock, soliloquizing, as it struck, " He who is better tJian I am is my master." I give his words in the crigiual for an CHAPTEh XLIV, NiJluk. I'livilcRCi of Ur" soak. The "Grand Master " and his liaroim. Tlie Omi- naks and Uperna- viks. i ' I 342 OHAPTfeR XLIV. |:ii i .1 An exer- cise in phonetics. ii.i I Jens and Pingeiak. An elope- ment. 1 The last angekok. MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. exercise m phonetics : " ICinajougenerua," who is better, " Ovanot,' than I am ; the rest of the sentence—" is my master "—being understood : an elliptical form of expression very common among these people, and often aided by accompanying gestures. Thus euphoniously solicited, the Upernaviks sat down and ate, and, pronouncing the brief acknowledgment, " Thanks," which always end's a stranger's meal, went their way in peace. The old practice which is found among some of the Asiatic and North American tribes, of carrying off the bride by force, is com- mon among the Esquimaux, and reluctantly abandoned even by the converted. The ceremonial rite follows at the convenience of the parties. Jens, the son of my old friend Cristiansen at Proven, came very nigh being left a bachelor by an exercise of this cus- tom. He was not quite ready to perform the gallant function himself toward his lady-love, when a lusty rival, one Pingeiak, carried her off bodily in dead of night. The damsel made good fight, however, and, though the abduction was repeated three times over, she managed to keep her troth. In the result, Jens, as phlegmatic and stupid a half-breed as I ever met mth, got the prettiest woman in all North Greenland. Pingeiak was the best hunter and had the largest tent, but Jens was the son of the head man. I believe such things may come about in other parts of the world. • I remember other instances among parties whom I knew. A young aspirai^.t for the favours of an unbaptized daughter of the settlement at Sever-nik got a companion to assist him, and suc- ceeded in carrying her to his sledge. But the ruthless father had the quicker dog-team, and pursued with such ferocious alacrity, that the unlucky devotee of ancient custom had to clamber up a rocky gorge to escape his wrath, leaving the chosen one behind him. The report— for scandal is not frozen out of Greenland — makes the lady a willing eloper, and more courageous than her runaway lover. The mysteries of the angekok, still so marked in their influence further to the north, are not openly recognised near the Danish settlements. The last regular professor of them, Kenguit, was baptized at Proven in 1844, changing his name to Jonathan Jere- mias. But as you recede from the missionary influence the dark art is still practised in al' its power. 3vanot,'' ' — being a among i. Tliua ite, and, \i always iatic and , is com in by the ;e of the Proven, this dis- function Pingeiak, de good ree times Jens, as , got the tlie best the head :t3 of the new. A 3r of the and suc- ither had alacrity, ber up a le behind enland — than her influence le Danish guit, was han Jere- the dark THK ANGEKOKS AND ISSIUTOK. 343 A fact of psychological interest, as it shows that civilized or savage wonder-workers form a single family, is tliat tlie angckoks believe firmly in their own powers. I have known several of them personally, after my skill in powwow had given me a sort of correlative rank among them, and can speak with confidence on this point. I could t t detect them in any resort to jugglery or natural magic : their deceptions are simply vocal, a change of voice, and perhaps a limited profession of ventriloquism, made more imposing by the darkness. They have, however, like the members of the It rned professions everywhere else, a certain lan- guage or jargon of their own, in which they communicate Avith each other. Lieutenant-Governor Steffenson, who had charge of the Northern District up to 1829, and was an admirable student of everything that regards these people, says that their artificial language is nothing but the ordinary dialect of the country, modi- fied in the pronunciation, Avith some change in the import of the words and the introduction of a few cabalistic terms. Besides the angekoks, who are looked up to as the hierophants or dispensers of good, they have the issiutok, or evil men, who work injurious spells, enchantments, metamorphoses. Like the witches of both Englands, the Old and the New, these malignants are rarely submitted to trial till they have been subjected to punishment — " castigat auditque." The finder of the Runic stone, old Pelemut, was one of them, and dealt with accordingly. Two others, only as far back as 1828, sufl'ered the penalty of their crune on the same day, one at Karmenak, the other at Upernavik. This last was laudably killed after the "old customs," — custom being the apology of the rude everywhere for things revolting to modern sense. He was first harpooned, then eviscerated, a flap let down from his forehead " to cover his eyes and prevent his seeing again," — he had the " evil eye," it might seem ; and then small portions of his heart were eaten, so as to make it secure that he could not come back to earth unchanged. All this in accord- ance with venerated ritual. The other, the Karmenak case, was that of an old sick man. He was dealt with more succinctly by his neighbour Kamokah, now old Tobias; Avho, at the instance of the issiutok family, pushed him into the sea after harpooning him, and then gave his iiesh to the dogs. I have seen Tobias at Proven, a Christian- CHAPTSU XLIV. The ango koks. hi The issiu- tok, or evl! men. Their pun isliment. 344 THP] IMNAPOK. PuniBh- ments. i; 1. i ' 'I 1 S I ! I oiiAPTER ized man now, of very good repute, and, for anght I know, wortLy ^j:!!; of it. The capital punishment witli tliem, as with ua, seems in general to be reserved for offences of the higher grade. For those of minor dignity, such as form the staple of our civilized forums, and even those which might find their way profitably into a court of honour, the Imnapok is the time-honoured tribunal of redress. The original meaning of this word, I believe, is a native dance or singsong; but the institution which now bears the name is of much more dignity, and is found, with only circumstantial differences, among many other tribes Avithin and beyond the Arctic circle. The imna- ^jj Esquimaux has inflicted an injury on one of his country- bunai of men : he has cut his seal-lines, or harmed his dogs, or burned his redress, ^ladder-float, or perpetrated some enormity equally grievous. A summons comes to him from the angekok to meet the " countiy- side"at an Imnapok. The friends of the parties and the idlers of many miles around gather about the justice-seat, it may be at some little cluster of huts, or, if the weather permits, in the open air. The accuser rises and preludes ^ few discords with a seal-rib on a tom-tom or drum. He then passes to the charge, and pours out in long paragraphic words all the abuse and ridirule to which his outrageous vernacular can give expression. The accused meanwhile is silent ; but, as the orator pauses after a signal hit, or to flourish a cadence on his musical instrument, the whole audience, friends, neutrals, and opponents, signalize their approval by outcries as harmonious as those which we sometimes hear in our town-meetings at home. Stimulated by the applause, and warming with his own fires, the accuser renews the attack, his eloquence becoming more and more licentiou^' and vituperative, iintil it has exhausted either his strength or liis vocabulary of invective. Now comes the accused, with defence and counter- charge and retorted abuse; the assembly still listening and applaud ''^g through a lengthened session. The Homeric debate at a clo^ the angekoks hold a poAvwow, and a penalty is de- nounced against the accused for his guilt, or the accuser for his unsustained prosecution. WALRUS HUNTING. 34; CHAPTER XLV. WALRUS-llUNTINa— ESQUIMAUX HABITS— RKTURX FUOM ETAII— PREI'AIUNG FOR KSCAPE— MAKING SLEDOES— DR. HAYES. The six storm-arrested strangers were off early in tlie morninfj : I sent messages of compliment by them to Kalutunah, inviting him to visit the b.ig: and in the afternoon Alyouk and myself followed them to the floes for a walrus -hunt. The walnis supplies the staple food of the Rensselaer Bay Esquimaux throughout the greater part of the year. To the south as far as INfurchison Channel, the seal, unicorn, and white whale alternate at their appropriate seasons ; but in Smith's Sound these last are accidental rather than sustained hunts. The manner of hunting the walrus depends in a considerable degree on the season of the year. In the fall, when the pack is but partially closed, they are found in numbers hanging around the neutral region of mixed ice and water, and, as this becomes solid ^vith the advance of winter, following it more and more to the south. The Esquimaux approach them then over the young ice, and assail them in cracks and holes with nalegeit and line. This fishery, as the season grows colder, darker, and more tempestuous, is fearfully hazardous j scarcely a year passes without a catas- trophe. It was the theme of happy augury last wdnter, that no lives had been lost for some months before, and the angekoks even ventured to i)r()})liesy from it that the hunt would be auspi- cious, — a prophecy, like some others, hazarded after the event, for the ice had continued open for the M'alrus till late in December. With the earliest spring, or, more strictly, about a month after the re-appearance of the sun, the winter famine is generally relieved. January and February are often, in fact, nearly always, months of privation; but auring the latter part of March tie spring fishery commences. Everything is then life and excite- ment. The walrus is now taken in two ways. Sometimes lie Las risen CHAPTKR XLV. DepartiiTf of the stniniCiCTb. Manner of hunting thcwalrn.s The spi-ingf fishery. i'i ! ESQUIMAUX CHILDRKN PLAYING BALL. 1. iL. d<1p of an iceberrr, where the currents have worn away tho "-"" S "; «" :;t crk and, enjoying the .u.»hinc too long, — fi Ihis rotvoat cut off by the troozing up of the op-ung; fo, like the seal at its attuk, the wulvus can only work ron helow When thus caught, the Esquimaux, who with keen mntcr-cn.U r scouring the floes, scent him out by their dogs and spear b„u. The early spring is the breedh.g season, and the w.drus then are in their .dory. My observations show that they tenant the ZZ th u^hout the enrire year; but at this time the female, Mh her calf? is accompanied by the g.™.visagcd father, surging ''■fc The best time for luinting walrus. cmtPRKN I'LAYINB BALIi. in lovin.. trios from crack to crack, sporting arom,d the berg- Iter, or baskh.g in the smt. While thus on thorr tours he invite their vigilant enemies to tne second method of capture This is dso by the lance and har,>oon; but it often becomes o ^«!i ESQUIMAUX HABITS. 347 " i'i' re^nilar battle, tlie male gallantly fronting the assault and cliarg- ohaptei ing the hunters with furious bravery. Not unfrequcntly the '^ entire family — mother, calf, and bull — are killed in one of these contests. The huts those poor, miserable, snow-covered dens — are now Workafte scenes of life and activity. Stacks of jointed meat are piled upon "'° ''"'" the ice-foot ; the women are stretching the hide for sole-leather, and the men cutting out a reserve of harpoon-lines for the winter. Tusky walrus heads stare at you from the snow-bank, where they are stowed for their ivory ; the dogs are tethered to the ice ; and the children, each one armed with the curved rib of some big amphibion, are playing ball and bat among the drifts. On the day of my arrival, four walrus were killed at Etah, and no doubt many more by Kalutak at Peteravik. The quantity of beef which is thus gained during a season of plenty, one might suppose, should put them beyond ^vinter want; but there are other causes besides improvidence which make their supplies scanty. The poor creatures are not idle ; they hunt indomitably, ^J'^J^^^y^ without the loss of a day. When the storms prevent the use of \^2J^. the sledge, they still work in stowing away the carcasses of pre- vious hunts. An excavation is made either on the mainland, or, what is preferred, upon an island inaccessible to foxes, and the jointed meat is stacked inside and covered with heavy stones. One such cache, which I met on a small island a short distance from Etah, contained the flesh of ten walrus, and I know of several others equally large. The excessive consumption is the true explanation of ^^^c c™ oi scarcity. By their ancient laws all share with all ; and, as they migrate in numbers as their necessities prompt, the tax on each particular settlement is excessive. The quantity which the mem- bers of a family consume, exorbitant as it seems to a stranger, is rather a necessity of their peculiar life and organization than the result of inconsiderate gluttony. In active exercise and constant exposure to cold the waste of carbon must be enormous. When in-doors and at rest, tinkering over their ivory harness- rings, fowl-nets, or other household gear, they eat as we often do in more civilized lands— for animal enjoyment and to pass away time. But when on the hunt they take but one meal a day, and that after the day's labour is over; they go out upon the ice s!l 1 348 DEPARTURE FROM ETAH. Esqul- miuix ration. CHAPTKH Without breukfast, and, except the "cold cuts," which I coufe.« ^^^- are numerous, eat nothing until their return. I would average ~" the Esquimaux ration in a season of plenty-it is of course a mere estimate, but I believe a perfectly fair one-at eight or ten pounds a day, %vith soup and water to the extent of half a gallon. ^ At the moment of my visit, when returning plenty had just broken in upon their famine, it was not wonderful that they were huntin- with avidity. The settlements of the South seek at this season the hunting-ground above, and, until the seals begin to form their baskhig-holes, some ten days later, the walrus is the smgle Hnuntsof ^^T incline to the opinion that these animals frequent the half-. «,e walrus, ^^^^q^, ice-margin throughout the year; for, after the season lias become comparatively open, they are still found in groups, witl. their young, disporting in the leads and shore-water. They are, of course, secure mider such circumstances from the Lsqmmaux hunters of the Far North, who, not having the kayak of the more southern settlements, can only approach tliem on the ice. In the late summer or " ausak," after all ice has melted, the walrus are in the habit of resorting to the rocks. They are then extremely alert and watchful ; but the Esquimaux note their haunts carefully, and, concealing themselves in the clefts, await their approach with patient silence, and secure them by the harpoon and line. , , . , , My departure from Etah Bay was hastened by news from the hri- Hans brought me a letter from Dr. Hayes, while I was out walms-hunting near Life-Boat Cove, which apprised me of the danc^erous illness of Mr. M'Gary. I had a load of meaton my sledge, and was therefore unable to make good speed with my four tired dogs; but I rode and ran by turns, and reached the brier, after fifty miles' travel, in seven hours from the time o meeting Hans. I was thoroughly broken down by the effort, bu had the satisfaction of iindir.;^ that my excellent second ofhcer had passed the crisis of his attack. I left Hans behind me witb orders to go to Peteravik and per- suade Kalutunah to come to the brig, sending him a capstan-bar as a pledge of future largess,-invaluable for its adaptation to harpoon-shafts. « April 19, Thursdai/.-The open water has not advanced from Depavtiiie from Etah. MAKING SLEDGES. 340 the soutli more than four miles within the past three weeks. It chaptkb is still barely within Cape Alexander. It is a subject of serious ^^ anxiety to me. Our experience has taught us that the swell Seiious caused by these winds breaks up the ice rapidly. Now, there can H'lloutJiu be no swell to the southward, or these heavy gales would have ^i'"*' "*!■ done this now. It augurs ill not only lor the possible release ot tiio open the brig, but for the facility of our boat-voyage if we shall be ^'''""■• obliged to forsake her, as everything seems to say we must do soon. Last yetir, on the 10th of ^fay, the water was free around Littleton Island, and coming up to within two miles of Refuge Inlet. It is now forty miles further oft"! " Petersen and Ohlsen are working by shori spells at the boats and sledge >. " I will not leave the brig until it is absolutely certain that she cannot thaw out this season; but everything shall be matured for our instant departure as soon as her fate is decided. Every detail is arranged ; and, if the sick go on as they have done, I do not doubt but that we may carry our boats some thirty or forty miles over the ice before finally deciding whether we must desert the brig. " April 20, Friday.— k relief-watch, of Riley, Morton, and .^^aklng Bonsall, are preparing to saw out sledge runners from our cross- '^'^^^^'^ beams. It is slow work. They are very weak, and the ther- mometer sinks at night to —26". Nearly aU our beams have been used up for fuel ; but I have saved enough to construct two long sledges of 17 feet 6 inches each. I want a sledge sufficiently long to bring the weight of the whaleboat and her stowage within the line of the runner; this will prevent her rocking and pitching when crossing hummocked ice, and enable us to cradle her firmly to the sledge. " They are at this moment breaking out our cabin bulkhead to extract the beam. Our cabin dormitory is full of cold vapour. Everything is comfortless : blankets make a sorry substitute for the moss-padded wall which protected us from —60''. " Avril 21, Saturday.— llovioi^s. heel is nearly closed, and tliere Morton's ■* 7 t' ^ recovery* is apparently a sound bone underneath. He has been upon his back since October. I can now set this faithful and valuable man to active duty very si \. " The beam was too long to be carried through our hatches ; 23 !flM Ij , m B 350 ITATID WOKK. OHAPTEH XLV. SledKi! .ve therefore have .awed it as it stand,, and -i" -"JJ "^t^J slabs separately. Tliesn slabs are but one and a half ineh wi le atd m« be strengthened by iron bolts and cross-,neces ; »t, thevre all that ,™ have. I made the bolts ont o onr cab.n ^irrods, ion,, disused. Mr. Petersen aids Ohlsen ,n gnnd^rg his tools They will comi-lete the job to-morrow,-for we must w rk ol Sunda; n«w,-and by Monday be able ^^f^ thin-s Petersen undertakes to n.anulaetme our cookmg and tZCJ. I have a sad-h,oking assortment of battered rusty tms to offCT him ; but with stove-pipe much may be done. " W 22 S,a,da!;.-G:.o rest for all but the saycrs, who keep !1 nf^. y at the beam. Some notion of our weakness may Srmed from the faet of these five p r fellows averagmg among them but one foot per hour. ji„ +1,0 P, ,„,o.. '• I read our usual prayers ; and Dr. Hayes who ^e s s dty the loss of his foot, came aft and erawled upon deek to mff the day Hrt lie had not seen the sun for five months and three weeks. ,ir» RKTURN OF RANft 351 OH APT Kit XLVI. CHAPTER XLVI. KAIiUTUNAH — THE IIUNTINa PARTY — SETTING OUT — MY TALLOW-BAU, — A WILD CHASE— HUNTING STILIi— THE GREAT GLACIER— THE ESCA- LADED STRUCTURE — FORMATION OP EERGS— THE VISCOUS FLOW — CREVICES— THE FROZEN WATER -TUNNEL— CAl'E FORRES— FACE (>P GLACIER. We coiitiiuied toiling on with our C()m})licated preparations ' j the evening of the 24th, v^lien liana came back well hiden with walrus meat. Three of the Esqiumaux accompanied him, each '^'^''"'" "♦■ witli his sledge and dug-team fully e(pupped for a hunt. The apmtyof leader of tlie party, Kalutunah, was a noble savage, us m(»nument of frost, I had seen it for some hours hanging over the ice like a white-mist cloud, but now it rose up before me clearly defined and almost precii>itous. The whole horizon, so vague and shadowy before, was broken by long lines of icebergs ; v»nd .is the dogs, cheered by the cries of their wild drivers, went on, losing themselves deeper and deeper in the hibyrinth, it seemed like closing around us the walls ')f an icy world. They stopjied at last; and I had time, while my com- panions rested and fed, to climb one of the highest bergs. The atmosphere favoured me : the blue tops of Washington Land were in full view ; and, losing itself in a dark water-cloud, the noble headland of John Barrow. The trend of this glacier is a few degrees to the west of north. Thotrcmi We followed its face afterward, edging in for the Greenland coast, °^"'.° ' _ ° ° ' glacier. about the rocky archi[)elago which I have named after the Ad- vance. From one of those rugged islets, the nearest to the glacier which could be api»roached with anything hke safety, I could see another island larger and closer in shore, already half covered by the encroaching face of the glacier, and great masses of ice still detaching themselves and splintering as they fell upon that portion wllicli protruded. Repose was not the characteristic of this seemingly solid mass; every feature indicated activity, energy, movement. The surface seemed to follow that of the basis-country over Appear- which it flowed. It was undulating about the horizon, but as it ^"^f^^g * descended toward the sea it represented a broken plain with a general inclination of some nine degrees, still r,"iin'^liir'g toward the foreground. Creviees, in the distance mere wrinkles, ex- i 1' i -!?ry" hi] CHAPTER XLVI. A Ritjantic stairway. Iiidicatiiiii of a fireat propelling agency Formation of ice- bergs. 35g FORMATION OF ICEBERGS. panded as they came nearer, and were crossed almost at riglil angles by long continuous lines of fracture paraUel with the face of the glacier. , ,. . -j a These Hues too, scarcely traceable in the far distance, .videned as they approached the sea until they formed a gigantic stairway. It seemed as though the ice had lost its support below, and that the mass was let down from above hi a series of steps, buch an action, owing to the heat derived from the soil, the excessive sur- fcice-drainage, and the constant abrasion of the sea, must ui reality take place. My note-book may enable me at some future day to develop its details. I have referred to this as the escaladcd structure of the Arctic glacier. j^ u • ^ The indication of a great propelling agency seemed to be just commencing at the time I was observing it. These split-off lines of ice were evidently in motion, pressed on by those belund, but still widening their fissures, as if the impelUng action was more and more energetic nearer the water, till at last they floated away in the form of icebergs Long files of these detached masses could be traced slowly saUing off into the distance, their separation marked by dark parallel shadows-broad and spacious avenues near the eye, but narrowed in the perspective to mere lines. A more impressive illustration of the forces of nature can hardly be '° Eei^^ed upon a large scale, I am satisfied tlu^ the iceberg is not disengaged by debMe, as I once supposed. So far from tall inc. into the sea, broken by its weight from the parent-glacier, it ds'es froL the sea. The process is at once gradual and compara- tively quiet. The idea of icebergs being discharged so universal among systematic writers, and so recently admitted by myselt, seems to me no^v at variance with the regulated and progressive actions of nature. Developed by such a process, the thousands of be^ns which throng these seas should keep the air and wa er in perpetual commotion, one fearful succession of explosive de- tonatil and propagated waves. But it is only the lesser masses faUinc. into deep waters wliich could justify the popular opinion. The eno.mous massesof the Great Glacier are propelled, step by step and yerr l>y year, until, reaching water capable of supporting them, they a -e floated off to be lost in the temperatures of other regions. Tb. frozen masse, before me were similar in structure to the I DE-^CRll'TlON OF TH K GLACIER. Alpine and Norwegmn ice-growths. It would be foreign to the chaptkr character of this book to enter upon the discussion which the re- 'Jl_' mark suuffests. I may add, however, that their face presented i''cotcr- °" >' ' ' >■ flow. nearly all the characteristic features of the Swiss Alps. The werjlow. as I have called the viscous overlapping of the surface, was more clearly marked than upon any Alpine glacier with Avhicli I am acquainted. When close to the island-rocks and looking out upon the upper table of the glacier, I was struck with the homely analogy of the batter-cake spreading itself out under the ladle of the housewife, the upper surface less affected by friction, and rolling forward in consequence. The crevices bore the marks of direct fracture and other more Tiie cro- gradual action of surface-drainage. The extensive water-shed be- ^"^'^■''" tween their converging planes gave to the icy surface most of the hydrographic features of a river-system. The ice-born rivers which divided them were marguied occasionally with spires of discoloured ice, and generally lost themselves in the central areas of the glacier before reaching its foreground. Occasionally, too, the face of the glacier was cut by vertical Ihies, which, as in the Alpine growths, were evidently outlets for the surface drahiage. Everything was, of course, bound in solid ice when 1 looked at it ; but the evi- dences of torrent-action were unequivocal, and Mr. Bonsall and Mr. Morton, at their visits of the preceding year, found both cas- cades and water-tunnels in abundance. Tiie height of this ice-wall at the nearest point was about three The ice- hundred feet, measured from the water's edge; and the unbroken right line of its diminishir.g per.specti,ve showed that this might be regarded as its conslruit measurement. It seemed, in fact, a great icy tablt-hind, abutting with a cle;ui precipice against the sea. This is, indeed, characteristic of all those Arctic glaciers which issue from central reservoirs or men de ylace upon the fiords or bays, and is strikingly in contrast with the dependent or hanging glacier of the ravines, where every line and furrow and chasm seems to indicate the movement of descent and the mechanical dis- turbances which have retarded it. I have named this great glacier after Alexander Von Humboldt, Names and the cape which flanks it on the Greenland coast after Profes- f,','^^^"^'";^, 8or Agassiz. »"'* ''»-' The point at which this immense body of ice enters the Land '^"^*'" H .■ 1 \: Is « 1 i. SS8 CAPE FOKBKS. CHAPTER of Washington gives even to a distant view impressive uidications '''^^^- of its plastic or semi-solid character. No one could resist the im- pression of iiuidity conveyed by its peculiar markings. I have named it Cape Forbes, after the eminent crystallogist whose viewa it so abundantly contirms. Nttming of Cape Forbes. CAPF, roiuu'.s. The lace of the glacier. Ah the suitace of the glacier receded to the south, its face seemed broken with piles of earth and rock-stained rubbish, tdl far back in the interior it was hidden frcn)i me by the slope of a hill. Still beyond this, however, the white blink or glare of the sky above showed its continued extensitjii. It was more difficult to trace its outline to the northward, on account of the immense discharges at its base. The talus of its descent from the interior, looking far off to the east, ranged from 7° to 15°, so broken by the crevices, however, as to give the effect of an inclined plane only in the distance. A few black knobs rose from the white snow, lilre islands from the sea. ^onn^u,u- The general configuration of its surface showed how it^ adai)ted tionofits itself to the uicqualities of the basis-country beneath. There was '"'""■ every modification of hill and valley, just as upon land. Thus diversified in its aspect, it stretches to the north till it bounds upon the new land of Washington, cementing into one the Green- lanil 1^ liL ' \i i ' ace. rni PAnATioNS for RacAPE. ;1 I CHAPTER XLVIII. Arduous and lalio- rions pve- pavatli'ns. Manufac- ture of cloUiinR. Bedding. Provision bags. CHAPTER XLVTIT CK*ni.I»a THE BOAl'S-TTIE SI.l=t.CF.3 MOVI^.i-TU^. ,in< RKATION. THE detailed ,,,-eparatio,„ for our escape «-onld l.av. "ftlo interest for the ge..eral reader ; but they were so arduous and so uupor^ tant that I cannot mss the.n by without a special noti.te. Ihcy ; beei be^n fro\n an curly ,lay of the fall, and had not been c!: «ly inte™u'.tcd during our severest wiuter-tr als. All who „„ld work, even at picking over eider-down, found every nuuneut of leisure fully appropriated. But since our party had begun to deveiop tl.o inml.- of n.ore liberal diet, our labours were ,uore ^v^tomatic and (Uvevsificd. 't manufacture of elo.hing had u.ade considerable progress Canvas moccasins ha,l been made for every one of the p,arty, and three dozen were added as a con.mon stock to u.eet emergences. Theirs of boots were allowed each u,an. These were gene- riUv of cavneting, with soles of walrus and seal hide ; and when he sup, ly of ttee gave out, the leather fron, the ehafing-gear of b for a time s^.pplied their place. A much better subst,- ute w,; found afterward in the f^tta-porcha that had fonncd the soeakin-tube. This was softened by warm water, cut mto e'ntl rand so m«le available to its new uses. Blankets were served out as tlie material tor body-clothing : every man was Ins "'Fortedding, the woollen curtains that had formerly decorated our berths sum-licd us with a couple of large coverlets, wh.ch were abundantly quilted with cider-down. Two buffa o-robes of the ame sizewiU, the coverlets were ar,anged so as to button on hem forming sleeping sacks for the occasion, but easily detoehed for the purpose of drying or airing. , . , fit „„,,„ the Our provision-bags were of assorted sizes, to ht under the thwarts of the boats. They were of sad-cloth, made water-tight by tar and pitch, which we kept from penetrating the canvas by PROVISIONS. :j«7 first coating it with flour-p.uste and planter of I'aris Tl.n hr. . i ba,. were cjonble, the inner .aturatell with palt:...! ^^ty ^-v- boiling ,,. the ,n,xtt,re, and the space between tlie two f.Ued with ~ piM.. Kvery bag was, in sailor-plirase, roped a.id be.-keted • in ordinary parlance, well secured by cordarre ' These different manufactures had alUf them being goin-^ on w, , through the w^nte, and more rapidly as the spring^d.urced ^^ ' rhey had given employment to the tiumghts of our sick men, and So;! in this way had exerted a wholesome influence on their mor-d S"?,,. tone and assisted their convalescence. Other preparations h-id""""'' been begun more recently. The provisions f.,r the descent we're .. be got ready and packed. The ship-bread was powdered by beating it with a capstan-bar, and pressed down into the bar's winch were to carry it. I'ork-fat an.l tallow were melted dow^ and poured into other bags to freeze. A stock of concentrated P.oVsion.s bean- soup was ^cooked, and secured for carriage like the i.ork '"'*"" fat; and the flour and remaining meat-biscuit were to be prot'.cted ^"""'' from moisture in double bags. These were the only provisions we were to carry with us. I knew I shouhl be able to subsist the party for some time after their sotting out by the food I could bnng from the vessel by occasional trips with my dog-team. For the rest we relied upon our guns. Besides all this, we had our camp-equipage to get in order, and ca.p the vitally^important organization of our system of boats and ''''''"^'^'■ sledges. Our boats were three in number, all of them well battered by Boats exposure to ice and storm, almost as destructive of their sea- worthiness as the hot sun of other regions. Two of them ^'ere cypress whaleboats, tw,>nty-six feet long, with seven feet beam and tliree feet deep. These were strengthened with oak bottom- pieces and a long string-piece bolted to the keel. A washboard of light cedar, about six inches high, served to strengthen the gunwale and give increased depth. A neat housing of Hght can- vas was stretched upon a ridge-line sustained fore and aft by stanchions, and hung down over the boat's sides, where it was fastened (stopped) to a jack-stay. My last year's experience on the attempt to reach Beechy Island determined me to carry but one mast to each boat. It was stepped hito an oaken thwart, made especially strong, as it was expected to carry sail over ice as I m IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) // // .5^^;^^ 1.0 I.I ■^ 1^ ill Hf 1^ 12.0 12.2 L25 1.4 1.6 7 :) ^ >^ ^ y « i?^ Photographic Sciences Corporation ^ fV <^ \\ ^9) ^ 03 WEST MAIN STBEET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 •PPM ;h CHAVTER XLvni. The Ii<'d Eric. The boats mounted on sledges. Insti-u- menta. Arms and amunition Cooking apparatus. ST EDOES, INSTRUMENTS, AND ARMS. tl.iri boat was my Wtlo hfd *■"<:■ " „j „^,i. sledge, .be F.M, ha,, -ibn.g ^^^ ^^^ Tbe tbree boats were mou.^cd »" » t "^bwarts ; tbe the smaller field-instruments, we carried on our persons, theodolite we were forced to aband^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ Our powder and shot "P^^^ ^^| ^ .j^^ percussion- caps I took into niy uw i ammunition. rurTro,Ts:::S^e.^rw nrX bette. fo, t.o , ;, otlrcul fir s, was called into requisition. EaeU boat was lamp from the y; ^^ f ^^^^ ;^^^^^^^^ ...Hable either for melting we placed a couple of large tm vess ^^ cake-cani- snow or making tea or soup. They were DAY FIXKI) FOR UKPAKTUIlK. 369 sters cut down. How many kindly festival a.ssociation.s hun^ by chapikh these now abused soup-cans ! one of them had, befofo tliu lire ""^J^'J- rubbed off its bright gilding, the wedding-inscription u£ a lai-e fruit-cake. ° We carried spare tins ui case the ..thers sliould burn out; it singular was well we did so. So conii)letely had we exhausted our house- """'^'''■• hold furniture, that we had neither cups nor plates, except "''' crockery. This, of course, would not stand the travel, and our spare tin had to bo saved for protecting the boats from ice. At this juncture we cat plates out of every imaginalile and rejected piece of tinware. Borden's meat-biscuit canisters furnished us with a splendid dinner-service; and some rightly-feared tin jars, with ominous labels of Corrosive Sublimate and Arsenic, which' once belonged to our departrjent of natural history, were emptied, ■scoured, and cut down into tea cups. Recognising the importance of acting directly upon the men\^ Day used minds, my first step now was to issue a general order appointing'- f"""''*^- a certain day, the 17th of May, for setting out. Every man luid ''"""'' twenty-four hours given him to select and get ready his eight pounds of personal effects. After that, his time was to cease^'to be Jiis own for ai.y puri)ose. The long-indulged waywardi .s of our convalescents made them take this hardly. Some who were at work on articles of apparel that were really important to them threw them down unfinished, in a sick man's pet. I had these in some cases picked up quietly and finished by others. But I shov/ed myself inexorable. It was necessary to brace up and con- centrate every man's thoughts and energies upon the one great com- mon object, our departure from the vessel on the 17th, not to retura I tried my best also to fix and diftuse impressions that we were e ffo.ts going home. But in this I was not always successful ; I was '° '''"''''' displeased, indeed, with the moody indifference v/ith which many "^"'^"' went about the tasks to which I put them. The completeness of Compk-io my preparations I know hud its influence; but there were many '"'''• doubters. Some were convinced that my only object was to move further south, r- taining the brig, however, as a home to retreat to. Others whispered that I wanted to transport the sick to the himt- ing-grounds and other resources of the lower settlements, which I had such difficulty in preventing the mutinous from securing i .r themselves alone. A few of a more cheerful spirit thought I had 'W' ! .; CHAPTER XLVUI. CradlinB tlie boats and inov- inp them to the ice- foot. Attempt at an oinu- nieiital ex- hibition. Gradual training for tlie iouiney. 370 CRADLING Afro MOVING THK BOATS. 1 .A to ttvike for some point of look-out, in tlie hope of a ,,ercei tibly '>>'' """1, . ,„,„„ka always read. » coi.,- '"" T- "T Kl I t«k IT cat o£ course to „>ako tbe <„■.«. '"T I■^ ,;r L t t me »e reached the end of o«r little L"rt.;:\r;;adl^ntod .onderfttlly and^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ f„. tl„. effort ot crossing the successive lines of the belt ice ana fit f fay through "the smashed material .hich in.eniosed "r\:s'r.":l"ttl diBculty. a„a sorro,vtu.,y ex,.us. ,1,. ™or fellows not yet accustomed to heave together. But hi e ™d td the satisfaction, before t.enty-four hoi.s But .11 the en ^^ ,^^^^^,^_, „j,„„ j,,, ,veie over, of /\™? "" " j „ ^,i„ f„, ornamental exhibition reiSe 1 n th of each, a jaunty little flag, made out of one of l—'s obsolete linen shirts, deoor^d in stnpes from disused article of stationery, the red-ink bottle, ™' ^"^ » ^T 1U.1P of the blue-bag in the star-spangled corner. All hands alter th r rt *ned boird ; I had ready for them the best supper on fupplierlrded, and they turned in with minds prepared for tX:::X^-oi them mvallds. unused to open a. ^d exercise. It was necessary to train them very gradually We !^X but two miles the first day, and with a single boa , aid *d for some time after this I took care that tn,^ should be disheartened by overwork. They '^'"^f^^J'l^ suinier and warm beds, and I had the f f '='7/^ "" ,; ° thl back each recurring moridng refreshed and cheerfid. Ihc weather, happily, was superb. TlIK LAST SUNDAY IN THE BRIO. 371 I CHAPTEK XLIX. TJIE PLEDGES— THE AKGUMKNT— FAKEWELL TO THE WUa— THE MUSTEll— THE ROUTINE— THE MESSES. Our last farewell to the bri^^ vas made with mure suleumity. The entire ship's company Avas collected in our dismantled winter- chamber to take part in the ceremonial. It wa.s Sunday. Our moss walls had been torn down, and the wood that supported tliem burned, Our beds were off at the boats. The galley was mifurnished and cold. Everji;hing about the little den of refuge was desolate. We read prayers and a chapter of the Bible; and then, all standing silently round, I took Sir John Franklin's portrait from its frame and cased it in an India-rubber scroll. I next read the reports of inspection and survey whicli had been made by the several commissions organized for the purpose, all of them testify- ing to the necessities under which I was about to act. I then addressed the party : I did not affect to disguise the difficulties that were before us ; but I assured them that they could all be overcome by energy and subordination to command : and that the thirteen hundred miles of ice and water that lay between us and North Greenland could be traversed witli safety for most of us, and hope for all. I added, that as men and messmates, it was the duty of us all, enjoined by gallantry as Avell as rehgion, to post- pone every consideration of self to the protection of the wounded and sick; and that this nmst be regarded by every man and under all circumstances as a paramount order. In conclusion, I told them to think over the trials we had all of us gone through, and to remember each man for himself how often an unseen Power had rescued him in peril, and I admonished them still to place reliance on Him who could not change. I was met with a right si)irit. After a short conference, an engagement was drawn up by one of the officers, and brought to me with the signatures of all the company, without an exception. It read as follows : — CUAI'TEB XLIX. Tlie last Suncliiy. inl I'laycrs ami lead- ing. Captain Kane's address to tlie men Effect of tliu ud> dreas. I ft}j " *IN| ^'^'I'mmmmmmm %7Z ENGAGEMKNT SIGNED 15Y ALL. ■M IV. ■ ? "Second Giunnell Expedition, " Brio Advance, jWh;/ 20, 18fir> CnAPTKR XLIX. Voluntiuy cngnge- Tiient sicned by officers and men. " The un(lcr.signcd, being convinced of the iu^possibihty o the liberation of the brig, and equally convinced of the impcssibih y ofrem uning in the ice a third winter, do fervently concur with 1 colander in his attempt to reach the south by means of "Knowin- the trials and hardships which are before us and feelini»j™ sw«" MMmuM'mifiiKmm. wf inr ri m 1 * it' 376 l-IKST KAVINi;. CHAPTER I. StovlnK provliilons. ;i 1 Wonderful HjI' BtreiiKtli '*'. 1 of the «4' ' 9 i;. dogs. Hi , r i First Ravine. ^^■1 1 Equip- ment of the Red Eric Most of our prov.si.m for the m.uch '"'^ y> - ei-M t Inui- "° 'rl° i "u y Im. "more tl,»„ thdv W.t» .,uUk,l,e, ; t!,oy . ,. c ..,1. T finil V)v mv notes that liiesc six in)p,r>, the line of march. I t nd by my f^aiy-burdoiicd sledge ate leavmg the bng- . -« ' j 1 „r„gr« had bom a Uttk Up to the «7"'|,;f, ' ,,f ;a'^°/'„,rthe 2«h, both .sledgca meted out in proportion to the trials of the march J « wetrv me.. ■ bc»kte wbieb, we »lel.t l-y A.y «he.. the s u. w,.» r„ 1 tr welleil >vhci. we could avoid hh s.e.te»t glai-.^ "Tl.: .. Oh" ,.-' l'"te,»o, d,.ri„gthi» tune ,.e, onoed a ":b?e d,!;: They 'tooU t.,e. turn ..t t^ ^l^^^- -';"-: but they were al.o engaged i„ luepar.ug * « "'•'A - ' ^ - r.>de boat. She was mounted o., our good old .ledge, the y « 1 Lge that, like her „a,..esake our .nost '"^^^^^''"^^ Lad been our very present help in many times o£ trouble. MOVINO THE SICK. 377 lieve every man IVll, ^vlH.., lu. saw hvv hvmvM out, tliat st.mt cnArtER work was to be done, and .inder auspices of good. "• III llie iiu.;uiliiii(. I had carried Mr. (Joodtlllow to the .sick sta- stalT^f tiou witii my dof,'-.sledge, and had managed to convey the rest one "'""""• by one to the .same spot. Mr. Wil.son, whose .stump was .still un- healed, and who siilFcred besides from scurvy ; George Whipple, whose tendon.s were so contracted that he could not' extend his leg.s, and pocn- Stephenson, just able to keep the lamps burning and warm up food for tlio re.st, were the other invalids, all inca*^ pable <.f moving without a.ssistance. It is just that I should speak of the manly fortitude with which they bore up diu'ing this pain- ful imprisonment. Dr. Hayes, though still disabled frnni his frozen foot, adlK^ed manfully to the sledges. I have already exprcs.scd my belief that this little refuge hut of iis..fuiur.. Anoatok was the means of saving the lives of those four men "V'" , Wheji they were hrst transported to it, they were all of them .so "t-^"^' drawn up with scurvy a.s to be unable to move. There was but "'"''' one among them able to melt water for the rest. I attended them, myself during the first week, at every interval that I could .snatch from the duty of transporting our provisions. The temperature in which they lived was at first below zero ; but, as the sun rose and the warmth increased, they gradually gained strength, and were able at last to crawl out and breathe in the gladdeniuf air. Had I attempted to bring them do-vn on our boat-sledges, our progress would have been seriously impeded, and their lives jeoparded. I cannot iinagine a worse po.sition for a sick and helpless man than some of those which I have described in our transit from the brig. On the other hand, to have left them for the time behind us would have made it quite possible that they might not at last be reclaimed. Every day was making the ice travel more difficult and full of hazard till we reached the open water ; and they could not fail to know this as soon as they were able to look out on the floes. My occasional visits as I passed Anoatok on my way to Etali, or as I brought supplies for them on the return, gave them assurances of continued interest in their fortunes, and advices of our progress and of their own hopes and ours. Besides all this, there is something in the insidious di.sease which was their most dangerous enemy that is best combated by 1 lit) lllllll ii 878 rnAPTUR L. KFFECT OF MORAL EXCITKMKNT ON PISEASR. Gradual Improve- ment In tliolicaltli of tho patients. rnonil exritoincnt. A d.an^c of s.-ene, roewed or moreased rospunsibilities, f.pics of active tl.ouuht, ineite.ncnts to phy.sicu. etfort, are among the very best prescription, for men Hiufermg with the sctirvy. 1 have hud reason to feci, while tracng the • pages, how reluctantly tho system renews its energies under iht pressure of a daily unvarying task. The patients at our sick station no doubt suffered much, and for a while I never parted from them without anxiety. l?ut their health i.nprovcd under the stimulus of a new mode of life ; and bv the time that we called on them to rejoin us their whole tone had undergone a happy change. I congratulate mys.lf as I write, that all who reached the open water with me arc able now to bear a part in society and toil. ! , \ H^ s' ! •rounXRY AND RNCAMPMKNT ON TFrK ICR-BI : ?. 379 ill and CHAPTEIILI. TO TMK BM., A..AIN-WK,,ruMK AT Tl.K nUT-I.OO a, THE 8,Pr,aP« As I review n.y notes oi the first few d.ys of our ice-journey I onAnv. fuul them full of n,ciclents, intorostin, and oven n oraento'u " ^ thc^^ourred, hut which cannot claim a place in this Z ^ rative. The sledges were advancing slowly, the men often dis- couraged and now and then one giving way under the unac- cnstorned labour; the sick at Anoatok always dreary in the r solitude, and sutFering, perhaps, under at. oxacorl.ati.., of cHs' ease, or l.ke the rest of us, from a penury of appropriate food. 1 lungs looked gloomy enough at times. The /:ed Boat. w,ks completed for service in a few davs and ti.. „ , jomed the .ledge-party on the fIoes,-an additional burS b^ --"• a nece.ssary one, for our weary rue-raddies; and I set out for '"'"'•"' the sick-station with Mr. GoodfoUow, our last ren.aining invalid As my team reached the entrance of Force Hay, I saw that mcen, poor Nessark, the Esquimaux, who had carried Mr. Wilson and "' "■" some stores to Anoatok, finding his sledge-load too lieavy, had ^f"^ thrown out a portion of it upon the ice. He had noturally '^"^' enough selected the bread for his jettison, an article of diet un- known among the Esquimaux, but precisely that of which our sick were most in need. I lost some time in collecting such parts of Ins rejected cargo as I could fin OnAPTER u. Appear- at Ucns- seliicr Bn.v. Uavcns on boaril the Return to Aiioatok. Welcome at the hut A UKTURN TO THK BRIO. Of it.crea.ing .cnn^. It was plain that they -uM not hold tlHdr own without an increased allowance, if not of meat, at least of fresh bread and hot tea. Takin.^ with me Morton, n.y faithful adjutant always, I mr- ,ioe close upon the brig, and drove our dogs up the tj-way along which Bonsall and n.yself had staggered so S^l. our^laily loads of ice, we heard th-usUing of w.r^, ,nd a large raven saUed away in the air past feylv.a II adland t was old Ma..oc., one of a pair that hi cautiously haunted ;;l;rtlig durSg the last tic years. He had already appro- ^*^^i;;cdi:rrthe ganey, melted pork, baked a large batch of bread gathered together a quantity of beans and dried apples, in:::;I;t'daniaged,but still eatable, and by the time our dogs had fed and rested, we were ready for the retuni. D^ inc. our supplies as we passed the squads on the floe, I hastened to^Anoatci^ I had taken Godfrey with us ^^'o^^^^^lf^n and as it was painfully evident that the men could not con- ^ue to work 'without more generous food, I sent lum on to EUdi\vith the dogs, in the liope of procuring a stock of walrus- "' The little company at the hut welcomed my return. They had exhausted their provision., ; their lamp had gone out ; the now-drift had forced its way in at the door, so t ^ -y -^ not close it; it was blowing a north-easter; anl the thermo eter, whici hung against the blanketed -f y^^^, -^y.,;^^" en degrees abov: zero. The poor fellows had all the will to rotect themselves, but they were lame, and weak, and hungry and disheartened. We built a fire for them of tarred rope, dned their bedr-.ng, cooked them a porridge of mcat-biscuit and pea- soup, fastened up their desolate door-way, hung a dripping slab of pork-fat over their lamp-wick, and, first jounng ,n a prajcr I RRLTEVING THE SLEDGK-PARTY. 381 of thankfulness, and then a round of merry gossip, all hands forgot sickness, and [^rivation, and distance in the contentment of our sleeping-bags. I cannot tell how long we slept, for all our watches ran down before wc awoke. Tlie gale had risen, and it was snowing hard when I replen- ished the fires of our hearthstone. But we went on burnino- rope and fat, in a regular tea-drinking frolic, till not an icicle or even a frost-mark was to be seen on tlie roof. After a time Godfrey rejoined us ; jMetek came with him ; and between tlMiir two sledges they brought an ample supply of meat. With part of this I hastened to the sledge-party. They were now off Ten- mile Ravine, struggling through the accumulated snows, and much exhausted, though not out of heart. In spite of their swollen feet, they had worked fourteen hours a day, passing in that time over some twelve miles of surface, and advancing a mile and a half on their v/ay. A -aw extracts from their log-book, as kept by Dr. Hayes, may show something of our mode of travel, though it conveys but an imperfect idea of its trials. LOG OP SLEDGE-PARTY. ''May 23, Wednesday.— '^h. Bonsall, cook, called at 8 p.m. George Riley suffering from snow-blindness, but able to take a place at the drag-ropes. Read prayers, and got under way at lOj P.M. " Took Faith to bluff at head of ravine. Left Dr. Hayes there and returned for llopo Carried her on to Faith's camp and halted. All bands very much tired. Sledges haul heavy. Snow in drifts on the ice-foot, requiring a standing haul. "Captain Kane passed us from Esquimaux hut on his way to brig, at 11 a.m., while we were sleeping. Captain Kane over- took and passed us again, with his dog-sledge and provision- cargo, on way to sick station, at two o'clock, Tuesday, while cook- ing, taking with him William Godfrey. ''May 24, Thursday. — Cook, George Riley, called at 4 p.m. Read prayers, and got under Avay at eight o'clock. Took Faith be- yond the headland of yesterday. Molted snow for drhik. Left Dr. Hayes here and returned for Hope. Cariied her back to Faith camp by 5 a.m. of Friday, and halted. Hayes about the same ', CHAPTBR LI. A tea- drinklnp frolic. Journey to relieve the sledse party. Extracts from tlie logbook nf Dr. iiuye!) ii i; nfm m%h I 8S» LOG OF SLKDGE-PARTY. OHAPXEU Riley's eyes better. Mr. Bonsall and M'Gary begin to give in j±_ Slush for burning all gone. Party with Red Boat not yet come up. -,. " Jilai/ 25, FrUIai/.—m Sontag, cook, called at G p.m. Mr. Ohlsen with the AV(Z Boat and cargo, came up at one o'clock, brinc^in'c' orders from Captain Kane. Being knocked up, he and his par'y turned in. After prayers, stowed the spare cargo of the ^vhaleboats into the Red Eric, and all hands, except Mr. Sontag and Dr. Hayes, hauled her down to the ice-foot of the BcdeviUed Reach Turn-off station, below Basalt Camp. The lied Eric h;uilcd to the ice- foot. - **':5kiSIss-.,>r2E«' A SKRTCII. " Returned, and reached the whaleboats at five o'clock, Saturday moruincr. All hands tired, turned in. Riley's eyes well. " May 26, SaUirdaij.— Strong wind, with snow, durmg night. A^v..of Captain Kane came from south at l^^^^'Pf <^ f '•^.^/'^J^f , ^^^^^^ c»P'^'" . the dog-deam, bringing a supply of walrus-beef, with Metek and Kline wilh "" o > ^ supplies, sledge." Once more leaving the party on the floe, Morton and myself with Metek and his sledge in company, revisited the bng, and set ourselves to work baking bread. We had both of us ample ex- ANOTHER VISIT TO THE BRIG. 383 perience in this brancli of the culinary art, and I could gain some credit, perhaps, with a portion of my readers, by teaching them how bread may be raised in three hours without salt, saloratus or sliortening. But it is not the office of this book to deal in occult mysteries. The thing can be done, and we did it: sat verhum The brig was dreary enough, and Metek was glad to bid it good- bye, mth one hundred' and fifty pounds on his dog-sledge, con- signed to Mr. Brooks. But he carried besides a letter, safely trusted to his inspection, which directed that he should be sent back forthwith for another load. It was something like a breach of faith, perhaps, but his services were indispensable, and his dogs stm more so. He returned, of course, foi there was no escaping us ; his village lay in the opposite direction, and he could not deviate from the track after once setting out. In the meantime we had cooked about a hundred pounds of flour pud- ding, and tried out a couple of bagfuls of pork-fat ;~a good day's work,— and we were quite ready, before the subdued brightness of midnight came, to turn in to our beds. Our beds !— there was not an article of covering left on board. We ripped open the old mattresses, and, all three crawling down among the curled hair, Morton, Metek, and the Nalegak, slept as sound as vagrants on a haystack. On Monday, the 28th, we all set out for the boats and Anoatok. Both Metek and myself had our sledges heavily laden. We carried the last of our provision-bags, completing now our full comple- ment of fifteen hundred pounds, the limit of capacity of our otherwise crowded boats. It caused me a bitter pang to abandon our collection of objects of Natural History, the cherished fruit of so much exposure and toil J and it was hardly easier to leave some othei things beliind, —several of my well-tested instruments, for instance, and those silent friends, my books. They had all been packed up, hoping for a chance of saving them ; and, to the credit of my comrades, let me say gi-atefnUy that they offered to exclude both clothes and food in favour of a full freight of these treasures. But the thing was not to be thought of. I gave a last look at Hie desolate galley-stove, the representative of our long winter's fireside, at the still bright coppers now full of frozen water, the theodolite, the chart-box, and poor Wilson's guitar,— one more CHAPTKR LI. Baking brciid. Metek's Journey, Singular sleepinR place. Return to Anoatok. Treasures aban- doned. A last look. i!^ ' 1 I- Ml 384 >tetkk'9 prater. OHAPTKH at the remnant of the old moss walls, the useless dag^ierreotypes, "• and the skeletons of dog, and deer, and bear, and musk-ox,- ~ stoppered hi the rigging ;-and, that done, whipped up my dog8 80 much after the manner of a sentimentahzing Christiau, that our pagan Metek raised a prayer in their belialf. B f ■V I NKW STATlOVR. 385 iypes, ux, — dogs , tliat 1 CHAPTER LII. NEW STATIONS— THE ICE-MAUSHES— POINT SECUUITY— 00PL'(,SOAK- CATCIIINO AUKS— ANlNONAll— NESSAIIK. I FOUND tliat Mr. Brooks Lad succeeded in getting his boat and chapteh sk'd-es as far as tlie floe off Bedevilled Beach. I stopped only -J^ long enough to point out to him an outside track, Avhere I liail ■'*'.*=''""8 found the ice cjuite smooth and free from snow, and pressed Brooki' my dogs for the hut. I noticed, to my great joy, too, that the health of his party seemed to l)e improving under our raw-meat specific, and could not find fault with the extravagant use they were making of it. 'i'he invalids at the sick station were not as well as I could have wished ; but I had only time to renew their stock of pro- vision and give them a few cheering words. Our walrus-meat was nearly exhausted. I had fixed upon two new stations further to the south, as two new the depots to which our stores were now to be transported, ''"'ions. One was upon the old and heavy floes off Navialili, " the big gull's place,"— a headland opposite Cape llatherton,— the other on the level ice-phun near Littleton Island. Having now gathered our stores at Anoatok, I began with a thankful heart to move them onward. I sent on Metek to the further station with two bags of bread-dust, each weighing ninety pounds, and, having myself secured some three hundred pounds at Na^ialik, drove on for Etah Bay. My long succession of journeys on this route had made me Trying a thoroughly weary of the endless waste of ice to seaward, and "^* """"'^ I foolislily sought upon this trip to vary the travel by follow- B^y ing the ice-belt. But, upon reaching Refuge Harbour, I found the snow so heavy and the fragments from the cliffs so nume- rous and threatening, that I was obliged to give it up. A large chasm stopped my advance and drove me out again upon the floes. Getting beyond a table -land known as Kasarsoak, or " the big toEtnh '' ll mr 386 TUK ICK MARSHIW. OHAPTBR LII. Chnnge on the Ice. Alai-mliif; prospect. A solitary Journey. Arrival at Etali about midniglit promontory," I emerged from the broken ice \iiK)n a wide plaia Here I first saw with alarm that the ice had changed its charac- ter : the snow which covered it had become lead-c()h)nred and sodden by the water from beneath, and ice-fields after ice-fields , tretching before me were all covered with stained patches. As I rode along these lonely marshes, for sncli they were, the increased labour of the dogs admonished me that the floe wjus no longer to be trusted. It chilled my heart to remember the position of our boats and stores. Nearly nine hundred pounds of food, exclusive of the load now upon my sledge, were still --.v/aiting transportation at Anoatok. Two hundred more, including our shot and bullet-bags, were at the Cape llatherton station ; and Metek's load wa.s probably by tliis time lying on the ice opposite M'Gary Island. Like Robinson Crusoe with his powder, the reflection came over me :— " Good God ! what will become of us if all tliis is de- stroyed]" ... Only by men experienced in the rapid changes of Arctic ice can the full force of this reflection be appreciated. A shigle gale might convert the precarious platform, over which we were travelling, into a tumultu.nis ice-pack. Had the boats their stores on board even, and could they break through without foundering, there was not the remotest prospect of their being liberated m open water ; and I knew well what obstacles a wet, sludgy surface would present to our over-tasked and almost worn-out party. I determined, therefore, as soon as I could secure the meat, which was my immediate errand, to make a requisition upon the Esquimaux for two of the four dogs which were still at Etah, and by their aid to place the provisions in safety. The north cape of Littleton Island, afterward called Point Security, was selected for the purpose, and I left orders with the invalids at the sick station to be in readiness for instant removal. I pursued my journey alone. It was (luite late in the evening when I drew near Etah. 1 mean that it was verging on to our midnight, the sun being low in the heavens, and the air breathing that solemn stillness which belongs to the sleeping-time of birds and plants. I had not quite reached the little settlement when loud sounds of laughter came to KSQUIMAirX FEAST. 387 my ear ; and, turning the cape, I burst suddenly upon un encamp- ment of tlie inhabitants. Some thirty men, women, and children, were gathered together upon a little face of offal-stained rock. Except a l)ank of °mos.s which br.)ke the wind-draught from the fiord, they wre entirely without protection from the weather, though the tern], rature was 5° below zero. The huts were compli^tely deserted, the snow tossut had fallen in, and the window was as free and open as summer to the purifying air. Every living thing about the settle- ment was out upon the bare rocks. Kudest of gypsies, how they squalled, and laughed, and snored, and rolled about ! Some were sucking bird-skins, others were boUing incredible numbers of auks in huge soapstoue pots, and two youngsters, crying at the top of their voices, "Oopegsoak! Oope-- soak ! " were fighting for an owl. It was the only specimen {Strix nyctea) that I had seen except on the wing ; but, before I could secure it, they had torn it limb from limb, and were eating its warm flesh ajid blood, their faces buried among its dishevelled feathers. The fires were of peat-moss greased with the fat of the bird- skins. They were used only for cooking-, however, the people depending for comfort on the warmth of close contact. Old Kre- sut, the blind patriarch of the settlement, was the favoured centre, and around him, as a focus, was a coil of men, women, and chil- dren, as perplexing to unravel as a skein of eels. The children alone were toddling about and bringing in stores of moss, their faces smeared with blood, and titbits of raw liver between their teeth. The scene wjis redolent of plenty and mdolence,~the dolce far nknte of the short-lived Esquimaux summer. Provision for the dark winter was furthest from their thoughts ; for, although the rocks were patched with suu-dried birds, a single hunting-party from Peteravik could have eaten up their entire supplies in a night. There was enough to make them improvident. The little auks were breeding in the low cones of rubbish under the cliffs in such numbers that it cost them no more to get food than it does a cook to gather vegetables. A boy, ordered to climb tho rocks with one of their purse-nets of se«l-skin at the end OHAPTKR LII. An Ksqui- mauz en- campment An Esqui- maux feast. The dolct far niente of Esqui- maux life iiin I '» 388 CATCHING AUKS. CHAPTER of a narwhal's tusk, would return in a few minutes with as nianj 2l^ as he could carry. ^i i'.'.A i I CATCllLNO AUKS. The dogs seemed as happy as their masters : they were tethered by seal-skin thongs to prevent robbery, but evidently fed to the full extent of their capacity. Aiiin-nah Aningiiah, wife of Marsumah, was one of the presiding deities of ^he^"*^ * ^^ ^^^ soup-pot, or rather first witch of the caldron. She was a caldron." tall. Well-made woman, and, next to Mrs. Metek, had a larger in- fluence than any female in the settlement. During one of my visits to the settlement, I had relieved her from much suffering by opening a furuncle, and the kind creature never lost an opportunity of showing hoAv she remembered it. Poor old Kresut was summarily banished from his central seat of honour, and the nalegak installed in his place. She stripped her- ! 1! B man) HOSPITALITY OF TlIK KHQUIMAUX. 389 ;ethered to the dcitiea I was a rgor iu- ved her creature ered it, seat of )ed her- «elf of her bird skux kapetah to n.ako me a coverlet, and gave me chapxku her two-year-old baby for a pillow. There was a little commotion '"• in the tangled mass of humanity as I crawled over them to accept a .^. these proffered hoMpitalities; but it was all of a welcomin.^ sort """'" I had learned by this time to take kindly and condescendingly the privileges of my rank ; and, with my i.mer man well refreshed with auk-livers, I was soon asleep. In the morning I left my own tired dogs in charge of Marsu- mah, quite confident that his wife would feed them faithfully, and took from them their only team in unequal exchange. Such' had become our relations with these poor friends of ours, that such an Ki,u,ne.. act ot authonty would have gone unquestioned if it had cost them a °''""-' much graver sacrifice. They saw the condition of my own travel- """"'' broken animals, and were well aware of the sufferings of our party, so long their neighbours and allies. Old Nessark filled ■ my sledge with walrus-meat ; and two of the young men joined me on foot, to assist me through the broken ice between Littleton Island and the mainland. Ml^ THB OAMG OF BALU CHAPTER LIII. THE GAME OF BALIi— MY BHOTHEU's LAKK— THE I'dl.AR SEASONS— PATE 01^ THE ESqUISlAUX — THB ESQUIMAUX LIMITS - ESQUIMAUX ENDUKANCE— awahtok's hunt— his ESCAPE— the ouarman walrus. OTAPTKR Bkfore I left Etah on my return, I took an early stroll with Sip-su, ""• " the handsome boy," to the lake back of my old travelling-route, and directly under the face of the glacier. A play- He led me first to the play-ground, where all hia young friends Kiound in J. jj yetthment were busy in one of their sports. Each of them tlie snow ' _ ' had a walrus-rib for a (/olph or shinny-stick, and they were con- tending to drive a hurleij, made out of the round knob of a Hipper- joint, up a bank of frozen snov/. Roars of laughter greeted the impatient striker as he missed his blow at the shining ball, and eager cries told how close the match was drawing to an end. They were counting on the fingers of both hands, Eight, eight, eight, — the game is ten. Strange, — the thought intruded itself, but there was no wisdom in it, — strange that these famine-pinclied wanderers of the ice should rejoice in sports and playthings like the children of our own smiling sky, and that parents should fiushion fur thtm toy sledges, and harpoons, and nets, miniature emblems of a life of sufiering and peril ! how strange this joyous merriment under the monitory shadow of these jagged ice-cliffs ! My spirit was '^>p- pressed as I imagined the p(>ssibility of our tarrying longer in these frozen regions ; but it was ordinary life with these other children of the same Creator, and they were playing as unconcerned as the birds that circled above our heads. " Fear not, therefore : ye are of more value than many sparrows." I do not wonder that the scene at the lake impressed my brother when he visited it on his errand of rescue. Lieutenant Hartstene and he were the only white men, except myself, that have ever seen it. A body of ice, resplendent in the sunshuie, was enclosed between the lofty walls of black basalt ; and from its base a great archway 'T* MY BRoTll Kit's LAKK. 391 Tliey or tunnel poured out a dasliing stream into tlie lake, (listurl.ing ita quiet Hiirfaee with a horse-shoe of foam. lUrds flew about in myriads, and the green .sloping hank.s were chequered with the pur{)le lyehni.H and Arctic chickweeds. I have named this lake after my brother, for it was n-ar its shores that, led by Myouk, he stumbled on the summer tents of the natives and obtained the evidence of our departure south. I built a large cairn here, and placed within li a copper penny, on which was scratched the letter K ; but, like nuiny other such deposits, it never met the eyes for which it was intended. The lake abounds in fish, ai.parently the salmon trout ; but the natives have not the art of fishing. The stream, which tunnels its way out near the glacier foot, is about ten feet in diameter ; and 1 was assured that it never completely suspends its flow. Although the tunnel closes with ice, and the surface of the lake freezes ibr many feet below, the water may still be seen and heard beneath, even in midwinter, wearing its way at the base of the glacier. This fact is of importanco, as it bears upon the temperature of deep ice-beds. It shows that with an atmosphere whose mean is below zero throughout the year, and a mean sunnner heat but 4° above the freezing-point, these great Polar glaciers retain a high interior temperature not far from 32^ which enables them "to resume their gre.it functions of movement and discharge readily, when the cold of winter is at an end, and not improbably to temper to some extent the natural rigour of the climate. Even in the heart of the ice nature has her compensations. The phases of the Polar year so blend and separate that it is dif- ficult to distribute them into seasons. In the Arctic latitudes a thousand miles to the south, travellers speak of winter and summer as if the climate underwent no intermediate changes. But nature impresses no such contrasts upon any portion of her realm ; and, whatever may be the registrations of the meteorologist, the rude Esquimaux of these icy solitudes derives from his own experience and necessities a more accurate and practical system of notation. He measures his life by winters, as the American Indian does by the summers, and for a like reason. Winter is for him the great dominant period of the year; he calls it " okipok," the sea- son of fast ice. But when the day has come again, and the first thawing begins OHAFTSB LIII. My biotlicr'i lake. An ever. flowing stream under tlie Ice. Tempe- ruture of the ice- be(l«. Phases of the Polar year. liHfiy'ii ft] I'*. } « I'i . i i 1 ! .1 898 THE POLAR HKABONS. water drops. •' L'lU'V- nak," tlie season o( ttiiiws. 'Aoaak,' -^ir£;j:ri::r::;;;i-tvi:= toe, the irsutect {Andromeda Mro;fona), w feittii .i„.i (liiod .stems inulor the snow. „ , ;i.ont the end of May, or a little later, conu. "l--^' ^^^^^ s,.,s-.n of thaws. It is his true summed Annual and vogetj^l)lt m :L haeU a.ain ; the Hoes Weak u,on the s^ and drift . Crafts ahout the coasts ; snow is disappearing from the h M- top" and tlio water-torrents pour down from the long-sealed ^'^twujSue of August the upernalc has passed into the so. on of no ice, " aosak." the short interval between compete "AoaaK. season oi no 1 ' . Hy j.-eloHs ; but the lloos the Intel- thaw and rcccmsolidation. it is nevti ic.u j- > ^ ;. ,„„,.,. ^"' ''■ ave now drifted to the south, and the sea along the coast i. molt twccn nave now uii Tf . .1.(1 s wi^h the latter weeks of timwand ^_n than at any other period. It eni s %\i ii uic '■'""'• Seotomber and sees the departure of all migratory hit. ,,. £ Ui scas.,n is a lale fall, the " okiakut," when the water- ^^the tor^; begin to freeze in the fiords, and th.nving .eases ex. r. 'Tr' rDnday: This terminates when the ,.-.. .ce nas ..rme I m """• : ;Z:^t layer on the bays, and winter reUiri. with its long Tl^^tii^'^JhlgT-lanchol^^ Jlr They illustrate the trials and modes of ^f^^^^ minded people, for whom it seems to be decreed that the y ar nus Very soon ce^se to renew its changes. It pains n^e when „ m1 of their approaching destiny,-in the region of night and LCo. !;;;fer, where the earth yields no fruit and the waters are lock d, ^"" ^^'"^"'- -without the resorts of skill or even tlie rude materials ot ai , """"■^ an! waUed in from the world by barriers of ice without an outlet, f ; u pouit to the east, inland, where the herds ot remdee n;n over tlie barren hills unmolested,-for they have no ineans of ^XrinVthem,-tliey will cry " Sermik," "glacier;" and ciues- captunno tiici , \ { ^c their nation to the north tion them as you may about the range ot tiiui and south, the answer is still the same, with a s ake of t head ' Sermik, sermik-soak," "the great ice-wall;" there is no more "'^^'^ have no "besuk," no wood. The drift-timber which ruce. i CONniTlON AND irAniTS OF T!ir, KHgriMAt'X. 303 bleRSCH tlieir iiuiro Motitlu-rn brothron never rciicbes thcr.i. The ohamkr l)u\v !iiii('H, nnnisuTH to uUuoHt every want, exists among tlieni only as a legendary word. The narrow belt .snl)jected to their nomadic range cannot bo less than six luindred miles long; and thronghout this extent of coun- try every man knows every man. There is not a marriage, or a birth, or a death that is not talked over and mentally registered by all. I have a census, exactly confirmed by three separate infor- census of mants, which enables me to count V)y name about one hundred',','^",""' and forty souls, scattered along from Kosoak, tlu' (Ireat "River at the base of a glacier near Cape Melville, to the wind loved hut of Anoatok. Destitute as they arc, they exist both in love and connnunity Love anrt of resources as a single family. The sites of their huts— for they aZni'"^ are so few in number as not to bear the name of villages— are t'""'. arranged with reference to the length of the dog-march and the seat of the hunt ; and thus, when winter has built her highway and cemented into one the sea, the islands, and the main, they interchange with each other the sym; athics and social communion of man, and diffuse through the darkness a knowledge of the resources and condition of all. The main line of travel is then as beaten as a road at home. Tiieiimain The dogs speed from hut to hut, almost unguidod by their drivers. ^"^^°^ They regulate their time by the stars. Every rock has its name, every hill its significance ; and a cache of meat deposited any- where in this harsh wilderness can be recovered by the youngest hunter in the nation. From Cape York to a settlement at Samiders Island, called Arrange Appah, from the "Appah" or Lumme which colonize here in "^gjing. almost incredible numbers, the drive has been made in a single pi^.s. day; and thence to Netelik, on the main of Murchison Sound, in another. In a third, the long reach has been traversed by Cape Saumarez to the settlement of Karsioot, on a low tongue near Cape Fiobertson ; and the fourth day has closed at Etah, or even Aunatok, the open place, — the resting-place now of our poor deserted Oomiak-soak. This four days' travel cannot be less than fiix hundred mUes ; ond Amaladok, Mctek's half-brother, assured Ji I 394 ESQUIMAUX ENDURANCE. OHAFTKR LIII. three, — probably changing hia Adventure of Awah- toK and Myouk. Myouk'9 aocount of their Bufferings. Afloat on an iceberg, me that he had made it in then. .v.th dangers f-"-^-J^^ " ^ ^^^,,, , single one from eyes than .1,0 ^"^""-"f "^ :'"«;;Tt'' ^.i^ Mol. to all the full.«t extent that apathetie f^'f ' ;'^ ^„X ^.e „,ale, lowly-cdtivated rae.. They ™™-* f '^ ^\,t^i .,e%hen i T Tstnll a^d, by great efforts, made gond their landmg pieture of thcr suffenngs, the more so iro h L^nmerwithwldehhedetadedt.-^^^ said, otthe '■■-'!^^^'fl:iy2lu:yl.Uvri^r.c.>.t Anoatok, heavy storm which held PeteKtn ana my 1 Aeomrlete darkness settled "-""f . \^„„'^2U.old, and down to knobs of iee to 1-™ '' ^^ ', ^^^'^y «, rfolenee of prostrated tliemseives to eseape bemg blown on y _^ the wind. At first the sea broke over them, but tucy fc Myouk froze one of hi. ^^f ' "^/^^ and ate their wah-us-meat frost-bite. But they kept heiut of g^;«= ' ^^^ ^^^.^^ .^^,, ,,x. ^^^^f^^^^^:;tt^X^2Z. that they had lision ^vlth floes, and ^f ^ ;*'°"° , , , ^„,i j, ad entered the passed t^. ^^^^tr^^'C It - -^rd the close of the North Water of Baffin s m}. it THE aUARDTAN WALRUS. 3!J5 aecoud moonlight, after a month's imprisonment, living as only chaptek these iron men could live, that they found the berg had grounded. ^ They liberated their dogs as soon as the young ice would bear their Their de- weight, and, attaching long lines to them, wliich they cut from the "'^''*"''' hide of the dead walrus, they succeeded in hauling themselves through the water-si)ace which always surrounds an iceberg, and reaching safe ice. They returned to their village like men raised from the dead, to meet a welcome, but to meet famine along with it. I believe the explanation was never given to me in detail, or, if it was, I have forgotten it ; but the Avhole misadventure was re- ferred to an infringement of some canonical ritual in their conduct of the hunt. The walrus, and perhaps the seal also, is under the ThegumH. protective guardianship of a special representative or prototyjie, '«°waini3 who takes care that he shall have fair play. They all believe that in the recesses of Force Bay, near a conical peak which has often served me as a landmark on my sledge-journeys, a great walrus lives in the hills, and crawls out, when there is no moon, to the edge of a ravine, where he bellows with a voice far more powerful than his fellows out to sea. Ootuniah had often heard this wal- rus, and once, when I was crossing Bedevilled Reach, he stopped me to listen to his dismal tones. I certainly lieard them, and Ootuniah said that a good hunt would come of it. I tiled to tjilk to him about echoes; but as neither of us could understand the other, I listened quietly at last to the Big Walrus, and went my way. 1 1 1 !! 1 1! Mi t :;1 306 THE BAKEBV. CHAPTER LIV. Necessity of vetm-n- tng to tlie brig. Difficulties of tlie journey. Baking in ibe brig. CHAPTER LIV. THE BAKEitV-THE OUITAH O.tOST-T.IE BOAT CAMP-NESSAUK's WIPE " OUT In a OALE-CAPE MISERY-THE BUKHOW-THE HETK.AT. T,i..: sledge-party under Mr. Brooks l,ad advanced to witl,\n three miles of the hut when I reached them on my return T e%™ found the ice n^ore practicable, and the. health was I Ivin.. But their desire for food had increased proportion- Z- and, as it was a well-understood rule of our comnnssanat n t to touch the reserved provision of the boats, ^t -camo "ec^- .ary to draw additional supplies from the bng. The sev. hun^ dred pounds of bread-dust, our entire stock, could not be reduced ''' Bulllfe^ dogs were wanted to advance the contents of our Ano- atok storehouse to the stations further so. vth, and I reso yed U, take Tom Hickey with me and walk back for another bakmg ex- ploit It was more of an effort than I counted on : we were six- teen hours on the ice, and we had forgotten our g-tta-percha eyautick, or slit goggles. The glare of the sun as we entered the curve of oar ice-cumbered harbour almost bhnded us. Tom had been a baker at home ; but he assures me, w-ith all the authority of an ancient member of the gxiild, that our aclucvement the day we came on board might be worthy of praise in the o d countrV;" Tom knows no praise more expanded. We kneaded the dough in a large pickled-cabbage cask, fired sundry volumes of the Penny Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, and converted, be- tween duff and loaf, almost a whole barrel of flour into a strong likeness to the staff of life. It was the last of our stock : and all the better too," said n.y improvident comrade, who retamed some of the genius of blundering as well as the gallantry of las country- n,en,-" aU the better, sir, since we'll have no more bread to ""oi-dfrey came on with the dogs three days after, to carry back the fruits of our labour; but an abrupt change of the weather gave us a howling gale outside, and we were all of us storm-stayed. It HlliBP r' THE GUITAR GHOST. 397 CHAPTER was Sunday, and probably the last time that two or three would ..._..„ be gathered together in our dreary cabin. So I took a Bible from ""^•" one of the bunks, and we went through the old-times service. It The last was my closing act of official duty among iny shipmates on board S"S in the poor little craft. I visited her afterward, but none of them *''« ^'"'n- were with me. Tom and myself set out soon after, though the wind drove Go,if,ey heavily from the south, leaving our companion to recover from his ^^Toul^e fatigue. We brought on our sledge-load safely, and had forgotten ""ig" our baking achievement, with things of minor note, in that dream- less sleep whicli rewards physical exhaustion, when Godfrey came in upon us. He had liad a hard chase beliind the sledge, and was unwilling to confess at first what had brought him after us so soon. He had tried to forget himself among the debris of a mat- tress on the cabin floor, when he heard a sound from j\Ir. Wilson's guitar, sad and flowing in all its unearthly harmonies. He was sure he was awake, for he ran for it on the instant, and the proof was, he had left his coat behind him. The harp of Molus had not been dreamed of in Bill's philosophy. I was glad, Avhen I reached the sick station, to find things so improve- much better. Everybody was stronger, and, as a consequence, ^,g"gj*^ more cheerful. They had learned housekeeping, with its courtesies station. as well as comforts. Their kotluk would have done credit to Aningnah herself: they had a dish of tea for us, and a lump of walrus ; and they bestu'red themselves real housewife-fashion to give us the warm place and make us comfortable. I was right sorry to leave them, for the snow outside was drifting with the gale; but after a little while the dogs struck the track of the sledges, and following it with unerring instinct, did not slacken their pace till they had brought us to our companions on the floe. They had wisely halted on account of the storm; and, with their Haitof the three little boats drawn up side by side for mutuid protection, had '''"'^® been lying to for the past two days, tightly housed, and moored fast by whale-lines to the ice. But the drifts had almost buried the Hope, which was the windward boat; and when I saw the burly form of Brooks emerging from the snow-covered roof, I coulc" have fancied it a walrus rising through the ice. They had found it hard travel, but were doing well. Brooks's provision-report was the old story, — out of meat and nearly out of 26 . i 398 THE BOAT CAMP. OHAPTIB ,.r... bread-no pleasant news for a tire.l-out man, vvlio saw m this the ^Zl necessity of another tri.. to Etuh. I was only too glad, however, Want of to see that their appetites held, for with the animal man, as with food. i'.i . 1 I Visit fl'oin a party of Ksqul- inaux. boat's CAMP IS A STOIiM. all others, while he fV^eds he lives. Short .dlowan.. f^.r Wang- „.en on bread diet was, of course, ont ^'^ /'>% '!"- '^:; , J ^^^'^ past week each man had eaten three pounds of dutl a ^^^'^J did not dare to check them, altbough we had no more Houm re- serve to draw upon. But the question how long matters could go on at this rate admitted of a simple arithmetical ^'J^^^tion. Six Esquimaux, three of them women-that /^g^Y J'^^f y' ^^- sark's wife, at the head of them-had come off to the boa s fo shir from the gale. They seemed so entirely deferential and to recognise with such simple trust our mutual relations of alh- le, th°at I resolved to drive down to Etali with Petersen as u. terpreter, and fonnally claim assistance, accordn.g to th o.n laws on the gnnind of our established brotherhood. I hacx thought of this before; but both Marsumah and Metek had been so en- JOURNEY TO ETAH. 399 grossed with their bird- catching that I was loath to take tliem from their families. Our dogs mt^ved .sh)wly, and the disc()h)ured ice ftdnionished me to make h)ng circuits. As we neareu Littleton Island, the wind blew so freshly from tlie soutn-west that I detorniincd to take the in-shore channel and attempt to make the settlement over land. But I was hardly under the lee of the island, wlien there broke upon us one of the most fearful gales I have ever experienced. It had the diaractcr and the force of a cyclonic. The dogs were liter- ally blown from their harness, and it was only by throwing ourselves on our faces that we saved ourselves from behig swept away ; it seemed as if the ice must give way. We availed our- selves of a momentary lull to shoulder +he sledge, and, caUing the afTrighted dogs around us, made for the rocks of Eider Island, and after the most exhausting exertions, succeeded in gainui"- terra 6 O rma. We were now safe from the danger that had seemed most im- minent ; but our conditioji was not improved. We were out on a blank cliff, the wind eddying round us so furiously that we could not keep our feet, and the air so darkened with the snow-wreaths that, although we were in the full daytime of the Arctic summer, we could neither see each other nor our dogs. There Avas not a cleft or a projecting knob that could give us refuge. I saw that we must move or die. It was impossible that the ice should continue to resist such a hurricane, and a bold channel separated us from the shore. Peterson indeed protested that the channel was already broken up and driving with the storm. We made the effort, and crossed. Wc struck a headland on the main shore, where a dark horn^ blende rock, perhaps thirty feet high, had formed a barricade, be- hind which the drifts piled themselves; and into this mound of snow we had just strength enough left to dig a burrow. We knew it soon after as Cape Misery. The dogs and sledge were dragged in, and retersen and myself, reclining " spoon-fashion," cowered among them. The snow piled over us all, and we were very soon so roofed in and quiited round that the storm seemed to rage far outside of us. We could only hear the wind droning like a great fly-wheel, except when a surge of greater n\alignity would sweep up over our burial-place and sift CHAPTKK UV. Overtaken by a stoin: near I.itllitoii Sound. Out in a gale. In a bur- row of snow on Cape JIiaer7. I nl CHAl'TRU LIV. A vapour bafli. Uistuib- ancc among the doKs. Tlie rnof fulls in. Snowed up again Reach the boat camp once more. 4(l„ SNOWED UP IN A BUEIiOW. the snow upon tl,c Muface like l.ail. • Our gicatc* enemy l,e« wa» wvml Our fu,- Juu„,e,., h.ad been .iterally ton, „ff o„r back, by tbe wind; but the united re,pimtion of dugs and u.cu me t d b ,„„w around us, and we were soon wet to tbe sku,. It «.a, a Xne v.al,our-i;atU, .and we experieneed it, effeets n. an alavunng tendency to syncope and loss of power. Is it possible ti in,.agiue a jnueture of more eom,= annoyanc than tli wMch now introduced itself among ""; t'™" ° °»'. position? Toodla, our master-dog, w^s serzcd ■.-■M, a vi*.t A , and, as tbeir custom i., Ins companions n.dulgcd m a fam ly con- ffle upon tbe occa.,i..n, wbich was only mediated after much effor aJthc s.acrilice of all that rcn,.ained of Tcterscn's l«ntaloous and We had all the longing for repose that acconipames extreme prostration, and had been fearing every moment that the com- Lants would bring the snow down upon us. At last do.v. cam our whole canopy, and we were exposed m an mstant to the fuiy o the elements I do not think, often as I have gone up on deck fron. a close cabin in a gale at sea. that I was ever n^ore struck ^vlth the extreme noise and tunuilt of a storm. , , , ^ Once more snowed up-for the drift budt its ciystal palace rapidly about us-we remained cramped and s. ethn>g tdl out appetites remuuled us of the necessities of the mner man. To \Lt the gale was simply impossible ; the alternative was to drive before it to the north and east. Forty miles of lounderuig travel brought us in twenty hours to the party on the floes. They too had felt the force of the storm, and had drawn up the boats with their prows to the wind, all hands housed, and wondex- ing as much as we did that the ice atill held. I THK THAW BEGINNING. 401 CHAPTER LV. I'HKSU Doas— THE SLIDES— uocking-stones—oulsen's accident— ice- sailing -mounting THE HELT — THE ICE-MAUSHE3— PEKIUTLUC- HANS THE BENEDICK. Pkterskn and myself gave up the sledge to Morton, who, with chapter Marsumah and Nessark, set out at once to negotiate at Etah, while ^'^• I took my place with the sledge-parties. The ice, though not broken up by the storm, had been so much Melting affected by it, as well as by the advancing season, that I felt we *"'"'' could not spare ourselves an hour's rest. The snow-fields before us to the south were already saturated with wet. Around the bergs the black water came directly to the surface, and the whole area was spotted with pools. We summoned all our energies on the 5th for this dangerous traverse ; but, although the boats were unladen and everything transported by sledge, it was impossible to prevent accidents. One of the sledges broke through, carrying six men into the water ; and the Hope narrowly escaped being lost. Her stem went down, and she was extricated with great difficulty. The 6th saw the same disheartc ing work. The ice was almost The ice impassable. Both sick and well worked at the drag-ropes alike, p|j"s°'bie!" and hardly a man but was constantly wet to the skin. Fearing for the invalids at the sick station in case we should be cut off from them, I sent for Mr. Goodfellow at once, and gave orders for the rest to be in readiness for removal at a moment's notice. The next day Morton returned from Etah. The natives had Generositj responded to the brotherly appeal of the nalegak ; and they came °,jt\y^gg down from the settlement, bringing a full supply of meat and blubber, and every sound dog that belonged to them. I had now once more a serviceable team. The comfort and security of such a i)ossession to men in our critical position can hardly be reaUzed. It was more than an addition of ten strong men to our party. I set off at once with Metek to glean from the brig her last remnant of slush (tallow), and to bring down the sick men from Anoatok. As we travelled with our empty sledges along a sort of beaten I ■m 402 THK 8L1DK. 1?iT LV. Influence of the thaw on the rocks. ilH ,1 ■ i i ii : I ^ ^ZIZ CHAPTKK track or road v'lucl. led close u.ulor the cliffs, I realized very ' " forcibly the intluence of the coming sunuucr upon the rocks above us They were just released from the frost which had bound them so lo,.g and closely, and were rolling down the slopes of the debris with the din of a battle-field, and absolutely cloggmg the ice-belt at the foot. Here and there, too, a large sheet of rocks and earth would leave its bed at once, and, gathering mass as it travelled, move downward like a cataract of rums. Ihe dogs were terrified by the clamour, and could hardly be driven on till it intermitted. Just beyond Six-mUo llavinc my sledge barely escaped de- THE 8LI1)B. structiou from one of these land-slides. Happily Metek was behind, and warned me of the danger just in time to cut loose the traces and drag away the sledge. KoCKlNG-STONKS. 403 But it Is not in the season of tliaws only that these wouclcrful chapter y;eological charges take pUice. Large rocks are projected in the ^^' fall by the water freezing in the crevices, like the Mons Jileg ^vonderful cainion-balls. Our old boat, the Forlorn Jlojie, the veteran ofcimnKcs. my Beechy Island attempt, was stove in l)y one of these while drawn up under tlie clitfs of " Ten-mile Gorge." The rocks which fell in this manner upon the ice-belt were rapidly imbedded by the action of the sun's heat ; and it happened frequently, of course, that one UKjre recently disengaged would overlie another that had already sunk behnv the surface. This, as the ice-belt subsided in the gradual tliaw, had given many examples of the rocking-stone. They were of all sizes, from tons Rooking to pounds, often strangely dissimilar in material, though grouped within a narrow area, their diversity depending on the varying strata from which they came. There were some strange illustra- tions among them of the transportuig forces of the ice-raft, which I should like to dwell on, if the character of my book and the haste with which it is approaching its close did not forbid me. Our visit to the brig was soon over : we had very few stores to Lust visit remove. I trod her solitary deck for tlie last time, and returned " ** "'' with Metek to his sledge. I had left the party on the Hoes with many apprehensions for their safety, and the result proved they were not without cause. While crossing a " tide-hole," one of the runners of the Hopes Uieak- sledge broke through, and, but for the strengtli and presence of |,°e /yo^,., mind of Olilscn, the boat would have gone under. He saw the sieOgu. ice give v.'ay, and, by a violent exercise of strength, passed a capstan-bar under the sledge, and thus bore the load till it was hauled on to safer ice. He was a vf>ry powerful nuin, and might have done this without hijuring huuself ; but it would seem his footing gave way under him, forchig him to make a still more desperate effort to extricate himself. It cost him his life— he died three days nfteiwards. I was bringing down George Stephenson from the sick station, and my sledge being heavily laden, I had just crossed, with some anxiety, near the spot at which the accident occurred. A little way beyond we met Mr. Ohlsen, seated upon a lump of ice, and very pale. He pointed to the camp about three miles further on, and told us, in a faint voice, that he had not detained the party > i ff ft 'I ;:! ii!;i:! [.■■n.f IS * I 404 SAILING ON THE ICE. OIIAPTKR LV. Olilsen's Ultiutis. Sailing on thu Ice. Encou- raging progress. Meeting with Sip 8U and NessHVk. ho " had a little cruuip iu th.>, small of the back," but would soon be better. I put him at once in Stephenson's place, and drove him on to i\iO Faith. Here lie was placed in the stern-sheets ot tlio boat, and well inurtled up in our best butValo-robes. During all that ulear, broke out the sailor's chorus, "Storm along, my hearty boys!" . , , .1 We must have made a greater distance in this single day than in the five that preceded it. We encamped at 5 p.m. near a smaU berg, which gave us plenty of fresh water, after a progress of at least eight miles. , • * a As we were halting, I saw two Esquimaux on the ice toward Life-Boat Cove ; and the weU-known "link! huuk ! " a sort of Masonic signal among them, soon brought them to us. They turned out to be Sip-su and old Nessark. They were the bearers of good ncvv'3 : my dogs were refreshed and nearly able to travel again and, as they volunteered to do me service, I harnessed MOUNTING TIIK ICE-DELT. 406 up our miited tuanin, and despatcliea Ncs^vrk to the hut t,. brin« chaptki down Mr. Wilson and George Whii)plo. lv. We expected now to have our whole party together again : and ~~ the day would have been an aetive cheering ..ne thn.ughout, hut tor the condition of poor Ohlsen, who was growing rapidly worse. * '' From this tune we went on for some days aided l.y our sails meeting with accidents occasionally-the giving way of a spar or the falling of .some of the nurty througli the sp„ngy ice-and occa- sionally, when the floe was altogether too infirm, lahourin- our way with great difficulty upon the ice-belt. To mount tliis'solid dmacuJ. highway, or to descend from it, the axes were always hi reciuisitiou. ^^'^ An incUncd plane was to be cut— ten, fifteen, or even tliiity feet long, and along this the sledges were to bo pushed and guided by bars and levers with painful labour. These are light tlihigs, as 1 refer to them here ; but in our circumstances, at the time °l' write of, when the breaking of a stick of timber was an irrei)arable harm, and the delay of a day involved the peril of life, they were grave enough. Even on the floes the axe was often indispensable to cuttin« carve our path through the hummocks ; and many a weary and ""■°"e'' anxious hour have I looked on and toiled while the sledges wore 1^"'"" waiting for the way to open. Sometimes too, both on the land- ice and on the belt, we ei untered heavy snowdrifts, which wore s„ow. to be shovelled away befo.-c we could get along ; and within an ''''"" hour afterward, or perhaps even at the bottom of the drift, one of the sledge-runners would cut through to the water. It was saddening to our poor fellows, Avlien we were forced to leave the ice-belt and push out into the open field, to look ahead at the salt ice-marshes, as they called them, studded with black pools, ice- with only a white lump rising here and there through the lead- """•*''«s- coloured surface, like tussocks of grass or rushes struggling through a swamp. The labour would have been too much for us, weary and broken as we were, but for the occasional assistance we derived from the Esquimaux. I remember once a sledge went so far under, carrying with it several of the party, that the boat floated loose. Just then seven of the natives came up to us — iieip from five sturdy men, and two almost as sturdy women— and, without ""'^squi- waiting to be called on, worked with us most efficiently for more than hidf a day, asking no reward. I I 406 I'KKHITMK. OHAPTKR LV. Open water nt Pcklutlik. Hans missltiR. Stories and •uitnlses about Hans. i 8till .Kissing sh.wly on .lay after day, r ani reluctant to borrow from ,ny journal the .k-tails of anxiety au.l cuibarrvHSUient ^vltl. which it aboun.l.s througliout this period,-W(3 came at hvst to the uuniistakahlo neighbourhood of the open water. We were otV Pekiutlik, the htrgcst of tho Littleton Island group opposite "Kosoak," tho (ireat lliver. Here Mr. \Vils<.n '"'^O^^'-f Whii.i)lc rejouied ns, under the faithful charge of old Nessark. They had broken through twice on the road, but withou any serious inconvenience in consequence. It was with tndy thank- ful hearts we united in our prayers that evenuig. One only was absent of all the party that remained onour rol s. Tlans, the kind son and ardent young lover of Fiskcrnaes, my well- trusted friend, had been missing for nearly two months. I am loath to tell the story as I believe it, for it may not be the rue one after Jill, and I would not intimate an unwarranted doubt of the constancy of boyish h.ve. But I must explain, as far as I can at iea.st, why he was not with us when we first looked at the open water. Just before my departure for my April htuit, Hans came to me with a long face, asking permission to visit Peteravik : he had no boots, and wanted to lay in a stock of walrus hide for soles; he did m.t need the dogs ; he w,.uld rather ^.alk It was a hmg march, but he was well practised in it, and I con- sented of course. Both Petersen and myself gave luin com- missions to execute, and he left us, intending to stop by the way '' In'our labours of the next month we missed TTans much. He had not yet returned, and the stories of him that came to iLS from Etah were the theme of much conversation and surmise among us He had certainly called there as he promised, and given to Nessark's wife an order for a pair of boots, and he had hen wended his way across the big headland to Peteravik, where Shang-hu and his pretty daughter had their home ihis intima- tion was given with many an explanatory grin ; for Hans was a favourite with all, the fair especially, and, as a match, one ot the greatest men in the country. It required all my recollections of his " old love" to make me suspend my judgment ; tor the boots came, as if to confirm the scandal. I never failed m my efforts afterward to find his whereabouts, and went out of onr w:-iy to interrogate this and that settlement ; for, independent of every- i LAST ACCOUNT OV IIAN8. 40V thing like duty, I was very fond of him. IJut the story was every- chaptsk where the »;iine. Hans the faitliful— yet, I fear, the fuithluss— JlIl was last seen upon a native sled^T, driving soiitli from Potoravik. with a maiden at liis side, ajid profcsHcdly hound to a now princi- pality at Uwarrow Suk-suk, high up Murchisun's Sound. Alafl for Ifan.s, the married man ! 408 THK UKD ERIC SINKING. 1 !•? CHAPTKR LVI. [ I CHAPTER LVI. TUE UED BOAT SlNKINa-THli LIFE-BOAT CAOHE-THE OPEN WATER- OULSEN'SDEAT.I-IIIB FUNEHAL-nARENTi;,OUR PKKCUKSOR-ACCOMODAn —THE I'llESClUPTION— CAl'K WELCOME— THE KESOI.VE. Though the condition of the ice iissured ns that we were drawing ^ near the end of our sledge-journeys, it by no means diminished ins";;;;7it, their difficulty or hazards. The part of the field near the open of the ice. ^^..^^gj. jy ,,|^^.ays abraded by the currents, while it remains appa- rently firm on the surface. In some places it was so transparent that we could even see the gurgling eddies below it ; wliile in others it was worn into open holes that were already the resort of wild fowl. But in general it looked hard and plausible, though not more than a foot or even six inches in thickness. This continued to be its character as long as we pursued the Littleton Island channel, and we were compelled, the whole way through, to sound ahead with the boat-hook or narwhal-horn. We learne'd this precaution from the Esquimaux, who always move in advance of their sledges when the ice is treacherous, and test its strength before bringing on their teams. Our first warning impressed us with the policy of observing it. We were making wide circuits with the whaleboats to avoid the tide-holes, when signals of distress from men scrambUng on the ice announced to n,Red us that the Red Eric had disappeared. This unfortunate little £r.« sinks. (,,.j^ft contained all the dearly-earned documents of the expedition. There was not a man who did not feel that the reputation of the partv rested in a great degree upon their preservation. It had cost"us many a pang to give up our collections of natural history, to which every one had contributed his quota of labour and in- terest ; but the destruction of the vouchers of the cruise-the log- books, the meteorological registers, the surveys, and the journals —seemed to strike them all as an irreparable disaster. When I reached the boat everything was in confusion. Blake with a line passed round his waist, was standing up to his knees in sludge, groping for the document-box, and Mr. Bonsall, drip- . -pifi^i-i^ THE LIFE-BOAT CACHK. 409 l.mg wot, was endcavounng to haul the provision-bags to a place ohap.p. of safety H.H.pi]y the boat was our lightest one, a^d everyJhin. ^^^ was saved She was gradually lightened until she could bear ItuZ^;. Qian, and her cargo was then passed out by a line and hauled '"'''■ upon the ice. In spite of the wet and the cold and our thoughts of poor Ohlsen, we greeted its safety with three cheers It was by great good fortune that no lives were lost Stephen son was caught as he sank by one of the sledge-runners, and Mor- ton, while in the very act of drifting under the ice, was seized by the hair of the head by ^Ir. Bonsall and saved We were now close upon Life-boat Cove," where nearly two Mfe-.oa, years before we had made provision for just such a continctency as ^°"" that which was now before us. Buried under the frozen soil oiir stores had escaped even the keen scrutiny of our savage allies and we now turned to them as essential to our reli°ef. Mr.' M'Gary was sent to the cache, with orders to bring everythinr^ except the salt beef. This had been so long a poison to us, that tainted as we were by scurvy, I was afraid to bring it among those who might be tempted to indulge in it. On the 12th the boats and sledges came to a halt in the narrow a halt passage between the islands opposite Cape ^lisery, the scene of °I'P"'"« our late snow storm. All our cargo had been gathered together S'ery at this spot, and the rocks were covered with our stores. Out of the fourteen hundred pounds not an ounce had been sacrificed, Everything was cased in its waterproof covering, and as dry and [•erfect as when it had left the hv'v. The Littleton Island of Captain Iiiglefield is one of a group of Littleton four skiers which flank the north-east headland of Ilartstene Bay. ^"''"'' They are of the bottom series, coarse gneisses and mica schists. *^™"'' When here before, at this time of the year, they were surrounded by water, and the eider ducks were breeding on their slopes. Now, as if to illustrate the difference of the seasons here, as Avell as the influence which they exert upon the habits of the migratory wild fowl, they were thorouglily cased in ice, and not a nest was to be seen. I ascended some eight hundred feet to the summit of Pekiutlik, Ti.eopen and, looking out, beheld the open water, so long the goal of our "'"*'''■• struggles, spread out before me. It extended seemingly to Cape Alexander, and was nearer to the westward than the south of my m 410 ohlsen's death. S'ti^li S OHAPTKR LVI. Cliolce of route. i !' ' ■ I' i . V t 1 ill Olilscn'B death. Conceal- ment of the dentl ft&m tlie Esqui- maux. position by some five or six miles. Rut tlie ice in the latter direction led into the curve of the bay, and was thus protected from the wind and swell. .My jaded comrades pleaded anxiously in favour of the direct line to the water ; but I knew that this ice would give us both safer and better travel. I determined to adopt the inshore route. Our position at Pekiutlik, as we determined carefully by the mean of several observations, is in latitude 78° 22' 1" and longitude 74° 10'. We coiiiiected it with Cape Alexander, and other determined stations to the north and west. The channel between the islands was much choked with up- reared ice ; but our dogs had now come back to us so much refreshed that I was able to call their services again into recpiisi- tion. We carried one entire load to the main which forms the north-east headland of Hartstene Bay, and, the l<:s.iuimaux assist- in<' us, deposited it safely on the inner side. \ was with the advance boat, trying to force a way through the channel, when the report came to me from Dr. Hayes that Ohlsen was no more. He had shown, a short half hour before, some signs of revival, and Petersen had gone out to kill a few birds, m tlie hope of possibly sustaining him by a concentrated soup. But it was in vain : the poor feUow flushed up only to die a few minutes after. . We had no time to mourn the loss of our comrade, a tried and courageous man, who met his death in the gallant discharge of duty. It cast a gloom over the whole party ; but the exigencies of the moment were upon us, and we knew not whose turn would come next, or how soon we might all of us follow him together. I had carefully concealed Mr. Ohlsen's sickness from the Esqui- maux, with everything else that could intimate our weakness ; for, without reflecting at aU upon their fidelity, I felt that with them, as with the rest of the world, pity was a less active provocative to good deeds than the deference which is exacted by power. I had therefore represented our abandonment of the brig as merely the absence of a general hunting party to the Far South, and I was willing now to keep up the impression. I leave to moralists the discus°sion of the question how far I erred ; but I now sent them to their village under pretext of obtaining birds, and lent them our dogs to insure their departure. The body of Mr. Ohlsen wa.s sewed up, while they were gone, lig HIS FUNERAL. 411 IHHi in his own blankets, and carried in procession to tl.o head of n Uttle gor,e on the east face of PeldutUk, whore by Z aW v "^ ^ consigned h.s ren.an.s to a sort of trend, and covered them w ' rocks to protect then, from the fox and boar. Without the know- edge o niy comrades, I encroached on our little store of sheet- load, winch we were husbanding to mend our leaky boats with und, cutting on a small tablet his name and age— CHRISTIAN OHLSEN, AGED 36 YEARS, laid it on his manly breast. The cape that looks down on him l)oars his name. As we walked back to our camp upon the ice, the death of Account c Olilsen bnmght to my mind the strange parallel of our story with ^nS tl.atof ohl William Ikrontz-a parallel which might verify that '"*'■'"''• sad truth of history tliat human adventure repeats itself Two hundred and fifty-nine years ago, William Barentz chief pdot of the States General of Holland-the United States of that day— had wintered on the coast of Novaia Zemlia, explorinc. the northernmost region of the Old Continent, as we had that o'f the New. His men, seventeen in number, broke down during the triak of the winter, and three died, just as of our eighteen "three h'ld gone. He abandoned his vessel as we had abandoned ours, took to his boats, and escaped along the Lapland coast to lands of Norwegian civilization. We bad embarked with sledge and boat to attempt the same thing. We had the longer journey and the more difHcult before us. He lost, as we had done, a cherished comrade by the wayside ; and, as I thought of this closing resem- blance in our fortunes also, my mind left but one paii of the parallel mcomi)\Qte—Bami(z himself perished. We gave two (piiet hours to the memory of our dead brother, Themarui, and then resumed our toilsome march. We kept up nearly the ''^'""'^'* same routine as before ; but, as we neared the settlements, the Esquimaux came in fl(,cks to our assistance. They volunteered to aid us at the drag ropes. They carried our sick upon hand-sledges. They relieved us of all care for our supi.lies of daily food. The quantity of little auks that they brought us was enormous. They fed us and our dogs at the rate of eight thousand birds a week. ,1^7 M J- 4 r 412 CARRYING THE SICK. CHAPTER all of tliem caught in their Uttle hand-nets. All anxiety left u= "'• for the time. The men broke out in their old forecastle songs , "tf A metllciU consultii- tioii. The pre- scription. 1 1 1 1^ i ^ 1* - '^Ss*"- CAKRYINJ YIIK SICK. the sledges began to move merrily ahead, and laugh and jest drove out the old moody .silence. During one of our evening halts, when the congregation of natives had scattered away to their camp fires, Metek and Nualik his wife came to me privately on a matter of grave consultation. They brought with them a fat, curious-looking boy. " Accomo- dah," said they, " is our youngest son. His sleep at night is bad, and his 7ta«(7a/t"— pointing to that protuberance which is sup- posed to represent alderm;uiic dignity — "is always round and hard. He cats ossuk (blubber) and no meat, and bleeds at the nose. Besides, he does not grow." They wanted me, in my capacity of angckok soak, to charm or euro him. I told them, with all the freedom from mystery that distin- guishes the regulated practitioner from the empiric, what must be my mode of treatment : that I must dip my hand into the salt water wliere the ice cut against the sea, and lay it on the offending nangah ; and that if they would bring to me their rotund little companion within three days, at that broad and deep Bethesda, I would signalize my consideration of the kindness of the tribe by a trial of my powers. They went away very thankful, taking a preliminary prescrijv rUK BOATS REACH THE OPEN WATKR tion Of H lump of brown soap, a sUk shirt , " , ^^^ her eating of ossnk ; and I h.d no tubt "nf T' '' '^^ '^•^- ^^^^ have the b„y duly powwowed, would nv^ ^'''' '"'-^^^^^^ ^o "'• bnng us oaHy to the healing wat rs ' W T T'' •^'-'^'- -d "^ least as n.uch as Metek, and needed l.o "^"^ ^"^' ^^'^"^ '-^t My little note-book loses Zthl ? "V^'"" ''''^" Aecomodah. pounded reeord :- *'^' ''''^ ^^^^^ this gratefully ex- ^jo^e 16, *?«/«;-rf«^.__Our boats are at thp . ;ts deep indigo horizon, and hear i rl tlst T- '!' "^ ^"^-^ Its^scent IS in our nostrils and our heart' ° ''" "^ ""'''''■ Sl""'^ Uur camp is but three-nu-irtor^ ^p " -i „ ^" tl,c „„rt„o™ curve „f T N , b;;! : T "" ^^ " '""-- f-m (i,,,, .Ai.xun.lo,-. A aA , J' 'l t'J' "■""" ""■=" """'^ more n,,.„.k„I than tl>e sm,t „ I """ ' t'"^^ *« »I'»'- ^ » .-«..i,icc„t,y the ...rf bo:ts ;:. r." e":"';' ''™''- «- ofsquoczcl ico between „s ami ,, , ^ ''"'•« ■™ ridges ^luJgo U «volli„g and rolling J i,';,;~''' »'-.°f """tiug able barriers to boats and skd^^,, nftt f ■'''*'"~^""'""'- obstacles, and by God's help ,4 wU, „:Itr"ti;::: ""'"■"' ™'" ,' - «• ;i 414 PKF.PARING 1 ■■ EMBAKK. I; f I . CHAPTER LVII. i j 1 1 1 j '^ ■ 1 f m ■ ;? ^ ■ i'" CHAPTKR LVII. Preparing the boats. Assem- blage of Esqui- maux to bid good- bye. KeepsnkM given. THE FARF.WETJ/— ATTEMPT TO EMBARK. We had our boats to prepare now for a long and adventurous navigation. They were so small and heavily laden as hardly to justify much confidence in their buoyancy ; but, besides this, they were split with frost and warped by sunshine, and fairly open at the seams. They were to be calked, and swelled, and launched, and stowed, before we could venture to embark in them. A rauiy south-wester, too, which had met us on our arrival, was now spread- ing with its black nunbus over the bay, and it looked as if we were to be storm-stayed on the precarious ice-beach. It was a time of anxiety, but to me personally of comparative rest. I re- sumed my journal : — July 18, J/oH(%.— The Esquimaux are camped by our side,— the whole settlement of Etah congregated around the 'big cal- dron' of Cape Alexander, to bid us good-bye. There are Metek, and Nualik his wife, our old acquaintance Mrs Eider-duck, and their five children, commencing with Myouk, my body-guard, and ending with the ventricose little Accomodah. There is Nessark and Anak his wife ; and Tellerk the ' Right Arm,' and Amauna- lilc his wife ; and Sip-su, and Marsumah and Aningnah— and who not 1 I can name them every one, and tliey know us as well. We have found brothers in a strange land. "Each one has a knife, or a file, or a saw, or some such treasured keepsake ; and the children have a lump of soap, the greatest of all great medicines. The merry little urchins break in upon me even now as I ani writing — ' Kuyanake, kuyanake, Nalegak-soak ! ' 'Thank you, thank you, big chief!' while Myouk is crowding fresh presents of raw birds on me as if I could eat for ever, and poor Aningnah is crying beside the tent- curtain, wiping her eyes on a bird skin ! " My heart warms to these poor, dirty, miserable, yet happy beings, so long our neighbours, und of late so staunchly our friends THR ESQUIMAUX. 415 Theirs is no aflfectation of regret. There are twenty-two of them chaptkr around me, all busy in good offices to the Docto Kayens ; and ^■ there are only two women and the old blind patriarch Krcsuk, ' Drift-wood,' left behind at the settlement. " But see ! more of them are coming up— boys ten years old a nation puslung forward babies on their sledges. The whole nation is '^''"'^'"^ gipsying with us upon the icy meadows. °" "" ''* " We oook for them in our big camp kettle ; they sleep in the Red Eric ; a berg close at hand supplies them with water j and thus, rich in all that they value,— sleep, and food, and drink, and companionship,— with their treasured short-lived summer sun above them, the beau idod and sum of Esquimaux blessings, they seem supremely happy. " Poor creatures ! It is only six months ago that starvation was among them : many of the faces around me have not yet lost tlie lines of wasting suspense. The walrus season is again of doubtful productiveness, and they are cut off from their brethren to the south, at Netelik and Appah, until winter rebuilds the avenue of ice. With all this, no thoughts of the future cross them. Babies squall, and women chatter, and the men weave their long yarns with peals of rattling hearty laughter between. " Ever since we reached Tekiutlik, these friends of ours have Kindness considered us their guests. They have given us hand-sledges for StfoT' our baggage, and taken turn about in watches to carry us and it "'e Esqui to the water's edge. But for them our dreary journey would have been prolonged a't least a fortnight, and we are so lato even now that hours may measure our lives. IVFetek, Myouk, Nessark, Mar- suniah, Erkee, and the half grown boys, have been our chief labourers ; but women, children, and dogs are all bearing their part. "Whatever may have been the faults of these Esquimaux heretofore, stealing was the only grave one. Treachery they may have conceived ; and I have reason to believe that, under super- stitious f:!ars of an evil influence from our presence, they would at one time have been glad to destroy us. But the day of all this has passed away. When trouble came to us and to them, and we bent ourselves to their habits, — when we looked to them to pro- cure us fresh meat, and they found at our poor Oomiiik-soak shel- ter and protection during their wild bear-hunts, — then we were so manx. iflTT 410 A LAST VISIT TO KTAH. IM j i : ■: 1 } ■ (*■ ; ^r. ^ iiiii OHAPTKR LVII. True flleiidsliip and gniti- tudeof tliii naf.ves. Old Kleiiuk. Natural magic. Last news ot Hans. I Parting eifts. hleiuled in our interests as well as modes of life, that every trace of enmity wore away. God knows that since they professed friendsliip — albeit the imaginary powers of the angckok-soak and tlie marvellous six-shooter which attested them may have had their influence — never have friends been more true. Although, since Ohlsen's death, numberless articles of inestimable value to them have been scattered upon the ice unwatched, they have not stolen a nail. It was only yesterday that Metek, upon my allud- ing to the manner in which property of all sorts was exposed without pilfering, explained through Petersen, hi these two short sentences, the argument of their morality : — " ' You have done us good. We are not hungry ; we will not take (steal). You have done us good ; we want to help you ; we are friends.'" I made my last visit to Etali while we were waiting the issue of the storm. I saw old Kresuk (Drift-wood) the blind man, and listened to his long good-bye talk. I had passed with the Esqui- maux as an angekok, in virtue of some simple exploits of natural magic ; and it was one of the regular old times entertainments of our visitors at the brig, to see my hand terrible with blazing ether, while it lifted nails with the magnet. I tried now to communi- cate a portion of my wonder working talent. I made a lens of ice before them, and " drew down the sun," so as to light the moss under their kolupsut. I did not quite understand old l{^resuk, and I was not quite sure he understood himself. But I trusted to the others to explain to him what I had done, and bitrned the back of his hand for a testimony hi the most friendly maimer. After all which, with a reputation for wisdom which I dare say will live in their short annals, I wended my way to the brig again. We renewed our queries about Hans, but could get no further news of him. The last story is, that the poor boy and his better half were seen leaving Peteravik, " the halting-place," in company with Shang-hu and one of his big sons. Lover as he was, and nalegak by the all-hail hereafter, joy go with him, for he was a right good fellow. We had quite a scene, distributing our last presents. My am- putating knives, the great gift of all, went to Metek and Nessark ; but every one had something as his special prize. Our dogs went to the community at large, as tenants in common, except Toodia- A FARKWKfJ, APPRESS. 417 mik and Wliitey, our representative flogs through very many trials, chaptki. I could not part with them, the leaders of my team ; I have them ^2^ still. But Nualik, the poor mother, had something still to remind me Accomo. of. She had accompanied us throughout the transit of Etah Bay, ''""• with her boy Accomodah, waiting anxiously for the moment when the first salt water would enable me to f jlfil my promised exorci- sation of the demon in his stomach. There was no alternative now but to fulfil the pledge with faithful ceremony. The boy was taken to the water's edge, and his exorbitant little nangali faith- fully embrocated in the presence of both his parents. I could not speak my thanks in their language, but I contributed my scanty stoc': of silk shirts to the poor little sufferer,— for such he was, and I blessed them for their humanity to us with a fervour of heart which from a better man might peradvonture have carried a blessing along with it. And now it only remained for us to make our farewell to these a fmc- desolate and 0(jnfiding people. I gathered them round me on the If^^^"^' ice-beach, and talked to them as brothers for whose kindness I had still a return to make. I told them what I knew of the tribes from which they were separated by the glacier and the sea, of the resources that abounded in those less ungenial regions not very far off to the south, the greater duration of daylight, the less intensity of the cold, the facilities of the hunt, the frequent drift- wood, the kayak, and the fishing-net. I tried to explain to them how, under bold and cautious guidance, they might reach there in a few seasons of patient march. [ gave them drawings of the coast, -with its headlands and hunting-grounds, as far as Cape Shackleton, and its best camping-stations from Eed Head to the Danish settlements. They listened with breatliless interest, closing their circle round its effect me ; and, as Petersen described the big ussuk, the white whale, the bear, and the long open water hunts with the kayak and the rifle, they looked at each other with a significance not to be mis- understood. They would anxiously have had me promise that I would some day return and carry a load of them down to the set- tlements ; and I shall not wonder if — guided perhaps by Hans — they hereafter attempt the journey without other aid. Tins was our parting. A letter which 1 addressed, at the ■ IP rim 1 1 ?'?!• It ''i^i i V 1 i i" M H B! OBAl'TRH : ■ t* fH 1 tvii. ; 'II ^1 1 ' ^! I'.l 1 ^ 11 '» If 418 ATTKMI'T TO EM HARK. A laiincli nt mli>- Obllgud to retreat iii- wnrJ by ii Ilult neai uii iuu- bmg. moment of reaching tlio settlements, to the Lutheran Missions, the tutelar society of the Esquimaux of Oreenlaiul, will attest the sincerity of my professions and my willingness to assist in giving them effect. It was in the soft subdued light of a Sunday evening, Juno 17, that, after hauling our boats with nmch hard labour through the hummocks, we stood beside the open sea-way. liefore midnight we had launched the Red En:, and given three cheers for ilenry Grinnell and " homeward bound." unfurling all our flags. But we were not yet to embark ; for the gale which had been long brooding now began to dash a heavy wind-Upper against the floe, and obliged us to retreat before it, hauling our boats back with each fresh breakage of the ice. It rose more fiercely, and we were obliged to give way before it still more. Our goods, which had been stacked upon the ice, had to be carried further in- ward. We worked our way back thus, step by step, before the breaking ice, for about two hundred yards. At last it became ap- parent that the men must sleep and rest, or sink ; and, giving up for the present all thoughts of embarking, I hauled the boats at once nearly a mile from the water's edge, where a large iceberg was frozen tight in the floes. But here we were still pursued. All the next night it blew fear- fully, and at last our berg crashed away through the broken ice, and our asylum was destroyed. Again we fell to hauling back the boats ; until, fearing that the continmince of the gale might induce a ground-swell, which would have been fatal to us, I came to a halt near the slope of a low iceberg, on which I felt confident that we could haul up in case of the entire disruption of the floes. The entire area was already intersected with long cracks, and the surface began to show a perceptible undulation beneath our feet. It was well for us I had not gratified the men by taking the outside track ; we should certainly have been rafted off into the storm, and without an apparent possibility of escape. I climbed to the summit of the berg ; but it was impossible to penetrate the obscurity of mist, and spray, and cloud further than a thousand yards. The sea tore the ice up almost to the veiy base of the berg, and all around it looked like one vast tumultuous cal- dron, the ice-tables cnishiug together in every possible position with deafening clamour. SUTHliRLANI) ISLAND 4 I '.I ClIAl'TER LVIII. SUTIIKllIiAND ISLAND— HAKLUYT ISLAN1>- NOHTUUMIiEiaANr ISLANl>- KITZ-CIiABENCE HOCK— DALHYMl'LE UOCK— GIVING 01 T— BUEAK UP 01 TUE ri,OE— IIROKEN DOWN— WEARY MAn's REST— THE FOURTU— SUOKT COMMONS. The gale died away to a calm, and the water became as tranquil aa onAHEh if the gale had never been. All hands were called to pitpare for ' '^'" - embarking. The boat.s were stowed, and the cargo divided be- A calm, tween them equally ; tlio sledges unlashod and slung outside the gunwales ; and on Tuesday the 19th, at 4 P.M., with the bay as smooth as a garden-lake, I put off in the Faith. 8he was followed The bouts by the Red Eric on our quarter, and the Hope astern. In the '^"' ^ *^ Faith I had with me Mr. M'Gary, and Petersen, Hickey, Stephen- son, and Whii)ple. Mr. Brooks was in the Hope, with Hayes, Sontag, Morton, Go(5dfellow, and Blake. Bonsall, Riley, and Godfrey made the crew of the Eyic. The wind freshened as we doubled the westernmost point of Cape cupc Alexander, and, as we looked out on the expanse of the sound, wo ^^'^^j, saw the kittiwakes and the ivory-gulls and jagers dipping their wings in the curling waves. They seemed the very same birds wo had left two years before screaming and catching fish in the beau- tiful water. We tried to make our first rest at Sutherland Island ; Suthm-- but we found it so barricaded by the precipitous ice-belt that it j*''^^,^^ was impossible to land. I clambered ih5^self from the boat's mast upon the platform and filled our kettles with snow, and then, after cooking our supper in the bc^ts, we stood away for Hakluyt. It was an ugly crossing : we had a short chopping sea from the south- east ; and, after a while, the Red Boat swamped. Eiley and God- iiie Rtd frey managed to struggle to the Faith, and Bonsall to the Hope; ^""|„,,e^ but it was impossible to remove the cargo of our little comrade ; it was as much as we could do to keep her afloat and let her tow be- hind us. Just at this time, too, the Hope made a signal of dis- tress ; and Brooks hailed us to say that she was making water faster than he could free her. If 410 irAKLUYT ISLAND. ^\ OBAFTKK LVIII. A survey of tliu ice Haklu^t IttUnd. n Northum- berliind Island. The wind wua hauling round to tlio westward, and we could not take the sea aboani. IJut, as I niaile a rapid .survey of tlio area around me, studded ahx-ady with ihufmg shreds of floe-ice, I saw ahead the low, grey hlink of the pack. I remembered well the exi)erience of our Beechy Island trii), and knew that the margin of these large fields is almost always broken by inlets of open water which gave much the same sort of protection as the creeks and rivers of an adverse coast. We were fortunate in finding one of these, and fastening ourselves to an old floe, alongside of which our weary men turned in to sleep without hauling up the boats. When Petersen and myself returned from an unsuccessful hunt i.,)on the ice, we found them still asleep, in spite of a cold and drizzling rain that might have stimulated wakefulness. I did not disturb them till eight o'clock. We then retrcited from our break- water of refuge, generally pulling along by the boat-hooks, but sometimes dragging our boats over the ice ; and at hist, bending to our oars as the water opened, reached the shore of Hakluyt Lsland. It was hardly less repulsive than the ice-cliffs of the day before; but a spit to the southward gave us the opportunity of hauling up as the tide rose, and we finally succeeded in transferring ourselves and all our fortunes to the land-ice, and thence to the rocks be- yond. It snowed hard in the night, and the work of calking went on badly, though we expended on it a prodigal share of our re- maining white lead. We rigged up, however, a tent for the sick, and re-inforced our bread-dust and tallow supper by a few bird.s. We had shot a seal in the course of the day, but we lost him by his sinking. In the morning of the 22d we jiushed forward through the snow-storm for Northumberland Island, and succeeded in reaching it a little to the eastward of my former landing-place. Myriads of auks greeted us, and we returned their greeting by the appropriate in- vitation to our table. A fox also saluted us with an admirable imitation of the " Huk-huk-huk," which among the Esquimaux is the never-unheeded call of distress ; but the rascal, after seducing us a mile and a half out of-our way, escaped our guns. Our boats entered a little patch of open water that conducted us to the beach, directly below one of the hanging glaciers. The interest with which these impressed me when I was turning back f. KITZ-CLARKNCK ROCK. 421 from my Bcechy T.sl.n-l drort was justified very fully hy wh.t I chapxeb Raw of them uow. It seemed as if a cal.lnm ..f i.-e inside the '*^'"- coastridgo wuh boiling over, and throwing it« c-rust in huge fra-^- h*;;;;;^ ments from the overhanging lip into the sea hdow. The ghicii.r '^'"""■• muHt have been el.ven hundred feet high ; but even at its summit wo could SCO lines ot viscous movement. We crossed Munhison Channel on the 23d, and encamped f,.r the night on the land-floo at the ])ase of Capo Parry; a hard day's travel, partly by tracking over ice, partly through tortuous and zigzag leads. The next day brought us to the nciglibonrliood of Fitz-Clarencc Kock, one of the most interesting monument.s that Fit^ciar- rear themselves along this dreary coast : in a region more familiar """ ""''' to men, it would be a landmark to the navigator. It rises from a field of ice like an Egyptian pyramid surmounted by an obelisk. I had been anxious to communicate with the Es(puuiaux of Netelik, in the hope of gaining some further intelligence of ilans. Our friends of Etah had given me, in their own style, a coiiiplete itinerary of this region, and we had no difliculty in instructing Unsnc- Godfrey how to trace his way across the neck of land which stood .'^nSl "o between ns and the settlement. He made the attempt, but found ""cii'iic the snow-drift impassable; and Tetersen, whom I sent on the same SS' errand to Tcssiusak, returned equally unsuccessful. "«"'«• The next day gave us admirable progress. The ice opened in """^' leads before ns, somewliat tortuous, but, on the whole, favouring, and for sixteen hours I never left the l.elm. We were all of lis exhausted when the day's work came to a close. Our allowance liad been small from the first ; but the delays we seemed fated to encounter had r ade me reduce them to what I then thought the Scanty minimum quantity, six ounces of bread-dust and a lump of tallow '"™ the size of a walnut : a paste or broth, made of these before set- ting out in the morning and distributed occasionally through the day in scanty rations, was our only fare. We were all of us glad whe'\ running tlie boats under the lee of a berg, we were able to fill our kettles with snow and boil up for our great restorative Tea the tea. I may remark that, under the circumstances of most priva- "f * '*-■*"■ tion, I found no comforter so welcome to the party as this. We drank immoderately of it, and always with advantage. While the men shipt after their weary labour, M'Gary and my- self climbed the berg for a view ahead. It was a saddening one. 422 DECLINING 8TRKN(iTII OF THE PARTY. CUAl'IUH LVIII. 11 '(, I Dalrymple Kock. ■kI .m Eflfects of insuffl- cient food. Oblifjcd to wait We had lost siglit of Gary Island ; but shoreward, up VVosten- holm Channel, the ice seemed as if it had not yet begun to yield to the i' iluenccs of summer. Everything showed how intense the last winter had been. We were close upon the 1st of July, and had a right to look for the North Water of tha whalers where we now had solid ice or close pack, both of them almost equally un- favourable to our progress. Far off in the distance — how far I could not measure— rose the Dalrymple Rock, projecting from the lofty precipice of the island ahead ; but between u.s and it the land-ice spread itself from the base of Saunders's Island unbroken to the Far South. The next day's progress was of course slow and wearisome, pushing througli alternate ice and water for the land-belt. We fastened at last to the great floe near the shore, making our har- bour in a crack which opened with the changes of tide. The imperfect diet of the party was showing itself more and more in the decline of their musciilar power. They seemed scarcely aware of it themselves, and referred the difficulty they found in dragging and pushing to something uncommon about the ice or sludge ratlier than to their own weakness. But, as we en- deavoured to renew our labours through the morning fog, belted in on all sides by ice-fields so distorted and rugged as to defy our efforts to cross them, the truth seemed to burst upon every one. We had lost tlic feeling of hunger, and were almost satisfied \vith our pasty broth and the large draughts of tea which accompanied it. I was anxious to send our small boat, the Eric, across to tiie lumme-hill of Appah, where I knew from the Esquimaux we should find plenty of birds ; but the strength of the party was in- sufficient to drag her. We were sorely disheartened, and could only wait for the fog to rise, in the hope of some smoother i)Iatform than tliat which was about us, or some lead that might save us t painful labour of tracking. I had climbed the iceberg ; and there was nothing in view except Dalrymple Rock, with its red brassy face towering in the unknown distance. But I hardly got back to my boat; before a gale struck us from the north-west, and a lloe, taking upon a tongue of ice about a mile to the north of us, began to iswing upon it like a pivot and close slowly in upon our narro.v resting-place. At first our own floe also was driven before the wind ; but in a AN AWFIIT, STOUM. 423 little while it encountered the stationary ice at the foot of the very chapteb rock itself. On the instant the wildest imaginable ruin rose ^^"' - around us. The men sprang mechanically each one to his station, Breaking bearing back the boats and stores ; but I gave up for the moment floa'"" all hope of our escape. It was not a nip such as is familiar to Arctic navigators ; but the whole platform, where we stood and for hundreds of yards on every side of us, crumbled, and crushed, and piled, and tossed itself madly under the pressure. I do not believe that of our little body of men, all of them disciplined hi trials, able to measure danger while combating it, — I do not be- lieve there is one who this day can explain how or why — hardly when, in fact — we found ourselves afloat. We only know that in the midst of a clamour utterly indescribable, through which the braying of a thousand trumpets could no more have been heard than the voice of a man, we were shaken, and raised, and whkled, Tossed in and let down again in a swelling waste of broken hummocks, and, "'^ ^'"""^ as til nen giasped their boat-hooks in the stillness that followed, the boats eddied away in a tumultuous skreed of ice, and snow, and water. We were borne along in this manner as long as the unbroken Driven remnant of the inshore floe continued revolving, — utterly power- before "" loss, and catching a glimpse every now and then of the brazen the gaic. headland that looked down on us through the snowy sky. At last the floe brought up against tho rocks, the looser fragments that hung round it began to separate, and we were able by oars and boat-hooks to force oiir battered little flotilla clear of them. To our joyful surprise, we soon found ourselves in a stretch of the land- water wide enough to give us rowing-room, and with the as- sured promise of land close ahead. As we neared it, we saw the same forbidding wall of belt-ice as at Suthe'ioud and llakluyt. We pulled along its margin, seeking in vain either an opening of access or a nook of shelter. The gale rose, and the ice began to drive again ; but there was notlung to be done but get a grapnel out to the belt and hold on for the rising tide. The lIo}>e stove her bottom and lost part of her weather-boarding, and all the boats wore badly chafed. It was an awful storm ; and it was not without constant exertion that we kept afloat, baling out the scud that broke over us, and wardhig ott" the ice with boat-hooks. 1 1 il 4 t%4 424 WEARY man's RKHT." CHAPTER IiVIII. Scaling the Ico- cliff. A wel- '!li^ come Wf sound. 5JI '1 Egg-hunt- ing. ! i " Weary Man's Rest." Stopped ly the ice. At three o'clock the tide was high enough for us to scale the ice-cliff. One by one we pulled up the boats upon a narrow shelf, the whole sixteen of us uniting at each pull. We were too much worn down to unload ; but a deep and narrow gorge opened in the cliffs almost at the spot where we clambered up ; and, as wc pushed the boats into it on an even keel, the rocks seemed to close above our heads, until an abrupt turn in the course of the ravine placed a protecting cliff between us and the gale. We were com- pletely encaved. Just as we had brought in the last boat, the Red Eric, and were shoring her up with blocks of ice, a long-unused, but familiar and unmistakable sound startled and gladdened every ear, and a flock of eiders flecking the sky for a moment passed swiftly in front of us. We knew that we must be at their breeding-grounds ; and as we turned in wet and hungry to our long-coveted sleep, it was only to dream of eggs and abundance. We remained almost three days in our crystal retreat, gather- ing eggs at the rate of twelve hundred a day. Outside, the storm raged without intermission, and our egg-hunters found it difficult to keep their feet ; but a merrier set of gourmands than were gathered within never surfeited in genial diet. On the 3d of July the wind began to moderate, tliough the snow still fell heavily ; and the next morning, after a patriotic egg-nog, the liquor borrowed grudgingly from our alcohol-finsk, and diluted till it was worthy of temperance praise, — we lowered our boats, and bade a grateful farewell to " Weary Man's Rest." We rowed to the south-east end of Wostenholme Island ; but the tide left us there, and we moved to the ice-foot. For some days after this we kept moving slowly to the south, along the lanes that opened between the belt-ice and the floe. The weather continued dull and unfavourable for ob.servations of any sort, and we were off a large glacier before we were aware that further progress near the shore was impracticable. Great chains of bergs presented themselves as barriers in our way, the spaces between choked by barricades of hummocks. It was hope- ieos to bore. We tried for sixteen hours together without finding a possibility of egress. The whole sea was rugged and broken in the extreme. I climbed one of the bergs to the height of about two hundred REPAIKTNG THE BOATS. 425 feet, and, looking well to the west, was satisfied that a lead which chaptki I saw there coiild be followed in the direction of Conical Rocks, 'll^' and beyond toward Cape Dudley Diect. The ■ledfcoa again. Afliiat once moru. Reckoning supplies. recesses of lao bay, surrounded on all sides by stupeiidoua icebergs and tangled floe-piccea. My sturdy second ofticer, not naturally impressible, and long aocuHtonied to the vicissitudes of whaling life, shed tears at the prospect. There was but one thing to be done : cost wliat it might, we must harness our sledges again and retrace our way to the west- ward. One sledge had been already used for firewood ; the lied Eric, to which it had belonged, was now cut up, and her liglit cedar planking laid u[)on the floor of the other boats ; and we went to work with the rue-raddies as in the olden time. It was not till the third toilsome day was well spent that we reached the berg which had bewildered our helmsman. We Iwuded over its tongue, and joyously embarked again upon jv free lead, with a fine breeze from the north. Our little squadron was now reduced to two boats. The land to the northward was no longer visible ; and whenever I left the margin of the " fa.st " to avoid its deep sinuosities, I was obliged to trust entirely to the compass. We had at least eight days' allow- ance of fuel on board ; but our provisions were running very low, ari we met few birds, and failed to secure any larger game. We saw several large seals upon the ice, but they were too watchful for us ; and on two occasions we came upon the walrus sleeping, — once within actual lance-thrust ; but the animal charged in the teeth of his assailant and made good his retreat. On the 28th I instituted a cpuet review of the state of things before us. Our draft on the stores we had laid in at Providence Halt had been limiteeto follow astern, and, trembling with anxiety, we prepared to crawl down upon him. retersen, with the large English rifle, was stationed in 'the bow, and stockings were drawn over the oars as mufflers. As we neared the animal, our excitement became so intense that the men could hardly keep stroke. I had a set of signals for such occa- sions, which spared us the noise of the voice ; and when about three hundred yards off, the oars were taken in, and we moved on m (luep silence with a single scull astern. He was not asleep, for he reared his head when we were almost within rifie-shot; and to this day I can remember the hard, care- worn, almost despairing expression of the men's thui f\ices as they saw him move : their lives depended on his capture. I depressed my hand nervously, as a signal for Petersen to hre. M'Gary hung upon his oar, and the boat, slowly but noiselessly cnArTER LXL Illness aiiC sulfciing. A soul in slRht IntHnse excite- nicnt. Ufa at stuUo. 438 TUB FESTIVAL. pg J 1 ^^s w p ii f! CHAPTER liXI. Paralysed by anxiety. Seizing the prize. The feast, 'M - I The] ', dogs eavei sagging ahead, seemed to me without certam range. Looking at Peterson, I s^av that the poor fellow was paralyzed by his anxiety trj'ing vainly to obtain a rest for his gun against the cut-water of the boat. The seal rose on his four-flippers, gazed at us for a moment with frightened curiosity, and coiled himself for a plunge. At that instant, simultaneously with the crack of our rifle, he re- laxed his long length on the ice, and, at the very brmk ot the water, his head fell helpless to one side. I would have ordered another shot, but no disciplme could have controlled the men. With a wild yell, each vociferating according to his own impulse, they urged both boats upon tlie Aoes. A crowd of hands seized the seal and bore him up to saier ice. ihe men seemed half crazy ; I had not realized how much we were re- duced by absolute fomine. They ran over the floe, crying and laughing, and brandishing their knives. It was not five minutes before every man was sucking his bh.ody fingers or mouthing long strips of raw blubber. _ j .i • Not an ounce of this seal was lost. The intestines found then way into the soup-kettles without any observance of the prelimin- ary home-processes. The cartilaginous parts of the fore-flippers were cut off in the melee, and passed round to be chewed upon ; and even the liver, warm and raw as it was, bade fair to be eaten bef.-re it had seen the pot. That night, on the large haltmg-floe to ^vhich, hi contempt of the dangers of drifthig, we happy men had hauled our boats, two entire planks of the Red Eric were devoted to a grand cooking-fire, and we enjoyed a rare and savage feast. This was our last experience of the disagreeable cfl-ects ot hunger. In the words of George Stephenson, "The charm wa. ■ broken, and the dogs were safe." The dogs I have said httle about, for none of us liked to think of them. The poor creatures, Toodla and Whitey, had been taken with u.'i as last resources against starvation. They were, as M'Gary worded it, "meat on the hoof," and " able to ry their own fat over the floes. Once, near Weaiy Man's Rest, i lad been on the point of kilhng them ; but they had been the leaders of our winter's team, and we could not bear tlie .sacrifice. , . , . I need not detail our journey any further. Withm a day or two we shot another seal, and from that time forward had a full sup- ply of food. It M TERRA FIRMA. 439 On the 1st of August we sighted the Devil's Thumb, and were chapter again among the familiar localities of the whalers' battling-ground. JL The bay was q\iite open, and we had been making easting for two The Dud days before. We were soon among the Duck Islands, and, passing to the south of Cape Shackleton, prepared to land. " Terra firma ! Terra firma 1 " How very pleasant it was to look On "Ten upon, and with what a tingle of excited thankfulness we drew near *'""'*• it ! A little time to seek a covc among the wrinkled hills, a little time to exchange congratulations, and then our battered boats were hauled high and dry upon the rocks, and our party, with hearts full of our deliverance, lay down to rest. And now, with the apparent certainty of reaching our homes, came that nervous apprehension which follows upon hope long de- ferred. I could not trust myself to take the outside passage, but timidly sought the quiet-water channels running deep into the archipelago which forms a sort of labyrinth along the coast. Thus it was that at one of our sleeping-halts upon the rocks— for we still adhered to the old routine— Petersen awoke me with a story. He had just seen and recognised a native, who, in his frail kayak, was evidently seeking cider-down among the islands. The man had once been an inmate of his f^vmily. " Paul Zacharias, Paai^^^^ don't you know rae] I'm Carl Petersen!" "No," saidtheman; " his wife says he's de.ul ;" and, with a stolid expression of wonder, he stared for a moment at the long beard that loomed at lum through the fog, and paddled away with all the energy of fright. Two days after this, a mist had settled down upon the islands which embayed us, and when it lifted we found ourselves rowing, in lazy time, under the shadow of Karkamoot. Just then a faini- a famUia, liar sound came to us over the water. We had often Ustened to the screeching of the gulls or the bark of the fox, and mistaken it for the » Huk" of the Esquimaux ; but this had about it an inflec- tion not to be mistaken, for it died away in the familar cadence of a " halloo." . , „„ , , "Listen, Petersen! oars, men!" "What is itr'-and he listened quietly at first, and then, trembling, said, in a half whisper, " Dannemarkers ! " . ,.i i j .. *, I remember tlds, the first tone of Christian voice which had a j.yju greeted our return to the world. How we aU stood up and peered mto the distant nooks; and how the cry came to us again, just as [■<• 440 THE FRA-ULEIN FLAISCllKU. ,1' yd iu ■ [tin I- i LXI. CHAPTKR Laving seen nothing, ^vc ^vea. doubting whether the whole wa- not a dream; and then how, with long sweeps, the white ash cracking under the spring of tlie rowers, we stood fortlie cape t rat the sound proceeded from, and how nervously we scanned the ureen spots which our experience, grown nowuito uistmct, told us would be the likely camping-ground of wayfarers. By-and-by— for we must have been pulling a good half hour— A vessel in siglit. CaiHe Mossyn. Tlic flist news. the single mast of a smaU shallop showed itself ; and Petersen, who had been very quiet and grave, burst out into an incoherent ht of cryuig only relieved by broken exclamations of nnngled Danish and English. " 'Tis the Upernavik oil-boat ! The Frauloiu Flais- cher ' c!ulie Mossyn, the assistant cooper, must be on his road to Kinaa^ok for blubber. The Mariane (the one annual ship) has come, and Carlie Mossyn-" and here he did it all over again, nulping down his words and wringing his hands. It was Carlie Mossyn, sure enough. The quiet routmc c.f a Danish settlement is the same year after year, and Petersen had hit upon the exact state of things. The Mariane was at Proven, and Cariie Mossyn had come up in the Fraulein Flaischor t<. get the year's supply of blubber from Kingatok. Here we first got our cloudy vague idea of what had passed in the bi- worid during our absence. The friction of its fierce rota- tion had not much disturbed this little outpost of civilization ami we thought it a sort of blunder as he b.ld us that France and Eng- land were leagued with the Mussulman against the Greek Church. He was a good Lutheran, this assistant cooper, and all news witli him had a theological complexion. „, , , "What of America, eh, Petersen f'- and wc all looked, waitn.g for him to interpret the answer. . ,. , ^ " America l " said Cariie ; " we don't know much ot that country here for they have no whalers on the coast; l)ut a steamer and a barque passed up a fortnight ago, and have gone out into the ice to seek your party." „, . , i i How <'ently all the lore of this man oozed out of him ! he seemed an oracH as, with hot-tingUng fingers pressed against the gunwale of the boat, we listened to his words. " Sebastopol am t taken. Where and what was Sebastopol 'i But "Sir John Franklin 1" There we were at home agam,- our own delusive little speciality rose uppermost. Irankliiia SAFK ON anOKF, AT LAST. 441 larty, or traces of the dead wliicli represented it, had been found cuaptk.r nearly a thousand miles to the south of where we had been search- '_ ing for them, lie knew it ; for the priest (Pastor Kraag) had a German ncwspai)er which told all about it. And so we "out oars" .'i.ga,in, and rowed into the fogis. Anotlier sleejnng halt has passed, and we have all washed clean rveparinp at the fresii water basins and furbished up our ragged fiU's and'"""'' woollens. Kasarsoai<, the snow top of Sanderson's Hope, shows itself above the mists, and we bear the yelling of the dogs. Peter- sen iiad Inen foreman of the settlement, and he calls my attention, witli a sort of pride, to the tolling of the workmen's bell. It is six o'clock. We are nearing the end of our trials. Can it be a dream 1 — Wc hugged the laud by the big harbour, turned the corner by The boats Ihe (,ld Tii-ew-houso, and in the midst of a crowd of children, """'^'^ "^ hauled our boats for the last time upon the rocks. For eighty-four days we had lived in the open air. Our habits were hard and weather-worn. We could not remain within the four walls of a bouse without a distressing sense of suffocation. lUit we drank coffee that night before many a hospitabl.' threshold, and listened again and again to the hymn of welcome, which, sung Ahymnjt by many voices, greeted our deliverance. HREENLANDRIl S CAMOE 442 nPEENAVIK. CONCLUSION. ceived. BcUot. i -4 coNCLu- We received aU manner of kindness from the Danes of Upernavik. !^- The residents of this distant settlement are dependent for their Kindly .0- suppUes on the annual trading-ship of the colonies, and they of """"' course could not minister to our many necessities without much personal inconvenience. But they fitted up a loft for our recep- tion, and shared their stores with us in liberal Christian charity. They gave us many details of the expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin, and added the painful news that my gallant friend and comrade, Bellot, had perished in a second crusade to save him. We knew each other by many common sympathies : I had divided with him the hazards of mutual rescue among the ice fields ; and his last letter to me, just before I left New York, promised me the hope that we were to meet again in Baffin's Bay, and that he would unite himself with our party as a volunteer. The French service never lost a more chivalrous spirit. The Danish vessel was not ready for her homeward journey till the 4th of September ; but the interval was well spent in regaining health and graduaUy accustoming ourselves to in-door life and habits. It is a fact, which the physiologist wiU not find it difii- cult to reconcile witli established theories, that we were all more prostrated by the repose and comfort of our new condition than we had been by nearly three months of constant exposure and effort. . , „ • On the 6th I left Upernavik, with all our party, in the Mana7i^, a stanch but antiquated little barque, under the command of Cap- tain Ammondson, a fine representative of the tiue-lioarted and skilful seamen of his nation, who promised to drop us at the Shetland Islands. Our little boat, the Fadth, which v,.. regarded by aU of us as a precious relic, took passage along with us. Ex- cept the furs on our backs, and the documents that recorded our labours and our trials, it was aU we brought back of the Adva^ice and her fortunes. On the nth we arrived at Godhavn, the inspectorate of North Needful rest. Leave Uper- navik. WKLCOMKD BACK. 443 Greenland, and I'ld a characteristic welcome from my excellent oonowi- friend, Mr. Olrilc The Mariane liad stopped only to discharge a !^" few stores and receive her papers of clearance ; but her departure Godhavn. was held back to the latest moment, in hopes of receiving news of Captain Ilartsten 's squadron, which had not been heard of since the 21st of July. We were upon the eve of setting out, however, when the look- a steamer out man at the hill-top announced a steamer in the distance. It '"^ *'^''^' drew near, with a barque in tow, and we soon recognised the stars and stripes of our own country. The Faith was lowered for the last time into the water, and the little flag which had floated so near the poles of both hemispheres opened once more to the breeze. With Brooks at the tiller and Mr. Olrik at my side, followed by all the boats of the settlement, we went out to meet them. Not even after the death of the usuk did our men lay to their Rnwing tc oars more heartily. We i. cared the squadron and the gallant men J'^'J^^__^^. that had come out to seek us ; we could see the scars which their own ice-battles had impressed on the vessels ; we knew the gold lace of the officers' cap-bands, and discerned the groups who, glass in hand, were evidently regarding us. Presently we were alongside. An officer, whom I shall ever remember as a cherished friend, Captahi llartstene, hailed a little man in a ragged flannel shirt, "Is that Dr. Kanel" and with the »' Yes !" that followed, the rigging was manned by our countrymen, cheers oi and cheers welcomed us back to the social world of love which '''^''=°'^'* they represented. Tim FAITH, Now at the store of Messrs. Guilds ii Petbrson, 124 A rch Street, Philadelphia (JLOSSAIIV OF AIMTIC TKll.MS. n^ Bnn-ici', ice of recejit fornmtion, so called because forii)iii« most readily in bays and slicltcred sjints. Hi rfi (see In hi /v/). Hesct, so enclosed liy floating ice as to be unable to navigate. I'liijlit, an indentation. r,i(i.itiii(j, breaking tlic ice by guuiiowdcr introduced in canisters. Blink (see Iii-liliid.). Bun, to force thnuigh loose or recent ice by sails or by steam. Bm.iIi, ice broken up into small fragments. Calf, detached masses from berg or glacier, rising suddenly to the surface. Croir'.i iicst, a look-out place attached to the top-gallant-masthcad. Ihick, an opening in the ice, artificial or natural, otfering protection. Ih'ifl-io:, detached ice in motion. Fichl-icc, an extensive surface of floating ice. Flwi), an abrupt opening in the coast- line, admitting the sea. rii-i-liitlr, II well dug in the ice as a sr.fc- g\iard in ease of tire. Fhii., a detached portion of a titld. Glacier, a mass of ice derived from tlie atmosphere, sometimes abutting upon the sea. Hiimiiio,l,:<, ridges of liroken ice formed ))y collision of fields. lei'-anchor, a hook or grapnel adapted to take hold uimu ice. Icc-hill, a continued margin of ice, whicli in high northern latiUides adheres to the coast above the ordinary level <'f tlui sea. Icubini, a largo floating mass of ice de- tached from a glacier. lo-hlinl; a pecidiar aiipearpnce of t)io atmosi)liere over distant ice. Iii-rhisil, a long cliisul for cutting holes in ice. la-J'iicr, tlie abutting face of the ic -belt. /, the condition of a vessel pressed upon by the ice on bolli sides. (i\,l ice, ice of more than a season's growth. Varl-, a largo area of floating ices driven together more or loss closely. Pnhi.'i'i, a Russian term for an open- water simce. Iluc-raddii, a shoulder-belt to drag liy. rill -hide, a well nU in the ice for tlio purpose of observing tides. Ti-aekiuij, towing along a margin of ice. Water-skij, a peculiar aiipearancc of the sky over open water. Yonnij 'ice, ice formed before 1 lO setting in of winter ; recent ice. 7 / METROPOLlTWi TOROifiO ;V-/ IW >u LIB t(\NADlAU H!3iO«Y i.-a''?-'