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§eci)s 0f faring f ibnirij, 
 
 THE 
 
 Polar 
 
 Crusoes 
 
 OR. 
 
 CAST AWAY IN THE ARCTIC SEAS, 
 
 o-^ gr ey6^-^- 
 
 A BOOK OF adventurb; 
 
 EDITED BY ^i^^j'^'^ 
 
 PERCY B 
 
 ^'^-^T. 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 WITH EIGHT PAGES OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 DEAN & SON, 160A, FLEET STREET, E.G. 
 
 ' E: 
 
 ^^^^^^-- 
 

CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I Run off to Sea 
 
 Surrounded by Ice 
 
 ••• *«• 
 
 t« ft »mm 
 
 • • • •• 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 >a ••• 
 
 • •« • • • « 
 
 • * ••• 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 My First Seal Hunt-Alone im the Arctic Sea 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 An Avalanche of Ice-Saved from the Wreck 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Cast, away on an Island -The Shipwrecked Boy 
 
 Recovers 
 
 ••• •«• 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Further Explorations-The Duck Trap 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Building a Cave -A Fire at Last 
 
 • • • ••• 
 
 ■ • • ••• 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Making up our Reckoning-Qur Snow and Ice Cave 
 —Preparing for Winter 
 
 PAGE 
 3 
 
 II 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 41 
 
 53 
 
 6i 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Furnishing our Hut-Important and Useful Dis- 
 coveries 
 
 ••• ••• ■• , 
 
 • • • • • • 
 
 i^/*6ijiii 
 
 8i 
 
3 
 
 S 
 
 iv 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Storing our Provisions— Winter upon us — The Aurora 
 BoREALio— Our Clock in the Sky — The Fox 
 
 Traps 
 
 ••• ••• •■ 
 
 ■•• *•« ••• ••* 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Seal Catching— Polar Bears 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A Bear Chase 
 
 ■ ■ ■ • • ■ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Bear-Hunter of the Frozen Sea—A Welcome 
 Visitor — Mysterious Departure 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 More Visitors — A Chance of Escape — Our New Home- 
 Life among the Savages— Shifting our Quarters 
 —The Sealskin Village — The Rescue — Homeward 
 Bound 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Home at Last 
 
 • • • • ■ 
 
 ■ ■ • •• t 
 
 PAGE 
 
 93 
 
 102 
 
 "3 
 
 CHAPTER Xin. 
 
 Our Second and Third Summer and Second and Third 
 
 Winter — An Unexpected Arrival 122 
 
 130 
 
 142 
 
 166 
 
PACK 
 
 93 
 
 102 
 
 "3 
 
 122 
 
 130 
 
 142 
 
 166 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 O phase in modem history is more 
 glorious than that connected with 
 Arctic Exploration. The names of 
 the English heroes who have sacri- 
 ficed themselves — of those who have 
 risked their lives, are legion ; while 
 France has supplied her honored 
 
 Only second to England in the annals of 
 Northern Discovery — a task undertaken not for 
 gain, but for the sake of science, geographical 
 progress, or perhaps fame — we find America. 
 
 The people of this country can never forget, 
 among the noble band of adventurers who have 
 dared the dangers of the Polar Seas, the intrepid surgeon 
 to the Expedition under Doctor Kane in search of Sir John 
 Franklin. 
 
 The truthfulness of the scenes, and the variety of the in- 
 cidents in this volume, of which he is the author, have 
 rendered it a very pleasant duty for me to introduce it to 
 
 English readers. 
 B 
 
-*T- 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Having on more than one occasion devoted myself to the 
 charming and fascinating study of Polar literature, I can 
 truly speak of this work as deserving of wide reading and 
 extensive success. 
 
 PERCY P. B. ST. JOHN, 
 
 Author of Arctic Crusoe. 
 
 \ ■ 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES; 
 
 OR 
 
 CAST AWAY IN THE POLAR SEAS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I Run Off to Sea. 
 
 HAT I, John Hardy, who was born 
 and bred inland at Rockdale in the 
 count)' of Durham, and brought up 
 in my early years to agricultural 
 pursuits, should have 'gone to sea,* 
 and suffered as I have, is not a short 
 story ; and can only be told by me in 
 my own way. 
 
 My mother died when I was six years old, 
 but I remember her as a good and gentle 
 woman. She was taken away however, too 
 early toj have left any distinct impression 
 upon my mind or chaiacter. 1 was thus 
 left to grow up with three brothers and two 
 sisters, all but one of whom were older than 
 myself, without a mother's kindly care and 
 instruction ; and I must own, that I grew to 
 be a self-willed and obstinate boy ; and this 
 disposition led me into a course of dis- 
 obedience, which but for the protecting care of a merciful 
 Providence,would have brought my life to a speedy end. 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 My father being poor, neither myself nor my brothers and 
 sisters received any other education than what was afforded 
 by the common country school. It was indeed, as much as 
 my father could do at any time to support so large a family 
 and at the end of the year make both ends meet. 
 
 As for myself, I was, it must be owned, altogether a very 
 ungrateful fellow, and appreciated neither the goodness of 
 my father nor any of the other blessings which I enjoyed. Of 
 the advantages of a moderate education which were offered 
 to me I did not avail myself, — preferring mischief and idle- 
 ness to u.y studies ; and I manifested so little desire to learn, 
 and was so troublesome to the master, that I was at length 
 sent home, and forbidden to return to school any more. 
 
 Whereupon my father, very naturally, grew angry with me, 
 and no doubt thinking it hopeless to try further to make any- 
 thing of me, he regularly bound me over, for a period of 
 years, to a neighbouring farmer, who compelled me to work 
 very hard ; so I thought myself ill used, whereas in the way 
 of punishment, in truth I did not receive half my deserts. 
 . VN'^ith this farmer I lived three years and a half before he 
 made the discovery that I was wholly useless to him, and that 
 I did not do work enough to pay for the food I ate ; so the 
 farmer complained to my father, and threatened to send me 
 home. This made me very indignant, as I foolishly thought 
 myself a greatly aggrieved and injured person, and in an 
 evil hour, I resolved to abide such treatment no- longer. 
 I would spite the old farmer, and punish my father for listen- 
 ing to him, by running away. 
 
 I was now in my eighteenth year,— old enough, one would 
 have thought, to have more manliness and self-respect, as 
 well as to know that both parent and master were acting for 
 my good ; but about this I did not reflect much. 
 
 1 set out on my ridiculous journey without one pang of 
 regret, — so hardened wr , I in heart and conscience, — carrying 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 with me only a change of clothing, and having in my 
 pocket only one small piece of bread, and two small pieces of 
 silver. It was rather a bold adventure, but I thought I should 
 have no difficulty in reaching Shields, where I was fully 
 resolved to take ship and go to sea. 
 
 The journey to Shields was a much more difficult under- 
 taking than I had counted upon ; and I believe, but for the 
 wound which it would have caused to my pride, the arch 
 enemy of boy and man, I should have gone lack at the 
 end pf the first five miles. I held on, however, and reached 
 my destination on the second day, having stopped overnight 
 at a public house or inn, where my two pieces of silve- speedily 
 disappeared in paying for my supper, lodging and breakfast. 
 
 I arrived at Shields about the middle of the afternoon, very 
 hot and dusty, for I had walked all the way through the 
 broiling sun along the high-road ; and I was very tired, and 
 hungry, too, for I had tasted no food since morning, having 
 no more money to buy any with, and not liking to beg. So I 
 wandered on through the town towards the place where the 
 masts of ships were to be seen as I looked down the street, — 
 feeling miserable enough, I can assure you. 
 
 Up to this period of my life, I had never been ten miles 
 from home, so of course everything was new to me. By this 
 time, however, I had come to reflect seriously on my folly, 
 and this, coupled with hunger and fatigue, so far banished 
 curiosity from my mind that I was not in the least impressed 
 by what I saw. In truth, I very heartily wished myself back 
 on the farm ; for if the labour there was not to my liking, it 
 was at least not so hard as that which I had performed these 
 past days, in walking along the dusty road,— and when on 
 the farm I was never without the means to satisfy my 
 hunger. 
 
 What I should have done at this critical stage, had not 
 some one come to my assistance, I cannot even imagine. I 
 
 v^agfei. 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 ^A{ 
 
 I r. 
 
 |r! 
 
 I 
 
 was afraid to ask any questions of the passers-by, for I did 
 not really know what to ask them, or how to explain my 
 situation : and, seeing that eveiybody was gaping at me with 
 wonder and curiosity (and indeed, many of them were clearly 
 laughing at my absurd appearance), I hurried on, not having 
 the least idea where I should go or what I should do. 
 
 At length I saw a man with a very red face advancing 
 along the opposite side of the street, and from his general 
 appearance I believed him to be a sailor; so, driven almost 
 to desperation, I crossed the street, looking, I am sure, the 
 very picture of despair, and I thus accosted him : " If you 
 please sir, can you tell me where i can go and ship for a 
 voyage ?" 
 
 "A voyage!" shouted he in reply, ** a voyage! A pretty- 
 looking fellow you for a voyage !" — which observation very 
 much confused me. Then he asked me a great many ques- 
 tions, using a great many hard names, the meaning of which 
 I did not at all understand, and the necessity for which 
 I could not exactly see. I noticed that he called me "land- 
 lubber " very frequently, but I had no idea whether he meant 
 it as a compliment or an abusive epithet, though it seemed 
 more likely to me that it was the latter. 
 
 After a while, however, he seemed to have grown tired of 
 talking, or had exhausted his collection of strange words, for 
 he turned short round and bade me follow him, which I did, 
 with very much the feelings of a culprit when he is going to 
 prison. 
 
 We soon arrived at a low, dingy place, the only noticeable 
 feature of which was that it smelt of pitch and tar and had a 
 great many people lounging about in it. It was, as I soon 
 found out, a ** shipping office," — that is, a place where 
 sailors engage themselves for a voyage. No sooner had we 
 entcied than my conductor led me up to a tall desk, and then, 
 addressing himself to a hatched -faced man on the other sid 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 of it, he said something which I did not clearly comprehend. 
 Then I was told to sign a paper, which I did without even 
 reading a word of it, and then the red-faced man cried out in 
 a very loud and startling tone of voice, " Bill !" upon which 
 somebody at once rolled off a bench, and scrambled to his 
 feet. This was evidently the " Bill " alluded to. 
 
 When Bill had got upon his feet, he surveyed me for an 
 instant, as I thought, with a very needlessly firm expression 
 of countenance, and then started towards the rioor, saying to 
 me as he set off, " This way, you lubber." I followed after 
 him with much the same feelings which I had experienced 
 before, when I followed the man with the red face, until we 
 came down to where the ships were, and then we descended a 
 sort of ladder, or stairs, at the foot of which I stumbled into 
 a boat, and had like to have gone bodily into the water. At 
 this the seamen in the boat set up a loud laugh at my clumsi- 
 ness,— just as if I had ever been in a boat before, and could 
 help being clumsy. 
 
 To make the matter worse, I sat down in the wrong place, 
 where one of the men was to pull an oar ; and when, after 
 being told " to get out of that," with no end of hard names, 
 I asked what bench I should sit on, they all laughed louder 
 than before, which still further overwhelmed me with con- 
 fusion. I did not then knov/ that what I called a ** bench," 
 they called a " thwart." commonly pronounced " thawt." 
 
 At length, after much bad language and more laughter, I 
 managed to get into the forward part of the boat, which was 
 called, as I found out, " the bows," where there was barely 
 room to coil myself up ; the boat being soon pushed off from 
 the wharf, the oars were put out, and I heard an order to 
 " give way," and then the oars splashed in the water, and I 
 felt the boat moving ; and now that I was in truth leaving my 
 home and native land, perhaps to see them no more for ever, 
 my heart sank heavy in my breast. 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 It was as much aa I could do to keep the tears from pouring 
 out of my eyes, as we glided across the harbour. Indeed, 
 my eyes were so bedimmed that I scarcely saw anything at 
 all until we came round under the stern of a ship, when I 
 heard the men ordered to ** lay in their oars." Then one of 
 them caught hold of the end of a rope, which was thrown 
 from the ship ; and the boat being made fast, we all 
 scrambled up the ship's side ; and then I was hustled along 
 to a hole in the forward part of the deck, (having what looked 
 like a box turned upside down over it), through which, now 
 utterly bewildered, I descended by means of a ladder to a 
 dark, damp, mouldy place, which was filled with the foul 
 smells of tar and bilge-water, and thick with tobacco-smoke. 
 
 This they told me, was the *' fo' castle," where lived the 
 "crew," of which I now became painfully conscious I was 
 one. If there had been the slightest chance I should have 
 run away ; but running away from a ship is a very different 
 thing from running away from a farm. 
 
 If I had wished myself back on the farm before, how much 
 more did I wish it now ! But it was too late, for we were all 
 ordered up out of the forecastle even before I had tasted a 
 mouthful of food. In truth, however, it is very likely that I was 
 too sick with the foul odours, tobacco-smoke, and heart-burn- 
 ing, to have eaten anything, even had it been set before me. 
 
 Upon reaching the deck, I was immediately set to work at 
 the windlass to get up anchor ; and it was very evident to me 
 that we were going to put to sea immediately. The idea of it 
 was as dreadful to me now as it had before been agreeable, 
 when I had contemplated it from the stand-point of a quiet 
 farm, a good many miles away from the sea. But I could not 
 help myself: no matter what might happen, my fate was 
 sealed so far as concerned this ship. 
 
 We had not been long engaged at this work of turning the 
 windlass before my companions started a song, keeping time 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 with the lever, which we were pushing up and down, one of 
 them leading off by reciting a single line, in which something 
 was said about " Sally coming," or " having come," or 
 going to come to "Nor' Shields town"; after which they all 
 united in a dismal chorus, that had not a particle of sense in 
 it, so far as I could see, from beginning to end. 
 
 When they had finished off with the chorus, the leader set 
 to screaming again about " Sally " and ** Nor' Shields town," 
 and then as before came the chorus. After a while I heard 
 some one cry out, " The anchor's away," which, as I after- 
 wards learned, meant the anchor had been lifted from the 
 bottom ; and then the sailors all scattered to obey an order to 
 do something, which I had not the least idea of, with a sail 
 and with some ropes, which appeared to me to be so mixed up 
 that nobody could tell one from the other, nor make head nor 
 tail of them. 
 
 In the twinkling of an eye, however, in spite of the mixed - 
 up ropes, there was a great flapping of white canvas and a 
 creaking and rattling of pulleys. Then the huge white sail 
 was fully spread, the wind was bulging it out in the middle 
 like a balloon, the ship's head was turned away from the town, 
 and we were moving off. Next came an order to " lay aloft 
 and shake out the topsail"; but happily, in this order I was 
 not included, but was instead, directed to " lend a hand to 
 get the anchor aboard," which operation was quickly 
 accomplished, and the heavy mass of crooked iron which had 
 held the ship firmly in the harbour was soon fastened in its 
 proper place on the bow, to what is called the " cat-head." 
 By the time this was done every sail was set, and we were 
 flying before the wind out into the great ocean. 
 
 And now my wish was gratified. I was in a ship and off 
 on the "world of waters," with the career of a sailor before 
 me, — a career to my imagination when on the farm, full of 
 romance, and presenting everything that was desirable in 
 
I!" 
 
 ^00 r 
 
 1, 
 
 I'l 
 
 I i 
 If 
 
 1^ 
 
 10 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 life. But was it so in reality, when I was brought face to 
 face with it, — when I had exchanged the farm for the fore- 
 castle ? By no means. Indeed, my mind was filled with 
 nothing but mingled disgust and terror. 
 
 The first view which I had of the ocean was much less 
 impressive to me than would have been the sight of my 
 father's duck-pond. I soon got miserably sick ; night came 
 on, dark and fearful ; the winds rose ; the waves dashed with 
 great force against the ship's sides, often breaking over the 
 deck and wetting me to the skin. I was shivering with cold ; 
 I was afraid that I should be washed overboard ; I was afraid 
 that I should be killed by something tumbling on me from 
 aloft ; for there was such a rattling up there in the darkness 
 that I thought everything had broken loose. 
 
 I could not stand on the deck without support, and was 
 knocked about when I attempted to move ; every time the 
 ship pitched or went down into the trough of a sea I felt 
 more sick than ever. So, altogether, I was in a very bad 
 way. It would be difficult to imagine how it could be other- 
 wise, for can anyone conceive greater ills than these ? — 
 
 ist. To have all your clothes wet ; 
 
 2nd, To have a sick stomach ; and, 
 
 3rd, To be in a dreadful fright. 
 
 Now that was precisely my condition ; and I was already 
 reaping the fruits of my folly in running away from home 
 and exchanging the comforts of land for the indescribable 
 miseries of a forecastle. 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 II 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Surrounded by Ice. 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 ilk 
 
 
 
 'm,:mmm^.:. 
 
 MISERABLE existence most young 
 sailors have to endure, but there 
 are few who experience such trials 
 as I did. In the first place, they 
 gave me such wretched food to eat, 
 all out of a rusty old tin plate, and 
 I was all the time so sick from the 
 motion of the vessel, as we went 
 tossing up and down on the rough 
 sea, and from the tobacco-smoke of the forecastle and all the 
 other collection of horrid smells, that I could hardly eat a 
 mouthful, so that I was half ready to die of starvation ; and 
 as if this was not misery enough, the sailors were all the 
 time, when in the forecastle, quarrelling like so many cats 
 and dogs, or wild beasts in a cage ; and as two of them had 
 pistols, and all of them had knives, I was every minute in 
 dread lest they should take it into their heads to murder each 
 other, or kill me by mistake. 
 
 I was miserable enough in more ways than one ; for to 
 these i.vfubles was added a great distress of mind, caused by 
 the sport the sailors made of me, and also by remorse of 
 ■conscience because I had run away from home, and thus got 
 myself into this great scrape, having indeed nobody to blame 
 but myself ! Then, to make the matter worse — as if it was 
 not bad enough already — a violent storm set upon us in the 
 
12 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 dark night. None but those who have passed through such 
 a trial can ever imagine how the ship rolled about over the 
 mountainous waves. 
 
 Sometimes the waves swept clear over the deck as if 
 threatening our lives, and all the time the creaking of the 
 masts, the roaring of the wind through the rigging, and the 
 dashing of the seas, filled my ears with such awful sounds 
 that I was in the greatest terror, and I thought that every 
 moment would certainly be my last. Then, as if still further 
 to add to my terror, one of the sailors told me, right in the 
 midst of the storm, that we were bound for the Northern seas 
 to catch whales and seals-. 
 
 So now, what little scrap of courage I had left took instant 
 flight, and in truth, I believe I should actually have died of 
 fright had not the storm soon come to an end ; indeed it was 
 many days before I got over thinking that 1 should, in '^ne 
 way or another, have a speedy passage into the next world, 
 and therefore I did not much concern myself with where we 
 were going in this. Hence I grew to be very unpopular with 
 the sailors, and learned next to nothing. 
 
 I was always in somebody's way, was always getting hold 
 of the wrong rope, was in fact all the time doing mischief 
 rather than good. In truth, I was set down as a hopeless 
 idiot, and was considered proper game for everybody. The 
 sailors tormented me in every possible way. One day (know- 
 ing how green I was) they set to talking about fixing up a 
 table in the forecastle, and one of them said. " What a fine 
 thing it would be if the mate (who turned out to be the red- 
 faced man I had met in the street, and who took me to the 
 shipping-ofiice) would only let us have -the keelson." 
 
 This being agreed to in a very serious manner (which I hadn't 
 wit enough to see was all put on) I was sent to carry their 
 petition. Seeing the mate on the quarterdeck I approached, 
 and in a very respectful manner thus addressed him : — 
 
 ■ 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 13 
 
 " If you please, sir, I've come to ask if you will let us have 
 the keelson for a table ? " 
 
 Whereupon the mate turned fiercely upon me, and, to my 
 great astonishment, roared out at the very top of his voice : — 
 
 *• What ! what's that you say ? say that again, will you ?" 
 
 So I repeated the question as he had told me to, — feeling 
 all the while as if I should like the deck to open and swallow me 
 up. 1 had scarcely finished before I perceived, that the mate 
 was growing more and more angry ; if, indeed, anything could 
 possibly exceed the passion he was in already. His face was 
 many shades redder than it was before, — and, indeed, it was 
 so very red that it looked as if it might shme in the dark ; his 
 hat fell off, when he turned round, as it seemed to me in 
 consequence of his stiff red hair rising up on end, and he 
 raised his voice so loud that it sounded more like the angry 
 howl of a wild beast than anything I could compare it to. 
 
 ** You lubber ! " he shouted. " You villain ! " he shrieked ? 
 "you, you ! " — and here it seemed as if he was choaking with 
 hard words which he couldn't get rid of, — ** you come here to 
 play tricks on me? You try to fool me? I'll teach you!" — 
 and seizing hold of the first thing he could lay his hands on 
 (I did not stop to see what it was, but wheeled about greatly 
 terrified) he let fly at me with such violence that I am sure 
 I must have been finished off had I not quickly dodged my 
 head. 
 
 When I returned to the forecastle, the sailors had a great 
 laugh at me, and they called me ever afterwards " Jack 
 Keelson." The keelson is a mass of wood down in the 
 very bottom of the ship, running the whole length of it ; but 
 how should I have known that ? 
 
 One day I was told to go and ** grease the saddle." Not 
 knowing that this was a block of wood spiked to the main- 
 mast, to support the main boom, and thinking this a trick 
 too, I refused to go, and came again near getting my head 
 
\\ 
 
 M 
 
 THE POLAR CKUSOES. 
 
 i; 
 
 i( 
 
 f 
 
 broken by the red-faced mate. I did not believe there was 
 anything like a " saddle " in the ship. And thus the sailors 
 continued to worry me. 
 
 Once, when I was very weak with sea-sickness and wanted 
 to keep down a dinner which I had just eaten, they insisted 
 upon it that, if I would only put into my mouth a piece of 
 fat pork, and keep it there, my dinner would stay in its place. 
 The sailors were right enough, for as soon as my dinner 
 began to start up, of course away went the fat pork out 
 ahead of it. 
 
 But by and by I came to my senses, and upon discovering 
 that the bad usage I received was in some measure my own 
 fault, I ceased lamenting over my unhappy condition, and 
 began to shew more spirit. I had actually been in the vessel 
 five days before I had curiosity enough to inquire her name. 
 They then told me it was callec' the "Blackbird"; but 
 whatever possessed anybody to give it such a ridiculous and 
 inappropriate name I never could imagine. 
 
 If they had called it the "Black Duck," or the "Black 
 Diver," there would have been some sense in it, for the ship was 
 driving head foremost into the water pretty much all the time. 
 But I found out that the vessel was not exactly a ship after 
 all, but a sort of half schooner, half brig, — what they call a 
 brigantine, having two masts, a mainmast and a foremast. 
 On the former there was a sail running fore and aft, and on 
 the latter there was a foretop-sail and a foretop-gallant-sail, 
 all of course square sails, that is, running across the vessel, 
 and fastened to the yards. 
 
 The vessel was painted jet-black on the outside, but inside 
 the bulv\ arks the colour was a dirty sort of green. Such was 
 the brigantine " Blackbird," three hundred and forty-two tons 
 register. Brigantine is, however, too long a word; so when 
 I pay the "Blackbird" the compliment of alluding to her, I 
 will call her a ship. 
 
 I 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 15 
 
 Having picked up the name of the ship, I was tempted to 
 pursue my inquiries further, and it was not long before I had 
 possessed myself of quite a respectable stock of seamen's 
 knowledge, and hence I grew in favour. I learned to dis- 
 tinguish between a *' halyard," which is a rope for pulling 
 the yards up and letting them down, from a " brace," which 
 is used to pull them round so as to "trim the sails," and a 
 " sheet," which is a rope for keeping the sails in their proper 
 places. 
 
 I found out by diligent inquiry and exercise of the memory, 
 that what I called a floor the sailors called a "deck"; a 
 kitchen they called a "galley"; a pot, a "copper"; a 
 pulley was a "block"; a post, a "stanchion"; to fall down 
 was to " heel over"; to climb up was to "go aloft"; and to 
 walk straight, and keep one's balance when the ship was 
 pitching over the waves, was to " get your sea legs on." I 
 found out too, that everything behind you was "abaft," 
 and everything ahead was "forwards"; that a large rope 
 was a " hawser," and that every other rope was a "line "; 
 to make anything temporarily secure was to "belay "it; to 
 make one thing fast to another was to "head it on " and 
 when two things were close together, they were ''chock-a- 
 block." 
 
 I learned also, that the right-hand side of the vessel was 
 the " starboard" side, while the left-hand side was the "port" 
 or " larboard " side ; that the lever which moves the rudder 
 that steers the ship was called the " helm," and that to steer 
 the ship was to take "a trick at the wheel"; that to "put 
 the helm up" was to turn it in the direction from which the 
 wind was coming (windward), and to "put the helm down" 
 was to turn it in the direction the wind was going (leeward). 
 
 I found out still further, that a ship has a "waist," like a 
 woman, a "forefoot," like a beast, besides "bull's eyes" 
 (which are small holes with glass in them to admit light), and 
 
j \ 
 
 ( 
 
 i6 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 "cat-heads," and "monkey-rails," and "cross-trees," as 
 well as " saddles " and " bridles " and " harness," and many 
 other things, too numerous to mention, which I thought I should 
 never hear anything more of after I left the farm. 
 
 When it was discovered how much I had improved, they 
 proposed immediately to turn it to their own account ; for I 
 was at once sent to take " a trick " at the wheel, from which 
 I came away, after two hours* hard work, with my hands 
 dreadfully blistered, and my legs bruised, and with the recol- 
 lection of much abusive language from the red-faced mate, 
 who could never see anything right in what I did. I gave him, 
 however, some good reason this time to abuse me, and I was 
 glad of it afterwards, though I was badly enough scared at 
 the time. 
 
 I steered the ship so badly that a wave which I ought to 
 have avoided by a dexterous turn of the wheel, came breaking 
 in right over the quarter-deck, wetting the mate from head to 
 foot. He thought I did it on purpose, and once more his face 
 increased its redness, and his mind invented hard words faster 
 than his tongue would let them out of his ugly throat. 
 
 However, I never could have much sympathy for my ship- 
 mates in the "Blackbird," for if they did treat me a little 
 better when they found that I could do something, especially 
 when I could take a " trick at the wheel," I still continued to 
 look upon them as little better than a set of pirates, and I felt 
 satisfied that, if they were not bom to be hanged, they would 
 certainly drown. 
 
 All this while we were approaching the Arctic regions, and 
 were getting into the sea where ice was to be expected. A 
 man was accordingly kept aloft all the time to look out for it ; 
 for we were going after seals, and it is od the ice that the 
 seals are found, The weather was now very cold, it being the 
 month of April. 
 
 At length the man aloft cried out that he had discovered ice. 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 17 
 
 * 
 
 ie 
 
 " Where away ? " shouted the mate. 
 
 " Off the larboard bow," was the answer. 
 
 So the course of the ship was changed, and we bore right 
 down upon the ice, and very soon it was in sight from the 
 deck, and gradually became more and more distinct. It was 
 a very imposing sight. The sea was covered all over with it, 
 as far as the eye could reach, — a great plain of whiteness, 
 against the edge of which the waves were breakmg and send- 
 ing the spray flying high in the air, and sending to our ears 
 that same dull, heavy roar which the breakers make when 
 beating on the land. 
 
 As we neared this novel scene, I observed that it consisted 
 mcstly of perfectly flat masses of ice, of various sizes, called 
 by the sealers "floes"; some were miles in extent, and others 
 only a few feet. The surface of these ice floes or fields rose 
 only about a foot or so above the surface of the water. Between 
 them, there were in many places very broad openings, and 
 when 1 went aloft and looked down upon the scene, the ice- 
 fields appeared like a great collection of large and small flat 
 white islands, dotted about in the midst of the ocean. 
 
 Through these openings between the ice fields the ship was 
 immediately steered, and we were soon surrounded by ice on 
 every side. To the south, whence we had come, there was 
 in an hour apparently just as much ice as before us to the 
 north, or to the right and left of us — a vast, immeasurable 
 waste of ice it was, and looked dreary enough. 
 
 I have said that the pieces of ice now about us were called 
 "floes," or ice fields ; the whole together was called "the 
 pack." We were now in perfectly smooth water, for the ice 
 soon breaks the swell of the sea. But the crew of the ship 
 did not give themselves much concern about the ice itself; for 
 it was soon discovered that the floes were covered in many 
 places with seals, lying in great numbers on them near their 
 margins. 
 C 
 
 I 
 
 
 :! 
 
 m 
 
 I*! 
 
 t> .1 
 
 ' i 
 

 i8 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 They had reached the scene of action, and saw before them 
 a ricli reward for their labours. 
 
 Seals are not fish, but are air-breathing, warm-blooded 
 animals, like horses and cows, aind therefore, they must always 
 have their heads, or at least their noses, out of water when 
 they breathe. When the weather is cold, they remain in the 
 water all the time, merely putting up their noses now and then 
 (for they can remain a long time under water without breathing) 
 to sniff a little fresh air, and then going quickly down again 
 In the warm weather, however, they come up bodily out 
 of the sea, and bask and go to sleep in the sun, either on 
 the land or on the ice. Many thousands of them are often 
 seen together. 
 
 As we came farther and farther into the pack, the seals on 
 the ice were observed to be more and more numerous. The 
 greater number of them appeared to be sound asleep ; some 
 of them were wriggling about, or rolling themselves over and 
 over, while none of them seemed to have the least idea that 
 we had come all the way from Shields to rob them of their 
 sleek coats and their nice fat blubber. 
 
 We were now fairly into our "harvest-field," and when a 
 suitable place was discovered, the ship was brought up into 
 the wind, that is, the helm was so turned as to bring the 
 ship's head towards the wind, when, of course, the sails got 
 "aback" and the ship stopped. Then a boat was lowered 
 and a crew, of which I was one, got into it with the end of a 
 very long rope, and pulled away towards the edge of a large 
 ice-field, dragging out the rope after us, of course, from the 
 coil on shipboard. 
 
 As we approached the ice, the seals nearly all became 
 frightened, and floundered into the sea as quickly as they 
 could, with a tremendous splash. In a few minutes, however, 
 they all came up again, putting their cunning-looking heads 
 up out of the water, all round the boat, no doubt curious to 
 
THE POLAR CRU80ES. 
 
 19 
 
 see what these singular-looking beings were that had come 
 amongst them. 
 
 As soon as we had reached the ice, we sprang from the 
 boat to its surface ; and after digging a hole into it with a 
 long, sharp bar of iron, called an ice-chisel, we put through 
 this one end of a large, heavy crooked hook, call«,d an ice- 
 anchor, and tl.en to a ring in the other end of this ice-anchor 
 we made fast the end of the rope that we had brought with 
 us. This done, we signalled to the people on board to " haul 
 in," which they did on their end of the rope, and in a little 
 while the ship was drawn close up to the ice. Then another 
 rope was run out over the stern of the ship, and this being 
 made fast to an ice-anchor in the same way as the other, the 
 ship was soon drawn up with her whole broadside close to the 
 ice, as snug as if she were lying alongside a wharf. 
 
 '»)t-:t?":r:_-:i-' 
 
? 5 
 
 20 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 h? 
 
 i. 
 
 i 
 
 S t 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 f I 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 My First Seal Hunt— AloneJin the Arctic Sea. 
 
 ND now began the seal- 
 hunt. Preparations were 
 made, first to catch the 
 seals, and then to preserve 
 the skins and fry out the 
 oil from the blubber, and 
 put it away in barrels. For 
 this latter duty some of the 
 crew were selected, while 
 others were sent off to 
 kill and bring in the 
 seals. These latter were 
 chosen with a view to their 
 activity; and I, being supposed to be of that sort, was one 
 of the party. I was glad enough to get off the vessel for once 
 on to something firm and solid, even if it were only ice, and, 
 at least for a little while, to have done with rocking and rolling 
 about over the waves , 
 
 Each one of the seal-catchers was armed with a short club 
 for killing the seals, and a rope to drag them over the ice to 
 the ship. We scattered in every direction, our object being 
 each by himself to approach a group of seals, and coming 
 upon them as noiselessly as possible, to kill as many of them 
 as we could before they should take fright and rush into the 
 sea. In order to do this, we were obliged to steal up between 
 the cunning animals and the water as far as possible. 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 ai 
 
 EA. 
 
 seal- 
 3 were 
 :h the 
 reserve 
 lut the 
 2T, and 
 is. For 
 e of the 
 , while 
 off to 
 m the 
 r were 
 ;o their 
 1,'a.s one 
 for once 
 ;e, and, 
 
 rolling 
 
 )rt club 
 ice to 
 It being 
 [coming 
 
 )f them 
 Into the 
 
 )etween 
 
 My first essay at this novel sport, or rather business, was 
 ridiculous enough, and besides nearly causing my death, 
 overwhelmed me with mortification. It happened thus : I 
 made at a large herd of seals, nearly all of whom were lying 
 some distance from the edge of the ice, and before they could 
 get into the water I had managed to intercept about a dozen 
 of them. 
 
 The seals, of course, all rushed towards the water as fast 
 as they could go, the moment they saw me coming. But I 
 got up with them in time, and struck one on the nose, killing 
 it, and was in the act of striking another, when a huge 
 fellow, that was big enough to have been the father of the 
 whole flock, too badly frightened to mind where he was going, 
 ran his head between my legs, and whipping up my heels in 
 an instant, landed me on his back, in which absurd position I 
 was carried into the sea before I could recover myself. 
 
 Of course, I sank immediately, and dreadfully cold was the 
 water ; but, rising to the surface in a moment, I was pre- 
 paring to make a vigorous effort to swim back to the ice, 
 when another badly-frightened and ill-mannered seal, plunged 
 into the sea without once looking to see what he was doing, 
 and hit me with the point of his nose fairly in the stomach. 
 
 I thought now for certain that my misfortunes were all over, 
 and that my end was surely come. However, I got my head 
 above the surface once more, and did my best to keep it 
 there ; but my hopes almost vanished when I perceived that I 
 was at least twenty feet from the edge of the ice. It was as 
 much as I could do to keep my head above water, without 
 swimming forward, so much embarrassed was I by my heavy 
 clothing, the great cold, and the terrible pains, caused by the 
 seal hitting me in the stomach. 
 
 I am quite certain that this would have been the last of 
 John Hardy's adventures, had not one of my companions, 
 seeing me going overboard on the back of the seal, rushed to 
 
 , 1 
 ■ 
 
 ii 
 I 
 
fir 
 
 •51 
 
 1 
 
 \i 
 
 I 
 
 a j 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 22 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 my rescue. He threw me his line for dragging seals, the end 
 of which I had barely strength to catch hold on to ; and then 
 he drew me out as one would haul up a large fish. 
 
 I came from the sea in a most sorry condition. My mouth 
 was full of salt water, 1 was so prostrated with the cold that 
 I could scarcely stand, and my pains were so great that I 
 should certainly have screamed had I not been so full of 
 water that I could not utter a single word. But I managed 
 after a while to get all the water out, and then, after drawing 
 into my lungs a few good long breaths of air, 1 felt greatly 
 refreshed. I could still, however, hardly stand and was shiver- 
 ing with the cold. 
 
 But I found there was strength enough left in me to enable 
 me to stagger back to the ship, where I was greeted in a 
 manner far from gratifying. The sailors looked upon my 
 adventure as a good joke, never once seeming to think how 
 near I had been to death's door, and the mate simply cried 
 out: 
 
 " Overboard, eh ? Pity the sharks didn't catch him. 
 
 It was clear enough that this red-faced and unpitying 
 tyrant would show me no mercy ; and when, pale and cold 
 and panting for breath, I asked him for leave to go below for 
 a while, he cried out — 
 
 "Yes, for just five minutes. Be lively, or I'll warm your 
 back for you with a rope's enci " 
 
 The prospect of a " back warming " of this description had 
 the effect to make me lively, sure enough, although I was 
 shivering as if I would shake all my teeth out, and tumble all 
 my bones down into a heap. As soor as I reached the deck, 
 the mate cried out again for me to " be lively," and when he 
 set after me with an uplifted rope's end, his face glaring at 
 me all the while like a red hot furnace, you may be sure I was 
 quite as lively as it was possible for me to be, and was over 
 the ship's side in next to no time, and off again in search of 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 23 
 
 seals. After a while I got warmed up with exercise, and this 
 time, being more cautious, I met with no other similar mis- 
 adventure, and soon came in dragging three prizes after me. 
 
 We continued at this seal-hunting for a good many days, 
 during which we shifted our position frequently, and made 
 what the sealors call a good " catch." But still the barrels 
 in the hold of the ship were not much more than half of them 
 filled with oil, when a great storm set in, and the ice threat- 
 ening to close in upon us, we were forced to get everything 
 aboard, cast loose from the ice-field, and work our way south 
 into clear water again, which we were fortunate enough to do 
 without accident. 
 
 But some other vessels which had come up while we were 
 fishing and were very near to us, were not so lucky. Two of 
 them were caught by the ice-fields before they could effect 
 their escape from the pack, and where wholly crushed to 
 pieces. The crews, however, saved themselves by jumping 
 out on the ice, and were all successful in reaching other 
 vessels, having managed to save their boats before their ships 
 actually went down. It was a very fearful sight, the crushing 
 up of these vessels, — as if they were nothing more than egg- 
 shells in the hand. 
 
 This storm lasted with occasional interruptions, thirteen 
 days, but the breaks in it were of such short duration that we 
 had little opportunity to "fish" (as seal-catching is called) 
 any more. We approached the ice repeatedly, only to be 
 driven off again before we had fairly succeeded in getting 
 under way again with our work, and hence we caught very 
 few seals. 
 
 By the time the storm was over the season for seal-fishing 
 was nearly over too ; so we had no alternative, if we would 
 get a good cargo of oil, but to go in search of whales, which 
 would take us still farther north, and into much heavier ice, 
 and therefore, necessarily, into even greater danger than we 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 N 
 tf 
 
 i ( 
 
 ! 
 
 ) 
 
24 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 
 >\ 
 
 had hitherto encountered. Accordingly, the course of the 
 vessel was changed, and I found that we were steering almost 
 due north, avoiding the ice as much as possible, but passing 
 a great deal of it every day. 
 
 . The wind being mostly fair, and the ice not thick enough at 
 any time to obstruct our passage, we hauled in our latitude 
 very fast, that is, we were going north fast ; for wh~t a sailor 
 makes in northing or southing he calls " hauling in his lati- 
 tude," just as making easting or westing is " hauling in his 
 longtitude." 
 
 The days wore on and still we kept going on and on, — 
 getting farther and farther north, and into more and more ice. 
 Sometimes our course was much interrupted, and we had to 
 wait several days for the ice to open ; then we would get under 
 way again, and push on. At length it seemed to me that we 
 must be very near the North Pole. 
 
 It was a strange world we had come into. The sun was 
 shining all the time. There was no night at all, — broad day- 
 light constantly. This of course favoured us ; indeed, had 
 there been any darkness, we could not have worked among 
 the ice at all. 
 
 As it was, we were obliged to be very cautious, for the ice 
 often closed upon us without giving us a chance to escape, 
 obliging us to get out great long saws, and cut out and float 
 away great blocks of the ice, until we had made a dock for the 
 ship, where she could ride with safety. We had thus many 
 narrow escapes from the miserable fate which had befallen the 
 poor sealers. 
 
 At first, when we decided to go after whales, there were 
 several vessels in company with us. At one time I counted 
 nine, all in sight at once, but we had become separated in 
 thick weather, and whether they had gon^ ahead of us, or had 
 fallen behind, we could not tell. However, we kept on and on 
 and on ; where we were or where we were going to, I, of course, 
 
 -•^(^ 
 
se of the 
 
 1 
 
 ng almost 
 
 1 
 
 t passing 
 
 1 
 
 enough at 
 
 1 
 
 r latitude 
 
 m 
 
 ',t a sailor 
 
 m 
 
 1 his lati- 
 
 M 
 
 ling in his 
 
 I 
 
 and on, — 
 
 I 
 
 more ice. 
 
 1 
 
 we had to 
 
 1 
 
 get under 
 
 I 
 
 le that we 
 
 I 
 
 e sun was 
 
 I 
 
 jroad day- 
 
 m 
 
 deed, had 
 
 m 
 
 ed among 
 
 1 
 
 :or the ice 
 
 1 
 
 to escape, 
 
 "i 
 
 and float 
 
 
 ock for the 
 
 1 
 
 hus many 
 
 
 
 efallen the 
 
 9 
 
 % 
 
 'i 
 t. 
 
 here were 
 
 X 
 k 
 
 ! I counted 
 
 
 parated in 
 
 
 us, or had 
 
 
 on and on 
 
 
 , of course, 
 
 
 -, '• ^ 
 
 ,ft|H 
 
 ; .-^t'.r 
 
 
 H 
 

THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 25 
 
 had not the least idea ; but I became aware from day to day, 
 that greater dangers were threatening us, for icebergs came 
 in great numbers to add their terrors to those which we had 
 already in the ice fields. 
 
 They became at length, and suddenly too, very numerous, 
 and not being able to go round them on account of the field- 
 ice, which was on either side, we entered right amongst them. 
 The atmosphere was somewhat foggy at the time, and it 
 seemed as if the icebergs chilled the very air we breathed. I 
 fairly shuddered as we passed the first opening. 
 
 The bergs were at least three times as high as our masts, 
 and very likely more than that, and they appeared to cover 
 the sea in every direction. It seemed to me that we were 
 going to certain destruction, and indeed I thought I read 
 a warning written as it were on the bergs themselves. 
 
 Upon the corner of an iceberg to the left of us there stood a 
 white figure, as plain as anything could possibly be. One 
 hand of this strange, weird-looking figure was resting on the 
 ice beside it, while the other was pointing partly upwards 
 towards heaven, and backwards towards the south, whence 
 we had come. I thought T saw the figure move, and much 
 excited, 1 called the attention of one of the sailors to it. 
 
 "Why, you fool," said he, " don't you know that the sun 
 melts the ice into all sorts of shapes. Look out hard, if there 
 isn't a man's face ? " 
 
 i. looked up as the sailor had directed me, and, sure enough, 
 there was a man's face plainly to be seen in the lines of an 
 immense tongue of ice which was projecting from the side of 
 a berg on the right, and under which we were about to pass. 
 
 I now became really terrified. In addition to these strange 
 spectral objects, the air was filled with loud reports and deep 
 rumbling noises, caused by the icebergs breaking to pieces, 
 or masses splitting off from their sides and falling into the 
 sea. ihese noises came at first from the icebergs in front of 
 
 
 m 
 
36 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 U 
 
 US ; but when we had got fairly into the wilderness of bergs 
 which covered the sea, they came from every side. It struck 
 me that we had passed deliberately into the very jaws of 
 death, and that from the frightful situation there was no escape. 
 
 I merely mention this as the feeling which oppressed me, 
 and which I could not shake off. Indeed, the feeling grew 
 upon me rather than decreased. The fog came on very thick, 
 settling over us as if it were our funeral shroud. The noises 
 were multiplying, and we could no longer tell whence they 
 came, so thick was the air. We were groping about like 
 a traveller who has lost his way in a vast forest, and has been 
 overtaken by the dark night. 
 
 It seemed to me now that our doom was sealed, — that all 
 our hope was left behind us when we passed the openings to 
 this vast wilderness of icebergs ; and the more I thought of 
 it, the more it seemed to me that the figure standing on the 
 corner of the iceberg where we entered, whether it was ice, or 
 whatever it was, had been put there as a warning. How far 
 my fears were right I found out afterwards. 
 
 The fog kept on thickening more and more, until we could 
 scarcely see anything at all. I have never, I think, seen so 
 thick a fog, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the 
 ship was kept from striking the icebergs. Then after awhile, 
 the wind fell away steadily, and finally it grew entirely calm. 
 The current had now complete possession of us, and was 
 moving us about upon the dead waters ; and in order to pre- 
 vent this ebb of the waters '^'om setting us against the bergs, 
 we had to lower the boats, and making lines fast to the ship, 
 and to the boats, pull away with our oars to keep headway on 
 the ship, that she might be steered clear of the dangerous 
 places. Thus we made a slow progress, but it was very hard 
 work. 
 
 At length the second mate, who was steering the foremost 
 boat, which I was in, cried out, ** Fast in ahead." 
 
 L 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 »7 
 
 Now ** fast in " is a belt of ice which is attached firmly to 
 the land, not yet having been broken up or dissolved by the 
 warmth of the summer. This announcement created great joy 
 to everybody in the boats, as we all supposed that we would 
 be ordered to make a line fast to it, that we might hold on 
 there until the fog cleared up and the wind came again. But 
 instead of this we were ordered by the mate to pull away 
 from it. 
 
 And then, after having got the vessel as was supposed, into 
 a good clear open space of water — at least there was not a 
 partible of ice in sight — we were all ordered, very imprudently, 
 as it appeared to every one of us, to come on board to break- 
 fast. 
 
 We had just finished our breakfast, and were preparing to 
 go on deck, and then into the boats again, when there was a 
 loud cry raised on deck : — 
 
 **Ice close ahead! Hurry up! Man the boats!" were 
 the orders which caught my ear among a great many other 
 confusing sounds ; and when I got on deck, I saw, standing 
 away up in the fog, almost obscured in the thick cloud, an 
 enormous iceberg ; the top of which hung over like the one we 
 first saw on entering the ice. 
 
 It was very evident that we were slowly drifting upon this 
 frightful object, and directly under this overhanging tongue. 
 It was a fearful sight to behold, for it looked as if it was just 
 ready to crumble to pieces; and indeed, at every instant 
 small fragments were breaking off from it, with loud reports, 
 and falling into the sea. 
 
 We were but a moment getting into the boats. The boat 
 which I was in had something the start of the other two- Just 
 as we were pulling away, the master of the ship came on deck, 
 and ordered us to do what, had the mate done it an hour 
 before, would have made it impossible that this danger should 
 have come upon us. 
 
■ 
 
 28 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 •'Carry your line out to the fast ice," was the order we 
 received from the master, and every one of us, seeing the great 
 danger, pulled the strongest oar he could. The "fast ice " 
 was dimly in sight when we started, for we had drifted while 
 at breakfast towards it, as well as towards the berg. 
 
 Only a few minutes were needed to reach it. We jumped 
 out and dug the usual hole and planted the anchor. 
 
 The ship was out of sight, buried in the fog. A faint voice 
 came up from the ship. 
 
 It was " Hurry up ! we have struck." 
 
 They evidently could not see us. The line was fastened to 
 the anchor in an instant, and the second mate shouted, ** Haul 
 in ! haul in ! " 
 
 There was no answer but " Hurry up ! hurry up! we have 
 struck." 
 
 " Haul in ! haul in ! " shouted the second mate ; but still 
 there was no answer. 
 
 "They can't hear nor see," said he, hurriedly; and then, 
 turning to me, said, " Hardy, you watch the anchor that it 
 don't give way. Boys, jump in the boat, and we'll go nearer 
 the ship so they can hear us." 
 
 The boat was gone quickly into the fog, and I was then 
 alone on the ice by the anchor, — how much and truly alone, I 
 had soon to learn. 
 
 Quick as the lightning flash, sudden as the change of one 
 second to another, there broke upon me a sound that will 
 never, never leave my ears. It was as if a volcano had burst 
 forth, or an earthquake had instantly tumbled a whole city 
 into ruins. 
 
 A fearful shock, as of a sudden explosion, filled the air. I 
 saw faintly through the thick mists the masts of the ship 
 reeling over, and I saw no more ; — vessel and iceberg and the 
 disappearing boat were mingled as in one awful chaos. 
 
 The whole side of the berg nearest the vessel had split ofif, 
 
THE POLAR CRUSOES, 
 
 29 
 
 hurling thousands and hundreds of thousands of tons of ice, 
 and thousands of fragments, crashing down upon the doomed 
 ship. Escape the vessel could not, nor could her crew, the 
 shock came so suddenly. The spray thrown up into the air 
 completely hid everything from view ; but the noise which 
 came from out the gloom told the tale. 
 
 Presently there was a loud rush. Great waves, with white 
 crests that were frightful to look upon, set in motion by the 
 crumbling icebergs, came tearing out of the obscurity, and 
 perceiving the danger of my situation, I ran from it as fast as 
 I could run. And I was just in time ; for the waves broke up 
 the ice where I had been standing into a hundred fragments, 
 and crack after crack opening close behind me, I fled as before 
 a devouring fiend. 
 
 I had not, however, far to run before I had reached a place 
 of safety, for the force of the waves was soon spent. And 
 when I saw what had happened, I fell down flat upon the ice, 
 crying — 
 
 ** Saved, but for what ? to freeze or starve ! O that I had 
 perished with the rest of them !" 
 
 I was really and truly cast away in the cold. In almost a 
 single instant the ship which had borne me through what had 
 seemed great perils, was so far as appeared to me, swallowed 
 up in the sea, — crushed and broken into fragments by the 
 falling ice ; and every one of my companions was swallowed 
 up with it. And there I was on an ice-raft, in the middle of 
 the Arctic Sea, without food or shelter, wrapped in a black, 
 impenetrable fog, with a lingering death staring me in the 
 face. 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 i^c^^y^^jgJXD-^^*^ 
 
l) 
 
 50 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 ; 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 An Avalanche of Ice— Saved 
 FROM THE Wreck. 
 
 WAS greatly astonished by what had 
 
 happened, and indeed it was hard for 
 
 me to believe my senses, so suddenly 
 
 had this great disaster come upon me. 
 
 I stood staring into the mist, and 
 
 listening to the teriible sounds which 
 
 came out of it, as one petrified ; yet, 
 
 after a little time, I recovered myself 
 
 suflBciently to comprehend my situation. The 
 
 instinct of life is strong in every living thing, and 
 
 after I had stood in the presence of this frightful 
 
 chaos for I have not the least idea how long, I 
 
 began to think what I should do to save myself. 
 
 The waves which had been raised, after awhile 
 began steadily to subside, and as the sea became 
 more calm I found that I could approach nearer 
 to where the wreck had happened by jumping over 
 some of the cracks which had been made in the 
 icf , and walking across piece after piece of it. 
 These pieces were all in motion, rolling on the 
 swell of the sea, and the farther I went, of course 
 the greater the motion became. I had therefore 
 to proceed cautiously, and when I jumped from 
 
 one fragment of ice to another, I was obliged to look care- 
 fully what I was about, for if I missed my footing I should 
 
THE POLAR CKUSOES. 
 
 31 
 
 fall into the sea, and be either drowned or ground up by the 
 moving ice. 
 
 Had the iceberg all gone to pieces at once, the sea would 
 soon have become quiet ; but it was evident from the noises 
 which reached me that a considerable part of the berg was 
 still holding together, and was wallowing in the sea in con- 
 sequence of its equilibrium being disturbed by the explosion, 
 and still keeping the sea agitated. 
 
 I could indeed vaguely see this remaining fragment, sway- 
 ing right and left, and I could also perceive that with every 
 roll, fresh masses were breaking off with loud reports, like the 
 heavy crash of artillery. I could however, discover nothing 
 of the ship or either of the boats. 
 
 I was able to detect when the fog cleared up a little, even 
 at a considerable distance, some fragments of ice floating 
 and rolling about ; and as I peered into the gloom I thought 
 at one time that I saw the figure of a man standing upon one 
 of them. It was but a moment, for the fog closed upon the 
 object, whatever it might have been, and it vanished like a 
 spectre. 
 
 My eyes were strained to catch a further glimpse of this 
 object, but nothing more was to be seen of it. But from this 
 my attention was soon attracted by a dark mass which had 
 drifted upon the edge of the broken ice, not far to the right of 
 the place where I had been standing when the boat left me. I 
 soon made this out to be some part of the wreck of the ship. 
 
 In a few moments I could make out that it was a piece of 
 a mast ; then I could plainly distinguish the foretop. Each 
 succeeding wave was forcing it higher and higher out of the 
 water, and I discovered, after a few moments, that other timbers 
 were attached to it, and that beside these there were sails 
 and ropes, making of the whole a considerable mass. 
 
 After observing it attentively still further, I thought that I 
 perceived a man moving among the tangled collection of 
 
 li 
 
 * ' 1 
 
> . • -•> 
 
 :t r 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 II 
 
 a 
 
 !f 
 
 ' V 
 
 1; 
 
 [•• 
 
 timbers and ropes and sails, endeavouring to extricate himself. 
 Whatever it might be, it was some distance above the sea, — 
 so high, indeed, that the waves no longer washed it fairly, — 
 only the spray. 
 
 It soon became clear to me that my suspicions of this being 
 a man were correct ; and being more convinced than ever that 
 one of my shipmates at least was yet alive, I rushed forward, 
 without any thought as to the consequences, to rescue him or 
 perish in the attempt. It was clear that he could not liberate 
 himself. 
 
 I was now standing on a fragment of ice which had been 
 broken off from the solid ice-field by the waves. It was one 
 of a number of similar fragments, all lying mora or less close 
 together, between me and the place where I had been standing 
 when the waves began to subside and the ice ceased to 
 break up. 
 
 Between where I now stood and the wreck, the ice was in 
 the same broken condition as behind me, only, being nearer 
 the open water, the pieces were rolling more, so that there 
 was much greater danger in springing from pi^ce to piece. 
 
 Without, however, pausing to reflect upon this cin umstance, 
 I rushed forward as fast, as I could go, jumping with ease over 
 every obstacle in my way, until I was, in a very few moments, 
 on the piece of ice that held up the end of the tangled wreck. 
 J had evidently arrived in the very nick of time, for the wreck 
 was, '.nstead of coming farther up, now beginning to sink 
 back into the sea. 
 
 W hat I had taken for a man proved to be one, or, as I soon 
 found out, a boy,— the cabin-boy of the ship, a light, pale- 
 faced lad, only fourteen years old. The boy was evidently 
 fast in some way among the rigging, and had been trying to 
 extricate himself. As I came close, however, I observed 
 that he was entirely quiet, and had sunk out of view. 
 
 Quick as thought I mounted up into the wreck, and then I 
 
 I 
 
limself. 
 
 sea, — 
 
 airly,— 
 
 s being 
 rer that 
 jrward, 
 him or 
 liberate 
 
 id been 
 vas one 
 ss close 
 banding 
 ised to 
 
 i was in 
 r nearer 
 at there 
 iece. 
 istance, 
 ase over 
 oments, 
 i wreck, 
 le wreck 
 to sink 
 
 s I soon 
 it, pale- 
 ividently 
 rying to 
 observed 
 
 1 then I 
 
 .!S*i 
 
 -lis 
 
 I 
 

 
RESCUE OF THE CABIN BOY. 
 
 S3 
 
 saw the boy with a rope tangled round his leg and lying 
 quite insensible. Underneath him a man was lying, much 
 mutilated and evidently quite dead. As I was mounting up, 
 a wave washed in under the wreck, but I escaped with only 
 a little spray flying over me, which however did not wet me 
 much. 
 
 It was but the work of a moment to whip out my knife, 
 which I carried like every other sailor, and cut the rope which 
 bound the boy down, and which he had tried in vain to loosen. 
 After this I had no further diflSculty, and, seizing the boy 
 round the v/aist with one arm — he was very light even for his 
 years- ^ clambered out of the wreck to the ice without getting 
 much more water upon me, and hurrying off, did not stop 
 until I had jumped with my burden across several cracks, 
 and ran across several pieces of ice, making a place of present 
 Si V on the unbroken or fast ice. 
 
 xiere I laid down my insensible burden, all dripping with 
 the cold water, and in a state of great anxiety I bent over the 
 boy. At first I thought that he was dead, but it was soon clear 
 that this was not the case, for he was breathing, although 
 slowly, yet freely. Out from his wet hair a little blood was 
 oozing, and upon examining the spot I found that there was 
 a bad bruise there, and that the skin was broken, though there 
 was not a serious cut. This was clearly the cause of his 
 present unconsciousness, as his breathing seemed conclusively 
 to show th.'^t lie had managed to keep his head above water, 
 and had t 'e ;n brought to his present state by drowning. 
 
 It occu ' tr me that the blow had simply stunned him, 
 and that it n^^cl come almost at the moment I arrived to 
 rescue him. I could not perceive that the skull was fractured, 
 and I felt convinced that, if the boy could be warmed and 
 allowed to lie at rest, he would after a while come to. T» 
 this conclusion I arrived while leaning over the poor fellow, 
 examining his heart, while he lay on the chilly ice, never once 
 
 D 
 
It fl 
 
 It' 
 
 i >l 
 
 "; 
 
 
 34 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 thinking where I was, and all the while calling frantically to 
 him ; but I might as well have spoken to a stone. 
 
 When I rose up, fully impressed with the necessity of secur- 
 ing for the lad rest and warmth, I res.lized for the first time 
 my powerless situation, and that I was apparently unable to 
 save myself, still less the boy. My heart seemed to give way 
 entirely, and I sank down once more beside him. A prayer 
 to Heaven for succour, which I had no thought could ever 
 come to me, rose to my lips, and at that very moment a ray 
 of hope dawned upon me. 
 
 The great fog was breaking away, the bright sun was 
 scattering the mists, and land was bursting through it near 
 at hand. Light, fleecy cl !'«1r were rolling up above the sea, 
 and as they floated off befu. gentle wind, a blaze of sun- 
 shine burst through an opening in them and fell upon myself 
 and the boy whose life I had, at least for the present, saved. 
 
 I could now look out over the sea for a considerable 
 distance. Although there was still much confusion there, yet 
 the ice was steadily quieting down, and the waves caused by 
 it were subsiding rapidly. But a change not less marked 
 had taken place in the space between where I stood and the 
 open water. 
 
 The wreck from which I had rescued the boy had settled 
 back into the sea, and the fragments of ice which had fallen 
 upon it were separating and floating off. Had I delayed but 
 a few minutes longer, I should never have reached the fast 
 ice, but should have drifted off upon the dark waters, as the 
 man had done whom I saw standing in the fog. 
 
 As the fog cleared up more and more, the land which had 
 first appeared stood out boldly, and the sea was visible 
 over a range of many miles. It was dotted all over with frag- 
 ments of ice and numerous icebergs, many of which reached 
 up into the disappearing mists, looking like white mountains 
 in miniature, with clouds drifting across their summits. 
 
I DISCOVER LAND. 
 
 35 
 
 The land did not appear to be more than a mile distant 
 from me, and it was evident that I stood upon ice which was 
 fast to it. Indeed, when I was first cast upon this ice I might 
 have known, had I paused to reflect, that land could not be 
 very distant from me, as the very name " fast ice " indicates 
 clearly of itself that land is near. 
 
 With this lighting up of the air, various thoughts came into 
 my mind. First, could I get to the land and save the boy as 
 well as myself ; secondly, could I aid anybody else ; and 
 thirdly, could 1 save anything of the wreck out of the sea. 
 These last two reflections were quickly disposed of, for 
 although I could see many fragments of the wreck, none were 
 within reach, and no other person was in sight, — ship and 
 boats and men were all gone down before the crushing ava- 
 lanche, and nothing was left but myself and a senseless boy. 
 
 Although we were in the Arctic regions, and on the ice, the 
 weather was not cold, the time being the middle of the short 
 polar summer. Of course the dense fog made the air a little 
 damp and chilly, but as I have said, not cold. My shipmates 
 before the wreck happened, never dressed in anything warmer 
 than the usual woollen clothing, and seldom wore coats. 
 
 For some reason, I do not exactly remember why, I had 
 upon going on deck from breakfast that fatal morning, in 
 addition to my ordinary coat, put on a heavy pilot-cloth over- 
 coat, which had been furnished me by the master of the ship, 
 —the price of it to be deducted from my wages. And it was 
 most fortunate that I had put this coat on, for it now served 
 a good purpose in wrapping up the boy. 
 
 Seeing that there was now nothing to be gained by longer 
 delay on the ice, I picked the boy up in my arms and started 
 for the land. It is somewhat strange that I should have gone 
 about it so calmly, or indeed that I did not fall down in 
 despair, and at once give up the hope of saving myself when 
 there was so little, or rather no apparent, prospect of it before 
 
 i 
 
 Ml 
 
 
 J:' 
 
 *J 
 
 
 

 I: 
 
 36 
 
 THE POLAR CRuSOES. 
 
 me. But for this there were some very natural reasons ; for, in 
 the first place, the thought of saving the boy's life kept my 
 mind from dwelling too much upon my own misfortunes ; and 
 the hope of finding the land, which had come in sight out of 
 the fog, inhabited, stimulated my courage and inspired 
 exertion. 
 
 Although the boy was not heavy, yet I found that in the 
 distance I had to carry him I grew much fatigued ; but the 
 necessity for haste made me strong, and to save the boy's life 
 seemed now much more desirable than to save my own, inas- 
 much as if the boy died and I survived him, and could in 
 any way manage to live on, I should be in truth in a worse 
 condition than if dead, as it appeared to me, — being all 
 alone. 
 
 As I approached the land very near, I became much 
 alarmed by discovering that a considerable space of water, 
 partly filled with fragments of ice, intervened between me 
 and the shore ; but after holding to the right for a little 
 distance I came at length to a spot where the ice was firmly 
 in contact with the land, and after climbing over some very 
 rough masses which had been squeezed up along the shore, I 
 found myself at length on the green hillside already spoken 
 of; and here upon the grass, in the blazing sun, I laid down 
 tie yet insensible boy. 
 
 What was I now to do ? 
 
 The boy was yet in very much the same condition that he 
 was when I set out with him for the ashore. Meanwhile more 
 than half an hour must have elapsed, curing which time the 
 boy was wrapped in his wet clothes, which to a man in the 
 full possession of his senses would have been prostrating 
 enough. It seemed to me that he was sinking under the 
 double influence of the blow which he had received, and the 
 wet clothes which were on his body. 
 
 I had, however, the gratification of knowing that I was on 
 
MY FIRST SURVEY. 
 
 37 
 
 firm land, and away from the cold ice. The grass was warm, 
 and the air, as I have said, was scarcely chilly. Under these 
 improved circumstances, it was clearly better to expose the 
 boy's body wholly to the air than to allow him to remain in his 
 wet clothing. The first thing therefore which I did, was to 
 divest myself of my own clothing in order that I might give 
 my warm under-clothing to the boy. This left for myself only 
 my trousers and my coat. 
 
 After buttoning the coat tightly round me, I removed the 
 boy's wet clothing and rubbed his body with such parts of the 
 tail of my overcoat as his clothes had not wetted while carry- 
 ing him, and this done I drew on him my shirt and drawers, 
 and then pulling up the grass, I heaped that about him, and 
 over this threw my damp overcoat, the grass however, pre- 
 venting it from touching him. 
 
 All this occupied but a few minutes, for I worked with the 
 energy of despair. I then set to rubbing and pounding his 
 feet and hands, which were very cold, to get some circulation 
 back into them. 
 
 I had now done all that it was possible for me to do for the 
 present towards the restoration of my poor companion, who 
 still remained in precisely the same insensible condition as 
 before, and I now determined to look about me and ascertain 
 if there were any evidences to be discovered of human beings 
 living near at hand. The scene around me was dreary enough 
 to strike terror even into a stouter heart than mine ; and 
 when I had fully viewed it, I had to confess to myself that it 
 did not seem probable that any living thing, not to mention 
 human beings, could possibly be there. 
 
 The first thing I did was to shout and halloo again and 
 again, at the very top of my voice ; but no answer reached 
 me except the echo of my own voice from a deep and dark 
 gorge close by. This echo startled me and made me afraid, 
 though 1 never could tell why. My loud calling had failed to 
 
 •I; 
 
 )'' J 
 
 HS 
 
 •'i 
 
 M 
 
 i 
 
 •i'i 
 
^ 
 
 i 
 
 I- 
 
 ]i 
 
 38 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 produce any impression upon the boy whatever, and I now 
 felt sure that he was going to die. 
 
 Without exactly knowing what I did, or what I was doing it 
 for, I now ran to the right over the green grass, and then over 
 rough stones up to a considerable elevation, and commenced 
 hallooing again, when, riiuch to my astonishment, I heard a 
 great fluttering and loud sounds right below and within thirty 
 feet of me. I sprang back as if some terrible enemy had 
 attacked me, but I recovered myself in an instant, when I dis- 
 covered that the fluttering came from a number of birds, 
 which rose from among the rocks. 
 
 The birds were brown and large, and I knew at once that 
 they were eider ducks, for I had seen them frequently before 
 while in the ship, and the sailors had told me their name. 
 Without having any distinct motive in doing so, I now went 
 down to where the birds had risen, when others again rose 
 before me in great numbers. 
 
 The rapidity of their flight, and the loud noise which they 
 made, startled others still farther away, and thus flock after 
 flock kept on rising from among the rocks, screaming and 
 flapping their wings in a very loud manner. Several hundreds, 
 perhaps thousands of them, must have thus got upon their 
 wings and commenced sailing overhead. 
 
 The eider duck, in order to protect its eggs from the air 
 when it goes off to get for food the little fish that it catches in 
 the sea, plucks from its breast the fine feathers, called down, 
 in which it buries its eggs very carefully. In each of the nests 
 I found there was a good handful of this down, and the thought 
 at once occurred to me to gather a quantity of it, and cover 
 the boy with it. 
 
 I went to work immediately, and collected a great armful of 
 it, and, hastening to where the boy was, I deposited it, and 
 then hurried back for more. In a very short time I had 
 accumulated a great pile of it, and spreading a thick layer 
 
A BED OF FEATHERS. 
 
 39 
 
 of it out close beside the boy, I drew him over upon it, and 
 then covered him with it completely, and spread my overcoat 
 as I had done before. 
 
 The value of putting this discovery to prompt use was soon 
 manifested. The boy, from being- cold almost as a corpse, 
 began to show some symptoms of returning warmth, his 
 breathing seemed to be more rapid and free, and his eyelids 
 began to move a little, though they did not fully open for some 
 time ; but it was then only for an instant, and I was not certain 
 whether he recognised me or not. 1 called to him loudly by 
 name, I rubbed his forehead, I pounded his hands, but he gave 
 no further recognition ; yet he was getting warmer and warmer, 
 and in this circumstance I rested my hope. 
 
 Having accomplished this much, and feeling pretty sure 
 that the boy would recover in the end, my mind now very 
 naturally fell back upon the contemplation of my own unhappy 
 condition. I moved a few steps from the boy, and sat down 
 upon a rock overlooking the sea. There was nothing there to 
 inspire me with courage when this question came uppermost 
 in my mind : 
 
 ** Suppose the boy does recover from his present stupor, how 
 are we going to live ? " Could anybody indeed be in a more 
 sorry state ? Let me enumerate : — 
 
 ist. I had been shipwrecked, — a fortune usually considered 
 bad enough under any circumstances. 
 
 2nd. I had lost all of my companions except a feeble boy, 
 whom I had rescued from death, and who was now thrown 
 helpless on my hands. 
 
 3rd. I was cast away on a desert land, I knew not where, 
 but very far towards the North Pole, as was clear enough 
 from the immense quantities of ice which whitened the sea 
 before me. 
 
 4th. I was chilly, and had no fire nor means of making any. 
 Nor had I sufficient clothing to cover me. 
 
 )i 
 
 I 
 
 .!* i 
 
40 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 i 
 
 
 5th. I was hungry, and had no food nor means of obtaining 
 any. 
 
 6th. I was thirsty, and had nothing to drink, nor could I 
 discover anything. 
 
 7th. I was without house or hut to shelter me. 
 
 8th. I was without weapons to defend myself against the 
 attacks of wild beasts, if any there should be to molest me. 
 
 To counteract these positive evils I had four things, 
 namely : — 
 
 fst. Life. 
 
 2nd. The clothes on my back. 
 
 3rd. A jack-knife. 
 
 4th. The mercy of Providence. 
 
 And this was all. 
 
 What chance was there for me ? 
 
 Little enough one would think. And in truth, there did 
 not seem to be any at all. When I thought of all, I buried 
 my face in my hands, and moaning aloud, the big tears began 
 to gather in my eyes. 
 
CFJAPTER V. 
 
 Cast away on an Island— The Ship-wrecked Boy 
 i?M^ - Recovers. 
 
 DRIED my eyes, however, when I thought of 
 the poor boy. His name was Richard Dean. 
 The sailors always called him 'the Dean.' 
 He was a clever, lively boy, and everybody 
 liked him. To see him in such a state made 
 my heart bleed. But he was growing warm 
 under his great load of eider-down, and that 
 I was glad to see ; and at last he showed some 
 feeble signs of consciousness. His eys opened wide 
 ^ and his lips moved. 
 
 \^ I thought he was saying something, though I could 
 not understand for some time what it was. Then I 
 could make out, after a while, that he was murmur- 
 ing, "Mother, mother dear!" As he spoke he 
 looked at me, wildly like, turned his head away, 
 and then turned it back and looked at me again. 
 
 "Is that you, Hardy?" he said, in a very low 
 voice. 
 
 " Yes," I replied; " and I'm glad you know me," — which 
 indeed I was. 
 
 But the poor fellow's mind soon wandered away from me 
 again ; and I could see that it was disturbed by visions of 
 something dreadful. 
 
 "There! there!" he cried, "it's tumbling on me! the ire! 
 the ice! it's tumbling on me!" and he tried to spring up 
 from where he lay. 
 
 i ■ 
 
 
 hi 
 
 '■1 
 
 ! 
 
42 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 " There's nothing there at all, Dean," said I, as I pressed 
 him down. " Come, look up ; don't you see who it is? " 
 
 He was quiet in an instant ; and then looking up into my 
 face, he said, 
 
 " Yes, it's Hardy, I know ; but what has happened to us, — 
 anything?" 
 
 But without pausing to give me time to answer, he closed 
 his eyes and went on, — 
 
 " O, I've had an awful dream ! I thought an iceberg was 
 falling on the ship. I saw it coming, and sprang away ! As 
 it fell, the ship went down, and I went down with it, — down, 
 down, do.vn ; then I came up, clinging to some pieces of the 
 wreck. Another man was with me ; we were drifted with the 
 waves to the land. I kept above the water until I saw some- 
 body running towards me. When he had nearly reached me, 
 I was drowned. O, it was an awful dream ! — Did you come to 
 call me. Hardy?" — and he opened wide his eyes. "Is it 
 four bells ? Did you come to call me ? " 
 
 " No, no, I haven't come to call you, it isn't four bells yet." 
 I answered, scarcely knowing what I said ; " sleep on. Dean." 
 
 " I'm glad you didn't come to call me, Hard}'. I want to 
 sleep. The dream haunts me. I dreamed that I was fast to 
 something that hurt me, when I tried to get away, It was an 
 awful dream, — awful, awful, awful!"— and his voice died 
 away into the faintest whisper, and then it ceased entirely. 
 
 " Sleep, sleep on, poor Dean ! " murmured I ; and I prayed 
 with all my heart that his reason might not be gone when he 
 awoke. 
 
 '♦What could I do?" "What should I do?" were the 
 questions which shortly afterwards crossed my mind respecting 
 the Dean. There was, however, one very obvious answer. — 
 "Let him alone"; so I rose up from his side, and saw, as I 
 did so, that he was now sleeping soundly, — a genuine quiet 
 sleep. He had become quite warm ; and after some minutes' 
 
DINNER OF RAW EGGS. 
 
 43 
 
 watching-, it appeared to me very likely that he would, after 
 a while, wake up all right, — a conclusion which made me 
 very happy ; that is, as happy as one circumstanced as I was 
 could be. 
 
 Once more I began to consider my situation. It seemed to 
 me that I had grown many years older in these few hours, and 
 I commenced reasoning with myself. Instead of sitting down 
 on the rock, and beginning to cry, as I had done before, I sat 
 down to reflect. And this is the substance of my reflection: — 
 
 " ist." 1 said, " while there is life there is hope "; and, 
 
 •' 2nd. So long as the land remains unexplored, I have a 
 right to believe that it is inhabited "; and, 
 
 "3rd. Being inhabited, there is a good chance of our 
 being saved ; for even the worst of savages cannot refuse two 
 such helpless creatures food and clothing. " And having thus 
 reflected, I arrived at these conclusions respecting what I 
 should do; namely, — 
 
 " ist. I will go at once in search of these inhabitants, and 
 when I find them, I will beg them to come and help me with 
 a sick companion. 
 
 " 2nd. On my way I will make my dinner off raw eggs, of 
 which there are so many hereabout, for I am so frightfully 
 hungry that I can no longer resist the repulsive food. 
 
 " 3rd. I will also hunt on my way for some water, as I am 
 so thirsty that I scarcely know what to do. 
 
 •' 4th. For the rest I will trust to Providence." 
 
 Having thus resolved, I immediately set out, and in a very 
 few minutes I had eaten a whole dozen raw eggs, — and that 
 too, without any compunctions at all. Then, as I walked on 
 a little farther, I discovered that there were a multitude of 
 small streams dashing over the rocks, the water being quite 
 pure and clear, — coming from great snow-banks on the hill- 
 tops, which were melting away before the sun. 
 
 Being thus refreshed with meat and drink, it occurred to me 
 
 ill 
 
 ii 
 
 I 
 
 
 t 
 
 b 
 
 .11. 
 
 ■.. til! 
 
 ;J. 
 
( 
 
 
 >M*Miate 
 
 It 
 
 44 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 to climb up to an elevation, and see what more I could discover. 
 T!^e ice was very thick and closely packed together all along 
 the shore ; but beyond where the wreck had happened the sea 
 was very open, only a few straggling bits of field-ice mixed up 
 with a great many icebergs, — indeed, the icebergs were too 
 thick to be counted. I thought I saw a boat turned upside 
 down ; but it was so far away that I could not make out dis- 
 tinctly what it was. It was clear enough to me that no- 
 body had been saved from the wreck except the Dean and 
 myself. 
 
 As I looked around, it appeared very evident to me that the 
 land on which I stood was an island. Indeed, it seemed to b^ 
 one of a group; for a large island stood before me, appaienily 
 only a few miles distant; and a few miles farther on, there was 
 a long stretch of land, covered with snow, which appeared to 
 be main-land. In that direction the ice was all solid, while in 
 the other direction the sea was quite open. 
 
 After hallooing several times, without any other result than 
 to startle a ^'■reat number of birds, as I had done before, I set 
 out again, briskly jumping from rock to rock, the birds all the 
 while springing up before me and fluttering away in great 
 flocks. There seemed to be no end to them. 
 
 As I went along, I soon found that I was turning rapidly to 
 the left, and that I was not only on an island, but on a very 
 small one. I could not have been more than two hours in 
 going all the way round it, although I had to clamber most of 
 the way over very stony places, stopping frequently to shout 
 at the top of my voice, vith the hope of being heard by some 
 human beings ; but not a soul was there to answer me, nor 
 could I discover the least sign of anybody ever having been 
 there. 
 
 This failure greatly discouraged me, but still I was not so 
 much cast down as [ might have been. Perhaps it was 
 because I had eaten so many eggs, and was no longer 
 
FOXES AND DUCKS. 
 
 45 
 
 hungry ; for, when one's stomach gets empty, the courage has 
 pretty much aO gone out of him. 
 
 Besides this I had made some discoveries which seemed in 
 some way to forebode good, though I could not exactly say 
 why. ^ found the birds thicker and thicker as I proceeded ; 
 in fact, they were in some places so thick that I could hardly 
 walk without treading on their eggs. I also saw several foxes, 
 some of which were white and others were dark gray. As 
 I walked on, they scampered away over the stones ahead of 
 me, and then perched themselves on a tall rock near by, 
 appare^itly very much astonished to see me. 
 
 They seemed to look upon me as an intruder, and appeared 
 as if they would ask, " What business have you coming 
 here?" They had little idea how glad I should have been to 
 be almost anywhere else, — on the farm from which I had 
 run away, for instance, — and leave them in undisputed pos- 
 session of their miserable island. 
 
 They seemed to be very sleek and well-contented foxes, for 
 they were gorging themselves with raw eggs, just as I had 
 been doingj and they were evidently the terror of the birds. 
 I saw one who had managed in some way to capture a duck 
 nearly as large as himself, and was bouncing up the hill — to 
 his den, no doubt — with the poor thing's neck in his mouth 
 and its body across his shoulder. 
 
 Then too, I discovered from the east side of the island, 
 where the ice was solid, a large number of seals lying in the 
 sun, as if asleep on the ice; and when I came round on the 
 west side, where the sea was open, great shoals of walruses, 
 with their long tusks and ugly heads, were sporting about in 
 the water as if at play, and an equally large numl er of the 
 narwhal, with there long horns were also playing their. Only 
 that they are larger, and have these hideous-looking tusks, 
 walruses are much like seals. 
 
 The narwhal is a small species of whale, being about twenty 
 
 • t! 
 
46 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 feet long, and spotted something- like an iron-gray horse. Its 
 great peculiarity is the horn, which grows, like that of a sword 
 fish, straight out of the nose, and is nearly half as long as the 
 body. 
 
 Like all the other sea mammalia, it must come up to the 
 surface of the water to breathe; and its breathing is done 
 through a hole in the top of the head, like any other whale's. 
 The breathing of a whale is called 'spouting,' or 'blowing,' — 
 that is, when he breaths out, it is so called, and when he does 
 this, he makes the water fly up into the air. 
 
 This act of breathing by the largest whales can be seen 
 several iniles; that is, I should say, the spray thrown up by 
 their breath. The common expression of the whale-fishers, 
 "There she blows!" is a very good one; for sometimes 
 when the whale is very large, the spray which they throw up 
 looks like a small waterspout in the sea. 
 
 Besides the narwhal, I saw another kind of whale, even 
 smaller still. This is called the white whale, though it is not 
 exactly white, but a sort of cream-colour. They have no 
 horns, however, like the narwhal; and they skim along 
 through the water in great numbers, and very close together, 
 and when they come to the surface they breathe so quickly 
 that the noise they make is like a sharp hiss. 
 
 Considering the numbers of these animals, — the seals and 
 walruses and narwhals and white whales, — I was not surprised, 
 when I went close down to the beach, to find a quantity of 
 their bones there, evidently of animals that had died in the 
 sea and been washed ashore. 
 
 Indeed, as I went along a little farther, and had reached 
 nearly to the place where I had left the Dean, I found the 
 whole carcass of a narwhal lying among the rocks, where it 
 had been thrown by the waves, and very near it I discovered 
 also the body of a dead seal. Abcut these there were several 
 foxes, which went scampering eway as soon as they saw me. 
 
ANXIETY. 
 
 47 
 
 They had evidently come there to get their dinner; for they 
 had torn a great hole in the side of the dead narwhal, and 
 two of them had begun on the seal. 
 
 I thought if I could get some of the skins of these pretty 
 foxes, they would be nice things to wrap the Dean's hands 
 and feet in, so I began flinging stones at them as hard as I 
 could, but the cunning beasts dodged every one of them, and 
 running away up the hillside, chattered in such a lively manner 
 that it seemed as if they were laughing at me, which provoked 
 me so much that I went on, vov/ing to get the better of them 
 in one way or another. All this time I had left the poor Dean 
 by himself, and I was very anxious to get back to him. 
 
 On the island on which I had been cast away, there were no 
 trees at all; and indeed, there were scarcely any signs of 
 vegetation whatever. On the south side, where we landed 
 after the wreck, the hillside was covered for a short distance 
 with thick short grass, and above this green slope there were 
 great tall cliffs ; but all the rest of the way round the island 
 I saw scarcely anything but rough rocks, very sharp and 
 difficult to walk over. 
 
 In some places, howe.er, where the streams of melted snow 
 had spread out in the level places, patches of moss had grown, 
 making a sort of marsh. Here I discovered sc • flowers in 
 full bloom, and among them were the buttercup and dandelion, 
 just like what we find in our meadows only not a quarter so 
 large; but my head was too much filled with more serious 
 thoughts at that time to care about flowers. 
 
 Nothing, however, can be imagined so dreary as this island 
 was. Indeed, nothing could be worse except the prospect of 
 living on it all alone, without any shelter, or fire, or proper 
 clothing, and without any apparent chance of ever escaping 
 from it. 
 
 I found, however, a sort of apology for a tree growing among 
 the moss beds. I have learned since that it is called the 
 
 ill' 
 
 
 t/' 
 
 ,. 
 
 ml 
 
rihliiriMiiB 
 
 mmm 
 
 48 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 'dwarf willow.' The stem of the tree, if such it might be 
 called, was not larger than my little finger; and its branches, 
 which lay flat on the ground, were in no case more than a foot 
 long. 
 
 Besides these willows, I discovered also, growing about 
 the rocks, a trailing plant, with very small stem, and thick dry 
 leaves. It had a pretty little purple blos' -m on it, and was 
 the only thing I saw that looked as if it would burn, and 
 I wished hard enough that I had some way of proving whether 
 it would burn or not. However, since I had discovered so 
 many other things on this my first journey round the island, 
 I was not without hope that I should light upon some way of 
 starting a fire. 
 
 So I named the plant at once ' the fire plant ; ' but I have 
 since been told that its right name is 'Andromeda.' It is 
 a sort of heather, like the Scotch heather, only it is as much 
 smaller than the Scotch heather as the dwarf willow is smaller 
 than the tall willow-tree that grows by our streams. 
 
 Although I had not, as I have said, discovered any natives 
 living on the island, yet I came back from my journey feeling 
 less disappointed than would have been supposed. No dcubt 
 my anxiety to see how the Dean was, so occupied my mind 
 that I did not dwell so much upon my own unhappy condition, 
 as I otherwise should have done. In truth, I think the Dean 
 must have saved me from despair and death ; for, if I had not 
 felt obliged to exert myself in his behalf, I n.ust have sunk 
 under the heavy load of my own misfortunes. 
 
 When I came back to the Dean, I found the poor boy was 
 still sleeping soundly — a sort of dead, heavy deep. At first I 
 thought of rousing him; but then again, since I found hj was 
 quite warm, I decided that the best thing was not to disturb 
 him. Some colour had come into his face; indeed, there was 
 quite a flush there, and he seemed to be a little feverish. The 
 only thing I iiow feared was that his reason might have left 
 
REFLECTIONS. 
 
 49 
 
 him; and this thought filled me with a kind of dread of seeing 
 him rouse up, just as every one, when he fears some great 
 calamity, tries to postpone the realization of it as long as 
 possible. 
 
 So I suffered him to remain sleeping, and satisfied myself 
 with watching his now somewhat heavy breathing for a little 
 while, when, beginning to grow chilly — for the sun had by this 
 time gone behind the island, thus leaving us in the shadow of 
 the tall cliffs — I began to move about again. I set to work col- 
 lecting more of the eider-down, so that when I should be freed 
 from my anxiety about the Dean, I might roll nnyself up under 
 this warm covering and get some sleep ; for although my mind 
 was much excited, yet I was growing sleepy, besides being 
 chilly. I also collected a number of eggs, and ate some more 
 of them ; and using several of the shells for cups, I brought 
 some water setting the cups up carefully in the grass, know- 
 ing that when the Dean opened his eyes he must needs be 
 thirsty as well as hungry. 
 
 All this being done, I fell to reflecting again ; and as was 
 most natural, my thoughts first ran upon what I should do to 
 make afire. I had found — or at least I thought I had found — 
 something that would burn ; but what should I do for the first 
 spark? True, with my jack-knife for a steel, and a flint-stone, 
 of which there were plenty, I could strike a spark without any 
 diflaculty ; but what was there to strike it into so that it would 
 catch and make a blaze ? 
 
 I knew that in some countries people made a blaze by rub- 
 bing two pieces of dry wood together; but this I could not do 
 as I had not a particle of wood. In other countries, I knew, 
 they have punk, into which they strike a spark, and the spark 
 will not go out until the punk is all burned up, so that they 
 have only to blow it on some inflammable substance until a 
 blaze comes; but where was I to get the punk from ? 
 
 I had also heard that fire had been made with lenses of 
 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 4 .: 
 i i 
 
 
 i n 
 
 
 i !■ 
 
 il 
 
so 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 glass, which, being held up to the sun concentrate the rays 
 and make a great heat, sufficient to set wood and like com- 
 bustible things on fire; but I had no lens. 
 
 Thus the night wore on. I say night, but there was really 
 no night at all, the sun being above the horizon all the time; 
 and the only difference now in the different periods of the day 
 was, that when the sun was in the south it shone upon us, while 
 when it was at the north we were under the shadow of the 
 cliffs. The sun in the Arctic regions, circles round, during the 
 summer, only a little way above the horizon, never rising over- 
 head, as it dees at home, but being always quite low down; 
 and hence it never gives a very strong heat, although the air is 
 sometimes warm enough to be very comfortable. 
 
 I was glad when the shadow of the cliff had passed over 
 me, and the sun was once more in view. I now grew quite 
 warm, though my great fatigue did not vanish; but I was so 
 anxious about the Dean that I would not sleep, and kept 
 myself awake by moving about all the time, staying always 
 near him. 
 
 At length, soon after the sun appeared, the boy began to 
 show some restlessness; and as 1 approached him, I found 
 that his eyes were wide open. He raised himself a little on 
 one arm, and turned towards me as I came up to him, and 
 looked straight at me, so calmly and intelligently, that I saw 
 at once he had come to his senses entirely; and so rejoiced 
 was I, that without thinking at all what I was doing, I fell 
 down beside him, and clasped him in my arms, and cried out, 
 "O Dean, Dean! " over and over a great many times. 
 
 "Why, Hardy," said he, in a very feeble voice, "where 
 are we? What's the matter? What has happened to us?" 
 
 Seeing that it was useless for me to attempt to evade 
 the question, I told him all the circumstances of the ship- 
 wreck, and how I had carried him there, and what I had 
 been doing. I thought at first this would disturb him, but it 
 
RECOVERY. 
 
 51 
 
 did not seem to in the least. After I had finished, he simply 
 said : 
 
 " I thought it was all a dream. It comes back to me now. 
 I remember a frightful crash, of being in the water on the 
 wreck, of seeing some one approaching me, of being held 
 down first by a drowning man and then by a rope, of trying 
 to free myself, and 'hen I must have swooned, for I remember 
 nothing more. I have now a vague remembrance of some one 
 talking to me about a dream I had, but nothing distinct." 
 
 "But," said I, "Dean, don't talk any more about it just 
 now, it will fatigue you; tell me how you feel." 
 
 "No, " answered he, " it does not fatigue me to talk, and I 
 want to collect myself. Things are getting clearer to me. 
 My memory returns to me gradually. I see the terrified crew. 
 It was but an instant. I heard the crash. The great body of 
 the ice fell right amidships — right upon the galley. Poor cook ! 
 he must have been killed instantly. Some of the crew jumped 
 overboard ; I tried to, but got no farther than the bulwarks 
 and then was in the water ; I don't know how I got there. 
 
 "When I came up there was a man under me, and I was 
 tangled among some rigging, but was lifted up out of the 
 water on some large mass of wreck. The man I told you of 
 tried to get up too ; but his feet were caught, and I saw him 
 drowning. I saw another man holding on to the wreck, 
 but a piece of ice struck him, and he must have fallen 
 off immediately. " 
 
 "Dean, Dean!" said I, "do stop! you are feverish; quiet 
 yourself, and we'll talk of these things by and by;" — and 
 the boy fell back quite exhausted. His skin was very hot 
 and his face flushed. 
 
 "O my head, my head;" exclaimed he; "it pains me 
 dreadfully! Am I hurt?" and he put his hand to the side of 
 his head where he had been struck, and finding that he was 
 wounded, said: 
 
 h 
 
 
 ^ «: 
 
 i, 
 
 H| 
 
 It 
 • 
 I 
 
 
 !,', 
 
 1 '■; ^h' >iir 
 
"Wi 
 
 rmmm 
 
 52 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 I'' 
 
 " I remember it now perfectly. A heavy wave came, and 
 was tossing a piece of timber over me, and I tried to avoid 
 being struck by it. After that I remember nothing. It must 
 have struck me. I'm not much hurt, — am I ? " 
 
 "No, Dean," I answered, "not much hurt, only a little 
 bruised." 
 
 "Have you any water, Hardy?" asked he, "I am so 
 thirsty!" 
 
 It was fortunate that I had brought some in the egg-shells, 
 and in a moment I had given him a drink. It did me good, 
 as I handed him the water, to see him smile, and ask 
 where I got such odd cups from. 
 
 "Thanks, Thanks!" said he; "I'm better now." Then 
 after a moment's pause he added, "I want to get up and see 
 where we are. I'm very weak; won't you help me?" 
 
 But I told him that I would not do it now; for the present 
 he must lie quiet. 
 
 "Then raise me up and let me look about." 
 
 So I raised him up, and he took first a look at the strange 
 pile of eider-down that was upon him, and then at the ice- 
 covered sea, but he spoke not a word. Then he lay down, 
 and after a short time said calmly : 
 
 "I see it all now. Hard, — isn't it? But we must do the 
 best we can. I feel that I'll soon be well, and will not be a 
 trouble to you long. Do you know that until this moment I 
 could hardly get it out of my head that I had been dreaming ? 
 We must trust in Heaven, Hardy, and do the best we can. " 
 
 Being now fully satisfied as to the complete recovery of the 
 Dean, I gave myself no further concern about watching him ; 
 but at once, after he had in his quiet way asked me if I was 
 not very tired and sleepy, buried myself up in the heap of 
 eider-down close behind him, and was soon deeply buried 
 in a sound sleep. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Further Explorations— The Duck Trap. 
 
 SLEPT full twelve hours without once waking 
 
 up. When I opened my eyes again, we were in 
 
 the shadow of the cliffs once more ; that is, the 
 
 sun had gone round to the north again. The 
 
 Dean was already wide awake. 
 
 When I asked him how he was, he said he felt much better, 
 only his head still pained him greatly, and he was very thirsty 
 and hungry. 
 
 I got up immediately and assisted the Dean to rise. He 
 was a little dizzy at first, but after sitting down for a few 
 minutes on a rock he recovered himself. Then I brought him 
 some water in an egg-shell to drink, and then gave him a raw 
 egg, which he swallowed as if it had been the daintiest morsel 
 in the world. "It's lucky, isn't it," said he, "that there are 
 so many eggs about." After a moment I observed that he 
 was laughing, which very much surprised me, as that was 
 about the last thing that would have entered into my head to 
 do. " Do you know, " he inquired, "what a very ridiculous 
 figure we are cutting? Look, we are covered all over with 
 feathers; I have heard of people being tarred and feathered, 
 but never heard of anything like this. Let's pick each 
 other." 
 
 Sure enough we were literally covered with the down in 
 which we had been sleeping; and when I saw what a jest 
 the poor Dean, with his sore, dizzy head, made of the plight 
 we were in, I forgot all my own troubles and joined in the fun 
 which he was inclined to make of it. So we fell to work 
 
 ■ r 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ii 
 
 * ■, 
 
 ■ ■ ■ 
 
 
 1 
 
 ( 
 
 
 , } 
 
 t ! 
 
 ■. ■» 
 
 I, 
 
 ui 
 
 • 
 if 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 i 
 
 s 
 
 
tmaantm 
 
 54 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 
 
 li 
 I 
 
 
 picking each other in good earnest, and were soon as clean of 
 feathers as any well-plucked geese. 
 
 By this time the Dean's clothes had become quite dry; so 
 each dressed himself in the clothes that belonged to him, and 
 then started over to the nearest brook, where we bathed our 
 hands and faces, drying them on an old bandanna handker- 
 chief, which I was lucky enough to have in my pocket. 
 I had to support the Dean a little as we went along, for he 
 was still very weak; but notwithstanding this his spirits were 
 excellent, and when he saw for the first time the ducks fly up, 
 he said, "What a great pair of fools they must take us for, 
 — coming into such a ^ ^ace as this. " 
 
 After we had refreshed ourselves at the brook and eaten 
 some more eggs, we very naturally began to talk. I related 
 to the Dean more particularly than I had done before the 
 events of the shipwreck, and our escape, and what I had 
 discovered on the island, and then made some allusion to the 
 prospect ahead of us. To my great surprise the Dean was, 
 apparently, not in the least cast down about it. In truth, he 
 took it much more resignedly and had a more hopeful eye to 
 the future than I had. "If," said he, "it is God's will that 
 we shall live. He will furnish us the means ; if not, we can but 
 die. I wouldn't mind it half so much, if my poor mother only 
 knew what had become of me." 
 
 This reflection seemed to sadden him for a moment, and 
 I thought 1 saw a tear in his eye; but he brightened up 
 instantly as a great flock of ducks went whizzing overhead. 
 "Well," exclaimed he, "there seems to be no lack of some- 
 thing to eat here any way, and we ought to manage to catch 
 food somehow, and live until a ship comes along and takes us 
 off." 
 
 The Dean took such a cheerful view of the future that we 
 were soon chatting in a very lively way about everything that 
 concerned our escape, and the fate of our unfortunate ship- 
 
ANXIETY TO PROCURE A FIRE. 
 
 :)o 
 
 mates ; and here I must have expatiated very largely upon the 
 satisfaction which I took in rescuing the Dean, for the little 
 fellow said: "Well, I suppose I ought to thank you very 
 much for saving me; but the truth is, all the agony of death 
 being over with me when you pulled me out, the chief benefit 
 falls on you, as you seem so much rejoiced about it; but I'll 
 be grateful at all events, and show it by not troubling you any 
 more, and by helping you all I can. See, I'm almost well. 
 I feel better and better every minute, — only I'm sore here on 
 the head whe:e I got the crack. " 
 
 To tell the truth, in thinking of other things 1 had neglected, 
 or rather forgotten, the Dean's wounded head; so now, my 
 attention being called to it, I examined it very carefully, 
 and found that it was nothing more than a bad bruise, with a 
 cut near the centre of it about half an inch long. Having 
 washed it carefully, I bound my bandanna handkerchief round 
 it, and we once more came back to consider what we should 
 do. 
 
 Of course, the first thing we thought of and talked about 
 was how we should set about making a fire; next in im- 
 portance to this was that we should have a place to shelter 
 us. So far as concerned our food and drink, our immediate 
 necessities were provided for, as we had the little rivulet close 
 at hand and any quantity of eggs to be had for the gathering, 
 and we sl about gathering a number of them at once ; for in 
 a few days we thought it very likely that most of them would 
 have little ducks in them, as indeed many of them had 
 already. 
 
 Another thing we settled upon was, that we would never 
 both go to sleep at the same time, nor quit our present side of 
 the island together; but one of us would be always on the 
 look-out for a ship, as we both thought it possible that, since 
 our ship had come that way, others would be very likely to do 
 the same, though neither of us had the remotest idea in the 
 
 t i . 
 

 . 
 
 56 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 world as to where we were, any more than that we were on an 
 island somewhere in the Arctic seas. 
 
 But the fire which we wanted so much to warm ourselves 
 and cook our food, — what should we do for that? 
 
 Here was the great question ; and fire, fire, fire, was the one 
 leading idea running through both our heads; — we thought of 
 fire when we were gathering eggs, we talked of fire when, later 
 in the day we sat upon the rocks resting ourselves, and we 
 dreamed of fire when we fell asleep again, — not this time, how- 
 ever, under the eider-down where we had slept before, but on 
 the green grass of the hillside in the warm sunshine, under my 
 overcoat, for we had turned night into day, and were deter- 
 mined to sleep when the sun was shining on us at the south, 
 and do what work we had to do when we were in the shade. 
 
 Every method that either of us had ever heard of for making 
 a fire was carefully discussed; but there was nothing that 
 appeared to suit our case. 
 
 I found a hard flint, and by striking it on the back of my 
 knife-blade I saw there was no difficulty in getting any 
 number of sparks, but we had nothing that would catch the 
 sparks when struck ; so that we did not seem to be any better 
 off than we w^re before ; and as I have stated already, we fell 
 asleep again, each in his turn, — "watch and watch" as the 
 Dean playfully called it, and as they have it on shipboard, — 
 without having arrived at any other result than that of being 
 a little discouraged. 
 
 When we had been again refreshed with sleep, we deter- 
 mined to make a still further exploration of the island; so 
 after once more eating our fill of raw eggs, we set out. The 
 Dean, being still weak and his head still paining him very 
 much from the hurt, remained on the look-out. He could, 
 however, walk up and down for a few hundred yards without 
 losing sight of that part of the sea from which quarter alone 
 were we likely to discover a ship. 
 
Wi; CONSTRUCT A CAVE. 
 
 57 
 
 This brought him up to where I had discovered the dead 
 seal and narwhal lyin^ on the beach, when on my first journey 
 round the island. 1 had told him about them, as indeed I 
 had of everything I ^ad seen, and he was curious to see if he 
 could not catch a fox ; but his fortune in that particular was 
 not better than mine. 
 
 For myself, I had a very profitable journey, as I found a 
 place among the rocks which might, with a little labour in 
 fixing it up, give us shelter. I was searching for a cave, but 
 nothing of the sort could I come across; but at the head 
 of a little valley, very near to where I left the Dean, I 
 discovered a place that would, in some measure at least, 
 answf r the purpose of sheltering us. Its situation gave it the 
 still further advantage, that we commanded a perfect view of 
 the sea from the front of it. 
 
 I have said that it was not exactly a cave, but rather an 
 artificial tent as it were of solid rocks. At the foot of a very 
 steep slope of rough rocks there were several large masses 
 piled together, evidently having one day slid down from the 
 cliff: above, and afterwards smaller rocks, being broken off, 
 had piled up behind them. Two of these large rocks had 
 come together in such a manner as to leave an open space 
 between them. I should say this space was ten or tv/clve feet 
 across at the bottom, and rising up about ten feet high joined 
 at the top like the roof of a house. 
 
 The rocks were pressed against them behind, so as com- 
 pletely to close the outlet in that direction ; and in front the 
 entrance was half closed by another large rock, which was 
 leaning diagonally across the opening. I climbed into this 
 place, and was convinced that, if we had strength to close 
 up the front entrance with a wall, we should have a com- 
 plete protection from the weather. But then, when I reflected 
 how — if we did seek shelter there — we should keep ourselves 
 warm. I had great misgivings; for there came uppermost 
 
 if 
 I ■!' 
 
 I 
 
 ir; 
 
 f 
 
 il-: ^ 
 
58 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 ( 
 
 J 
 
 the great question of all questions, "What were we to do 
 for a fire?" 
 
 Although this place was not a cave, yet I spoke to the Dean 
 about it as such, and by that name we came to know it; so I 
 will now use tl.e term, inappropriate though it be. I also told 
 the Dean about some other birds that 1 had discovered in 
 great nunibers. They were very small and seemed to have 
 their nests among the rocks all along the north side of the 
 island, where they were swarming on the hillside, and flying 
 overhead in even larger flocks than the ducks. I knew they 
 were called little auks, from descript'oiis the sailors ha'^ given 
 me of them. 
 
 "But look here what I've got," exclaimed the Dean, as 
 soon as I came up with him. "See this big duck!" 
 
 The little fellow had actually caught a duck, and in a most 
 ingenious manner. Seeing the ducks fly off their nests, the 
 happy idea struck him, that if he could only contrive a trap, or 
 de i fall, he might catch them when they came back. So he 
 selected a nest favourable for his design, and piled up some 
 stones about it, making a solid wall on one side of it; then he 
 put a thin narrow stone on the other side, and on this he 
 supported still another stone that was very heavy. Then he 
 took from his pocket a piece of twine which he was fortunate 
 enough to have about him, and tied one end of it to the thin 
 narrow stone, and holding on to the other end, hid himself 
 behind some rocks rlose by. 
 
 When the due!: came back to her nest, he jerked the thin 
 narrow stone away by a strong pull on the twine, and down 
 came the big heavy stone upon her back. " You should have 
 heard the old thing quacking ' ' said he, evidently forgetting 
 everything else but the sport of catching the bird: "but I 
 soon gave her neck a t\nst, and here we are ready for dinner, 
 if we could only find a way to cook it. Have you discovered 
 any way to make a fire yet?" 
 
'"'"'■■-''•'■T'r "'"rffftwanmmiiimmMtniiamMiiiiMiui-iri 
 
 I 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 59 
 
 I had to confess that on the subject of fire I was yet as 
 ignorant as ever. 
 
 "Do you know," continued he, "that I have got a brilliant 
 idea?" 
 
 "What's that?" said I. 
 
 "Why," replied he, "you told me something about people 
 making fire with a lens made of glass. Now, a:s I wab down 
 on the beach and looked at the ice there, I thought, why not 
 make a lens out of ice — it is as clear as glass ? ' ' 
 
 "But," said I, "what will you set on fire with it?" 
 
 "In the first place," he answered, "the pockets of my coat 
 are made of some sort of cotton stuff, and if we could only set 
 fire to that, couldn't we blow a blaze into the fire plant as you 
 call it. See, I've gathered a heap of it. " And sure enough 
 he had, for there was a pile nearly as high as his head, 
 looking like d. heap of dry and green leaves. 
 
 The idea did not seem to me to be worth much, but still, as 
 it was the only one that had been suggested by either of us, it 
 was at least worthy of trial ; so we went down to the beach, 
 and finding a lump of ice almost as big as my two fists, we 
 began chipping it with my knife into the shape we wanted it, 
 and then we ground it off with a stone, and then rubbed it 
 over with our warm hands until we had worn it down perfectly 
 smooth, and into the shape of a lens. 
 
 This done, we held it up to the sun, relieving each other as 
 our hands grew cold; but without any success whatever. 
 We tried for a long time, and with much patience, until the ice 
 became so much melted, that we could do nothing more with 
 it, when we threw it away and the experiment was abandoned 
 as hopeless. 
 
 Our disappointment at this failure was in proportion to our 
 hopes. The Dean felt it most, for he was at the very outset 
 perfectly confident of success. 
 
 Neither of us, however, wished to own how much we felt the 
 
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 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 failure, so we spoke very little more together, but made 
 almost in silence another meal off the raw eggs ; and being 
 now quite worn out and weary with the labours and anxieties 
 of the day, we passed the next twelve hours in watching and 
 sleeping alternately in the bright sunshine, lying as before 
 on the green grass, covered with the overcoat. We did not 
 even dare hope for better fortune on the morrow. 
 
 We had, however, made up our minds to struggle in the 
 best manner we could against the difficulties which sur- 
 rounded us, and mutually to sustain each other in the hard 
 battle before us. Whether we should live or die was known 
 but to God alone, and to his gracious protection we once more 
 commended ourselves; the Dean repeating and teaching me 
 a prayer which he had learned, as was very evident, from a 
 pious and careful mother, who had brought him up in the fear 
 of God, and taught him, at a very early age, to have faith in 
 His unceasing watchfulness. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 Building A Cave— A Fire at Last. 
 
 ^"^ "I FTER our refreshing sleep we were once 
 
 more upon our feet again, both very 
 
 determined to do something, but neither 
 
 y3'/'\*''^l^ liV of us knowing exactly what it should be. 
 
 So we set off to inspect the cave. The 
 Dean was much pleased with it; and, 
 seeing nothing better to do, we both went to work at once to 
 build up a wall in front of it, feeling very sad and sorrowful as 
 we worked away in silence. 
 
 But in spite of our gloomy thoughts we made good progress, 
 and had soon a solid foundation laid; but as we went on, it 
 was plain enough to see that our wall was likely to be of very 
 little account, as we had no means of filling up the cracks 
 between the stones. This set me once more thinking. 
 
 Down below us in the valley there was plenty of moss, or 
 rather turf; but when we tried to pull it up with our hands, we 
 discovered that we could do nothing with it, and we wished 
 for something to dig with. Then I remembered the bones I 
 had seen on the beach ; so I told the Dean about them, and 
 we both agreed that they might be of use to us. The thinp- 
 which I first thought of, was the dead narwhal with the long 
 horn ; and I imagined that, if we could only get that out of his 
 head, we should have all we wanted. 
 
 When the Dean and I went down to the narwhal, we found 
 that our task would be even greater than we had supposed ; 
 
 i-4 gi 
 
 ^- 
 
 ♦ 
 
 ■1 
 
 
 
 
 
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 , 
 
 .1 
 
 1 
 
 

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 62 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 for the horn was so firmly embedded in the skull and flesh that 
 it promised to be a very serious business to get it out. 
 
 First we had to cut away the flesh and fat from the thick 
 nose, until we exposed the skull, and then we had to break 
 the horn loose by dropping heavy stones upon the socket. At 
 length we were successful. But we had consumed almost the 
 whole day, and we found ourselves very much fatigued; so we 
 sat down upon the green grass, and rested and talked for 
 a while, and then went back to ^" Tk upon the wall again. 
 
 The horn was very heavy, b - it answered our purpose ; 
 and we were soon digging up the moss with it, which we 
 carried up to complete the wall. 
 
 This moss was very soft, being full of water; and it fitted 
 with the stones as nicely as any mason's mortar, so that we 
 had no more trouble in making the wall perfectly tight and 
 solid. Nor did we have any trouble in building up a little 
 fireolace and chimney along with it. We had some dis- 
 cussion as to what use there was in taking all this pains, since 
 we had no fire to put in our fireplace. 
 
 But then, if we should in the end find that we could make a 
 fire, we saw that we should have to tear the wall down again if 
 we did not build the fireplace and chimney up at once ; there- 
 fore, it was clearly better to take a little extra trouble now and 
 save it possibly in the end. 
 
 We laboured very hard, and were well satisfied with the 
 progress we had made, when we found it necessary to knock 
 off and eat some more raw eggs, and sleep away our fatigue 
 again. By this time we had grown tired enough of these raw 
 eggs, and in truth, were very sick of them. But we had 
 nothing else to eat unless we devoured the duck which the 
 Dean had caught; and this we could never, as we thought, 
 bring ourselves to do, uncooked as it was. 
 
 The Dean had by this time grown pretty strong again, but 
 still he was so comparatively weak that I should not have 
 
ANOTHER BRIGHT IDEA. 
 
 work had he 
 
 Led 
 
 63 
 
 when his 
 
 allowed him 
 
 turn came to go to sleep, I was glad to be at work by myself, 
 and I much surprised the Dean, when he got up again, with 
 what I had accomplished. 
 
 " Do you know what I was thinking of?" said the Dean, as 
 we paused to rest, after we had again worked some lime 
 togv ther. 
 
 "What's that?" said I; "for I dare say it's something 
 clever, as you have a wise head on your young shoulders." 
 
 "Thank you, " said the Dean; "being cast away in the cold 
 don't Stop us from paying compliments it appears; but I was 
 thinking that we ought to save all the blubber of that old 
 narwhal down there; we shall want the oil by and by." 
 
 "What for?" said I. 
 
 " To burn, " he said. 
 
 "Nonsense," said I; " how are you going to burn it ? " 
 
 "That's just what we are going to find out," said the 
 Dean; "we'll get a fire somehow, of that I'm sure." 
 
 "I should like to know how," said I. "Perhaps you have 
 another bright idea." 
 
 "To be sure I have," answered the Dean. 
 
 "What is it this time?" said I. 
 
 "Well, I don't know," said he, "as there's much in it, but 
 I'm going to try the lens again." 
 
 "That's of no use," I said. 
 
 "I'm not so sure," said he; "you know we made a great 
 deal of heat with our lens the other time, so much that 
 it almost burned the hand. I think the trouble was my 
 old pocket had been wet with salt water, and therefore would 
 not burn; now I think I've found out something that is 
 better." 
 
 "What's that?" said I. 
 
 "Why, some cotton stuff," said he, "that I found blowing 
 about among the stones." 
 
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 1 : 
 
64 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 n\ 
 
 "Cotton ! " 1 exclaimed in great surprise, "there's no cotton 
 growing here." 
 
 "Well, it looks like cotton for all that," answered the Dean, 
 "and I'm sure it will burn. Let me get some of it, and I'll 
 try it." So he ran off, and soon came back again with a 
 little roll of pure white stuff that looked very much like cotton 
 only finer in its texture. 
 
 I remembered it perfectly, for I had seen it everywhere 
 I went, about the little willow-bushes ; and I had even plucked 
 a willow-blossom to find it covered all over with this tender 
 cotton-like material, which I blew from it with my breath. 
 But the idea had never once come into my head that it would 
 be of any use. 
 
 "What are you going to do with this?" said I to the Dean, 
 when he had showed it to me. 
 
 "Why," said he with much confidence, "I'm going to 
 make another lens of ice, and set fire to it." 
 
 To set fire to it was something easier said than done, yet the 
 idea seemed to take root in my mind ; and how or why it ever 
 came about I can no more tell than I can fly, but somehow or 
 other, it matters not what was the impulse or idea or expecta- 
 tion I had in view, without saying a single word, I pulled out my 
 knife and the bit of flint which I had found and carefully pre- 
 served the day before, and then struck one upon the other (as 
 if it were quite mechanical) above the Dean's little bit of 
 cotton stuff which lay upon the grass. 
 
 A great shower of sparks was thrown off with each fresh 
 stroke, and these told of the fineness of the steel and the hard- 
 ness of the flint. I went on pounding and pounding away, as 
 if resolved on something. And if 1 was resolved my resolu- 
 tion was rewarded ; for at length the Dean threw up his hands 
 so suddenly as if a shot had struck him in the heart, and he 
 shouted out, "A spark, a spark!" 
 
THE FIRST SPARK. 
 
 «s 
 
 The Dean's little bit of cotton stuff had taken fire, and 
 the daintiest little streak of smoke was curling upwards 
 from it. 
 
 Without pausing an instant, quick as the hawk to swoop 
 down upon its prey, quick as the lightning-flash, quick as 
 thought itself, I threw away my knife and flint, and caught up 
 the spark. The Dean drew instantly from his pocket the bit 
 of cotton cloth which we had tried to light with the lens 
 the day before, and thrust it in my hand. I put the spark upon 
 it, and then blew. 
 
 The first breath drove all the Dean's light cotton stuff away, 
 and the spark was gone. 
 
 But we were now no longer where we were before. The 
 spark had been made once, and it could be made again ; and 
 our hearts were bounding with delight. ** Hurrah! hurrah!" 
 shrieked the Dean, "we're all right now!" 
 
 But our troubles about the fire were far from ended. We 
 had no difficulty in getting another spark to catch in another 
 piece of this strange sort of tinder, of which we found great 
 plenty near at hand. But it would not blaze. With the slight- 
 est breath it vanished almost as a flash of powder; and it was 
 a long, long time before we hit upon anything that would do 
 us any further good. 
 
 We tried all the pieces of cotton cloth that we had about 
 our clothes, picking it into shreds, and putting the lighted 
 tinder among these shreds, tried to make them blaze. But no 
 blaze could we get. Once only did we raise a little flash, but 
 it was gone in a single instant. We tried the dry leaves of 
 the fire-plant {Andromeda), the dry grass, — everything indeed 
 that we could think of, which was within our reach, — but still 
 no blaze, no blaze. 
 
 With sore fingers and wearied patience, and with wits as 
 well as bodies quite exhausted, we fell once more asleep, with 
 mingling thoughts of triumph and disappointment, and with 
 
 P 
 
 
 
 
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 66 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 prayerful hopes of what the morrow might bring forth running 
 through our minds. 
 
 When the morrow came, a chance seemed to open for us; 
 and we resolved to go about our work with caution, deter- 
 mined since we had gone thus far, that we would in the end 
 succeed. I don't know whether it was the Dean or I that first 
 suggested it, but we made up our minds that the moss which 
 we had turned up with the narwhal horn, when we were build- 
 ing at the hut, some of which had dried, would burn. 
 
 We picked to pieces some of the long fibres of this moss, 
 and laid upon them, loosely, some fragments of the tinder. A 
 spark was struck as before, and upon blowing this a bright 
 blaze flashed up, and then died out again as quickly as it had 
 come. 
 
 "I have it now!" shouted the Dean, "we're sure of it next 
 time!" and without saying another word he darted o^ towards 
 the beach. When he came back again, he held in ne hand 
 a chunk of blubber from the narwhal, out of which we 
 squeezed some drops of oil, and soaked in them some fibres 
 of the moss. 
 
 Another piece of tinder and another piece of moss were 
 placed as they had been before; another spark was struck, 
 another blaze was blown, and when this came, the Dean was 
 holding in it his fibres of oil-soaked moss, and the cunning 
 little fellow soon had a lighted torch. "Hurrah, hurrah !" he 
 might well shout now, for the thing was done. "Praised be 
 Heaven ! we have got a fire at last!" 
 
 It was but the work of a moment to add fresh moss to the 
 flaming torch, which was scarcely larger than a match, and 
 then a few more drops of oil were added, and so on, oil and 
 moss, and moss and oil, little by little, gently, gently all the 
 time, until we had secured at length a good and solid flame. 
 
 Then we laid the burning moss upon a flat stone, and then, 
 as before, moss and oil, and oil and moss, were added, each 
 
4 
 
 A 
 
 C/) 
 
 P4 
 
 
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 lilil 
 
 WU| 
 
 u 
 
A MEAL OFF ROAST DUCK. 
 
 67 
 
 time in larger and larger quantities, — no longer gently, gently, 
 but with a careless hand, and in less perhaps than half an 
 hour, we had a great, smoking, fluttering blaze ; and then we 
 threw on some of the driest leaves and twigs of the Andro- 
 meda, and some dead willow-stems and dry grass, after 
 which we had a roaring, sputtering, red-hot fire. 
 
 And how we danced, and skipped, and shouted round the 
 fire, like happy children round some new-found toy. 
 
 The next thing was, of course, to turn the fire to some 
 account'. 
 
 On two sides of the blaze we placed large square stones, 
 and over these we put another that was thin and flat; and 
 then, in a twinkling of an eyd, we skinned the duck which the 
 Dean had caught, and cut the rich flesh into little pieces, and 
 placed them on the flat stone above the blaze; and then to 
 keep the smoke and ashes from the cooking food, we placed 
 another light thin stone upon the flesh, and then we watched 
 and waited for the coming meal. 
 
 To help the fire along, and make it burn more quickly, we 
 threw into it some little chunks of blubber, and then in a little 
 while, the duck was cooked. 
 
 O what a royal meal we had! — we half-famished, ship- 
 wrecked boys, — the first hot food we had tasted during all 
 these long, weary, dreary days; and, not satisfied with the 
 duck, we next broiled some eggs upon the heated stone, and 
 ate and ate away until we were as full as we could hold. 
 
 All this had consumed many hours, and all the time we had 
 been so much excited that we found ourselves quite exhausted 
 when the meal was over, and we could do no more work that 
 day; so we laid down again upon the grass, to talk and rest 
 and sleep. 
 
 When we came to sleep, however, we had now another 
 motive beside watching for a ship, to make us sleep one only 
 at a time; for we must keep this fire going, which we had 
 
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 ■ 
 
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 68 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 got with SO niuch trouble. This was easily done, since we 
 only had to add, from time to time, some branches of the 
 Andromeda, and these kept up a smouldering fire. 
 
 Before either of us went to sleep, we had seen that the first 
 thing now was to catch more ducks ; and this we could either 
 of us do, besides watching the sea for ships, and the fire that 
 it did not; g) out. 
 
 Accordingly, as soon as the Dean had fallen asleep, I went 
 about this work, fully resolved upon a plan as to how I should 
 proceed. The knowledge of seals which I had acquired 
 when in the " Blackbird " had perhaps something to do with it, 
 
 I knew from the thickmiss of the seal's skin, ihat lines 
 could be made out of it very veil ; and remembering the dead 
 seal lying down on the beach, where it had been thrown up 
 out of the sea by the waves; .md in addition, several other 
 seals, or rather I should say parts of them, for most of them 
 had been eaten up by the foxes or had gone to pieces by 
 decay ; I at once went down to the seal that I had first dis- 
 covered, and taking out my knite I made a cut round his 
 neck, close behind the ears. 
 
 It was a very large seal, and I found it no easy matter to lift 
 him up so that I could get my knife all the way round him ; 
 but I managed to do it notwithstanding, and made not only 
 one cut but a great many of them, — or rather I should say 
 one continuous cut round and round the body of the animal ; 
 80 you will easily understand, that in this way, by keeping my 
 knife about the eighth of an inch from where it had gone 
 before when it passed round, I obtained at last a very long 
 string, or rather one might say a thong, very strong and 
 pliable. It must have been at least a hundred feet in length 
 when I stopped cutting it, and I divided it into three parts. 
 
 Having done this I next went back to where the ducks were 
 thickest, when of course, the birds flew off their nests. Then 
 I fixed four traps, just as the Dean had done, tying to three of 
 
DUCK TRAPS. 
 
 69 
 
 
 them the sealskin strings which I had made, and to the fourth 
 I tied the Dean's bit of twine; then I hid myself among the 
 rocks, and waited for the birds to come back, 
 
 I had not long to wait, for in a few minutes two of them 
 returned, and, without appearing to mind at all the trap that 
 I had set for them, crawled upon their nests so quickly that it 
 seemed as if they were afraid their eggs would grow cold. 
 Seeing a third one coming, I waited for that too, and the 
 fourth one came soon afterwards; and indeed by this cime, 
 nearly all the birds that had their nests near by had returned 
 to them. 
 
 As soon as all was quiet I pulled my strings one after 
 another as quickly as I could, and three of the birds were 
 caught; but the last one was too quick for me, as the noise 
 made by the others startled her, and the heavy stone only 
 struck her tall as she went squalling and fluttering away, 
 frightening off all the other ducks that were anywhere near. 
 I was not long, as you may be sure, in securing my three 
 prizes ; and I carried them at once up to the Ire near which 
 the Dean was lying under my overcoat in the sun. 
 
 Soon after this the Dean awoke, and when he saw what I 
 had done, seemed to be much amused, as he declared that I 
 had stolen his patent ; but when he saw what kind of a lii^e I 
 had made, he was fiUea with admiration, saying, ** Well, who 
 would ever have thought of that^ I'm sure I never should." 
 
 Being now very tired, I lay down while the Dean took his 
 'turn;' and by the time my eyes were opened again he had 
 caught seven birds, so that we had now in all ten, — enough 
 probably to last us as many days. This of course, f ave us a 
 great deal of satisfaction, especially as we soon had one of 
 them nicely cooked, and made a good breakfast off it. 
 
 We had now been several days on the island, and felt 
 that we had done pretty well already towards providing for 
 ourselves. The Dean — as I ought to have mentioned before 
 
 |i!^ : r 
 
 I , .1 
 
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lUJ I. LIIIIIUIJ^HIIIPII 
 
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 ■'I 
 
 ■1 , 
 
 70 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 — had grown in strength very rapidly during the last forty- 
 eight hours ; and except that his head was still sore from the 
 cut and bruise, he was quite well. 
 
 We felt now, that whatever else might happen to us, we 
 should not for a certain time want for food, as besides the 
 eggs, we could have as many ducks as we pleased to catch. 
 We had succeeded in making a fire, and had abundant 
 means to keep it burning. 
 
 There were only two things that seriously troubled us. One 
 was our lack of shelter, if a storm should come; and the 
 other, our lack of proper clothing if the weather should grow 
 cold. 
 
 But having succeeded so well thus far, we were very hopeful 
 for the future. Heaven had kindly favoured us. The tem- 
 perature had been very mild all the time. There had been 
 no wind, and scarcely a cloud to obscure the sky. As for 
 shelter, we felt that we could manage in two days to enclose 
 the cave ; and as to the other trouble, although we were not 
 very clear in our minds about it, yet we did not loose con- 
 fidence that a ship would come along and take us off before 
 winter should set in. 
 
 So we resolved not to abandon our vigilance, but to keep 
 up a constant watch, as we had done before. Now that we 
 had made a fire, we knew the smoke would be a great help to 
 us in drawing the attention of the people on board any ship 
 that might con'e near. 
 
 
 n 
 I 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Making up our Reckoning— Our Snow and Ice 
 Cave — Preparing for Winter. 
 
 E now went about our work very 
 hopefully. But as we were going 
 aloi:g, meditating on our future plans, 
 the Dean stopped suddenly, and said 
 to me: "Hardy, do you know what day 
 it is?" 
 "No," said I. "upon my word I don't, 
 and never once thought about it! " 
 The r> an looked very sad all at once, and not being able 
 to see why that should be the case, I asked what difference 
 it made to us what day it was. 
 "Why, a great deal'of difference." 
 "How?" said I. 
 
 "Why," said the Dean, "when shall we know when 
 Sunday comes ? " 
 
 To be sure, how should we know when Sunday came ! I 
 had not thought of that before ; but the Dean was differently 
 brought up from me ; for while I had not been taught to care 
 much what day it was, he had been taught to look upon 
 Sunday as a day when' nobody should do any sort of work. 
 So I became anxious too about the matter, and for the Dean's 
 sake, if not for my own, I tried hard to recall what day it was. 
 It is not at all surprising that we should have lost our 
 reckoning in this way, seeing that the sun was shining all the 
 time; and we worked and slept without much regard to 
 
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 LV 
 
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 7* 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 II 
 
 ■It 
 
 ;[ 
 
 whether the hours of night or day were on us. So we had 
 
 good reason for a little mixing up of dates. In fact, we could 
 
 neither of us very well recall the day of the month that we 
 
 were cast away. It was somewhere near the end of June, 
 
 that we knew; but the exact day we could not tell for certain. 
 
 We remembered the day of the week on which we were cast 
 
 away well enough, and it was Tuesday ; but more than this 
 
 we could not get into our heads, and so it seemed that there 
 
 was nothing for us but to sink all days into the one long 
 
 continuous day of the Arctic summer, and never more know 
 
 whether it was Sunday, or Monday, or Friday, or what day it 
 
 was of any month; and if it should be Heaven's will that we 
 
 should live on upon the island until the New Year came 
 
 round, and still other years should come and go, we should 
 
 never know when the New Year was. 
 
 I did everything I could to refresh my memory about it. I 
 counted up the number of times we had slept, and the number 
 of times we had worked, and recalled the time when I first 
 walked round the island ; and I tried my best to connect all 
 those events together in such a way as to prove how often the 
 sun had passed behind the cliffs, and how often it had shone 
 upon us ; and thus I made out that that very day was Sunday, 
 — at least I so convinced the Dean, and he was satisfied. 
 And that's the way we made a Sunday for ourselves. So we 
 resolved cu do no work that day; and this was well, for we 
 were very weary and needed rest. 
 
 Having settled about Sunday, that was oflf our minds ; and 
 after recalling many things which had happened to us, and 
 things which had been done on the "Blackbird," we finally 
 concluded that we had found out the day of the month, and 
 so we called the day "Sunday, the second of July," and we 
 marked it thus : 
 
 On the top of a large flat rock near by I placed a small 
 white stone, and this we called our "Sunday stooe," and 
 
 \ 
 
\ 
 
 AN ALMANAC. 
 
 73 
 
 then, in a row with this stone, we placed six other stones, 
 which we called by the other days of the week. Then I 
 moved the white stone out of line a little, which T/as to show 
 that Sunday had passed, and afterwards when the next day 
 had passed, we did the same with the Monday stone, and so 
 on until the stones were all on a line again, when we knew 
 that it was once more Sunday. Of course we knew when the 
 day was gone, jy the sun going round on the north side of the 
 island, throwing the shadow of the cliffs upon us. 
 
 For noting the days of the month we made a similar arrange- 
 ment to that which we had made for the days of the week ; 
 and thus we had now got an almanac among our other things. 
 "And now," said the Dean, "let us put all this down for fear 
 we forget it." So away the little fellow ran and gathered a 
 great quantity of small pebbles, and these we arranged on 
 the top of the rock so as to form letters ; and the letters that 
 we thus made spelled out "John Hard}' and Richard Dean, 
 cast away in the cold, Tuesday, June 27, ^824." 
 
 Now, when we came to look ahead, and to speculate upon 
 what was likely to befall us, we saw that we had two months 
 of summer still remaining; and as midsummer had hardly 
 come yet, we knew that we were likely to have it warmer than 
 before, and we had now no further fears about being able to 
 live through that period. In these two months it was plain 
 that one of tw.^ .hmgs must happen,— that is, a ship must 
 come along and take us off, or we must be prepared for the 
 dark time that must follow, after the sun should go down for 
 the winter. 
 
 But there was also a third thing that might happen be- 
 sides, — we uight both die ; and that seemed likely enough, 
 so we piedged ourselves to stand by each other through every 
 foniiut, each helping the other all he could. At any rate, we 
 wn-ild not lose hope, and never despair of being saved 
 through the mercy of Providence, somehow or other. 
 
 I I 
 
 
! 
 
 74 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 Having reached this resigned state of mind, we were ready 
 to consider rationally what we had to do. It was clear 
 enough that if we only looked out for a ship to save us, and 
 that chance should in the end fail us, we should be ill prepared 
 for the winter if we were left on the island to encounter its 
 perils. Therefore it was necessary to be ready for the worst, 
 and accordingly, after a little deliberation, we concluded to 
 proceed as follows : — 
 
 Firstly, we must construct a place to shelter ourselves from 
 the cold and storms. In this we had made some satisfactory 
 progress already. 
 
 Secondly, we must collect all the food we could while there 
 was an opportunity. 
 
 Thirdly, we must gather fuel, of which, as had been already 
 proved, there was the Andromeda (or fire-plant) and moss and 
 blubber to depend upon. Of this latter the dead narwhal and 
 seal would furnish us a moderate supply; bat for the rest we 
 must rely upon our own skill to capture some other animals 
 from the sea ; though, as to how this was to be done, we had 
 to own ourselves completely at fault. 
 
 Fourthly, we must in some manner, secure for ourselves 
 warmer clothing, otherwise we should certainly freeze to 
 death : and here again we were completely at fault too. 
 
 Fifthly, we must contrive in some way to make for our- 
 selves a lamp, as there is no sunshine but constant darkner.s 
 throughout the Arctic winter, and we could never live in our 
 cave in darkness ; and here was a difficulty apparently even 
 more insurmountable than the others, — as much so as 
 appeared the making of a fire in the first instance, — for 
 while we had a general idea that we might capture some 
 seals, and get thus a good supply of oil, and that we might 
 also get plenty of fox-skins for clothing, yet neither of us 
 could think of any way to make a lamp. 
 When we came thus to bring ourselves to a practical view 
 
 
STORING BLUBBER. 
 
 75 
 
 
 of the situation, the prospect might have made stouter hearts 
 than ours quake a little ; but as we had seen before, nothing 
 was to be gained by lamentation, so we put a bold front on 
 and firmly resolved to make the best fight we could for life. 
 
 When Monday came we set about our work, not exactly in 
 the order which I have named, but as we found most conve- 
 nient; and as day after day followed each other through the 
 week, and as one week followed after another week, we found 
 ourselves at one time building up the wall in front of the cave 
 then catching ducks and gathering eggs, then collecting the 
 fire-plant, and then turning moss up on the rocks to dry, and 
 then cutting off the blubber and skins of the dead seal and 
 narwhal. 
 
 All of these things were carefully secured ; and in a sort oi 
 cave, much like the one we were preparing for our abode, 
 only larger, we stowed away all the fire-plant and dried moss 
 that we could get. Then we looked about us to see what we 
 should do for a place to put our blubber in, — that is, the fat 
 we got off the dead narwhal and the seal, and also any other 
 blubber that we might get afterwards. When we had cut all 
 the blubber off the seal and narwhal, we found that we had an 
 enormous heap of it, — as much, at least, as five good barrels, 
 — and since the sun was very warm, there was great danger, 
 not only that it would spoil, but that much of it would melt 
 and run away. 
 
 Fortunately, very near our hut there was a small glacier 
 hanging on the hillside, coming down a narrow valley from a 
 greater mass of ice which lay above. From the face of this 
 glacier a great many lumps of ice had broken off, and there 
 were also deep banks of snow which the summer's sun had 
 not melted. In the midst of this accumulation of ice and 
 enow we had little difficulty in making, partly by excavating 
 and partly by building up, a sort of cave, large enough to 
 hold twice as mucli blubber as we had to put into it. Here 
 
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76 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 i 
 
 we deposited our treasure, which was our only reliance for 
 light in case we invented a lamp, and our chief reliance for 
 fire if the winter should come and find us still upon the island. 
 
 After we had thus secured in this snow-and-ice cave our 
 s^ock of blubber, we constructed another much like it, near 
 by, for our food, and into this we had soon gathered a pretty 
 large stock of ducks and eggs. And when we contemplated 
 all that we had done in this particular, you may be sure our 
 spirits rose very considerably. 
 
 A glacier is nothing more than a stream of ice made out of 
 snow partly melted and then frozen again, and which forming 
 high up on the tops of the hills, runs down a valley and 
 breaks off at its end and melts away. Sometimes it is very 
 large — miles across — and goes all the way down to the sea; 
 and the pieces that break off from it are sometimes very 
 large, and are called icebergs. Sometimes the glaciers are 
 very small, especially on small islands such as ours. 
 
 This little glacier lay in a narrow valley; and, as the cliffs 
 were very high on either side, it was almost always in shadow, 
 and the air was very cold there; so it was fortunate that we 
 thought of fixing upon that place for our storehouses. Then 
 another great advantage to us was, that it was so near our 
 hut, — being within sight, and only a few steps across some 
 very rough rocks; but among these rocks we contrived to 
 make, by filling in with small stones, a tolerably smooth 
 walk. 
 
 As we caught and put away the ducks in our storehouse, we 
 began at length to preserve their skins. At first we could see 
 no value in them, and threw them away; but we saw at length, 
 that in case we could not catch the foxes, they would make us 
 some sort of clothing, while out of the seal-skin, which I 
 mentioned before, we could make boots if we only had any- 
 thing to sew with. 
 
 Thus one diflficulty after another continually beset us ; but 
 
WE CONSTRUCT A HUT. 
 
 n 
 
 this last one was soon partly overcome, for the Dean, on the 
 very first day of our landing discovered that he had in his 
 pocket his palm and needle, carrying it always about him 
 when on shipboard, like any other good sailor; but we lacked 
 thread. 
 
 A palm is a band of leather going round the hand, with a 
 thimble fitted into it where it comes across the root of the 
 thumb. The sailor's needle differs only from the common 
 one in being longer and three-cornered, instead of round. It 
 is used for sewing sails and other coarse work on shipboard. 
 The needle is held between the thumb and forefinger, and is 
 pushed through with the thimble in the palm of the hand, 
 and hence the name. 
 
 But a sailor's palm and needle could be of very little use 
 unless we had some thread, of which we did not possess a 
 single particle, except the small piece that was in the needle, 
 and by which it was tied to the palm. It was a good while 
 before we obtained anything to make thread of, so we will 
 pass that subject by for the present, and come back to what 
 we had more immediately in hand. This was the preparation 
 of our cave, or rather, as we had better say, hut, — that being 
 more nearly what it was. 
 
 The building of our hut, then, was indeed a very difficult 
 task, as the solid wall we had to construct in front was much 
 higher than our heads, and in this wall we had, of course, to 
 leave a doorway and a window, besides a sort of chimney or 
 outlet for the smoke from the fireplace, which was opposite 
 to the door. 
 
 We must have been at least two weeks making this wall, 
 for we had not only to construct the wall itself, but when it 
 got so high that we could no longer reach up to the top, we 
 had in addition to build steps. We left a window above the 
 doorway not thinking, of course, to find any glass to put in 
 it, but leaving it rather as a ventilator than a window. It 
 
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 78 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 was very small, not more than a foot square, and was easily 
 shut up at any time, if we should not need it. For a door, 
 we used a piece of the narwhal skin, when it became neces- 
 sary to close up the orifice. This skin was fastened above the 
 doorway with pe^s, which we made of bones, driving them 
 into the cracks between the stones, thus letting the skin fall 
 down over the doorway like a curtain. 
 
 In making the wall we were greatly helped by the bones 
 which I had found on the beach, as they were much lighter 
 than the stones, and aided in holding the moss in its place, 
 so that we were able to use much more of that material than 
 we otherwise should. When the wall was completed, we were 
 gratified to see how tight it was, and how perfectly we had 
 made it fit the rocks by means of the moss. 
 
 Having completed the wall, our next concern was to arrange 
 the interior; but about this we had no need to be in so great 
 a hurry as with the wall, for we had now a place to shelter us 
 from any storm that might come, and we could hope to make 
 ourselves somewhat comfortable even there, although the in- 
 side was not well fitted up ; for we had a fireplace, and could 
 do our cooking without going outside. And when we found 
 how perfect was the draft through the outlet, or chimney 
 (such as it was), you may be very sure we were greatly- 
 delighted. 
 
 As it fell out, we had secured this shelter in the very nick 
 of time, for in two days afterwards a violent storm arose, — a 
 heavy wind with hail and occasional gusts of snow, — a strange 
 kind of weather for the middle of July. This storm made 
 sad havoc with the ice on the east side of the island, breaking 
 it up, and driving it out over the sea to the westward, filling 
 the sea up so much in that direction that there was no use, 
 for the present at least, in looking for ships, as none could 
 come near us. 
 
 The storm made a very wild and fearful spectacle of the 
 
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THE STORM. 
 
 79 
 
 sea, as the waves went dashing over the pieces of ice and 
 against the icebergs. When I looked out upon this scene, 
 and listened to the noises made by the waves and the crushing 
 ice, and heard the roaring wind, I wondered ^nore than ever 
 what could possess anybody to go to such a sea in a ship ; for 
 it seemed to me that the largest possible gains would not be 
 a sufficient reward for the dangers to be encountered. 
 
 But so it always was and always will be, I suppose. 
 Wherever there is a little money to be made, men will 
 encounter any kind of hazard in order to get it. Thus, the 
 risks in going after whales and seals for their blubber, which 
 is very valuable, are great; but then, if the ship makes a 
 good voyage the profits are very large, and when the sailors 
 receive their "lay," that is, their share of the profits on the 
 oil and whalebone which have been taken, it sometimes 
 amounts to a really handsome sum of money to each, and 
 they consider themselves well rewarded for all their privations 
 and hardships. 
 
 And it must be owned that the whalers and sealers are a 
 very brave set of men, especially the whalers who go among 
 the ice : for besides the dangers to the vessel, there is the 
 danger always to be encountered in approaching a whale to 
 harpoon him, as for instance, when he sometimes knocks the 
 boat to pieces with his monstrous tail and spills all the crew 
 out into the water; or he may, while swimming away with the 
 harpoon in him and the boat fast to it dragging after, take 
 it into his head to rush beneath the ice, and thus destroy 
 the boat and endanger the lives of the people in it. 
 
 When the weather cleared off after the storm, we went to 
 work again as before. But everything about us now looked 
 gloomy enough. The cliffs were besprinkled with snow, and 
 about the rocks the snow had drifted, and it lay in streaks 
 where it had been carrried by the wind. The sea was still 
 very rough, and as there were many pieces of ice upon the 
 
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80 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 ' 
 
 water, when the waves rose and fell, the pounding of the ice 
 against the rocks and the breaking of the surf made a most 
 fearful sound. 
 
 The sun coming out warm, soon however, melted the snow, 
 and getting heated with work we got on bravely. Indeed, 
 we soon became not less surprised at the rapid progress we 
 were making than at the facility with which we accommo- 
 dated ourselves to our strange condition of life, and even 
 grew cheerful under what would seem a state of the greatest 
 possible distress. 
 
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 ^Ji>-*r'e-^^ 
 
 
 N. 
 
 PUj 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Furnishing our Hut— Important and Useful 
 
 Discoveries. 
 
 3 NE difficulty after another van- 
 ished before our patient and 
 persevering efforts; and now 
 that we had a fire to warm us, 
 and a hut to shelter us, we 
 felt as if we could overcome 
 almost anything. So we gained 
 great courage, and became as 
 the soldiers say, "masters of the situation." In truth, we 
 were fast settling down to business, like any other people, 
 feeling that we were at least in no present danger of our 
 lives. 
 
 The Dean and 1 had a conversation about this time, which 
 I will try to repeat as nearly as I can. We were seated on 
 the hillside overlooking the sea to the west, attracted by 
 what we at first took for a ship under full sail, steering right 
 in towards the island; but you can imagine how great was 
 our disappointment when we found that what we had taken 
 for a ship was nothing more than an iceberg looming up 
 above the sea in a hazy atmosphere. This was the third 
 time we had been deceived in that manner. 
 
 Once the Dean had come rushing towards me, shouting at 
 the top of his voice "The fleet! the fleet!" meaning the 
 whale-ships; but he might just as well have saved himself all 
 that trouble, for "the fleet" proved to be only a great group 
 
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82 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 of icebergs ; but when I told him so he would hardly believe 
 it, until he became at last convinced that they were not 
 moving. 
 
 These icebergs assume all sorts of shapes, and it was very 
 natural, since we were always on the look out for ships, that 
 our imaginations should be excited and disturbed, and ready 
 to see at any time what we most wanted to see ; nor were we 
 at all peculiar in this, as many people might tell you who 
 were never cast away in the cold. So it is not surprising 
 that we should cry out very frequently, **a sail, a sail! " when 
 there was not a sail perhaps within many hundred miles of 
 us, — not halt so surprising, in fact, as that boys should see 
 ghosts and hobgoblins sometimes on dark nights. 
 
 Well, the Dean and I sat upon the hillside overlooking the 
 sea, thinking the icebergs were ships, or hoping so at least, 
 until hope died away, and then it was that we fell to talking. 
 
 *'Do you think. Hardy," said he, **that any other ship 
 than ours ever did come this way, or ever will?" 
 
 "I'm afraid not," said I; and I must have looked very 
 despondent about it, as in truth I was, — much more so than I 
 would have liked to own. 
 
 I had not considered what the Dean was about, for he was 
 despondent enough himself, and no doubt wished very hard 
 that I might say something to cheer him up a mt ; but instead 
 of doing that, I only made him worse, whereupon he seemed 
 to grow angry, and in a rather snappish way he enquired of 
 me if I knew what I was. 
 
 "No," said I, quite taken aback. "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Mean! " exclaimed the Dean. "Why, I mean to say," — 
 and he spoke in a positive manner that was not usual with 
 him, — "I mean to say that you are a regular Job's com- 
 forter, and no mistake." 
 
 I ha^l not the least idea at that period of my life as to what 
 kind of a thing a Job's comforter was. I had a vague notion 
 
 <»i 
 
THE dean's dream. 
 
 «3 
 
 that it was something to go round che neck, and I protested, 
 most vehemently that I was nothing of the sort. 
 
 "Yes, you are, and you know you are," he went on, — 
 "regular Job's comforter, — croaking all the time, and never 
 seeing any way out of our troubles at all." 
 
 "I should like to know," said I — and I thought I had him 
 then, — "how I can see any way out of our troubles when 
 there isn't any!" 
 
 "Well, you can think there is, if there isn't — can't you?" 
 and the Dean was ten times more snappish than he was 
 before ; and having thus delivered himself, he snapped himself 
 up and snapped himself off in a great hurry ; but, as the little 
 fellow turned to go away, I thought I saw big tears stealing 
 down his cheeks, I thought that his voice trembled over the 
 last words; and when he went behind a rock and hid himself, 
 I knew that he had gone away to cry, and that he had been 
 ashamed to cry where I could see him. 
 
 After a while I went to him. He was lying on his side, 
 with his head upon his arm. His cap had fallen off, and the 
 light wind was playing gently with his curly hair. The sun 
 was shining brightly in his face, and sunburnt and weather- 
 beaten though it was, his rosy cheeks were the same as ever. 
 But bitter, scalding tears had left their traces there, for the 
 poor boy had cried himself to sleep. 
 
 His sleep was troubled, for he was calling out, and his 
 hands and feet were twitching now and then, and cruel 
 dreams were weighing on his sleeping, even more heavily 
 perhaps than they had been upon his waking thoughts. So 
 I awoke him. He sprang up instantly, looking very wild, and 
 sat upon the rock. "Where am I? What's the matter? Is 
 that you. Hardy?" were the questions with which he greeted 
 me so quickly that I coujd not answer one of them. Then he 
 smiled in his natural way, and said, "After all, it was only a 
 dream." 
 
 Si 
 
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 ; f. 
 
84 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 "What was it ?" I asked. "Tell me, Dean, what it was ! " 
 
 " O, it was not much, but you see it put me in a dreadful 
 fright. 1 thought a ship was steering close in by the land ; I 
 thought I saw you spring upon the deck and sail away ; and 
 as you sailed away upon the silvery sea, I thought you turned 
 and mocked me, and I cursed you as I stood upon the beach, 
 until some foul fiend, in punishment for my wicked words, 
 caught me by the neck and dragged me through the sea, and 
 tied me fast to the vessel's keel, and there I was with his last 
 words ringing in my ears, with the gurgling waters, * Follow 
 him to your doom,' when you awoke me. * Follow him to your 
 doom ! ' I seem to hear the demon shrieking even now, though 
 I'm wide enough awake." 
 
 "I don't wonder at your fright, and I'm glad I woke you ! " 
 said I, not knowing what else to say. 
 
 "It all comes," went on the little fellow, "of my being 
 angry with you, Hardy;" and so he asked me to forgive him, 
 and not think badly of him, and said he would not be so 
 ungrateful any more, and many such things, which it pained 
 me very much to hear him say ; and so I made him stop, and 
 then somehow or other we got our arms round each other's 
 neck, and we kissed each other's cheeks, and great cataracts 
 of tears came tearing from each other's eyes; and the first 
 and last unkindness that had come between us was passed 
 and gone for ever. 
 
 "But do you really think," said the Dean, when he got his 
 voice again, — " do you really think that if a ship don't come 
 along and take us off, we can live here on this wretched 
 little island, — that is, when the summer goes, and all the 
 birds have fiown away, and the darkness and the cold are on 
 us all the time?" 
 
 "To be sure we can," I answered; but to tell the truth, I 
 had very great doubts about it, only I thought that this would 
 cheer him up a bit; and as I had, by this time, made for 
 
THE ROCK OF GOOD HOPE. 
 
 85 
 
 myself a better definition to Job's comforter than a something 
 to go round the neek, I had no idea of being called by that 
 name any more. 
 
 "I'm glad to hear you say that!" exclaimed the Dean. 
 " Indeed I am ! " 
 
 There was no need to give me such very strong ascurance 
 that he was "glad to hear it," for his face showed as plain 
 as could be that he was glad to hear me say anything that 
 had the least encouragement in it. 
 
 After this the Dean grew quite cheerful. Suddenly he 
 asked, "Do you know Hardy, if this island has a name?" 
 
 Of course I did not know, and told him so. 
 
 "Then I'll give it one right off," said he ; " I'll call it from 
 this minute the Rock of Good Hope, and here we'll make a 
 start in life. It's as good a place, perhaps, to make a start 
 in life as any other ; for nobody is likely to dispute our title to 
 our lands, or molest us in our fortune-making, which is more 
 than could be said if our lot were cast in any other place." 
 
 This vein of conversation brightened me up a little. 
 Indeed, it was hard to be very long despondent in the pre- 
 sence of the Dean's hopeful disposition. There was much 
 more said of the same nature, which it is not necessary to 
 repeat. It is enough for me to add that the upshot of the 
 whole matter was that we came in the end to regard our- 
 selves as settled on the island, if not for the remainder of our 
 lives at least for an indefinite period; and we made up our 
 minds that there was no use in being gloomy and cast down 
 about it. 
 
 So from that time forward we were more cheerful, and 
 though you may think it very strange, were generally con- 
 tented. This was a great step gained, and when we now 
 came to make an inventory of our possessions, we did it just 
 as a farmer or merchant would have done. Being the un- 
 disputed owners of this Rock of Good Hope, we considered 
 
 \^ 
 
 II 
 
 ■I 
 
 i? 
 
 «i, 
 
05 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 ourselves none the less owners of all the foxes, ducks, eggs, 
 eider-down, dead beasts, dry bones, and whatsoever else 
 there might be upon it; and, besides this, we had a lien 
 upon all the seals and walruses and whales of every kind 
 that lived in the sea. 
 
 We now worked with even a better grace than we had done 
 before; for the idea of being settled on the island for life, 
 seemed to imply that we had need to look ahead farther than 
 when our hopes of rescue had been strong. 
 
 And first we finished the hut in which we were to live, — 
 doing it not as if we were putting up a tent for temporary use, 
 but as a man who has just come into possession of a large 
 property puts up a fine house on it, that he may be comfort- 
 able for the rest of his days. 
 
 I have said our hut was about twelve feet square, and that 
 we had, after much hard labour, succeeded in closing it 
 up perfectly, and in making it weather-tight. Along the peak 
 of it, where the two rocks came together, there was a crack 
 which gave us much trouble; but at length we succeeded 
 in pounding down into it, with the butt-end of our narwhal 
 horn, a great quantity of moss or turf, aud thus closed it 
 thoroughly. 
 
 I must not forget while we are on the subject of moss, to 
 mention that the moss grew on our island, as it does in all 
 arctic countries, with a richness that you never see at home 
 —moss being, in truth, the characteristic vegetation of the 
 arctic regions. In the valley fronting us there was a bed of it 
 several feet thick. Its fibres were very long, — as much in 
 some places as four inches, — all of a single year's growth; 
 and as it had gone on growing year after year, you will 
 understand that there was layer after layer of it beneath. 
 
 In one place, at the side of the valley to the right as we 
 went down towards the beach, it seemed to have died out 
 after growing for many years : and when we discovered this, 
 
WE MAKE A FIREPLACE. 
 
 87 
 
 we were more rejoiced than we had been at any time since 
 starting the fire; for the moss, being dead, had become dry 
 and hard, and burned almost like peat, as we found when 
 we came to try it in our fireplace ; and when we added to 
 it a little of our blubber, it made such a heat that we could 
 not have desired anything better. Indeed, it made our 
 hut so warm that we could leave the doorway and window 
 both open until the weather became colder; so we did not 
 trouble ourselves about making a door, but attended to other 
 matters. 
 
 One thing which gave us great satisfaction was the 
 immense quantity of the dead moss which was in this bed — 
 so much, indeed, that no matter how long we should live 
 there, we could never burn up the hundredth part of it. At 
 first there had not appeared to be much of it, but it developed 
 more and more, like a coal mine, as we dug farther and 
 farther into it. 
 
 Our fireplace was therefore, as you see, a great success; 
 but we were after a few days most unexpectedly troubled with 
 it. Thus far the wind had been blowing only in one direction, 
 but afterwards it shifted to the opposite quarter, driving the 
 smoke all down into the hut, and smothering us out. Neither 
 of us being a skilful mason, we .could not imagine what was 
 the matter; but finally it occurred to us, after much useless 
 labour had been spent in tearing part of it down and building 
 it up again, that it was too low, being just on a level with the 
 top of the hut ; so we ran it up as much higher as we could 
 lift the atones, which was about four feet, and after that we 
 had no more trouble with the smoke. 
 
 Having succeeded so well with our arrangements towards 
 keeping up a fire, we next fitted up a bed, as the storms now 
 began to trouble us, and we found, when we were driven away 
 from the grass, and were obliged to sleep inside of the hut, 
 that it was a very hard place to sleep in, being nothing b a « 
 
 
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88 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 rough stones, which made us very sore, and our bones to 
 ache awfully. 
 
 The first thing we did now was to build a wall about as 
 high as our knees, right across the middle of the hut, from 
 side to side ; then, across the space thus enclosed in the back 
 part of the hut, we built up another wall about three feet 
 high, — thus you see, making two divisions of the back part 
 of the hut. One of these divisions we used as a sort of 
 store-room or closet, levelling the bottom of it with flat 
 stone, of which ""e had no difficulty in getting all we wanted. 
 
 We also covered the front part of the hut with stones of the 
 same cescription, thus making quite a smooch floor. It was 
 not large enough, as you will see, to give us much trouble in 
 keeping it clean. Of the second division, in the back part 
 we made our bed, by first filling it up with moss, then cover- 
 ing the moss over with dry grass. 
 
 Having given up all hope of a ship coming near us during 
 the present season, we now gave up watching for one; and 
 we went to sleep together on our new bod, lying on the dry 
 grass, and as before, covering ourselves over with my large 
 overcoat. We found it to be more comfortable than anyone 
 would think, and altogether better than anything we had yet 
 had to sleep on. But we came near losing our fire by it, as 
 the last embers were just dying out when we awoke from our 
 first sleep in the hut. 
 
 But after all this bed did not exactly suit our fancy, and 
 seeing the necessity for some better kind of bedclothes, our 
 wits were once more set to working, in order to discover 
 something with which to fasten together the duck-skins that 
 we had been saving and drying, and of which we had now 
 almost a hundred. We had spread them out upon the rocks, 
 and dried them in the sun ; for we had seen that if we could 
 only find something to sew them together with, we might 
 make all the clothing that we wanted. * - ^r 
 
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TAILORING. 
 
 89 
 
 The eider-duck skin is very warm, having besides its thick 
 coat of feathers, a heavy underlayer of soft warm down, which, 
 as I told you before, the ducks pick off to line their nests with. 
 The skins are also V|ery strong, as well as warm ; but the 
 trouble was to find something to fasten them together with ; 
 for until this could be done, they would continue to be to us 
 like the grapes to the fox in the fable. 
 
 Now, however, as at other times since we had been cast 
 away, good fortune came to us; and we had scarcely begun 
 seriously to feel the need of sewing materials before they were 
 thrown in our way, as if providentially. It happened thus : — 
 
 In cutting the blubber from the dead narwhal, we had quite 
 exposed the strong sinews of his tail, without, however, for a 
 moment imagining that we were preparing the way to a most 
 important and useful discovery; for after a few days this 
 sinew became partially dried in the sun, and one day, while 
 busy with some one of our now quite numerous occupations, I 
 was much surprised to see the Dean running towards me from 
 the beach, and was still more surprised when I heard him 
 crying out, "I have it, I have it! " It seemed to me that the 
 Dean was always having something, and I was more than 
 ever curious to know what it was this time. 
 
 He had been down to the beach, and observing some of the 
 dried sinew, had begun to pull it to pieces ; and in this way 
 he found out that he could make threads of it, and he im- 
 mediately set off to communicate the intelligence to me. We 
 at once went together down to the beach, and cutting off all 
 that we could get of this strong sinew, we spread it upon the 
 rocks, that it might dry more thoroughly. 
 
 In a few days the sun had completely dried and hardened 
 enough of this stuff to last us for a length of time ; and we 
 found that when we came to pick it to pieces, we could make, 
 if we chose, very fjne threads of it, — as fine and as strong as 
 ordinary silk. This was a great discovery truly, as it was the 
 
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 I 
 
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90 
 
 THE POLAR CRCJSOES. 
 
 only thing now wanting, except some cooking utensils, to 
 complete our domestic furniture. As for the latter, it was 
 some time before we invented anything; but thus far we had 
 been occupied with what seemed to be more important 
 concerns. 
 
 But on the opposite side of the island I had found some 
 stones of very soft texture ; and upon trying them with my 
 knife, I discovered that they were the same kind of stones 
 that I had often heard of at home, and which serve th3 savages 
 in America to make their pots, and which they call soapstone. 
 Upon making further search there proved to be an extensive 
 vein of it ; and since I knew that in the United States gridle 
 cake pans are made out of this peculiar clay-like material, I 
 concluded at once that other kinds of cooking utensils might 
 be made as well. Accordingly I carried to our hut several 
 pieces of it, and there they lay for a good while, just outside 
 of the hut, until I could find leisure to carve some pots and 
 other things out of them. 
 
 Thus we were getting along very well, steadily collecting 
 those things which were necessary as well for our comfort as 
 our safety. If the island on which we had been cast away 
 were indeed barren and inhospitable, it was none the less 
 capable, like almost every other land, in whatever region of 
 the earth, of furnishing subsistence to men. Nor was there 
 any great peculiarity in this island upon which we had fallen ; 
 for, as we afterwards found, there were many other islands in 
 the region where we might have lived quite as easily; and 
 we found out also, that there were natives living not a hun- 
 dred miles from us, and living too in all respects just as we 
 were doing. 
 
 When we found what we could do with the sinew of the 
 narwhal, we set about immediately preparing some bedclothes 
 for ourselves. This we did by squaring off the duck-skins 
 with my knife, and then sewing them tightly together. Thus 
 
A TRAP FOR AUKS. 
 
 91 
 
 we obtained not only a soft bed to lie upon, but a good warm 
 quilt to cover us. 
 
 This done, we went back to the cooking- utensils, which you 
 may be sure we were very much in need of. Out of a good 
 large block of soapstone, by careful digging with the knife, 
 and afterwards warming we soon made a large-sized pot, 
 which was found to answer perfectly. We could now change 
 our diet a little, — at least, I should say, the manner of cook- 
 ing it ; for while we could before only fry our ducks and eggs 
 on flat stones, when we got the pot we could boil them. 
 
 This gave us great pleasure, as we were getting very tired 
 of having but ore style of food ; still I cannot say that there 
 was so very much occasion for being over-glad, as at best it 
 was only ducks and eggs, and eggs and ducks, just like the 
 boy in the story, who had first honey and milk, and then 
 for variety, milk and honey. 
 
 So one day the Dean said to me, "Hardy, can't we catch 
 some of these little birds, — auks you call them?" "How?" 
 said I. "I don't know," said he; and we were just as well off as 
 we had been before. But this set us thinking again ; and the 
 birds being very tame, and flying low, it occurred to us that 
 we might make a net, and fasten it to the end of our narwhal 
 horn, which we had thus far only used while making our hut. 
 
 Luckily for us, the Dean — who I need hardly say was a 
 very clever boy in every sense — had learned from one of the 
 sailors the art of net-making ; and out of some of the narwhal 
 sinew he contrived, in two days, to construct a good-sized net. 
 And now the difficulty was to stretch it ; but by this time our 
 invention had been pretty well sharpened, and we were not 
 long in findiiig that we could make a perfect hoop by lashing 
 together three seal ribs which we picked up on the beach, and 
 having fastened this hoop securely to the narwhal horn, we 
 sallied forth to the north side of the island where the auks 
 were most abundant. 
 
 u |i 
 
 i! « 
 
 ■l-VL 
 
9i 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 Having hidden ourselves away among the rocks, we waited 
 until a flock of the birds flew over us. They flew very low, — 
 not more than five feet above our heads. When they were 
 least expecting it I threw up the net, and three of them flew 
 bang into it. They were so much stunned by the blow, that 
 only one of them could fly out before I had drawn in the net; 
 and the Dean was quick enough to seize the remaining two 
 before they could make their escape. 
 
 This being the first experiment, gave us great encourage- 
 ment, as it was more succesful than we had ventured to hope. 
 We went on with the work without pausing for several hours, 
 looking upon it as great sport, as indeed it was ; and since it 
 was the first thing we had done that seemed like sport, the 
 day was always remembered by us with great delight. 
 
 .1 
 U .1 
 
 t 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Storing our Provisions— Winter upon Us— The 
 Aurora Borealis— Our Clock in the Sky— The 
 Fox Traps. 
 
 E had now by working very hard, 
 and by persevering very much, 
 and by using our wits as best we 
 could, gathered about us every- 
 thing that was needed to insure 
 our present safety, and some 
 things to make us comfortable 
 We had a hut to shelter us, and 
 clothes to keep us warm, and fire 
 to cook our food. 
 
 But the winter was coming on 
 very fast, and we knew well enough what that was likely to 
 be. The grass and moss and flowers were dead or dying; the 
 ice was forming on the little pools, and here and there upon 
 the sea little spurts of snow were coming now and then ; the 
 winds were getting to be more fierce and angry, and every day 
 grew colder and more dark. We knew that the long winter 
 was close /-on us, and that the shadow of the night would 
 soon be resting on us all the time. 
 
 The birds had hatched their young, and quitted their nests, 
 and were flying off to the sunny south, where we so longed to 
 go, and so longed to send a message by them, to the loved 
 ones far away. It made us sad — Oh, how very, very sad! — to 
 see the ducks so happy on the wing, and sailing off and 
 
 I J 
 
 :.<;; .! 
 
 'I 
 
94 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 leaving us upon the island all alone. Alone, — all, all alone ! 
 alone upon a desert island in the Arctic Sea! Alone in cold 
 and darkness ! All, all alone ! 
 
 We made ourselves warm coats and stockings out of the 
 skins of the birds that we had caught; and we made caps 
 too, out of them, — plucking off the feathers, and leaving only 
 the soft, warm, mouse-coloured down upon the skin. And 
 out of the seal's skin we made mittens and nice soft boots, or 
 rather, as I might call them, moccasins. 
 
 The ducks began to go away about the middle of August, 
 as nearly as we could tell, but it was more than a month after 
 that before they had all left the island. Meanwhile we had 
 caught a great number of them, — two hundred and sixty-six 
 in all; and we had collected, besides, ninety dozen of their 
 eggs. These birds and eggs were all carefully stowed away 
 in our storehouses of ice and rocks near the glacier. 
 
 In the matter of food we had therefore done very well; 
 but we felt the need of some more blubber for our fire, and 
 some warmer clothing than the birds' skins. To supply this 
 latter want, we tried very hard to catch some foxes ; but it 
 was a long time before we were successful, — not until all the 
 ducks had gone away ; for the foxes would not trouble them- 
 selves to go inside our traps so long as there were any young 
 ducks to be caught, or eggs to eat. These traps were made 
 of stones, and in building them I had derived the only benefit 
 which had ever resulted to me from my indolent life on the 
 farm. 
 
 I was always fond of shirking my duties, and going into 
 the woods to set rabbit-traps ; and remembering how I made 
 them of wood, I easily contrived a stone one of the same 
 pattern, and it was found afterwards to answer perfectly. 
 When there were no longer eggs for them to eat, or ducks for 
 them to catch, the foxes went into our traps, which we baited 
 for them with fiesh from the dead narwhal. The pelts of these 
 
WINTER, 
 
 95 
 
 foxes were thick and warm ; and by the time the weather got 
 very cold we had obtained a good number, and of these we 
 made suits of clothes at our leisure. There were two kinds 
 foxes, — one sort of blue gray, and the other quite white. 
 
 As the weather grew colder the little streams, which had 
 thus far supplied us with water, all froze up; and we had now 
 nothing to depend upon but the freshly fallen snow, which we 
 had of course, to melt. Thus you see how important it was 
 that I should have found the soapstone in season, and made 
 a pot of it, else we should not only have been obliged to go 
 without boiled food, but likewise without water. 
 
 As for the blubber for fuel, which we felt that we should 
 badly need before the winter was over, we had great confi- 
 dence that we should be able to catch some seals, though 
 neither of us could imagine exactly how it was to be done. 
 Happily for the present we were relieved from all anxiety by a 
 dead walrus and a small white whale drifting in upon the 
 beach during a westerly gale. The waves being very strong, 
 they were landed so high up on the beach that there was little 
 fear of their being washed away again. 
 
 It was no easy matter to cut these animals up with our one 
 jack-knife, since, before we could get it done, they had frozen 
 quite hard. The temperature had gone down until it was 
 already below freezing all the time ; and very soon the snow 
 fell deeply and was drifted into great heaps by the wind. 
 The sea soon after this became frozen over quite solid all 
 about the island, although we could still see plenty of clear 
 open water in the distance. There was one satisfaction, at 
 least, in this freezing up of the sea, as we could walk out 
 upon it, and go all round the island without having to clamber 
 over the rough rocks. 
 
 The winter came by and by in good earnest, I can tell you. 
 The sunlight all went away, and then soon afterwards the 
 autumn twilight disappeared; and then came the darkness 
 
 ii^ 
 
 
 ■^li • 
 
 I 
 
 i ' 
 
 ill 
 
 I 1 
 
 ' \ 
 
! 
 
 9« 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 that is constant in the winter up towards the North Pole. 
 The winter there is but one long night. 
 
 Dark in the morning, dark in the evening, dark at mid- 
 night, dark at noon, dark all the time, only, everything being 
 white with snow, of course that makes it look lighter than it 
 does at home, where the trees and the houses, and other 
 dark objects, help the blackness of the night, and make it 
 more gloomy. 
 
 Of course the darkness set our wits working, and through 
 our wits we got over the lamp trouble as we had over many 
 others. First we made an open dish of the invaluable soap- 
 stone, and put some oil in it ; and then we made a wick out of 
 the dry moss, and set fire to it ; but this was found to make 
 so much smoke that it drove us out of the hut, and it was 
 given up. 
 
 But we did not throw away the dish, and after awhile it 
 occurred to us to powder the dry moss by rubbing it between 
 the hands, and with this powdered moss we lined our soap- 
 stone dish all over on the inside with a layer a quarter of an 
 inch thick. After smoothing this down all around the edge 
 (this dish, which we called a lamp, was much like a saucer, 
 only rougher and much larger), we filled it half full of oil, 
 and again set fire to it all round the edge ; and this time it 
 worked beautifully, — smoking very little and giving us plenty 
 of light. 
 
 But the stars were shining brightly there upon us all the 
 time; and then the moon came every month; and when it 
 came, it came for good and all, and never set for several days; 
 and then sometimes the aurora borealis would flash across 
 the heavens, and clear away the darkness for a little while, 
 as if it were a huge broom sweeping cobwebs from the skies, 
 and letting in the light of day beneath the stars. O, what a 
 splendid sight it was ! 
 
 Aurora borealis — means northern light; and the name 
 
THE AURORA BOREALIS. 
 
 9; 
 
 comes from a pagan goddess called Aurora, who was sup- 
 posed to have rosy fingers, and to ride in a rosy chariot, and 
 who opened the gates of the East every morning, and brought 
 in the light of day; and thus, in course of time, any great 
 flush of light in the heavens came to be called Aurora. And 
 then there was a pagan god called Boreas, who was the North 
 Wind, and had long wings and white hair, and made himself 
 generally disagreeable. So you see Boreas, from being the 
 pagan name for north wind, came to mean the north; and 
 Borealis, from that, became Northern, and Aurora Borealis 
 became Northern Light. 
 
 My scientific fiiends say that the Aurora Borealis is elec- 
 tricity broken loose, and tearing through the air for some 
 purpose of its own. It can't be caught, nor bottled up, as 
 Franklin bottled up the lightning, nor analyzed,— and in 
 short, nothing can be done with it; and so it goes tearing 
 through the skies, just where it likes. 
 
 And when you go up beyond the Arctic Circle, you see it 
 starting up from a fiery arch that stretches right across the 
 sky before you; and from this fiery arch great streams of 
 light shoot out, and then fall back again, and continue to 
 come and go for hours and hours — sometimes lasting for a 
 little while, and waving to and fro like a silken curtain of 
 many colours fluttering in the wind, and then again seeming 
 to be phantom things playing hide and seek among the stars ; 
 sometimes like wicked spirits of the night, bent on mischief; 
 and then again like tongues of flame from some great fire in 
 some vast world beyond the earth. 
 
 And how bright the colours are sometimes ! The great arch 
 of light that spans the sky is often bright with all the colours 
 of the rainbow, changing every instant. And from these 
 flickering belts of light, great sheets and streams fly up with 
 lightning speed, — green, and orange, and blue, and purple, 
 and bright crimson, — all mingling here and there and every- 
 
 4 
 
 ni 
 
98 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 \i\ 
 
 where above, while down beneath comes out in bold relief be- 
 fore the eye the broad white plain of ice and snow upon the 
 ocean, the great icebergs that lie here and there upon it, the 
 tall white mountains of the land, and the dark islands in the 
 sea; and then it dies away again, and the dark islands in the 
 sea, and the tall white mountains, and the icebergs, and 
 the white plain around, all vanish from the sight, and the 
 mind retains only an impression that the icebergs, with all 
 these bright colours reflected on them from above, had come 
 from space and darkness, like the meteors, then to vanish 
 and leave the darkness more profound. 
 
 And thus the auroral light and colour keep pulsating in the 
 air, up and down, up and down; and thus the icebergs seem 
 to come and go ; and the very stars above seem to be rushing 
 out with a bold bright glare, and going back again as quickly, 
 singed and withered as it were, into puny sparks, and utterly 
 disheartened with the effort to keep their places in the face 
 of such a flood of brightness, are at length resolved no more 
 to try to twinkle, twinkle through the night. 
 
 But in spite of this auroral light and the moonlight, the 
 winter was dreary enough. At first we wanted to sleep all the 
 time ; and we had much trouble to keep ourselves from giving 
 way to this desire. If we had done so, it would have made 
 us very unhealthy and altogether miserable. We had to 
 keep up our spirits, whatever else we did; and after a while, 
 to help us with this, we got into regular habits; and we set a 
 great clock up in the sky to tell us the time of day. 
 
 The " Great Bear" and all the other constellations of the 
 north go round and round the polar star; and it so happened 
 that I knew the "Great Bear," and the two stars at its side 
 called "the Pointers" because they point to the pole star. 
 Now these two " Pointers," going round once in the four-and- 
 twenty hours, pointed up from the south at one time, and up 
 from the north at another time, and up from the east and 
 
THE DEAN'S STORY. 
 
 99 
 
 from the west in the same way ; and thus we had a clock up 
 in the sky to tell us the time of day, for we had an iceberg 
 picked out all round for every hour, and when "the Pointers" 
 stood over that particular berg we knew what time it was. 
 
 We should have got along through the winter much more 
 comfortably if we had had some books, or some paper to 
 write on, and pen and ink to write with; but these things 
 were quite beyond the reach of our ingenuity. So our life 
 was very monotonous ; doing our daily duties — that is what- 
 ever we might find to do — and after wading through the 
 deep onow in doing it, we came back again to our little hut 
 to get wa;m, and to eat and talk and sleep. 
 
 And much talking we did about each other, and our 
 families and lives, and what great things we should do when 
 we got away from the island. Thus we came gradually to 
 know each other's history, and thus there came to be greater 
 sympathy between us, and more indulgence of each other's 
 whims and fancies, as we got better and better acquainted. 
 
 The Dean had a perfect story to relate of himself. He told 
 me that he was born in the city of York. His father died 
 before he could remember, and his mother was very poor; 
 but so long as she kept her health she managed, in one way 
 or another, to live from day to day by sewing; and she 
 managed too, to send the Dean to school. She loved her 
 bright-haired little boy so very, very much, that she would 
 have spent the last shilling she could hope to earn, could she 
 only give him a little knowledge that might help him on in 
 the world when he grew to be a man. 
 
 And so she stinted herself and saved, all unknown to her 
 boy; and she had not clothing or fire enough to keep her 
 warm in the bleak winter, when the Dean was out; though 
 she had a fine fire when the Dean came back. All would have 
 been well enough if the poor woman had not, with her hard 
 work and her efforts to save, become thin and weak, and 
 
 1 I 
 
 ■ ■ 
 
 i 
 
100 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 grown sick with fever ; and then there was nothing for her 
 but the hospital, for there was no money to pay for medicines, 
 or doctor's bills, to say nothing of rent and fire and clothes. 
 
 And now for the first time the Dean began to realize the 
 situation ; and a vague impression crossed his mind, that the 
 poor, pale woman, now restless with pain on a narrow bed 
 in a long ward of a dreary hospital — his own dear mother, 
 suffering with strange hands only to comfort her — had been 
 brought to this for his sake ; and when she grew better, after 
 a long, long time, but was still far from well, he thought and 
 thought, and cried and cried, and prayed and prayed, and 
 wished that he might do something to show his gratitude, and 
 make amends. 
 
 By and by he got into a factory, and worked there early and 
 late, until he too grew sick, and was carried to the hospital, 
 and was laid beside his poor sick mother, on a narrow bed. 
 But he soon got well again, though his mother did not, and 
 then, all unknown to her ( he could do nothing else ) he went 
 to sea as cabin-boy of a ship sailing to the West Indies, 
 and he came back to ; and with a proud heart beating in his 
 little breast, he carried his little purse of gold and silver coins 
 that the captain gave him to his poor sick mother ; and then 
 he went away again in the same ship, and came back once 
 more with another purse of money, twice as big as the first ; 
 but the good captain that had been so kind to him, and 
 rewarded him so well, fell sick^ and died of yellow fever on 
 the passage home, and the mate, who got command of the 
 ship, being a different sort of man, disliked the Dean, and 
 told him not to come back any more. 
 
 And so the poor Dean didn't know what to do ; until one 
 of his old shipmates met him in the street, and took him off, 
 and shipped him as cabin-boy of the "Blackbird;" "and 
 now here I am," said the poor little Dean, "and all the rest 
 you know, — cast away in the cold, in this awful place, while 
 
■If 
 
 WE VISIT OUR FOX-TRAPS. 
 
 lOI 
 
 my poor sick mother has no money and no friends in the 
 world, and is thinking all the time what a wretch I am to 
 run away and desert her, when God knows, I meant to do 
 nothing of the sort ; " and so he burst out crying, and to tell 
 you the truth, I couldn't help crying a little too. 
 
 But the Dean was a right plucky little fellow, I can tell you, 
 and so full of hope and ambition was he that nothing could 
 keep him down very long; and nothing I believe, could ever 
 make him despond for a single minute but thinking of his 
 mother, sick and far away, without friends or money, lying on 
 a narrow bed, all through the weary, dreary days and nights 
 in the weary, dreary ward of a crowded hospital. Poor Dean ! 
 he had something to make him cry, and something always to 
 make him sad, if he had a mind to be ; but what had I in 
 comparison ? — I, who had run away from home with no good 
 motive like the Dean's. 
 
 After the recital of his story, we were both very sad, until 
 the Dean suddenly roused himself, and said, " Let's go and 
 look at our traps. Hardy;" and so we sallied out into the 
 moonlight, and waded through the snow, to see if there were 
 foxes in our traps. But to get outside our hut was not so 
 easy a matter now as it was when we first built it ; for in order 
 to keep the cold winds away, we had made a long, low, 
 narrow passage, with a crook in it, through which we crawled 
 on our hands and knees, before we reached the door. 
 
 We walked all the way round the island, and visited all our 
 traps, of which we had seventeen, but only two of them had 
 foxes in them ; the others were either filled with snow, or were 
 completely covered over with it, for the wind had been 
 blowing very hard the day before. 
 
 And now, as we got farther and farther into the winter, 
 we began to have some very strange adventures — altogether 
 different from anything we had encountered before. 
 
 ic4 ^' 
 
 , I,, I, 
 
 I 
 
11 
 
 :l 
 
 ]v 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Seal Catching—Polar Bears. 
 
 HE winter having fairly set in, our field 
 of operations was much enlarged, 
 and although the birds had all flown 
 away, we were hardly worse ofif than 
 before; for all through the summer 
 we had been kept close prisoners on 
 the island; but now, when the ice 
 W.-S solid all over the sea, we could 
 walk out upon it, and this we did as 
 soon as it would bear our weight. 
 
 Once the little Dean broke through, being careless where 
 he was stepping ; but I got him out, with no more harm than 
 a cold bath and a fright. 
 
 Soon after this we made a valuable discovery. 
 Some of the arctic seals have a habit, when the sea is frozen 
 over, of cutting holes through the ice with their sharp claws, 
 in order that they may get their heads above the water to 
 obtain air, — the seals not being able to breathe under water, 
 like ^sh. 
 
 They can keep their heads under water about an hour, by 
 closing up their nostrils, so that not a drop can get in ; and 
 during that time, they do not breathe at all ; but at last they 
 must lind the open sea, or a crack in the ice, or else dig a 
 hole through the ice from below, and thus get their heads to 
 the surface in some way, or they would drown. 
 
 As we then knew nothing about the habits of the seals in 
 this respect, I was very much surprised one day, while 
 
" OLD CRUMPLY. 
 
 103 
 
 walking over ice that was everywhere apparently very solid, 
 to find one of my feet suddenly break through. 
 
 I was carrying at the time our great narwhal horn, which 
 had already been used for so many purposes ; and when I had 
 got my foot, as quickly as possible, out of .the cold water, I 
 pounded with the heavy horn all about the place, and found 
 that there was a large round hole there, that had evidently 
 been made by some animal ; and I could think of nothing else 
 as likely to have made it but a seal. 
 
 The reason why I had not seen it was because the snow 
 had drifted over it in a hard crust, and through this crust the 
 seal kept open with his nose a small orifice for breathing, 
 that was not larger round than a crownpiece. 
 
 This discovery set us off in quite a new line of adventure, — for 
 having decided what it was, we concluded there must be more 
 like it, and we went in search of them immediately. Our search 
 was soon rewarded, for these seal-holes were very numerous. 
 
 How to catch a seal was the question which now most 
 occupied-our minds. 
 
 The difficulty was very great, for we had no weapons of any 
 sort for such a purpose. Once more however, we fell back 
 upon the narwhal horn. 
 
 To this horn we had already become much attached, and as 
 if to express our gratitude, we had bestowed upon it several 
 names, — as for instance, " Life-preserver," " Crumply Crow- 
 bar," "The Castaway's Friend," " Old Crumply," which 
 last title finally stuck to it. 
 
 Besides this " Old Crumply/' we made another weapon, in 
 quite an ingenious way as we thought, though at a great 
 expense of time and labour. 
 
 This was called by several names, like the other ; but 
 generally I called it the " Dean's Delight," for it was made 
 after the Dean's idea, and he used to flourish it about at a 
 great rate, and was very proud of it. 
 
 3 ! 
 
 '^1 
 
 
 I i 
 
 '» I 
 
 f :. !• 
 
 ' 
 
 
104 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 ii 
 
 ■ I 
 
 It was simply a kind of spear made by lashing together 
 (after carefully cutting with our knife, and fitting and 
 overlapping) a great many pieces of bones. The lashing was 
 the same string we had before used for the duck-traps. It 
 was very strong, though not half so heavy as " Old Crumply." 
 
 But though we had "Old Crumply," and the "Dean's 
 Delight," we were apparently just as far off as ever from 
 catching a seal ; for although the " Delight" was tipped with 
 hard ivory (a piece of walrus tusk c arved into shape with the 
 jack-knife), and " Crumply" was of the very best kind of ivory 
 throughout, yet we could not sharpen either of them so as to 
 be of much use. 
 
 But, remembering the general shape of the harpoon-heads 
 used in whale ships, I managed to carve one of that pattern 
 out of walrus ivory, and this I set on the end of the *' Dean's 
 Delight," and then, making a hole in the centre of it, I 
 fastened it to the end of one of our long lines. 
 
 And thus I had obtained all that was needed, in name at 
 least, for catching a seal; but only in name, as was soon 
 proved; for the Dean and I set out at once to try our fortunes 
 in this new line of adventure, and discovering a seal-hole, we 
 stood near it (on the leeward side, that the seal might not 
 scent us) until the animal appeared, which was not for a long 
 time, and not until we had grown very cold. 
 
 The seal had evidently been off breathing in another hole. 
 When he did come up, we knew it by a little puff he gave, 
 which threw some spray up through the little orifice in the 
 snow-crust. 
 
 Quick as thought I plunged the "Dean's Delight" down 
 into the very centre of the hole, and struck the animal; but 
 the ivory harpoon-head that was on the end of it only glanced' 
 off, without penetrating the skin; and the seal, no doubt 
 very much astonished, got off as quickly as he could, more 
 frightened probably than hurt ; at least, we heard of him no 
 
SEAL CATCHING. 
 
 J 05 
 
 more. He never came back to the hole, for it was all frozen 
 over next day, and so it remained. 
 
 We afterwards discovered that when a seal-hole has been 
 once touched, the seal will never go back to it. 
 
 I was now more puzzled than ever to know what to do; but 
 I did not give up trying, determined to succeed one way or 
 another. 
 
 Presently it occurred to me that almost anything that was 
 hard would answer to sharpen the edge and point of the ivory 
 harpoon-head, and since I could not get any kind of metal to 
 make a whole harpoon-head out of, I had to try some other 
 plan. 
 
 As good luck would have it, I now thought of the brass 
 buttons on my coat. Some of these I quickly tore off. Then 
 I hacked my knife with a sharp flint stone until I had made 
 a saw of it, and with this saw I cut a little groove along the 
 tapering point of the ivory harpoon-head; and into this 
 groove, which was about a quarter of an inch deep, I set the 
 buttons, \^hich I had squared with the knife, and then wedged 
 them firmly. 
 
 I had now only to grind all these bits of brass down even, 
 and to sharpen the whole with a stone, and my work was 
 done. The only thing remaining was to put the weapon to 
 the test; and this we quickly did. 
 
 A seal-hole being soon found, we had not long to wait 
 before the seal came into it, with a little puff, as before ; and 
 as quick as the noise was heard, I let fly with my harpoon, 
 and striking through the snow-crust, hit the seal fairly in the 
 neck, and drove the harpoon into him. 
 
 Down sank the seal through the hole, taking the harpoon 
 along with him, and spinning out the line which was attached 
 to it at a furious rate. 
 
 Before the seal was struck, and while I was watching for 
 him, the Dean had quietly tied the end of the line that was 
 
 
 ! ! 
 
 (3 
 
 I 
 
 il 
 
io6 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 not fast to the harpoon around the middle of "Old Crumply," 
 and when the seal decended into the sea, "Old Crumply" 
 was whipped along over the snow until it lodged right across 
 the hole, and there the seal was — •* brought up with a round 
 turn, " as the sailors say. 
 
 And now was anybody ever so rejoiced as we ? The Dean 
 fairly shouted with delight, and danced round the hole as if 
 he were crazy, crying "Bravo, bravo!" and "Hurrah for 
 Crumply! " and " Hurrah for Old Crumply! " and hurrah for 
 this, and hurrah for that, until he was fairly hoarse. 
 
 Meanwhile the seal was trying his best to get away. He 
 darted from side to side, and up and down, without any other 
 result than to tire himself out ; for the harpoon held firmly in 
 his body, and the line held firmly to "Old Crumply," and 
 "Old Crumply" lay squarely across the hole. 
 
 By and by the seal was forced to come up to breathe ; and 
 since there was no other place for him, he had to return to the 
 hole where he had been struck. But he did not stay more 
 than a second or so, going down as quickly as he had done 
 before. 
 
 As soon as the line was loosened, however, we drew in the 
 slack, and wound it around "Old Crumply," so that the seal 
 did not have so much of it now to play with. Nor did he 
 remain under so long the second time. When he came up 
 again, we got in all the slack of the line that we could, as 
 before. 
 
 It was now clear to us that we should be sure of the seal, 
 if we only had something to kill him with ; and so the quick- 
 witted Dean ran off at once to the hut, and brought a walrus 
 tusk that we had saved. 
 
 This was driven into the hard snow not far from the hole, 
 and while the Dean held it there firmly, I got the line made 
 fast around it. As soon as I saw that this was secure, and 
 that the Dean was holding on bravely, I unfastened the line 
 
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 f 1 
 
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 anc 
 
 frig 
 
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 hii 
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A SUPPER OFF SEAL. 
 
 107 
 
 from "Old Crumply," and when the seal came next time, I 
 gave him a heavy thrust v/ith the sharp end of it. 
 
 But this did not kill him by any means, nor did he give me 
 another chance for some time. 
 
 Then however, he was almost dead with bleeding, and 
 fright, and hard struggling to get away, to say nothing of 
 holding his breath so long ; but I wanted him too badly to 
 have any mercy on him, so I worked away as hard as I could 
 to get in all the line, so that the seal could not sink down 
 through the hole any more. 
 
 At last I was successful, and the seal was fast in the hole, 
 and with all his struggling he could not get away. With the 
 aid of "Old Crumply," I now quickly made an end of him. 
 As soon as he was dead, we drew him out on the ice, and 
 rejoiced over him. 
 
 Such shouting never was before known, at least in that part 
 of the world. If anybody could have heard and seen us, we 
 should have surely been taken up for insane people, especially 
 the Dean, whdse joy knew no bounds. 
 
 Having no sledge, we had to drag the dead seal over the 
 ice and snow, for which purpose we made the line fast through 
 his nose. It was a very difficult task to get him to the hut ; 
 and when we did at last succeed, we found that the seal was 
 partly frozen, so that we were obliged to draw it inside the 
 hut, and then thaw it, before we could get the skin off, which 
 made the hut very disagreeable. 
 
 After the skin and blubber were removed, we cut off some 
 of the flesh, and made for ourselves a good hot supper, — first 
 cooking a stew in our soapstone pot, and then frying some 
 steaks on a flat stone ; and if anything was. before wanting to 
 make us happy over the capture of so great a prize, we had it 
 now when we discovered what excellent food it was, and what 
 a quantity there vv^as of it. 
 
 When we had finished butchering the seal, we prepared the 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
io8 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 skin for making boots ; and we put the blubber and flesh 
 away in our storehouses for future use, — the flesh for food, 
 rnd the blubber for our fire and lamp. 
 
 Then we slept, and the very next day we set out to catch 
 more seals, without however, the same success, for we were 
 unfortunate in every attempt ; and it was indeed, almost a 
 week I think, before we made a second capture. 
 
 Some time afterwards we caught a third, and then a fourth, 
 and by great good fortune on the very same day a fifth ; and 
 not long after that we caught another, which made the sixth. 
 
 But it would have been well had we been content with five, 
 without coveting a sixth, as this last had like to have been the 
 ruin of us ; for as we were going slowly back to the hut, 
 dragging the seal after us, and all unsuspicious of harm, we 
 were set upon by a large white beast, the like of which we 
 had never seen before, but which we knew must be one of 
 those savage animals called polar bears. 
 
 He was not coming rapidly, but was rather crawling along 
 cautiously, with mouth wide open, looking very fierce. 
 
 As soon as we discovered him we dropped the line with 
 which we were dragging the seal, and ran as fast as our legs 
 would carry us, never stopping until we had reached the hut, 
 and crawled into it, — not once having had the courage to look 
 back, for at every step we expected that the bear would be 
 atop of us. 
 
 We had left "Old Crumply" and 'Dean's Delight" where 
 we captured the seal, intending to go for them the next day ; 
 and having no weapon of any kind, we were in the greatest 
 terror, expecting every moment to hear the bear coming to 
 tear the hut down, and drag us out, and probably eat us. 
 
 But finding that we were not disturbed, we at length fell 
 asleep from sheer exhaustion. 
 
 Upon awaking the next day, and finding that we had been 
 suffered to go undisturbed thus long, we began to wonder 
 
THE POLAR BEAR. 
 
 luQ 
 
 whether we had not been needlessly alarmed, and finally we 
 set to wondering whether we had really seen a bear after all, 
 and at length we grew to feel quite ashamed of ourselves. 
 
 So we put on a little bravado, like the boy that whistled in 
 the dark to keep his courage up, and went out, cautiously 
 approaching the spot where we had left the seal. 
 
 Arriving there we had positive proof enough, if any were 
 wanting, that we had certainly seen a bear. The bones of 
 the seal were all strewn about over the snow, picked as clean 
 as could be- Some foxes were gnawing at them, as we came 
 up ; but they all scampered oif when they saw us coming. 
 
 Hurrying on, we picked up " Old Crumply " and " Dean's 
 Delight," and then hastened back to the hut, which we 
 reached without any further adventure ; but on the day 
 following, upon going out to visit our fox-traps, we came 
 across the bear's tracks, from which it was evident to us that 
 the wild beast was prowling round the island, where he had 
 already obtained one good meal, and was in hopes, no doubt, 
 of getting another; and so we ran back to the hut with all 
 speed, imagining as we went along, that every rock and 
 snow-drift was a bear. 
 
 We had now even greater fears than before that we should 
 be attacked and eaten up by the wild beast. 
 
 It did not once occur to us that the bear would be much 
 more likely to prefer the contents of our storehouses to our- 
 selves, if he came that way, but we thought onl}' of our own 
 safety; and this was perhaps not unnatural, for boys and men 
 alike are everywhere liable to magnify their own importance, 
 even in the eyes of a bear. 
 
 We had not been in the hut more than a couple of hours, 
 I should say, before we heard the tramp of our enemy. We 
 knew it must be the footsteps of the bear, because it could be 
 nothing else. Our fears were now even greater than ever. 
 
 The bear appeared from the sound of his footsteps, crunch- 
 
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 1;' 
 
 J 
 
 (I 
 
 I 
 
 !• i 
 
 I 
 
 
 i 
 
no 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 ing in the snow, to be making directly for us, sniffing the air 
 as he came along, apparently enjoying in advance a supper 
 that he felt quite sure of. He seemed to halt at every step or 
 so, as if greatly relishing the prospect. 
 
 At last he came very near, and we expected at every instant 
 to set his head appear at the window, preparatory to tearing 
 down the wall. 
 
 Resolved to sell our lives as dearly as possible, we grasped 
 our weapons firmly, the Dean his "Delight" and I "Old 
 Crumply," to the end of which I had firmly lashed the jack- 
 knife, after grinding it very sharp on a stone, and giving it 
 a good point. 
 
 As the knife blade was quite long, I had strong hopes of 
 giving the bear such a wound, when he appeared at the 
 window, as might be the death of him, or at any rate, frighten 
 him so badly that he would be glad to run away, and not 
 come back any more. 
 
 Nearer and nearer came the bear, and greater grew our 
 alarm. Our hearts beat violently in our breasts, our faces 
 were pale as death ; we held our breath, as if fearful of 
 making the least noise to give the bear encouragement. 
 
 At length the enemy gave a sudden start. It seemed to us 
 as if he had now made a dash at the window, so we both rose 
 to our feet, with our weapons ready to meet him ; but to our 
 great joy and relief, the sound of his footsteps showed that 
 the beast was retreating, rather than advancing, and was 
 moving more rapidly. 
 
 A moment afterwards we heard the rattle of stones, and 
 now, from fear for ourselves, we passed instantly to fear for 
 our stores ; for we knew that it was our stores, and not we, 
 that he was after, and that he must be tearing down one of 
 our principal storehouses. And what if he should tear them 
 all down, and eat up all our food and fuel ? It was a fearful 
 thought. 
 
WE PURSUE THE BEAR. 
 
 Ill 
 
 How often do we pass almost insensibly from the greatest 
 terror to the greatest courage ! Relieved now from all imme- 
 diate personal apprehension, we felt at once inspired to 
 protect our property, on the safety of which our lives 
 depended. 
 
 We ceased at once to feel like standing passively on the 
 defensive, but immediately crawled out of the hut to do some- 
 thing, — exactly what we did not know. Our thoughts had 
 indeed hardly time to take shape in our minds, so quickly had 
 the change come in the situation and in our feelings. 
 
 The bear was plainly in sight as soon as we got outside, 
 tearing down our storehouse, as we had expected; but he 
 appeared not to be thinking of us at all. 
 
 Without reflecting in the least what I was about, but filled 
 only with alarm at the prospect of losing our food and fuel, 
 I set up a loud shout, in which the Dean joined; and to our 
 great astonishment, the huge beast that had caused us so 
 much terror, took fright himself, and without looking round, 
 or stopping a moment, he made a great bound, and tore away 
 over the rocks, plunging through the snow-drifts, and rolling 
 down the hill into the valley where we had dug the turf, in 
 R most ridiculous manner. 
 
 We passed now from a state of the greatest terror to a feel- 
 ing of perfect safety, and in such an unexpected manner too, 
 that we laughed outright ; and we thought that we had been 
 very foolish to be so frightened, and looked upon our enemy 
 as a great coward. 
 
 So we concluded that an animal who was so easily scared 
 as that would never attack us ; and therefore, getting our 
 weapons, we followed after him hoping to drive him from the 
 island. The jumps that he. had made were immense, showing 
 clearly the state of his mind. 
 
 Following the tracks of the bear, we came very soon in 
 full view of the beach where the carcase of the narwhal was 
 
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 I 
 
 ;^: 
 
 ■ 
 
 
112 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 1 
 » i 
 
 il 
 
 t i 
 
 lying half buried in ice and snow. The tracks led in that 
 direction, and finally pointed straight to the spot. 
 
 He had in his flight evidently smelled the old narwhal, and 
 remembering only that he was hungry, had stopped there; 
 for presently we caught sight of him, tearing away at the 
 narwhal with as much energy as he had before wasted upon 
 our storehouse. 
 
 We had come quite near before we saw him; and now our 
 spirits underwent another sudden change, and our minds 
 were once more filled with such feelings of respect for the 
 bear, that we turned about immediately, and beat a hasty 
 retreat: and when once more under the shelter of the hut, 
 prepared again to stand on the defensive. 
 
 All we could now do was to watch the bear closely. So 
 long as the old narwhal lasted, we felt that we were safe 
 enough, even after he had apparently satisfied himself with a 
 good meal, and had gone away, as seemed likely, to sleep. 
 
 He would certainly, however, come back to the narwhal 
 again when he got hungry; but now, worse than ever, when 
 he did come back, there were two other bears with him, and 
 all three of them were tearing away at the carcase of the dead 
 narwhal. These last two were quite small ones,— the 
 smaller not being larger than a big Newfoundland dog. 
 
 With this discovery all our newly found courage took rapid 
 flight, and we were overtaken with even greater terror than 
 before. 
 
 That the narwhal would soon all be gone seemed plain 
 enough, with three bears feeding upon it; and then when 
 this feeding was over, the first bear, knowing where our 
 storehouse was and forgetting his fright, and having two 
 bears and perhaps by that time even more to help him, we 
 were sure he would soon come back again. 
 
 It seemed as if a great crisis had now come in our fortunes, 
 and what to do we did not know, and what was to become of 
 us we could not imagine. We were in great trouble. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A Bear Chask. 
 
 T was a long time before the bears finished the 
 old narwhal ; but finding how much they were 
 occupied in that quarter, we went to our store- 
 houses and brought all our stores away, and 
 stowed them close to the mouth of the hut, thinking that if 
 they were discovered, we should be better able to protect 
 them. 
 
 First, however, we built up two solid snow-walls, about three 
 feet apart, and as high as our heads, directly on a line with 
 the entrance to our hut, so that when we went outside we 
 walked right between them. 
 
 Then, behind these walls, we piled all the birds, seal-fiesh, 
 and eggs that we had for food, and all the blubber (now 
 frozen quite hard) that we had for fuel, — the former on the 
 right-hand side (going out), and the latter on the ^.eft. 
 
 Having done this, we covered the whole over with snow 
 several feet deep; and as a still further protection against 
 our enemies the bears, we built up a wall all round in front of 
 the hut where there were no high rocks. Through this wall 
 we left only one small hole to crawl through when we went 
 out; and, when we came inside, we carefully closed it up 
 with some large blocks of snow. 
 
 But we did not go outside much, being afraid; and,*at 
 length, when one of the bears was discovered prowling about 
 very near the hut, we drew within our fortification, closed the 
 opening in the wall as tightly as possible, and were prepared 
 for a siege. 
 
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 I 
 
 ■V. :l: 
 
 ti'f 
 
 
 
114 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 At first we did not sleep much, being all the time fearful of 
 attack ; but gaining courage as we found, day after day, that 
 the bears did not come to molest us, we at length fell asleep 
 both together ; and it was while we were thus asleep that the 
 bears discovered us ; and before either of us awoke they had 
 actually scaled the wall of our snow fort, and advanced to 
 where our food and fuel were stowed, close to the mouth of 
 the hut, and were tearing through the snow to get at it. 
 
 We were much frightened, — or I might perhaps better say 
 alarmed, as we felt quite secure ourselves for the present, 
 since the bears would not be likely to trouble us so long as 
 there was anything else to eat ; but then ihey might just as 
 well eat us first, and the stores afterwards, as to eat the stores 
 first ; for then we must surely starve and freeze, which would 
 be quite as bad. 
 
 We became now fully aroused to a sense of our unhappy 
 position, and the first feeling of alarm having passed ov^er, we 
 began seriously to reflect upon what we should do; for 
 somr thing had to be done, and that very quickly. 
 
 I looked out through the window, and therj were the bears 
 all crowded together in the narrow passage ; and one of them 
 had already got among the frozen ducks, which were 
 tumbling out in the snow at his feet, and he had one in his 
 mouth, crunching away at it in such a manner as to leave no 
 doubt that he w is either very hungry or was in a violent 
 hurry,— growling all the while with each crunch he gave, to 
 keep away the other two bears. 
 
 This bear was much the largest of the three ; indeed, the 
 smallest one was not larger than a Newfoundland dog, — so 
 not only was he a destructive, but what a selfish beast he 
 was. 
 
 From alarm we now got to be angry, as we observed the 
 liberties these bears were taking with our food, and the little 
 ceremony they made of eating up, in this wholesale manner, 
 
OKI 
 
 I 
 
 9 
 
 . 
 
 WE ATTACK THE BEAR. 
 
 115 
 
 that which had c it us so much hard labour, and upon which 
 our very lives now depended. 
 
 I seized "Old Crumply" in very desperation, and asked 
 the Dean it he would follow me. 
 
 "What!" exclaimed he, "you don't mean to attack 
 them?" 
 
 "That's just what I am going to do," said I; "and if you 
 can do anything with 'The Delight,' now'fi your chance." 
 
 "I'll standby you," said the Dean, gr?.sping his weapon; 
 "better to be killed outright by the bears than to let t.iem 
 starve us to death, and then perhaps kill us afterwards." 
 
 Desperate as was our condition, I could not help being 
 amused by the Dean's way of putting the matter, — "first 
 starved to death, and then killed;" and I think this little 
 speech, turned in that happy though awkward way, did a 
 great deal to stiffen up my courage. 
 
 I crawled out through the door and passage-way of the hut 
 (which I have told you was not high enough for us to stand 
 upright in), and upon coming near the end of it, there was 
 the bear within three feet of me. His head was turned away, 
 and his nose was all buried up in the snow; for Y'^t had swal- 
 lowed his duck, and was getting a fresh one, 5,0 that he did 
 not see me. 
 
 My heart seemed to be in my mouth, — so close to the 
 dreadful monster, — so ferocious and fearful did he appear a'< 
 I looked up at him. Had I been alone, I think I should have 
 retreated; but here was the Dean behind me, and I was 
 ashamed to back out, having gone thus far. 
 
 Summoning all my courage, therefore, I brought forward my 
 spear, grasped it with both hands, and plunged it with all my 
 fore 2 into the animal's neck, just behind the lower jaw and 
 below the ear. 
 
 It was a fortunate stroke. 
 
 I had evidently, by chance, cut some great blood vessel, 
 
 ii::! ^ 
 
 !i I- 
 - I; 
 
 
 '"«» 
 
ill 
 
 n6 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 for the blood gushed from the wound in a regular stream. 
 The bear dropped his duck very quickly, I can tell you. 
 He was probably never so much astonished in all his life 
 before. 
 
 1 had come upon him so stealthily, and he was so absorbed 
 in what he was about, that he had never once suspected the 
 presence of an enemy, but thought himself no doubt, a very 
 lucky bear to find such a dinner ready caught for him. 
 
 But I caused him to sing another tune than to be constantly 
 growling to frighten off the little bears, for he roared with 
 terror, so that you might have heard him full half a mile; 
 and finding that he could not wheel round as quickly as he 
 wanted to, he roared again, louder than before, which 
 sounded so dreadful that I drev/ back into the hut quite 
 instinctively, and thus lost the opportunity of giving him 
 another thrust, which I might very well have done, in the 
 side. 
 
 When he had £ ■". wheeled round, he rolled over the other 
 two bears, and the three together, all roaring very loud, rolled 
 against the snow- wall of our fort, and broke it down; and 
 now, as soon as they could scramble to their legs again, they 
 hurried away through the snow down into the valley, — the 
 smallest one trying hard to keep up, and whining piteously 
 all the while, as if he were afraid something would catch 
 him ; and now, just as we had done before, when we had with 
 our should frightened the bears away when they had first 
 come to disturb us, we ran after them, little thinking in the 
 iBxcitement.of the moment of danger. 
 
 We found that the bear I had wounded held straight down 
 the valley, as was easily told by the red streak he left behind 
 him on the snow. The other two turned to the right, and ran 
 over in the direction of the old narwhal. 
 
 Following the red streak, we soon came down to the beach ; 
 and then, climbing over the rough ice which the tide had 
 
DEATH OF THE REAR. 
 
 117 
 
 piled up, we were quickly upon the frozen sea, hurrying on as 
 fast as we could go. 
 
 Indeed no feeling of fear ever crossed our minds; for the 
 great quantity of blood that the bear left behind him somehow 
 or other went to convince us, without reflection even, that the 
 bear must be dead, and that we should presently come upon 
 him. 
 
 While hurrying on at this rate, our spirits received a sudden 
 check; for we did at length come upon the bear sure enough. 
 As soon as we saw him we forgot all our courageous resolu- 
 tions ii mediately, and wheeling about in great alarm, we ran 
 back towards the hut. 
 
 Finding, however, that we were not pursued, we turned 
 <'xbout again; and proceeding more cautiously this time, we 
 €.../» in a little while in sight of the bear again, very near 
 where he was before ; but now he was clearly by no means a 
 formidable enemy ; for he was going along very slowly, and 
 making a crooked track. 
 
 Directly afterwards he fell over; and in a little while, we 
 went up to him and found him dead, — having bled to death 
 from the wound I had given him. 
 
 Imagine how rejoiced we were ; for now we had an enor- 
 mous supply of food, and a fine bear-skin besides; so I lost no 
 time in unlashing the knife-blade from the end of "Old 
 Crumply," and with this we began to butcher him. 
 
 It V '.s ?>. v^ery cold and tedious operation; but we got 
 throu^T '/.h t at last, and then burying all of the flesh in the 
 snow excep t a small piece that we wanted for supper, we re- 
 turned to the hut, dragging the skin after us, the Dean 
 whistling all the way, 'Bonaparte crossing the Alps,' which 
 he had picked up, as he told me, from a Frenchman in 
 Havana. 
 
 While we were coming up the valley towards the hut, in 
 th!' i vely state of mind, the Dean stopped suddenly, and 
 
 \U 
 
 
ii8 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 said: *' Suppose Hardy, the other two bears have taken a 
 notion to come back ; ' ' and he was right ; for we came 
 presently in sight of one of them, very near the hut, and 
 making directly for it. 
 
 As soon as he saw us, however, he ran away. So we took a 
 good laugh at his expense, and thinking the other one must be 
 near him though not in sight, we proceeded on our way. 
 
 Fortunately, however, before seeing the bear, we halted long 
 enough to secure the knife-blade again on the end of "Old 
 Crumply ; " and it was well that I did this, for when we arrived 
 at the broken wall where the bears had made their way out, 
 much to our surprise, we came right upon the other bear, 
 close up to the mouth of the hut, huLj dlowing a duck. 
 This was the smallest of the three bears, ad he could not 
 have been more than a year or so old. 
 
 No sooner did he hear us than he, like the other one, be- 
 came alarmed ; but, seeing that the road by which he had 
 entered was blocked up, he did not try to escape in that way, 
 nor did he appear to have the least idea that he had only to 
 charge upon us to see how quickly he would clear the passage ; 
 for, instead of doing this, he rushed forward and darted into 
 our hut, no doubt thinking that would lead to a place of 
 safety. 
 
 I do not exactly know by what motive I was impelled, but I 
 suppose the same that governed me on several other occa- 
 sions ; that is, a general one belonging to almost all human 
 beings, and indeed, to most animals, — to chase whatever 
 runs away, and to run away from whatever chases. 
 
 At any rate, I rushed up to the doorway of the hut, I 
 believe without any idea at all in my head and without giving 
 much thought about it, and had like to have got into a great 
 scrape ; for the bear, having found that the hut gave him no 
 chance of escape, had turned about, and was coming out 
 again. 
 
A SECOND FIGHT WITH A BEAR. 
 
 119 
 
 I was wholly unprepared for him, so hasty had I been. I 
 could not run, and therefore quite mechanically, I hit him in 
 the face with the sharp point of "Old Crumply," which sent 
 him back into the hut again, and made him roar in a dread- 
 ful manner, as if he were half killed. 
 
 I knew I must have hit him on some tender spot, — the eye 
 it proved to be afterwards, so he was half blind as well as 
 half dead. 
 
 It was very unfortunate that I had not let him go, or killed 
 him outright ; for we could now hear him tearing everything 
 to pieces in our hut, trying to find a place of escape. 
 
 The wall between our sleeping-place and our closet was 
 first knocked over, as he scramb]ed about ; and there was no 
 doubt that our pots and lamps were all broken to pieces. 
 
 It was like a roaring bull in a china shop, and we wished 
 many times that he was only out and off ; and if he had only 
 known our minds upon the subject, a compromise would have 
 been speedily made, and the bear might have gone scot-free 
 on condition of his doing no further mischief. 
 
 The bear was not long in discovering the window. Now 
 the window being very small, it was evident that if he 
 attempted it, he would do us a great damage, for he could 
 only pass through by knocking down some part of the 
 wall. 
 
 No sooner, therefore, had his head appeared in that 
 quarter, than the Dean charged him most gallantly with the 
 "Delight," and gave him such a tremendous blow on the 
 nose that he was glad enough to draw his head in again, 
 which he did with a piteous cry. Then he became quiet for 
 awhile, as if meditating upon what course it was best for him 
 now to pursue. 
 
 Availing myself of this little pause, I exchanged weapons 
 with the Dean, and fixing the harpoon head on the end of the 
 '• Delight," I tied the other end of the line, which was fast to 
 
 I 
 
 I i 
 
 i-l ' ! 
 
 s 
 
120 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 it, round a large stone which lay across the entrance to the 
 hut. 
 
 This I did because I thought that there might be a possible 
 chance of catching the bear; and that if we could only 
 induce him to nm out, I might harpoon him as he passed, 
 and the stone would hold him fast until we could find some 
 way of despatching him. 
 
 No sooner had these preparations been made than the bear 
 was again in motion , and now he gave a roar that seemed 
 loud enough to have rattled the whole hut down about his 
 ears. 
 
 This time he had clearly tried the chimney, and had not 
 only scattered the burning moss and fat all about the hut, 
 but had set himself on fire into the bargain ; for a great 
 volume of smoke came out through the window, which 
 smelled of burning hair. 
 
 The screams of the bear were now pitiful to hear, and in 
 very desperation he once more tried the window, when the 
 Dean quickly gave him a crack with " Old Crumply," which 
 sent him back again. 
 
 Grown now utterly reckless, he bolted right through the 
 door. I was ready for him, standing on the top of the pas- 
 sage-\'r.; and on the stone to which the harpoon line was 
 made fast. As the bear came under me, I let drive with the 
 harpoon, and stuck him in the back. And then away he 
 dashed, plunging through the snow, smokiu^ and blazing all 
 over. 
 
 He had evidently rolled all about in our burning fat and 
 moss, as bits of burning moss were sticking to him, setting 
 his hair all on fire, and no doubt scorching his skin to a 
 degree that must have made a dive into the snow very com- 
 fortable indeed. 
 
 As soon as he had run out all the line, the stone under my 
 feet, instead of holding fast, gave way, pitching me after the 
 
FIRE IN THE HUT. 
 
 121 
 
 bear, and turning me quite upside down. 1 landed head- 
 foremost in a snow-bank. 
 
 The burning bear went rushing and roaring away, dragging 
 the big stone after him ; but not far, however, for he fell over 
 and died quickly, no doubt partly from fright, but chiefly 
 perhaps from his wounds and his severe bums. 
 
 Having got rid of the bear, we gave him no further thought 
 for the present, but rushed into the hut to see what mischief 
 had been done there. The smoke was at first so thick that 
 we were almost smothered by it. 
 
 Our cloth coats and part of our fur bedding were all mixed 
 up with the burning moss upon the floor, and were being 
 rapidly destroyed. As we had feared, the pots and lamps 
 were all broken ; and in short, the inside of the hut was in 
 a very sorry state. 
 
 It was a long time before we fully repaired all the damage 
 the bear had done, and we suffered much inconvenience and 
 discomfort before we replaced our pots, cups, and lamps. 
 
 When we had, however, at last done all this, we were not 
 sorry that the bears had come to disturb us, but on the other 
 hand were rather rejoiced; for we were now in all respects 
 just as comfortable as ever, and had besides, a large warm 
 bear-skin to sleep on, and one more variety of food added to 
 our list, and that too, in such quantity that there was no fear 
 of our coming to want very soon. 
 
 
 if 
 
 
 : \ 
 
 lU 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Our Second and Third Summer and Second and 
 Third Winter— An Unexpected Arrival. 
 
 HILE all these adventures of the hunt 
 and other matters were happening, 
 the winter was passing rapidly away, 
 and indeed was soon gone ; and from 
 what I have before said about the arctic 
 seasons it will be understood that when 
 the winter was at an end the darkness 
 was at an end too ; that is, to be more particular, 
 first there came a little flush of light at noon, to 
 see which made us very glad. 
 
 And after this, from day to day, the light grew brighter and 
 brighter, until it was almost broad daylight, as it is here just 
 before the sun has risen in the morning ; then the sun came 
 up next day only a little way above the horizon (of course 
 right in the south) ; and then next day it was a little higher, 
 and the next day a little higher still ; and then by and by it 
 was (as it had been in the summer-time before) circling round 
 and roundjUs, shining all the time ; and now our hut was at 
 midnight in the shadow of the cliff, and at noon the sun was 
 blazing down upon us, softening the snow, and making our 
 hearts, O, more happy and thankful than I can tell. 
 
 I thought I never in all my life saw anything so splendid as 
 the sun's bright force, when he appeared for the first time 
 after this/ long dark winter. For we were more than one hun- 
 
ANOTHER SUMMER. 
 
 '23 
 
 dred and twenty days without once setting eyes upon the sun 
 at all ; and now, when he did rise after this long interval, 
 what could we do but take off our caps and whirl them round 
 and round our heads, in very joy and gladness ? 
 
 The summer now came on steadily, and the temperature 
 became warmer every day. The spring was passing into 
 summer, and early in the month of June the snow began to 
 melt in good earnest, and by July great streams of melted 
 snow went dashing and roaring over the cliffs, and through 
 the gorges, to the sea. 
 
 And the sea too, quickly began to show the influence of the 
 summer heat ; for the ice grew rotten shortly, and from being 
 white it got to be quite dark, and we could no longer go out 
 upon it with any safety, except in one particular direction, 
 towards the east, where it was much thicker than in any 
 other place. 
 
 Then strong winds came, and the ice was broken up, and 
 after that it went drifting here and there to right and left, up 
 and down upon the sea, according as the winds were blowing. 
 
 And now once more we kept a sharp look-out for ships, 
 hoping every day that that would be the day of our deliver- 
 ance. And so we lived on as we had done before, every day 
 adding one more disappointment to the list, for no ship came. 
 
 Thus watching, waiting, hoping on, we grew restless with 
 anxiety, and were more unhappy than we had ever been in 
 the gloomy winter that had passed away. 
 
 But the summer brought some pleasure to us. As soon as 
 the snow had gone the grass grew green upon the hillside, 
 and the tiny little plants put out their leaves ; then the tiny 
 little flowers began to bloom brightly, turning up their 
 pleasant faces to the ever- smiling sun. 
 
 And the birds came back again ; the eider-ducks and the 
 little auks, and great flocks of geese and gulls, all looking 
 out for places where to make their nests ; and they fairly kept 
 
 I' I 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 il 
 I 
 
 i I 
 
 !^ ill 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
124 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 the air alive with the flutter of their wings, and their ** quack, 
 quack, quack," and their gladsome screams, as they hurried 
 to and fro. 
 
 And then bright yellow butterflies and little bees came 
 fluttering and buzzing about the little flowers, and all was life 
 and happiness and brightness in the air about us ; but there 
 was no one there to look at us and see how heavy were our 
 hearts at times. 
 
 But not on our desert island alone was nature full of life 
 and gaiety. The seals, as if glad that summer had once 
 more returned, crawled out upon the ice and lay there on it 
 where it floated in the water, basking in the sun. 
 
 There were hundreds and hundreds of them to be seen 
 almost every day ; and, besides the seals, the walruses with 
 their great long hideous-looking tusks and ugly and ungrace- 
 ful bodies came up too ; and the narwhals, also, with their 
 long ivory horns, and the white whales, were to be seen at 
 almost any time, " spouting" round about us in the sea. 
 
 And besides all this life in the sea, and in the air, and on 
 the land, we now and then saw a large white bear, prowling 
 about upon the floating ice-fields, seeking seals to feed upon, 
 and when tired of one ice-field, springing into the water, and 
 swimming away to another. 
 
 Thus it will be seen, that if we were upon a desert island in 
 the Arctic Sea, it was not so barren as one would think who 
 had never seen or known anything of such a place. 
 
 It is not worth while for me to recount how we lived through 
 this second summer. Of course we had a much easier time 
 of it than we had had the summer previous, for there was no 
 hut to build, and we had now leisure to make ourselves more 
 comfortable; and, indeed, we used our time so well that we 
 accumulated, in good season, everything we needed in the 
 way of food and fuel, catching the birds and other animals as 
 before, and stowing all away in so many different places that 
 
ANOIHER WINTER. 
 
 12 = 
 
 we felt quite sure the bears would not be likely to discover 
 all of it. 
 
 And then we made fresh suits of fine fur clothes, and fresh 
 fur beading, and carved new lamps and pots and cups out of 
 soapstone, that we might be safe against all accidents. 
 
 While we were thus working, and watching all the time for 
 ships, without the hoped-for ship ever coming, the summer 
 passed away, the birds flew off once more with the setting 
 sun, the sea froze up all around the island, and we were left 
 again alone — all, all alone, in the cold and snow and darkness 
 of another winter. 
 
 And this winter passed as the other had. No bears came 
 this time, however, to disturb us; and another summer came 
 to find us in good health, and now well hardened to the 
 climate. And this summer passed, with its bright sunshine, 
 and its pretty butterflies and flowers, and myriad'^ of birds, 
 and still no ship, and still no rescue. 
 
 The next winter brought us the same routine, but greater 
 resignation. "Here we are for ever," said the Dean, "and 
 that we must make up our minds to. It is God's will, and we 
 must bow before it and be reconciled." 
 
 " I fear Dean, that that is so," I answered solemnly. 
 
 This was in the month of February, and the sunlight was 
 coming back ; and to see if we could not catch a glimpse of 
 the god of day we had gone out together, wading through the 
 heavy snow. 
 
 The Dean felt it when he said "we must be reconciled; " 
 but he had hardly spoken when our attention was quickly 
 called away from such reflections (and from the sun too) by 
 seeing an object moving on the frozen sea, not far away 
 from us. 
 
 We were not long in doubt as to what the object was, for we 
 had seen too many polar bears to be cheated this time; and 
 a bear it was, without any doubt at all. He was running very 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I; II 
 
 !iJ. 
 
 'ri f 
 
 v: 4 
 
126 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 I' I 
 
 fast, and was making directly towards the island. He soon 
 ran behind a large iceberg, and for a little time was out of 
 sight ; but he appeared again soon afterwards, and held on in 
 the same course. 
 
 Then we lost him once more among rough ice, and then 
 again he came in view. He appeared so dark at first, that 
 less experienced persons might have been uncertain about 
 what it was ; for although the polar bear is usually called the 
 white bear, yet in truth he has a yellowish hue and is quite 
 dark, at least in comparison with the pure white snow. 
 
 "It's another bear, I do believe! " exclaimed the Dean, and 
 at once we made for the hut, without stopping for further 
 reflection. But the bear was running much faster than we 
 were, and was moreover coming in right towards our hut. 
 So we grew much alarmed and quickened our speed, and 
 not without difficulty either; for the snow was in places very 
 deep. 
 
 By and by the bear, which proved to be a very large one, 
 c lught sight of us ; and as the polar bear is rather a cowardly 
 brute than otherwise, it is not surprising, that when he saw us, 
 he altered his course, and turned off from the island as fast as 
 he could go. Seeing him do this (to our great delight), we 
 halted to watch him ; and now we perceived, for the first time, 
 that the animal was pursued. 
 
 By what we could not imagine, but clearly enough by 
 something ; for in the distance, and from the quarter 
 whence the bear had come there was clearly to be seen, 
 winding among the bergs and rough masses of ice, a dark 
 object, following on the very track which the bear had 
 taken, sometimes lost to sight and sometimes in full view, 
 and growing larger every moment, just as the bear had 
 done. 
 
 Nearer and nearer came this object, and greater and 
 greater grew our wonder. Presently we heard a cry. 
 
THE MAN AND THE DOGS. 
 
 127 
 
 "Hark!" said the Dean. 
 
 The cry was repeated. 
 
 "A dog! " exclaimed the Dean. 
 
 "A dog!" said I in answer, for I heard it clearly. 
 
 "Hark!" said the Dean again, for there was another 
 sound. 
 
 " A man," said I. 
 
 "A man!" repeated the Dean, excitedly. 
 
 And a man it was. 
 
 Dogs and men ! what could they be doing there ? was the 
 question that ran through both our minds at once. 
 
 But dogs and a man (not men) there were, and whatever 
 they might be doing there, or whence they might have come, 
 it was certain that of dogs and a man were made the dark 
 spot which we saw upon the white frozen sea ; and it was 
 moreover clear that they were pursuing the bear which had 
 passed us and was now pretty far away. 
 
 Nearer and nearer came the dogs and man, and the sounds 
 
 ^ame clearer and clearer; the dogs were upon the bear's 
 great tracks, the man was upon a sledge to which the dogs 
 were fastened. At length they came so near that we could 
 easily count them. 
 
 They were seven, and all of different colours, and were 
 fastened with long lines to the sledge, so that they were 
 a great way in front of it, and were running all abreast. 
 They were straining and pressing into their collars, all the 
 while crying impatiently, as they bounded over the snow at 
 a rapid gallop. 
 
 The man was encouraging them along all he could with 
 a long whip, which he threw out with a lively snap, exclaim- 
 ing, " Ka, ka! ka, ka ! " over and over again; and then 
 " Nenook, nenook, nenook! " — many times repeated; for he 
 was now near enough for us to distinguish every word he 
 uttered. 
 
 if 
 
 i: '• 
 
 :1 
 
128 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 It was a wild chase, and both the Dean aud myself became 
 much excited over it, running all the time to get nearer to the 
 passing sledge and man and dogs. 
 
 Very soon we should have met, but suddenly the bear came 
 in full view of the dogs, evidently for the first time, for up to 
 this moment the dogs had only been following the tracks. 
 The dogs, now leaving the track, gave a wild, concerted howl, 
 and dashed off after the bear in a straight line. 
 
 Man, sledge, do^'-s, and all passed us quickly by, — the man 
 shouting more excitedly than ever to his dogs, sometimes 
 calling them by name, as it seemed to us, and sometimes 
 crying "Nenook, nenook ! " and sometimes, " Ka, ka ! ka, 
 ka ! " and so away they went rushing like the wind, — the 
 whole scene more strange than strangest dream, — the dogs 
 and man like spectral things, so quickly had they come and 
 so unexpected ; or at the least, the dogs seemed like howling 
 wolves, and the man a wild man of the frozen ocean clothed 
 in wild beasts' skins. 
 
 We called to t'.ie man to stop; we shouted " Come here, 
 come here ! " and then again, ** Come back, come back ! " as 
 loud as we could shout, waving round our caps, and throwing 
 up our arms, and running in a most frantic way ; but not the 
 slightest notice would he take of us, not one instant would he 
 stop, but upon his course and purpose he kept right on, 
 pushing after the running bear, without appearing to give us 
 even a single thought. We could not doubt that he had seen 
 us, we were so near to him . 
 
 On vent the ber.r, on after him went the dogs and sledge 
 and man. More impatient grew the dogs, louder called the 
 man to his excited team, and the Dean and I ran after, 
 shouting still, as we had done in the beginning. We came 
 soon upon the sledge track, and followed it at our greatest 
 speed. 
 
 At length the cries of the dogs grew indistinct, and then 
 
DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 129 
 
 died away entirely; the man's voice was no longer heard, and 
 that which had come so suddenly to put a tantalizing hope 
 of rescue in our hearts for one brief moment, soon became 
 but a darl. moving speck upon the great white frozen sea, as 
 it had first appeared ; still we followed on. 
 
 Then the moving speck faded out of view, and everything 
 around was still and cold and solemn and desolate as before. 
 
 Yet on and on we ran and ran, urtil we could run no more. 
 
 And then we laid us down upon tne snow and wept, and we 
 bemoane-^x our hard, hard fate ; but no word was spoken. 
 
 The aisappointment was too great for words ; and after a short 
 rest in the chilly air upon the frozen sea, we wandered slowly 
 back to our poor hut ; and after many weary hours we reached 
 it, more dead than alive — for through miles and miles of heavy 
 snow we had run after the sledge, and through these same 
 miles we trudged back again, with a cruel disappointment 
 rankling in our hearts, and with no hope to buoy us up. 
 
 Strange — was it not ? — that at no period of our unhappy life 
 upon the desert island were we so unhappy as we were that 
 day — never so utterly cast down, never so broken-spirited, 
 never looking on the future with such hopelessness. 
 
 And in this state of mind we crawled beneath our furs, 
 feeling too lonely and forsaken to have any thought of cooking 
 a meal, and so very weary with the labours we had done, in 
 running and wading through the heavy snow, that we did not 
 care for food • and in deep sleep we buried up the heaviest 
 sorrow that we had ever known — the grievous sorrow of a 
 dead, dead hope. 
 
 K 
 
 i 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ^ 
 
 The Bear-Hunter of the Frozen Sea— A Welcome 
 Visitor— Mysterious Departure. 
 
 OW long we slept I have not the least idea. 
 It may have been a whole day, or it may 
 have been two days. It was not a twenty 
 years' sleep, (how we wished it had been !) 
 like that of Rip Van Winkle, yet it was 
 a very long sleep ; and indeed, neither of us 
 cared how long it lasted, we were so cast 
 down about what seemed to be the greatest 
 misfortune that had yet happened to us. 
 
 If we woke up at any time, we went to sleep 
 again as quickly as possible, not caring at all to 
 come back any sooner than was necessary to the 
 contemplation of our miserable situation, — never 
 reflecting for a moment that the situation had not 
 been changed in the least by the unknown savage 
 who had appeared and disappeared in such a 
 mysterious way. 
 
 But the sight of him had brought us back again to the 
 world from which we had been cut off, — a world with human 
 beings in it like ourselves ; and it was not altogether unnatural 
 therefore, that we should be made miserable by the event. 
 
 And so we sleep on and on, and thus we drowned everything 
 but our dreams, which there as everywhere, are very apt to be 
 
A S'^RANGE SOUND. 
 
 131 
 
 ii 
 
 ; I 
 
 most bright and cheering in the most gloomy and despondent 
 times. Such, as least, was the case with me ; and if I could 
 have kept dreaming and dreaming on for ever, about pleasant 
 things to eat, and pleasant people talking to me, I should 
 have been well satisfied. 
 
 But our long sleep was brought to an end very suddenly 
 I was first startled by a great noise, and then springing up, 
 much alarmed, I aroused the Dean, who was a sounder 
 sleeper even than myself. 
 
 "What's the matter?" cried he. 
 
 " Didn't )^ou hear a noise ? " I asked. 
 
 " No ! " answered the Dean ; " nothing more at least, than 
 a church-bell, and that was in my sleep," — which was clear 
 enough. 
 
 Presently I heard the noise again, and this time it seemed 
 to proceed from something not far off. It was now the Dean's 
 turn to be amazed. 
 
 "Did you hear?" I asked again. 
 
 ** Yes!" said the Dean, holding his breath to listen. 
 
 Again the strange so^nd was repeated. 
 
 "Is it the wind?" 
 
 " How can it be ? the wind does not n:ak i noise like 
 that!" 
 
 "Can it be a bear ? " 
 
 " No ! it cannot be a bear ! " 
 
 "A fox ? perhaps it is a fox ! " 
 
 "No, listen I there it is again." 
 
 The sound was louder now, and nearer to the hut. Again 
 and again it was repeated, — nearer now and more constant ; 
 then a footfall on the crusted snow. 
 
 "It is a man! the bear-hunter has come back again!" 
 shouted the Dean, quite frantically, and throwing up his hands. 
 
 Again the noise was heard ; again the footfall creaked upon 
 the snow. 
 
 
 
 I 
 
132 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 "The bear-hunter, it must be!" cried the Dean again. 
 
 "O God! I pray that it is so," I added. 
 
 Again the voice was heard. I answered it. The answer 
 was returned, and with the answer came a heavier and more 
 rapid creaking of the footfalls on the snow. 
 
 We rushed from the hut into the open :.if without a 
 moment's loss of time, and without saying another word; 
 and there, not ten yards away, stood the very man who 
 had passed us on the sledge, — the bear-hunter of the frozen 
 sea. 
 
 And a strange-looking Cieature he was, to be sure. There 
 was not the least sign of alarm or fear about him ; but on the 
 contrary, he was looking mightily pleased, and was talking 
 very fast in a language of which the Dean and I could 
 neither of us understand a single word. 
 
 When he was not talking he was laughing, and his 
 enormous mouth was stretched almost from ear to ear. ** Yeh, 
 yeh!" he went, and I went that way too, by way of answer, 
 which seemed greatly to delight him. He was dressed all 
 over in furs, and looked very wild; but as he kept yeh, yeh-ing 
 all the time, we were not afraid. As he came up to us, we 
 greeted him very cordially ; but he could no more understand 
 what we said than we could understand him. 
 
 He talked very much, and gesticulated a great deal, 
 pointing very often in one particular direction with his right 
 hand. Then he cried, "Mick-ee, mick-ee!" and pointed to 
 the beach below, towards which we followed him. There we 
 found a sledge and seven dogs ; and now we understood very 
 certainly, if we had any doubts before, that this was the man 
 and these were the dogs that had passed us following the 
 bear. 
 
 The man tried his best to explain to us the whole affair, 
 talking very rapidly; but we could not gather from what he 
 said more than our eyes told us already, for on the sledge we 
 
OUR NEW ACQUAINTANCE. 
 
 ^33 
 
 soon discovered a large bear-skin, all bloody and folded up, 
 and some large pieces of bear's meat. 
 
 The dogs were tied some distance from the sledge, and 
 were securely fastened by their traces to a heavy stone, which 
 I was very glad of, for the wolfish brutes were snarling at 
 each other, and fighting and howling at us continually, — 
 seeming all the while to wish themselves loose, that they 
 might fly upon us, and tear us to pieces. 
 
 If we could not understand the hunter's words, we made 
 out by his signs, after awhile, that he had seen us when he 
 passed in pursuit of the bear. 
 
 After overtaking and capturing the animal, he turned about 
 upon his track to look for us, and, finding our footmarks at 
 last, he had followed us to the hut, calling loudly as he 
 neared us to attract our attention, for he could not find is 
 easily, — our hut was so buried up in snow. 
 
 After being fully satisfied with the inspection of the dogs 
 and sledge and what there was upon it, we all three returned 
 to the hut. 
 
 It would be difficult to describe our visitor. I have said 
 that he was wholly dressed in furs. His pantaloons were 
 made of bear-skins reaching to the knees, where they met the 
 boots, which were made of the same material. His under- 
 clothing was made of bird's-skin^, like our own, and he wore 
 a coat of fox-skins, with a heavy hood covering up the head 
 completely. On his hands he wore mittens made of seal- 
 skins, with warm dog skin for an inside lining, and his 
 stockings were of the same. 
 
 So that no part of him was exposed but his face, which was 
 quite dark, or rather, copper-coloured (something darker than 
 a North American Indian), and it was very broad and very 
 round. The nose was very small and very flat, and the eyes 
 were small and narrow. His hair was jet black, long and 
 tangled, and was cut straight across the forehead. He had 
 
 IS 
 
 
134 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 but little beard, — only a few black, wiry-looking bristles 
 growing on his upper lip and on the tip of his chin. 
 
 One would hardly suppose that such a creature could be 
 anything else than savage and repulsive ; but he was really 
 as amiable a fellow as ever was seen. The first word he said 
 that we understood the meaning of was, 'Me drinkum.' This 
 very much surprised us, as we knew that he was asking for 
 water, which having been given him, he then said, 'Me 
 eatum,' signifying that he was hungry. We lost no time 
 therefore, in prepariiig him a hearty meal of ducks and bear's 
 meat, which he appeared to relish very much. 
 
 Then he had a great deal to tell us about something that 
 he called "Oomeaksuak," the meaning of which we could 
 not make out; but as he pointed in a particular direction, we 
 thought he meant the place where he lived. We could not 
 understand from him what his name was ; so, as we had to 
 speak of him to each other constantly, we called him at once 
 *' Eatum," as that was the word he used most. 
 
 He amused us very much with his frequent repetition of it, 
 and with the enormous quantities of food he took into his 
 stomach after he did repeat it; for he only had to say, "Me 
 eatum," to get as much food as he wanted. It soon got to 
 be quite a joke with us, and when he said, "Me eatum," we 
 all three fell not only to feeding but to laughing besides. 
 
 Finding himself in suchplesant quarters, Eatum manifested 
 no disposition to leave them ; but after he had taken a sound 
 sleep, he had a great deal to say about "mickee," as 
 before; and since he made a great many motions, as if using 
 a whip (pointing all the while towards the beach), we con- 
 cluded that he must mean something about his dogs, which 
 we found to be true, for "mickee" in his language means 
 dog, as we afterwards discovered. 
 
 As soon as we had settled this, we all went out of the hut 
 again, and went down and brought the bear's meat and skin 
 
FROST n ITT EN, 
 
 135 
 
 on the sledge up to the hut, and then we fastened the dogs 
 nearby. After being fed, they all lay down and went to sleep 
 on the snow. These dogs were very large and strong 
 animals; and the seven could draw a very heavy load. — ■! 
 should think that the whole seven could draw as much as a 
 small horse. 
 
 Eatum seemed to have been quite exhausted with long 
 hunting when he came to us, and he did very little but eat 
 and sleep for several days. His nose had been a little 
 touched by the frost, but he scorched some oil, and rubbed it 
 on as we would ointment, and cured it very quickly. 
 
 After he had eaten and slept to his entire satisfaction, he 
 appeared to grow more lively, and showed a great deal of 
 curiosity about our hut and furniture, and hunting im- 
 plements, being highly pleased with every new thing he saw- 
 It was very surprising to see how nearly like his own many of 
 our things were, — our lamp and pot and cups, for instance, 
 and also our clothing. Our harpoon (the " Dean's Delight") 
 was almost exactly a match for his. 
 
 It was a great drawback to our satisfaction that we could 
 not understand him or he us, but little by little we got over 
 part of this difficulty ; for upon discovering that he used one 
 particular word very often, I guessed that he must be asking 
 a question. The word was " Kina" ; so once when he used it 
 he was pointing to our lamp, and I said "lamp" at a venture, 
 whereupon, after repeating it several times, he appeared to 
 be much gratified and then said, "Kolipsut," and this I 
 repeated after him, which pleased him again. 
 
 Then I knew that "Kina?" meant "What is it?" or 
 " What's this?" so after that we kina-ed. everything, and got 
 on famously. We of course learned more rapidly than 
 Eatum, picking up a great many words from him ; and having 
 both of us good memories, we got to be able to make him 
 understand ns a little in the course of time ; and as fast as we 
 
 iH 
 
 i 
 
136 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 learned we taught him, and he got to know some of our 
 language, in which we encouraged him. "Me speakum 
 much bad," he would say sometimes, which was very true; 
 but so long as we understood him it made little matter. 
 
 And now it was that we got to find out how he had picked 
 up the few words such as me dr in/mm, me eatum, &c., that 
 he had used at first; for he gave us to understand that we 
 were not a long way from where ships came every year, and 
 that some of his people saw the ships when they passed, and 
 sometimes went aboard of them. "Ship" was what he meant 
 by " Oomeakstiak,^^ which word he had at first used so often. 
 He had frequently been aboard of a Oomeaksuak, he said. 
 
 Now this was great news for us, and we began at once to 
 devise means of escape from the island. We made Eatum 
 understand as much of what we wanted as possible. 
 
 All this time I must not neglect to mention, however, that 
 Eatum was of the greatest service to us; for when the 
 weather was good he would fasten his dogs to the sledge, and 
 all three of us would go out together on the sea to- hunt, — 
 Eatum driving. It was very lively sport indeed ; and 
 sometimes when the ice was very smooth and the snow hard, 
 we went very fast, almost as fast as a horse would run, even 
 with the three of us upon the sledge. 
 
 The sledge, by the way, was made out of bits of bones, all 
 cunningly lashed together with seal-skin thongs. 
 
 Once we were caught in a severe gale, a good way from 
 home, and had to make a little house to shelter ourselves 
 from it out of snow; and in this, with our furs on, we managed 
 to sleep quite comfortably, and remained there about twenty- 
 four hours, before the weather would permit us to go on again. 
 
 While in the snow-hut we had a lamp to give us light and 
 warmth ; and this lamp (which was Eatum' s) was made like 
 ours, and Eatum made a spark, and started a flame, and kept 
 it burning just as we had done, — the tinder being the down of 
 
the willow blossom (which ho carried wrapped up in seal- 
 skin), with moss for wick and the bluSber for fuel. The pot 
 in which he melted snow for water, and cooked our suppers 
 was made like ours, of soapstone. 
 
 When the storm broke we left the snow-hut and set out for 
 the island ; catching two seals by the way, and in the very 
 same manner too that the Dean and I had done long 
 before we ever knew there was such a person as Eatum in 
 the world. We were much disappointed at not discovering 
 any bears, and so were the dogs. 
 
 But not many days after, the weather being fine, we went 
 out upon the sea a long way, and were rejoiced to come 
 across a bear's track, which Eatum said was very fresh. No 
 sooner had the dogs seen it than away they started upon it ; 
 and over the ice and snow — rough and smooth, right upon the 
 track — they ran as fast as they could go. 
 
 The bear had been sleeping behind an iceberg, and we had 
 come upon him so suddenly that he had not time even to get 
 out of sight, and we saw him almost as soon as we had 
 discovered the track. " Nenook, nenook ! " cried Eatum, 
 pointing towards him ; and there he was, sure enough, 
 running as fast as he could. But no matter how fast he ran, 
 we went still faster ; and it could not have been an hour 
 before we overtook him. Then Eatum leaned forward and 
 untied his dogs, letting them run ahead while the sledge 
 stopped. 
 
 In a few minutes the dogs had brought the bear to bay, — 
 surrounding the huge wild beast, and flying at his sides, and 
 tormenting him in a very fierce manner. But I always 
 observed that they took good care to keep away from his 
 head, for if he should get a chance at one of them, and hit 
 him with his huge paws, he would smash him into little bits. 
 
 While the dogs were worrying the bear we got out our 
 weapons, — the Dean his "Delight," I "Old Crumply," and 
 
 ' it 
 
138 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 Eatum a spear made of a narwhal horn, and looking for all 
 the world, just like " Old Crumply's " twin brother. 
 
 Then we rushed up to the bear, Eatum leading ; and fierce 
 though the animal looked, and awfully as he roared, we closed 
 right in upon him, and quickly made an end of him. Then 
 we drove off the dogs, and tied them to a lump of ice, while 
 we butchered the dead animal and secured the skin and 
 what meat we wanted, after which we allowed the dogs to 
 gorge themselves. 
 
 Being now too full to haul, we had to let them lie down and 
 sleep, while we built a snow hut, and crawling into it, took 
 a good rest. Then we returned to the island, mighty well 
 satisfied with ourselves. 
 
 After this we fell again into conversation about the Oomeak- 
 suaks, or ships, as I have explained before ; and having 
 learned more and more of the language which Eatum spoke, 
 we got to comprehend him better, so we fixed clearly in our 
 minds where the place was that the ships came to, and were 
 fully satisfied that Eatum told the truth about it. We now 
 offered to give him everything we had if he would take us 
 there and stay with us until the ships should come along and 
 take us off his hands. 
 
 About this we had several conversations ; but just when we 
 •bought the treaty was complete, and Eatum was going to 
 carry out the plan we had fixed upon, this singular savage 
 disappeared very suddenly, — dogs, sledge, and all, — without 
 saying a word to us about it. 
 
 When we made the discovery that he was gone, we were 
 tilled with astonishment and dismay. We hoped at first, that 
 he had gone off hunting ; but finding that he did not return, 
 we tried to follow the tracks of his sledge, but the wind had 
 drifted snow over them, and we could not. 
 
 We now made up our minds that Eatum was nothing more 
 than a treacherous savage ; and we :vere afraid that he 
 
 i 
 
'r 
 
 PLANS OF ESCAPE. 
 
 139 
 
 would come back with more savages and murder us, in order 
 that he might get the furs and other things that we had ; so 
 for awhile we were much alarmed, and were more cast down 
 I believe than ever before, for our hopes had been raised very 
 high, and since we had heard ot Eatum's people and the ships 
 we had begun to feel sure of rescue. 
 
 The suddenness with which all our expectations were 
 destroyed quite overcame us, and we pass'ed the next five 
 days very miserably indeed, hardly stirring out of the hut 
 during all that time. But at length we saw- the folly of giving 
 way to despair. 
 
 One thing we quickly determined upon, and that was to 
 leave the island, one way or another ; for now we were so 
 afraid of the savages coming to murder us, that we would 
 suffer any risk and hardship rather than remain there longer. 
 So once more we began to devise means for our safety. 
 
 It was no longer what we should do for food and fuel, or 
 clothings but how we should escape. The ships we had given 
 up long ago, and with the ships had vanished every hope of 
 rescue. But now a wild man had come to us out of the 
 ice-desert, and had told us that ships came in the summer 
 not far from where we were, and through this intelligence we 
 had obtained a glimpse of home and our native country, as it 
 were; an. this too at the very time when we had become most 
 reconciled to our condition, and had made up our minds to 
 live as best we could on the Rock of Good Hope for the 
 remainder of our days. 
 
 But now our minds were wholly changed. "We are worse 
 off than ever," said the Dean, "for this little hope the savage 
 gave us, and the fear, besides, that he had put into us," — 
 which was true enough. 
 
 Stimulated now by the memory of that hope and the 
 presence of that fear, we prepared to undertake the bold task 
 of rescuing ourselves. 
 
 ' I 
 
140 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 The savacfe had pointed out to us the direction of the place 
 where the ships passed, "And now," we thou.sji'ht, "if we can 
 only reach the land there before the summer comes we shall 
 bo all ri.Lcht." But if wc should not t^'ct to the proper place, 
 or if the ships did not come alonijf, then the chances were that 
 we mi.t^-ht starve or freeze to death. 
 
 NothinL,'" daunted, however, but the contemplation of that 
 Lifloomy side of the picture, we went earnestly to work, and 
 very soon had contrived a plan. 
 
 Of course we must have a sledg-e, as we were oblii^ed to 
 travel a lon,^- distance, and must carry not only food to eat by 
 the way, but blubber for a lamp with which to melt water from 
 the snow, and furs to keep us warm while we sleep. Eatum 
 had taui^'ht us how to construct a snow-hut, so that we felt 
 quite easy about bein^- able to shelter ourselves from the 
 storms. 
 
 But the sledge was the great difficulty. How shall we 
 make a sledge? was the question which most occupied our 
 thoughts and most taxed our ingenuity. 
 
 Apparently we had nothing to make it of, nor tools to make 
 it with. 
 
 To fasten together pieces of bone in the manner that Eatum 
 had done, and thus construct a runner, was not in our power, 
 as we had no drill to make holes with, — and besides if we had, 
 the work would have required too long a time for our present 
 necessities. Our purpose was to get away from the island 
 with as little delay as possible. 
 
 We made a sledge however, at last, and in a very singular 
 way. 
 
 First we cut our two strips of seal-skin, and sewed them into 
 tubes. Then we filled the tubes with hair, and pieces of meat 
 chopped very fine, and also bits of moss. Then we poured 
 water into the tubes, and flattened them down by stamping 
 upon them. Very soon ihe whole froze together, solid as a 
 
WE MAKE A SLEDGE. 
 
 141 
 
 board. These were soon fastened into the proper shape for 
 runners. We found no difficulty in fastening- the two to;;ether 
 with crossties of bone, which we ia:hed firmly to each runner. 
 
 Thus in seven days from the time of bei^dnnin^-, our sledge 
 was complete. 
 
 Very much rejoiced over this t*lumph, we put a load on the 
 sledg'e, and set out to give it a trial. But one runner j^ave 
 way before we had gone a dozen yards, and we were in a 
 state of great perplexity. We resolved now to bundle up 
 everything we needed in a bear-skin, and drag that over the 
 snow after us, — drawing it headforemost, so that the fur 
 would slip more easily over the snow. 
 
 But when we had done this, we discovered that we could 
 not budge the load an inch ; and so we unpacked it, in greater 
 trouble and despair than ever. Next day we went back to the 
 sledge, and began to work upon it again ; all the while 
 looking out for the savages, and expecting them to come and 
 murder us every minute. 
 
 
 
 ^:^?'-^ 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 More Visitors— A Chance of Escape— Our New 
 HoiiE — Life among the Savages — Shifting our 
 Quarters— The Sealskin Village— The Rescue- 
 Homeward BOUKD. 
 
 E had completed our sledge a second 
 time, and were about giving it a 
 second trial, when we were startled 
 by a loud noise ; and there down upon 
 the sea, coming round the nearest 
 poinc of the island, were five savages 
 on five sledges, with five trains of 
 dogs. " At last," thought, we "our time has come. 
 Vve shall be murdered now for certain, and then 
 eaten up by the d gs afterwards." 
 
 " O ! " exclaimed the Dean, " what will become of us?" 
 Seizing our weapons, we prepared to defend ourselves, 
 since there was no use trying to run away, as the dogs would 
 be atop of us before we could reach the hut. 
 
 But there was not the least necessity for our being so 
 much alarmed: the savages soon convinced us they meant 
 no harm. They would not let their dogs come near us, but 
 kept them off, and stopping, led them fast. Then, without 
 any weapons in their hands, they came up to us in a most 
 friendly manner, all yeh yeh-ing at a terrible rate. So we 
 took the five of them right off up to the hut, and now our 
 tears were turned into rejoicing, and hus in an instant had 
 Providence turned our sorrow into joy. 
 
ENTERTAINING OUR VISITORS. 
 
 143 
 
 Our savage visitors proved to be all just as singular-looking 
 creatures, and were as curious about us and about everything 
 we had, as Eatum had been. Their faces were on a broad 
 grin all the time. 
 
 Having learned something of their language previously, 
 from Eatum, we contrived to make them understand, with the 
 aid of a great many signs, how the ship had been wrecked, 
 and how we got first to the ice and then to the land, — for this 
 they were most curious about, — and they were greatly puzzled 
 to know how we came to be there at all. 
 
 After this they treated us quite affectionately, patting us on 
 the back, and exclaiming " Tyna, tyna," which we knew to 
 mean "Good, good," as Eatum had told us. 
 
 Then Eatum wanted to show himself off in our language, 
 and pointing to us, he said, "Hunter plenty good, plenty eat 
 get. All same," pointing to himself by way of illustration, 
 and thus finishing it,) "tyna? yeh, yeh, yeh! " which was the 
 way he, had of laughing, as I have said before, and all the rest 
 *'yeh, yeh-ed" just like him. One of them we called at once 
 "Old Grim," because he "yeh, yeh-ed" with his insides ; 
 but no laugh ever showed itself in his face. 
 
 After their curiosity was satisfied, they imitated Eatum, and 
 began to call loudly, "drinkum" and then "eatum" "yeh, 
 yeh-ing" as before in a very lively manner; so that, what 
 with their " yeh, yeh-ing" and "eatum and drinkum," there 
 was quite a merry time of it. 
 
 Meanwhile however, we were busying ourselves to satisfy 
 their wants, and it was not long before our visitors were as full 
 as they could hold. It was a curious sight to see them eat. 
 They would put one end of a great chunk of meat in the 
 mouth, and holding tight to the other end, they would cut it 
 off close up to their lips. Our seal blubber they treated in 
 the same way. 
 Of this blubber they seemed to be very fond ; and indeed, 
 
144 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 all people living in cold climates soon grow fond of fat of 
 every kind. It is such strong food, which people require there 
 as much as they do warm clothing, and in great quantities 
 too. The people living in the Arctic regions have little desire 
 for vegetable food; and the savages there eat nothing but 
 meat, fish, and fat. 
 
 Our guests did not leave off eating until each had consumed 
 a quantity of food equal at least to the size of his head; and 
 then they grew drowsy, and wanted to ^' singikpok,^' which 
 we knew from Eatum meant sleep; and in *' singikpok'' we 
 were glad enough to indulge them, although greatly to our 
 inconvenience, for they nearly filled our hut. 
 
 The savages slept very soundly for awhile ; but one by one 
 they woke up, and as soon as their eyes were open, they fell to 
 eating again until they were satisfied, and then in a minute 
 afterwards they were fast asleep. This they kept up for about 
 two days, and you may be sure they made away with a great 
 deal of our provisions before they were done with it. 
 
 When they had thoroughly gorged themselves, and slept all 
 they could, they were ready to start off again; and now we 
 found that they had come to take us away, which we were 
 very glad of, although they were such singular looking 
 people, and we could understand so little of what they said, 
 or knew Sv^ little of what their designs might be concerning us. 
 
 But whatever these might be, it gave us an apparent chance 
 of escape which was not to be thrown away, as it might be 
 the only one we would ever have. Besides the savages never 
 once asked us if we would go with them, but began to bundle 
 up our furs, food, and blubber, and everything else we had, 
 as if resolved to take us whether or no. 
 
 At first we felt a little alarm, — without expressing it how- 
 ever; but seeing how good-natured they were about it, and 
 how considerate they appeared to be for us, we had no further 
 fear, but trusted them entirely. 
 
 I 
 
wp: leave the rock of good hope. 
 
 145 
 
 The five sledges were pretty heavily loaded with our pro- 
 perty; but off we started at length I riding with Eatum, 
 while the Dean was on the sledge of "Old Grim." The 
 Dean carried his '* Delight," of course, while I held on to 
 " Old Crumply." Nor were our " palm and needle,'" ind jack 
 knife, that had done such good service, forgotten. Indeed 
 we brought away everything. 
 
 Of course we were very much rejoiced to get away from the 
 Rock of Good Hope, even although our fortunes were yet very 
 uncertain; still it had been our rock of refuge and safety, and 
 in our thankfulness, we could but cast upon it a look of 
 tender regret at parting from it. 
 
 Together there, the Dean and I could but remember that 
 we had achieved many triumphs, which were to us a source of 
 great pride, :md would always continue to be as long as we 
 lived; while on the other hand, if we had suffered many dis- 
 comforts and sorrows, these would not we knew linger long 
 in the njemory. 
 
 Besides, on the Rock of Good Hope, and in the hut we 
 were leaving, we had learned to know each other, and to 
 love each other, and to be bound together by a strong bond 
 of friendship, which, as it was formed in adversity, was not 
 likely to be broken. 
 
 But in thinking of what was before us, we had soon to give 
 up thinking of what was behind us, and to let the Rock of 
 Good Hope, and the hut, and the life we had led there, with 
 its struggles and trials and triumphs pass away as some 
 vague and shadowy dream ; for on we sped, with our ca'*ivan 
 of sledges, over the frozen sea, — the dogs all lively, and 
 galloping away with their bushy tails curled over their backs, 
 and their heads up ; their savage drivers crying to them, now 
 and then, "Ka, ka! ka, ka!" and snapping their whips to 
 keep them at a brisker run, and all the while talking to each 
 other in a loud voice, — sometimes, as we could clearly under. 
 
146 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 stand, about ourselves, and sometimes whether they should 
 go off on a bear hunt. 
 
 Occasionally one of the teams would scent a seal-hole, 
 and away the dogs would rush towards it as hard as they 
 could go, all the other teams following after, pell-mell; and 
 when they reached the hole, it was all the hunters could 
 do, by whipping and shouting and scolding, to keep all the 
 teams from coming atop of each other, and getting all of a 
 heap. 
 
 Once this happened with two of the teams. The dogs all 
 became tangled in each other's traces, the sledges got locked 
 together, and the animals fell to fighting, one team against 
 the other, in a most vicious manner. 
 
 This was a very novel mode of travelling, and we enjoyed it 
 greatly, even although it was pretty cold and the journey 
 was very long. It seemed strange to us to be thus wander- 
 ing without chart or compass over the great ice-desert on 
 the sea; for all around us was nothing but a great plr^in of 
 whiteness, onl}- broken here and there by an iceberg, which 
 glittered like a great diamond in the bright sunshine. 
 
 We must have gone at least sixty or seventy miles before 
 we made a single halt ; and then we came to the village where 
 these singular people lived. It was not on the land, but out 
 on the frozen sea over which we had travelled. 
 
 As we approached the dogs ran very fast ; and this was 
 the first idea 1 had of where we were coming to. *' Igioo, 
 igloo !^^ exclaimed Eatum, pointing, when we neared the 
 village. As I had already learned that igloo meant hut 
 in their language, I was much rejoiced ; for I was very tired 
 with the long journey, and cold besides. 
 
 We soon came up to the village, which proved to be only a 
 collection of huts made of frost-hardened snow. There were 
 in all six of them. Several more hunters were there, who 
 came out to meet us ; and their dogs rushed out too, making a 
 
MRS. KAiU-M. 
 
 M7 
 
 .cjreat noise; and when we had halted, a number of women 
 joined them, all dressed in lurs just like the men, and also 
 children dressed in the same way, and all very anxious about 
 us, and all yeh, yeh-ing" a great deal. 
 
 Indeed, we made such a commotion in the village as never 
 was seci before. But everybody appeared to be kindly 
 disposed towards us, and into one of the huts we were both 
 taken immediately, and down we sat on the floor of the hut, 
 which was covered all ove*- with bear-skins. There were two 
 lamps in it, almost exactly like ours, and two pots were hang- 
 ing over them. 
 
 We had soon a good meal, and very quickly after that were 
 sound asleep ; and even although it was a snow hut, and 
 among savages, we were thankfnl in cur very heart of 
 hearts. And our thankfulness was because we were among 
 human beings once more, and felt no longer as if we were 
 wholly cast away from the world; and we felt hopeful that 
 through these savages would come means of escape to our 
 homes. 
 
 We felt thankful too, that they treated us so kindly, — the 
 women especially; for savages though they were, they were 
 possessed of much feeling and sympathy. One of the 
 women made the Dean go to sleep with his head in her lap, 
 which it was easy to see he did not like a bit; and before 
 this, she had fed him with her own fingers, and while he was 
 sleeping, she stroked his bright hair away from his hand- 
 some face. Another of the women treated me very much in 
 the same way; but being older, and not handsome like the 
 Dean, I didn't come in for so many favours. 
 
 Then besides that, the women took off our damp fur 
 stockings, and gave us dry ones before we went to sleep ; and 
 they seemed to want to do everything they could for us, so 
 that we soon became convinced they meant us no harm. 
 
 The woman who was particularly kind to me was the wife 
 
 ■ < 
 
 \\ 
 
 ; i 
 
 
148 
 
 THE POLAR CKUSOES. 
 
 of Eatum ; and the Dean and I at once called her Mrs. 
 Eatum which made them all "yeh, yeh," very much; and 
 they got to calling- her that too, as near at least, as they 
 could pronounce it, which was ^* Iinpsiiseatiim.'" Her right 
 name was Serkut, which means "little nose;" Eatum's 
 right name was 2uk tuk, that is reindeer, because he could 
 run very fast. There were two young Eatums; and when I 
 began to play with them I grew in great favour with the 
 Eatum family. 
 
 The Dean was quite as well off for patrons as I, being 
 specially taken care of by a woman whose husband had been 
 one of our rescued party. Her name I forget now, but it 
 meant "Big-toes," so what with nursing by "Little-nose" 
 and "Big-toes," and with plenty of seal meat to eat, the 
 Dean and I got on capitally. The name of Big-toes* 
 husband was Awak, which means walrus. He was a fine 
 hunter, and had plenty of dogs. 
 
 These dogs I should mention, were always allowed to run 
 loose about the village ; and no matter how cold it was, they 
 slept on the snow. But their harness had to be taken off else 
 they would eat it ! and everything eatable was buried out of 
 sight in the snow, or brought inside the hut. 
 
 After we had been eating, and sleeping, and enjoying the 
 hospitality of these savages about three days, a young hunter 
 whose name was Kossuit, which meant that he was a little 
 dark fellow, came driving into the village (he had been out 
 prospecting for a hunt) proclaiming in a very loud voice, 
 ' * There was a great crack in the ice, and that it was alive 
 with walrus and seal!" 
 
 There was immediately a great stir, and a great harnessing 
 of dogs, and hunting up of whips, and getting together of 
 harpoons and spears and lines. Everybody was going on the 
 hunt, that is, all the men and boys. When all was ready, 
 Eatum came to me, and said, "Ketchum i.wak, ketchum 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 149 
 
 pussay, you .^'O ? " meaning-, would we s^o with them, and 
 catch walrus and seals. Of course we said "yes, " and off 
 we started at a wild pace; the Dean riding with Kossuit, 
 while I rode with Eatum. 
 
 We had to i^o a good many miles before we came to the 
 crack ; and when we reached it, we found it to be as Kossuit 
 had described it. 
 
 As soon as the savages saw the crack, they stopped their 
 dogs, which was done by crying, ^* Eigh, eigh, eigh/'* to 
 them, and whipping them fiercely^if they did not mind soon 
 enough. 
 
 The dogs being now fastened by running the points of 
 the runners into the snow, the hunters went forward with their 
 lines and spears and harpoons ; and by approaching the side 
 of the crack very cautiously, they managed at length to get 
 near enough to throw their harpoons into the animals when 
 they came up to the surface to breathe. 
 
 Their mode of capturing them was almost the same as that 
 which we employed in catching seals, after/finding it out for 
 ourselves. 
 
 And thus it will be seea how people subjected to the same 
 conditions of life will naturally be led to the same way of pro- 
 viding for their wants, — our senses being given to us all, 
 whether savage or civilized, for the same purpose. I have 
 already told how in our mode of starting a fire, in our lamp, 
 pot, and other domestic implements, our clothing, harpoon, 
 &c., we had unconsciously imitated these savages; and the 
 more I was with them, the more I saw how much we were 
 like them. 
 
 Having described how we killed the seal, it is not necessary 
 to mention how the savages managed; and catching the 
 walrus was just the same, only more difficult, for the walrus 
 is several times Ip.rger than the seal. The walrus are those 
 huge marine animals, living in the Arctic seas, that have long 
 
 pii 
 
 s 1 
 
 :.! 
 
 I 
 
 
ISO 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 white tusks, and look so fierce. They make a very loud and 
 very hideous noise ; and in the summer, like the seals, they 
 come up on the ice, or on the rocks along the shore in great 
 • numbers, to bask and sleep in the sun. 
 
 It is enough to say there was a great deal of sport, and a 
 great deal of excitement, not unmixed with danger. 
 
 One of the hunters got a line tangled round his leg, and 
 was whipped over into the water, where he was not noticed, 
 except to be laughed at, but all the hunters went on with 
 what they were about, letting him shift for himself, — little 
 caring as it appeared, whether he drowned or not; and I 
 really believe he would have drowned, had it not been for 
 the assistance of the Dean and myself. This was the first 
 time T had observed how reckless these people were of their 
 lives. 
 
 There were in the party altogether nine sledges, with on^ 
 good hunter to each sledge. Five of them were old men anu 
 four wcic young men, besides which there were six boys of 
 various ages; and these, with the Dean and myself, made 
 seventeen. 
 
 By helping each other all round, we caught seven seals 
 and three walrus, — all of which we skinned and quartered, 
 and put on the sledges ; and then we returned to the village, 
 walking back, however, as the load on the sledges was too 
 heavy to allow us to ride. 
 
 When we reached the village, the women came out to meet 
 us, talking very much and yeh, yeh-ing louder than ever; and 
 now I observed that they took all the game we had captured, 
 and butchered it, the men doing nothing at all but look after 
 their dogs. It was thought to be a disgrace for a man to do 
 any work about his hut. 
 
 The Dean and I had taken our full share in the hunt, and 
 won much admiration. Before, they had treated us with a 
 kind of pity, but now they had great respect for us. Eatum 
 
METAK'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 1^1 
 
 said, "Much good hunter you"; and now, seeing that we 
 were good hunters, they were going to marry us right off, 
 that we might have wives to cut up our seals wlu>n we 
 brought them home, which proposition put us in a great 
 embarrassment. 
 
 If we refused tliey might be offended, as was very natural; 
 so I acct^pted their propobition at once, without a moment's 
 hesitation, appearing as if I was very glad, and thought it a 
 great compliment indeed; but at the same time 1 told them 
 with a very g^rave face, that all our relatives lived in a far-off 
 country, to which we were obliged to go as soon as a ship 
 came along; and of course when we did go, the wives, they 
 gave us would go with us. As none of the young women 
 were willing to take us on these conditions, although not 
 very flattering to us, we got out of the scrape without 
 offending anybody. 
 
 At first the J)ean was quite indignant, but afterwards he 
 laughed, and said, "Why just think of it! Mrs. Hardy and 
 Mrs. Dean in seal-skin breeches and long boots, — a jolly idea 
 indeed ! " But one of the girls was fond enough of the Dean 
 for all, only she mustn't show it ; for these people are very 
 particular about that. 
 
 When all is arranged by the parents, the girl is obliged 
 even then, to say she won't have her lover. So the lover has 
 to steal up, and take her unawares, and run off" with her 
 bodily. Of course, if she really likes the fellow, and wants to 
 get married to him, he has an easy time enough of it ; but if 
 on the other hand, she dislikes him, she can readily enough 
 get away from him. 
 
 Old Grim (whose right name was Metak, meaning eider- 
 duck) had an adventure of this sort, as they told me, which 
 resulted very differently from what usually happens. He was 
 quite a young man, but having caught a seal, he thought it 
 then was time he had a wife. Meanwhile a wife had been 
 
 J 
 
152 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 provided for him by his father, who had made the bargain 
 with the girl's father. The girl was told who her husband 
 was to be, but it would have been against all rules to tell 
 her when he was coming after her. 
 
 Well as I have said, having- cau^-ht his first seal, Metak 
 made up his mind to have a wife to butcher it for him ;, so he 
 set out for the snow-hut of his lady-love's father, where the 
 dusky faced girl was lying fast asleep in her nest of furs. 
 
 As it was contrary to law for any girl to be captured in 
 a hut, but must be taken on the wing, as it were, Metak had 
 to wait for her to come out, which she finally did, and passed 
 very near a deep bank of snow, behind which her lover was 
 lying, shiverin.!^'' with cold and crying with impatience. 
 
 Quick as a fox to pounce upon the unsuspecting- rabbit was 
 Metak to pounco upon the unsuspecting girl. He seized her, 
 and started for his sledge. She screamed, she pulled his 
 hair, she tore his fur, she bit his fingers ; but the valiant 
 Metak bcid manfully to his purpose, and would not let her 
 go. He reached the sledge, and put her on it ; he tied her 
 there, and springing- on himself, he whipped up his dogs, and 
 started for his home. But the refractory damsel would not 
 stay tied. 
 
 Watching a favourable opportunity, when Metak was not 
 looking, she cut the lashings with her teeth, seized the whip 
 out of Metak' s hands, pushed Metak off the sledge, and sent 
 him sprawlin.g on the snow; and then she whirled the dog-s 
 round, and fairly made them fiy again on the backward track 
 to her father's hut, where she crawled once more into her 
 nest of furs, and where the luckless Metak was ever after- 
 wards content to let her stay, satisfied that he was no match 
 for her. 
 
 This story was told by Eatum one evening in the snow-hut, 
 while Old Grim was present, and it was evidently a standing 
 joke against him. He didn't seem to relish it at all, for he 
 
OLD GRIM. 
 
 J 53 
 
 went out of the hut as if driven away by their shouts of 
 laughter. I could not understand the language well enough 
 to fully appreciate the story at the time, but afterwards I got 
 Hatum to repeat it to me. 
 
 It proved that the name of Old Grim, which the Dean and I 
 had given Metak, was even more appropriate than we 
 thought ; for he was generally known as the man who 
 laughed with his insides without the help of his face. 
 
 I 
 
 ; 
 
 The Dean was greatly delighted with the change that had 
 come about, as it not only led us away from our desolate life 
 on the desert island, but gav2 us the promise at least of the 
 rescue which we had so earne5;tly prayed for. "We ought to 
 be very thankful," he said to me one day, "very thankful 
 indeed for this deliverance." 
 
 But as I did not much relish the habits and customs of 
 these savages, I did not find myself in the same thankful 
 spirit ; so I replied that the change looked much like that of 
 the fish who fell out of the frying-pan into the fire. "You 
 should not say so," he replied, "I see the hand of God in 
 it; and he who has men ifully preserved us through so many 
 trials and dangers will not desert us now. 
 
 The Dean said no more at that time, but he became very 
 thoughtful; as for myself, I fdt quite ashamed that 1 had 
 spoken so slightingly of the savages, and had shown so much 
 impatience with their rather disagreeable company; for to 
 tell the truth, their ways were somewhat offensive, as they 
 never washed their faces, and were rather a filthy set. 
 
 The Dean, however, did not stop with preaching about 
 them, but on the contrary, did everything he could for them. 
 One of the hunters had gone to catch seals, and the ice 
 breaking up, he was drifted out to sea, where he took refuge on 
 an iceberg, upon which he managed to drag his dogs and 
 sledge. 
 
 ^^ 
 
154 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOKfe. 
 
 Here he lived through terrible storms and cold for a whole 
 moon (that being the way they reckon time), and he only 
 "scaped linally by the iceberg drifting in near the land, wlien 
 the sea froze round it. After great trouble he got ashore, 
 with both of his feet dreadfully frozen, which is easily 
 accounted for when you krow that the poor fellow had no 
 shelter at all .vi'ile on the iceberg, and had nothing to eat but 
 his dogs, all of which died of starvation. 
 
 This savage had no wife, and the Dean took care of him, 
 and dressed his frost-bites, and was so good to him that the 
 savages all called him '' Faw-'vell,^' which means 'Tittle 
 Good-heart." So the Dean got on famously; but the poor 
 frozen savage that he had been so kind to died at last, and 
 was buried in the snow. 
 
 A child fell on the ice and broke \.\ arm, and the Dean set it, 
 and made it all right, and to other people he did many things 
 to show his sympathy for them ; but when he began to tell them 
 about our religion, they did not understand him, and had no 
 mind to listen. This very much grieved the Dean ; for he wanted 
 to convert the whoK: of them, and thought, if he only knew their 
 language better, he could persuade tliem all to be Christians, 
 --which 1 think very likely, for nobody could resist him. 
 
 We remained at the snow village several weeks, but we did 
 not do much more hunting, as the savages seemed to think 
 they had enough for their present wants ; and since they are 
 almost constantly moving about from plai:e to place in search 
 of tood, they never store up much tor the future. 
 
 Having enough to eat for theprese//f, they let the future 
 take care of itself; and, sure of a good meal, they amuse 
 themselves mostly by telling stories, usually about each 
 other, — thr.*: is, when they are not eating or sleeping, which 1 
 must say occupies most of their time. 
 
 Tliey had a singular custom in theii story-tellinjkj which I 
 have never seen among any other people. 
 
ox THE :makch. 
 
 ,■^3 
 
 One person recites the story, and the listeners break in, 
 every now and then, witli a lauf^hin^- chorus, that is nothing 
 more than a repetition of the meanint^less words, '^auinid 
 aya,*^ which are sun^'' over and over to any extent. The 
 women generally enjoy it the most and sing the loudest, 
 especially when a man is concerned. 
 
 The Dean and I very much wanted to go on another bear- 
 bunt, but the savages said it was too late in the season for 
 that — the ice had many cracks in it and there was no use 
 chasing a be-'ir, as he would jump into the first crack he 
 came to and swim over to the other side, a'..l there he would 
 be safe enough. 
 
 And indeed, when I climbed one day to the top of a tall 
 iceberg, and looked out in the direction of our solitary island, 
 T could see sevtifal cracks from a yard to a hundred yards 
 wide, so that it was very fortunate we escaped from the island 
 when we did. 
 
 The savages now said it was time to be moving, or a crack 
 might come between us and the shore. Indeed, the season 
 was getting well advanced; the snow was melting a little, and 
 in ]jlaces it was quite sloppy; so everything in and about the 
 snow-huts, including our own property, was packed upon .he 
 sledges, and away we w ^nt to the mainland, which was not 
 more than ten miles distant. 
 
 Here we came upon a village of three huts, built in the hill- 
 side V'.'ry near the sea, and in many respects fitted up as our 
 own hid been; only they had regularly constructed walls of 
 stones and turf, which tapering in from either side, Joined at 
 the top, making a space large enough to accommodfi:e two 
 or three families in each hut. Into these three \\\nz were 
 crowded all the men, women, and children that had been in 
 the snow village. 
 
 There we lived five days, after which we took up our march 
 again, keeping along near the shore, where the ice was most 
 
156 
 
 THE POLAR CRU.SOES. 
 
 solid and safe. Then we came to a deep broad bay, where 
 ihe hillside, which was exposed to the south, was quite free 
 from snow, the snow having melted and run down to the sea. 
 
 Here we halted, and the savages went to some piles of 
 stones, and brought out from under them a number of seal- 
 skins, which were spr<=-ad over some narwhal horns that were 
 just like "Old Crumply." In a few hours they had pitched 
 two comfortable tents, under which we all slept soundly, 
 being very tired. 
 
 The next day they got more seal-skins, and pitched three 
 more tents, and a few days afterwards other people came 
 along, and put up two other tents, making in all seven, — 
 quite a little seal-skin village, and a much more comfortable- 
 looking one than the snow village had been. 
 
 Here it seemed to be the intention of the savages to remain 
 for some time, as they went regularly to work to prepare for 
 hunting various kinds of game, chiefly walruses and seah;, 
 and besides these, among others an animal I had not seen 
 before, — a beautiful rabbit, or hare rather, very large and 
 pure white. 
 
 These were quite numerous, and fed upon the buds and 
 bark of the willow-bushes, and were caught by stretching 
 a very long line across the tops of a great number of stones, 
 or piles of stones, which are placed about six feet apart, ^he 
 line itself being about a foot from the ground. 
 
 To those lines they tied a number of loops, and then all 
 the people going out, surrounded the rabbits and drove them 
 under the line, and several of them found themselves caught 
 in the noose when they least expected it. I saw there also a 
 beautiful white bird called a ptarmigan, which is a grouse, 
 buc it could not be caught. 
 
 By this time we had become quite domesticated among the 
 savages. 
 
 They called me Annorah, which meant that I resembled 
 
 I 
 
"mop-head" and "gimlet-kves. 
 
 '.■>/ 
 
 the wind when I talked, — that is I talked when I liked and 
 where I liked, and nothing could stop me, while the Dean 
 was much more sober. Him they finally called Aupadleit, 
 which means "Little Red-head," though his hair was not 
 exactly red, but very bright, and the savages admired it very 
 much; so the Dean to humour them, cut off great locks of it, 
 and gave it to them all round, just as I have known some 
 girls do when their coquettish fancies got the better of their 
 discretion. 
 
 I took great interest in Eatum's children, and this further 
 inclined Mr. and Mrs. Eatum to have a good opinion of me. 
 As they were people of much consequence in their tribe, this 
 was a matter of great importance; and in truth, the juvenile 
 Eatums were quite an interesting pair of savages, and were 
 fond of play, like any other children. One was a boy and 
 the other a girl. I cannot remember their right names, but 
 the Dean and I christened the boy, Mop-head, because of the 
 great quantity of dirty black hair that he had, and the girl 
 we called Gimlet- eyes. 
 
 Mop-head had a '.ttle sledge made of bones just like his 
 father's ; and with this the two children used to play at 
 travelling" and other games. Gimlet-eyes had little dolls 
 carved out of bones, which she used to dress up in furs 
 and put on the sledge for Mop-head to drag when they went 
 on their journeys ; and he had little spears and she had little 
 pots and lamps, and they used to make excursions over the 
 snow that you could hardly throw a stone to the end of; and 
 then they would build little snow houses and put the dolls in 
 them, and while Mop-head went off to hunt, Gimlet-eyes 
 would amna-aya them to sleep. 
 
 In these playful exercises we used to amuse ourselves with 
 the children; and when we were travelling about in earnest, 
 the Dean and I pulled Mop-head's sledge for him sometimes, 
 when we were going slow ; and he thought it great fun to have 
 
 ■F 
 
 I 
 
158 
 
 Tiri<: POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 the white-faced strangers drag his sister's lamps and pots and 
 dolls along. 
 
 And now the summer was fairly come. Tlie snow was 
 melting very rapidly, and first in small and then in large 
 
 th( 
 
 do\ 
 
 .th( 
 
 streams tne water cam( 
 
 The birds came back soon afterwards from the south, — the 
 eider-ducks and the little auks, which sve had caught in the 
 summer-time when upon the island; and then as soon as the 
 snow was all g'one, the moss and stunted grass grew green, 
 and plants sprouted up here and there, and the butterflies 
 with bright yellow wings went gathering the honey from 
 flower to flower, and you cannot imagine how glad we were 
 once more to come out of the dreary winter into this bright 
 sunshine and this pleasant summer. 
 
 It was apparent now why the savages had come to this 
 place, for the little auks arrived in much greater numbers 
 than on our island; and they lived among the stones on the 
 hillside for miles and miles. There must have been millions 
 upon millions of them, and the savages caught them, as we 
 had done, in nets. 
 
 There were some reindeer too, but these were not often 
 caught. When the savages w^ent on this kind of hunting, two 
 always went together, walking so close, one behind the other, 
 as to appear like one man. As soon as the deer saw the 
 hunters, the latter would turn round and go back the other 
 way, and the deer being very curious, would follow them. 
 
 Thus a deer may sometimes be enticed a long distance, and 
 if through a narrow defile, there is then a chance of catching 
 him; for one of the hunters drops down suddenly behind a 
 rock, while the other goes on as if nothing had happened. 
 The deer, thus cheated, keeps following the single hunter, 
 where he had before followed a double one all unknown to 
 himself, and at length approaches very near to the hunter 
 lying behind the rock. 
 
 Ill* 
 
DEER HUNTING. 
 
 159 
 
 1 
 
 A'.j soon as the deer comes within a few yards of him, this 
 concealed hunter rises, and throws his harpoon, the hne of 
 which he has previously made fast to a rock. If fortunate 
 enough to hit the deer, and the harpoon to hold, the animal is 
 easily killed by the two hunters, who attack it with their spears . 
 
 Besides the birds that I have mentioned, there came a 
 great many snipes, and different varieties of sea-gulls, and 
 ducks of various species, and gerfalcons, and ravens, — also 
 some little sparrows. 
 
 I was very desirous to know how they managed to make 
 their harpoon and spear heads, as I observed that they were 
 all tipped with iron. So one day they took us over a place 
 they call Savisavick, which means "The Iron Place," — the 
 name being derived from a large block of meteoric iron, from 
 which the savages chipped small scales ; and these were set 
 in the edges and tips of their harpoon and spear heads, just 
 as I had done with my brass buttons. 
 
 They also made knives in the same way. Many of their 
 spear-handles were nothing more than narwhal-horns, just 
 like "Old Crumply;" and so we observe how the Almighty 
 provides for all His creatures, endowing them all, whether 
 white or black or copper-coloured, -aich the same instinct of 
 self-preservation which leads them to seek and obtain for the 
 security of their lives the materials that He places within their 
 reach. 
 
 Thus occupied, we drifted on (as nearly as we could keep 
 our reckoning) mto the final neok of July. There was 
 scarcely any snow left on the hill sides by this time ; the air 
 was filed with the ince&s.int cry of birds and the constant 
 splash of fa. ig waters. 
 
 Weco-iild sleep well enough once more on the green grass 
 in the cpen aii ; and another period of watching now began, 
 for nere it was that the vessels passed nearly every year, as 
 the savages told us. 
 
i6o 
 
 THE POLAR CRL'SOES. 
 
 Sometimes, however, they did not stop; but when the ships 
 appeared, the savages always went to a valley facing the sea, 
 from one side of which the snow never melted, and running 
 to and fro over the white snow, endeavoured to attract the 
 attention of the people on the ships. 
 
 We were much alarmed to find the ice holding very firmly 
 along the shore; and as far away as the eye could reach, 
 there was not much water to be seen. At last, however, a 
 strong wind came, and started the ice. Some cracks were 
 soon opened, and then a long lead or lane of water was seen 
 stretching away to the south, and running close in by the 
 land. 
 
 The savages said that the Oomeaksuaks (big ships), would 
 come very soon now, if at all ; so we watched very carefully 
 for them. 
 
 The Dean and I did not hunt any more ; as the savages, 
 seeing how anxious we were and how our hearts yearned for 
 our own homes and kindred, provided us with food in abund- 
 ance ; and besides this, they sent some of their women and 
 young lads to aid us in looking out for the ships. 
 
 Thus the time wore on, and we were becoming very fearful 
 that the ships would not come at all. This was a dreadful 
 thought to us, for although the savages were very kind, yet 
 we looked forward with great dread to living long with them. 
 Besides this and our longing to get home, we had had quite 
 enough of this cold, desolate part of the world, where the sun 
 never sets in summer nor rises in winter. 
 
 While reflecting in this way, we heard one of the savages 
 cry out " Oomeaksuak^ ootneaksuakP' several times; and 
 running a little higher up the hillside whence the cry pro- 
 ceeded, our eyes were gladdened by seeing far off, with the 
 hull yet hidden below the horizon, a ship under full sail, 
 bearing directly towards us. 
 At first the Dean, who had been so often cheated, thought 
 
SHirS AT LAST. 
 
 l6l 
 
 it might be an iceberg; but it was clearly a ship that we saw 
 this time. From fear that it might be an iceberg, we passed 
 now to fear that it might hold off from the land, and not dis- 
 cover us, which would be even harder to bear. 
 
 After awhile the hull of the ship was plainly to be seen, 
 and soon afterwards we discovered that the ship was not 
 alone, but that another was following only a few miles behind 
 it; and by and by two more were seen, making four, and then 
 a fifth hove in sight some hours later. 
 
 How fortunate it was for us that there were so many of 
 these ships; for, as we had feared, the first ship held so fai 
 away from the land that it was hopeless to think of being 
 seen from her. But the lead through which this first ship had 
 sailed off from the land was closed up before the others could 
 enter it; and now these other ships were forced to come nearer 
 to us. 
 
 Seeing this, we hastened to the white hillside I have spoken 
 of before, all the savages accompanying us, and we all began 
 running up and down ; but the next ship was still too far 
 away to discover us. And the same with another, and still 
 another. 
 
 Thus had four ships gone by without any soul on board 
 being aware that two poor shipwrecked boys were so near, 
 calling to them, and praying with all their might that they 
 might see or hear. 
 
 But there was yet a -fifth ship, a long way behind all the 
 others, and we still had hope. If this failed us, all was over, 
 and we must be content to live with the savages. We had 
 observed one thing which gave us great encouragement. 
 
 Each ship that had passed us came a little nearer to the land ; 
 and this we saw was in consequence of the ice drifting steadily 
 in before the wind. Indeed, by the time the last ship came 
 along, the ice had pushed in ahead of her, and had touched 
 the land, while the other ships had run through just in time. 
 
 m 
 
l62 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES 
 
 When the people on board saw what was ahead of them, 
 and that they could not pass, they tacked ship, and stood 
 right away from us; but we saw clearly enough, from our 
 elevated position on the hill, that they were not likely to get 
 through in that direction, — which was no doubt, a much more 
 pleasant thing for us than for the people on board. 
 
 This prediction proved true ; for presently they tacked 
 again, and stood straight in towards where we were 
 standing. Coming very near the shore, we did everything 
 we could to attract their attention. We shouted, we threw 
 up our caps, and waved them round our heads, and we ran 
 here and there across the white snow, — all the savages doing 
 the same. 
 
 The ship is so near at last, that we can faintly see the 
 people on the deck ; why can they not see us ? 
 
 The sails are shivering ; the ship is coming to the wind ! 
 Have they seen us ? are they heaving the vessel to ? will they 
 send a boat ashore to fetch us off ? 
 
 We hear the creaking of the blocks ; the yards are swinging 
 round ; the braces are hauled taut ; the other tack is aboard ; 
 they are not heaving to ! 
 
 The vessel fills away again ; the sails are bulging out ; the 
 vessel drives ahead ; they have not seen us ! 
 
 Shout again! Up and down, up and down once more across 
 the snow, — shout! shout all in chorus ! but it is of no use. 
 
 The bows fall off; the vessel turns back upon her course. 
 Where is she going now ? is she homeward bound ? 
 
 O no! she steers for the land; she nears it; she passes 
 beyond a point below us, and is out of sight ! Where has she 
 gone? 
 
 We follow after her, hurrying all we can. Miles of rough 
 travelling over rocks and through deep gorges, — climbing 
 down one side and up the other, — in breathless hast* 
 hurrying on. The savages are with us. 
 
RESCUED. 
 
 163 
 
 What is our hope? It is that the vessel, failing to get 
 through the ice, has sought the land for shelter. 
 
 Soon we round a lofty cliff, that rises almost squarely from 
 the sea, with only a narrow, rugged track between it and the 
 water, and we come upon a narrow bay. A little farther, and 
 there the vessel lies before us, — quietly at anchor, with her 
 sails all snugly furled. 
 
 Again we see the men upon the deck, — faintly, but still we 
 see them. 
 
 Again we shout. 
 
 We see a man halting by the bulwarks ; something glitters 
 in his hand. Is it a spy-glass 
 
 No ; he moves away. 
 
 Is that a man mounting to the mizzen cross-trees? 
 
 Yes, it is a man. 
 
 Is that a spy-glass glittering in his hand? Yes, surely it 
 must be. 
 
 He waves his cap; he shouts to those below; he descends; 
 all is bustle on the deck; a boat is lowered to the water; men 
 spring into it; the oars are dropped; the men give way; the 
 boat heads for the spot where we are standing; we are 
 discovered; O, God be praised! at last, at last! 
 
 The boat cuts through the water quickly; it nears us; 
 again we see white human faces; again we hear human 
 speech in a familiar tongue. 
 
 "In oars!" — the boat touches the rocks, and we are there 
 to take the painter, and to make her fast. 
 
 Two of the men spring out ; a man rises in the stern ; he 
 shades his eyes with his hands, as if to protect them from the 
 glaring sun, and stares at us, and then at the savages, who — 
 of both sexes, and of every age and size — surround us. Then 
 he calls out, "Is there a white man in that crowd?" 
 
 "Yes, sir; two of them." 
 
 He paused a moment, and his boat's crew all seemed 
 
164 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOES. 
 
 startled by the aiii>v/pr. Then he stared at me again, and 
 cried: "Is that the lubber Hardy, of the 'Blackbird' ?" 
 
 ** Yes, sir ; it is." 
 
 " Is that other chap the cabin-boy ? — him they called 
 the Dean ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," spoke up the Dean. 
 
 In an instant the man was on the rocks, and had us by the 
 hands; and now we recognised him. He was the master of 
 a ship that lay alongside the 'Blackbird' when we first went 
 among the ice, catching seals. His ship was the 'Rob Roy,* 
 of Aberdeen. 
 
 He told us, that the 'Blackbird' not having been heard of 
 in all this time, it was thoug^ht that she must have gone 
 down somewhere among the ice, with all on board ; and he 
 told us further, that he was on a whaling-voyage now, and 
 then he said, "The 'Rob Roy' will give you a bonny wel- 
 come, lads." 
 
 All this time the savages v^qxq yeh-yehvixg round us, greatly 
 to the amusement of the captain of the 'Rob Roy' and his 
 boat's crew. Then, when I told the captain how good they 
 had been to us, he sent his boat back to the ship, and had 
 fetched for them wood and knives and iron and needles in 
 such great abundance that they set up Si yeh, yeh, in conse- 
 quence, which for anything I know, may be, as it ought to 
 be, going on even to this present time. 
 
 We kept our promise to give Eatum all our property ; but 
 the captain of the 'Rob Roy' wanted "Old Crumply" and 
 "The Dean's Delight," and our pot and lamp, and some 
 other things ; so he gave the savages other valuables in place 
 of them. 
 
 Then we said good-bye to our savage friends, which we of 
 course did not do without some feelings of sorrow and regret 
 at parting from them, remembering as we did how kind they 
 had been to us, and how they had rescued us from our 
 
(iOOII-r.YK. 
 
 165 
 
 unhappy situation ; and the savaj^cs seemed a little sorry 
 too. 
 
 First came Eatum and ^frs. Katnm, and then the two little 
 Eatums (Mop-head and Gimlet-eyes) that I had so often 
 played with ; then Old Grim, and Big-toes and Little-nose ; 
 and Awak, the walrus : and Kossuit ; and the two young 
 ladies who might have been our wives ; and then all the rest 
 of them, big and little, old and young. 
 
 Then off we started for the 'Rob Roy;' and a fair wind 
 coming soon, the ice began to move away from the land, the 
 *Rob Roy's* sails were unfurled to the fresh breeze, and now, 
 with hearts turned thankfully to Heaven for our deliverance, 
 we are again afloat upon blue water, — whither bound we do 
 not know, but /iomeiva?'d in the end. 
 
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 23 WEST MAIN ST'.EET 
 (716)87i-4S03 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 Home at Last. 
 
 HE * Rob Roy ' was a good stout ship ; 
 the master a bluff, good hearted 
 Scotchman ; the mate a kindly 
 man, and altogether different from 
 the red-faced mate that was on the 
 ' Blackbird ; ' and the people were 
 all just as good and kind to us as the savages had been. But 
 they feasted us with so much coffee to drink and ship's biscuit 
 to eat (neither of which had we tasted for three years), that 
 we got a dreadful colic, and were like to die. " Nearly killed 
 with kindness," as the Dean said, as soon as he had 
 strength to speak. 
 
 The worst of it was, *hey would make us tell our story over 
 and over again, until we almost wished we had never been 
 rescued at all. 
 
 The captain of the 'Rob Roy' took a great fancy to our 
 odd-looking fur clothes, especially our undershirts, which 
 were made of birds* skins ; and he gave us in place of them 
 some new clothes out of the ship's stores. You may be sure 
 that we were glad enough to get these nasty fur clothes oif, 
 and be rid of them for ever. The captain offered to keep 
 them for us, but we said "No, no," for we had had quite 
 enough of them. 
 
 So we went after whales, and made a "good catch," as 
 the whale-fishers call a good shipload of oil, and then we 
 bore away for Aberdeen, only stopping on the way at two or 
 three half-savage places. 
 
 
THE dean's home. 
 
 167 
 
 When we reached Aberdeen, there was a great fuss made 
 about us, and we had to tell our story over and over again. 
 
 The first thing the Dean did, after landing, w^as to write 
 a letter to his mother, and send it off by post. It was just 
 like the little fellow to do it. He began it — " Through the 
 mercy of Providence I have been saved, and am coming 
 back to you, dear mother." 
 
 Shortly after, we started for the Dean's Home. It was no 
 easy work to find it. It was in a little by-street of the City, 
 and by and by we came upon a tumble-down old house, and 
 were shown into a little tumble-down old room, and in the 
 middle of the room stood a little woman that was more 
 tumble-down than all. It was the Dean's poor mother. She 
 held a scrap of paper in both her hands, trembling violently, 
 while she tried to puzzle out the contents of the Dean's letter 
 (for this it was), that she held up before a face the deep 
 wrinkles on which, told of many sorrows and much suffering. 
 
 There was no occasion to puzzle any more now, for there 
 was her darling, bright-haired boy, whom she "always felt 
 sure," she said, "would come back again," — never losing 
 hope; and how she was not long in recognising him, and 
 how she greeted him, and cried over him, I never saw the 
 like of it. 
 
 And seeing how matters stood, I went outside, where after 
 awhile the Dean joined me, and having some money in our 
 pock*ets, that we had earned on board the * Rob Roy,* we went 
 out and bought the best supper we could get, and had it 
 brought into the tumble-down room and spread out upon the 
 tumble-down table : and never was any poor woman so glad 
 in all the world as the Dean's mother, and never were any 
 two boys so happy as the Dean and I. 
 
 We were home at last, safe in body and thankful in spirit. 
 
 "And noAT," said the Dean, "I am going to further show 
 my gratitude by making my mother comfortable for the rest 
 
i68 
 
 THE POLAR CRUSOI'S. 
 
 of her days," — which he did by getting her into a better 
 house, where she would not have to work any more, — the 
 Dean declaring that he could hereafter make all the money 
 that was necessary for her support. 
 
 Then we looked about us for a good ship to go to sea in, 
 as we felt that we should make better sailors now than any- 
 thing else; indeed, neither of us knew what else to do. 
 
 I did not feel like going to Rockdale yet, being still very 
 much ashamed, not having made anything as I could see by 
 running away. Besides, I learned that my father had given 
 me up for dead long ago, and had moved with all my brothers 
 and sisters to another part of the country, where I wrote to 
 him, telling him all about my voyage and shipwreck. 
 
 The story of our remarkable adventures getting abroad we 
 found many friends ; so you may be sure we were not at a loss 
 for a ship ; and when we shipped again, it was not in such a 
 crazy old hulk as the ' Blackbird ; ' nor did we go any more 
 whale or seal fishing, having got enough of that to last us for 
 the remainder of our lives. 
 
I !l 
 
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* ' It 
 
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