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 [£ 1. r. 1^ Kl A K E Ifl IJ [!« AWE !i«]„ ©,,1, H^ S. 
 
KiiH lXFI.OJIATIONS: 
 
 ¥*$i ^im-^^umtil (^iifpcDliron 
 
 3B«' SMs.*»tt:H I.J' 
 
 ./' 
 
 MB JOHN FlU N Iv LIN, 
 
 I8d3. '^4, '55, 
 
 ,w. 
 
 rum A KEJsT KAXE, M.D, U.S.N. 
 
 LONDON: 
 '^'.SON AND WONS, PATERNOSTER ROW 
 
 KUISBCBOB • AJfO SEW yORK. 
 
 •7 V ., 
 
■s--; 
 
 
 : --f.: 
 
 ^S/f-^..C 
 
 ) 
 
ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS: 
 
 IN SEARCH »r 
 
 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, 
 
 1853, '54, ' 5 ii . 
 
 r.Y 
 
 ELISHA KENT KANE, M.D, U.S.N. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
 
 KDINBUROH ; AND NEW rORK. 
 
 MDCCCLXVII, 
 

 / w 
 
 If 
 
 20J172 
 
 M 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Tiiiij book is not n rcconl of scientific invcstiira- 
 tions. "While engaged, under the orders of tlie Ncivy 
 Department, in arranging and ehiboratiiig the results 
 of the late Expedition to the Arctic Seas, I have 
 availed myself of the permission of the Secretary to 
 connect together the passages of my journal that 
 could have interest for the general reader, and to 
 publish them as a narrative of the adventures uf 
 my party. 1 have attempted very little else. 
 
 The Engravings with which the work is illus- 
 trated will add greatly to any value the text may 
 possess. Although largely, and, in some instances 
 exclusively, indebted for their interest to the skill 
 of the artist, they are, with scarcely an exception, 
 
 from sketches made on the spot. 
 
 E. K. K. 
 
 PaiLADELrHiA, Jiili/ 4, 185G. 
 
ii 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 is 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Organization— Equipment— St. Jolin's— Baftin's Bay— SoundinK H 
 
 ClIAPTEIi II. 
 FIslternaos— TIio Fisliery— Mr. Lassen— Hans Cilstlan — Llclitenfeis— Sulsltertoppeii ... 15 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 Coast of Oreenlnnd — Swarte-lmlt— Last Danisli Outposts— Melvillo Bay — In tlielce— 
 Bears— Uei'Ks—Anclior to a berg— Midtilglit Sunshine 20 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Borintr tlie Floes— Snccessful Passatce through Melvillo Bay — Ice-navigation— Passape 
 Of the Middle Pack— The North Water 25 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Crimson Cliffs of Beverley— Hakluyt and Nortliumberland— Red Snow— The Oates of 
 Smith's Straits— Cape Alexander — Cape Ilatherton- Farewell Cairn— Life-boat 
 l)epOt— Esquimaux Ruins found — Graves— Flagstaff Point 28 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Closing with the Ice— Refuge Harbour — Dogs— 'Walnis— Narwhal — Ice-hills — Boacon- 
 cnirn — Anchored to a Berg — Esquimaux Huts — Peter Force Bay— Cape Cornelius 
 Grlnnell — Shallows— A Gale— The Recreant Dogs '6'i 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Eric on a Berg— Godsend Ledge— Holding on— A drift- -Scudding— Towed by a 
 Berg — Under the Cliffs— Nippings — Aground— Ice-prcssure — At Rest 40 
 
 ClAPTER VI IL 
 
 Tracking — Inspecting a Harbour — The Musk- ox— Still Tracking — Consultation- 
 Warping Again — Aground near tlie Ice-foot — A Brcatliing-spcU — The Boat-exi)e- 
 dltion— Departure An 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Depflt journey — The Ice-belt— Crossing Mlnturn River- Skeleton Musk-ox- 
 Crossing the Glacier— Portage of Instruments — Excessive Burden— Mary Minturr. 
 River— Fording the River— Thackeray Headland— Cape George Russell- Return to 
 the Brig -The Winter Harbour iA 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Approaching Winter — Storing Provisions— Bui ler Storehouse— Sunday at Rest — 
 Building Observatory— Training the Dogs— The Litlle H'lWie- 'llie lioaU— The Faith 
 —Sledging— Reconnolssance— Depot-party dl 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CIIAIM Ell XL 
 
 Tlin ObMrvafory— TlifrmotnetL'r<i— Tho Hats— Tlio HvIr nn FIro— Ancient Slcdgo- 
 tiii'ks— i;s(|iiliniiiix IIiit!i~ll)ilr()|ili(ililii-Sli:.|(,'r-ilrhliii.'-- 'IiijiU ox 'liiicks — A 
 SIc'ilKU-piu ty B9 
 
 CIIAITKU XII. 
 
 LcnplnR n Cliimm — Tim Ico-hcit — Ciipc Wlllliim Woiul— C;inip on tlio Fines -rtotiim of 
 I'ciiOt-imrty — IloiisiiU's Adveiitiiio- Uusults — Am Ksciiiio— Tho Tlilid CiU'lif — 
 M'(i:iry hliiiiil 79 
 
 ciiArrKi: xiii. 
 
 Wiilnis-hnles— Advnnco of DniUncss — I)iiiUn('«s -Tho Cold— "The Ico-lillnk "— Fox- 
 clmso — Esfiulniuux Huts— Uccultutlon of Saturn— rurtruit of Old Grim H3 
 
 CHArTEU XIV. 
 
 MftctiPtlcObsprvntory- TpiTipprntiiros— Hcfuriilnir Uplit — Davlttipss nnd fho Pnpi — 
 Hydrophobia— K'e-thuiiKcs-i lie Icc-fuot-Thu Icc-bcit — The Suidight — Murvh... 89 
 
 CIIArTKK XV. 
 
 Arctic Olnervnflnns — Trovol to Observatory— Its Ilaznrrts — Arctic Mfe— Tho Dny— 
 'I'.o Diet— Tlio Amusements— Tlio I,iib(uirs — The Teinpcraturo--Tlie " Kln-fod "— 
 riio loe-belt — Tho Ice-belt cncronchliiK— Kxpedltiou prepiirinK — (iood-byo — A 
 Surprise — A Second Good-bye 07 
 
 CIIAITKU XVI. 
 
 Prop.'irntlon—Tomporntnrcs— Adventure — An Alarm — Party on tho Floes— Ucscue- 
 ]iiirty — Lost on the Floes — I'lirty lound — Uelurn — Freezinj; — Keturrilng Camp — 
 A Bivouac — Kxhrtusted— Ebcape— Consciiuences 107 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 linker's Death — A Visit— The Ksquiiiiiuix— A NcRotiatlon — Their Ennlpment- Tlielr 
 Deiiiirtment— A Treaty— The Farewell — Tho Sequel — Myouk— His ICscnpe — Schu- 
 bert's Illness 118 
 
 CIIAPTEK XVIII. 
 
 An Exploration — Equipment — Outfit — T"''parturo — Results— Features of Coast — 
 Aiehitectural liocks — Ihreo ISmtlier Turrets — Tennyson's Monument — The Great 
 Glacier of Humboldt 127 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Progress of tho Party -Prostration -Dallas Day —Death of Schubert- The RrlR In May 
 — Piogress of Spilng—.M 'Gary's Return— Dr. Hayes's Party — Equipment— Schu- 
 bert's Funeral 135 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Seal-huiithiff — Sir John Franklin —Rcsnurces — Acclimatization— Tho /lope— Dr. 
 Hayes's Return— His Journey— Snow-blitulness— Cape Hayes- The Dogs TuuRled 
 — Mending the Harness— Capes Leidy and Frazer— Dobbin Hay— Fletcher Webster 
 Headland— Peter Force liav — New Parties— Their Orders— Progress of Season — Tlio 
 Seal— The Nctslk and Usuk— A Bear — Our Encounter— Change in tho Floe U3 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Progress of Season— Plants in Winter— Birds Returning— Cochlearla- -The Plants loT 
 
i 
 
 hft 
 
 6!) 
 
 73 
 
 S-i 
 
 eh... 89 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 tli 
 
 CHAPTEtt XX I L 
 
 Mr. Bonnall'* Ilofnm— Ills Story— The Tlcar In Camp— Ills Fate— ncam at Sport— Tlio 
 Tlmwi lA'i 
 
 ciiArrER xxm. 
 
 Miirtnn's Return— His Narrative— IViilMnly I»iiy -TIiiouk'i tlio Hcrci- nrldcttiR tho 
 CliiKiiiis— TIki Wt'st LaiiJ— Tho Do^'s In FiiRlit— Ojieii Wator— Tlio Icu-foot — 'I'lio 
 J'uliir Tliles— Ciiiici) JuckRon ami Monls — The ClmnmU-l'ico of Ico— l!lril» and 
 I'l.iiits— Hear and i,ub— Tho Hunt — Tho I>euth— Kninkliii ami Ijif.iyetto— Tho An- 
 tarctic Flag— Cdti ISO of TUk'U— Moiin*. I'nrry- Victoria ami Alhort MiMintalnii— 
 Iti'niini(<— Tho Itirds Appc'ar — Tho VeRCtutlon— Tho I'ctrcl Capo Cnii.Htitutlon — 
 Theories of an Open Sou- Illusory DIscovorlos— Changes of CUniuto— A Suggestion 1(!7 
 
 CHAI'TER XXIV. 
 
 Pronpects— Speculations— Tlio Argument — Tho Conclusion -Tho Hcconnol.Mance — Tlie 
 .Scheme— Equipment of Itdat-jjarty- Elder Ifland- llau.) ' ' iil— Iho Cormoiaiit 
 Gull— Sentiment— Our Charts— Cai)talii Int'cfieUI — Dlscrep . i s — A Galo— East 
 to u Flue M 185 
 
 97 
 
 107 
 
 CIIAPTEU XXV. 
 
 Working on— A Boat-nip— Ico-bar 'or— The Dcrrlcr Pfc —Progress Ilof 'c .*— Nor- 
 lI'Mubeiland Glaciur- Ico-cuscuJcs— Novo 194 
 
 C.IAPTER XXV'I. 
 
 The Ice-font In AnguBt— Tlio Pack In August— Ice-bliistl'ig- Fox-trap Point— Warp- 
 Im;— The I'rospi-ct— Approaching Clliiia.\ — Signal-can n— The '. •'ord— Projeotud 
 Withdrawal— Tlio Question— Tho Deternilniitlon— The liesuU - 20; 
 
 CIIAITKK XXVH. 
 
 Discipline— Ilullding iK'loB—Tossnt — Mossing— After £ al— On tho Voung Ico— Going 
 too far— Seals at llonio— In the Water— In Safuty-Deaih of Tiger 211 
 
 118 
 
 l'.>7 
 
 135 
 
 142 
 
 loT 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Tho Esqnlmanx— Larceny— The Arrest— The Punishment— Tho Treaty-" Unbroken 
 Faith"— My Brother— Kcturn from a Hunt— Our Life— Anoatok— A Wclcoinu— 
 Treaty ConHrmed 217 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Walrus-grounds- Lost on the Ice-A lircak-up— IgloB of Anoatok— Us Oariiituro— 
 Creature Comforts— Esquimaux Music— Usages of the Table— New 1-oiidon Avcnuo 
 —Scant Diet-list— Bear and Cub— A Hunt— Close Quarters— Bear-fighting— Bear- 
 habits— Bear's Liver— Itats—Tlio Terrier Fox— The Arctic Hare— The Ice-foot 
 Canopy— A Wolf—Dogs and Wolves,— Bear and Fox— The Natives and Ourselves 
 —Winter Qimrtcrs— Morton's Return— The Light 22J 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Journey of Morton and TIaiis—Reecptlon— The llut— The Walrus— Walrus-hunt— The 
 Contest —Habits (d Walrus— Ferocity of tho Walrus— Tiic Victory— The Jublleo— 
 ASipak 2"> 
 
 CHAPTER XXXL 
 
 An Anrora— Wood-cutting— Fuel-estimate- "'he Stove-pipes— The Arctic Firmament- 
 Esquimaux Astronomy — lleating-appurutiis—JIeteoiic Shower— A Bear— Hasty 
 Retreat- Tho Cabin by Night— Sickness Increasing— Cutting Into the Brig— The 
 Night-watch 2/10 
 
! h 
 
 vm , CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Esquimaux Sledges — BonsaU's Return— Ueaults of tlie Hunt — Return of Withdrawing 
 Party — Their Reception— The Esquimaux Escort— Conference — Conciliation— On 
 Fire— Casualty— Chiistmas—Olb IJen— A JouiTiey Ahead— Setting Out — A Dreary 
 Night-Slriking a Light— End of 1854 2G0 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Modes of Life— The Inside Dog — Projected Journey— Dog-habit»— The Darkness— Raw 
 ileat— Plans for Sledging— The South-east Winds— Plan of Journey— A Relishing 
 Lunch— Itinerary — Outfit- Ca.go and Clothing— Kapetah and Nessak— Foot-gear 
 —The Fox-tall— Carpet-knights— Uurning Cables '271 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 A Break-down— The Hut In a Storm— Two Nights In the Hut— Frost Again— The BacK 
 Track— Health-roll— Jledical Treatment — Health Falling— Unsuccessful Hunt — 
 Tne Last Bottles 2Sa 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The Fire-clothod Bag— The Wraith— Cookery— A Respite— The Coming Dawn— The 
 Trust— Prospects— Argument— Coloured Skies — Stove-fltting 288 
 
 V 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVL 
 
 The Bennesoak — A Dilemma — The Sun— End of February— Our Condition— The 
 Warm South-easter- Moonlight— The Landscape 'id5 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIL 
 
 Our Condition— The Resorts— The Sick— The Rat In the Insect-box— Anticipations— 
 Uan's Return— Famine at Etali — Myouk on Board— Walrus-tackle — The Meat-diet 301 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIIL 
 
 Line of Open Water — Awahtok— His First-born— Insubordination—The Plot— The. 
 Development— The Desertion ;j03 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 Colloquy In the Bunks — Winter Travel— Preparations— Reindeer Feeding-grounds— 
 Terraced Beaches— A Walk— Occupations 313 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 The Delectable Mountains — Review of March— The Deserter again— His Escape— God- 
 frey's Meat— Convalescent m 313 
 
 CHAPTER XLL 
 
 Routine— Getting up— Breakfast — Work — ^Turning In— Hans still missing— The De- 
 termination 322 
 
 CHAPTER XLIL 
 
 Journey after Hans— Esqulmanx Sledging— Hans found— Recepto Amico — Explana- 
 tion—Further Search— Maturing Plans— Chances of Escape — Food plenty — Paulik 
 —Famine among the Esquimaux— Extinction— Light Hearts— Desorter Recovered 826 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 Hartstene Bay— Esquimaux Dwellings— A crowded Interior— The Night's Lodging— 
 A Morning Repast— Mourning for the Dead— Funeral Rites— Penance 334 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 1 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 P.ge 
 The Ksqnlinaux of Greenland— Change of Character— Labours of the Missionaries— 
 Nolult— The Oir.inaks- Pingeialc and Jens— The Anpelidlis- Issiutok— Tlio Imna- 
 pok— The Decree 339 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 Walrns-hnnHng— Esqulmanx Habits — Return from Efah — Preparing for Escape — 
 Making Sledges- Dr. Hayes 345 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Kalutunnh— The Hunting-party— Setting out— My Tallow-ball— A Wild Chase— Hunt- 
 ing still— The Great Glacier- Tlie Escaladed Structure— Formation of liergs — Tlie 
 Viscous Flow — Crevices — The Frozen Water-tnnnel — Cupe Forbes— Face of 
 Glacier 351 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI I. 
 
 Cape James Kent — Jfarsliall Bay — Ice-rafts— Striated Boulders — Antiquities- The 
 Bear-ciiase— The Bear at Bay — The Single Hunt— Teeth-wounds— The Last Effort 
 —Close of the Search 3.'>9 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIIL 
 
 Preparations for E8cape--ProvIslons— Boats— The Sledges— Instruments and Arms — 
 Cooking Apparatus — Table Furniture— Cradling the Boats— The Sledges moving 
 — The Recreation 306 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 ThePledges-Tlie Argument— Farewell to the Brig— Tlie Muster— The Routine— Tlie 
 Messes 371 
 
 CHAI'TER L. 
 Tlie Slck-hnt— To First Ravine— Moving the Sick— The Health-station- Con valescence 375 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 To the Brig again— Welcome at the Hnt— Log of the Sledges— Educated Faith- 
 Good-bye to the Brig — Metek's Prayer 379 
 
 CHAPTER LIL 
 
 Kew Stations— The Ice-Marshes — Point Security— Oopegsoak— Catching Auks— 
 Aningnah— Nessark 386 
 
 CHAPTER LIIL 
 
 The Game of Ball -My Brother's Lake— The Polar Seasons— Fate of the Esquimaux— 
 The Esquimaux Limits— Esquimaux Endurance— Awahtok's Hunt— His Esciipe— 
 The Guardian Walrus ...„ 3'PO 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 The Bakery— The (Juitar Ghost-^ he Bout Camp— Nessai k's Wife— Out In a Gale- 
 Capo Misery — T\c Burrow— the Retreat , 396 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 Fresh Dogs—The Slides— Rocklng-Stones—Ohlsen's Accident— Ice-Sailing-Mounting 
 the Belt — The See Marshes— Pekiutlik— Hans the Benedick 401 
 
TTTT 
 
 I >l 
 
 H i 
 
 Z CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 Pars 
 
 Tlie Red lioat SlnkltiR— The Life-Boat Cache— The Open Water— Ohlsen's Death— Hli 
 Funeral— Umeiitz, our Precursor— Accomoilali— The Prescription— Capo Welcoiiiu 
 — The liesolve ^ 408 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 The Farewell— Attempt to Embark 414 
 
 CHAPTER LVIII. 
 
 Sutherland Island— Ilakluyt Island— Northumberlanil Island— Fitz-Clarence Rock — 
 Dalryniplo liock— Glvinir Out — Break-up of the Floe— Broken Doivn— Weaiy Man's 
 Rest— The Fourth — Short Cumraons 419 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. ' 
 A Look-Out— Providence Halt- The Glacier— Providence Diet ^^. 42R 
 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 The CrimRon Cliff's- The Esrinlniaux Eden— Depression of the Coast— Inventory— 
 Imalik — Losing our Way— At the Rue-raddius — The Open Sea — Effects of lluuKer 
 —Rescue of the /"a/W 430 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 The Seal! the Seal I— The Festival— Terra Firnia— Paul Zacharias-The Fraaleln 
 Flaischcr — ^The News — At the Settlements — The Welcome 437 
 
 CONCLCSIOV 442 
 
 ' APPENDIX. 
 
 I. Instructions of the Secretary of the Navy to Passed Assistant-Surffeon Kane 445 
 
 II. Preliminary Iteport of Passed-Asslstant Surgeon Kane to the Secretary of the 
 
 Kavy 446 
 
 III. Surveys before Abandoning the Brig « 459 
 
 IV. The Rescue Expedition, Commanded by Lieut. Ilartstene 4Cl 
 
 V. Report of a Journey by Messrs. Bonsall and M'Gary to Establish Provision Dep6ts 
 
 alonR the Greenland Coast 4(i3 
 
 Journal of a Travelling Party into the Interior Eastward from Rensselaer Harbour 474 
 Journal of a Party sent out to Deposit a Self Itcyistering Tliermomcter at some 
 
 Aviiil.iblc Point to the Northward of Marshall Bay, under Charge of Dr. I. I. 
 
 Hayes 470 
 
 Report of the Advance Party, and Attempt to Reach the Nortliern Shore, in Charge 
 
 of Henry Iirool;s 478 
 
 Report of Surgeon upon Condi'ion of Rescue Party, .March 1S54 4S1 
 
 Report of Messrs. M'Gary and IJoiisall 4S3 
 
 Report of a Sledge-Journey to the North-West Coasts of Smith's Strait, by Dr. 
 
 I. L Hayesand William Godfrey 488 
 
 Mr. Jlorton's Report of Journey to North and East during the Months of June 
 
 and July 1834 493 
 
 Notes 4P9 
 
 Glossart Si)'> 
 
 m 
 
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 70 
 
 L» 
 
 NELSON & 
 
KME'S ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A 
 
 ^BOASIZATION— PLAN OF OPERATIONS— COMPLEMENT— EQUIPMENT — 
 
 6T. John's. 
 
 ,he month of December 1852, 1 head the honour of receiving cnAPTER 
 1 oixlcrs from the Secretary of the Niivy, to " conduct an '" 
 ition to the Arctic Seas in search of Sir Jolm Franklin." 
 Jiad liecn engaged, under Lieutenant De Haven, in the Grin- 
 Expedition, which sailed from the United States in 1850 on 
 same errand ; and I had occupied myself for some months 
 our return in maturing the scheme of a renewed effort to a now 
 e the missing party, or at least to resolve the mystery of its ,esoivea 
 
 !Mr. Grinnell, -ttith a liberality altogether characteristic, had ""• 
 
 d the Advance, in which I sailed before, at iny disposal for 
 
 cruise; and Mr. Peabody of London, the generous representa- 
 
 of many American sympathies, had proffered his aid largely 
 
 ^iird her outfit. The Geographical Society of New York, the 
 
 SnMthsouian Institution, the American Philosophical Society, — I 
 
 e tliem in the order in which they announced their contribu- 
 
 -and a number of scientific associations and friends of 
 
 ce besides, had come forward to help me ; and by tlii;ir aid I 
 
 aged to secure a better outfit for purposes of observation than 
 
 d otherwise have been possible to a party so limited in num- 
 
 and absorbed in other objects. 
 
 'en of our little party belonged to the United States Navy, and 
 attached to my conunand by orders from the Department; 
 
 _^ 
 
85 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ■ of the DISCOVKIUKS l.v the 
 
 under xke command of 
 
>l.«i.1...v,|i'J 
 
 I 
 
 / / 
 
 ^i^Mfli^^ 
 
 T.II-ELSON Sc SONS, LOITDO^fr EDIBBTni 
 
fe^^ililrE 
 
 SONS, WNDQK EDIHBTnieil & BEWTOKK 
 
 : cngr by ±iar*oloioew fc rionEdir 
 
12 
 
 PLAN OF OPERATIONS. 
 
 UUAPTER 
 I. 
 
 UiiIps and 
 
 tlons of 
 the expe- 
 dition. 
 
 t'liin of the 
 expedi- 
 tion. 
 
 Proposed 
 route easy 
 from 
 
 Greenland 
 to fur 
 uorth. 
 
 the others wore shipped by me for the cruise, and at salaries 
 entirely disproportioned to their services : all were volunteers. AVe 
 did not sail under the rules that govern our national ships ; but 
 we had our own regulations, well considered and announced before 
 hand, and rigidly adliered to afterward through all the vicissitude> 
 of the expedition. These included — first, absolute subordination 
 to the officer in command or his delegate ; second, abstinence from 
 all intoxicating liquors, except when dispensed by special order; 
 third, the habitual disuse of profane language. We had no other 
 laws. 
 
 I had developed our plan of search in a paper read before tli 
 Geographical Society. It was based upon the probable extension 
 of the land-masses of Greenland to the Far North, — a fact at that 
 time not verified by travel, but sustained by the analogies of phy>si 
 cal geography. Greenland, though looked upon as a congeries of 
 islands connected by interior glaciers, was still to be regarded as ;; 
 peninsula, whose formation recognised the same general laws as 
 other peninsulas having a southern trend. 
 
 From the alternating altitudes of its mountain ranges, continues 
 without depression throughout a meridional line of nearly eleven 
 hundred miles, I inferred that this chain must extend very far to 
 the north, and that Greenland might not improbably approacli 
 nearer the Pole than any other known land. 
 
 Believing, th.en, in such an extension of this peninsula, and feel- 
 ing that the search for Sir John Franklin would be best promoted 
 by a course that might lead most directly to the open sea of whicli 
 I had inferred the existence, and that the approximation of the 
 meridians would make access to the West as easy from Noitherii 
 Greenland as from Wellington Channel, and access to the East far 
 more easy, — feeling, too, that the highest protruding headlani 
 would be most likely to afford some traces of the lost party, — I 
 named, as the inducements in favour of my scheme, — 
 
 1. Terra firma as the basis of our operations, obviating tlie 
 capricious character of ice-travel. 
 
 2. A due northern line, which, throwing aside the influences cf 
 terrestrial radiation, would lead soonest to the open sea, should 
 such exist. 
 
 3. The benefit of the fan-like abutment of land, on the north face 
 of Greenland, to check the ice in the course of its southern or 
 
COMPLEMENT— EQUIPMENT. 
 
 n 
 
 nd at salaries 
 jlunteers. AVe 
 lal sliipa ; but 
 3unced before 
 lie vicissitudL> ' 
 subordination 
 bstinence from 
 special order; 
 e bad no other 
 
 ead before tb; 
 •able extension 
 -a fact at that 
 logies of physi- 
 a congeries o: 
 e regarded as i; 
 eneral laws as 
 
 iges, continued 
 f nearly eleven 
 nd very far to 
 )ably approach • 
 
 isula, and feel- 
 best promoted 
 in sea of wliicli 
 imation of the 
 Tom Noitherii 
 the East far 
 ling headlaml 
 lost party, — I 
 
 obviating the 
 
 influences d 
 3n sea, should 
 
 the north face 
 3 southern or 
 
 latorial drift, thus obviating the great drawback of Parry in Lis oiiirTKn 
 alkempts to reach the Pole by the Spitzbergen Sea. _[_ 
 
 ' 4. Animal life to sustain travelling parties. 
 
 6. The co-operation of the Esquimaux; settlements of these 
 people having been found as high as Whale Sound, and probably 
 extending still further along the coast. 
 
 We were to pass up Baffin's Bay, therefore, to its most northern r.inc of 
 att*inable point ; and thence, pressing on toward the Pole as far ''°"'''' 
 a*, boats or sledges could carry us, examine the coast-lines for 
 vaitiges of the lost party. 
 
 All hands counted, we were seventeen at the time of sailing, ynmen nf 
 Another joined us a few days afterward ; so that the party under "'" ''""y* 
 my command, as it reached the coast of Greenland, consisted of — 
 
 Henry Brooks, First OfiBcer. 
 
 Isaac I. Haves, M.D., Surgeon. 
 
 JouN Wall Wilson, 
 James M'Wary, 
 
 'GeORQE lllLEY, 
 
 William Morton, 
 Christian Oulsen. 
 •Hknuy Goodfkllow, 
 
 August Sontao, Astronomer. 
 Amos Bonjall, 
 George Stephenson, 
 George Whipple, 
 William Godfrey, 
 John Blake, 
 
 Jefferson Baker, 
 
 Peter Schubert, 
 
 Thomas Hioeey. 
 
 Two of these. Brooks and Morton, had been my associates in tho 
 first expedition ; gallant and trustworthy men, both of them, ivs 
 ever shared the fortunes or claimed the gratitude of a commander. 
 
 *She Advance had been thoroughly tried in many encounters with The aj- 
 the Arctic ice. She was carefully inspected, and needed veiy *""'^*" 
 litUe to make her all a seaman coiUd wish. She was a herma- 
 phrodite brig of one hundred and forty-four tons, intended origi- 
 nally for calling heavy castings from an iron-foundry, but 
 strttigthened afterward with great skill and at large expense. She 
 was a good sailer, and easily managed. We had five boats ; one 
 of tibem a metaUic life-boat, the gift of the maker, Mr. Francis. 
 
 Our equipment was simple. It consisted of little else than a Tiie equip. 
 qiUBtttity of rough boards, to serve for housing over the vessel in ""^"'' 
 winter, some tents of India-rubber and canvas, of the simplest 
 description, and several carefully-built sledges, some of them on a 
 model furnished me by the kindness of the British Admiralty, 
 otj^rs of my own devising. 
 
i 
 
 14 
 
 THE DKPAUTURE (»F THE KXrKDlTlON. 
 
 OUAPTKR 
 I. 
 
 Provisions. 
 
 Wardrobe. 
 
 Tiie expe- 
 
 rlitlon 
 
 salla. 
 
 They reach 
 St. John's. 
 
 Deep-sea- 
 Roundlnj^s 
 In Uaffln's 
 Bay. 
 
 Our .store of provisions wa.s clio.sen Avith little regard to luxurv, 
 Wo took with lis some two thousaiul pounds of wcll-niado pen>{ 
 mican, a parcel of IJordeii's ineat-bi.scuit, some packages of aoj 
 ex.siccated potato, resembling Edward.s's, .some pickled cabba;^' 
 and a liberal quantity of American dried iVuits and vegetablci 
 besides tlicse, we had tlie .salt beef and pork of the navy ratioaj 
 hard biscuit, and Hour. A very moilorate supply of liijuors, witij 
 the ordinary et ceteras of an Arctic cruiser, made up the diet-list, 
 lioped to procure some fresh provisions in addition before reacliiii; 
 tlie Tipper coast of Greenland ; and I carried some barrels of mail, 
 with a compact a])i)aratus for brewing. 
 
 AVe had a moderate wardrobe of woollens, a full su[)[)ly of knivcj,! 
 needles, and other articles for barter, a large, well-chosen Ubrary,| 
 and a valuable set of instruments for scientific observations. 
 
 We left New York on the 30th of ^lay 185.3, escorted by sevonil 
 noble steamers; and, p ssing slowly on to the Narrows aiiiil 
 salutes and cheers of farewell, cast our brig off from the steaiuj 
 tug and put to sea. 
 
 It took us eighteen days to reach St. John's, Newfouudlandj 
 The Governor, Mr. Hamilton, a brother of the Secretary of tlisj 
 Admiralty, received lis with a hearty English welcome ; and allj 
 the officials, indeed all the inhabitant.s, vied with each other ir.l 
 efforts to advance our views. I purchased here a stock of fresiij 
 beef, which, after removing the bones and tendons, we compressefll 
 into rolls by wrapping it closely with twine, according to tliej 
 nautical process of marline/, and hung it up in the rigging. 
 
 After two days we kit this thrivuig and hospitable city ; and! 
 with a noble team of Newfoundland dogs on board, the giftof| 
 Governor Hamilton, headed our brig for the coast of Greenland. 
 
 We reached Baffin's Bay without incident. We took deep-seaj 
 soundings as we approached its axis, and found a reliable deptlu 
 nineteen hundred fathoms : an interesting result, as it shows tbati 
 the ridge which is known to extend between Ireland and Nevl 
 foundland in the bed of the Atlantic is depressed as it pa.sseJ 
 further to the north. A few days more found us off the coast o:| 
 Greenland, making our way toward Fiskernaes. 
 
FISK£RNAt:S. 
 
 \0 
 
 CH AFTER TI. 
 
 BKEUNAKS— THE FISHERY— Mil. liASSEN— HANS CUISTIAN- 
 
 — SCKKEUTOl'PEN. 
 
 -LIGHTEN FELS 
 
 The southern ^-;;::'' 
 
 Je entered tho harbour of Fiskcniacs on the Ist of July, aniicl chapter 
 ie clp.mour of its entire popuhition, assenibloil on tho rocks to . ;_ 
 
 Bct U8. Tliia place has an enviable reputation for climate and I'lsUn- 
 ealth. Excci>t perhaps Holsteinbcrg, it is the driest station upon 
 10 coast; and tlio Kprings, which -well through tlie mosses, frc- 
 icntly remain unfrozen throughout tho year.' 
 
 The sites of tho different Greenland colonies seem to have been sitonoftiio 
 ioscn with reference to their trading resources, 
 )sts around Juhanshaiib and Frcdericstahl supply tho Danish 
 jiarket with the valued furs of the saddle-back seal ; 8ukkertopi)en 
 
 id Ilolstcinberg with reindeer skins ; Disco and the northern dis- 
 ticts with the seal and other oils. Tho little settlement of Fisker- 
 
 les rejoices in its codfish, as well as the other staples of the upper 
 Bast. It is situated on Fisher's Fiord, some eiglit miles from tho 
 
 pen bay, and is approached by an island-studded channel of 
 Moderate draught. 
 
 \Vc saw tho codfish here in all the stages of i)reiiaration for tho rrcparu- 
 jible and the market ; the stockfish, dried in the open air, without [y,'r"ti'e"'*'' 
 
 It ; crapefish, salted and pressed ; fresh fish, a hicus a non muikct. 
 
 cemlo, as salt as a Mediterranean anchovy : we laid in supplies 
 all of them. The exempticm of Fiskernaes from the continued 
 and its free exposure to the •winds as they draw up the fiord, 
 
 !ike it a verj' favourable place for drying cod. Tlie backbone is 
 
 it out, with the exception of about four inches near the tail ; the 
 
 3.1y expanded and simply hung upon a frame : the head, a luxury 
 
 L-cted with us, is carefully dried in a separate piece. 
 Seal and shark oils are the next in importance among the staples Seai ana 
 Fiskernaes.' The spec or blubber is purchased from the natives 
 
 ith the usual articles of exchange, generally coffee and tobacco, 
 
 >d rudely tried out by exposure in vats or hot expression in iron 
 
 oilers. None of the nicer processes which economy and despatch 
 
 shark uiU 
 
19 
 
 KSQUIMAUX ASSISTANT —PROVISIONB. 
 
 CIMPTKn 
 
 II. 
 
 viBlitothe 
 offtciul or 
 
 the Daiiinli 
 Cuiniiaiiy. 
 
 Ksqtil- 
 iiiaiix 
 liiuitur 
 unpaged. 
 
 Value of 
 
 tuiuai^lit. 
 
 liavo introduced at St. Jolui's seem to linvo reached this (nit (f 
 the-way coa,st. Even tho cod-livers ar« given to the dogs, u; 
 thrown into tho general vat. 
 
 We found Mr. Lassen, tho superintending ofRcial of the Dani-h 
 Company, a hearty, single-minded man, fond of his wife, lii^ 
 children, and his pipe. The visit of our brig was, of course, an 
 incident to bo marked in the simple annals of his colony; atiil, 
 even before I had shown him my official letter from the Court it 
 Denmark, lie had most hospitably prolT^red cverytuing for our l 
 nccommodaticjn. We became his guests, and interchanged piv 
 sents with him before our departure ; this last transaction enablin.; 
 me to say, with confidence, that the inner fiords produce nolik 
 salmon-trout, and that the reindeer-tongue, a recognised delicacy 
 in the old and new Arctic coutiuents, is justly ai)preciated at | 
 Fiskernaes. 
 
 Feeling that our dogs would require fresh provisions, which coull 
 hardly be spared from our supplies on shipboard, I availed myself j 
 of Mr. Lassen's influence to obtain an Esquimaux hunter for our j 
 party. He recommended to me one Hans Cristian, a boy of nine- 
 teen, as an expert with the kayak and javelin ; and after Hans had 
 given me a touch of his quality by spearing a bird on the wing, I j 
 engaged him. He was fat, good-natured, and, except under the j 
 excitements of the hunt, as stctlid and unimpressiblo as one of oui 
 own Indians. Ho stipulated that, in addition to his very mode- 
 rate wages, I should leave a couple of barrels of bread and fifty- 
 two pounds of pork with his mother ; and I became munificent in I 
 Ids eyes when I added the gift of a rifle and a new kayak. AVc I 
 found him very useful ; our dogs required his services as a caterer, 
 and our own table was more than once dependent on his energiiv*. I 
 
 No one can know so "well as an Arctic voyager the value it | 
 foresight. My C(,T2science has often called for the exercise of it, 
 but my habits ivhV.c it an efibrt. I can hardly claim to be provi 
 dent, either hy impulse or education. Yet, for some of tliel 
 deficiencies of our outfit, I ought not, perhaps, to hold myself 
 responsible. Our stock of fresh meats was too small, and we liaJ [ 
 no preserved vegetables ; but my personal means were limited ; 
 and I could not press more severely than a strict necessity exacted j 
 upon the unquestioning liberality of my friends. 
 
 While we were heating out of the fiord of Fiskernaes, I had an I 
 
 " i 
 
UOHTENFEIA 
 
 17 
 
 opj)ortunity of visiting LichtenfelH, the ancient scat of tlie Oroon- oiuptrr 
 
 land congregations, and one of the three Moravian settlenu'nta. I ;_ 
 
 had read much of the lii.story of its founders ; and it was with Mchten- 
 feolings almost of devotion, that I drew near the sceue their hibouia '"'*' 
 had consecrated." 
 
 IIORAVIAM 8KTTI.KUENT OF LICIITENFEL8. 
 
 As we rowed into the shadow of its rock-embayed cove, every- Morawan 
 thing was so desolate and still, that we might have fancied ^'''''^""*' 
 ourselves outside the world of life ; even the dogs — those querulous, 
 never-sleeping sentinels of the rest of the coast — gave no signal of 
 our approach. Presently, a sudden turn around a projecting cliff 
 brought into view a quaint old Silesian mansion, bristling with 
 irregularly-disposed chimneys, its black, overhanging roof studded 
 with dormer windows, and crowned with an antique belfiy. 
 
 We jpere met, as we landed, by a couple of grave, ancient men . 
 in salAyackets and close velvet skull-caps, such as Vandyke or 
 Hembrandt himself might have painted, who gave us a quiet, but 
 
18 
 
 OLD MANSION-HOUSE. 
 
 ■* 
 
 '% 
 
 CHAPTER kindly welcome. All inside of the mansion-house — the furniture, 
 
 II. 
 
 4* 
 
 The old 
 
 iimnsion- 
 house. 
 
 the matron, even the children — had the same time-sobered look, 
 The sanded floor was dried by one of those huge, white-tiled 
 stoves, which have been known for generations in the north of 
 Europe ; and the stiff-backed chairs were evidently coeval with 
 the first days of the settlement. The heavy-built table in the 
 middle of the room was soon covered with its simple offerings of 
 hospitality ; and we sat around to talk of the lands we had come 
 from, and the changing wonders of the times. 
 
 We learned that the house dated back as far as the days of 
 Matthew Stach ; built, no doubt, with the beams that floated so 
 providentially to the shore some twenty-five years after the first 
 landing of Egede ; and that it had been the home of the brethren 
 who now greeted us, one for twenty -nine, and the other twenty- 
 seven years. The " Congregation Hall" was within the building, 
 cheerless now with its empty benches ; a couple of French horns, 
 — all that I could associate with the gladsome piety of the 
 Moravians, — hung on each side the altar. Two dwelling-rooms, 
 three chambers, and a kitchen, all under the same roof, made uji 
 the one structure of Lichtenfels. 
 
 Its kind-hearted inmates were not without intelligence and edu- 
 cation. In spite of the formal cut of their dress, and something 
 of the stiffness that belongs to a protracted solitary life, it was 
 impos.sible not to recc^Tiise, in their demeanour and course of 
 thought, the liberal spirit that has always characterized their 
 Church. Two of their " children," they said, had " gone to God" 
 last year with the scurvy ; yet they hesitated at receiving a scanty 
 supply of potatoes as a present from our store. 
 
 We lingered along the coast for the next nine days, baffled by 
 calms and light, adverse winds ; and it was only on the 10th of 
 July that we reached the settlement of Sukkertoppen. 
 Tiie"Suk- The Sukkertop, or Sugar-loaf, a noted landmark, is a wild, 
 kertop." ipjiated peak, rising some 3000 feet from the sea. The little 
 colony which nestles at its base occupies a rocky gorge, so narrow 
 and broker, that a stairway connects the detached groups of huts, 
 and the tide, as it rises, converts a part of the groundplot into . 
 temporary island. 
 
 Of all the Danish settlements on this coast, it struck me as tlio 
 most picturesque. The rugged cliffs seemed to blend with the 
 
 Liberal 
 spirit uf 
 the Mora 
 TJaiia 
 
UMI 
 
 SUKKEUTOPPEX. 
 
 If) 
 
 the furniture, 
 -sobered look, 
 e, white-tiled 
 
 the north of 
 J coeval with 
 
 table in the 
 le offerings of 
 , we had come 
 
 as the days of 
 hat floated f;o 
 
 after the finst ; 
 f the brethren 
 other twenty- 
 i the building, 
 French horns, 
 
 piety of the 
 welling-rooms, 
 roof, made up 
 
 jence and edu- 
 and something 
 ary life, it was 
 and course of 
 cterized their 
 gone to God" 
 iving a scanty 
 
 ays, baffled by '1 
 m the 10th of 
 in. 
 
 k. is a wild, i 
 a. The little 
 rge, so narrow 
 roups of huts, 
 undplot into - 
 
 nek me as the 
 lend with the 
 
 rotesque structures about their base. The trim red and white ch-vptkh 
 Ipainted frame mansion, which, in virtue of its gi-een blind." and " 
 laf'staff, asserted the gubernatorial dignity at Fii^kernaes, was here 
 lowlv, dingy compound of tarred roof and hea^7■ gables. The 
 IweHin^s of the natives, the natives themselves, and the wild 
 *iiM''ks of dog3 that crowded the beach, were all in keeping. It 
 »^vil.s .'iter twelve at night when we came into port ; and the i.iKht at 
 jeculiar light of the Arctic summer at this hour — which reminds '"'''"'«'"■ 
 ane of the effect of an eclipse, so unlike our orthodox twilight — 
 batlied everything in grey but the northern background — an 
 L.lpine chain standing out against a blazing crimson sky. 
 
 Sukkertoppen is a principal depot for reindeer-.skins ; and the sukker- 
 latives were at this season engaged in their summer hunt, collect- '"''?''"• 
 ^n" them. Four thousand had already been sent to Denmark, and 
 more were on hand. I bought a stock of superior quaUty for fifty 
 cents a piece. These furs are valuable for their light less and 
 warmth. They form the ordinary upper clothing of both sexes / 
 16 seal being used only for pantaloons and for waterproof dresses, 
 purchased also all that I could get of the crimped seal- skin boots 
 br moccasins, an admirable article of walking gear, much more 
 ^ecure against the wet than any made by sewing. I would liave 
 fcclded to my stock of fish, but the cod had not yet reached this 
 part of the coast, and would not for some weeks. 
 
 Bidding good-bye to the governor, whose hospitality we had 
 Ihared liberally, we put to sea on Saturday, the 10th, beating to 
 lie northward and westward in the teeth of a heavy gale. 
 
 kMUIAK, UH WOilttN 8 BOAT, 
 
 i>^^ 
 
I 
 
 ; ii' 
 
 20 
 
 COAST OF GREENIJLND. 
 
 ^i I 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OOABT OF OREENLAND — SWARTE-nrK —LAST DANISH OUTPOSTS— MELVILI.R 
 BAY — IN TUE JOB — BEARS— T,ERQS — ANCHOR TO A BERO — MIDNIGHT 
 SUNSHINE. 
 
 CHAPTER The lower and middle coast of Greenland Las V-ocn visited by so 
 III. ... 
 many voyagers, and its poLits of interooC have been so often 
 
 described, that I need not d^ dl upon them. From the time we 
 
 left Sukkertoppen, we had the Uaual delays from fogs and adverse 
 
 currents, and did not reach the neighbourhood of Wilcori. Point, 
 
 which defines Melville Bay, until the 27th of July. 
 
 OHfMends On the 16th we passed the promontory of Swiiri'.-n. '- ^vud /ere 
 
 at ProT. n. -welcomed the next day at Proven by my old fiiend Ou tia'^sen, the 
 
 superintendent, and found his family much as I left tucir tl)ree years 
 
 before. Frederick, Ids son, had married a native woman, and added 
 
 a summer tent, a half-breed boy, and a Danish rifle to liis stock of 
 
 valuables. My fonner patient, Anna, had united fortunes with a 
 
 fat-faced Esquimaux, and was the mother of a chubby little girl. 
 
 Madame Christiansen, who counted all these and so many others 
 
 as her happy progeny, was hearty and warm-hearted as ever. She 
 
 led the household in sewing up my skins into various serviceable 
 
 garments ; and I had the satisfaction, before I left, of completing 
 
 my stock of furs for our sledge parties. 
 
 While our brig passed, half sailing, half drifting, up the coas\ 
 
 I left her under the charge of Mr. Brooks, and set out in th^ 
 
 whale-boat to make my purchases of dogs among the natl , 
 
 Gathering them as we went along from the different settlemtn^s, 
 
 we reached Upernavik, the resting-place of the Grinnell Ex ■ edition 
 
 in 1851 after its winter drift, and for a couple of days shared, as 
 
 we were sure to do, the generous hospitality of Governor Flaischer. 
 
 Still coasting along, wa passed in succession the Ksquinianv 
 
 settlement of Kingatok, the Kettle — a mountain-top so nanird 
 
 from th(! resemblances of its profile — and finally Yotlik, the 
 
 furthest point of colonizntion ; beyond which, save the sparse 
 
 headlands of the charts, the coast may be regarded as unl:- .iwa 
 
 
 Reach 
 Upper 
 navlk. 
 
 Last 
 Danish 
 
 OUtlHiStS. 
 
 Tl 
 Ba 
 be: 
 
 as 
 
 •a A.a 
 
 cal 
 on 
 Me 
 in 
 
 aro 
 
 sen: 
 
 By 
 
 the 
 
 a ft 
 
 thei 
 
 whi- 
 
 "B( 
 
 amo 
 
 I 
 
 even 
 
 rewf 
 
 surp 
 
 was 
 
 had 
 
 mys( 
 
 laol 
 
 :i; '.(( 
 
 i;:-si 
 w-b 
 
 the p 
 forC 
 
 it* 
 
 ■ the t 
 H Witter 
 || to tlu 
 
 fl^ searcl 
 
 
MELVILLE BAY. 
 
 21 
 
 iSTS— MELVILI.H 
 3R0— MIDNIGHT 
 
 1 Visited by so 
 been so often 
 n the time we 
 ^s and adverse 
 Wilco:. Point, 
 
 -iu '- «.nd ''.'ere 
 u ^tia'^'^en, tlie 
 licir tlireeyetars 
 man, and added 
 1 to liis stock of 
 brtunes with a 
 ubby little girl, 
 so many others 
 I as ever. She 
 ions serviceable 
 , of complethig 
 
 ;, lip the coas'i f0 
 set out ill tlr*^ 
 
 ig the nati . ^ 
 3nt settlemtiiis, ^^^ ■ 
 nell Ex • idition |^ 
 days shared, as Q[ 
 ernor Flaischer, 
 the '^squimany. 
 -top so nanud 
 ly Yotlik, the 
 ave the sparse 
 ed as unl:-./>va» 
 
 Then inclining more directly toward the north, we ran close to the chapter 
 
 Baffin Islands, — clogged with ice when I saw them three years L 
 
 before, now entirely clear, — sighted the landmark which is known 
 as the Horse's Head, and, passing the Duck Islands, where the 
 Advance grounded in 1861, bore away for Wilcox Point.* 
 
 We stood lazily along the coast, with alternations of perfect 
 calm and off-shore breezes, generally from the south or east ; but 
 on the morning of the 27 th of July, as Ave neared the entrance of 
 Melville Bay, one of those heavy ice-fogs, wldch I have described jfeMUe 
 in my former narrative as characteristic of this region, settled ^^^' 
 around us. We could hardly see across the decks, and yet were 
 sensible of the action of currents carrying us we knew not where. 
 By the time the sun had scattered the mist, Wilcox Point was to 
 the south of us ; and our little brig, now fairly in the bay, stood 
 a fair chance of drifting over toward the Devil's Thumb, which 
 then bore east of north. The bergs which infest this region, and Among 
 which have earned for it among the whalers the title of the ' '^ ^^^^ 
 " Bergy Hole," showed themselves all around us : we had come in 
 among them in the fog. 
 
 It was a whole day's work, towing with both boats ; but toward 
 evening we had succeeded in crawling off shore, and were doubly 
 rewarded for our labour with a wind. I had observed with 
 surprise, while we were floating near the coast, that the land ice 
 was already broken and decayed ; and I was aware, from what I 
 had read, as well as what I had learned from whalers and observed 
 myself of the peculiarities of this navigation, that the in-shore 
 rack was in consequence beset with dixficulty and delays. I 
 ;i: ij up my mind at once. I would stand to the westward until 
 iiii.joLed by the pack, and endeavour to double Melville Bay by an Doubling 
 o':s[de passage. A chronicle of this transit, condensed from my uay. 
 r„,'-bcok, will have interest tor navigators : — 
 
 "Ju'^ 28, Thursday, 6 a.m.— -Made the offsetting streams of 
 the pack, and bore up to the northward and eastward ; heading 
 for Cape York in tolerably free water. 
 
 " July 29, Friday, 9^ a.m.— !Made loose ice, and very rotten ; 
 tlie tables nearly destroyed, and much broken by wave action : 
 Wiiter-sky to the northward. Entered this ice, intending to w^rk 
 to the northward and eastward, above or about Sabine Islands, in 
 search of the north-eastern land-ice. The breeze freshened off 
 
i' "* /IN-. 
 
 ill! 
 
 ii 
 
 i 
 
 li 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 ■Ml 
 
 t !:■ 
 
 ill i 
 
 22 
 
 FASTENED TO AN ICE-BERG. 
 
 CHAPTBK shore, breaking up and sending out the floes, the leads rapidly 
 ^"' closing. Fearing a besetment, I determined to fasten to an ice- 
 berg ; and after eight hours of very heavy labour, warping, heaving, 
 and planting ice-anchors, succeeded in effecting it. 
 
 " We had hardly a breathing spell, before we were startled by a 
 set of loud, crackling sounds above us ; and small fragments of 
 ice, not larger than a walnut, began to dot the water like the first 
 drops of a summer shower. The indications wore too plain ; we 
 had barely time to cast off before the face of the berg fell in ruins, 
 eras lung like near artillery. 
 
 Breaking 
 of an ice- 
 berg. 
 
 A critical 
 lioiitlon. 
 
 FASTRNKO TO AN ICKBKKO. 
 
 " Our position, in the mean time, had been critical, a gale 
 blowing off the shore, and the floes closing and scudding rapidly. 
 We lost some three hundred and sixty fathoms of whale line, 
 which were caught in the floes, and had to be cut away to relea ie 
 
BEARS— BEEGS. 
 
 S8 
 
 us from the drift It was a hard night for boat-work, particularly ohapter 
 with those of the party who were taking their first lessons in floe "'^' 
 navigation. 
 
 " July 30, Saturday. — Again moored alongside of an iceberg. 
 The wind off shore, but hauling to the southward, with much free 
 water. 
 
 "12 M. — The fog too dense to see more than a quarter of a 
 mile a head ; occasional glimpses through it show no practicable 
 leads. Land to the north-east very rugged ; I do not recognise 
 its marks. Two lively bears seen about 2 a.m. The ' Red Boat,' b rsseen. 
 with Petersen and Hayes, got one ; I took one of the quarter-boats, 
 and shot the other. 
 
 " Holding on for clearer weather. 
 
 "Jnly 31, Sunday. — Our open water beginning to fill up very 
 fast witli loose ice from the south, went around the edges of the 
 lake in my gig, to hunt for a more favourable spot for the brig ; 
 p.nd, after five hours' hard heaving, we succeeded in changing our 
 fasts to another berg, quite near the free water. In our present 
 position, the first change must, I think, liberate us. In one hour 
 after we reached it, the place we left was consolidated hito pack. 
 We now lie attached to a low and safe iceberg, only two miles Anciior f- 
 from the open sea, wliich is rapidly widening toward us under the *" '*=^'"*'"s- 
 influence of the southerly winds. 
 
 " We had a rough time in working to our present quarters, in 
 what the whalers term an open hole. We drove into a couple of 
 bergs, carried away our jib-boom and shrouds, and destroyed one 
 of our quarter-boais. 
 
 '■'■August 1, Monday. — Beset thoroughly with drifting ice, small in the ice. 
 rotten floe-pieces. But for our berg, we would now be carried to 
 [the south ; as it is, we drift with it to the north and east. 
 
 " 2 A.M. — The continued pressure against our berg has begun 
 to affect it; and, like the great floe all around us, it has taken up 
 [its line of march toward the south. At the risk of beuig cti tangled, 
 I ordered a light line to be carried out to a much larger berg, and, 
 I after four hours' labour, made fast to it securely. This berg is a 
 nioving breakwater, and of gigantic proportions ; it keeps its course 
 steadily toward the north, while the loose ice drifts by on each 
 j^eide, leaving a wake of black water for a mile behind us. 
 
 " Our position last night, by midnight altitude of the sun, gave 
 
24 
 
 MIDNIGHT SUNSHINE. 
 
 CHAPTER US 75** 27'; to-day at noon, witlia more reliable horizon, we made 
 ""• 75° 3/' ; showing that, in spite of all embarrassments, we still 
 move to the north. We are, however, nearer than I could wish to 
 the land, — a blank wall of glacier. 
 
 "About 10 P.M. the immediate danger was past; and, espying 
 a lead to the north-east, we got under weigh, and pushed over in 
 spite of the drifting trash. The men worked with a will, and \ve 
 bored through the floes in excellent style." 
 
 On our road we were favoured with a gorgeous spectacle, which 
 hardly any excitement of peril could have made us overlook. The 
 midnight sun came out over the northern crest of the great berg, 
 our late " fast friend," kindling variously-coloured fires on every 
 part of its surface, and making the ice around us one great 
 resplendency of gemwork, blazing carbuncles, and rubies and 
 molten gold. 
 
 MldnlRht 
 Bunshine. 
 
 il! 
 
 II w 
 
 
 --t - -•i:-5'-c 
 
 SB()CIMAUX BOT ON DOO. 
 
 ■ 
 
BORING THE FLOES. 
 
 26 
 
 rizon, we made 
 nents, we still 
 [ could wish to 
 
 ; and, espying 
 pushed over in 
 a will, and ■we 
 
 pectacle, which 
 overlook. The 
 the great berg, 
 fires on every 
 us one great 
 id rubies and 
 
 M 
 
 ?/■ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BORING THE FLOES— SDCCESSFUL PASSAGE THROUGH MELVILLE BAT— ICE 
 NAVIGATION— PASSAGE OF THE MIDDLE PACK — THE NORTH WATER. 
 
 Our brig went crunching through all this jewellery; and, after a "hapteb 
 
 lortuous progress of five miles, arrested here and there by tongues L 
 
 Ichich required the saw and ice-chisels, fitted herself neatly between goring tba 
 two floes. Here she rested till toward morning, when the leads 
 OT toned again, and I was able, from the crow's-nest, to pick our 
 av to a larger pool some distance ahead. In this we beat back- 
 'ard and forward, like China fish seeking an outlet from a glass 
 jar, till the fog caught us again; and so the day ended. 
 ^^ August 3, Wednesday.— T\\Q day did not promise well; but 
 the wind was blowing in feeble airs from the N.N.W., I 
 ought it might move the ice, and sent out the boats for a tow. 
 ut, after they had had a couple of hours of unprofitable work, 
 e breeze freshened, and the floes opened enough to allow us to 
 sat through them. Everything now depended upon practical ice 
 :nowleclge; and, as I was not wUling to trust any one else in 
 ilecting the leads for our course, I have spent the \vliole day with 
 'Gary at mast-head, — a somewhat confined and unfavourable 
 reparation for a journal entry. 
 " I am much encouraged, however ; this oflf-shore wind is favour- Prospect 
 ig our escape. The icebergs, too, have assisted us to hold our own ° ^'"^"''^ 
 ;ainst the rapid passage of the broken ice to the south ; and since 
 e larger floes have opened into leads, we have nothing to do but 
 follow them carefully and boldly. As for the ice-necks, and 
 |rong3, and rafts, and tonguos, the capstan and windlass have 
 ne a great deal to work us through them; but a great deal 
 .ore, a brave headway and our little brig's hard head of oak. 
 ^^ Midnight. — We are clear of the ba^ and its myriads of dis- clear of 
 mrageraents. The North Water, our highway to Smith's Sound, '''e'-y- 
 fairly ahead. 
 
 " It is only eight days ago that we made Wilcox Point, and 
 ven since we fairly left the inside track of the whalers, and made 
 
Id 
 
 I 
 
 111; 
 
 t:' 
 If 
 
 m 
 
 ICE NAVIGATION. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 IV. 
 
 Ice In Mel 
 ville bay. 
 
 our push for the west. 1 did so, not without full consideration of 
 the chances. Let me set down what my views were and are." 
 
 The indentation known as Melville Bay is protected by its 
 northern and north-eastern coast from the great ice and cun-em 
 drifts which follow the axis of Baffin's Bay. The interior of tin 
 country which bounds upon it is the seat of extensive glaciers, 
 which are constantly shedding off icebergs of the largest dimen- 
 sions. The greater bulk of these is below tlie water-line, and the 
 depth to which they sink when floating subjects them to the action 
 of the deeper sea currents, while their broad surface above tlie 
 water is of course acted on by the wind. It happens, theref<jrc, 
 that they are found not unfrequently moving in different directions 
 from the floes around them, and preventing them for a time from 
 freezing into a united mass. Still, in the late winter, when the 
 cold has thorouglily set in, Melville Bay becomes a continuous fiulil 
 of ice, from Cape York to the lyevil's Thumb. 
 
 On the return of milder weather, the same causes renew their 
 action ; and that portion of the ice which is protected from thi- 
 outside drift, and entangled among the icebergs that crowd tlie 
 bay, remains permanent long after that which is outside is in 
 motion. Step by step, as the year advances, its outer edge breaks 
 off; yet its inner curve frequently remains unbroken through the 
 "Fastic(!." entire summer. This is the " fast ice" of the whalers, so impor- 
 tant to their progress in the earlier portions of the season ; for, 
 however it may be encroached upon by storms or currents, they 
 can generally find room to track their vessels along its solid margin ; 
 or if the outside ice, yielding to off-shore winds, happens to recede, 
 the interval of water between the fast and the drift allows them 
 not unfrequently to use their sails. 
 
 It is therefore one of the whalers' canons of navigation, which 
 they hold to most rigidly, to follow the shore. But it is obvious | 
 that this applies only to the early periods of the Arctic season, 
 when the land ice of the inner bay is comparatively unbroken, as | 
 in May or June, or part of July, varying of course with the cir- 
 cumstances. Indeed, the bay is seldom traversed except in these | 
 months, the north-west fisheries of Pond's Bay, and the rest, ceas- 
 ing to be of value afterward. Later in the summer, the inner ice ] 
 breaks up into large floes, moving with wind and tide, that embar- 
 rass tlie navigator, misleading him into the notion that he iil 
 
 Ice navl 
 gutlun. 
 
PASSAGE OF THE MIDDLE PACK. 
 
 nsicleration ui 
 and are." 
 tected by its 
 e and current 
 iterior of the 
 :isive glaciers, | 
 argest dimeii- 
 r-line, and the 
 n to the action 
 ace above the 
 ens, therefore, 
 ;rent directions 
 or a time from 
 liter, when the 
 ;ontinuous field 
 
 ies renew their 
 2cted from the 
 that crowd the 
 3 outside is in 
 ter edge breaks 
 m through the 
 ers, so irapor- 
 
 ivigation, which 
 Jut it is obvious | 
 
 Arctic season, 
 }ly unbroken, as 
 se with the cir- 
 
 except in these j 
 id the rest, ceas- 
 er, the inner ice ] 
 bide, that enrbar- 
 )tiou that he is! 
 
 attivchcd to his " fast," when in reaUty he is accompanying the 
 movements of an immense floating ice-fickl. 
 
 I have been surprised sometimes tliat our national ships of 
 discovery and search have not been more generally impressed by 
 these views. Whether the season has been mild or severe, the ice 
 fast and solid, or broken and in drift, they have followed in August 
 the same course wliich the whalers do in June, runhing their ves- 
 sels into the curve of the bay in search of the fast ice which had 
 disappeared a month before, and involving themselves in a laby- 
 rinth of floes. It was thus the Advance was caught in her second 
 season, luider Captain de Haven ; while the Prince Albert, leaving 
 us, worked a successful passage to the west. So too the North 
 Star in 1849 was caiiied to the northward, and hopelessly en- 
 tangled there. Indeed, it is the common story of the disasters 
 and delays that we read of in the navigation of these regions. 
 
 Now I felt sure, from the known openness of the season of 
 185L' and the probable mildness of the follo^ving winter, that M-e 
 I could scarcely hope to make use of the land ice for tracking, or to 
 I avail ourselves of kcads along its margin by canvas. And tliis 
 I opinion was confirmed by the broken and rotten appearance of the 
 ifloes during our coastwise drift at the Duck Islands. I therefore 
 Idoseritd the inside track of the whalers, and stood to the west- 
 [ward, until we made the first streams of the middle pack ; and 
 Itlien, skirting the pack to the northward, headed in slowly for the 
 Iniicldle portion of the bay above Sabine Islands. My object was 
 jto double, as it were, the loose and drifting ice that had stood in 
 [my way, and, reaching Cape York, as nearly as might be, trust for 
 jtlie remainder of my passage to warping and tracking by the heavy 
 Ifloes. We succeeded, not without some laborious boring and seri- 
 |pus risks of entanglement among the broken icefields. But we 
 fiahaged, in every instance, to combat this last form of difficulty 
 by attaching our vessel to large icebergs, which enabled us to hold 
 )ur own, however swiftly the surface floes were pressing by us to 
 Ihe south. Four days of this scarcely varied yet exciting naviga- 
 tion brought us to the extended fields of the pack, and a fortunate 
 north-wester opened a passage for us through them. We are now 
 in the North Water.^ 
 
 CIIAPTKR 
 IV. 
 
 Common 
 mistiiken 
 in ice imvl- 
 gatliin. 
 
 Passage of 
 the middle 
 pack. 
 
28 
 
 THE "crimson cliffs." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CRIMSON CLIFFS OF TIP.VKRT.KT — HAKT,(TYT AND NORTITtTMnT!RT,ANI>— RED 
 SNOW — THE 0ATE3 OF SMITH'S STRAITS — CAPE ALEXANDER — CAP! 
 IIATHERTON — FAREWELL CAIRN — LIFE-BOAT DEPdT — ESQUIMACX UUIXj 
 FOUND — GRAVES— FLAGSTAFF POINT. 
 
 <'tl 
 
 's; 
 
 CHAPTER 
 V. 
 
 The Crim- 
 son Cliffs. 
 
 Pnss Coni- 
 cal Rock. 
 
 Reach 
 
 Hiikluyt 
 
 Island. 
 
 Red sncw. 
 
 My diary continues : — 
 
 " We passed the * Crimson Cliffs ' of Sir John Ross in the foro 
 noon of August 5th. The patches of red snow, from which tbov 
 derive their name, could be seen clearly at the distance of ten 
 miles from the coast. It had a fine deep rose hue, not at all like.| 
 the brown stain which I noticed when I was here before. All tlie 
 gorges and ravines in which the snows had lodged were dco]iv 
 tinted with it. I had no difficulty now in justifying the sona 
 what poetical nomenclature which Sir John Franklin applied t 
 this locality ; for if the snowy surface were more diffused, as it ;- 
 no doubt earlier in the season, crimson would be the prevailin: 
 colour. 
 
 " Late at night we passed Conical Rock, the most insulated nii : 
 conspicuous landmark of this coast ; and, still later, Wolstenlidliii! 
 and Saunder's Islands, and Oomenak, the place of the N'orth St'in 
 winter-quarters — an admirable day's run ; and so ends the 5tli (i 
 August. We are standing along, with studding-sails set, and dpi: 
 water before us, fast nearing our scene of labour. We li;n: 
 already got to work, sewing up blanket bags and preparing sIcmIl' i 
 for our campaignings on the ice." 
 
 We reached Hakluyt Island in the course of the next day. .1| 
 tall spire on it, probably of gneiss, rises 600 feet above t!: 
 water-level, and is a valuable landmark for very many miles arouinI| 
 We were destined to become familiar with it before leaving tl 
 region. Both it and Northumberland, to the south-east of itj 
 afforded studies of colour that would hove rewarded an artiAl 
 The red snow was diversified with large surfaces of beautifullyl 
 green mosses and alopecunis,' and Avhere the sandstone was hm 
 it threw in a rich shade of brown. 
 
GATES OF smith's STRAITS. 
 
 29 
 
 TMUP.KT.ANP— KEB 
 jEXANDER — CAP! 
 ESQUIMAUX UUINj 
 
 Ross in the f(ire- 
 from which tlity 
 distance of ton 
 le, not at all likel 
 before. All tk| 
 ged were deeply || 
 ifying the some- 
 nklin applied \(•^ 
 diffused, as it i- 
 be the prevailiii;^!| 
 
 ost insulated ami 
 er, Wolstenholnit 
 the yorth Stun: 
 ) ends the 5th oil 
 lails set, and opeiir 
 hour. We hm 
 preparing sledgej 
 
 ;he next day. Aj 
 feet above tlifj 
 ■lany miles arounil 
 )efore leaving tliiil 
 south-east of i'-j 
 warded an artisil 
 :es of beautifully! 
 ndstone was bard 
 
 The coast to the nortli of Cape Atholl is of broken greenstone, chapter 
 In terraces. Nearing Hakluyt Island, the truncated and pyramidal _1_ 
 ihapes uf these rocks may still be recognised in the interior ; but Oeoiouy ot 
 tlie coast presents a coarse red sandstone, wliich continues well 
 diaracterized as far as Cape Saumarez. The nearly horizontal 
 rata of the sandstone thus exhibited contrast conspicuously with 
 c snow which gathers upon their exposed ledges. In fact, the 
 allelism and distinctness of the lines of white and black would 
 ,ve dissatisfied a lover of the picturesque. Porphyritic rocks, 
 owevcr, occasionally broke their too great uniformity ; occasion- 
 y, too, the red snow showed its colours ; and at intervals of very 
 iw miles — indeed, wherever the disrupted masses offered a pass- 
 ;e-way — glaciers were seen descending toward the water's edge, 
 the back country appeared one great rolling distance of 
 acier. 
 
 ^^ August 6. Saturday. — Cape Alexander and Cape Isabella, the Thogatp* 
 |eadlaiids of Smith's Sound, are now in sight ; .and, in addition souiTo. 
 
 these indications of our progress toward the field of search, a 
 parked swell has set in after a short blow from the northward, 
 jist such as might be looked for from the action of the wind upon 
 open water-space beyond. 
 
 " Whatever it may have been when Captain Inglefield saw it a Aspect of 
 vc ago, the aspect of this coast is now most uninviting." As we '° *^'"""* 
 ok far off to the west, the snow comes down with heavy uniform- 
 to the water's edge, and the patches of land seem as rare as the 
 inner's snow on the hills about Sukkertoppen and Fiskemaes. 
 the right we have an array of cliffs, whose frowning grandeur 
 ^ht dignify the entrance to the proudest of southern sea.s. I 
 lould say they would average from 400 to 500 yards in 
 ^ht, with some of their precipices 800 feet at a single 
 ep. They have been until now che Arctic pillars of Hercules ; 
 they look down on us as if they challenged our right to pass, 
 iren the sailors are impressed as we move under their dark sha- 
 One of the oflicers said to our look-out, that the gulls •■ ■< i 
 ler that dot the water about us were as enlivening as the white 
 Is of the Mediterranean. ' Yes, sir,' he rejoined with sincere 
 ^nty; 'yes, sir, in proportion to their size.'" 
 I*' August 7, Su.iday. — We have left Cape Alexander to the south ; 
 Littleton Island is before us, hiding Cape Hatherton, the latest 
 
30 
 
 FAREWELL CAIRV. 
 
 
 I li! 
 
 I'lIAPTKB 
 V. 
 
 Smith's 
 ?OUn(L 
 
 Cftlrn on 
 Littleton 
 Uluiul. 
 
 of Captain Inglefielil's positively-dotennjned lutidlaiids. We are 
 fairly iiiaido of Smith's Sound. 
 
 " On our left is a capacious bay ; and deep in ita north-castei ii 
 recesses we can see a glacier issuing from a fiord." 
 
 We knew tiiis bay familiarly afterwards as the residence of a 
 body of E.squimaux with whom we had many associations ; but 
 we little dreamt then that it would bear the name of a gallant 
 friend, who found there the first traces of our escape small 
 
 cluster of rocks, hidden at times by the sea, gave evidence of the 
 violent tidal action about them. 
 
 " As we neared the west end of Littleton Island, after breakfast 
 this morning, I ascended to the crow's-nest, and saw to my sorrow 
 the ominous blink of ice ahead." The wind has been fresheniiu' 
 for a couple of days from the northward, and if it continues, it will 
 bring down the floes on us. 
 
 " My mind has been made up from the first that we are to fmvr 
 our way to the north, as far as the elements will let us ; and I fed 
 the importance, therefore, of securing a place of retreat, that iu 
 case of disaster we may not be altogether at large. Besides, ^vt 
 have now reached one of the points at which, if any one is to 
 folloAv us, he might look for some trace to guide him." 
 
 I determined to leave a cairn on Littleton Lsland, a deposit 
 
 a boat with a supply of stores in some convenient place near it. 
 One of our whale-boats had been crushed in Melville Bay, ami i 
 Francis's metallic life-boat was the only one I coidd spfire. It3| 
 length did not exceed twenty i'eet, and our crew of twenty cmili 
 hardly stow themselves in it with even a few days' rations; but it 1 
 was air-chambered and buoyant. 
 
 Selecting from our stock of provisions and field equipage such I 
 I)ortions as we might by good luck be able to dispense with, audi 
 adding -with reluctant liberality some blankets and a few yards ofj 
 india-rubber cloth, we set out in search of a spot for our fii'ij 
 depot. It was essential that it should be upon the mainland, fori 
 the rapid tides might so wear away the ice as to make an islandj 
 inaccessible to a foot-party ; and yet it was desirable that, wj 
 secure against the action of sea and ice, it should be approachablfj 
 by boats. Wo found such a place after some pretty cold rowing 
 It was oflF the mrtli-ea.st cape of Littleton, and bore S.S.E. froul 
 Cape Hatherton, v/lncli loomed in the distance above the foJ 
 
LIFE-BOAT DEPOT. 
 
 81 
 
 iiorth-castcin 
 
 (Here we buried our life-boat with her little cargo. We jjlaccd 
 (along her gunwale the heaviest rocks we couUl handle, and, filling 
 [vp the uitersticea with smaller stones and sods of andronieda and 
 jmos-s, poured sand and water among the layers. This, frozen at 
 louce into a solid mass, might be hard enough, we hoped, to resist 
 |the claws of the polar bear. 
 
 \Vt found to our surprise that we were not the first human 
 Ibeings who had sought a shelter in this desolate spot. A few 
 ruined walls here and there showed that it had once been the scat 
 j()f ;i rude settlement; and in the little knoll which we cleared 
 iway to cover in our storehouse of valuables, we found the mortal 
 reiiKiirs of their former inhabitiints. 
 
 Nothing can be imagined more sad and homeless than these 
 memorials of extinct life. Hardly a vestige of gi-owth was trace- 
 lible on the bare ice-rubbed rocks; and the huts res'jmbled .so 
 uuh the broken fragments that surrounded them, that at first 
 Bij^lit it was hard to distinguish one from the other. Walrus bones 
 ay about in all directions, showing that this animal had furnished 
 Jie staple of sub.sistence. There were some remai' , too, of the 
 jx and the narwhal ; but I found no signs of the seal or reindeer. 
 These Esquimaux have no mother earth to receive their dead, 
 but they seat them as in the attitude of repose, the knees drawii 
 lose to the body, and enclose them in a sack of skins. The 
 iplements of the living man are then grouped around him ; they 
 re covered Avith a rude dome of stones, and a cairn is piled above, 
 liis sim[>le cenotaph will reu'.ain intact for generation after genera- 
 jon. The Esquimaux never disturb a grave. 
 From one of the graves I took several perforated and nidely- 
 sliioned pieces of walrus ivory, evidently part of sledge and 
 ice gear. But wood must have been even more scarce with them 
 lan with the natives of Baffin's Bay north of the ^Melville glacier. 
 P^e found, for instance, a child's toy spear, which, though elabor- 
 Bly tipped with ivory, had its wooden handle pieced out of four 
 parate bits, all carefully patched and bound with skin. No 
 ece was more than six inches in length or half an inch in 
 ^ckness. 
 
 |We found other traces of Esquimaux, both on Littleton Island 
 
 n Slioal-Water Cove, near it. They consisted of huts, graves, 
 
 ices of deposit for meat, and rocks arranged as foxtraps. These 
 
 C II APT KB 
 V. 
 
 Mfc-bnat 
 uiid emeu 
 buiieil. 
 
 lEulns of It 
 riulescttlo- 
 iiient. 
 
 Esqul- 
 niiiiix. 
 culms. 
 
 Traces ol 
 
 K.Mnil- 
 
 maux. 
 
32 
 
 ESQUIMAUX RELICS. 
 
 OHAPTRR were evidently very ancient ; but they were so well preserved thai 
 ^' it was impossible to say bow long they had been abandoned there, \ 
 • . whether for fifty or a hundred years before. 
 
 Child's Spear. 
 
 
 Sevfing Impleinenta, 
 
 : 1 ; * .s; 
 
 Pot Hook. 
 
 B9QUIMAUX IMPLBMEN-T8, FROM ORAVES. 
 
 Erection Of Our stores deposited, it was our next office to erect a beacon, 
 overth" ''''"^ intrust to it our tidings. We chose for this purpose the 
 cairn Western Cape of Littleton Island, as more conspicuous than Cam 
 Hatherton; built our cairn ; wedged a staff into the crevices of I 
 the rocks; and, spreading the American flag, hailed its folds witlij 
 three cheers as they expanded in the cold midnight breeze. These 
 important duties performed — the more lightly, let me say, for this 
 little flicker of enthusiasm — we rejoined the brig early on the 
 morning of the 7th, and forced on again towards the north, beating | 
 against wind and tide. 
 
preserved thai 
 andoned there, 
 
 EEFUGE HARBOUR. 
 
 nrj 
 
 leuienta 
 
 erect a beacon, 
 lis purpose tlie 
 uous than dm 
 the crevices oil 
 id its folds with 
 breeze. These! 
 me say, for this 
 g early on tbej 
 e north, beating 
 
 CHAFlER. VI. • 
 
 LOSINO WITH THE ICE— REFUGE HARBODR— DOGS— WALK03- -NARWHAL — 
 ICE-H ILLS— BEACON CAIRN— ANCHORED TO A BERG — ESQUIMAUX HUTS 
 
 PETER FORCE BAY— CAPE C0RNEL1U3 GRINNBLIf— SHALLOWS— A GALE 
 
 —THE BECBEAJiT DOGS. 
 
 I" August 8, Mixnday. — I had seen the ominous blink ahead of us ohaptb.i 
 [from the Flagstaff Point of Littleton Island ; and before two hours /'• ^ 
 [were over we closed with ice to the westward. It was in the i o.na 
 [foriii of a pack, very heavy, and several seasons old; but we "'' 
 [Stood on, boring the loose stream -ice, until we had passed some 
 [forty mUes beyond Cape Life-Boat Cove. Here it became impos- 
 jaihle to force our way further; and a dense fog gathering round 
 [uii, we were carried helplessly to the eastward. We should have 
 [been forced upon the Greenland coast, but an eddy close ii'. shore 
 [released us for a few moments from the direct pressure, and we 
 [were fortunr te enough to get out a whale-line to the rocks, and 
 jwarp into a protecting niche. , 
 
 " In the evening I ventured out again with the change of tide, 
 it it was only to renew a profitless conflict. The flood, enco'in- 
 sring the southward movement of the floes, drove them in upon 
 tlie shore, and with such rapidity and force as to cany the 
 smaller bergs along witli them. We were too happy, when, after Kscapo 
 
 manful struggle of some hours, we found ourselves once more ^''"" "'® 
 )ut of their range. 
 
 " Our new position was rather nearer to the south than the one 
 ?e had left. It was in a beautiful cove, landlocked from esvst to 
 rest, and accessible only from the north. Here we moored our vessel 
 Ecurely by hawsers to tlie rocks and a whale-line carried out to 
 je narrow entrance. At M'Gary's suggestion, I called it ' Fog 
 [nlet;' but we afterwards remembered it more thankfully as Kcmae 
 Ikfuge Harbour.'" 
 
 " August 9, Tuesday. — It may be noted among our little 
 liseries that we have more than tifty dogs on board, Ihe majority 
 
 whom might rather be characterize J as 'ravening wolves.' To 
 
 c 
 
 lluibuur. 
 
I 
 
 (If 
 
 ii 
 
 iii 
 
 ll 
 
 \ ''-l 
 
 ■'( 
 
 \ 
 
 l' 
 
 ^' ■[ 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 :;i 
 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 \4 
 
 '■ V 
 
 34 
 
 HUNTING WALRUS, 
 
 CHAPTEu feed this family, upon wliose strength our progress and succc- 
 ^^' depend, is really a difficult matter. The absence of shore or land 
 
 V. riicity ice to the south in Baffin's Bay has prevented our rifles from con 
 "''*■ tributing any material aid to our commissariat. Our two bears lasted 
 the cormorants but eight days ; and to feed them upon the meagi « 
 allowance of two pounds of raw flesh every other day is an 
 almost impossible necessity. Only yesterd.ay they were ready to 
 eat the caboose up, for I would not give them pemmican. Corn 
 meal or beans, which Penny's dogs fed on, they disdain to touch, 
 and salt junk would kill them. 
 
 
 
 Wnlnw 
 laiiit. 
 
 ESUUIMAl'X U008. 
 
 " Accordingly I .started out this morning to liunt walnis, Avitli 
 which the Sound is teeming. We saw at least fifty of these dusky 
 monsters, and approached many groups within twenty paces; but 
 our rifle balls reverberated from their hides like cork pellets from 
 a pop- gun target, and we could not get within harpoon-distaiue 
 of one. Later in the day, however, Ohlsen, climbing a neigli- 1 
 bouring hill to scan the horizon, and see if the ice had slackened | 
 found tlie dead carcase of a narwhal or sea-unicorn — a hai'i'}' 
 discovery, which has secured for us at least six hundred pouiul'i I 
 
NARWHAL— ICE-HILLS. 
 
 libing a neigli- 
 
 of good foetid wholesome flesh. The length of tlie narwhal was chapter 
 fourteen feet, and his process, or ' horn,' from the tip to its bony ^'' 
 encasement, four feet — hardly half the size of the noble specimen Ntti"ii"i- 
 I presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences after my last 
 cruise." We built a fire on the rocks, and melted down his 
 blubber ; he will yield readily two barrels of oil. 
 
 "While we were engaged getting our narwhal on board, the 
 wind hauled round to the south-west, and the ice began to travel 
 l)ack rapidly to the north. This looks as if the resistance to the 
 northward was not very permanent. There must be either great 
 areas of relaxed ice or open water leads along the shore. But the 
 choking up of tlie floes on our eastern side still prevents an 
 attempt at progress. This ice is the heaviest I have seenj and 
 its accumulation on the coast produces barricades more like bergs 
 than hummocks. One of those rose perpendicularly more than 
 sixty feet. Except the ' ice-hills ' of Admiral Wrangell, on the icc-iiiiii 
 (■oast of Arctic Asia, nothing of ice-upheaval has ever been de- 
 scribed equal to this.^^ 
 
 " Still anxious beyond measure to get the vessel released, I 
 furced a boat through the drift to a point about a mile north of 
 us, from which I could overlook the Sound. There was nothing 
 to be seen but a melancholy extent of impacted drift, stretching 
 northward as far as the eye could reach. I erected a small a hpacon 
 beacon-cairn on the point; and, as I had neither paper, pencil, *^"""' 
 nor pennant, I burnt a K with powder on the rock, and scratch- 
 ing 0. K. with a pointed bullet on my cap-lining, hoisted it as the 
 representative of a flag." * 
 
 With the small hours of Wednesday morning came a breeze from 
 the south-west, which was followed by such an apparent relaxation 
 I if the floes at the slack-water of flood-tide, that I resolved to attempt 
 ;iii escape from our little basin. We soon warped to a narrow cttl- 
 tl''-sac between tiie main pack on one side and the rocks on the other, Anciiond 
 i and after a little trouble made ourselves fast to a berg. '° " ''^'' ••'• 
 
 There was a small indentation .ahead, which I had noticed on my 
 I boat reconnoissance ; and, as the breeze seemed to be fresheiiing, I 
 
 ' U WHS our cnsfnm, in ohcdlencc to a (jeiierul order, to luiIUl calvns hiuI leave iiotiiei 
 .It every eligible point. Onr of ttiese, rndely niiirlted, nuicli iis 1 !i:ive described tliis one, 
 l«infniind by Ciiptuiii IIiivtstiMie, and, strange to say, was tlie only diiect nieniurlal of .-ny 
 I »lH'reabout» comnumivated from some hundred* of beacons. 
 
36 
 
 ESQUIMAUX HUT. 
 
 CHAIt>TKR 
 VI. 
 
 VVoikiiig 
 
 
 I-; V. 
 
 niaux hut. 
 
 I 
 
 Sci-nery on 
 •liuic. 
 
 thought we might venture for it. But the floes were too strong for 
 us; our eight-inch hawser parted like a whip-cord. There w.is 
 no time for hesitation. I crowded sail, and bored into the drift, 
 leaving Mr, Sontag and three men upon the ice. We did not 
 reclaim them till, after some hours of adventure, we brought up 
 under the lee of a grounded berg. 
 
 I pass without notice our successive efforts to work the vessel 
 to seaward through the floes. Each had its somewhat varied in- 
 cidents, but all ended in failure to make progress. We found our- 
 selves at the end of the day's struggles close to the same imper- 
 fectly-defined headland which I have marked on the chart as Cape 
 Cornelius Grinnell, yet separated from it by a barrier of ice, and 
 with our anchors planted in a berg. 
 
 In one of the attempts which I made with my boat to detect 
 some pathway or outlet for the brig, I came upon a long rooky 
 ledge, with a sloping terrace on its southern face, strangely green 
 with sedges and peppiea. I had learned to refer these unusuiil 
 traces of vegetation to the fertilizhig action of the refuse v/hicli 
 gathers about the habitations of men. Yet I was startled, as I 
 walked round its narrow and dreary limits, to find an Esquimaux 
 hut, so perfect in its preservation that a few hours' labour wouU 
 have rendered it habitable. There were bones of the walrus, fox. 
 and seal, scattered round it in small quantities ; a dead dog was 
 found close by, with ithe flesh still on his bones, and, a little fur- 
 ther off, a bear-skin garment that retained its fur. In fact, for ;i 
 deserted homestead, the scene had so little of the air of desolation 
 about it, that it cheered my good fellows perceptibly. 
 
 The scenery beyond, upon the main shore, might have impresseil 
 men whose thoughts were not otherwise absorbed. An openi';, 
 througli the cliffs of trap rock disclosed a valley slope and distant 
 rolling hills, — in fine contrast with the black precipices in front,— 
 and a stream that came tumbling through the gorge ; we couU 
 hear its pastoral music even on board tlie brig, when the ice 
 clamour mtermitted. 
 
 The water around was so shoal that at three hundred yards from 
 the shore we had but twelve-feet soundings at low tide. Great 
 rocks, well worn and rounded, that must have been floated out by 
 the ice at some former period, rose above the water at a half niile^ 
 distance, and the injier drift had fastened itself about them in 
 
ENTANGLED IN THE SHALLOWS. 
 
 87 
 
 fantastic shapes. The bergs, too, were aground well out to sea- ohip-'icr 
 ward ; and the cape ahead was completely packed with the ice _IL. 
 which they hemmed in. Tied up as we were to our own berg, we 
 were for the time in safety, though making no progress ; but to 
 cast loose and tear out into the pack was to risk progress in the 
 wrong direction. 
 
 "August 12, Friday. — After careful consideration, I have dtter- SaiUni; 
 mined to try for a further nortliing, by following the coast-line, coagf/il^e. 
 At certain stages of the tides — generally from three-quarters flood 
 to the commencement of the ebb — the ice evidently relaxes enough 
 to give a partial opening close along the land. The strength of 
 our vessel we have tested pretty thoroughly ; if she will bear the 
 frequent groundings that we must look for, I am persuaded we may 
 seek these openings, and warp along them from one lump of 
 grounded ice to another. The water is too shoal for ice masses to 
 float in that are heavy enough to make a nip very dangerous. I 
 am preparing the little brig for this novel navigation, clearing her 
 decks, securing things below with extra lashings, and getting out 
 spars, to serve in case of necessity as shores to keep her on an even 
 keel. "^ • 
 
 "August 13, Saturday. — As long as we remain entangled in the Entangled 
 wretched shallows of this bight, the long, precipitous cape ahead g"J,'jo^g_ 
 may prevent the north wind from clearing us ; and the nearness of 
 the cliffs will probably give us £qualls and flaws. Careful angular 
 distances taken between the shore and the chain of bergs to sea- 
 ward show that these latter do not budge with either wind or tide. 
 It looks as if we were to have a change of weather. Is it worth 
 another attempt to warp out and see if we cannot double these 
 bergs to seaward 1 I have no great time to spare ; the young ice 
 forms rapidly in quiet spots during the entire twenty-four hours. 
 
 August 14, Sunday. — The change of weather yesterday tempted Another 
 us to forsake our shelter and try another tussle with the ice. 
 met it as soon as we ventured out ; and the day closed with a 
 northerly progress, by hard warping, of about three-quarters of a 
 mile. The men were well tired ; but the weather looked so 
 threatening, that I had them up again at three o'clock this morn- 
 ing. My immediate aim is to attain a low rocky island which we 
 see close into the shore, about a mile ahead of us. 
 
 "These low shallows are evidently caused by the rocks and 
 
 •vir tiisale with 
 '' ® the ice. 
 
38 
 
 PAST AGAIN IN THE ICE. 
 
 A gale. 
 
 cnAVTER foreign materials discharged from the great valley. It is impos- 
 ^'' sible to pass inside of them, for the huge boulders run close to the 
 sliore." Yet there is no such thing as doubling them outside, 
 without leaving the holding-ground of the coast and thrusting our- 
 selves into the drifting chaos of the pack. If we can only reach 
 the little islet ahead of us, make a lee of its rocky crests, and hoUl 
 on there until the winds give us fairer prospects ! 
 
 ^^ Midnight. — We did reach it; and just in time. At ll-3(i 
 P.M. our first whale-line was made fast to the rocks. Ten minutes 
 later, the breeze freshened, and so directly in our teeth that wo 
 could not have gained our mooring ground. It is blowing a gale 
 now, and the ice driving to the northward before it ; but we can 
 rely upon our hawsers. All behind us is now solid pack. 
 
 August 15, Monday. — We are still fast, and, from the grindini; 
 of the ice against the southern cape, the wind is doubtlessly blow- 
 ing a strong gale from the southward. Once, early this morning, 
 the wind shifted by a momentary flaw, and came from the north- 
 ward, throwing our brig with slack hawser upon the rocks. Though 
 she bumped heavily she started notliing, till we got out a stern- 
 line to a grounded iceberg. 
 
 ^^ August 16, Tuesday. — Fast still ; the wind dying out, and the 
 ice outside closing steadily. And here, for all I can see, we must 
 bang on for the winter, unless Providence shall send a smart, ice- 
 shattering breeze, to open a road for us to the northward. 
 
 " More bother with these wretched dogs ! worse than a street of 
 Constantinople emptied upon our decks ; the unruly, thieving, 
 wild-beast pack ! Not a bear's paw, nor an Esquimaux cranium, 
 or basket of mosses, or any specimen whatever, can leave your 
 hands for a moment, without their making a rush at it, and, after 
 a yelping scramble, swallowing it at a gulp. I have seen them at- 
 tempt a whole feather bed ; and here, this very morning, one of my 
 Karsuk brutes has eaten up two entire birds'-nests wliich I had 
 just before gathered from the rocks ; feathers, filth, pebbles, and 
 moss, — a peckful at the least. One was a perfect specimen of the 
 nest of the tridactyl, the other of the big burgomaster. 
 
 " When we reach a floe, or berg, or temporary harbour, they 
 start out in a body, neither voice nor lash restraining them, and 
 scamper off like a drove of hogs in an Illinois oak-opening. Two 
 of our largest left themselves behind at Fog Inlet, and we had to 
 
 The ice 
 cUising 
 louiitL 
 
 Trouble 
 with tlie 
 (logs. 
 
 ili 
 
THE RECREANT DOGS. 
 
 m 
 
 [t ia impos- 
 close to the 
 em outside, 
 irusting oui - 
 1 only reach 
 ts, and hold 
 
 send off a boat party to-day to their rescue. It cost a pull through ciiaptkr 
 ice and water of about eight milea before they found the recreants, "' 
 fat and saucy, beside the carcass of the dead narwhal. After more 
 than an hour spent in attempts to catch them, one was tied and 
 brought on board ; but the other suicidal scamp had to be left to 
 his fate.'"* 
 
 At 11-3(1 
 Ten minutes 
 eth that wo 
 awing a gale 
 , but we can 
 ick. 
 
 the grinding 
 tlessly blow- 
 his morning, 
 m the north- 
 ks. Though 
 out ?i ?tern- 
 
 out, and the 
 ;ee, we musi 
 a smart, ice- 
 ard. 
 
 m a street of 
 ly, thieving, 
 lux cranium, 
 L leave your 
 it, and, after 
 een them at- 
 g, one of my 
 ^liich I had 
 Debbles, and 
 imen of the 
 
 irbour, they 
 them, and 
 Two 
 d we had to 
 
 tnmg. 
 
. 
 
 :i 
 
 l| 
 
 I- 
 
 I 
 
 ( I 
 
 im^'^ 
 
 I: 
 
 ['I 
 
 m 
 
 tii4 hi, 
 
 r ■» 
 
 1 .■:.- 
 
 V ! 
 
 40 
 
 THE ERIC ON A BERG, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ERIC ON A BERO — GODSEND LEDGE — HOLDINQ ON — ADRIFT — SCUDDI.Nfl 
 — TOWED BY A BERG- UNDER THE CLIFFS— NIPPINGS — AGROUND— ICE 
 PRESSURE— AT REST. 
 
 CHAPTER '^August 16, Tuesday. — The formation of the young ice seems to 
 ^"' be retarded by the clouds ; its greatest nightly freezing has been 
 Pi ospect three-quarters of an incli. But I have no doubt, if we had continued 
 till now in our little Refuge Harbour, the winter would have closed 
 around us, without a single resource or chance for escape. Where 
 we are now I cannot help thinking our embargo must be tempo- 
 rary. Ahead of us, to the north-east, is the projecting headland 
 which terminates the long, shallow curve of Bedevilled Reach. This 
 serves as a lee to the northerly drift, and forms a bight into which 
 the south winds force the ice. The heavy floes and bergs that are 
 aground outside of us have encroached upon the lighter ice of the 
 reach, and choke its outlet to the sea. But a wind oti snore would 
 start this whole pack, and leave us free. Meanwhile, for our com- 
 fort, a strong breeze is setting in from the southward, and the pro- 
 babilities are that it will freshen to a gale. 
 
 " Ail gust 17, Wednesday. — This morning I pushed out into the 
 
 drift, with the useful little specimen of naval architecture, which I 
 
 "F.ricthe call Erie the Red, but which the crew have named, less poeti- 
 
 "'^^''•" cally, the Red Boat. We succeeded in forcing her on to one of 
 
 the largest bergs of the chain ahead, and I climbed it, in the hope 
 
 of seeing something like a lead outside, which might be reached 
 
 by boring. But there was nothing of the sort. The ice looked as 
 
 if perhaps an off chore wind might spread it ; but, save a few 
 
 view from meagre pools, which from our lofty eminence looked like the 
 
 an iceberg, ^jf^grggt ink-spots on a table-cloth, not a mark of water could be 
 
 seen. I could see our eastern or Greenland coast extending on, 
 
 headland after headland, no less than five of them in nvmber, 
 
 until tiiey faded into the mysterious North. Everything else, 
 
 Ice! 
 
 " Up to this time we have had but two reliable observafioud to 
 
 
GODSEND LEDOE, 
 
 41 
 
 sen'afior.ij to 
 
 determine our geographical position since ntering Smith's Sound. 
 These however, were carefully made on siiore by theodolite and 
 artificial horizons; and, if our five chronometers, rated but two 
 weeks a^o at Upernavik, are to be depended upon, there can be no 
 correspondence between my own and the Admiralty charts north 
 of latitude 78° 18'. Not only do I remove the general coast-line 
 some two degrees in longitude to the eastward, but its trend i? 
 altered sixty degrees of angiilar measurement. No landmarks of 
 my predecessor, Captain Inglefield, are recognisable." 
 
 " In the afternoon came a gale from the southward. We had 
 some rough rubbing from the floe-pieces, with three heavy hawsers 
 out to the rocks of our little ice-breaker ; but we held on. To- 
 ward midnight, our six-inch line, the smallest of the three, parted, 
 but the other two held bravely. Feeling what good service this 
 island has done us, what a Godsend it was to reach her, and how 
 callantly her broken rocks have protected us from the rolling 
 masses of ice that grind by her, we have agreed to remember this 
 anchorage as ' Godsend Ledge.' 
 
 "The walnis are very numerous, approaching within twenty 
 feet of us, shaking their giim wet fronts, and mowing with their 
 tusks the sea-ripples. 
 
 "Aiigust 19, Friday. — The sky looks sinister; a sort of scowl 
 overhangs the blink under the great brow of clouds to the south- 
 ward. The dovekies seem to distrust the weather, for they have 
 forsaken the channel ; but the walrus curvet around us in crowds. 
 I have always heard that the close approach to land of these 
 sphinx-faced monsters portends a storm. I was anxious to find a 
 better shelter, and warped yesterday well down to the south end 
 of the ledge ; but I could not venture into the floes outside, with- 
 out risking the loss of my dearly-earned ground. It may prove a 
 hard gale; but we must wait it out patiently. 
 
 " AuguH 20, Saturday, 3^ P.M. — By Saturday morning it blew 
 a perfect hurricane. Wo had seen it coming, and were ready 
 with three good hawsers out ahead, and all things snug on board. 
 
 " Still it came on heavier and heavier, and the ice began to 
 drive more wildly than I thought I had ever seen it. I had just 
 turned in to warm and dry myself during a momentary lull, and 
 was stretching myself out in my bunk, when I heard the sharp 
 twanging snap of a cord. Our six-inch hawser had parted, and 
 
 CllAVTER 
 VII. 
 
 DIffeipnoe 
 of ctmns. 
 
 A gale. 
 
 find^pntl 
 Ledge. 
 
 Signs of an 
 iiiipeiKiiiig 
 storm. 
 
 A hiinl" 
 caiiti. 
 
42 
 
 ADRIFT. 
 
 / 
 
 break. 
 
 Adrift. 
 
 OHAPTEn we were swinging by the two others; the gale roaring like a IIdh 
 L to the southward. 
 
 Tho eubies « Half a ininute more, and * twang, twang ! ' came a second 
 report. I knew it was the whale-line by the shrillness of tin 
 ring. Our noble ten-inch manilla still held on. I was hurryiii;- 
 my la.st sock into its seal-skin boot, when M'Gary came waddling 
 down the companion-ladders : — ' Captain Kane, she won't hold 
 much longer : it's blowing the devil himself, and I am afraid to 
 surge.' 
 
 " The manilla cable was proving its excellence when I reached 
 the deck; and the crew, as they gathered round me, were loud in 
 its praises. We could hear its deep Eolian chant, swelling through 
 all the rattle of the running-gear and moaning of the shrouds. It 
 was the death-song ! The strands gave way with the noise of a 
 shotted gun; and, in the smoke that followed their recoil, we were 
 dragged out by the wild ice at its mercy. 
 
 " We steadied and did some petty warping, and got the brig a 
 good bed in the rushing drift ; but it all came to nothing. Wi- 
 then tried to beat back through the narrow ice-clogged water- 
 way, that was driving, a quarter of a mile wide, between the 
 shore and the pack. It cost us two hours of hard labour, I 
 thought skilfully bestowed ; but at the end of that time we were 
 at least four miles off, opposite the great valley in the centre of 
 Bedevilled Reach. ^' Ahead of us, further to the north, we could 
 see the strait growing still narrower, and the heavy ice-tables 
 grinding up, and clogging it between the shore-cliffs on one side, 
 and the ledge on the other. There was but one thing left for us 
 — to keep in some sort the command of the helm, by going freelj 
 where we must otherwise be driven. We allowed her to scud 
 
 Scudding, under a reefed fore-top-sail, all hands watching the enemy, as wi 
 closed, in silence. 
 
 " At seven in the morning we were close upon the piling 
 masses. We dropped our heaviest anchor with the desperatr 
 hope of winding the brig ; but there was no withstanding tl:< 
 ice- torrent that followed us. We had only time to fasten a spar 
 as a buoy to the chain, and let her slip. So went our best 
 bower ! 
 
 " Down we went upon the gale again, helplessly scraping aloii;; 
 a lee of ice seldom less than thirty feet thick ; one floe, measured 
 
 The «n- 
 clioi gone. 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
ing like a lion 
 
 •iime a second 
 rillnesa of the 
 I was hurrying 
 came waddling 
 she won't hold 
 I am afraid td 
 
 [vhen I reaclic'il 
 e, were loud in 
 (veiling through 
 lie shrouds. It 
 the noise of a 
 recoil, we were 
 
 got the brig a 
 nothing. Wu 
 ■clogged water- 
 e, between tlie 
 hard labour, I 
 it time we were 
 1 the centre of 
 lorth, we could 
 leavy ice-tables 
 fs on one side, 
 bing left for us 
 by going freely 
 3d her to scud 
 le enemy, as we 
 
 pon the piling 
 I the desperate 
 ithstanding tlie 
 10 fasten a spur 
 went our best' 
 
 r scraping along 
 3 floe, measured 
 
I 
 
 
 
 
 1- 
 
 ' ; 
 
 'I 
 
 '. i 
 
 t 
 
 ki 
 
 ^■^ 
 
43 
 
 •re than fi)ily. 1 liad {.\. 
 
 Jitwip upon our Sutks. Our 
 aU this wiM .MireTitiire :us 
 
 •f. 
 
 \ '■ 
 
 '♦rv^l. Dxti^iky \i\ riur way, ARcoupoi 
 
 '• wUich Wf, VKs-r* aliwnately *"***■ 
 
 .»: ■"■•m, W# luwl TJu> p<)\rer 
 
 «lioth^rr mv werf U) be 
 
 -!h.,T t\wy u^i^^Jut mot uiTrr 
 
 : tho t^trra. But, a<« wo 
 
 . At 8<»me cibi.iiicf fiom 
 
 * *fr :ii)terva! of i.jK.n wutcr. 
 
 s' Ih.^ m>1 tliui {>ai>8agt! and into 
 
 ' i'''.n fouMi uiit'X{>ia.iiu-(l 
 
 ii^nnti tlte lofty it:^•-w•all^, 
 
 4a?im moiiibut v« saw 
 
 • H utoumuUmi f>f their 
 
 «ther to«, ami tb^t U nkTr>t 
 
 Titt rl^ougUt fi.w«he.l a|'<>n 
 
 t ii'iy; .'^n<i *•> tin' #<'<ii<.'«J 
 
 W'l'{n!-y xnjiHRg(t<l t-j plani !ui 
 
 r v whftlo liiif It Tvfis ati 
 
 borso. wluter than \ 
 
 in lue i»;ue 
 
 InTWoly on ; tlu; 
 
 U'liemi ['lough 
 
 1112 
 
 Tiie bergs (.oicroftchetl upon ua as 
 '.•^ed to » «iiQ^b of [Kjrhups forty 
 i*4 th« iiBf;!^! 
 
 iMTi- 
 
 ice -walls. 
 
 it was .H dose ahiive, — so closo 
 
 L-ave been <ailftlied il' wo had not 
 
 ^iid foiuiJ (iirtiolve^ under the lou 
 
 }ien l«ad. Novcr did heart-tried 
 
 ■iviitude their merciful deliverance 
 
 -H aborc of trials ; but there vsere 
 
'V:t.iip 
 
 MH 
 
 V'i< 
 
 ; !' : 
 
 
 
 
A NOBLE TOW-HORSE, 
 
 43 
 
 by a lino as we tried to fasten to it, more than forty. I had seen 
 such ice only once before, and never in such rapid motion. One 
 upturned mass rose above our gunwale, smashing in our bulwarks, 
 and depositing half a ton of ice in a lump upon our decks. Our 
 stanch little brig bore herself through all this wild adventure as 
 if she had a cliarmed life. 
 
 " But a new enemy came in sight ahead. Directly in our way, 
 
 [just beyonci the line of floe-ice against which w u were alternately 
 
 [ eliding and thumping, was a group of bergs. We had no power 
 
 to avoid them; and the only question was, whether we were to be 
 
 dusked in pieces against them, or whether they might not offer 
 
 [us some providential nook of refuge from the storm. But, as we 
 
 Jneared them, we perceived that they were at some distance from 
 
 [the floe -edge, and separated from it by an interval of open water. 
 
 )ur hopes rose as the gale drove us toward this passage and into 
 
 and we were ready to exult, when, from some luiexplained 
 
 luse, — probably an eddy of the wind against the lofty ice-walls, 
 
 -we lost our headway. Almost at the same moment we saw 
 
 lat the bergs were not at rest ; that with a momentum of their 
 
 Bwn they were bearing down upon the otber ice, and that it nuist 
 
 our fate to be crushed between the two. 
 
 " Just then a broad sconce-piece or low water-washed berg 
 
 Hue driving ap from the southward. The thought flashed upon 
 
 le of one of our escapes in Melville Bay; and as the sconce 
 
 loved rapidly close alongside us, M'Gary managed to jilant an 
 
 ichor on its slope and hold on to it by a whale line. It was an 
 
 ixious moment. Our noble tow-horse, whiter than the pale 
 
 tluit seemed to be pursuing us, hauled us bravely on ; the 
 
 [)ray dashing over his windward flanks, and his forehead ploughing 
 
 the lesser ice as if in scorn. Tlie bergs encroached upon us as 
 
 1*6 advanced ; our channel narrowed to a width of i)erh!vps forty 
 
 Bt ; we braced the yards to clear the inqiending ice-walls. 
 
 . . . We passed clear ; but it was a close shave, — so close 
 It our port quartor-boat would have been crushed if we had not 
 ten it in from the davits, — and found ourselves under the lee 
 a berg, in a comparatively open lejui. Never did heart-tried 
 Bu iickncwlcdge with more gi-atitude their merciful deliverance 
 am a wretched death. . . . 
 I" The day had already its full share of trials; but there were 
 
 CHAPTER 
 VII. 
 
 A group of 
 bergs. 
 
 Towed by 
 II bi'ig. 
 
44 
 
 BANGERS IN THE ICE. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 VII. 
 
 ,'vl 
 
 i 
 
 more to come, A flaw drove us from o\xc shelter, and the gale 
 soon carried us beyond tlie ond of the lead. We were again in 
 the ice, sometimes escaping its onset by warping, sometimes forced 
 to rely on the strength and buoyancy of the brig to stand its 
 pressure, sometimes scudding wildly through the half-open drift. 
 Our jib-boom was snapped off in the cap ; we carried away our 
 barricade stanchions, and were forced to leave our little Eric, 
 with three brave fellows and their warps, out upon the floes 
 behind us. 
 
 *' A little pool of open water received us at last. It was just 
 beyond a lofty cape that rose up like a wall, and under an iceberg 
 that anchored itself between us and the gale. And here, close 
 rnder the under the frowning shore of Greenland, ten miles nearer the Pole 
 than our holding-ground of the morning, the men have turned in 
 to rest. 
 
 " I was afraid to join them, for the gale was unbroken, and 
 the floes kept pressing heavily upon our berg, — at one time so 
 heavily as to sway it on its vertical axis toward the shore, and 
 make its pinnacle overhang our vessel. My poor fellows had but 
 a precarious sleep before our little harbour was broken up. They 
 hardly reached the deck when we were driven astern, our rudder 
 splintered, and the pintles torn from their boltings. 
 Niri>ing». " Now began the nippings. The first shock took us on our 
 port-quarter; the brig bearing it well, and, after a moment of the 
 old-fashioned suspense, rising by jerks handsomely. The next 
 was from a veteran floe, tongued and honeycombed, but floating 
 in a single table over twenty feet in thickness. Of course, no 
 wood or iron could stand tliis; but the shoreward face of our ice- 
 berg happened to present an inclined plane, descending deep into 
 the water; and up this the brig was driven, as if some great steam 
 screw-power was forcing her into a dry dock. 
 
 " At one time I expected to see her carried bodily up its face 
 and tumbled over on her side. But one of those mysterious 
 relaxations, which I have elsewhere called the pulses of the ice, 
 lowered us quite gradually down again into the rubbish, and we 
 were force'^' out of the line of pressure toward the shore. Here 
 we succeeded in carr}'ing out a warp, and making fast. We 
 grounded as the tide fell; and would have heeled over to seaward, 
 but for a mass of detached land-ice that grounded alongside of 
 
>IHI.P«I»*,MIJ>" 
 
 nd the gale 
 ere again in 
 times forced 
 ;o stand its 
 F-open drift, 
 id away our 
 little Eric, 
 n the floes 
 
 It was just 
 r an iceberg 
 [ here, close 
 rer the Pole 
 'e turned in 
 
 I A 
 
 broken, ami 
 
 me time so 
 
 shore, and 
 
 iws had but 
 
 up. They 
 
 our rudder 
 
 us on our 
 
 lent of the 
 
 The next 
 
 but floating 
 
 course, no 
 of our ice- 
 g deep into 
 great steam 
 
 up its face 
 mysterious 
 of the ice, 
 sl», and we 
 ore. Here 
 fast. We 
 bo seaward, 
 longside of 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 '^ 
 
mt 
 
 t 
 
 k 3 
 
 * = 
 
 30 
 
 K 
 
«*ll»t »t U#T. 
 
 r 
 
 as, and, although U «Wvt mtr WvjmM «& vt to^i fni>«r ii, 
 shored ii.s up." 
 
 £ coul<i hardly got to iny btukk^ aot I W4iit 4«H»n fli«<» «sr Ktt«*Mtd 
 Cvibin o» the SuiuUy morning after f>or hm' «st 
 
 tliirty-iiia hours. ]iag;i of ciotLinff, f«H>d. U .».r 
 
 blank uti, an J the iMiiuJretl little p».'r!>«'na,] iw»ti« .. K.tfi 
 
 likes t<i save iu a time of trouble, were iiGiitU*»<d ju . , ^jjSauc** 
 where tlu; owners tijough.t thry might havo tiicim >t iMMdl. Th« 
 Ittmnucan liad been .m deck, the boat* equij^pad, ajiri cce»yttew;j^ 
 c>f real iuiportiince ready f(»r a luurch, many hour* t^dofn. 
 
 During the whole of ^lit; .Hceue.s I have bwn tryin^j to vi<»v*.i5U, 
 1 could not lielp being jtrruok by the fomiKwed aud manly «.ie- 
 mt-auour of my comrade.^. The Umnoil of ire under a ho*vy ata 
 often conveys the in)prt'.*.sion of danger when the reality is alvseut; 
 but in tliia fe.'irful p;vH,^;ige, the parting of our hawsers, the l<.«»a of 
 ■ mr anohors, the abrupt oruRli'iig of our etoven buiwarKH, »nd the 
 !ii ti'iil deposit of ice upon our decks, •would have tritd the nervea 
 of the most exptrienced ice-men. All — officers aud mcu -worked 
 .'ilike. Upon each 0(.'ca.sion of collision with the icd which fonned 
 our lee-coa.st, efforts were m:Kie to arry out liiie»; i4nd Homt 
 uarrow escapes were incuixed by the zeal of the j>afiiet« Ityviling 
 Uii:m int<) poHitious of danger. Mr. Ilon.sall avoided b«iuj; crushed 
 ;>y leaping to a floating fragment ; and no less than four of our 
 'uen at one time were carried down )»y the drift, -anii c<iuid only 
 be recovered by a rolief party aft<»r the gale Iiad Hulwide«L 
 
 Am o\ir brig, borne on by the ice, coninenced her agccnt of tlie 
 ■>t'rg, the suspense was oppressive. The iuuncnse blocks piled 
 V-'^iust her, range upon range, pressing themselves under her k'.el 
 'f)d throwing her over upon her side, till, urg«xl by the successive 
 
 nnnuktions, she rase slowly and a.H if with cionrultsive cffortu 
 
 , ung the slo['ing wall. Still tlu^e wn« xv> rela'cation of the im- 
 
 >^lling fftri^e. Shuck, alter Mho'-k, j*rnx-g her t», lier very centre, 
 
 ''n cont.oiietl to nmunt t,f.ea«iily <m hvx p»^ecariou.'? cra«ile. lint 
 
 ' )r the groani'ig of her ti!nl»ers and the hwkry sough of the flues, 
 
 V.*: might have heard a pin drop aiuI then, a« she settled down 
 
 ■nir> her old position, quietly taking b»r place among the hnA'en 
 
 ti, there was a deep breathing Bilcnce, a.s though all were 
 
 'AiMiiiig for Kotue signal Iwfore tkc clamour of congratulation and 
 
 iroiKincnl cmiji! biif.-,t f-.rtL'' 
 
 
 
 
^9^ 
 
 ■1 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 m. 
 
 ' ■ 
 
 1>' 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 of 
 
 
 jt 
 
 ». 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 •M 
 
 hf" 
 
 
 
 
 ■*♦ 
 
 ^ ' 
 
 
 111 
 
 
 
 i^^-'- 
 
 
 of 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 ■f..'. 
 
 bl 
 
 
 .» 
 
 ^^^BBBI^^^^W^^Bfl^^^^r "TT.''. 
 
 . _^__^ .. 
 
 
 
 ^» 
 
 
 ■BMHkt' ''■'^'- '-^ 
 
 ou 
 
 
 •*■ 
 
 ' '^^^^IB^^HII^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I 
 
 ^^^^K^^V^^MJU^ '^!/i'^ 
 
 ac 
 
 
 * • 
 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^■^hHh 
 
 
 
 > I* 
 
 ...agfiK^^^M 
 
 ^^HHvmiP 
 
 of 
 
 
 ?: 
 
 ,:m..- i 
 
 Hff 
 
 aU 
 
 
 
 9m^m' 
 
 
 ou 
 
 
 21 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 tht 
 
 
 r* 
 
 ■ i 
 
 
 me 
 
 t 
 
 
 i'^ i 
 
 
 be 
 
 
 . m 
 
 m t 
 
 
 ber 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 = "f 
 
 *w 
 
 
 aga 
 auc 
 ace 
 alo 
 pel 
 she 
 
 
 
 .-^;- 
 
 ■•-■wpTi^^rn'.^- 
 
 for 
 we 
 int 
 rub 
 wa 
 
 
 
 
 
 » • 
 
 con 
 
 
 
 
 
 # 
 
 
AT REST AT LAST. 
 
 a 
 
 the !tUllul^t, 
 
 us, and, although it stove our bulwarks as we rolled over it, cuaptkr 
 shored us up." L 
 
 I could hardly get to my bunk, as I weut down into our littered Effectn of 
 cabin on the Sunday morning after our hard-working %'igil of 
 thirty-six hours. Bags of clothing, food, tents, India-rubber 
 blankets, and the hundred Uttle personal matters which every man 
 likes to save in a time of trouble, were scattered around in places 
 where the owners thought they might have them at hand. The 
 pemraican had been on deck, the boats equipped, and everything 
 of real importance ready for a march, many hours before. 
 
 During the whole of the scenes I have been trying to describe. Bravery o* 
 I could not help being struck by the composed and manly de- 
 meanour of my comrades. The turmoil of ice under a heavy sea 
 often conveys the impression of danger when the reality is absent; 
 but in this fearful passage, the parting of our hawsers, the loss of 
 our anchors, the abrupt crushing of our stoven bulwarks, and the 
 actual deposit of ice upon our decks, would have tried the nerves 
 of the most experienced ice-men. All — officers and men — worked 
 alike. Upon each occasion of collision with the ice wliich formed 
 our lee-coast, efforts were made to carry out lines; and some 
 narrow escapes were incurred by the zeal of the parties leading 
 them into positions of danger. Mr. Bonsall avoided being crushed 
 by leaping to a floating fragment ; and no less than four of our 
 men at one time were carried down by the drift, and could only 
 be recovered by a relief party after tlie gale had subsided. 
 
 As our brig, borne on by the ice, commenced her ascent of the 
 berg, the suspense w^as oppressive. The immense blocks piled 
 against her, range upon range, pressing themselves under her keel 
 and throwing her over upon her side, till, urged by the successive 
 accumulations, she rose slowly and as if with convulsive efforts 
 along the sloping wall. Still tliere wa.s no relaxation of the im- 
 pelling force. Shock after shock, jarring her to her very centre, 
 she continued to mount steadily on her precarious cradle. But 
 for the groaning of her timbers and the heavy sough of the floes, 
 we might have heard a pin drop. And then, as she settled down 
 into her old position, quietly taking her place among the broken 
 rubbish, there was a deep-breathing silence, as though all were 
 waiting for some signal before the clamour of congratulation and 
 comment could burst forth." 
 
«p 
 
 40 
 
 TRACKING. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TRACKINO— INSPECTING A UARnoCB— THE MUSK OX— STILL TRAOKINO — 
 CONSULTATION— WARPINO AGAIN — AGROUND NEAR THE ICE-FOOT — A 
 BREATHING SPELL — THE BOAT EXPEDITION— DEPARTURE. 
 
 in 
 
 i 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER It was not until the 22d that the storm .abated, and our absent 
 
 1 men were once more gatliered back into their mess. During the 
 
 interval of forced inaction, the little brig was fast to the ice-belt 
 which lined the bottom of the cliffs, and all hands rested ; but as 
 soon as it was over, we took advantage of the flood-tide to pass 
 our tow-lines to the ice-beach, and, harnessing ourselves in like 
 Trucking, mulcs on a canal, made a good three miles by tracking along the 
 coast. 
 
 "August 22, Monday. — Under this coast, at the base of a 
 frowning precipice, we are now working toward a large bay which 
 runs well in, facing at its opening to the north and west. I should 
 save time if I could cross from headland to headland ; but I am 
 obliged to follow the tortuous land-belt, without whose aid we 
 would go adrift in the pack again. 
 
 " The trend of our line of ot)erations to-day is almost due 
 east. We are already protected from the south, but fearfully 
 exposed to a northerly gale. Of this there are fortunately no 
 indications. 
 
 " August 23, Tibesday. — We tracked along the ice-belt for about 
 one mile, when the tide fell, and the brig grounded, heeling over 
 until she reached her bearings. She rose again at 10 p.m., and the 
 crew turned out upon the ice-belt. . 
 
 •■ The decided inciinatioii tu llie eastward wliicli the shore show."* 
 liere is important as a geographical feature ; but it has made our 
 progress to the actual north much less than our wearily -earned 
 miles should count for us. Our latitude, determined by the sun's 
 lower culmination, if such a term can be applied to his midnight 
 depression, gives 78° 41'. We are further north, therefore, than 
 any of our predecessors, except Parry on his Spitzbergen foot- 
 tramp. There are those with whom, no matter how insuperable. 
 
 The bili; 
 K<'Ounds 
 iiKniii. 
 
 Inclina- 
 tion of ilie 
 shore to 
 the ei»st. 
 
INSPECTING A HARBOUR. 
 
 47 
 
 the obstacle, failure involves disgrace; we are safe at least from chaitek 
 
 VIII. 
 
 their censure. 
 
 " Last night I sent out Messrs. Wilson, Petersen, and Bonsall, to i^'pecting 
 inspect a harbour which seems to lie between a small island and a 
 
 THACKINO ALONG THB ICK BELT. 
 
 valley that forms the inner slope of our bay. They report recent skuii .it » 
 ices of deer, and brinji; back the skull of a mu.sk ox. '""'"^ "'' 
 
 " Hitherto this animal has never been seen east of ^felvillo 
 Island. But his being here does not surprise me. The migratory 
 piussages of the reindeer, who is even less Arctic in his range than 
 the musk ox, led me to expect it. The fact points to some pro- 
 bable land connection between Greenland and America, or an ap- 
 proach sufficiently close to allow these animals to migrate between 
 uie iwo. • . 
 
 " The head is that of a male, well marked, but old ; the teeth 
 deficient, but the horns very perfect. These last measure 2 feet 
 ."i inches across from tip to tip, and are each 1 foot 10 inches in 
 length measured t<) the medium line of the forehead, up to which 
 they are continued hi the characteristic boss or protuberance. Our 
 winter may be greatly cheered by their beef, should they revisit 
 this solitude.'" 
 
48 
 
 i>IFFICULTIE8 AND DEPRESaiON'S. 
 
 ^!)! 
 
 I 
 
 '1 
 
 I'M- 
 
 t i 
 
 CnAPTBR 
 VIII. 
 
 Flora of 
 tlie ihoic. 
 
 Still track- 
 ing. 
 
 TIic voting 
 Ice. 
 
 Propo.sal to 
 
 IttUIM. 
 
 " We have collected tliua far no less than twenty-two species of 
 flowering plants on the shores of tlii.s bay. Scanty as this starved 
 flora may seem to the botani.sts of more favoured zones, it was not 
 without surprise and interest that 1 recognised among its thoroughly 
 Arctic types many plants which had before been considered as iii- 
 digenou.s only to more southern latitudes. 
 
 " The thermometer gave 25° last night, and the young ice 
 formed without intermission ; it is nearly two inches alongside 
 the brig. I am loth to recognise these signs of the advancing cold. 
 Our latitude to-day gives us 78° 37', taken from a station some 
 three miles inside the indentation to the south. 
 
 "August 24, Wednesday. — We have kei)t at it, tracking along, 
 grounding at low water, but working like horses when the tides 
 allowed us to move. We are now almost at the bottom of this 
 indentation. Opposite us, on the shore, is a remarkable terrace, 
 which rises in a succession of steps until it is lost in the low rocks 
 of the back country. The ice around us is broken, but heavy, and 
 so compacted that we can barely penetrate it. It has snowed hard 
 since 10 p.m. of yesterday, and the sludge fills up the interstices of 
 the floes. Nothing but a strong south wind can give us further 
 progress to the north. 
 
 "August 25, Thursdat/. — The .snowof yesterday has Wirroundcd 
 us with a pasty sludge ; but the young ice continues to be our 
 most formidable opponent. Tlie mean temperatures of the 22d 
 and 23d were 27° and 30° Fahrenheit. I do not like being caught 
 by winter before attaining a higher northern latitude thanthi.^, but 
 it appears almost inevitable. Favoured as we have been by the 
 mildness of the summer and by the abraiding action of the tides, 
 there are indications around us which point to an early winter. 
 
 " We are sufficiently surrounded by ice to make our chances of 
 escape next year uncertain, and yet not as far as I could wish for 
 our spring journeys i)y tlie sl'idge. 
 
 "August 26, Friday. — My officers and crew are stanch and firm 
 men; but the depressing influences of want of rest, the rapid ad- 
 vance of vdnter, and, above all, our slow progress, make them 
 sympathize but little with this continued effort to force a way to 
 the north. One of them, an excellent member of the party, 
 volunteered an expression of opinion this morning in favour of re- 
 turning to the south and giving up the attempt to winter." 
 
jecies of 
 J starved 
 was not 
 orouglily 
 ■ed as in- 
 
 oung ice 
 alongsido 
 cing cold, 
 ion soino 
 
 ng along, 
 the tid»'s 
 nil of tills 
 le terrace, 
 low rocks 
 lieavy, and 
 owed hard 
 terstices of 
 us further 
 
 nrroundcd 
 to be our 
 
 the 22d 
 
 ing cauj;ht 
 
 in this, but 
 
 en by the 
 
 the tides, 
 winter, 
 chances of 
 d wish for 
 
 h and firm 
 rapid ad- 
 nake thcni 
 e a way to 
 the party, 
 vour of re- 
 ler." 
 
 CONSULTATION AND DECISION. 
 
 4» 
 
 It i.s unjust for a commander to measure his subordinates in chapter 
 
 such exigencies by his own standard. The interest which they ; 
 
 feel in an undertaking is of a different nature from his own. Witli 
 him there are always personal motives, apart frcmi official duty, to 
 stimulate effort. He receives, if successful, too large a share of the 
 credit, and he justly bears all the odium of failure. 
 
 An apprehension — I hope a . haritable (me — of this fact leads 
 me to c(msider the opinions of my officers with much respect. I 
 called them together at once, in a formal council, and listened to a council 
 their views in full. "With but one exception, Mr. Henry ''"''*• 
 Brooks, they were convinced that a further progress to the north 
 was impossible, and were in favour of returning south vvard to 
 winter. 
 
 Not being able conscientiously to take the same view, I ex- 
 l)lained to them the imiiortance of securing a position which might 
 expedite our sledge journeys in the future ; and, after assuiing them 
 that such a position could only 1"^ attained by conthiuing our 
 efforts, announced my intention of a\ arping toward the northern 
 headland of the bay. " Once there, I shall be able to determine Tlie 
 from actual inspection the best point for setting out on the opera- '**'='*'°'^ 
 tions of the spring ; and at the nearest jjossible shelter to that point 
 I will put the brig into winter harbour." My comrades received 
 this decision in a manner that was most gratifying, and entered 
 zealously ui)on the hard and cheerless duty it involved. 
 
 The warping began agiiin, each man, myself included, taking his wnrpinj? 
 turn at the capstan. The ice seemed less heavy as we penetrated JJjg°|gg'' 
 into the recess of the bay ; our track-lines and shoulder-belts re- 
 placed the warps. Hot coffee was served out ; and, in the midst 
 of cheering songs, our little brig moved off briskly. 
 
 Our success, however, was not complete. At the very period of 
 liigh-water she took the ground while close under the walls of the 
 ice-foot. It would have been madness to attempt shoring her 
 up. I could only fasten heavy tackle to the rocks which lined 
 the base of the cliffs, and tnist to the noble little craft's unassisted 
 strength. 
 
 " August 27, Saturday. — We failed, in spite of our efforts, to 
 get the brig off with last night's tide ; and, as our night-tides are 
 generally the highest, I have some apprehensions as to her libera- 
 tion. 
 
1^ t 
 
 :? 
 
 I ! 
 
 !i 
 
 '; 1.^ 
 
 50 
 
 AGROUND NEAR THK ICE FOflT. 
 
 CIIAPTKR 
 VIM. 
 
 " We have landed everything wo could get tip on the rocks, put 
 out all our boats and fdled tliem with ponderables alongside, sunk 
 our rudder astern, and lowered our remaining heavy anchor into one 
 of our quarter boats. Heavy ' aw.scrs an- out to a grounded lump 
 of berg-ice, ready for instant heaving. 
 
 "Last night she heeled over again so abruptly that we v. re all 
 tumbled out of our berths. At the same time the cabhi stove 
 with a full charge of glowing anthracite wius thrown down. The 
 Tiienhip deck blazed smartly for a while ; but, by sacrificing Mr. Sontag's 
 heavy pilot-cloth coat to the public good, I choked it down till 
 water could be passed from above to extinguish it. It was for- 
 tunate we had water near at hand, for the powder was not far off. 
 
 "3 P.M. — The ground-ice is forced in upon our stern, splintering 
 our rudder, and drawing again tli* bolts of the pintle-casings. 
 
 on tile. 
 
 AGBOUHI) NEAR THK ICB-FOOT. 
 
 Afloat nmi fi P.M. — She floats again, and our track-lines are manned. Tlie 
 ttgiua." '"^'^ work with a will, and the brig moves along bravely. 
 
 "10 P.M. — Aground again; and the men, after a hot supper, 
 
HAZARDOUS NAVIGATION. 
 
 ei 
 
 have turnofl in to tuke u spell of Hleep. The ])rig has a liiud time 
 of it with the rocks. Slie hiis been higjj and dry for each of the 
 two last tides, and witliin three days has ^'rounded no less than 
 five times. I feel that this is hazardous navigation, but am con- 
 vinced it is my duty to keep on. Except the loss of a portion of 
 our false keel, we have sustained no real injury. The brig is still 
 water-tight ; and her broken rudder and one shattered spar can be 
 easily repaired. 
 
 " AiDjust 28, Sunday. — By a complication of purchases, jumpers, 
 and shores, wo started the brig at 4.10; and, Mr. Ohlsen having 
 temporarily secured the rudder, I determined to enter the floe and 
 trust to the calm of the morning for a cluvnce of penetrating to the 
 northern land-ice ahead. 
 
 "This land-ice is very old, and my hope is to get through the 
 loose trash that surrounds it by springing, and then find a fast 
 that may sci"ve our tracking-lines. I am already well on my way, 
 and, in spite of the ominous nods of my officers, have a fair pros- 
 pect of rejiching it. Here it is that splicing the main-brace Is of 
 service ! '■"' 
 
 " I took the boat this morning with Mr. INI'Gary, and sounded 
 along outside the land-floe. I am satisfied the passage is practic- 
 able, and, by the aid of tide, wind, and springs, have advanced 
 into the trash some two hundred yards. 
 
 "We have reached the floe, and find it as I hoped; the only 
 drawback to tracking being the excessive tides, which expose us 
 to grounding at low-water." 
 
 We had now a breathing spell, and I could find time to look 
 out again upon the future. The broken and distorted area around 
 us gave little promise of .successful sledge-travel. But all this 
 might change its aspect under the .action of a single gale, and it 
 wa3 by no means certain that the ice-fields further north would 
 have the same rugged and dispiriting character. Besides, the ice- 
 belt was still before us, broken sometimes and difficult to traverse, 
 but practicable for a party on foot, apparently for miles ahead ; 
 and I felt sure that a resolute boat's crew might push and track 
 their way for some distance along it. I resolved to make the trial, 
 and to judge what ought to be our wintering ground from a per- 
 sonal inspection of the coast. 
 
 I had been quietly preparing for sucli an expedition for some 
 
 cifAPrrn 
 
 VIII. 
 
 llazrtiiliMia 
 
 iinvigik- 
 
 tloii. 
 
 A xliui't 
 rt'9t. 
 
 Plans for 
 the futuitt 
 
09 
 
 THE "FO.^LORN hope." 
 
 ruAPTER time. Our best and lightest whale boat had been fitted with a 
 
 II 
 
 M 
 
 'U 
 
 
 1 i ! 
 
 
 .'■■ ,<> 
 
 VIII. 
 
 1 canvass cover, tiiat gave it all the comfort of a tent. Wo had a 
 
 TUB rOKI.OItN IIUl'R. 
 
 Tlie boftt 
 tlieir 
 
 supply of pemmican ready packed in small cases, and a sledge 
 taken to pieces was stowed away under the thwarts. la the 
 morning of the 29th, Mr. Brooks, M'Gary, and myself, walked 
 fourteen miles along the marginal ice ; it was heavy and compli- 
 cated with drift, but tliere was nothing about it to make me change 
 my purpose. 
 
 My boat crew consisted of seven, all ot" them volunteers and 
 reliable : — Brooks, Bonsall, M'Gary, Sontag, Riley, Blake, and 
 equipment Mortou. We had buffalo-robes for our sleeping-gear, and a single 
 extra day suit was put on board as common property. Each man 
 carried his girdle full of woollen socks, so as to dry them by the 
 Avarmth of his body, and a tin-cup, with a sheath-kn'fe, at the belt; 
 a soup-pot and lamp for the mess completed our outfit. 
 
 In less than three hours from my first order, the Forlorn Hope 
 was ready for her work, covered with tin to prevent her being cuL 
 through by the bay-ice ; and at half-past three in the afterroon 
 she was freighted, launched, and on her way. 
 
 1 placed Mr. Ohlseu in command of the Advance, and Dr. Hayeks 
 
 Iiepartiii'o 
 
 111 till! /W- 
 
 torn y/t/Y. 
 
 (i 
 
THE FAREWELL. 
 
 63 
 
 in charge of her log; Mr. Ohlsen with orders to li.iul the biig to chapter 
 the southward and eastward into a safe berth, and there to await ^"'' 
 uiy return. 
 
 Many a warm shaKe of the hand from the crew we left showed a Mendiy 
 me that our good-bye was not a mere formality. Three hearty P'"""« 
 cheers from all hands followed us, — a God-speed as we pushed otf 
 

 64 
 
 THE DKPOT JOURNEY. 
 
 
 I 
 
 Tlic iilRht 
 enciimp- 
 
 CHArTER IX. 
 
 THE DEp6t journey— the ICE-BF,I,T— CHOSSINQ MINTUilX RIVrrv— SKELE- 
 TON MUSK OX — CUOSSINQ THE OLAOIER— POUT AGE OF INSTRLME.VTS— 
 RXCESSiVE BURDEN— MARY MINTURN HIVER— FORDIXQ THE RIVER — 
 THACKERAY HKADIiAXD— CAPE aEORQE RUSSELL— RETURN TO THE JlKia 
 — THE WINTER HARBOUR. 
 
 CHAPTER In tlie first portions of our journey, we found a narrow Lut ob- 
 
 '^' structed passage between the ice-belt and the outside pack. It 
 
 was but a few yards in width, and the young ice upon it was 
 
 nearly thick enough to b«ir our weight. By breaking it up we 
 
 were able with effort to make about seven miles a day. 
 
 After such work, wet, coUl, and hungry, the night's rest was 
 very welcome. A cou))le of stjinchions were rigged fore and aft, a 
 sail tightly spread over the canvas cover of our boat, the cooking- 
 lamp lit, and the buffalo-robes spread out. Dry socks replaced 
 the wet; hot tea and peiinnican followed; and very soon we forgot 
 the discomforts of the day, — the smokers musing over their pipes, 
 and the sleepers snoring in <b oamless forgetfulness. 
 
 We had been out something loss than twenty-four hours when 
 we came to the end of our boating. In front and on one side was 
 the pack, and on the other a wall some ten feet above our heads, 
 the impracticable ice-belt. By waiting for high tide, and taking 
 advantivge of a chasm which a water-stream had worn in the ice, 
 WO managed to haul up our boat on its surface ; but it was appa- 
 rent that we must leave her there. She was stowed away snugly 
 under the shelter of a large hummock ; and we pushed forward in 
 our sledge, lader. witli a few articles of absolute necessity. 
 
 Here, for the first time, we were made aware of a remarkabhi 
 feature of our travel. We were on a table or shelf of ice, which 
 clung to the base of the rocks overhntking the sea, but itself over- 
 AhiK.hway huiig by steop and lofty cliffs. Pure and beautiful as this icj' 
 highway was, huge angular blocks, some many tons in weight, 
 were scattered over its surface ; and long tcdigucs of worn-down 
 ruck occasionally issued from the sides of the cliffs, and extended 
 
 Tho boat 
 left on the 
 lea. 
 
 uf ice. 
 
THE ICE-BELT. 
 
 5d 
 
 aikal)lt! 
 . wliicb 
 L'lf over- 
 tliis icy 
 weight, 
 in -down 
 ;xteiuk'd 
 
 across our course. The cliffs measured 1010 feet to the crest of chapter 
 the plateau iibovc theui.* ^^' 
 
 Wv^ pushed forwiud on this ice-table shelf as rapidly as the Ti„ ."-r 
 obstacles would permit, though embarrassed a good .leal by the i,^it. 
 f.-equent watercourses, which created large gorges in our path, 
 ••inding occasionally, and generally steep-sided. We had to pass 
 our sledge carefully down such interruptions, and boar it ..pon our 
 shoulders, wading, of course, through water of an extremely low 
 temperature. Our night halts were upon knolls of snow luider 
 the rocks. At one of these the tide overflowed our tent, and 
 forced us to save our buffalo sleejjing-goar by holding it up luitil 
 the water subsided. This exercise, as it turned out, was more of 
 a trial to our patience than to our health. The circulation \\as 
 assisted perhaps by a percept\ /n of the ludicrous. Eight Yankee 
 Caryatides, up to their knees in water, and an entablature sustain- 
 ing i.uch of their household gods as could not bear inunersiun 1 " 
 
 On the 1st of Septemlwr, still following the ice-belt, we found 
 that we were entering the recesses of another bay but little smaller 
 than that in which we had left our brig. The limestone walls 
 cased to overhang us ; we reached a low fiord, and a glacier 
 olocked our way across it. A succession of terraces, rising with MrpMntom 
 symmetrical regul.i"'ty, lost themselves in long ])arallel lines in tho *«=''■«=''■• 
 distance. They were of limestone shingle, .'ind wet with the per- 
 colation of the melted ice of the glacier. Where the la.st of these 
 terraced faces abutted upon the sea, it blended with the ice-foot, ciiffsor 
 so as to make a frozen compound of rock and ice. Here, lying in ['" '' "'"' 
 a pasty slit, T found the skeleton of a musk ox. The head was 
 united to the tttlas ; but the bones of the spine were separated skeleton 
 about two inches apart, and conveyed the idea of a displacement •^|J"""»'' 
 produced rather by the sliding of the bed beneath, than by a force 
 from without. The paste, frozen so as to resemble limestone rock, 
 had iilled the costal cavity, and the ribs were beautifully polished. 
 It was to the eye an embedded fossil, ready for the nmseum of the 
 collector. 
 
 I am uiinute in detailing these appearances, for they connect 
 
 • Tho cllffn were of tabuliir mAKncRian limestone, with Intciiiiiil nm\ Inferior sandstones. 
 Tlielr lielnlit, niensured to the crest of the pluteau, was !)oO feet — n fair mean of the iirotile 
 of the eoHst. The lieiRht of the talus of dehrls, whore it united with the face of the cllfi", 
 was fi90 feet, and its aii|;le of inclinatluu between Sti° and 45°. 
 
66 
 
 CROSSING A GLACIER. 
 
 'JIf 
 
 ■ f 
 
 i\ 
 
 CHAPTEK themselves in my mind with the fossils of the Eischoltz cliflfs, and 
 
 L the Siberian alluvions. I was startled at the f^vcUity with which 
 
 OiBanio the silicious limestone, under thf^ alternate energies of frost and 
 
 lemuiiis of 11, . i-i, •• tii 
 
 limestone thaw, had been incorporated with the organic remains. It had 
 Bua ice. already begun to alter the structure of the bones, and in several 
 instances the vertebrae were entirely enveloped in travertin. 
 
 The table-lands and ravines round about this co.ast abound in 
 such remains. Their numbers and the manner in which they are 
 scattered imply that the animals made their migrations in droves, 
 as is the case with the reindeer now. Within the area of a few 
 acres we found seven skeletons and numerous skulls ; these all 
 occupied the snow streams or gullies that led to a gorge opening 
 on the ice-belt, and might thus be gathered in time to one spot by 
 the simple action of the watershed.** 
 Crossing a To cross this glacier gave us much trouble. Its sides were 
 steep, and a slip at any time might have sent us into the water 
 below. Our shoes were smooth, unfortunately ; but, by using 
 cords, and lying at full length upon the ice, we got over without 
 accident. On the other side of the glacier we had a portiige of 
 about three miles ; the sledge being unladen and the baggage 
 carried on our backs. To Mr. Brooks, admitted with unanimity 
 to be the strongest man of our party, was voted our theodolite, 
 about sixty pounds of well-])olished mechaniam, in an angular 
 mahogany box. Our dip-circle, equally far from being an honorary 
 tribute, fell to the lot of a party of volunteers, who bore it by 
 turns. 
 
 During th;s inland crossing, I had fine opportunities of making 
 sections of the terraces. We ascertained the mean elevation of 
 
 glucicr. 
 
 Sleiiii e\f- 
 vation of 
 tlK coast. 
 
 the face of the co.'MSt to '^e 1 300 feet. On regaining the seaboard 
 the same frowning cliffs ana rock-covered ice-belt that we had left 
 greeted us. 
 
 Aftjr an absence of five days, we found by observation that we 
 were but forty miles fr(nn the brig. Besides our small daily pro- 
 gress, we had lost much by the tortuous windings of the coast. 
 The ice outside did not invite a change of plan in that direction ; 
 Tiic sicdRo but I determined to leave the sledge and proceed overland on foot. 
 With the exception of our instruments, we carried no weight but 
 pcmmicau and OTie buffalo-robe. The weather, a.s yot not far below 
 the freezing-point, did not make a tent essential to the bivouac; and, 
 
 Uft behind 
 
JOURNEY ON FOOT. 
 
 m 
 
 with tliis light equipment, we could travel readily two miles to one chapter 
 with our entire outfit. On the 4th of Septeniber we made twenty- '^' 
 four miles with comparative ease, and were refreshed by a com- 
 fortable sleep after the toils of the day.* 
 
 The only drawback to tliis new method of advance was the i,on<i nf 
 inability to carry a sufficient quantity of food. Each man at '^'"^'' """'* 
 starting liad a fixed allowance of pemmican, which, with his 
 other load, made an average weight of thirty-five pounds. It 
 proved excessive ; the Canadian voyageurs will carry much more, 
 and for an almost indefinite period ; but we found — and we had 
 good walkers in our party — that a very few pounds overweight 
 broke us down. 
 
 Our progress on the 5th was arrested by another bay much oiscov.iy 
 larger than any we had seen since entering Smith's Straits. It " " "^" 
 was a noble sheet of water, perfectly open, and thus in strange con- 
 tiast to the ice outside. The cause of this at the time inexplicable 
 phenomenon was found in a roaring and tumultuou.« river, wliich, 
 issuing from a fiord at the iimer sweep of the bay, rolled with the 
 violence of a snow-torrent over 'i broken bed of rocks. Tills river, Mmy Min- 
 the largest probably yet known in North Greenland, was about three- '"'" ''^''' 
 quarters of a mile wide at its mouth, and atlmitted the tides for 
 about three miles,*'' when its bed rapidly ascended, and coald be 
 traced by the configuration of the hills iis far as a large inner fiord, 
 I called it Mary Minturn River, after the sister of Mrs. Henry 
 Griniiell. Its couisc was afterwards pursued 'o an interior ghicier, 
 from the base of which it was found to issue in numerous streams, 
 tliat united into a single trunk about forty miles above its moutlu 
 By tlie banks of this stream we encamped, lulled by the unusual 
 nuisio of running watoi s. 
 
 Here, i»rotected from the frost by the infiltration of the melted Fiowei-non 
 snows, and fostered by the reverberation of solar heat from the "''" '""''^* 
 rocks, we met a flower-growth, which, though c'l-earily Arctic in mniuiu 
 its type, was rich in variety and colouring Amid festuca and 
 other tufted gravses, twinkled the purple lychnis and the M'hite 
 star of the duckweed; .and not without its p;.,:sh>g associations 
 
 • This halt was iimli"' tlie Ice of a laiije boiiltlei cif irri'cnt-tom.', inciiniilni,' 14 fett In its 
 long (Uiiniftpr. It had the rude blockiiiK out nf ii ciilif, liut was r.mndctd at the eiliri-M. 'i hu 
 country for fourteen miles urouiid was of the low-hottoni series; the nearest (rreensloue 
 must have been many miles remote, Uouldum of ayonitu were uuuieruun; their line of 
 deposit iieai'lv due nuitli and soutli. 
 

 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^Bf i 
 
 ■ ! 
 
 ^■1 
 
 . 
 
 Hi' 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Hi S ' 
 
 I* u 
 
 Hy SI ' 
 
 ft' n ' 
 
 ■j m 
 
 ' ;' 
 
 i'l 
 
 J [ 
 
 Ml V 
 
 
 iiii 
 
 
 
 Mm 
 
 jij ; 
 
 1 
 
 
 i 
 
 J 
 
 I i 
 
 I- 
 
 1 
 
 ! 
 
 1 , 
 
 ' 7: 
 
 
 
 '!|l 
 
 1 
 
 
 Il4_ 
 
 08 
 
 cnAPTJsn 
 
 IX. 
 
 Fording 
 tliu river. 
 
 PIrectlon 
 of tlio 
 com;. 
 
 CAPE THACKERAY. 
 
 Cape 
 
 William 
 Make- 
 
 Tliackcray 
 
 He'u'ht of 
 the tnblp- 
 liinds and 
 {iluteuus. 
 
 I recognised a solitary Lesperis, — the Arctic representative of the 
 wallflowers of home." 
 
 We forded our way across this river in the morning, carrying our 
 pemmican as well as we could out of water, but submitting our- 
 selves to a succession of plunge baths as often as we trusted our 
 weight on the ice-capped stones above the surface. The average 
 depth was not over our. hips ; but the crossing cost us so much 
 labour that we were willing to halt half a day to rest. 
 
 Some seven miles further on a large cape projects into this bay 
 and divides it into two indentations, each of cliem the seat of minor 
 watercourses, fed by the glaciers. From the numerous tracks found 
 in the moss-beds, they would seem to be the resort of deer. Our 
 meridian observations by theodolite gave the latitude of but 78^ 
 52' : the magnetic dip was 84° 49'. 
 
 It was plain that the coast of Greenland here faced toward the 
 north. The axis of both these bays and the general direction of 
 the watercourses pointed to the same conclusion. Our longitude 
 was 78° 41' W. 
 
 Leaving four of my party to recruit at this station, I started the 
 next morning, with three volunteers, to cross the ice to the north- 
 eastern headland, and thus save the almost impossible circuit by 
 the shores of the bay. This ice was new, and far from safe : its 
 margin along the open water made by Minturn River required both 
 care and tact in passing over it. We left the heavy theodolite be- 
 hind us, and carried nothing except a pocket-sextant, my Fraun- 
 liofer, a walking-pole, and three days' allowance of raw pemmican. 
 
 We reached the headland after sixteen miles of walk, and found 
 the ice-foot in good condititm, evidently better fitted for sledge- 
 travel than it was to the south. This point I named Cape William 
 Makepeace Thackeray. Our party knew it as Chimney Rock. It 
 was the last station on the coa-nt of Greenland, determined by 
 intersecting bearings of theodolite, from known positions to the 
 south. About eight miles beyond it is a large headland, the highest 
 visible from the late position of our brig, shutting out all points fur- 
 ther north. It is indicated on my chart as Cape Francis Hawks. We 
 found the tablelands were 1200 feet high by actual measurement, 
 and interior plateaus were seen of an estimated height of 1800. 
 
 I determined to seek some high headland beyond the cape, and 
 make it my final point of reconnoissance. 
 
VIEW FROM A niGH lIFADLAND. 
 
 e of the 
 
 ying our 
 ing our- 
 jted our 
 average 
 so much 
 
 this bay 
 of minor 
 ks found 
 Br. Our 
 but 78' 
 
 ward the 
 •ection of 
 longitude 
 
 artcd the 
 he north - 
 ;ircuit by- 
 safe : its 
 ired both 
 dolite be- 
 ly Fraun- 
 enimican. 
 md found 
 or sledge- 
 e William 
 tlock. It 
 mined by 
 us to the 
 lie highest 
 points fur- 
 awks. We 
 isurement, 
 ,f 1800. 
 cape, and 
 
 I shall never forget the sight, when, after a hard day's walk, I cniPTER 
 looked out from an altitude of 1100 feet upon an expanse extend- '^' 
 ing beyond the eightieth, parallel of latitude. Far off on my left 
 was the western shore of the Sound, losing itself in distance toward 
 the north. To my right a rolling primary country led on to a low 
 dusky wall-like ridge, which I afterwards recognised as the Great TheGr?at 
 Glacier of Humboldt , and still beyond this, reaching northward [l'"^,'^.jl 
 from the N.N.E., was the land which now bears the name of 
 Washington ; its most projecting hoadhind, Cape Andrew Jack- 
 son, bore 14° by sextant from the furthest hill, Cape John 
 Barrow, on the opposite side. The great area between was 
 a solid aea of ice. Close along its shore, almost looking down 
 upon it from, the crest of our lofty station, we could see the long 
 Ihies of hummocks dividing the floes like the trenches of a be- 
 leaguered city.*" Further out, a stream of icebergs, increasing in 
 munbers as they receded, shovred an almost impenetrable barrier, 
 since I could not doubt that among their recesses the ice was so 
 crushed as to be impassable by the sledge. 
 
 Nevertheless, beyond these again the ice seemed less obstructed. 
 Distance is very deceptive upon the ice, subcuiing its salient fea- 
 tures, and reducing even lofty bergs to the appearance of a smooth 
 and attractive plain. But, aided by my Fraunhofer telescope, I 
 could see that traversable areas were still attainable. Slowly, and 
 almost with a sigh, I laid the glass down and made up my mind 
 for a winter search. 
 
 I had seen no place combining so many of the ro^ui-sites of a .\ winter 
 good winter harbour as the bay in which we left the Advance, '""'^^"t. 
 Near its south-western corner the wide streams and the water- 
 courses on the shore promised the earliest chances of liberation in 
 the coming summer. It was secure against the moving ice : lofty 
 headlands walled it in beautifully to seaward, enclosing an anchor- 
 <age with a moderate depth of wator ; yet it was open to the meri- 
 dian sunlight, and guarded from winds, eddies, and drift. The 
 space enclosed was only occupied by a few rocky islets and our 
 brig. We soon came in sight of her on our return march, as she nctum to 
 lay at anchor in its southern sweep, with her masts cutting sharply "'" '"''^'• 
 against the Avhite glacier ; and, hurrjang on through a gale, were 
 taken on board without accident. 
 
 My comrades gathered anxiously around me, waiting for the 
 

 It" 
 
 eo 
 
 THE BRIG LAID UP FOR THE WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTKU news. I told them in a few words of the results of our journey, 
 "'• and why I had determined upon remaining, and gave at once the 
 order to warp in between the islands. We found seven-fathom 
 soundings and a perfect shelter from the outside ice ; and thus 
 laid our little brig in the harbour, %\hioh we were fated never to 
 leave together, — a long resting-place to her indeed, for the same 
 ice is around her still. 
 
 I : 
 
 i| 
 
 !!'i . 
 
APPnOACniNO WINTKtt. 
 
 ttl 
 
 C II AFTER X. 
 
 APPROACmXO WINTER— STORINa PROVISIONS— BCTLEn STORKnOPSE— Snjf- 
 DAY AT REST— BUIM)INQ OnSERVATORY— TRAINING THE POaS — THE 
 lilTTLE Wn,ME— THE ROAD — THE FAITU— SLEUGINCJ— RECONNOISSANCE 
 — DEI'dT PARTY. 
 
 The winter was now approachinff rapidly. The thermometer liarl ciiirTKR 
 fallen by the 10th of September to 14°, aiul the yonnt; ic; had ^' 
 ceiutjuted the floos so tliat we could walk and sledge round the Aipiduch 
 brig. About sixty paces north of us an iceberg had been caught, wintur 
 and was frozen in ; it was our neighbour while we remained in 
 Ilensselaer Harbour. The rocky islets around ua were fringed 
 
 RKN88EI.ARK IIAKBOUR. 
 
 with hummocks ; and, as the tide fell, their sides were coated with 
 opaque crysUvls of bright white. The birds had gone. The sea- 
 
'.'! 
 H 
 
 62 
 
 flTORIVO PR0VISIDN8. 
 
 r 
 
 1' i^ 
 
 CllAI'TKR 
 X. 
 
 ItlKratlon 
 of tlio 
 UrUi. 
 
 Probable 
 time of 
 thu tun's 
 disappear- 
 ance. 
 
 swallows, which uhoumled when we first reached here, and even 
 the young burgomasters that lingered after them, had all taken 
 their departure for the south. Except tiio snow-birds, these are 
 the last to migrate of all the Arctic birds. 
 
 " Sepf ember 10, Snturdaij. — We have plenty of responsible work 
 before us. The long 'night in which no man can work' is close 
 at hand : in another month we shall lose the sun. Astronomically. 
 he should disappear on the 2Uh of October, if our horizon were 
 free ; but it is obstructed by a mount<ain ridge, and, making all 
 allowance for refraction, we cannot count on seeing him after the 
 10th. 
 
 " First .and foremost, wo have to unstow the hold, and deposit 
 its couteuts in the storehouse on Butler Island. Brooks and a 
 
 BVTLBHS ISLAND BTOKKIIOUSB. 
 
 ill 
 
 ji (■ 
 
 It? '' 
 i •• 
 
 Catering 
 for winter 
 diet. 
 
 party are now briskly engaged in this double labour, running 
 loaded boats along a canal that has to be recut every morning. 
 
 " Next oomes tho^catering for winter diet. We have little or no 
 game as yet in Smith's Sound ; and, though the traces of deer that 
 we have observed may be followed by the animals themselves, I 
 cannot calculate upon them as a resource. I am without the her- 
 metically-sealed meats of our last voyage ; and the use of salt meat 
 
 
 ;M 
 
PRKPA RATIONS FOR WINTER. 
 
 63 
 
 running 
 Ining. 
 |tle or no 
 
 ieer that 
 
 |selves, I 
 
 the her- 
 
 Lalt meat 
 
 in circumstances like ours is never safe. A fresh water pond, whiih cnAPTKn 
 
 fortunately n-niains oiieu at Mrdary, gives mo a chance for some 
 
 furtlier exi)crimeMts in fresliening tliis portidu of our stock. Steaks 
 of salt junk, artistically cut, are strung on lines like a country- 
 woman's dried apiiles, and .soaked in festoons under the ice. The 
 salmon-trout and salt codfish which wo bought at Fiskcrnaes are 
 placed in barrels, perforated to permit a constant circulation of 
 fresh water thro\igh them. Our pickled cabbage is similarly 
 trf :ited, after a little potash has been used to neutralize the acid. 
 All these are submitted to twelve hours of alternate .soaking and 
 frcezirig, tho crust of ice being removed from them before each 
 inunersion. This is the steward's province, and a most important 
 one it Ls. 
 
 *' Every one else is well employed, — M'CJary arranging and 
 BonssUl making the inventory of our stores ; Ohlsen and I'etersen 
 building our deck-house; while I am devising the plan of an archi- 
 tectural interior, which is to combine, of course, the utmost venti- 
 lation, room, dryness, warmth, general accommodation, comfurt, — 
 in a word, all the ai)pliance3 of health. 
 
 " We have made a conifortjible dog-house on liutlcr Island ; but 
 though our Esipiiniaux ainaille are within scent of our cheeses 
 there, one of which they ate yesterday for lunch, they cannot be 
 persiiaded to sK ep away from tho vessel. They prefer the bare 
 snow, where they can couch within the sound of our voices, to a 
 warm kennel ujion the rocks, Strange that tiiis dog-distinguish- AflTeotion 
 ing trait of affection for nuvn .should show itself in an animal .so ''"'"= '^"k» 
 imperfectly reclaimed from a savage state that he can hardly be 
 caught when wanted I 
 
 ^^ Septemher 11, Sunday. — To-day came to us the first quiet snndHy 
 Sunday of harbour life. We changed our log registration from ^""^ 
 sea-time to the familiar home series that begins at mitlnight. It 
 is not only that the season has given us once nmre a local habita- 
 tion ; but there is something in the return of varying day and 
 night that makes it grateful to reinstate this domestic observance. 
 The long staring day, which has clung to us for more than two 
 months, to the exclusion of the stars, has begun to intermit its 
 brightness. Even Aldebaran, the red eye of the Bull, llared out 
 into familiar recollection as early as ten o'clock ; and the heaveiKS, 
 though still somewhat reddened by the gaudy thits of midnight, 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
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 64 
 
 "fern rock." 
 
 gave lis Capella and Arcturns, and even that lesser liglit of home 
 memories, the Polar Star. Stretching my neck to look uncomfort- 
 ably at this indication of our extreme northemness, it was hard to 
 realize tliat he was not directly overhead ; and it made me jigh, as 
 I measured tlic few degrees of distance that separated our zenith 
 
 from the Pole over which he hung. 
 
 " We had our accustomed morning and 
 and the day went by, full of sober thought, and, I 
 
 evening 
 
 site of the 
 observa- 
 tory. 
 
 "Fern 
 Kock." 
 
 Provision 
 depots. 
 
 Plans of 
 
 future 
 
 search. 
 
 prayers ; 
 trust, wise 
 resolve. 
 
 " September 1 2, Monday. — StUl going on with Saturday's opera- 
 tions, amid the thousand discomforts of house-cleaning and moV' 
 ing combined. I dodged them for an hour this morning, to fix 
 with !Mr. Sontag upon a site for our observatory ; and the men are 
 already at work hauling the stone for it over the ice on sledges. 
 It is to occupy a rocky islet, about a hundred yards off, that I 
 have named after a little spot that I long to see again, ' Fern 
 Rock.' Tliis is to be for me the centre of familiar localities. As 
 the classic Mivins breakfasted hghtly on a cigar and took it out in 
 sleep, so I have dined on salt pork and made my dessert of home 
 dreams. 
 
 "September 13, Tuesday. — Besides preparing our winter quar- 
 ters, I am engaged in the preliminary arrangements for my pro- 
 vision de- "Us along the Greenland coast. Mr, Kennedy is, I 
 believe, the only one of my predecessors who has used October and 
 November for Arctic field-work ; but I deem it important to our 
 movements during the winter and spring, that the depots in 
 advance should be made before the darkness sets in. I purpose 
 arranging three of them at intervals, — pushing them as far forward 
 as I can, — to contain in all some twelve hundred pounds of pro- 
 vision, of which eight hundred will be pemmican." 
 
 ^ly plans of future search were directly dependent upon the suc- 
 cess of these operations of tho fall. With a chain of provision- 
 depots along the coast of Greenland, I could readily extend my 
 travel by dogs. These noble animals formed the basis of my future 
 plans : the only drawback to their efficiency as a means of travel 
 was their inability to carry the heavy loads of provender essential 
 for their support. A. badly -fed or heavily-loaded dog is useless for 
 a long journey ; but with relays of provision I could start empty, 
 and fill up at our final station. v 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER TRAVELLINa. 
 
 65 
 
 My dogs were both Esquimaux and Newfoundlanders. Of these 
 last I had ten : they Avere to be carefully broken, to travel by voice 
 ■\\ ithout the whip, and were expected to be very useful for heavy 
 draught, as their tractability would allow the driver to regu- 
 late their pace. I was already training them in a light sledge, 
 to drive, unlike the Esquimaux, two abreast, with a regular harness, 
 a breast-collar of flat leather, and a pair of traces. Six of them 
 made a powerful travelling-team ; and four could carry me and 
 my instruments, for short journeys around the brig, with great 
 ease. 
 
 The sledge I used for them was built, with the care of cabinet- 
 work, of American hickory, thoroughly seasoned. The curvature 
 of the ninners was determined experimentally f^ they were shod 
 with annealed steel, and fastened by copper rivets, which could 
 be renewed at pleasure. Except this, no metal entered into its 
 construction. All its parts were held together by seal-skin lash- 
 ings, so that it yielded to inequalities of surface and to sudden 
 shock. The three paramount considerations of lightness, strength, 
 and diminished friction, were well combined in it. This beautiful 
 and, as we afterwards found, efficient and enduring sledge was 
 named the Little Willie. 
 
 The Esquimaux dogs were reserved for the great tug of the 
 actual journeys of search. They were now in the semi-savage 
 condition which marks their close approach to the wolf; and, 
 according to Mr. Petersen, under whose care they were placed, 
 were totally useless for journeys over such ice as was now 
 before us. A hard experience had not then opened my eyes to 
 the inestimable value of these dogs : I had yet to learn their 
 power and speeu, their patient, enduring fortitude, their sagacity 
 in tracking these icy morasses, among which they had been born 
 and bred. 
 
 I determined to hold back my more distant provision parties as 
 long as the continued daylight would permit ; making the New- 
 foundland dogs establish the depots witliin sixty miles of the brig. 
 My previous journey had shown me that the ice-belt, clogged with 
 the foreign matters dislodged from the cliffs, would not at this 
 season of the year answer for operations with the sledge, and that 
 the ice of the great pack outside was even more unfit, on account 
 of its '.vant of continuity. It Avas now so consolidated by advanc- 
 
 CUAPTER 
 X. 
 
 Traiiii'ic 
 tlie clok'S, 
 
 !:!• 
 
 'Die Little 
 
 ^y^me. 
 
 The Ksqul- 
 
 iiiaux 
 
 tloga. 
 
 The road. 
 
Be 
 
 THE FAITH. 
 
 OHAPTKR 
 K. 
 
 ' 
 
 I '!> 
 
 DBscrip- 
 tion of ttie 
 Faith, a 
 model 
 sledge. 
 
 iiig cold as to have stopped its drift to the south ; but the large 
 floes or fields which formed it were imperfectly cemented together, 
 and would break into hummocks under the action of winds, or even 
 of the tides. It was made still more impassable by the numerous 
 bergs* which kept ploughing with irresistible momentum through 
 the ice-tables, and rearing up barricades that defied the passage of 
 a sledge. 
 
 It was desirable, therefore, that our depot parties should not 
 enter upon their work until they could avail themselves of the 
 young ice. This now occupied a belt about 100 yards in mean 
 breadth, close to the shore, and, but for the fluctuations of the tides, 
 would already be a practicable road. For the present, however, a 
 gale of wind or a spring tide might easily drive the outer floes upon 
 it, and thus destroy its integrity. 
 
 The party appointed to establish this depot was furnished ■with 
 a sledge, the admirable model of which I obtained through the 
 British A dmiralty. The only liberty that I ventured to take with 
 this model — which had been previously tested by the adventurous 
 journeys of M'Clintock in Lancaster Sound — vfas to lessen the 
 height, and somewhat increase the breadth of the runner ; both of 
 v/hich, I think, were improvements, giving increased strength, 
 and preventing too deep a descent into the snow. I named 
 
 her the Faith. Her length was thirteen 
 feet, and breadth four. She could readily 
 carry fourteen hundred pounds of mixed 
 stores. 
 
 This noble old sledge, which is now en- 
 deared to me by every pleasant association, 
 bore the brunt of the heaviest parties, and 
 came back, after the descent of the coast, 
 comparatively sound. The men were at- 
 tached in her in such a way as to make the 
 line of draught or traction as near as pos- 
 sible in the axis of the weight. Each man 
 had his own shoulder-belt, or " rue-raddy," as we used to call it, 
 and his own track-line, which, for want of horse-hair, was made of 
 
 • The gcniM-al drift of these great mHsses wa^ to the south, — a plain indication of doKp 
 spu-ciirrents in that direction, and u couvlncini; proof, to ine, of tt dlitchurgc from suina 
 liurtborn water. 
 
 TlIK RUE-KAUDY. 
 
 mg 
 
CARGO AND OUTFIT- 
 
 67 
 
 M;inilla rope ; it traversed freely by a ring on a loop or bridle, cuAPTK^ 
 that extended from runner to runner in front of the sledge. , ^ 
 These track-ropes varied in length, so as to keep the members of 
 the party from interfering with each other by walking abreast. 
 The longest was three fathoms, eighteen feet, in length ; the 
 shortest, directly fastened to the sledge runner, as a means of 
 guiding or suddenly arresting and turning the vehicle. 
 
 The cargo for this journey, without including the provisions of the Cai-ga 
 party, was almost exclusively pemmican. Some of this was put 
 up in cylinders of tinned iron with conical terminations, so as to 
 resist the assaults of the white be;.:' • but the larger quantity was 
 in strong wooden cases or kegs, well hooped with iron, holding about 
 seventy pounds each. Surmounting this load was a light india- 
 rubber boatj nuide quite portable by a frame of basket willow, 
 which I hoped to launch on reaching open water."' 
 
 The personal equipment of the men was a buffalo-robe for the outfit, 
 party to lie upon, and a bag of Mackinaw blanket for each man to 
 <;ra\vl into at night. India-rubber cloth was to be the protection 
 from the snow beneath. The tent was of canvas, made after the 
 plan of our English predecessors. We afterward learned to modify 
 and reduce our travelling gear, and found that in direct proportion 
 to its simplicity and our apparent privation of articles of supposed 
 necessity were our actual comfort and practical efficiency. Step 
 by step, as long as our Arctic service continued, we went on re- 
 ducing our sledging outfit, until at last we came to the Esq'imaux ■ 
 ultimatum of simplicity — raw meat and a fur bag. 
 
 While our arrangements for the winter were still in progress, I uecontmis 
 sent out Mr. Wilson and Dr. Hayes, accompanied by our Esqui- *''"'''^" 
 maux, Hans, to learn something of the interior features of the 
 country, and the promise it afforded of resources from the 
 hunt. They returned on the 16th of September, after a hard 
 travel, made with excellent judgment and abundant zeal. 
 They penetrated into the interior about ninety miles, when 
 their progress was arrested by a glacier, 400 feet high, and extend- 
 ing to the north and west as far as the eye could reach. This 
 magnificent body of interior ice formed on its summit a complete 
 plateau, — a mer de glace, abutting upon a broken plain of syenite.*"* 
 They found no large lakes. They saw a few reinde^ at a distance, 
 and numerous hares and rabbits, but no ptarmigan. 
 
m 
 
 m 
 
 68 
 
 iJErARTURE OF THE DEPOT PAKTY. 
 
 m 
 
 OHAF'TEU 
 X. 
 
 " Septemher 20, Tuesday. — I was unwilling to delay my depot 
 party any longer. Tiicy left the brig, M'Gary, and Bonsall, with 
 DevHvturo five men, at half-past one to-day. We gave them three cheers, and 
 depot I accompanied them with my dogs as ,i farewell escort for some 
 
 party. im\(^?,. 
 
 " Oar crew proper is now reduced to three men ; but all the 
 officers, the doctor among tlie rest, are hard at work upon tlie ob- 
 .servatory and its arrangements." 
 
 If! 
 
 i 
 
 
 t ■: 
 
THE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 fl9 
 
 spot 
 vith 
 and 
 
 oiue 
 
 the 
 ob- 
 
 !«;?•-'■ 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 TUE OBSERVATORr— THERMOMETEES— TUB RATS— 1'HE BllIQ ON FIRE- 
 ANCIENT SLEDGE-TRACKS — ESQUIMAUX HUTS— HYDROPHOBIA— SLEDGE- 
 DKIVING — MUSK OX TRACKS — A SLEDGE PARTY. 
 
 The island on wliicli we placed our observatory was some fifty chap-'er 
 
 paces long by perhaps forty broad, and about thirty feet above the ! 
 
 water-line. Here we raised four walls of granite blocks, cementing ^'^"'""B 
 
 '=> . . tortile 
 
 them together with moss and water, and the never-failing aid of oi)seivu. 
 frost. On these was laid a substantial wooden roof, perforated at '°'^' 
 the meridian and prime vertical. For pedestals we had a conglo- 
 merate of gravel and ice, well rammed down while liquid in our 
 ii'on-hooped pemmican-casks, and as free from all vibration as the 
 rock they rested on. Here we mounted our transit and theodolite. 
 
 The magnetic observatory adjoining bad rather more of the Magnetic 
 affectation of comfort. It was of stone, ten feet square, with a toiy. 
 wooden floor as well as roof, a copper fire-grate, and stands of the 
 same Arctic breccia as those in its neighbour. No iron was used 
 in its construction. Hsre were our magnetometer and dip instru- 
 ments. 
 
 Our tide-register was on board the vessel, a simple pulley-gauge, Tide icgi- 
 arranged with a wheel and index, and dependent on her rise and 
 fall for its rotation.^^ 
 
 Our raeterological observatory was upon the open ice-field, one Meteoro. 
 hundred and forty yards from the ship. It was a wooden struc- obTei^a- 
 ture, latticed and pierced with augur-holes on all sides, so as to '<»'>'• 
 allow the air to pass freely, and firmly luted to its frozen base. 
 To guard against the fine and almost impalpable drift, which in- 
 sinuates itself everywhere, and which would interfere with the ob- 
 servation of minute and sudden changes of temperature, I placed 
 a series of screens at right angles to each other, so as to surround 
 the inner chamber. 
 
 The thermometers were suspended within the central chamber; Thermo- 
 a pane of glass permitted the light of our lanterns to reach them 
 from a distance, and a lens and eye-gla.ss were so fixed as to allow 
 
 muters. 
 
70 
 
 SMOKING OUT TIIK RAT8. 
 
 XI. 
 
 W'lid- 
 
 lints. 
 
 ■li *• 
 
 hi 3 
 
 i! 
 
 CHAPTER US to observe the instruments without coming inside tlie scicens. 
 Tlieir sensibility was such, tliiit, wl'en standing at 40° and 60° 
 below zero, the mere approach of tht c bserver caused a perceptible 
 rise of the column. One of them, a three -feet 'pirit standard by 
 Taliabue, graduated to 70° minus, was of suificiently extended regis- 
 ter to be read by rapid inspection to tenths of ;' degree. The in- 
 fluence of winds I did nut wish absolutely to neutralize ; but I en- 
 deavoured to make the exposure to thetn so uniform as to give a 
 relative result for every quarter of the compass. We were well 
 supplied with thermometers of all varieties. 
 
 I had devised a wind-gauge to be observed by a tell-tale below 
 deck ; but we found that the condensing moisture so froze around 
 it as to clog its motion. 
 
 " September 30, Friday/. — We have been terribly annoyed by 
 rats. Some days ago we made a brave effort to smoke tbem out 
 with the vilest imaginable compound of vapours, — brimstone, 
 burnt leather, and arsenic, — and spent a cold night in a deck- 
 bivouac, to give the experiment fair play. But they survived the 
 fumigation. We now determined to dose them with carbonic acid 
 gas. Dr. Hayes burnt a quantity of charcoal ; and we shut down 
 the hatches, after pasting up every fissure that communicated aft 
 and starting three stoves on the skin of the forepeak. 
 
 " As the gas was generated with extreme rapidity in the con- 
 fined area below, great caution had to be exercised. Our French 
 cook, good Pierre Schubert, — who to a considerable share of 
 bull-headed intrepidity unites a commendable portion of profes- 
 sional zeal, — stole below, without my knowledge or consent, to 
 season a soup. Morton fortunately saw him staggering in the 
 dark, and, reaching him with great difficulty as he fell, both were 
 hauled up in the end, — Morton, his strength almost gone, and the 
 cook perfectly insensible. 
 
 " The next disaster was of a graver sort. I record it with emo- 
 tions of mingled awe and thankfulness. We have narrowly escaped 
 being burnt out of house and home. I had given orders that the 
 fires, lit under my own eye, should be regularly inspected ; but I 
 learned that Pierre's misadventure had made the watch pretermit 
 for a time opening the hatches. As I lowered a lantern, which 
 was extinguished instantly, a suspicious odour reached me, as of 
 burning wood. I descended at once. Reaching the deck of the 
 
 The cook's 
 misadven- 
 ture. 
 
 A serious 
 disaster. 
 
 ■^ 
 
THE BRIG ON' FIRK. 
 
 71 
 
 forecastle, my fir.st glance toward the fires showed mc that all was chattek 
 siife there ; and, though the quantity of smoke still sur])riscd me, ,^'' 
 I was disposed to attribute it to the recent kindling. But at this 
 moment, while passing on my return near the door of the bulk- 
 head, which loads to the carpenter's room, the gas began to aflect 
 me. My lantern went out as if quenched by water ; and, as I ran 
 by the bulkhead door, I saw the deck near it a mass of glowing Tiic<icck 
 
 * Oil flrc 
 
 fire for some three feet in diameter. I could not tell how much 
 further it extended, for I became quite insensible at the foot of 
 the ladder, and W"idd liave sunk had not Mr. Brooks seen my 
 condition and hauled me out. 
 
 " When I came to myself, which hai)pily was very soon, I con- 
 fided my fearful secret to the four men around me. Brooks, Ohlsen, 
 Blake, and Stevenson. It was all-important to avoid confusion : Jfoasuies 
 we shut the doors of the galley, so as to confine the rest of the extinguhii 
 crew and oflScers aft, and then passed up water from the fire-hole '■• 
 alongside. It was done very noiselessly. Ohlsen and myself 
 went down to the burning deck ; Brooks handed us in the buckets ; 
 and in less than ten minutes we were in safety. It was interesting 
 to observe the effect of steam upon the noxious gjis. Both Ohlsen i-fftct <>f 
 and myself were greatly oppressed until the first bucket was poured *,^^'"' "" 
 on ; but as I did this, directly over the burning coal, raising 
 clouds of steam, we at once experienced relief : the fine aqueous 
 particles seemed to absorb the carbonic acid instantly. We found 
 the fire had originated in the remains of a barrel of charcoal, which OiiRin of 
 had been left in the carpenter's room, ten feet from the stoves, and ^''" **'*'■ 
 with a bulkhead separating it from them. How it had been 
 ignited it was impossible to know. Our safety was due to the 
 dense charge of carbonic acid gas which surrounded the fire, and 
 the exclusion of atmospheric air. When the hatches were opened ^'eans of 
 the flame burst out with energy. Our fire-hole was invaluable ; 
 and I rejoiced that, in the midst of our heavy duties, this essential 
 of an Arctic winter harbour had not been neglected. The ice 
 around the brig was already fourteen inches thick. 
 
 ^^ October 1, Saturday. — Upon inspecting the scene of yester- 
 day's operations, we found twenty-eight well-fed rats of all varieties 
 of age. The cook, though unable to do duty, is better ; I can 
 hear him chanting Ids Beranger through the blankets in liis bunk, 
 happy over his holiday, happy to be happy at everj-thing. I had 
 
 safety. 
 
I1.«;',W 
 
 72 
 
 ESQUIMAUX HUTS. 
 
 h'' 
 
 XI. 
 
 01(1 sledgo 
 tracks. 
 
 nil 
 
 
 
 :! ^:' 
 
 i'' 
 
 i 
 
 1 ^i . 
 
 1 
 
 Mi 
 
 CHAPTER a larger dose of car])oiiic acid even tlian he, and am .suffering con- 
 siderably with palpitations and vertigo. If the sentimental an- 
 pliyxia of Parisian charcoal resembles in its advent that of tlie 
 Arctic zone, it must bo, I think, a poor way of dying. 
 
 " October 3, Monday. — On shore to the south-east, above the 
 first terrace, Mr Petersen found unmistakable signs of a sledge- 
 passage. The tracks were deeply impressed, but certainly more 
 than one season old. This adds to our hope that the natives, 
 whose ancient traces we saw on the point south of Godsend Ledge, 
 may return this winter. 
 Ksqiii- " October 5, Wedaesday. — I walked this afternoon to another 
 
 niauxlmts. g^.(^^^p (jf Esquimaux huts, about three miles from the brig. They 
 are four in number, long deserted, but, to an eye unpractised in 
 Arctic antiquarian inductions, in as good preservation as a last 
 year's tenement at home. The most astonishing feature is the 
 presence of some little out-huts, or, as I first thought them, dog- 
 kennels. These are about four feet by three in ground plan, and 
 some three feet high ; no larger than the pologs of the Tchuschi. 
 In shape they resemble a rude dome, and the stones of which they 
 are composed are of excessive size, and evidently selected for 
 .smoothness. They were, without exception, of water-washed 
 limestone. They are heavily sodded with turf, and a narrow slab 
 of clay-slate serves as a door. No doubt they are human habita- 
 tions, — retiring chambers, into which, away from the crowded 
 families of the hut, one or even two Esquimaux have burrowed 
 for sleep, — chilly dormitories in the winter of this high latitude." 
 " A circumstance that happened to-day is of serious concern to 
 us. Our sluts have been adding to our stock. We have now on 
 hand four reserved puppies of peculiar promise ; six have been 
 ignominiously drowned, two devoted to a pair of mittens for Dr. 
 A iiog at- Kane, and seven eaten by their mammas. Yesterday the mother 
 tacked by q£ ^j^g batch, a pair of fine white pu[)S, showed peculiar symptoms, 
 piiobia. We recalled the fact that for days past she had avoided water, or 
 had drunk with spasm and evident aversion ; but hydrophobia, 
 which is unknown north of 70°, never occurred to us. The animal 
 was noticed this morning walking up and down the deck with a 
 staggering gait, her head depressed, and her mouth frothing and 
 tumid. Finally she snapped at Petersen, and fell foaming and 
 biting at his feet. He reluctantly pronounced it hydrophobia, and 
 
THE DOG-SLEDOE. 
 
 73 
 
 and 
 
 obia, 
 nimal 
 dth a 
 and 
 and 
 and 
 
 advised mo to shoot licr. The advice was well-timed : I had liarJIy oifAriKR 
 cloared tho deck before .she .snapped at Ilan.s, tlie E.squiniaux, nnd ^^' 
 reconnnenced her walking trot. It wa.s quite an anxiou.s moment 
 to me ; for my Newfoundlanders were around the housing, and the 
 hatches open. Wo shot her, of course. 
 
 " October G, Thursdai/. — The liares are less numerous than they Hares, 
 were. They seek the coast when the snows fall in the interior, 
 and the late south-east wind has probably favoured their going 
 back. These animals are not equal in size either to the European 
 hare or their brethren of the North American continent. The latter, 
 according to Seamann, weigh upon an average fourteen pounds. A 
 large male, the largest seen by us in Smith's Sound, weighed but 
 nine ; and our average so far does not exceed seven and a half. 
 They measure generally less by some inches in length than those 
 noticed by Dr. Richardson. Mr. Petersen is quite successful in 
 shooting these hares : we have a stock of fourteen now on hand. 
 
 " We have been building stone traps on the hills for the foxes, 
 whose traces we see there in abundance, and have determined to 
 organize a regular hunt as soon as they give us the chance. 
 
 " October 8, Saturday. — I have been practising with my dog- Tiie dos- 
 sledge and an Esquimaux team till my arms ache. To drive such ''"''■'•^ 
 an equipage a certain proficiency with the whip is indi.spensable ; 
 which, like all proficiency, must be worked for. In fact the weapon 
 has an exercise of its own, quite peculiar, and as hard to learn as 
 single-stick or broadsword. 
 
 " The whip is 6 yards long, and the handle but 1 6 inches, — 
 a short lever, of course, to throw out such a length of seal-hide. 
 Learn to do it, however, with a masterly sweep, or else make up 
 your mind to forego driving sledge ; for the dogs are guided solely 
 by the lash, and you must be able not only to hit an}'^ particular 
 dog out of a team of twelve, but to accompany the feat also with 
 a resounding crack. After this you find that to get your lash back 
 involves another difficulty ; for it is apt to entangle itself among 
 the dogs and lines, or to fasten itself cunningly round bits of ice, 
 so as to drag you head over heels into the snow. 
 
 " The secret by which this complicated set of requirements is 
 fulfilled consists in properly describing an arc from the shoulder, 
 with a stiff elbow, giving the jerk to the whip handle from the 
 hand and wrist alone. The lash trails behind as you travel, and 
 
u 
 
 WIU) ANIMAFA 
 
 m 
 
 I' 
 
 ( i 
 
 XI. 
 
 Tlic (lipii 
 
 i 
 
 Wild aiil- 
 
 ciiAi'TKR wlien thrown forward is ullowcd to extend itself witlnnit an effort 
 to bring it biick. You wait patiently after giving the projectile 
 iin[)ul.so xmtil it unwinds its slow length, reaches the end of its 
 tether, and craeks to tell you that it is at its journey's end. Such 
 a crack on the ear or forefoot of an unfortunate doc i" signalized 
 by a howl quite unmistakable in its import. 
 
 " The mere hibour of Uhing this whip is .such tiiat the Esquimaux 
 travel in couples, one sledge after the other. The hinder dogs 
 follow mechanically, and thus require no whip ; and the drivers 
 change about so as to rest each otiier. 
 
 " I have ainu.sed myself, if not my dogs, for some days past with 
 this formidable accessory of Arctic travel. I have not (piite got 
 the knack of it yet, though I might venture a trial of cracking 
 against the postilion college of Lonjumeau. 
 
 " October 9, Sunday. — Mr. Petersen shot a hare yesterday. 
 They are very scarce now, for he travelled some five hours without 
 seeing another. lie makes the important report of musk ox tracks 
 on the recent snow. Dr. Richardson says that these are scarcely 
 distinguishable from the reindeer's except by the practised eye : 
 he characterizes them as larger, but no"" wider. The tracks that 
 Petersen saw had an interesting confirmation of their being those 
 of the musk ox, for they were accompanied by a second set of 
 footprints, evidently belonging to a young one of the same species, 
 and about as large as a middle-sized reindeer's. Both impressions 
 also were marked as if by hair growing from the pastern joint, for 
 behind the hoof was a line brushed in the snow.'*'' 
 
 " To-day Hans brought in another hare he had shot. He saw 
 seven reindeer in a large valley off Bedevilled Reach, and wounded 
 one of them. This looks promising for our winter commissariat. 
 
 ^'■October 10, Monday. — Our depot party has been out twenty 
 days, and it is time they were back ; their provisions must have 
 run very low, for I enjoined them to leave every pound at the 
 depot they could spare. I am going out wdth supplies to look 
 after them. I take four of our best Newfoundlanders, now well 
 broken, in oui lightest sledge ; and Blake will accompany me with 
 his skates. We have not hands enough to equip a sledge party, 
 and the ice is too unsound for us to attempt to ride with a large 
 team. The thermometer is still 4° above zero." 
 
LEAPING A CHASM. 
 
 70 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 I-KAPIXa A CHASM — THE ICE-BEI.T — CAPE WILLIAM WOOD— CAMP ON TUB 
 FLOES — KKTUUN OV DETur I'AUTY — BONSALL's ADVENTURE— KEHULT8— 
 AN ESCAPE— TUB TUIllD CACHE— M'oAKY ISLAND. 
 
 I FOUND little or no trouble in crossinc; the ice until we passed he- chapter 
 
 . . Xl( 
 
 yond the north-east headhmd, which I have named Cape William 1 
 
 Wood. Eut, on emerging int'j the channel, we found that th' Travelling 
 spring tides had broken up the great area around us, and that the "" •■''* ''"■ 
 passage of the sledge wai interrupted by fissures, wliich were be- 
 ginning to break in every direction through the young ict. 
 
 My first cflbrt was of course to reach the land ; but it v i un- 
 fortunately low tide, and the ice-belt rose up before me like a wjdl. 
 The pack was becoming more and mo'-e unsafe, and I s extremely 
 anxious to rrain vn asylum on shore ; for, though it was easy lo fuid 
 a temporary refuge by retreating to ^he old floes whirl i studded 
 the - >re recent ice, I knew that in doing so we should ri^k being 
 carried down by the drift. 
 
 The dogs began to flag ; but we had to press them ; — we were 
 only two men ; and, in the event of the animals failing to leap 
 any of the rapidly-multiplying fissures, we could hardly expect to 
 extricate our laden sledge. Three times in less than three hours 
 my shaft or hinder dogs went in ; and John and myself, who had 
 been trotting alongside the sledge for sixteen miles were nearly as 
 tired as they were. This state of things could not last ; and I 
 therefore made for the old ice to seaward. 
 
 We were nearing it rapidly, when the dogs failed in leaping a a plunge 
 chasm that was somewhat wider than the others, and the whole '" "'" 
 concern came down in the water. I cut the lines instantly, and, 
 with the aid of my companion, hauled the poor animals out. We 
 owed the preservation of the sledge to their admirable docility and 
 perseverance. The tin-cooking ajjparatus and the air confined in 
 the India-rubber coverings kept it afloat till we could succeed in 
 fastening a couple of seal-skin cords to the cross-pieces at the front 
 and back. By these John and myself were able to give it an un- 
 
w 
 
 CAMP ON THE FLOES. 
 
 I t 
 
 ' > 
 
 :i! Hi 
 
 11 1 \ 
 
 floe. 
 
 CHAPTER certain siipport-from the two edges of the opening, till the dogs, 
 
 L after many fmitlesb struggles, carried it forward at last upon the 
 
 ice. 
 
 Although the thermometer was below zero, and in our wet state 
 we ran a considerable risk of freezing, tlie urgency of our posi- 
 tion left no room for thoughts of cold. We started at a run, men 
 and dogs, for the solid ice ; and by the time we had gained it we 
 were steaming in the cold atmosphere like a couple of Nootka 
 Sound vapour-baths. 
 
 Rcstontho We rested on the floe. We could not raise our tent, for it had 
 frozen as hard as a shingle. But our buffalo-robe bags gave us 
 protection ; and, though we were too wet inside to be absolutely 
 comfortable, we mana'^ed to get something like sleep before it was 
 light enough for us to move on again. 
 
 The journey was continued in the same way ; but we found, to 
 our great gratification, that the cracks closed wdth the change of the 
 tide, and at high-water we succeeded in gaining the ice-belt under the 
 cliffs. This belt had changed very much since my journey in 
 September. The tides and frosts together had coated it with ice 
 as smooth as satin, and this glossy covering made it an excellent 
 road. The cliffs discharged fewer fragments in our path, and the 
 rocks of our last journey's experience were now fringed with icicles. 
 I saw with great pleasure that this ice-belt would serve as a high- 
 way for our future operations. 
 
 The nights which followed were not so bad as one would suppose 
 from the saturated condition of our equipment. Evaporation is 
 not so inappreciable in this Arctic region as some tlieorists ima- 
 gine. By alternately exposing the tent and furs to the air, and 
 beating the ice out of them we dried them enough to permit sleep. 
 The dogs slept in the tent with us, giving it warmth as well as 
 fragrance. What perfumes of nature are lost at home upon our 
 ungrateful senses ! How we relished the companionship ! 
 
 We had averaged twenty miles a day since leaving the brig, and 
 were within a short march of the cape which I have named William 
 Wood, when a broad chasm brought us to a halt. It was in vain 
 that we worked out to seaward, or dived into the shoreward re- 
 
 stori'cd by cesses of the bay : the ice everywhere presented the same impass- 
 able fissures. We had no alternative but to retrace drur steps and 
 seek among the bergs some place of seciuity. We found a camp 
 
 Nlchts on 
 tbe lev. 
 
 n chasm. 
 
 ii 
 
RETURN OF THE DEPOT PARTY. 
 
 77 
 
 for the night on the old floe-ices to the westward, gaining them ohaptkk. 
 
 XII. 
 
 some time after the darkness had closed in. 
 
 On the morning of the 15th, about two hours before the late 
 sunrise, as I was preparing to climb a berg from whicli I might 
 have a sight of the road ahead, I perceived far off upon the white 
 snow a dark object, which not only moved, but altered its shape 
 strangely, — now expanding into a long black line, now waving, now 
 gathering itself up into compact mass. It was the returning sledge 
 party. They had seen our black tent of Kedar, and ferried across 
 to seek it. 
 
 They were most welcome ; for their absence, in the fearfully Return of 
 open state of the ice, had filled me with apprehensions. We could '^'^ '••"?*' 
 not distinguish each other as we drew near in the twilight ; and 
 my first good news of them was when I heard that they were sing- 
 ing. On they came, and at last I was able to count their voices, 
 one by one. Thank God, seven ! Poor John Blake was so breath- 
 less with gratulation, that I could not get him to blow liis signal- 
 horn. We gave them, instead, the good old Anglo-Saxon greet- 
 ing, " tliree cheers ! " and in a few minutes were among them. 
 
 They had made a creditable journey, and were, on the Avhole, in sufferings 
 good condition. They had no injuries worth talking about, al- ^'^""' "''' 
 though not a man had escaped some touches of the frost. Bon- 
 sall was minus a big toe-nail, and plus a scar upon the nose. 
 M'Gary had attempted, as Tom Hickey told us, to pluck a fox, it 
 being so frozen as to defy skinning by his knife ; and his fingers 
 had been tolerably frost-bitten in the operation. " They're very 
 horny, sir, are my fingers," said M'Gary, who was worn down to a 
 mere shadow of liis former rotundity ; " very horny, and they water 
 up like bladders." The rest had suffered in their feet ; but like 
 good fellows, postponed limping until they reached the ship. 
 
 Within the last three days they had marched fifty-four milr^s, or pteof 
 eighteen a day. Their sledge being empty, and the young ice north truveuim} 
 of Cape Bancroft smootli as a mirror, they had travelled, the day ice. 
 before we met them, nearly twenty-five miles. A very remarkable 
 pace for men who had been twenty-eight days in the field. 
 
 My supplies of hot food, coffee, and marled beef soup, which I 
 had brought with me, were very opportune. They had almost ex- 
 hausted their bread ; and, being unwilling to encroach on the de- 
 pot stores, had gone without fuel in order to save alcohol. LeaWn^ 
 
 'g 
 
I 
 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 w^ ;. > 
 
 =1 IU 
 
 
 
 
 -^! ; L 
 
 
 M 1:1 
 
 
 ill 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 i 
 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 n ,i 
 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 78 
 
 NEWFOUNDLAND DOG TEAM. 
 
 OHAPTKR orders to place my own sledge stores iu cache, I returned to the 
 '^"- brig, ahead of the party, with my dog-sledge, carrying Mr. Bonsall 
 with me. 
 
 lAiapinK On this return i had much less difficulty with the ke cracks ; 
 
 Ice cracks. ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ Newfoundlanders leapuig them in almost every instance, 
 and the impulse of our sledge carrying it across. On one occasion, 
 while we were making these flying leaps, poor Bonsall was tossed 
 out, and came very near being carried under by the rapid tide, 
 lie fortunately caught the runner of the sledge as he fell; and I 
 
 NEWFOUNDLAND DOO TEAM, 
 
 Tlie gpnr- 
 duck. 
 
 Puoroedod, by whipping up the dogs, in hauUng him out. He was, 
 of course, wet to the skin ; but wc were only twenty miles from 
 the brig, and he sustained no serious injury from liis immersion. 
 
 I return to my journal. 
 
 "The spar-deck — or, as we call it from its wooden covering, the 
 'liouse' — is steaming with the buffalo-robes, tents, boots, socks, 
 and heterogeneous costumings of our returned parties. We have 
 ample work in repairing these and restoring the disturbed order of 
 our domestic life. The men feel the effects of their journey, but are 
 very content in their comfortable quarters. A pack of cards, grog 
 at dinner, and the promise of a three days' holiday, have made the 
 decks happy with idleness and laughter," 
 
W ..A 
 
 JOURNEY OF THE DEPOT PARTY, 
 
 •9 
 
 T give the genex-al results of the party; referring to tlie Appendix chavtkr 
 for the detailed account of Messrs. M'Gary and Bonsall. 1 
 
 They left the brig, as may be remembered, on the 20th of Sep- Caciie 
 teniber, and they reached Cape Russell on the 25th. Near this uusseii. 
 spot I had, in my former journey of reconnoissance, established a 
 cairn ; and here, as by previously concerted arrangement, they left 
 their first cache of pemmican, together with some bread, and alco- 
 hol for fuel. 
 
 On the 28th, after crossing a large bay, they met a low cape 
 about thirty niUes to the north-east of the first depot. Here they 
 made a second cache of a hundred and ten poimds of beef and 
 pemmican, and about thirty of a mixture of pemmican and Indian 
 meal, with a bag of bread. 
 
 The <\i*y being too foggy for sextant observations for position, or 
 even for a reliable view of the landmarks, they built a substc^r tial 
 cairn, and buried the provision at a distance of ten paces from its a cairn ' 
 centre, bearing by compass, E. by N. ^ N. The point on which '"ovj^jo^,^ 
 this cache stood I subsequently named after Mr. Bonsall, one of 
 the indefatigable leaders of the party. 
 
 I will give the geographical outline of the track of this party in 
 a subsequent part of this narrative, when I have spoken of the 
 after-travel and surveys wliich confirmed and defined it. But I 
 should do injustice both to their exertions and to the results of 
 them, were I to omit mention of the dfficulties which they en- 
 countered. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth day of their outward journey they met a stopped by 
 great glacier, wldcli I shall describe hereafter. It checked their * ^ "*^""^' 
 course along the Greenland coast abruptly; but they still en- 
 deavoured to make their way outside its edge to seaward, with 
 the commendable object of seeking a more northern point for 
 the provision depot. This journey was along the ba.se of an 
 icy wall, which constantly threw off its discharging bergs, breaking 
 up the ice for miles around, and compelling the party to ferry 
 th(miselves and their sledge over the cracks by rafts of ice. 
 
 One of these incidents I give nearly in the language of Mr. Bon- 
 sall. 
 
 They had camped, on the night of 5th October, under the lee of 
 some large icebergs, and within heanng of the grand artillery of 
 the glacier. The floe on which their tent was pitched was of re- 
 
i 
 
 i: 
 
 80 
 
 AN ESCAPE. 
 
 4 ', 
 
 '\ ' 
 
 IM. 
 
 F m 
 
 ':■'■ 
 
 ; ; i; , . 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 '^ ' ' 
 
 ll 
 
 cHAi'TER cent and transparent ice; and the party, too tired to seek a safer 
 ^"' asylum, had turned in to rest ; when, with a crack Uke t}ie snap of 
 
 A (lunger- a gigantic whip, the ice opened directly beneath them. This was, 
 
 tuie. as nearly as they could estimate the time, at about one o'clock in 
 the morning. The darkness was intense; and the cold, about 10° 
 below zero, was increased by a wind which blew from the north- 
 east over the glacier. They gathered together their tent and sleep- 
 ing furs, and lashed them, according to the best of their ability, 
 upon the sledge. Repeated intonations warned them that the ice 
 was breaking up ; a swell, evidently produced by the avalanches 
 from the glacier, caused the platform on which they stood to rock 
 to and fro. 
 
 Mr. M'Gary derived a hope from the stable character of the 
 bergs near them : they were evidently not adrift. He determined 
 to select a flat piece of ice, place the sledge upon it, and, by aid of 
 tent-poles and cooking-utensils, paddle to the old and firm fields 
 which clung to the bases of the bergs. The party waited in 
 anxious expectation untU the returning daylight permitted this 
 attempt; and, after a most adventurous passage, succeeded in 
 reaching the desired position. 
 
 My main object in sending them out was the deposit of provi- 
 sions, and I had not deemed it advisable to complicate their duties 
 
 The high- by any organization for a survey. They reached their highest 
 latitude on the oth of October ; and this, as determined by dead 
 reckoning, was in latitude 79° 50', and longitude 76° 20', From 
 this point they sighted and took sextant bearings of land to the 
 north,* having a trend or inclination west by north and east by 
 south, at an estimated distance of thirty miles. They were at this 
 time entangled in the icebergs ; and it was from the lofty summit 
 of one of these, in the midst of a scene of surpassing desolation, 
 that they made their observations. 
 
 They began the third or final cache, which was the main object 
 of the journey, on the 10th of October; placing it on a low island 
 at the base of the large glacier which checked their further march 
 along the coast. 
 
 Before adopting this site, they had perseveringly skirted the base 
 
 • I may mention that the results of their observations were not used in the construction 
 of our charts, except their interesting sextant bearings. These were both numerous and 
 vuluuble, but not sustained at the time by satisfactory ostrcnomlcal observations foi position. 
 
 est lati- 
 tude 
 reached 
 by the 
 party. 
 
THE THIRD CACHE. 
 
 81 
 
 of the glacier, in a fruitless effort to cross it to the north. In spite chapteb 
 of distressing cold, and the nearly constant winds from the ice- ^"' 
 clothed shore, they carried out all my instructions for securing this The tiiivd 
 
 cticliti 
 
 important dep6t. The stores were carefully buried in a natural 
 excavation among the cliffs ; and heavy rocks, brought with great 
 labour, were piled above them. Smaller stones were placed over 
 these, and incorporated into one solid mass by a mixture of sand 
 and water. The power of the bear in breaking up a provision 
 cache is extraordinary ; but the Esquimaux to the south had assured 
 me that frozen sand and water, which would wear away the ani- 
 mal's claws, were more effective against him than the largest rocks. 
 Still, knowing how much trouble the officers of Commodore 
 Austin's Expedition experienced from the destruction of their 
 caches, I had ordered the party to resort to a combination of these 
 expedients. ^ 
 
 They buried here six hundred and seventy pounds of pemmican, 
 forty of Borden's meat discuit, and some articles of general diet ; 
 making a total of about eight hundred pounds. They indicated i 
 
 the site by a large cairn, bearing E. ^ S. from the cache, and at 
 the distance of thirty paces. The landmarks of the cairn itself 
 were sufficiently evident, but were afterwards fixed by bearings, 
 for additional certainty. 
 
 The island which was so judiciously selected as the seat of this M'ttary 
 cache was named after my faithful fi lend and excellent second '*'''"*^" 
 officer, Mr. James M'Gary of New Louion. , 
 
 object 
 
 island 
 
 ir march 
 
 Ithe base 
 
 lonstructinn 
 
 nerous and 
 
 Ifoi position. 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 WALRUS H0LK9. 
 
 \'\ 
 
 j < 
 
 ill 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XIH. 
 
 iw. 
 
 CHAPTER XIIJ. 
 
 WALBirS HOLES — ADVANCE OP DARKNESS— DARKNESS THE COLD— " THE 
 
 lOB blink" — FOX-CHASE — ESQUIMAUX HUTS — OCCULTATION OP SAT- 
 URN—PORTRAIT OF OLD GRIM. 
 
 " October 28, Friday. — The moon has reached her greatest northern 
 declination of about 25° 35'. She is a glorious object : sweeping 
 The moon, around the heavens, at the lowest part of her curve, she is still 
 14° above the horizon. For eight days she has been making her 
 circuit with nearly unvarj'ing brightness. It is one of those spark- 
 ling nights that bring back the memory of sleigh-bells and songs 
 and glad communings of hearts in lands that are far away. 
 
 " Our fires and ventilation fixtures are so arranged that we are 
 able to keep a mean temperature below of 65° ; and on deck, under 
 our housing, above the freezing-point. This is admirable success ; 
 for the weather outside is at 25° below zero, and there is quite a 
 little breeze blowing. 
 
 "The last remnant of walrus did not leave us until the stcond 
 week of last month, when the temperature had sunk below zero- 
 Till then they found open water enough to sport and even sleep 
 in, between the fields of drift, as they opened with the tide ; but 
 they had worked numerous breathing-holes besides, in the solid ice 
 nearer shore.* Many of these were inside the capes of Rensselaer 
 Harbour. Thay had the same circular, cleanly-finished margin as 
 the seals', but they were in much thicker ice, and the radiating 
 lines of fracture round them much more marked. The animal 
 evidently used his own buoyancy as a means of starting the ice. 
 
 "Around these holes the ice was much discoloured : numbers of 
 broken clam-shells were found near them, and, in one instance, some 
 gravel, mingled -with about half a peck of the coarse shingle of the 
 beach. The use of the stones which the walrus swallows is still 
 
 * The walrus often sleeps on the surface of tlie water wlille his fellows are playing around 
 tdm. In this condition 1 frequently surprised the young ones, whose mothers were a&luep 
 by ibeh' side. 
 
 The tem- 
 perature. 
 
 Walrus 
 holes. 
 
WALRUS SPORTING. 
 
 83 
 
 an interesting question. The ussuk or bearded seal bas the same chaptrb 
 
 liabit. 
 
 Xllt. 
 
 WAI-RUB SPORTING. 
 
 liiigiirouiiJ 
 vere abluej) 
 
 " November 7, Monday. — The darkness is coming on with in- Da^kne^« 
 sidious steadiness, and its advances can only be perceived by com- j"*^"-'*"" 
 paring one day with its fellow of some time back. AVe still read 
 the thermometer at noonday without a light, and the black masses 
 of the hills are plain for about five hours with their glaring patches 
 of snow; but all the rest is darkness. Lanterns are always on the 
 spar-deck, and the lard-lamps never extinguished below. The stars 
 of the sixth magnitude shine out at noonday. 
 
 "Except upon the island of Spitzbergen, which has the ad^' - 
 tages of an insular climate and tempered by ocean cuirent 
 Christians have wintered in so high a latitude as this. The^ ' 
 Russian sailors who make the encounter there, men inured to hard- 
 sliips and cold. I cannot help tJiinking of the sad chronicles of 
 the early Dutch, who perished year after year, without leaving a 
 comrade to record their fate. 
 
 " Our darkness has ninety days to run before we shall get back Duration 
 apain even to the contested twilight of to-day. Altogether, our 
 winter will have been sunless for one hundred and forty days. 
 
 " it requii-ea neither the 'Ice-foot' with its growing ramparts, 
 
 of winter. 
 
ij 
 
 U 
 
 DARKNESS AND COLD. 
 
 cnAPTKR nor the rapid encroachments of the night, nor the record of our 
 
 1 thermometers, to portend for us a winter of unusual severity. The 
 
 mean temperatures of October and September are lower tlian those 
 of Parry for the same months at Melville Island. Thus far we 
 have no indications of that deferred fall cold which marks the in- 
 sular climate. 
 
 " November 9, Wedntsday. — Wishing to get the altitude of the 
 cliffs on the south-west cape of our bay before the darkness set in 
 thoroughly, I started in time to reach them with my Newfound- 
 landers at noonday. Although it was but a short journey, the 
 rough shore-ice and a slight wind rendered the cold severe. I had 
 been housed for a week with my wretched rhaumatism, and felt 
 that daily exposure was necessary to enable me to bear up against 
 the cold. The thermometer indicated 23° below zero. 
 The cold. " Fireside astronomers can hardly realize the difficulties in the 
 way of observations at such low temperatures. The mere burning 
 of the hands is obviated by covering the metal with chamois-skin ; 
 but the breath, and even the warmth of the ftice and body, cloud 
 the sextant-arc and glasses with a fine hoar-frost. Though I had 
 much clear weather, we barely succeeded by magnifiers in reading 
 the verniers. It is, moreover, an unusual feat to measure a base- 
 line in the snow at 55° below freezing. 
 
 " A^uvember 16, Wednesday. — The great difficulty is to keep up 
 rnor Hans a cheery tone among the men. Poor Hans has been sorely home- 
 sick. Three days ago he bundled up his clothes and took his rifle, 
 to bid us all good-bye. It turns out that besides his mother there 
 is another one of the softer sex at Fiskemaes that the boy's heart 
 is dreaming of. He looked as wretched as any lover of a milder 
 clime. I hope I have treated his nostalgia successfully, by giving 
 liiia first a dose of salts, and secondly, promotion. He ha.s now all 
 the dignity of a henchman. He harnesses my dogs, builds my 
 traps, and walks with me on my ice tramps ; and, except hunting, 
 is excused from all other duty. He is really attached to me, and 
 as happy as a fat man ought to be. 
 
 *^ November 21, Monday. — We have schemes innumerable to 
 
 cheat the monotonous solitude of our Winter. We are getting up 
 
 a fancy ball ; and to-day the first number of our Arctic newspaper, 
 
 loe- * The Ice-Blink,' came out, with the motto, ' In tenebris servare 
 
 FiDEM.' The articles are by authors of every nautical grade : some 
 
 tlie Esqul- 
 ii.aux. 
 
 I 
 
 The ' 
 Kiiiik 
 
LONO JOURNEYS OVER THE SNOW. 
 
 85 
 
 I giving 
 low all 
 ^ds my 
 inting, 
 le, and 
 
 Ible to 
 ingup 
 ^paper, 
 
 IV ARE 
 
 some 
 
 of the best from the forecastle. I transfer a few of them to my 
 Appendix. 
 
 " N<yvember 22, Tuesday. — I offered a prize to-day of a Quemsey 
 shirt to the man who held out longest in a ' fox-chase * round the 
 decks. The rule of the sport was, that * Fox ' was to run a given 
 circuit between galley and capstan, all hands following on liis track ; 
 every four minutes a halt to be called to blow, and the fox making 
 the longest run to take the prize ; each of the crew to run as fox 
 in turn. William Godfrey sustained the chase for fourteen minutes, 
 and wore off the shirt. 
 
 " November 27, Sunday. — I sent out a volunteer party some days 
 ago with Mr. BonSall, to see wliether the Esqmmaux have returned 
 to the huts we saw empty at the cape. The thermometer was in 
 the neighbourhood of 40° below zero, and the day was too dark to 
 read at noon. I was hardly surprised when they returned after 
 camping one night upon the snow. Their sledge broke down, and 
 they were obliged to leave tents and everything else behind them. 
 It must have been very cold, for a bottle of Monongahela whisky 
 of good stiff proof froze under Mr. Bonsall's head. 
 
 " Morton went out on Friday to reclaim the tilings they had 
 left ; and to day at 1 »p.m. he returned successful. He reached the 
 ^vreck of the former party, makhig nine miles in three hours, — 
 pushed on six miles further on the ice- foot, — then camped for the 
 night ; and, making a sturdy march the next day without luggage, 
 reached the huts, and got back to his camp to sleep. This jour- 
 ney of his was, we then thought, really an achievement, — sixty-two 
 miles in three marches, with a mean temperature of 40" below 
 zero, and a noonday so dark that you could hardly see a hummock 
 of ice fifty paces ahead. 
 
 " Under more favouring circumstances, Eonsall, Morton, and my- 
 self made eighty-four miles in three consecutive marches. I go for 
 the system of forced marches on journeys that are not over u 
 hundred and fifty miles. A practised walker unencumbered by 
 weight does twenty miles a day nearly as easily as ten : it is the 
 uncomfortable sleeping that wears a party out. 
 
 " Morton found no natives ; but he saw enough to satisfy me 
 that the huts could not have been deserted long before we came to 
 this region. The foxes had been at work upon the animal remains 
 tliat we found there, and the appearances which we noted of receut 
 
 OHAPTKH 
 XHI. 
 
 Afbx 
 cliusa. 
 
 A volun- 
 teer party 
 
 AIoriR 
 Journey. 
 
 Forced 
 marchss. 
 
M 
 
 OCCUT.TATION OF SATURN. 
 
 I ll 
 
 \t' »■ 
 
 CHAPTFR 
 XIII. 
 
 rpderted 
 bJti. 
 
 Occulta- 
 tlon of 
 Sutum. 
 
 Total 
 darkness. 
 
 " A chft- 
 Dicter." 
 
 habitation had in a great degree di.sappeared. Wliere these Esqni- 
 maux Imve travelled to is matter for conjecture. The dilapidated 
 character of the huts we have seen further to the north seems to 
 imply that they cannot have gone in that direction. Tliey have 
 more probably migrated southward, and, as the spring opens, may 
 return, with the walrus and seal, to their former luuints. We shall 
 see them, I think, before we leave our icy moorings. 
 
 '^December 12, Monday. — A grand incident in our great mono- 
 tony of life ! We had an occultation of Saturn at 2 a.m., and got 
 a most satisfactory observation. The emersion was obtjiined with 
 greater accuracy than could have been expected from the exces- 
 sive atmospheric undulation of these low temperatures. My little 
 Fraunhbfer sustained its reputation well We can now fix our 
 position without a cavil. 
 
 ^^ December 15, Thiirsdai/. — We have lost the last vestige of our 
 mid-day twilight. We cannot see print, and hardly paper : the 
 fingers cannot be counted a foot from the eyes. Noonday and 
 midnight are alike, and, except a vague glimmer on the sky that 
 seems to define the hill outlines to the south, wo liave nothing to 
 tell us that this Arctic world of ours has a sun. In one week more 
 we shall reach the midnight of the year. 
 
 " December 22, Timrsday. — There is an excitement in our little 
 community that dispenses with reflections upon the solstitial night. 
 ' Old Grim ' is missing, and has been for more than a day. Since 
 the lamented demise of Cerberus, my leading Newfoundlander, he 
 has been patriarch of our scanty kennel. 
 
 '* Old Grim was ' a character ' such as peradventure may at some 
 time be found among beings of a higher order and under a more 
 temperate sky. A profound hypocrite and time-server, he so 
 wriggled his adulatory tail as to secure every one's good graces and 
 nobody's respect. All the spare morsels, the cast-oflf delicacies of 
 the mess, passed through the winnowing jaws of * Old Grim,' — an 
 illustration not so much of his eclecticism as his universality of 
 taste. He was never known to refuse anything offered or ap- 
 proachable, and never known to be satisfied, however prolonged 
 and abundant the bounty or the spoil. 
 
 " Grim was an ancient dog : his teeth indicated many winters ; 
 and his limbs, once splendid tractors for the sledge, were now 
 covered with warts and ringbones. Somehow or other, when the 
 
PORTRAIT OF " OLD GRIM." 
 
 87 
 
 (logs were harnessing for a journey, ' Old Grim ' was sure not to be 
 found ; and upon one occasion, when he was detected hiding away 
 in a cast-off barrel, he incontinently became lame. Strange to say 
 he has been lame ever since, except when the team is away without 
 him. 
 
 " Cold disagrees with Grim j but by a system of patient watch- 
 ings at the door of our deck-house, accompanied by a discrimi- 
 nating use of his tail, he became at L'st the one privileged intruder. 
 My seal-skin coat has been his favourite bed for weeks together- 
 Whatever love for an individual Grim expressed by his tail, he 
 could never be induced to follow him on the ice after the cold 
 darkness of the winter set in ; yet the dear good old sinner would 
 wriggle after you to the very thresliold of the gangway, and bid 
 you good-bye with a deprecatory wag of the tail wliich disarmed 
 resentment. 
 
 " His appearance was quite characteristic : — his muzzle roofed 
 like the old-fashioned gable of a Dutch garret-window ; his fore- 
 head indicating the most meagre capacity of brains that could con- 
 sist with his sanity as a dog ; his eyes small, his mouth curtained 
 by long black dewlaps, and his hide a mangy russet studded with 
 chestnut-burrs ; if he has gone indeed, we ' ne'er shall look upon 
 his like again.' So much for old Grim ! 
 
 " When yesterday's party started to take soundings, I thought 
 the exercise would benefit Grim, whose time-serving sojourn on our 
 warm deck had begun to render him over-corpulent. A rope was 
 fastened round him ; for at such critical periods he was obstinate, 
 and even ferocious ; and, thus fastened to the sledge, he com- 
 menced his reluctant journey. Reaching a stopping-place after a 
 while, he jerked upon his line, parted it a foot or two from its 
 knot, and, dragging the remnant behind him, started off through 
 the darkness in the direction of our brig. He has not been seen 
 since. 
 
 " Parties are out with lanterns seeking him ; for it is feared that 
 his long cord may have caught upon some of the rude pinnacles of 
 ice which stud our floe, and thus made him a helpless prisoner. 
 The thermometer is at 44° 6' below zero, and old Grim's teeth could 
 not gnaw away the cord. 
 
 " December 23, Friday. — Our anxieties for old Grim might have 
 interfered with almost anything else; but they could uot arrest our 
 
 CM in KB 
 XIII. 
 
 " Old 
 Grim." 
 
 of Old 
 Grim." 
 
 "Grin'" 
 forced to 
 take exor- 
 cise. 
 
 Search for 
 " Grim." 
 
88 
 
 CELEBRATION OF THE SOLSTITIAL NIGHT. 
 
 CHAPTBR celebration of yesterday. Dr. Hayes made us a well -studied ora* 
 
 *'"• tion, and Morton a capital punch ; add to these a dinner of marled 
 
 beef, — we have two pieces left, for the sun's return and the 4th of 
 
 July, — and a bumper of champagne all round ; and the elements 
 
 of our frolic are all registered. 
 
 " We tracked old Grim to-day through the snow to within six 
 hundred yards of the brig, and thence to that mass of snow-packed 
 sterility which we call the shore. His not rejoining the ship is a 
 mystery quite in keeping with his Qharacter." 
 
 Traces of 
 " Urlm." 
 
 I 
 
 
 ;h 
 
MAONETIC 0B8KRVAT0RT. 
 
 nfi 
 
 I ora- 
 larled 
 Ith of 
 nenti 
 
 in six 
 acked 
 p is a 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MiOXETIO OBSIRVATORT — TEMPERATURES — RETURMXO MOHT — DARK- 
 NESS AND THE DOOS— IIYDROPUOBIA— ICE-OUANOES — THE lOE-FOOT — 
 TUE ICE-BELT TUB 8UNU0UT — MARCH. 
 
 My journal for the first two months of 1854 is so devoid of in- 
 terest, that I spare the reader the task of following me through it. 
 In the darkness and consequent inaction, it was almost in vain 
 that we sought to create topics of thought, and by a forced ex- 
 citement to ward off the encroachments of disease. Our obser- 
 vatory and the dogs gave us our only regular occupations. 
 
 On the 9tli of January we had again an occultation of Saturn. 
 The emersion 'nrrod during a sliOit inLervai of clear sky, and our 
 observation of it was quite satisfactory ; the limit of the moon's 
 disc and that of the planet being well defined : the mist prevented 
 our seeing the immersion. We had a recurrence of the same 
 phenomenon on the 6th of Februar}', and an occultation of Mars 
 on the 14th; both of theui observed under favourable circum- 
 stances, the latter especially. 
 
 Our magnetic observations went on ; but the cold m.ide it al- 
 most impossible to adhere to them with regularity. Our obser- 
 vatory was, in fact, an ice-house of the coldest imaginable descrip- 
 tion. The absence of snow prevented our backing the walls with 
 that important non-conductor. Fires, buffalo-robes, and an arras 
 of investing sail-cloth, were unavailing to bring up the mean tem- 
 perature to the freezing-point at the level of the magnetometer;* 
 and it was quite common to find the platform on which the 
 observer stood full 60" lower, ( — 20°.) Our astronomical obser- 
 vations were less protracted, but the apartment in which they 
 
 • We had a (?ood tinifllar, that had been loaned to us by Profcssov Bache, of the Coast 
 Surrey; and a dip Instrument, a BaiTow's circle, obtained from the Smithsonian Institution, 
 through the kindness of CoL Sabine. I owe much to Mr. Sontaf; Dr. Hayes, and Mr. Bon- 
 Hall, who hore the brunt of the term-day observations; it was only toward the close of the 
 season that I was enabled to take my share of them. In addition to these, we had weeUy 
 duterminatioiiB of variation of declination, extending through the twenty-four hours, be- 
 sides observations of Intensity, deflection, inclination, and total force, with careful nota- 
 tions of temperature. 
 
 OHAPTRH 
 XIV. 
 
 Occulta- 
 tion ot 
 Saturn. 
 
 ifsgnetic 
 Observa- 
 tory. 
 
90 
 
 TEMPERATURES. 
 
 ilii! 
 
 ».ii 
 
 i 1 
 
 i 1 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTKR wtre made was of the same temperature witli the outer air. The 
 
 1 cold, was of course, intense; and some of our instruments, the 
 
 dip-circle particularly, became difficult to manage, in consequence 
 of tlie unequal contraction of the brass and steel. 
 
 TUB OBSKRVATORT. 
 
 E:icessive On the 17th of January, our thermometers stood at 49° below 
 pwd. 2ero : and on the 20th, the range of those at the observatory was at 
 — 64° to — 67°. The temperature on the floes was always somewhat 
 higher than at the island ; the diflFerence being due, as I suppose, to 
 the heat conducted from the sea- water, which was at a temperature 
 of + 29° ; the suspended instruments being affected by radiation. 
 
 On the 5th of February, our thermometers began to show un- 
 exampled temperature. They ranged from 60° to 75° below zero, 
 and one very reliable instrument stood upon the taffrail of our brig 
 at — 65°. The reduced mean of our best spirit-standards gave 
 — 67°, or 99° below the freezing-point of water. 
 
 At these temperatures chloric ether became solid, and carefully- 
 prepared chloroform exhibited a granular pellicle on its surface. 
 Spirit of naphtha froze at —54°, and oil of sassafras at — 49°. 
 The oil of winter-green was in a flocculent state at — 66°, and solid 
 at— 63° and —65°.*"* 
 
 * I repuated my observatlous on tho effect! of these low temperaturet with great caret 
 
 Etlior and 
 chtoi-oform 
 ireeze. 
 
 
RETURNING LIGHT. 
 
 91 
 
 The exhalations from the suiface of the body invested the ex- chaptek 
 
 posed or partially-clad parts with a wreath of vapour. The air 1 
 
 had a perceptible pungency upon inspiration, but 1 could not per- 
 ceive the painful sensation which has been spoken of by some 
 Siberian travellers. When breathed for any length of time it im- 
 parted a sensation of dryness to the air-passages. I noticed that, 
 as it were involuntarily, we all breathed guardedly, with compressed 
 lips. 
 
 The first traces of returning light were observed at noon on the First 
 21st of January, when the southern horizon had for a short time a "'"'^"* "' 
 
 •" _ returning 
 
 distinct orange tint. Though the sun bad perhaps given us a light, 
 band of illumination before, it was not distinguishable from the cold 
 light of the planets. We had been nearing the sunshine for thirty- 
 two days, and had just reached that degree of mitigated darkness 
 which made the extreme midnight of Sir Edward Parry in latitude 
 74° 47'. Even as late as the 31st, two very sensitive daguerreo- 
 type plates, treated with iodine and bromine, failed to indicate any 
 solar influence when exposed to the southern horizon at noon; the 
 camera being used "in- doors, to escape the effects of cold. 
 
 The influence of this long, intense darkness was most depress- Distress- 
 ing. Even our dogs, although the greater part of them were e^gg"""* 
 natives of the Arctic Circle, were unable to withstand it. Most of the dark- 
 them died from an anomalous form of disease, to which, I am satis- '"'**■ 
 fied, the absence of light contributed as much as the extreme cold. 
 I give a little extract from my journal of January 20. 
 
 "This morning at five o'clock — for I am so afflicted with the 
 insomnium of this eternal night, that I rise at any time between 
 midnight and noon — I went upon deck. It was absolutely dark ; 
 the cold net permitting a swinging lamp. There was not a 
 glimmer came to rae through the ice-crusted wind-^w-panes of the 
 cabin. While T was feeling my way, half purpled as to the best 
 method of steering clear of whatever might be before me, two 
 of my Newfoundland dogs put their cold noses against my hand, 
 and instantly cammenced the most exuberant antics of satis- 
 faction. It then occurred to me how very dreary and forlorn 
 must these poor animals be, at atmospheres + 10° in-doors and 
 — 60° without, — living in darkness, howling at an accidental 
 light, as if it reminded them of the moon, — and with nothing, 
 either of instinct or sensation, to tell them of the passing hours, 
 
 ir:i 
 
92 
 
 DARKNESS AND THE DOGS. 
 
 I 
 
 § 
 
 M-^ ♦ 
 
 Effects of 
 darkness 
 on (logs. 
 
 OHAPTKR or to explain the long-lost daylight. They shall see the lanterns 
 ^'^' more frequently." 
 
 I may recur to the influence which our long winter night ex- 
 erted on the health of these much- valued animals. The subject 
 has some interesting bearings ; but I content myself for the pre- 
 sent with transcribing another passage from my journal, of a few 
 days later. 
 
 " January 25, Wednesday. — The mouse-coloured dogs, the 
 leaders of my Newfoundland team, have for the past fortnight been 
 
 THB DBGK8 BT LAUPIilORT. 
 
 nursed like babies. No one can tell how anxiously I watch them. 
 They are kept below, tended, fed, cleansed, caressed, and doctored, 
 to the infinite discomfort of all hands. To-day I give up the last 
 hope of saving them. Their disease is as clearly mental as in the 
 case of any human being. The more material functions of the 
 poor brutes go on without interruption : they eat voraciously, re- 
 tain their strenj^h, and sleep well But all the indications beyond 
 this go to prove that the original epilepsy, which was the first 
 
ICE CHANGES, 
 
 93 
 
 manifestation of brain disease among them, has been followed by CBArtitR 
 a true lunacy. They bark frenziedly at nothing, and walk in , ^'^' 
 straight and curved lines with anxious and unwearying persever- Madness in 
 
 dogs pro- 
 ance. duced by 
 
 " They fawn on you, but without seeming to appreciate the darkness. 
 notice you give them in return ; pushing their head against your 
 person, or oscillating with a strange pantomime of fear. Their 
 most intelligent actions seem automatic : sometimes they claw you, 
 as if trying to burrow into your seal-skins ; sometimes they remain 
 for hours in moody silence, and then start off howling as if pur- 
 sued, and run up and down for hours. 
 
 ''So it was with poor Flora, our 'wise dog.' She was seized 
 with the endemic spasms and, after a few wild, violent paroxysms, 
 lapsed into a lethargic condition, eating voraciously, but gaining 
 no strength. This passing off, the same crazy wildness took pos- 
 session of her, and she died of brain disease [arachnoidal effusion) 
 in about six weeks. Generally, they perish with symptoms re- 
 sembling locked-jaw in less than thirty-six hours after the first 
 attack." 
 
 On the 2 2d, I took my first walk on the great floe, which had ice 
 been for so long a time a crude, black labyrinth. I give the ap- *'''*"Ke». 
 pearance of things in the words of my journal : — 
 
 " The floe has changed wonderfully. I remember it sixty-four 
 days ago, when our twilight was as it now is, a partially snow- 
 patched plain, chequered with ridges of sharp hummocks, or a 
 series of long icy levels, over which I coursed with my Newfound- 
 landers. All this has gone. A lead-coloured expanse stretches its 
 'rounding gray' in every direction, and the old angular hummocks 
 are so softened down as to blend in rolling dunes with the distant 
 obscurity. The snow upon the levels shows the same remarkable 
 evaporation. It is now in crisp layers, hardly six inches thick, 
 quite undisturbed by drift. I could hardly recognise any of the 
 old localities. 
 
 We can trace the outline of the shore again, and even some of 
 the long horizontal bands of its stratification. The cliffs of Sylvia 
 Mountain, which open toward the ejist, are, if anything, more 
 covered with snow than the ridges fronting west across the bay. 
 
 "But the feature which had changed most was the ice-belt. When 
 I saw it last, it was an investing zone of ice, coping the margin of 
 
 if! 
 
94 
 
 ICE CRAGS AN ICE-FOOT. 
 
 CHArTKR 
 XTV. 
 
 Ice crafis 
 anil walls. 
 
 Ico-foot 
 
 tbe floe. The constant accumulation by ovei-flow of tides and 
 freezing has turned this into a bristling wall, 20 feet high, (20 
 ft. 8 in.) No language can depict the chaos at its base. It has 
 been rising and falling throughout the long winter, with a tidal 
 wave of 13 perpendicular feet. The fragments have been tossed 
 into every possible confusion, rearing up into fantastic equilibrium, 
 surging in long inclined planes, dipping into dark valleys, and piling 
 in contorted hills, often high above the ice-foot. 
 
 " The frozen rubbish has raised the floe itself, for a width of 
 50 yards, into a broken level of crags. To pass over this to 
 our rocky island, with its storehouse, is a work of ingenious 
 pilotage and clambering, only practicable at favouring periods 
 of the tide, and often impossible for many days together. For- 
 tunately for our observatory, a long table of heavy ice has been 
 so nicely poised on the crest of the ice-foot, that it swings like a 
 seesaw with the changing water-level, and has formed a mo "^ng 
 beach to the island, on which the floes could not pile themselves. 
 Shoreward between Medary and the ' terrace,' the shoal-water has 
 reared up the ice-fields, so as to make them almost as impass- 
 able as the floes ; and between Fern Rock and the gravestone, 
 where I used to pass with my sledges, there is built a sort of 
 garden-wall of crystal 20 feet high. It needs no iron spikes or 
 broken bottles to defend its crest from trespassers. 
 
 " Mr. Sontag amuses me quite as much as he does himself with 
 his daily efforts to scale it." 
 
 My next extract is of a few days later, 
 
 ^^ February 1, Wednesday. — The ice-foot is the most wonderful 
 and unique characteristic of our high northern position. The 
 spring-tides have acted on it very powerfully, and the coming day 
 enables us now to observe their stupendous effects. This ice-belt, 
 as I have sometimes called it, is now 24 feet in solid thickness 
 by 65 in mean width; the second, or appended ice, is 38 feet 
 wide; and the third 34 feet. All three are ridges of immense 
 ice-tables, serried like the granite blocks of a rampart, and invest- 
 ing the rocks with a triple circumvallation. We know them as 
 the belt-ices. 
 
 " The separation of the true ice-foot from our floe was at first a 
 simple interval, which by the recession and advance of the tides 
 gave a movement of about six feet to our brig. Now, however, 
 
 
RETURN OF SUNSHINE. 
 
 9» 
 
 the compressed ice grinds closely against the ice-foot, rising into ohaptkr 
 
 inclined planes, and freezing so as actually to pusl. our floe further l 
 
 and further from the shore. The brig has already moved 28 feet, 
 without the slightest perceptible change in the cradle -which 
 imbeds her." 
 
 I close my notice of these dreary months with a single extract 
 more. It is of the date of February the 21st. 
 
 " We have had the sun, for some days, sUvering the ice between weicom- 
 the headlands of the bay ; and to-day, toward noon, I started out ^"^^ ^^[j 
 to be the first of my party to welcome him back. It was the 
 longe&t walk and toughest climb that I have had since our im- 
 prisonment; and scurvy and general debility have made me 
 b ort o' wind.' But I managed to attain my object. I saw 
 him once more ; and upon a projecting crag nestled in the sun- 
 shine. It was like bathing in perfumed water." 
 
 The month of March brought back to us the perpetual day. Return of 
 The sunshine had reached our deck on the last day of Febru- ^^'^ ""* 
 ary; we needed it to cheer us. We were not as pale as my 
 experience in Lancaster Sound had foretold; but the scurvy- 
 spots that mottled our fi\c?si gave sore proof of the trials we 
 had undergone. It was plain that we were all of us unfit for 
 arduous travel on foot at the intense temperatures of the nomi- 
 nal spring ; and the return of the sun, by increasing the evapora- 
 tion from the floes, threatened us with a recurrence of still severer 
 weather. 
 
 But I felt that our work was unfinished. The great object of 
 the expedition challenged us to a more northward exploration. 
 My dogs, that I had counted on so largely, the nine splendid 
 Newfoundlanders and thirty -five Esquimaux of six months before, 
 had perished ; there were only six survivors of the whole pack, 
 and one of these was unfit for draught. Still, they formed my Piepaia- 
 principal reliance, and I busied myself from the very beginning further" * 
 of the month in training them to run together. The carpenter searcii. 
 was set to work upon a small sledge, on an improved model, and 
 adapted to the reduced force of our team ; and, as we had ex- 
 hausted our stock of small cord to lash its parts together, Mr. 
 Brooks rigged up a miniature rope-walk, and was preparing a new 
 supply from part of the material of our deep-sea lines. The 
 operations of shipboard, however, went on regularly ; Hans, and 
 
'i i§ 
 
 SI ^1 
 
 96 
 
 SUMMER PROSPECTS. 
 
 OHAPTBR occasionally Petersen, going out on the hunt, though rarely return- 
 ^^^' ing successful. 
 
 Meanwhile we talked encouragingly of spring hopes and sum- 
 mer prospects, and managed sometimes to force an occasion 
 for mirth out of the very discomforts of our vnyielding winter 
 life. 
 
 This may explain the tone of my diary. 
 
 i ; 
 
 
 "W 
 
 i 
 
 V i 
 
 i r 
 
 1 ffe*'^ 
 
 t\ 
 K 
 
 Hw 
 
 
THF MAGNETIC OBSERVATORY. 
 
 97 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 AKCTIC OBSERVATIONS — TRAVEL TO OBSERVATORY — ITS HAZARDS — AHCTIO 
 LIFE — THE DAT — THE DIET— THE AMUSEMENTS — THE LABOURS — THE 
 TEMPERATURE — THE "eIS-FOd" — THE ICE-BEIiT— THE ICE-BELT EN- 
 
 CROACHING — EXPEDITION PREPARING - 
 SECOND GOUD-BYE. 
 
 GOOD-BYE — A SURPISB— A 
 
 " March 7, Tuesday. — I liave said very little in this business journal ohavtkr 
 about our daily Arctic life. I have bad no time to draw pictures. ^^^ 
 " But 'V'e have some trials which might make up a day's adveii- Daily 
 
 trials. 
 
 TIIK MAOSKTIC llltHKK V ATOli Y. 
 
 tiires. Our Arctic observatory is cold beyond any of its class, 
 Kesan. Pulkowa, Toronto, or even its shifting predecessors, Bossetop 
 u 
 
98 
 
 A MAGNETIC Tf:RM-DAY. 
 
 A mag- 
 netic 
 tunn-day. 
 
 OHAPTKK and Melville Island. Imagine it a term-day, a magnetic tenn- 
 
 XV. 1 
 
 day. 
 
 " The observer, if he were only at home, would be the 'observed 
 of all observers.' He is clad in a pair of seal-skin pants, a dog- 
 skin cap, a reindeer jumper, and walrus boots. He sits upon a 
 box that once held a transit instrument. A stove, glowing with 
 at least a bucketful of anthracite, represents pictorially a heating 
 apparatus, and reduces the thermometer as near as may be to 10° 
 below zero. One hand holds a chronometer, and is left bare to 
 warm it ; the otlier luxuriates in a fox-skin mitten. The right 
 hand and the left take it * watch and watch about.' As one burns 
 with cold, the chronometer shifts to the other, and the mitten 
 takes its place. 
 
 "Perched on a pedestal of frozen gravel is a magnetometer; 
 stretching out from it, a telescope ; and, bending down to this, an 
 abject human eye. Every six minutes said eye takes cognizance 
 of a finely-divided arc, and notes the result in a cold memorandum- 
 book. This process continues for twenty-four hours, two sets of 
 eyes taking it by turns; and, when twenty-four hours are over, 
 term-day is over too. 
 
 " We have such frolics every week. I have just been relieved 
 from one, and after a few hours am to be called out of bed in the 
 cold In the night to watch and dot again. I have been engaged in this way 
 to,.y. when the thermometer gave 20° above zero at the instrument, 20° 
 below at two feet above the floor, and 43° below at the floor itself; 
 on my person, facing the little lobster-red fury of a stove, 94° 
 above; on my person, away from the stove, 10° below zero. *A 
 grateful country' will of course appreciate the value of these 
 labours, and, as it cons over hereafter the four hundred and eighty 
 results which go to make up our record for each week, will never 
 think of asking, ^Cui bono all thisi' 
 
 " But this is no adventure. The adventure is the travel to and 
 fro. We have night now only half the time ; and half the time 
 can go and come with eyes to help us. It was not so a little 
 wliile since. 
 
 " Taking an ice-pole in one hand, and a dark lantern in the 
 other, you steer through the blackness for a lump of greater black- 
 ness, the Fern Rock knob. Stumbling over some fifty yards, you 
 come to a wall ; your black knob has disappeared, and nothing 
 
 Labours 
 and suffer- 
 ings from 
 
 TraTel to 
 the obser- 
 vatory. 
 
HAZARDS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 99 
 
 but grey indefinable ice is before you. Turn to the right; plant 
 your pole against that inclined plane of slippery smoothness, and 
 jump to the hummock opposite; it is the same hummock you 
 skinned your shins upon the last night you were here. Now \vind 
 along, half serpentine, half zigzag, and you carmot mistake that 
 twenty feet wall just beyond, creaking and groaning, and even 
 nodding its crest with a grave cold welcome; it is the 'seam 
 of the second ice.' Tumble over it at the first gap, and 
 you are upon the first ice ; tumble over that and you are at 
 the ice-foot ; and there is nothing else now between you and 
 the rocks, and nothing after them between you and the observa- 
 tory. 
 
 " But be a little careful as you come near this ice-foot. It is 
 munching all the time at the first ice, and you have to pick your 
 way over the masticated fragments. Don't trust yourself to the 
 half-balanced, half-fixed, half-floating ice-lumps, unless you relish 
 a bath like Marshal Suwarrow's — it might be more pleasant if you 
 were sure of getting out — but feel your way gingerly, with your 
 pole held crosswise, not disdaining lowly attitudes — hands and 
 knees, or even full length. That long wedge-like hole just before 
 you, sending up its puffs of steam into the cold air, is the ' seam 
 of the ice-foot;' yoii have only to jump it and you are on the 
 smooth, level icefoot itself. Scramble up the rocks now, get on 
 your wooden shoes, and go to work observing an oscillating needle 
 for some hours to come. 
 
 " Astronomy, as it draws close under the pole-star, cannot lavish 
 all its powers of observation on things above. It was the mistake 
 of Mr. Sontag some months ago, when he wandered about for an 
 hour on his way to the observatory, and was afraid after finding 
 it to try and wander back. I myself had a slide down an inclined 
 plane, whose well-graded talus gave me ample time to contem- 
 plate the contingencies at its base ; a chasm peradventure, for my 
 ice-pole was travelling ahead of me and stopped short with a 
 clang ; or it might be a pointed hummock — there used to be one 
 just below ; or by good luck it was only a water-pool, in which my 
 lantern made the gUtter. I exulted to find myself in a cushion 
 of snow. 
 
 ^^ March 9, Thursday. — How do we spend the day when it 
 b not term day, or rather the twenty -four hours? for it is either 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XV. 
 
 DaiiKeisof 
 truvuL 
 
 Sci-amb- 
 liiig over 
 the ice- 
 foot. 
 
 Diffi- 
 culties of 
 astrono- 
 mical ol<- 
 sei'Tatiuii 
 under 
 the pole- 
 star. 
 
inn 
 
 A DAY IN TIIK ARCTIC REGIONS. 
 
 i 
 
 i !l 
 
 t I 
 
 if i 
 
 cHArTKR all day here, or all night, or a twilight mixture of both. How dn 
 _^Zl we spend the twenty-four hours 1 
 
 MoniiuK. "At six in the morning M'Gary is called, with all hands who 
 have slept in. The decks are cleaned, the ice-hole opened, the 
 refreshing beef-nets examined, the ice-tiiblcs measured, and things 
 aboard put to rights. At half past seven all hands rise, wash on 
 deck, open the doors for ventilation, and come below for break- 
 fast. We are short of fuel, and therefore cook in the cabin. Our 
 
 Brt-akfiiHt. breakfast, for all fare alike, is hard tack, pork, stewed apples frozen 
 like molasses-candy, tea and coffee, with a delicate portion of raw 
 potato. After breakfast the smokers take their pipe till nine ; 
 then all hands turn to, idlers to idle and workers to work; Oldsen 
 to his bench, Brooks to his 'preparations' in canvas, M'Gary to 
 play tailor, Whipple to make shoes, Bonsall to tinker. Baker to 
 skin birds, and the rest to the ' Office ! ' Take a look into the 
 Arctic Bureau ! One table, one salt-pork lamp with rusty chlori- 
 nated flame, three stools, and as many waxen faced men with their 
 legs drawn up under them, the deck at zero being too cold for the 
 feet. Each has his department : Kane is writing, sketching, and 
 projecting mai^s; Hayes copying logs and meteorologicals ; Son- 
 tag reducing his work at Fern Kock. A fourth, as one of the 
 Avorking members of the hive, has long been defunct ; you will 
 find him in bed, or studying ' Littell's Living Age.' At twelve a 
 business round of inspection, and orders enough to fill up the day 
 with work. Next, the drill of the Esfpiiuiaux dogs — my own 
 peculiar recreation — a dog-trot specially refreshing to legs that 
 creak with every kick, and rheumatic shoulders that chronicle 
 every descent of the whip. And so we get o:\ to dinner-time — the 
 occasion of another gathering, which misses the tea and coffcee 
 of breakfast, but rejoices in pickled cabbage and dried peaches 
 instead. 
 
 i>iniicr. " At dinner as at breakfast the raw potato comes in, our hygienic 
 luxury. Like doctor-stuff generally, it is not as appetizing as 
 desirable. Grating it down nicely, leaving out the ugly red spots 
 liberally, and adding the utmost oil as a lubricant, it is as much 
 as I can do to persuade the mess to shut their eyes and bolt it, 
 like Mrs. Squeers's molasses and brimstone at Dotheboys Hall. 
 Two absolutely refuse to taste it, I tell them of the Silesiana 
 using its leaves as spinach, of the whalers in the South Seas 
 
 Kitiploy 
 incuts. 
 
WINTKR LIFE ON BOARD aillJ'. 
 
 101 
 
 i 
 
 getting drunk on the molasses which had j)ro.scrved tl:e large cha>^kh 
 
 potatoes of tlie Azores — I point to this gum, so fungoid and angry L 
 
 the day before yesterday, and so flat and amiable to-day — all by a 
 ])otato poultice; my eloquence is wasted; they persevere in reject- 
 ing the admirable compound. 
 
 "Sleep, exercise, amusement, and work at will, carry on the day su^p^r. 
 till our six o'clock supper, a meal something like breakfast and 
 something like dinner, only a little more scant; and the olHcers 
 come in with the reports of the day. Dr. Hayes shows me the 
 log, I sign it; Sontag the weather, I sign the weather; Mr. Bon- 
 sall the tides and thermometers. Thereupon comes in mine ancient, 
 
 Wl.NTRK LIFB O.N BOARD SHIP, 
 
 Brooks; and I enter in liis journal No. 3 all the work done under 
 his charge, and discuss his labours for the morrow. 
 
 " M'Gary comes next, with the cleaning-up arrangement, in.side, CTwe of 
 outside, and on decks ; and Mr. Wilson follows with ice-measure- '''** """^ 
 nients. And last of all comes my own record of the day oxjne by ; 
 
102 
 
 HARDSilirS AND DIBRASB. 
 
 ■I 
 
 It H' 
 
 i1J 
 
 CBtPIER 
 
 Anwvt- 
 
 UMtt*. 
 
 I'liVA- 
 
 tioiis. 
 
 Disease. 
 
 PrepHva- 
 tloMs for 
 travel 
 
 MeanteiTi' 
 lieiature. 
 
 every line, as I look back upon its pages, giving evidence of a weak- 
 ened body and harassed mind. 
 
 " We have cards sometiniea, and chess sometimes, — and a few 
 magazines, Mr. Littell's thoughtful present to cheer away the 
 evening. 
 
 " Afarch 11, Snturdat/. — All this seems tolerable for common- 
 j)lace routine ; but theie is a lark of comfort whicii it does not 
 tell of. Our fuel is limited to three bucketfuls of coal a-day, and 
 our mean temperature outside is 40° below zero ; 4G° below as I 
 write. London Brown Stout, and somebody's Old Brown Sherry, 
 freeze in the cabin lockers ; and the carlines overhead are hung 
 with tubs of chopped ice, to make water for our daily drink. Our 
 lamps cannot be persuaded to burn salt lard ; our oil is exiiausted ; 
 and we work by muddy tai)ers of cork and cotton floated in Sfiucers. 
 We have not a pound of fresh meat, and only a barrel of potatoes 
 left. 
 
 " Not a man now, except Pierre and Morton, is exempt from 
 scurvy ; and, as I look around upon the pale faces and haggard 
 looks of my comrades, I feel that we are fighting the battle of life 
 at disadvantage, and that an Arctic night and an Arctic day age a 
 man more rapidly and harshly than a year anywhere else in all this 
 weary world. 
 
 "March 13, Monday. — Since January, we have been working at 
 the sledges and other preparations for travel. The death of my 
 dogs, the rugged obstacles of the ice, and tlie intense cold, have 
 obliged me to re-organize our whole equipment. We have had to 
 discard all our India-rubber fancy-work ; canvas shoe-making, fur- 
 socking, sewing, carpentering, are all going on ; and the cabin, our 
 only fife-warmed apartnlent, is the woikshop, kitchen, parlour, 
 and hall. Pemmican cases are thawing on the lockers ; buffalo 
 robes are dr)'ing around the stove ; camp equipments occupy the 
 comers; and our woe-begone I'lfnch cook, with an infinitude of 
 useless saucepans, insists en luonoyiolizing the stove. 
 
 "March 15, Wednesday. — T^e .nean temperature of the last five 
 <lays has been, — 
 
 March 10 — 46°.03 
 
 ■ • 11 -45°.60 
 
 12 -46°.64 
 
 13 -46°.56 
 
 14 -46-.66 
 
TKMPERATURR. 
 
 103 
 
 OHAPTBR 
 XV. 
 
 giving an avcrngo of — 4G° 30', with a variution between the 
 extremes of less than three-quartei's of a degree. ' 
 
 "These records are remarkable. Tlie coldest month of the 
 Polar year has heretijfore been February ; but we are evidently 
 about to experience for March a mean temperature not only the 
 lowest of our own series, but lower than that of any other recorded 
 observations. 
 
 " This anomalous temperature seems to disprove the idea of a 
 diminished cold as we approach the Pole, It will extend the 
 isotherm of the solstitial month higher than ever before projected. 
 
 "The mean temperature of Parrv for March (in lat. 74° 300 ^''='""''"'- 
 was — 29°; our own will be at least 41° below zero. 
 
 "At such temperatures the ice or snow covering offers a great 
 resistance to the sledge-runners. I have noticed this in training 
 my dogs. The dry snow in its finely-divided state resembles sand, 
 and the runners creak as they pass over it. Baron Wrangoll notes 
 the same fact in Siberia at ' — 40°. 
 
 "The difficulties of draught, however, must not interfere with 
 my parties. I am only waiting until the sun, now 1 3° high at 
 noon, brings back a little warmch to the men in sleeping. The surht ro- 
 mean difference between bright clear sunshine and shade is now 1^"™,"/,^ 
 5° But on the 10th, at noon, the shade gave — 42° 2', and the 
 sun — 28° ; a difference of more than 14°. This must make an 
 impression before long. 
 
 " Afarch 17, Frcday. — It is nine o'clock, p.m., and the thermo- 
 meter outside at — 46°. I am .anxious to have this depot party 
 off ; but I must wait until there is a promise of milder weather. 
 It must come soon. The sun is almost at the equator. On deck, 
 I can see to the northward all the bright glare of sunset, streaming 
 out in long bands of orange through the vapours of the ice-foot, 
 and the frost-smoke exhaling in wreaths like those from the house- 
 chimneys a man sees in the valleys as he comes down a mountain- 
 side." 
 
 I must reserve for my official report the detailed story of this 
 ice-foot and its changes. 
 
 The name is adopted on board ship from the Danish " Eis-fod," Tiie " Ei». 
 to designate a zone of ice which extends along the shore from the " ' 
 untried north beyond us almost to the Arctic circle. To the south 
 it breaks up during the summer months, and disappears as high as 
 
104 
 
 THE ICE-BELT. 
 
 OnJLI'TER 
 .\V. 
 
 i:\ I 
 
 ; -St 
 
 Iliitliway 
 of ice. 
 
 Tlie Icc- 
 helt !jiea- 
 Fures the 
 ^' verity of 
 tlif year. 
 
 Uperuiivik or even Cape Alexander ; but in this our high northern 
 winter harbour, it is a perennial growth, clinging to the bold faces 
 of the ^'liffs, following the sweeps of the bays and tho indentations 
 of rivers. 
 
 This broad platform, although changing with the seasons, never 
 disappears. It served as our liighway of travel, a secure and level 
 sledge-road, perched high above the grinding ice of the sea, and 
 adapting itself to the tortuosities of the laud. As such I shall 
 call it the " ice-belt." 
 
 I was familiar with the Arctic shore-ices of the Asiatic and 
 American explorers, and had personally studied the same forma- 
 tions in Wellington Channel, where, previous to the present voyage, 
 they might have been supposed to reach their greatest develop- 
 ment. But this wonderful structure has here assumed a form 
 which none of its lesser growths to the south had exhibited. As 
 a physical feature, it may be regarded as hardly second, eitlier in 
 importance or prominence, to the glacier ; and as an agent of 
 geological change, it is in the highest degree interesting and 
 instructive. 
 
 Although subject to occasional disruption, and to loss of volume 
 from evaporation and thaws, it measures the severity of the year 
 by its rates of increase. Rising with the first freezings of the late 
 summer, it crusts the sea-line with curious fretwork and arabesques ; 
 a little later, and it receives the rude shock oi the drifts, and the 
 collision of falling rocks from the clitTs which margin it ; before 
 the early winter has darkened, it is a Avail, resisting the grinding 
 floes ; and it goes on gathering increase and strength from' the suc- 
 cessive freezing of the tides, until the melted snows and water-tor- 
 rents of summer for a time check its progress. During our first 
 winter p,t Rensselaer Harbour, the ice-belt grew to three times the 
 size which it had upon our arrival ; and, by the middle of March, 
 the islands and adjacent s^iores were hemmed in by an investing 
 plane of nearly 30 feci high (27 feet) and 120 wide. 
 
 The ice-foot at this season v/as not, however, an imbroken level. 
 It had, like the floes, its barricades, serried and irregular — which 
 it was a work of gi'eat labovir and some difficulty to traverse. Our 
 stores were in consequence nearly inaccessible ; and, as the ice 
 foot still continued to extend itself, piling ice-table upon ice table, 
 it threatened to encroach upon our anchorage and peril the safety 
 
DEPARTURE OF THE DEPOT PARTV. 
 
 105 
 
 level. 
 Fliich 
 
 Our 
 ice 
 |<ible, 
 
 ifety 
 
 of the vessel. The ridges were already within twenty feet of her, 
 and her stern was sensibly lifted up by their pressure. We had, 
 indeed, been puzzled for six weeks before, by remarking that the 
 floe we were imbedded in was gradually receding from the shore ; 
 and had recalled the observation of the Danes of Upernavik, that 
 their nets were sometimes forced away strangely from the land. 
 The explanation is, perhaps, to be fovmd in the alternate action of 
 the tides and frost ; but it would be out of place to enter upon the 
 discussion here. 
 
 '■'■March 18, Saturday. — To-day our spring-tides gave to the 
 massive ice which sustains our little vessel a rise and fall of seven- 
 teen feet. The crunching and grinding, the dashing of the water, 
 the gurgling of the eddies, and the toppling over of the nicely - 
 poised ice-tables, were unlike the more brisk dyramics of hum- 
 mock action, but conveyed a more striking expression of power 
 and dimension. 
 
 " The thermometer at four o'clock in the morning was minus 
 49^ ; too cold still, I fear, for our sledgemen to set out. But we 
 packed the sledge and strapi)ed on the boat, and determined to see 
 how she would drag. Eight men attached themselves to the lines, 
 but were scarcely able to move her. This may be due in part to 
 an incre: se of friction produced by the excessive cold, according to 
 the experience of the Siberian travellers ; but I have no doubt it 
 is principally caused by the very thin runners of our Esquimaux 
 sledge cutting through the snow-crust. 
 
 "The excessive refraction this evening, wliich entirely lifted up 
 tlie northern coast as well as the icebergs, seems to g^ive the pio- 
 mise of milder weather. In the hope that it may be so, I have 
 fixed on to-morrow for the depr'tur^ of the sledge, after very 
 reluctantly dispen.sing with mor'^ thi' ./?o hundred pounds of her 
 cargo, besides the boat. Die pnty think they can get along with 
 it now. 
 
 ^^ March 20, Monday. — I sa'v 'i-^ tepot party off yesterday. T^t/ 
 gave the usual three cheers, Witlv three for myself. I gave them 
 the whole of my brother's grca wedding-cake and my last two 
 bottles of Port, and they pulletl the sledge they were harne?sed to 
 famously. But I was not satis.led. I could see it vas hard work ; 
 and, besides, they were without the boat, or enough extra pen mi- 
 can to rn..!ie their deposit of importance. I followel li.;:ti. t'me- 
 
 OIIAITKR 
 
 Ice-Hou 
 ruct'diiit;. 
 
 Preiiiivft- 
 tidus tor 
 travel. 
 
 riie depar- 
 lure. 
 
106 
 
 A NIGHT EXPEDITION. 
 
 A sled 
 piupared. 
 
 cnAPTBR fore, and found that they encamped at 8 p.m. only five miles from 
 j^ the brig. 
 
 " When I overtook them I said nothing to discourage them, and 
 gave no new orders for the morning ; but after laughing at good 
 Ohlsen's ruefiU face, and listening to all Petersen's assurances that 
 the cold and nothing but the cold retarded his Greenland sledge, 
 and that no sledge of any other construction could have been 
 moved at all through — 40° snow, I quietly bade them good- 
 night, leaving all liands under their buffaloes. 
 
 "Once returned to the brig, all my tirod remainder-men wci'e 
 summoned ; a large sled with broad rur ners, which I lit '■' built 
 somewhat after the neat Admiralty model sent me by Sir I'rancis 
 Beaufort, was taken down, scraped, polisheo, lashed, pnd fit'ed 
 with trackropes and rue-raddies — the lines airanged tj draw a^ 
 near as possible in a line with the centre of gi.ivitv. We made 
 an entire cover of canvas, with snugly -adjusted fastenings ; and 
 by one in the mo.ning we had our discarded excess of pemmican 
 and the boat once more in stowage. 
 
 " Off we went for the camp of the sleepers. It was very cold, 
 but a thoroughly Arctic night — the snow just tinged with the 
 crimson stratus above the sun, which, equinoctial as it was, glared 
 beneath the northern horizon like a smelting-furnace. We found 
 the tent of the party by the bearings of the stranded bergs. 
 Quietly and stealthily we hauled away their Esquimaux sledge, 
 and placed her cargo upon the Faith. Five men were then rue- 
 raddied to the track-lines ; and with the wliispered word, * Now, 
 boys, when Mr. Brooks gives liis third snore, off with you ! ' off 
 they went, and the Faith after them, as free and nimble as a 
 volunteer. The trial was a triumph. We awakened the sleepers with 
 three cheers ; and, giving them a second good-bye, returned to the 
 brig, carrying the dishonoured vehicle along with us. And now, bat- 
 ing mishaps past anticipation, I shall have a dep6t for my long trip. 
 
 " The party were seen by M'Gary from aloft, at noon to-day, 
 moving easily, and about twelve miles from the brig. The tem- 
 perature too is rising, or rather unmistakably about to rise. Our 
 lowest was — 43°, but our highest reached — 22* ; this extreme 
 range, with the excessive refraction and a gentle misty air from about 
 the south-east, makes me hope that we are going to have a warm 
 spell. The party is well off. Now for my own to follow them." 
 
 A nlRht 
 iiurpiliio. 
 
 (.ast sight 
 of ilie 
 party. 
 
 t 
 
HOUSE CLEANING ON BOARD. 
 
 107 
 
 CHAPTER ZVI. 
 
 ^: 
 
 PREPARATION— TEMPERATURES — ADVENTURli — AN ALARM — PART? ON THE 
 FLOES — RESCUE PARTY — LOST ON THE FLOES — PARTY POUND— RETURN 
 — FREEZING— RETURNING CAMP. — A BIVOUAC- EXHAUSTED — ESCAPE — 
 CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 Ther- chapter 
 
 XVI 
 
 Visited the fox-traps with Hans in the afteraoon, — 1 
 
 " March 21, Tuesday. — All hands at work house cleaning, 
 moineter — 48°. 
 
 and found one poor animal frozen dead. He was coiled up, Avith J"ox ftozcn 
 i.is nose buried in his bushy tail, like a fancy foot-muff, or the "* ■*^' 
 f, rie-dieu of a royal sinner. A hard thing about his fate was that 
 L had succeeded in effecting liis escape from the trap, but, while 
 working his way underneath, had been frozen fast to a smooth stone 
 by the moisture of his own breath. He was not probably aware 
 of it Sofore the moment wlien he sought to avail himself of his 
 hard-gained liberty. These saddening thoughts did not impair my 
 appetite at supper, where the little creature looked handsomer 
 than ever. 
 
 "March 22, Wednesday. — We took down the forward bulkhead 
 to-day, and moved the men aft, to save fuel. All hands are stiU 
 at work clearing up the decks, the scrapers sounding overhead, 
 and the hickory brooiiis crackling against the frozen woodwork. 
 Aftern .1 ^omes, and M'Gary brings from the traps two foxes, a 
 blue Kii ' .i - ute. Afternoon passes, and we skin them. Evening welcome 
 pasf ■, . aiitl y,ii cat them. Never were foxes more welcome visitors, ^''"'"''*- 
 0" :rea,ev~ one like domestic animals. 
 
 " j//rr„ ^3, Thw, sday. — The accumulated ice upon our housing 
 shows what tlie condensed and frozen moisture of the winter has 
 been. The average thickness of this curious deposit is five inches, 
 very hard and well crystallized. Six cart loads have been already 
 chopjied out, and about four more remain. 
 
 " it is very far from a hardship to sleep under such an ice-roof An loe- 
 as this. In a climate where the intense cold approximates all ice '""^ 
 to granite, its thick air-tight coating contributes to our warmth, 
 g^ . cs a boiiutiful and cheerful lustre to our walls, and condenses 
 
108 
 
 TEMPERATURE. 
 
 •)J ; ■ 
 
 i iH 
 
 Intense 
 cold. 
 
 CHAi'TER any vapours which our cooks allow to escape the funnels. I only 
 l_l_ll remove it now because I fear the eflfects of damp in the season of 
 sunshine. 
 
 " March 27, Monday. — We have been for some days in all the 
 flurry of preparation for our exploration trip : buffalo-hides, 
 leather, and tailoring utensils everywhere. Every particle of fur 
 comes in play for mits, and muffs, and wrappers. Poor Flora is 
 turned into a pair of socks, and looks almost as pretty as when 
 she was heading the team. 
 
 " The wind to-day made it intensely cold. In riding but four 
 miles to inspect a fox-trap, the movement froze my cheeks twice. 
 We avoid masks Avith great care, reserving them for the severer 
 weather; the i-'w when protected recovers very soon the sensibility 
 which exposurt as subdued. 
 
 " Our party i .,ut in its ninth day. It has had some 
 
 trying weather : — 
 
 On the 19th — 42°.3 
 
 2Utli -35°.4 
 
 21st — 19°.37 
 
 22.1 - TAI 
 
 23d — 9°.07 
 
 24th — 18°.32 
 
 25th — 34°.80 
 
 26th -42°.8 
 
 27th —34^38 
 
 of mean daily temperature; making an average of 27". 13 below 
 
 zero. 
 
 InsppotiiiR 
 tlie Ice. 
 
 " March 29, Wednesday. — I have been out with my dog-slcdge 
 inspecting the ice to-day from the north-western headland. There 
 seems a marked difference between this sound and other estuaries, 
 in the luiniber of icebergs. Unlike Prince Regent's, or Wellington, 
 or Lancaster Sounds, the shores here are lined with glaciers, and 
 tlie water is everywhere choked and harassed by their discharges. 
 This was never so apparent to me as this afternoon. The low sun 
 lit up line after line of lofty bergs, and the excessive refraction 
 elevated them so much, that I thought I could see a chain of con- 
 tinuous ice running on toward the north until it was lost in 
 illimitable distance. 
 
 "March 31, Friday. —I was within an ace to-day of losing my 
 dogs, every one of them. When I reached the icefoot, they 
 
ADVENTURE ON THE ICE-FOOT, 
 
 109 
 
 cliubin. 
 
 balked; — who would not] — the tide was low, the ice rampant, chapteb 
 and a jump of four feet necessary to reach the crest. The howling ^^'' 
 of the wind and the whirl of the snow-drift confused the ])Oor i-enpinK a 
 creatures ; but it was valuable training for them, and I strove to 
 force them over. Of course I v/a<< nn foot, and they had a light 
 load behind them. * Now, Stumpy ! Now, Whitey ! ' ' Good 
 dogs ! ' * Tu-lee-ee-ee ! Tuh ! ' They went at it like good stanch 
 brutes, and the next minute the whole team was rolling in a lump, 
 some sixteen feet below me, in the chasm of the ice-foot. The 
 drift was such that at first I could not see them. The roaring of 
 the tide, and the subdued wail of the dogs, made me fear for the 
 worst. I had to walk through the broken ice, which rose in 
 toppling spires over my head, for nearly fifty yards, b'^^ore I found 
 an opening to the ice face, by which I was able to climb down to 
 them, A few cuts of a sheath-knife released them, although the 
 caresses of the dear brutes had like to have been fatal to me, for 
 I had to straddle with one foot on the fast ice and the other on 
 loose piled rubbish. But I got a line attached to the cross-pieces 
 of the sledge-runners, flung it up on the ice-foot, and then piloted 
 my dogs out of their slough. In about ten minutes we were 
 sweating along at eight miles an hour." 
 
 EvervthinfT looked 
 
 promising, 
 
 and we were only waiting for 
 
 below 
 
 liarges. 
 jw sun 
 k-action 
 3f con- 
 lost in 
 
 |ng my 
 tiiey 
 
 intelligence that our advance party had deposited its provisions in 
 safety to begin our transit of the bay. Except a few sledge- 
 lashings and some trifling accoutrements to finish, all was ready. 
 
 We were at work cheerfully, se\ving away at the skins of some 
 moccasins by the blaze of our lamps, when, toward midnight, we 
 heard the noise of steps above, and the next minute Sontag, Olilsen, ah aiana 
 and Petersen, came down into the cabin. Their manner startled 
 me even more than their unexpected appearance on board. -They 
 were swollen and haggard, and hardly able to speak. 
 
 Their story was a fearful one. They had left their companions 
 in the ice, risking their own lives to bring us the news ; Brooks, 
 Baker, Wilson, and Pierre, were all lying frozen and disabled. 
 Where 1 They could not tell ; somewhere in among the hummocks 
 to the north and east ; it was drifting heavily round them when 
 they parted. Irish Tom had stayed by to feed and care for the 
 others ; but the chances were sorely against them. It was in vain 
 
110 
 
 THE RESCUE PAKTV, 
 
 ! ( 
 
 onAPTEB to question tliern further. They had evidently travelled a great 
 
 1 distance, for they were sinking with fatigue and hunger, and could 
 
 hardly be rallied enough to teU us the direction in which they had 
 come. 
 
 My first impulse was to move on the instant with an unencum- 
 b ired party ; a rescue, to be effective or even hopeful, could not 
 be too prompt. What pressed on my mind most was where the 
 sufferers were to be looked for among the drifts. Ohlsen seemed 
 to have his faculties rather more at command than his associates, 
 and I thought that he might assist us as a guide ; but he was 
 sinking with exliaustion, and if he went with us we must carry 
 him. 
 A hasty There was not a moment to be lost. While some were still 
 departure )}ugy with the new-comers and getting ready a hasty meal, others 
 were rigging out the Little Willie \ni\\ a buffalo cover, a small 
 tent, and a package of pemmican ; and, as soon as we could hurry 
 through our arrangements, Ohlsen was strapped on in a fur bag, 
 his legs wrapped in dog-skins and eider down, and we were off 
 upon the ice, Our party consisted of nine men and myself We 
 carried only * .le ciothes on our backs. The thermometer stood at 
 — 46°, soventy-eighfc below the freezing point 
 
 
 '^'\ 
 
 -ti 
 
 TUB RE8CUK PARTY. 
 
 A well known peculiar tower of ice, called by the men the 
 " Pinnacly Berg," served as our first landmark ; other icebergs of 
 
 ^'f ^ W t M ft — 
 
THK SEARCH. 
 
 Ill 
 
 colossal size, which stretched in long beaded lines across the bay, chapter 
 helped to guide us afterward ; and it was not until we had travelled ^^^' 
 for sixteen hours that we began to lose our way. 
 
 We knew that our lost companions must be somewhere in the Search for 
 area before us, within a radius of forty miles. Mr. Ohlsen, who p^anions.' 
 had been for fifty hours without rest, fell asleep as soon as we 
 began to move, and awoke now with unequivcjcal signs of mental 
 disturbance. It became evident that he had lost the bearing of 
 the icebergs, which in form and colour endlessly repeated them- 
 selves ; and the uniformity of the vast field of snow utterly forbade 
 the hope of local landmarks. 
 
 Pushing ahead of tlie party, and clambering over some rugged 
 ice-piles, I came to a long level floe, which I thought might pro- 
 bably have attracted the eyes of weary men in circumstances like 
 our own. It was a light conjecture ; but it was enough to turn 
 the scale, for there was no other to balance it. I gave orders to 
 abandon the sledge, and disperse in search of footmarks. We 
 raised our tent, placed our pemmican in cache, except a small 
 allowance for each man to carry on his person ; and poor Ohlsen, 
 now just able to keep his legs, was liberated from liis bag. The 
 thermometer had fallen by this time to — 49°.3, and the wind 
 was setting in sharply from the north-west. It was out of the SufferincR 
 question to halt ; it required brisk exercise to keep us from freez- '^^'"" ^^' 
 ing. I could not even melt ice for water ; and, at these tempe- 
 ratures, any resort to snow for the purpose of allaying thirst was 
 followed by bloody lips and tongue; it burnt like caustic. 
 
 It was indispensable, then, that we should move on, looking out 
 for traces as we went. Yet when the men were ordered to spread 
 themselves, so as to multiply the chances, though they all obeyed 
 heartily, some painful impress of solitary danger, or perhaps it 
 may have been the varying configuration of the ice-field, kept them 
 closing up continually into a single group. The strange manner 
 in which some of us were afiected 1 now attribute as much to 
 shattered nerves as to the direct influence of the cold. Men like 
 M'Gary and Bonsall, who had stood out our severest marches, 
 were seized with trembling fits and short breath ; and, in spite of 
 all my efibrts to keep up an example of sound bearing, I fainted 
 twice on the snow. 
 
 We had been nearly eighteen hours out without water or food, 
 
 trenie cold 
 

 ».,« 
 
 112 
 
 PAHTY FOUND. 
 
 A Joyful 
 welvoinc. 
 
 ciiAPTKu when a new hope cheered ns, I think it was Hans, o\ir Esqui- 
 mi maux hunter, who thought he saw a broad sledge-track. The drift 
 T1•.^c•ill^' a liad nearly effaced it, and we were some of us doubtful at first 
 iiHik. whether it was not one of those accidental rifts which the gales 
 make in the surface-snow. But, as we traced it on to the deep 
 snow among the hummocks, we were led to footsteps ; and, fol- 
 lowing these with religious care, we at last came in sight of a small 
 American flag fluttering from a hummock, and lower down a little 
 Masonic banner hanging from a tent-pole hardly above the drift. 
 It was the camp of our disabled comrades ; we reached it after an 
 imbroken march of twenty-one hours. 
 
 The little tent was nearly covered. I was not among the first 
 to come lip ; but, when I reached the tent-curtjvin, the men were 
 standing in silent file on each side of it. With more kindness and 
 delicacy of feeling than is often supposed to belong to sailors, but 
 whicli is almost characteristic, they intimated their wish that I 
 should go in alone. As I crawled in, and, coming upon the dark- 
 ness, heard before me the burst of welcome gladness that came 
 from the four i)oor fellows stretched on their backs, and then for 
 the first time the cheer outside, my weakness and my gratitude 
 together almost overcame me. " They had expected me : they 
 were sure I would come ! " 
 
 We were now fifteen souls ; the thermometer 75° below the 
 freezing point ; and our sole accommodation a tent barely able to 
 contain eight jiersons : more than half our party were obliged 
 to keep from freezing by walking outside while the others slept. 
 We could not halt k)ng. Each of us took a turn of two hours' 
 sleep ; and we prepared for our homeward march. 
 
 We took with us nothing but the tent, furs to protect the res- 
 cued party, and food for a journey of fifty hours. Everything 
 else was abandoned. Two large buffalo-bags, each made of four 
 skins, were doubled up, so as to form a sort of sack, lined on each 
 side by fur, closed at the bottom, but opened at the top. This 
 was laid on the sledge ; the tent, smoothly folded, serving as a 
 floor. The sick, with their limbs sewed up carefully in reindeer- 
 skins, were placed upon the bed of buffalo-robes, in a half-reclining 
 posture ; other skins and blanket-bags were thrown .above them ; 
 and the whole litter was lashed together so as to allow but a single 
 opening opposite the mouth for breathing. 
 
 ticiis for 
 return. 
 
 
THE RETURN JOURNEY. 
 
 113 
 
 This necessary work cost us a great deal of time and effort ; but chaptkh 
 
 it was essential to the lives of the sufferers. It took us no less 1 
 
 than four hours to strip and refresh them, and then vo embale them 
 in the manner I have described. Few of us escaped without '' 
 frost-bitten fingers : the thermometer was at 55°. G below zero, and 
 a slight wind added to the severity of the cold. 
 
 It was completed at last, however ; all hands stood round, and, 
 after repeating a short prayer, we set out on our retreat. It was 
 fortunate indeed that we were not inexperienced in sledging over 
 the ice. A great part of our track lay among a succession of 
 hummocks, some of them extending in long lines, fifteen or twenty niffl- 
 feet high, and so uniformly steep that we had to turn them by a ja„„a*|.^" 
 considerable deviation from our direct course ; others that we 
 forced our way througb, far above our heads in height, lying 
 in parallel ridges, with the space between too narrow for the 
 sledge to be lowered into it safely, and yet not wide enough for 
 the runners to cross without the aid of ropes to stay them. These 
 spaces, too, were generally choked with Hght snow, hiding the 
 openings between the ice-fragments. They were fearful traps to 
 disengage a limb from, for every man knew that a fracture or a 
 sprain even would cost him his life. Besides all tliis, the sledge 
 was top-heavy with its load : the maimed men could not bear to 
 be lasliod down tight enough to secure them against falling off. 
 Notwithstanding our caution in rejecting every superfluous bur- 
 den, the weight, including bags and tent, was eleven hundred 
 pounds. 
 
 And yet our march for the first six hours was very cheering. 
 We made, by vigorous pulls and lifts, nearly a mile an hour, and 
 reached the new floes before we were absolutely weary. Our 
 sledge sustained the trial admirably. Ohlsen, restored by hope, 
 walked steadily at the leading belt of the sledge lines ; and I 
 began to feel certain of reaching our half-way station of the day 
 before, where we had left our tent. But we were still nine miles 
 from it, when, almost without premonition, we all became aware Exhnus- 
 of an alarming failure of our energies. 
 
 I was, of course, famiUar with the benumbed and almost lethargic 
 sensation of extreme cold ; and once, when exposed for some hours 
 in the midwinter of Baffin's Bay, I had experienced symptoms 
 which I compared to the diffused paralysis of the electro-galvanic 
 
 H 
 
 tioii. 
 
l-l 
 
 114 
 
 A BIVOUAC. 
 
 cnAPTKu shock 
 
 XVI. 
 
 But I had treated the sleep;/ comfort of freezing as some- 
 tliing like the embellishment of romance. I had cvideucc now to 
 the contrary. 
 .siccpinfM Bonsall and Morton, two of our stoutest men, came to me, 
 col"*' ^ ^^ogi^g permission to sleep : " they were not cold ; the wind did 
 not enter them now : a little sleep was all they wanted." Pre- 
 sently Hans was found nearly stiff under a drift ; and Thomas, 
 bolt iipright, had his eyes closed, and could hardly articulate. At 
 last John Blake threw himself on the snow, and refused to rise. 
 They did not complain of feeling cold ; but it was in vain that 1 
 wrestled, boxed, ran, argued, jeered, or reprimanded : an imme- 
 diate halt could not be avoided. 
 
 We pitched our tent with much difficulty. Our hands were 
 too powerless to strike a fire : we were obliged to do without water 
 or food. Even tlie spirits (whisky) luid frozen at the men's feet, 
 
 niSIDB OF TKKT. 
 
 under all the coverings. We put Bonsall, Ohlsen, Thomas, and 
 Hans, with the other sick men, well inside the tent, and crowded 
 in as many others as we could. Then, leaving the party in charge 
 of Mr. M'Gary, with orders to come on after four hours' rest, I 
 pushed ahead with William Godfrey, who volunteered to be my 
 companion. ]SIy aim was to reach the half-way tent, and thaw 
 some ice and peramican before the others arrived. 
 
TKNT OVERTURNED BY A BEAR. 
 
 115 
 
 The floe was of level ice, and the ■walking excellent. I cannot 
 tell how long it took us to make the nine miles, for we were in a 
 strange sort of stupor, and had little apprehension of time. It 
 was probably about four hours. We kept ourselves awake by im- 
 posing on each other a continued articulation of words ; they nuist 
 have been incoherent enough. I recall these hours as among the 
 most wretched I have ever gone through : we were neither of us 
 in our right senses, and retained a veiy confused recollection of 
 what preceded our arrival at the tent. We both cf nz, however, 
 remember a bear, who walked leisurely before us, and tore up as 
 he went a jumper that Mr. M'Gary had improvidently thrown off 
 the day before. He tore it into shreds and rolled it into a ball, 
 but never offered to interfere with our progress. I remember this, 
 and with it a confused sentiment that our tent and buffalo-robes 
 might probably share the same fate. Godfrey, with whom the 
 memory of this day's work may atone for many faults of a later 
 time, had a oetter eye than myself; and, looking some miles 
 ahead, he could see that our tent was undergoing the same un- 
 ceremonious treatment. I thought I saw it too, but we were so 
 drunken with cold that we strode on steadily, and, for aught I 
 know, without quickening our pace. 
 
 Probably our approach saved the contents of the tent ; for 
 when we reached it the tent was uninjured, though the bear had 
 overturned it, tossing the buffalo-robes and pemmican into the 
 snow ; we missed only a couple of blanket-bags. What we recol- 
 lect, however, and perhaps all we recollect, is, that we had great 
 difficulty in raising it. We crawled into our reindeer sleeping- 
 bags without speaking, and for the next three hours slept on in a 
 dreamy but intense slumber. When I awoke my long beard was 
 a mass of ice, frozen fast to the buffalo-skin : Godfrey had to cut 
 me out with his jack-knife. Four days after our escape I found 
 my woollen comfortable with a goodly share of my beard still 
 adhering to it. 
 
 We were able to melt water and get some soup cooked bef^in 
 the rest of our pai-ty arrived : it took them but five hours to ■Wtiik 
 the nine miles. They were doing well, and, considering the cir- 
 cumstances, in wonderful spirits. The day was almost providen- 
 tially windless, wHh a clear sun. All enjoyed the refreshment we 
 had got ready : the crippled were repacked in their robes ; and 
 
 CIIAPTKR 
 XVI. 
 
 A bcnr 
 ai>]>*iirs. 
 
 The tent 
 
 OVtT- 
 
 tunied. 
 
 A sleep on 
 tlie ice. 
 
iin 
 
 RKACn THE BRIO AT LAST. 
 
 I 
 
 u 
 
 in : 
 
 I, t 
 
 '« '• 
 
 etruiti. 
 
 bii tlic 
 snow. 
 
 CHAPTER wc sped briskly toward tlie hummock-ridgea which lay between us 
 ^^'' and the I'innacly Berg. 
 
 " The huiiiinocks we had now to meet came properly under the 
 designation of squeezed ice. A great chain of bergs stretching 
 from north-we.st to south-east, moving witli tfie tides, had com- 
 pressed the stu'face floes ; and rearing them u[)on their edges, pro- 
 duced an area more like the volcanic pedrugal of the basin of 
 Mexico than anything else I can compare it to. 
 
 It required desperate efforts to work our way over it — liter 
 desperate, for our strength failed us anew, and wo began to lose 
 our self-control. We coUld not abstain any longer from eating 
 snow; our mouths swelled, and some of us became speechless. 
 Happily the day was warmed by a clear sunsliine, and the thermo- 
 mometer rose to — 4° in the shade; otherwise we must have 
 frozen. 
 
 Our halts multiplied, and we fell half-sleeping on the snow. I 
 could not prevent it. Strange to say, it refreshed us. I ven- 
 tured upon the exi)eriment myself, making Riley wake me at the 
 end of tliree minutes ; and I felt so much benefited by it that I 
 timed the men in the same way. They sat on the runners of the 
 sledge, fell asleep instantly, and were forced to wakefulness when 
 their three minutes were out. 
 
 By eight in the evening we emerged from the floes. The si 
 of the Pinnacly Berg revived us. Brandy, an invaluable resource 
 in emergency, had already been served out in table-spoonful doses. 
 We now took a longer rest, and a last but stouter dram, and reached 
 the brig at 1 p.m., we believe without a halt. 
 
 I say ive believe; and here perhaps is the most decided proof of 
 our sufferings ; we were quite delirious, and had ceased to enter- 
 tain a sane apprehension of the circumstances about us. We 
 moved on like men in a dream. Our footmarks seen afterward 
 .showed that we had steered a bee-line for the brig. It must have 
 been by a sort of instinct, for it left no impress on the memory. 
 Bonsall was sent staggering ahead, and reached the brig, God 
 knows how, for he had fallen repeatedly at the track-lines ; but he 
 delivered with punctilious accuracy the messages I had sent by 
 liim to Dr. Hayes. I thought myself the soundest of all, for I 
 went through all the formula of sanity, and can recall the mutter- 
 ing delirium of my comrades when we got back into the cabin of 
 
 Pellvious- 
 ness from 
 sutTailng. 
 
CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 117 
 
 our brig. Ytt I have been told since of some speeches and Bouie 
 orders too of mine, which I should have remembered for ihcir 
 absurdity if my mind had retained its balance. 
 
 Petersen and Whipple came out to meet us about two miles 
 from the brig. They brought my dog-team, with the restoratives 
 I had sent for by Bonsall. I do not remember their coming, Dr. 
 Hayes entered with judicious energy upon the treatment our cun- 
 dition called for, administering morphine freely, after the usual 
 friction.s. He reported none of our brain-symptoms as serious, 
 referring them properly to the class of those indications of ex- 
 hausted power which peld to generous diet and rest. Mr. Ohlsen 
 suGFered some time from strabismus and blindness; two others 
 ur.derwent amputation of parts of the foot, without unpleasant 
 consequences; and two died in spite of all our efforts. This 
 rescue party had been out for seventy-two hours. We had halted 
 in all eight hours, half of our number sleeping at a time. We 
 travelled between eiglity and ninety miles, most of the way drag- 
 ging a heavy sledge. The mean temperature of the whole time, 
 including the warmest hours of three days, was at minus 41°. 2. 
 We had no water except at our two halts, and v re at no time able 
 to intermit vigorous exercise without freezing. 
 
 "April 4, Tuesday. — Four days have passed, and I am again at 
 my record of failures, sound but acliing still in every joint. The 
 rescued men are not out of danger, but their gi-atitude is very 
 
 OHAl'TKB 
 XVI. 
 
 ninoH ia 
 come- 
 quciicu 
 of tia- 
 journey. 
 
 ,H 
 
 touching. 
 
 Pray God that they may live!" 
 
118 
 
 ANXIETY AND SORROW, 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 I \ 
 
 ^r 
 
 BAKEES DEATH — A VISIT— THE ESQUIMAUX — A NEGOTIATION — THEIR 
 EQUIPMENT — THEiR DEPORTMENT — A TREATY — THE FAREWELL— THE 
 SEQUEL— MYOUK— HIS ESCAPE — SCHUBERT'S ILLNESS. 
 
 OHAPTKB The week that followed hcos left me nothing to remember but 
 ^^"' anxieties and sorrow. Nearly all our party, as well the rescuers 
 as the rescued, were tossing in their sick-bunks, some frozen, others 
 undergoing amputations, several with dreadful premonitions of 
 tetanus. I was myself among the first to be about ; the necessities 
 of the others claimed it of me. 
 Unkci's Early in the morning of the 7th I was awakened by a sound 
 de'atiL ' " ^^^"^ Baker's throat, one of those the most frightful and ominous 
 that ever startle a physician's ear. The lock-jaw had seized him ; 
 that dark visitant whose foreshadowings were on so many of us. 
 His symptoms marched rapidly to their result ; he died on the 8th 
 of April. We placed him the next day in his coffin, and, forming 
 a rude, but heart-full procession, bore him over the broken ice and 
 up the steep side of the ice-foot to Butler Island ; then, passing 
 along the snow-level to Fern-Rock, and, climbing the slope of the 
 Observatory, we deposited his corpse upon the pedestals which 
 had served to support our transit-instrument and theodolite. We 
 read the service for the burial of the dead, sprinkling over him 
 snow for dust, and repeated the Lord's Prayer ; and then icing up 
 again the opening in the walls we had made to admit the coffin, 
 left him in his narrow house. 
 
 Jefferson Baker was a man of kind heart and true principles. 
 I knew him when we were both younger. I passed two happy 
 seasons at a little cottage adjoining his father's farm. He thought 
 it a privilege to join this expedition, as in those green summer 
 days when I had allowed him to take a gun with me on some 
 shooting-party. He relied on ne with the affectionate confi- 
 dence of boyhood, and I never gave him a harsh word or a hard 
 thought. 
 
 We were watching in the morning at Baker's death-bed, when. 
 
 IJisfune 
 lul. 
 
 s^^sn 
 
A VISIT FROM ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 119 
 
 )N — THEIR 
 YELL— THE 
 
 mber but 
 B rescuers 
 ;en, others 
 aitious of 
 lecessities 
 
 f a sound 
 I ominous 
 ized him ; 
 uiy of us. 
 •n the 8th 
 1, forming 
 n ice and 
 1, passing 
 36 of the 
 lis which 
 ite. We 
 over him 
 icing up 
 he coffin, 
 
 rinciples. 
 vo happy 
 thought 
 \ summer 
 on some 
 ite confi- 
 )r a hard 
 
 ed, when. 
 
 Esqui- 
 iimux. 
 
 one of our deck-watch, who had been cutting ice for the nielter, cuAii'^R 
 came hurrying down into the cabin with the report, " People hoi- ^^"" 
 laing ashore ! " I went up, followed by as many as could mount Anivui of 
 the gangway ; and there they were, on all sides of our rocky har- 
 bour, dotting the snow-shores ami emerging from the blackness of 
 the cliffs, — wild and uncouth, but evidently human beings. 
 
 As we gathered on the deck they rose upon the more elevated 
 fragments of the land-ice, standing singly and conspicuously like 
 the figures in a tableau of the opera, and distributing themselves 
 around almost in a half-circle. They were vociferating as if to 
 attract our attention, or perhaps only to give vent to their sur- 
 
 MEKTINO THR ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 prise ; but I could make nothing out of their cries, except " Hoah, 
 lia, ha!" and "Ka,kaah! ka, kaah!" repeated over and over 
 again. 
 
 'J'liere was hght enough for me to see that they brandished no 
 
 ill 
 '• t -"11 
 
 ! I 
 
 yi 
 
 i , 
 
120 
 
 AN ESQUIMAUX DIPLOMATIST. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XVII. 
 
 Dress of 
 the Ksqui- 
 niaus. 
 
 A negjtiii- 
 tion. 
 
 Fearless- 
 iK'ss of tlie 
 Ksqul- 
 
 IIIUUX. 
 
 weapons, and were only tossing their heads and arms about in 
 violent gesticulations. A more unexcited inspection showed us, 
 too, that their numbers were not as great nor their size as Pata- 
 gonian as some of us had been disposed to fancy at first. In a 
 word, I was satisfied that they were natives of the country ; and, 
 calling Petersen from his bunk to be my interpreter, I proceeded, 
 unarmed, and waving my open hands, toward a stout figure who 
 made himself conspicuous and seemed to have a greater number 
 near him than the rest. He evidently understood the movement, 
 for he at once, like a brave fellow, leaped down upon the floe and 
 advanced to meet me fully half way. 
 
 He was nearly a head taller than myself, extremely .verful 
 and well-built, with swarthy complexion and piercing b. ck eyes. 
 His dress was a hooded capdte or jumper of mixed white and blue 
 fox-pelts, arranged with something of fancy, and booted trousers 
 of white bear-skin, which at the end of the foot were made to 
 terminate with the claws of the animal. 
 
 I soon came to an understanding with this gallant diplomatist. 
 Almost as soon as we commenced our parley, his companions, pro- 
 bably receiving signals from him, flocked in and surrounded us ; 
 but we had no difficulty in making them know positively that they 
 must remain where they were, while Metek went with me on 
 board the ship. This gave me the advantage of negotiating, with 
 an important hostage. 
 
 Although this was the first time he had ever seen a white man, 
 he went with me fearlessly; his companions staying behind on the 
 ice. Hickey took them out what he esteemed our greatest deli- 
 cacies, — slices of good wheat bread, and corned pork, with exhor- 
 bitant lumps of wliite sugar ; but they refused to touch them. 
 They had evidently no apprehension of open violence from us. I 
 found afterward that several among them were singly a match for 
 the white bear and the walrus, and that they thought us a very 
 pale-faced crew. 
 
 Being satisfied with my interview in the cabin, I sent out word 
 that the rest might be admitted to the ship; and, although they, 
 of course, could not know how their chief had been dealt with, 
 some nine or ten of them followed with boisterous readiness upon 
 the bidding. Others in the mean time, as if disposed to give us 
 their company for the full time of a visit, brought up from behind 
 
THE ESQUIMAUX ON BOARD. 
 
 121 
 
 
 the land-ice as many as fifty-six fine dogs, with their sledges, and OHArtKR 
 
 secured them within two hundred feet of the brig, driving their ]^ 
 
 lances into the ice, and picketing the dogs to them by the seal- 
 skin traces. The animals understood the operation perfectly, and 
 lay down as soon as it commenced. The sledges were made up siedgos 
 of small fragments of porous bone, admirably knit together by 
 thongs of hide ; the runners, which glistened like burnished steel, 
 were of highly-polished ivory, obtained from the tusks of the 
 walrus. 
 
 The only arms they carried were knives, concealed in their Anns. 
 boots ; but their lances, wliich were lashed to the sledges, were 
 quite a formidable weapon. The staff was of the horn of the 
 narwhal, or else of the thigh-bones of the bear, two lashed 
 together, or sometimes the mirabilis of the walrus, three or four 
 of them united. This last was a favourite material also for the 
 cross-bars of their sledges. They had no wood. A single rusty 
 hoop from a current-drifted cask might have furnished all the 
 knives of the party ; but the fleam-shaped tips of their lances 
 were of unmistakable steel, and were rivetted to the tapering bony 
 point with no mean skill. I learned afterward that the metal was 
 obtained in traffic from the more southern tribes. 
 
 They were clad much as I have described Metek, in jumpers, Dress, 
 boots, and white bear-skin breeches, with their feet decorated like 
 his, en griffe. A strip of knotted leather worn round the neck, 
 very greasy and dirty-looking, which no one could be persuaded 
 to part with for an instant, was mistaken at first for an ornament 
 by the crew : it was not until mutual hardships had made us 
 better acquainted that we learned its mysterious uses. 
 
 When they were first allowed to come on board, they were very Behaviour 
 rude and difficult to manage. They spoke three or four at a 
 time, to each other and to us, laughing heartily at our ignorance 
 in not understanding them, and then talking away as before. 
 They were incessantly in motion, going everywhere, trying doors, 
 and squeezing themselves through dark passages, round casks and 
 boxes, and out into the light again, anxious to touch and handle 
 everything they saw, and asking for, or else endeavouring to 
 steal, everytliing they touched. It was the more difficult to 
 restrain them, as I did not wish them to suppose that we were at 
 all intimidated. But there were some signs of our disabled con- 
 
 
I 
 
 122 
 
 THE ESQUIMAUX ON BOARD. 
 
 ciiAPTEH dition which it was important they should not see; it was esjteci- 
 ^'^"' ally necessary to keep them out of the forecastle, where the dead 
 body of poor Baker was lying ; and, as it was in vain to reason or 
 persuade, we had at last to employ the "gentle laying-on of 
 hands," which, I believe, the laws of all countries tolerate, to keep 
 them in order. 
 
 Our whole force was mustered and kept constantly on tlie 
 alert ; but though there may have been something of discourtesy 
 in the occasional shoulderings and bustlings that enforced the 
 police of the ship, things went on good -hum ouredly. Our guests 
 continued running in and out and about the vessel, biicging in 
 provisions, and carrying them out again to their dogs on the ice, 
 — in fact, stealing all the time, until the afternoon ; when, like 
 tired children, they threw themselves down to sleep. I ordered 
 them to be made comfortable in the hold ; and Morton spread a 
 large buffalo-robe for them, not far from a coal-fire in the galley- 
 stove. 
 
 They were lost in barbarous amaze at the new fuel, — too hard 
 for blubber, too soft for firestone, — but they were content to 
 believe it might cook as well as seals' fat. They borrowed from 
 us an iron pot and some melted water, and parboiled a couple of 
 pieces of walrus-meat ; but the real piece de resistance, some five 
 pounds a head, they preferred to eat raw. Yet there was some- 
 tliing of the gourmet in their mode of assorting their mouthfuls of 
 beef and blubber. Slices of each, or rather strips, j)assed between 
 the lips, either together or in strict alternation, and with a 
 regularity of sequence that kept the molars well to their work. 
 
 They did not eat all at once, but each man when and as often 
 as the impulse prompted. Each slept after eating, his raw chunk 
 lying beside hiln on the buffalo skin ; and as he woke, the first 
 act was to eat, and the next to sleep again. They did not lie 
 do^vn, but slumbered away in a sitting-posture, with the head 
 declined upon the breast, some of them snoring famously. 
 
 In the morning they were anxious to go; but I had given 
 orders to detain them for a parting interview with myself. It 
 resulted in a treaty, brief in its terms, that it might be certainly 
 remembered, and mutually beneficial, that it might possibly be 
 kept. I tried to make them understand what a powerful Prospero 
 they had had for a host, and how beneficent he would prove him- 
 
 Esqnl- 
 niHiix 
 cookinir 
 ami Cttt- 
 liig. 
 
 A treaty. 
 
WILD DOG TEAM. 
 
 123 
 
 self so long as they did his bidding. And, as an earnest of my chaptvii 
 favour, I bought all the walrus-meat they had to spare, and four xvii. 
 
 Puichusea 
 
 II' 
 
 !f ;■ .1 
 
 fsM 
 
 WILD DOO TEAM. 
 
 of their dogs, enriching them in return with needles and beads, 
 and a treasure of old cask staves. 
 
124 
 
 DErARTURE OF ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XVII. 
 
 Ma 
 
 4: 
 
 Visit fi'om 
 a second 
 prtity. 
 
 Thievish 
 propciinl- 
 tif3. 
 
 In the fulness of their gratitude, they pledged themselves 
 emphatically to return in a few days with more meat, and to allow 
 me to use their dogs and sledges for my excursions to the north. 
 I then gave them leave to go. They yoked in their dogs in less 
 than two minutes, got on their sledges, cracked their two-fathom - 
 and-a-half-long seal- skin whips, and were off down the ice to the 
 south-w^est at a rate of seven knots an hour. 
 
 They did not return. I had read enough of treaty -makings not 
 to expect them too confidently. But the next day came a party 
 of five, on foot — two old men, one of middle age, and a couple of 
 gawky boys. We had missed a number of articles soon after the 
 first party left us, an axe, a saw, and some knives. We found 
 afterward that our storehouse at Butler Island had been entered ; 
 we were too short-handed to guard it by a special watch. Besides 
 all this, reconnoitring stealthily beyond Sylvia Head, we dis- 
 covered a train of sledges drawn up behind the hummocks. 
 
 ^There was cause for apprehension in all this ; but I felt that I 
 could not afford to break with the rogues. They had it in their 
 power to molest us seriously in our sledge-travel ; they couid 
 make our hunts around the harbour dangerous; and my best 
 thance of obtaining an abundant supply of fresh meat, our great 
 desideratum, was by their agency. I treated the new party with 
 marked kindness, and gave them many presents ; but took care to 
 make them aware that, until all the missing articles were restored, 
 no member of the tribe would be admitted again as a guest on 
 board tlie brig. They went off with many pantomimic protesta- 
 tions of innocence ; but M'Gary, nevertheless, caught the incor- 
 rigible scamps stealing a coal-barrel as they passed Butler Island, 
 and expedited their journey homeward by firing among them a 
 charge of small shot. 
 
 Still, one peculiar worthy — we thought it must have been the 
 venerable of the party, whom I knew afterwards as a stanch 
 friend, old Shang-huh — managed to work round in a westerly 
 direction, and to cut to pieces my India-rubber boat, which had 
 been left on the floe since Mr. Brooks's disaster, and to carry off 
 every particle of the wood. 
 
 A few days after this, an agile, elfin youth drove up to our floe 
 in open day. He was sprightly and good-looking, and had quite 
 a neat turn-out of sledge and dogs. He told his name with 
 
" MYOUK." 
 
 125 
 
 frankness, " Mijouk, I am," — and where he lived. We asked him oiiaptek 
 
 about the boat ; but he denied all knowledge of it, and refused ^^" 
 
 either to confess or repent. He was surprised when I ordered 
 
 him to be confined to the hold. At first he refused to eat, and 
 
 sat down in the deepest grief; but after a whUe he began to sing, 
 
 and then to talk and cry, and then to sing again ; and so he kept Myouk's 
 
 on rehearsing his limited solfeggio, — 
 
 soni; ill 
 prison. 
 
 f^^^ 
 
 and cr}'ing and talking by turns, till a late hour of the night. 
 When I turned in, he was still noisUy disconsolate. 
 
 There was a simplicity and bonhommie about this boy that 
 interested me much ; and I confess that when I made my appear- 
 ance next morning — I could hardly conceal it from the gentleman 
 on duty, whom I affected to censure — I was glad my bird had 
 flown. Some time during the morning- watch he had succeed.^d lusescapa 
 in throwing off the hatch and escaping. We suspected that he 
 had confederates ashore, for his dogs had escaped with as much 
 address as himself I was convinced, however, that I had the 
 truth from him, where he lived, and how many lived with him — 
 my cross-examination on these points having been very complete 
 and satisfactory. 
 
 It was a sad business for some time after these Esquimaux left 
 us, to go on making and registering our observations at Fern 
 Rock. Baker's corpse still lay in the vestibule, and it was not 
 long before another was placed by the side of it. We had to pass 
 the bodies as often as we went in or out ; but the men, gi'own 
 feeble and nervous, disliked going near them in the night-time. 
 When the summer thaw came, and we could gather stones enough, 
 we built up a grave on a depression of the rocks, and raised a 
 substantial cairn above it. 
 
 "April 19, Wednesday. — I have been out on the floe again, Brcnking 
 breaking in my dogs. My re-inforcement from the Esqviimaux "'" '''^^'*" 
 makes a noble team for me. For the last five days I have been 
 striving with them, just as often and as long as my strength 
 allowed me ; and to-day I have my victory. The Society for 
 Preventing Cruelty to Animals would have put me in custody if 
 they had been near enough ; but, thanks to a merciless whip freely 
 
126 
 
 SCHUBERT 8 ILLNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XVII. 
 
 administered, I have been dashing along twelve miles in the last 
 hour, and am back again ; harness, sledge, and bones all unbrokea 
 I am ready for another journey. 
 
 ^^ April 22, Saturday. — Schubert has increashig symptoms of 
 erysipelas around his amputated stump ; and every one on board 
 is depressed and silent except himself. He is singing in his bunk, 
 as joyously as ever, ' Aux gens atrabUaires,' &c. Poor feUow ! I 
 am alarmed about him : it is a hard duty which compels me to 
 take the field, wliile ray presence might cheer his last moments." 
 
 
ARRANGEMENTS FOR EXPL-^'IATIOX. 
 
 187 
 
 CHAPTER XVITI. 
 
 an exploration — equipment — outfit — departure — results — fea- 
 tures of coast — arcuiteotural rocks — three brother turrets — 
 Tennyson's monument — the great glacier of humboldt. 
 
 The month of April was about to close, and the short season 
 available for Arctic search was upon us. The condition of things 
 on board the brig was not such as I could have wished for ; but 
 there was nothing to exact my presence, and it seemed to me clear 
 that the time had come for pressing on the work of the expedition. 
 The arrangements for our renewed exploration had not been 
 intermitted, and were soon complete. I leave to my journal its 
 own story. 
 
 " April 25, Tuesday, — A journey on the carpet \ and the crew 
 busy with the little details of their outfit : the officers the same. 
 
 " I have made a log-Hne for sledge-travel, with a contrivance 
 for fastening it to the ice, and liberating it at pleasure. It will 
 give me my dead reckoning quite as well as on the water. I have 
 a team now of seven dogs — four that I bought of the Esquimaux, 
 and three of my old stock. They go together quite respectably. 
 Godfrey and myself will go with them on foot, following the first 
 sledge on Thursday. 
 
 "April 26, Wednesday. — M'Gary went yesterday with the 
 leading sledge ; and, as Brooks is still on his back in consequence 
 of the amputation, I leave Ohlsen in charge of the brig. He has 
 my instructions in full ; among them I have dwelt largely upon 
 the treatment of the natives. 
 
 " These Esquimaux must be watched carefully, at the same 
 time they are to be dealt with kindly, though with a strict en- 
 forcement of our police regulations, and some caution as to the 
 freedom with which they may come on board. No punishments 
 must be permitted, either of them or in their presence, and no 
 resort to fire-arms unless to repel a serious attack. I have given 
 orders, however, that if the contingency does occur, there shall be 
 no firing over head. The prestige of the gun with a savage is in 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XVHI. 
 
 Prepara- 
 tions. 
 
 Rules for 
 treatment 
 of the 
 natives. 
 
128 
 
 PLAN OF JOURNEY. 
 
 CnAVTKR 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Force left 
 ill ihu 
 brlK. 
 
 Equipment 
 (if explor- 
 ing party. 
 
 his notion of its infallibility. You may spare bloodshed by killing 
 a dog, or even wounding liim ; but in no event should you throw 
 away your ball. It is neither politic nor humane. 
 
 " Our stowage precautions are all arranged, to meet the chance 
 of the ice breaking up while I am away ; and a boat is placed 
 ashore with stores, as the brig may be forced from her moorings. 
 
 " The worst thought I have now in setting out is, that of the 
 entire crew I can leave but two behind in able condition, and the 
 doctor and Bonsall are the only two officers who can help Ohlsen. 
 This is our force, four able-bodied, and six disabled, to keep the 
 brig ; the commander and seven men, scarcely better upon the 
 average, out upon the ice. Eighteen souls, thank God ! certainly 
 not eighteen bodies ! 
 
 " I am goin^ this time to follow the ice-belt (Eis-fod) to the 
 Great Glacier of Humboldt, and there load up with pemmicau 
 from our cache of last October. From this point I expect to 
 stretch along the face of the glacier inclining to the west of north, 
 and make an attempt to cross the ice to the American side. Once 
 on smooth ice, near this shore, I may pass to the west, and enter 
 the large indentation whose existence I can infer with nearly 
 positive certainty. In this I may find an outlet, and determine 
 the state of things beyond the ice-clogged area of this bay. 
 
 " I take with me pemmican, and bread, and tea, a canvas tent, 
 five feet by six, and two sleeping-bags of reindeer-skin. The 
 sledge has been built on board by Mr. Ohlsen. It is very light, 
 of hickory, and but nine feet long. Our kitchen is a soup-kettle 
 for melting snow and making tea, arranged so as to boil with 
 either lard or spirits." 
 
 The pattern of the tent was suggested by our experience during 
 the fall journeys. The greatest discomfort of the Arctic traveller 
 when camping out is from the congealed moisture of the breath 
 forming long feathers of frost against the low shelving roof of the 
 tent within a few inches of his face. The remedy which I adopted 
 was to run the tent-poles through grummet-holes in the canvas 
 about eighteen inches above the floor, and allow the lower part of 
 the sides to hang down vertically like a valance, before forming 
 the floor-cloth. This arrangement gave ample room for breathing ; 
 it prevented the ice forming above the sleeper's head, and the 
 melted rime from trickling down upon it. 
 
THE FAITH. 
 
 12f) 
 
 •' For instruments, I liave a fine O.anibey sextant, in addition tocHAPTKn 
 my ordinary pocket-instrunient, an artificial liorizon, and a Barrow's ^^"' ' 
 dill-circle. These occupy little room upon the sledtie. My tele- f^inip- 
 scope and chronometer 1 carry on my person. store* 
 
 " !M'Gary has taken the Faith, lie carries few stores, intending 
 to rei)leni.sli at the cache of Bonsall Point, and to lay in pemniican 
 at M'Gary Island. Most of his cargo consists of bread, whicii we 
 find it hard to dispense with in eating cooked food. It has a 
 good effect in absorbing the fat of the pennnican, which is apt to 
 (H.-atrreo with the stonuich." 
 
 ;'1 
 
 arming 
 
 thing ; 
 
 d the 
 
 TIIK FAITH. 
 
 Godfrey and myself followed on the 27th, as I had intended. 
 The journey was an arduous one to be undertaken, even under the 
 most favouring circumstances, and by unbroken men. It was to 
 be the crowning expedition of the campaign, to attain the Ultima The 
 Thule of the Greenland shore, measure the wa.ste that lay between e'j.pl.ji!'" 
 it and the unknown West, and seek round the furthest circle of tion. 
 the ice for an outlet to the mysterious channels beyond. The 
 scheme could not be can-ied out in its details ; yet it was pro- 
 secuted far enough to indicate what must be our future fiehls of 
 labour, and to determine many points of geograpliical interest. 
 Our observations were in general confirmatory of those which had 
 
 I . •> 
 
130 
 
 THE COAST LINE. 
 
 eriAPTER 
 
 XVIM. 
 
 the out- 
 line of tlie 
 couxt. 
 
 ITcail- 
 IhiiUs. 
 
 Oenlofrical 
 iti'ucture. 
 
 been made by Mr. lionsall ; and they accorded so well with our 
 snbaequent surveys as to trace for us the outline of the coast with 
 great certainty. 
 
 If the reader lias had tlie patience to follow the pathway of our 
 little brig, he has perceived that at Refuge Harbour, our first 
 asylum, a marked change takes place in the line of direction of the 
 coast. From Cape Alexander, which may be regarded as the 
 westernmost cape of Greenland, the shore runs nearly north .and 
 south, like the broad channel of which it is the boundary ; but on 
 reaching Refuge Inlet it bends nearly at a right angle, and follows 
 on from west to east till it has passed the GSth degree of longi- 
 tude. Between Cape Alexander and the inlet it is broken by two 
 indentations, the first of them near the Etah settlement, which 
 was visited in 1855 by the Rescue Expedition under Lieutenant 
 1 fartstene, and which bears on my charts the name of that noble- 
 8))irited commander ; the other remembered by us as Lifeboat 
 Cove. In both of these the glaciers descend to the water-line, 
 from an interior of lofty, rock-clad hills.^ 
 
 The coast-line is diversified, however, by numerous water-worn 
 headlands,^' which, on reaching Cape Hatherton, decline into 
 rolling hills,"' their margins studded with islands, which are the 
 favourite breeding-places of the eider, the glaucous gull, and the 
 tern. Cape Hatherton rises boldly above these, a mass of por- 
 phyritic rock.^* ' 
 
 After leaving Refuge Harbour, the features of th>'- coast undergo 
 a change. There are no deep bays or discharging glaciers ; and 
 it is only as we approach Rensselaer Harbour, where the shore- 
 line begins to incline once more to the north, that the deep recesses 
 and ice-lined fiords make their appearance again. 
 
 The geological structure changes also,™ and the cliffs begin to 
 assume a series of varied and picturesque outlines along the coast, 
 that scarcely require the aid of imagination to trace in them the 
 ruins cf architectural structure. They come down boldly to the 
 shore-line, their summits rising sometimes more than a thousnivl 
 feet above the eye, and the long cones oi rubbish at tli ir ba. >. 
 mingling themselves with the ice-foot.** 
 
 The coast retains the same character as f. the Great 
 
 Glacier. It is indented by four great bays, all oi m con mni- 
 cating with deep gorges, which are watered by streauts fr m the 
 
THREE BROTHER TURKETS. 
 
 131 
 
 (nicrior ico-fielila ; yet none of them exliibit glaciers of any magi\i- 
 tilde at the water-Hue. DaUas I5ay shows a aimilar formation, 
 and tlie nrchipehigo beyond Cape Hunter retains it almost without 
 change.*' 
 
 The mean height of the table-land, till it reaches the bed of 
 the Great (llacier, may be stated, in round nuinbors, at 1)00 
 feet, its talle.st summit near the water at i;50() and the 
 rise of the background above the general level at 000 more.** 
 The face of this stupendous ice-mass, as it defined the coast, 
 was everywhere an abrupt and threatening precipice, only broken 
 V)y clefts and deep ravines, giving breadth and interest to its wild 
 expression. 
 
 The most picturesque portion of the North Greenland coast is 
 to be found after leaving Cape George Ilussell and approaching 
 
 CIlAI'TKR 
 
 X VI 1 1 . 
 
 Mcliii 
 hcl^'lil of 
 tliu tiible- 
 laixl. 
 
 nj-«i,:»^ — 
 
 Great 
 
 n^'nuni- 
 
 the 
 
 TriRKK HIIOTItKR TUHIIKT8. 
 
 Dallas Bay. The red sand.stones contrast most favourably with Contrast oi 
 the blank whiteness, associating the cold tints of the dreary Arctic ''"'°"'*' 
 landscape with the warm colouring of more southern lands. The 
 seasons have acted on the differant layers of the cliff so as to give 
 
'I 
 
 132 
 
 MAGNIFICENT SCENEny. 
 
 I 
 
 cjrMT- R them the appearance of jointed masonry, and the narrow line of 
 ' greenstone at the top caps them with well-simulated battlements. 
 
 freaks of nature became known to us 
 
 Tliree 
 
 iJrothei" 
 
 Turrets. 
 
 One of these interesting 
 
 iniimiut 
 tiiwtv. 
 
 as the "Three Brother Turrets." 
 
 The sloping rubbish at the foot of the coast-wall leil up, like 
 an artificial causeway, to a gorge that was streaming at noon-day 
 with the southern sun, while everywhere else the rock stood out 
 in the blackest shadow. Just at the edge of this bright opening 
 rose the dreamy semblance of a castle, flanked with triple towers, 
 completely isolated and defined. These were the " Three Brother 
 Turrets." 
 
 I was still more struck with another of the same sort, in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of my lialting-ground beyond Sunny 
 Gorge, to the north of latitude 79°. A single cliff of greenstone, 
 marked by the slaty limestone that once encased it, rears itself 
 from a crumbled base of sandstones, li^ e the boldly chiselled ram- 
 part of an ancient city. At its northern extremity, on the brink 
 of a deep ravine which has worn its way among the ruins, there 
 A iiafurai stauds a Solitary column, or minaret-tower, as sharply finished as 
 if it had been cast for the Place Vendome. Yet the length of the 
 shaft alone is 480 feet, and it rises on a plinth or pedestal itself 
 280 feet high. 
 
 I remember well the emotions of my party as it first broke 
 upon our view. Cold and sick as I was, I brought back a sketch 
 of it, which may have interest for the reader, though it scarcely 
 suggests the imposing dignity of this magnificent landmark. Those 
 who are happily familiar with the writings of Tennyson, and have 
 communed with his spirit in the solitudes of a wilderness, will 
 apprehend the impulse that inscribed the scene with his name. 
 
 Still beyond this conies the archipelago which bears the name 
 of our brig, studded with the names of those on board of her who 
 adhered to all the fortunes of the expedition ; and at its eastern 
 cape spreads out the Great Glacier of Humboldt. My recollec- 
 tions of this glacier are very distinct. The day was beautifully 
 clear on which I first saw it, and I have a number of sketches 
 made as we drove along in view of its magnificent face. They 
 disappoint me, giving too much white surface and badly-fiiding 
 distances, the grandeur of the few bold and simple Hues of nature 
 being almost entirely lost. 
 
 Till" arrlil 
 pi'lago. 
 
wm 
 
 
 ' •*,. j*^.' -kV. 
 
 W-^' 
 
 -:V 
 
 
 
 '^^ 
 
 Ihs' 
 
 T tHN VSO N'S K an ««v t 
 
 1 fi'tMr « '.^ t ti* ^ 
 
•mmm 
 
 132 
 
 MAUVinCEXT ftCKKKKY. 
 
 '1^^ 
 
 m 
 
 
 ti-oiher 
 
 chait:r them the nppeaniiice of jointijd masoniy, and the narrov 1 
 ' « greenstone at the top cap.'j tlani with well-siniulatod battifciu.'Tjl ^ 
 
 Ono of these intiMcsting frcaka of nature became knovu t') u\ 
 as the '"Tliree Brother Turrets." 
 
 The sloping rnbhibh at the f . of the roast wall hd u|., h/i<: 
 an artifii'ial causewa}', '.<■' a fx^ifS,'- '»-''- *».•? slreantin,^ at noo:v?4ay 
 with tlir soiithorn 8un, vhile u'^., i 'Ahere else the ri^ok ati>od ovt 
 in the blackest shadow )u.st it the edge of this bricht opening 
 ros« the dreamy senibhui.-jj of a .-tustle, flanked with triple tfnvers, 
 eonipletol}' isolated ai. i i.Jin^^i Thof;e wore the "Three Broth rr 
 Tunets." 
 
 I was std! twre stnn k wiih another of the same sort, in tiic 
 imracdi;vte noighbomhiXHi of my hailing-crround lieyonJ Simny 
 Gorge, *'- the north of i-ttitnde 79^ A single liitT of greensttine, 
 marked by t!ie ^laty UmcstoJio that onec enchased it, rears itsoli' 
 fr.im a eruiulihxl base of sa:idst'>nes, like the l)'»!<Jly ehinclled ram- 
 part nf an aiideut city. At its northern extroiaity, on the I'link 
 of a deep ravine •which lius worn its way r.mong the ruins, there 
 \ n.itiiru'i stands a solitary colunm, or minaret-tover, a.s sharply fini.shed aa 
 if it had been ea.st for the Mace Vendome. Yet the length of the 
 shaft alone is 480 feet, and it rises on a i>Iinth or pedestal itself 
 280 feet high. 
 
 I remember well the emotions of my party a.s it fir-'^t broke 
 upon onr a iew. Cold and sick a.s I was, I brouglit back a skftoh 
 of it, whiiii may have interest for the reader, though it scarcely 
 suggests the imposing dignity of this ni iji,'uiJifent iandmai'k. Those 
 who we happily r»niili;ir with the writings of Toniiy.son, and have 
 comimnifd \uih hij* .-^pirit in tb« wJitutl*^.^ of a 'wilderncs.s, will 
 apprehen'l tlio impulse that :!J5c:rilw<l the scene with his name. 
 
 iStill beyond this comes the archipelago whicli bears tl»o natnt. 
 of our lirig, istiidded with the tiames of those on board of her who 
 adhered to all the fortunci; of the expedition; and at its aistern 
 cape spreads out the (Jreat Glacier of Iliindmldt. My reooDec 
 tioDS of this glacier are veiy distinct. The day was beautifully 
 fleiir on which 1 firat saw it, au'l I have a nutnber of skeLche'i 
 inadiB a.«» we drove alonj: in View of its niagnilii;ent face. Tiioy 
 disiippotnt me, giving too much white surface and badly failmjij 
 distances, the grandeur of the few boM and simple lines of natatt 
 being alatost oatiroly loi^t. 
 
 lower 
 
 Tlu! »rolil 
 
 
\ ', 
 
 Kt'tcll 
 
 ;arf;cly 
 Tiicse 
 have 
 XV ill 
 lie. 
 namt 
 ■I wh«> 
 
 iii'lly 
 i' iif ■» 
 They 
 
 It* 
 
 TENNYSON'S MONUMENT. 
 
 /fW** tf 1' 
 
 
 m 
 
' 
 
 ?! 
 
^ 
 
 THE GREAT GJLACIER. 
 
 133 
 
 I will not attempt to do better by florid description. !Men only 
 rhapsodize about Niagara and the ocean. My notes speak simply 
 of the " long, over-shining line of chff diminished to a well-pointed 
 wedge in the perspective ; " and again, of " the face of glistening ice, 
 sweeping in a long cnrve from tlie low interior, the facets in front 
 intensely illuminated by the sun." But this line of cliff rose 
 in solid glassy wall 300 feet above the water-level, with an 
 unknown, unfathomable de;,i-h below it; and its curved face, 60 
 miles in length from Cape Agassiz to Cape Forbes, vanished into 
 unknown space at not more than a single day's railroad-travel from 
 the Pole. The interior with wliich it communicated, and from 
 which it issued, was an unsurveyed mer de glace, an ice-ocean, to the 
 eye of boundless dimensions.*' 
 
 It was in full sight — the mighty crystal bridge wliich connects 
 the two continents of America and Greenland. I say continents ; 
 for Greenland, however insulated it may ultimately prove lo be, is in 
 mass strictly continental. Its least possible axis, measured from 
 Cape Farewell to the line of tliis glacier, in the neighbourhood 
 of the 80th parallel gives a length of more than 1200 miles, not 
 mateiially less than that of Australia, from its northern to its 
 southern cape."" 
 
 Imagine, now, the centre of such a continent, occupied through 
 nearly its whole extent by a deep, unbroken sea of ice, that gathers 
 perennial increase from the water-shed of vast snow-covered moun- 
 tains and all the precipitations of the atmosphere upon its own 
 surface. Imagine tliis, moving onward like a great glacial river, 
 seeking outlets at every fiord and valley, rolling icy cataracts into 
 the Atlantic and Greenland seas ; and, having at last reached the 
 northern limit of the land that has borne it up, pouring out a mighty 
 frozen toiTcnt into unknown Arctic space.'" 
 
 It is thus, and only thus, that we must form a just conception 
 of a phenomenon like this Great Glacier. I had looked in my 
 own mind for such an appearance, should I ever be fortunate enough 
 to reach the northern coast of Gre<Miland. But now that it was 
 before me, I could hardly realize it. I had recognised, in my quiet 
 library at home, the beautiful analogies which Forbes and Studer 
 have developed between the glacier and the river ; but I could not 
 comprehend at first this complete substitution of ice for water. 
 
 It was slowly that the conviction dawned on me that I was 
 
 CHAl'TKR 
 XVIll. 
 
 Desciip- 
 tloii ot tiia 
 Gieiit 
 tiUclor. 
 
 Its axis. 
 
 Its motion 
 
134 
 
 A MOVING MASS OF ICES. 
 
 Tlie 
 counter 
 
 ciiApTKR looking upon the counterpart of the greai river-system of Arctic 
 
 xvm. ^gjjj j^jj^^ America. Yet here were no water-feeders from the south. 
 
 Every particle of moisture had its origin within the Polar circle, and 
 
 part of tiie ^^^^ ^^^^ converted into ice. There were no vast alluvions, no 
 
 (treat forest or animal traces borne down by Hquid torrents. Here was 
 
 river By»- , , . . ,. , i i. . i./. i, • 
 
 tern. a plastic, movmg, semi-solid mass, obuterating lite, swallowmg 
 rocks and islands, and ploughing its way with irresistible march 
 through the crust of an investing sea. 
 
 ill 
 
 Pi 
 
 
 l! ! H 
 
PROGEESS OF THE PARTY- 
 
 135 
 
 CHAPTER. XIX. 
 
 I'ROaUEaS OP the party — prostration— DALT-AS bay— DBATn OP SCHU- 
 BEKT— TOE BRIO IN MAY — PROGRESS OP SPRINO — m'qARY's BKTCUN— 
 
 DK. Hayes's party — equipment — Schubert's funeral. 
 
 *' It is now tlie 20tli of May, and for the first time, I am 
 able, propped up by pillows and surrounded by sick messmates, 
 to note the fact that we have failed again to force the passage to 
 the north. 
 
 " Godfrey and myself overtook the advance party under M'Gary 
 two days after leaving the brig. Our dogs were in fair travelling 
 condition, and, except snow-blindness, there seemed to be no draw- 
 back to our efficiency. In crossing Marshall Bay we found the 
 snow so accumulated in drifts that, with all our efforts to pick 
 out a track, we became involved ; we could not force our sledges 
 through. We were forced to unload, and carry forward the cargo 
 on our backs, beating a path for the dogs to follow in. In this 
 way we plodded on to the opposite headland, Cape William Wood, 
 where the waters of Mary Miutura River, which had delayed the 
 freezing of the ice, gave us a long reach of level travel. We then 
 made a better rate ; and our days' marches were such as to carry 
 us by the 4tli of May nearly to the glacier. 
 
 " This progress, however, was dearly earned. As early as the 
 3d of May the winter's scurvy reappeared painfully among our 
 party. As we struggled through the snow along the Greenland 
 coast we sank up to our middle ; and the dogs, floundering about, 
 were so buried as to preclude any attempts at hauling. This ex- 
 cessive snow-deposit seemed to be due to the precipitation of cold 
 condensing wind suddenly wafted from the neighbouring glacier ; 
 fi>r at Rensselaer Harbour we had only four inches of general 
 snow depth. It obliged us to unload our sledges again, and carry 
 their cargo, — a labour which resulted in dropsical swellings, with 
 painful prostration. Here tliree of the party were taken with 
 snow-blindness, and George Stephenson had to be condemned as 
 unfit for travel altogether, on account of chest-symptoms accom- 
 
 CnAPTUR 
 XIX. 
 
 Involved 
 ill anuw. 
 
 IJeappcar- 
 anct: of 
 diaease 
 
136 
 
 SEVERE SUFFERINGS. 
 
 CItAPTKR 
 XIX. 
 
 >il 
 
 i. :.\ 
 
 
 The caches 
 lobbcil liy 
 the buurs. 
 
 Illness 
 from fa- 
 tigue und 
 culd. 
 
 tntire 
 prostra- 
 tion. 
 
 panying his scorbutic troubles. On tlie 4th Tliomas Hickey also 
 gave in, although not quite disabled for labour at the track-lines. 
 
 " Perhaps we would still have got on ; but, to croAvn all, we 
 found that the bears had effected an entrance into our jwinmican 
 casks, and destroyed our chances of reinforcing our provisions at 
 the several caches. This great calamity was certainly inevitable ; 
 for it is simple justice to the officers under whose charge the pro- 
 vision depots were constructed, to say that no means in their 
 power could have prevented the result. The pemmican was 
 covered with blocks of stone which it had required the labour of 
 three men to adjust ; but the extraordinary strength of the bear 
 had enabled him to force aside the heaviest rocks, and his pawing 
 had broken the iron casks which held our pemmican literally into 
 chips. Our alcohol cask, which it liad cost me a separate and 
 special journey in the late fall to deposit, was so completely de- 
 stroyed that we could not find a stave of it. 
 
 " Off Cape James Kent, about eight miles from ' Sunny Gorge,' 
 while taking an observation for latitude, I was myself seized with a 
 sudden pain, and fainted. My limbs became rigid, and certain ob- 
 scure tetanoid symptoms of our late winter's enemy disclosed them- 
 selves. In this condition I was unable to make more than nine miles 
 a-day. I was strapped upon the sledge, and the march continued an 
 usual ; but my powers diminished so rapidly that I could not resist 
 even the otherwise comfortable temperament of 5° below zero. My 
 left foot becoming frozen up to the metn+nrsal joint, caused a vexa- 
 tious delay ; and the same night it became evident that the immova- 
 bility of my hmbs was due to dropsical effusion. 
 
 " On the 5tii, becoming delirious, and fainting every time that I 
 was taken from the tent to the sledge, I succumbed entirely. I ap- 
 pend the report of our surgeon, made upon my return. This will best 
 exhibit the diseased condition of myself and party, and explain, in 
 stronger terms than I can allow myself to use, the extent of my 
 efforts to contend against it.*" 
 
 " My comrades would kindly persuade me that, even had I con- 
 tinued sound, we could not have proceeded on our journey. The 
 snows were very heavy, and increasing as we went ; some of the 
 drifts perfectly impassable, and the level floes often four feet deep 
 in yielding snow. The scurvy had already broken out among the 
 men, with symptoms like my own ; and Morton, our strongest 
 

 ArPUOACHING DALLAS BAY. 
 
 l.'J7 
 
 niiin, was beginning to give way. It is the reverse of comfort to chaptkr 
 uie that they shared my weakness. All that I should renieniber _[_ 
 with pleasurable feeling is, that to five brave men, Morton, lUley, 
 Hickey, Stephenson, and Hans, themselves scarcely able to travel, Ri-tuiJi. 
 I owe my preservation. They carried me back by forced marches, 
 after cacheing our stores and India-rubber boat near Dallas Bay, 
 in lat. 7 9°. 5, Ion. GG°. 
 
 Al'PROACIIIKO DALLAS IIAV. 
 
 " I was taken into the brig on the 14 th. Since then, fluctuat- rroi-voct of 
 ing between life and death, I have by the blessing of God reached '■"'^"**^'^' 
 the present date, and see feebly in prospect my recovery. Dr. 
 Hayes regards my attack as one of scurvy, complicated by typhoid 
 fever. George Stephenson is similarly aftected. Our worst 
 symptoms are dropsical effusion and ni,i,dit-sweats. 
 
 "May 22, Monday. — Let me, if I can, make up my record ^'^r- 
 the time I have been away or on my back. 
 
 " Poor Schubert is gone. Our gallant, merry-hearted companion ncnth of 
 left us some ten days ago, for, I trust, a more genial world. It is 
 sad, in this dreary little homestead of ours, to miss his contented 
 face and the joyous troll of his ballads. 
 
 "The health of the rest has, if anything, improved. Their 
 complexions show the influence of sunlight, and I think several 
 
 Schubert. 
 
 r 
 
 ; V- 
 
i'.'i 
 
 :■ w 
 
 U.1 
 
 i 
 
 S 
 
 m 
 
 R!l':; 
 
 138 
 
 THE BRIO IN MAY. 
 
 ArraiiRe- 
 nieiits (III 
 bonnl tlio 
 brig. 
 
 OH*PTER have a firmer and more elastic step. Stephenson and Tliomas are 
 ^'^' the only two beside myself who are likely to suflfer permanently 
 from the effects of our break -down. Bad scurvy both : symptoms 
 still serious. 
 
 " Before setting out, a month ago, on a journey that should have 
 extended into the middle of June, I had broken up the establish- 
 ment of Butler Island, and placed all the stores around the brig, 
 upon tlie heavy ice. My object in this was a double one. First, 
 to remove from the Esquimaux the temptation and ability to 
 pilfer. Second, to deposit our cargo where it could be re-stowed 
 by very few men, if any unforeseen change m the ice niade it 
 necessary. Mr. Ohlsen, to whose charge the brig was committed, 
 had orders to stow the hold slowly, remove the forward housing, 
 and fit up the forecastle for the men to inhabit it again. 
 
 All these he carried out with judgment and energy. I find, upon 
 my return, the brig so stowed and refitted that four days would 
 prepare us for sea. The quarter-deck alone is now boarded in ; 
 and here all the officers and sick are sojourning. The wind makes 
 this wooden shanty a somewhat airy retreat ; but, for the health 
 of our maimed, scorbutic men, it is infinitely preferable to the less- 
 ventilated quarters below. Some of the crew, with one stove, are 
 still in the forecastle, but the old cabin is deserted. *• 
 
 " I left Hans as hunter. I gave liim a regular exemption from 
 all other labour, and a promised present to his lady-love on reach- 
 ing Fiskernaes. He signalized his promotion by shooting two 
 deer, Tukkuk, the first yet shot We have now on hand one hun- 
 dred and forty-five pounds of venison, a very gift of grace to our 
 diseased crew. But, indeed, we are not likely to want for whole- 
 some food, now that the night is gone, which made our need of it 
 so pressing. On the first of May those charming little migrants 
 the snow-birds, ultima coelicolum, which only left us on the 4th of 
 November, returned to our ice-crusted rocks, whence they seem 
 to * fill the sea and air with their sweet jargoniug.* Seal literally 
 abound, too. I have learned to prefer this flesh to the reindeer's, at 
 least that of the female seal, which has not the fetor of her mate's. 
 
 "By the 12th, the sides of the Advance were free from snow, 
 and her rigging clean and dry. The floe is rapidly undergoing 
 its wonderful processes of decay, and the level ice measures but 
 six feet in thickness. To-day they report a burgomasttr gull 
 
 Hnns the 
 huiiter. 
 
m'gary's expedition. 
 
 139 
 
 seen, one of tbo earliest but surest indications of returning open 0HAPTr.i« 
 
 water. It is not strange, ice-leaguered exiles as we are, that we 1 
 
 observe and exult in these things. They are the pledges of re- 
 newed life, the olive-branch of this dreary waste : we feel the 
 spring in all uiir pulses. 
 
 "The first thhig I did after my return was to sendM'Garyto the Mr.:iry*» 
 Life-boat Cove, to soe that our boat and its buried provisions were [^|'" '' 
 secure. He made the journey by dog-sledge in four days, and has 
 returned reporting that all is sjifc : an iraportjint help for us, should 
 this heavy ice of our more northern prison refuse to release us. 
 
 " But the pleasantest feature of his journey was the disclosure Discovery 
 of open water, extending up in a sort of tongue, with a trend of Jilf^"^,?" 
 north by east to within two mUes of Refuge Harbour, and there 
 widenuig as it expanded to the south and west. 
 
 " Indeed, some circumstances which he reports seem to point to 
 the existence of a north water all the year round ; and the frequent 
 water-skies, fogs, «tc., that wo have seen to the south-west during 
 the winter, go to confirm the fact. The breaking up of the Smith 
 Strait's ice commences much earlier than tlus ; but as yet it has 
 not extended further than Littleton Island, where I should have 
 wintered if my fall journey had not pointed to the policy of re- 
 maining here. The open water undoubtedly has been the cause 
 of the retreat of the Esquimaux. Their sledge-tracks have been 
 seen all along the land-foot ; but, except a snow-house at Esqui- 
 maux Point, we have met nothing which to the uninitiated tra- 
 veller would indicate that they had rested upon this desert coast. 
 
 " As soon as I had recovered enough to be aware of my failure, 
 I began to devise means for remedying it. But I found the re- 
 sources of the party shattered. Pierre had died but a week be- Diseose 
 fore, and his death exerted an unfavourable influence, 
 only three men able to do duty. Of the officers, Wilson, Brooks, 
 Sontag, and Petersen, were knocked up. There was no one except 
 Sontag, Hayes, or myself who was qualified to conduct a survey ; 
 and, of us three. Dr. Hayes was the only one on his feet. 
 
 " The quarter to which our remaining observations were to be 
 directed lay to the north and east of the Cape Sabine of Captivin 
 Inglefield. The interruption our progress along the coast of 
 Greenland had met from the Great Glacier, and the destruction of 
 our provision-caches by the bears, left a blank for us of the entire 
 
 There were fr"« 
 
 too iiieii 
 
140 
 
 nn. HA\ Its's EXPEDITION. 
 
 '. ,: 
 
 Object of 
 tlin expe- 
 attton. 
 
 CHAPTKR northern coast line. It wns necessary to ascertain whether the 
 *'*' furtherniost exi)anHion of Smith's Strait <li(l not find an outlet in 
 Btill more rcnioto channels ; and this became our duty the more 
 jilainly, since our theodolite had shown us that the northern coast 
 trended ofT to the east\v rd, and not toward the west, as our 
 predecessor had supposed. The an^'ular dift'erenro of 60' 
 between its bearings on his charts and our own left me completely 
 in the dark as to what might be the condition of this unknown area. 
 
 " I determined to trust almost entirely to the dogs for our 
 travel in the future, and to send our parties of exploration, one 
 after the other, as rapidly as the strength and refreshing of our 
 team would permit. 
 
 " Dr. TIayes was selected for that purpose; and I satisfied my 
 self that, \('ith a little assistance from my comrades, I could be 
 carricil round to the cots of the sick, and so avail myself of his 
 services in the field. 
 
 " lie was a perfectly fresh man, not having yet undertaken a 
 journey. I gave him a team and my best driver, William God- 
 frey, lie is to cross Smith's Straits above the inlet, and make 
 as near a.s may be a straight course for Cape Sabine. My opinion 
 is, that by keeping well south he will find the ice less clogged and 
 easier sledging. Our experience proves, I think, that the transit 
 of this broken area must be most impeded as we approach the 
 glacier. The immense discharge of icebergs cannot fail to break 
 it up seriously for travel. 
 
 " I gave him the small sledge which was built by Mr. Ohlaen. 
 The snow was suflficieutly thawed to make it almost unnecessary 
 to use fire as a means of obtaining water : they could therefore 
 dispen.se with tallow or alcohol, and were able to carry pemmican 
 in larger quantities. Their sleeping-bags were a very neat article 
 of a light reindeer-skin. The dogs were in excellent condition 
 too, no longer foot-sore, but well rested and completely broken, 
 including the four from the Esquimaux, animals of gi-eat power 
 and size. Two of these, the stylish leaders of the team, a span 
 of thoroughly wolfish iron-grays, have the most powerful and 
 wild-beast-Uke bound that I have seen in animals of their kind. 
 
 " I made up the orders of the party on the 19th, the first day 
 that I was able to mature a plan; and with commendable zeal 
 they left the brig on the 20th. 
 
 Dr. 
 
 iUyeVs 
 
 ruute. 
 
 Kqulp 
 
 liieiit. 
 
rnoanrss of spuing. 
 
 141 
 
 •' May 23, Tumhiij. — Tlioy have liad superb weather, thank 
 Heaven ! — a profusion of the most genial sunshine, bringing out 
 the seals in crowds to bask around their breath ing-h(jles. A 
 ptarmigan was killed to-day, a male, with but two brown feathers 
 on the back of his little neck to indicate the return of Ids summer 
 plumage. 
 
 " The winter is gone ! The Andromeda has been found on 
 shore under tlio snow, with tops vegetating and green ! I have a 
 shoot of it in my hand. 
 
 " May 25, Thnrsihty. — Bands of soft mist hide tho tops of the 
 hills : the unbroken transparency of last month's atmosphere has 
 disappeared, and the sky has all the ashen or pearly obscurity of 
 the Arctic summer. 
 
 " aMoi/ 2G, Friday. — I get little done ; but I have too much to 
 attend to in my weak state to journalize. Thermometer above 
 freezing-point, without tho sun to-day. 
 
 " Jloy 27, Saturday. — Everything showing that the summer 
 changes have commenced. Tho ice is ra[)idly losing its integiity, 
 a!id a melting snow has fallen for the last two days, — one of 
 those comforting home-snows that we have not seen for so long. 
 
 " May 28, Sunday. — Our day of rest and devotion. It was a 
 fortnight ago last Friday since our poor friend Pierre died. For 
 nearly two months he had been struggling against the enemy with 
 a resolute will and nurthful spirit, that seemed sure of victory. 
 But he sunk in spite of them. 
 
 " The last offices were rendered to liim with the same careful 
 ceremonial that we observed at Baker's funeral. There were fewer 
 to walk in the procession ; but the body was encased in a decent 
 pine coffin and carried to Observatory Island, where it was placed 
 side by side with that of his messmate. Neither could yet be 
 buried ; but it is hardly necessary to say that the frost has em- 
 balm3d their remains. Dr. Hayes read the chapter from Job 
 which has consigned so many to their last resting-place, and a 
 little snow was sprinkled ui)ou the face of the coffin. Pierre was 
 a volunteer not only of our general expedition, but of the party 
 with which he met his death-blow. He was a gallant man, a 
 universal favourite on board, always singing some Beranger ballad 
 or other, and so elastic in his merriment, that even in hid lout 
 sickness he cheered all that were about liim." 
 
 OHArTER 
 XIX. 
 
 Si-nU 
 iipiwur. 
 
 Veiri'ta- 
 ttun. 
 
 Tho BHm- 
 
 iner 
 cliaiiKt'!!. 
 
 A rtny of 
 rest. 
 
 Plerren 
 fuiifiaL 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 li 
 
 
m 
 
 m } 
 
 142 
 
 CHANGES ON THE ICE. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SEAIi-nUJfTING — SIB JOUH FRANKLIN— RESOURCES— ACCLIMATIZATIOX — 
 
 THE " hope" — DR. Hayes's letubx — uis journey — snow-blindness 
 
 —CAPE HAYES— TUB DOQS TANGLED — MENDING THE HARNESS — CAFES 
 J.EIDY AND FRAZER — DOBBIN BAY — FLETCHER WEBSTER HEADLAND- 
 PETER FORCE BAY — NEW PARTIES — THEIR ORDERS — PROORESS OP 
 SEASf N — THE SEAL — THE NETSIK ANn CSUK — A BEAR — OUR ENCOUNTEU 
 — CHANGE IN THE FLOE. 
 
 M 
 
 ^f : 
 
 : ■ 
 
 i': U 
 ''I ' 
 
 
 
 i , 
 
 Ice and 
 
 flllOW 
 
 ■j '' '' 
 
 Limited 
 
 » ■■; ^' = 
 
 influence 
 
 ♦ ,■ '■ i 
 
 ■ ; ' i 
 
 1 ■; 
 
 of tliaw 
 
 c'APTKR " May 30, Tiitsday. — We are gleaning fresh water from the rocks, 
 ^^' and the icebei-gs begin to show commencing streamlets. The 
 great floe is no longer a Sahara, if still a desert. The floes are 
 wet, and their snow dissolve readily under the warmth of the 
 foot, and the old floe begins to shed fresh water into its hollows. 
 Puddles of sail, water collect around the ice-foot. It is now 
 hardly recognisable, — rounded, sinken, broken up with water- 
 pools overflowing its base. Its diminished crusts are so percolated 
 by the saline tides, th\}t neither tables nor broken fragments unite 
 any longer by freezing. It is lessening so rapidly that we do not 
 fear it any longer as an enemy to the brig. The berg indeed 
 vanished long before the sun-thermometers indicated a noon-tem- 
 perature above 32°. 
 
 " The changes of this ice at ter-'^eratures far below the freezing- 
 point confirm the views I fomu'd upon my last cruise as to the 
 limited influence of direct thaw. I am convinced that the expan- 
 sion of the ice after the contraction of low temperatures, and the 
 infiltnative or endosmometric changes thus induced, — the differing 
 temperatures of sea-water and ice, and their chemical relations, — 
 the mechanicjvl action of pressure, collapse, fracture, and disrup- 
 tion, — the effects of sun-heated snow-surfaces, falls of warm snow, 
 currents, wind, drifts, and wave-action, — all these leave the great 
 mass of the Polar ice-surfaces so broken, disintegrated, and reduced, 
 when the extreme cold abates, and so changed in structure find 
 molecular character, that the few weeks of summer thaw have but 
 a subsidiary office to perform in completing their destruction. 
 
 ^.*ii: 
 
^n > 
 
 SHOOTING SEAL. 
 
 143 
 
 " Seal of the Hispid variety, the Netsik of the Esquimaux and ohapteb 
 Danes, grow still more numerous on the level floes, lying ^^- 
 
 Seal Oil 
 ttie f\w\ 
 
 SnOOTIN'J 8EAU 
 
 cautiously in the sun beside their atluki.*' By means of the 
 Esquimaux stratagem of a white screen pushed forward on a 
 
 -I » 
 
 ■! 
 
 i 
 
144 
 
 SIK JOHN FRANKLIN. 
 
 ^•''i; 
 
 11 
 
 bi ' . 
 
 It 
 
 >;' 
 
 IKi 
 
 
 M>. 
 
 
 XX. 
 
 Uesourccs 
 for I'uud 
 
 cuAPTKii sledge until the concealed hunter comes within range, Hans has 
 shot four of them. We have more fresh meat than we can eat. 
 For the past three weeks we have been living on ptarmigan, 
 rabbits, two reindeer, and seal. 
 
 " Tliey are fast curing our scurvj'. With all these resources, — 
 coming to our relief so suddenly too, — how can my thoughts turn 
 despairingly to poor Franklin and his crew 1 
 
 " . . . . Can they have survived ? No man can answer with cer- 
 tainty ; but no man without presuir.ption can answer in the negative. 
 
 " If, four months ago,— surrounded by darkness and bowed 
 down by disease, — I had been asked the question, I would have 
 turned toward the black hills and the irozen sea, and responded in 
 sympathy with them, * No.' But witli the return of light a savage 
 people come down upon us, destitute of any but the rudest appli- 
 ances of the chase, wh ) were fattening on the most whoJesoiTie 
 diet of the region, only forty miles from our anchorage, while I 
 was denouncing its scarcity. 
 
 " For Frankhn everything depends upon locality ; but, from 
 wliat I can see of Arctic exploration thus far, it would be hard to 
 find a circle of fifty miles' diameter entirely destitute of animal 
 resources. The most solid winter-ice is open here and there in 
 pools and patches worn by currents and tides. Such were tlie 
 open spaces that Parry found in Wellington Channel ; such arc the 
 stream-holes (stromhols) of die Greenland coast, the polynia of the 
 Russians ; and such we have ourselves found in the most rigorous 
 cold of all, 
 
 " To these spots the seal, the walms, and the early birds crowd 
 in numbers. One which kept open, as we find from the Esqui- 
 maux, at Littleton Island, only forty miles from us, sustained three 
 families last winter until the opening of the north water. Now, 
 if we have been entirely supported for the past three weeks by the 
 hunting of a sing'e man, — seal-meat alone being plentiful enough 
 to subsist us till \\'e turn homeward, — certainly a party of tolerably 
 skilful hunters might lay up an abundant stock for the winter. As 
 it is, we are making caches of meat under the snow, to prevent it 
 spoiling on our hands, in the very spot which a few days ago I 
 described as a Sahara. And, indeed, it was so for nine whole 
 months, when this flood of animal life burst ui)on us like fountains 
 ol' watei and pastures and date-trees in a southern desert. 
 
 Animal 
 food ill 
 winter. 
 
 1 4 ; 
 
 'a I 
 
ACCLIMATIZATIOM. 
 
 145 . 
 
 " I have undergone one change in opinion. It is of the ability ciiai-tkr 
 of Europeiuis or Americans to inure themselves to an ultra-Arctic __1 
 climote. God forhid, indeed, that civilized man should be exposed How iie.n- 
 for snccessive years to this blighting darkness! b<it around the cinie imn 
 Arctic circle, even as high as 72°, where cold and cold only is to ""»y •'« 
 ')e encountereii, men may be acclimatized, for there is light enough tizmL 
 for out-door labour. 
 
 " Of the one hundred and thirty-six picked men of Sir Jt)hn 
 Franklin in 184G, Northern Orkney men, (Jrceiilnnd whalers, so 
 many young and hnrdy constitutions, Avith so much intelligent 
 experience to guide them, 1 cannot realize that some may not yet 
 be alive ; that some small squad or squads, aided or not aided by 
 the Esquimaux of the expedition, may not have found a hunting- 
 ground, and laid up from sunnncr to summer enough of fuel and 
 food and seal-skins to brave three or even four more winters in 
 succession. 
 
 " I speak of the miracle of tiiis bountiful fair season. I could 
 liardly have been nnich more surprised if these black rocks, in.stead 
 of sending out u])on our .solitude the late imoad of yelling Esqui- 
 nnvux, had scut us naturalized Saxons. Two of our party at first 
 fancied they were such. 
 
 "The my.sterious compensations by which we adapt ourselves compen- 
 to cUmate are mere striking here than in the tro|)icy. In the ""*'""* ''y 
 I'olar zone the as.sault is immediate and sudden, and, unlike theaiapt our 
 in.si('.ious i'ataiity of hot countries, produces its results rapidly. It ]!,i,^ 
 requires liardly a single winter to tell who are to be the heat- 
 making and acclimatized men. I'etersen, for instance, who has 
 resided for two years at Upernavik, seldom enteis a room with a 
 tire. Another of our party, (Jeorge Itiley, with a vigorous consti- 
 tution, established habits of free exposure, and active, cheerful tem- 
 perament, has so inuiid himself to the cold that he sleeps on our 
 sledge-journeys without a blanket or any other eoveiing than his 
 walking-suit, while tlu' outside tenqterature is 30^ below zero. 
 The half-breeds of the coa^t rival the Esquiiuuux in their powers of 
 endurance. 
 
 "There nuiht be luany such men with Franklin. The North 
 British sailors of the (Jreenli-nd seal and whale fisheries I look 
 upon a.3 inferior to none in capacity to resist the Arctic climates. 
 
 " My mind never realizes the coiupletc catastrojihe, the ilestruc- 
 
 Htlv 8 to 
 
 iliiutu. 
 
 T ! 
 
 I 
 
 ■ 1 "2 
 
 ^ I 
 
 i 
 
^ 
 
 
 
 
 146 
 
 IlETURN OF DR. UAYE3. 
 
 Itnprs of 
 fimliii); 
 Kiiiiikiiri's 
 purty. 
 
 CHAPTER tion of all Franklin's crews. I picture thcm to myself broken into 
 ^^' detachments, an<^ my mind fixes itself on one little group of some 
 thirty, who have found the open spot of some tidal eddy, and, under 
 the teachings of an Esquimaux, or ;" ^rhaps one of their own Green- 
 land whalers, have set bravely to work, and trapped the fox, speared 
 the bear, and killed the seal and walrus and whale. I think of 
 them ever with hope, I sicken not to be able to reach them. 
 
 " It is a year ago to-day since we left New York. I am not as 
 sanguine as I was then : time and experience have chastened me. 
 There is everything about me to check enthusiasm and moderate 
 hope. I am here in forced inaction, a broken-down man, oppressed 
 by cares, with many dangers before me, and still under the shadow 
 of a hard wearing winter, which has crushed two of my best asso- 
 ciates. Here, on the spot, after two unavailing expeditioua of 
 scarcli, I hold my opinions unchanged ; and I record them as a 
 matter of duty upon a manuscri})t which mny speak the truth 
 when I can do so no longer. 
 
 ^^June 1, Thursday. — At ten o'clock this morning the wail of 
 netmnof 'he dog.s oiitside announced the return of Dr. Hayes and William 
 i»i. iiuycs. Godfrey. L ith of them were completely snow-blind, and the doctor 
 hfid to be led to my bedside to make his report. In fact, so ex- 
 hausted was he, that in spite of my anxiety I forbore to question 
 hiiu until he had rested. I venture to say, that both he and his 
 com2)anion well remember their astonishing peiformance over stewed 
 apples and seal-meat. 
 
 " The dogs were not so foot-sore as might have been expected ; 
 but two of them, including poor little Jenny, were completely 
 knocked up. AH attention was bestowed upon these indispensable 
 essentials of Arctic search, and soon they were more happy than 
 their masters." 
 
 Pr 
 route. 
 
 DR. HAYES S JOURNEY. 
 
 Dr. Hayes made a due north line on leaving the brig ; but, 
 encountering the "squeezed ices" of my own party in March, he 
 wisely worked to the eastward. I had advised liini to descend to 
 Smith's Sound, under a ci)nviction that the icebergs there would 
 be less numerous, and that the diminished distance from land to 
 land would make his transit more easy. But he managed to effect 
 the object by a less circuitous route than 1 had anticipated ; for, 
 
 
THE DOGS AMONG THE BERGS. 
 
 117 
 
 although he made but fifteen miles on the 20th, he emerged the 
 
 )n this d 
 
 next day from the lieavy ice, and made at least fifty. 
 
 :^y 
 
 CUAPTKR 
 XX. 
 
 his meridian observation gave the latitude of 79° 8' G", and from 
 a large berg he siglited many points of the coast. 
 
 On the '2'2d he encountered a wall of hummocks, exceeding 20 
 feet in height, and extending in a long line to the north-east. 
 
 After vain attempts to force them, becoming embarrassed in 
 fragmentary ice, worn, to use liis own words, hito " deep pits and 
 valleys," he was obliged to camp, surrounded by masses of the 
 wildest character, some of them '50 feet in height. 
 
 The next three days were spent in struggles through this broken 
 plain ; fogs sometimes embarrassed them, but at intervals land 
 could be seen to the north-west. On the 27th they reached the 
 north side of the bay, passing over but few miles of new and 
 unbroken floe. 
 
 The excessively broken and rugged character of this ice they had 
 encountered nmst be due to the discharges from the Great Glacier 
 of Humboldt, which arrest the ^oes, and make them liable to ex- 
 ces.sive disruption \uidcr the influence of winds and currents. 
 
 EnlanKlcil 
 In tlic i<;e. 
 
 Ciiuse of 
 bixikoii ice, 
 
 DiHJS AMONG BKRuS. 
 
 Dr. Hayes told me, that in many places tliey couid iKjt hav^e 
 advanced a .step but for the dogs. Deep cavities filled with sno v 
 
149 
 
 SUFFERINGS AND DISASTERS. 
 
 
 
 .t-.. 
 i 
 
 CHAPTKK 
 XX. 
 
 travtL 
 
 Pnnw 
 bliitdiiess. 
 
 C'lipp 
 Hiiycs, 
 
 Ar: iniii- 
 lat 'U dis- 
 asters. 
 
 iiitorvenccl between lines of icc-barrirades, making their travel i\H 
 sloAv and tedious as the same ob.struotions had done to the party 
 of poor Brooks before their eventful rescue last March, 
 
 Tlieir course was now extremely tortuous ; for although from 
 from tlie headlands of Rensselaer Harbour to the point which they 
 first reached on the northern coast was not more than ninety miles 
 us the crow flies, yet by the dead reckoning of the party tiiey mu.st 
 have had an actual travel of two hundred and seventy. 
 
 For the details of this passage I refer the reader to tlie appendeil 
 rei)ort of Dr. Hayes. His gravest and most insurmountable diffi- 
 culty was .snow-bli'ulness, which so affected him that for some time 
 he was not able to use the sextant. His journal-entry, referring 
 to the 2;5d, while tangled in the ice, says, "1 was so snow-blind 
 that I could not see ; and a.s riding, owing to the jaded condition 
 of the dogs, was seldom possible, we were obliged to lay-to." 
 
 It was not until the 2oth that their eyesight was sufficiently 
 restored to emiMc them to push on. In these devious and un- 
 trodden ice-fields even the instinct of the dogs would have been 
 of little avail to direct their course. It w.is well for the party that 
 during this compulsory halt the temperatures were mild and endur- 
 able. From their station of the 25th they obtained reliable sights 
 of tlie coast, trending to the northward and eastward, a:ul a reliable 
 determination of latitude, in 79^ 21' 4". A fine headh'iid, bearing 
 nearly due north-west, I named Cape Hayes, in commemoration 
 of the gentl(>man who discovered it. 
 
 Instead, however, of making for the land, which could not have 
 aided their siu'voy, they followed the outer ice, at the same time 
 edging in toward a lofty blutf whose position they had determined 
 by intersection. They hoped here to effect a landing, but encoun- 
 tered a fresh zone of broken ice in the attenijit. The hummocks 
 could not be turned. The sledge had to be lifted over them by 
 main strength, and it required the most painful efforts of the whole 
 party to liber ite it from the snow between them. 
 
 On the 2Gth, disasters accumulated. William Godfrey, one of 
 the sturdiest travellers, broke down ; and the dogs, the indispeu- 
 sablo reliance of the party, were in b.ad working trim. The rude 
 harness, always apt to become tangled and broken, had been 
 mended so often aii<l with .such imperfect means as to be scarcely 
 serviceable. 
 
I 
 
 MEN'DINO THE HARNK.SS. 
 
 14'1 
 
 This evil would seem the annoyance of an hour to the travellers chaptrr 
 in a stage-coach, but to a sledge-party on the ice-waste it is the •^"^' 
 giavest that can be conceived. The Esquimaux dog, as 1 before iin'n«Mof 
 mentioned, is driven l)y a single trace, a long thin thong of seal or tumu. 
 walrus hide, which passes from his chest over his haur.ches to the 
 sledge. The team is always driven abreast, and the traces are of 
 course tangling and twisting themselves up incessantly, as the 
 half-wild or terrilied brutes bound right or left from their pre- 
 .scribed positions. The consequence is, that the seven or nine or 
 fourteen lines have a marvellous aptitude at knotting themselves 
 lip beyond the reach of skill and patience. If the weather is 
 warm enougli to thaw the snow, they become utterly soft and 
 flaccid, and the naked hand, if {ii)plied ingeniously, may dispense 
 with a resort to the Gordian process ; but in the severe ctild, 
 such as I expeiienced in my winter journeys of 1851, the knife is 
 often the only a])pliaiice, — an unsafe one if invoked too often, for 
 everj' new attachment shortens your harness, and you may end by 
 drawing your dogs so close that they cannot pull. 1 have beeuTriniof 
 obliged to halt and camp on the open floe, till I could renew •"'"'""^'^' 
 enough of warmth and energy and i)atience to disentangle th« 
 knots of my harness. Oh, liow chaiitably have I remembered 
 Doctor Slop ! 
 
 It was only after nppropiiating an undue share of his seal-skin Men.iine 
 breeches that the leader of the party succeeded in patching up his "'" '""' 
 mutilated dog-lines. He was rewarded, however, for he shortly 
 after found an old iloe, over wliic;h his sledge passed happily to 
 the north coast. It was thf first time that any of our parties had 
 succeeded in penetrating the area to the north. The ice had 
 baffled three organized foot-iiarties. It could certainly never have 
 been traversed without the aid of dogs ; but it is equally certain 
 that the ettbrt must again have failed, even with their aid, but iVr 
 the energy and determination of Dr. Hayes, and the endurance of 
 his partner, William Godfrey. The latitude by observation was 
 7\}° 45' N., the longitude 09° 1 2' W. The coast here trended 
 more to the westward than it had done. It was sighted for thirty 
 miles to the northward and eastward. This was the culminating 
 point of his survey, beyond which his observations did not extend. 
 Two large headlands, Capes Joseph Leidy and John Frazer, indi- '^'"f"^" 
 cate it. liazti. 
 
 l! 
 
 
 
150 
 
 nOBBlN BAY. 
 
 CnAJ'TKB 
 \X. 
 
 ■n 
 
 MendInK 
 the sluilgo. 
 
 Foroefl to 
 tetiini. 
 
 Polibin 
 buy. 
 
 CnvP 
 Sabine. 
 
 Tlie cliffs were of mingled limestone and snndstone, correspond- 
 ing to those on the sonthern side of Peabody Bay. To the north 
 tlioy exceeded 2000 feet in height, while to the southward they 
 dimished to 1200. The ice-foot varied from 50 to 150 feet in 
 width, and stood ont against the dark debiis thrown down by 
 the cliffs in a clean naked shelf of dazzling white. 
 
 The party spent the 28th in mending the sledge, which was 
 completely broken, and feeding np their dogs for a renewal of the 
 journey. But, their provisions being limited. Dr. Hayes did not 
 deem himself justified in continuing to the north. He determined 
 to follow and survey the coast toward Cape Sabine. 
 
 His pemmican was reduced to eighteen pounds ; there was 
 apparently no hope of deriving resources from the hunt ; and the 
 coasts were even more covered with snow than those he had left on 
 the southern s'de. His retiun was a thing of necessity. 
 
 The course of the party to the westward along the land -ice was 
 interrupted by a large indentation, which they had seen and 
 charted while approaching the coast. It is the same which I 
 snr ■ '^d in April 1855, and which now bears the name of the 
 Secretaiy of the Navy, Mr. Dobbin. Dr. Hayes discovered two 
 islands near its entrance. He saw also on its south-western side a 
 lofty pyramid, truncated at its summit, which corresponded both 
 in its bearings and position with the .survey of my April 
 journey. 
 
 The latter portion of Dr. Hayes's journey was full of incident. 
 The land-ice was travelled for a while at the rate of five or six 
 miles an hour ; but, after crossing Dobbin Bay, tlie snows were an 
 unexpected impediment, and the ice-foot was so clogged that they 
 made but fifteen miles from camp to camp on the floes. After 
 fixing the position of Cape Sabine, and connecting it with the 
 newly-discovcrcd coast-line to the north and east, he prepared to 
 cross the bay further to the south. 
 
 Most providentially they found this passage free from bergs ; 
 but their provisions were nearly gone, and their dogs were 
 exhausted. They threw away their slec]nng-bags, which 
 were of reindeer-skin and weighed about twelve pounds each, 
 and abandoned, besides, clothing enough to make up a reduction 
 in weight of nearly fifty pounds. With their load so lightened, 
 they were enabled to make good the crossing of the bay. They 
 
PLAX OP A NEW EXrV.PITION. 151 
 
 landed at Peter Force Bay, and reached the brig on the 1st of 
 June. 
 
 Tliia journey connected the northern coast with the survey of 
 my predecessor ; but it disclosed no channel or any form of exit 
 from this bay. 
 
 It convinced me, liowever, that such a cliannel must exist ; for 
 this great curve could be no cul-de-sac. Even were my observa- 
 tions since my first fall journey of September ISf)!], not decisive 
 on tlus head, the general movement of the icebergs, the character 
 of the tides, and the ecpuilly sure analogies of physical geogi'aphy, 
 would point unmistakably to such a conclusion. 
 
 To verify it, I at once commenced the organization of a double 
 party. This, which is called in my Report the North-east Party, 
 was to be assisted by dogs, but was to be subsisted as far as the 
 Great Glacier by provisions carried by a foot-party in advance. 
 
 For the continuation of my plans I again refer to my journal. 
 
 " June 2, Friday. — There is still tliis hundred miles wanting to 
 the north-west to complete our entire circuit of this frozen water, 
 This is to be the field for our next party. I am at some loss how 
 to organize it. For myself, I am down with scurvy. Dr. Hayes is 
 just from the field, Avorn-out and snow-blind. His health-roll 
 makes a sorry parade. It runs thus : — 
 
 Officers. 
 
 Mu. Brooks Unhealed stump. 
 
 1[r. WiMoN do. 
 
 Mu. SoNTAG Down with scurvy. 
 
 Mk. Bonsali, Scurvy knee, hut mending. 
 
 Mk. PKTEnsEN General scurvy. 
 
 Mn. GooDFKLiiOW Scurvy. 
 
 Wk. Oiilsen Well. 
 
 Mr. M'Cjary Well. 
 
 Ci'eiv. 
 
 WiLLTAM Morton , Nearly recovered. 
 
 Thomas Hickky Well. 
 
 George Whipple Scurvy. 
 
 John Blake Scurvy. 
 
 Hans Ckistian Well. , ► 
 
 George IIiley... Sound. 
 
 George Stephenson Scurvy from last journey. ' 
 
 William Goi>fuey Snow-blind. 
 
 " June 3, Saturday/. — M'Gary, Bonsall, Hickey, and Riley were 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XX. 
 
 netnrn tu 
 tile brig. 
 
 A new 
 
 purty. 
 
 Tlie hpaltl) 
 roll lit 111'. 
 Hnvf»'s 
 party. 
 
i.";2 
 
 AnUANOEMKNTS FOR ANOTHER EXPEDITION. 
 
 'pP 
 
 liolltc. 
 
 ArranRC. 
 iiients. 
 
 cii«iTKK detailed for the firnt section of the new piirties : they will be 
 
 1 accompanied by Morton, who has orders to keep hiniself as fresli 
 
 as possible, so as to enter on his own lino of search to the greatest 
 |)ossiblo advantage. I keep Hans a while to recruit the dogs, and 
 do the hunting and locomotion generally for the rest of us ; but I 
 shall soon let him follow, unless things grow so much worse on 
 board as to make it impossible. 
 
 "They start light, with a large thirteen-feet sledge, arranged 
 with broad runner.s on account of the snow, and are to pursue my 
 f)\vn last track, feeding at the caches which I deposited, and ainung 
 directly for the glacier barrier on the Greenland side. Here, sus- 
 tained as I hope by the remnants of tlio gi'eat cache of last fall, 
 they will survey and attempt to scale the ice, to look into the 
 interior of the groat inn- de (/lace. 
 
 "My notion is, that the drift to the southward both of berg and 
 floe, not being reinforced from the glacier, may leave an interval 
 of smooth frozen ioe; but if this route should fail, there ought 
 still to be a chance by sheering to the scmthward and westward 
 and looking out for openings among the hummocks. 
 
 " I am intensely anxious that this party should succeed; it i.<j 
 my last throw. They have all my views, and I believe they will 
 carry them out unless overruled by a higher power. 
 
 " Their orders are, to carry the sledge Ibrward as far as the base 
 of the Great Glacier, and fill up their provisions from the cache of 
 my own party of last May. Hans will then join them with the 
 dogs; and, while M'Gary and three men attempt to scale and 
 survey the glacier, Morton and Hans will pu.sli to the north across 
 the bay with the dog-sledge, and advance along the more distant 
 coast. Both divisi(ms are provided with clampers, to steady 
 them and their sledges on the irregular ice-surfaces ; but I am not 
 without apprehensions that, with all their eff rts, the glacier can- 
 not be surmounted. 
 
 " In thio event, the main reliance must be on Mr. Morton. Ho 
 he takes with him a sextant, artificial horizon, and pocket chrono- 
 meter, and has intelligence, courage, and the spirit of endurance, 
 in full measure. He is withal a long-tried and trust-worthy fol- 
 lower. 
 
 "June f), Monday. — The last party are off; they left yesterday 
 at 2 P.M. I can do nothing more but await the ice-changes 
 
PROfiKEKS OF THE SKASOX. 
 
 103 
 
 that arc to doterminc for us our liberation or coutinueil impri- oiiavtkk 
 
 X X 
 
 sonincnt. 1 
 
 "The sun Is shining bnively, and tho tcniperature feels like a Sunsiiiin.'. 
 home suninior. 
 
 "A 8<i)i(li'rll>if/, the second migratory land-bird we have seen, 
 came to our brig to day, and is now a speeimen. 
 
 ^^June G, Tuesday. — We are a parcel of sick men, affecting to 
 keep ship till our comrades get back. Except Mr. Ohlsen and 
 George Whipiile, there is not a sound man among us. Th" i 
 wearily in our Castle of Indolence, for 'lal>oiir dire it was, and 
 weary woe,' wo have been watching the changing days, and not- 
 ing bird and insect and vegetable, as it t'jlls us of the condng 
 summer. One fly buzzed around William Clodfrey's head t.)- 
 day, — ho could not tell what tho species was; and Mr. Peter- 
 sen brought in a cocoon from which the grub had eaten its way Animnit 
 to liberty. Hans gives us a seal almost daily, and for a i)ass- "'"' '''' ^^ 
 
 •' => _ •" ' _ api>eur. 
 
 iiig luxury we have ptarmigan and hare. The little snow-birds 
 have crowded to llutlcr Island, and their songs i)enetratc the 
 cracks of oin- rude housing. Another snipe, too, was mercilessly 
 shot the very day of his arrival. 
 
 " The andromeda shr.ws green luider its rusty winter-dried Growf.i of 
 htcms; the willows are sappy and puffing, their catskins of last 1'.'^*^"'"" 
 year dro')ping oft'. Draba, lichens, and stellaria, can be detected 
 by an ej 3 accustomed to this dornuuit vegetation, and the stone- 
 crops are really green and juicy in their centres; all this under 
 the snow. So we have assurance that summer is coming; though 
 our tide-hole freezes every niglit alongside, and the ice-tloc seems 
 to be as fast as ever. 
 
 "Jime 8, Thursday. — Hans brings us in to-day a couple ofstui. 
 seal; all of them as yet are of the Hough or Hispid species. The 
 flesh of this seal is eaten universally by the iJanes of Greenland, 
 and is ahnost the stajjle diet of the Esquimaux. When raw, it 
 has a flabby look, more like coagulated blood than muscular fibre; 
 cooking gives it a dark soot-colonr. It is close-grained, but soft 
 and tender, with a flavour of lamp-oil — a mere soup^on, how- 
 ever, for the blubber, wl^n fresh, is at this season sweet atvi deli- 
 cious. 
 
 " The seal are shot lying by tlieir atluk or breathing-holes. As 
 the season draws near midsummer, they are more ax)proaohable ; 
 
 <h] 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
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 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, NY. 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 
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154 
 
 THE XETSIK AND USUK. 
 
 ■'( = 
 
 =1 
 
 1' ! 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 \\ 
 
 1 t 
 
 i ! 
 
 i; 
 
 I 
 
 
 CHAVTER 
 XX. 
 
 Seal 
 
 cooked in 
 the sun. 
 
 The 
 netstlc 
 
 The usuk. 
 
 Atlunnk 
 iiuw made, 
 
 their eyes being so congested by the glare of the sun that they are 
 sometimes nearly blind. Strange to say, a few hours^ exposure of 
 a rocently-killod animal to the sun blisters and destroys the hide ; 
 or, as the sealers say, cooks it. We have lost several skins in this 
 way. Each seal yields a liberal supply of oil, the average thus far 
 being five gallons each." 
 
 Besides the Hispid seal, the only species which visited Rensse- 
 laer Harbour was the Fhoca barbata, the large bearded seal, or 
 vsiik of the Esquimaux. I have measured these ten feet in length, 
 and eight in circumference, of such unwieldy bulk as not unfre- 
 quently to be mistaken for the v/alrus. 
 
 The netsik will not perforate ice of more than one season's 
 growth, and are looked for, tlierefore, where there was open Avater 
 the previous year. But the bearded seals have no atli(k. They 
 depend for respiration upon the accidental chasms in the ice, and 
 are found wherever the bergs or floes have been in motion. They 
 are thus more diffused in their range than their sun-basking little 
 brethren, who crowd together in communities, and in some places 
 absolutely throng the level ices. 
 
 The vsuk appears a little later than the netsik, and his com- 
 ing is looked for anxiously by the Esquimaux. The lines, atlu- 
 nak, which are made from his skin, are the lightest and strongest 
 and most durable of any in use. They are prized by the hunters 
 in their contests with th-. walrus. 
 
 T.1 obtain the atlunak in full perfection, the animal is skinned 
 in a spiral, so as to give a continuous coil from head to tail. 
 This is carefully chewed by the teeth of the matrons, and after 
 being well greased with the burnt oil of their lamps, is hung 
 up in their hu^s to season. At the time referred to in my 
 journal, Anoatok was completely festooned -with them. 
 
 On one occasion, while working my way toward the Esqui- 
 maux huts, I saw a large usuk basking asleep upon the ice. 
 Taking , off my shoes, I commenced a somewhat refrigerating 
 process of stalking, lying upon my belly, and crawling along 
 step by sto[) behind the little knobs of floe. At last, when I 
 was within long rifle shot, the animal gave a sluggish roll to one 
 side, and suddenly lifted his head. The movement was evidently 
 independent of me, for he strained his neck in nearly the oppo- 
 site direction. Then, for the first time, I found that I had a 
 
A RIVAL SEAL HUNTER. 
 
 156 
 
 Imng 
 
 along 
 
 rival seal-hunter in a large bear, who was, on his belly like my- oitiPTKR 
 self, waiting with commendable patience and cold feet for a ^' , 
 chance of nearer approach. 
 
 A bear 
 wntcdinn 
 
 ESQUIMAUX APPROACHING A 8KAL. 
 
 What should I do I the bear was doubtless wt)rth more to a iiiiflcuH 
 me than the seal ; but the seal was now within shot, and the '^*^''"^^'^- 
 bear "a bird in the bush." Besides, my bullet once invested in 
 the seal would leave me de'^enceless. I might be giving a dinner 
 to the bear and saving myself for his dessert. These medita- 
 tions were soon brought to a close ; for a second movement of the 
 seal so aroused my hunter's instincts that I pulled the trigger. 
 My cap alone exploded. Instantly, with a floundering splash, the 
 seal descended into the deep, and the bear with three or four 
 rapid leaps, stood disconsolately by the place of his descent. For 
 a single moment we stared each other in the face, and then, with 
 that discretion whidi is the better part of valour, the bear ran off 
 in one direction, and I followed his example in the other. 
 
 The generally-received idea of the Polar bear battling with the 
 walrus meets little favour among the Esquimaux of Smith's Straits. 
 
va: 
 
 CHANGE IN THK FLOE. 
 
 » n 
 
 Olncrvtt- 
 tory. 
 
 Cl:a;ipe on 
 
 t.'ietloe- 
 
 iue. 
 
 CHAi'TKB ^[y own experience is directly adverse to the trutli of the story. 
 __L The walrus is never out of reach of water, and, in his peculiar 
 element, is witliout a rival. I have seen the bear follow the usuk 
 by diving ; but the tough hide and great power of the walrus for- 
 bid such an attack. 
 
 " June 9, Friday. — To-day I was able to walk out itpon the floe 
 for the first time. My st(;i)S were turned to the observatory, 
 where, close beside the coffins of Baker and Schidiert, Sontag was 
 at work with the luiifilar, correcting the winter disturbances. Our 
 local deviation seems to have corrected itself; the iron in our com- 
 fortless little cell seems to have been so distributed that our results 
 were not affected by it. 
 
 " I was very nuich struck by the condition of the floe-ice. 
 Hitherto I have been dependent upon the accounts of my mess- 
 mates, and believed that the work of thaw was going on with 
 extreme rapidity. Tliey are mistaken ; we have a late season. 
 The ice-foot has hot n aterially changed either in breadth or level, 
 and its base has been hardly affected at all, excej)t by the overflow 
 of the tides. The floe, though undergoing the ordinary molecular 
 changes Avhich accompany elevation of temperature^ shows less 
 surface change than the Lancaster Sound ices in early May. All 
 this, but especially the condition of the ice-foot, warns me to 
 prepare for the contingency of not escaping. It is a moment- 
 ous warning. We have no coal for a second winter here ; our 
 stock of fresh provisions is utterly exhausted ; and our sick need 
 change, as essential to their recovery. 
 
 "The willows are tolerably forward on Butler Island. Poor, 
 stunted crawlers, they show their expanded leaflets against the 
 a;rey rocks. Among these was the Bear berry (.S'. uva ursi), know- 
 its reputation with the Esquimaux to the south as a remedy for 
 scurvy, I gleaned leaves enough for a few scanty mouthfuls. The 
 lichens are very conspicuous ; but the mosses and grasses and 
 heaths have not yet made their appearance in the little valley 
 bftween the rocks." 
 
 ruuits. 
 
m 
 
 PRAnr.IXG SEAL. 
 
 157 
 
 CHArTER XXI. 
 
 
 PKOGKESS OP SEASON — PLANTS IN -WINTER — CIUDS BETUIINING- 
 
 LEAUIA— THE PLANTS. 
 
 -cocu- 
 
 "/«?ie 10, Saturday. — Hans was ordered yesterday to hunt in the coArTKR 
 
 direction of the Esquimaux huts, in the hope of determining tlie .' 
 
 position of the open water. He did not retur,. ^"''-t night; but J'^*"^". '"'' 
 Dr. Hayes and Mr. Ohlsen, wlio were sent after him this morning 
 witli the dog-sledge, fi)nnd the hardy savage fast asleep not five 
 
 I 
 
 IiKAUOINa 8KAI. 
 
 miles from the brig. Ahjng side of him was a large usuk or 
 bearded seal {P. barbata), shot, as usual, in the head. He had 
 dragged it for seven hours over the ice-foot. The dogs hav- 
 ing now recruited, he started light to join Morton at the 
 glacier. 
 
 "June 11, Siindai/. — Another walk on shore showed me the Vecrcta- 
 andromeda in flower, and the saxifrages and carices green under *'""' 
 the dried tufts of last year. This rapidly-maturing vegetation 
 is of curious interest. The amlromeda tctragona had acKiuiccd 
 
 
 ■ I 
 , I 
 
 ^ 
 
158 
 
 THE SNOW BLAxNKET. 
 
 .;)?! 
 
 <i I 
 
 ii 
 
 runts. 
 
 Valiu' of 
 the siii)\v 
 cuvei'in>{. 
 
 onAPTKR rapidly toward fructification without a corresponding development 
 ^^^' of eitlier stalk or leaflet. In fact, all the heaths — and there were 
 three species around our harbour — had a thoroughly moorland and 
 stunted aspect. Instead of the graceful growth which should 
 characterize them, tliey sho\ved only a low, scrubby sod or turf, yet 
 studded with flowers. The spots from which I gathered them 
 were well infiltrated with melted snows, and the rocks enclosed 
 them so as to aid the solar heat by reverberation. Here, too, 
 silene and cerathium, as well as the characteristic flower-growths 
 of the later summer, the poppy, and sorrel, and saxifrages, were 
 already recognisable. 
 
 '■ Few of us at home can realize the protecting value of this 
 warm coverlet of snow. No eider-down in the cradle of an infant 
 is tucked in more kindly than the sleeping-dress of winter about 
 this feeble flower-life. The first warm snow^s of August and Sep- 
 tember falling on a thickly -pleached carpet of grasses, heaths, aiid 
 willows, enshrine the flowery growths which nestle round them in a 
 non-conducting air-chamber ; and, as each successive snow increases 
 the thickness of the cover, we have, before the intense cold of 
 winter sets in, a light cellular bed covered by drift, six, eight, or 
 ten feet deep, in which the plant retains its vitality. The frozen 
 subsoil does not encroach upon this narrow zone of vegetation. 1 
 have found in midwinter, in this high latitude of 78° 50', the sur- 
 face so nearly moist as to be friable to the touch ; and upon the 
 ice-floes, commencing with a surface temperature of — 30°, I found 
 at two feet deep a temperature of — 8\ at four feet +2°, and at 
 eight feet +26°. This was on the largest of i range of east and west 
 hummock-drifts in the open way of Cape Staff'ord. The glacier 
 wliich we became so familiar with afterward at Etah yields an 
 uninterrupted stream throughout the year. 
 
 " My experiments prove that the conducting power of the snow 
 ing power is proportioned to its compression by winds, rains, drifts, and con- 
 o snow. ggij^^tiQj^ The early spring and late fall and summer snows are 
 more cellular and less condensed than the nearly impalpable powder 
 of winter. The drifts, therefore, that accumulate during nine 
 months of the year, are dispersed in well-defined layers of differ- 
 ing density. We have first the wai-m cellular snows of fall 
 which surround ihe plant, next the fine impacted snow dust of 
 winter, and above these the later humid deposits of the spring. 
 
 Conduct- 
 
BIRDS RETURNING. 
 
 169 
 
 " It is interesting to observe the effects of tlris disposition of layers chapter 
 upon the safety of the vegetable growths below them. These, at ^^'' 
 least in the earlier summer, occupy the uiclined slopes that face '''""" 
 the sun, and the several strata of snow take of course the same in- ^uow 
 clination. The consequence is, that as the ui>\)CT snow is dissipated 
 by the early thawings, and sinks upon the more compact layer be- 
 low, it is to a great extent arrested, and runs t)ff like rain from a 
 slope of clay. The plant reposes thus in its cellular bed, guarded 
 from the rush of waters, and protected too from the nightly frosts 
 by the icy roof above it. 
 
 "June 16, Fnday. — Two long-tailed ducks {Ilarelda (jlacialis) wnter 
 visited us, evidently seeking their breeding-grounds. They are '^""'' 
 beautiful birds, either at rest or on the wing. We now have the 
 snow-birds, the snipe, the burgomaster gull, and the long-tailed 
 duck, enlivening our solitude ; but the snow-birds are the only ones 
 in numbers, crowding our rocky islands, and making our sunny 
 night-time musical with home-remembered songs. Of each of 
 the others we have but a solitary pair, who seem to have left 
 their fellows for this far northern mating-ground in order to 
 live unmolested. I long for speciiMcns ; but they shall not be 
 fired at. 
 
 The ptarmigan show a singular backwardness in assuming the Ptar- 
 summer feathering. The male is still entirely white ; except, in ""^''"' 
 some specimens, a fcAv brown feathers on the crown of the head. 
 The female has made more progress, and is now well coated with 
 her new plumage, the coverts and quill-feathers still remain white. 
 At Upernavik, in hit. 73^, they are already in full summer cos- 
 tume. 
 
 "June 18, Sundcti/. — Another pair of long-tailed ducks passed Ducks mid 
 over our b.ay, bound for further breeding-grounds ; we saw also an *"'""*■ 
 ivory-gull and two great northern divers {Colymbus glacialis), the 
 most imposing birds of their tribe. These last flew very high, 
 emitting at regular intervals their reed-like ' kawk.' 
 
 " Mr. Ohlsen and Dr. Hayes are off on an overland tramp. I 
 sent them to inspect the open water to the southward. The im- 
 movable state of the ice-foot gives me anxiety : last year, a large 
 bay above us was closed all summer ; and the land-ice, as we find 
 it here, is as perennial as the glacier. 
 
 "'June 20, Tuesday. — This morning, to my great surprise, 
 
im 
 
 PLANTS AXD BIKDS. 
 
 rorlilcii 
 rlu. 
 
 cHAPTKn Petersen brought mo quite a handful of scurvy-grass (C fenestraia). 
 ' In my fall list of the stinted flora here, it liad quite escaped my 
 notice. I folt grateful to him for liis kindness, and, without the 
 affectation of offering it to any one else, ate it at once. Each plant 
 stood about one inch high, the miniature leaves expanding through- 
 out a little radius of hardly ono inch more. Yet, dwarfed as it was, 
 the fructifying process was nearly perfected ; the buds already ex- 
 panding and nearly ready to burst. We found cochlearia after- 
 ward at Littleton Island, but never in any quantity north of Cape 
 Alexander. Although the melted snows distil freely over the 
 darker rocks (porphyries and greenstones), it is a rare exception to 
 note any vegetable discoloration of the surface beneath. There 
 are few signs of those confervaceous growths which are universal as 
 high as Upernavik. The nature of this narrative does not permit 
 me to indulge in matters unconnected with my story : I cite these 
 in passing, as among the indications of our high northern lati- 
 tude. 
 
 ^^ June 21, Wednesday. — A snow, moist and flaky, melting upon 
 our decks, and cleaning up the dingy surface of the great ice-plain 
 with a new garment. We are at the summer solstice, the day of 
 greatest solar light ! Would that the traditionally-verified but 
 meteonjlogically-disproved equinoctial storm could bi'eak upon us, 
 t ) destroy the tenacious floes ! 
 
 '■^ June 22, Thursday. — The ice changes slowly, but the progress 
 of vegetation is excessively rapid. The growth on the rocky gi'oup 
 near our brig is surprising. 
 
 '^ June 2'^, Friday. — The ciders have come back: a pair were 
 seen in the morning, soon followed by four ducks and drakes. 
 The poor things seemed to be seeking breeding-grounds, but the 
 ice nmst have scared them. They were flying southward. 
 
 " Ju7ie 25, Sunday. — Walked on shore and watched the changes : 
 andromeda in flower, poppy and ranunculus the same : saw two snipe 
 and some tern. 
 
 " Mr. Ohlsen returned from a walk with Mr. Petersen. They 
 saw reindeer, and brought back a noble specimen of the king duck. 
 It was a solitary male, resplendent with the orange, black, and 
 green of his head and neck. 
 
 " Stephenson is better; and I think that a marked improvement, 
 {dtliough a slow one, shows itself in all of us. I work the men 
 
 Tlio ''iini- 
 mer sol- 
 stice. 
 
 Elder 
 ducks. 
 
PLANTS IN THE SNOW. 
 
 131 
 
 lightly and allow plenty of basking in the sun. In the afternoon chaptku 
 we walk on shore, to eat such succulent plants as we can find amid l"* 
 the snow. The pyrola I have not found, nor the cochlearia, save Sfccuirnt 
 in one spot, and then dwarfed. But wo liave the lychnis, the " ' "' 
 young sorrel, the andromeda, the draba, and the willow-bark ;' this 
 last an excellent tonic, and, in common with all the Arctic 'vec^e- 
 table astringents, I think, powerfully antiscorbutic." ° 
 
 plants. 
 
 t 
 
 -li" "#■'; 
 
1G2 
 
 MR. BONSALL'.S RKTURX. 
 
 m. 
 
 CHAPTER XXir. 
 
 MK. BONSALL'a nETURN — HIS 8T0UY— THR BEAR IN' CAMP— MIS FATK— 
 BEARS AT SPORT — THE THAWS. 
 
 OH APT EH 
 XXII. 
 
 n 
 
 ■1 i 
 
 Roturn (if 
 anil Bon- 
 
 S;lfi!(rHC- 
 
 " June 27, 7'nesdai/. — M'Gary .and Bonsall are back witli Hickey 
 and Ililey. They arrived last evening : all well, except that the 
 snow has affected their eyesight badly, oAving to the scorbutic con- 
 dition of their systems. Mr. ^M'Gary is entirely blind, and I fear 
 will be found slow to cure. They have done admirably. They 
 bring back a continued series of observations, perfectly well kept 
 up, for the further authentication of our survey. They had a good 
 chronometer, artificial horizon, and sextant, and their results corre- 
 spond entirely with those of Mr. Sontag and myself They are 
 connected, too, with the station at Chimney Rock, Cape Thackeray, 
 which we have established by theodolite. I may be satisfied now 
 tory obsur- yf[i[^ q^j. projection of the Greenland coast. The different locali- 
 ties to the south have been referred to the position of our winter 
 harbour, and this has been definitely fixed by the labours of Mr. 
 Sontag, our astronomer. We liave, therefore, not only a reliable 
 base, but a set of primary triangulations, which, though limited, 
 may support the minor field-work of our sextants. 
 
 JOURNEY OF MESSRS. M'GARY AND BONSALL. 
 
 " They left the brig on the 3d, and reached the Great Glacier on 
 the 15th, after only twelve days of travel. They showed great 
 judgment in passing the bays ; and, although impeded by the 
 heavy snows, would have been able to remain much longer in the 
 field, but for the destruction of our provision-depots by the bears. 
 
 " I am convinced, however, that no efforts of theirs could have 
 scaled the Great Glacier ; so that the loss of our provisions, though 
 certainly a very serious mishap, cannot be said to have caused their 
 failure. They were well provided with pointed staves, foot-clampers, 
 and other apparatus for climbing ice ; but, from all they tell me, 
 any attempt to scale this stupendous glacial ma.ss would have been 
 
STORV OF II IS JOrUNKV. 
 
 in-j 
 
 mjiflncss ; and I ain truly glad that they desisted from it before cnAPTEU 
 fatal accident befell them. ^•^" ' 
 
 "Mr Bonsall is making out liis report of the daily operations of Snow 
 this party. It seem.s that the same heavy snow which had so '''""" 
 much interfered with my travel in April and May still j)r()ved their 
 greatest drawback. It was accumulated particularly between the 
 headlands of tin; bays ; and, as it was already affected by the warm 
 sun, it called for great care in crossing it. They encomitered drifts 
 which Were altogether impenetrable, and in such cases could only 
 advance by long circuits, after reconnoitring from the ti>p of ice- 
 bergs. 
 
 " I have tried in vain to find out some good general rule, when Knlpsfor 
 traversing the ice near the coast, to avoid the accumulati«in of snows """"'"K 
 
 o ' the leu. 
 
 and hiimmock-ridgcs. It appears that the direct line between 
 lieadland and headland or cape and ca|te is nearly always ob- 
 structed by broken ice ; while in the deep recesses the grounded 
 ice is even worse. I prefer a track across the middle of the bay, 
 outside of the grounded ices and inside of the hummock-ridges ; 
 unless, as sometimes happens, the late fall-ice is to be found 
 extending in level flats outside. 
 
 " This is evidently the season when the bears are in most abun- 
 dance. Their tracks were everywhere, both on shore and upon the 
 floes. One of them had the audacity to attempt intruding itself 
 upon the party during one of their halts upon the ice ; and Bon- 
 sall tells a good story of the manner in which they received and 
 returned his salutations. It was about half an hour after nudnight. An nn- 
 and they were all sleeping away a long day's fatigue, when !M'Gary ^/J^'""""' 
 either heard or felt, he could hardly tell which, something that was 
 scratching at the snow innnediately by his head. It waked him 
 just enough to allow him to recognise a huge animal actively en- 
 gaged in reconnoitring the circuit of the tent. His startled outer}' 
 aroused his companion -inmates, but witho\it in any degree disturb- 
 ing the unwelcome visitor; specially unwelcome at that time and 
 place, for all the guns had been left on the sledge, a little distance 
 off, and there was not so much as a walking pole inside. There 
 was, of course, something of natural confusion in the little council 
 of war. The first impulse was to make a rush for the arms ; but 
 this was soon decided to be very doubtfully practicable, if at all ; 
 for the bear, having satisfied himself with his observations of the 
 
 YlSltUl'. 
 
I 
 
 104 
 
 THE BKAU IN CAMP. 
 
 
 fHipTKR exterior, now prfsented liimself at tlie ti'!it njicnin;^. Sundry vol- 
 '" ' ' leys oi Iiicifer matches and some impromptu torches of newspaper 
 
 A ?ftvtle 
 l:i>iii the 
 
 Tho last 
 tei-iitiytHl. 
 
 THE RKAK IN CAMI'. 
 
 were fired without alarming him, and, after a little Avliile, he planted 
 himself at the doorway and begiin making his supper upon the 
 carcass of a seal which had been shot the day before. 
 
 " Tom Ifiokey was the first to bethink liim of the military device 
 of a sortie from tlie postern, and, cutting a hole with his knife, 
 crawled out at the rear of tlie tent. Here he extricated a boat- 
 hook, that formed one of the supporters of the ridge-pole, and 
 made it the instrument of a right valorous attack. A bhnv well 
 administered on the nose caused the animal to retreat for the 
 moment a few paces beyond the sledge, and Tom, calculating his 
 distance nicely, sprang forward, seized a rifle, and fell back in 
 safety upon his comrades. In a few seconds more, Mr. Bonsall 
 liad sent a ball through and through the body of his enemy. I 
 was assured that after this adventure the party adhered to the 
 custom I had enjoined, of keeping at all times a watch and fire- 
 arms inside the camping-tent. 
 
 " The final cache, which I relied so much upon, was entirely de- 
 stroyed. It had been built with extreme care, of rocks which had 
 been assembled by very heavy labour, and adjusted with much aid 
 
TriE CACHE DESTROYED BY BEARS. 
 
 16fl 
 
 often from caii-stau-bars as levers. The entire OdiLstruction was, 
 so far as our means pcrniittcd, mcst etfective ami resisting. Yet 
 tlie.se tiger.s of the ice seemed to have scarcely eiiconntered an ob- 
 stacle. Not a mor.sal of pcnimican remained except in the iron 
 cases, ■which, being round with conical ends, defied both claw and 
 teeth. They had n)lkd and pawed them in every direction, toss- 
 ing them about like footballs, although over eighty pounds in 
 weight. An alc(jhol-case, strongly iron-l)ound, wa.s da.shed into 
 small fragments, and a tin can of liquor ma.^hed and twi>ted ahno.st 
 into a ball. 'J'ho claws of the beast had perforated the metal, and 
 torn it np as Avith a cold chisel. 
 
 "They were too dainty for salt meats: ground coffee they had an 
 evident relish for: old canvas was u favourite for some reason or 
 other; even our flag, which had been reared 'to take possession' of 
 the waste, was gnawed down to the very stall". They had made a 
 
 CIIAITKP. 
 XXII. 
 
 Till- <l«- 
 tt I not mil 
 I'lliinril liy 
 
 thu lifuis, 
 
 TlIK CAUIIK DE8TH0TBD. 
 
 regular frolic of it ; rolling our bread-barrels over the ice-foot and 
 into the broken outside ice ; and, unable to masticate our heavy 
 India-rubber cloth, they had tied it up in unimaginable hard 
 knots. 
 
 "M'Gary describes the whole area around the cache a.; marked 
 by the well-worn paths of these animals; and an adjacent slope of 
 
166 
 
 RETURN OF HANS AND MORTON". 
 
 11 
 
 Hie Scars' 
 spurt. 
 
 Anxiety 
 for absent 
 friends. 
 
 CHAPTER ice-covcrcd rock, with an angle of 45°, was so worn and covered 
 
 V V TT 
 
 J ■ with their hair, as to suggest the idea that they had been amusing 
 
 themselves by sliding down it on their haunches. A performance, 
 by the way, in which I afterward caught them myself. 
 
 '■'■June 28, Wedvesdai/. — Hans came up with the party on the 
 17th. Morton and he are still out. They took a day's rest; and 
 then, 'following the old tracks,' as M'Gary reports, 'till they were 
 clear of the cracks near tlie islands, pushed northward at double- 
 quick time. When last seen, they were both of them walking, for 
 the snow was too soft and deep for them to ride with their heavy 
 load.' Fine weather, but the ice }delds reluctantly." 
 
 While thus watching the indications of advancing summer, my 
 mind turned anxiously to the continued absence of Morton and 
 Hans, AVe were already beyond the p 'as(m when travel upon the 
 ice was considered practicable by oiir English predecessors in 
 Wellington Channel, and, in spite of the continued solidity aroimd 
 us, it was unsafe to presume too much upon our high northern 
 position. 
 
 The ice, although seemingly as unbroken as ever, was no longer 
 fit for dog-travel ; the floes were covered with water-pools, many 
 of which could not be forded by our team ; and, as these multiplied 
 with the rapidly-advancing thaAvs, they united one with another, 
 chequering the level waste with an interminable repetition of con- 
 fluent lakes. These were both embarrassing and dangerous. Our 
 little brig was already so thawed out where her sides came in 
 contact with her icy cradle as to make it dangerous to descend 
 without a gangway, and our hunting parties came back wet to the 
 skin. 
 
 It was, therefore, with no slight joy that on the evening of the 
 10th, while walking with Mr. Bonsall, a distant sound of dogs 
 caught my ear. These faithful servants generally bayed their full- 
 mouthed welcome from afar ofi^, but they always dashed in w4th 
 a wild speed which made their outcry a direct precursor of their 
 arrival. Not so these well-worn travellers. Hans and Morton 
 staggered beside the limping dogs, and poor Jenny was riding as 
 a passenger upon the sledge. It was many hours before they 
 shared the rest and comfort of our ship. 
 
 A joyftd 
 return. 
 
mokton's joueney. 
 
 let 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Morton's RETURN— HIS NARRATIVE— PEABODT BAY— THROrOH THE BERGS 
 — BRIDGING THE CHASMri— THE WEST LAND- THE DOGS IN FRIGHT — 
 OPEN WATER — THE ICE-FOOT — THE POLAR TIDES— CAPES JACKSON AND 
 MORRIS— THE CHANNEIi — FREE OF ICE— BIRDS AND PLANTS— BEAR AND 
 CUB — THE HUNT — THE DEATH — FRANKLIN AND LAFAYETTE — THE ANT- 
 ARCTIC FLAG — COURSE OP TIDES — MOUNT PARRY — VICTORIA AND ALBERT 
 MOUNTAINS— RESUME — THE BIRDS APPEAR— THE VEGETATION — THE 
 PETREL — CAPE CONSTITUTION — THEORIES OP AN OPEN SEA — ILLUSORY 
 DISCOVERIES- CHANGES OF CLIMATE — A SUGGESTION. 
 
 J^Ie. Morton left the brig with the relief party of M'Gary on chaptkr 
 the 4tli of June. He took his place at the track-lines like the ^^'"' 
 others; but he was ordered to avoid all extra labour, so as to hus- Time of de- 
 band his strength for the final passage of the ice. ^'" ""^^ 
 
 On the 15th he reached the hhzo. of the Great Glacier, and on 
 the 16th was joined by Hans with the dogs. A single day was 
 given to feed and refresh the animals, and on the 18th the two 
 companies parted. Morton's account I have not felt myself at 
 liberty to alter. I give it as nearly as possible in his own words, 
 without affecting any modification of his style. 
 
 Morton's journey. 
 
 The party left Cache Island at 12.35 a.m., crossing the land- Route, 
 ices by portage, and going south for about a mile to avoid a couple 
 of bad seams caused by the breakage of the glacier. Here Mor- 
 ton and Hans separated from the land-party, apd went northward, 
 keeping parallel with the glacier, and from five to seven miles dis- 
 tant. The ice was free from hummocks, but heavily covered with 
 snow, through which they walked knee deep. They camped about phst 
 eight miles from the glacier, at 7.45, travelling that night about «"^'""P" 
 twenty-eight miles. Here a cr;ick allowed them to measure the 
 thickness of the ice : it was seven feet five inches. The thermometer 
 at 6 A.M. gave + 28° for the ten;perature of the air; 29.2 for the 
 water. 
 
 They started again at half-pa.sc nine. The ice, at first, was very 
 
 ?? 
 
 .^^ 
 
168 
 
 PEABODY BAY. 
 
 cinrxKR 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 n'fflcultlea 
 of tha 
 journey. 
 
 Niivrow 
 jiiissages 
 between 
 the bergs. 
 
 IV'i-sover- 
 unce. 
 
 heavy, and they were frequently over their knees in the dry snow ; 
 but, after crossing certain drifts, it became hard enougli to bear the 
 sledge, and the dogs made four miles an hour until twenty minutes 
 past four, when they reached the middle of Peabody Bay. They 
 then found themselves among the bergs which on former occasions 
 had prevented other parties from getting through. These were 
 generally very liigh, evidently newly separated from the glacier. 
 Their surfaces were fresh and glassy, and not like those genet-ally 
 met with in Baffin's Bay, — less worn, and bluer, and looking in all 
 respects like the face of the Grand Glacier. Many were rectan- 
 gular, some of them regular squares, a quarter of a mile each way ; 
 otliers, more than a mile long. 
 
 They could not see more than a ship's-length ahead, the icebergs 
 were so unusually close together. Old icebergs bulge and tongue 
 out below, and are thus prevented from uniting ; but these showed 
 that they were lately launched, for they approached each other so 
 nearly that the party were sometimes forced to squeeze through 
 places less than four feet wide, through which the dogs could just 
 draw the sledge. Sometimes they could find no passage between 
 two bergs, the ice being so crunched up between them that they 
 could not force their way. Under these circumstances, they would 
 either haul the sledge over the low tongues of the berg, or retrace 
 their steps, searching through the drift for a practicable road. 
 
 This they were not always fortunate in finding, and it was at 
 best a tedious and in some cases a dangerous alteinative, for often- 
 times they could not cross them ; and, when they tried to double, 
 the compass, their only guide, confused them by its variation. 
 
 It took them a long while to get through into smoother ice. A 
 tolerably wide passage would appear between two bergs, which 
 they would gladly follow ; then a narrower one ; then no opening 
 in front, but one to the side. Following that a little distance, a 
 blank ice-cliif would close the way altogether, and they were forced 
 to retrace ihcir steps and begin again. Constantly baffled, but, 
 like true fellows, determined to "go ahead," they at last found a 
 lane some six miles to the west, which led upon their right course. 
 But they were from eight o'clock at night till two or three the next 
 morning, puzzling their way out of the maze, like a blind man in 
 the streets of a strange city. 
 
 Monday. — At 8.45 a.m. they encamped. Morton then 
 
 
 nine 
 
BRIDGING THE CHASMS. 
 
 169 
 
 climbed a berg, in order to select their best road. Beyond some 
 bergs he caught gUnipses of .a great white plain, ■which proved to 
 be the glacier seen far into the interior ; for, on getting up another 
 berg further on, he saw its face as it fronted on the bay. This 
 was near its northern end. It looked full of stones and earth, 
 while large rocks projected out from it and rose above it here and 
 there. 
 
 They rested till half-past ten, having walked all the time iJ? 
 spare the dogs. After starting, they went on ft>r teii iniles, but 
 were then arrested by wide seams in the ice, bergs, and much 
 broken^ice^ -So they^urhed about, and reached their labt camp 
 by twelve, midnight. They then went westward, and, after several 
 trials, made a way, the dogs running well. It took them but 
 two hours to reach the better ice, for the bergs were in a narrow 
 belt. 
 
 The chasms between them were sometimes four feet wide, with 
 water at the bottom. These they bridged in our usual manner ; 
 that is to say, they attacked the nearest large humraocks with 
 their axes, and, chopping them down, rolled the heaviest pieces 
 they could move into the fissure, so that they wedged each other 
 in. They then filled up the spaces between the blocks with 
 smaller lumps of ice as well as they could, and so contrived a rough 
 sort of bridge to coax the dogs over. Such a seam would take 
 about an hour and a half to fill up well and cross. 
 
 On quiting the berg-field, they saw two dovekies in a crack, and 
 shot one. The other flew to the north-east. Here they sighted 
 the northern shore ("West Land"), mountainous, rolling, but very 
 distant, perhaps fifty or sixty miles oflf. They drove on over the 
 the best ice they had met due north. After passing .about twelve 
 miles of glacier, and seeing thirty of opposite shore, they camped 
 at 7.20 A.M. 
 
 They were now nearly abreast of the termination of the Great 
 Glacier. It was mixed with earth and rocks. The snow sloped 
 from the land to the ice, and the two seemed to be mingled 
 together for eight or ten miles to the north, when the land becama 
 solid, and the glacier was lost. The height of this land seemed 
 about 400 feet, and the glacier lower. 
 
 June 21, Wedneaday. — They stood to the north at 11.30 P.M., 
 and made for what Morton thought a cape, seeing a vacancy 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXIIl. 
 
 The 
 
 glacier in 
 ttie (lis- 
 
 tllllCt. 
 
 i 
 
 Tlie 
 cliiisins. 
 
 DovckiiiS. 
 
 Tlieterml 
 nation of 
 tlie (ireut 
 Glacier. 
 
170 
 
 THE DOGS IN FRIGHT. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXIII. 
 
 Mist nnd 
 cold. 
 
 The (Iocs 
 tremble. 
 
 'i 
 
 Safe ice 
 ugiiln. 
 
 between it and tlie West Land. The ice was good, even, and free 
 from bergs, only two or tliree being in sight. The atmosphere 
 became thick and misty, and the west shore, which they saw 
 faintly on Tuesday, was not visible. They could only see the 
 cape for which they steered. The cold was sensibly felt, a very 
 cutting wind blowing north-east by north. They reached the 
 opening seen to the westward of the cnpo by Th.ursrlay,. 7 a.m. It- 
 proved to be a channel ; for, as they moved on in the misty 
 weather, a sudden lifting of the fog showed them the cape and 
 the western shore. 
 
 The ice was weak and rotten, and the dogs began to tremble. 
 Proceeding at a brisk rate, they had got upon unsafe ice before 
 they Avere .".ware of it. Their course was at the time nearly up the 
 middle of the channel ; but, as soon as jjossible, they turned, and, 
 by a backward circuit, reached the shore. The dogs, as their 
 fashion is, at first lay down and refused to proceed, trembling 
 violently. The only way to induce the terrified, obstinate brutes 
 to get on was for Hans to go to a white-looking spot where the ice 
 was thicker, the soft stuff looking dark ; then, calling the dogs 
 coaxingly by name, they would crawl to him on their bellies. So 
 they retreated from place to place, until they reached the firm ice 
 they had quitted. A half-mile brought them to comparatively 
 safe ice, a mile more to good ice again. 
 
 In the midst of this danger they had during the liftings of the 
 fog sighted open water, and they now saw it plainly. There was 
 no wind stirring, and its fiice was perfectly smooth. It was two 
 miles further up the channel than the firm ice to which they had 
 retreated. Hans could hardly believe it. But for the birds that 
 were seen in great numbers, Morton says he would not have 
 believed it himself. 
 
 The ice covered the mouth of the channel like a horse-.shoe. 
 One end lapped into the west side a considerable distance up the 
 channel, the other covered the cape for about a mile and a half, 
 so that they covdd not land opposite their camp, wliich was about 
 a mile and a half from the cape. 
 
 That night they succeeded in climbing on to the level by the 
 floe-pieces, and walked around the turn of the cape for some dis- 
 tance, leaving their dogs behind. They found a good ice-foot, 
 very wide, which extended as far as the cape. They saw a good 
 
MAKING THE LAND-ICE. 
 
 171 
 
 niiuiv birds on the water, both eider-ducks and dovekics, and the ciiaptkr 
 
 rucks on shore were full of sea-swallows. There was no ice. A " 
 
 fog coming on, they turned back to Avhere the dogs had been left, a sk'.hkI 
 
 They started again at 11.30 a.m. of the 21st. On reaching the 
 land-ice they unloaded, and threw each package of [trovision from 
 the floe up to the ice-foot, which was eight or nine feet above 
 
 I 
 
 good 
 
 uii tlic ice. 
 
 MAKIN'Q THE LAXD-ICK, (CLIMBIXO). 
 
 them. ^lorton then climbed up with the aid of the sledge, which 
 they converted into a ladder for the occasion. He then pulled the I'unnp- 
 dogs up by the lines fastened round their bodies, Hans lending a "'" ''"'"'' 
 helping hand and then climbing up himself They then drew up 
 the sledge. The water was very deep, a stone the size of Mor- 
 ton's head taking twenty-eight seconds to reach the bottom, which 
 was seen very clearly. 
 
 As they had noticed the night before, the ice-foot lost its good 
 character on reaching the cape, becoming a mere narrow ledge 
 hugging the cliffs, and looking as if it might crumble off altogether 
 
172 
 
 OPEN WATER. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 A cache. 
 
 The tide 
 
 fi-.st. 
 
 CHAVTKii into the water at any moment. Morton was greatly afmid there 
 would be no land-ice there at all when they came back. Hans 
 and he thought they might pass on by climling along the face of 
 the crag ; in fact they tried a path about 50 feet high, but it grew 
 so narrow that they saw they could not get the dogs past with 
 their sledge-load of provisions. He therefore thought it safest to 
 leave some food, that tlicy niight not starve on tlic return in case 
 the ice-foot should disappear. He accordingly cached enough 
 provision to last them back, with four days' dog-meat. 
 
 At the pitch of the cape the ice-ledge was hardly three feet 
 wide ; and they were obliged to unloose the dogs and drive them 
 forward alone, Hans and he then tilted the sledge iip, and suc- 
 ceeded in carrying it past the narrowest place. The ice-foot was 
 firm under their tread, though it crumbled on the verge. 
 
 The tide was running very fast. The pieces of heaviest draught 
 floated by nearly as fast as the ordinary walk of a man, and the 
 surface pieces passed them much faster, at least four knots. On 
 their examination the night before, the tide was from the north, 
 running southward, carryiiig very little ice. The ice which was 
 now moving so fast to northward seemed to be the broken land- 
 ice around the cape, and the loose edge of the south ice. The 
 thermometer in the water gave + SG^, 7° above the freezing-point 
 of sea-water at Rensselaer Harbour. 
 
 They now yoked in tiie dogs, and set forward over the worst 
 sort of mashed ice for three-quarters of a mile. After passing the 
 cape, they looked ahead, and saw nothing but oi^en water. The 
 land to the westward seemed to overlap the land on which they 
 stood, a long distance ahead : all the space between was open 
 water. After turning the cape, — that which is m.arked on the 
 chart as Cape Andrew Jackson, — they found a good smooth ice- 
 foot in the entering curve of a bay, since named after the great 
 financier of the American Revolution, Robert Morris. It was 
 glassy ice, and the dogs ran on it full speed. Here the slpdge 
 made at least six miles an hour. It was the best day's travel they 
 made on the journey. 
 
 After passing four bluffs at the bottom and sides of the bay, the 
 land grew lower ; and presently a long low country opened on the 
 land-ice, a wide plain between large headlands, with rolling hills 
 through it. A flock of brent geese were coming down the valley 
 
 Or en 
 nutur. 
 
BIRDS ON THE OPKX WATEK. 
 
 178 
 
 of this low land, and ducks Avere seen in crowds upon tlie open cHAl•T1^R 
 water. When they saw the geese first, they were apparently ^^'" " 
 conung«froni the eastward ; they made a curve out to seaward, and Flight of 
 then, turning, flew far ahead over the plain, \intil they were lost to ^jpe^p 
 view, showing that their destination was inland. Tlie general line '^'''''"• 
 
 ° , ° . ilovekied, 
 
 of flight of the flock was to the north-east. Eiders and dovokies j-uns. ic 
 were also seen ; ni.id tern were very numerous, hunuieds uf tiieui 
 vsquealing and screeching in flocks. They Avere so tame that they 
 came within a few yards of the party. Flying high overhead, their 
 notes echoing from the rocks, were large white birds, which they 
 took for burgomasters. Ivory gulls and moUemokes were seen 
 further on. They did not lose sight of the birds after this, as far 
 as they went. The ivory gulls flew very high, but the mollemokes 
 alit, and fed on the water, flying over it well out to sea, as we had 
 seen them do in Baffin's Bay. Separate from these flew a dingy 
 bird unknown to Morton. Never had they seen the birds so 
 numerous : the water was actually black with dovekies, and the 
 rocks crowded.^^ 
 
 The part of the channel they were now coasting was narrower, koiim of 
 but as they proceeded it seemed to widen again. There was some "":' '^''""' 
 ice arrested by a bend of the channel on the eastern shore ; and, 
 on reaching a low gravel point, they saw that a projection of land 
 shut them in just ahead to the north. Upon this ice numerous 
 seal were basking, both the netsik and ussuk. 
 
 To the left of tliis, toward the West Land, the great channel 
 (Kennedy Channel) of open water continued. There was broken 
 ice floating in it, but with passages fifteen miles in width and per- 
 fectly clear. The end of the point — "Gravel Poir.t," as Morton 
 called it — was covered with hummocks and broken ice for about 
 two miles from the water. This ice was worn and full of gravel. 
 Six miles inland the point was flanked by mountains. 
 
 A little higher up they noticed that the pieces of ice in the Movement 
 middle of the channel v/ere moving up, while the lumps near °^ '*"* ''^*' 
 shore were floating down. The channel was completely broken 
 up, and there would have been no difficulty in a frigate standing 
 anywhere. The little b:'g, or "a fleet of her like," could have 
 beat easily to the northward. 
 
 The wind blew strong from the north, and continued to do so 
 for three days, sometimes blowing a gale, and very damp, the tops 
 
174 
 
 KENNEDY CIIANNF.L. 
 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 xxin. 
 
 Imics ami 
 mist. 
 
 SUeves of. 
 tlif cliiin- 
 iieL 
 
 Stirt nt 
 iiiidiii^lit. 
 
 Early 
 tlowtr-life, 
 
 in if 
 
 of the hills becoming fixed with dark foggy clouds. The damp 
 falling mist prevented their seeing any distance. Yet they saw 
 no ice borne down from the northward during all this time ; and, 
 what was more curious, they found, on their return south, that uo 
 ice had been sent down during the gale. On the contrary, they 
 then found the channel perfectly clear from shore to shore. 
 . Jurte 22, Tkursdof/.^^Tiiey- campe4 at -8.30 -A.-M.-, oa a Jedge-c-f- - 
 low rock, having made in the day's journey forty-eight miles in a 
 straight line. Morton thought they were at least forty miles uji 
 the channel. The ice was here moving to the southward with 
 the tide. The channel runs northwardly, and is .about thirty-five 
 miles wide. The opposite coast appears straight, but still sloping, 
 its head being a little to the west of north. This shore is high, 
 with lofty mountains of sugar-loaf shape at the tojis, which, set 
 together in ranges, looked like piles of stacked cannon-balls. It 
 was too cloudy for observations when they camped, but they ob- 
 tained several higher up. The eider were in such numbers here 
 that Hans fired into the flocks, and killed two birds with one shot. 
 
 Jime 23, Friday. — In consequence of the gale of wind they 
 did not start till 12.30 midnight. They made about eight miles, 
 and were aiTested by the \ loken ice of the shore. Their \itmost 
 efforts could not pass the sledge over this ; so they tied the dogs 
 to it, and went ahead to see how things looked. They found the 
 land-ice growing worse and worse, until at last it ceased, and the 
 water broke directly against the steep cliffs. 
 
 They continued their course overland until they came to the 
 entrance of a bay, whence they could see a cape and an island to 
 the northward. They then turned back, seeing numbers of birds 
 on their way, and, leaving the dogs to await their return, pre- 
 pared to proceed on foot. 
 
 This spot was the greenest that they had seen since leaving 
 the headlands of the channel. Snow patched the valleys, and 
 water was trickling from the rocks. Early as it was, Hans was 
 able to recognise some of the flower-life. He ate of the young 
 shoots of the lychnis, and brought home to me the dried pod 
 (siliqua) of a hesperis, which had survived the wear and tear of 
 whiter. INforton was struck with the abundance of little stone- 
 crop.s, " about the size of a pea." 
 
 : t 
 
 i 
 
 
BEAR AND CUB. 
 
 1 
 
 /O 
 
 June 23, 2i, Fridoi/, Sdturdmj. — At 3 a.m. they started again, 
 carrying eight pounds of pemniican and two of bread, besides the 
 artificial horizon, sextant, and compass, a rifle, and the boat-hook. 
 After two hours' walking the travel improved, and, on nearing a 
 plain about nine niiles from where they had left the sledge, they 
 were rejoiced to see a she-bear and her cub. They had tied the 
 dogs Securely, as they thought ; but Toodla and four others had 
 broken loose and followed them, making their appearance within 
 an Lour. They were thus able to attack the bear at once. 
 
 Hans, who to the simplicity of an Esquimaux united the shrewd 
 observation of a hunter, describes the contest which followed so 
 graphically, that I tiy to engraft some of the quaintness of his 
 description upon Mr. Morton's report. The bear fled ; but the 
 little one being unable either to keep ahead of the dogs or to 
 keep pace with her, she turned back, and, putting her head under 
 its haunches, threw it some distance ahead. The cub safe for the 
 moment, she would wheel round and face the dogs, so as to give 
 it a chance to nin away; but it always stopped just as it alighted, 
 till she came up and threw it ahead again : it seemed to expect 
 her aid, and would not go on without it. Sometimes the mother 
 would run a few yards ahead, as if to coax the young one up to 
 her, and Avhcn the dogs came up she would turn on them and 
 drive them back ; then, as they dodged her blows, she would 
 rejoin the cub and push it on, sometimes putting her head under 
 it, sometimes catching it in her mouth by the nape of the neck. 
 
 For a time she managed her retreat with great celerity, leaving 
 the two men far in the rear. They had engaged her on t'uc land- 
 ice ; but she led the dogs in-shore, up a small stony valley" which 
 opened into the interior. But, after she had gone a mile and a 
 half, her pace slackened, and, the Little one being jaded, she soon 
 came to a halt. 
 
 The men were then only half a mile behind ; and, running at 
 full speed, they soon came up to where the dogs were holding her 
 at bay. The fight was now a desperate one. The mother never 
 wont more than two yards ahead, constantly looking at the cub. 
 When the dogs came near her, she would sit upon her haunches 
 and take the little one between her hind legs, fighting the dogs 
 w ith her paws, and roaring so that slie could have been heard a 
 mile ofl". " Xever," said Morton, " was an animal more distressed."' 
 
 CIIAPTPR 
 XXIIl. 
 
 A bi'ui- Hlifl 
 cub tn 
 sight. 
 
 Tlic re- 
 treat of 
 tlie bear. 
 
 The 
 
 mother 
 bear turns 
 on th(! 
 dogs. 
 
i7e 
 
 A DESPERATE FIOHT, 
 
 i 
 
 ii 
 
 I I I 
 1 i 
 
 i SI i 
 
 i !'< 
 
 CIIArTER 
 X X 1 1 1, 
 
 Tlio 
 mother 
 ticiir fi(,'litii 
 
 (Icspcr- 
 .itcly t(ir 
 lilT lllll. 
 
 The death 
 111 the 
 iiiuther. 
 
 Tlie death 
 ot tlie cub, 
 
 Kiaiiklin 
 '111 J Cro- 
 zier 
 tslHiids. 
 
 She would stretch Ijer neck and snap at tlic nearest dog \vith her 
 shining teeth, whirling her paws like the arms of a windmill. If 
 she missed her aim, not daring to pursue one dog lest the others 
 should harm the cub, she would give a great roar of baftled rage, 
 and go on pawing, and snapping, and facing the ring, grinning at 
 them witli her mouth stretched wide, 
 
 Wkon the men came up.. the .little one was perlvmsi rested, far. 
 it was able to turn round with her dam, no matter how quick she 
 moved, so as to keep always in front of her belly. The five dogs 
 were all the time friskhig about her actively, tormenting her like 
 so many gad-flies ; indeed, they made it difficult to draw a bead 
 on at licr without killing them. But Hans, lying on his elbow, 
 took a quiet aim and shot her through the head. She dropped 
 and rolled over dead without moving a muscle. 
 
 The dogs sprang toward her at once ; but the cub jumped 
 upon her body and reared up, for the first time growling hoarsely. 
 They seemed quite afraid of the little creature, she fought so 
 actively and made so much noise ; and, while tearing mouthfuls 
 of hair from the dead mother, they would spring aside the minute 
 the cub turned toward them. The men drove the dogs off for a 
 time, but were obliged to shoot the cub at last, as she would not 
 (piit the body. 
 
 Ilans fired into her head. It did not reach the brain, though 
 it knocked her down ; but she was still able to climb on her 
 mother's body and try to defend it still, "her mouth bleeding like 
 a gutter-spout." They were obliged to despatch her with stones. 
 
 After skinning the old one they gashed its body, and the dogs 
 fed upon it ravenously. The little one they cached for themselves 
 on the return ; and, with difficulty taking the dogs ofl', 
 pushed on, crossing a small bay which extended from the level 
 ground and had still some broken ice upon it. Hans was tired 
 out, and was sent on shore to follow the curve of the bay, where 
 the road was easier. 
 
 The ice over the shallow bay which Morton crossed was hum- 
 mocked, with rents through it, making very hard travel. He 
 walked on over this, and saw an opening not quite eight miles 
 across, separating the two islands, which I have named after Sir 
 John Franklin and his comrade Captain Crozier. He had seen 
 them before from the entrance of the larger bay, — Laf.iyette Bay, 
 
CAPE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 17' 
 
 —but Lad taken them for <a single island, the channel between 
 them not being then in Higlit. As lie neared the northern land, 
 at the east shore which led to the cape (Gape Constitution), which 
 terminated his labours, he found only a very small ice-foot, under 
 the lee of the hcadlatid and crushed u]) against the side of the 
 rock. lie went on ; but the strip of land-ice broke more and 
 more, until about a milo from tl^c capo it torn^jiatou altogctherj 
 the waves breaking with a cross sea directly against the cape. 
 The wind had moderated, but was stUI from the north, and the 
 current ran up very fast, four or five knots perhaps. 
 
 The cliffs were here very high : at a short di.stanee they seemed 
 about 2000 feet ; but the crags were so overhanging that 
 Morton could not see the tops as he drew closer. The echoes 
 were confusing, and the clamour of half a dozen ivory gulls, who 
 were frightened from their sheltered nooks, was multiplied a 
 hundred-fold. The moUemokes were still numerous ; but he now 
 saw no ducks. 
 
 He tried to pass round the cape. It was in vain : there was 
 no ice-foot ; and, trying his best to ascend the cliffs, he could get 
 up but a few hundred feet. Here he fastened to his walking-pole 
 the Griimell flag of the Antarctic — a well- cherished little relic, 
 which had now followed me on two Polar voyages. This flag 
 had been saved from the wreck of the United States sloop-of-war 
 Peacock, when she stranded off the Columbia River ; it had ac- 
 companied Commodore Wilkes in his fur southern discovery of an 
 Antarctic continent. It was now its strange destiny to float over 
 the highest northern land, not only of America, but of our globe. 
 Side by side with this were our Masonic emblems of the compass 
 and the square. He let them fly for an hour and a half from the 
 black cliff over the dark rock-shadowed waters, which rolled up 
 and broke in white caps at its base. 
 
 lie was bitterly disappointed that he could not get round the 
 cape, to see whether there was any land beyond ; but it was im- 
 possible. Rejoining Hans, they supped off their bread and pem- 
 mican, and, after a good nap, started on their return on Sunday, 
 the 25th, at 1. 30 p.m. From Thursday night, the 22d, up to 
 Sunday at noon, the wind had been blowing steadily from the 
 north, and for thirty-six hours of the time it blew a gale. But 
 as he returned, he remarked that the more southern ice toward 
 
 CllAPTKR 
 XXIII . 
 
 Ciijic Con. 
 •tltutlun. 
 
 HclKht of 
 the ditlib 
 
 The An I. 
 arctic flag. 
 
 A bitter 
 disap- 
 poir.t- 
 ineiit 
 
178 
 
 MOUNT PAnnv. 
 
 Jco. 
 
 lilrootion 
 
 111 till! 
 
 ctiAi'TKn Keiuicdy Channel was less than it had been when lio piasscd up. 
 ^.!—' At tho mouth of the channel it was more broken than when ho 
 saw it before, but tho p!iH.sa;,'o above was clear. About halfway 
 between tho furthest point which he reached and the channel, tho 
 few snuiU lumps of i(;o which he observed iloating — they wero not 
 more than half a dozen — wero .standing with the wind to tho 
 southward, while tho shore current or tide was driving north. 
 - His journal of Mouvlay, 2r;th, says, "As fur as I ctruid sec , t he ' 
 open passages were fifteen miles or more wide, with sometimes 
 mashed ico sei)arating them. But it is all small ice, and I think 
 it either drives out to the open space to the north, or rots and 
 .sinks,* as I could seo none ahead to the far north. "^' 
 
 The coast after passing the cape, ho thought must trend to tho 
 eastward, as ho could at no time when below it see any land be- 
 yond. But tho west coast still opened to tho north ; he traced it 
 for about fifty miles. The day was very clear, and he was able to 
 follow tho range of mountains which crowns it much further. 
 They were very high, rounded at their summits, not peaked like 
 those immediately abreast of him ; though, as he remarked, this 
 apparent change of their character might be referred to distance, 
 for their undulations lost themselves like a wedge in the northern 
 horizon. 
 
 His highest station of outlook at tho point where his progress 
 was arrested he supposed to be about 300 feet above the sea. 
 From this point some C' to the west of north, lie remarked in 
 the furthest distance a peak truncated at its top like the cliffs of 
 Magdalena Bay. It was bare at its summit, but striated vertically 
 with protruding ridges. Our united estimate assigned to it an 
 elevation of from 2500 to 3000 feet. This peak, the most remote 
 northern land known upon our globe, takes its name from the great 
 pioneer of Arctic travel. Sir Edward Parry. 
 
 The range with which it was connected was much higher, Mr. 
 Morton thought, than any we had seen on the southern or Green- 
 land side of the bay. The summits were generally rounded, re- . 
 sembling, to use his own expression, a succession of sugar-loaves 
 and stacked cannon-balls declining slowly in the perspective. I 
 have named these mountains after the name of the lady sovereign 
 
 * As I quote Ills own words, I do not tliiiik '.t advisable to comment upon his view, lea 
 sever sinks \u i ilquid of the same density as that in which it formed. 
 
 Highest 
 station of 
 
 OUtldoli. 
 
 Mount 
 J';ii ly. 
 
 ■■'<; 
 
 r 
 
 •y 
 
RK8UME OF MORTON 8 JOURNAL. 
 
 170 
 
 ''^ 
 
 4^ 
 
 mider whose orders Sir Jola Franklin sailod, and the prince her 
 roiiHort. They are Kiiail;ir in their features to those of Spitz- 
 bergcn ; and, tliongh I am aw.irt how easy it is to be deceived in 
 our judgment of distant heights, I am satisfied from tlic estinuite 
 of Mr. Morton, as well as from our nicasurementa of the same 
 range further to the south, tliat they equal them in elevation, 2000 
 _Liid — 
 
 CIIAPTKR 
 XXIll. 
 
 Vlitoil* 
 anil Alliiit 
 
 IIIOIlll- 
 
 tuliii. 
 
 Two large indcntaticms broke in upon the uniform margin of the 
 coast. Everywhere else the spinal ridge seemed unbroken. Mr. 
 Morton saw no ice. 
 
 lea 
 
 It will be seen by the abstract of our " field-notes" in the Appon- ncsunK* of 
 dix, as well as by an analysis of the results which I have here j'uu,.,mi.* 
 rendered nearly in the very w -c's of Mr. !Morton, that, after travel- 
 ling due nortli over a solid tea choked with bergs and frozen 
 fields, lie was startled by the growing weakness of the ice : its sur- 
 face became rotten, and the snow wet and pulpy. His dogs, seized 
 with terror, refused to advance. Then for the first time the fact 
 broke upon him, that a long dark band seen to the north boyoii<l 
 a portruding cape — Cape Andrew Jacks-on — was water. With 
 danger and difliculty he retraced his steps, and, reaching sound ice, 
 made good his landing on a new coast. 
 
 The journeys which I had made myself, and those of my diffe- 
 rent parties, had shown that an unbroken surface of ice covered 
 the entire sea to the east, west, and south. From the southernmost 
 ice, seen by Dr. Hayes only a few weeks before, to the region of 
 this mysterious water, was, as the crow flies, lOG miles. But for 
 the unusual sight of birds and the unmistakeable giving way of the 
 ice beneath them, they would not have believed in the evidence of 
 eyesight. Neither Hans nor Morton was prepared for it. 
 
 Landing ou the cape, and continuing their exploration, new Expiorn- 
 phenomena broke upon them. They were on the shores of a channel, Jor^o'I'" 
 so open that a frigate, or a fleet of frigates, might have sailed up t'i« «'»"'- 
 it. The ice, already broken and decayed, formed a sort of horse- w«t"r."' " 
 shoe shaped beach, against which the waves broke in surf. As 
 they travelled north, this channel expanded into an icelcss area ; 
 •' for four or five small pieces" — lumps — were all that could be seen 
 over the entire surfiice of its white-capped waters. Viewed from 
 the cliffs, and taking 3G miles as the mean radius open to reliable 
 
180 
 
 ANIMAL LIFE APPEARS. 
 
 ■I' 
 
 i. 
 
 KWisf. 
 
 cuAi'TKii survey, tins sea had a justly-estimated extent of more than 4000 
 ^^"' ' square miles. 
 
 Extent of Animal life, which had so long been a stranger to us to the 
 south, now burst upon them. At Rensselaer Harbour, except the 
 Netsik seal or a rarely encountered Harelda, we had no life avail- 
 
 The Bient able for the hunt. But here the Brent goose (Anas bemicla), the 
 eider, and the king duck, were so crowded together that our Esqui- 
 maux killed two at a shot with a single rifle-ball. 
 
 The Brent goose had not been seen before since entering Smith's 
 Straits. It is well known to the Polar traveller as a migratory 
 bird of the American continent. Like the others of the same 
 family, it feeds upon vegetable matter, generally on marine plants 
 with their adherent molluscous life. It is rarely or never seen in 
 the interior, and from its habits may be regarded as singularly in- 
 dicative of open water. The flocks of this bird, easily distinguished 
 by their wedge-shaped Hue of flight, now crossed the water obliquely, 
 and disappeared over the land to the north and east. I had shot 
 these birds on the coast of Wellington Channel in latitude 74° 50', 
 nearly six degrees to the south : they were then flying in the same 
 direction. 
 
 The rocks on shore were crowded with sea-swallows [Sterna 
 Arcticd), birds whose habits require open water, and they were al- 
 ready breeding. 
 
 It may interest others besides the naturalist to state, that all of 
 these occupied the southern limits of the channel for the first few 
 miles after reaching open water, but, as the party continued their 
 progress to the north, they disappeared, and marine birds took 
 their place. The gulls were now represented by no less than four 
 species. The klttiwakcs {Larus tridactylis) — reminding Morton 
 of "old times in Baffin's Bay" — were again stealing fish from the 
 water, probably the small whiting {Merlangus Polaris), and their 
 grim cousins, the burgomasters, enjoying the dinner thus provided 
 at so little cost to themselves. It was a picture of life all round. 
 Of the flora and its indications I can say but little ; still less 
 can I feel justified in drawing from them any thermal inferences. 
 The season was too early for a display of Arctic vegetiition ; and, in 
 the absence of specimens, I am unwilUng to adopt the observations 
 of Mr. Morton, who was no botanist* It seems clear, however, 
 that many flowering plants, at least as developed as those of Rens- 
 
 S»a swal- 
 luws. 
 
 Miirlno 
 biiils. 
 
 Klnni. 
 
\l 
 
 I us to the 
 except the 
 life avail- 
 nicla), the 
 our Esqui- 
 
 fig Smith's 
 migratory 
 the same 
 ine plants 
 er seen in 
 gularly in- 
 tinguished 
 obliquely, 
 [ had shot 
 le 74° 50', 
 I the same 
 
 fs (Ster7ia 
 Y were al- 
 
 that all of 
 
 first few 
 
 uied their 
 
 )irds took 
 
 ;han four 
 
 X Morton 
 
 from the 
 
 and their 
 
 provided 
 
 1 round. 
 
 still less 
 
 iferences. 
 
 ; and, in 
 
 ervations 
 
 however, 
 
 of Kens- 
 
I»l 
 
 :«k.. 
 
THE PETRKL. 
 
 181 
 
 selaer Harbour, liad already made themselves recognisable ; and, 
 strange to say, the only specimen brought back was a crucifer 
 (Ilesperis pygmoea — Durand), the siliquce of which, still containing 
 seed, had thus survived the winter, to give evidence of its perfected 
 growth. This plant I have traced to the Great Glacier, thus ex- 
 tending its range from the South Greenland zone. It has not, I 
 believe, been described at Upernavik. ^ 
 
 It is another remarkable fact, that as they continued their jour- 
 ney, the land-ice and snow, which had served as a sort of pathway 
 for their dogs, crumbled and melted, and at last ceased altogether ; 
 so that, during the final stages of their progress, the sledge was 
 rendered useless, and Morton found himself at last toiling over 
 rocks and along the beach of a sea, which like the familiar waters 
 of the south, dashed in waves at his feet. 
 
 Here for the first time he noticed the Arctic Petrel (Procellaria 
 glacialis), a fact wliich shows the accuracy of his observation, 
 though he was then unaware of its importance. This bird had not 
 been met with since we left the North Water of the English 
 whalers, more than two hundred miles south of the position on 
 which he stood. Its food is essentially marine, the acalephae, &c. 
 &c. ; and it is seldom seen in numbers, except in the highways of 
 open water frequented by the whale and the larger representatives 
 of ocean life. They were in numbers flitting and hovering over 
 the crests of the waves, like their relatives of kinder climates, the 
 Cape of Good Hope Pigeons, Mother Carey's Chickens, and the 
 petrels everywhere else. 
 
 As Morton, leaving Hans and his dogs, passed between Sir John 
 Franklin Island and the narrow beach-line, the coast became more 
 wall-like, and dark masses of porphyritic rock abutted into the sea. 
 With growing difficulty ho managed to climb from rock to rock, 
 in hopes of doubling the promontory and sighting the coasts be- 
 yond, but the water kept encroaching more and more on his track. 
 
 It must have been an imposing sight, as he stood at this termi- 
 nation of his journey, looking out upon the great waste of waters 
 before Mm. Not a " speck of ice," to use his own words, could 
 be seen. There, from a height of 480 feet, which commanded a 
 horizon of almost forty miles, his ears were gladdened with the 
 novel music of dashing waves ; and a surf, breaking in among the 
 rocks at his feet, stayed his further progress. 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XXIII. 
 
 Hespciis 
 
 Tlio Arctic 
 rcticl. 
 
 Morton 
 and Hans 
 bcpurutu. 
 
 The termi- 
 nation of 
 Morton's 
 journey. 
 
182 
 
 THEORIES OF AN OPEN SEA. 
 
 onAPTKR 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Ciiiie Con- 
 slituliou. 
 
 Conjec- 
 tures 
 aliniit nn 
 open Hca 
 neiir tlie 
 I'ule. 
 
 
 Beyond this cape all is surmise. Tlie high ridges to the north- 
 west dwindled off into low blue knobs, which blended finally with 
 the air. Morton called the cape, which baffled his labours, after 
 his commander ; but I have given it the more enduring name of 
 Cape Constitution. 
 
 The homeward joitmey, as it was devoted to the completion of 
 his survey and developed no new facts, I need not give. But I am 
 reluctant to close my notice of this discovery of an open sea, with- 
 out adding that the details of Mr. Morton's narrative harmonized 
 with the observations of all our party. I do not propose to discuss 
 here the causes or conditions of this phenomenon. How iixr it 
 may extend, — whetlier it exists simply as a feature of the imme- 
 diate region, or as part of a great and unexplored area communicating 
 with a Polar basin, — and what may be the argument in favour of 
 one or the other hypothesis, or the explanatiun which reconciles it 
 with established laws, — may be questions for men skilled in scien- 
 tific deductions. Mine has been the more humble duty of record- 
 ing what Ave saw. Coming as it did, a mysterious fluidity in the 
 midst of vast plains of solid ice, it was well calculated to arouse 
 emotions of the highest order ; and I do not believe there was a 
 man among us who did not long for the means of embarking upon 
 its bright and lonely waters. But he who may be content to follow 
 our story for the next few mont'ns will feel, as we did, that a con- 
 trolling necessity made the desire a fruitless one. 
 
 An open sea near the Pole, or even an open Polar basin, has 
 been a topic of theory for a long time, and has been shadowed 
 forth to some extent by actual or supposed discoveries. As far 
 back as the days of Barentz, in 1596, without referring to the ear- 
 lier and more uncertain chronicles, water was seen to the eastward 
 of the northernmost cape of Novaia Zemlia ; and, until its limited 
 extent was defined by direct observation, it was assumed to be the 
 sea itself. The Dutch fisherman above and around Spitzbergen 
 pushed their adventurous cruises through the ice into open spaces 
 varying in size and form with the season and the winds ; and Dr. 
 Scoresby, a venerated authority, alludes to such vacancies in the 
 floe as pointing in argument to a freedom of movement from the 
 north, inducing open water in the neighbourhood of the Pole. 
 Baron Wrangell, when forty miles from the coast of Arctic Asia, saw, 
 as he thought, a " vast, illimitable ocean," forgetting for the moment 
 
 ik 
 
 .V >^^- 
 
ILLUSORY DISCOVERIES. 
 
 183 
 
 how narrow are the limits of human vision on a sphere. So, still chaptkr 
 
 more recently, Captain Penny proclaimed a sea in Wellington ' 
 
 Sound, on the very spot where Sir Edward Belcher has since left Conjec- 
 his frozen ships ; and my predecessor, Captain Inglefiold, from the different 
 mast-head of his little vessel, announced aji " open Polar basin," ^oye'-"*- 
 but fifteen miles off from the ice which arrested our progress the 
 next year. 
 
 All tliese illusory discoveries were no doubt chronicled with 
 perfect integrity ; and it may seem to others, as since I have left 
 the field it sometimes does to myself, that my own, though on a 
 larger scale, may one day pass within the same category. Unlike 
 the others, ho, -ever, that which I have ventured to call an open 
 sea has been travelled for many miles along its coast, and was 
 viewed from an elevation of 580 feet, still without a limit, moved 
 by a heavy swell, free of ice, and dashing in surf against a rock- 
 bound shore. 
 
 It is impossible, in reviewing the facts which connect themselves 
 with this discovery, — the melted snow upon tlie rocks, the crowds 
 of marine birds, the limited, but still advancing vegetable life, the 
 rise of the thermometer in the water, — not to be struck with their 
 bearing on the question of a milder climate near the Pole. To Theory of 
 refer them all to the modification of temperature induced by the l^^^'J^ 
 proximity of open water is only to change the form of the ques- "'"' "le 
 tion ; for it leaves the inquiry unsatisfied — What is the cause of 
 the open water ] 
 
 This, however, is not the place to enter upon such a discussion. 
 There is no doubt on my mind, that at a time within historical and 
 even recent limits, the climate of this region was milder than it is 
 now. I might base this opinion on the fiict, abundantly developed 
 by our expedition, of a secular elevation of the coast line. But, 
 independently of the ancient beaches and terraces, and other geo- 
 logical marks which show that the shore has risen, the stone huts 
 of the natives are found scattered along the line of the bay in spots 
 now so fenced in by ice as to preclude aU possibility of the hunt, 
 and, of course, of habitation by men -who rely on it for subsistence. '^ 
 
 Tradition points to these as once favourite hunting-grounds near 
 open water. At Rensselaer Harbour, called by the natives Aunatok, pavonrttc 
 or the Thawing-Place, we met with huts in quite tolerable preser- ')|^'Jj,j^ 
 vation, with the stone pedestals still standing which used to sustain 
 
nr 
 
 184 
 
 A SUGGESTION. 
 
 onAPTKR tbe carcases of tlic captured seals and walrus. Sunny Gorge, and 
 
 xxiir. 
 
 Clirr.<itic 
 elmngus. 
 
 a large indentation in Dallas Bay, w' icli bears the Esquimaux name 
 of the Inhabited Place, showed us the remains of a village, sur- 
 rounded by the bones of seals, walrus, and whales — all now cased 
 in ice. In impressive connection with the same facts, showing not 
 only the former extension of the Esquimaux race to the higher 
 north, but the climatic changes which may perhaps be stiU in pro- 
 gress there, is the sledge-runner which Mr. Morton saw on the shores 
 of Morris Bay, in latitude 81°. It was made of the bone of a whale, 
 and worked out with skilful labour. "^ 
 
 In this recapitulation of facts, I am not entering upon the ques- 
 tion of a warmer climate impressed upon tliis region in virtue of a 
 physical law which extends the isotherms toward the Pole. Still 
 less am I disposed to express an opinion as to the influence which 
 ocean-currents may exert on the temperature of these far-northern 
 regions ; there is at least one man, an officer in the same service 
 with myself, and whose scientific investigations do it honour, with 
 whom I am content to leave that discussion. But I would respect- 
 fully suggest to those whose opportunities facilitate the inquiry, 
 whether it may not be that the Gulf Stream, traced already to the 
 coast of Novaia Zemlia, is deflected by that peninsula into the 
 stieain. space around the Pole. It would require a change in the mean 
 summer temperature of only a few degrees to develop the periodi- 
 cal recurrence of open water. The conditions which define the line 
 of perpetual snow and the limits of the glacier formation may have 
 certainly a proximate application to the problem of such water- 
 spaces near the Pole. °^ 
 
 Possible 
 deflection 
 of the Gulf 
 
PROSPECTS AND SPECULATIONS. 
 
 185 
 
 cased 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 in the ice. 
 
 PROSPECTS— SPECULATIONS— THE ABQUMENT — TUB CONCLITSIOJf — THE RE- 
 CONNOISSANCB — THE SCUEME — EQUIPMENT OP BOAT PARTY — EIDER 
 ISLAND — UAN3 ISLAND — TUB CORMORANT GULL— SENTIMENT— OUR 
 CHARTS— CAPTAIN INOLEPIELD — DISCREPANCIES— A OALE — FAST TO A 
 i'LOE. 
 
 ATTEMPT TO REACH BEECHY ISLAND. 
 
 All the sledpre-parties were now once more aboard ship, and the chapter 
 
 XXIV 
 
 season of Arctic travel had ended. For more than two months 1 " 
 
 we had been imprisoned in ice, and throughout all that period, i'"P'"j- 
 except during the enforced holiday of the midwinter darkness, or again 
 while repairing from actual disaster, had been constantly in the 
 field. The summer was wearing on, but stiU the ice did not break 
 up as it should. As far as we could see, it remained inflexibly solid 
 between us and the North Water of Baffin's Bay. The questions 
 and speculations of those around me began to show that they too 
 had anxious thoughts for the coming year. There was reason for 
 all our apprehensions, as some of my notes may show. 
 
 ''Jidt/ 8, Saturday. — Penny saw water to the southward in specuia- 
 Barrow's Straits as early as June ; and by the first of July the leads the"|,"eak! 
 were within a mile of his liarbour in Wellington Channel. Dr. ing up of 
 Sutherland says he could have cut liis way out by the 1 5th. Austin 
 was not hberated till the 10th of August; but the water had 
 worked up to within three miles and a half of him as early as the 
 1st, having advanced twenty miles in the preceding month. If, 
 now, we might assume that the ice between us and the nearest water 
 would give way as rapidly as it did in these two cases, — an as- 
 sumption, by-the-way, which the diff'erence of the localities is all 
 against, the mouth of our harbour should be reached in fifty days, 
 or by the last day of August ; and after that, several days, or per- 
 haps weeks must go by before the inside ice yields around our brig. 
 
 " I know by experience how soon the ice breaks up after it once 
 begins to go, and I hardly think that it can continue advancing 
 so slowly much longer. Indeed, I look for it to open, if it opens 
 
186 
 
 THE ARGUMENT LHJ) DKCISION. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXIV 
 
 Kears 
 about 
 
 throtiKli 
 tliu icu. 
 
 Despon- 
 dency. 
 
 Diffl- 
 ciilties. 
 
 \i 1 
 
 i 
 
 The deci- 
 sion. 
 
 r 
 
 at all, about the beginning of September at furthest, somewhere 
 near the date of Sir James Ross's liberation at Leopold. But then, 
 I have to remember that I am much further to the north than my 
 predecessors, and that by the 28th of last August I had already, 
 after twenty days of unremitting labour, forced the brig nearly 
 forty miles through the pack, and that the pack began to close on 
 us only six days later, and that on the 7 th of September we were 
 fairly frozen in. Yet last summer was a most favourable one for 
 ice-melting. Putting all this together, it looks as if the winter 
 must catch us before we can get halfway through the pack, even 
 - though we should begin warping to the south at the earliest moment 
 that we can hope for water. 
 
 " It is not a pleasant conclusion of the argument ; for there never 
 was, and I trust never will be, a party worse armed for the en- 
 counter of a second Arctic winter. We have neither health, fuel, 
 nor provisions. Dr. Hayes, and indeed all I have consulted about 
 it indirectly, despond at the thought ; and when I look round upon 
 our diseased and disabled men, and think of the fearful work of 
 the last long night, I am tempted to feel as they do. 
 
 " The alternative of abandoning the vessel at this early stage of 
 our absence, even were it possible, would, I feel, be dishonouring ; 
 but, revolving the question as one of practicabihty alone, I would 
 not undertake it. In the first place, how are we to get along with 
 our sick and newly-amputated men ] It is a dreary distance at 
 the best to Upernavik or Beechy Island, our only seats of refuge, 
 and a precarious traverse if we were all of us fit for moving ; but 
 we are hardly one-half in efficiency of what we count in number. 
 Besides, hoAv can I desert the brig while there is still a chance of 
 saving her 1 There is no use of noting pros and cons : my mind 
 is made up ; I will not do it. 
 
 " But I must examine this ice-field for myself. I have been 
 maturing through the last fortnight a scheme of relief, based upon 
 a comnmnication with the Engliih squadron to the south, and to- 
 morrow I set out to reconnoitre. Hans will go with me. We will 
 fit out our poor travel- worn dogs with canvas shoes, and cross the 
 floes to the tme water edge, or at least be satisfied that it is impos- 
 sible. ' He sees best who uses his own eyes.' After that I have 
 my course resolved on. 
 
 Juli/ 11, Tuesday. — We got back last night : a sixty miles' jour- 
 
PUErARATIONS FOR A NEW EXPEDITION. 
 
 187 
 
 r.ey, — comfortless enough, with only throe hours' sleep on the ice. chaptkr 
 For thiry-five miles south the straits are absolutely tight. Off ^^^'^ - 
 Refuge Inlet and Esquimaux Point we found driving leads ; hut Rcsnitu of 
 betAveen these points and the brig not a crack. I puslied the dogs ^.y. 
 over the drift-ice, and, after a fair number of mischances, found the 
 North Water. It wis fljwing and free ; but since M'Gary saw it 
 last May it has not advanced more than four miles. It would be 
 absurd at this season of the year to attempt escaping in open boats 
 with this ice between us and water. All that can be done is to 
 re-inforcc our energies as we may, and look the worst in the face. 
 
 " In view of these contingencies, I have determined to attempt Resointiim 
 in person to conmmnicate with Beechy Island, or at least m;i.ke ,'",',\','yjl'''' 
 the effort. If I can reach Sir Edward Belcher's squadron, I am cxpedi- 
 sure of all I want. I will take a light whaleboat, and pick my com- ' ""* 
 panions for a journey to the south and west. I may find perhaps 
 the stores of the North Star at the Wostenholm Islands, or by 
 great good luck come across some passing vessel of the squadron, 
 and make known our whereabouts and wants ; or, failing these, we 
 will try and coast it along to Wellington Channel. 
 
 "A depot of pro visions and a seaworthy craft large enough to carry 
 us, — if I had these, everything would be right. Even Sir John 
 Ross's launch, the Little Mary, that he left at Union Bay, would 
 serve our purpose. If I had her I coidd make a southern passage 
 after the fall tides. The great enemy of that season ia the young 
 shore-ice, that would cut through our frail boats Like a saw. Or, 
 if we can only renew our stock of provisions for the winter, we may 
 await tlie chances of next year. 
 
 " I know it is a hazardous venture, but it is a necessary one, and 
 under the circumstances an incumbent duty. I should have been 
 glad, for some reasons, if the command of such an attempt could 
 have been delegated to a subordinate ; but I feel that I have no 
 right to devolve this risk upon another, and I am, besides, the only 
 one possessed of the necessary local knowledge of Lancaster Sound 
 and its ice-movements. 
 
 " As a prelude to this solemn undertaking, I met my officers in Prcinde to 
 the evening, and showed them my ice-charts ; explaining, what I "''|.u"'i«'- 
 found needed little explanation, the prospect immediately before 
 us. I then discussed the probable changes, and, giving them my 
 personal opinion that the brig might after all be liberated at a 
 
«» 
 
 188 
 
 EQUIPMENT OP THE ' FORLORN HOPE.' 
 
 CnAPTKIl 
 XXIV. 
 
 i^ ' 1 
 
 Announoe- 
 inctit of 
 llie |)ro- 
 Jcct, 
 
 Volun- 
 tcers. 
 
 The Fov- 
 IviH Hope. 
 
 Her rig. 
 
 I 1 
 
 Her 
 
 Btures. 
 
 late date, I announced my project. I will not say how gratified 
 I was with the manner in wliich they received it. It struck me 
 that there was a sense of personal relief experienced everywhere. 
 I told them that I did not choose to call a council or connect any 
 of them with the responsibilities of the measure, for it involved 
 only the personal safety of those who chose to share the risk. Full 
 instructions were then left for their guidance during my absence. 
 
 " It was the pleasantest interview I ever had with my associates. 
 I believe every man on board would have volunteered, but I con- 
 fined myself to five active men : James il'Gary, William Morton, 
 George Eiley, Hans Christian, and Thomas Hickey, mado up my 
 party." 
 
 Our equipment had been getting ready for some time, though 
 without its object being understood or announced. The boat was 
 our old Forlorn Hope, mended up and revised for her new des- 
 tinies. She was 23 feet long, had G| feet beam, and wad IJ feet 6 
 inches deep. Her build was the characteristic one of the Ameri- 
 can whaleboats, too flat-bottomed for ordinary use, but much 
 improved by a fiilse keel, which Ohlsen had given her through- 
 out her entire length. After all, she was a mere cockle-shell. 
 
 Her great fault was her knife-like bow, which cut into the she rt 
 seas most cruelly. To remedy this in some degree, and to make up 
 for her want of height, I devised a sort of half-deck of canvas and 
 gum-elastic cloth, extending back beyond the fore-mast, and con- 
 tinued along the gunwale, — a sort of weather-cloth, which might 
 possibly add to her safety, and would certainly make her more 
 comfortable in heavy weather. 
 
 I left her rig altogether to M'Qary. She carried what any one 
 but a New London whaler would call an inordinate spread of can- 
 vas, a light cotton fore-saU of 12 feet lift, a stouter main-sail of 
 14 feet lift with a spreet 18 feet long, and a snug little jib. Her 
 masts were of course selected very carefully, for we could not carry 
 extra sticks : and we trusted to the good old-fashioned steering-oar 
 rather than a rudder. 
 
 Morton, who was in my confidence from the first, had all our 
 stores ready. We had no game, and no meat but pork, of which 
 we took some hundred and fifty pounds. I wanted pemmican, and 
 sent the men out in search of the cases which were left on the floe 
 by the frozen depot-party during the rescue of last March; but 
 
 ^ 
 
TUE SLEDGES FA ITU 
 
 AND "sT. John's.' 
 
 189 
 
 V gratified 
 struck me 
 rerywliere. 
 innect any 
 t involved 
 risk. Full 
 absence, 
 associates, 
 but I con- 
 1 Morton, 
 lo up my 
 
 e, though 
 boat was 
 ' new des- 
 3 li feet 6 
 le Ameri- 
 •ut much 
 through- 
 ihell. 
 
 the sh» rt 
 make up 
 mvas and 
 and con- 
 ;h might 
 lor more 
 
 any one 
 d of can- 
 in-sail of 
 b. Her 
 lot carry 
 3ring-oar 
 
 i all our 
 f which 
 can, and 
 the floe 
 ch: but 
 
 
 they could not find a trace of them, or indeed of anything else we chaptsb 
 abandcmed at that time — a proof, if we wanted one, how bhincd ^.211' 
 all our faculties must have been by suffering, fur we marked tlicni, 
 as we thought, with marvellous care. 
 
 We lifted our boat over the side in the afternoon, and floated tiioi>o,u 
 her to tlu crack at the Observatory Island; mounted her there on "'"""""' 
 our large sledge The Faith, by an arrangement of cradles of Mr. niedge. 
 Ohlsen's devising ; stowed in everything but the provisions, and 
 carried her on to the bluff of Sylvia Headland — and the next 
 morning a party consisting of all but the sick was detailed to 
 transport her to open water; while M'Gary, Hans, and myself, fol- 
 lowed with our St. John's sledge, carrying our stores. 
 
 The surface of the ice was very irregular and covered with water- 
 pools. Our sledge broke down with repeated strainings, and we 
 had a fatiguing walk of thirty-six miles to get another. We passed 
 the first night wet and supperless on the rocks — a bad beginning, 
 for the next day found us stiff and out of sorts. 
 
 The ice continued troublesome, the land-ices swaying hither and tiic ice 
 tliither with the tide. The second day's progress, little as it was, ''"'"'"""=« 
 cost us very hard labour. But another night of repose on the souii. 
 rocks refreshed us ; so that, the day after, we were able to make 
 about seven miles along the ice-belt. Two days more, and we had 
 carried the boat across twenty miles of heavy ice-floe, and launched 
 her in open water. It was not far from the hut on Esquimaux 
 Point. 
 
 The straits were much clogged with drift, but I followed the 
 coast southward without difficulty. We travelled at night, resting 
 when the sun was hottest. I had every reason to be pleased with 
 the performance of the whaleboat, and the men kept up their 
 spirits well. We landed at the point where we left our life-boat a 
 year ago, and to our great joy found it untouched : the cove and 
 inlet were still fast in ice. 
 
 We now neared the Littleton Island cf Captain Ingleficld, where Lutieton 
 a piece of good fortune awaited us. We saw a number of ducks, ^»'»"'*- 
 both eiders and heraldas ; and it occurred to me that by tracking 
 their flight we should reach their brecding-gi-ounds. There was 
 no trouble in doing so, for they flew in a bee-line to a group of 
 rocky islets, above which the whole horizen was studded with 
 birds. A rugged little ledge, which I named Eider Island, was so 
 
190 
 
 TIIK DUCKS ON HAN8 ISlJVND. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 CniPTKR 
 XXIV. 
 
 The Inei'd- 
 iiiK i>i!u«uii. 
 
 Islatul iind 
 Iti inliubU 
 taiitK. 
 
 thickly colonized that wo couM hurclly walk without treading on a 
 nest. Wo killed with guns and stones over two hundred birds in 
 a few liours. 
 
 Jt was near the close of the broeding-scason. Tiic nests were 
 still occupied by the mother birds, but many of the young had 
 burst the shell, and were nestling under the wing, or taking their 
 first lessons in the water-pools. Some, more advanced, were 
 already in the ice-sheltered channels, greedily waiting for the shell- 
 fish and sea-urchins, which the old bird busied herself iu procuring 
 fur them. 
 
 Near by was a low and isolated rock-ledge, which wo called 
 Hans Island. The glaucous gulls, those cormorants of the Arctic 
 seas, had made it their peculiar homestead. Their progeny, already 
 full-fledged and voracious, crowded the guano-whitened rocks ; and 
 the mothers, with long necks and gaping yellow bills, swooped 
 abov'i the peaceful shallows of the eiders, carrying off the young 
 birds, seemingly just as their wants ret^uired. A more domineer- 
 ing and insatiable rapacity I have never witnessed. The gull 
 would gobble up and swalhnv a young eider in less time than it 
 takes mo to describe the act. For a moment you would see the 
 paddling feet of the poor little wretch protruding from the mouth j 
 then came a distension of the neck as it descended into the 
 stomach ; a few moments more, and the young gulla were feeding 
 on the ejected morsel. 
 
 The mother-duck, of course nearly distracted, battles, and battles 
 well ; but she cannot always re-assemble her brood ; and in her 
 efforts to defend one, uncovering the others, I have seen her left 
 as destitute as Niobe, Hans tells me that in such cases she 
 adopts a new progeny ; and, as he is well versed in the habits of 
 the bird, I see no reason to doubt his assertiiiu. 
 
 The glaucous is not the only predatory guU o!' Smith's Strait. 
 In fact, all the Arctic species, without inclu'liuf' tlieir cousins the 
 jagers, have the propensity strongly niaikiAi. I have seen the 
 ivory gull, the most beautiful and snowy St. Agnes of the ice-fields, 
 seize our wounded awks, and, after a sharp battle, carry them off 
 in her talons. A novel use of a palmated foot. 
 
 I could sentimentalize on these bereavements of the ducks and 
 their companions in diet : it would be only the everyday ser- 
 monizing of the world. But while the gulls were fattening their 
 
OnSKRVATIONS ON THE COAST LINR. 
 
 191 
 
 sta wcro 
 ung hatl 
 ing their 
 I'd, were 
 the shell- 
 jrocuring 
 
 \'C call'xl 
 ho Arctic 
 y, already 
 jcks ; and 
 
 swooped 
 ,he young 
 Lloniincer- 
 Tlie gull 
 ae th.ui it 
 id see the 
 le mouth ; 
 
 into the 
 •e feeding 
 
 nd battles 
 
 Lud in her 
 
 II her left 
 
 cases she 
 
 itibits of 
 
 's Strait. 
 
 jusins the 
 scon the 
 ice-fields, 
 them off 
 
 lucks and 
 yday ser- 
 ning their 
 
 young on the eiders, the ciders were fattening tlieirs on the lesser chaptkh 
 life of the sea, and wo were as busily engaged upon bi)th in true ^'^" ' 
 predatory sympathy. The 8(pi!ib-gull of Hans Island has a well- ouiMiiml 
 earned reputation in South Greenland for its deliciious juices, and 
 the eggs of Eider Island can well afford to sufler from the occa- 
 sional visits of gulls and other bipeds ; for a locnst-swarni of 
 foragers might fatten without stint on then- surplus abundance. 
 
 We camped at this nursery of wild-fowl, and laid in four large 
 India-rubber bags full, cleaned and rudely boned. Our boat was 
 hauled up and refitted ; and, the trial having shown us that she 
 wa'^ too heavily laden for safety, I made a general reduction of our 
 stores, and cached the surplus under the rocks. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 19th, we left Flagstaff Point, where wc fixed 
 our beacon last year; and stood west 10° south under full canvas. 
 My aim was to take the chaimcl obliquely at Littleton Island ; 
 and, making the drift-ice or the land to the south-west in the > 
 
 neighbourhood of Cape Conibermere, push on for Kent Island and 
 leave a cairn there, 
 
 I had the good fortune to get satisfactory meridian observations, Mnridian 
 as well as angular bearings between Cape Alexander and Flagstaff "Jy"^"**' 
 Point, and found, as our operations by theodolite had already indi- 
 cated, thiit the entire coast-line upon the Admiralty charts of my 
 predecessor would have to be altered. 
 
 Cape Isabella, the western headland of the strait whose dis- suuatJim 
 covcry, by-the-way, is due rather to old Baffin than his follower, \ "''" 
 Sir John Ross, bears west 22" north (solar) from Cape Alexander; 
 its former location being some 20° to the south of west. The 
 naiTowest part of Smith's Straits is not, as has been considered, 
 between these two capes, but upon the parallel of 78" 24', where 
 Cape Isabella bears due west of Littleton Island, and the diameter 
 of the channel is reduced to thirty-seven miles. 
 
 The difference between our projection of this coast and Captain 
 Inglefield's, refers itself naturally to the differing circumstances 
 under which the two were framed. The sluggishness of the com- 
 pass, and the eccentricities of refraction in the Arctic seas, are well 
 fitted to embarrass and mislead a navigator. I might hesitate to 
 assert the greater certainty for our results, had not the position of 
 our observatory at Fern Rock, to which our survey is referred, 
 been determined by a careful series of astronomical observations.'^ 
 
 Uabulla. 
 
198 
 
 CAPTAIN INGLEFELD S CHAHTS. 
 
 cnAPTKR 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 
 1' 
 
 Captain Inglefield gives the mean trend of the east coast about 
 20° too much to tlie north, in consequence of which the capes and 
 indentations sighted by him are too high in latitude. 
 Cape Kre- C'ape Frederick VII., his highest northern point, is placed in 
 deiickVH. jj^^ 79° 30', while no land — the glacier not being considered as 
 such — is found on that coast beyond 79° 13'. The same cape, as 
 laid down in the Admiralty Chart of 1852, is about eighty miles 
 from the furthest position reached by Captain Inglefield. To see 
 land upon the horizon at this distance, even from a mast-head 
 80 feet high, rt'ould require it to be a mountain whose altitude 
 exceeded 3500 feet. An island similar in position to that desig- 
 nated by Captain Inglefield as Louis Napoleon does not exist. 
 The land sighted in that direction may have been the top of a 
 high mountain on the north side of Franklin Pierce Bay, though 
 this supposition requires us to assume an error in the bearing ; 
 for, as given in the chart, no land could be within the range of 
 sight. In deference to Captain Inglefield, I have continued for 
 this promontory the name which he had impressed upon it as an 
 island. 
 
 Toward night the wind freshened from the northward, and we 
 passed beyond the protection of the straits into the open sea-way. 
 My journal gives no picture of the life we now entered on. The 
 oldest sailor, who treads the deck of his ship with the familiar 
 confidence of a man at home, has a distrust of oper-boat naviga- 
 tion which a landsman hardly shares. The feeling grew upon us 
 as we lost the land. M'Gary was an old Behring's Straits whaler, 
 and there is no better boatman in the world than he ; but I know 
 that he shared my doubts, as the boat buried herself again and 
 again in the trough of a short chopping sea, wliich it taxed all his 
 dexterity in steering to meet. 
 
 Bafiln passed around this gulf in 1G16 with two small vessels ; 
 but they were giants beside ours. I thought of them as we crossed 
 his track stor-ing for Cape Combennere, then about sixty miles 
 distant, "with every prospect of a heavy gale. 
 
 We were in the centre of this large area of open water when 
 the gale broke upon us from the 'lorth. We were near foundering. 
 Our false bow of India-rubber cloth r/as beaten in, and our frail 
 weather-boarding soon followed it. With the utmost exertion we 
 could hardly keep our boat from broaching to : a broken oar or an 
 
 Boat navl. 
 Kiitlon in 
 the onen 
 Bea. 
 
A STOKM. 
 
 193 
 
 )n it as an 
 
 accidental twitch would have been fatal to us at any time, citaptkh 
 
 But M'Gary handled that whaler's marvel, the long steering-oar, ' 
 
 with admirable skill. None of us could pretend to take his place. 
 For twenty-two unbroken hours he stuck to his post without re- 
 laxing his attention or his efforts. 
 
 I was not prepared for such a storm. I do not think I have a storm, 
 seen a worse sea raised by the northers of the Gulf of Mexico. 
 At last the wind hauled to the eastward, and avc wore glad to 
 drive before it for the in-shore floes. AVe had passed several 
 bergs ; but the sea dashed against their sides so furiously as to 
 negative all hope of protection at their base ; the pack or floe, so 
 much feared before, was now looked to ior a refuge. 
 
 I remember well our anxiety as we entered the loose streams of p,,,^ („ ^ 
 drift after four hours' scudding, and our relief when wc felt their ""'^• 
 influence upon the sea. We fastened to an old floe, not 50 
 yards in diameter, and, with the weather-surf breaking over our 
 heads, rode out the storm under a warp and grapnel. 
 
 K 
 
I I 
 
 i 
 
 I ! 
 
 
 194 
 
 BOEING INTO THE ICE-PACK. 
 
 CnAPTKK 
 XXV. 
 
 into the 
 ice- pack. 
 
 ! '10 81111 
 
 •[.pcais. 
 
 
 W'lirking 
 iia. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 WORKIKQ ON— A BOAT NIP — ICE-BARRIER — THE BARRIER PACK — PROGRESS 
 HOPELESS — NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND — NORTHUMBERLAND GLACIER — 
 ICE-CASCADES— NEVE. 
 
 The obstacle we had now to encounter was the pack that 
 stretched between us and the south. 
 
 Wlien the storm abated we commenced boring into it, — slow 
 work at the best of times ; but my companions eiif^ountered it 
 with a persevering activity quite as admirable as their fortitude 
 in danger. It had its own hazards too ; and more than once it 
 looked as if we were permanently beset. I myself knew tuc+ 've 
 might rely on the southerlj wind to liberate us from such an im- 
 prisonment ; but I saw that the men thought otherwise, as the 
 ice-fields closed around us and the horizon showed an unchanging 
 circle of ice. 
 
 We were still labouring on, hardly past the middle of the bay, 
 when the floes began to relax. On Sunday, the 23d of July, the 
 whole aspect around us changed. The sun came out cheeringly, 
 the leads opened more and more, and, as we pulled through them 
 to the south, each ice-tongue that we doubled brought us nearer 
 to the Greenland shore. A slackening of the ice to the east en- 
 abled us after a while to lay our course for Hakluyt Island. We 
 spread our canvas again, and reached the in-shore fields by one 
 in the afternoon. We made our camp, dried our buflfrio-skuis, 
 and sunned and slept away our fatigue. 
 
 We renewed our labours in the morning. Keciung inside the 
 pcack, we coasted along for the Gary Islands, encountering now 
 and then a projecting floe, and either boring or passing around it, 
 but making a satisfactory progress on the whole toward Lancaster 
 Sound. But at the south point of Northumberland loland the 
 pack arrested us once more. The seam by which we had como 
 t'a.st lay between Whale Sound and Murchison Inlet, and the ice- 
 drift from the southern of these had now piled itself in our 
 way. 
 
A GALE AND A BOAT NIP. 
 
 195 
 
 -PROGRESS 
 GLACIER— 
 
 ack that 
 
 it, — slow 
 mtered it 
 fortitude 
 h once it 
 iv tuc+ Tve 
 h an im- 
 Lse, as the 
 .^changing 
 
 ' the bay, 
 July, the 
 heeringly, 
 igh them 
 us nearer 
 east en- 
 ind. We 
 s by one 
 .lo-skins, 
 
 inside the 
 ring now 
 
 around it, 
 ancaster 
 ,land the 
 lad conio 
 d the ice- 
 If in our 
 
 I was confident that I should find the " Eastern Water" if I chaptkb 
 could only reach Cape Parry, and that this would give nie a free ^' ^' 
 track to Gary Islands. I therefore looked anxiously for a fissure 
 in the pack, and pressed our little craft into the first one that 
 seemed at all practicable. 
 
 For the next three days we worked painfully througli the lialf- Painfui 
 open leads, making in all some fifteen miles to the south. We *"' " 
 liad very sfldom room enough to row ; but, as we tracked along, 
 i. was not difficult to escape nippings, by hauling up the boat on 
 the ice. Still she received some hard knocks, and a twi.st or two 
 that did not help her sea-worthiness, for she began to leak ; and 
 this, with the rain which fell heavily, forced us to bale her out 
 every ' c^>er hour. Of course we could not sleep, and one of our 
 lit^h part ItU sick with the unmitigated fatigue. 
 
 {' he 2r6h it came on to blow, the wind still keeping from a RKie. 
 
 ■) south- vjst, but cold and almost rising to a gale. AVe had had 
 ■•uothor wet and sleepless night, for the floes still baffled us by 
 their capricious movements. But at three in the afternoon .we had 
 the sun again, and the ice opened just enough to teinpt us. It 
 was uncomfortable toil We pushed forward our little weather- 
 worn craft, her gunwales touching on both sides, til) the toppling 
 ice began to break down on us, and sometimes, critically sus- 
 pended, met above our heads. 
 
 One of these passages I am sure we all of us remember. AVe 
 were in an alley of pounded ice-masses, such as the receding flues a ixmt 
 leave when they have crushed the tables that were between them, '"''• 
 and had j)usjieu ■ r vvay far enough to make retreat impossible, 
 wlicn the field>- trgji ■ to close in. There was no escaping a nip, 
 for everythi' _ va.«? loose and rolling around us, and the floes broke 
 into humr;''<_Ii vigz^ as they came together. They met just 
 ahead o" us, a;;-' ^,^-^6\ illy swayed in toward our boat. The 
 fragments were already splitting off and spimiing over us, when 
 we found ourselves borne up by the accumulating rubbish, like 
 the Advance in lier winter drift ; and, after resting for twenty 
 minutes high out of water, quietly lowered again as the fields 
 relaxed their pressure. 
 
 (ienerally, however, the ice-fields came together directly, and so 
 gradually sn to enable us to anticipate their contact. In buoIi 
 oases, as Wt w. •>;-:» jhort-bunded and our boat heavily laden, we 
 
 i 
 
196 
 
 STRIFE WITH THE ICE-FLOES. 
 
 CHA1TKU 
 
 XXV. 
 
 I'lan of 
 t'cttiiiK 
 tlirouKh 
 tlic ice. 
 
 An ice 
 biurier. 
 
 The divid 
 iiiK pack 
 of Hafflirs 
 buy. 
 
 v/ere glad to avail ourselves of the motion of the floes to assist in 
 lifting her upon thorn. We threw her across the lead by a small 
 pull of the stecring-oar, and let her meet the approaching ice upon 
 her bow. The effect, as we found in every instance, was to press 
 her down forward as the floe advanced against her, and to raise 
 her stern above the level of the other field. We held ourselves 
 ready for the spring as she began to rise. 
 
 It was a time of almost unbroken excitement ; yet I am not 
 surprised, as I turn over the notes of my meagre diary, to find how 
 little of stirrhig incident it records. The story of one day's strife 
 with the ice-floes might almost serve for those which followed it ; 
 I remember that we were finir times nipped before we succeeded 
 in releashig ourselves, ana . lat we -^ere glad to haul upon the 
 floes as often as a dozen tii'. -. We attempted to drag for- 
 
 ward on the occasional fields , ' we had to give it up, for it 
 strained the boat so m",ch that stie was barely sea- worthy ; it kept 
 one man busy the last six days baling her out. 
 
 On the 31st, at the distance of ten miles from Cape Parry, we 
 came to a dead halt. A solid mass lay directly across our path, 
 extending onward to our furthest horizon. There were bergs in 
 sight to the westward, and by walkmg for some four miles over 
 the moving floe in that direction, M'Gary and myself succeeded 
 in reaching one. We climbed it to the height of a hundred and 
 twenty feet, and, looking out from it with my excellent spy-glass 
 to the south and west, we saw that all within a radius of thirty 
 miles was a motionless, unbroken, and impenetrable sea. 
 
 I had not counted on this. Captain Inglefi.eld found open 
 water two years before at this very point. I myself met no ice 
 here only seven days later in 1853. Yet it was plain, that from 
 Cape Combermere on the west side, and an unnamed bay imme- 
 diately to the north of it, across to Hackluyt Island, there ex- 
 tended a continuous barrier of ice. We had scarcely penetrated 
 beyond its margin. 
 
 We had, in fact, reached the dividing pack of the two great open 
 waters of Baflfin's Bay. The experience of the whalers and of the 
 expedition-ships that have traversed this region have made all of 
 us familiar with that great expanse of open sea, to the north of 
 Cape Dudley Diggs, which has received the name of the North 
 Water. Combining the observations of Bafiin, Ross, and Ingle- 
 
ICE-BEI TS. 
 
 197 
 
 field, we know that this sometimes extends as far north as Littleton 
 Island, embracing an area of 90,000 square miles. The voyagers 
 I have named could not, of course, be aware of the interesting fact 
 that this water is divided, at least occasionally, into two distinct 
 Vwdies ; the one comprehended between Lancaster and Jones's 
 Sounds, the other extending from the point we had now reached 
 to the upper pack of Smith's Straits. But it was evident to all 
 of our party that the barrier which now arrested us was made up 
 of the ices which Jones's Sound on the west and Murchisou's on 
 the east had discharged and driven together. 
 
 I may mention, as bearing on the physical geography of the 
 region, that south of Cape Isabella the western shore is invested 
 by a zone of unbroken ice. We encountered it when we were .ibout 
 twenty miles from the land. It followed the curves of three great 
 indentations, whose bases were lined with glaciers rivalling those of 
 Melville Bay. The bergs from them were nuT^xerous and large, 
 entangling the floating floes, and contributing as much as the cur- 
 rents to the ice-clad character of this most drcaiy coast. The 
 currents alone would not explain it. Yet wlien we recur to the 
 observations of Graah, who describes a similar belt on tlie eastern 
 coast of Greenland, and to the observations of the same character 
 that have been made on the coasts of Arctic America to the south- 
 oast, it is not easy to escape the thought, that this accumulation of 
 ice on the western shores must be due, in part at least, to the 
 rotaiy movements of the earth, whose increasing radius as we 
 recede from the Pole gives increased velocity to the southern ice- 
 })ack. 
 
 To return to our narrative. It was obvious that a further 
 attempt to penetrate to the south must be hopeless till the ice- 
 barrier before us should undergo a change. I had observed, when 
 ])assing Northumberland Island, that some of its glacier-slopes 
 were margined with verdure, an almost unfailing indication of 
 animal life; and, as my men were much wasted with diarrhoea, 
 and our supplies of food had become scanty, I resolved to work my 
 way to the island, and recruit there for another eff"ort. 
 
 Tracking and sometimes rowing through a heavy rain, we tra- 
 versed the leads for two days, working eastward; and on the morn- 
 ing of the third gained the open water near the shore. Here a 
 .breeze came to our aid, and in a couple of hours more we passed 
 
 CHAPTER 
 X\V. 
 
 This ilivi- 
 sioii of till) 
 open 
 wator. 
 
 A zone of 
 unbrokt;:i 
 ice. 
 
 Further 
 proKiess 
 
r 
 
 Is ' 
 
 fill 
 
 1 li 
 
 'i 
 
 198 
 
 NORTH T'MBERLAND ISLAND. 
 
 cHAriKR vnth now unwonted facility to the southern face of the island. We 
 ^^'' met several flocks of little auks as we approjiched it, and found on 
 landing that it was one enormous homestead of the auks, dovekies, 
 and gulls. 
 
 We encamped on the 31st, on a low beach at the foot of a 
 moraine that came down between precipitous oliflfs of surpassing 
 wildness. It had evidently been selected by the Esquimaux for a 
 winter settlement : five well-built huts of stone attested this. Three 
 of them were still tolerably perfect, and bore marks of recent habi- 
 tation, The droppings of the birds had fertilized the soil, and it 
 abounded in grasses, sorrel, and cochlearia, to the water's edge. 
 
 iin Est^ul- 
 
 IDAIIX 
 
 fifttle- 
 iiieiit. 
 
 Foxes. 
 
 OLACIRR OF NORTHUWBERI.ASD 18t.A.ND. 
 
 The foxes were about in great numbers, attracted, of course, by 
 the abundance of birds. They were all of them of the lead-coloured 
 variety, without a white one among them. The young ones, as 
 
A GREAT OLACIKR. 
 
 199 
 
 yet lean and seemingly unskilled in hospitable courtesies, barked ohaptkr 
 at us as we walked about. ^^^' 
 
 I was greatly interested by a glacier that occupied the head of An inifr- 
 the moraine. It came down abruptly from tlie central plater-u of g^g,"^^ 
 the island, with an angle of descent of more than 70°. I have never 
 seen one that illustrated more beautifully the viscous or semi-solid 
 movement of these masses. Like a well-known glacier of the Alps, 
 it had two planes of descent ; the upper nearly precipitous for about 
 400 feet from the summit, the lower of about the same height, but 
 with an angle of some 50°, — the two communicating by a slightly- 
 inclined platform perhaps half a mile long. This ice was unbroken 
 tlurough its entire extent. It came down from the level of the 
 upper country, a vast icicle, with the folds or waves impressed 
 upon it by its onward motion, undisturbed by any apparent frac- 
 ture or crevasse. Thus it rolled onward over the rugged and con- 
 tracting platform below, and thence poured its semi-solid mass 
 down upon the plain. Where it encountered occasional knobs of 
 rock it passed round them, bearing still the distinctive marks of 
 an imperfect fluid obstructed in its descent; and its lower fall 
 described a dome, or, to use the more accurate simile of Forbes, a 
 great outspread clam-shell of ice. 
 
 It seemed as if an interior ice-lake was rising above the brink rinctrc-s 
 of the cliffs that confined it. In many places it could be seen ex- "lag-^^ 
 uding or forcing its way over the very crest of the rocks, and 
 hanging down ia huge icy stalactites 70 and 100 feet long. These 
 were still lengthening out by the continuous overflow, — some of 
 them breaking off as their weight became too great for their 
 tenacity; others swelling by constant supplies from the interior, 
 but spitting off fragmentary masses with an unremitting clamour. 
 The plain below these cataractine glaciers was piling up with the 
 debris, while torrents of the melted rubbish found their way, 
 foaming and muddy, to the sea, carrying gravel and rocks along 
 with them. 
 
 These ice-cascades, as we called them, kept up their din the ice-fR« 
 whole night, sometimes startling us with a heavy booming sound, 
 as the larger masses fell, but more generally rattling away like the 
 random fires of a militia parade. On examining the ice of which 
 they were made up, I found grains of neve larger than a walnut ; 
 80 large, indeed, that it was hard to realize that they could be 
 
 Cdcll'8. 
 
2(X) 
 
 " NEVE." 
 
 CHAPTER formed by tlie ordinary granulating processes of the winter snows. 
 
 ^^^' My impression is, that the surface of tlie phiteau-ice, the mer de 
 
 glace of the island, is made up of these agglomerated nodules, and 
 
 that they arc forced out and discarded by the advance of the more 
 
 compact ice from higher levels.'" 
 
 i I 
 
 !■ ! 
 
 If 
 
 jiii^i 
 
 
KETDRN TO THE URIG. 
 
 2«)l 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 TJIE ICE-FOOT IN ACQUST— THE PACK IN ACOUST— ICE-BIiASTING — FOX- 
 TRAP POINT — WAKPINO — TIIH PROSPECT — APPItOACUINQ CLIMAX— SIG- 
 NAL CAIRN- TUE RECORD — PROJECTED WITHDRAWAL — THE QUESTION— 
 THE DETERMINATION — THE RESULT. 
 
 It was with mingled feelings that we neared the brig. Our little chaptfr 
 party had grown fat aud strong upon the auks and eiders and ^f]^" 
 scurvy -grass ; and surmises were rife among us as to the condition Return to 
 of our comrades and tlio prospects of our ice-bound little ship. 
 
 The tide-leads, which one year ago had afforded a precarious 
 passage to the vessel, i^ow barely admitted our whale-boat ; and, 
 as we forced her through the broken ice, she showed such signs of 
 hard usage, that I had her hauled up upon the land-belt and 
 housed under tho cliffs at Six-mile Ravine. We crossed the rocks 
 on foot, aided by our jumping -poles, and startled our shipmates by 
 our sudden appearance. 
 
 In the midst of the greeting which always met our returning 
 parties, and which gave to our little vessel the endearing associa- 
 tions of a homestead, our thoughts reverted to the feeble chances 
 of our liberation, and the failure of our recent effort to secure the 
 means of a retreat. 
 
 The brig had been imprisoned by closely-cementing ice for eleven Time of 
 months, during which period she had not budged an inch from her *^gnj^^"' 
 icy cradle. My journal will show the efforts and the hopes which the ice. 
 engrossed our few remaining days of uncertainty and suspense : — 
 
 '■'' August 8, Tuesday. — This morning two saw-lines were passed operations 
 from the open-water pools at the sides of our stern-post, and the ice '" -^"S"'-'' 
 was bored for blasting. In the course of our operations the brig 
 surged and righted, rising two and a half feet. We are now trying 
 to warp her a few yards toward Butler Island, where we again go 
 to work with our powder-canisters. 
 
 *^ August \\, Friday, — Returned yesterday from an inspection 
 of the ice toward the Esquimaux settlements j but, absorbing as 
 was my errand, I managed to take geognostical sections and pro- 
 
202 
 
 THE ICE-FOOT IN AUGUST. 
 
 CnAPTKR 
 XXVI. 
 
 ThlckncM 
 o«'tlie Ice- 
 fouL 
 
 Drift Ice. 
 
 ■^iS 
 
 Clmnccs 
 Iroiu tlie 
 disruption 
 of the 
 yuck. 
 
 files of tlip. coast as far south as Peter Force Bay, beyond wliicli 
 the ice was impenetrable. 
 
 " I have often referred to the massive character of the ice in 
 that neighbourhood. Tlie ice-foot, by our winter measurement 27 
 feet in mean thickness by 40 yards in width, is now of dimensions 
 still more formidable. Large masses, released like land-slides by 
 the action of torrents from the coast, form here and there a belt or 
 reef, which clogs the shoal water near the shore and prevents a 
 passage. Such ice I have seen 36 feet in height ; and when sub- 
 jected, as it often is, to hummock-squeezing, 60 and 70 feet. It 
 requires experience to distinguish it from the true iceberg, 
 
 " When I passed up the sound on the 6th of August, after my 
 long southern journey, I found the ice-foot comparatively un- 
 broken, and a fine interval of open water between it and the large 
 floes of the pack. Since then this pack has been broken up, and 
 the comminuted fragments, forming a great drift, move with tides 
 and currents in such a way as to obliterate the ' land water' at high 
 tide, and under some circumstances at other times. This broken 
 rubbish occasionally expands enough to permit a boat to pass 
 through ; but, as we found it, a passage could only be effected by 
 heavy labour, and at great expense to our boat, nearly unseaworthy 
 now from her former trials. We hauled her up near Bedevilled 
 Headland, and returned to the brig on foot. 
 
 *' As I travelled back lalong the coast, I observed the wonderful 
 changes brought about by the disruption of the pack. It was my 
 hope to have extricated the brig, if she was ever to be liberated, 
 before the drift had choked the land-leads ; but now they are 
 closely jammed with stupendous ice-fragments, records of incon- 
 ceivable pressures. The bergs, released from their winter cement, 
 have driven down in crowds, grounding on the shallows, and ex- 
 tending in roofs or chains out to seaward, where they have caught 
 and retained the floating ices. The prospect was really desolation 
 itself. One floe measured nine feet in mean elevation above the 
 water-level ; thus implying a tabular thickness by direct congela- 
 tion of 63 feet. It had so closed in with the shore, too, as to rear 
 up a barricade of crushed ice which it was futile to attempt to 
 pass. All prospect of forcing a passage ceased north of Six-mile 
 Kavine. 
 
 " On reaching the brig I found that the blasting had succeeded ; 
 
FOX-TRAP POINT. 
 
 203 
 
 one canister cracked and uplifted 200 square yards of ice with but ciiaptkr 
 Hve pounds of powder. A i)rt)spect showed itself of getting inside HI"" 
 the isi. .nd at high water ; and I determined to attempt it at the '<"" i*''""- 
 highest spring-tide, which takes place on the 12th. 
 
 ^^ August 12, Saturdni/. — The brig bore the strain of her new 
 position very well. The tide fell 15 feet, leaving her high and 
 dry ; but, as the water rose, everything was replaced, and the deck 
 put in order for warping again. Every one in the little vessel 
 turned to ; and after much excitement, at the very top of the 
 tide, she passed * by the skin of her teeth.' She was then war])ed 
 into a bight of the floe, near Fox -Trap Point, and there she now lies. 
 
 " We congratulate ourselves upon effecting this crossing. Had 
 we fiiiled, we slu)uld have had to remain fast probably for the high 
 tides a fortnight hence. The y«mng ice is already making, and 
 our hopes Fost mainly upon the gales of late August and September. 
 
 ^'■August 13, Sunday. — Still fast to the old floe near Fox-Trap rasttoa 
 Point, waiting a heavy wind as our only means of liberation. The ^ox-Trap 
 land-trash is cemented by young ice, which is .already an inch and ''o'"'- 
 a half thick. The thermometer has been as low as 29° ; but the 
 fog and mist which prevail to-day are in our favour. The perfect 
 clearness of the past five days hiistened the growth of young ice, 
 and it has been forming without intermission. 
 
 " I took a long walk to inspect the ice towards SLx-mile Ravine, icoinspcc- 
 This ice has never been moved either by wind or water since its 
 formation. I found that it lined the entire shore with long ridges 
 of detached fragments — a discouraging obstacle, if it should remain, 
 in the way of our future liberation. It is in direct contact with 
 the big floe that we are now fast to, and is the remnant of the 
 triple lines of ' lar.d-ices' which I have described already. I attri- 
 bute its permanency to the almost constant shadow of the moun- 
 tains near it. 
 
 "August 15, Tuesday. — To-day I made another ice-inspection to 
 the north-east. The floe on which I have trudged so often, the 
 big bay-floe of our former mooring, is nearly the same as when we 
 loft it. I recognised the holes and cracks, through the fog, by a 
 sort of instinct. M'Gary and myself had little difliculty in reach- 
 ing che Fiord Water by our jumpi-g-poles. 
 
 " I have my eye on this water ; for it may connect with the 
 North-east Headland, and hereafter give us a passage. 
 
n 
 
 ! i 
 
 i- ' 
 
 
 , 
 
 ■ 
 
 j 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 •1 
 
 ,! 
 
 
 :^ 
 
 ,1 
 i 
 
 t^ 
 
 204 
 
 TKP.RTBLE rROSPECT. 
 
 Warping. 
 
 CHAPTKii "The season travels on : the young ice grows thicker, and my 
 
 *'^^'' incssiiiatos' faces grow longer every day. I have again to play 
 
 bufToon to keep up the spirits of the party. 
 
 SiKiid of " A raven ! The snow-lards begin to fly to the south in groups, 
 
 "Hi{'win\er. coming at night to our brig to hover on the rigging. Winter is 
 
 hurrying upon us. The poppies are quite wilted. 
 
 " Exandned ice with !Mr. Bonsall, and determined to enter the 
 broken land-ices by warping ; not that there is the slightest pro- 
 bability of getting through, but it affords moral aid and comfort 
 to the men and oflioers : it looks as if we were doing something. 
 
 " Aiii/ust 17, Thnrsdai/. — Warped about 100 yards into the 
 trash, and, after a long day of labour, have turned in, hoping to 
 recommence at 5 a.m. to-morrow. 
 
 " In five days the spring-tides come back : should we fail in 
 passing with them, I think our fortunes are fixed. The young ice 
 bore a man this morning : it had a bad look, this man-sup[)()rting 
 August ice ! The temperature never falls below 28^ ; but it is 
 cold o' nights with no fire. 
 
 ^^ August 18, Fridai/, — Reduced our allowance of wood to six 
 pounds a meal. Tiiis, among eighteen mouths, is one-third of a 
 pound of fuel for each. It allows us coffee twice a day, ai>f1 «f^'i;' 
 once. Our fare besides this is cold pork boUed in quantity and 
 eaten as required. This sort of thing works badly ; but I must 
 save coal for other emergencies. I see ' darkness a-head. 
 
 " I inspected the ice again to-day. Bad ! bad ! — I must look 
 another winter in the face. I do not shrink from the thought ; 
 but, while we have a chance ahead, it is my first duty to hj'.v'e all 
 A iioniiiie things in readiness to meet it. It is horrible — yes, that is the 
 pioHpect. yfQ^.^ — ^Q Iqq]^ forward to another year of disease and darkness to 
 be met without fresh food and without fuel. I should meet it 
 with a more tempered sadness if I had no comrades to think for 
 and protect. 
 
 " All ff list 20^ Sunday. — Rest for all hands. The daily prayer 
 is no longer, ' Lord, accept our gratitude and bless our undertaking,' 
 but, * Lord, accept our gratitude and restore us to our homes.' The 
 ice shows no change : after a boat aud foot journey around the 
 entire south-eastern curve of the bay, no signs ! 
 
 " I was out in the Red Eric with Bonsall, M'Oary, Hans, Riley 
 and John. We tracked her over the ice to the Burgomaster Cove 
 
 AUnwnnco 
 of fuel 
 ruihiccd. 
 
 Sunday 
 rest and 
 dailv 
 prayer. 
 
 X^ 
 
A 8IONAL CAIRK. 
 
 ajfi 
 
 icker, and my 
 a^'ain to play 
 
 ith in groups, 
 ^. Winter is 
 
 I to enter the 
 slightest pro- 
 1 and comfort 
 ; something, 
 irds into the 
 in, hoping to 
 
 Id we fail in 
 Phe young ice 
 in-supporting 
 B' ; but it id 
 
 wood to six 
 ne-third of a 
 ay, a»>d qomh 
 quantity and 
 
 but I must 
 lad. 
 
 I must look 
 
 he thought ; 
 
 y to hf.Ye all 
 
 that is the 
 
 darkness to 
 ould meet it 
 to think for 
 
 daily prayer 
 mdertaking,' 
 homes.' The 
 ■ around the 
 
 Hans, Riley 
 uaster Cove 
 
 tlie flanking cape of Charlotte Wood Fiord and its river. Here we 
 liiunchcd her, and went all round the long can;d which the running 
 waters have eaten into the otherwise unchanged ice. Charlotte 
 Wood Fiord is a commanding sheet of water, nearly as wide as 
 the Delaware : in the midst of the extreme solidity arotnid us, it 
 l(.^ir„,| (Ifoeitfully gladdening. After getting to the other side, 
 r .Ltle Willie's ^foiinment, we ascended a high V)liilV, and .saw 
 
 everything weary and discouraging beyond. Our party returned 
 quite crestfallen." 
 
 My attempt to reach Beechy Island had disclosed, as I thought 
 it would, the impossibility of reaehing the settlements of (Jreen- 
 land. iJetween the American and the opposite side of \ ho bay 
 was one (ontinnous p.uk of ice, which, after I had travelled on it 
 for many miles to the south, was still of undefined extent before 
 nie. The birds had left their colonies. The water-streams from 
 the bergs and of the shore were freezing up rapidly. The young 
 ice made the water-surface impassable even to a whaleboat. It was 
 clear to me that without an absolute change of circumstances, such 
 as '*■ was vain to Ljok for any longer, to leave the slup would be 
 t' r upon a wilderness destitute of resources, and from which 
 i' I be difficult, if not impracticable, to return. 
 
 Everything before us was involved in gloomy doubt. Hopeful 
 as I had been, it was impossible not to feel that we were near the 
 climax of the expedition. 
 
 I determined to place upon Observatory Island a large signal- 
 beacon or cairn, and to bury under it documents which, in case of 
 disaster to our party, would convey to any who might seek us in- 
 telhgence of our proceedings and our fate. The memory of the 
 first -winter quarters of Sir John Franklin, and the painful feelings 
 with which, while standing by the graves of his dead, I had five 
 years before sought for written signs pohiting to the fate of the 
 living, made me careful to avoid a similar neglect. 
 
 A conspicuous spot was selected upon a cliff looking out upon 
 the icy desert, and on a broad face of rock the words : — 
 
 ADVANCE, 
 A.D. 1853-54. 
 
 were painted in letters which could be read at a distance. A 
 pyramid of heavy stones, jierched above it, was marked with the 
 
 CIIAPTKn 
 XXVI. 
 
 I'.xi'cdl- 
 tiiiii ill tho 
 JUU Krie, 
 
 Olonmy 
 pruspeots. 
 
 A xiciml 
 cairn. 
 
 Tlie Ik- 
 scrtptioii 
 on tlie 
 rock. 
 
'■ 
 
 I;' 
 
 V i 
 
 I i 
 
 I i; 
 
 |i, 
 
 i- 
 
 ! ! 
 
 it 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 9 
 
 « 
 
 iflP 
 
 S- il I 
 
 206 
 
 THE RECORD IN THE CAIRX. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 SXVI. 
 
 A deacon 
 and a 
 (fTiive- 
 Btune. 
 
 Names ni 
 the mem- 
 bers of the 
 expiKli- 
 
 tlUII. 
 
 When 
 liuzen in. 
 
 I.abouis of 
 the cxpu- 
 ditiun. 
 
 Christian symbol of the cross. It was not without a holier senti- 
 ment than that of mere utility that I placed under this the coffins 
 of our two poor comrades. It was our beacon and their grave- 
 stone. 
 
 Near this a hole was worked into the rock, and a paper, 
 enclo.sed in glass, sealed in with melted lead. It read as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Brio Advance, August 14, 1S54. 
 
 " E. K. Kane, with his comrades, Henry Brooks, John Wall 
 Wilson, James M'Gary, I. I. Hayes, Christian Ohlsen, Amos Bon- 
 sall, Henry Goodfellow, August Sontag, William Morton, J. Carl 
 Petersen, George Stephenson, Jefferson Temple Baker, George 
 Riley, Peter Schubert, George Whipple, John Bhike, Thomas 
 Hickey, William Godfrey, and Hans Cristian, members of the 
 Second Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin and 
 the missing crews of the Erebus and Terror, were forced into this 
 harbour while endeavouring to bore the ice to the north and 
 east. 
 
 "They were frozen in on the 8th of September, 1853, and 
 liberated 
 
 " During this period the labours of the expedition have deli- 
 neated 9 GO miles of coast-Hne, without developing any traces of the 
 missing ships or the slightest information bearing upon their fate. 
 The amount of travel to effect this exploration exceeded 2000 
 miles, all of which was upon foot or by the aid of dogs. 
 
 " Greenland has been traced to its northern face, whence it is 
 connected with tiie further north of the opposite coast by a great 
 glacier. This coast has been charte-d' as high as lat. 82° 27'. 
 Smith's Sound expands into a capacious bay : it has been surveyed 
 throughout its entire extent. From its northern and eastern cor- 
 ner, in lat. 80° 10', long. 66°, a channel has been discovered and 
 followed until further progress was checked by water free from ice. 
 This channel trended nearly due north, and expanded into an ap- 
 parently open sea, which abounded with birds and bears and 
 marine life. 
 
 "The death of the dogs during the winter threw the travel 
 essential to the above discoveries upon the personal efforts of the 
 officers and men. The summer finds them much broken in health 
 and strength. 
 
ON FOX-TRAP POINT. 
 
 207 
 
 " Jefierson Temple Baker and Peter Schubert died from injuries 
 received from cold while in manly performance of their duty. 
 Their remains are deposited under a cairn at the north point of 
 Observatory island. . 
 
 "The site of the observatory is 76 Englloii feet from the 
 northernmost salient point of this island, in a direction south 1 4° 
 east. Its position is in lat. 78° 37' 10", long. 70° 40'. The mean 
 tidal level is 29 feet below the highest point upon this island. 
 Both of these sites are further designated by copper bolts sealed 
 with iii&ited lead into holes upon the rocks. 
 
 " On the 12th of August, 1854, the brig warped from her posi- 
 tion, and, after passing inside the group of islands, fastened to the 
 outer floe about a mile to the north-west, where she is now await- 
 ing further changes in the ice. 
 
 (Signed) " E. K. Kane, 
 
 " Comiuaiiding Expedition. 
 " Fox-TuAP Point, August 14, 1854." 
 
 Some hours later, the following note was added : — 
 " The young ice having formed between the brig and this island, 
 and prospects of a gale showing themselves, the date of departure 
 is left unfilled. If possibl ~, a second visit will be made to insert 
 our dates, our final escape being still depender t upon the course 
 of the season. E. K. Kank." 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXVi. 
 
 Deaths 
 from cold. 
 
 Site of the 
 observa- 
 tory. 
 
 Position 
 of tlie 
 biig. 
 
 Additloriitl 
 iiotu. 
 
 And now came the question of the second winter : how to look Piospeot 
 our enemy in the face, and how to meet him. Anything was bet- "vi",tc,-."" 
 ter than inaction; and, in spite of the uncertainty which yet 
 attended our plans, a host of expedients were to be resorted to, 
 and much Robinson Crusoe labour ahead !Moss was to be 
 gathered for eking out our winter fuel, and willow-stems, and 
 .stonecrops, and sorrel, as antiscorbutics, collected and buried in the 
 snow. But while all these were in progress came other and 
 graver questions 
 
 Some of my party had entertained the idea that an escape to 
 the south was still practicable ; and this opiuit)n was supported by 
 !Mr. Petersen, our Danish interpreter, who had accompanied the 
 Searching Expedition of Captain Penny, and had a matured expe- 
 rience in the changes of Arctic ice. They even thought that the 
 safety of jvll would be promoted by a withdrawal from the brig. 
 
Tra 
 
 iil 
 
 
 I' 
 
 I 
 
 fa 
 
 208 
 
 en WTKR 
 XXVI. 
 
 The cup- 
 
 taln's 
 
 duty. 
 
 What 
 
 ousht the 
 crew to 
 do? 
 
 Dad pro- 
 spect for 
 winter. 
 
 Escape nf 
 the brlR 
 bopelcsii. 
 
 PROJECTED WITHDRAWAL FROM THE BRIG. 
 
 "August, 21, Monday. — Tlie question of detaching a party was 
 in my mind some time ago ; but the more I thought it over, the 
 more I was convinced tliat it would be neither right in itself nor 
 practical)/ safe. For myself personally, it is a simple duty or 
 hono^v to remain by the brig : I could not think of leaving her 
 till I had proved the effect of the latter tides ; and after that, as I 
 liave known all along, it would be too late. Come what may, I 
 share her fortunes. 
 
 " But it is a different question Avith my associates. I cannot 
 expect them to adopt my impulses ; and I am by no means sure 
 that I ought to hold theui bound, by my conclusions. Have I the 
 moral right ? for, as to nautical rules, they do not fit t!ie circum- 
 stances ; among the whalers, when a ship is hopelessly beset, the 
 master's authority gives way, and the crew take counsel for them- 
 selves whether to go or stay by her. !My party is subordirate and 
 well-disposed ; but if the restlessness of suffering makes some of 
 them anxious to brave the cliances, they may certainly plead that 
 a second winter in the ice was no part of the cruise they bargained 
 for. 
 
 " But what presses on me is of another character. I cannot 
 disguise it from myself that we are wretchedly prepared for an- 
 other winter on board. We are a set of scurvy-riddled, broken- 
 down men ; our provisions are sorely reduced in quantity, and are 
 altogether unsuited to our condition. My only hope of maintain- 
 ing or restoring such a degree of health among us as is indispens- 
 able to our escape in the spring has been and must be in a whole- 
 some, clastic tone of feeling among the men : a reluctant, brooding, 
 disheartened spirit would sweep our decks like a pestilence. I 
 fear the bane of depressing example, 
 
 " I know all this as a medical man and an officer ; and I feel 
 that we might be wearing away the hearts and energies, if not the 
 lives of all, by forcing those who were reluctant to remain. 
 Wi \\ half a dozen confiding, resolute men, I have no fears of ulti- 
 mate iiafety. 
 
 " I will make a thorough inspection of the ice to-morrow, and 
 decide finally the prospects of our liberation. 
 
 "August 23, Wednesday. — The brig cannot escape. I got an 
 eligible position with my sledge to review the floes, and returned 
 this morning at two o'clock. There is no possibility of our re- 
 
THE COUNCIL AND THE DECISION. 
 
 209 
 
 ites. I cannot 
 
 3-morrow, and 
 
 lease, unless by some extreme intervention of the coming tides, cHArtKR 
 I doubt whether a boat could be forced as far as the Southern ^J^' 
 Water. When I think of the extraordinary way in which the ice 
 was impacted last winter, how very little it has yielded through 
 the summer, and how early another winter is making its onset 
 upon us, I am very doubtful, indeed, whether our brig can get 
 away at all. It Avould be inexpedient to attempt leaving her new 
 in boats ; the water-streams closing, the pack nearly fast again, 
 and the young ice almost impenetrable. 
 
 " I shajl call the officers and crew together, and make known U.> The cap- 
 them very fully how things look, and what hazards must attend |"["y^,"'^'^ 
 such an effort as has been proposed among them. They shall 
 have my views unequivocally expressed. I will then give them 
 twenty-four hours to deliberate ; and at the end of that time all 
 who determine to go shall say so in \\aiting, with a full exposition 
 of the circumstances of the case. They shall have the best outfit 
 I can give, an abundant share of our remaining stores, and my 
 good-bye blessing. 
 
 "August 24, Thursday. — At noon to-day I had all hands called, a council 
 and explained to them frankly the considerations which have de- "^''"'^'^' 
 termined me to remain where we are. I endeavoured to show 
 them that an escape to open water could not succeed, and that the 
 L'tfort must be exceedingly hazardous : I alluded to our duties to 
 the ship : in a word, I advised them stienuously to forego the 
 project. I then told them that I should freely give my permis- 
 sion to such as were desirous of making the attempt, but that I 
 should require them to place themselves under the conunand of 
 officers selected by them before setting out, and to renounce in 
 writing all claitiis upon myself and the rest who were resolved to 
 stay by the vessel. Having done this, I directed the roll to be 
 called, and each man to answer for himself." 
 
 In the result, eight out of the seventeen survivors of my party The deci- 
 resolved to stand by the brig. It is just that I should record '!"" '"' 
 tlioir names. They were Henry Brooks, James M'Gary, J. W. 
 Wilson, Henry tioodfellow, William Morton, (Jhristian Ohlsen, 
 Thomas Hickey, Hans Cristian. 
 
 I divided to the others their portion of our resources justly and 
 even liberally ; and they left us on Monday, the 28th, with every 
 appliance our narrow circum,stances could furnish to speed and 
 
ml 
 
 
 210 
 
 DEPARTURE OF A PARTY. 
 
 CHAPTER guard them. One of them, George Riley, returned a few days 
 ^^^ afterward ; but weary months went by before we saw the re.st 
 again. They carried with them a written assurance of a brother's 
 welcome should they be driven back ; and this assurance was re- 
 deemed when hard trials had prepared them to share again oiu 
 fortunes. 
 
 ^■■W.. 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER. 
 
 211 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 DI8CIPMNE— BUILDINO IQLOE— TOSSUT— MOSSINO — AFTER 8EAI/— ON TlfE 
 YOUNO ICE — aOINQ TOO PAR— SEALS AT HOME — IN THE WATER— IN 
 SAFETY — DEATH OF TIQEtt. 
 
 The party moved off with the elastic step of men confident in their chapter 
 
 purpose, and were out of sight in a few hours. As we lost them 
 
 among the hummocks, the stern realities of our condition pressed ^[.^"„^. 
 themselves upon us anew. The reduced numbers of our party, ings. 
 the helplessness of many, the waning eflSciency of all, the impend- 
 ing winter, with its cold, dark night, our penury of resources, the 
 dreary sense of increased isolation, — these made the staple of our 
 thoughts. For a time Sir John Franklin and his party, our daily 
 topic through so many months, gave place to the question of our 
 own fortunes, — how we were to escape, how to Uve. The summer 
 
 had gone, the harvest was ended, and We did not care to 
 
 finish the sentence. . 
 
 Following close on this gloomy train, and in fact blending with 
 it, came the more important discussion of our duties. We were 
 like men driven to the wall, quickened, not depressed. Our plans 
 were formed at once : there ia nothing liko emergency to speed, if 
 not to instruct, the energies. 
 
 It was my first definite resolve that, come what might, our An-anRo. 
 organization and its routine of observances should be adhered to ""'"' °' 
 stricily. It is the experience of every man who has either com- 
 bated difficulties himself, or attempted to guide others through 
 them, that the controlling law shall be systematic action. No- 
 thing depresses and demoralizes so much as a surrender of the 
 approved and habitual forms of Ufe. I resolved that everything 
 should go on as it had done. The arrangement of hours, the dis- 
 tribution and details of duty, the religious exercises, the cere- 
 monials of the table, the fires, the lights, the watch, even the 
 labours of the observatory and the notation of the tides and the 
 sky, — nothing should be intermitted that had contributed to make 
 up the day. 
 
 duties 
 
212 
 
 BUILDING AN INGLOE. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Lessons 
 
 learned 
 
 from 
 
 Ksqul- 
 
 inaiix. 
 
 My next was to practise on the lessons we had learned from the 
 Esquimaux. I had studied them carefully, and determined that 
 their form of habitation and their peculiarities of diet, without their 
 unthrift and filth, were the safest and best to which the necessity 
 of our circumstances invited us. 
 
 My journal tells how these resolves were carried out : — 
 
 ^^ September 6, Wednesday. — We are at it, all hands, sick and 
 well, each man according to his measure, working at our winter's 
 home. We are none of us in condition to brave the frost, and our 
 fuel is nearly out. I have determined to borrow a lesson from 
 our Esquimaux neighbours, and am turning the brig into an igloe. 
 
 " The sledge is to bring us moss and turf from wherever the 
 men can scrape it. This is an excellent non-*5onductor ; and when 
 
 I 
 
 OATIIERINO MOSS. 
 
 i 
 
 AningioK wc get the quarter-deck well padded with it we shall have a 
 !j"''® nearly cold-proof covering. Down below we will enclose a space 
 some eighteen feet square, and pack it from floor to ceiling with 
 inner walls of the same material. The floor itself we are calking 
 carefully with plaster of Paris and common paste, and will cover 
 it, when we have done, with Manilla oakum a couple of inches 
 deep, and a canvas carpet. The entrance is to be from the hold, 
 by a low, moss-lined tunnel, the tossut of the native huts, with as 
 
 & 
 
THE BRIG PREPARED FOR WINTER. 
 
 919 
 
 rom the 
 led that 
 ut their 
 lecessity 
 
 iick and 
 winter's 
 and our 
 ion from 
 an igloe. 
 ever the 
 ,ud when 
 
 have a 
 e a space 
 ing with 
 e calking 
 vill cover 
 of inches 
 the hold, 
 
 with as 
 
 many doors and curtains to close it up as our ingenuity can de- chapter 
 vise. This is to be our apartment of all uses, — not a very large ^ ^^" ' 
 one ; but we are only ten to stow away, and the closer the 
 warmer. 
 
 " September 9, Saturday. — All hands but the carpenter and Mossing. 
 Morton are out * mossing.' This mossing, though it has a very 
 May-day sound, is a frightfully wintry operation. The mixed turf 
 of willows, heaths, grasses, and moss is frozen solid. We can- 
 not cut it out from the beds of the snow-streams any longer, and 
 are obliged to seek for it on the ledges of the rocks, quarrying it 
 with crowbars, and carrying it to the ship like so much stone, I 
 would escape this labour if I could, for our party have all of them 
 more or less scurvy in their systems, and the thermometer is often 
 below zero. But there is no help for it. I have some eight 
 sledge-loads more to collect before our little home can be called 
 wind-proof ; and then, if we only have snow enough to bank up 
 against the brig's sides, I shall have no fear either for height or 
 uniformity of temperature. 
 
 ^^ September 10, Sunday. — 'The work goes bravely on.' We Firewood, 
 have got moss enough for our roof, and something to spare for 
 below. To-morrow we begin to strip oflf the outer-deck planking 
 of the brig, and to stack it for firewood. It is cold work, hatches 
 open and no fires going ; but we saved time enough for our 
 Sunday's exercises, though we forego its rest. 
 
 " It is twelve months to-day since I returned from the weary Ex^eri- 
 foot-tramp that determined me to try the winter search. Things tiJ p^st 
 have changed since then, and the prospect ahead is less cheery. >eai- 
 But I close my pilgrim-experience of the year with devout grati- 
 tude for the blessings it has registered, and an earnest faith in the 
 support it pledges for the times to come. 
 
 "September 11, Monday. — Our stock of game is down to a mere 
 mouthful, — six long-tailed ducks not larger than a partridge, and 
 three ptarmigan. The rabbits have not yet come to us, and the 
 foxes seem tired of touching our trap-baits. 
 
 " I determined last Saturday to try a novel expedient for catch- 
 ing seal. Not more than ten miles to seaward the icebergs keep 
 up a rude stream of broken ice and water, and the seals resort there 
 in scanty numbers to breathe. I drove out with my dogs, taking 
 Hans along ; but we found the spot so hemmed in by loose and 
 
214 
 
 SEAL HUNTING. 
 
 \m 
 
 ; 118 
 
 ti;i 
 
 tilt I 
 
 'I 
 III' 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXVII. 
 
 Equip- 
 ment for 
 ■eal hunt- 
 ing. 
 
 ft 
 
 1 
 
 The 
 " Berg y 
 Belt." 
 
 Seals in 
 liglit 
 
 fragile ice that there was no approaching it. The thermometer was 
 8°, and a light breeze increased my difficulties. 
 
 " Deo volente, I will be more lucky to-morrow. I am going to 
 take my long Kentucky rifle, the kayack, an Esquimaux harpoon 
 with its attached line and bladder, nuligeit and awahtok, and a 
 pair of large snow-shoes to boot. My plan this time is to kneel 
 where the ice is unsafe, resting my weight on the broad surface of 
 the snow-shoes, Hans following astride of his kayack, as a sort of 
 life-preserver in case of breaking in. If I am fortunate enough to 
 stalk within gun-range, Hans will take to the water and secure the 
 game before it sinks. We will be gone for some days probably, 
 tenting it in the open air ; but our sick men — that is to say, all of 
 us — are languishing for fresh meat," 
 
 I started with Hans and five dogs, all we could muster from our 
 disabled pack, and reached the " Pinnacly Berg " in a single hour's 
 run. But where was the water 1 where were the seal] The floes 
 had closed, and the crushed ice was all tha' -old of our intended 
 hunting-ground. 
 
 Ascending a berg, however, we could see to the north and west 
 the dark cloud-stratus which betokens water. It ran through our 
 old battle-ground, the " Bergy Belt," — the labyrinth of our wan- 
 derings after the frozen party of last winter. I had not been over 
 it since, and the feeling i^. gave me was anything but joyous. 
 
 But in a couple of hours -nq emerged upon a plain unlimited to 
 tiie eye and smooth as a billiaid-table. Feathers of young frosting 
 gave a plush-like nap to its surface, and toward the horizon dark 
 columns of frost-smoke pointed clearly to the open water. This 
 ice was firm enough ; our experience satisfied us that it was not a 
 verj' recent freezing. We pushed on without hesitation, cheering 
 ourselves with the expectation of coming every minute to the seals. 
 We passed a second ice-growth ; it was not so strong as the one we 
 had just come over, but still safe for a party like ours. On we 
 went at a brisker gallop, maybe for another mile, when Hans sang 
 out, at the top of Ixis voice, ' Pusey ! puseymut ! seal, seal ! " At 
 the same instant the dogs bounded forward, and, as I looked up, I 
 saw crowds of grey netsik, the rough or hispid seal of the whalers, 
 disporting in an open sea of water, 
 
 I had hardly welcomed the spectacle when I saw that we had 
 passed upon a new belt of ice that was obviously unsafe. To the 
 
THE SEALS AT HOME. 
 
 216 
 
 ometer Wcos 
 
 right and left and front was one great expanse of snow-flowered citaptkb 
 ice. The nearest solid Hoe was a mere lump, wliich stood like an ^^^ ' ' 
 island in the white level. To turn was impossible ; we had to keep Unsafe 
 up our gait. We urged on the dogs with whip and voice, the ice 
 rolling like leather beneath the sledge-runners; it was more than 
 a mile to the lump of solid ice. Fear gave to the poor beasts their 
 utmost speed, and our voices were soon hushed to silence. 
 
 The suspense, unrelieved by action or effort, was intolerable ; we 
 knew that there was no remedy but to reach the floe, and that 
 everytliing depended upon our dogs, and our dogs alone. A 
 moment's check would plunge the whole concern into the rapid 
 tideway; no presence of mind or resource, bodily or mental, could 
 avail us. The seals — for we were now near enough to see their The se«is 
 expressive faces — were looking at us with that strange curiosity '" *'''"'^" 
 which seems to be their characteristic expression : we must have 
 passed some fifty of them, breast-high out of water, mocking us by 
 their self-complacency. 
 
 This desperate race against fate could not last : the rolling of the 
 tough salt-water ice terrified our dogs ; and when within fifty paces 
 from the floe they paused. The left-hand runner went through ; The sicdsa 
 our leader " Toodlamick " followed, and in one second the entire |',"j,,g"'''* 
 left of the sledge was submerged. My first thought was to libe- water, 
 rate the dogs. I leaned forward to cut poor Tood's traces, and the 
 next minute was swimming in a little circle of pjisty ice and water 
 alongside him. Hans, dear good fellow, drew near to help me, 
 uttering piteous expressions in broken English ; but I ordered him 
 to throw liimself on his belly, with his hands and legs extended, 
 and to make for the island by cogging himself forward with his 
 jack-knife. In the meantime — a mere instant — I was floundering 
 about with sledge, dogs, and lines, in confused puddle around 
 me. 
 
 I succeeded in cutting poor Tood's lines and letting him scramble 
 to the ice, for the poor fellow was drowning me with his piteous 
 caresses, and made my way for the sledge; but I found that it 
 would not buoy me, and that I had no resource but to try the 
 circumference of the hole. Around this I paddled faithfully, the 
 Miiserable ice always yielding when my hopes of a lodgment were 
 k'reatdst. During this process I enlarged my circle of operations 
 to a very uncomfortable diameter, and was beginning to feel weaker 
 
'■ra 
 
 i: ! 
 
 CnAl'TKR 
 XXVII. 
 
 HaiiA In 
 the water. 
 
 i I 
 
 A nnrrow 
 
 Return to 
 tlie brig. 
 
 Death of 
 Tiger. 
 
 216 
 
 A NARROW ESCAPE. 
 
 after every effort. Huns meanwhile had reached the firm ice, and 
 was on his knees, like a good Moravian, praying incoherently in 
 English and Esquimaux ; at every fresh crushing-in of the ice h« 
 would ejaculate " God ! " and when I recommenced my paddling 
 lie recommenced his prayers. 
 
 I was nearly gone. My knife had been lost in cutting out the 
 dogs ; and a spare one which I carried in my trousers-pocket was 
 so enveloped in the wet skins that I could not reach it. I owed 
 my extrication at last to a newly broken team dog, who was still 
 fast to the sledge, and in struggling carried one of the runners chock 
 against the edge of the circle. All my previous attempts to use 
 the sledge as a bridge had failed, for it broke through, to the much 
 greater injury of the ice. I felt thai it was a last chance. I threw 
 myself on my back, so as to Ijssen as much as possible my weight, 
 and placed the nape of my neck against the rim or edge of the ice ; 
 then with caution slowly bent my leg, and, placing the ball of my 
 mocassined foot against the sledge, I pressed steadily against the 
 runner, listening to the half -yielding crunch of the ice beneath. 
 
 Presently I felt that my head wtis pillowed by the ice, and that 
 my wet fur jumper was sliding up the surface. Next came my 
 shoulders ; they were fairly on. One more decided push, and I 
 was launched up on the ice and safe. I reached the ice-floe, and 
 was frictioned by Hans with frightful zeal. We saved all the 
 dogs; but the sledge, kayack, tent, gun, snow-shoes, and every- 
 Jiing besides, were left behind. The thermometer at 8° will 
 keep them frozen fast in the sledge till we can come and cut them 
 out. 
 
 On reaching the ship, after a twelve mile trot, I found so much 
 of comfort and warm welcome that I forgot my failure. The fire 
 was lit up, and one of our few birds slaughtered forthwith. It is 
 with real gratitude that I look back upon my escape, .and bless 
 the great presiding Goodness for the very many resources which 
 remain to us. 
 
 "September 14, Thursday. — Tiger, our best remaining dog, the 
 partner of poor Bndser, was seized with a fit, ominously resem- 
 bling the last winter's curse. In the delirium which followed 
 liis seizure, he ran into the water and drowned himself, like a 
 sailor with the horrors. The other dogs are all doing welL" 
 
THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 217 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE KSyaiMAtrX — LARCENT — THE AUHE8T— THE PUNISHMENT — THE TREATY 
 — " UNDROKEN FAITH " — MY BROTllEIv — RETURN FROM A UUNT — OUR 
 LIFE— ANOATOK— A WELCOME— TREATY CONFIRMED. 
 
 It is, I suppose, the fortune of every one who affects to register 
 the story of an active life, that liis record becomes briefer and 
 more imperfect in proportion jus the incidents press ii[)on each 
 other more rapidly and with increasing excitement. The narra- 
 tive is arrested as soon as the faculties are claimed for action, 
 and the meinoiy brings back reluctantly afterward those details 
 wliich, though interesting at the moment, have not reflected them- 
 selves in the result. I find that my journal is exceedingly meagre 
 for the period of our anxious preparations to meet the winter, 
 and that I have omitted to mention the course of circumstances 
 which led us step by step into familiar communication with the 
 Esquimaux. 
 
 My last notice of this strange people, whose fortunes became 
 afterward so closely connected with our own, was at the time 
 of Myouk's escape from imprisonment on board the brig. Al- 
 though during my absence on the attempted visit to Beechy 
 Island, the men I had left behind had frequent and unrestrained 
 intercourse with them, I myself saw no natives in Rensselaer 
 Bay till immediately after the departure of Petersen and his com- 
 imnions. Just then, by a coincidence which convinced me how 
 closely we had been under surveillance, a party of three made 
 their appearance, as if to note for themselves our condition and 
 resources. 
 
 Times had indeed altered with us. We had parted with half 
 our provisions, half our boats and sledges, and more than half 
 our able-bodied men. It looked very much as if we v.crc to lie 
 ensconced in our ice-battered citadel, rarely venturing to sally out 
 for exploration or supplies. We feared nothing, of course, but the 
 want of fresh meat, and it was much less important that our 
 neighbours should fear us than that we should secure from them 
 
 CIIAJ'TKR 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Jnuniul 
 wrUiiit(. 
 
 Appear- 
 ance of A 
 purty of 
 Kfiqiii- 
 maux. 
 
213 
 
 HOSPITALITY ILL KEPAin. 
 
 fiia 
 
 ■ ■ 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Kiitertaln- 
 inent of 
 the vl»l 
 ton, 
 
 Theft. 
 
 Pursuit 
 of the 
 thlevca 
 
 oftice.s of kiiidnes.s. Tlioy were overbearing sometimes, and needed 
 the instruction of rebuke, but I treated tliem with carefully- 
 regulated hospitality. 
 
 When the three visitors came to us near the end of August, 
 I established them in a tent below deck, with a cooper lamp, a 
 cooking-basin, and a liberal supply of slush for fuel. I left ihem 
 under guard when I went to bed at two in the morning, con- 
 tentedly eating and cooking and eating again without the pro- 
 mise of an intermission. An American or a European would 
 have slept after such a debauch till the recognised hour for 
 hock and seltzer-water. But our guests managed to elude the 
 officer of the deck and escape unsearched. They repaid my libe- 
 rality by stealing not only the lamp, boiler, and cooking-pot they 
 Lad used for the feast, but Nannook also, my best dog. If the 
 rest of my team had not been worn down by over-travel, no 
 doubt thoy would have taken them all. Besides this, we dis- 
 covered the next morning that they had found the buffalo-robes 
 and India-rubber cloth which M'Gary had left a few days before 
 on the ice-foot near Six-mile Ravine, and had added the whole to 
 the spoils of their visit. ' 
 
 The theft of these articles embarrassed me. I was indisposed 
 to take it as an act of hostility. Their pilferings before this had 
 been conducted with such a superb simplicity, the detection fol- 
 lowed by such honest explosions of laughter, that I could not help 
 thinking they had some law of general appropriation, less removed 
 from the Lycurgan than the Mosaic code. But it was plain, at 
 least, that we were now too few to watch our property as we had 
 done, and that our gentleness was to some extent misunderstood. 
 
 I was puzzled how to inflict punishment, but saw that I must 
 act vigorously, even at a venture. I des; itched my two best 
 walkers, Morton and Riley, as soon as I heard of the theft of the 
 stores, with orders to make all speed to Anoatok, and overtake the 
 thieves, who, I thought, would probably halt there to rest. They 
 found young Myouk making himself quite comfortable in the hut, 
 in company with Sievu, the wife of Metek, and Aningna, the wife 
 of Marsinga, and my buffalo-robes already tailored into kapetahs 
 on their backs. . ) 
 
 A contiinied search of the premises recovered the cooking- 
 uteusils, and a number of other tilings of greater or less value that 
 
THE I'CNISIIMENT. 
 
 «f» 
 
 lea, and needed 
 with carefully- 
 
 md of August, 
 ;(ipper lamp, a 
 I. I left them 
 morning, con- 
 thout the pro- 
 uropean would 
 ised hour for 
 I to elude tiie 
 •epaid my libe- 
 loking-pot they 
 b dog. If the 
 over-travel, no 
 I this, we dis- 
 e buffalo-robes 
 3W days before 
 i the whole to 
 
 vas indisposed 
 )cfore this had 
 I detection fol- 
 could not help 
 1, less removed 
 t was plain, at 
 erty as we had 
 lisunderstood. 
 w that I must 
 my two best 
 lie theft of the 
 d overtake the 
 to rest. They 
 ble in the hut, 
 ingna, the wife 
 into kapetahs 
 
 we had not missed from the brig. With the prompt ceremonial chaptkr 
 
 which outraged law delights in among the oflicials of the police ' 
 
 everywhere, the women were stripped and tied ; and then, laden ''•"' 
 with their stolen goods and as much walrus-beef besitlcs from 
 their own stores as would j)ay ft)r their board, they were marched 
 on the instant back to the brig. ^ 
 
 The thirty miles was a hard walk for them ; but they did not 
 complain, nor did their constabulary gxiardians, who had marched 
 thirty miles already to apprehend them. It was hardly twenty- The 
 four hours since they left the brig with their booty before they [,','.!go" '" 
 were prisoners in the hold, with a dreadful white man for keeper, 
 who never addressed to them a word that had not all the terrors 
 of an unintelligible reproof, and whose scowl, I flatter myself, 
 exhibited a well-arranged variety of menacing and demoniacal 
 expressions. 
 
 They had not even the companionship of Myouk. Him I had 
 despatched to Metek, " head-man of Etah, and others," with the 
 message of a melo-dramatic tyrant, to negotiate for their ransom. 
 For five long days the women had to sigh and sing and "ry in 
 solitary converse, — their appetite continuing excellent, it should 
 be remarked, though mourning the while a rightfully-impending 
 doom. At last the great Metek arrived. He brought with him ArrivBi nf 
 Ootuniah, another man of elevated social position, and quite a "'^ ''''*''' 
 sledge-load of knives, tin cups, and other stolen goods, refuse of 
 wood and scriips of iron, the sinful prizes of many covetings. 
 
 I may pass over our peace conferences and the indirect advan- 
 tages which I, of course, derived from having the opposing powers 
 represented in my own capital. But the splendours of our Arctic 
 centre of civilization, with its wonders of art and science, — our 
 " fire-death " ordnance included, — could not all of them impress 
 Metek so much as the intimations he had received of our superior 
 physioii] endowments. Nomads as they are, these people know 
 
 I ici all the world besides what endurance and energy it 
 
 ■quires to brave the moving ice and snow-drifts. Metek thought, 
 h^.^ doubt, \t our strength was gone with the withdrawing party ; 
 bnt the fact, that within ten hours after the loss of our buffalo- 
 ^m8 we had marched to their hut, seized three of their culprits, 
 .uui marched them back to the brig as prisoners, — such a sixty 
 miles' achievement as his they thoroughly understood. It con- 
 
WWI 
 
 m 
 
 \% 
 
 m 
 
 iy I 
 
 t i' 
 
 220 
 
 THE TREATY. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Till' pro- 
 tucoL 
 
 ri-omisea 
 ofthe 
 
 Ksqili- 
 
 I'laiix. 
 
 Equivalent 
 proniised 
 by the 
 white 
 men. 
 
 The clos- 
 ing for- 
 mula. 
 
 RatlflcA- 
 tlon of the 
 treaty. 
 
 firmed tliem in the faith that the whites are, and of right ought to 
 be everywhere the dominant tribe. 
 
 The protocol was arranged without difficulty, though not with- 
 out the accustomed number of adjournments for festivity and 
 repo.se. It abounded in protestations of power, fearlessness, and 
 good-will by each of the contracting parties, which meant as much 
 as such protestations usually do on both sides the Arctic circle. 
 I could give a summary of it without invading the privacy of a 
 diplomatic bureau, for I have notes of it that were taken by a sub- 
 ordinate; but I prefer passing at once to the reciprocal engage- 
 ments in which it resulted. 
 
 On the part of the Inuit, the Esquimaux, they were after this 
 fashion : — 
 
 "We promise that we will not steal We promise we will 
 bring you fresh meat. We promise we will sell or lend you dogs. 
 AVe will keep you company whenever you want v i, and show you 
 where to find the game." 
 
 On the part of the Kahlunah, the white men, the stipulation 
 was of this ample equivalent : — 
 
 " We promise that we will not visit you with death or sorcery, 
 ncr do you any hurt or mischief whatsoever. We will shoot for 
 you on our hunts. You shall be made welcome aboard ship. We 
 will give you presents of needles, pins, two kinds of knife, a hoop, 
 three bits of hard wood, some fat, an awl, and some sewing-tliread ; 
 and we will trade with you of these and every tiling else you want 
 for walrus and seal -meat of the first quality." 
 
 And the closing formula might have read, if the Esquimaux 
 political system had included reading aniovig its qualifications for 
 diplomacy, in this tinn-consecrated and, in civilized regions, vera- 
 cious assurance : — 
 
 "We, the high contracting parties, pledge ourselves now and 
 for ever brothers and friends." 
 
 This treaty — wliich, thouf^h I have spoken of it jocosely, was 
 really an affair of much interest to us — was ratified, with Hans 
 and Morton as my accredited representatives, by a full assembly 
 of the people at Etah. All our future intercourse was conducted 
 under it. It Avas not solemnized by an oath ; but it was never 
 broken. We went to and fro between the villages and the brig, 
 paid our visits of courtesy and necessity on both sides, met each 
 
TNTEllCOURSE WITH THE ESQUIMAUX, 
 
 221 
 
 vere after this 
 
 other in hunting parties on the floe and the ice-foot, organized a 
 general community of interests, and really, I believe, established 
 some personal attachments deserving of the natne. As long as we 
 remained prisoners of the ice, we were indebted to them for in- 
 valuable counsel in relation to our hunting expeditions; and in 
 the joint hunt we shared alike, accorduig to their own laws. Our 
 tlogs were in one sense common property ; and often ha /e they 
 robbed themselves to offer supplies of food to cur starving teams. 
 They gave us supplies of meat at critical periods ; we were able 
 to do as much for them. They learned to look on us only as 
 benefactors ; and, I know, mourned our departure bitterly. The 
 greeting widch they gave my brother John, when he came out 
 after me to Etah with the Eescue Expedition, should be of itself 
 
 CIIAPTKB 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Mutuul 
 advHil- 
 ttttft's de- 
 rived 
 from tlie 
 treaty. 
 
 regions, vera- 
 
 ^es now and 
 
 EBQUIMAT'X. 
 
 enough to satisfy me of this. I should be glad to borrow from 
 his ingenious narrative the story of his meeting with Myouk, and 
 Metek, and Ootuniah. and of the almost affectionate confidence 
 
Tin 
 
 ii '' 
 
 11 I 
 
 222 
 
 DAILY LIFa 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XtVIII. 
 
 Return 
 from a 
 walrus 
 hunt. 
 
 Sunilay. 
 
 1 
 
 Nomad 
 life. 
 
 Visit to 
 the CriimI- 
 maux. 
 
 with which the maimed and sick invited liis professional succour, 
 as the representative of the elder " Docto Kayen." 
 
 '^September 16, Saturday. — Back last night from a walrus -hunt. 
 I brought in the spoil with my dogs, leaving Hans and Ohlsen to 
 follow afoot. This Marston rifle is an admirable substitute for 
 the primitive lance-head. It killed at the first fire. Five nights' 
 camping out in the snow, with hard-working days between, have 
 made me ache a little in the joints; but, strange to say, I feel 
 better than when I left the vessel This climate exacts heavy 
 feeding, but it invites to muscular energy. M'Gary and Morton 
 are off at Anoatok. From what I gathered on the hunt, they will 
 find the council very willing to ratify our alUanca But they 
 should have been at home before this. 
 
 " September 17 , Sundai/. — Writing by this miserable flicker of 
 my pork-fat lamp, I can hardly steady pen, paper, or tliought, AU. 
 liands have rested after a heavy week's work, which has advanced 
 us nobly in our arrangements for the winter. The season is by 
 our tables at least three weeks earlier than the last, and every- 
 thing indicates a severe ordeal ahead of us. 
 
 " Just as we were finishing our chapter this morning in the 
 * Book of Ruth,' M'Gary and Morton came in triumphantly, 
 pretty well worn down by their fifty miles' travel, but with good 
 news, and a flipper of walrus that must weigh some forty pounds. 
 Ohlsen and Hans are in too. They arrived as we were sitting 
 down to celebrate the Anoatok ratification of our treaty of the 6th. 
 
 " It is a strange life we are leading. We are absolutely nomads, 
 so far as there can be anything of pastoral life in this region ; and 
 our wild encounter with the elements seems to agree with us all. 
 Our table talk at supper was as merry as a marriage bell. One 
 party was just in from a seventy -four miles' trip with the dogs ; 
 another from a foot-journey of a hundred and sixty, with five 
 nights on the floe. Each had his story to tell; and while the 
 story was telling some at least were projecting new pxpeditions. 
 I have one myself in my mind's eye, that may peradventure cover 
 some lines of my journal before the winter ends. 
 
 " M'Gary and Morton sledged it along the ice-foot completely 
 round the Reach, and made the huts by ten o'clock the night 
 after they left us. They found only three men, Ootuniah, our 
 elfish rogue Myouk, and a stranger who has not been with us that 
 
 ! 
 
 m ) 
 
 ' 'I I 
 
VISIT TO THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 223 
 
 ional succour, 
 
 we know of. It Jooked at first a little doubtful whether the visit ohaptkb 
 was not to be misunderstood. Myouk particularly was an awk- xxvm. 
 ward party to negotiate with. He had been our prisoner for Myouk. 
 stealing only a little while before, and at this verj' moment is an 
 escaped hostage. He was in pawn to us for a lot of walrus-beef, 
 as indemnity for our boat. He thought, naturally enough, that the 
 visit might have something more than a representative bearing on 
 his interests. Both our men had been his jailers on board the 
 hrig, and he was the first person they met as they came upon the 
 village. 
 
 " But when he found, by M'Gary's expressive pantomime, that 
 the visit was not specially to him, and that the first appeal was to 
 his hospitality and his fellows', his entire demeanour underwent a 
 change. He seemed to take a new character, as if, said Morton, a cordial 
 he had dropped a mask He gave them welcome with unmixed *«'=•""«• 
 cordiality, carried them to his hut, cleared away the end furthest 
 from the opening for their reception, and filled up the fire of moss 
 and blubber. 
 
 " The others joined him, and the attention of the whole settle- 
 ment was directed at once to the wants of the visitors. Their wet 
 boots were turned toward the fire, their woollen sockc rung out 
 and placed on a heated stone, dry grass was padded round their 
 feet, and the choicest cuts of walrus-liver were put into the 
 cooking-pot. Whatever might be the infirmity of their notions of 
 honesty, it was plain that we had no lessons to give them in the 
 virtues of hospitable welcome. Indeed, there was a frankness and 
 C')rdiaUty in the mode of receiving their guests, that explained the 
 unreserve and conscious security which they showed when they 
 first visited us. 
 
 " I could hardly guess at that time, when we saw them practis- Enter- 
 ing antics and grimaces among the rocks, what was the meaning """"'®"'' 
 of their harlequin gestures, and how they could venture afterward 
 so fearlessly on board. I have undenstood the riddle since. It 
 was a display of their powers of entertainment, intended to solicit 
 from us a reception ; and the invitation once given, all their ex- 
 perience and impulses assured them of safety. 
 
 "Everything they had, cooking utensUs, snow-melting stone, 
 scanty weapons of the chase, personal service, pledges of grateful 
 welcome,— they gave them all. They confirmed all Metek's en- 
 
224 
 
 THE TREATY CARRIED OUT. 
 
 Hunting 
 with tlic 
 Kfsqiii- 
 
 UlllUX. 
 
 
 CHAPTER gagements, as if the whole favour was for them; and when our 
 xxviii. pj^rty was coming away they placed on the sledge, seemingly as .'. 
 matter of course, all the meat that was loft. 
 
 ^'■September 20, Wednesdai/. — The natives are really acting up 
 to contract. They are on board to-day, and I have been oft" with 
 a party of them on a hunt inland. We had no grf^at luck ; the 
 weather was against us, and there are signs of a gale. The ther- 
 mometer has been 2° below zero for the entire twenty-four hours. 
 This is September with a vengeance ! 
 
 ^^ September 22, Friday. — I am off for the walrus-grounds with 
 our wild allies. It will be my sixth trip. I know the countr- 
 and its landmarks now as well as any of them, and can name 
 every rock, and chasm, and watercourse, in nighc or fog, just as 
 I could the familiar spots about the dear Old Mills where I passed 
 my childhood. 
 
 " The weather docs not promise well ; but the state of our larder 
 makes the jaunt necessary." 
 
 I, I 
 
 " 'i i \ 
 
 SuitTION or WINTRR APAUT5S«:iT. 
 
 II 
 
WALRITS-GROUNDS. 
 
 225 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 3f our larder 
 
 WALUUS-OUOUNDS— LOST ON THE ICE— A BREAK UP — IGLOE OF ANOATOK — 
 ITS OARNITUUE — CREATUKE COMFORTS— KSQUIM^ "^x MUSIC— USAGES OP 
 THE TABLE — NEW LONDON AVEN'UE— SCANT DIET LIST— BJ;AR AND CUB — 
 A HUNT — CLOSE QUARTERS — BEAK FIGHTING — BEAR-HABITS— BEAR's 
 LIVER— UATb — THE TERRIER FOX — THE ARCTIC HARE— THE ICE-FOOT 
 CAXOPY— A WOLF — DOGS AND WOLVES — r.EAR AND FOX— THE NATIVES 
 AND OURSELVES— WINTER QUARTERS— MORTON's RETURN — THE UUIIT. 
 
 " September 29, Frldai/. — I returned last night from Anoatok, 
 after a journey of much risk and exposure, that I should have 
 avoided but for the insuperable obstinacy of our savage friends. 
 
 " I set out for the walrus-grounds at noon, by the track t)f the 
 ' Wind Point ' of Anoatok, known to us as Esquimaux Point. I 
 took the light sledge, and, in addition to the five of my available 
 team, harnessed in two animals belonging to the Escpiimaux. 
 Ootuniah, Myouk, and the dark stranger accompanied me, with 
 Morton and Hans. 
 
 " Our sledge was overladen ; I could not persuade the Esqui- 
 maux to reduce its weight; and the consequence was, that Ave 
 failed to reach Force Bay in time for a day-light crossing. To 
 follow the indentations of the land was to make the travel long 
 and dangerous. We trusted to the tracks of our former journeys, 
 and pushed out on the ice. But the darkness came on us rapidly, 
 and the snow began to drift before a heavy north wind. 
 
 "At about 10 P.M. we had lost the land; and, while driving 
 
 tlie dogs rapidly, all of us running alongside of them, we took a 
 
 wrong direction, and travelled out toward the floating ice of the 
 
 Sound. There was no guide to the points of the compass ; our 
 
 Esquimaux were completely at fault ; and the alarm of the dogs, 
 
 which became every moment more manifest, extended itself to our 
 
 party. The instinct of a sledge- dog makes him perfectly aware f)f 
 
 unsafe ice, and I know notliing more subduing to a man than the 
 
 warnings of an unseen peril conveyed by the instinctive feans of 
 
 the lower animals. 
 
 " We had to keep moving, for we could not camp in the grJo, 
 p 
 
 ClIAPTKR 
 XXIX. 
 
 A party 
 
 set out Tir 
 the wiiliin 
 gnmmls. 
 
 Dlfflcultles 
 of the 
 journey. 
 
 Lost on 
 the ice. 
 
226 
 
 A BREAK UP. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXIX. 
 
 11 
 
 The rouikI 
 of the open 
 water. 
 
 Tlio ice 
 
 hreakiiig 
 
 lip. 
 
 TraTclIing 
 over the 
 broken ice. 
 
 '1 he ice 
 
 ttol'lU. 
 
 tliat blew around us so fiercely that we could scarcely bold down 
 the sledge. But we moved with caution, feeling our way with the 
 tent-poles, which I distributed among the party for the purpose. 
 A murmur bad reached my ear for some time in the cadences of 
 the storm, steadier and deeper, I thought, than the tone of the 
 wind. On a sudden it struck me that I heard the noise of waves, 
 and that we must be coming close on the open water. I had 
 liardly time for the hurried order, ' Turn the dogs,' before a ■RTeath 
 of wet frost-smoke swept over us, and the sea showed itself, with 
 a great fringe of foam, hardly a quarter of a mile ahead. We 
 could now guess our position and its dangers. The ice was break- 
 ing up before the storm, and it was not certain that even a direct 
 retreat in the fiice of the gale would extricate us. I determined to 
 run to the south for Godstnd Island. The floes were heavy in 
 that direction, and less likely lo give way in a northerly gale. It 
 was at best a dreary venture. 
 
 " The surf- line kept encroaching on us till we could feel the ice 
 undidating under our feet. Very soon it began to give way. Lines 
 of hummocks rose before us, and we had to run the gauntlet be- 
 tween them as they closed. Escaping these, we toiled over the 
 crashed fragments that lay between them and the shore, stumbling 
 over the projecting crags, or sinking in the water that rose among 
 them. It was too dark to see the island which we were steering 
 for ; but the black loom of a lofty cape broke the line of the hori- 
 zon, and served as a landmark. The dogs, relieved from the bur- 
 den of carrying us, moved with more spirit. We began to draw 
 near the shore, the ice-storm still raging beliind us. But our dif 
 Acuities were only reaching their climax. We knew as icemen 
 that the access to the land-ice from the floe was, under the most 
 favouring circumstances, both toilsome and dangerous. The vise 
 and fall of the tides always breaks up the ice at the margin of the 
 ice-belt in a tangle of irregular, half-floating masses ; and those 
 were now surging under the energies of the gale. It was pitchy 
 dark. I persuaded Ootuniah, the eldest of the Esquimaux, to have 
 a tent-pole lashed horizontally across his shoulders. I gave him 
 the end of a line, which I had fastened at the other end round my 
 waist. The rest of the party followed him. 
 
 " As I moved ahead, feeling round me for a practicable way, 
 Ootuniah followed ; and when a table of ice was found largo 
 
THE lOLOE OF ANOATOK. 
 
 22/ 
 
 enough, the others would urge forward the d(»gs, pushing the 
 sledge themselves, or clinging to it, us the moment prompted. 
 We had accidents, of course, some of them menacing for the time, 
 but none to be remembered for their consequences; and at last 
 one after another succeeded in clambering after me upon the ice- 
 foot, driving the dogs before them. 
 
 " Providence had been our guide. The shore on which we 
 landed was Anoatok, not four hundred yards from the familiar 
 E-squimaux homesLead. With a shout of joy, each man in his own 
 dialect, we hastened to the * wind-loved spot ; ' and in less than 
 an hour, our lamps burning cheerfully, we were discussing a famous 
 stew of walrus-steaks, none the less relished for an unbroken ice- 
 walk of forty-eight miles and twenty haltless hours. 
 
 " When I reached the hut, our stranger Esquimaux, whose 
 name we found to be Awahtok, or ' Seal-bladder float,' was striking 
 a fire from two stones — one a plain piece of angular milky quartz, 
 held in the right hand, the other apparently an oxide of iron. He 
 struck them together after the true tinder-box fashion, throwing a 
 scanty supply of sparks on a tinder composed of the silky down 
 of the willow-catkins (S. lanata), which he held on a lump of dried 
 moss. 
 
 " The hut or igloe at Anoatok was a single rude elliptical ai)ai-t- 
 ment, built not unskilfully of stone, the outside lined with sods. 
 
 CIIAI'TKR 
 XXl.X. 
 
 Saff on the 
 ice foot. 
 
 Anoatok. 
 
 Esqui- 
 maux wn> 
 of !iti'ikiii|j 
 flic. 
 
 Dosorip- 
 tiiiii of liie 
 igloe. 
 
 ESQUIMAUX IQIiOIS. 
 
 At its further end a nide platform, also of stone, was lifted about 
 a foot above the entering floor. The roof formed something of a 
 
228 
 
 CHAITKIl 
 XMX. 
 
 Diniun- 
 
 Winter 
 riitniiuc. 
 
 Dilnplda- 
 fioii of tlic 
 structure. 
 
 Furniture. 
 
 lULOlJ AND ITS GARNITURE. 
 
 curve. It was composed of flat stones, remarkably large aiul 
 lieavy, arranged so as to overlap each other, but apparently with- 
 out any intelligent application of the principle of the arch. The 
 height of this cave-like abode barely permitted one to sit upright. 
 Its length was eight feet, its breadth seven feet, and an expansion 
 of the tunnelled entrance made an appendage of perhaps two feet 
 more. 
 
 " The true winter entrance is called the tossnt. It is a walled 
 tunnel, ten feet long, and so narrow that a man can hardly crawl 
 along it. It opens outside below the level of the igloe, into which 
 it leads by a gradual asCent. 
 
 " Time had done its work on the igloo of Anoatok, as among 
 the palatial structures of more southern deserts. The entire front 
 of the dome had fallen in, closing up the tossut, and forcing us to 
 enter at the .solitary window above it. The breach was large 
 enough to admit a sledge-team ; but our Arctic comrades showed 
 no anxiety to close it np. Their clothes saturated with the freez- 
 ing water of the floes, these iron men gathered themselves round 
 the blubber-fire, and steamed away in apparent comfort. The 
 only departure from their practised routine, which the bleak night 
 and open roof seemed to suggest to them, was that they did not 
 strip themselves naked before coming into the hut, and hang up 
 their vestments in the air to dry, like a voiive offering to the god 
 of the sea. 
 
 "Their kitchen implements were even more simple than our 
 own. A rude saucer-shaped cup of seal-skin, to gather and hold 
 water in, was the solitary utensil that could be dignified as table- 
 furniture. A flat stone, a fixture of the hut, supported by other 
 stones just above the shoulder-blade of a walrus, — the stone slightly 
 inclined, the cavity of the bone large enough to hold a moss-wick 
 and some blubber ; a square block of snow was placed on the 
 stone, and, as the hot smoke circled round it, the seal-skin saucer 
 caught the water that dripped from the edge. They had no vessel 
 for boiling; what they did not eat raw they baked upon a hot 
 stone. A solitary coil of walrus line, fastened to a movable lance- 
 head (noon-ghak), with the well-worn and well-soaked clothes on 
 their backs, completed the inventory of their eflfects. 
 
 " We felt that we were more ci'/ilized than our poor cousins, as 
 "we fell to work making ourselves comfortable after our own fashion. 
 
ESQUIMAUX MUSIC. 
 
 229 
 
 The dai.s was scraped, and its accumulated filth of years ro- 
 niovod ; a canvas tent was folded double over the dry, frozen 
 stones, our buffalo-bag spread over this, and dry socks and moc- 
 casins were drawn from under our wet ovcrclothes. My copper 
 lamp, a true Berzelius Argand, invaluable for short journeys, soon 
 llamed with a cheerful fire. The soup-pot, the walrus-steak, and 
 the hot coffee, were the next things to be thought of; and, while 
 these were getting ready, an India-inibber floor-cloth was fastened 
 over the gaping entrance of the cave. 
 
 " During our long march and its series of ice-fights we had taken 
 care to manifest no weariness, and had, indeed, borne both 
 Ootuniah and Myouk at times upon our shoulders. We showed 
 no signs either of cold, so that all this preparation and rich store 
 of appliances could not be attributed by the Esquimaux to effemi- 
 nacy or inferior power. I could see that they wore profoundly 
 impressed with a conviction of our superiority, the last feeling 
 which the egotistical self-conceit of savage life admits. 
 
 " I felt sure now that they were our more than sworn friends, 
 They sang ' Amna Ayah' for us — their rude, monotonous song — 
 till our ears cracked with the discord, and improvised a special 
 eulogistic cliant. 
 
 CIIAITEH 
 XXIX. 
 
 Pr'i>arn- 
 
 tillllH U'V 
 
 The 
 
 " Ainnn 
 Ayuh." 
 
 Am 
 
 li, Am - na 
 
 yah, Am - im - yah, Am - na • yah. 
 
 which they repeated over and over again with laughable gravity 
 of utterance, subsiding always into the refrain of * Nalegak ! 
 nalegak I nalegak-soak T 'Captain! captain! great captain!' 
 They nicknamed and adopted all of us as niembers of their frater- 
 nity, with grave and abundant form ; reminding me through all 
 their mummery, solemn and ludicrous at once, of the analogous cere- 
 monies of our North American Indians. 
 
 " The chant, and the feed, and the ceremony all completed, a niRht in 
 Hans, Morton, and myself crawled feet-foremost into our buffalo- ""^ ''J'"" 
 bag, and Ootunifvh, Awahtok, and Myouk flung themselves out- 
 side the skin between us. The last I heard of them or anything 
 else was the renewed chorus of ' Nalegak ! nalegak ! nalegak-soak ! ' , 
 mingling itself sleepily in my dreams with school-boy memories of 
 Aristophanes and The Frogs. I slept eleven hours. 
 
230 
 
 WINTER ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 CITAPTKB 
 XXIX. 
 
 Fsqill- 
 
 maux 
 
 bt'vakfust. 
 
 Winter 
 
 HirHiifte- 
 inents. 
 
 Provision 
 btores. 
 
 New 
 
 London 
 
 Avenue. 
 
 " They were up long before us, and had breakfasted on raw meat 
 cut from a large joint, which lay, without regard to cleanliness, 
 among the deposits on the floor of the igloe. Their mode of eat- 
 ing was ingeniously active. They cut the meat in long strips, in- 
 troduced one end into the mouth, swallowed it as far as the powers 
 of deglutition would allow, and then, cutting off the protruding 
 portion close to the lips, prepared themselves for a second mouth- 
 ful. It was really a feat of address : those of us who tried it failed 
 awkwardly ; and yet I have seen infants in the mother's hood, not 
 tv/o years old, who managed to perform it without accident." 
 
 I pass over the story of the hunt that followed. It had nothing 
 to distinguish it from many others, and I find in my joumjU of a 
 few days later the fresh narrative of Morton, after he had seen one 
 for the first time. 
 
 My next extracts show the progress of our winter arrangements. 
 
 " September 30, Saturday. — We have been clearing up on the 
 ice. Our system for the winter has not the dignity of a year ago. 
 We have no Butler Storehouse, no Medary, no Fern Rock, with 
 their appliances. We are ten men in a casemate, with all our 
 energies concentrated against the enemy outside. 
 
 " Our beef house is now a pile of barrels holding our water- 
 soaked beef and pork. Flour, beans, and dried apples make a 
 quadrangular blockhouse on the floe ; from one corner of it rises 
 our flagstaff", lighting up the dusky grey with its red and white 
 ensign, only on Sunday giving place to the Henry Grinnell flag, of 
 happy memories. 
 
 " From this, along an avenue that opens abeam of the brig,— - 
 New London Avenue, named after M'Gary's town at home, — are 
 our boats and square cordage. Outside of all these is a magni- 
 ficent hilt of barrel-frames and snow, to accommodate our Esqui- 
 maux visitors — the only thing about it exposed to hazard being 
 the tempting woodwork. What remains to complete our camp- 
 plot is the rope barrier that is to mark out our httle curtilage 
 around the vessel ; this, when finished, is to be the dividing-line 
 between us and the rest of manldnd. 
 
 "There is something in the simplicity of all this, 'simplex 
 munditiis,' which might commend itself to the most rigorous taste. 
 Nothing is wasted on ornament. 
 
 "'■October 4, Wednesday. — I sent Hans and Hickey two days 
 
8CANT DIET AT LAST. 
 
 231 
 
 ago out to the hunting-ice, to see if the natives liave had any luck chapter 
 
 with the walrus. They are back to-night with bad news, — no ' 
 
 meat, no Esquimaux. These strange children of the snow have ni»appe'ir. 
 
 . „, , -,,,1 1 • • 1 1 <• nut''' <if 
 
 made a mysterious flitting. Where or how it is liard to guess, for the K«fiui. 
 they have no sledges. They cannot have travelled very far ; and "'""*• 
 yet they h.ave such unquiet impulses, that, once on the track, no 
 civilized man can .say where they will bring up. 
 
 " Ohlsen had just completed a sledge, fashioned like the Smith 
 Sound kommetik, with an improved curvature of the runners. It 
 weighs only twenty-four pounds, and, though I think it too short 
 for light draught, it is just the article our Etah neighbours would 
 delist, in for their land-portages. I intended it for them, as a 
 great price for a great stock of walrus moat ; but the other parties 
 to the bargain have flown. 
 
 " October 5, Thursday. — We .are nearly out of fresh meat again, short al- 
 one rabbit and three ducks being our sum total. We have been 'ow'nc^'J' 
 
 ° food. 
 
 on short allowance for several days. Wliat vegetabl( s we have — 
 the dried apples and peaches, and pickled cabbage -have lost 
 much of their anti-scorbutic virtue by constant use. Our spices 
 are all gone. Except four small bottles of horse-radish, our carte 
 is comprised in three lines — bread, beef, pork. 
 
 " I must be off after these Esquimaux. They certainly have 
 meat, and wherever they have gone we can follow. Once upon 
 their trail, our hungry instincts will not risk being baffled. I will 
 stay only long enough to complete my latest root-beer brewage. Root-be«»" 
 Its basis is the big crawling willow, the miniature giant of our 
 Arctic forests, of wliich we laid in a stock some weeks ago. It is 
 quite pleasantly bitter, and I hope to get it fermenting in the deck- 
 house without extra fuel, by heat from below. 
 
 " October 7, Saturday. — Lively sensation, as they s<ay in the 
 land of olives and champagne. ' Nannook, nannook ! ' — ' A bear, a bear in 
 a bear ! '-- Hans and Morton in a breath ! 
 
 " To the scandal of our domestic regulations, the guns were all 
 impracticable. Wliile the men were loading and capping anew, I 
 seized my pillow-companion six-shooter, and ran on deck. A 
 medium-sized bear, with a four months' cub, was in active warfare 
 with our dogs. They were hanging on her skirts, and she with 
 wonderful alertness was picking out one victim after another, 
 Bnatching him by the nape of the neck, and flinging him many feet, 
 
 sight. 
 
2:)3 
 
 FIOIIT WITH A BEAIt. 
 
 Cim'TIR 
 
 xxrx. 
 
 •U'fi'iilfil. 
 
 iiimiii 
 
 Wondcrhil 
 •ti-fiiKihuf 
 tilt; bcui'. 
 
 New pliir 
 of bear 
 IlKhtiiiK. 
 
 or rather yards, by a baroly perceptible luoveiueut of lior 
 head. 
 
 "Tudhi, our master dog, was ah'cady Aora de comlxtt ; lie had 
 been tossed twice. Jenny, just as I emerged froi the hatch, was 
 makinj; an extraordinary somerset of Boine eight fathoms, and 
 alighted senseless. Old Whitey, stanch, but not bear- wise, had 
 been the first in the battle ; he was yeli)ing in helplessnesi on 
 the snow. 
 
 " It seemed as if the controversy was adjourned ; and Nannook 
 evidently thought so ; for she turned off to our beef-barre's, and 
 began in the most unconcerned numner to turn them over and 
 nose out their fatness. She was apparently as devoid of fea.r as 
 any of the bears in the stories of old Barentz and the Spitzbcrgen 
 voyagers. 
 
 " I lodged a pistol-ball in the side of the cub. At once the 
 mother placed her little one between her hind-legs, and, shoving 
 it along, made her way behind the beef-house. Mr. Ohlscu 
 wounded her as she went with my Webster rifle ; but she scarcely 
 noticed it. She tore down by single efforts of her forearms the 
 barrels of frozen beef which made the triple walls of the store- 
 house, mounted the rubbish, and snatching up a half barrel of her- 
 rings, carried it > lown by her teeth, and was making off. It was time 
 to close, I thought. Going up within half pistol range, I gave her 
 six buckshot. She dropped, but instantly rose, and getting her 
 cub into its former position, moved off once more. 
 
 "This time she would really have escaped but for the admirable 
 tactics of our new recruits from the Esquimaux. The dogs of 
 Smith's Sound are educated more thoroughly than any of their 
 more southern brethren. Next to the walrus, the bear is the 
 staple of diet to the north, and except the fox, supplies the most 
 important element of the wardrobe. Unlike the dogs we had 
 brought with us from Baffin's Bay, these were trained, not to 
 attack, but to ambarrass. They ran in circles round the bear, and 
 when pursued wiuld keep ahead with regulated gait, their com- 
 rades effecting a du'orsion at the critical moment by a nip at her 
 hind-quarters. This was done so systematically and with so little 
 seeming excitement as to strike every one on board. I have seen 
 bear-dogs elsewhere that had been drilled to relieve each other in 
 the melee and avoid the direct assault ; but here, two do^s without 
 
BDAU KIJ.I.K.n. 
 
 2.33 
 
 even a domonstration of attack, wouKl put tlionisolvo.s before the 
 j)ath of tlie animal, and retreating right and left, lead liini into a 
 jirofitlL'ss pursuit that checked his advance completely. 
 
 " The jtoor animal was still backing out, yet still fighting, 
 ( nrying along her wounded cub, embarrassed by the dogs, yet 
 gaining distance from the brig, when Hans and myself threw in 
 the odds in the shape of a couple of rille-balls. She staggered in 
 front of her young one, faced us in death-like defiance, and only 
 sank when pierced l)y six more bullets. 
 
 *' We fimnd nine balls in skinning her body. She was of me- 
 dium size, very lean, and without a particle of food in her stomach. 
 Hunger m\ist have caused her boldness. The net weight of the 
 cleansed carcivss was 300 lbs, ; that of the entire animal, G50 ; her 
 length, but 7 feet 8 inches. 
 
 " Bears in this lean condition are much the most palatable food. 
 
 The impregnation of fatty oil through the cellular tissue makes a 
 
 well-fed bear nearly uneatable. The flesh of a famished beast, 
 
 although less nutritious as a fuel diet, is rather sweet and tender 
 
 V than otherwise. 
 
 " The little cub is larger than the adjective implies. She was 
 t'lller than a dog, and weighs 114 lbs. Lii:e Morton's bear in 
 Kennedy's ChatiUel, she sprang ui)on the corpse of her mother, 
 and raised a woeful lamentation over her wounds. She repelled 
 my efforts to noose her with great ferocity ; but at last, completely 
 muzzled with a line fastened by a running knot between her jaws 
 and the back of her head, she moved off to the brig amid the 
 clamour of the dogs. We have her now chained alongside, but 
 snarling and snapping constantly, evidently suffering from her 
 wound. 
 
 " Of the eight dogs who took part in this passage of arms, only 
 one — ' Sneak,' as the men call him, * Young Whitey,' as he figures 
 in tlus journal — lost a flower from his chaplet. But two of the 
 rest escaped without a grip. 
 
 " Strange to say, in spite of the powerful flings which they 
 were subjected to in the fight, not a dog suffers seriously. I 
 expected, from my knowledge of the hugging propensity of the 
 ])lantigrades, that the animal would rear, or at least use her fore- 
 arm ; but she invariably seized the dogs with her teeth, and, after 
 disposing of them for the time, abstained from following up the 
 
 OilAPTKR 
 X.XIX. 
 
 The bear's 
 
 list 
 
 »tii\«glu. 
 
 Sizp iiiul 
 Weight (it 
 tliu beiir. 
 
 Tlie oub a 
 pi'isonu:. 
 
 Tlie does 
 after tlio 
 tlkiht. 
 
 liiiHitiH 
 
234 
 
 BEAR HABITS. 
 
 '•Jack" 
 the old 
 bear dog. 
 
 Pear 
 
 llubits. 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 if 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 f. 
 
 L *^ 
 
 % 
 
 .:& 
 
 Ik 
 
 CHAi'TEii advantage. The Esquimaux assert that this is the habit of tlie 
 xxnc. ]jmjj.(,j jjgj^j, Qjjg Qf om- gjnith Sound dogs, * Jack,' made no 
 
 struggle when he was seized, hut was flung, with all his muscles 
 relaxed, I hardly dare to say how far; the next instant he rose 
 and renewed the attack. The Esquimaux both of Proven and of 
 this country say that th*^ dogs soon learn this * possum -playing ' 
 i)abit. Jack was an old bear-dog. 
 
 " The bear seems to be more ferocious as he increases his lati- 
 tude, or more probably as he recedes from tht hunting-fields. 
 
 "AtOominak, last winter (1852), an Esquimaux and his sou 
 were nearly killed by a bear that had housed himself in an ice- 
 berg. They attacked 1 iiu wit)\ the lance, but he tr.rned on them 
 and worsted them badly before making his escape. 
 
 " But the continued pursuit of man sjems to have exerted 
 already a modifying influence u})on the ursine character in South 
 Greenland ; at all events, the be ars there never attack, and even 
 in self-defence seldom inflict injury upon the hunter. Many 
 instances have occurred where they have defended themselves, 
 and even charged after being v ounded, but in none of them was 
 life lost. T have myself shot as many as a doirer, bears near at 
 hand, and never but once received a charge in return. 
 
 " I heard another adventure from the Danes as occurring iu 
 1834:— 
 
 " A stout Esquimaux, an assistant to the cooper of Upernavik, 
 — not a Christian, but a stout, manly savage,— fired a i a she-bear, 
 and the animal closed on the instant of receiving the ball. The 
 man flung himself on the ground, putting forward liis arm to pro- 
 tect his head, but lying afterward perfectly .tionless. The 
 bciist was taken in. She gave the arm a bite or two, but landing 
 lier enemy did not move, she retired a few paces and sat upon her 
 haunches to watch. But she did not watch as carefully as she 
 should have done, for the hunter adroitly reloaded liis rifle and 
 killed her with the second shot. 
 
 " October 8, Sunday. — When I was out in the Advatice, W'ith 
 Captain de Haven, I satisfied myself that it was a vulgar prejudice 
 to regard the liver of the bear as poisonous. I ate of it freely 
 myself, and succeeded in making it a favourite dish with the 
 mess. But I find to my cost that it may sometimes be more 
 savoury than safe. The cub's liver was my supper last night. 
 
 An adven- 
 ture witli a 
 bear. 
 
 Bear liver. 
 
RATS, RATS, RATS, 
 
 235 
 
 and to-day I have the symptoms of poison iii full measure — 
 vertigo, diarrhoea, and their concomitants." 
 
 I may mention, in connection with tbe fact •wliicli I have given 
 from my journal, that I repeated the t xperiment several times 
 afterward, and sometimes, but not ahvayfi, with the same result. 
 I remember once, near the Great Glacier, all our party sickened 
 after feeding on the liver of a bear that we bad killed; and a few 
 weeks afterward, when we were tempted into a similar indulgence, 
 we were forced to undergo the same penance. The animal in both 
 cases was old and fat. The dogs ate to repletion, without injury. 
 
 Another article of diet, less inviting at first, but which I found 
 more innocuous, was the rat. We had failed to exterminate this 
 animal by our varied and perilous efforts of the year before, an.l 
 a well-justified fear forbade our renewing the crusade. It w.is 
 marvellous, in a region apparently so unfavourable to reproduction, 
 what a perfect warren we soon had on board. Their impudence 
 and address increased with their numbers. It became impossible 
 to stow anything below decks. Furs, woollens, shoes, specimens 
 of natural history, everything wo disliked to lose, however little 
 valuable to them, was gnawed into and destroyed. They har- 
 boured among the men's bedding in the forecastle, and showed 
 such boldness in fight and such dexterity in dodging missiles, that 
 they were tolerated at last as inevitable nuisances. Before the 
 winter ended, I avenged our griefs by decimating them for my 
 private table. I find in my journal of the lOtl: of October an 
 anecdote that illustrates their boldness: — 
 
 " We have moved everythhig movable out upon the ice, and, 
 besides our dividing moss wall between our sanctum and the fore- 
 castle, we have built up a rude bnrriei ^ I" our iron sheathing to 
 prevent these abominable rats from gr.u,wing through. It is all in 
 vain. They are everywhere aJroaHy, under tl:e stove, in the 
 steward's lockers, in our cushions, about our beds. If I was 
 asked what, after darkness and cold and scurvy, are the three 
 besetting curses of our Arctic sojourn, I should sa\. Rats, Rats, 
 Rats. A mother-rat bit my finger to the bone last Friday, as I 
 was intruding my hand into a bear-skin mitten which she had 
 chosen as a homestead for her little family. I withdrew it of 
 course with instinctive courtesy ; but among them they carried off 
 the mitten before I could suck the finger. 
 
 CHAPTKB 
 XXIX. 
 
 lU-ar's 
 liver ]iol- 
 soiioua. 
 
 Rnts on 
 board. 
 
 Theplngue 
 of rats. 
 
236 
 
 FOX AND HARES. 
 
 CIIAPTKR 
 XXIX. 
 
 Tlie (Io(f 
 vanqiiNli- 
 C(l by ruts. 
 
 Slinotint' 
 
 IMtS. 
 
 TciTlcr 
 
 Arctic 
 
 " Last week I sent down Rhina, the most intelligent doc» 
 of our whole pack, to bivouac in their citadel forward : I thouglit 
 she miglit at least be able to defend herself against them, for she 
 had distinguished herself in the bear-hunt. She slept veiy well 
 for a couple of hours on a bed she had chosen for herself on the 
 top of some iron spikes. But the rats could not or would not 
 furego the horny skin about her paws ; and they gnawed her feet 
 and nails so ferociously that we drew her up yelping and van- 
 quished." 
 
 Before I pass from these intrepid and pertinacious visitors, let 
 me add that on the whole I am personally much their debtor. 
 Through the long winter night, Hans used to beguile his lonely 
 hours of watch by shooting them with the bow and arrow. Tlie 
 repugnance of my associates to share with me the table luxury of 
 " such small deer," gave me the frequent advantage of a fresh-meat 
 soup, which contributed no doubt to my comparative immunity 
 from scurvy. I had only one competitor in the dispensation of 
 tliis oitremct, or rather one companion ; for tlicre was an abundance 
 for both. It was a fox. "We caught and domesticated hiiu late 
 in the winter ; but the scantiness of our resources, and of course 
 his ' wn, soon instructed him in all the antipathies of a terrier. 
 lie had only one fault as a rat-catcher; he would never catch n 
 second till he had eaten the first. 
 
 At the date of these entries the Arctic hires had not ceased to 
 be numerous about our harbour. They were very beautiful, as 
 white as swans' down, with a crescent of black marking the ear- 
 tips. They feed on the bark and catkins of the willow^ and affect 
 the stony sides of the worn down rocks, where they find protec- 
 tion from the wind and snow-drifts. They do not burrow like our 
 hares at home, but squat in crevices or under large stones. Their 
 average weight is about 9 lbs. They would have entered largely 
 into our diet-list but for our Esquimaux dogs, who regarded them 
 with relishing appetite. Parry ^nmd the hare at Melville Island, 
 in latitude 75"; but we have traced it from Littleton Island as far 
 north as 70" 08', and its range probably extends still further 
 toward the Pole. Its structure and habits enable it to penetrate 
 the snow-crusts, and obtain food where the reindeer and the musk- 
 OT peri.sh in consequence of the glazed covering of their feeding- 
 grounds. 
 
 t^^iilllfciMimi'""! I.'"' 
 
THE ICE-FOOT CANOPY. 
 
 237 
 
 ^^ October 11, Wednesday. — There is no need of looking at the chapter 
 
 tlicrmonieter and comparing rrgistcrs, to show how far this season 'J ' 
 
 has advanced beyond its felJow of last year. The ice-foot is more Reaching 
 (.asily read, and quite as certain. 
 
 tlie Ico- 
 foot 
 
 tig and van- 
 
 Tim ICE-l'OOT CAXOPY. 
 
 •' The under part of it is covered now with long stalactitic DckHp- 
 Cdhimns of ice, unlike the orduiary icicle in shape, for they have |.'"" °' '*"^ 
 til J characteristic bulge of the carbonate-of-linie .stalactite. They 
 look like the fiintastic columns hanging from the roof of a frozen 
 temple, thi. dark recess behind them giving all the effect of a 
 grotto. There is one that brings back to me saddened memories 
 of riephanta and the merry friends that bore me company under 
 itd rock-chiselled portico. The fig-trees and the palms, and the 
 gallant major's curries and his old India ale, are wanting in the 
 picture. Sometimes again it is a ca'.Roy fringed with gems in the 
 iiiooiilight. Nothing can be purer or more beautiful. 
 
238 
 
 TUACKINO THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 i ' 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXIX. 
 
 uiaax. 
 
 A wolf. 
 
 I i 
 
 " The ice has begun to fasten on our brig : I have called a con- 
 
 sultation of officers to determine how she may be best secured. 
 
 Scarcii for "October 13, Friday. — The Esquimaux have not been near us, 
 iiie Ksqui- j^^^ ji; jg j^ puzzle of somc interest where they have retreated to. 
 Wherever they are, there must be our hunting-giounds, for they 
 certainly have not changed their quarters to a more destitute 
 region. I have sent Morton and Hans to-day to track them out 
 if they caa. They carry a hand-sledge with them, Ohlsen's last 
 manufacture, ride with the dog-sledge as far as Anoatok, and 
 leave the old dogs of our team there. From that point they are 
 to try a device of my own. We have a couple of dogs that we 
 got from these same Esquimaux, who are at least as instinctive as 
 their former masters. One of these they are to let run, holding 
 the other by a long leash. I feel confident that the free dog will 
 find the camping-ground, and 1 think it probable the otlier will 
 follow. I thought of tying the two together ; but it would embar- 
 rass their movements, and give them something to occupy their 
 minds besides the leading object of their mission. 
 
 "October 14, Saturday. — Mr. Wilson and llickey reported last 
 night a wolf at the meat-house. Now, the meat-house is a thing 
 of too much worth to be left to casualty, and a wolf might inci- 
 dentally add some freshness of flavour to its contents. So I went 
 out in all haste with the Marston rifle, but without my mittens 
 and with only a single cartridge. The metal burnt my hands, as 
 metal is apt to do at 50° below the point of freezing ; but I got a 
 
 somewhat rapid shot. I hit one of our dogs, a truant from 
 
 Morton's team ; luckily a flesh-wound only, for he is too good a 
 beast to lose. I could liave sworn he was a wolf." 
 
 There is so much of identical character botween our Arctic dogs 
 and wolves, that I am inclined to ag''ee with Mr. Broderip, who in 
 the " Zoological Recreations" assigns to them a family origin. The 
 oblique position of the wolfs eye is not uncommon among the 
 dogs of my team. I have a slut, one of the tamest and most 
 affectionate of tlie whole of them, who has the long legs and com- 
 pact body, and drooping tail, and wild, scared expression of the 
 oye, which some naturalists have supposed to characterize the wolf 
 alone. When domesticated early — and it is easy to domesticate 
 him — the wolf follows and loves you like a dog. That they are 
 fond of a loose foot proves nothing : many of our pack will lun 
 
 similarity 
 of dogs 
 anil 
 wolves. 
 
DOGS AND WOLVES. 
 
 239 
 
 called a con- 
 t secured. 
 )een near us, 
 retreated to. 
 ads, for they 
 •re destitute 
 ck them out 
 Ohlsen's last 
 iioatok, and 
 tint they are 
 logs that we 
 istinctive as 
 un, holding' 
 ee dog will 
 ! other will 
 3uld embar- 
 ccupy their 
 
 ported last 
 i is a thing 
 might inci- 
 
 So I went 
 (ly mittens 
 
 hands, as 
 lit I got a 
 uant from 
 00 good a 
 
 rctic dogs 
 p, who in 
 igin. The 
 inoiig the 
 md most 
 md com- 
 n of the 
 the wolf 
 iiesticate 
 they are 
 will run 
 
 away for weeks into the wilderness of ice ; yet thoy cannot be per- chai'trr 
 suaded when they come back to inhabit tlie kennel we have built ' 
 for them only a hundred yards oflF. They crouc^' around for the '^"|'' "'"' 
 companionship of men. Both animals howl in unison alike : the 
 bell at the settlements of South Greenland always starts them. 
 Their footprint is the same, at least in Smith's Sound. Dr. 
 Richardson's remark to the contrary made me observe the fact, 
 that our northern dogs leave the same " spread track" of the toes 
 when numing, though not perhaps as well marked as the wolfs. 
 
 The old proverb, and the circumstance of the wolf having some- 
 times carried off an Esquimaux dog, has been alluded to by the 
 editors of the " Diffusion of Knowledge Library." But this too is 
 inconclusive, for the proverb is false. It is not quite a month ago 
 since I found five of our dogs gluttonizing on the carcasses of their 
 dead companions who had been thrown out on a rubbish-heap ; 
 and I have i-/'en pups only two months old risk an indigestion by 
 overfeeding ou their twin brethren who had preceded them in a 
 like inipmdence. 
 
 Nor is there anything in the supposed difference of strength. 
 The F.squimaux dog of Smith's Sound ercounters the wolf fear- 
 lessly and Avitl, success. The wolves of Northern America never 
 venture near tlie huts ; but it is well known that when they have 
 been chasing the deer ' f the moose, the dogs have come up as 
 rivals in the hunt, be.iten them off, and appropriated the prey to 
 themselves. 
 
 "October 16, Monday. — I have been wearied and vexed for half Bmi and 
 a day by a vain chase after some bear-tracks. There v.'as a fox '^"''' 
 evidently following them (C. lar/opus)" 
 
 There are fables about the relation between these two animals 
 which 1 once thought my observations had confirmed. They are 
 very often found together : the bear striding on ahead with his 
 prey ; the fox behind gathering in the crumbs as they fall ; 
 and I have often seen the parasite licking at the trooci of a 
 wounded seal which his champion had borne off over tlie snow. 
 The story is that the twc hunt in couples. I doub*-. this now, 
 though it is certain that the inferior annual rejoices in his asso- 
 ciation with the superior, at least for the profits, if not the sym- 
 pathy it brings to him. I once wounded a bear when I was out 
 with Morton during our former voyi;ge, and followed him for 
 
240 
 
 ARRANGEMEKTSi FOR RAISING THE BRIO. 
 
 CHAPTKH 
 XXIX. 
 
 Strnngo 
 
 cmn- 
 
 li.uiloni. 
 
 Moitnii ill 
 Hc^arch (if 
 the Kxqiii- 
 
 IIIIIUX, 
 
 Appniatus 
 
 till' I'liisiiig 
 
 the bi'ig. 
 
 twelve miles over the ice. A miserable little fox travelled close 
 l)oluii(l his patron, aiid licked up the blood wherever he lay down. 
 The bear at last made the water ; and, as we returned from oiir 
 fruitless chase, we saw the fox running at full speed along tlu; 
 edge of the thin ice, as if to rejoin him. It is a mistake to sup- 
 pose he cannot swim : ho does, and that boldly. 
 
 " October 19, Thursdai/. — Our black dog Erebus has comeback 
 to the brig. Morton has perhaps released him, but he has more 
 probably broken loose. 
 
 " I have no doubt Morton is making the best of his way after 
 the Esquimaux. These trips are valuable to us, even when they 
 fail of their immediate object. They keep the natives in whole- 
 some respect for us. We are careful to impress them with our 
 Ithysical prtjwess, and avoid showing cither fatigue or cold when 
 we are travelling together. I could not help being amused some 
 ten days .ago with the complacent manner of Myouk, as he hooked 
 himself to me for support after I had been walking for thirty 
 miles ahead of the sledge. The fellow was worth four of mo ; 
 but he lot me carry him almost as far as the land-ice. 
 
 " We have been completing our arrangements for raising the 
 brig. The heavy masses of ice that adhere to her in the winter 
 make her condition dangerous at seasons of low tide. Her frame 
 could not sustain the pressure of such a weight. Our object, 
 therefore, has been to lift her mechanically above her line of 
 flotation, and let her freeze in on a sort of ice-dock ; no th.at the ice 
 around her as it sinks may take the bottom and hold her up clear 
 of the danger. We have detached four of the massive beams 
 that were intended to resist the lateral pressure of nips, and have 
 ])laced them as shores, two on each side of the vessel, opposite the 
 channels. Brooks has rigged a crab or capstan on the floe, and 
 has passed the chain cable under the keel at four bearing-points. 
 As these are hauled in by the crab and the vessel rises, the shores 
 are mad'" to take hold under heavy cleats spiked below the bul- 
 warks, and in this manner to sustain her weight. 
 
 " We made our first trial of the apparatus to-day. The chains 
 hold perfectly, and had raised the brig nearly three feet, when away 
 went one cf our chain-slings, and k,lie fell back of course +o lior 
 more familiar bearings. We will repeat the experiment to-morrow, 
 using six chains, two at each line of stress. 
 
 
MORTON 8 RETURN. 
 
 211 
 
 ^'■Odohei' 21, Saturday. — Hard at it still, slinging chains and 
 jtlanting shores. The thermometer ia too near zero for work like 
 this. We swaddle our feet in old cloth, and guard our liandswith 
 fur mits; but the cold iron bites through them all. 
 
 " G.30 P.M. — Morton and Hans are in, after tracking tlie l*>(iui- 
 maux to the lower settlement of Etah. I cannot give their report 
 t()-i'i:.';ht : the poor fellows are completely knocked up by the hard- 
 .ships of their march. Hans, who is always careless of powder iind 
 (ire-arms, — a trait which I have ob.sen'cd among both the Anieri- 
 tan and the Oriental savages, — exploded liis powder-flask while 
 attempting to kindle a tinder-f re. The explosion has risked his 
 hand. I have dressed it, extracting several j)iece3 of foreign matter, 
 and pnidticing it in yeast and charcoal. Morton luvs frostbitten 
 both his heels; I hope not too severely, for the indurated .skin of 
 the heel makes it a bad region for suppuration. lUit tliey bring 
 \is two hundred and seventy pounds of walrus meat and a eorple 
 (if foxes. This supply, with what we have reman ing of our two 
 bears, must hist us tiU the return of daylight allows us to join the 
 natives in their hunts. 
 
 " The light is fast leaving us. Tlie smi has ceased to reach the 
 vessel. The north-eastern headlands or their southern faces up the 
 fiords have still a warm yellow tint, and the pinnacles of the ice- 
 bergs far out on the floes are lighted up at noonday ; but all else 
 is dark sbadfjw." 
 
 CIIAl'TI.!l 
 XXIX. 
 
 Sliffui'intH 
 of Miiitoii 
 and Uiiii". 
 
 Dopaitun* 
 
 Ottilia 
 
 liKlit. 
 
 OVK QKKRKL4Jlb ILMiSKS, 
 
Sift 
 
 MORTON AMOXO THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 JOURNEY OF MOllTOX AND HANS— RECEPTION — THE HUT— THE WALRUS — 
 WAI-UUS-IIUNT — THE CONTEST — HABITS OP WALRUS — FEROCITY OP THK 
 WALRUS — TUE VICTORY— THE JUBILEE— A 8IPAK. 
 
 JOURNEY OF MORTON AND HANS. 
 
 citAPTKn Morton reached the huts beyond Anoatok upon the fourth dav 
 
 XXX. , *' 
 
 __' after leaving the brig. 
 
 Ks(|iii- 
 inait\ 
 
 nioiit. 
 
 Mniton's 
 I'lCeptlon. 
 
 The little settlement is inside the north-eastern islands of Ilart- 
 stene ]3ay, about five miles from Gray's Fiord, and some sixty -five 
 or seventy from our brig. The slope on wluch it stands front.; 
 the so'ith-west, and is protected from the north and north-east by a 
 rocky island and the hUis of the mainland. 
 
 There were fnn./ h. , ; but two of them are in niins. They were 
 all of them the homes of families only four winters ago. Of the 
 two which are still liabitablc, Myouk, his father, mother, brother 
 and sister occupied one ; and Awahtok and Ootuniah, with their 
 wives and three young ones, the other. The little community had 
 lost two of its members by death since the spring. 
 
 They received Morton and his companion with much kindness, 
 giving them w.ater to drink, rubbing their feet, drying their moc- 
 casins, and the like. The women, who did this with something of 
 the good-wife's air of prerogative, seemed to have toned down much 
 of the rudeness wliich characterized the bachelor settlement at 
 Anoatok. The lamps were cheerful and smokeless, and the huts 
 much less filthy. Each had its two lamp-fires constantly burning, 
 with a framework of bone hooks and walnis-line above them for 
 drying the wet clothes of the household. Except a few dog-skins, 
 which are used as a support to the small of the back, the dais was 
 destitute of sleeping accommodations altogether : a single walrus- 
 hide was spiead out for Morton and Hans. The hut had the usual 
 tossut, at least 12 feet long, — very low, straight, and level, until it 
 reached the inner part of the chamber, when it rose abruptly by a 
 small hole, through which with some squeezing waa the entrance 
 into the true a[)artnient. Over fins entrance was the rude window, 
 
 ■' } 
 
ESQUIMAUX LIFE. 
 
 243 
 
 with its scraped scul-iiitestinr instead of glass, heavily coated with ciiai-tkr 
 frost of course ; but a small eye-hole coinuianding the bay enabled , ' " 
 the indwellers to peep out and speak or call to any who were out- 
 side. A smoke-hole pa.ssed through tiio roof. 
 
 When all the family, with Morton and Hans, were gatlujred to- iiuuppor- 
 cether, the two lamps in full blaze and the narrow hole of entrance '"'''«'"'"' 
 covered by a flat stone, the heat became insupportable. Outside, 
 the thermometer stood at 30" below zero ; within, 90^ above ; a 
 difi"erence of 120°. 
 
 The vermin were not as troublesome as in the Anoatok dormi- 
 tory, the natives hanging their clothing over the lamp-frames, and 
 lying down to sleep perfectly naked, with the exception of a sort 
 of T bandage, as surgeons call it, of seal-skin, three inches wide, 
 worn by the women as a badge of their sex, and supported by a 
 mere strip around the hips. 
 
 After sharing the supper of their hosts, — that is to say, after N'iKiit in 
 disposing of six frozen auks apiece, — the visitors stretched them- *^ ""' 
 .selves out and passed the night in unbroken persjdnition and slum- 
 lier. It was evident from the meagreness of the larder that the 
 hunters of the family had work to do ; and from some signs, which 
 did not escape the sagacity of Morton, it was plain that Myouk and 
 his father had determined to seek their next dinner upon the floes. ' 
 They were going upon a walrus-hunt ; and Morton, true to the 
 mission with which I had charged him, invited liimself and Hans 
 to be of the party. 
 
 I have not yet described one of these exciting incidents of E.squi- 
 maux life. Morton was full of the one he witnessed ; and his ac- 
 count of it when he came back was so graphic, that I should be glad 
 to escape from the egotism of personal narrative by giving it in 
 his own words. Let nie first, Iiowever, endeavour to describe the 
 animal. 
 
 The specimens in the museums of collectors are imperfect, on pescrip- 
 account of the di-ying of the skin of the ftice against the skull. 'i""""i'« 
 
 walrus. 
 
 The head of the walrus has not the characteristic oval of the seal ; 
 on the contrary, the frontal bone is so covered as to present a steep 
 descent to the eyes and a square, blocked-out aspect to the upper 
 fiice. The muzzle is less protruding than the seal's, and the checks 
 »»nd lips are completely masked by the heavy quill-like bristles. 
 Add to this the tusks as a garniture to the lower face ; and you 
 
2)4 
 
 WALRUS HUNT. 
 
 'liBi 
 
 CTtAVTKR 
 XXX. 
 
 I!<'scnil)- 
 iHiice iif 
 Die wiiliMS 
 
 to IMMII. 
 
 Hunting 
 
 Bellow of 
 tiie wul- 
 
 FUS. 
 
 have for tlic walrus a grim, ferociou.s aspect peculiarly his own. T 
 have Hcoii him with tu.sks nearly 30 inches hmg ; hi.s body not less 
 than 18 feet. When of this size he certainly rcniinds you of the 
 eK'|)hant more than any other living monster. 
 
 The rtsenihlance of the walrus to nian has been greatly ovcrrateil. 
 The notion occurs in our systematic treatises, accompanied with 
 the suggestion that this animal may have represented the merman 
 and irierniaid. The srpiare, lilocked-out head which I liave noticed, 
 etfectually destroys the resemblance to humanity when distant, and 
 the colossal size does the same when near. Som(( of the seals de- 
 serve the distinction much more : the size of the head, tiie recii- 
 larity of the facial oval, the droop of the shoulders, even the move- 
 ments of this animal, whether singly or in group, remind you strik- 
 ingly of man. 
 
 The party which Morton attended upon their walrus hunt had 
 three sledges. One was to be taken to a cache in the neighbom-- 
 hood ; the other two dragged at a quick run toward the open water, 
 about ten miles off to the south-west. They had but nine dogs to 
 these two sledges, one man only riding, the others running by turns. 
 As they ncared tlie new ice, and where the black wastes of mingled 
 cloud and water betokened the open sea, they would from time to 
 time remove their hoods and listen intently for the animals 
 voice. 
 
 After a while Myouk became convinced, from signs or sounds, 
 or botli, — for they were inappreciable by Morton, — that the wal- 
 rus were waiting for him in a small space of recently-open water 
 that was glazed over with a few day's growth of ice ; and moving 
 gently on, they soon heard the characteristic bellow of a bull awuk. 
 The walrus, like some of the higher order of beings to wliich he 
 has been compared, is fond of his o^vn music, and will lie for hours 
 listening to himself Tlis vocalization is something between the 
 mooing of a cow and the deepest baying of a mastiff : very round 
 and full, with its barks or detached notes repeated rather quickly 
 seven to nine times in succession. 
 
 The party now formed in single file, following in each other's 
 steps ; and, guided by an admirable knowledge of ice-topography, 
 wound behind hummocks and ridges in a serpentine approach to- 
 ward a group of pond-like discolourations, recently -frozen ice-spot^ 
 but surrounded by firmer and older ice. 
 
MV0UK8 CONTEST WITH THE WALRIM. 
 
 24.-I 
 
 When within half a milo of these, the line broke, aiul each man ciiai'tt:r 
 crawled toward a se[)arato pool - Morton on his hands and knees ' ' ' ' 
 following Myonk. In a few ndnutes the walrns were in sight. 
 They were five in number, rising at intervals through the ice in a 
 body, and breaking it up with an explosive puff that might have 
 been heard for miles. Two large grim-looking males were con- 
 spicuous as the leaders of the group. 
 
 Now for the marvel of the craft. When the walrus is above The hu.i- 
 water, the hunter is flat and motionless ; as he begins to .sink, alert '*■"' * ''"""■ 
 and ready for a spring. The animal's head is hardly below the 
 water-line before every man is in a rapid run ; and again, as if by 
 instinct, before the boast returns, all are motionle.ss bthind protect- 
 ing knolls of ice. They seem to know beftirt'hand nut only the 
 time he will be alxsent, but the very .spot at which he will re-appcar. 
 In this way, hiding and advancing by turns, Myouk, with Morton 
 at his heels, has reached a plate of thin ice, hardly strong enough 
 to bear them, at the very brink of the water-pool the walrus are 
 curvetting in. 
 
 Myouk, till now phlegmatic, fecn\s to waken with excitement. Excite- 
 Tlis coil of walrus-hide, a well-trimmed line of many fathoms' """V'' , 
 length, is lying at his side. He fixes one end of it in an iron barb, 
 and fastens this loosely by a s icket upon a shaft of unicorn's horn ; 
 the other end is already hioped, or, as saihu's would say, "doubled 
 in a bight." It is the work of a m<iment. lie lias gra.sped the 
 har{)oon : the water is in motion. Pufling with pent-up respira- 
 tion, the walrus is within a couple of iathoms close before him. 
 Myouk rises slowly— his light arm thrown back, the left flat at his 
 Hide. The walrus looks about him, shaking the water from his 
 crest; Myouk throws up his left arm, and the animal, rising 
 breast-high, fixes one look before he plunges. It has cost him all 
 that curiosity can cost ; the harpoon is buried under his left The wai- 
 fiipper. '■'"*"'"^'^ 
 
 Though the awuk is down in a moment, Myouk is ninning at 
 desperate speed from the scene of his victory, paying off Ids coil 
 freely, but clutching the end by its loop. He seizes as he nins 
 a .small stick of bone, rudely pointed with iron, and by a sud- 
 den movement drives it into the ice ; to this he secures his line, 
 pressing it down clo.se to the ice-surface with his feet. 
 
 Now conies the struggle. Tlie hole is dashed in mad commo- 
 
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S46 
 
 HABITS OF THE WALRUS. 
 
 Instinct 
 of the 
 walrus. 
 
 cHAVTER tion with the struggles of the wounded beast : the line is drawn 
 
 ■ tight at one moment, the next relaxed ; the hunter has not left his 
 
 ■J"''* station. There is a crash of the ice : and rearing up through it 
 
 struggle. ore 
 
 are two walruses, not many yards from where he stands. One of 
 them, the male, is excited and seemingly terrified; the other, 
 the female, collected and vengeful. Down they go again, after 
 one grim survey of the field ; and on the instant !Myouk has 
 ^ changed his position, carrying his coil with liim and fixing it 
 anew. 
 
 He has hardly fixed it before the pair have again risen, break- 
 ing up an area of ten feet diameter about the very spot he left 
 As they sink once more he again changes his place. And so the 
 conflict goes on between address and force, till the victim, half 
 exhausted, receives a second wound, and is played like a trout by 
 the angler's reel. 
 
 The instinct of attack which charatcrizes the walrus is interest- 
 ing to the naturahst, as it is characteristic also of the land animals, 
 the pachyderms, with which he is classed. When wounded, he 
 rises high out of the water, plunges heavily against the ice, and 
 strives to raise himself with his fore-flippers upon its surface. 
 As it breaks under his weight, his countenance assumes a still 
 more vindictive expression, his bark changes to a roar, and the 
 foam pours out from his jaws till it froths his beard. 
 
 Even when not excited, he manages his tusks bravely. They 
 are so strong that he uses them to grapple the rocks with, and 
 climbs steeps of ice and land which would be inaccessible to bim 
 without their aid. He ascends in this way rocky islands that are 
 sixty and a hundred feet above the level of the sea ; and I have 
 myself seen him in these elevated positions basking with Ms young 
 in the cool sunsliine of August and September. 
 
 He can strike a fearful blow; but prefers charging with his 
 tusks in a soldierly manner. I do not doubt the old stories of the 
 Spitzbergen fisheries and Cherie Is' id, where the walrus puts to 
 flight the crowds of European boats. Awuk is the lion of the 
 Danish Esquimaux, and they always speak of him with the highest 
 respect. 
 
 I have heard of oomiaks being detained for days at a time at the 
 crossings of straits and passages which he infested. Governor 
 Flaischer told me that, in 1830, a br^wn walrus, which, according 
 
 Uses of 
 tlie lusks. 
 
'U 
 
 THE INUIT AND THE WALKUS. 
 
 U7 
 
 to the Esquimaux, is the fiercest, after being lanced and maimed cHAFTEn 
 near Upemavik, routed his numerous assailants, and drove them ^^^' 
 in fear to seek for help from the settlement. His movements 
 were so violent as to jerk out the harpoons that were stuck into 
 liim. Tlie governor slew him with great difficulty after several 
 rifle-shots and lance-wounds from his whaleboat. 
 
 On another occasion, a young and adventurous Inuit plunged The fumt 
 his nalegeit into a brown walrus ; but, startled by the savat^e de- "'"! "'" 
 
 o ) 1 J a walrus. 
 
 meanour of the beast, called for help before using the lance. The 
 older men in vain cautioned him to desist. " It is a brown walrus," 
 said they: ^^ Auvek-Kaiok ! " "Hold back!" Finding the cau- 
 tion disregarded, his only brother rowed forward and plunged the 
 second harpoon. Almost in an instant the animal charged upon 
 the kayacker, ripping him up, as the description went, after the 
 fashion of his sylvan brother, the wild boar. The story was told 
 to me with much animation ; how the brother remaining rescued 
 the corpse of the brother dead ; and how, as they hauled it up on 
 the ice-floes, the ferocious beast plunged in foaming circles, seek- 
 ing fresh victims in that part of the sea which was discoloured by 
 his blood. 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the ferocity of the walrus, from the Ferocity 
 fact that the battle which Morton witnessed, not without sharing ^aiiug. 
 some of its danger, lasted four hours — during which the animal 
 rushed continually at the Esqmmaux as they approached, tearing 
 off great tables of ice with his tusks, and showing no indications 
 of fear whatever. He received upward of seventy lance wounds, 
 — Morton counted over sixty ; and even then he remained hooked 
 by his tusks to the margin of the ice, unable or unwilling to retire. 
 His female fought in the same manner, but fled on receiving a 
 lance-wound. 
 
 The Esquimaux seemed to be fully aware of the danger of ven- 
 turing too near; for at the first onset of the walrus they jumped 
 back far enough to be clear of the broken ice. Morton described 
 the last three hours as wearing, on both sides, the aspect of an un- 
 broken and seemingly doubtful combat. 
 
 The method of landing the beast upon the ice, too, showec. a Method of 
 great deal of clever contrivance. They made two pair of incisions j!^^^"*^^. 
 in the neck, where the hide is very thick, about six inches apart on the ica 
 and parallel to each other, so as to form a couple of bands. A 
 
 1 
 
 fel 
 
 I 
 
248 
 
 RETURN OF THE HUNTING PARTY. 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XXX. 
 
 A ffvand 
 lce-liour>e. 
 
 Wvision of 
 the .t;anie. 
 
 Glutton 
 fi'itivul at 
 Kuh. 
 
 line of cut liide, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, was passed 
 under one of these bands and carried up on the ice to a firm stick 
 well secured in the floe, where it went through a loop, and was 
 then taken back to the animal, made to pass under the second band, 
 and led off to the Esquimaux. Tliis formed a sort of " double 
 purchase," the blubber so lubricating the cord as to admit of 
 a free movement. By this contrivance the beast, weighing 
 some seven hundred pounds, was hauled up and butchered at 
 leisure. 
 
 The two sledges now journeyed homeward, carrying the more 
 valued parts of their prize. The intestines and a large share of 
 the carcass were buried up in the cavities of a berg ; Lucullus him- 
 self could not have dreamed of a grander icehouse. 
 
 As they doubled the little island which stood in front of their 
 settlement, the women ran down the rocks to meet them. A long 
 hail carried the good news; and, as the party alighted on the 
 beach, knives were quickly at work, the allotment of the meat 
 being determined by well-understood hunter laws. The Esqui- 
 maux, however gluttonously they may eat, evidently bear hunger 
 with as little difficulty as excess. None of the morning party had 
 breakfasted ; yet it was after ten o'clock at night before they sat 
 dovf n to dinner. " Sat down to dinner ! " This is the only expres- 
 sion of our own gastrology which is applicable to an Esquimaux 
 feast. They truly sit down, man, woman, and child, knife in hand, 
 squatting cross-legged around a formidable joint, — say forty pounds, 
 — and, without waiting for the tardy coction of the lamp, falling 
 to like college commoners after grace. I have seen many such 
 feeds. Hans's account, however, of the glutton-festival at Etah is 
 too characteristic to be omitted : — 
 
 " Why, Cappen Ken, sir, even the children ate all night ; you 
 know the little two-year-old that Awiu carried in her hood — the 
 one that bit you when you tickled it ] Yes. Well, Cappen Ken, 
 sir, that baby cut for herself, with a knife made out of an iron 
 hoop, and so heavy that it could barely lift it, and cut and ate, 
 and ate and cut, as long as I looked at it." 
 
 " Well, Hans, try now and think ; for I want an accurate an- 
 swer : how much as to weight or quantity would you say that 
 chUd ate 1 " Hans is an exact and truthful man : he pondered a 
 little and said that he could not answer my question. " But I 
 
A LITTLi; GLUTTON. 
 
 240 
 
 know tliis, sir, that it ato a sipak" — the Esquimaux name for the OEAvrrR 
 himp which is cut oflF close to the lips — " as large as its own head ; ^^^' 
 and three hours afterward, when I went to bed, it was cutting off 
 another lump and eating still." A sipak, like the Dutch governor's 
 foot, is, however, a varying unit of weight. 
 
 
 ft- 
 
 'll'l.\ 'V \ 
 
8^^ 
 
 THE BRIG CRADLED. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XXXI. 
 
 The rals- 
 ini;of the 
 
 AS ABRORA — WOOD-CUTTING — FUEL ESTIMATE— THE STOVE-PIPES— THE 
 ARCTIC FIRMAMENT— ESQUIMAUX ASTRONOMY — HEATING APPARATUS- 
 METEORIC SHOWER — A BEAR — HASTV RETREAT— THE CABIN BY NIGHT — 
 SICKNESS INCREASING — CUTTING INTO THE HRIG — THE NIGHT WATCH. 
 
 " October 24, TuesdoT/. — We are at work that makes us realize 
 how short-handed we are. The brig was lifted for the third time 
 to-day, with double chains jjassed under her at low tide, both 
 astern and amid-ships. Her bows were already raised three feet 
 above the water, and nothing seemed wanting to our complete 
 success, when at the critical moment one of the after-shores parted, 
 and she fell over about five streaks to starboard. The slings were 
 hove-to by the crab, and luckily held her from going further, so 
 that she now stands about three feet above her flotation-line, 
 drawing four feet forward, but four and a half aft. She has righted 
 a little with the return of tide, and now awaits the freezing-in of 
 her winter cradle. She is well out of water ; and, if the chains 
 only hold, we shall have the spectacle of a brig, high and dry, 
 spending an Arctic winter over an Arctic ice-bed. 
 
 THE BRIO eilASLKD. 
 
 " We shall be engaged now at the hold and with the housing 
 on deck. From our lodge-room to the forward timbers everything 
 is clear already. We have moved the carpenter's bench into our 
 
IPES— THE 
 fARATUS — 
 Y NIGHT — 
 WATCH. 
 
 as realize 
 liird time 
 ide, both 
 ;hree feet 
 
 complete 
 es parted, 
 ings were 
 iirther, so 
 ition-line, 
 IS righted 
 sing-in of 
 lie chains 
 
 and dry, 
 
 B housing 
 
 verything 
 
 into our 
 
 rREPARATIONS FOR WINTER. 
 
 251 
 
 little dormitorium ; everywhere else it is too cold for handling chaptkr 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 Anauroiu 
 
 tools, 
 
 " 9 P.M. — A true and unbroken auroral arch — the first we have 
 seen in Smith's Sound. It was colourless, but extremely bright. 
 There was no pendant from the lower curve of the arc ; but 
 from its outer, an active wavy movement, dissipating itself into 
 barely-perceptible cirrhus, was broken here and tliere by rays 
 nearly perpendicular, with a slight inclination to the east. The 
 j'.tmosphere was beautifully clear, 
 
 " October 26, Thursday. — The thermometer at 34° below zero, 
 but fortunately no wind blowing. We go on with the out-door Ont-door 
 work. The gangway of ice is finished, and we have passed wooden '*"' 
 steam-tubes through the deck-house, to carry off the vapours of 
 our cooking-stove and the lighter impurities of the crowded cabin. 
 
 " We burn but seventy pounds of fuel a day, most of it in the 
 galley — the fire being allowed to go out between meals. We go 
 without fire altogether for four hours of the night ; yet such is 
 the excellence of our moss walls and the air-proof of our tossut, 
 that the thermometer in-doors never indicates less than 45° above com- 
 zero, with the outside air at 30° below. When our housing is P'"''*'^'^ 
 arranged, and the main hatch secured with a proper weather-tight outsida 
 screen of canvas, we shall be able, I hope, to meet the extreme 
 cold of February and March without fear. 
 
 " Darkness is the worst enemy we have to face ; but we will 
 strive against the scurvy in spite of him, till the hght days of sxm 
 and vegetation. The spring-hunt will open in March, though it 
 will avail us very little till late in April. 
 
 " Wilson and Brooks are my principal subjects of anxiety ; for 
 although Morton and Hans are on their backs, making four of our 
 ten, I can see strength of system in their cheerfulness of heart. 
 The best prophylactic is a hopeful, sanguine temperament ; the 
 best cure, moral resistance — that spirit of combat against every 
 trial which is alone true bravery, 
 
 " October 27, Friday. — The work is going on ; we are ripping Fuel for 
 off the extra planking of our deck for fuel during the winter. The 
 cold increases fast, verging now upon 40° below zero, and in spite 
 of all my efforts we will have to burn largely into the brig. I 
 prepared for this two months ago, and satisfied myself, after a con- 
 sultation with the carpenter, that we may cut away some seven or 
 
 and liL 
 
 Anxictiesk 
 
 wliitta". 
 
 11 i 
 
 \i 
 
 m 
 
 n 
 
 'A 
 
252 
 
 FUEL AND STOVES. 
 
 i 
 
 Fuel est I 
 mute. 
 
 a 
 
 it 
 
 ml 
 
 CFfAPTKR eight tons of fuel witlioiit absolutely destroying her sea-worthi- 
 
 J [ neas. Ohlsen's report marked out the order in which her timbei-s 
 
 shoiild be appropriated to usea of necessity : 1. The monkey-rail ; 
 2. The bulwarks ; 3. The ui)per ceiling of the deck ; 4. Eight extra 
 cross-beams ; 5. The flooring and remaining A/ood-work of the fore- 
 castle ; 0, The square girders of the forepcak ; 7. The main-top- 
 sail-yard and top-mast ; 8. The outside trebling or oak sheathing. 
 " We had then but thirty buckets of coal remaining, and liad 
 already burnt up the bulkheads. Since then we have made some 
 additional inroads on our stock ; but, unless there is an error in 
 the estimate, we can go on at the rate of seventy pounds a day. 
 Close house-keeping this; but we cannot do better. We must re- 
 model our heating arrangements. The scurvy exacts a comfort- 
 able temperature and a diyuig one. Our moan thus far has been 
 47° — decidedly too low ; and by the clogging of our worn-out pipe 
 it is now reduced to 42°. 
 
 " The ice-belt, sorry chronicler of winter progress, has begun to 
 widen with the rise and fall of the sludgy water. 
 
 " October 31, Ihiesday. — We have had a scene on board. We 
 play many parts on this Arctic stage of ours, and can hardly be 
 expected to be at home in all of them. 
 
 " To-day was appropriated to the reformation of the stoves, and 
 there was demand, of course, for all our ingenuity both as tinkers 
 tiie stoves, and chimney sweeps. Of my company of nine, Hans had the good 
 luck to be out on the hunt, and Brooks, Morton, Wilson, and Good- 
 fellow, were scurvy -ridden in their bunks. The other four and the 
 commanding officer made up the detail of duty. First, we were 
 to give the smoke-tubes of the stove a thorough cleansing, the'^rst 
 they have had for now seventeen months; next, to reduce o-t ffete 
 snow-melter to its elements of imperfect pipes and pars, and last, 
 to combine the practicable remains of the two into one efficient 
 system for warming and melting. 
 
 " Of these, the first has been executed most gallantly. * Glory 
 enough for one day ! ' The work with the scrapers on the heated 
 pipes — fortheaccum'-'iition inside of them was as hard as the iron 
 itself tUl we melted it down — was decidedly unpleasant to our 
 gentle senses ; and we were glad when it had advanced far enough 
 to authorize a resort to the good old-fashioned country custom of 
 firing. But we had not calculated the quantity of the gases, coni- 
 
 Cleaning 
 and re- 
 palrinfir 
 
THE ARCTIC FIRMAMENT. 
 
 253 
 
 sea-wortlii- 
 ler timbers 
 )nkoy-rail ; 
 eight extra 
 it' the fore- 
 main-top- 
 sheathing. 
 ;, and liad 
 iiade some 
 n error in 
 ids a day. 
 e must re- 
 a conifort- 
 r has been 
 n-out pipe 
 
 3 begun to 
 
 )ard. We 
 hardly be 
 
 toves, and 
 as tinkers 
 1 tlie good 
 and Good- 
 \r and the 
 ;, we were 
 g, the"'^rst 
 e ovr Jifte 
 ; and last, 
 e efficient 
 
 . ' Glorj- 
 ;he heated 
 is the iron 
 nt to our 
 "ar enough 
 custom of 
 
 bustible and incombustible, which this process was to evolve, \nth 
 duly scientific reference to the size of their outlet. In a word, 
 they were smothering us, and, in a fit of desperation, we threw 
 open our apartment to tlie atmosphere outside. This made short 
 work of the smoky flocculi ; the dormitory decked itself on the 
 instant ■with a fro.->ty forest of feathers, and it now rejoices in a 
 drapery as grey as a cygnet's breast. 
 
 " It was cold work reorganizing the stove for the nonce ; but we 
 have got it going again, as red as a cherry, and my well-worn dog- 
 skin siut is drying before it. The blackened water is just begin- 
 m'.g to drip, drip, drop, from the walls and ceiling, and the bcd- 
 clotiics and the table on which I write." 
 
 My narrative has reached a period at which everything like 
 progress was suspended. The increasing cold and brightening 
 stars, the labours, and anxieties, and sickness that pressed upon us, 
 — these almost engross the pages of my journal. Now and then 
 I find some marvel of Petersen's about the fox's dexterity as a 
 hunter; and Hans tells me of domestic life in South Greenland, or 
 of a seal-hunt and a wrecked kayack; or perhaps M'Gary repeats 
 his thrice-told tale of humour ; but the night has closed down 
 upon us, and we are hibernating through it. 
 
 Yet some of these were topics of interest. The intense beauty 
 of the Arctic firmament can hardly be imagined. It looked close 
 above our heads, with its stars magnified in glory, and the very 
 planets twinkling so much as to baffle the observations of our astrono- 
 mer. I am afraid to speak of some of these night-scenes. I have 
 trodden the deck and the floes, when the life of earth seemed sus- 
 pended, its movements, its sounds, its colouring, its companion- 
 ships ; and as I looked on the radiant hemisphere, circling above 
 me as if rendcinng worship to the unseen Centre of light, I have 
 ejaculated in humility of spirit, " Lord, what is man that thou art 
 mindful of him ] " And then I have thought of the kindly world 
 we had left, with its revolving sunshine and shadow, and the other 
 stars that gladden it in their changes, and the hearts that warmed 
 to us there, till I lost myself in memories of those who are not 
 — and they bore me back to the stars again. 
 
 The Esquimaux, like other nomads, are careful observers of the 
 heavenly bodies. An illustration of the confidence with which 
 
 ;■ ( 
 
 CIIAPTKK 
 XXXI. 
 
 Extri'iiie 
 
 (iiscoiii- 
 
 foit. 
 
 Piogross 
 siispeiidi'il, 
 iii|;ht 
 dueled in. 
 
 Beauty ol 
 the Arctic 
 firnia- 
 III en t. 
 
254 
 
 ESQUIMAUX SCIENCE. 
 
 CHAPTCK 
 xxxr. 
 
 Esqul- 
 inaux 
 ftstni- 
 nomy. 
 
 Ksqul- 
 iiiin\x nb- 
 scrviition 
 of the 
 seasons 
 luid winds. 
 
 Tlielr in- 
 scrutable 
 means of 
 discover- 
 ing water. 
 
 they avail tlieni.selvea of this knowledge occurred while Petersen's 
 party were at Tossieusak. I copy it from my journal of Novem- 
 ber 6, 
 
 " A number of Esquimaux sought sleeping-quarters in the hut, 
 nnich to the annoyance of the earlier visitors. The night was 
 clear; and Petersen, anxious to hasten their departure, pointed to 
 the horizon, saying it would soon be daylight. * No,' said the 
 savage ; ' Avhen that star there gets round to that i)oint,' indicating 
 the quarter of the heavens, ' and is no higher than this star,' 
 naming it, ' will be the time to harness up my dogs.' Petersen 
 was astounded ; but he went out the next morning and verified 
 the sidereal fact. 
 
 " I have been shooting a hare to-day up the ravine pointed out 
 by Ootuniah. It has been quite a pleasant incident. I can 
 liardly say how valuable the advice of our Esquimaux friends has 
 been to us upon our hunts. This desert homestead of theirs is as 
 thoroughly travelled over as a sheepwalk. Every movement of the 
 ice, or wind, or season is noted ; and they predict its influence 
 upon the course of the birds of passage with the same sagacity that 
 has taught them the habits of the resident animals. 
 
 " They foretold to me the exact range of the water off Cape 
 Alexander during September, October, November, aiid December, 
 and anticipated the excessive fall of snow which has taken place 
 this winter, by reference to this mysterious water. 
 
 " In the darkest weather of October, when everything around is 
 apparently congealed and solid, they discover water by means as 
 inscrutable as the divining-rod. I was once journeying to Anoatok, 
 and completely enveloped in darkness among the rolled-ice oif 
 Godsend Island. My dogs were suffering for water. September 
 was half gone, and the water-streams both on shore and on the 
 bergs had been solid for nearly a fortnight. Myouk, my com- 
 panion, began climbing the dune-like summits of the ice-hills, 
 tapping with his ice-pole and occasionally applying his ear to parts 
 of the surface. He did so to three hills without any result, but 
 at the fourth he called out, * Water ! ' I examined the spot by 
 hand and tongue, for it was too dark to see ; but I could detect no 
 liquid. Lying down and listening, I first perceived the metallic 
 tinkle of a rivulet. A few minutes' digging brought us down to a 
 scanty infiltration of drinkable water. 
 
MICTKORIC SIIOWKR. 
 
 255 
 
 " Novemher 8, Wednesday. — Still tinkering at our stove and ico- 
 nieltcr ; at last successful. Old iron pipes, and tin kettles, and all 
 the refuse kitchen-ware of the brig figure now in picturesque as- 
 sociation, and rejoice in the title of our heating apparatus. It Is 
 a great result. We have burnt from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. but seventy- 
 five pounds, and will finish the twenty-fours with fifteen pounds 
 more. It has been a mild day, the thermometer keeping some 
 tenths above 13" below zero ; but then we have maintained a tem- 
 perature inside of 55'' above. With our old contrivaiK-cs we could 
 never get higher than 47 °, and that without any certainty, though 
 it cost us a hundred and fifty-four pounds a day. A vast increase 
 of comfort, and still greater saving of fuel. This last is a most 
 important consideration. Not a stick of wood comes below with- 
 out my eyes followhig it through the scales to the wood-stack. I 
 weigh it to the very ounce. 
 
 " The tide-register, with its new wheel-and-axle an-angements, 
 has given us out-door work for the day. Inside, after rigging the 
 stove, we have been busy chopping wood. The ice is already 
 three feet thick at our tide-hole. 
 
 ^^ Novemher 15, Wednesday. — The last forty- tight hours should 
 have given us the annual meteoric shower. We were fully pre- 
 I)arcd to observe it ; but it would not come off. It would have 
 been a godsend variety. In eight hours that I helped to watch, 
 from nhie of last night until five this morning, tiiere were only 
 fifty-one shooting stars. I have seen as many between the same 
 hours in December and February of last winter. 
 
 " Our traps have been empty for ten days past ; but for the 
 pittance of excitement which the visit to them gives, we might as 
 well be without them. 
 
 " The men are getting nervous and depressed. M'Gary paced 
 the deck all last Sunday in a fit of home-.sickness, without eating 
 a meal, I do my best to cheer them ; but it is hard work to hide 
 one's own trials for t^ie sake of others who have not as many. I 
 am glad of my professional drill and its compaidon influence over 
 the sick and toil-worn. I could not get along at all unless I com- 
 bined the oflSces of physician and commander. You cannot punish 
 sick men. 
 
 -' Novemoer 20, Monday. — I was out to-day looking over the 
 empty traps with Hans, and when about two miles off the brig — 
 
 CIIAPTFR 
 XXXI. 
 
 H|)[iuiatll:i. 
 
 Mctpnric 
 sliowur. 
 
 Doprossion 
 and hdiiio 
 sickiifsa. 
 
8A6 
 
 A BEAR. 
 
 CIIAITKR 
 XXXI. 
 
 A bpiir on 
 the leu. 
 
 
 t'niilt'a- 
 
 •lUIlt SllH- 
 pt'llSC. 
 
 A vun for 
 Kfe. 
 
 luckily not more —I heard what I thought was the bellow of a 
 walrus on tlie floe-icc, 'Hark there, Hans ! ' The words wero 
 .scarcely uttered before wo had a second roar, altogether uninis- 
 takeable. No walrus at all : a bear, a bear ! We had jumped to 
 the ice-foot already. The day was ju.st thirty minutes past the 
 liour of noon ; but, practised as wo all are to see through the 
 darknes.s, it was impossible to make out an object two hundred 
 yards off. What to dol — we liad no arms. 
 
 " We were both of us afraid to run, for we knew that the sight 
 of a ninner would be the signal for a chase ; and, be.siiles, it went to 
 our hearts to lose such a providential accession to our means of 
 life. A second roar, well pitched and abundant in volume, assured 
 us that the game was coming nearer, and that he was large and of 
 no doubt corresponding flavour. ' Kun for the brig, Hans,' — he is a 
 noble runner, — ' and I will play decoy.' Off went Hans like a 
 deer. Another roar; but he was already out of sight. 
 
 "I may confess it to these well-worn pages; there was some- 
 thing not altogether pleasant in the silent communings of the next 
 few minutes ; but they were silent ones. 
 
 " I had no stimulus to loquacity, and the boar had ceased to bo 
 communicative. The floe was about three-quarters of a tide ; somr 
 ten feet it may be, lower than the ice-foot on which I lay. The 
 bear was of course below my horizon. I began after a while to 
 think over the reality of what I had heard, and to doubt whether 
 it might not be after all a creature of the brain. It was very cold 
 on that ice-foot. I resolved to crawl to the edge of it and peer 
 under my hands into the dark shadow of the hummock-ridges. 
 
 " I did so. One look ; nothing. A second ; no bear after all. 
 A third ; what is that long rounded shade ! Stained ice ] Yes ; 
 stained ice. The stained ice gave a gross menagerie roar, and 
 charged on the instant for my position. I had not even a knife, 
 and did not wait to think what would have been appropriate if I 
 had had one. I ran, — ran as I never expect these scurvy-stifiened 
 knees to run again, — throwing off first one mitten and then its 
 fellow to avoid pursuit. ^ I gained the brig, and the bear my 
 mittens. T got back one of them an hour afterward, but the other 
 was carried off as a trophy in spite of all the rifles we could bring 
 to the rescue."* 
 
 ^' November 24, Frichty. — llie weather still mild. I attempted 
 
THE CABIN BY NKMIT. 
 
 2r,7 
 
 to work to-day at charting. I placed a largo board on our 
 utovo, and panted my paper to it. My lamp reposed on the lid 
 of the colTee-kettle, my instrument.'? in the slu.sh-boiler, my feet 
 in the ashpan ; and thus I drew the first coaat-lino of (Iriniiell 
 Land, The stove, by close watching and niggard feeding, lia.s 
 burnt only sixty-five pounds in the last twenty-four hour.s. Of 
 course, working by night I work without fire. In tiie daytime our 
 little company take every man his share of duty as he is able. 
 Toor Wilson, just able to stump about after his lato attack of 
 scurvy, helps to wash the dishes. Morton and Brooks sew at 
 sledge-clothing, while lliley, M'Gary, and Ohlsen, our oTily really 
 able-bodied men, cut the ice and firewood. 
 
 '^December 1, Friday. — I am writing at midnight. I have the 
 watch from eight to two. It is day in the moonlight on deck, 
 the thermometer getting up again to "V below zero. As I come 
 down to the cabin — for so we still call j little moss-lined igloe 
 of ours — every one is asleep, snoring, t^riiting his teeth, or talking 
 in his dreams. This is pathogn* • inic ; it tell.'' i Arctic winter 
 and its companion, scurvy. Tom Hickoy, our good-humourod, 
 blundering cabin-bo^', decorated since po'ir Schubert's death with 
 the dignities of cook, is in that liHlc dirty cot on the starboard 
 side ; the rest are bedded in rows, Mr. P^-'^oks and myself chock 
 aft. Our bunks are close against Ihe frozen moss ^'nW, where we 
 can take in the entire family at a glance. The apartment measures 
 twenty feet by eighteen j its hoight six feet four inches at one 
 place, but diversified elsewhere by beains crossing at different 
 distances from the floor. The avenue by wLi ;l! it is approached 
 is barely to be seen in the moss wall forward ; twenty feet of 
 air-tight space make misty distance, for the puff of outside-tem- 
 perature that came in with me has filled our atmosphere with 
 vesicles of vapour. The avenue — Ben-Djerback is our poetic 
 name for it — closes on the inside with a door well patched with 
 flannel, from which, stooping upon all-fours, you back down a 
 descent of four feet in twelve through a tunnel three feet high and 
 ^0 feet six inches broad. It would have been a tight squeeze 
 for a man like Mr. Brooks when he was better fed and fatter. 
 Arrived ac the bottom, you straighten yourself, and a second door 
 admits you into the dark and sorrowing hold, empty of stores, and 
 stripped to its naked ceiling for firewood. From this we grope 
 
 R 
 
 OH APT KM 
 XXX(. 
 
 nivldUm (i( 
 liihoiir. 
 
 WlltlnK at 
 mldiii|.'l>i. 
 
 Descvii- 
 tion of th« 
 fffloS on 
 boar'l. 
 
258 
 
 DREARY PROSPECTS. 
 
 CRAPTEK our way to the main Latch, and mount by a rude stairway of 
 
 ^^" ' buxes into the open air, 
 
 Sickness "December 2, Saturday, — Had to put Mr. M'Gary and Riley 
 
 Increasing, under active treatment for scurvy. Gums retracted, ankles swollen, 
 
 and bad lumbago. Mr. Wilson's case, a still worse one, has been 
 
 brought under. Morton's is a saddening one ; I cannot afford to 
 
 lose hiiii. — iig Ii3 iiOi. yjiuy oiio of ^ij mcst intelligent men, but he is 
 
 Inndo- 
 qnate 
 provision 
 of fuel 
 
 :i 
 
 Effect of 
 tue smoke. 
 
 daring, cool, and everyway trustworthy. His tendon Achilles has 
 been completely perforated, and the surface of the heel-bone ex 
 posed. An operaticm in cold, darkness, and privation, would pro 
 bably bring on locked-jaw. Brooks grows discouraged : the poor 
 fellow has scurvy in liis stump, and his leg is drawn up by the 
 contraction of the flexors at the knee-joint. This is the third case 
 on board — the fourth, if I include my own — of contracted tendons. 
 
 ^^ December 3, Sunday. — I have now on hand twenty -four hun- 
 dred pounds of chopped wood, a store collected with great diffi- 
 culty ; and yet, how inadequate a provision for the sickness and 
 accident we must look for through the rest of the dark days ! It 
 requires the most vigorous effort of what we call a healthy man to 
 tear from the oak ribs of our stout Little vessel a single day's fire- 
 wood. We have but three left who can manage even this ; and 
 we cannot spare more than one for the daily duty. Two thousand 
 pounds will barely carry us to the end of January, and the two 
 severest months of the Arctic year, February and March, will still 
 be ahead of us. 
 
 " To carry us over these, our days of greatest anticipated trial, 
 we have the outside oak sheathing, — or trebling, as the carpenters 
 call it, — a sort of extra skin to protect the brig against the shocks 
 of the ice. Although nearly three inches thick, it is only spiked 
 to her sides, and carpenter Ohlsen is sure that its removal will 
 not interfere with her sea-worthiness. Cut the trebling only to 
 the water-line, and it will give me at least two and a half tons ; 
 and with this — God willing — I may get through this awful winter, 
 and save the brig besides 1 
 
 "December 4, Monday. — That stove is smoking so that three of 
 our party are down with acute inflammation of the eyes. I fear I 
 must increase the diameter of our smoke-pipes, for the pitch-pino 
 which we bum, to save up our oak for the greater cold, is 
 redundantly charged with turpentine. Yet we do not want an 
 
THE i,iGHT WATCH. 
 
 irway of 
 
 id Riley 
 
 swollen, 
 
 has been 
 
 aflford to 
 
 lilies has 
 -bone ex 
 ould pro 
 the poor 
 p by the 
 hird case 
 
 tendons, 
 four hun- 
 reat diffi- 
 Lness and 
 lays ! It 
 ly man to 
 day's fire- 
 this; and 
 thousand 
 
 the two 
 , wiU still 
 
 ited trial, 
 carpenters 
 he shocks 
 ily spiked 
 noval will 
 ig only to 
 lalf tons ; 
 ful winter, 
 
 259 
 'No 
 
 onAPTEn 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 increased draught to consume our seventy pounds ; the fiat, 
 more wood ' comes soon enough. 
 
 " Then for the night-watch. I have generally something on tiio nigiit- 
 hand to occupy me, and can volunteer for the hours before my **''^'^ 
 regular term. Everything is closed tight ; I muffle myself in furs, 
 and write ; or, if the cold denies me that pleasure, I read, or at 
 
 
 
 .nk Ilea. en, evenau Aici ic Leiiiptii'aiure leaves the 
 
 mind unchilled. But in truth, though our hourly observations in 
 the air range between — 46° and — 30", we seldom register less 
 than + 36° below. 
 
 '^December 5, Tuesday. — M'Gary is no better, but happily has 
 no notion how bad he is. I have to give him a grating of our vaine of 
 treasured potatoes. He and Brooks will doubtless finish the two Po'"toi=* 
 I have got out, and then there will be left twelve. Tliey are now 
 three years old, poor old frozen memorials of the dear land they 
 grew in. They are worth more than their weight in gold." 
 
 ItAYACU, OH OREE.NliA.NDBK'S CAHOR. 
 
 it three of 
 I fear I 
 pitch-pino 
 IX cold, is 
 it want an 
 
260 
 
 ESQUIMAUX SLEDGES. 
 
 i<: 
 
 iu 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 . ■ , .>^ 
 
 -T>T^TTTT> V 
 
 CHAPTEK 
 XXXIT. 
 
 Konsall 
 iind Pe- 
 tersen 
 Iji'ought 
 back by 
 Esqui- 
 maux. 
 
 Sad con- 
 dition of 
 the absent 
 jiarty. 
 
 OF ■WITIIDRAWINQ PARTY — THEIR RECEPTION — THE ESQUIMAUX ESCORT 
 — CONFERENCE — CONCILIATION — ON FIRE — CASUALTY — CHRISTMAS — 
 OLE BEN — A JOURNEY AHEAD — SETTING OUT— A DREARY NIGHT — 
 STRIKING A LIGHT — END OP 1854. 
 
 I WAS asleep in the forenoon of the 7th, after the fatigue of an 
 extra night-watch, when I was called to the deci: by the report of 
 " Esquimaux sledges." They came on rapidly, five sledges, with 
 teams of six dogs each, most of the drivers strangers to us ; and 
 in a few minutes were at the brig. Their errand was of charity : 
 they were bringing back to us Bonsall and Petersen, two of the 
 party that left us on the 28th of August. 
 
 The party had many adventures and much suffering to tell of. 
 Tliey had verified by painful and perilous experience all I had 
 anticipated for them. But the most stirring of their announce- 
 ments was the condition they had left their associates ii;, two 
 hundred miles off, divided in their counsels, their energies broken, 
 and their provisions nearly gone. I reserve for another page the 
 liistory of their wanderings. My first thought was of the means 
 of rescuing and relieving them. 
 
 1 resolved to despatch the Esquimaux escort at once with such 
 supplies as our miserably-imperfect stores allowed, they giving 
 their pledge to carry them with all speed, and, what I felt to be 
 much less certain, with all honesty. But neither of the gentlemen 
 who had come with them felt himself in condition to repeat the 
 journey. !Mr. Bonsall was evidently broken down, and Petersen, 
 never too reliable in emergency, was for postponing the time of 
 setting out. Of our own party — those who had remained with 
 the brig — M'Gary, Hans, and myself, were tlie only ones able to 
 move, and of these M'Gary was now fairly on the sick list. We 
 could not be absent for a single day without jeoparding the lives 
 of the rest. 
 
 ^^Decemhei' 8, Friday. — I am much afraid these provisions will 
 
SUFFERINGS FROM SICKNE88. 
 
 26 1 
 
 Since CHAPTEK 
 XXXIl. 
 
 never reach the wanderers. We were bmy every hoiu 
 Bonsall arrived getting tliem ready. We cleaned and boiled and 
 packed a hundred pounds of pork, and sewed up smaller packages Piovisious 
 of meat-biscuit, bread-dust, and tea; and despatched the whole, absent 
 some three hundred and fifty pounds, by the returning convoy. J'^''*'* 
 But I have no faitii in "in Esquimaux under temptation, and I 
 almost regret that I did not accompany them myself. It might 
 
 have been wiser. But I will set Hans on the track in the morn- 
 ing ; and, if I do not hear within four days that the stores are 
 fairly on their way, coute qui coilte, I will be off to the lower bay 
 and hold the whole tribe as hostages for the absent party. 
 
 " Brooks is wasting with night-sweats ; and my iron man, 
 M'Gary, has been suffering for two days with anomalous crami).s 
 from exposure. 
 
 "These Esquimaux have left us some walrus-beef; and poor 
 little Myouk, who is unabated in his affection for me, made me a 
 special present of half a liver. These go of course to the hospital. 
 God knows they are needed there ! 
 
 ^^ December 9, Saturday. — The superabundant life of Xorthum- Causes of 
 berland Island has impressed Petersen as much as it did me. I *'^'"''-*' 
 cannot think of it without recurring to the fortunes of Franklin's 
 party. Our own sickness I attribute to our civilized diet ; had we 
 l)lenty of frozen walrus I would laugh at the scurvy. And it was 
 only because I was looking to other objects — summer researches, 
 and explorations in the fall with the single view to escape — that I 
 failed to secure an abundance of fresh food. Even in August I 
 could have gathered a winter's supply of birds and cochlearia. 
 
 " From May to August we lived on seal, twenty-five before the Means of 
 middle of July, all brought in by one man : a more assiduous and p''^'^''^'"* 
 better organized hunt would have swelled the number without a meat. 
 limit. A few boat-parties in June would have stocked us with 
 eider-eggs for ^vinter use, three thousand to the trip; and the 
 snowdrifts would have kept them fresh for the breakfast-table. I 
 loaded my boat with ducks in three hours as late as the middle oi 
 July, and not more than thirty-five miles from our anchorage. 
 And even now, here are these Esquimaux, sleek and oily with 
 their walrus-blubber, only seventy miles off. It is not a region 
 for starvation, nor ought it to be for scurvy. 
 
 ^^ December 12, Tuesday. — Brooks awoke me at three thia mora- 
 
262 
 
 RETURN OF THE ABSENT PARTY. 
 
 n }i 
 
 'i : 
 
 OHAPTKR ing with the cry of 'Esquimaux again!' I dressed hastily, and, 
 !^' groping my way over the pile of boxes that leads up from the 
 " ^■^"'- hold into the darkness above, made out a group of human figures, 
 
 inaux 
 again." 
 
 HiV 
 
 CLIFFS, KORTHUMBKRLAND ISLAND. 
 
 masked by the hooded jumpers of the natives. They stopped at 
 the gangway, and, as I was about to challenge, one of them sprang 
 forward and grasped my hand. It was Doctor Hayes. A few 
 words, dictated by suffering, certainly not by any anxiety as to 
 his reception, and at liis bidding the whole party came upon deck. 
 
 The absent Poof fellows ! I could Only grasp their hands and give them a 
 
 imrty wei- brother's welcome. 
 
 cornea 
 
 back. " The thermometer was at minus 50' ; they were covered witli 
 
 rime and snow, and were fainting with hunger. It was necessary 
 to use caution in taking them below ; for, after an exposure of 
 sucli fearful intensity and duration as they had gone through, the 
 
 :i ! 
 
SUFFERINGS OF THE ABSENTEES. 
 
 263 
 
 warm til of the cabin would have prostrated them completely. CHiPiEH 
 They had journeyed three hundred and fifty miles ; and their last ^'^'^" ' 
 run from the bay near Etah, some seventy miles in a right line, was ^ terrible 
 through the hummocks at this appalUng temperature. 
 
 " One by one tliey all came in and were housed. Poor fellows ! 
 as they threw open their Esquimaux garments by the stove, how 
 they relished the scanty luxuries which we had to offer them ! 
 The coffee and the meat-biscuit soup, and the molasses and the 
 wheat bread, even the salt pork which our scur\y forbade the 
 rest of us to touch, — how they reUshed it all ! For more than 
 two months they had lived on frozen seal and walrus-meat. 
 
 " They are almost all of them in danger of collapse, but I have Sickness, 
 no apprehension of life unless from tetanus. Stephenson is pros- 
 trate with pericarditis. I resigned my own bunk to Dr. Hayes, 
 who is much prostrated : he will probably lose two of Ids toes, 
 perhaps a third. The rest have no special injury. 
 
 "I cannot crowd the details of their journey into my diary. I 
 have noted some of them from Dr. Hayes's words ; but he has 
 promised me a written report, and I wait for it. It was providen- 
 tial that they did not stop for Petersen's return, or rely on the en- 
 gagements which his Esquimaux attendants had made to them as 
 well as to us. The sledges that carried our relief of provisions 
 passed through the Etah settlement empty, on some furtive pro- 
 ject, we know not what. 
 
 '^^ December 13, Wednesday. — The Esquimaux who accompanied The Esqni 
 the returning party are nearly all of them well-known friends. ^^^^^^^ 
 They were engaged from different settlements, but, as they neared 
 the brig, volunteers added themselves to the escort till they num- 
 bered six drivers and as many as forty-two dogs. Whatever may 
 have been their motive, their conduct to our poor friends was cer- 
 tainly full of humcmity. They drove at flying speed ; every hut 
 gave its welcome as they halted ; the women were ready without Their 
 invitation to dry and chafe their Avorn-out guests. 
 
 " I found, however, that there were other objects connected with 
 their visit to the brig. Suffering and a sense of necessity had in- 
 volved some of our foot-worn absentees in a breach of hospitality. 
 While resting at Kalutunah's hut, they had found opportunity of 
 appropriating to their own use certain articles of clothing, fox- 
 skins and the like, under circumstances which admitted of justifi- 
 
 I 
 
 kin(liies9b 
 
264 
 
 CONFERENCE WITH THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 ■ s^ 'if 
 
 CICAHTKR 
 XXXII. 
 
 Neceuslty 
 for recon- 
 ciliation. 
 
 Confer- 
 ence and 
 inquiry. 
 
 Ttic dor- 
 mitory. 
 
 cation only by tlie law of the more sagacious and the stronger. It 
 was apparent that our savage friends had their plaint to make, or, 
 it might be, to avenge. 
 
 " My first attention, after ministering to the immediate wants of 
 all, was turned to the office of conciliating our Esquimaux bene- 
 factors. Though they wore their habitual faces of smiling satis- 
 faction, I could read them too well to be deceived. Policy, as well 
 as moral duty, have made me anxious always to deserve their re- 
 spect ; but I had seen enough of mankind in its varied relations 
 not to know that respect is little else than a tribute to superiority, 
 either real or supposed, and that, among the rude at least, one of 
 its elements is fear. 
 
 " I tlierefore called them together in stern and cheerless con- 
 ference on the deck, as if to inquire into the truth of transactions 
 that I had heard of, leaving it doubtful from my manner which 
 was the party I proposed to implicate. Then, by the intervention 
 of Petersen, I called on Kalutunah for his story, and went through 
 a full train of questionings on both sides. It was not difficult to 
 satisfy them that it was my purpose to do justice all round. The 
 subject of controversy was set out fully, and in such a manner as 
 to convince me that an appeal to kind feeling might have been 
 substituted with all effiict for the resort to artifice or force I 
 therefore, to the immense satisfaction of our stranger guests, as- 
 sured them of my appro\al, and pulled their hair all round. 
 
 " They were introduced into the oriental recess of our dormi- 
 tory, — hitherto an unsolved mystery. There, seated on a red 
 blanket, with four pork-fat lamps throwing an illumination over 
 old worsted damask curtains, hunting-knives, rifles, beer-barrels, 
 galley-stove, and chronometers, I dealt out to each man five 
 needles, a file, and a stick of wood. To Kalutunah and Shungliu 
 I gave knives and other extras ; and in conclusion spread out our 
 one remaining buffiilo close to the stove, built a roaring fire, 
 cooked a hearty supper, and by noonday they were sleeping away 
 in a state of thorough content. I explained to them further 
 that my people did not steal ; that the fox-jumpers, and boots, 
 and sledges were only taken to save their lives ; and I thereupon 
 returned them. 
 
 " The party took a sound sleep, and a second or rather a con- 
 tinuous feed, and left again on their return through the hum- 
 
 si 
 
BRIG ON FIRK. 
 
 265 
 
 mocks with apparent confidence and good liumour. Of course ohaptkr 
 
 they prigged a few knives and forks ; — but tliat refers Hself to a " ' 
 
 national trait. 
 
 ^^ December 23, Saturday. — Tliis uncalculated accession of num- Crowd and 
 hers makes our little room too crowded to be wholesome : I have ^,*" 
 to guard its ventilation with all the severity that would befit a 
 surgical ward of our Blockley Hospital. We are using the Esqui- 
 maux lamp as an accessory to our stove : it helps out the cooking 
 and water-making, without encroaching upon our rigorously-meted 
 allowance of wood. But the odour of poi-k-fat, our only oil, we 
 have found to be injurious ; and our lamps are therefore placed 
 outside the tossut, in a small room bulkheaded off for their use. 
 
 " This new arrangement gave rise yesterday to a nearly fatal Alarm of 
 disaster. A watch had been stationed in charge of the lamp, with 
 the usual order of * No uncovered lights.' He deserted his post. 
 Soon afterward Hans found the cooking-room on fire. It was a 
 horrible crisis ; for no less than eight of our party were absolutely 
 nailed to their beds, and there was nothing but a bulkhead be- 
 tween them and the fire. I gave short, but instant orders, station- 
 ing a line between the tide-hole and the main batch, detailing two 
 men to work with me, and ordering all tiie rest who could move 
 to their quarters. Dr. Hayes with his maimed foot, Mr. Brooks 
 with his contracted legs, and poor Morton, otherwise among our 
 best men, could do nothing. ' 
 
 " Before we reached the fire the entire bulkhead was in a blaze xiie mow 
 as well as the dry timbers and skin of the brig. Our moss ^[^j^^ 
 walls, with their own tinder-like material and their light casing of 
 inflammable wood, were entirely hidden by the flames. For- 
 tunately the furs of the recently-returned party were at hand, and 
 with them I succeeded in smothering the fire. But I was obliged 
 to push through the blaze of our sailcloth bulkhead in order to 
 defend the wall ; and in my anxiety to save time, I had left the 
 cabin without either cap or mittens. I got througli somehow or 
 other, and tore down the canvas which hung against that dan- 
 gerous locality. Our rifles were in this corner, and their muzzles 
 pointing in all directions. 
 
 '• The water now began to pass down ; but with the discharge 
 of the first bucketful the smoke overcame me. As I found myself 
 going I pushed for the hatchway, knowing tluit the bucket-line 
 
266 
 
 CHRISTMAS ON BOARD. 
 
 hi 
 
 Hi' 
 
 diiuicr. 
 
 OHAPTKR would feel me. Seeing was impossible ; but, striking Ohlsen'a 
 ^^^" ' legs as I fell, I was passed up to the deck, minus beard, eyebrows, 
 and forelock, ^j^ms two burns on the forehead and one on each 
 palm. 
 
 Tiieflre "I>i about three minutes after making way with the canvas 
 
 got under, ^jjg gj-g ^.^g gyj; xmder, and in less than half an hour all was safe 
 again. But the transition, for even the shortest time, from the 
 fieiy Shadrachian furnace-temperature below, to 4G° below zero 
 above, was intolerably trying. Every man suiTered, and few 
 escaped without frost-bitten fingers. 
 
 " The remembrance of the danger and its horrible results almost 
 miraculously averted shocks us all. Had we lost our brig, not a 
 man could have survived. Without shelter, clothing, or food, the 
 thermometer almost 80° below the freezing point, and a brisk wind 
 stirring, what hope could we have on the open ice field ] 
 
 "December 25, Christinas, Monday. — All together again, the 
 
 Christmas returned and the steadfast, we sat down to our Christmas dinner. 
 There was more love than with the stalled ox of former times ; 
 but of herbs none. We forgot our discomforts in the blessings 
 which adhered to us still ; and when we thought of the long road 
 ahead of us, we thought of it hopefully. I pledged myself to give 
 them their next Christmas with their homes ; and each of us drank 
 his 'absent friends' with ferocious zest over one-eighteenth part 
 of a bottle of sillery, — the last of its hamper, and, alas ! no longer 
 mousseiix. . 
 
 " But if this solitary relic of festival days had lost its sparkle, 
 we had not. We passed around merrily our turkeys roast and 
 boiled, roast beef, onions, potatoes, and cucumbers, watermelons, 
 and God knows what other cravings of the scurvy-sickened palate, 
 with entire exclusion of the fact that each one of these was vari- 
 ously represented by pork and beans. Lord Peter liimself was not 
 more cordial in liis dispensation of plum-pudding, mutton, and 
 custard to his unbelieving brothers. 
 
 " M'Gary, of course, told us his story. We hear it every day, 
 and laugh at it almost as heartily as he does himself. Ctesar 
 Johnson is the guest of ' Ole Ben,' coloured gentlemen both, who 
 do occasional white-washing. The worthies have dined stanchly 
 on the dish of beans, browned and relished by its surmounting 
 cube of pork. A hospitable pause, and, with a complacent wave 
 
 M'Garj's 
 story. 
 
PLAN OP A VISIT TO THE NATIVES. 
 
 S67 
 
 of the Land, Ole Ben addresses the lady hostess — ' Ole woman, ohaptbr 
 bring on dc resarve,' * Ha'n't got no resarve.' ' Well, den,' — with ^^^" ' 
 a placid smile, — ' bring on de beans !* 
 
 " So much for the Merrie Christmas. What portion of its mirth 
 was genuine with the rest I cannot tell, for we are practised actors 
 some of us ; but there was no heart in my share of it. My 
 thoughts were with those far off, who are thinking, I know, of me. 
 I could bear my own troubles as I do my eider-down coverlet, 
 for I can see myself as I am, and feel sustained by the knowledge 
 that I have fought my battle well ; but there is no one to tell of 
 this at the home- table. Pertinacity, unwise daring, calamity — any , 
 
 of these may come up unbidden, as my name circles round, to 
 explain why I am still away." 
 
 For some days before Christmas I had been meditating a nan of a 
 sledge ioumey to our Esquimaux neirfibours. The condition of ''''^''•^° 
 
 Journey. 
 
 the little party under my charge left me no alternative, uncom- 
 fortable and hazardous as I knew that it must be. I failed in the 
 first effort ; but there were incidents connected with it which may 
 deserve a place in tliis volume. I recur to my journal for a suc- 
 cinct record of ray motives in setting out : — 
 
 ^^ December 26, Tuesday. — The moon is nearly above the cliffs ; 
 the thermometer — 57° to — 45°, the mean of the past four days. 
 In the midst of this cheering conjunction, I have ahead of me a 
 journey of a hundred miles, to say nothing of the return. Worse 
 than this, I have no landmarks to guide me, and must be my own 
 pioneer. 
 
 "But there is a duty in the case. M'Gaiy and Brooks are To procure 
 sinking, and that rapidly. Walrus beef alone can sustain them, ^'*»'>"'^*'' 
 and it is to be got from the natives, and nowhere else. It is a 
 merciful change of conditions that I am the strongest now of the 
 whole party, as last winter I was the weakest. The duty of col- 
 lecting food is on me. I shall go first to the lower Bay Esqui- 
 maux, and thence, if the hunt has failed there, to Cape Robert- 
 son. 
 
 " My misgivings are mostly on account of the dogs ; for it is a . 
 rugged, hummocked drive of twenty-two hours, even with strong 
 teams and Esquimaux drivers. We have been feeding them on 
 salt meat, for we have had nothing else to give them, and they are 
 out of health ; and there are hardly enough of them at best to carry 
 
26fl 
 
 rilEPAIlATlONS FOE THE JOURNEY. 
 
 tw' 
 
 
 i\i- 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XXXIl. 
 
 ArranRO- 
 nieiits. 
 
 TIlO (lORS 
 
 itiul tlielr 
 t'oud. 
 
 Moonlight 
 lor the 
 journey. 
 
 our liglitcst load. If one of these tctanoids should attack them 
 on the road, it may be (/ame up for all of us. 
 
 " But it is to be tried at last. Petersen will go with me, and 
 we will club our wits. I do not fear the cold. We are impreg- 
 nable in our furs while under exercise ; though if we should be 
 forced to walk, and give out, it might be a different matter. We 
 shall have, I imagine, a temperature not much above — 64°, and 
 I do not see how we are to carry heating apparatus. We have 
 load enough without it. Our only diet will be a stock of meat 
 biscuit, to which I shall jidd for myself — Petersen's taste is less 
 educated — a few rats, chopped up and frozen into the tallow-balls. 
 
 '•^December 28, Thursday. — I have fed the dogs the last two 
 days on their dead brethren. S[)ite of all proverbs, dog will eat 
 dog if properly cooked. I have been saving up some who died of 
 fits, intending to use their skins, and these have come in very 
 opportunely. I boil them into a sort of bloody soup, and deal 
 them out twice a day in chunks and solid jelly; for of course they 
 are frozen like quartz rock. These salt meats are absolutely poi- 
 sonous to the Northern Esquimaux dog. We have now lost fifty 
 odd, and one died yesterday in the very act of eating his reformed 
 diet. 
 
 " The moon to-morrow will be for twelve hours above the hori- 
 zon, and so nearly circumpolar afterward as to justify me in the 
 attempt to reach the Esquimaux hunting-ground above Cape 
 Alexander. Everything is ready, and, God willing, I start to-mor- 
 roAv, and pass the four hours' dog-halt in the untenanted hut of 
 Anoatok. Then we have, as it may be, a fifteen, eighteen, or 
 twenty hours' march, run and drive, before we reach a shelter 
 among the heathen of the bay. 
 
 " January 2, Tuesday. — The dogs began to show signs of that 
 accursed tetanoid spasm of theirs before we passed Ten-mile 
 Ravine. When we reached Basalt Camp, six out of eight were 
 nearly useless. Our thermometer was at — 44°, and the wind was 
 blowing sharply out of the gorge from the glacier. Petersen 
 wanted to return, but was persuaded by me to walk on to the 
 huts at Anoatok, in the hope that a halt might restore the animals. 
 We reached them after a thirty ir.iles' march. 
 
 " The sinuosities of this bay gave fearful travel : the broken 
 ice clung to the rocks; and we could only advance by climbing 
 
A TERRIBLE NIGHT. 
 
 260 
 
 up the ice-foot and down again upon the floe, as one or the other chaptkr 
 gave us the chance of passing. It was eleven hours and over ^^*"' 
 before we were at tlie lints, having made by sledge and foot tramp 
 forty-five miles. We ti)ok to thot best hut, filled in its broken 
 front with snow, hoiisud our dogs, and crawled in among them. 
 
 " It was too cold to sleep. Next morning we broke down our 
 door and tried the dogs again : they could hardly stand. A galo a gniu. 
 now set in from the southwest, obscuring the moon and blowing 
 very hard. We were forced back into the hut; but, after corking 
 up all openings with snow and making a fire with our Esquimaux 
 lamp, we got up the temperature to 30° below zero, cooked 
 coffee, and fed the dogs freely. This done, both Petersen and 
 myself, our clothing frozen stiff, foil asleep through ^dieer ex- 
 haustion ; the wind outside blowing death to all that might be 
 exposed to its influence. 
 
 " I do not know how long we slept, but my admirable clothing 
 kept me up. I was cold, but far from dangerously so ; and was 
 in a fair way of sleeping out a refreshing night, when Petersen 
 waked me with — 'Captain Kane, the lamp's out.' I heard liim 
 with a thrill of horror. The gale had increased ; the cold was 
 piercing, the darkness intense; our tinder had become moist, and CoW 
 was now like an icicle. All our fire-arms were stacked outside, *y"^„,„| 
 for no Arctic man will trust powder in a condensing temperature, durkiitihs. 
 We did not dare to break down our doorway, for that would admit 
 the gale; our only hope of heat was in re-lighting our lamp. 
 Petersen, acting by my directions, made several attempts to obtain 
 fire from a pocket-pistol ; but his only tinder was moss, and our 
 heavily stone-roofed hut or cave would not bear the concussion of 
 a rammed wad. 
 
 " By good luck I found a bit of tolerably dry paper in my 
 jumper ; and, becoming apprehensive that Petersen would waste 
 our few percussion-caps with his ineffectual snappings, I deter- 
 mined to take the pistol myself. It was so intensely dark that I 
 had to grope for it, and in doing so touched his hand. At that striking 
 instant the pistol became distinctly visible. A pale bluish light, ^^^' 
 slightly tremulous but not broken, covered the metallic parts of 
 it, the barrel, lock, and trigger. The stock too, was clearly dis- 
 cernible as if by the reflected light, and, to the amazement of both 
 of us, the thumb and two fingers with which Petersen was holding 
 
270 
 
 BTRANGE PHENOMENON. 
 
 CHApTRR it, the creases, wrinkles, and circuit of the nails clearly defined 
 
 ' iipon the wkin. The piiospliore.srouce was not unlike the ineffectual 
 
 Phomiiior- iii-o of tiio jrlow.^-onn. As I took the i)istol my hand became 
 illuminated also, and so did Ihe powdor-rubbed paper when I 
 raised it against the muzzle. 
 
 " The paper did not ignite at the first trial, but, the light from 
 it continuing, I was able to chiirge the pistol without diiRculty, 
 rolled up my paper into a cone, filled it with moss sprinkled over 
 with powder, and lield it in my hand while I fired. This time I 
 succeeded in producing flame, and wo saw no more of the phos- 
 phorescence. I do not stop for theory or argument to explain this 
 opportune phenomenon ; our fur clothing and the state of the 
 atmosphere may refer it plausibly enough to our electrical 
 condition. >' 
 
 " As soon as the wind had partially subsided, we broke out of 
 the hut and tried the dogs toward Refuge Inlet ; but the poor 
 broken-down animals could not surmount the hummocks ; and as 
 a forced necessity to save their lives and ours, we resolved to push 
 for the brig on foot, driving them before us. We made the walk 
 of forty -four miles in sixteen hours, almost scudding before the gale, 
 and arrived safely at 7 p.m. of Sunday; the temperature — 40°." 
 
 With tliis fruitless adventure closed the year 1854. 
 
 Forced 
 to return 
 to the 
 brig. 
 
LAMPS. 
 
 m 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 MODES OF LIFE — THE INSIDE DOd — PBOJECTED JOURNEY— DOO-HABITS— 
 THE DARKNESS— HAW MEAT— PLANS FOB SLEDOINa— THE SOUTH-EAST 
 WINDS— PLAN OF JOUUNEY- A BELIBHINa LUNCH— ITINEIIAIIY—OUTKIT 
 — CARGO AND CLOTHINO — KAPETAII AND NE8SAK— FOOT-OEAll — TUE FOX 
 TAIL— CARPET-KNIOIiTS— BDBNINQ CABLES. 
 
 ** January C, 1855, Saturday. — If this journal evor gets to be ciiaptbb 
 inspeclcd by other eyes, the colour of its pages will tell of the ^ ^^'" ' 
 atmosphere it is written in. We have been emulating the Esqui- S'"«i<y 
 maux for some time in everything else ; and now, last of all, this 
 intolerable temperatme and our want of fuel liavo driven us to 
 rely on our lamps for heat. Counting those which I have added 
 since the wanderers came back, we have twelve constantly gouig, 
 with the grease and soot everywhere in proportion. 
 
 " I can hardly keep my charts and registers in anything like 
 decent trim. Our beds and bedding are .absolutely black, and 
 our faces begrimmed with fatty carbon like the Esquimaux of 
 South Greenland. Nearer to us, our Smith's Straits Esquimaux e«1"'- 
 are much more cleanly in this branch of domestic arrangements, i^l^^, 
 Tliey attend their lamps with assiduous care, using the long ra- 
 dicles of a spongy moss for wick, and preparing the blubber for 
 its office by breaking up the cells between their teeth. The con- 
 densed blubber, or, more properly, fat, of the walrus, is said to 
 give the best flame. 
 
 " Our party, guided by the experience of the natives, use nearly Devices to 
 the same form of wick, but of cotton. Pork fat, boiled to lessen ^ mffu»e 
 its salt, is our substitute for blubber ; and, guided by a suggestion ''tat. 
 of Professor Olmstead, I mix a portion of resin with the lard to 
 increase its fluidity. Sundry devices in the way of metal rever- - 
 berators conduct and diffuse the heat, and so successfully, that a ' 
 single wick will keep liquid ten ounces of lard with the air around 
 at minus 30°. 
 
 "The heat given out by these burners is astonishing. One 
 four-wicked lamp not very well attended gives us six gallons of 
 
272 
 
 DAILY LIFE. 
 
 xxxiir. 
 
 Lamp for 
 cookliif!;. 
 
 Effect of 
 smoke on 
 health. 
 
 Average 
 tempera- 
 ture. 
 
 The dogs. 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 \h' i! 
 
 '* '] 
 
 ! ; 
 
 water in twelve hours from snow and ice of a temperature of 
 minus 40°, raising the heat of the cabin to a corresponding extent, 
 the lamp being entirely open. With a Une-wick — another Esqui- 
 maux plan — we could bake bread or do other cookery. But the 
 crust of the salt and the deposit from the resin are constantly 
 fouling the flame ; and tlie consequence is, that we have been more 
 than half the time in an atmosphere of smoke. 
 
 " Fearing the effect of this on the health of every one, crowded 
 as we are, and inhaling so much insoluble foreign matter without 
 intermission, I have to-day reduced the number of lights to four-™ 
 two of them stationary, and communicating by tin funnels with 
 our chimney, so as to carry away their soot. 
 
 " Mr. Wilson has relapsed. I gave him a potash (saleratus) warm 
 bath to-day, and took his place at watch. I have now seven hours' 
 continuous watch at one beat. 
 
 ^'January 12, Friday. — In reviewing our temperatures, the 
 monthly and annual means startle me. Whatever views we may 
 have theoretically as to the distribution of heat, it was to have 
 been expected that so large a water area but thirty-five miles to 
 the south-west by west of our position would tell upon our records ; 
 and this supposition was strengthened by the increased fall of 
 snow, which was clearly due to the neighbourhood of this water. 
 
 ^'^ January 13, Saturday. — I am feeding up my few remaining 
 dogs very carefully ; but I have no meat for them except the car- 
 casses of their late companions. These have to be boiled ; for in 
 their frozen state they act as caustics, and, to dogs famishing as 
 ours have been, frozen food often proves fatal, abrading the sto- 
 mach and oesophagus. One of these poor creatures had been a 
 a child's pet among the Esquimaux. Last night I found her in 
 nearly a dying state at the mouth of our tossut, wistfuUy eyeing 
 the crevices of the door as they emitted their forbidden treasures 
 of light and heat. She could not move, but, completely subdued, 
 licked my hand — the first time I ever had such a civilized greet- 
 ing from an Esquimaux dog. I carried her in among the glories 
 of the moderate paradise she aspired to, and cooked her a dead 
 puppy soup. She is now slowly gaining strength, but can barely 
 stand. 
 
 " I want all my scanty dog-force for another attempt to com- 
 municate with the bay settlements. I am confident we will find 
 
mmm 
 
 PROJECTED JOURNEY. 
 
 273 
 
 the 
 
 i 
 
 Esquimaux there alive, and they shall lielp us. I am not satis- chaitir 
 fied with Petersen, the companion of my last journey ; he is too ^'^^'"' 
 cautious for the emergency. The occasion is one that calls for Choice of 
 every risk short of the final one that man can encounter. My panion. 
 mind is made \ip, should wind and ice at all point to its success- 
 ful accomplishment, to try the thing with Hans. Hans is com- 
 l)letely subject to my wUl, careful and attached to me, and by 
 temperament daring ar.d adventurous. 
 
 " Counting my greatest possible number of dogs, we have but Number <>, 
 five at all to be depended on, and these far from being in condi- ''"^* 
 tion for the joumty. Toodla, Jenny — at this moment officiating 
 us wet-nurse — and Rhina, are the relics of my South Greenland , 
 teams ; little Whitey is the solitary Newfoundlander ; one big 
 yellow and one feeble little black, all that are left of the powerful 
 lecruits we obtained from our Esquimaux brethren. 
 
 " It is a fearful thing to attempt a dog-trot of near one hundred 
 miles, where your dogs may drop at any moment, and leave you 
 without protection from 50° below zero. As to riding, I do not 
 look to it ; we must run alongside of the sledge, as we do on 
 shorter journeys. Our dogs cannot carry more than our scanty 
 2)rovisions, our sleeping bags, .and guns. 
 
 "At home .me would fear to encounter such hoopspined, spitt- Dop 
 ing, snarling beasts as the Esquimaux dogs of Peabody Bay. But, ''"''''* 
 wolves as they are, they are far from dangerous : the shghtest ap- 
 pearance of a missile or cudgel subdues them at once. Indispens- 
 able to the very life of their masters, they are treated, of course, 
 wit'i studied care and kindness ; but they are taught from the ear- 
 liest days of puppy-life a savoury fear that makes them altogether 
 safe companions even for the children. But they are absolutely 
 ravenous of everything below the human grade. Old Yellow, who 
 goes about with arched back, {gliding through the darkness more 
 like a hyena than a dog, iiiade a pounce the other day as I wus 
 feeding Jenny, and, almost before I could turn, had gobbled down 
 one of lier pups. As none of the litter will ever be of sledging use, 
 I have taken the hint, and refreshed Old Yellow with a daily morn- 
 ing puppy. The two last of the family, who will then, I hope, be 
 tolerably milk-fed, I shall reserve for my own eating. 
 
 "January 14, Sundai/. — Our sick are about the same ; Wilson, 
 Brooks, Morton, M'Gary, and lliley unserviceable. Dr. Hayes get- 
 
 RM 
 
274 
 
 THE DARKNESS. 
 
 CMAPTKR ting better rapidly. How grateful I ought to be that I, the weak- 
 ^11^ ■ ling of a year ago, am a well and helping man ! 
 
 Twilight. 
 
 Kaw ineut 
 useful in 
 ncui'butie 
 iliwusu. 
 
 " At noonday, in spite of the mist, I can see the horizon gap of 
 Charlotte Wood Fiord, between Bessie Mountain and the other 
 hills to the south-east, growing lighter ; its twiliglit is decidedly less 
 doubtful. In four or five days we will have our noonday sun not 
 more than 8° below the horizon. This depression, which was 
 Parry's lowest, enabled him by turning the paper toward the south 
 to read diamond type. We are looking forward to this more pe- 
 numbral darkness as an era. It has now been fifty -two days since 
 we could read such type, even after climbing the dreary hills. One 
 hundred and twenty-four days with the sun below the horizon ! 
 One hundred and forty before he reaches the rocky shadowing of 
 our brig ! , 
 
 " I found an overlooked godsenr^ this moniing, — a bear's head, 
 put away for a specimen, but completely frozen. There is no in- 
 considerable quantity of meat adhering to it, and I serve it out 
 raw to Brooks, Wilson, and Rilej. 
 
 " I do not know that my journal anywhere mentions our habitua- 
 tion to raw meats, nor does it dwell upon their strange adaptation 
 to scorbutic disease. Our journeys have taught us the wisdom of 
 the Esquimaux appetite, and there are few among us who do not 
 relish a slice of raw blubber or a chunk of frozen walrus-beef. 
 The liver of a walrus (awuktanuk) eaten with little slices of his fat, 
 — of a verity it is a delicious morsel. Fire would ruin the curt, 
 l)ithy expression of vitality which belongs to its uncooked juices. 
 Charles Lamb's roast-pig was nothing to awuktanuk. I wonder 
 that raw beef is not eaten at home. Deprived of extraneous fibre, 
 it is neither indigestible nor difficult to masticate. With acids and 
 condiments, it makes a salad which an educated palate cannot help 
 relishing ; and as a powerful and condensed heat-making and anti- 
 scorbutic food it has no rival. 
 
 " I make this last broad assertion after carefully testing its tmth. 
 The natives of South Greenland prepare themselves for a long 
 journey in the cold by a course of frozen seal. At Upernavik they 
 do the same with the narwhal, which is thought more heat-rajvking 
 than the seal ; while the bear, to use their own expression, Ls 
 'stronger travel than all.' 
 
 " In Smith's sound, where the use of rrw meat seems almost 
 
PLANS FOR SLEDGINO. 
 
 275 
 
 inevitable from the modes of livine of the people, walrus holds the chaptkr 
 
 - XXXIll. 
 
 first rank. Certainly this pachyderm, whose finely-condensed tissue _ _ 
 and delicately-permeating fat — oh ! call it not blubber — assimilate j^^"''""' ""■ 
 it to the ox, is beyond all others, and is the very best fuel a man 
 can swallow. It became our constant companion whenever we 
 could get it ; and a frozen liver upon our sledge was valued fiir 
 above the same weight of pemmican. Now as I writo, short of all 
 meat, without an ounce of walrus for sick or sound, luy thoughts 
 recall the frost-tempered junks of this pachydermoid amphibion as 
 the highest of longed-for luxuries. 
 
 " My plans for sledghig, suiiple as I once thought them, and piano f.i 
 fiimple certainly as compared with those of the English parties, *'*^b"'s- 
 have completely changed. Give me an eight-pound reindeer-luT 
 bag to sleep in, an Esquimaux lamp with a lump of moss, a sheet- 
 iron Siiow-melter or a copper soup-pot, with a tin cylinder to slip 
 over it and defend it from the \nnd, a good piece de resistance of 
 raw walrus-beef ; and I want nothing more for a long journey, if 
 the thermometer wiU keep itself as high as minus 30°. Give me 
 a bear-skin bag and coffee to boot ; and ■«dth the clothes on my 
 back I am ready for minus 60^, — but no wind. 
 
 " The programme runs after this fashion. Keep the blood in motion Rule* on 
 without loitering on the march ; and for the halt, raise a snow-house ; *'^^, f"""' ' 
 or, if the sno^v lie scant or impracticable, esconce yourself in a "'e 'nJt. 
 burrow, or under the hospitable lee of an inclined hummock-slab. 
 The outside fiit of your walrus sustains your little moss fire ; its 
 frozen slices give you bread, its frozen blubber gives you butter, 
 its scrag ends make the soup. The snow supplies you w'th water ; 
 and when you are ambitious of cofiee there is a bagful stowed away 
 in your boot. Spread out your bear bag, your only heavy move- 
 able ; stuff your reindeer bag inside, hang your boots up outside, 
 take a blade of bone, and scrape off all the ice from your furs. Now 
 crawl in, the whole party of you, feet foremost ; draw the top of 
 your dormitory close, heading to leeward. Fancy yourself in Sy- 
 l)aris ; and, if you are only tired enough, you may sleep — like St. 
 Lawrence on his gridiron, or even a trifie better. 
 
 "JaiKiari/ IG, Tnesdai/. — Again the strange phenomena of the south-cN*» 
 aouth-ea.st winds. The late changes of the barometer ushered them """** 
 in, and all hands are astir with their novel influences. With minus 
 1 G* outside, our cabin ceiling distils dirty drops of water, our beds 
 
276 
 
 WANT OF PROVISIONS. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Tempein 
 
 tUl'U. 
 
 Want of 
 fouJ. 
 
 i!.. 
 
 CHAPTEK become doubly damp, and our stove oppressive. We are vastly 
 more comfortable, and therefore more healthy, below hatches, when 
 it is at — 60'^ on deck than when it rises above — 30°. The mean 
 heat of our room since the return of the party is, as nearly as can 
 be determined, + 48°. 
 
 "The sick generally are about the same; but Wilson has symptoms 
 showing themselves that fill mo with distress. The state of things 
 on board begins to press upon me personally ; but by sleeping day- 
 hours I manage well enough. Hans, Ohlsen, and myself are the 
 only three sound men of the organized company. 
 
 " January 17, Wednesday. — There is no evading it any longer ; 
 it has been evident for the past ten days that the ' present state of 
 things cannot last.' We require meat, and cannot get along with- 
 out it. Our sick have finished the bear's head, and are now eating 
 the condemned abscessed liver of the animal, mcludir.g some intes- 
 tines that were not given to the dogs. We have about throe days' 
 allowance ; tliin chips of raw frozen meat, not exceeding four ounces 
 in weight for each man per diem. Our poor fellows eat it with 
 zest ; but it is lamentably little. 
 
 "Although I was unsuccessful in my last attempt to reach the 
 fxpedition jm^g -with the dogs, I am far from sure that with a proper equip- 
 ment it could not be managed by walking. The thought weighs 
 upon me. A foot-travel does not seem to have occurred to my com- 
 rades ; and at first sight the idea of making for a point seventy- 
 five miles by the shortest line from our brig, with this awfully cold 
 darkness on, is gloomy enough. 
 
 " But I propose walking at first only as far as the broken hut at 
 Anoatok (the ' wind-loved spot '), and giving our poor dog.s a chance 
 of refreshing there. After this, Hans and myself will force them 
 forward as far as we can, with nothing but our sleeping gear, and 
 spend the second night wherever they happen to break down. 
 After that, we can manage the rest of the journey without any 
 luggage but our personal clothing. 
 
 " It seems hard to sacrifice the dogs, not to speak of the rest of 
 the party ; but the necessity is too palpable and urgent. As we 
 are now, a very few deaths would break us up entirely. Still, the 
 emergency would not move me if I did not feel, after careful, pain- 
 ful thought, that the thing can be accomplished. If, by the bless- 
 ing of the Great Euler, it should prove successful, the result will 
 
 Plan of an 
 
 V 
 
A LUNCH WITH IMAGINARY SAUCE. 
 
 277 
 
 the 
 
 secure tlie safety of all hands. No one knows as yet of my inten- 
 tion except Hans himself. I am quietly preparing a special outfit, 
 and will leave with the first return of moonlight. 
 
 "M'Gary, my relief, calls me; he has foraged out some raw 
 cabbage and spiced it up with curry-powder, our only remaniing 
 pepper. This, with a piece of corn-bread, — no bad article either, 
 —he wants me to share with him. True to my old-times habitude, 
 I hasten to the cabbage, — cold roast-beef, Worcester sauce, a head 
 of endive, and a bottle — not one drop less — of Preston ale (I never 
 drink any other). !M'Gary, ' bring on de beans ! ' 
 
 '^January 18, Thursday, midnight.— Wind howling on deck, — 
 a number nine gale, a warm south-easter directly from the land. 
 The mean temperature of this wind is — 20°. Warm as this may 
 seem, our experience has taught us to prefer — 40° with a calm to 
 — 1 0° with a gale in the face. 
 
 " If we only had daylight, I ehould start as soon as tlie present 
 wind subsides, counting on a three days' intermission of atmo- 
 spheric disturbance. But we have no moon, and it is too dark to 
 go tumbling about over the squeezed ice. I must wait. 
 
 " I alluded yesterday to my special equipment. Let me imagine 
 myself explaining to the tea-table this evening's outfit, promise, 
 and purposes." 
 
 CtlAPTKR 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Jl'Oaiy's 
 lunch. 
 
 Stormy 
 weather. 
 
 I. Itinerary. — From brig Advance, Rensselaer Harbour, to the itinerarj 
 Esquimaux huts of Etah Bay, following the line of ice-travel close 
 along the coast : — 
 
 Miles. 
 
 1. From brig to Ten-mile Ravine 10 
 
 2. From Ten-mile Ravine to Ha.salt Camp 6 
 
 3. From Basalt Camp to Helen River 10 
 
 ■i. Helen's River to Devil's Jaws (off (Joilsend Island) 9 
 
 5. Godsend Island to Anoatok and Hummoctk Pasa 7 
 
 6. Hummock Pass to Refuj:e Inlet 7 
 
 7. Refuge Inlet to Cape Hatherton 8 
 
 8. Cape Hatherton to Second Hummock Pass 12 ' 
 
 9. Across Second Pass to south end of Littleton Island 8 
 
 10. South end of Littleton Island to Point Salvation 2 
 
 11. Point Salvation to Esquimaux huts 12 
 
 . Total travel in miles 91 
 
 II. Tem-perature. — Mean, about — 45°. Range — 40° to — G0°. Temppr:^ 
 
 III. Resources. — Five half-starved dogs ; Hans Cristian, Dr. 
 
 Kane, a light sledge, and outfit. 
 
278 
 
 OUTFIT AND CAROO. 
 
 CnAPTSR 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Outfit fur 
 jimrney. 
 
 Carjjo. 
 
 Kitchen 
 furniture 
 rtud pro- 
 vmiuiis. 
 
 rV. Outfit. — To encoimter broken ico in the midst of darkness 
 and at a temperature destructive to life, everything depends upon 
 your sledge. Should it break down, you might as well break your 
 own leg ; there is no hope for you. Our sledge, then, is made of 
 well-tried oak, dovetailed into a runner shod with iron. No metjil 
 is used besides, except the screws and rivets which confine the 
 sledge to its runners. In this intense cold, iron snaps like glass, 
 and no immovable or rigidly -fastened wood -work would stand for 
 a moment the fierce concussions of a drive. Everything is put 
 together with lashings of seal-sk n, and the whole fabric is the 
 .skeleton framework of a sledge as flexible as a lady's work-basket, 
 and weighing only forty pounds. On this we fasten a sacking- 
 bottom of canvas, tightly stretched, like its namesake of the four- 
 post bedstead, aruimd the margin. We call this ticking the apron 
 and cover ; the apron being a flap of sixteen inches high, surround- 
 ing the cover, and either hanging loose at its sides like a valance, 
 or laced up down the middle. Into this apron and cover you pack 
 your cargo, the less of it the better ; and then lace and lash the 
 whole securely together. 
 
 V. llie cargo may consist of, — 1. A blanket-bag of fur, if you 
 can get it ; but on our present sleigh-ride, buffalo being too heavy 
 and our reindeer-skins all destroyed by wet, I take an eider-dowu 
 coverlet, adding — 2. A pillow stuffed with straw or shavings, to 
 be placed under the small of the back while sleeping ; 3. An extra 
 pair of boots ; and 4. A snow saw. 
 
 " Superadd to these the ancient soup-pot, our soap-stone, kol- 
 lopsut, one Esquimaux lamp, one lump of moss, one cup, and a 
 tinder-box, — all these for the kitchen ; a roll of frozen meat-biscuit, 
 some frozen lady-fingers of raw hashed fox, a small bag of coffee, 
 and twenty-four pieces of hard tack (ship's bread), for the larder ; 
 our fire-arms, and no less essential ice-poles ; — all these, no more 
 nor less, and you have the entirety of our outfit, — the means 
 wherewith we are to track this icy labyrinth, under a frozen sky, 
 for an uncertain asylum some ninety-three miles off". 
 
 " In general, eight powerful wolf-like dogs will draw such a 
 cargo like the wind : I have but four wretched animals, who can 
 hardly drag themselves. 
 
 *' The clothing or personal outfit demands the nicest study of 
 
CLOTH INC.. 
 
 279 
 
 st of darkne:*s 
 depends upon 
 veil break your 
 len, is made of 
 •on. No metjil 
 ch confine the 
 aps like glass, 
 ould stand for 
 rything is put 
 3 fabric is the 
 's work-basket, 
 ten a sacking- 
 :e of the four- 
 king the apron 
 high, surround- 
 like a valance, 
 cover you pack 
 e and lash the 
 
 of fur, if you 
 eing too heavy 
 an eider-down 
 )r shavings, to 
 I ; 3. An extra 
 
 oap-stone, kol- 
 •ne cup, and a 
 sn meat-biscuit, 
 
 bag of coffee, 
 for the larder ; 
 hese, no more 
 t, — the means 
 
 a frozen sky, 
 
 draw such a 
 imals, who can 
 
 licest study of 
 
 t 
 
 experience. Except a spare pair of boots, it is all upon the back. 
 It requires the energies of t3rrant custom to discipline a traveller 
 into comfort under these Smith Sound temperatures ; and, let him 
 dress as he maj', his drill will avail but little unless he has a wind- 
 less atmosphere without and a heat-creating body within. 
 
 " Rightly clad, he is a lump of deformity waddling over the ice, 
 unpicturesque, uncouth, and seemingly helpless. It is only when 
 you meet him covered with rime, his face peering from an icy halo, 
 his beard glued with frozen respiration, that you look with intelli- 
 gent appreciation on his many-coated panoply against King Death. 
 
 " The Smith's Straits fox-skin jumper, or kapetah, is a closed 
 shul;, fitting very loosely to the person, but adapted to the head 
 and neck by an almost air-tight hood, nessak. The kapetah is put 
 on from below ; the arms of the man pass through the arms of the 
 garment, and the head rises through a slit at the top ; around this 
 slit comes up the hood. It is passed over the head from behind 
 and made to embrace the face and forehead. Underneath the 
 kapetah is a similar garment, but destitute of the hood, which is 
 put on as we do an inner shirt. It is made of bird-skins chewed 
 in the mouth by the women till they are perfectly soft, and it is 
 worn with this unequalled down next the body. More than five 
 Imndred auks have been known to contribute to a garment of this 
 description. 
 
 " So far the bust and upper limbs. The lower extremities are 
 guarded by a pair of bear-skin breeches, the nannooke, — the charac 
 teristic and national vestiture of this strange people. They are 
 literal copies, and in one sense fac-similes, of the courtly knee- 
 buckled ones of our grandfathers, but not rising above the crests of 
 the pelvis, thus leaving exposed those parts wlxich in civilized 
 countries are shielded most carefully. 
 
 " I regard these strange and apparently-inconvenient articles of 
 dress as unique. They compressed the muscles, which they affected 
 to cover, in a manner so ungrandisonian that I leave a special 
 description of their structure to my note-book. 
 
 " The foot-gear consists of a bird-skin short sock, with a padding 
 of grass nicely distributed over the sole. Outside of this comes a 
 bear-skin leg, sewed with great skiU to the natural sole of the 
 plantigrade, and abundantly wadded about the foot with dry non- 
 conducting straw. , 
 
 ClIAI'TKTl 
 XX XIII. 
 
 Persouiil 
 
 Olltfl!. 
 
 Clothintr — 
 the ''kiiir- 
 ctiiti" HH(l 
 
 "nis»;llk." 
 
 The "iiiin- 
 nooke." 
 
 The foot- 
 
 gCHl. 
 
280 
 
 CARPET k.VIGHTS AND SAVAGES. 
 
 CHAPTKIl 
 XXXIII. 
 
 A fox's 
 tail. 
 
 11: 
 
 " When this simple wardrobe is fully adjusted to the person, we 
 understand something of the wonderful endurance of these Arctic 
 lion men. primates. Wrangell called the Jacuti iron men, because they slept 
 at — 50° opposite tlie fire, with their backs exposed. Now, they 
 of Smith's Sound have always an uncovered space between the 
 waistband of the naimooke and the kapetah. To bend forward 
 exposes the back to partial nudity ; and, no matter what the atti- 
 tude, the entire chest is open to tlie atmosphere from below. Yet 
 in this well-ventilated costume the man will sleep upon his sledge 
 Avith the atmosphere 93° below our freezing-point. 
 
 " The only additional articles of dress are a fox's tail, held 
 between the teeth to protect the nose in a wind, and mitts of seal- 
 skin well wadded with sledge-straw. . 
 
 " When I saw Kalutunah, who guided the return-party to the 
 brig from Tesseusak, the temperature was below — 50°. He was 
 standing in the open air, comfortably scratching his naked skint 
 ready for a second journey ; whicii, in effect, he made eight hours 
 afterward. 
 
 " We — I mean our party of American hyperboreans — are mere 
 carpet-knights aside of these indomitable savages. Experience 
 has taught us to follow their guidance in matters of Arctic craft ; 
 but we have to add a host of European appendages to their out- 
 door clothing. 
 
 " Imagine me, then, externally clad as I have described, but 
 with furs and woollens layer upon layer inside, like the shards of 
 an artichoke, till I am rounded into absolute obesity. Without all 
 this, I cannot keep up my circulation on a sledge ; nor indeed 
 without active exercise, if the thermometer is below — 54°, the 
 lowest at which I have taken the floes. I have to run occasion- 
 ally, or I should succumb to the cold." 
 
 So much for my resources of travel, as I have thrown them 
 together from different pages of my journal. The apparent levity 
 with which I have detailed them seems out of keeping with the 
 date under which they stand. In truth, I was in no mirthful 
 humour at any time during the month of January. I had a grave 
 office to perform, and under grave responsibilities ; and I had 
 measured them well. I come back, after this long digression, to 
 my daily record of anxieties : — 
 
 " January 1 9 Friday. — The declining tides allow the ice 
 
 Ca'pi-t- 
 kiii<;lits. 
 
 A.ixiety. 
 
ILLNESS AND SUFFERINO. 
 
 281 
 
 !1 
 
 l)OiK'ath the ship to take the ground at low-water. This occasions, chai'ter 
 of course, a good deal of upheaval and some change of position ^ ^'^" '' 
 along the ice-tiiblcs in which we are cradled. Mr. Ohlsen reports PrescMicrt 
 i\ bending of our cross-beams of six inches, showing that the pres- 
 {<ure is becoming dangerous. Anything like leakage would be 
 disastrous in the present condition of the party. Our cabin-floor, 
 however, was so elevated by our carpenter's work of last fall, that 
 it could not be flooded more than six inches ; and I hope that the 
 imder-bottom ice exceeds that height. At any rate we can do 
 nothing, but must await the movements of the floe. March is to 
 be our critical month. 
 
 " George Whipple shows swelled legs and other symptoms of the rncreasing 
 enemy ; Riley continues better ; Brooks weak, but holding his '"""'"■ 
 ground ; Wilson no better ; if an3'thing, worse. I am myself so 
 disabled in the joints as to be entirely unfit to attend to the traps 
 or do any work. I shall try the vapour-bath and sweat, Indian 
 fashion. 
 
 " Jammry 21, Sunday. — We have been using up our tar-laid Turning 
 hemp, hawsers for nearly a week, by way of eking out our firewood, ^'''''"• 
 and have reduced our consumption of pitch-pine to thirty-nine 
 j)ounds a day. But the fine particles of soot throughout the room 
 liave affected the lungs of the sick so much that I shall be obliged 
 to give it up. I am now trying the Manilla ; but it consumes too 
 rapidly ; with care we may make something of it. 
 
 ^^ January 22, Monday. — Busy preparing for my trip to the lower Height of 
 Esquimaux settlement. The barometer remains at the extraordin- ^'"'•""'^"''• 
 ary height of 30 '85, — a bad prelude to a journey ! 
 
 " Petersen caught another providential fox. We divided him 
 into nine portions, three for each of our scurvied patients. I 
 am off." 
 
282 
 
 THE DOGS BREAK DOWN. 
 
 „il 
 
 CHAPTKI 
 XXXIV. 
 
 A bretik- 
 iluwri. 
 
 Darkness 
 i lid cold. 
 
 Ksqui- 
 
 IIIUUX. 
 
 The hut In 
 a storm. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 A IIREAK-DOWN — THE HUT IN A STORM — TWO NIGHTS IN TOE HUT- -FROST 
 AGAIN — THE BACK TRACK — HEALTH ROLL — MEDICAL TREATMENT - 
 HEALTH FAILING- UN8CCCESSFUL HUNT — THE LAST BOTTLES. 
 
 " January 29, Monday. — The dogs carried us to the lower curve 
 of the reach before breaking down. I was just beginning to hope 
 for an easy voyage, when Toodla and tlie Big Yellow gave way 
 nearly together — the latter frightfully contorted by convulsion.s. 
 There was no remedy for it ; the moon went down, and the 
 wretched night was upon us. We groped along the ice- foot, and 
 after fourteen hours' painful walking, reached the old hut. 
 
 " A dark water-sky extended in a wedge from liittleton to a 
 point north of the cape. Everywhere else the firmament was 
 obscured by mist. The height of the barometer continued as we 
 left it at the brig, and our own sensations of warmth convinced us 
 that we were about to have a snow-storm. 
 
 " We hardly expected to meet the Esquimaux here, and were 
 not disappointed. Hans set to work at once to cut out blocks of 
 snow to close up the entrance to the hut. I carried in our blubber- 
 lamp, food, and bedding, unharnessed the dogs, and took them into 
 the same shelter. We were barely housed before the storm broke 
 upon us. 
 
 " Here, completely excluded from the knowledge of things with- 
 out, we spent many miserable hours. We could keep no note of 
 time, and, except by the whirring of the drift against the roof of 
 our kennel, had no information of the state of the weather. We 
 slept, and cooked coffee, and drank coffee, and slept, and cooked 
 coffee, and drank again ; and when by our tired instincts we 
 thought that twelve hours must have passed, we treated ourselves 
 to a meal, — that is to say, we divided impartial bites out of the raw 
 nind-leg of a fox, to give zest to our biscuits spread with frozen 
 tallow. 
 
 " We then turned in to sleep again, no longer lieedful of the 
 storm, for it had now buried us deep in M'ith the snow. 
 
TWO NIGHTS IN THE HUT. 
 
 283 
 
 " But, in the mean time, altliough the storm continued, tlie teni- 
 j)oriiture8 underwent an extraordinary change. I was awakened 
 by the dropping of water from the roof above me; and, upon 
 turning back my slcoping-bag, found it saturated by the melting of 
 its previously-condensed hoar-frost. My eider-down was like a 
 wet swab. I found afterward that the phenomenon of the warm 
 south-east had come unexpectedly upon us. The thermometers at 
 tlie brig indicated +26° ; and, closer as we were to the water, the 
 weather was probably above the freezing point. 
 
 " When we left the brig — how long before it was we did not 
 know — the temperature was — 44°. It had risen at least 70''. I 
 defy the strongest man not to suffer from such a change. A close, 
 oppressive sensation attacked both Hans and myself. We both 
 suffered from cardiac symptoms, and are up to this moment under 
 anxious treatment by our comrades. Mr. Wilson, I find, has had 
 spasmodic asthma from it here, and Brooks has had a renewal of 
 his old dyspnoea. 
 
 "In the morning — that is to say, when the combined light of 
 the noonday dawn and the circumpolar moon permitted our escape 
 — I found, by comparing the time as indicated by the Great Bear 
 with the present increased altitude of the moon, that we had been 
 pent up nearly two days. Under those circumstances we made 
 directly for the hummocks, en route for the bay. But here was a 
 disastrous change. The snow had accumulated under the wind- 
 ward sides of the inclined tables to a height so excessive that we 
 buried sledge, dogs, and drivers, in the effort to work through. It 
 was all in vain that Hans and I harnessed ourselves to, or lifted, 
 levered, twisted, and pulled. Utterly exhausted and sick, I was 
 obliged to give it up. The darkness closed in again, and with 
 difficulty we regained the igloe. 
 
 " The ensuing night brought a return to hard freezing tempera- 
 tures. Our luxurious and downy coverlet was a stiff, clotted lump 
 of ice. In spite of our double lamp, it was a miserable halt. Our 
 provisions grew short ; the snow kept on falling, and we had still 
 46 miles between us and the Esquimaux. 
 
 " I determined to tiy the land-ice (ice-foot) by Fog Inlet ; and we 
 worked four hours upon this without a breathing-spell,— utterly in 
 vain. My poor Esquimaux, Hans, adventurous and buoyant as he 
 was, began to cry like a child. Sick, worn out, strength gone, dogs 
 
 OHAPTEn 
 XXXIV. 
 
 tcinpura- 
 ture. 
 
 Its elTertii. 
 
 Coni]nitiv- 
 tioii of 
 time by 
 the inooii 
 
 Frost 
 nt;alu. 
 
284 
 
 THR BACK TRACK. 
 
 'if 
 
 111 
 
 W' 
 
 Rccni). 
 lioltrlii;; 
 liy iiiooii- 
 llg)it. 
 
 oiiAi'TKR fiist and floiiuderiiig, I am not ashamed to admit tliat, as T 
 
 ■ thouglit of the sick men on board, my own equanimity also was 
 
 at fail It. 
 
 " We liad not been able to get t' dogs out, wlien the big moon 
 appeared above tlie water-smoke. A familiar hill, ' Old Beacon 
 Knob,' was roar. I scrambled to its top and reconnoitred the 
 coast around it. The ridge about Cape Hatherton seemed to jut 
 out of a perfect chaos of broken ice. The water — that inexplicable 
 North Water —wa.s tliere, a long black wedge, overhung by crapy 
 wreaths of smoke, runiihig to the northward and eastward. 
 Better than all yet, — could I be deceived 1 — a trough through 
 the hummock-ridges, and level plains of ice stretching to the south! 
 
 " Hans heard my halloo, and came ui) to confirm me. But for 
 our disabled dogs and the waning moonlight, we could easily have 
 made our journey. It was with a rejoiced heart that I made my 
 way back to our miserable little cavern, and re-stuffed its gaping 
 entrance with the snow. We had no blubber, and of course no 
 fire ; but I knew that we could gain the brig, and that, after re- 
 freshing the dogs and ourselves, we could now assuredly reach the 
 settlements. 
 
 " We took the back track next morning over Bedevilled Reach 
 upon the mid-ice tloes, and reached the brig by 4 P.M. on Friday ; 
 since when I have been so stiff and scorbutic, so utterly used up, 
 that to-day gives me a first return to my journal. 
 In the brig " JUnuari/ 30, Tuesday. — My companions on board felt all my 
 uguiu. disappointment at bringing back no meat ; but infinite glad- 
 ness took the place of regret when they heard the great news of a 
 passage through the hummocks. Petersen began at once to busy 
 himself with his wardrobe ; and an eight-day party was organized 
 almost before we turned in, to start as soon as the tempestuous 
 weather subsides and the drifts settle down. It is four days since, 
 but as yet we dare not venture out. 
 
 " That tiiere is v-o time for delay, this health-table will show : — 
 
 " Henry Blocks : Unable any longer to go on deck : we cariy 
 him with diiticulty from his berth to a cushioned locker. 
 
 " M'Gary : Less helpless ; but off duty, and saturated with 
 articular scurvy. 
 
 Mr. Wilson : In bed. Severe purpuric blotches, and nodes in 
 limbs. Cannot move 
 
 Tlie bnek 
 truck 
 
 Health 
 table. 
 
 n 
 
lIFALTir TABLK. 
 
 tliat, as T 
 y also was 
 
 e bi^ moon 
 'Id Beacon 
 loitred the 
 ine«l to jilt 
 lexplicahle 
 ,' by cra]»y 
 castwanl. 
 1 throui,'li 
 the soutli! 
 But for 
 asily have 
 made my 
 its gaping 
 course no 
 , after re- 
 reach the 
 
 led Reach 
 a Friday ; 
 r used up, 
 
 jlt all my 
 uite glad- 
 news of a 
 !e to busy 
 organized 
 npestuous 
 ays since, 
 
 show : — 
 we carry 
 
 ited with 
 
 [ nodes iu 
 
 able to 
 
 " George Riley : Abed ; limba less stiff, giuns better, v 
 do duty. 
 
 "Thomas Ilickey (our cook) : C;innt)t keep his logs many days 
 more ; already swelled and blistered. 
 
 " William Morton : Down with a frozen heel ; the bone exfoli- 
 ating. 
 
 " Henry Goodfellow : Scurvied gums, but generally well. 
 
 "Dr. Jiiiyes is prostrate with his amputated toes ; Sontag just 
 iil>le to hobble. In a word, our effective force is reduced to five, 
 — Mr. Ohlsen, Mr. lionsall, I'eter.sen, Hans, and the Commander ; 
 and even of tliese some might, i>erlmp.s, be rightfully transferred 
 to the other list. We have the whole burden of the hourly obser- 
 vations and the routine of our domestic life, even to the cooking, 
 which we take in rotation. 
 
 " Still this remarkalile temperature ; the barometer 
 
 slowly librating between 29 20 and the old .'{0-40. Snow fall- 
 •ing : wind from the south-west, hauling by the west to north : 
 yet the thermometer at — 10° and +3°. We long anxiously for 
 weather to enable our meat-party to start. The past two days 
 our sick have been entirely out of meft : the foxes seem to avoid 
 
 CHAI'TKIl 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Unilth 
 tublu. 
 
 Tempcra- 
 tuie. 
 
 Kox-ruAPs. 
 
 our traps. I gave Wilson one raw meal from the messeter Foxtiups 
 muscle which adhered to another old bear's bead I was keeping 
 
286 
 
 MEPICAL TREATMENT. 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Remedies 
 fi)r scor- 
 butic dis- 
 
 The 
 weather. 
 
 Increase 
 
 Ui iUllUBS. 
 
 Petersen 
 Hiid Hans 
 start on a, 
 Journey. 
 
 for a specimen. But otherwise we have had uo anti-scorbutic for 
 three days. 
 
 " Among other remedies which I oppose to the distemper, I have 
 commenced making sundry salts of iron ; among them the citrate 
 and a chlorohydrated tincture. We have but one bottle of brandy 
 left : my applyhig a half-pint of it to the tincture shows the high 
 value I set upon this noble chalybeate. My nose bled to-day, and 
 I was struck with the fluid brickdusty poverty of the blood. I 
 use iron much among my people : as a single remedy it exceeds 
 all others, except only the specific of raw meat : potash for its own 
 action is well enough to meet some conditions of the disease, and 
 we were in the habit of using freely an extemporaneous citrate 
 prepared from our lime-juice ; but, as our cases became more re- 
 duced and complicated with hemorrhages, iron was our one great 
 remedy. 
 
 " January 31, Wednesday. — The weather still most extraor- 
 dinary. The wind has hauled around, and is now blowing from- 
 the north and north-east, usually our coldest and clearest quarter. 
 Yet the diffused mist continues, the snow falls, and the thermo- 
 meter never records below — 20°. 
 
 " Our sick are worse ; for our traps yield nothing, and we are 
 stiU without fresh food. The absence of raw fox-meat for a single 
 day shows itself in our scurvy. Hemorrhages are becoming com- 
 mon. My crew, — I have no crew any longer, — the tenants of my 
 bunks cannot bear me to leave tltem a single watch. Yet I can- 
 not make Petersen try the new path which I discovered and found 
 practicable. Well, the wretched month Ls over. It is something 
 to be living, able to write. No one has yet made the dark 
 voyage, and January the 31st is upon us. 
 
 " February 2, Friday. — The weather clears, the full moon 
 shows herself, the sledge is packed, and Petersen will start to- 
 moi-T-ow. 
 
 " February 3, Saturday. — He is gone with Hans. A bad time 
 with Brooks, in a swoon from exhaustion ! 
 
 " February 4, Sunday. — Mr. Ohlsen breaks doAvn : the scurvy 
 is in his knee, and he cannot walk. This day, too, Thomas 
 Hickey, our acting cook, gives way completely. I can hardly 
 realize that among these strong men I ".lone should be the borne- 
 up man, — the only one, except Mr. Bonsall, on liia legs. It some- 
 
UNSUCCESSFUL HUNT. 
 
 287 
 
 i-scorbutic for 
 
 tiines makes me tremble when I tliink how necessary I am to chaptks 
 sustain this state of things. It is a Sunday thou- 'it, that it must ^f.^* ' 
 be for some wise and good end I am thus supported. a Sunday 
 
 " Made an unsuccessful hunt out toward iSlary River ; but, "'"^' "' 
 although the daylight was more tluin ample, tracked nothing. 
 Our sick have been on short commons for the last five days ; and short 
 v,c have given up the traps for want of fresh meat to bait them *^°"'""'"*- 
 with. The fiord looked frightfully desolate. Where once was a 
 torrent fighting among ice and rocks, is now a tunnel of drifted snow. 
 Mary Leipcr River is a sinuous ravine, swept dry by the gales 
 which issue from the hills, and its rocky bed patched with the . 
 frozen relics of its waters. 
 
 "I made a dish of freshened codfish-skin for Brooks and Wil- • 
 son ; they were hungry enough to relish it. Besides this, I had 
 kept back six bottles of our Scotch ale to meet emergencies, and I Th.> i«nt 
 am dealing these out to them by the wine-glass. It is too cold ''"'"^*- 
 fur brewing in our apartment ; the water freezes two feet above 
 the floor. I have given up my writing-table arrangements, and my 
 unfortunate study -lamp is now fixed under a barrel to see if it cannot 
 raise a fermenting temperature. I shall turn brewer to-morrow if 
 it succeeds." 
 
 i'r'rf' # 
 
 i> 
 
 
 7 
 
 IK!^^ 
 
288' 
 
 RETURN OF PETERSEN RND HANS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXXV. 
 
 I'etuvn of 
 I'eteraen 
 ami Hans. 
 
 A slleht 
 
 iiiiprovu- 
 
 iiK-nt. 
 
 Misty 
 ■wiMther 
 uiid ti gnle, 
 
 THE PIRE-OIiOTIIED BAG — THE WRAITH — COOKERY — A RESPITE— THE 
 COMING DAWN — THE TRUST — PROSPECTS — ARGUMENT ~ COLOURED 
 SKIES— STOVE-PITTING. ' 
 
 " February 6, Tuesday. — At ten, last e^'Tin^^, not long after iny 
 journal-record, I heard voices outside. Petersen and Hans had 
 returned. I met them silently on dei-k, and heard from poor 
 Petersen how he had brok?in down. Tho spows had been increasing 
 since my own last trial, — Ids strengtli had ?eft him ; the sl t't 
 had entered his chest; in a word, he had failed, and ^'^."iS cc ild 
 not do the errand alone. Bad v,r.ough ! 
 
 " But to-day our fortunes are on the mend. It in . oen beai ti- 
 fuUy clear ; and for the first time a shade of bron/.jd yellow hafi 
 warmed our noonday horizon, with a gentle violet running into 
 rich brown clouds, totally unlike our night skies. Hans and I 
 started for a hunt,— one to explore new grounds, the other to fol- 
 low tracks in the recent srww. The result was two rabbits, the 
 first-fruits of the coming light, and the promise of more in the 
 numerous feeding-traces among the rocks of Charlotte Wood Fiord. 
 The meat, our first for ten days, was distributed raw. By kec))- 
 ing the rabbits carefully covered up, they reached the ship suffi- 
 ciently unfrozen to give us about a pint of raw blood. It was a 
 grateful cordial to Brooks, Wilson, and Riley. 
 
 ^'■February 7, Wednesday. — The weather was misty when I 
 went out this morning, and the twinkling of the stars confinr- . 
 Petersen's prognostic of a warm south-easter before evening. Mi., t, 
 stars, and Petersen were right. The gale is upon us, darkainL"; 
 the air with snow, and singing in wild discords through tlio 
 ri<';:'ing. ' ; 
 
 "It is enough to solemnize men of more joyous temj-erament 
 than o.irs has been for some months. We are contending at 
 odds with angry forces close around us, without one agent or 
 influence within 1 800 miles whose sympathy is on our side. 
 
 "My poor fellows, most of them bred in the superstitions of t'e 
 
THE FIRE-CLOTnED BAG. 
 
 289 
 
 PITE— TUB 
 
 
 COLOURED 
 
 
 after my 
 
 •■■: 
 
 3ans had 
 
 . 
 
 rom poor 
 
 ' 
 
 increasing 
 
 ; 
 
 le SL^r'T 
 
 '1 
 
 pTiS cc lid 
 
 . 
 
 en heav ti- 
 
 ^ 
 
 e])ow liaf" 
 
 
 ning into 
 
 !^H 
 
 ns and I 
 
 
 er to fol- 
 ibits, the 
 
 
 
 >re in the 
 
 
 >od Fiord. 
 
 
 By kee))' 
 
 
 ship suffi- 
 
 
 It was A 
 
 
 wlieii I 
 
 *> aB 
 
 •ontirrT' i 
 
 es 
 
 ng. Mi,..t, 
 lark ainL"; 
 
 iei 
 
 ough tho 
 
 1 
 
 eraTnent 
 
 1 
 
 nding at 
 
 1 
 
 agent or 
 
 8 
 
 le. 
 
 '■ 
 
 n.s of t'.e 
 
 JB 
 
 sea, are full of evil bodings. We have a large old seal-skin bag 
 on deck, that holds our remnant of furs. It hangs from the main- 
 sta}'^, and we have all of us jested in the times of ordinary dark- 
 ness about its grotesque physiognomy. To-night it has worn a 
 new character. One of the crew, crawling outside, saw it swing- 
 ing in the storm with furious energy, and pounding against the 
 mast like a giant \)Oxing-glove. It glowed, too, with supernatural 
 light ; and he is 'jure it spoke some dreadful message, tliough he 
 was too much perturbed to give it audience. There is no reason- 
 ing with him about it, and his messmates' laugh, as they attempt 
 to ridicule his fear, is like the ghost story merriment of a nurser}'^ 
 circle." 
 
 It was an ugly and withal an anxious night. !Mr. Goodfellow, 
 the youngest of our party, had left the cabin soon after dinner for 
 an inland stroll with his gun, and he had not returned when the 
 scanty twilight closed before its time. The wind blew oif the 
 coast, piling the snow in great hills and changing the ANhole face 
 of the floe. As the darkness wore on we became uneasy, and 
 at last alarmed, at his absence. We burnt bluelights and Roman 
 candles to guide him through the night ; but it was six o'clock in 
 the morning before lie came in, happily none the worse for his 
 adventure. 
 
 Honest Tom Hickey had been on tlie deck reconnoitring for 
 him while the gale was at its height. He came down to the mess 
 just before the alarm of the thumping fur-bag, declaring he had 
 seen Mr. Goodfellow moving cautiously along the land-ice and 
 jumping down on the field below. He hurried his tea-things to 
 give him a warm supper, but no one came. In the result, though 
 Tom volunteered to make search at the spot where he had seen 
 his messmate, and Kiley offered to accompany him, and I myself 
 looked diligently afterward with a lantern for some hundreds of 
 yards around, we found nothing but fresh-drifted snow, without 
 the trace of a human foot, Tom had seen a tvraith ; he believes 
 it religiously, and associates its mysterious advent with the lumi- 
 nous fur-bag. 
 
 " There must be some warm southern area over which this wind 
 comes, some open water, it may be, that is drawing nearer to us, 
 to minister after a time to our escape. But we must go alone. I 
 have given up all hope of rescuing our little vessel. She has been 
 
 CHAPT.'.K 
 XXXV. 
 
 Super- 
 stitious 
 fears. 
 
 All niixi- 
 ous niglit. 
 
 A wraith. 
 
E 
 
 HI'-W 
 
 I H 
 
 ii 
 
 t 
 
 m 
 
 w ■ 
 
 i 
 
 2f)0 
 
 HUNOEE AND DISEASE. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXXV. 
 
 No hope 
 for the 
 brig. 
 
 Huns jroes 
 to iiunt. 
 
 Vahie of 
 meal 
 
 Symptoms 
 of the 
 past. 
 
 A feuthevy 
 quilt. 
 
 Three 
 days' re- 
 spite. 
 
 safeguard and liome for us through many lengthened trials ; but 
 her time has come. She can never float above the waves .igain. 
 How many of us are to be more fortunate ] 
 
 " February 9, Friday. — Still no supplies. Three of us have 
 been out all day, without getting a shot. Hans thinks he saw 
 a couple of reindeer at a distance ; and his eyes rarely deceive 
 him. He will try for them to-morrow. I have fitted out for 
 him a tent and a sleeping-bag on the second table-land ; and 
 the thermometer is now so little below zero that he will be able to 
 keep the field for a steady hunt. Our sick are sinking for want 
 of fresh food. It is the only specific : I dislike to use the un- 
 philosophical term ; but in our case it is tlie true one. In large 
 quantities it dissipates the disease ; in ordinary rations it prevents 
 its oo'^urrence ; in jmall doses it checks it while sustaining the 
 ■>(it. We have learned its value too well to waste it; every 
 : .<•> of every animal has its use. The skin makes the basis of a 
 soup, and the claws can be boiled to a jelly. Lungs, larynx, 
 stomach, and entrails, all are available. I have not permitted 
 myself to taste more than an occasional entrail of our last half- 
 dozen rabbits. Not that I am free from symptoms of the univer- 
 sal pest. I am conscious of a stiffness in the tendons, and a 
 shortness of breath, and a weariness of the bones, that should 
 naturally attend the eruption which covers my body. But I have 
 none of the more fearful signs. I can walk with energy after I 
 get warmed up, I have no bleeding of the gums, and, better than 
 all, thank God, I am without that horrible despondency which 
 the disease nourishes and feeds on. I sleep sound and dream 
 pleasantly — generally about successes in the hunt, or a double 
 ration of reindeer or ptarmigan. 
 
 " It has been a true warm south-easter. The housing-sails have 
 been bit wn off by the storm, and we are buried up in a snow- 
 drift. But one such feathery quilt is worth all the canvas cover- 
 ing in tlie world. 
 
 " My brewing apparatus has worked well, thanks to stove and 
 storm ; and I have on hand now as unsavoury a dose of flax- 
 seed and quinine as was ever honoured by the name of beer. 
 
 ^^ February 10, Saturday. — Three days' respite ! Petersen and 
 myself have made a fruitless hunt ; but itans comes in with three 
 rabbits. Distribution : the blood to Ohlsen and Thomas ; and to 
 
PROSPECTS AND FEARS. 
 
 2f)l 
 
 the other eight of the sick men full rations ; consuming a rabbit 
 and a half. I cannot risk the depression that a single death would 
 bring upon the whole party, and have to deal unfairly with those 
 who can still keep about to save the rest from sinking. Brooks 
 and Ohlsen are in a precarious condition : they have lost the 
 entire mucous membrane of the alveoli ; and Mr. Wilson requires 
 special attendance every hour to carry him through. 
 
 " The day is beginning to glow with the approacliing sun. The 
 south at noon has almost an orange tinge. In ten days his direct 
 rays will reach our hill tops ; and in a week after he will be dis- 
 pensing his blessed medicine among our sufferers. 
 
 '^'■February 12, Moiiday. — Hans is off for his hunting-lodge, 
 ' over the hills and far away,' beyond Charlotte Wood Fiord. I 
 have sent Godfrey with liim, for I fear the boy has got the 
 taint like the rest of us, and may suffer from the exposure. He 
 thinks he can bring back a deer, and the chances are worth the 
 trial We can manage the small hunt, Petersen and I, till he 
 comes back, unless we break down too, But I do not like the.se 
 symptoms of mine, and Petersen is very far from the man he was. 
 We had a tramp to-day, both of us, after an imaginary deer, — a 
 bennisoak that has been supposed for the last three days to be 
 hunting the neighbourhood of the waterpools of the big fiord, 
 and have come back jaded and sad. If Hans gives way, God 
 help us ! " 
 
 CHAPTKB 
 XXXV. 
 
 Ilnpo of 
 
 returning 
 
 day. 
 
 It is hardly worth while to inflict on the reader a succession of jnumui 
 
 journal-records like these. They tell of nothing but the varying 
 symptoms of sick men, dreary, profitless hunts, relieved now and 
 then by the signalized incident of a killed rabbit or a deer seen, 
 and the longed-for advent of the solar light. 
 
 We worked on board — those of us who could work at all — at 
 arranging a new gangway with a more gentle sloj)e, to let some 
 of the party crawl up from their hospital into the air We were 
 six, all told, out of eighteen, who could affect to hunt, cook, or 
 nurse. 
 
 Meanwhile we tried to dream of commerce with the Esquimaux, 
 and open water, and home. For myself, my thoughts had occu- 
 pation enough in the question of our closing labours. I never 
 lost my hope. I looked to the coming spring as full of responsi- 
 
 records of 
 suffering. 
 
292 
 
 TRUST IN GOD. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Trust in 
 Gtjd. 
 
 CalculH- 
 ti'in of 
 time ar 1 
 
 !<'■ ■ '■';. 
 
 cn.^PTER bilities ; but I had bodily strengtb and moral tone enough to lock 
 through them to the end. A trust, based on experience as well 
 as on promises, buoyed me up at the worst of times. Call it 
 fatalism, as you ignorantly may, there is that in the story of 
 every eventful life which teaches the inefficiency of human means 
 and the present control of a Supreme Agency. See how often relief 
 has come at the. moment of extremity, in forms strangely unsought, 
 almost at the time unwelcome ; see, still more, how the back has 
 been strengthened to its increasing burden, and the heart cheered 
 by some conscious influence of an unseen Power. 
 
 Thinking quietly over our condition, I spread out in my diary 
 the results which it seemed to point to. After reviewing our sick 
 list and remarking how little efficiency there was in the other mem- 
 bers of the party, my memorandum went on : — 
 
 " We have three months before us of intense cold. We have 
 a large and laborious outfit to arrange, — boats, sledges, provisions, 
 and accoutrements for a journey of alternating ice and water of 
 more than 1300 miles. Our carpenter is among the worst of our 
 invalids. Supposing all our men able to move, four at least of 
 liiem must be carried by the rest, three in consequence of ampu- 
 tation, and one from frost-wounds ; and our boats must be sledged 
 over some sixty or perhaps ninety miles of terrible ice before 
 launching and loading them. Finally, a part of our force, what- 
 ever it may be, must be detailed to guard our property from the 
 J^squimaux while the other detachments are making their successive 
 trips to the open water. So much for the shadow of the picture ! 
 
 " But it has two sides ; and, whether from constitutional tem- 
 perament or-well reasoned argument, I find our state for from 
 desperate. I cheer my comrades after this fashion : — 
 
 "1. I am convinced, from a careful analysis of oi\r disease, that 
 under its present aspects it is not beyond control. If with the 
 aid of our present hunting resources, or by any providential 
 accession to them, I can keep the cases from rapid depression, 
 next month ought to give us a bear, and in the meantime Hans 
 may find a deer ; and, with a good stock of fresh meat even 
 for a few days, I can venture away from the vessel to draw 
 supplies from the Esquimaux at Etah. I should have been 
 there before this, if I could have been spared for forty-eight 
 hours. We want nothing but meat. 
 
 Two Rides 
 to the 
 picture. 
 
 ..ll 
 
HOPE AND RESOLUTION. 
 
 20:J 
 
 " 2, Tlie coming of the sun will open a2)pliances of moral help ciiai'tkh 
 
 to the sick, and give energy to the hygienic resorts which I am ' ' ' 
 arransring at this moment. Our miserable little kennel, where The com- 
 eighteen are crowded into the space or ten, is tlioroughly begrimed sua. 
 with lampblack from the inevitable smoke of our fuel. The wea- 
 ther has prevented our drying and airing the slceping-gcar. The 
 floor is damp from the conducted warmth <.»f the sea-water under 
 us, melting the ice that hiis condensed everywhere below. Sun- 
 shine and dry weather will cure all this. I have window-sash 
 ready to fix over the roof and southern side of the galley -house ; 
 and our useless daguerreotype plates, tacked over wooden screens, 
 make admirable mirrors to transfer the sun-rays into the cabin. I 
 have manufactured a full-draught pipe for our smoky stove. Chlo- 
 ride of sodium must do the rest. 
 
 " 3. Wliile we live we will stick together ; one fate shall belong Resoiu- 
 tu us all, be it what it may. ''"'• 
 
 " There is comfort in this review ; and, please God in his bene- CoLnfort 
 ficent providence to spare U3 for the work, I Avill yet give one more ""^ ''"^'"' 
 manly tug to search the shores of Kennedy Channel for memorial" 
 of the lost ; and then our duties over here, and the brig still prison- 
 bound, enter trustingly upon the task of our escape. 
 
 " Fehruari/ 21, Wednesday. — To-day the crests of the north-cast Heap- 
 headland were gilded by true sunshine, and all who were able of'^lj""'" 
 assembled on deck to greet it. The sun rose above the horizon, si'ine. 
 though still screened from our eyes by intervening hills. Although 
 the powerful refraction of Polar latitudes heralds his direct appear- 
 ance by brilliant light, this is as far removed from the glorious 
 tints of day as it is from the mere twilight. Nevertheless, for the 
 past ten days we have been watching the growing warmth of our 
 landscape, as it emerged from buried shadow, through all the 
 stages of distinctness of an India-ink washing, step by step, into 
 the sharp, bold definition of our desolate harbour scene. We have CoiomeJ 
 marked every dash of colour which the great Painter in his bene- ^''''^'^ 
 Volence vouchsafed to us ; and now the empurpled blues, clear, 
 unmistakeable, the spreading lake, the flickering yellow; peering 
 at all these, poor wretches ! everything seemed superlative lustre 
 and unsurpassable glory. We had so grovelled in dark^j^ess that we 
 oversaw the light. 
 
 " Mr. Wilson has caught cold and relapsed. Mr. Ohlsen, after 
 
294 
 
 STOVE-FITTING. 
 
 A new 
 
 form of 
 diseaso. 
 
 Stove- 
 Cttlng. 
 
 CHAPTER a suspicious clay, startles me by an attack of partial epilepsy — one 
 XXXV. ^£ those strange indescribable spells, fits, seizures, whatever name 
 the jargon gives them, which indicate deep disturbance. I conceal 
 his case as far as I can ; but it adds to my heavy pack of troubles to 
 anticipate the gloomy scenes of epileptic transport introduced into 
 our one apartment. M'Gary holds his own. 
 
 " The work of stove-fitting is completed, and a new era marks 
 its success. The increased draught which the prospective termina- 
 tion of our winter allows me to afford to our fuel brings an un- 
 hoped-for piece of good fortune. We can burn hemp cable and 
 cast-off ruiming-gear. By the aid of a high chimney and a good 
 regulating valve, the smoke passes directly into tlie open air, and 
 tarred junk is as good as oak itself This will save our trebling, 
 and, what is more, the labour of cutting it. In truth, very L.l'le 
 of it has been used up, scarcely more than a single streak. We 
 have been too weak to cut it off. All our disposable force was 
 inadequate last Saturday t cut enough for a day's fuel in advance. 
 
 "The sickness of a single additional man would have left us 
 without fire." 
 
THE BENNESACK. 
 
 295 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 rnE BENNESOAK — A DILEMMA— THE SUN— END OP FEBHUAR7— OUR CONDI- 
 TION—THE WARM SOUTH-EASTER— MOONLIGHT— T'^ T LANDSCAPE. 
 
 " February 22, Thursday. — Wasliington's birthday : all our colours 
 flying in the new sunlight. A day of good omen, even to the 
 sojourners among the ice. Hans comes in with great news. He 
 has had a shot at our bennesoak, a long shot ; but it reached liim. 
 Tlie animal made off at a slow run, but we are sure of him now. 
 This same deer lias been hanging round the lake at the hord thiough 
 all the dim returning twilight ; and so many stories were told oi 
 his appearance and movements, that he had almost grown into a 
 myth. To-morrow we shall desire his better acquaintance. 
 
 " The Esquimaux call the deer when he is without antlers a 
 bennesoak. The greater number of these animals retain their 
 antlers tiU the early spring, beginning to drop them about the 
 return of sunshine ; but some of the strongest lose them before the 
 ■winter sets in. They are gregarious in their habits, and fond of 
 l)articular localities. Where they have been gathered together 
 year after year, the accumulation of discarded antlers is immense. 
 They tell me at Holsteinberg, where more than four thousand rein- 
 deer-skins find a market annually, that on the favourite hunting- 
 grounds these horns are found in vast piles. They bring little or 
 nothing at Copenhagen, but I suppose would find a ready sale 
 among the button -workers of England. 
 
 ^^ February 23, Friday. — Hans was out early this morning on 
 the trail of the wounded deer. Rhina, the least barbarous of our 
 sledge-dogs, assisted him. He was back by noon, with the joyful 
 news, ' The tukkuk dead only two miles up big fiord ! ' The cry 
 found its way through the hatch, and came back in a broken huzzii 
 from the sick men. 
 
 " We are so badly off for strong arms that our reindeer threatened 
 to be as great an embarrassment to us as the auction drawn-ele- 
 phant was to his lucky master. We had hard work with our dogs 
 carrying him to the brig, and still harder, worn down as we were. 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XXXVI. 
 
 WiisliinK- 
 tun's birth' 
 day. 
 
 The lii'ii- 
 
 Good 
 
 news. 
 
296 
 
 THE REINDEER. 
 
 A ilileiii- 
 
 IIIU. 
 
 A feast. 
 
 Size of 
 I lie leiii 
 dcel'. 
 
 ciiAi'TFR ill getting liiin over the ship's side. But we succeeded, ,uid were 
 ' __ ■ tumbling liini down the hold, when we found ourselves in a dilemuja, 
 like the Vicar of Wakefield with his family picture. It was impos- 
 .sible to drag the ])rize into our little moss-lined d' rmitory ; the 
 tossut was nut half big enough to let him pass, and it was equally 
 impossible to skin him anywhere else without freezing our fingers 
 in the operation. It was a happy escape from the embarrassments 
 of our hungry little council to determine that the animal miglit be 
 carved before skinning as well as he could be afterward ; and in a 
 very few minutes we proved our united wisdom by a feast on lus 
 quartered remains. i 
 
 " It was a glorious meal, such as the comi)cnsation3 of Providence 
 reserve for starvhig men alone. We ate, forgetful of the past, and 
 almost heedless of the morrow ; cleared away the oftal wearily : 
 and now, at 10 p.m., all hands have turned in to sleep, leaving to 
 their conunandiug officer the solitary honour of an eight hoiu's' 
 vigil. 
 
 " This deer was among the largest of all the northern specimens 
 I have seen, lie measured five feet one inch in girth, and six fiut 
 two inches in length, and stood as large as a two years' heifer. We 
 estimated his weight at three hundred poimds gross, or one hundred 
 and eighty net. The head had a more than usually cumbrous 
 character, and a long waving tuft of white hair, that depended from 
 the throat, gave an appearance of excessive weight to the front 
 view. 
 
 " The reindeer is in no respect a graceful animal. There is an 
 apparent want of proportion between his cumbrous shoulders and 
 light haunch, which is ungainly even in his rapid movements. 
 But he makes up for all his defects of form when he presents him- 
 self as an article of diet. 
 
 " Februari/ 24, Saturday. — A bitter disappointment met us at 
 poiutment. our evening meal. The flesh of our deer was nearly uneatable from 
 putrefaction ; the liver and intestines, from which I had expected 
 so much, utterly so. The rapidity of such a change, in a tempera- 
 ture so low as minus 35°, seems curious ; but the Greenlanders say 
 that extreme cold is rather a promoter than otherwise of the putre- 
 factive process. All the graminivoroua animals have the same 
 tendency, as is well known to the butchers. Our buflfalo-huntefs, 
 when they condescend to clean a carcass, do it at once ; they have 
 
 A disap- 
 
 '*** M|i 
 
REJOICING TO SEE THE SUN. 
 
 297 
 
 told me that the musk-ox is sometimes tainted after five mimites' 
 exposure. The Esquimaux, with whom there is no fastidious sen- 
 .sibihty of palate, are in the practice at Yotlik and Horses' Head, 
 in latitude 73'' 40', even in the severest weatiier, of witiidrawing 
 the viscera immediately after death and filling the cavity with stones. 
 
 " February '2b, Snndaij. — The day of rest for those to wIkmu rest 
 can be ; the day of grateful recognition for all ! John, our volun- 
 teer cook of yesterday, is down : Morton, who coidd crawl out of 
 bed to play baker for the party, and stood to it manfully yesterday, 
 is down too. I have just one man left to help me in caring for 
 the sick. Hans and Petersen, thank God ! have vitality enough 
 left to bear the toils of the hunt. One is out with his rifle, the 
 other searching the traps. 
 
 " To day, blessed be the Great Author of Light ! I have once 
 more looked upon the sun. I was standing on deck, thinking over 
 our prospects, when a familiar berg, wliich had long been hid in 
 shadow, flashed out in sun-birth. I knew this berg right well : it 
 stood between Charlotte Wood Fiord and Little Willie's Monument. 
 One year and one day ago I travelled toward it from Fern Rock to 
 catch the sunshine. Then I had to climb the hills beyond, to get 
 the luxury of basking in its brightness ; but now, though the sun 
 was but a shigle degi'ce above the true horizon, it was so much 
 elevated by refraction, that the sheen stretched across the trough of 
 the fiord like a flaming tongue. I could not or would not resist 
 the influence. It was a Sunday act of worship : I started off" at 
 an even run, and caught him as he rolled slowly along the horizon, 
 and before he sank. I was again the first of my party to rejoice 
 and meditate in sunshine. It is the third sun I have seen rise for 
 a moment above the long night of an Arctic winter. 
 
 " February 26, Monday. — William Godfrey undertook to act as 
 cook to-day, but fainted before completing the experiment. The 
 rest of us are little better ; and now it looks as if we were to 
 lose our best caterer, for Hans too shows signs of giving way to 
 the scurvy. 
 
 " I have been at work for an hour, cuttin / the large Manilla 
 hawser for fuel. I do not know that I have any very remarkable 
 or valuable quality ; but I do know that, however multiform may 
 be my virtues, I am a singularly awkward hand in chopping up 
 frozen cables. 
 
 OirAI'TKR 
 XXXVI. 
 
 Itiilildlty 
 of Jllltl'U- 
 
 faction. 
 
 Welcome 
 (lay of 
 rest. 
 
 The mtn 
 apiivui'ii, 
 
 Kunninsr 
 to SCO the 
 suiishii'e. 
 
n 
 
 298 
 
 DISTRESSING CONDITION. 
 
 :u 
 
 Increaiie 
 uf UIbuusc 
 
 cnAPTKK " February 28, Wednesday. — February closes : tliank Qod for 
 x^jrvi. ^jj^ lapse of ita twenty-eight days ! Shoul-l the thirty-one of the 
 coming March not drag us further downward, we may hope for a 
 fiuccessful close to this dreary drama. By the tenth of April we 
 should have seal ; and when they come, if we remain to welcome 
 them, we can call ourselves saved. 
 
 " But a fair review of our pro.sj)oct3 tells me that I must look 
 the lion in the face. The scurvy is steadily gf'^nniuj on us. I do 
 my best to sustain the more desperate cases i as fast as I 
 
 partially build up one, another is stricken down. The disease is 
 perhaps less malignant than it was, but it is more diffused through- 
 out our ])arty. Except William Morton, who is disabled by a 
 frozen heel, not one of our eighteen is exempt. Of the six workers 
 of our party, as I counted them a month ago, two are unable to do 
 out-door work, and the renuiining four divide the duties of the 
 ship among them. Hans musters his remaining energies to con- 
 duct the hunt. Petersen is his disheartened, moping assistant. 
 The other two, Bonsall and myself, have all the daily offices of 
 household and hospital. We chop five large sacks of ice, cut six 
 fathoms of eight-inch hawser into junks of a foot each, serve out 
 the meat when we have it, hack at the molasses and hew out with 
 crowb-^r and axe the pork and dried apples, pr n the foul slop 
 and cleansings of our dormitory ; and, in a wo >k, seullionize, 
 
 and attend the sick. Added to this, for five nights running I have 
 kept watch from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., catching cat-naps as I could in 
 the day without changing my clothes, but carefully waking every 
 hour to note thermometers. 
 
 " Such is the condition in which February leaves us, with forty- 
 one days more aliead of just the same cluracter in prospect as the 
 twenty-eight which, thank God ! are numbered now with the past. 
 It is saddening to think how much those twenty-eight days have 
 impaired our capacities of endurance. Yet there are resources — 
 Hopes for accidental perhaps, mercifully providential let me rather term 
 the future. t)jgjjj^ contingent certainly, so far as our prescience goes — which 
 may avail to save us : another reindeer of sound carcass, a con- 
 stant succession of small game, supplies of walrus from the fugitive 
 Esquimaux, or that which I most expect and hope for — a bear. 
 We have already seen some tracks of these animals ; and last 
 March there were many of them otf Coffee Gorge and the 
 
 Ijiboill'B 
 of tllOSti 
 
 still iible 
 to work. 
 
ATMOflPHERIO CHANGES. 
 
 Labyrinth. If flans and myself can only hold on, we may work 
 oiir way tlirough. All rests upon destiny, or the power which 
 controls it. 
 
 " It will yet bo many days before the sun overrides the Hhiidow 
 of Bessie Mountain and reaches our brig. Tlic sick pine for liiui, 
 and I have devised a clever system of mirrors to hasten his vi.sit 
 to their bui^ks. He will do more for them than all medicine 
 besides. 
 
 "That strange pbenomenon, the warm south and soutli-east winds 
 which came upon us in January, did not pass away till the middle 
 of this month. And, even after it had gone, the weather con- 
 tinued for some days to reflect its influence. The thermometer 
 seldom fell below — 40°, and stood sometimes as high as — 30°. 
 It has been gi-owing colder for the last three days, ranging from 
 — 4G° to — 51° ; and the abundant snows of the warm spell are 
 now compacted hard enough to be traversible, or else dissipated 
 by the heavy winds. There is nmch to be studied in these atmo- 
 spheric changes. Tliere is a seeming connection between the 
 increasing cold and the increasing moonlight, which has some- 
 times forced itself on my noti' i; ; but I have barely strength 
 enough to carry on our routine observations, and have no time to 
 discuss phenomena. 
 
 " Two attempts have been made by my orders, since the month 
 began, to communicate with the Esquimaux at their huts. Both 
 were failures. Petersen, Hans, and Godfrey came back to de- 
 nounce the journey as impracticable. I know better : the experi- 
 ence of my two attempts in the midst of the darkness satisfies me 
 that at this period of the year the thing can be done ; and, if I 
 might venture to leave our sick-bay for a week, I would prove it. 
 But there are dispositions and influences liera around me, scarcely 
 latent, yet repressed by my presence, which make it my duty at 
 all hazards to stay where I am. 
 
 " March 1, Thuisday. — A grander scene than our bay by moon- 
 light can hardly be conceived. It is more dream-like and super- 
 natural than a combination of earthly features. 
 
 " The moon is nearly full, and the dawning sunlight, mingUng 
 with hers, invests everytliing with an atmosphere of ashy grey. 
 It clothes the gnarled liills that make the horizon of our bay, 
 shadows out the terraces in dull definition, grows darker and 
 
 OrUPTKR 
 XXXV t. 
 
 nulnii fur 
 the tun 
 
 Warm 
 south-east 
 
 WllJlll, 
 
 Atino- 
 
 H]ilifric 
 
 I'liungi'S. 
 
 Tlie l>«y 
 by moon- 
 
300 
 
 A MOONLIGHT LANDSCAPE. 
 
 Intense 
 moon- 
 light. 
 
 CHAPTER colder as it sinks into the fiords, and broods sad and dreary upon 
 x.\xv^r. ^i^g ridges and measureless plains of ice that make up the rest of 
 our field of view. Rising above all this, and shading down into 
 it in strange combination, is the intense moonlight, glittering on 
 every crag and spire, tracing the outline of the background with 
 contrasted brightness, and printing its fantastic profiles on the 
 snow-field. It is a landscape such as Milton or Dante might 
 imagine, — inorganic, desolate, mysterious. I have come down from 
 deck with the feelings of a man who has looked upon p. world un- 
 finished by the hand of its Creator," 
 
 I ^9 
 
 
 TUB ORAVRS BY MOONUOIIT. 
 
A CHRONICLE OF SUFFERINGS. 
 
 301 
 
 dreary upon 
 the rest of 
 down into 
 [littering on 
 around with 
 files on the 
 )ante might 
 e down from 
 ft world un- 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 OUK CONDITION — THE RESORTS — THE SICK — THE SAT IN THE INSECT-BOX — 
 ANTICIPATIONS — IfAN's RETURN— FAMINE AT ETAH — MYOUK ON BOARD 
 — WALRUS-TACKLE — THE MEAT DIET. 
 
 My journal for the beginning of March is little else than a ciiaptkh 
 chronicle of sufferings. Our httle party was quite broken down. ^ ^^^" ' 
 Every man on board was tainted with scurvj'^, and it was not com- ''""cess 
 mon to find more than three who could assist in caring for the 
 rest. The greater number were in their bunks, absolute^ unable 
 to stir. 
 
 The circumstances were well fitted to bring out the character of cinnacteis 
 individuals. Some were intensely grateful for every little act of "^"'^ 
 kindness from their more fortunate messmates ; some querulous ; 
 others desponding ; others again wanted only strength to become 
 mutinous. Brooks, my first officer, as stalwart a nian-o'-war's man 
 as ever faced an enemy, burst into tears when he first saw himself in 
 the glass. On Sunday, the 4th, our last remnant of fresh meat had 
 been doled out. Our invalids began to sink rapidly. The wounds 
 of our amputated men opened afresh. The region about our har- 
 bour ceased to furnish its scanty contingent wf game. One of our 
 huntsmen, Petersen, never very reliable in anything, declared 
 himself unfit for further duty. Hans was unsuccessful : he made 
 several wide circuits, and saw deer twice ; but once they were 
 beyond range, and the next time his rifle missed fire, 
 
 I tried the hunt for a long morning myself, without meeting a An im- 
 single thing of life, and was convinced, by the appearance of »'«"'■'"«'»' 
 things on my return to the brig, that T should peril the morale^ 
 and with it the only hope, of iuy command by repeating the 
 the experiment. 
 
 I. laboured, of course, with all the ingenuity of a well-taxed 
 mind, to keep up the spirits of my comrades, I cooked for them 
 all imaginable compounds of our unvaried diet-list, and brewed up 
 flax-seed and lime-juice and quhiine .and willow-stems into an 
 nboniination which was dignified as beer, and which .'.ome were 
 
303 
 
 ALMOST DESPAIRING. 
 
 Fresh 
 moat 
 
 absolutely 
 necessary. 
 
 A despe- 
 rate veil 
 ture. 
 
 citAPTKR persuaded for the time to believe such. But it was becoming more 
 and more certain every hour, that unless we could renew our sup- 
 plies of fresh meat, the days of the party were numbered. 
 
 I spare myself, as well as the readers of this hastUy-compiled 
 volume, when I pass summarily over the details of our condition 
 at this time. 
 
 I look back at it with recollections like those oi a nightmare. 
 Yet I was borne up wonderfully, I never doubted for an instant 
 that the same Providence which had guarded us through the long 
 darkness of winter was still watching over us for good, and that it 
 was yet in reserve for us — for some, I dared not hope for all— co 
 bear back the tidings of our rescue ' " ^ Christian land. But how 
 I did not see. 
 
 On the 6th of the month I made the desperate venture of send- 
 ing oif my only trusted and effective huntsman on a sledge-journey 
 to find the Esquimaux of Etah. He took with liim our two sur- 
 viving dogs in our lightest sledge. The Arctic day had begun to 
 set in ; the ice-track had improved with the advance of the season ; 
 and the cold, though still intense, had moderated to about 80° 
 below the freezing point. He was to make his first night-halt at 
 Anoatok ; and, if no misadventure thwarted his progress, we hoped 
 that he might reach the settlement before the end of the second 
 night. In three or at furthest four days more, I counted on his 
 return. No language can express the anxiety with which our poor 
 suffering crew awaited it. 
 
 March 8, Thursday. — Hans must now be at the huts. If the 
 natives have not gone south, if the walrus and bear have not 
 fjiiled them, and if they do not refuse to send us supplies, we 
 may have fresh food in three days, God grant it may come 
 in time ! 
 
 " Stephenson and Riley are dangerously ill. We have moved 
 Riley from his bunk, which, though lighter than most of the others, 
 was dampened by the accumulations of ice. He is now upon 
 a dry and heated platform close to the stove. Dr. Hayes's foot 
 shows some ugly symptoms, which a change of his lodging-place 
 may perhaps mitigate ; and I have determined, therefore, to 
 remove him to the bertn Riley has vacated as soon as we can 
 purify and dry it for him. 
 
 " In clearing out Riley's bunk, we found that a rat had built 
 
 Severe 
 illneiis. 
 
ILLNESS AND DREARY PROSPECTS. 
 
 303 
 
 his nest in my insect-box, destroying all our specimens. This is a 
 gi-ave loss ; for, besides that they were light of carriage, and might 
 tlierefore have accompanied us in the retreat which now seems in- 
 evitable, they comprised our entire collection, and, though few in 
 numbers, were rich fur this stinted region. I had many spiders 
 and bees. He is welcome to the whole of them, however, if I 
 onlj"^ catch him the fatter for the ration. 
 
 " March 9, Friday. — Strength going. It was with a feeling 
 almost of dismay that I found how difficult it was to got through 
 the day's labours, — Bonsall and myself the sole workers. After 
 cleansing below, dressing and performing the loathsome duties of a 
 nurse to the sick, cutting ice, cooking and serving messes, we could 
 hardly go further. 
 
 " I realize fully the moral effects of an unbroken routine : sys- 
 tematic order once broken in upon, discomfort, despondency, and 
 increase of disease must follow of course. It weighed heavily on 
 my spirit to-day when I found my one comrade and myself were 
 barely able to cut the necessary fuel. The hour of routine-night- 
 fall finds us both stiff and ill at ease. Having to keep the night- 
 watch until 6 A.M., I have plenty of time to revolve my most 
 uncomfortable thoughts. 
 
 " Be it understood by any who may peradventure read of these 
 things in my journal, that I express them nowhere else. What 
 secret thoughts my companions may have are concealed from me and 
 from each other ; but none of them can see as I do the alternative 
 future now so close at hand : bright and comforting it may be ; 
 but, if not, black and hopeless altogether. 
 
 " Should Hans come back with a good supply of walrus, and 
 himself unsmitten by the enemy, our sick would rise under the 
 genial specific of meat, and our strength probably increase enough 
 to convey our boats to the North Water. The Eefuge Inlet 
 Polynia will hardly be more than forty miles from our brig, and, 
 step by step, we can sledge our boats and their cargoes down to 
 it. Once at Cape Alexander, we can support our sick by our giuis, 
 and make a regular Capua of the bird-colonies of Nortluimberland 
 Island. This, in honest truth my yet unswerving and unshaken 
 hope and expectation, is what I preach to my people ; and often 
 in the silent hours of night I chat to some sleepless patient of 
 cochlearia salads and glorious feasts of loons and eider-ducks. 
 
 OHAPTKR 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Illness 
 from ex- 
 liaustioii. 
 
 Hopes and 
 fears for 
 the future. 
 
304 
 
 THE RETURN OF HANS. 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Fears for 
 thu future 
 
 " On the other side, suppose Hans fails : the tliought is horrible. 
 The Spitzbergen victims were, at about this date, in better con- 
 dition than we are : it was not until the middle of April that they 
 began to die off. We have yet forty days to run before we can 
 count upon the renovating blessings of animal life and restoring 
 warmth. Neither Kiloy nor Wilson can last half that time with- 
 out a supply of antiscorbutic food. Indeed, there is not a man on 
 board who can hope to linger on till the spring comes unless we 
 have relief 
 
 "I put all this down in no desponding spirit, but as a record 
 to look back upon hereafter, when the immediate danger has passed 
 away, and some new emergency has brought its own array of cares 
 and trials. My mind is hopeful and reliant : there is something 
 even cheering in the constant rally of its energies to meet the calls 
 of the hour. 
 
 '^ 31 arch 10, Saturday. — Hans has not yet returned, so that he 
 must have reached the settlement. His orders were, if no meat 
 be obtained of the Esquimaux, to borrow their dogs and try for 
 bears along the open water. In tliis resource I have confidence. 
 The days are magnificent. 
 Ti)e return ". . . . I had hardly written the above, when *^m, 6m, 6m./' 
 sounded from the deck, mixed with the chorus of our returning 
 dogs. The next minute Hans and myself were shaking hands. 
 
 " He had much to tell us ; to men in our condition Hans Avas 
 as a man from cities. We of the wilderness flocked around him 
 to hear the news. Sugar-teats of raw meat are passed around 
 ' Speak loud, Hans, that they may hear in the bunks.' 
 
 "The * wind-loved' Anoatok he had reached on the first night 
 after leaving the brig : no Esquimaux tliere of course ; and he 
 slept not warmly at a temperature of 53° below zero. On the 
 evening of the next day he reached Etah Bay, and was hailed 
 with joyous welcome. But a new phase of Esquimaux life had 
 come upon its indolent, happy, blubber-fed denizens. Instead of 
 EtahJJay. plump, greasy children, and round-cheeked matrons, Hans saw 
 around him lean figures of misery : the men looked hard and bony, 
 and the children shrivelled in the hoods which cradled them at 
 their mothers' backs. Famine had been among them ; and the 
 skin of a young sea-unicorn, lately caught, was all that remained 
 to them of food. It was the old story of improvidence and its 
 
 of Hans 
 unci his 
 nilven- 
 lures. 
 
 Changes 
 for the 
 worse at 
 
WALFvUS HUNTING. 
 
 305 
 
 n : and the 
 
 miserable train. They had even eaten their reserve of blubber, 
 and were seated in darkness and cold, waiting gloomily for the 
 sun. Even their dogs, their main reliance for the hunt and for 
 an escape to some more favoured camping-gi'ound, had fallen a 
 sacrifice to hunger. Only four remained out of thirty : the rest 
 had been eaten. 
 
 " Hans behaved well, and carried out my orders in their full 
 spirit. He proposed to aid them in the walrus-hunt. They 
 smiled at first with true Indian contempt ; but when they saw 
 my Marston rifle, which he had with him, they changed their 
 tone. When the sea is completely frozen, as it is now, the wal- 
 rus can only be caught by harpooning them at their holes or in 
 temporary cracks. This mode of hunting them is called ntol: It 
 requires great skill to enter the harpoon, and often fails from the 
 line gi\'ing way in the straggles of the animal. They had lost a 
 harpoon and line in tliis manner the very day before Hans' arrival. 
 Jt requiied very little argument to persuade them to accept his 
 offered company and try the effect of his cone-ball on the har- 
 pooned animal before he made good his retreat. 
 
 " I have not time to detail Hans' adventurous hunt, equally im- 
 portant to the scurvied sick of Rensselaer and the starving resi- 
 dents of Etah Bay. Metek (the eider-duck) speared a medium- 
 sized walrus, and Hans gave him no less than five Marston balls 
 before he gave up his straggles. The beast was carried back in 
 triumph, and all hands fed as if they could never know famine 
 again. It was a regular feast, and the kablunah interest was 
 exalted to the skies. 
 
 " Miserable, yet happy wretches, without one thought for the 
 future, fighting against care when it comes unbidden, and enjoy- 
 ing to the full their scanty measure of present good ! As a beast, 
 the Esquimaux is a most sensible beast, worth a thousand Gali- 
 leans, and certainly ahead of his cousin the Polar bear, from whom 
 he borrows his pantaloons. 
 
 " I had directed Hans to endeavour to engage !Myouk, if he 
 (;ould, to assist him in hunting. A most timely thought : for the 
 morning's work made them receive the invitation as a great ftivour. 
 Hans got his share of the meat, and returned to the brig accom- 
 l)anied by the boy, who is now under my care on board. This 
 imp — for he is full of the devil — has always had a relishing fancy 
 
 CllAPTKn 
 XXXV II. 
 
 MIseviiMo 
 coiidiliuii 
 of the 
 Ksqul- 
 ninux. 
 
 hiintiii/^ 
 walrus. 
 
 Snoocssfi'J 
 liunt. 
 
 .Myoulj 
 cnKHiteil 
 assiHtHiit 
 in luitit- 
 iiifc-. 
 
306 
 
 STATE OF THE SICK. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXXVII. 
 
 llyouk. 
 
 
 State of 
 the sick. 
 
 : I, 
 
 New fisli- 
 Ing tackle. 
 
 F)iet for 
 the sick. 
 
 for the kicks and cuffs with which I recall the forks and tea. 
 spoons when they get a.stray ; and, to tell the truth, he always 
 takes care to earn them. He is very happy, but so wasted by 
 hunger that the work of fattening him will be a costly one. 
 Poor little fellow ! born to toil, and necessity, and peril ; stern 
 hunter as he already is, the lines of his fiice are still soft and 
 childlike. I think Ave understand one another better than our in- 
 congruities Avould imply. He has fallen asleep in a deer skin at 
 my feet. 
 
 "March 11, Simdaij. — The sick are not as bright as this 
 relief ought to make them. The truth is, they are fearfully 
 down. Neither poor Wilson nor Eiley could bear the meat, 
 and they both suffered excessive pain with fever from a nienl 
 that was very limited in quantity. Even the stoutest could 
 hardly bear their once solicited allowance of raw meat. I dis- 
 pensed it cautiously, for I knew the hazards ; but I am sure it 
 is to be the salvation of all of us. It gives a respite at any rate, 
 and we could not in reason ask for more. 
 
 " Hans is making a walrus-harpoon and line ; and, as soon as 
 he and Myouk have freshened a little, I shall send them back to 
 Anoatok in search of water-cracks. I am hard worked, getting 
 little rest, yet gratefully employed, for my people seem to thank 
 me. My cookery unfortunately shows itself on the smeared pages 
 of my journal. 
 
 "March VI, Mondai/. — The new tackle is finished. Myouk 
 had lost his ussuk-line upon the iceberg, but we supplied its 
 place Avith a light Manilla cord. Hans made the bonework of 
 his naligeit from the reindeer antlers which are abundant about 
 the lulls. They both rest to-night, and make an early start in 
 the morning for their working ground. 
 
 " The less severe cases on our sick list are beginning to feel the 
 influence of their new diet ; but Wilson and Brooks do not react. 
 Their inclination for food, or rather their toleration of it, is so 
 much impaired that they reject meat in its raw state, and when 
 cooked it is much less prompt and efficient in its action. My 
 mode of serving it out is this : — Each man has his saucer of 
 thinly sliced frozen walrus heart, with limejuice or vinegar, be- 
 fore breakfast ; at breakfast, blood gravy with wheaten bread ; at 
 dinner, steaks slightly stew . d or fried, without limit of quantity ; 
 
 i'ii 
 
 
DIET OF THE SICK. 
 
 307 
 
 as soon as 
 
 none at tea proper ; but at 8 p.m. a renewed allowance of raw chaptfr 
 Blices and vinegar. It shows how broken down the party is, that ^ ^^^" ' 
 under the appetizing stimulations of an Arctic sky all our conva- 
 lescents and well men together are content with some seven 
 pounds of meat. Their prostrate comrades are sustained by 
 brotk" 
 
 ESQUIMAUX WATCIIIKO A !iR.VI>. 
 
SOS 
 
 LINE OF OPEN WATER. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. * ' 
 
 LINE OF OPEN WATER — AWAHTOK — HIS FIRST BOKN — INSUBORDINATION — 
 THE PLOT — THE DEVELOPMENT — THE DESEBTION. 
 
 niid 
 Mvouk. 
 
 CHAPTER ^^ March 13, Tuesday.— 1 ^saWieil out with Hans and Myouk to 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 ' give them God speed. Myouk had made me dress his frosted feet 
 
 Depiufure ^yj|.j^ rabbit-fur swaddled witli alternate folds of flannel and warm 
 
 <ii llaiis 
 
 skins. The little scamp had not been so comfortable since his 
 accident. The dogs were only four in number, for 'Young 
 Whitey' had been used up at Etah ; but the load was light, and 
 !Myouk managed to get a fair share of riding. Hans, with the 
 consequential air of ' big Injin,' walked ahead. 
 
 " I enjoined on them extreme caution as to their proceedings. 
 They are to stretch over to the Bergy ground, of dismal associa- 
 tions, and to look for ice-cracks in the level channel way. Here, 
 where I so nearly lost my life, they will seek bears and v.'alrus, 
 and, if they fail, work their way downward to the south. They 
 sleep to-night in a snow-burrow, but hope to-morrow to reach 
 Anoatok. 
 
 '■^ March 15, TImrsday. — Hans and Myouk returned at eight 
 o'clock last night without game. Their sleep, in a snowdrift about 
 twenty miles to the northward, in a temperature of — 54'^, was not 
 comfortable, as might be expected. The marvel is how life sus- 
 tains itself in such circumstances of cold. I have myself slept in 
 an ordinary canvas tent without discomfort, yet without fire, at a 
 temperature of — 52°. 
 
 " Myouk was very glad to get back to my warm quarters ; but 
 Hans was chopfallen at the dearth of game. They found no open 
 water, but ice, ice, ice, as far to the north and east as the eye could 
 range from an iceberg elevation of eighty feet. It is the same 
 opposite Anoatok ; and, according to the Esquimaux, as far south 
 of Cape Alexander as a point opposite Akotloowick, the first Bafiin 
 Bay huts. Beyond this, in spite of the severity of the winter. 
 
 It is in the month of March, if at all during 
 the year, that the polynias are frozen up. Those of Refuge Bay 
 
 Sleep in a 
 snow drift. 
 
 An open 
 
 •ca beyond there is an open sea, 
 
 tlie ice. 
 
AWAHTOK. 
 
 309 
 
 IDINATIOU- 
 
 aiitl Littleton were open during the whole of last winter ; and, con- chapter 
 sideling how very severe the weather is now and has been for ^ ^•'^^' "' 
 months past, I question very .maoh if such extensive areas as the 
 so-called North Water ever close completely. 
 
 " Hans saw numerous tracks of bears ; and I have no doubt now Trucks of 
 hut that we can secure some of these animals before the seal sea- ^'^^'"*' 
 mm opens. One large beast pjissed in the night close by the snow- 
 I)urrow in which our would-be hunters were ensconced. They 
 followed his tracks in the morning; but the dogs were exhausted, 
 and the cold was excessive, and they wisely returned to the 
 brig. 
 
 " To-day we have finished burning our last Manilla Want of 
 
 hawser for fuel, the temperature remaining at the extraordinary " 
 mean of — 52°. Our next resort must be to the trebling of the 
 brig : Petersen — what remains of him, for the man's energies are 
 gone — is now at work cutting it off. It is a hard trial for me. 
 I have spared neither exertion, thought, nor suffering, to save the 
 sea-worthiness of our little vessel, but all to no end : she can 
 never bear us to the sea. Want of provisions alone, if nothing 
 else, will drive us from her ; for this solid case of nine-foot ice 
 cannot possibly give way until the late changes of fall, nor then 
 unless a hot summer and ?. retarded winter afterward allow the 
 winds to break up its iron casing. 
 
 " March 1 6, Friday. — We have just a scant two days' allow- Scarcity of 
 auce of meat for the sick. Hans has done his best ; but there is 
 nothing to be found on the hills ; and I fear that a long hunting 
 journey to the south is our only resource. 
 
 " Awahtok : I have often mentioned him as a plump, good- Awaiu.ik. 
 natured fellow. He was one of my attaches ; by which I mean 
 one of the many who stick to me like a plaster, in order to draw 
 or withdraw a share of the iron nails, hoops, buttons, and other 
 treasures which I represent. Awahtok always struck me as a 
 lazy, pleasant sort of fellow, a man who would be glad to bask in 
 sunsliine if he could find any. He has a young mfe of eighteen, 
 and he himself is but tv/enty-two. His hut is quite cleanly, and 
 we become his guests there with more satisfaction than at any 
 other hostel in the village of Etah. Awahtok is evidently happy 
 with his wife, and, the last time I saw him, was exulting over the 
 first pledge of their union, a fine little girL Well, all this about 
 
310 
 
 INSUBORDINATION. 
 
 niAPTER 
 
 xxxviir. 
 
 A clilld 
 
 liiii'lvd 
 
 allvu. 
 
 I'rcparn- 
 tloim lo'" 
 
 Suspicions 
 of two of 
 the men. 
 
 Necessary 
 WHtchful- 
 uees. 
 
 Awalitok ia a prelude to the fact that he haa just buried Inn 
 daughter alive under a pile of stones. 
 
 " Alyouk, who gave ns the news to-day, when delicately ques- 
 tioned as to the cause of this little family arrangement, answered, 
 with all simplicity of phrase, that the child had certain habits, 
 common, I believe, to all the varieties of infancy. 
 
 " The month is gliding on, but without any contributions to 
 science, though there are many things about me to suggest investi- 
 gation. 
 
 " It is as much as I can do to complete the routine of the days, 
 and enable them to roll into each other. What a dreary death in 
 life must bo that of a maid or man of all work ! 
 
 ^' March 17, Saturday. — I have been getting Hans ready for 
 the settlement, with a five-sinnet line of Maury's sounding-twine. 
 The natives to the south have lost nearly all their allunaks or 
 walrus-lines by the accidents of December or January, and will be 
 imable to replace tliem till the return of the seal. A good or even 
 serviceable allunak requires a whole ussuk to cut it from. It is 
 almost the only article whose manufacture seems to be conducted 
 by the Esquimaux with any care and nicety of process. Our 
 sounding-line will be a valuable contribution to them, and may, 
 perchance, like some more ostentatious charities, include the liberal 
 givers among those whom it principally blesses. 
 
 " March 18, Sunday. — I have a couple of men on board whose 
 former history I would give sometidiig to know, — bad fellows 
 both of them, but daring, energetic ;!rid strong. They gave me 
 trouble before we reached the coast Oi. Greenland ; and they keep 
 me constantly on the watch at this moment, for it is evident to 
 me that they have some secret object in view, involving probably 
 a desertion and escape to the Esquimaux settlements. They are 
 both feigning sickness this morning ; and, from what I have over- 
 lieard, it is with the view of getting thoroughly rested before a 
 start. Hans' departure with the sledge and dogs would give them 
 a fine chance, if they could only waylay him, of securing all our 
 fticiUties for travel ; and I should not be surprised if they tried to 
 compel him to go along with them. They cannot succeed in this 
 except by force. 
 
 " I am acting very guardedly with them. I cannot punish till 
 I have the evidence of an overt act. Nor can I trust the matte? 
 
THE PLOT DISCOVERED. 
 
 nil 
 
 to other liamls. It would not do to depress my sick party hy 
 disclosing a scheme which, if it could be carried out fully, uii^dit 
 be fatal to the whole of us. All this adds to my other duties 
 those of a detective policeman. I do not liiid them agreeable. 
 
 " March 19, Monday. — Hans got off at eleven. I have been all 
 light in my suspicions about John and Bill. They were intensely 
 iuixious to get together this morning, and I was etpudly resolved 
 to prevent any communication between them. I did this so inge- 
 niously that they did not suspect my motive, by devising some 
 outside duty for one or the other of them, and kee[)iiig his cotu- 
 rade in the plot at work under my own eye. Their impatience, 
 and cunning little resorts, to procure the chance of a word in pii- 
 vate, were quite amusing. It might be very far otherwise if they 
 could manage to rob us of our dogs and gain the Netllk settle- 
 ments. 
 
 " I hope the danger is over now. I shall keep the w^hole thing 
 to myself; for, situated as we are, even the frustration of a muti- 
 nous purpose had best be concealed from the party, 
 
 "Petersen brought in today five ptarmigan, a cheering day's 
 work, promising for the future, and allowing me to give an abun- 
 dant meal to the sickest, and sometliing to the sick. This is 
 enough to keep up the health-working impression of the fresh 
 meat diet. 
 
 " March 20, Ihiesday. — This morning I received information 
 from Stephenson that Bill had declared his intention of leaving 
 the brig to-day at some time unknown. John, being now really 
 lame, could not accompany him. This Stephenson overheard in 
 whispers during the night ; and, in faithful execution of his duty, 
 conveyed it to me. 
 
 " I kept the news to myself ; but there was no time to be lost. 
 William, therefore, was awakened at 6 A.M. — after my own night- 
 watch — and ordered to cook breakfast. Meantime I watched him. 
 At first he appeared troubled, and had several stealthily-whispered 
 interviews with John : finally his manner became more easy, and 
 he cooked and served our breakfast meal. I now felt convinced 
 that he would meet John outside as soon as lie could leave the 
 room, and that one or both would then desert. I therefore threw 
 on my furs and armed myself, made Bonsall and Morton ac- 
 quainted with my plans, and then, crawling out of our dark pass- 
 
 ciiArrrn 
 xxxs in. 
 
 Stl'lilolrilll 
 VeilhuU. 
 
 A snjuily 
 of (vcsli 
 meat 
 
 Tlie pln^ 
 discover- 
 eil. 
 
' 1 
 
 312 
 
 rnAPTKR 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 1 he plot 
 UuruHted. 
 
 Pin con- 
 fesses and 
 Is punish- 
 ed. 
 
 He de- 
 
 Burts. 
 
 PKSERTIOX. 
 
 age, concealed iny.self near it3 entrance. T had hardly vaited half 
 an hour, — pretty cold work too,— when John crawled out, limping 
 and grunting. Once fairly out, he looked furtively round, and 
 then, with a sigh of satisfaction, mounted our ricketty .step.s en- 
 tirely cured of liis lameness. Within ten minutes after lie had 
 gained the degk, the door opened agcain, and William made his 
 appearance, booted for travel and clad in bufl'alo. As he emerged 
 into the lioM, I confronted him. He was ordered at once to tlie 
 cabin ; and ^lorton was despatched on deck to compel the presence 
 of the third party ; while Mr. Bousall took his station at the door, 
 allowing no one to pass out. 
 
 " In a very few minutes John crawled back again, as lamo and 
 exhausted as when he was last below, yet growing lamer rapidly 
 as, recovering from the glare of the light, he saw the tableau. I 
 then explained the state of things to the little company, and de- 
 tailed step by step to the principals in the scene eveiy one of their 
 plans. 
 
 " Bill was the first to confess. I had prepared myself for the 
 emergency, and punished him on the spot. As he rose with some 
 difficulty, I detailed from the log-book the offences lie had com- 
 mitted, and adduced the proofs. 
 
 " The short-handed condition of the brig made me unable to 
 confine him ; therefore I deemed it best to remove his handcuffs, 
 to accept his protestations of i "iform, and put him again to work. 
 He accepted my lenity with abundant thanks, went to duty, and 
 in less than an hour deserted. I was hunting at the time, but the 
 watch reported his having first been discovered on the ice-foot, 
 and out of presenting distance. His intention undoubtedly is to 
 reach Etah Bay, and, robbing Hans of sledge and dogs, proceed 
 south to Netlik. 
 
 " Sliould he succeed, the result will be a heavy loss to us. The 
 dogs are indispensable in the hunt ana in transporting us to Anoa- 
 tok. The step, however, is not likely to be successrul. At all 
 events, he is off, and I regret that duty hc\ ^y i joicing at 
 
 his departure. John remains wit! )sely wat aed, but appa- 
 
 rently sincere in his protestatit jsoiute refu' " 
 
COLLOQUY IN THE BUNKS. 
 
 318 
 
 CHArTEIl XXXIX. 
 
 roU.OQUT IJf THE BUNKS— WINTER TKAVEL — PREPARATIONS— nEINDi:KB 
 FEEDINQ OHOUNUS— TERRACED BEACliES— A WALK— OCCUPATIONS, 
 
 ^^ March 21, Wednesdai/. — On tUi.s day one year ago Mr. Brooks 
 aiul his party were frozen up in the hiiniiiioL-ks. The habit 
 of comparing the condition of two periods, oi balancing the 
 thoughts and hopes of one with the realized experience of tlie 
 other, seems to me a very unprofitable one. It interferes with 
 the practical executive spirit of a man, to mix a bright and hoppy 
 past with a dim and doubtful present. It's a maudlin piece of 
 work at best, and I'll none of it. 
 
 " But listen to poor Brooks there, talking. He is sitting up, 
 congratidating himself that he can nearly straigliten his worst leg. 
 ' Well, Mr. Ohlsen, I thought we would never get through them 
 hummocks. You k.iow we unloaded three times ; now, I would 
 not say it then, but seeing I am down I'll tell you. When we 
 laid down the last pemmican-casc, I went behind the ice, and 
 duu't remember nothing till Petersen called me into the tent. I 
 think I must have strained somethhig, and gone oflF like in a kind 
 of fit.' 
 
 " Ohlsen, who is as self-absorbed a man as I ever knew, replies 
 by stathig that his boots pinched hira ; to which poor Brooks, 
 never dAvelling long on his own troubles, says in a quiet, soliloquiz- 
 ing way, ' Yes, and Baker's boots pinched him too ; but it wasn't 
 tlie boots, but the killing cold outside of them. There was 
 Pierre, — his boots were moccasins, with deer-skin foot-rags, but 
 lie died of cold for all that; and there's Mr. Wilson and me, both 
 hanging on in neither one way nor t'other ; it's a question v. hich 
 of us lasts the longest.' M'Gary another bedridden, but con- 
 valescent, I hope, here raises himself on his elbows and checks 
 Brooks for being so down in the mouth ; and Brooks, after a 
 growling rejoinder, improves his merry reminiscences by turning 
 to me. 
 
 " ' Captain Kane, five nights to come one year, you came in 
 
 nilAVTEII 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Coiiiliaii- 
 
 Colloquy 
 betwffii 
 llrookM 
 lUUl Olil- 
 sen. 
 
 Itemliiiv 
 
 CUIlCfS. 
 
314 
 
 WINTER TRAVEL. 
 
 ! I 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Kcmein- 
 lirances of 
 past times. 
 
 Winter 
 ti'uvcl. 
 
 Prospects 
 of the 
 deserter. 
 
 upon four of us down as flat as flounders. I didn't look at your 
 boots, but I know you wore Esquimaux ones. It was a hard 
 walk for you, the greatest tlung I ever heard tell oS"; but' — here 
 he begins to soliloquize — ' Baker s dead, Pierre's dead, and Wilsuii 
 and I — '. 'Shut up, Brooks, shut up!' I broke in, wlii^per- 
 ing across the boards that separated our blankets ; * you will make 
 the patients uncomfortable.' But no; the old times were strong 
 upon him; he did not speak loud, but he caught me by botli 
 hands, and said, in his low bass, quiet tones, • Doctor, you cried 
 when you saw us, and didn't pull up till we jabbed the stopper 
 down the whisky-tin and gave you a tot of it.' 
 
 " The general tone of the conversation around is like this speci- 
 men. I am glad to hear my shi[)mate3 talking together again, 
 for we have of late been silent. The last year's battle commenced 
 at this time a year ago, and it is natural the men should recall it. 
 Had I succeeded in pushing my party across the bay, our success 
 would have been unequalled ; it wa.s the true plan, the best- con- 
 ceived, and in fact the only one by which, after the death of my 
 dogs, I could hope to carry on the search. The temperatures were 
 frightful, — 40° to — 5G^ ; but my experience of last year on the 
 rescue-party, w^here we travelled eighty miles in sixty odd hours, 
 almost without a halt, yet without a frost-bite, shows that sucli 
 temperatures are no obstacle to travel, provided you have the 
 necessary practical knowledge of the equipment and conduct of 
 your party. I firmly believe that no natural cold as yet known 
 can arrest travel. The whole story of this winter illustrates it. 
 I have both sledged and walked sixty and seventy miles over the 
 roughest ice, in repeated journeys, at fifty degrees below zero, and 
 the two parties from the south reached our brig in the dead of 
 winter, after being exposed for three hundred miles to the same 
 horrible cold. 
 
 " The day has been beautifully clear, and so mild that our mid- 
 day thermometers gave but 7°. This bears badly upon the deser- 
 tion of Godfrey, for the probabilities are that he will find Hans'.s 
 buffalo-robe at the hut, and thus sleep and be refreshed. In that 
 case, he can easily reach the Esquimaux of Etali Bay, and may 
 as easily seize upon the sledge-dogs, rifle, and trading articles. 
 The consequences of such an act would be very disastrous ; nearly 
 all my hopes of lifting the sick, and therefore of escaping in boats 
 
 ■ ' i 
 
PRIVATIONS AMD LABOURS. 
 
 315 
 
 't look at your 
 [t was a hard 
 Bf; but' — here 
 id, and Wilson 
 3 in, wliipper- 
 you will make 
 es were stroii<r 
 t me by both 
 ctor, you cried 
 d the stopper 
 
 like this speci- 
 ogethei again, 
 le commenced 
 lould recall it. 
 ly, our success 
 , the best- con- 
 death of my 
 peratures were 
 iSt year on the 
 :ty odd hours, 
 ws that sucli 
 you have the 
 id conduct of 
 as yet known 
 illustrates it. 
 miles over the 
 ilow zero, and 
 the dead of 
 3 to the same 
 
 that our mid- 
 )on the deser- 
 11 find Hans'.s 
 lied. In tiiat 
 3ay, and may 
 ding articles. 
 ;rou3 ; nearly 
 ping in boats 
 
 to the south, rest upon these dogs. By them only can we hunt 
 bear and early seal, or rapidly transport ourselves to the tide-holes 
 (polynia) of the spring, where we can add water-fowl to our game 
 list. I am entirely without a remedy. We cannot pursue him, 
 nor could we well have prevented liis escape; it is the most cul- 
 pable desertion I ever knew or heard of. Bonsall, Petersen, and 
 myself are the only men now on board who can work for tlie rest. 
 Save the warnings of a secret trouble, the fox gnawing under the 
 jacket, I do better than the rest ; but I bear my fox. Bonsall is 
 evidently more disabled. 
 
 ''March 22, Thursdai/. — Petersen's ptarmigan are all gone (five 
 of them), and of the rabbit but two rations of eight ounces each 
 remain. We three, Bonsall, Petersen, and myself, have made up 
 our minds to walk up ilary River Ravine until we reach the deer 
 plains, and there separate and close in upon them. To-day is 
 therefore a busy one, for we must prei)are beforehand the entire 
 daily requirements of the sick : the ice for melting water must be 
 cut in blocks and laid near the stove; the wood, of which it 
 requires one entire day to tear enough out for two days, must be 
 chopped and piled witliin arm-reach; the bread must be cooked 
 and the provisions arranged, before we can leave our comrades. 
 When we three leave the brig, there will not be a single able man 
 on board. M'Gary is able to leave his bed and stump about a 
 little ; but this is all. Need the dear home-folks, who may some 
 day read this, wonder that I am a little careworn, and that I leave 
 til! brig with reluctance? Of we three God-supported men, each 
 has his own heavy load of sturvy. 
 
 "Afarch 22>, Fnday. — We started this morning, overworked and 
 limping, rather as men ending a journey than beginning one. After 
 four hours of forced walking, we reached the reindeer feeding 
 grounds, but were too late ; the animals had left at least two hour^ 
 before our arrival. An extensive rolling country, rather a lacus- 
 trine plain than a true i)lateau, was covered witli traces of life. 
 The snow had been turned up in patches of four or five yards in 
 diameter, by the hoofs of the reindeer, over areas of twenty or fifty 
 acres. The extensive levels were studded with them ; and wherever 
 we examined the ground surface it was covered with grasses and 
 destitute of lichens. We scouted it over the protruding syenites, 
 and found a couple of ptarmigan and three hares ; these we secured. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Evil con- 
 8uqiiciic(.'a 
 of tlie dc- 
 surtioii. 
 
 Waul of 
 food ami 
 pliMity of 
 work. 
 
 Start on a 
 JouriK/. 
 
 ReliKleor 
 
 fwOiiiK 
 
 grouudSb 
 
316 
 
 TERRACED BEACHES. 
 
 CHAPTEP. 
 XXXIX. 
 
 A long 
 Walk. 
 
 Terraced 
 beaches. 
 
 S ' 
 
 A Isrjte 
 twuldur. 
 
 " Our little party reached the brig in the evening, after a wall< 
 over a heavy snow-lined country of thirty miles. Nevertheless, I 
 had a walk full of instructive material The frozen channel of 
 Mary River abounds in noble sections and scenes of splendid 
 wildness and desolation, I am too tired to epitomize here my 
 note-book's record ; but I may say that the opportunity which I 
 had to-day of comparing the terrace and boulder lines of Mary 
 River and Charlotte Wood Fiord enables me to assert positively 
 the interesting fact of a secular elevation of the crust, commencint; 
 at some as yet undetermined point north of 76°, and continuin.c; 
 to the Great Glacier and the high northern latitudes of Grinnell 
 Land. Tliis elevation, as connected with the equally well sus- 
 tained depression of the Greenland coast south of Kingatok, is in 
 interesting keeping with the same undulating alternation on the 
 Scandinavian side. Certainly there seems to be in the localities of 
 these elevated and depressed areas a systematic compensation. 
 
 " I counted to-day forty -one distinct ledges or shelves of terra' 'c 
 embraced between our water-line and the syenitic ridges through 
 which Mary River forces itself. These shelves, though sometimes 
 merged into each other, presented distinct and recognisable em- 
 bankments or escarps of elevation. Their surfaces were at a nearly 
 uniform inclination of descent of 5", and their breadth either 
 twelve, twenty-four, thirty-six, or some other multiple of twelve 
 paces. This imposing series of ledges carried you in forty-one 
 gigantic steps to an elevation of 480 feet ; and, as the first rudi- 
 ments of these ancient beaches left the granites which had once 
 formed tlie barrier sea-coast, you could trace them passing from 
 drift-strewn rocky barricades to cleanly-defined and gracefully- 
 curved shelves of shingle and peebles. I have studies of these 
 terraced beaches at various jioints on the northern coast of Green- 
 land. They are more imposing and on a larger scale than those 
 of Wellington Channel, which are now regarded by geologists as 
 indicative of secular uplift of coast. As these strange structures 
 wound in long spirals around the headlands of the fiords, they 
 reminded me of the pantUel roads of Glen Roy, — a comparison 
 which I make rather from general resemblance than ascertained 
 analogies of causes. 
 
 " There is a boulder ten miles from our brig, say seven from the 
 coast, — a mass of rounded syenite — at an altitude of 1100 feet, 
 
OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 3i: 
 
 resting, entirely isolated, upon coarse sandstone; its cnbical con- chapter 
 
 tents cannot be less than sixty tons. Tired as I am by this hard '_ ' 
 
 ^^•alk, I feel that it has rewarded me well. It was too cold for the 
 pocket-sextant; but I managed to sketch in such features of the 
 opposite coast as were not marked in our charts of last August. The inland 
 I had a full view of the inland glacier throughout a linear trend of ^ ^'^ ^'^' 
 twenty miles. I can measure the profitless non-observing routine 
 of the pa.st winter by my joy at this first break in upon its dradgery. 
 (lod knows I had laid do^vn for myself much experimental obser- 
 vation, and some lines of what I hoped would be valuable travel 
 and search ; but I am thankful that I am here, able to empty a 
 .slop-bucket or rub a scurvied leg. 
 
 " My people had done well during my absence, and welcomed 
 me back impressively. 
 
 " March 24, Saturday. — Our yesterday's ptarmigan gave the Ptanra- 
 most sick a raw ration, and to-day we killed a second pair, which ^"^ ^ "■ • 
 will serve them for to-morrow. To my great joy, they seem on that 
 limited allowance to hold their ground. I am the only man now 
 who fccents the fresh meat without tasting it. I actually long for 
 it, but am obliged to give way to the sick. 
 
 " Yesterday's walk makes my scorbutized muscles very stiff. I 
 went through my routine of labour, and, as usual in this strange 
 ilisease, worked off my stiffness and my pain. 
 
 " Bonsall and Petersen are now woodmen, preparing our daily Chopping 
 fuel. My own pleasant duty consists in chopping from an iceberg ice, &c. 
 six half -bushel bagfuls of frozen water, carrying it to the brig and 
 passing it through the scuttle into our den; in emptying by 
 throe several jobs some twelve to fifteen bucketfuls from the slop- 
 barrel ; in administering both as nurse and physician to fourteen 
 .sick men ; in helping to pick eider-down from its soil .as material 
 for boat-bedding; in writing this wretched daily record, eating my 
 meals, sleeping my broken sleeps, and feeling that the days pass 
 without congenial occupation or improving pursuit. 
 
 " Hans has not returned. I give him two days more before I Fears f(.r 
 f;ill in with the opinion which some seem to entertain, th.at God- jaij.ty. 
 frey has waylaid or seized upon his sledge. This wretched man has 
 l>een the very bane of the cruise. My conscience tells me that almost 
 any measure .against him would be justifiable as a relief to the rest ; 
 but an instinctive aversion to extreme measures binds my hands." 
 
318 
 
 THE DELECTABLE MOUNTAIN'S. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 THE DELECTABLE srOUNTAINS— REVIEW OP MAKCH— THE DESERTER AOaIX 
 
 — uis ESCAPE— Godfrey's meat— convalescent. 
 
 CHAPTER « 
 XL. 
 
 i .'! 
 
 A cheer- 
 less Sun- 
 day. 
 
 Rpfiiic- 
 tiuii. 
 
 Tlie De- 
 lectable 
 Sloun- 
 tuins. 
 
 March 25, Sunday. — A hard-working, busy Sunday it has been, 
 — a cheerless, scurvy-breeding day; and n6w by the midnight, 
 which is as it were the evening of its continued hght, I read tlie 
 tliermometers unaided except by the crimson fires of the northern 
 horizon. It is, moreover, cold again, — 37°, and the enemy has a 
 harder grip on my grasshopper. Bonsall and Kane took the entire. 
 home-work on themselves to-day, that Petersen might have a 
 chance of following rabbit-tracks up Mary River. He succeeded in 
 shooting one large hare and a couple of ptarmigan, — thus giving 
 our sick a good allowance for one day more. 
 
 " Refraction with all its magic is back upon us ; the ' Delectable 
 ^lountains ' appear again ; and, as the sun has now worked his 
 way to the margin of the north-western horizon, we can see the 
 blaze stealing out from the black portals of these uplifted lulls, as 
 if there were truly beyond it a celestial gate. 
 
 " I do not know what preposterous working of brain led me to 
 compare this north-western ridge to Bunyan's Delectable Moun- 
 tains ; but there was a time, only one year ago, when I used to 
 gaze upon them with an eye of real longing. Ver}' often, when they 
 rose phantom-like into the sky, I would plan schemes by which to 
 reach them, work over mentally my hard pilgrimage across the 
 ice, and my escape from Doubting Castle to this scene of triunipli 
 and reward. Once upon your coasts, inaccessible mountains, I 
 would reach the Northern Ocean and gather together the remnants 
 of poor Franklin's company. These would be to me the orchards, 
 and vineyards, and running fountains. The 'Lord of the Hill 
 would see in me a pilgrim.' * Leaning upon our staves, as is com- 
 lion with weary pilgrims when they stand to talk with any by the 
 way,' we would look down upon an open Polar Sea, refulgent with 
 northern sunshine. 
 
 " I did try to gain these summits ; and when I think of poor 
 
REVIEW OF MARCH. 
 
 319 
 
 e * Delectable 
 
 Baker's and Pierre's death, of my own almost fatalistic anxiety to cuaptkr 
 cross the frozen sea, and of the terrible physical trial by which we _^^' 
 s:ived our advance party, I cannot helpdwelling, as something curious nimynii's 
 
 1 1 • 1 Tt ) 1 • T explorers. 
 
 ill its likeness, on another scene which Bunyan s explorers witnessed 
 among the Delectable ^Mountains. ' They hied them first to the 
 top of a hill called EiTor, which was very steep on the furthest 
 !>ide. So Christian and Hopeful looked down, and saw at the 
 bottom se' "iral men dashed all to pieces by a fall which they had 
 from the top. 
 
 " ' Then said the shepherds, " More than you see lie dashed to 
 pieces at the bottom of this mountain — and have continued to this 
 day unburied, for an example to others to take heed how they 
 clamber too high, or how they come too near to the brink of this 
 mountain." ' 
 
 ''March 31, Saturday. — This month, badly aa its daily record 
 reads, is upon review a cheering one. We have manaf;ed to get 
 enough game to revive the worst of our scurvy patients, and have iropes of 
 kept in regular movement the domestic wheel of shipboard. Our 
 troubles have been greater than at any time before ; perhaps I 
 ought to say they are greatest as the month closes ; but whatever 
 of misery Bonsall, and Petersen, and myself may have endure'd, it 
 seems nearly certain now that at least four men will soon be able to 
 relieve us. Brooks, M'Gary, Riley, and Thomas have seen the 
 cri.sis of their malady, and, if secured from relapse, will recover 
 rapidly. Ohlsen also is better, but slow to regain his powers. 
 But the rest of the crew are still down. 
 
 " The game season, besides, is drawing nearer ; and, once able to 
 shoot seal upon the ice, I have little fears for the recovery of the 
 larger portion of our party. Perhaps I am too sanguine ; for it is 
 clear that those of us who have till now sustained the others are 
 bogiiming to sink. Bonsall can barely walk in the morning, and Severe ni- 
 his logs become stiffer daily ; Petersen gives way at the ankles ; "^^" 
 and I suffer much from the eruption, a tormenting and anomalous 
 symptom, which affects eight of our sick. It has many of the 
 characteristics ox exanthemata ; but is singularly persistent, varied 
 in its phases, and possibly in its result dangerous. 
 
 " The moral value of this toilsome month to myself has been i-p*'"" of 
 the lesson of sympathy it has taught me > ith the labouring man. 
 The fatigue, and disgust, and secret trials of the overworked 
 
320 
 
 THE DESERTER AGAIN. 
 
 I ■! 
 
 C'lAPTER 
 XI,. 
 
 l!e np- 
 pearunce 
 of the 
 (lusertcr. 
 
 I'll story. 
 
 His c»- 
 
 Anxiety 
 about 
 
 brain are bad enough, but not to me more severe than those wliidi 
 follow the sick and jaded body to a sleepless bed. I have realized 
 the sweat of the brow, and can feel how painful his earnings must 
 be to whom the grasshopper has become a burden. 
 
 " Aptil 2, Monday. — At eleven o'clock this morning !Mr. Bonsall 
 reported a man about a mile from the brig, apparently lurking on 
 the ice-foot. I thought it was Hans, and we both went for- 
 ward to meet him. As we drew closer we discovered our sledge 
 and dog-team near where he stood ; but the man turned and ran 
 to the south, 
 
 " I pursued him, leaving Mr. Bonsall, who carried a Sharpo 
 rifle, behind ; and the man, whom I now recognised to be God- 
 frey, seeing me advance alone, stopped and met me. He told mo 
 that he had been to the south as far as Northumberland Island ; 
 that Hans was lying sick at Etah, in consequence of exposure ; 
 that he himself had made up his mind to go back and spend the 
 rest of his life with Kalutunah and the Esquimaux ; and that 
 neither persuasion nor force should divert him from this pur- 
 pose. 
 
 " Upon my presenting a pistol, I succeeded in forcing him back 
 to the gangway of the brig; but he refused to go further; and 
 being loath to injure him, I left him under the guardianship of 
 Mr, Bonsall's weapon while I went on board for irons ; for both 
 Bonsall and myself were barely able to walk, and utterly incapabla 
 of controlling him by manual force, and Petersen was out hunting ; 
 the rest, thirteen in all, are down with scurvy. I had just reached 
 the deck when he turned to run. Mr. Bonsall's pistol failed at 
 the cap. I jumped at once to the gun-stand ; but my first rifle, 
 afiected by the cold, went off in the act of cocking, and a second, 
 aimed in haste at long, but practicable distance, missed the fugi- 
 tive. He made good his escape before we could lay hold of 
 another weapon. 
 
 " I am now more anxious than ever about Hans. The past 
 conduct of Godfrey on board, and his mutinous desertion, make 
 me aware that he is capable of daring wrong as well as deception. 
 Hans has been gone more than a fortnight ; he has been used to 
 making the same journey in less than a week. His sledge .xnd 
 dogs came back in the possession of the very man whom I suspected 
 of an intention to waylay him ; and this man, after being driven 
 
A SEASONABLE SUPPLY. 
 
 321 
 
 s ; for both 
 
 liy menaces to the ship's side, perils his life rather than place him- 
 self in my power on board of her. 
 
 " Yet he came back to our neighbourhood voluntarily, witli sledge 
 and dogs and ■\valnis-meat ! Can it have been that John, his 
 former partner in the plot, was on the look-out for him, and had 
 engaged liis aid to consummate their joint desertion 1 
 
 " One thing is plain. This man at large and his comrade still 
 on board, the safety of tlie whole company exacts the sternest 
 observance of discipline. I have called all hands, and announced 
 it as a standing order of the ship, and one to be observed inflexibly, 
 that desertion, or the attempt to desert, shall be met at once by 
 the sternest penalty. I have no alternative. By the body of my 
 crew, sick, dependent, unable to move, and with everything to lose 
 by the withdrawal of any portion of our efficient force, tliis an- 
 nouncement was received as a guarantee of their personal safety. 
 But it was called for by other grave considerations. There is at 
 this time on the part of all, men as well as officers, a warm feeling 
 toward myself, and a strict, stanch fidelity to the expedition. But, 
 for moral reasons wliich would control me, even if my impulse 
 were different, I am constrained for the time to mingle among 
 them without reserve, to act as a scn'ant to their wants, to encou- 
 rage colloquial equality and good Immour; and, looking only a 
 little way ahead to the juncture when a perfectly-regulated subor- 
 dination will become essential, I know that my present stand will 
 be of value. 
 
 " This sledge-load of Godfrey's meat, coming as it does, may 
 well be called a Godsend : one may forgive the man in considera- 
 tion of the good Avhicli it has done us all. We have had a regular 
 feed all round, and exult to think we need no catering for the 
 morrow. It has cheered our downhearted sick men wonderfully. 
 Our brew of beer, too, — the ' Arctic Linseed Mucilage Adai)tation,' 
 — turns out excellent. Our grunts and growls are really begin- 
 ning to have a good-natured twang. Our faces lessen as our sha- 
 dows promise to increase. I think I see a change whicli points to 
 the happier future. 
 
 " Our sick, however, are still non-o])eratives, and our one room 
 is like the convalescent ward of an hospital, with Bonsall and my- 
 self for the only nurses.'' 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XL. 
 
 Necessity 
 of sti'iit 
 disciiillnu 
 
 Value of 
 the surv'y 
 of frcsli 
 mejit. 
 
 Convalc- 
 
 CCllt WikiJ. 
 
n22 
 
 ROUTINE OF A DAY IN SPRIKO. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 OIUPTER 
 XLI. 
 
 up. 
 
 nreakfttst 
 
 ROUTINE— OETTIXG CP — BKEAKPA8T -WORK — TURNING IN — HANS STILL 
 MISSING — THE liETEUMINATION. 
 
 " April 3, Tuesday. — To-day I detained Petersen from his limit, 
 and took a holiday rest myself, — that is to say, went to bed and 
 — sweated : to-morrow I promise as much for Bonsall. 
 
 " While here in bed I will give the routine of a day in this 
 spring-time of year : — 
 
 "At 7.30 call 'all hands;' which means that one of the well 
 trio wakes the other two. This order is obeyed slowly. The com- 
 mander confesses for himself that the breakfast is well-nigh upon 
 table before he gets his stiff ankles to the floor. Looking around, 
 he sees the usual mosaic of sleepers as ingeniously dovetailed and 
 crowded together as the campers-out in a buffalo-bag. He winds 
 his way through them, and, as he d(ies so, some stereotyped 
 remarks are interchanged. * Thomas ! ' — our ex-cook, now side 
 by side wiLu the first officer of the p:?:i^edition, — ' Thomas, turn 
 out!' ' Eugh-ng, sir.' 'Turn out; get up.' 'Ys-sir;' (sits bolt 
 upright, and rubs his eyes.) 'How d' you feel, " Ohlsen?' 
 ' Better, sir.' 'How've you passed the night, Mr, Brooks'? ' * Mid- 
 dlin', sir.' And, after a diversified series of spavined efforts, tlie 
 mystical number forms its triangle at the table. 
 
 " It still stands in its simple dignity, an unclothed platform of 
 boards, with a pile of plates in the centre. Near these is a vir- 
 tuoso collection of cups grouped in a tumulus or cairn, commencing 
 philosophically at the base with heavy stoneware, and ending witli 
 battered tin : the absolute pinnacle a debased dredging-box, which 
 makes a bad goblet, being unpleasantly sharp at its rim. At one 
 end of this table, partly hid by the beer-barrel, stands Petersen ; 
 at the side, Bonsall ; and a lime-juice cask opposite marks my 
 seat. We are all standing : a momentary hush is made among tlie 
 sick : and the daily prayer comes with one heart : — ' Accept our 
 gratitude, and restore us to our homes.' 
 
BREAKFAST. 
 
 323 
 
 -HANS STILt 
 
 )m his hunt, 
 
 it to bed .111(1 
 
 [. 
 
 I day in this 
 
 3 of the well 
 y. The coiii- 
 iU-nigh upon 
 )king iiround. 
 ovetailed and 
 T. He winds 
 ! stereotyped 
 )k, now side 
 homas, turn 
 ir ]' (sits bolt 
 M-. Ohlsenl' 
 loksr 'Mid- 
 d efforts, the 
 
 d platform (if 
 hese is a vir- 
 , commencing 
 1 ending witli 
 ig-box, whi(^li 
 rim. At one 
 ids Petersen; 
 te marks my 
 de among tlio 
 -' Accept our 
 
 " 'flie act of devotion over, we sit down, and look — not at the ciiapteh 
 breakfast, but at each other. ^'•'' 
 
 " It may sound absurd to those who cannot understand the nar- netuu of 
 rowing interest which we three availables feel in our continued of'i'|'i',',e"|,'* 
 mutual ability, for me to say that we spend the first five minutes 
 in a detail of symptoms. Tlie state of each man's gums, and shins, 
 and ankles, his elbows, loins, and kidneys, is canvassed minutoly 
 and compared with his yesterday's report : the recital might edify 
 a specialist who was anxious to register the Protean indications of 
 scurvy. It is sometimes ludicrous, but always sad. 
 
 "Now for the bill of fare. * Who cooked'?' I am describing a 
 gala-day. ' It was Morton : he felt so much better that he got up 
 at six ; but he caved in soon after :' — 
 
 " Fir.st, coffee, great comforter to liard- worked men ; one part of Duinffuia 
 the genuine berry to three of navy -beans ; next, sugar ; w hat com- 
 l)lex memories the word brings back ! — the veritable sugar has 
 been long ago defunct ; but we have its representative molasses 
 twice a week in our tea. Third, butter ; there it is in a mutilated 
 vegetuble-dish ; my own invention, melted from salt beef and 
 washed in many waters: the unskilled might call it tallow. Fourth, 
 a real delicacy, not to be surpassed in court or camp, for Morton 
 was \ip to see to it, — a pile of hot rolls of line Virginia flour. What 
 else % Notliing else : the breakfast resolves itself into bean-cofiee, 
 tallow, and hot bread. Yet a cordial meal it is. I am sorry to 
 hurry over it so uncourteously, for I could dwell with Charles 
 Lamb's pensive enthusiasm upon the flesh-pots ; but I have been 
 longer in describing the feast than it takes us to dispose of it. I 
 hurry on with the interesting detail. Diimer is breakfast, with 
 the beans converted into soup instead of coffee ; and supper boasts 
 of stewed apples. 
 
 " Work commences at nine. Petersen is off with his gim, and woik. 
 the two remaining dearly-beloved Ilogers arrange their carte : one 
 makes the round of the sick and deals out their daUy allowance of « 
 raw meat; the other goes to cutting ice. Those win* can sit in 
 bed and work, pick eider-down or cotton, for coverlets to our boat- 
 bedding on the escape ; others sew canvas bags for the same pur- 
 pose ; and Brooks balls off twine in order to lay up ' small stuff.' 
 
 " At times when the sun comes out very brightly. Brooks and 
 Wilson get permiss'on to go on deck. One of ua assists them, 
 
l! I 
 
 324 
 
 HANS STILL MIS8IN0. 
 
 CHAPTEK 
 XU. 
 
 lii'JdlclnK 
 In tliu (lay- 
 light 
 
 A time of 
 rest. 
 
 Affer»u;)- 
 per. 
 
 linns still 
 missing. 
 
 Hit !il|| 
 
 and, by tlie aid of creeping and crawling, these poor cripples 
 manage to sit upon the combings of tlie hatcli and look around in 
 the glorious daylight. The sight seldom fails to affect them. 
 There are emotions among rude, roughly-nurtured men A.'hich vent 
 themselves in trao poetry. Brooks has about him sensibilities that 
 shame me. 
 
 " The afternoon, save to the cook, is a season of rest ; a real 
 lazy, lounging interval, arrested by the call to supper. The coming 
 night-watch obliges me to take an evening cat-nap. I state this 
 by way of implying that I never sleep o' daytimes. 
 
 " After supper, we have a better state of things than two weeks 
 ago. Then the few tired outworkers were regiiled by the groans 
 and tossings of the si:k. There was little conversation, and the 
 physiognomy of our smoke-blackened little den was truly dismal. 
 Now daylight pours in from the ;cuttle, the tea-kettle sings upon 
 the stove, tlie convalescents ri o up on their elbows and spin 
 merry yarns. We are not yet f afficiently jolly for cards ; but wo 
 are sufficiently thankful to do without them. At nine, silence 
 almost unbroken prevails throughout out dormitory, and the watch- 
 officer slips on his bear-skin, and, full of thoughts of to-morrow, 
 resigns himself to a round of little routine observances, the most 
 worthless of wliich is this unbroken record of the changing 
 days. 
 
 " Ajyril 6, Friday. — Our little family is growing more and more 
 uneasy about Hans. William reported him sick at Etah ; but we 
 had no faith in this story, and looked on his absence as merely 
 the result of fatigue from exposure. But there really seems ground 
 for serious .apprehension now. My own fear is that William may 
 have conveyed to him some false message, or some threat or re- 
 proof, using my name, and in this way deterred him from returning. 
 Hans is very faithful; but he is entirely unaware of William's 
 desertion, and he is besides both credulous and sensitive. I am 
 , attached to Hans : he lias always been a sort of henchman, a 
 body-guard, the companion of my walks. He is a devout Moravian; 
 and when the party withdrew from the brig last fall he refused to 
 accompany them on grounds of religious obligation. The boy has 
 fixed, honourable principles. Petersen thinks that he ought to be 
 sent for, but he has not thought out the question who is to be 
 sent. Bonsall is too lame to travel ; Petersen himself is infinitely 
 
OUK DETERMINATION TO SEEK FOR HANS. 
 
 32/[ 
 
 the best fitted, but he shirks the duty, and to-day he takea to 
 hi-s bed : I alono. am left. 
 
 " Clearly duty to tliis poor boy calls me to seek him, and clearly 
 duty to these dependent men calls upon me to stay. Long and 
 nncomtbrtably have I jiondcrcd over these opposing calls, but nt 
 last have come to a determination. Hans was faith tul to me: 
 the danger to him is imminent; the danger to those left behind 
 only contingent upon my failure to return. With earnest trust in 
 that same supervising Agency which has no often before in graver 
 Ktraits interfered to protect and carry me through, I have resolved 
 to go after Hans. 
 
 " The orders are given. In three hours I will be equipjied and 
 ready to take advantage of the first practicable moment for the 
 start. It makes me write gravely j for I am far from well, very 
 far from strong, and am obliged to drive our reduced team twice 
 seventy miles. The latter half of the journey I shall have to do 
 entirely on foot, and our lowest night-temperatures are under 
 —40°." 
 
 CIIAVTEa 
 XLI. 
 
 Confllct- 
 
 illg dUtU'H. 
 
 Thfi .If. 
 cluiuii. 
 
32A 
 
 JOURNEY AFTER HANS. 
 
 01' 'TKR 
 
 .iDnrney 
 aftt-r Huns. 
 
 Outfit. 
 
 Provi- 
 klons. 
 
 CHAPTER XLir. 
 
 JOCRNEY AFTER UANR -E8QDTMAUX 8LEUOINO— HANS FOUND — RECEI'TO 
 AMICO — KXPLAV.M'ION— FURTHKR REARCU— MATURINO PI,AN8— CHANCES 
 OP ESCAPE— >'()0D PLENTY — PAUUK— FAMINE AMONQ THE ESQUIMAUX- - 
 EXTINCTIOV -LIGHT HEARTS — DESERTER RECOVERED. 
 
 *^ April, 10, Tuesdai/. — I left the brig at 10^ a.m., with but five 
 dogs .'Aid a load so light .as to be hardly felt. 
 
 *' It requires some suggestive incident to show us how we have 
 :;iadually become as.similated in our habits to the necessities of our 
 peculiar life. Such an incident I find in my equipment. Compare 
 it with similar sledge-outfits of last winter, and you will see that 
 we are now more than half Esquimaux. It consists of — 
 
 " 1. One small sledge, five feet six by two. 
 
 " 2. An extra jumper and sack-pants for sleeping. 
 
 " 3. A ball of raw walrus-meat. — This is all. 
 
 " The fclcdge is portable, and adapted to jump over the chasms 
 of the land-ice, iind to overturn with impunity, save to the luck- 
 less driver. It has two standards, or, as we call them, " up- 
 standers," which spring like elbows from its hinder extremity. 
 
 " They serve as handles, by which, running or walking behind, 
 you guide the sledge, lift it over rugged places, or rest yourself and 
 your dogs while in progress together. 
 
 " The extra jumper is a bear-skin jacket, or rather shirt, which, 
 after being put on is overlapped at the waist by a large pair of 
 footed trousers. No wdnter traveller should be without these : — 
 at temperatures below — 25° or — 30° they are invaluable. Blanket- 
 bags are nearly useless below — 30°, in a gale of wind ; it riddles 
 through them. 
 
 " The ball of raw meat is made by chopping into inch-pieces 
 walrus or othe? meat, and pouring among it hot tallow, by which 
 the pieces are prevented from freezing too hard, so that you can 
 readily cut out your meal as it ia required. A little butter, if you 
 have some, will contribute to soften it : olive-oil perhaps would be 
 better ; but without some such luxurious additions a man in wh) 
 
HANS FOUND. 
 
 327 
 
 r., with but five 
 
 p-eat a liuny for dinner might bo apt to ri.sk hiw teeth. In tho chaptkh 
 jireacnt journey, having nothing but taUow, I niadc my moat-ball ^]^ 
 like a twist-loaf, and bn)ko it with a Htone. 
 
 " I have no incidents to record in the shape of disaster. iSly a rapid 
 dogs were in excellent condition, and the ice good for travel. Jj^'''!.^'" . 
 The real incident of the journey was its early success. My dogs, 
 in spite of low feeding, canied mo sixty-four miles in eleven 
 hour.s. 
 
 " Faithful ITans ! Dear good follower and friend ! I was out iiHim 
 on the Hoes just beyond the headlands of our old 'llefuge liar- ^"""*' 
 l)()ur,' when I made out a black speck far in to shoreward. Ke- 
 fiaction Avill deceive a novice on the ice ; but we have learned to 
 biiflle refraction. By sighting the suspected object with your rifle 
 at rest, you soon detect motion. It was a living animal — a man. 
 Shoreward went tlie sledge; off sprang the dogs ten miles an 
 hour, their driver yelling tho familiar provocative to speed, ' Nan- 
 nook ! nannookl' 'A bear ! a bear !' at the top of his lungs. 
 
 " There was no room for mistaking the methodical seal-stalking 
 gait of Hans. He hardly varied from it as we came near ; but in 
 about fifteen minutes we were shaking hands and jabbering, in a 
 patois of Esquimaux and English, our mutual news. The poor 
 fellow had been really ill: five days down with severe pains of 
 limbs have left him still a 'little veek;' which means with Hans 
 veil used up. I stuck him on the sledge and carried him to 
 Anoatok. 
 
 " Fortunately Anoatok for once belied its name : there was no Aweicom« 
 wind, and the sun broke down upon us with a genial +14°, although '''"'• 
 the shade gave — 25°. I had brought with me, expecting the boy 
 might need it, a small mustard-bottle of our treasured molasses, 
 and a little tea. We keep a camp-kettle at this hut, and both of 
 U3 wore in our belts the inseparable tin-cup. How the boy enjoyed 
 his hot tea ! Metek had given him a few lumps of frozen walrus- 
 liver, the very best provision for cold travel : our appetites were 
 good ; and, the two thus fitly harmonizing, we crunched away 
 right merrily. 
 
 " Hans readied Etah with Myouk two days after leaving us, and "«"»' 
 at once commenced liis hunt. In the course of five days of most "*' 
 hazardous ice-range, ht killed two fine young animals ; his three 
 
'l. 
 
 828 
 
 HANS AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 ''I 
 
 CHAl'TER 
 XLII. 
 
 IIilllS 
 
 ttinong the 
 I'sqiii- 
 
 lUUUX. 
 
 Ills Illness. 
 
 William's 
 dtsigiis. 
 
 Hans' 
 Btiirts 
 again. 
 
 I>i-cni"y 
 prospects. 
 
 companions in the hunt killing only three. lie had the great 
 advantage of my powerful Marston rifle, but his tackle was very 
 inferior. Our simiet-laid twine would not stand the powerful 
 struggles of the beast, and on one occasion parted while fast in a 
 large female. Still his success must have acquired for him the 
 good -will of these people, for in the 'flens' or hunting-division of 
 spt)il they gained by his companionship. 
 
 " In the sickness that followed Ids long exposure, he tolls mo 
 he wai? waited on most carefully at the settlement. A young 
 daughter of Shunghu elected herself his nurse ; and her sympathies 
 and smiles have, I fear, made an impression on his heart which a 
 cerUiin damsel near Uppernavik might be sorry to hear of. 
 
 " Hans cached part of his meat at Littleton Island, after send- 
 ing u load by William to the brig. He had no difficulty, I find, 
 in penetrating this man's designs. He was indeed urged by him 
 to agree that they should drive off together to the south, and so 
 leave us sledgeless. Upon Hans' refusal, he tried to obtain his 
 rifle ; but this of course was easily prevented. He consented at 
 last to take up the meat, with a view of making terms with me, 
 and securirg probably a companion. Baffled in this, as I have 
 mentioned, he made his escape a second time to Etah. There I 
 might be content to leave him, an unwelcome guest, and depen- 
 dent upon the Esquimaux. Strong and healthy as he is, our daily 
 work goeji on better for his absence, and the ship seems better when 
 purged by his desertion ; but the example is disastrous, and, cost 
 what it may, I must have him back. 
 
 "-^/>n7 11, Wednesday. — Hans started ag.ain to bring back the 
 meat from Littleton Island cache. If he feels strengthened, I have 
 given him a commission to which I attach the greatest importance. 
 
 " My hopes of again undertaking a spring journey to Kennedy 
 Channel were strong in the early months of the winter ; but, as 
 our dogs died away a second time, and the scurvy crept in upon 
 U.S, I became sad and distrustful as to the chance of our ever living 
 to gain the open water. The return of the withdrawing party 
 absorbed all my thoughts. They brought news of disaster, starva- 
 tion, and loss of dogs among the natives. Our pro.spects seemed 
 at the Icwest ebb. Still I cherished a secret hope of makiuij; 
 another journey, and had determined to undertake it alone, with 
 onr poor remnant of four dogs, trusting to my rifle for provision. 
 
 ^Hi'^4|V 
 
PLANS AND PROSPECTS. 
 
 329 
 
 Til fiict, tins continuation of my one great duty lias been constantly chai'tkb 
 before me, and I now think that I can manage it. Thus: — Ihe ^''"' 
 Esquimaux have left Northumberland Island, and are now near Cape ExpeiU- 
 Alexander, as a better hunting-ground. Kalutunah, the best and scmcU of 
 most provident man among them, has managed to save .seven dogs, ''"t'*- 
 1 have authorized Hans to negotiate c.arte-hlanche, if necessary, for 
 four of these, even as a loan ; promising as a final bait the con- 
 tiu'^ent possession of my whole team when I reach the open water 
 (in my return. On this mission 1 send my '■Jides Achates,^ and 
 await his return with anxious hope. 
 
 " I have seen, almost from the first day of our imprisonment by piospectof 
 the ice, the probability, if ■ a tliiiig more, that we might never be I'll'"'*,')'"'* 
 able to liberate the ship. Elsewhere in this journal I have ex- 
 plained by what construction of my duty I urged the brig to the 
 north, and why I deemed it impossiljle honourably to abandon her 
 after a single season. The same train of reasoning now leads me 
 to mature and organize everything for an early departure without 
 her, in case she cannut be released. My hopes of this release are 
 very feeble ; and I know that when it does occur, if ever, the season 
 will, like the last, be too far advanced for me to cairy my people 
 home. All my experience, carefully reviewed from my note-books, 
 and confirmed uy consultation with Petersen, convinces me that I 
 must start early, and govern my boat and sledges by the condition 
 of the ice and hunting-grounds. 
 
 " Whatever of executive abiUty I have picked up during this Necessity 
 brain and body-wearying cniise warns me against immature {)re- J!','!f |! 
 paration or vacillating purposes. I must ho.ve an exact discipline, and <iisci. 
 a v".7 1 r lutine, and a perfectly-thought-out organization. For the ^ '""" 
 past s.x weeks I have, in the intervals between my duty to the 
 si^k and the ship, arranged the schedule of ( .c future course. 
 Afi'.ch of it is already under way. My journal shows what I hav? 
 done, but what there is to do is appalling. 
 
 " I state all t!us to show how much I hazard and possibly sacri- 
 fice by my intended journey to the north, and to explain why I 
 have so little time and mood for roientific observation or research. 
 My feelings may be understood when I say that my carpenter and 
 all the working men, .save Bonsall, are still on their backs ; and Continued 
 that a month's preliminary labour is needed before I can commence ,i,e mta, 
 the heavy work of transporting my three boats over the ice to the 
 
t i 
 
 m 
 
 1.1 
 
 
 ll 
 
 390 
 
 CHANCES OF ESCAPE. 
 
 i! lif I 
 
 CnAPTKR 
 XLII. 
 
 Hope of 
 the ico 
 breaking 
 \ip. 
 
 State of 
 tlie ttk'k. 
 
 The return 
 of Hans 
 with food 
 in plenty. 
 
 H *i 
 
 anticipated water. As tlie moment of my writing this, the water 
 is over eighty miles in a straiglit Une from our brig. 
 
 "April 12, Thursday. — The wind still blowing as yesl^rday, 
 from the southward and eastward. This is certainly favourable to 
 the advance of open water. The long swell from the (.pen spaces 
 in Baffin's Bay has such a powerful effect upon the ice, that I 
 should not wonder if the floes about Lifeboat Cove, off M'Gary 
 Island, were broken up by the fir^t of May. 
 
 " Our sick have been without ii osh food since the 5th ; but sucli 
 is the stimulus imparted by our late supply that they as yet show 
 no backward symptoms. M'Gary, and Ohlsen, and Brook?, and 
 Riley, sun themselves daily, and are able to do much useful job- 
 bing. Thomas begins to relieve me in cooking ; lUley to take .a 
 spell at the slops ; Morton cooks breakfast, and, aided by M'Gaiy 
 and Ohlsen, has already finished on2 v,'.)rsted quilted camp-blanket, 
 with which I intend to cover our last remaining buffido-skiiis. 
 Wilson comes on slowly ; Dr. Hayes' toe begins to heu,! ; Sontag is 
 more cheery. With the exception of Goodfellow, John, and 
 Whipple, I can feel that those of my little hoMsehold are fast 
 becoming men again. 
 
 "April 13, Friday. — Our sick — which still means all hands, 
 except the cook, which means the captain — entered this morning 
 on their eighth day of fasting from flesh. One or two have been 
 softening ab'^ut the gums again for some days past, and all feel 
 weak with involuntary abstinence. The evemng comes, and ' Bini ! 
 bi:n ! bim !' sounds upon the deck : Hans is back with Ms dogs. 
 Rabbit-ste v and walrus-hver ! — a supper for a king ! 
 
 " This life of ours — for we have been living much in this ^\'i^y 
 for nine months past — makes me more charitable than I used to 
 be with our Esquimaux neighbours. The day provides for itself; 
 or, if it does not, wo trust in the morrow, and are happy till to- 
 morrow disappoints us. Our smoke-dried cabin is a scene worth 
 looking at : no man with his heart in the right place but would 
 enjoy it. Every mart is elbowed up on his platform, with a bowl 
 of rich gravy-soup between his knees, nnd a stick of frozen liver 
 at his side, gorging himself with the antiscorbutic luxuries, and 
 laughing as if neither ice nor Avater were before him to traverse. 
 
 " Hans has brought Metek with him, and Metek's young nephew, 
 a fine-looking boy cf fourteen. 
 
 i I 
 
FAMINE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 331 
 
 this, the water 
 
 " I do not know whether I liave mentioned that, some little time 
 before our treaty of alliance and m\itual honesty, Metek stole the 
 iTiinwale of the Red Eric. He has been, of course, in something of 
 uncertainty as to his political and personal relations, and his pre- 
 sent visit to the nalegak with a noble sledge-load of walrus-meat 
 is evidently intended as a propitiation for his wrong. 
 
 " They are welcome, the meat and Metek, abundantly. lie is 
 tlie chieftain of Etah, and, as such, a vassal of him of Auuatok, 
 the ' Open Place,' which we have named llenssclaer Harbour. He 
 spenks sadly, and so does Hans, of the fortunes of the winter. 
 
 "The Netelik settlement on Northumberland Island was al- 
 ready, when we heard of it last, the refuge of tlic natives from 
 the further South, even beyond Wolstenholme. It has alv,ays 
 been a hn"*^'ng stronghold ; but, as the winter darkness advanced, 
 the pressure of numbers combined with their habitual improvi- 
 dence to dissipate their supplies. 
 
 '•It seems that the poor wretches suffered ter/ibly, — even 
 more than our neighbours of Etah Bay. Theii* laws exact an 
 equal division ; and the success of the best hunters was dissi- 
 jiated by the crowds of feeble claimants upon their spoils, At 
 last the broken nature of the ice-margin, and the freezing-up of a 
 large zone of ice, prevented them frorii seeking Avalrus. The 
 water was inaccessible, and the last resource pressed itself upon 
 them. They killed their dogs. Fearful as :*■ sounds, when we 
 think how indispensable the services of these animals are to their 
 daily existence, they cannot now number more than twenty in 
 the entire OAvnership of tiie tribe. From Glacier South to Glacier 
 North, from Glaaer East to the rude ice-bound coast which 
 completes the circuit of their little world, this nation have but 
 twenty dogs. What can they hope for without them \ 
 
 " I can already count eight settlements, including about one 
 liundred and forty souls. TLere are more, perhajjs, but certainly 
 not many. Out of these I can number five deaths since our 
 arrival ; and I am av/are of hardships and disasters encoun- 
 tered by the survivors, which, repeated as they must be in the 
 future, cannot fail to involve a larger mortality. Crime combines 
 with disease and exposure to thin their iuiml)ers : 1 know of 
 three murders withhi the past two years ; and one infanticide 
 occurred only a few mouths ago. These facts, which are open to 
 
 CHAPTKh 
 XLII. 
 
 Mctuk. 
 
 SiifferiiiBs 
 of file Ks- 
 quiiiiuux. 
 
 Dlnilmi- 
 tii)ii of 
 their num- 
 ber. 
 
II 
 
 IE .1 
 
 4 
 
 ' :< 
 
 332 
 
 PROBABLE EXTINCTION OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 n 
 
 OHAPTKH 
 XLII. 
 
 The Esiiul- 
 nmux 
 tribi'S 
 niiiidly 
 dying out 
 
 Mlrtli 111 
 misery. 
 
 A mdiin- 
 clioly iiii- 
 gi'utlon. 
 
 my liuiitcd sources of information, cannot, of course, indicate the 
 number of deaths correctly. They confirm, however, a fearful 
 conclusion which these poor wretches have themselves communi- 
 cated to us, — that they are dying out ; not lingeringly, like the 
 American tribes, but so rapidly as to be able to niark within a 
 generation their progress toward extinction. Nothing can \n. 
 more saddening, measured by our own sensibilities, than such a 
 conviction ; but it seems to have no effect upon this remarkable 
 people. Surrounded by the graves of their dead, by huts unten- 
 anted, yet still recent in their memory as homesteads, even by 
 caches of meat which, frozen under the snow by the dead of one 
 year, are eaten by the living of the next, they show neither 
 api)rehens.ion nor regret. Even Kalutunah — a man of fine in- 
 stincts, and, I think, of heart — will retain his apathy of face as, 
 by the aid of Petersen, our interpreter, I point out to liim the 
 certainty of their speudy extinction. lie wUl smile in his efforts 
 to count the years which must obliterate his nation, and break in 
 with a laugh as his children shout out their * Amna Ayah,' and 
 dance to the tap of his drum. 
 
 " How wonderful is all tliis ! Rude as arc their ideas of num- 
 bers, ti.^re are those among this merry-heai te .1 people who ciin 
 reckon up to the fate of their last man. 
 
 " After Netelik, the recei)tacle of these half-starved fugitives, 
 had been obliged itself to capitulate wi*'^ famine, the body cor- 
 porate determined, a3 on like occasions it had often done before, 
 to migrate to the seats of the more northern hunt. 
 
 " The movements of the walrus, and the condition of the ico, 
 seem to be known to them by a kind of instinct ; so, when the 
 light came, they harnessed in their reserve of dogs, and started 
 1 T Cape Alexander. 
 
 " It could not, one might suppose, have been a very cheerful 
 niigration, — women, children, and young babies thrusting ilk'ni- 
 selves into a frozen wilderness at temperatures below — 30", and 
 sometimes verging on — G0°. But Hans, with a laugh that 
 seemed to indicate some exquisite point of concealed appreciation 
 of tlie ludicrous, said they travelled generally in squads, shiging 
 'Amna Ayah.' and, Avhen tlicy reached any of the halting-huts, 
 ate the blubber and liver v^ the owners and danced all night. So 
 at last they came to Utak-soak, the ' great caldron,' which we call 
 
lAUX. 
 
 RECAPTURE OF A DESERTER. 
 
 333 
 
 irse, indicate the 
 >wever, a fearful 
 selves conimuni- 
 ',ciir)^ly, like tliu 
 
 ihark within a 
 Nothing can In 
 ties, than sucli u 
 
 this remarkable 
 , by huts unteii- 
 esteads, even by 
 the dead of one 
 y show neitlier 
 man of fine in- 
 ;<athy of face as. 
 out to liim the 
 ile in his efforts 
 )n, and break in 
 mna Ayah,' and 
 
 r ideas of num- 
 [)eople who can 
 
 irved fugitives, 
 i, the ho'iy cor- 
 eu done before, 
 
 ;ion of the ic«?. 
 ; so, wlien the 
 gs, and started 
 
 1 very cheerful 
 irustin^- them- 
 low —30^ and 
 
 a laugh that 
 xl appreciation 
 quads, singing 
 3 halting-luits, 
 all night. So 
 
 which we call 
 
 Cape ^Uoxander, and settled do^v^l at Peteravilc, or the * Welcome 
 Halt' 
 
 " At first game w:.3 scarce here also ; but the season came soon 
 when the female walrus is tending her calf on the ice, and then, 
 Ijut for the protracted exposure of the hunt, there was no draw- 
 back to its success. They are desperately merry now, and seem 
 to have forgotten that a second winter is ahead of them. Hans 
 said, with one of his quiet laughs, ' One half of them are sick, 
 and cannot hunt: these do nothing but eat, and sing, "Amna 
 Ayah."' 
 
 '^ April 18, Wednesday. — I am just off a two hundred miles' 
 joumey, bringing back my deserter, and, what is perhaps quite as 
 important, a sledge-load of choice walrus-cuts. 
 
 " I found from Hans that his negotiation for the dogs had 
 failed, and that unless I could do something by individual per- 
 suasion, I must give up my scheme of a closing exploration to 
 the north. I learned, too, that Godfrey was playing the great 
 man at Etah, defying recapture ; and I was not willing to trust 
 the hifluence he might exert on my relations with the tribe. I 
 determined that he should return to the brig. 
 
 "I began by stratagem. I placed a pair of foot-cuffs on 
 Metek's sledge, and, after looking carefully to my body-com- 
 panion six-shooi;er, invited mysc'f to ride back with him to Etah. 
 His nephew remained on board in. charge li Hans, and I dis- 
 guised myself so well in my nessak that, us we mo'-'ed off, I could 
 easily have passed for tla' l>oy Paulik, whose place i had taken. 
 
 " As our eight-' miles drew to an end, and that which we call 
 the settlement canie close in view, its population streamed out to 
 ^\'lcom(: their cliief's return. Among the first and most promi- 
 nent was the individuid whom I desired to meet, waving his 
 hand and shouting ' Tima ! ' as loudly as the choicest savage of 
 them all. An instant later and I was at his ear, with a short 
 phrase of salutation and ics appropriate gesture. He yielded 
 uncondit'onally at once, r.n'i, after walking and running, by turn.s, 
 for some eighty miles before the sledge, with a short respite at 
 Anoatok, is now a prisoner on board. 
 
 " My renmining errand was almost as successful*' 
 
 CHAPTKK 
 XLII. 
 
 The " Wel- 
 come 
 Halt." 
 
 Jouniey to 
 bi iiiK buck 
 II deserter. 
 
 Suoopssful 
 htiiitagtfta 
 
 TllG de- 
 serter a 
 prisoner. 
 
 L^*^ 
 
334 
 
 KTAH. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 ■I ' 
 
 m-'^ 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XLIII. 
 
 Ilaitstuiic 
 bay. 
 
 Etuh. 
 
 Itcoppticin 
 by the 
 natives 
 
 HAllTSTENE BAY —ESQUIMAUX DWELLINGS — A CUOWDED INTERIOR— THK 
 NIQUT's LODGINQ— a MORNINQ REPAST — MOtitNING FOR THE DEAb— 
 FUNERAL RITES— PENANCE. 
 
 Etah is on the north-eastern curve of ITartstene Bay, facing tn 
 tlie south and west. As ^ou stretch over from the south point 
 of Littleton Ishmd to tlie main, the broken character of the ice 
 subsides into a traversable plain, and the shore-scenery assume 
 a singular wildness. The bottom series of plutonics rises tn 
 grand and mountainous proportions, and in the back-ground, 
 soaring above these, are the escaladed green-stones of the nioru 
 northern coast. At the very bottom of the bay are two perfora- 
 tions, one a fortress -mantled fiord, the other a sloping ravine : 
 both are occupied by extensions of the same glacier. 
 
 TJie fiord points to Peteravik, where Kalutunah and his hungry 
 southern corns have now taken up their quarters ; the other i.< 
 the oft-mentioned setdoment of Etah. A snow-drift, rising at an 
 angle of forty- five degrees, till it mingles with the steep sides of a 
 mountain, is dotted by two dark blemishes upon its pure white. 
 Coming nearer, you see that the dirt-spots are perforations of the 
 snow : nearer still, you see above each opening a smaller one, 
 and a covered roof connecting them. These are the doors imd 
 windows of the settlement ; two huts and four families, but for 
 these vent holes, entirely buried in the snow. 
 
 The inmates of the burrows swarmed around me as I arrived. 
 *' Nalegak ! nalegak ! tima ! " was yelled in chorus ; never seemed 
 people more anxious to propitiate, or more pleased with an unex- 
 pected visit. But they were airily clad, and it blew a nortii- 
 wester ; and they soon crowded back into their ant-lull. Mean- 
 time preparations were making for my in-door reception, and after 
 a Uttle while Metek and myself crawled in on our hands and 
 knees, through an extraordinary tossut thirty paces long. As I 
 emerged on the inside, the salute of " nalegak " was repeated with 
 an increase of energy that was anything but i)leasant. 
 
CROWDED DWELLINGS. 
 
 83a 
 
 ers ; the other is 
 
 me as I arrived, 
 s : nevfir seemed 
 
 There were guests before me, — six sturdy denizens of the 
 neiglibouring settlement. They had been overtaken by the storm 
 while hunting, and were already crowded upon the central dais of 
 honour. They united in the yell of welcome, and I soon found 
 iiiy.'iclf gasping the annnoniacal steam of sonic fourteen vigorous, 
 liinply-fed, unwashed, unclothed fellow-lodgers. I had come 
 somewhat exhausted by an eighty miles' journey through the 
 atmosphere of the floes : the thermometer inside was at + 90°, and 
 the vault measured fifteen feet by six. Such an amorphous mass 
 of compounded iiumanity one could see nowhere else : men, 
 women, children, with nothing but their native dirt to cover them, 
 twined and dovetailed together like the worms in a fishing-basket. 
 
 No hyperbole could exaggerate that which in serious earnest I 
 give as the truth. The platform measured but seven feet in 
 hreadth, by six in depth, the shape being semi-elliptical. Upon 
 this, including children and excluding myself, Avere bestowed 
 tliirtecn persons. 
 
 The kotluk of each matron was glowing with a flame sixteen 
 inches long. A flipper-quarter of walrus, which lay frozen on the 
 floor of the netek, was cut into steaks ; and the koloi)suts be- 
 gan to smoke with a burden of ten or fifteen pounds apiece. 
 Metek, with a little amateur aid from some of the sleepers, 
 emptied these without my assistance. I had the most cordial 
 invitation to precede them ; but I had seen enough of the culinary 
 regime to render it impossible. I broke my fast on a handful of 
 frozen liver-nuts that Bill brought me, and, bursting out into a 
 profuse perspiration, I stripped like the rest, threw my well-tired 
 ciirease across Mrs. Eider-duck's extremities, put her left-hand 
 baby under my armpit, pillowed my head on ^lyonk's somewhat 
 warm stomach, and thus, an honoured guest and in the place of 
 lionour, fell asleep. 
 
 Next morning, the sun nearly at noonday height, I awoke : Mrs. 
 Eider-duck had my breakfast very temptingly ready. It was 
 forked on the end of a curved piece of bone, — a lump of boiled 
 lilubbcr and a choice cut of meat. The preliminary cookery I had 
 not seen : I am an old traveller, and do not care to intrude into 
 the mysteries of the kitchen. !My appetite was in its usual 
 blessed redundance, and I was about to grasp the smiling proffer, 
 when I saw the matron, who was manipulating as chief uitendant 
 
 CHAPTRR 
 XLllI. 
 
 A crowUeJ 
 liUei'iur. 
 
 An Esqui- 
 maux 
 supper Hud 
 bed. 
 
 A morning 
 rcpiut. 
 
336 
 
 DISGUSTING HABITS OF THE NATIVES. 
 
 1 '! 
 
 Ksqul- 
 innux 
 
 li^i I 
 
 CHAPTER of the otlicr kotluk, performing an operation that arrested me. 
 ' She lia<l in her hand a counterpart of the curved bone that sup- 
 ported my dejeuner, — indeed, it is the imiversal implement of an 
 Esquimaux cuisine, — and, as I turned my head, I saw licr quietly 
 A\ithdrawing it from beneat^i lier dress, and then plunging it iiiti) 
 the soup-pot before her, to bring out the counterpart of my omu 
 smoking morsel. I learned afterward that the utensil has its two 
 recognised uses ; and that, when not immediately wanted for tlio 
 l)urposes of pot or table, it ministers to the " royal luxury " uf 
 the Scottish king. I dare not amplify this description. 
 
 Dirt or filth in our sense is not a conceived quality with these 
 Esquimaux, Incidentally it may be an annoyance or obstruction ; 
 but their nearest word, " Eberk," expresses no more than this. 
 
 It is an ethnological trait of these ultra-northern nomads, — so 
 far as I know, a imique one, — and must be attributed not alone to 
 their predatory diet and peculiar domestic system, but to the ex- 
 treme cold, Avhich by rapid freezing resists putrefaction, and pro- 
 vents the joint accumulation of the dogs and the household frum 
 being intolerable. Their senses seem to take no cognizance df 
 what all instinct and association make revolting to the sight, and 
 touch, and smell of civih'zed man. 
 
 My note-book proves this by exact and disgusting details, tiie 
 very mildest of which I cannot, transfer Lo these pages, 
 
 I spent some time at Etah in examining the glacier and in 
 making sketches of things about me, I met several old friend.'*. 
 Among the rest was Awahtok, only now recovering from his 
 Awuhtok, severe frost-bite, the effect of his fearful adventure with Myouk 
 among the drifting ice. I gave him a piece of red flannel aiul 
 powwowed him. He resides with Ootuniah in the second hut, 
 a smaller one than Metek's, with his pretty wife, a sister of 
 Kalutuuah's. I could hardly believe the infanticide story which 
 Hans had told me of this young couple ; and, pretending igno- 
 rance of the matter, I asked after the child's health. Their maii- 
 iior satisfied me that the story was true ; they turned their hands 
 downward, but without any sign of confusion. They did not e\ en 
 pay its memory the cheap compliment of tears, which among these 
 people are always at hand. 
 
 There is a singular custom which 1 have often noticed here as 
 well as among some of the Asiatics, and which has its analogies 
 
 Meeting 
 with 
 
MOURNING FOR THE DKAT). 
 
 337 
 
 "A Kcntlo 
 Kiisli (if 
 woe." 
 
 noticed here as 
 as its analogies 
 
 in more cultivated centres. I nllude to the regulated formalities ciiAriKu 
 of niouniing for the dead. They weep uccordiiig to system ; when ^. ''"' ' 
 one begins they are all expected to join, and it is the office of a kwhuI 
 courtosy for the most distinguished of the company to wipe the ,„ui,i,. 
 eyes of the chief mourner. They often assemble by concert for a 
 general weeping match ; but it hajipens sometimes tliat one will 
 break out into tears, and others courteously follow, without kuow- 
 iiH' at first what is the particular subject of grief. 
 
 It is not, however, the dead alone who are sorrowed for by such 
 ,1 ceremony. Any other calamity may call for it as well : the 
 failure of a hunt, the snapping of a walrus-line, or the deiith of a 
 doL'. Mrs Eider-duck, nee Small Belly (Egurk), (mce looked up at 
 ine from her kolupsut and burst into a gentle gush of woe. I wa.s 
 not informed of her immediate topic of thought, but with remark- 
 able presence of nuad I took out my handkerchief, — made by 
 Morton out of the body of an unused shirt, — and, after wiping 
 lier eyes politely, wept a few tears myself. This little passage 
 was soon over ; Mrs. Eider-duck returned to her kolupsut, aiul 
 Nalegak to his note-book. 
 
 The ceremonial mourning, however, is attended sometimes, if 
 not always, by obsei vances of a more serious character. So far as 
 my information goes, the religious notions of tlie Esquimaux ex- 
 tend only to the recognition of supernatural agencies, and to cer- 
 taii. ...lages by which they may be conciliated. The angekok of The rnice- 
 the tribe — the prophet, as he is called among our Indians of the tribe. 
 West — is the general counsellor. He prescribes or powwows in 
 sickness and over wounds, directs the policy and movements of 
 the little state, and, though not the titular chief, is really the 
 power behind the throne. It is among the })rerogatives and duties 
 of his office to declare the appropriate oblations and penances of Pen-mccs. 
 ^rief. These are sometimes quite oppressive. The bereaved hus- 
 IkukI may be required even to abstain from the seal or walrus-hunt 
 for the whole year, from Olciakut to Okiakut — winter to winter. 
 More generally he is denied the luxury of some article of food, as 
 the rabbit or a favourite part of the walnis ; or he may be for- 
 biddden to throw back his nessak, and forced to go with uncovered 
 head. 
 
 A sister of Kalutunah died suddenly at Peteravik. Her body 
 was sewed up in skins, not in a sitting posture, like the remains 
 
 Y 
 

 m 
 
 338 
 
 AN ESQUIMAUX FUNERAL. 
 
 Fiinorul 
 cere- 
 monies. 
 
 CHAPTER wliich we found in the graves at the south, but with the liinhs 
 
 ' extended at full length ; and her husband bore her unattended tu 
 
 her resting-place, and covered her, stone by stone, with a nido 
 monumental cairn. The blubber-lamp was kept burning outside 
 the hut while the solitary funeral was in progress ; and when it 
 was over the mourners came together to weep and howl, while Um 
 widower recited his sorrows and her praise. His penance was 
 severe, and combined most of the inflictions which I have (L- 
 Bcribed above. 
 
 It is almost as difficult to trace back the customs of the Smitli'.s 
 Sound Esquimaux as it ia to describe their religious faith. They 
 are a declining — almost an obsolete — people, " toto orhe dlvi'sos,'" 
 and too much engaged with the necessities of the present tu 
 cherish memorials of the past. It was otherwise with those 
 whom we met in the more southern settlements. These are now 
 for the most part conceiltratcd about the Danish posts, in very 
 different circumstances, physical as well as moral, from their 
 brethren of the north. 
 
 I 
 
 ^4wU| 
 
 -.^.* 
 
THE ESQUIMAUX OF GREENLAND. 
 
 .'339 
 
 with a rude 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 TUB ESQUIMAUX OF (lUKENTiAND— CIIANUK OP CHARACTER— LAnOUUS OF 
 THE MISSIONARIES— NOLUK — THE OMINAKS — I'INdEIAK AMD JENS— THE 
 ANOEKOKS — ISHIUTOK— TUE IMNAl'OK— THE DECREE. 
 
 Some tliirty years ago the small-pox found its way among tlie 
 natives of the iipper coast, and most of tiiose who escaped or sur- 
 vived its ravages souglit the protection of the colony. Others 
 followed from the more inland regions ; and now there is not an 
 Esquimaux, from the Great Glaciers of Melville Bay down to 
 Upernavik, who does not claim fellowship in that community. 
 
 We found traces of their former haunts much further north 
 than they appear to have been noticed by others ; some of such a 
 character as to indicate for them a tolerably recent date. I have 
 already mentioned the deserted huts which we came upon in 
 Shoal-Water Cove, in lat. 78° 27', and the stone fox-traps upon 
 the rocks near them. Other huts, evidently of Esquimaux coii- 
 Htructiou, but very ancient, were found on the in- shore side of 
 Littleton Island ; and among the cairns around them that had 
 served to conceal provisions or that now covered tlie remains of 
 the dead, were numerous implements of the chase. 
 
 The huts which I saw near Refuge Harbour, in lat. 78° 33', 
 were much more perfect, and had been inhabited very recently. 
 From some of the marks which I have referred to in my journal, 
 there was reason to suppose that the inmates might return before 
 the opening of another season. 
 
 It was still otherwise with those that we met at Karsuk and 
 elsewhere further to the south. These, though retaining signs of 
 comparatively modern habitation, were plainly deserted homes. 
 I met at Upernavik an ancient woman, the latest survivor of th t 
 few who escaped from these settlements during the general pestil- 
 ence. 
 
 The labours of the Lutheran and Moravian missionaries have 
 been so far auccessfvd among these people that but few of them 
 are now without the pale of professed Christianity, and its re- 
 
 CI'APTJR 
 XI.IV. 
 
 Siiiull pox 
 aiiiiiiiK the 
 natives. 
 
 TvHceii of 
 
 (liscited 
 
 liuls. 
 
 Tlie only 
 survivor o( 
 a tribe. 
 

 .0 ^ \*^ 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 IIM III 2.5 
 
 IIIIM 
 
 IIII16 
 
 1.4 
 
 1.6 
 
 % 
 
 ^%.%;. 
 
 v2 
 
 c^. 
 
 
 % .^^f ^v 
 
 -> 
 
 .^^ 
 
 O 
 
 / 
 
 /a 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST VAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. i ^i80 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 

 L-P/ 
 
 t/j 
 
 6^ 
 
340 
 
 LABOURS OF THE MISSIONARIES. 
 
 CHAl'TKR 
 XLIV. 
 
 OiiKiual 
 state of the 
 nutives. 
 
 ("Imnfte (if 
 clmracter. 
 
 ISeiicfits of 
 tlie mis- 
 Kionary 
 (>cliaol. 
 
 Traditions 
 and RaiiK's 
 llf tlio 
 (ireen- 
 landers. 
 
 forming influences liave affected the moral tone of all. Before tlio 
 arrival of these self-sacrificing evangelists, murder, incest, burial 
 of the living, and infanticide, were not numbered among crimes. 
 It was unsafe for vessels to touch upon the coast ; treachery was 
 as common and as much honoured as among the Polynesians of 
 the Eastern seas. Crantz tells us of a Dutch brig thrt was seized 
 by the natives at the i)ort of Disco, in 1740, and the whole crew 
 murdered ; and two years later the same fate befell the seamen of 
 another vessel that had accidentally stranded. 
 
 But for the last hundred years Greenland has been safer 
 for the wrecked mariner than many parts of our own coast. 
 Hospitality is the universal characteristic, enjoined upon the con- 
 verted as a Christian duty, but everyvhere a virtue of savage 
 life. From Upemavik to Cape Farewell, the Esciuimaux does 
 not hesitate to devote his own meal to the necessities of a guest. 
 
 The benefits of the missionary school are not confined to tlie 
 Christianized natives ; and it is observable that the virtues of 
 truth, self-reliance, and generous bearing, have been inculcated 
 successfully with men who still cherish the wild traditionary 
 superstitions of their fathers. Some of these are persons of 
 strongly-marked character, and are trusted largely by the Danish 
 ofi; ;ials. One of them, the nalegak-soak, or great chief, Noluk, 
 claims to have been the king or " head-man " of his people. 
 
 But among the native Greenlanders, as among other nomads, 
 there seems to be no recognition of mastership except such as 
 may be claimed by superiority of prowess. They have definite 
 traditions of the organized games and exercises by which this 
 superiority used to be authenticated. Indeed, the custom obtained 
 until within the two last generations, and is traceable still in 
 many of the periodical sports. Wrestling, jumping, tracking by 
 the fingers or with hooked arms, pushing heel * heel in a sitting 
 posture, dealing and receiving alternate blows on the left shoulder, 
 sliooting further and with the stronger bow, carrying the heavier 
 stone the greater distance, were among their trials of strength. I 
 have seen some of these stones at Fortuna Bay and Disco Fiord, 
 which remain as they were left at the end of the contest, memo- 
 rials of the athlete who sustained their weight. 
 
 Nbluk is a remarkably powerful man, and as straight and 
 graceful as an Iroquois. He is now a grandfather by his second 
 
CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS OF THE NATIVES. 
 
 341 
 
 •wife; but he is still the best hunter of the settlement, and dis- ohaftkk 
 dains to comply with the usage which would transfer his dog- ^^^^- 
 teams and apparatus of the hunt to Ins grown-up son. During NUiuk. 
 the pestilence of 1820 he resided fifty-six niUes north of Uper- 
 navik, at Tessiusak, in lat. 73° 36': I have seen the ruins of his 
 hut there. When all the families fled from the sick, Noluk still 
 drove his sledge homeward and dejjosited food regularly for his 
 dying ■wife. On his last visit he saw her through the window a 
 corpse, and his infant son sucking at her frozen breast. Parental 
 instinct was mastei'ed by panic : he made his way to the south 
 without crossing the threshold. 
 
 Among the regal perquisites of the nalegak-soak was the PHviieRes 
 questionable privilege of having as many wives as he could sup- ",^,g']!„|4. 
 port. Besides this, he had little except an imperfectly-defined soak. 
 claim to certain proceeds of the hunt. In old times, the sub- 
 ordinate nalegaks, chieftains of minor settlements, held their 
 office by a similar title of personal might among their immediate 
 fellows — thus constituting something like a system of feudal 
 govereigntics without hereditary descent. 
 
 It is related, however, much as it is in histories mth which we Tim 
 are more familiar, that the supremacy of the " Great Master " jn^g ".,.-■ 
 sometimes encountered rebuke from his barons. The Upernavik »'"' '''* 
 reindeer-hunters used to ascend the Salmon River, near Svartehuk, 
 to a point from which by a single day's journey they could reach 
 Okossisak, a hunting-station of the Ominaks. It so happened 
 upon one occasion, when the Ominaks had been more than Tiie Omu 
 ordinarily successful in the chase, that a band of Upernaviks, cporna- 
 with whom fortune had been less propitious, determined to pay ^"^*- 
 them a predatory visit, attended by their great chief, the liege 
 lord of both tribes. They found the Ominaks with their chief in 
 company, a short chunky fellow, who proffered the accustomed 
 hospitalities of his tent in true knightly style. But, in reply to 
 the salutation, " Be seated and eat," the Great Upernavik, whose 
 companions were watching for their cue, gav6 a scowl, the reverse 
 of the uniform formula of acceptance, which is simply to sit down 
 and be filled. Hereupon old Ominak strung silently a heavy bow, 
 and, drawing his arrow to the head, buried it in the narrow cleft 
 of a distant rock, soliloquizing, as it struck, " He who is better 
 than I am is my master." I give his words in the original for aa 
 
 
 II 
 
 ■i ^ 'A 
 
 
I ^ 
 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XLIV. 
 
 An exer- 
 cise in 
 plionetlcs. 
 
 Jens and 
 Pingeiulc. 
 
 An elope- 
 ment. 
 
 The Inst 
 ingekulf. 
 
 312 
 
 MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. 
 
 exercise in phonetics : " Kinajougenenia," who is better, " Ovanot," 
 than I am; the rest of the sentence — "is my master" — being 
 nnderstood : an ellip+icul form of expression very common among 
 these people, and often aided by accompanying gestures. Thus 
 euphoniously solicited, tlie Upernaviks sat down and ate, and, 
 pronouncing the brief acknowledgment, " Thanks," which always 
 end's a stranger's meal, went their way in peace. 
 
 The old practice which is found among some of the Asiatic and 
 North American tribes, of carrying off the bride by force, is com 
 mon am.ong the Esquhnaux, and reluctantly abandoned even by the 
 converted. The ceremonial rite follows at the convenience of the 
 parties. Jens, the son of my old friend Cristiansen at Pi-oven, 
 came very nigh being left a bachelor by an exercise of this cus- 
 tom. He was not quite ready to perform the gallant function 
 himself toward his lady-love, when a lusty rival, one Pingeiak, 
 carried her off bodily in dead of night. The damsel made good 
 fight, however, and, though the abduction was repeated three times 
 over, she managed to keep her troth. In the result, Jens, as 
 phlegmatic and stupid a half-breed as I ever met with, got the 
 prettiest woman in all North Greenland. Pingeiak was the best 
 hunter and had the largest tent, but Jens was the son of the head 
 man. I believe such things may come about in other parts of the 
 world. 
 
 I remember other instances among parties whom I knew. A 
 young aspirant for the favours of an unbaptized daughter of tlie 
 settlement at Sever-nik got a companion to assist him, and suc- 
 ceeded in carrying her to his sledge. But the ruthless father hiul 
 the quicker dog-team, and pursued with such ferocious alacrity, 
 that the unlucky devotee of ancient custom had to clamber iip a 
 rocky gorge to escape his wrath, leaving the chosen one behind 
 him. The report — for scandal is not frozen out of Greenland — 
 makes the lady a willing eloper, and more courageous than her 
 runaway lover. 
 
 The mysteries of the angekok, still so marked in their influence 
 further to the north, are not openly recognised near the Danish 
 settlements. The last regular professor of them, Kenguit, was 
 baptized at Proven in 1844, changing his name to Jonathan Jere- 
 mias. But as you Tece<^e from the missionary influence the dark 
 art is still practised in all its power. 
 

 IS com- 
 
 THE ANGEK0K3 AND ISSIUTOK. 
 
 343 
 
 A fact of psychological interest, as it sliows that civilized or 
 savage wonder-workers form a single family, is that the angekoks 
 believe firmly in their own powers. I have known sevenJ of 
 them personally, after my skill in powwow had given me a sort 
 of correlative rank among them, and can speak mth confidence on 
 this point. I could not detect them in any resort to jugglery or 
 natural magic : their deceptions are simply vocal, a change of 
 voice, and perhaps a limited profession of ventriloquism, made 
 more imposing by the darkness. They have, however, like the 
 members of the learned professions everywhere else, a certain lan- 
 guage or jargon of their own, in which they communicate with 
 each other. Lieutenant-Governor Steffenson, Avho had charge of 
 the Northern District up to 1829, and was an admirable student 
 of everything that regards these people, says that their artificial 
 language is nothing but the ordinary dialect of the country, modi- 
 fied in the pronunciation, with some change in the import of the 
 words and the introduction of a few cabalistic terms. 
 
 Besides the angekoks, who are looked up to as the hierophants 
 or dispensers of good, they have the issiutok, or evil men, who 
 work injurious spells, enchantments, metamorphoses. Like the 
 witches of both Englands, the Old and the New, these malignants 
 are rarely submitted to trial till they have been subjected to 
 punishment — " castigat auditque." The finder of the Runic stone, 
 old Pelemut, was one of them, and dealt with accoKlingly. Two 
 others, only as far back as 1828, suflfered the penalty of their 
 crime on the same day, one at Karmenak, the other at Upemavik. 
 This last was laudably killed after the "old customs," — custom 
 being the apology of the rude everywhere for things revolting to 
 modern sense. He was first harpooned, then eviscerated, a flap 
 let down from his forehead " to cover his eyes and prevent his 
 seeing again," — he had the " evil eye," it might seem ; and then 
 small portions of his heart were eaten, so as to make it secure that 
 lie could not come back to earth unchanged. All this in accord- 
 ance with venerated ritual. 
 
 The other, the Karmenak case, was that of an old sick man. 
 He was dealt with more succinctly by his neighbour Kamokah, 
 now old Tobias; who, at the instance of the issiutok family, 
 pushed him into the sea after harpooning him, and then gave his 
 flesh to the dogs, I have seen Tobias at Proven, a Christiau- 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 XLIV. 
 
 Tho aiigH- 
 koka. 
 
 The issiu- 
 tok, or evil 
 men. 
 
 Tlioirpmi- 
 Isliiuciit. 
 
344 
 
 THE IMNAPOK. 
 
 TIio Iiiiiia- 
 pok or tri- 
 bunal of 
 
 red ress. 
 
 i 
 
 MB 
 
 CHAPTKH ized man now, of very good repute, and, for anglit I know, worthy 
 ^^ of it. 
 
 Punish- The capital punishment with them, as with us, seems in general 
 to be reserved for offences of the higher grade. For those of 
 min(jr dignity, such as form the staple of our civilized forums, 
 and even those which might find their way profitably into a court 
 of honour, the Imnapok is the time-honoured tribunal of redress. 
 The original meaning of this word, I believe, is a iiat've dance or 
 singsong; but the institution which now bears the name is of 
 nmch more dignity, and is found, with only circumstantial 
 differences, among many other tribes within and beyonll the Arctic 
 circle. 
 
 An Esquimaux lias inflicted an injury on one of his country- 
 men : he has cut his seal-lines, or harmed his dogs, or burned his 
 bladder-float, or perpetrated some enormity equally gi'ievous. A 
 summons comes to him from the angekok to meet the " country- 
 side" at an Imnapok. The friends of the parties and the idlers of 
 many miles around gather about the justice-seat, it may be at 
 some little cluster of huts, or, if the weather permits, in the open 
 air. The accuser rises and preludes a few discords with a seal-rib 
 on a tom-tom or drum. He then passes to the charge, and pours 
 out in long paragraphic words all the abuse and ridicule to whicli 
 his outrageous vernacular can give expression. The accused 
 meanwhile is silent ; but, as the orator pauses after a signal hit, 
 or to flourish a cadence on his musical instrument, the whole 
 audience, friends, neutrals, and opponents, signalize their approval 
 by outcries as harmonious as those which we sometimes hear in 
 our town-meetings at home. Stimulated by the applause, and 
 warming with his own fires, the accuser renews the attack, his 
 eloquence becoming more and more licentious and vituperative, 
 until it has exhausted either his strength or his vocabulary of 
 invective. Now comes the accused, with defence and counter- 
 charge and retorted abuse; the assembly still listening and 
 applauding through a lengthened session. The Homeric debate 
 at a close, the angekoks hold a pow^vow, and a penalty is de- 
 nounced against the accused for his guilt, or the accuser for his 
 unsustained prosecution. 
 
WALRUS HUNTINO. 
 
 345 
 
 CHAPTER XIA'. 
 
 WAI.RtJS-HUNTINO— KSQUIMAUX H AHIT3— KETURN FROM ETAH — PREPARIXO 
 FOR ESCAPE— MAKING SLED«ES~DR. HAYES. 
 
 The six storm-arrested strangers were off early in the morning : T 
 sent messages of compliment by tliom to Kalutunah, inviting him 
 to visit the brig ; and in the afternoon Myouk and myself followed 
 tliem to the floes for a walrus-hunt. 
 
 The walrus supplies the staple food of the Piensselaer Bay 
 Esquimaux throughout the greater part of the year. To tlie 
 south as far as Murchison Channel, the seal, unicorn, and white 
 whale alternate at their appropriate seasons ; but in Smith's Sound 
 these last are accidental rather than sustained hunts. 
 
 The manner of hunting the walrus depends in a considerable 
 degree on the season of the year. In the fall, when the pack is 
 but partially closed, they are found in numbers hanging around 
 the neutral region of mixed ice and water, and, as this becomes 
 solid with the advance of winter, following it more and more to 
 tue south. 
 
 The Esquimaux approach them then over the young ice, and 
 assail them in cracks and holes with nalegeit and line. Thi.? 
 fishery, as the season grows colder, darker, and more tempe.:tuous, 
 is fearfully hazardous ; scarcely a year passes without a catas- 
 trophe. It was the theme of happy augury last winter, that no 
 lives had been lost for some months before, and the angekoks 
 even ventured to prophesy from it that the hunt would be auspi- 
 cious, — a prophecy, like some others, hazarded after the event, for 
 tlie ice had contiimed open for the walrus till late in December. 
 
 With the earliest spring, or, more strictly, about a month after 
 tlie re-appearance of the sun, the winter famine is generally 
 reUeved. January and February are often, in fact, nearly always, 
 months of privation; but during tlie latter ])art of March the 
 spring fishery commences. Everything is then life and excite- 
 ment. 
 
 The walrus is now taken in two ways. Sometimes he has risen 
 
 CHAPTKa 
 XLV. 
 
 DR)mrtiir« 
 nl tlie 
 struiigcr&. 
 
 Manner of 
 liuntinc; 
 tlie walru* 
 
 Tlicspiinij 
 fislierv. 
 
m 
 
 il 
 If 
 
 ri; ■■ 
 
 ■i; i 
 
 I 
 
 V'- 
 
 
 348 
 
 ESQUIMAUX CHILDREN PLAYING BALL. 
 
 cnAi'TKR by the side of an iceberg, where the currents have worn away tlie 
 ^^^' floe, or tlirough a tide-crack, and, enjoying the sunshine too long, 
 finds his retreat cut off by the freezing up of the opening; for, 
 like tlie seal at its attuk, the walnis can only work from below. 
 When thus caught, the Esqiiimaux, who with keen hunter-craft 
 are scouring the floes, scent him out by their dogs and 8i)ear him. 
 The early spring is the br3eding season, and the walnis then 
 are in their glory. My observations show that they tenant the 
 region throughout the entire year , but at this time the female, 
 with her calf, is accompanied by the grim-visaged father, surging 
 
 TliP bost 
 time for 
 liiiiitiiig 
 vulius. 
 
 CHILDREN PLAYING BALL. 
 
 in loving trios from crack to crack, sporting around the berg- 
 water, or basking in the sun. While thus on their tours, they 
 invite their vigilant enemies to the second method of capture. 
 Tliis is also by the lance and harpoon; but it often becomes a 
 
ESQUIMAUX HABITS. 
 
 347 
 
 rcr,ailar battle, the male gallantly fronting the assault and charg- 
 ing the hunters with furious bravery. Not unfrccpiently the 
 entire family — mother, calf, and bull — arc killed in one of these 
 contests. 
 
 The huts — those poor, miserable, snow-covered dens — arc now 
 scenes of life and activity. Stacks of jointed meat are piled upon 
 the ice-foot; the women are stretching the hide for sole-leather, 
 and the men cuttin'r out a reserve of harpoon-lines for the winter. 
 Tusky wsdrus heads i tare at you from the snow-bank, where they 
 are stowed for their ivory ; the dogs are tethered to the ice ; and 
 the children, each one armed with the curved rib of some big 
 amphibion, are playing ball and bat among the drifts. 
 
 On the day of my arrival, four walnxs were killed at Etah, and 
 no doubt many more by Kalutak at Peteravik. The quantity of 
 beef which is thus gained during a season of plenty, one might 
 suppose, should put them beyond winter want; but there are 
 other causes besides improvidence which make their supplies 
 scanty. The poor creatures are not idle ; they hunt indomitably, 
 without the loss of a day. When the storms prevent the use of 
 the sledge, they still work in stowing away the carcasses of pre- 
 vious hunts. An excavation is made either on the mainland, or, 
 what is preferred, upon an island inaccessible to foxes, and the 
 jointed meat is stacked inside and covered with heavy stones. 
 One such cache, which I met on a small island a short distance 
 from Etah, contained the flesh of ten walrus, and I know of several 
 others equally large. 
 
 The excessive consumption is the true explanation of the 
 scarcity. By their ancient laws all share with all ; and, as they 
 migrate in numbers as their necessities prompt, the tax on each 
 particular settlement is excessive. The quantity which the mem- 
 bers of a family consume, exorbitant as it seems to a stranger, is 
 rather a necessity of their peculiar life and organization than the 
 result of inconsiderate gluttony. In active exercise and constant 
 exposure to cold the waste of carbon must be enormous. 
 
 Wlien in-doors and at rest, tinkering over their ivory harness- 
 rings, fowl-nets, or other household gear, they eat as we often do 
 in more civilized lands — for animal enjoyment and to pass away 
 time. But when on the hunt they take but one meal a day, and 
 that after the day's labour is over ; they go out upon the ice 
 
 CIIAPTKR 
 XLV. 
 
 Work dflul 
 tliu hunt. 
 
 Industry 
 of tlie Ks- 
 quliimux. 
 
 Causes of 
 scarcity. 
 
318 
 
 DEPARTUnE FROM ETAII. 
 
 ' II 
 
 ClfAPTKR 
 XI.V, 
 
 Esqui- 
 maux 
 ratluii. 
 
 Hnunts of 
 
 tllBWttllUS. 
 
 Departure 
 from Ktuh. 
 
 without breakfast, and, except the " cold cuts," which I confess 
 arc numerous, eat notliing until their return. I would average 
 the Esquiinaux ration in a season of plenty — it is of course a mero 
 estimate, but I believe a perfectly fair one — at eight or ten pounds 
 a day, with soup and water to the extent of half a gallon. 
 
 At the moment of my visit, when returning plenty had just 
 broken in npon their famine, it was not wonderful that they wero 
 hunting with avidity. The settlements of the South seek at this 
 season the hunting-ground above, and, until the seals begin to form 
 their basking-holes, some ten days later, the walrus is the single 
 spoil. 
 
 I incline to the opinion that these animals frequent the half- 
 broken ice-margin througliout the year; for, after the season litis 
 become comparatively open, tiiey are still found in groups, with 
 their young, disporting in the leads and shore-water. Thoy arc 
 of course, secure under such circumstances from the Esquimaux- 
 hunters of the Far North, who, not having the kayak of the more 
 soutliern settlements, can only approach them on the ice. 
 
 In the late smnmer or " ausak," after all ice has melted, the 
 walrus are in the habit of resorting to the rocks. They are then 
 extremely alert and watchful ; but the Esquimaux note their 
 haunts carefully, and, concealing themselves in the clefts, await 
 their approach with patient silence, and secure them by the harpoon 
 and line. 
 
 My departure from Etah Bay was hastened by news from the 
 brig. Hans brought me a letter from Dr. Hayes, while I was out 
 walrus-hunting near Life-Boat Cove, which apprised me of the 
 dangerous illness of Mr. M'Gary. I had a load of meat on my 
 sledge, and was therefore unable to make good speed with my 
 four tired dogs ; but I rode and ran by turns, and reached tlie 
 brig, after fifty miles' travel, in seven hours from the time of 
 meeting Hans. I was thoroughly broken down by the efibrt, but 
 had the satisfaction of finding that my excellent second officer had 
 passed the crisis of his attack. 
 
 I left Hans behind me wdth orders to go to Peteravik and per- 
 suade Kalutunah to come to the brig, sending him a capstan-bar 
 as a pledge of future largess, — invaluable for its adaptation to 
 harpoon-shafts. < 
 
 " April 19, Thursday. — Tlie open water has not advanced from 
 
MAKING 8LED0ES. 
 
 349 
 
 the south more tlian four miles within the past throe weeks. It chaptkh 
 is still barely within Cape Alexander. It is a subject of serious ^^^' 
 anxiety to me. Our experience has taught us that the swell Scrimis 
 caused by these winds breaks up the ice rapidly. Now, there can "",*,', ti,e 
 he no swell to the southward, or these heavy jrales would have "lownd- 
 
 vaiioo (ii 
 
 (lone tliis now. It augurs ill not only for the possible release of the open 
 the brig, bat for the facility of our boat-voyage if we shall be *"'*''• 
 idtliged to forsake her, as everything seems to say we must do 
 soon. Last year, on the 10th of May, the water was fi'oe around 
 Littleton Island, and coming up to within two miles of Kefuge 
 Iiilot. It is now forty miles further off ! 
 
 " Petersen and Ohlsen arc working by short spells at the boats 
 and sledges. 
 
 " I will not leave the brig until it is absolutely certain tliat she 
 cannot thaw out this season; but everything shall be matured for 
 our instant departure as soon as her fate is decided. Every detail 
 is arranged ; and, if the sick go on as they have done, I do not 
 tloubt but that we may carry our boats some thirty or forty miles 
 over the ice before finally deciding whether we must desert the 
 brig. 
 
 " Api'il 20, Friday. — A relief-watch, of Riley, Morton, and MnkinR 
 Pionsall, are preparing to saw out sledge runners from our cross- "''^'•'i'^'^ 
 beams. It is slow work. They are very weak, and the ther- 
 niometer sinks at night to — 2G". Nearly aU our beams have been 
 used up for fuel ; but I have saved enough to construct two long 
 sledges of 17 feet C inches each. I want a sledge sufficiently long 
 to bring the weight of the whaleboat and her stowage within the 
 line of the runner ; this will prevent her rocking and pitching 
 when crossing hummocked ice, and enable us to cradle her firmly 
 to the sledge. 
 
 " They are at this moment breaking out onr cabin bulkhead to 
 extract the beam. Our cabin dormitory is full of cold vapour. 
 Everything is comfortless : blankets make a sorry substitute for 
 the moss-padded wall which protected us from — &f. 
 
 " April 21, Saturday. — Morton's heel is nearly closed, and there Monon** 
 is apparently a sound bone underneath. Hsi has been upon his '*'^'*'*'y 
 back since October. I can now set this faithful and valuable man 
 to active duty very soon. 
 
 " The beam was too long to be carried through our hatches ; 
 
 ; 'M 
 
 III 
 
3fl0 
 
 HARD WORK. 
 
 CHAPTER we tlieroforc liave flawed it lus it hIhikIs, atid will entry up tlio 
 ^^^' sluhs sepiiiutely. Tlieso sliiha are but one and a half inch wide, 
 
 inukiiig. 
 
 Dr. Hayes. 
 
 and must be strengthened by iron bolts and '^; iss-pieces; still 
 they are all that we have. I made the bolts out of our ciihiii 
 curtain-rods, long disused. Mr. Petersen aids Ohlsen in ginndin;' 
 his tools. They will coinj>lete the job to-nion-ow, — for we niiist 
 work on Sunday now, — and by Monday bo able to begin at otiicr 
 things. Peterson undertakes to manufacture our cooking and 
 mess-gear. I have a sad-looking assortment of battered rusty tins 
 to offer him; but with stove-pipe much may be done. 
 
 "April 22, Sunday. — Gave rest for all but the sawyers, wlin 
 keep manfully at the beam. Some notion of our weakness may 
 be formed from the fact of these five poor fellows averaging aiaung 
 them but one foot per hour. 
 
 " I read our usual prayers ; and Dr. Hayes, who feels sadly the 
 loss of his foot, came aft and crawled upon deck to sniff the day- 
 light. He had not seen the sun for five months and tiirce weeks." 
 
 ■_ -'■':^i-^^^i~,^.'sr-J±^^-^ - -i'^r--^ >-'**" 
 
RETURN OF HANSU 
 
 351 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 KAI.UTUNAn — THE HONTINO PARTY— SETTING OCT— MY TALLOW-HAU- — 
 A WIIiD CMASR — HUNTINO STIMi — TIIK OIIK/T OliACIEK — TIIH KSCA- 
 I.ADKD STHUCTIIIIE — FORMATION 01' BKKOrf— THE VISCOUS FI<OW — 
 CUEVICES — THE FROZEN WATER -TUNNEIi—CAl'K F0UUE8— FACE OF 
 UliACIER. 
 
 Wr continued toilin<:; on witli our complicated prepaiiitions till 
 tlie evening of the 24tl», vhen Hans cj'.me hack well laden > !th 
 wiilrua meat. Three of tlie Esquimaux accompanied him .loh 
 witli his sledge and dog-team fully ecpiipped for a h^'it. '''he 
 leader of the party, Kalutunah, was a •' »ble savage, g. itly su[)e- 
 rior in everyt^ i" ' ^o the others of his race. He ^Teeted mo witli 
 respectful courtesy, ytt as one who might rightfully ex^ oc*^ an 
 equal Ji.jasure of it in return, and, after a sliort interchauge of 
 salutations, seated himself in the post of honour at my side. 
 
 I waited, of course, till the company had fed and slept, for 
 among savages especially haste is indecoroiis, and then, after dis- 
 tributing a few presents, opened to them my project of a northern 
 exploration. Kalutunah received liis knife and needles with a 
 " Kuyanaka," " I thank you :" tlie first thanks I have heard from 
 a native of this upper region. He called me his friend, — " Asa- 
 kaoteet," " I love you well," — and would be happy, he said, to 
 join the "nalegak-soak" in a hunt. 
 
 The project was one that had engaged my thoughts long before 
 daylight had renewed the possibility of carrying it out. I felt 
 tliat the further shores beyond Kennedy Channel were still to be 
 searched before our work could be considered finislied ; but we 
 were without dogs, the indispensable means of travel. We had 
 only four left out of sixty-two. Famine among the Esquimaux 
 had been as disastrous as disease with us : they had killed all but 
 thirty, and of these there were now sixteen picketted on the ice 
 about the brig. The aid and influence of Kalutunah could secufo 
 my closing expedition. 
 
 I succeeded in making my arrangements with him, provL'^ioually 
 
 CHAPTKIl 
 XLVI. 
 
 Ri'tnni of 
 illlllH witli 
 
 u party ' 
 
 Kftlutu- 
 
 lUtll. 
 
 Project of 
 a nortlierc 
 explora- 
 tion. 
 
 m 
 
 'jf 
 
Hj 4i 
 
 3.'>2 KALVTUNAIl's PARTY. 
 
 cnAPTEn at least, .dkI the morning after we all set out. Tlie ]iarty con- 
 
 ■ sisted of Kalutunah, Shangliu, and Tattcrat, with their three 
 
 'fThe'"" ^^^^o^''- Hans, anued with tlie Marston rifle, was my only com- 
 
 cxplfirinK 
 
 cxpnili- 
 
 tion. 
 
 Efjulp- 
 nicut. 
 
 KALUTUNAH PAKTY. 
 
 panion from the ship's company. The natives carried no arms 
 but the long knife and their unicorn-ivory lances. Our who'e 
 equipment was by no means cumbersome: except the clothes 
 upon our back and raw walrus-meat, we carried nothing. The 
 walrus, both flesh and blubber, was cue into flat slabs h;ilf an inch 
 thick, and about as long and wide as a folio volume. These, when 
 frozen, were laid directly upon the cross-bars of the sledge, and 
 served as a sort of floor. The rifle and the noonghak were placed 
 on top, and the whole wu^ covered by a well-rubbed bear-skin, 
 strapped down by a pliant cord of walrus-hide. 
 
 Thu'. stowed, the sledge is wonderfully adapted to its wild 
 travel. It may roll over and over, for it defies an upset ; and its 
 runners of the bones of the whale seem to bear with impunity the 
 fierce shocks of the ice. The meat, as hard as a plank, is the 
 A stranse driver's seat : it is secure from the dogs ; and when it is wanted 
 <5i"ing £^j. ^ (.pj^ p^ji-^ which is not seldom, the sledge is turned upside- 
 down, and the layers of flesh are hacked away from between the 
 cross-bars. • 
 
 teat 
 
SETTING OUT. 
 
 3,j3 
 
 We started with a wild yell of dogs and men in chorus, Kalu- cnAPXKB 
 tunah and myself leading. In about two hours we had reached ^^^^ ' 
 a high berg aboui; fifteen miles north of the brig Here I recon- 
 noitred the ice ahead. It was not cheering; the outside tide- 
 channel, where I had broken through the fall before, was now full 
 of squeezed ice, and the plain beyond the bergs seemed much 
 distorted. The Esquimaux, nevertheless, acceded to my wish to 
 attempt the passage, and we were soon among the hummocks. 
 We ran beside our sledges, clinging to the upstanders, but making 
 perhaps four miles an hour where, unassisted by the dogs, we 
 could certainly have made but one. Things began to look more 
 auspicious. 
 
 We halted about thirty miles north of the brig, after edging 
 along the coast about tliirty miles to the eastward. Here Shanghu 
 burrowed into a snow-bank and slept, the thermometer standing 
 at — 30°. The rest of us turned in to lunch ; the sledge was 
 turned over, and we were cutting away at the raw meat, each man 
 for himself, when I heard an exclamation from Tatterat, an out- 
 landish Esquimaux, who had his name from the Kittywake gull. 
 He had found a tallow-ball, which had been hid away without my ^ fg,,.,, „„ 
 knowledge by my comrades for my private use. 
 knife entered the prized recesses of my ball, and, as the lumps of 
 liver and cooked muscle came tossing out in delicate succession, 
 Kalutunah yielded to the temptation, and both of them picked the 
 savoury bits as we would the truffles of a " Perigord pate." Of 
 necessity I joined the group, and took my share ; but Hans, poor 
 fellow, too indignant at the liberty taken with my provender, 
 refused to share in the work of demolishing it. My ten-pound 
 ball vanished nevertheless in scarcely as many minutes. 
 
 The journey began again as the feast closed, and we should 
 have accomplished my wishes had it not been for the untoward 
 influence of sundry bears. The tracks of these animals were Tracks of 
 becoming more and more numerous as we rounded one iceberg *"■""'• 
 after another; and we could see the beds they had worn in the 
 snow while watching for seal These swayed the dogs from their 
 course: yet we kep*. edging onward; and when in sight of the 
 northern coast, about thirty miles from the central peak of t/ie 
 '•Three Brothers," I saw a deep band of stratus lying over the 
 horizon in the direction of Keimedy Channel. This water-sky 
 
 Instantly his "'<■ '""""• 
 
 *' ball. 
 
364 
 
 A WILD CHASE. 
 
 Unriting 
 tilt: bear. 
 
 The 
 and 
 
 A sleep on 
 tlte ice. 
 
 CHAPTER indicated the continued opening of the channel, and made me 
 ^^* more deeply anxious to proceed. But at this moment our dogs 
 encountered a large male bear in the act of devouring a seal, 
 impulse was irresistible: I lost all control over both dogs 
 drivers. They seemed dead to everything but the passion of pur- 
 suit. Off they sped with incredible swiftness, the Esquimaux 
 clinging to their sledges, and cheering their dogs with Loud cries 
 of " Nannook !" A mad, wild chase, wilder than German legend, 
 — the dogs, wolves ; the drivers, devils. After a furious run, the 
 aiiimal was brought to bay ; the lance and the rifle did their work, 
 and we halted for a general feed. The dogs gorged themselves, 
 the drivers did as much, and we buried the remainder of the car- 
 cass in the snow. A second bear had been tracked by the party 
 to a large iceberg north of Cape Russell ; for we had now travelled 
 to the neighbourhood of the Great Glacier. But the dogs were too 
 much distended by their abundant diet to move : their drivers were 
 scarcely better. Rest was indispensable. 
 
 We took a four hours' sleep on the open ice, the most uncom- 
 fortable that I remember. Our fatigue had made us dispense with 
 the snow-house ; and, though I was heavily clad in a full suit of 
 furs, and squeezed myself in between Kalutunah and Shanghu, I 
 could not bear the intense temperature. I rose in the morning 
 stiff and sore. I mention it as a trait of nobleness on the part of 
 Kalutunah, which I appreciated very sensibly at the time, that, 
 seeing me suffer, he took his kapetah from his back and placed it 
 around my feet. 
 
 The next day I tried again to make my friends steer to the 
 northward. But the bearrf were most numerous upon the Green- 
 land side ; and they determined to push on toward the glacier, 
 They were sure, they said, of finding the game among the broken 
 icebergs at the base of it. All my remonstrances and urgent en- 
 treaties were unavailing to make them resume their promised 
 route. Tliey said that to cross so high up as we then were was 
 impossible, and I felt the truth of this when I remembered the 
 fate of poor Baker and Schubert at tliis very passage. Kalutunah 
 added, significantly, that the bear-meat was absolutely necessaiy 
 for the support of their families, and that Nalegak had no right to 
 prevent him from providing for his household. It was a strong 
 argument, and withal the argument of the strong. 
 
 Pisputes 
 nboiit the 
 route. 
 
THE GREAT GIJICIER. 
 
 36fi 
 
 I found now that my projected survey of the northern coast chapter 
 must be abandoned, at least for the time. My next wish was to ^J^' 
 get back to the brig, and to negotiate with Metek for a purchase The sur- 
 or loan of his dogs as my last chance. But even this was not ^l^^^, "' 
 readily gratified. All of Saturday was spent in bear-hunting. 
 The natives, as indomitable as their dogs, made the entire circuit 
 uf Dallas Bay, and finally halted again under one of the islands 
 which group themselves between the headlands of Advance Buy 
 and at the base of the glacier. 
 
 Anxious as I was to press our return to the brig, I Avas well nic «icat 
 paid for my disappointment, I had not realized fully the spec- s'^ciei. 
 tacle of this stupendous monument of frost I had seen it for 
 sonii hours hanging over the ice like a white-mist cloud, but now 
 jt rose up before me clearly defined and almost precipitous. The 
 whole horizon, so vague and shadowy before, was broken by long 
 lines of icebergs ; and as the dogs, cheered by the cries of their 
 wild drivers, went on, losing themselves deeper and deeper in the 
 labyrinth, it seemed like closing around us the walls of an icy 
 world. They stopped at last ; and I had time, while my com- 
 panions rested and fed, to climb one of the highest bergs. Tlie 
 atmosphere favoured me : the blue tops of Washington Land were 
 in full view ; and, losing itself hi a dark water-cloud, the noble 
 headland of John Barrow, 
 
 The trend of this glacier is a few degrees to the west of north, riie ticna 
 We followed its face afterward, edging in for the Greenland coast, °[*''." 
 about the rocky archipelago which I have named after the Ad- 
 vance. From one of those rugged islets, the nearest to the 
 glacier which could be approached with anything like safety, I 
 could see another island larger and closer in shore, already half 
 covered by the encroaching face of the glacier, and great masses 
 of ice stUl detaching themselves and splintering as they fell upon 
 that portion which protruded. Repose was not the characteristic 
 of this seemingly solid mass; every feature indicated activity, 
 energy, movenieiit. 
 
 The surface seemed to follow that of the basis -coim try over Appear- 
 which it flowed. It was undulating about the horizon, but as it ''"'■^'"^^''« 
 descended toward the sea it represented a broken plain with a 
 general inclination of some nine degrees, still diminishing toward 
 tho foreground. Crevices, in the distance mere wrinkles, ex- 
 
356 
 
 FORMATION OF ICEBERGS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XI.VI. 
 
 A eieantlc 
 sluirway. 
 
 Iiulicntlon 
 of a (tre«t 
 propelling 
 aK<:»cy 
 
 Kormutioa 
 of icu- 
 
 panded as they came nearer, and were crossed almost at riglit 
 angles by long continuous lines of fracture parallel with the face 
 of the glacier. 
 
 These lines too, scarcely traceable in the far distance, widened 
 as they approached the sea until they formed a gigantic stairwa\-. 
 It seemed as though the i e had lost its support below, and that 
 the mass was let down from above in a series of steps. Such an 
 action, owing to the heat derived from the soil, the excessive sur- 
 face-drainage, and the constant a^>rasion of the sea, must in reality 
 take place. My note-book may enable me at some future day to 
 develop its details. I have referred to this as the escaladed 
 structure of the Arctic glacier. 
 
 The indication of a great propelling agency seemed to be just 
 commencing at the time I was observing it. These split-off lines 
 of ice were evidently in motion, pressed on by those behind, but 
 still widening their fissures, as if the impelling action was more 
 and more energetic nearer the water, till at last they floated away in 
 the form of icebergs. Long files of these detached masses could 
 be traced slowly sailing off into the distance, their separation 
 marked by dark parallel shadows — broad and spacious avenues 
 near the eye, but narrowed in the perspective to mere lines. A 
 more impressive illustration of the forces of nature can hardly bo 
 conceived. 
 
 Regarded upon a large scale, I am satisfied that the iceberg is 
 not disengaged by debdcle, as I once supposed. So far from fall^ 
 ing into the sea, broken by its weight from the parent-glacier, it 
 rises from the sea. The process is at once gradual and compara- 
 tively quiet. The idea of icebergs being discharged, so universal 
 among systematic writers, and so recently admitted by myself, 
 seems to me now at variance with the regulated and progressive 
 actions of nature. Developed by such a process, the thousands 
 of bergs which throng these seas should keep the air and water 
 in perpetual commotion, one fearful succession of explosive de- 
 tonations and propagated waves. But it is only the lesser masses 
 falling into deep waters which could justify the popular opinion, 
 The enormous masses of the Great Glacier are propelled, step by step 
 and year by year, until, reaching water capable of supporting them, 
 they are floated off to be lost in the temperatures of other regions. 
 
 The frozen masses before me were similar in structure to the 
 
DEacuirnoN of the glacier. 
 
 357 
 
 Alpine and Norwegian ice-growths, 
 character of tlii 
 mark suggests. 
 
 It would be foreign to the chaptrb 
 
 V LV I 
 
 character of tliis book to enter upon the discussion which the re- . .' 
 
 I may add, however, tliat their face presented "J''® "***■" 
 nearly all the characteristic features of the Swiss Alps. The 
 overflow, as I have called the viscous overlapping of the surface, 
 was more clearly marked than upon any Alpine glacier with which 
 I am acquainted. When close to the island-rocks and looking out 
 upon the upper table of the glacier, f was struck with the homely 
 analogy of the batter-cake spreading itself out under the ladle of 
 the housewife, the upper surface less affected by friction, and 
 r jlUng forward in consequence. 
 
 The crevices bore tlie marks of direct fracture and ther more The ove- 
 gi-adual action of surface-drainage, Tlie extensive water-shed be- ^ ''^^''' 
 tween their converging planes gave to the icy surface most of the 
 hydrographic features of a river-system. The ice-born rivers which 
 divided them were margined occasionally with spires of discoloured 
 ice, and generally lost themselves in the central areas of the glacier 
 before reaching its foreground. Occasionally, too, the face of the 
 glacier was cut by vertical lines, which, as in the Alpine growths, 
 were evidently outlets for the surface-drainage. Everything was, 
 of course, bound in solid ice when I looked at it; but the evi- 
 dences of torrent-action v^ere unequivocal, and Mr. Bunsall and 
 Mr. Morton, at their visits of the preceding year, found both cas- 
 cades and water-tunnels in abundance. 
 
 The height of this ice- wall at the nearest point was about three tiip ice- 
 hundred feet, measured from the water's edge ; and the unbroken *""" 
 right line of its diminisliing perspective showed that this might 
 be regarded as its constant measurement. It seemed, in fact, a 
 great icy table-land, abutting with a clean precipice against the 
 sea This is, indeed, characteristic of all those Arctic glaciers 
 which issue from central reservoirs or mers de glace upon the fiords 
 or bays, and is strikingly in contrast with the dependent or hanging . 
 glacier of the ravines, where every line and furrow and chasm 
 seems to indicate the movement of descent and the mechanical dis- 
 turbances which have retarded it. 
 
 I have named this gi-eat glacier after Alexander Von Humboldt, Names 
 and the cape which flanks it on the Greenland coast after Profes- ^''®" '" 
 
 . . the Rlacier 
 
 SOr AgaSSlZ. and (lie 
 
 The point at which this immense body of ice enters the Land ^'^^ 
 
3.58 
 
 CAPE FORBES. 
 
 CHAPTER of Wiislutigton gives even to a distant view impressive indications 
 
 ^''^' ' of its plastic or semi-solid character. No one could resist the im- 
 
 Namiii(f pression of fluidity conveyed by its peculiar markings. I have 
 
 I'orbeu. named it Cape Forbes, after the eminent crystallogist whose view.s 
 
 it so abundantly confirms. 
 
 The face 
 of the 
 glacier. 
 
 CoiifiRU-a- 
 tii>n of its 
 auifaue. 
 
 As the su'lace of the glacier receded to the south, its face 
 seemed broken with piles of earth and rock-stained rubbish, till 
 far back in the interior it was hidden from me by the slope of a 
 hilL Still beyond this, however, the white blink or glare of the 
 sky above showed its continued extension. 
 
 It was more difficult to trace its outline to the northward, on 
 account of the immense discharges at its base. The talus of its 
 descent from the interior, looking far off to the east, ranged from 
 7° to 15°, so broken by the crevices, however, as to give the effect 
 of an inclined plane only in the distance. A few black knobs rose 
 from the white snow, like islands from the sea. 
 
 The general configuration of its surface showed how it adapted 
 itself to the inequalities of the basis-country beneath. There was 
 every modification of hill and valley, just as upon land. Thus 
 diversified in its aspect, it stretches to the north till it bounds 
 upon the new land of Washington, cementing into one the Green- 
 land of the Scandhiavian Vikings and the America of Columbus. 
 
CAPE JAMES KENT. 
 
 359 
 
 CHATER XL VII. 
 
 CAPE JAME3 KENT — MARSHALL BAY — ICE-KAFTS— STRIATED BOULDERS- 
 ANTIQUITIES— THE BEAR-CHASE— THE BEAR AT BAY — THE SINGLE 
 HUNT— TEETH-WOUNDS— THE LAST EFFORT — CLOSE OF THE SEARCH. 
 
 While the Esquimaux were hunting about the bergs, I sat with 
 iny sketch-book, absorbed in the spectacle before me ; but, seeing 
 them come to a halt above the island, I gained tlie nearest sledge, 
 and the whole party gathered together a few miles from the face 
 of the glacier. Here Hans and myself crawled with Tatterat and 
 his dogs into an impromptu snow-hut, and, cheered by our aggre- 
 gated warmth, slept comfortably. Our little dome, or rather bur- 
 row, for it was scooped out of a drift, fell down in the night ; 
 but we were so worn out that it did not wake us. 
 
 On rising from a sleep in the open air, at a temperature of 12° 
 below zero, the hunt was resumed along the face of the glacier, 
 with just enough of success to wear out the dogs and endanger 
 my chances of return to the brig. In spite of the grandeur of 
 the scenery and the noble displays of force exhibited by the fall- 
 ing bergs, my thoughts wandered back to the party I had left ; 
 and I was really glad when Kalutunah yielded to my renewed 
 persuasion, and turned his team toward the ice-belt of the south- 
 eastern shore. 
 
 The spot at which we landed I have called Cape James Kent. 
 It was a lofty headland, and the land-ice which hugged its base 
 was covered with rocks from the cliflfs above. As I looked over 
 this ice-belt, losing itself in the far distance, and covered with its 
 millions of tons of rubbish, greenstones, limestones, chlorite 
 slates, rounded and angular, massive and ground to powder, its 
 importance as a geological agent in the transportation of drift 
 struck me with great force. Its whole substance was studded 
 with these varied contributions from the shore ; and further to 
 the south, upon the now frozen waters of Marshall Bay, I could 
 recognise raft after raft from the last year's ice-belt, which had 
 
 en ATT KB 
 XLVII. 
 
 An Im- 
 
 piompiu 
 
 snow-hut. 
 
 A sleep in 
 the oiien 
 air. 
 
 Cape 
 
 James 
 
 Kent. 
 
seo 
 
 ICE RAFTS. 
 
 ciiAiTEK been caught by the winter, each one laden with its heavy freight 
 ^-^^1' of foreign material. 
 
 ICR-RAFT. 
 
 The water -torrents and thaws of summer unite with the tides 
 in disengaging the ice-belt from the coast ; but it is not uncom- 
 
 Ciiiisea of 
 the ile- 
 tachnient 
 
 of masses j^fji^ for large bergs to drive against it and carry away the growths 
 
 tiie ico- ^i many years. I have found masses that had been detached in 
 
 '**'"• this way, floating many miles out to sea, — long, symmetrical 
 
 tables, two hundred feet long by eighty broad, covered with large 
 
 angular rocks and boulders, and seemingly impregnated through- 
 
 RAFT OF 8LATE8. 
 
 out with detrited matter. These rafts in Marshall Bay were so 
 numerous, that, could they have .melted as I saw them, the 
 
KOCKS AND BOULDERS IN ICE-BELT. 
 
 361 
 
 bottom of the sea would have presented a more curious study chapter 
 for the geologist than the boulder-covered lines of our middle '^ 
 latitudes. fi«K- 
 
 iri'iT 111- ... incuts of 
 
 One in particular, a sketch of which I .attach, had its origin in ^rcen- 
 a valley where rounded fragments of water-washed grconstone '||^"|'.'" 
 
 bolt. 
 
 ROCHE UODTONNEE, I.N ICR-BBLT. 
 
 iiad been poured out by the torrents and frozen into the coast-ice 
 of the belt. The attrition oi subsequent matter had truncated 
 
 BTKIATKD BObLDEK FROM MARY LEIPER riUKD. 
 
 the great egg-shaped rock, and worn its sides into a striated face, striated 
 whose scratches still indicated the line of water-flow. bouWer. 
 
 On the south-eastern comer of this bay, where some low 
 islands at the mouth of the fiord formed a sort of protection 
 
 ; ^»5, '-0 
 
KSQUIMAUX REMAINS. 
 
 cnAPTKn 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 I>o»orted 
 lait» 
 
 Hemiiins 
 round tlic 
 old lioinc- 
 sluuds. 
 
 Tiadltions. 
 
 Heiir- 
 liunts. 
 
 Training 
 of the 
 dogs. 
 
 against tlie north wind, was a group of Esqiiimaux remains, — 
 huts, cairns, and graves. Though evidently long deserted, my 
 drivers seemed to know all aboxit them, for they suspended the 
 hunt around the bergs to take a look at these evidences of a by- 
 gone generation of their fathers. 
 
 There were five huts, with two stone pedestals for the protec- 
 tion of meat, and one of those strange little kennels which serve 
 as dormitories when the igloij is crowded. The graves were 
 furtlier up the fiord : from them I obtained a knife of bone, but 
 no indications of iron. 
 
 These huts stood high up, upon a set of shingle-terraces, simi- 
 lar to those of Rensselaer Bay. The belt-ice at their foot was 
 old and undisturbed, and must have been so for years ; so, too, 
 was the heavy ice of the bay. Yet around these old homesteads 
 were bones of the seal and walrus, and the vertebrae of a whale 
 similar to that at the igloe of Anoatok. There must have been 
 both open water and a hunting-ground around them, and the 
 huts had in former days been close upon this water-line. " Una 
 suna nuna 1 " " What land is this, Kalutunah 1 " I did not 
 understand his answer, which was long and emphatic ; but I 
 found from oiir interjjreter that the place was still called " the 
 inhabited spot ; " and that a story was well preserved among 
 them of a time when families were sustained beside its open 
 water and musk-ox inhabited the hills. We followed the belt- 
 ice, crossing only at the headlands of the bays, and arrived at 
 the brig on the afternoon of Wednesday. 
 
 Our whole journey had been an almost unbroken and scarcely- 
 varied series of bear-hunts. They had lost for me the attractions 
 of novelty ; but, like the contests with the walrus, they were 
 always interesting, because characteristic of this rude people. 
 
 The dogs are carefully trained not to engage in contest witli 
 the bear, but to retard its flight. While one engrosses his at- 
 tention ahead, a second attacks him in the rear; and, always 
 alert, and each protecting the other, it rarely happens that they 
 are seriously injured, or that they fail to delay the animal until 
 the hunters come up. 
 
 Let us suppose a bear scented out at the base of an iceberg. 
 The Esquimaux examines the track with sagacious care, to deter- 
 mine its age and direction, and the speed with wliich the animal 
 
THK BEAR CHASK, 
 
 303 
 
 was moving when he i)assed along. Tlio dogs arc net upon tlie 
 tmil, and the hunter courses over the ico at their side in silence. 
 As he turns the angle of the berg his game is in view before him, 
 stiilking probably along with quiet march, sometimes snufting the 
 air suspiciously, but making, nevertheless, for a nest of broken 
 Immmocks. The dogs spring forward, opening in a wild woHihIi 
 yell, the driver shrieking " Nannook ! nanuook ! " and all strain- 
 ing every nerve in pursuit. 
 
 The bear rises on his haunches, insj)ects his pursuers, and starts 
 off at full speed. The hunter, as he runs, leaning over his sledge, 
 seizes the traces of a couple of his dogs, and Hberates them from 
 their burden. It is the work of a minute ; for the motion is not 
 checked, and the remaining dogs rush on with apimrent ease. 
 
 Now, pressed more severely, the bear makes for an iceberg and 
 stands at bay, while his two foremost pursuers halt at a short 
 distance and quietly await the arrival of the hunter. At this 
 moment the whole pack are liberated ; the hunter grasps his 
 lance, and, tumbling through the snow and ice, prepares for the 
 encounter. 
 
 Tf there be two hunters, the bear is killed easily ; for one makes 
 a feint of thrusting a spear at the right side, and, as the animal 
 turns with Ids arms towards the threatened attack, the left is un- 
 protected and receives the death-wound. 
 
 But if there be ordy on« hunter, he does not hesitate. Grasp- 
 ing the lance firmly in his hands, he provokes the animal to pur- 
 sue him by moving rapidly across its path, and then running as 
 if to escape. But hardly is its long, unwieldy body extended for 
 the solicited chase, before with a rapid jump the hunter doubles 
 on his track and runs back toward his first position. The bear 
 is in the act of turning after him again when the lance is plunged 
 into the left side, below the shoulder. So dexterously has this 
 thrust to be made, that an unpractised hunter has often to leave 
 his spear in the side of his prey and run for his life. But even 
 then, if well aided by the dogs, a c( ol, skilful man seldom fails to 
 kill his adversary. 
 
 Many wounds are received by the Etali Bay Esquimaux in 
 these encounters. The bear is looked upon as more fierce in that 
 neighbourhood, and about Anoatok and Rensselaer Bay, than 
 around the broken ice to the south. He uses Ids teeth much 
 
 0HAP7HK 
 XLVIl, 
 
 The Biiiiio 
 III view. 
 
 The cliafi& 
 
 Tho en- 
 ciiuuter. 
 
 The 
 
 willtavy 
 
 hunter. 
 
 Wounds 
 in the 
 cliase. 
 
364 
 
 DHPAIITWRK OF KALUTUNAII. 
 
 OHAi'TKR more gcncnilly than is 8ui)[)oaed by systematic writers. Tlio 
 xuvu. ijngging, pawing, and boxing, which cliaraoterizo tlie black u'ld 
 ilHi.uiiof grisly bears, are rcHorteil to by liim only under peculiar cu-iiini- 
 telr." stances. While wandering over lii.s icy fields, ho will rear liiiiisilf 
 upon his hind legs to ctdarge his circle of vision ; and I have ofti'ii 
 seen him in this attitude pawing the air, as if practising for nii 
 apprehended conflict. I^ut it is only when absolutely beset, or 
 when the female is defending her cub, that the Polar bear shows 
 fight upon its haunches. Among seven hunters who visited the 
 brig last December, no less than five were scarred by direct tcotli- 
 wounds of bears. Two of these had been bit in the calves of tlie 
 legs while running, and one, our friend !Metek, had received a like 
 dishonourable wound somewhat higher. Our dogs were seized ly 
 the nape of the neck, and flinig violently many paces to one side. 
 The bear-hunt ranks foremost among the exhibitions of per- 
 sonal prowess. My intelligent friend Kalutunah excelled in it. 
 Shanghu, his principal associate, was also skilful as well as 
 daring. 
 
 They both left the brig after a day's rest, fully laden with wond 
 and other presents, and promising to engage Metek, if they could, 
 to come up with his four dogs. They themselves engaged to lend 
 me one dog from each of their teams. It pleased me to find that 
 I had earned character with these people, at first so suspicious and 
 distrustful. They left on board each man his dog, without a shade 
 of doubt as to my good faith, only begging me to watch the poor 
 animals' feet, as the famine had nearly exterminated their stock. 
 
 Pepnrture 
 of Kiilu- 
 tunuli and 
 SImnghu. 
 
 The month of May had come. Metek, less confiding because 
 
 less trustworthy than Kalutunah, did not bring his dogs, and my 
 
 own exhausted team was in almost daily requisition to brin? in 
 
 Prospect supplies of food from Etah. Everything admonished me that 
 
 (if leaving |.]jg ^jjj^g y^^^^ ^^ liand when we must leave the brig and trust our 
 
 the brig. ° 
 
 fortunes to the floes. Our preparations were well advanced, and 
 the crew so far restored to health that all but three or four could 
 take some part in completing them. 
 
 StUl, I could not allow myself to pass away from our region of 
 search without a last effort to visit the further shores of the 
 channel Our communications with the Esquimaux, and scne 
 successful hunts of our own, had given u' ^ stock of provisions 
 
 A iRRt 
 
 effurt 
 
A LAST KXI'KIUJ'ION. 
 
 :j66 
 
 OnAPTRR 
 XLVII. 
 
 A lii»t ex* 
 peUltltin. 
 
 for at least a week in adviince. I conforreil with my officers, 
 made a full distribution of the work to be performed in my 
 absence, and sot out once more, with Morton for my only com- 
 panion. We took with ua the light sludge, adding the two bor- 
 rowed dogs to our team, but travelling ourselves on foot. Our 
 course was to be l>y the middle ice, and our hope that we uiight 
 find it free enough from hunnnocka to permit us to pass. 
 
 My journal, written after our return, gives nothing but a scries 
 of observations going to verify and complete my charts. We 
 htruggk'd manfully to force our way through, — days and nights of 
 adventurous exposure and recurring disaster, and at last found n» failure, 
 our way back to the brig, Morton broken down .mew, and my own 
 energies just adequate to the duty of supervising our final depar- 
 ture. I had neithf time nor strength to expoiul on my diary. 
 
 The operations u the search were closed. cio»«-a. 
 
 I 
 
 ■1 
 
 1 
 
3C6 
 
 CHATTER 
 XliVlII. 
 
 Arduous 
 and Uho- 
 lioMs pre- 
 pnrations. 
 
 Mariufiic- 
 ture of 
 clothing. 
 
 Bcdiling. 
 
 -..mm' 
 
 Trovision- 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR ESCAPE. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR ESCAPE — PROVISIONS — BOATS — THE SLEDGES — IN. 
 8TRUMENT8 AND ARMS — COOKING APPARATUS— TABLE FURNITURE— 
 CRADLING THE BOATS— THE SLEDGES MOVING— THE RECREATION. 
 
 The detailed preparations for our escape would hav3 little interest 
 for the general reader ; but they were so arduous and so impoi- 
 tant that I cannot pass them by without a special notice. They 
 had been begun from an early day of the fsill, and had not been 
 entirely intermitted during our severest winter-trials. All wlio 
 couUl work, even at picking over eider-down, found every moment 
 of leisure fully appropriated. But since our party had begun to 
 develop the stimulus of more liberal diet, our labours were moie 
 systematic and diversified. 
 
 The manufacture of clothing had made considerable progress. 
 Canvas moccasins had been made for every one of the party, and 
 three dozen were added as a common stock to meet emergencies. 
 Three pairs of boots were allowed each man. These were gene 
 rally of carpeting, with soles of walrus and seal hide ; and when 
 the supply of these gave out, the leather from the chafing-gear of 
 the brig for a time supplied their place. A much better substi- 
 tute was found afterward in the gutta-percha that had formed the 
 speaking-tube. This was softened by warm water, cut into 
 lengths, and so made available to its new uses. Blankets were 
 served out as the material for body-clothing : every man was bis 
 own tailor. 
 
 For bedding, the woollen curtains that had formerly decorated 
 our berths supplied us with a couple of large coverlets, which were 
 abundantly (piilted with eider-down. Two buffalo-robes of the 
 same size with the coverlets were arranged so as to button on them, 
 forming sleeping sacks for the occasion, but easily detached for 
 the purpose of drying or airing. 
 
 Our provision-bags were of assorted sizes, to fit under tlie 
 thwarts of the boats. They were of sail-cloth, made water-tight 
 by tar and pitch, wliich we kept from penetrating the canvas by 
 
I were moie 
 
 PROVISIONS. 
 
 367 
 
 The bread- chaptkr 
 xLvm. 
 
 first coating it with flour-paste and plaster of Paris, 
 bags were double, the inntr saturated with paste and plaster by- 
 boiling in the mixture, and the space between the two filled Avith 
 pitch. Every bag was, in sailor-phrase, roped and becketed ; in 
 ordinary parlance, well secured by cordage. 
 
 These different manufactures had all of them being going on whoie- 
 through the winter, and more rapidly as the spring advanced. ^"™^ 
 They had given employment to the thoughts of our sick men, and empioy- 
 in this way had exerted a wholesome influence on their moral "i',*^"';^*" 
 tone and assisted tlieir convalescence. Other preparations liad 
 been begun more recently. The provisions for the descent were 
 to be got ready and packed. The ship-bread was powdered by 
 beating it with a capstan-bar, and pressed down into the bags 
 which were to carry it. Pork-fat and tallow were melted down, 
 and poured into other bags to freeze. A stock of concentrated Provisions 
 bean- soup was cooked, and secured for carriage like the pork- jour„\!.,, 
 fat ; and the flour and remaining meat-biscuit were to be protected 
 from moisture in double bags. These were the only provisions 
 we were to carry with us. I knew I should be able to subsist 
 the party for some time after their setting out by the food I could 
 l)ring from the vessel by occasional trips with my dog-team. Fur 
 the rest we relied upon our guns. 
 
 Besides all this, we had our camp-equipage to get in order, and cnitip 
 the vitally-important organization of our system of boats and *"'*'!"'»?*• 
 sledges. 
 
 Our boats were three in niimber, all of tliem well battered by Boats. 
 exposure to ice and btomi, almost as destructive of their sea- 
 worthiness as the hot sun of other regions. Two of them were 
 cypress whaleboa ::,, twenty-six feet long, with seven feet beam, 
 iind three feet daep. These were strengthened with oak bottom- 
 pieces and a long stnng-j)iece bolted to the keel A washboard 
 of light cedar, about six inches high, served to strengthen tlie 
 gunwale and gise increased depth. A neat housing of light can- 
 vas was stretched upon a ridge-line sustained fore and aft by 
 stanchions, and hung down over the boat's sides, where it was 
 fastened (stopped) to a jack-stay. My last year's experience on 
 the attempt to reach Beechy Island determined me to carry but 
 one mast to each boat. It was stepped into an oaken thwart, 
 made especially strong, as it was expected to cairy sail over ice jw 
 
 :i' 
 
368 
 
 SLEDGES, INSTRUMENTS, AND ARMS. 
 
 3HAPTER 
 XLTIII. 
 
 The lied 
 Elk. 
 
 The boats 
 mounted 
 on sledges. 
 
 I 
 
 Instni- 
 nieiits. 
 
 Amis and 
 amuiiitiun, 
 
 Cooking 
 apparatus. 
 
 well as water ; the mast could be readily unshipped, and carried, 
 with the oars, boat-hooks, and ice-poles, alongside the boat. The 
 third boat was my little Red Eric. We mounted her on the old 
 sledge, the Faith, hardly relying on her for any purposes of navi- 
 gation, but with the intention of cutting her up for firewood in 
 case our guns 'should fail to give us a supply of blubber. 
 
 Indeed, in spite of all the ingenuity of our carpenter, Mr. Ohlseii, 
 well seconded by the persevering labours of M'Gary and Bonsall, 
 not one of our boats was positively sea- worthy. The Hope wouM 
 not pass even charitable inspection, and we expected to burn her 
 on reaching water. The planking of all of them was so dried up 
 that it could hardly be made tight by calking. 
 
 The three boats were mounted on sledges rigged with rue- 
 raddiesj the provisions stowed snugly under the thwarts; the 
 chronometers, carefully boxed and padded, placed in the stem- 
 sheets of the Hope, in charge of Mr. Sontag. With them were 
 such of the instruments as we coidd venture to transport. They 
 consisted of two Gambey sextants, with artificial hoilzon, our 
 transit-unifilar, and dip-instruments. Our glasses, with a few of 
 the smaller field-instruments, we carried on our persons. Our fine 
 theodolite we were forced to abandon. 
 
 Our powder and shot, upon which our lives depended, were 
 carefully distributed in bags and tin canisters. The percussion- 
 caps I took into my own possession, as more precious than gold. 
 Mr. Bonsall had a general charge of the arms and ammunition. 
 Places were arranged for the guns, and hunters appointed for eacli 
 boat. Mr. Petersen took charge of the most important part of 
 our field-equipage, our cooking gear. Petersen was our best 
 tinker. All the old stove-pipe, now none the better for two 
 winters of Arctic fires, was called into requisition. Each boat was 
 provided with two large iron cylinders, fourteen inches in diameter 
 and eighteen high. Each of them held an iron saucer or lamp, 
 in which we could place our melted pork-fat or blubber, and, with 
 the aid of spun-yarn for a wick, make a roaring fire. I need not 
 say that the fat and oil always froze when not ignited. 
 
 Into these cylinders, which were used merely to defend our 
 lamp from the wind and our pots from contact with the cold air, 
 we placed a couple of large tin vessels, suitable either for melting 
 snow or making tea or soup. They were made out of cake-cani- 
 
DAY FIXED FOR DEPARTURB. 
 
 300 
 
 stcrs cut down. How many kindly festival associations hung by 
 these now abused soup-cans ! one of them i-ad, before the fire 
 nibbed off its bright gilding, the wedding-inscription of a largo 
 fruit-cake. 
 
 We carried spare tins in case the others should burn out; it 
 was well we did so. So comi)letely had we exhausted our house- 
 iiold furniture, that we had neither cups nor plates, except 
 ( rockery. This, of course, would not stand the travel, and our 
 spare tin had to be saved for protecting the boats from ice. At 
 this juncture we cut plates out of every imaginable and rejected 
 ])iece of tinware. Borden's meat-biscuit canisters furnished us 
 with a splendid dinner-service; and some rightly-feared tin jars, 
 \\ith ominous labels of Corrosive Sublimate and Arsenic, which 
 once belonged to our department of natural history, were emptied, 
 scoured, and cut down into tea-cups. 
 
 Recognising the importance of acting directly iipon the men's 
 minds, my first step now was to issue a general order appointhig 
 ii certain day, the 17th of May, for setting out. Every rnan had 
 twenty-four hours given him to select and get ready his eight 
 pounds of personal effects. After that, his time was to cease to 
 be his own for any purpose. The long-indulged waywardness of 
 our convalescents made them take tliis hardly. Some who were 
 ;it work on articles of apparel that were really important to them 
 threw them down unfinished, in a sick man's pet. I had these 
 ill some cases picked up quietly and finished by others. But I 
 showed myself inexorable. It was necessary to brace up and con- 
 centrate every man's thoughts and energies upon the one great com- 
 mon object, our departure from the vessel on the 17th, not to returiL 
 
 I tried my best also to fix and diffuse impressions that we were 
 i;oing home. But in this I was not alw^ays successful ; I was 
 •lispleased, indeed, with the moody indifference with which many 
 went about the tasks to which I put them. The completeness of 
 my preparations I know had its influence ; but there were many 
 doubters. Some were convinced that my only object was to move 
 further south, retaining the brig, however, as a home to retreat to. 
 Others whispered that I wanted to transport the sick to the hunt- 
 ing-grounds and other resources of the lower settlements, which I 
 had such difficulty in preventing the mutinous from securing for 
 
 themselves alone. A few of a more cheerful spirit thought T had 
 i A 
 
 CHAPIFU 
 XLVllI. 
 
 SiiiKnliii' 
 table -e.- 
 vice. 
 
 D.iy fixed 
 for de- 
 piu'ture. 
 
 KffoiH 
 to fheer 
 the men. 
 
 Coiniilcte- 
 ncss. 
 

 li 
 
 370 
 
 CRADLING AND MOVING THE BOATS. 
 
 ■ 
 
 lHli 
 
 II 
 
 
 'Hii 
 
 i 
 
 ■I 
 
 1 
 
 1 s- 
 
 i i- ' 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XLVIII. 
 
 Cnidlinff 
 the boats 
 and mov- 
 InfT thcni 
 I-) tlie Ice- 
 foot. 
 
 Attempt at 
 an 01 na- 
 mpiital ex- 
 liibitioii. 
 
 (irailurtl 
 (mining 
 for the 
 journey. 
 
 resolved to make for some point of look-out, in the hope of a 
 rescue by whalers or Englisli expeflition-parties which were siip- 
 po.sed stUl to be within tlie Arctic circle. The number is unfor- 
 tunately small of those human beings whom calamity elevates. 
 
 There was no sign or affectation of spirit ot enthusiasm upon 
 tlie memorable day when we first adjusted the boats to their 
 cradles on the sledges and moved them off to the ice-foot. But tlie 
 ice immediately aroimd the vessel was smooth ; and, as the boats 
 had not received their lading, the first labour was an easy one. 
 As the runners moved, the gloom of several countenances ■were 
 perceptibly lightened. The croakers had protested that we could 
 not stir an inch. These cheering remarks always reach a com- 
 mander's ears, and I took good care of course to make the outsit 
 contradict them. By the time we reached the end .* our iutle 
 level, the tone had improved wonderfully, and we were prepared 
 for the effort of crossing the successive lines of the belt-ice and 
 forcing a way through the smashed material which interposed 
 between us and the ice-foot. 
 
 This was a work of great difficulty, and sorrowfully exhaust- 
 ing to the poor fellows not yet accustomed to heave together, 
 But in the end I had the satisfaction, before twenty-four hours 
 were over, of seeing our little arks of safety hauled upon the 
 higher plane of the ice-foot, in fuU trim for ornamental exhibition 
 from the brig ; their neat canvas housing rigged tent-fashion over 
 the entire length of each ; a jaunty little flag, made out of one of 
 the commander's obsolete linen shirts, decorated in stripes from ii 
 disused article of stationery, the red-ink bottle, and with a very 
 little of the blue-bag in the star- spangled corner. All hands after 
 this returned on board ; I had ready for them the best supper our 
 supplies afforded, and they turned in with minds prepared for 
 their dei)arture next day. 
 
 They were nearly all of them invalids, unused to open air and 
 exercise. It was necessary to train them very gradually. ^\ ^ 
 made but two miles the first day, and with a single boat ; and 
 indeed for some time after this I took care that they should not 
 be disheartened by overwork. They came back early to a hearty 
 •upper and warm beds, and I had the satisfaction of marchini; 
 them back each recurring morning refreshed and cheerful. Tim 
 weather, happily, was superb. 
 
THE LAST SUNDAY IN TIIR BRIG. 
 
 371 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 rriE PtEDQES — THE ARGUMENT — FAREWELL TO THE BRIO— THE MUSTER — • 
 TliE ROUTINE — THE MESSES. 
 
 Our last farewell to the brig was made with more solemnity, chaptkr 
 
 The er.tire sliip's company was collected in our dismantled winter- - 
 
 chamber to take part in the ceremonial. It was Sunday. Our '""-' '■'■*' 
 moss walls had been torn down, and the wood that supported 
 them buiiied. Our beds were off at the boats. The galley was 
 tuifumishod and cold. Everything about the little den of refuge 
 was desolate. 
 
 We read prayers and a chapter of the Bible; and then, all I'myeis 
 standing silently round, I took Sir John Franklin's portrait from f" '^^" " 
 its frame and cased it in an Indua-rubber scroll. I next read the 
 reports of inspection and survey which had been made by the 
 several commissions organized for the purpose, all of them testify- 
 ing to the necessities under which I was about to act. I then captnin 
 addressed the party : I did not affect to disguise the difliculties ^f"^'^ 
 
 ^ '' ° addiess to 
 
 that were before us ; but I assured them that they could all be iiie miin 
 overcome by energy and subordination to command : and that the 
 tliirteen hundred miles of ice and water that lay between us and 
 North Greenland could be traversed with safety for most of us, 
 uud hope for all. I added, that as men and messmates, it was the 
 (hity of us all, enjoined by gallantry as well as rehgion, to post- 
 pone every consideration of self to the protection of the wounded 
 and sick; and that this must be regarded by every man and 
 under all circumstances as a paramount order. In conclusion, I 
 told them to think over the trials we had all of us gone througli, 
 and to remember each man for himself how often an unseen 
 Power had rescued him in peril, and I admonished them still to 
 l)hice reliance on Him who could not change. 
 
 I was met with a right spirit. After a short conference, an Kffect »/ 
 engagement was drawn up by one of the officers, and brought to (^ll^ ' 
 me with the signatures of all the company, without an exception. 
 It read as follows : — 
 
 / 
 
 !'i 
 
rHAl'TF.R 
 XLIX. 
 
 S72 ENGAGEMENT SIGNED BY AM- 
 
 "Second Grinneli, Expbditiok, 
 
 " Brio Advance, May 20, 1855. 
 
 " The undersigned, being convinced of the impossibility of the 
 liberation of the brig, and equally convinced of the impossibility 
 Voluntary ^f remaining in the ice a third winter, do fervently concur with 
 the commander in his attempt to reach the south by means of 
 boats. 
 
 " Knowing the trials and hardships which are before us, an.l 
 feeling the necessity of union, harmony, and discipline, we have 
 tletermined to abide faithfully by the expedition and our sick 
 comrades, and to do all that we can, as true men, to advance tlm 
 objects ill view. 
 
 iiient 
 
 officers 
 :iimI null. 
 
 " Hknrt Brooks, 
 James M'Gary, 
 George Rii.ey, 
 William Morton, 
 C, Ohlsen, 
 
 J. Wall Wilson, 
 Amos Bonsall, 
 I. I. Hayes, 
 August Sontag, 
 &c. &c." 
 
 "■!» 
 
 jiemoiiui I had prepared a brief memorial of the considerations wliioh 
 "f "'6 justified our abandonment of the vessel, and had read it as pa,rt of 
 
 reasons for , 
 
 leaving my addrcss. I now fixed it to a stanchion near the gangway, 
 the viss.i. ^y|jgj.j3 ij; must attract the notice of any who might seek us here- 
 after, and stand with them as my vindication for the step, in cajse 
 we should be overtaken by disaster. It closed with these words: — 
 
 " I regard the abandonment of the brig as inevitable. We havo 
 by actual inspection but thirty-six days' provisions, and a careful 
 survey shows that we cannot cut more firewood -without rendering 
 our craft unseaworthy. A third winter would force us, as the 
 only means of escaping starvation, to resort to Esquimaux habits 
 and give up all hope of remaining by the vessel and her resources. 
 It would therefore in no manner advance the search after Sir John 
 Franklin. 
 
 " Under any circumstances, to remain longer would be destruc- 
 tive to those of our little party who have already suffered from 
 the extreme severity of the climate and its tendencies to disease. 
 Scur%7- has enfeebled more or less every man in the expedition ; 
 and an anomalous spasmodic disorder, allied to tetanus, has cost 
 us the life of two of our most prized comrades. 
 
 " I hope, speaking on the part of my companions and myself, 
 
FAREWELL TO THE BRIG. 
 
 873 
 
 tliat we liave done all that we ought to do to prove our tenacity oiiAfTKa 
 of purpose and devotion to the cause which we have undertaken. ^"^' 
 Tliis attempt to escape by crossing tlie southern ice on sledges is 
 regarded by me as an imperative duty, — the only means of saving 
 ourselves and preserving the laboriously- earned results of the ex- 
 pedition. 
 
 "E. K. Kane, 
 "Com. Griuufll Jixpeditinii. 
 
 " Advance, Rensselaer Bat, May 20, 1855." 
 
 We then went upon deck : the flags were hoisted and hauled 
 down again, and our party walked once or twice around the brig, 
 looking at her timbers and exchanging comments upon the scars 
 which reminded them of every stage of her dismantling. Our 
 figure-head — the fair Augusta, the little blue girl with pink cheeks, 
 who had lost her breast by an iceberg and her nose by a nip off 
 IVdevilled Reach — was taken fr6m our bows and placed aboard 
 the " Hope." " She is at any rate wood," said the men, when I 
 hesitated about giving them the additional burden; "and if we 
 cannot carry her far we can burn her." 
 
 No one thought of the mockery of cheers : we had no festival- 
 liquor to mislead our perception of the real state of things. When 
 all hands were quite ready, we scrambled oflf over the ice together, 
 much lik'3 a gang of stevedores going to work over a quayful of 
 broken cargo. 
 
 On reaching the boats, the party were regularly mustered and 
 divided between the two. A rigid inspection was had of every 
 article of personal equipment. Each man had a woollen under- 
 dress and an Esquimaux suit of fur clotldng, — kapetah, nessak, 
 and nannooke complete, with boots of our own make ; that is to 
 say, one pair of canvass faced with walrus-hide, and another inside 
 made of the cabin Brussels carpet. In addition to this, each 
 carried a ruc-raddy adjusted to fit him comfortably, a pair of socks 
 next his skin, and a pair of large goggles for snow-blindness, made 
 Esquimaux fashion by cutting a small slit in a piece of wood. 
 Some of us had gutta percha masks fitting closely to the face, as 
 large as an ordinary domino; but these were still less favourable 
 to personal appearance than the goggles. The provision-bags and 
 other stores were numbered, and each man and officer had his 
 
 A lust louk 
 at tliu 
 
 liemovdl 
 of the 
 " fiiir 
 August a." 
 
 Depar- 
 tiiie. 
 
 The mus- 
 ter and 
 inspection 
 of tlie 
 I)arty. 
 
374 
 
 OROANIZVTION AND ROUTINT 
 
 CHAPTER 
 XLIX. 
 
 Number of 
 iiicii able 
 work. 
 
 ruutlne. 
 
 <')rganlEii- 
 tion uf the 
 paity. 
 
 own bag and a place assigned for it, to prevent confusion in rafii'l 
 stowing and unstowing. 
 
 Excluding four sick men, who were unable to move, and mysolf. 
 who had to drive the dog-team and serve as common carrier and 
 courier, we numbered but twehe men, — which would have given 
 six to a sledge, or too few to move it. It was therefore necessary 
 to concentrate our entire force upon one sledge at a time. On tlie 
 other hand, however, it was important to the efllciency of our 
 ctrganization tliat matters of cooking, sleeping baggage, and rations, 
 should be regulated by separate messes. 
 
 The routine I established was the most precise : — Daily prayeis 
 both morning and evening, all hands gathering round in a circle 
 and standing uncovered during the short exercise; regulated hours; 
 fixed duties and positions at the track-lines and on the halt ; the 
 cooking to be taken by turns, the captains of the boats alone belli;,' 
 excused, 'i'lie charge of the log was confided to Dr. Hayes, aii'l 
 the running survey to Mr. Sontag. Though little could be ex- 
 pected from either of these gentlemen at this time, I deemed it 
 best to keep up the appearance of ordinary voyaging ; and after 
 we left the first ices of Smith's Straits I was indebted to them 
 for valuable results. The thermometer was observed every three 
 hours. 
 
 To my faithful friend and first officer, boatswain Brooks, I 
 assigned the command of the boats and sledges. I knew how 
 Avell he was fitted for it; and when forced, as I was afterward 
 during the descent, to be in constant motion between the sick- 
 station, the Esquimaux settlements, and the deserted brig, I f(;lt 
 safe in the assurance of his tried fidelity and indomitable resolu- 
 tioiL The party under him was marshalled at the rue-raddies as 
 a single gang ; but the messes were arranged with reference to 
 the two whale-boats, and when we came afterward to the open 
 water the crews were distributed in the same way : — 
 
 To the Faith. 
 James M'(jakv, 
 Chkistian Ohlskn, 
 Amos Bonsall, 
 Carl J. Petersen, 
 Thomas Hickey, 
 
 To the Hope. 
 William Morton, 
 August Sontag, 
 George Riley, 
 John Ulake, 
 William Uodfret. 
 
 With this organization we set out on oilr march. 
 
ACCOMMODATIONS FOR THE SICK. 
 
 375 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 THE SICK nuT- 
 
 -TO FIKST IIAVINE— MOVINO THE SICK— THE HEALTH- 
 STATION — CONVALESCE.NCK 
 
 1 HAD employed myself and the team from an early day in chaptkii 
 furnishing out accommodations for the sick at Anoatok. I have ^' 
 already described this station as the halting-place of our winter- sitimtiuti 
 journeys. The hut was a low dome of hea\7' stones, more like a t„k 
 cave than a human habitation. It was perched on the very point 
 of the rocky promontory which I have named after Captain Ingle- 
 field, of the British Navy. Both to the north and south it com- 
 manded a view of the ice-expanse of the straits ; and what little 
 sunshine ever broke through the gorges by which it was environed 
 encouraged a perceptible growth of flowering plants and coarse 
 grasses on the level behind it. The ice-belt now beantifnlly 
 ■smooth, brought us almost to the edge of this little plain. 
 
 I had made up my mind from an early period that, in the 
 event of our attempting to escape upon the ice, the " wind-loved 
 spot," as the Esquimaux poetically named it, Avould be well 
 adapted to the purposes of an entrepot, and had endeavoured within 
 the last few weeks to fit it up also as a resting-place for our sick Hut fitted 
 during the turmoil of removing from the brig. I had its broken "j^j^"' '"" 
 outlet closed by a practicable door, and the roof perforated to 
 receive a stove-pipe. Still more recently the stone platform or 
 dais had been thoroughly cleansed, and covered with shavings 
 which Ohlsen had saved while working at his boats. Over these 
 again were laid my best cushions ; and two blankets, all that we 
 could spare, were employed to tapestry the walls. A small pane 
 of glass, formerly the facing of a daguerreotype, inserted in the 
 door, and a stove, made by combining the copper dog-vane of the ' 
 galley with some dazzling tin pipes, completed the furniture. It 
 was a gloomy hospital after all for the poor fellows, who, more 
 than sharing all the anxiety of their comrades, could have no re- 
 lief in the excitement of active toil. . 
 
 I made many journeys between the brig and Anoatok while the 
 
 m 
 
 *H' 
 
 
:i76 
 
 FIRST KAVINK 
 
 
 Storliifl; 
 IMOvlsioiiH. 
 
 il 
 
 II 
 
 Wonderful 
 
 < fthe 
 ilugs. 
 
 First 
 K«vlnc. 
 
 Equip- 
 ment of 
 the Re'J 
 Ar*. 
 
 arrangements for our setting out were in progress, and after the 
 .sledges were under way. AH of our invalids were housed there in 
 safety, one or two of them occupying the dog-sledge for the trip. 
 Most of our provision for the march and voyage of escape had 
 also been stacked in the neighbourhood of the huts : eight hun- 
 dred pounds out of fifteen hundred were already there. Tlic 
 remaining seven hundred I undertook to carry myself, as I had 
 done most of the rest. It would have been folly to encimiber my 
 main body with anything more than their boats and sledges ; they 
 were barely \ble at first to carry even these. Our effort to escape 
 would indeed have resulted in miserable failure, had we been 
 without our little Esquimaux dog-team to move the sick, and for- 
 ward the intended lading of the boats, and keep up supplies along 
 the line of march. I find by my notes that these six dogs, well 
 worn by previous travel, carried ine wiih a fully-burdened sledge 
 between seven and eight himdred miles during the first fortnight 
 after leaving the brig — a mean travel of fifty-seven miles a day. 
 
 Up to the evening of tho 23d, the progress had been a little 
 more than a mile a day for one sledge : on the 24 th, both sledges 
 h<ad reached First Ravine, a distance of seven miles, and the dog- 
 sledge had brought on to tliis station the buffalo bags and other 
 sleeping appliances which we had prepared during the winter. The 
 condition of the party was such that it was essential they should 
 sleep in comfort ; and it was a rule therefore during the whole 
 journey, never departed from unless in extreme emergency, never 
 to begin a new day's labour till the party was refreshed from the 
 exertions of the day before. Our halts were regulated by the 
 condition of the men rather than by arbitrary hours, and sleep was 
 meted out in proportion to the trials of the march. The thermo- 
 meter still ranged below zero ; but our housed boats, well crowded, 
 and fully stocked with sleeping gear, were hardly uncomfortable to 
 weary men ; besides which, we slept by day when the sun was 
 warmest, and travelled when we could avoid his greatest glare. 
 
 Mr. Morton, Ohlsen, and Petersen, during this time performed 
 a double duty. They took their turn at the sledges with the rest, 
 but they were also engaged iq preparing the Red Eric as a com- 
 rade boat. She was mounted on our good old sledge, the Faith 
 — a sledge that, like her namesake our most reliable whaleboat, 
 had been our very present help in many times of trouble. I be- 
 
 lieve 
 
 work 
 
 In 
 
 tion 
 
1^ 
 
 MOVING THE SICK. 
 
 377 
 
 lieve every man felt, when he saw her broiiglit ont, that stout 
 work was to be done, and under auspices of good. 
 
 In tlie meantime I had carried Mr. GoodfoUow to the sick .sta- 
 tion with my dog-sledge, and had managed to convey the rest one 
 by one to the same spot. Mr. Wilson, whose stump was still un- 
 healed, and wlio suffered besides from scurvy ; George Whlpplo, 
 whose tendons were so contracted that he could not extend his 
 legs, and poor Stephenson, just able to keep the lamps burning 
 iiud Wiirm up food for the rest, wore the other invalids, all inca- 
 pable of moving without assistance. It is just that I should speak 
 of the manly fortitude with which they bore up during this pain- 
 ful imprisonment. Dr. Hayes, though still disabled from his 
 frozen foot, adhered manfully to the sledges. 
 
 I have already expressed my belief that this little refuge hut of 
 Anoatok was the means of saving the lives of these four men. 
 AV^hen they were first transported to it, they were all of them so 
 drawn up with scurvy as to be unable to move. There was but 
 one among them able to melt water for the rest. I attended them, 
 myself durmg the first week, at eveiy interval that I could snatch 
 from the duty of transporting our provisions. The temperature in 
 which they lived was at first below zero ; but, as the sun rose and 
 the warmth increased, they gradually gained strength, and were 
 able at last to crawl out and breathe in the gladdening air. 
 
 Had I attempted to bring them down on our boat-sledges, our 
 progress would have been seriously impeded, and their lives 
 jeoparded. I caimot imagine a worse position for a sick and 
 helpless man than some of those which I have described in our 
 transit from the brig. 
 
 On the other hand, to have left them for the time behind us 
 would have made it quite possible that they might not at last be 
 reclaimed. Every day was making the ice travel more difficult 
 and full of hazard till we reached the open water ; and they could 
 not fail to know this as soon as they were able to look out on the 
 floes. My occasional visits as I passed Anoatok on my way to 
 Etah, or as I brought supplies for them on the return, gave them 
 insurances of continued interest in their fortunes, and advices of 
 our progress and of their own hopes and ours. 
 
 Besides all this, there is something in the insidious disease 
 which was their most dangerous enemy that is best combated by 
 
 L. 
 
 Statu of 
 the sljk. 
 
 Usi'fiiIiU'S« 
 of tlio 
 refuf;e hut 
 at Ano- 
 atok. 
 
378 
 
 KFKFXT OF MORAL EXCITEMKNT ON DISEASK. 
 
 CHAPTEn 
 L. 
 
 Gradual 
 impruve- 
 inunt In 
 of the 
 health 
 tlm ]>n. 
 (lent*. 
 
 moral excitement. A change of scene, renewed or increased 
 reapon.sibilities, topics of active thought, incitements to physiciil 
 effort, are among the very beat preacriptiona for men sufferiii;^ 
 with the scurvy. I liavo had reason to feel, wliile tracing thcsn 
 jiages, how reluctantly the system renewa its energies under tin 
 })ressure of a daily unvarying task. 
 
 The patients at our sick station no doubt suffered much, and 
 for a while I never parted from them without anxiety. But their 
 health improved under the stimulus of a new mode of life ; and 
 by the time that we called on them to rejoin us their whole tuiiu 
 had undergone a happy change. I congratulate myself, as I writf, 
 that all who reached the ojjen water with mc are able now Uj 
 bear a part in society and toil. 
 
I 
 
 JOURNEY AND ENCAMPMENT ON TUE ICE-UELT. 
 
 370 
 
 CIIAnER LI. 
 
 TO THE OHIO AOAIN— Wn.COMK AT TUB HOT — 1,00 OF THE BI.EI)C1EH~ 
 EDUOATKD FAITH — OOOU-BVG TO TUE BKIO— METEK's PIUYEH. 
 
 As I review my notes of tlie first few days of our ice journey, T ouaptkh 
 
 tiiid tliuni full of incidents, interesting nnd even niunientoua 
 
 when they occurred, but whidi cannot claim a place in tlirs rur- 
 rativc. The sledges were advancing slowly, the men often dis- 
 couraged, and now and then one giving way undt.T the unac- 
 customed labour ; the sick at Anoatok always dreary in their 
 solitude, and suffering, perhaps, mider an exacerbation of dis- 
 eiise, or, like the rest of us, from a 2)enury of appropriate food. 
 Things looked gloomy ejiough at times. 
 
 The Red Ihnit was completed for service in a few days, and Tim «<■</ 
 ji.ined the sledge-party on the Hoes, — an additional burden, but 'i''J'/^j"'"" 
 ii necessary one, for our weary rue-raddies ; and I set out for 
 the sick-station with ilr. Goodfellow, our last remaining invalid. 
 As my team reached the entrance of Force Bay, I saw that incidptit 
 poor Nessark, the Esquimaux, who had carried Mr. Wilson and "|'„'r)in,.u 
 some stores to Anoatok, finding his sledgc-load too heavy, had of Force 
 tl)rown out a portion of it upon the ice. He had naturally "'" 
 enough selected the bread for his jettison, an article of diet un- 
 known among the Erf(pumaux, but precisely that of which our 
 sick were most in need, I lost some time in collecting such 
 [•arts of ]iis rejected cargo as I could find, and, when I reached 
 tlie huts after a twelve hours' drive, the condition of our sick 
 I'ien made it imperative that I should return at once to the 
 brig. The dogs gave out while crossing the reach of Force Bay, 
 and I was forced to camp out with them on the ice-belt, bu* ciunpinj: 
 early in the morning I came upon the fires of the sledge-party. out on the 
 
 The men were at prayers when I first saw them ; but, as 
 they passed to the drag-ropes, I was pained to see how wearily 
 they moved. Poor Brooks' legs were so swollen that he could 
 not brace them in his blanket coverings, and Dr. Hayes could 
 hiirdly keep his place. The men generally showed symptoms 
 
 I I 
 
 H 
 
 H:;!l 
 
d80 
 
 A nETURN TO THE BRIG. 
 
 •i ' 1 
 
 Appear- 
 at Uens- 
 seliitT Buy. 
 
 Havens on 
 board the 
 
 brig 
 
 CHAPTER of incrsa-sing scurvy. It was plain that they could not hold 
 ^''' their own without an increased allowance, if not of meat, at 
 least of fresh bread and hot tea. 
 
 Taking with me Morton, my faithful adjutant always, I Lur- 
 ried 0)1 to the brig. It was in the full glare of noon that we 
 entered the familiar curve of Rensselaer Bay. The black spars 
 of our deserted vessel cut sharply against the shores ; there was 
 the deeply-marked snow-track that led to Observatory Island 
 and the graves of poor Baker and Schubert, with their cairn 
 and its white-cross beacon : everything looked as when wc de- 
 filed in funeral procession round the cliffs a year before. But, 
 as we came close upon the brig, and drove our dogs up the 
 gang-way, along which Bonsall and myself had staggered so 
 often with our daily loads of ice, we heard the rustlmg of wings. 
 and a large raven sailed away in the air past Sylvia Headland. 
 It was old jNlagog, one of a pair that had cautiously haunted 
 near our brig during the last two years. He had already appro- 
 priated our homestead. 
 
 We lighted fires in the galley, melted pork, baked a large hatch 
 of bread, gathered together a quantity of beans and dried ajiples, 
 somewhat damaged, but still eatable, and by the time our dogs 
 had fed and rested, we were reu'^'y for the return. Distribut- 
 ing our supplies as we passed the squads on the floe, I hastened 
 to Anoatok. I had taken Godfrey with us from his party, 
 and, as it was painfully evident that the men could not con- 
 tinue to Avork without more generous food, I sent him on tn 
 Etah with the dogs, in the hope of procuring a stock of walrus- 
 meat. 
 
 The little company at the hut welcomed my return. They 
 had exhausted their provisions ; their lamp had gone out ; the 
 snow-drift hrd forced its way in at the door, so that they could 
 not close it ; it was blowing a north-easter ; and the thornio- 
 meter, which hang against the blanketed walls, stood only six- 
 teen degrees above zero. The poor fellows had all the will to 
 protect themselves, but they were lame, and weak, and hungry, 
 and disheartened. We built a fire for them of tnrcd rope, dried 
 their bedding, cooked them a porridge of meat-biscuit and pea- 
 soup, fastened up their desolate door-way, hung a dripping slab 
 of pork-fat over their lamp-wick, and, first joining in a prayer 
 
 P.cturn to, 
 AiioatoK. 
 
 Vi'elcoinn 
 at tlif hut. 
 
RELIEVING THE SLEDGE-PARTY. 
 
 381 
 
 turn, Thcv 
 
 of thankfulness, and then a round of merry gossip, all hands 
 forgot sickness, and i^rivation, and distance in the contentment 
 of our sleeping-bags. I cannot tell how long Ave slept, for all 
 our watches ran down before Ave awoke. 
 
 'flic gnle had risen, and it Avas snowing hard when T replen- 
 ished the fires of our hearthstone. But Ave Avent on burning 
 rope and fat, in a regular tea-drinking frolic, till not an icicle 
 or even a frost-mark was to be seen on the roof. After a time 
 (rodfrey rejoined us ; Metek came with him ; and betAveen their 
 two sledges they brought an ample supply of meat. With part 
 of this I hastened to the sledge-party. They Avere noAV off Ten- 
 mile Ravine, struggling through the accumulated snows, and 
 much exhausted, though not out of heart. In spite of their 
 swollen feet, they had Avorked fourteen hours a day, passing in 
 that time over some twelve miles of surface, and advancing a mile 
 and a half on their Avay. 
 
 A fcAV extracts from their log-book, as kept by Dr. Hayes, 
 may show something of our mode of travel, though it conveys 
 but an imperfect idea of its trials. 
 
 LOG OF SLEDGE-PARTY. 
 
 " Mail 2.3, Wednesday. — Mr. Bonsall, cook, called at 8 P.M. 
 (Jeorge Riley suffering from snow-blindness, but able to take a 
 place at the drag-ropes. Read prayers, and got under way 
 at lOj P.M. 
 
 "Took Faith to bluff at head of ravint. Left Dr. Hayes 
 there and returned for Hope, Carried her on to Faith's 
 camp and lialted. All hands ''ery :nuch tired. Sledges haul 
 hoavy. Snow in drifts on iW. ice-f j ., requiring a standing haul. 
 
 "Captain Kare passed iis irom Esquimaux hut on his way 
 to brig, at 11 a.m., Avhile avc w ;''0 sleeping. Captain Kane o"'er 
 took and passed us again, -', [t'r his dog-sledge and prov] , . 
 rargo, on Avay to sick station, : 1 two o'clock, Tuesday, while cook- 
 ing taking with him Williait (lodfrey. 
 
 ^^ May 24, Thursday. — Cc'^k, George Riley, called at 4 P.^L 
 Road prayers, and got under v^ay at eight o'clock. Took Faith be- 
 yond the hcp.dland of yesterdfy. Melted siiOAv for drink, l-eft 
 Dr. Hay ;i here and returned for I/op^. Carried :\( i 1;.; 'k to Futh 
 I'iunp by 5 a.m. of Friday, and hLiUed. liayes ubout the s;imc ; 
 
 CUAP'i >.R 
 LI. 
 
 A tea- 
 
 (liinklti^ 
 froUc. 
 
 Journey to 
 relieve, the 
 sledKC 
 party. 
 
 F.xtracts 
 from the 
 Idgbook (if 
 Dr. Hayes. 
 
 
 i 
 
 ill 
 
382 
 
 LOG OF SLEDGE-PARTY. 
 
 CHAPTER Riley's eyes better. Mr. Bonsall and M'Gary begin to give in, 
 ^'' Slush for burning all gone. Party with Red Boat not Vf: 
 come up. 
 
 ^^ May 25, Friday. — Mr Sontag, cook, called at 6 p.jl Mr, 
 Ohlsen, with the Red Boat and cargo, came up at one o'clock, 
 bringing orders from Captain Kane. Being knocked up, he and 
 his party turned in. After prayers, stowed the spare cargo of t' 
 
 The^Red Avhaleboats into the Red Eric, and all hands, ex.;«'po Mr. Sonta:; 
 
 ifmldto '"^^^ ■'^^' ^f'^.y*^''^' ^''''i^iled her down to the ice-foot cf ^ae Bedevilled 
 
 thcke- lleach Turn-Oif station, bclnw Basi.,lt Canij). 
 
 flKit 
 
 A SKKTCIf. 
 
 '' Returned, and reached the whaleboats at five o'clock, Saturday 
 morning. All hands tired, turned in. Riley's eyes well. 
 
 " May 2G, Saturday. — Strong Avind, with snow, durhig night 
 Anivi.ioi' Captain Kane came from south at half-past three o'clock witli 
 kXc with ^'^^ dog-deam, bringing a supply of walrus-beef, with Metek aiul 
 kU5ipiios. sledge." 
 
 Once more leaving the party on the floe, Morton and niy^^elf. 
 with Metek and his sledge in company, revisited tlie brig, and ■ t 
 oirselves to work ba g bread. We had both of us auifjie ex- 
 
 % 
 
 The 
 
 othi' 
 
ANOTHER VISIT TO THE BRIC:. 
 
 383 
 
 < ! 
 
 I to give ill. 
 'oat not yet 
 
 C P.M. Mr. 
 
 ■ one o'clock, 
 up, he am! 
 cargo of t' 
 
 > Air. Sontai; 
 
 le Bedevilluil 
 
 ■jL" ' ' 
 
 ck, S:itur;i;i_v 
 ell. 
 
 uring night 
 
 >'clock witli 
 
 Metfk ami 
 
 aiul myself. 
 >rig, and '^^ t 
 an)j)!e ex- 
 
 '^ 
 
 
 jerience in tins branch of the ciilinary art, and I could gain some chaptkii 
 credit, perhaps, with a portion of my readers, by teaching them ^'' 
 how bread may be raised in three hours without salt, saleratua, or BnUim; 
 shortening. But it is not the office of this book to deal hi occult 
 mysteries. The thing can be done, .' nd we did it : sat verbuvi. 
 Tlie brig was dreary enougli, and Metfk was glad to bid it good- 
 bye, with one hundred and fifty pounds on his dog-sledge, con- 
 signed to 'Mr. Brooks. But he carried besides a letter, safely ^rl■tck■8 
 trusted to his inspection, which directed that he should be sent J"'"'"'->'- 
 back forthwith for another load. It was something like a breach 
 of faith, perhaps, but his services were indispensable, and his 
 (!'t!:;s still more so. He returned, of course, for there was no 
 }^ci> ping us ; his village lay in the opposite direction, and he 
 :ond not deviate from the track after once setting out. In the 
 iieantime we had cooked about a hundred pounds of flour pud- 
 riing, and tried out a couple of bagfuls of pork-fat ; — a good day's 
 work, — and we wore quite ready, before the subdued brightness 
 of midnight came, to turn in to our beds. Our beds ! — there SinKuiar 
 was not an article of covering left on board. We ripped open the [,1^^^"'' 
 old mattresses, and, all three crawling down among the curled 
 hair, ]\lorton, Metek, and the Nalegak, slept as sound as vagrants 
 on a haystack. 
 
 On Monday, the 28th, we all set out for the boats and Anoatok. nctmn to 
 Both Metek and myself had our sledges heavily laden. AVe carried •^'""'"'''• 
 the last of our provision-bags, completing now our full comple- 
 ment .'t i'*"'^'^en liundred i)Ounds, the limit of capacity of our 
 otlio'-./isc r jwded boats. 
 
 J • ca-' sed me a bitter pang to abandon our collection of objects Treasures 
 
 ofiNi..--;"' History, the cherished fruit of so much exposure and '^''''"" 
 
 toil 
 
 =1 hardly easier to leave some other things behind, 
 
 loIU'J. 
 
 —several of my well-tested instruments, for instance, and those 
 silent friends, my books. They had all been packed up, ho})ing 
 for ,\ chance of saving them ; and, to the credit of my comrades, 
 let me say gi-atefuUy that they offered to exclude both clothes and 
 fi 'od in favour of a full freight of these treasures. 
 
 But the thing was not to be thought of I gave a hist look at \ in** 
 !ie desolate galley-stove, the representative of our long winter's '"""^ 
 riios!^; ft the still bright coppers now full of frozen water, the 
 t ' •?' ioliU^, the chart-box, and poor Wilson's guitar, — one more 
 
 f?si 
 
384 
 
 MKTEK fe PRAYER, 
 
 cHAPTKR at the renuuint of tlie old moss walls, the useless daguerreotypes, 
 
 L aud the skeletons of dog, and deer, and bear, and musk-ox, — 
 
 stoppered in the rigging ; — and, that done, wliipped up my dogs 
 .so much after the manner of a sentimentalizing Christian, tLat 
 our pagan ^fetok raised a prayer in their belialf. 
 
 \ 
 
 % 
 
KEW STATIONS. 
 
 385 
 
 CHAPTER LIT. 
 
 NEW STATIONS— THE ICE-MARSIIES— POINT SECURITY— OOPEGSOAK— 
 CATCHING AUKS— ANINGNAII— NESSARK. 
 
 I FOUND that Mr. Brooks had succeeded in gottini' his boat and chapter 
 sledges as far as tlie floe off Bedevilled Eeacli. 1 stopped only — 1 
 long enough to point out to him an outside track, where I had ^Jft^f^j^ 
 found the ice quite smooth and free from ouow, and pressed Brooks, 
 my dogs for the hut, I noticed, to my great joy, too, that the 
 health of his party seemed to be improving under our raw-meat 
 specific, and could not find fault with the extravagant use they 
 were making of it. 
 
 The invalids at the sick station were not as avoII as I could 
 have wished ; but I had only time to renew their stock of pro- 
 vision and give them a few cheering words. Our walrus-meat 
 •was nearly exhausted. 
 
 I had fixed upon two new stations further to the south, as two new 
 the depots to which our stores were now to be transported, stations. 
 One was upon the old and heavy floes off Navialik, *' the big 
 gull's place," — a headland opposite Cape Hatherton, — the other 
 on the level ice-plain near Littleton Island. Having now gathered 
 our stores at Anoatok, I began with a thankful heart to move 
 them onward. I sent on !Metek to the further station with two 
 hags of bread-dust, each weighing ninety pounds, and, having 
 myself secured some three hundred pounds at Na\ialik, drove 
 on for Etah Bay. 
 
 My long succession of journeys on this route had made me Tryinp n 
 thoroughly weary of the endless waste of ice to seaward, and "•^^rout'i 
 
 T f T 1 1 • • to Etah 
 
 I foolishly sought upon this trip to vary the travel by follow- nay. 
 ing the ice-belt. But, upon reaching Refuge Harbour, I found 
 tlie snow so heavy and the fragments from the cliffs so nume- 
 rous and threatening, that I was obliged to give it up, A 
 large chasm stopped my advance and drove me out again upon 
 the floes. 
 
 (Jetting beyond a table-land known as Kasarsoak, or ' the big 
 i K 
 
SM 
 
 THE ICE MARSHES. 
 
 CHAPrKR 
 LII. 
 
 CliaiiKe on 
 the ivc. 
 
 Alarming 
 lirospeit. 
 
 A solitary 
 Jouiney. 
 
 Arrival at 
 Ktah about 
 iitiilniglit. 
 
 promontorj'," I emerged from the broken ice upon a wide plain. 
 Here I first saw with alarm that the ice had changed its charac- 
 ter : the snow which covered it had become lead-cohnu'cd and 
 sodden by the water from beneath, and ice-fields after ice-lields 
 stretching before me were all covered with stained patches. As I 
 rode along these lonely marshes, for such they were, the increased 
 hibour of the dogs admonished me that the floe was no longer to 
 \k' trusted. It chilled my heart to remember the position of our 
 boats and stores. Nearly nine hundred pounds of food, exclusive 
 of the load now upon my sledge, were still awaiting transportation 
 at Anoatok. 
 
 Two hundred more, including our shot and bullet-bags, were 
 at the Cape llatherton station ; and Metek's load was probably 
 by this time lying on the ice opposite M'Gary Island. Like 
 llobi'.i^ .i' Crusoe with his powder, the reflection came over 
 me : — " Good God ! what Avill become of us if all this is de- 
 i;troyf'd'" 
 
 Only by men experienced in the rapid changes of Arctic ice can 
 tjie full force of this reflection be appreciated. A single gale 
 might convert the precarious platform, over which we weio 
 travelling, into a tumultuous ice-pack. Had the boats their stores 
 on board even, and could they break through without foundering. 
 there Avas not the remotest prospect of their being liberated in 
 oj^en water ; and I knew well what obstacles a wet, sludgy 
 surface would present to our over-tasked and almost worn-out 
 party. 
 
 I determined, therefore, as soon as I could secure the meat, 
 which was my immediate errand, to make a requisition upon the 
 Esquimaux for two of the four dogs which were still at Etali, and 
 by their aid to place the provisions in safety. The north cape of 
 Littleton Island, afterward called Point Security, was selected for 
 the purpose, and I left orders with the invalids at the sick station 
 to be in readiness for instant removal, I pursued my journey 
 alone. 
 
 It was quite late in the evening when I drew near Etah. I 
 mean that it was verging on to our midnight, the sun being low 
 in the heavens, and the air breathing that solemn stillness which 
 belongs to the sleeping-time of birds and plants. I had not quitd 
 reached the little settlement when loud sounds of laughter came to 
 
ESQUIMAUX FEAST. 
 
 887 
 
 my car ; and, turning the cape, I burst suddenly ujion an encamp- chai-tkr 
 nient of tile inhabitants. ''"" 
 
 Some thirty men, women, and children, were gathered together An Ksiini- 
 upon a little face of offal-stained rock. Except a bank of moss, caiiipmeuu 
 which broke the wind-draught from the fiord, they were entirely 
 without protection from the weather, though the temperature was 
 ")^ below zero. The huts were compl-jtely deserted, the snow 
 U)ssut had fallen in, and the window was as free and open as 
 summer to the purifying air. Every living thing about the settle- 
 iiiont was out upon the bare rocks. 
 
 Rudest of gypsies, how they squalled, and laughed, and snored, An K^(nu. 
 and rolled about ! Some were sucking bird-skins, others were '"'"'■'' 
 boiling incredible numbers of auks in huge soapstone pots, and two 
 youngsters, crying at the top of their voices, " Oopegsoak ! Oopeg- 
 soak I " were fighting for an owl. It was the only specimen 
 {Strije vyctea) that I had seen excej)t on the wing ; but, before I 
 cDuld secure it, they had torn it limb from limb, and were eating 
 its Avarm flesh and blood, their faces buried among its dishevelled 
 feathers. 
 
 The fires were of peat-raoss greased with the fat of the bird- 
 skins. They were used only for cooking, however, the people 
 dejiending for comfort on the warmth of close contact. Old Kre- 
 sut, the blind patriarch of the settlement, was the favoured centre, 
 and around him, as a focus, was a coil of men, women, and chil- 
 dren, as perplexing to unravel as a skein of eels. The children 
 alone were toddling about and bringing in stores of moss, their 
 faces smeared with blood, and titbits of raw liver between their 
 teeth. 
 
 The scene was redolent of plenty and indolence, — the dolce far The >hh-f 
 niente oi t\\Q short-lived Esquimaux summer. Provision for the •^"''„""'".''' 
 (lark winter was furthest from thtlr thoughts ; for, although the mimx lita 
 rocks were patched with sun-dried birds, a single hunting-party 
 from Peteravik could have eaten up their entire supplies in a 
 night. 
 
 There was enctugh to make them improvident. The little 
 auks were breeding in the low cones of rubbish under the cliffs 
 in such numbers tiiat it cost them no more to get food than 
 it does a cook to gather vegetables. A boy, ordered to cluub 
 the nxiks with one of their purse-uets of seal -skin at the er.d 
 
I 
 
 3fi8 
 
 CATCHING AUKS. 
 
 CHAPTER of a nanvlial's tusk, would return in a few minutes with as many 
 i as lie could carry. 
 
 
 CATCHINO AUKS. 
 
 Tlie dogs seemed as happy as their masters : they were tethered 
 by seal-skin thongs to prevent robbery, but evidently fed to the 
 full extent of their capacity. 
 Aningnah Aningnah, wife of ]\Iarsumah, was one of the presiding deities 
 oniie" "^ ' '^^ ^-^^ soup-pot, or rather first witch of the caldron. She was a 
 caldron.' tall, well-made woman, and, next to Mrs. Metek, had a larger in- 
 fluence than any female in the settlement. 
 
 During one of my visits to the settlement, I had relieved her 
 from much suffering by opening a furuncle, and the kind creature 
 never lost an opportunity of showing how she remembered it. 
 Poor old Kresut was summarily banished from his central seat of 
 honour, and the nalegak installed in his place. She stripped her- 
 
 UUii 
 
HOSPITALITY OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 389 
 
 Kclf of her bird-skin kapetiih to make nie a coverlet, and gave me chaptkb 
 her two-year-old baby for a pillow. There was a little commotion ''"' 
 in the tangled mass of humanity as I crawled over them to accept a iivin« 
 these proffered hospitalities ; but it was all of a welcoming sort. 
 I had lear-ned by this time to take kindly and condescendingly the 
 privileges of my rank ; and, with my inner man well refreshed 
 with auk-livers, I was soon asleep. 
 
 In the morning I left my own tired dogs in charge of ^fursu- 
 mah, quite confident that his wife would feed them faithfully, and 
 took from them their only team in imequal exchange. Such had 
 become our relations with these poor friends of ours, that such an Kinancsa 
 act of authority would have gone unquestioned if it had cost them a '^^^y^ 
 much graver sacrifice. They saw the condition of my own travel- 
 broken animals, and were well aware of the suff'erings of our party, 
 so long their neighbours and allies. Old Nessark filled my sledge 
 ^\'ith walrus-meat ; and two of the young men joined me on foot, 
 to assist me through the broken ice between Littleton Island and 
 tiie mainland 
 
390 
 
 TUB GAME OF BALL. 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 MM. 
 
 A pliiy- 
 «:r(iuii(I ill 
 tlie snow. 
 
 TIIK GAME OP BALL — MY BROTIIERR LAKE— THE POLAR 8KAS0NS— FATE 01» 
 I'UE ESQUIMAUX—THE ESQUIMAUX LIMITS— ESQUIMAUX ENDUKANCE— 
 
 awahtok's hunt — nis escape— the guardian walrus. 
 
 ciiAi'TKK Before I left Etah on my return, I took an early stroll with Sip-su, 
 " the handsome boy," to the lake back of my old travelling-route, 
 and directly under the face of the glacier. 
 
 He led me first to the play-ground, where all his young frieiul.s 
 of the settlement were busy in one of their sports. Each of thciu 
 had a Avalrus-rib for a golph or shinnj/stick, and they were cijii- 
 tending to drive a hurley, made out of the round knob of a flipper- 
 joint, up a bank of frozen snow. Roars of laughter greeted the 
 impatient striker as he missed his blow at the shining ball, ami 
 eager cries told how close the match was drawing to an end. They 
 were counting on the fingers of both hands, Eight, eight, eight,— 
 the game is ten. 
 
 Strange, — the thought intruded itself, but there was no wisdom 
 in it, — strange that these famine-pinched wanderers of the ice 
 should rejoice in sports and playthings like the children of our 
 own smiling sky, and that parents should fashion for them toy 
 sledges, and harpoons, and nets, miniature emblems of a life of 
 suffering and peril ! how strange this joyous merriment under tlio 
 monitory shadow of these jagged ice-cliffs ! My spirit was op- 
 pressed as I imagined the possibility of our tarrying longer in 
 these frozen regions ; but it was ordinary life with these other 
 children of the same Creator, and they were playing as unconcerned 
 as the birds that circled above our heads. " Fear not, therefore : 
 ye are of more value than many sparrows." 
 
 I do not wonder that the scene at the lake impressed my brother 
 when he visited it on his errand of rescue. Lieutenant Hartstcne 
 and he were the only white men, except myself, that have ever 
 seen it. 
 
 A body of ice, resplendent in the sunshine, was enclosed between 
 the lofty walls of black basalt; and from its base a great archway 
 
MY BROTHERS LAKE. 
 
 dm 
 
 or tunnel poured out a dashing stream into tlie lake, disturbing its 
 (liiiet surface with a horse-shoe of foam. lUrda flew about in 
 myriads, and the green sloping banks were chequered with the 
 purple lychnis and Arctic duckweeds. 
 
 I have named this lake after my brother, for it was near its 
 sliores that, led by Myouk, he stumbled on the summer touts of 
 the natives and obtained the evidence of our depaiture south. I 
 Ituilt a large cairn here, and placed within it a coi)per penny, on 
 which was scratched the letter K; but, like many other such 
 deposits, it never met the eyes for which it was intended. 
 
 The lake abounds in fish, apparently the salmon trout ; but the 
 natives have not the art of fishing. The stream, which tunnels its 
 way out near the glacier foot, is about ten feet in diameter ; and I 
 was assure", ll^a*" it never completely suspends its flow. Although 
 the tunnel closes with ice, and the surface of the lake freezes for 
 many feet below, the water may still be seen and heard beneath, 
 L'ven in midwinter, wearing its way at the base of the glacier. 
 
 This fact is of importance, as it bears upon the temperature of 
 deep ice-beds. It shows that with an atmosphere Avhose mean is 
 below zero throughout the year, and a mean summer heat but 4° 
 above the freezing-point, these great Polar glaciers retain a high 
 interior temperature not far from 32°, which enables them to 
 resume their great functions of iij^vement and discharge readily, 
 when the cold of winter is at an end, and not improbably to temjier 
 to some extent the natural rigour of the climate. Even in the 
 heart of the ice nature has her compensations. 
 
 The phases of the Polar year so blend and separate that it is dif- 
 ficult to distribute them into seasons. In the Arctic latitudes a 
 thousand miles to the south, travellers speak of winter and summer 
 iis if the climate underwent no intermediate changes. But nature 
 impresses no such contrasts upon any portion of lier realm ; and, 
 whatever may be the registrations of the meteorologist, the nirio 
 Esquimaux of these icy solitudes derives from his own experici!'- 
 and necessities a more accurate and practical system of notation. 
 
 He measures his life by winters, as the American Indian does 
 by the summers, and for a like reason. Winter is for him the 
 great dominant period of the year ; he calls it " okipok," the sea- 
 son of fast ice. 
 
 But when the day has come again, and the first thawing begins 
 
 CHAPTKB 
 
 liiii. 
 
 My 
 
 lii'otlier'f 
 hiku. 
 
 An ever- 
 
 strciini 
 under tlifi 
 
 Tempo- 
 
 raturu uf 
 the ke- 
 betlH. 
 
 Pliases n1 
 the I'oliir 
 year. 
 
 ii 
 
392 
 
 THE POLAR SEASONS. 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTBR 
 Lilt. 
 
 " Uper- 
 nannk," 
 the tlniouf 
 wiiter- 
 (Iropt. 
 
 " I'per- 
 riiik," tlie 
 neasou of 
 thaws. 
 
 " Aosak," 
 tliH Inter- 
 val be- 
 tween 
 t)iavr and 
 frost. 
 
 " Okla- 
 kut," the 
 retui'u of 
 winter. 
 
 Probable 
 destiny of 
 the Esqui- 
 maux 
 race. 
 
 to .sliow itself in the Run.shine, as winter declines before the pro- 
 mise of si)ring, he tells you that it is " iipemasak," the time of 
 water-drops. It is then the snow-bird comes back and the white 
 ptannigan takes a few brown featiiers. His well-known heatli, 
 too, the irsuteet (Andromeda tetnigona), is green again below \U 
 dried stems under the snow. 
 
 About the end of May, or a little later, comes " upernak,' ...c 
 season of thaws. It is his true summer. Animal and vegetable 
 life are now back again ; the floes break upon the sea and drift in 
 ice-rafts about the coasts ; snow is disappearing from the hill- 
 tops; and the water-torrents pour down from the long-sealcl 
 ravines and valleys. 
 
 About the middle of August the upernak has passed into the 
 season of no ice, "aosak," the short interval between complete 
 thaw and rcconsolidation. It is never really iceless ; but the floes 
 have now drifted to the south, and the sea along the coast is nxore 
 open than at any other period. It ends with the latter weeks of 
 September, and sees the departure of all migratory life. 
 
 The flfth season is a late foil, the " okiakut," when the watf 
 torrents begin to freeze in the fiords, and thawing ceases ext 
 at noonday. This terminates when the young ice has formea n. 
 a permanent layer on the bays, and winter returns with its long 
 reign of cold and darkness. 
 
 It is with a feeling of melancholy tl;at I recall these familiar 
 names. They illustrate the trials and modes of life of a simple- 
 minded people, for whom it seems to be decreed that the yeir 
 must very soon cease to renew its changes. It pains me when I 
 think of their approaching destiny, — in the region of night and 
 winter, where the earth yields no fruit and the waters are locked, 
 — without the resorts of skill or even the rude materials of art, 
 and walled in from the world by barriers of ice without an outlet. 
 
 If you point to the east, inland, where the herds of reindeer 
 run over the barren hills unmolested, — for they have no means of 
 capturing them, — they will cry " Sermik," "glacier;" and ques- 
 tion them as you may about the range of their nation to the north 
 and south, the answer is still the same, with a shake of the head, 
 " Sermik, sermik-soak," "the great ice-wall;" there is no more 
 bej'ond. 
 
 They have uo "kresuk," no wood. The drift-timber which 
 
CONDITION ANn nABlTS OF TUB ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 nn.T 
 
 lilesses tlicir more soutlicni brethren never readies them, The 
 bijw and arrow are therefore unknown ; and the kayak, the national 
 implement of the Grecnlander, which, like the palm-tree to the 
 iiiitives of the tropics, ministers to almost every want, exists 
 iiinoni,' them only as a legendary word. 
 
 The narrow belt subjected to their noni.idic range cannot bo 1«S8 
 tlian si.x hundred miles long; and throughout this extent of coun- 
 try every man knows every man. There is not a marriage, or a 
 birth, or a death that is not talked over and mentally registered 
 by all. I have a census, exactly confirmed by three separate infor- 
 mants, wliirh enables me to count by name about one hundred 
 and forty souls, scattered along from Kosoak, the Great River at 
 the base of a glacier near Cape Melville, to the wind-loved hut of 
 Aiioatok. 
 
 Destitute as they are, they exist both in love and community 
 of resources as a single family. The sites of their huts — for they 
 are so few in number as not to bear the name of villages — are 
 arranged with reference to the length of the do;j uiarch and the 
 seat of the hunt ; and thus, when winter has built her highway 
 and cemented into one the sea, the islands, and the main, they 
 interchange with each other the sympathies and social communion 
 of man, and diffuse through the darkness a knowledge of the 
 resources and condition of all. 
 
 The main line of travel is then as beaten as a road at home. 
 The dogs speed from hut to hut, almost unguided by their drivers. 
 They regulate their time by the stars. Every rock has its name, 
 every hill its significance ; and a cache of meat deposited any- 
 where in this harsh wilderness can be recovered by the youngest 
 hunter in the nation. 
 
 From Cape York to a settlement at Saunders Island, called 
 Appah, from the " Appah" or Lumme which colonize here in 
 almost incredible numbers, the drive has been made in a single 
 day; and thence to Netelik, on the main of Murchison Sound, in 
 another. In a third, the long reach has been traversed by Cape 
 Saumarez to the settlement of Karsioot, on a low tongue near 
 Cap« Robertson ; and the fourth day has closed at Etah, or even 
 Aunatok, the open place, — the resting-place now of our poor 
 deserted Oomiak-soak. This four days' travel cannot be less than 
 £ix hundred miles ; and Amaladok, Metek's half-brother, assured 
 
 CHAI'THR 
 MM. 
 
 WHnr (.( 
 
 woo J. 
 
 Ccnisus of 
 
 tint Illt- 
 
 tlve». 
 
 Love KTlll 
 
 (<ynip:itliy 
 
 ttiDon^ 
 
 them, 
 
 Tlicliniain 
 lin? of 
 travel. 
 
 Arranfjo- 
 nuMit of 
 resting-- 
 places. 
 
 !!ll 
 
 iiii 
 
 I "1 
 
 ,'!i 
 
394 
 
 ESQUIMAUX ENDURANCE. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 LIII. 
 
 Adventure 
 of Awiili- 
 ti)k and 
 Myouk. 
 
 Jlyouk'a 
 account of 
 their 
 siifTerlngs. 
 
 Afloat on 
 un icebei'g. 
 
 me that he had made it in three, — probably changing his 
 teams. 
 
 Their powers of resistance to exposure and fatigue are not 
 greater perhaps than those of a well-trained voyager from other 
 regions. But the necessities of their precarious life familiarize 
 tliem with dangers from which the bravest among us might shrink 
 without dishonour. To exemplify this, I select a single one from 
 a number of adventures that were familiar in their recent histor}". 
 
 During the famine at Etah last winter, when we ourselves were 
 so much distressed for fresh food, two of my friends, Awahtok and 
 ilyouk, determined to seek the walrus on the open ice. It was a 
 performance of the greatest danger; hut it was better in their 
 eyes than the sacrifice of their dogs, and they both possessed to 
 the fullest extent that apathetic fatalism which belongs to all 
 lowly-cultivated races. They succeeded in killing a large male, 
 and were in the act of returning joyfully to their village, when a 
 north wind broke up the ice, and they found themselves afloat. 
 The impulse of a European would have been to seek the land ; but 
 they knew that the drift was always most dangerous on the coast, 
 and urged their dogs toward the nearest iceberg. They reached it 
 after a struggle, and, by great efforts, made good their landing 
 with their dogs and the half-butchered carcass of the walrus. 
 
 Poor Myouk, as he told the story to Petersen, made a frightful 
 picture of their sufferings, the more so from the quiet, stoical 
 manner with which he detailed the facts. It was at the close, lie 
 said, of the last mv)onlight of D>;cember, and in the midst of the 
 heavy storm which held Petersen and myself prisoners at Anoatok, 
 A complete darkness settled around them. They tied the dogs 
 down to knobs of ice to prevent their losing their foothold, and 
 prostrated themselves to escape being blown off by the violence of 
 the wind. At first the sea broke over them, but they gained u 
 higher level, and built a sort of screen of ice. 
 
 On the fifth night afterward, judging as well as they could, 
 Myouk froze one of his feet, and Awahtok lost his great toe by 
 frost-bite. But they kept heart of grace, and ate their walrus-meat 
 as they floated slowly to the south. The berg came twice into col- 
 lision with floes, and they thought at one time that they had 
 passed the Utlak-soak, the Great Caldron, and had entered the 
 North Water of Baffin's Bay. It was toward the close of the 
 
THE GUARDIAN WALRUS. 
 
 3!Jo 
 
 second moonlight, cofter a month's imprisonment, living as only chmtku 
 t'lese iron men could live, that they found the berg had grounded. ^"''_ 
 They liberated their Jogs as soo'" isthe young ice woidd bear their Tticiide- 
 M'eight, and, attaching long lines to them, which they cut from the 
 liide of the dead walnis, they succeeded in hauling themselves 
 tlnough the water-space which always surrounds an iceberg, and 
 reacliing safe ice. They returned to their village like men 
 raised from the dead, to meet a welcome, but to meet famine along 
 with it. 
 
 I believe the explanation was never given to me in detail, or, if 
 it was, I have forgotten it ; but the whole misadventure was re- 
 I'cvred to an infringement of som' canonical ritual in their conduct 
 I if the hunt. The walrus, and perhaps the seal also, is under the Tiicguard- 
 protective guardianship of a sp'^cial representative or prototype, '''°^''''"*' 
 who takes care that he shall have fair play. They all believe that 
 in the recesses of Force Bay, near a conical peak which has often 
 scved me as a landmark on my sledge-journeys, a great walrus 
 lives in the hills, and crawls out, when there is no moon, to the 
 edge of a ravine, where he bellows with a voice far more powerful 
 than his fellows out to sea. Ootuniah had often heard this wal- 
 rus, and once, when I was crossing Bedevilled Reach, he stopped 
 lue to listen to his dismal tones. I certainly heard them, and 
 Ootuniah said that a good hunt would come of it. I tried i^j talk 
 to him about echoes; but as neither of us could understand the 
 other, I listened quietly at last to the Big Walrus, and went my 
 
 
 \va 
 
 y- 
 
39G 
 
 THE BAKEKY. 
 
 CIIAPTKR 
 LIV. 
 
 Necessity 
 of return- 
 ing to the 
 brig. 
 
 DlfRculties 
 of tlie 
 journey. 
 
 Baking in 
 ttie brig. 
 
 Stovm- 
 Btayed tjy 
 Die gale. 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 THE BAKERY— THE GUITAR GHOST — THE BOAT CAMP — XESSAUK's WIFE— 
 OUT IN A GALE — CAPE MISERY — THE BURROW — THE RETREAT. 
 
 The sledge-party under Mr. Brooks" iiad advanced to within 
 three miles of tlie hut when I reached the >n my return. 
 They had found the ice more ])racticable, ana Aeir health was 
 improving. But their desire for food had increased proportion- 
 ably ; and, as it was a well-understood rrle of our coirmissariat 
 not to touch the reserved provision of the boats, it became neces- 
 sary to draw additional supplies from the brig. The seven hun- 
 dred pounds of bread-dust, our entire stock, could not be reduced 
 with safety. 
 
 But the dogs were wanted to advance the contents of our Ano- 
 atok storehouse to the stations further south, and I resolved to 
 take Tom Hickey with me and walk back for another baking ex- 
 ploit. It was more of an effort than I counted on : we were six- 
 teen hours on the ice, and we had forgotten our gutta-perclia 
 eyautick, or slit goggles. The glare of the sun as we entered the 
 curve of our ice-cumbered harbour almost blinded us. 
 
 Tom had been a baker at home ; but he assures me, mth all tlie 
 authority of an ancient member of the guild, that our achievement 
 the day we came on board might be worthy of praise in the " old 
 country;" Tom knows no praise more expanded. We kneaded 
 the dough in a large pickled-cabbage cask, fired sundry volumes of 
 the Penny Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, and converted, be- 
 tween duff and loaf, almost a whole barrel of flour into a strong 
 likeness to the staff of life. It was the last of our stock ; and " all 
 the better too," said my improvident comrade, who retained some 
 of the genius of blundering na well as the gallantry of his country- 
 men, — " all the better, tiir, since we'll have no more bread tu 
 bake." ' 
 
 Godfrey came on with the dogs three days after, to cany back 
 the fruits of our labour ; but an abrupt change of the weather gave 
 us a howling gale outside, and we were all of us storm-stayed. It 
 
 was 
 be 
 one 
 was 
 the 
 wen 
 T 
 hea\ 
 
THE GUITAR GHOST. 
 
 397 
 
 was Sunday, and probably the last time that two or three would 
 be gathered together in our drearj"^ cabin. So I took a Bible from 
 one of the bunks, and we went through the old-times service. It 
 was my closing act of official duty among my shipmates on board 
 tlie poor little craft, I visited her afterward, but none of them 
 were with me. 
 
 Tom and myself set out soon after, though the wind drove 
 heavily from the south, leaving our companion to recover from his 
 fatigue. We brought on our sledge-load safely, and had forgotten 
 our baking achievement, Avith things of minor note, in that dream- 
 less sleep which rewards physical exhaustion, when Godfrey came 
 ill upon us. He had had a hard chase behind the sledge, and was 
 unwilling to confess at first what had brought him after us so 
 soon. He had tried to forget himself among the debris of a mat- 
 tress on the cabin floor, when he heard a sound from Mr. Wilson's 
 ;,aiitar, sad and flowing in all its unearthly harmonies. He was sure 
 lie was awake, for he ran for it on the instant, and the proof was, 
 he had left his coat behind him. The harp of iEolus had not been 
 dreamed of in Bill's philosophy. 
 
 I was glad, when I reached the sick station, to find things so 
 much better. Everybody was stronger, and, as a consequence, 
 more cheerful. They had learned housekeeping, with its courtesies 
 AS well as comforts. Their kotluk would have done credit to 
 Aningnah herself : they had a dish of tea for us, and a lump of 
 walrus ; and they bestirred themselves real housewife-fashion to 
 give us the warm place and make us comfortable. I was right 
 sorry to leave them, for the snow outside was drifting with the 
 gale; but after a little while the dogs struck the track of the 
 sledges, and following it with imerring instinct, did not slacken 
 their pace till they had brought us to our companions on the floe. 
 
 Tliey had wisely halted on account of the sturm ; and, with their 
 three little boats drawn up side by side for mutual protection, had 
 been lying to for the past two days, tightly housed, and moored 
 fast by whale-lines to the ice. But the drifts had almost buried 
 the Hope, which was the windward boat ; and when I saw the burly 
 form of Brooks emerging from the snow-covered roof, I could have 
 fancied it a walrus rising through the ice. 
 
 Tliey had found it hard travel, but were doing well. Brooks'.s 
 provision-report was the old story, — out of meat and nearly out of 
 
 CnATTER 
 LIV. 
 
 Tlie last 
 Sunday 
 service in 
 tlie bi'ig. 
 
 Goilft-ey 
 fiiglitened 
 out of tlie 
 biig. 
 
 Improve- 
 ment at 
 the sick 
 station. 
 
 Haltofthe 
 
 sledfje 
 
 party. 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 1 
 
THE BOAT CAMP. 
 
 cHAPTEn brccad — no pleasant news for a tired-out man, who saw in this tlie 
 
 LIV. 
 
 L necessity of another trip to Etah. I was only too glad, howevei', 
 
 ^vant of ^o see that their aiii)etitc3 held, for with the animal man, as with 
 
 tuod. J. i ' 
 
 Kl 11 
 
 * 
 
 BOAT S CAMI' IN A STOKM. 
 
 Visit from 
 a party 
 of Esqui- 
 maux. 
 
 all others, while ho feeds he lives. Short allowance for worki'i!:- 
 men on bread diet was, of course, out of the question. For the 
 past week each man had eaten three pounds of duff a day, and 1 
 did not dare to check them, although we had no more flour in re- 
 serve to draw upon. But the question how long matters could go 
 on at this rate admitted of a simple arithmetical solution. 
 
 Six Esquimaux, three of them women — that ugly beauty, Nos- 
 sark's wife, at the head of them — had come off to the boats for 
 shelter from the gale. They seemed so entirely deferential, ami 
 to recognise with such simple trust our mutual relations of alli- 
 ance, that I resolved to drive down to Etah with Petersen as in- 
 ter))reter, and formally claim assistance, according to their own 
 laws, on the ground of our established brotherhood. I had thought 
 of this before ; but both Marsumah and ^letek had been so en 
 
JOURNEY TO ETAH. 
 
 399 
 
 in this tlie 
 1, however, 
 an, as witli 
 
 r worki'ii:- 
 For the 
 day, and I 
 flour ill re- 
 rs could go 
 )ii. 
 auty, Ni's- 
 
 boats foi 
 ential, ainl 
 )ns of alli- 
 fscu as iii- 
 
 their own 
 nd thought 
 eon so en- 
 
 grossed with their bird- catching that I was loath to take them ohaptkh 
 from their families. L 
 
 Our dogs moved slowly, and the discoloured ice admonished me overtiiu.n 
 to make long circuits. As we neared Littleton Island, the whid [|-^^" *'*'"" 
 Mow so freshly from the south-west that I deternuned to take the i.itii.ion 
 inshore channel and attempt to make the settlement over land. 
 But I was hardly under the lee of the island, when there broke 
 upon us one of the most fearful gales I have ever experienced. It 
 had the character and the force of a cyclome. The dogs were liter- 
 ally blown from their harness, and it was only by throwing 
 ourselves on our faces that we saved ourselves from being swei)t 
 away; it seemed as if the ice must give way. We availed our- 
 selves of a momentary lull to shoulder the sledge, and, calling the 
 affrighted dogs around us, made for the rocks of Eider Island, and 
 after the most exhausting exeitions, succeeded in gainuig terra, 
 firnia. 
 
 We were now safe from the danger that had seemed most im- out in a 
 minent ; but our condition was not improved. We were out on a ^''"''^ 
 blank cliff, the wind eddying round us so furiously that we could not 
 keep our feet, and the air so darkened with the snow-wreaths that, 
 although we were in the full daytime of the Arctic summer, we 
 could neither see each other nor our dogs. There was not a cleft 
 or a projecting knob that could give us refuge. I saw that we 
 nuist move or die. It wt.s impossible that the ice should contimie 
 to resist such a hurricane, and a bold channel separated us from 
 the shore. Petersen indeed protested that the channel was already 
 broken up and driving with the storm. We made the efftirt, and 
 crossed. 
 
 We struck a headland on the main shore, where a dark horn- 
 blende rock, perhaps thirty feet high, had formed a barricade, be- 
 hind which the drifts piled themselves ; and into this mound of in a bur- 
 snow we had iust strength enousrh left to diL' a burrow. We ki'ew ""^ °^ 
 
 J r> o o snow on 
 
 it soon after as Cape Misery. Cape 
 
 The dogs and sledge were dragged in, and Petersen and myself, ' '^^^' 
 reclining " spoon-fashion," cowered among them. The snow piled 
 over us all, and we were very soon so roofed in and quilted round 
 that the storm seemed to rage far outside of us. We could only 
 liear the wind droning like a great fly-wheel, except when a surge 
 of greater malignity would sweep uj) over our burial-place and sift 
 
400 
 
 SNOWED UP IN A BURROW. 
 
 OnAl'TEH 
 LIV. 
 
 A vnpnur 
 bath. 
 
 Distui-b- 
 auce 
 
 the dogs. 
 
 The roof 
 fulls ill. 
 
 Snowed 
 up again. 
 
 Reach the 
 lioati cump 
 once more. 
 
 the snow upon the surface like hail. Our greatest enemy here Avas 
 warmth. Our fur jumpers had been literally torn off our backs by 
 the wind; but the united respiration of dogs and men melted tlic 
 snow around us, and we were soon wet to the skin. It was a 
 noisome vapour-bath, and we experienced its effects in an alarming 
 tendency to syncope and loss of power. 
 
 Is it possible to imagine a juncture of more comic annoyance 
 than that which now introduced itself among the terrors of our 
 position? Toodla, our master-dog, was seized witb a violent fif,; 
 and, as their custom is, his companions indulged in a family con- 
 flict upon the occasion, whicb was only mediated, after much effort, 
 at the sacrifice of all that remained of Petersen's pantaloons anil 
 drawers. 
 
 We had all the longing for repose that accompanies extreme 
 prostration, and had been fearing every moment that the com- 
 batants would bring the snow down upon us. At last down came 
 our whole canopy, and we were exposed in an instant to the fury 
 of the elements. I do not tliink, often as I have gone up on deck 
 from a close cabin in a gale at sea, that I was ever more struck with 
 the extreme noise and tumult of a storm. 
 
 Once more snowed up — for the drift built its crystal palace 
 rapidly about us — we remained cramped and seething till onr 
 appetites reminded us of the necessities of the inner man. To 
 breast the gale was simply impossible ; the alternative was to drive 
 before it to the north and east. Forty miles of fluundering travel 
 brought us in twenty hours to the party on the floes. 
 
 They too had felt the force of the storm, and had drawn up the 
 boats with their prows to the wind, all hands housed, and wonder- 
 ing as much as we did that the ice still held. 
 
TU£ TEAW BEGINNING. 
 
 40L 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 kHESn DOaS— THE ST.TDKS — RO0KINQ-STONE3 — OHLSEN's ACCIDENT — ICE- 
 SAILINO — MOUiVTINO THE BELT— THE ICE-MARSHES— I'EKICTLIK— HANS 
 THE BENEDICK. 
 
 Petersen and myself gave up the sledge to Morton, who. with 
 Marsumah and Nessark, set out at once to negotiate at Etali, while 
 I took ray place with the sledge-parties. 
 
 The ice, though not broken up by the storm, had been so much 
 affected by it, as well as by the advancing season, that I felt wc 
 could not spare ourselves an hour's rest. The snow-fields before 
 us to the south were already saturated with wet. Around the 
 bergs the black water came directly to the surface, and the whole 
 area was spotted with pools. We surara(med all our energies on 
 the 5th for this dangerous traverse ; but, although the boats were 
 unladen and everything transported by sledge, it was impossible 
 to prevent accidents. One of the sledges broke througli, carrying 
 six men into the water ; and the Hope narrowly escaped being lost. 
 Her stern went down, and she was extricated with great difficulty. 
 
 The 6th saw the same disheartening work. The ice was almost 
 impassable. Both sick and well worked at the drag-ropes alike, 
 and hardly a man but was constantly wet to the skin. Fearing 
 for the invalids at the sicL station in case we should be cut off 
 from them, I sent for Mr. Goodfellow at once, and gave orders for 
 the rest to be in readiness for removal at a moment's notice. 
 
 The next day !Morton returned from Etah. The natives had 
 
 responded to the brotherly appeal of the nalegak ; and they came 
 
 down from the settlement, bringing a full supply of meat and 
 
 blubber, and every sound dog that belonged to them. I had now 
 
 once more a serviceable team. The comfort and security of such 
 
 a possession to men in our critical position can hardly be realized. 
 
 It was more than an addition of ten strong men to our party. I 
 
 set off at once with Metek to glean from the brig her last remnant 
 
 of slush (tallow), and to bring down the sick men from Anoatok. 
 
 As we travelled with our empty sledges along a sort of beaten 
 i! 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 
 LV. 
 
 Melliiii; 
 snow 
 
 The ice 
 almost im- 
 passable. 
 
 GeiiPiii'.lf/ 
 
 of 111.' 
 
 nutivu^ 
 
4*02 
 
 THE SLIDE. 
 
 Intiueiiee 
 i.fthH 
 riiiiw on 
 tliu rocks. 
 
 CHAPTER truck or road which led close under the cliffs, I realized very 
 ^^' forcibly the influence of the coming summer upon the rocks above 
 us. They were just released from the frost which had bound 
 them so long and closely, and were rolling down the slopes of tlie 
 debm with the din of a battle-field, and absolutely clogging tlie 
 ice-belt at the foot. Here and there, too, a large sheet of rock.s 
 and earth would leave its bed at once, and, gathering mass as it 
 travelled, move downward like a cataract of ruins. The doss 
 were terrified by the clamour, and could hardly be driven on till 
 it intermitted. 
 
 Just beyond Six-mile Ravine my sledge barely escaped dc- 
 
 TlIK SLIDK. 
 
 Ft ruction from one of these land-slides. Happily lletek wns 
 behind, and warned me of the danger just in time to cut loose the 
 traces and drag away the sledge. 
 
ROCKINO-STOyES. 
 
 4A» 
 
 But it is not in tlie season of "thriws only tliat these wonderful 
 geological changes take place. Large rocks are projected in the 
 fall by the water freezing in the crevices, like the Mons Meg 
 cannon-balls. Our old hoid, the Forlorn llojie, the veteran of 
 my Beechy Island attempt, was stove in by one of these while 
 drawn up under the cliffs of " Ten-mile Gorge." 
 
 The rocks which fell in this manner npon the ice-belt were 
 rapidly imbedded by the action of the sun's heat ; and it hapi)ened 
 frequently, of course, that one more recently disengaged would 
 overlie another that had already sunk below the surface. This, 
 as the ice-belt subsided in the gradual thaw, had given many 
 examples of the rocking-stone. They were of all sizes, from tons 
 to pounds, often strangely dissimilar in material, though grouped 
 within a narrow area, their diversity depending on the varying 
 strata from which they came. There were some strange illustra- 
 tions among them of the transporting forces of the ice-raft, which 
 I should like to dwell on, if the character of my book and the 
 haste with which it is approaching its close did not forbid me. 
 
 Our visit to the brig was soon over : we had very few stores to 
 remove. I trod her solitary deck for the last time, and returned 
 with Metek to his sledge. 
 
 I had left the party on the floes with many apprehensions for 
 their safety, and the result proved they were not without cause. 
 While crossing a "tide-hole," one of the runners of the Ilope^s 
 sledge broke through, and, but for the strength and i)resence of 
 mind of Ohlsen, the boat would have gone under. He saw the 
 ice give way, and, by a violent exercise of strength, passed a 
 capstan-bar under the sledge, and thus bore the load till it was 
 hauled on to safer ice. He was a very powerful man, and might 
 have done this without injuring himself; but it would seem his 
 footing gave way under him, forcing him to make a still more 
 ilesperate effort to extricate himself. It cost him his life — he 
 died three days afterwards. 
 
 I was bringing down George Stephenson from the sick station, 
 and my sledge being heavily laden, I had just crossed, with some 
 anxiety, near the spot at which the accident occurred. A little 
 way beyond we met Mr. Ohlsen, seated upon a lump of ice, and 
 very pale. He printed to the camp about three miles further on, 
 and told us, in a faint voice, that he had not detained the party j 
 
 CHAPTKK 
 LV. 
 
 Wonderful 
 
 KCO.Ot'i'.Ml 
 
 cliutlKi a. 
 
 stoiius. 
 
 Lust visit 
 totliebrik,'. 
 
 nrcak- 
 ilowii of 
 tlie Hope's 
 slcdgf. 
 
404 
 
 SAILING ON THE ICK. 
 
 OHAPTIR 
 IV. 
 
 OhUen'K 
 
 Uli)C")». 
 
 Sitilini; on 
 Uic ice. 
 
 Kncnu- 
 riiKiiiR 
 progress. 
 
 .Meeting 
 with Sij)- 
 tii and 
 Ni.'48ark. 
 
 he " had a httle cramp iu the small of the back," but would aoon 
 be better. 
 
 I put him at once in Stepb Jiison's place, and drove liim on to 
 the Faith. Here he wa.s placed in tlie stern-sheets of the b(jiit, 
 and well muffled up in our best buffalo-robes. During all that 
 night ho was assiduously attended by Dr. Hayes ; but he .sank 
 rapidly. His symptoms had from the first a certain ob.scure but 
 fatal resemblance to our winter's tetanus, which filled us will) 
 forebodings. 
 
 On Saturday, June 0, after stowing away our disabled coiiirailo 
 in the Faith, we again set all hands at the drag-ropes. The ice 
 ahead of us bore the same character as the day before — no better, 
 we were all perceptibly weaker, and much disheartened. 
 
 We had been tugging in harness about two hours, when a 
 breeze set in from the northward, the first that we had felt sincu 
 crossing Bedevilled Eeach. We got out our long steering-oar an 
 a boom, and made sail upon the boats. The wind freshened 
 almost to a gale ; and, heading toward the depot on Littletuu 
 Island, we ran gallantly before it. 
 
 It was a new sensation to our foot-sore men, this sailing over 
 solid ice. Levels which, under the slow labour of the drag-rope.>^, 
 would have delayed us for hours, were glided over without a halt. 
 We thought it dangerous work at first, but the speed of the sledges 
 made rotten ice nearly as available as sound. The men could seo 
 plainly that they were approaching new landmarks, and leaving 
 f)ld ones behind. Their spirits rose ; the sick mounted the 
 thwarts, the well clung to the gunwale ; and, for the first time for 
 nearly a year, broke out the sailor's chorus, " Storm along, my 
 hearty boys !" 
 
 We must have made a greater distance in this single day than 
 in the five that preceded it. We encamped at 5 p.m. near a small 
 berg, which gave us plenty of fresh water, after a progress of at 
 least eight miles. 
 
 As we were halting, I saw two Esquimaux on the ice toward 
 Life-Boat Cove ; and the well-known " Huk ! huuk 1 " a sort of 
 Masonic signal among them, soon brought them to us. They 
 turned out to be Sip-su and old Nessark, They were the bearers 
 of good news : my dogs were refreshed and nearly able to travel 
 again ; and, as they volunteered to do me service, I harne.s.sed 
 
MOUNTING THE ICE-BELT. 
 
 4()S 
 
 vip our united teams, and despatched Nessark to the hut to bring 
 down Ml. Wilson and George Whipple. 
 
 We expected now to have our whole party together again ; and 
 tlie day would have been an active cheering one throughout, but 
 for the condition of poor Ohlsen, who was growing riapidly 
 worse. 
 
 Fi"om this time we went on for some days aided by our sails, 
 meeting with accidents occasionally — the giving way of a spar or 
 the falling of some of the party through the spongy ice — and occa- 
 sionally, when the floe wa.s altogether too infirm, labouring our 
 way with great difficulty upon the ice-belt. To mount this solid 
 highway, or to descend from it, the axes were always in requisition. 
 An inclined plane was to be cut — ten, fifteen, or even thirty feet 
 long, and along this the sledges were to be pushed and guided by 
 bars and levers with painful labour. These are light things, as J 
 refer to them here ; but in our circumstances, at the time I write 
 of, when the breaking of a stick of timber was .an irreparable harm, 
 and the delay of a day involved the peril of life, they were grave 
 enough. Even on the floes the axe was often indispensable to 
 carve our path through the hummock.i ; and many a weary and 
 anxious hour have I h)oked on and toiled while the sledges were 
 waiting for the way to open. Sometimes too, both on the land- 
 ice and on the belt, we encountered heavy snowdrifts, which were 
 to be shovelled away before we could get along ; and within an 
 hour afterward, or perhaps even at the bottom of the drift, one of 
 the sledge-runners would cut through to the water. 
 
 It was saddening to our poor fellows, when we were forced to 
 leave the ice-belt and push out into the open field, to look ahead 
 at the salt ice-marshes, as they called them, studded with black pools, 
 with only a white lump rising here and there through the lead- 
 coloured surface, like tussocks of grass or rushes strugghng 
 through a swamp. The labour would have been too much for us, 
 weary and broken as we were, but for the occasional assistjince we 
 derived from the Esquimaux. I remember once a sledge went so 
 far under, carrjdng with it several of the party, that the boat 
 floated loose. Just then seven of the natives came up to us — 
 five sturdy men, and two almost as sturdy women — and, without 
 waiting to be called on, worked with us most eflSciently for more 
 than half a day, asking no reward. 
 
 CIUPTEM 
 LV. 
 
 Uiifleu!- 
 tles. 
 
 Cuttlnc 
 
 throuuli 
 the hiiMi- 
 mocks. 
 
 Snnw- 
 (IrilK 
 
 loe- 
 niarshiA 
 
 Help from 
 the Ksfjiiu 
 inaux. 
 
406 
 
 PEKIUTLIK. 
 
 CUAPTKR 
 LV. 
 
 Open 
 water at 
 I'tklutllk. 
 
 Knna 
 inlulng. 
 
 Still passing slowly on day after day, I am reluctant to borrow 
 from my journal the details of anxiety and eniljarrassnient with 
 wliicli it abounds throughout this perit)d, — wo came at last to 
 the unmistakable neighl>ourhood of the open water. We were 
 otr Pekiutlik, the largest of the Littleton Island group, opjtosite 
 " Kosoak," the Great Ilivor. Here Mr. Wilson and Goorgo 
 Whipple rejoined us, under the faithful charge of old Nessark. 
 They had broken through twice on the road, but without any 
 serious inconvenience in conseciuence. It was with truly thank- 
 ful hearts wo united in our prayers that evening. 
 
 One only was absent of all the party that remained on our rolls. 
 Hans, the kind son and ardent young lover of Fiskernaes, my well- 
 trusted friend, had been missing for nearly two months. I am 
 loath to tell the story as I believe it, for it may not be the tnu' 
 one after all, and I would not intimate an unwarranted doubt of 
 the constancy of boyish love. But I must explain, as far as I can 
 at least, why he was not with us when we first looked at the oi)eh 
 water. Just before my departure for my April hunt, Hans came 
 to me with a long face, asking permission to visit Peteravik : " he 
 had no boots, and wanted to lay in a stock of walrus hide for 
 soles ; he did not need the dogs ; he would rather walk." It 
 was a long march, but he was Avell practised in it, and I con- 
 sented of course. Both Petersen and myself ga^e him com- 
 missions to execute, and he left us, intending to stop by the way 
 at Etah. 
 storiesand In our labours of the next month we missed Hans much. He 
 rbouf ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ y^^ returned, and the stories of him that came to us from 
 Mans. Etah were the theme of much conversation and surmise among 
 us. He had certainly called there as ho promised, and given to 
 Nessark's wife an order for a pair of boots, and he had then 
 wended his way across the big headland to Peteravik, wliert' 
 Shaug-hu and his pretty daughter had their home. This uni;i 
 tion was given with many an explanatoiy grin ; '' 
 favourite with all, the fair especially, and, as a m< 
 greatest men in the country. It required all my 
 his " old love" to make me suspend my judgmeni ; f the 
 boots came, as if to confirm the scandal. I never failed in my 
 efforts afterward to find his whereabouts, and went out of our way 
 to interrogate this and that settlement 3 for, independent of evcr}'- 
 
 was a 
 
 lie of the 
 
 1 lections of 
 
LAST ACCOUNT OF IIAN3. 
 
 40/ 
 
 thing like duty, I was very fond of liini. But the story was every- chai'tki. 
 
 where tlie same. Hans the faitliful — yet, I fear, the fuithU's-s — 
 
 waa last seen upon a native sledge, driving south from Pcteravik. 
 with a maiden at hid side, and profcHsedly bound to a new princi- 
 pality at Uwarrow Suk-suk, high uj) Murchison's Sound. Alas 
 for Hans, the muiricd man ! 
 
408 
 
 THE RED ERIC STNKTNO. 
 
 II 
 
 'iqi!! -i'S^n^ 
 
 i 
 
 H .'•'''' 
 
 ! 
 
 
 
 i' 
 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. • 
 
 THE RED BOAT SINKING! — THE LIFE-BOAT CACHE— THE OPEN WATER— 
 OHLSEN's death — HIS FUNKRAIi — BARENTZ, OUR PRECURSOR — ACCOMODAH 
 — THE PRESCRIPTIO.V — CAPE WELCOME — THE RESOLVE. 
 
 CHAPTER Though the condition of the ice assured us that we wore drawing 
 ^^^- near the end of our sledge-journeys, it by no means diminished 
 Insecurity their difficulty or hazards. The part of the field near the open 
 of t .e ice. ^yj^^gj. jg always abraded by the currents, while it remains appa- 
 rently firm on the surface. In some places it was so transparent 
 that we could even see the gurgling eddies below it ; while in 
 others it was worn into open holes that were already the resort of 
 wild fowl. But in general it looked hard and plausible, though 
 not more than a foot or even six inches in thickness. 
 
 This continued to be its character as long as we pursued, the 
 Littleton Island channel, and we were compelled, the whole way 
 through, to sound ahead with the boat-hook or narwhal -hora We 
 learned this precaution from the Esquimaux, who always move hi 
 advance of their sledges when the ice is treacherous, and test 
 its strength before bringing on their teams. Our first warning 
 impressed us with the policy of observing it. We were making 
 wide circuits with the whaleboats to avoid the tide-holes, when 
 signals of distress from men scrambling on the ice announced to 
 us that the lied Uric had disappeared. This unfortunate little 
 craft contained all the dearly-earned documents of the expedition. 
 There was not a man who did not feel that the reputation of the 
 party rested in a great degree upon their preservation. It had 
 cost us many a pang to give up our collections of natural history, 
 to which every one had contributed his quota of labour and in- 
 terest ; but the destruction of the vouchers of the cruise— the log- 
 books, the meteorological registers, the surveys, and the journals 
 — seemed to strike them all as an irreparable disaster. 
 
 When I reached the boat everything was in confusion. Blake 
 with a line passed round his waist, was standing up to his knees 
 in sludge, groping for the document-box, and Mr. Bonsall, dri^^ 
 
 T>io Hed 
 t'ne sinks. 
 
\ 
 
 
 • -<w ■ .* 
 
 
 ^^H 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PEN WATER— 
 
 
 \ _ . 
 
 
 , — ACCOMODAH 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 vere dm wing 
 
 
 , ' 
 
 
 J diminished 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 ear the open 
 
 
 
 
 Bmains appa- 
 
 
 
 
 ) transparent 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 it ; while in 
 
 
 » 
 
 
 the resort of 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 H 
 
 jible, though 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 1 
 
 pursued, the 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 e whole way 
 
 
 
 
 lal-hora We 
 
 
 
 ^mIH 
 
 vaya move in 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 )us. and test 
 
 
 '. - ' * 
 
 
 first warning 
 
 
 
 
 were making 
 
 
 
 ^^Hh 
 
 3-holes, when 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 mnounced to 
 
 
 ^s. 
 
 
 rtunate little 
 
 
 ■ ''^^ 
 
 
 le expedition. 
 
 
 "■ • 
 
 
 itation of the 
 
 
 ■■.-■'■ . S 
 
 
 ion. It had 
 
 
 - . i 
 
 
 tural history, 
 
 
 ■ " ■ ■ i 
 1 
 
 
 hour and in- 
 
 
 ■; ' 1 
 
 
 uise— the log- 
 
 
 " . : ■ .!-■."' ^ 
 
 
 the journals 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 r. 
 
 ision. Blake 
 
 
 - - -. . ■ ■--- j, 
 
 
 to his knees 
 
 
 
 
 ^onsall, dri][^ 
 
 
 
 
1 s 
 
 -■. a 
 
 ■S - 
 
THE UFE-BOAT CACHE. 
 
 «» 
 
 f^P* 
 
 •t^ '^-ct, Mvsxs endeavouring to liaul the provwici! ha^ to a place 
 ■■*tefvity. Happily thi* boat was ourl'ghtest '>w, »ivl cvcrytliing 
 
 vM M.ved She was gradually lightetuui until ihat cotild bear a 
 (iiun, ."jnd her cargo was tlien jiaa^eti oiit bv * ^im »:(<! hatik-U 
 iipdii tfio ice. Til spiu- i>I tins wet and the caM >r>rt >..«j,f Ui"Uj<htJ5 
 ()[ p»K»r Olilsen, we greeted ira 8a.fety with thne« crh-v©?* 
 
 It was by grea*" gocl fortuue that ri" itves were lii«t. !?•», Ivfin 
 son ■w'.'W caught as he sajik by one of V.i^ •iKdge'fii'jiW'j*, «•*.. Mor- 
 ton, wbilt! in the veiy act of ilnfliiig uinler the u;e. »*^ v.t- iM I' ;■ 
 the I'.^ir of tlie head by Mr. IJonsall antl jfciNcd. 
 
 Wt;: were now rinse up"n Life -boat (;'<>ve. -vvlutre ncwiy twi- 
 vuirs K'fore we liad niadt; i>foyi*ti)m tor ju.st .such a . ontir!;retwv as 
 ^hAt wluch was now before na Buried under the frozen soil, our 
 stores had CHcaped even the k«?«n ^scrutiuy of nu- savaj^e allies, 
 nnd we now turned to tUeai m essential to txir reliof. Mr. 
 M 'Gary was s.mt to the r'-'h'". with order.4 U.t I ring everjihio;;; 
 oxcept vh'c' salt beef. Thi» had Wvn so ).,ng a vtdson t^i -.].■*, that 
 ♦.tiuttil as wo were by scurvy. I was afraid so brii^j il among tjuwe 
 ivho nught be lempted to iiidvilge in it. 
 
 On the ]2th the boat 3 and sledges cam« U) a Ijrdt in the narrow 
 tiAS.sage between the islands opp'>sito Cape Misery, the scene of 
 • air late snow storm. Ail onr Cii^-j^o had beon ,.'a,tliercd toff'r'hier 
 ,t this .spot, and the ro'ks were covered with onr stores. Out .»f 
 'he fourteen hundred pounds not au oofnoe had been sftcriiioed, 
 Kverything wa.s cased in its waterprotif covering, and ajj iry Riid 
 'lerfect tw whtju it liad left the brig. 
 
 The Littleton Island of Captain Tnglcfield h one <tf a group of 
 fi*ur siaert which flruik the north-oa^t headland -if Hartbtoui' Buy. 
 Tliey are <.if the bottom serio.^, Cfjarse gneh^.'es and ini«» dchi^ta. 
 When here before, at this tune of the y^M, they were rofrortndtHi 
 'y water, and the eider duckrf w«»re fe*(3*Hiuig .»« :hf--ir 4o]<««. 
 Vow, aa if to illn.strate tiic ditfcreno© tif tUc^ *ui*)'r-'« t''.rj«, m w«»ll 
 as tiie inflnenoo M'hich tii,,>j exert u^'Oi-! tln» hi.* it* nt'tl!* niij^nitory 
 (•ild fowl, thi'y were thoroughly '.»tv*i m ic*, *ml tuA a n«*."it waa 
 I he .seen. 
 
 I a.^^ended some eight hundred feet t^i th- sumnjit .if ?*aki«iiik, 
 •okI. looking out, beheld the open .wdt^ri*, fco Itwajjc tfa* ft.>r.l of our 
 vnigglua, spread out before me. It cxttrn'ted .'s«5«Tfiiiigiy to Oupe 
 Alexander, and was ncan-r to the wp«twftr«^ i4w!«» the so^ith of my 
 
 OMAnt*. 
 
 '-AJ«'a. 
 
 A UaH 
 
 Utt\«t,<n 
 
 f he on«n 
 wntM. 
 
", ' 5,11 I 
 
 A 
 
 
 :-k.^».;'- 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 9 
 
 if ' IK " -^''A ovh 
 
 1; «?* 3 
 
THE LIFE-BOAT CACHE. 
 
 409 
 
 it 
 
 m 
 
 j>lng wet, was endeavouring to haul the provision-bags to a place 
 of safety. Happily the boat was our lightest one, and everything 
 was saved. She was gradually lightened until she could bear a 
 man, and her cargo was then passed out by a line and hauled 
 >i[)on the ice. In spite of the wet and the cold and our thoughts 
 of poor Ohlsen, we greett 1 its safety with three cheers. 
 
 It was by great good fortune that no lives were lost. Stephen- 
 son was caught as he sank by one of the sledge-runners, and Mor- 
 ton, while in the veiy act of drifting under the ice, was seized by 
 the liair of the head by Mr. Bonsall and .saved. 
 
 We were now close upon Life-boat Cove, wliere nearly two 
 years before we had made provision for just such a contingency as 
 tliat which was now before us. Buried under the frozen soil, our 
 stores had escaped even the keen scrutiny of our savage allies, 
 and we now turned to them as essential to our relief. Mr. 
 M'Gary was sent to the cache, with orders to bring everything 
 except the salt beef. This had been so long a poison to u.s, that 
 tainted as we were by scurvy, I was afraid to bring it among those 
 who might be tempted to indulge in it. 
 
 On the 12th the boats and sledges came to a halt in the narrow 
 passage between the islands opposite Cape Misery, the scene of 
 our late snow storm. All our cargo had been gathered together 
 at this spot, and the rocks were covered with our stores. Out of 
 the foiirteen hundred pounds not an ounce had been sacrificed, 
 Everything was cased in its waterproof covering, and as dry and 
 perfect as when it had left the brig. 
 
 The Littleton Island of Captain Inglefield is one of a group of 
 four skiers which flank the north-east headland of Hartstene Bay. 
 They are of the bottom series, coarse gneisses and mica schists. 
 AVhen here before, at this time of the year, they were surrounded 
 by water, and the eider ducks were breeding on their slopes. 
 Now, as if to illustrate the difference of the seasons here, as well 
 as the influence which they e.^ert upon the habits of the migratory 
 wild fowl, they were thoroughly cased in ice, and not a nest was 
 to be seen. 
 
 I ascended some eight hundred feet to the summit of Pokintlik, 
 and, looking out, beheld the open water, so long tlie goal of our 
 struggles, spread out before me. It extended seemingly to Cape 
 Alexander, and was nearer to the westward than the south of my 
 
 CHAPTER 
 LVI. 
 
 The cur^'o 
 saved. 
 
 Life-bout 
 Cove. 
 
 A Imlt 
 opposite 
 Ciipe 
 Mlsciy 
 
 Littleton 
 
 Island 
 
 group. 
 
 Tlie open 
 watw. 
 
410 
 
 OHLSEN S DEATH. 
 
 Clioice of 
 route. 
 
 Olilsen'8 
 Ueutli. 
 
 Conceiil- 
 ment of 
 tlie death 
 from the 
 Esiiui- 
 niuux. 
 
 OHAPTER position by some five or six miles. But the ice in the latter 
 ^^ direction led into the curve of the bay, and was thus protected 
 from the wind and swell. My jaded comrades pleaded anxiously 
 in favour of the direct line to the water ; but I knew that this ice 
 Avould give ns both safer and better travel. I determined to adopt 
 the inshore route. Our position at Pekiutlik, as we determined 
 carefully by the mean of several observations, is in latitude 
 78° 22' r and longitude 74° 10'. We connected it with Capu 
 Alexandei', and other determined stations to the north and west. 
 
 The channel between the islands was much choked with up- 
 reared ice ; but our dogs had now come back to us so mucli 
 refreshed that I was able to call their services again into requisi- 
 tion. Wj carried one entire load to the main which forms the 
 north-east headland of Hartstene Bay, and, the Esquimaux assist- 
 ing us, deposited it safely on the inner side. 
 
 I was with the advance boat, trying to force a way through tlie 
 channel, when the report came to me from Dr. Hayes that Ohlsen 
 was no more. He had shown, a short half hour before, some 
 signs of revival, and Petersen had gone out to kill a few birds, in 
 the lu)})e of possibly sustaining hina by a concentrated soup. But 
 it was in vain : the poor fellow flushed up only to die a few 
 minutes after. 
 
 We had no time to mourn the loss of our comrade, a tried and 
 courageous man, who met his death in the gallant discharge of 
 duty. It cast a gloom over the whole party ; but the exigencies 
 of the moment were upon us, and we knew not whose turn would 
 come next, or how soon we might all of us follow him together. 
 
 I had carefully concealed Mr. Ohlsen's sickness from the Esqui- 
 maux, with everything else that could intimate oiir weakness ; for, 
 without reflecting at all upon their fidelity, I felt that with them, 
 as with the rest of the world, pity was a less active provocative to 
 good deeds than the deference which is exacted by power. I had 
 therefore represented our abandonment of the brig as merely the 
 absence of a general hunting party to the Far South, and I was 
 willing now to keep up the impression. I leave to moralists the 
 discussion of the question how far I erred ; but I now sent them 
 to their village under pretext of obtaining birds, and lent them 
 our dogs to insure their departure. 
 
 The body of Mr. Ohlsen was sewed up, wliile they Avere gone, 
 
HIS FUNERAL, 
 
 411 
 
 in his own blankets, and earned in procession to tlie licad of a cnxpTrR 
 little gorge on the east face of Pekiutlik, where by liard labour we ^^'^' 
 consigned his remains to a sort of trench, and covered them with 
 rocks to protect them from the fox and bear. Witliout the know- 
 ledge of my comrades, I encroached on our little store of sheet- 
 lead, which we were husbanding to mend our leaky boats with, 
 and, cutting on a small tablet his name and age — 
 
 CHRISTIAN OHLSEN, 
 
 AGED 36 YEARS, 
 
 laid it on his manly breast. The cape that looks down on him 
 bears hia name. 
 
 As we walked back to our camp upon the ice, the death Ox Account of 
 Olilscn brought to my mind the strange parallel of our story with ^ '"'"'" 
 that of old William Barentz — a parallel which might verify thai- 
 sad truth of history that human adventure repeats itself. 
 
 Two hundred and fifty-nine years ago, William Barentz, chief 
 pilot of the States General of Holland — the United States of that 
 day — had wintered on the coast of Novaia Zemlia, exploring the 
 northernmost region of the Old Continent, as we had that of the 
 New. His men, seventeen in number, broke down during the 
 trials of the winter, and three died, just as of our eighteen three 
 had gone. He abandoned his vessel as we had abandoned ours, 
 took to his boats, and escaped along the Lapland coast to lands of 
 Norwegian civilization. We had embarked with sledge and boat 
 to attempt the same thing. We had the longer journey and the 
 more difficult before us. He lost, as we had done, a cherished 
 comrade by the wayside ; and, as I thought of this closing resem- 
 blance in our fortunes also, my mind left but one part of the 
 parallel incomplete — Barentz himself perislud. 
 
 We gave two quiet hours to the memory of our dead brother. The march 
 and then resumed our toilsome march. We kept up nearly the '■'^*""'^"^- 
 same routine as before ; but, as we neared the settlements, the 
 Esquimaux came in flocks to our assistance. They volunteered to 
 aid us at the drag ropes. They carried our sick upon hand-sledges. 
 They relieved us of all care for our supplies of daily food. The 
 quantity of little auka that they brought us was enormous. They 
 fed us and our dogs at the rate of eight thousand birds a week, 
 
 ^ 
 
412 
 
 CARRYING THE SICK. 
 
 ciiAPTEii all of them caught in their little hand-nets. All anxiety left u-^ 
 for the tinie. The men broke out in their old forecastle songs ; 
 
 tvi. 
 
 A medical 
 consulta- 
 tion. 
 
 Tho pre- 
 scription. 
 
 -^?^'^?!^iM»-^^^ 
 
 CAIIRTINO TUB SICK. 
 
 the sledges began to move merrily ahead, and laugh and jest 
 drove out the old moody silence. 
 
 During one of our evening halts, -when the congregation of 
 natives had scattered away to their camp fires, Metek and Niialik 
 his wife came to me privately on a matter of grave consultation. 
 They brought with them a fat, curious-looking boy. " Accomo- 
 dah," said they, " is our youngest son. His sleep at night is bad, 
 and his nangah" — pointing to that protuberance which is suj)- 
 posed to represent aldermanic dignity — "is always round and 
 hard. He eats ossuk (blubber) and no meat, and bleeds at the 
 nose. Besides, he does not grow." They wanted me, in my 
 capacity of angekok soak, to charm or cure him. 
 
 I told them, with all the freedom from mystery that distin- 
 guishes the regulated practitioner from the empiric, what must be 
 my mode of treatment : that I must dip my hand into the salt 
 water where the ice cut against the sea, and lay it on the oifeiidinif 
 nangah ; and that if they would bring to me their rotund little 
 companion within three days, at that broad and deep Bethesda, I 
 would signalize my consideration of the kindness of the tribe by a 
 trial of my powers. 
 
 They went away very thankful, taking a preliminary prescrip- 
 
rnv. noATs rkace' thk opkn watkr. 
 
 41S 
 
 ;ty left \;^ 
 tie songu ; 
 
 
 \\ and jt'bt 
 
 •egation of 
 md Nualik 
 nsultatioii. 
 " Accomo- 
 glit is bad, 
 ch is sup- 
 round and 
 eds at the 
 lie, in my 
 
 liat distiii- 
 at must be 
 to the salt 
 e offendinir 
 tund little 
 iethesda, I 
 ; tribe by a 
 
 y prescrip- 
 
 tion of a lump of brown soap, a silk shirt, and a tahoo of all fur- ohaptkr 
 ther eating of ossuk ; and I had no doubt that their anxiety to ''^'' 
 have the boy duly powwowed, would urge forward our sledges and 
 Iiring us early to the healing waters. We longed for them at 
 least as much as Metek, and needed thom more than Accomodah. 
 
 My little note-book closes for tiie week with this gratefully ex- 
 jiounded record : — 
 
 June 16, Saturday. — Our boats are at the open water. We see Extract 
 its deep indigo horizon, and hear its roar against the icy beach. ^^? '""*' 
 Its scent is in our nostrils and our hearts. 
 
 " Our camp is but three-quarters of a mile from the sea ; it is The sea in 
 at the northern curve of the North Baffin polynia. We must ^'^'"* 
 reach it at the southern sweep of Etah Bay, about three mile's 
 from Cape Alexander. A dark headland defines the spot. It is 
 more marked than the southern entrance of Smith's Straits. How 
 magnificently the surf beats against its sides ! There are ridges 
 of squeezed ice between us and it, and a broad zone of floatuig 
 sludge is swelling and rolUng sluggishly along its margin— formid- 
 able barriers to boats and sledges. But we have mastered worse 
 obstacles, and by God's help we will master these." 
 
tf M ' 
 
 i ')r:'(^ 
 
 it 
 
 414 
 
 PREPARING TO EMBARK. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 LVII. 
 
 PrcpHrlng 
 the boats. 
 
 Assem- 
 liliice of 
 Esqul- 
 
 IMIIUX to 
 
 Mil fjooil- 
 hye. 
 
 Keepsakes 
 given. 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 THE FAREWELL — ATTEMPT TO EMBARK. 
 
 We liad our boats to prepare now for a long and adventurous 
 navigation. They were so small and heavily laden as hardly to 
 jn.stify much confidence in their buoyancy ; but, besides this, they 
 were split with frost and warped by sunshine, and fairly open nt 
 the seams. They were to be calked, and swelled, and launched, 
 and stowed, before we could venture to embark in them. A rainy 
 south-wester, too, which had met us on our arrival, was now spread- 
 ing with its black nimbus over the bay, and it looked as if we 
 were to be storm-stayed on the precarious ice-beach. It was a 
 time of anxiety, but to me personally of comparative rest. I re- 
 sumed my journal : — 
 
 Juli/ 18, Monday. — The Esquimaux are camped by our side, — 
 the whole settlement of Etah congregated around the 'big cal- 
 dron' of Cape Alexander, to bid us good-bye. There are Metek, 
 and Nualik his wife, our old acquaintance Mrs Eider-duck, and 
 their five children, commencing with Myouk, my body-guard, and 
 ending with the ventricose little Accomodah. There is Nessark 
 and Anak his wife ; and Tellerk the ' Right Arm,' and Amauna- 
 lilc his wife ; and Sip-su, and Marsumah and Aningnah — and Avho 
 not ? I can name them every one, and they know us as well. We 
 have found brothers in a strange land. 
 
 " Each one has a knife, or a file, or a saw, or some such 
 treasured keepsake ; and the children have a lump of soap, tlie 
 greatest of all great medicines. Tlie merry little urchins break in 
 upon me even now as I am writing — • ' Kuyanake, kuyanake, 
 
 Nalegak-soak 
 
 'Thauk you, thank you, big chief!' while 
 
 Myouk is crowding fresh presents of raw birds on me as if I 
 could eat for ever, and poor Aningnah is crying beside the tent- 
 curtain, wiping her eyes on a bird skin I 
 
 "My heart warms to these poor, dirty, miserable, yet happy 
 beings, so long our neighbours, and of late so staunchly our friends. 
 
THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 415 
 
 Tlieirs is no nlToctation of regret. There are twenty-two of tliem chapter 
 
 around me, all busy in good olRres to tlie Docto Kaycna ; and ' 
 
 there are only two women and the old blind patriarcli Kresnk, 
 'Drift-wood,' left behitid at the settlement. 
 
 "But see! more of thom are coming up — boys ten years old a nntion 
 pushing forward babies on their sledges. The whole nation ia oll'thu'i'ce. 
 gipsying with us ui)on the icy meachiws. 
 
 " We cook for them in our big camp kettle ; they sleep in the 
 Red Eric ; a berg dose at hand supplies them with water ; and 
 thus, rich in all that they value, — sleep, and food, .and drink, and 
 rompanitmship, — with their treasured short-lived summer s\m 
 above them, the heim ideal and sum of Esquimaux blessings, they 
 seem supremely hai)py. 
 
 "Poor creatures ! It is only six months ago that starvation 
 was among them : many of the fares around me have not yet lost 
 the lines of wasting suspense. 'J'he walrus season is again of 
 doubtful productiveness, and they are cut off from their brethren 
 to the south, at Netelik and Appah, until winter rebuilds the 
 avenue of ice. With all this, no thoughts of the future cross 
 tliem. Babies squall, and women chatter, and the men weave 
 tlieir long yarns with peals of rattling hearty laughter betw ten. 
 
 " Ever since we reached Pekiutlik, these friends of ours have Kimiin-Ni 
 considered us their guests. They have given us hand-sledges for ""gity^ot"" 
 our baggage, and taken turn about in watches to carry us and it ^^<^ '■'>'i"i 
 to the water's edge. But for them our dreary journey would have 
 been prolonged at least a fortnight, and we are so lato even now 
 that hours may measure our lives, ^fetek, Myouk, Nessark, Mar- 
 sumah, Erkee, and the half-grown boys, have been our chief 
 labourers ; but women, children, and dogs are all bearing their 
 part. 
 
 "Wliatever may have been the faults of these Es(iuimaux 
 heretofore, stealing was the only grave one. Treachery they may 
 liave conceived ; and I have reason to believe that, under super- 
 stitious fears of an evil influence from oiir presence, they would at 
 one time have been glad to destroy us. But the day of all this 
 lias passed away. When trouble came to us and to them, and we 
 bent ourselves to their habits, — when we looked to thorn to pro- 
 cure us fresh meat, and they found at our poor Oomiak-soak shel- 
 ter and protection during their wild bear-hunts, — then we were so 
 
416 
 
 A LAST VISIT TO ET.VH. 
 
 m 
 
 III 
 
 ■;! !il 
 
 Datives. 
 
 Old 
 Ki 
 
 suk. 
 
 cuAPTKR Mciulc'd in our interests as well as modes of life, that every traco 
 
 L V 1 1 • J ' 
 
 ; of enmity wore away. Ood knows tliat since they profesMil 
 
 True friendshiii —albeit the i laginary powers of tlin an"ekok-souk uiid 
 
 frli'iiditnlp ■ 1 1 
 
 nii.i uriiti- tlio marvi'Uous six-shooter which attested them m\y have IukI 
 1"''"'"'*'"' their influence — never have friends been more true. Altliou"li 
 since Ohlsen's death, numberless articles of inestimable value t<i 
 thoiu have been scattered upon the ice unwatched, they have not 
 stolen a nail. It was only yesterday that Metek, upon my allud- 
 ing to the manner in which property of all sorts wius exposed 
 without pilfering, exjilained through Petersen, in these two shurt 
 sentences, the argument of their morality : — 
 
 " ' You have done us good. Wo are not hungry ; we will not 
 
 take (steal). You have done us good ; we want to help you ; 
 
 we are friends.'" 
 
 I made my hvst visit to Etali while wo were waiting the issiu- 
 of the storm. I saw old Kresuk (Drift-wood) the blind man, and 
 listened to his long good-bye talk. I had passed with the Esqui- 
 maux as an angekok, in virtue of some simple exploits of natural 
 magic ; and it was one of the regular old times entertainments of 
 our visitors at the brig, to see my hand terrible with blazing eilier, 
 while it lifted nails with the magnet. I tried now to coininuiii- 
 cate a portion of my wonder working talent. I made a lens of ice 
 before theiu, and " drew down the siui," so as to light the luos.s 
 under their kolupsut. I did not quite understand old Kresuk, and I 
 was not quite sure he understood himself. But I trusted to tliu 
 others to explain to him what 1 had done, and burned the back of 
 his hand for a testimony in the most friendly manner. After all 
 which, with a reputation for wisdom wliich I dare say will live in 
 their short annals, I wended my way to the brig again. 
 
 We renewed our queries about Hans, but could get no furtliiT 
 news of him. The last story is, that the poor boy and his better 
 half were seen leaving Peteravik, " the halting-place," in company 
 with Shang-hu and one of his big sons. Lover as ho was, and 
 nalegak by the all-hail hereafter, joy go with hira, for he was a 
 right good fellow. 
 
 We had quite a scene, distributing our last presents. My am- 
 putating knives, the great gift of all, went to Metek and Nessark ; 
 but every one had something as his special prize. Our dogs went 
 to the community at large, as tenants in common, except Toodla 
 
 Kiifurfti 
 
 I.Mt news 
 ot Hans. 
 
 Parting 
 
 gittd. 
 
t every traco 
 3y profe.s.sfd 
 ok-Houk and 
 ly Imve Iih.I 
 Although, 
 bio value to 
 ey have not 
 m my ullud- 
 Wiia exposed 
 >o two short 
 
 we will not 
 ) help you ; 
 
 
 ig the ksuf 
 id man, and 
 1 the Esqui- 
 s of natural 
 ainments of 
 lazing oilier, 
 o conununi- 
 a lens of ice 
 it the moss 
 resuk, and I 
 isted to tliu 
 the back of 
 After all 
 will live in 
 
 t no further 
 d his better 
 in company 
 e was, and 
 r he was a 
 
 1. My auj- 
 d Nessark ; 
 • dogs went 
 ept Toodlu 
 
-t, CJ 
 
 
 "*>: 
 
 I 
 
A FAREWELL APOBESa 
 
 41T 
 
 ; ami V^'liitey, oirr ix-prest-ntjitivo do|.nj throHj;f*\ vft-y umny triala, <,-3uriT)i 
 •hM not part with tl»em, the leadem uf myk-*m , I bavoHiem ; 
 
 >;-4 'V 
 
 Mut N\i<iUk, the. pt>or inotiu r, }i/id »()»u.thbi|i ^tiil to reninti m** Ai^row..- 
 
 She had a<*'".<Mi)]nni.(l ti« tlirou^/hnut th«? i;f»r -'It wf Kuh l!j»y, '*"' 
 
 ') Lor boy Afc.">ratKUii, waitini; ;inxiou»Jy f - •^- ■> "ifiif whon 
 
 fijpttt 8;ilt water viouiti enabh- uic t^> Mk' •M *Y»iri'i- 
 
 ,>.;t of the doirion in his Ht'-Mimh. T'i.i^f* «> . ♦ *h, ^h, mMv'' 
 
 but to fulfil til' ; pitdgt' with I'ijithful (•irr>!'7;» '' iv* ^ , \ »^ ♦.■< 
 
 ■^ to the water's odgt., and hti evrh ', ■\t btiU ^ wu^.*'- ''-^ifl- 
 
 »• rmbrocatod in the j cvseuci *>1 l>'>«-h liic' f»ftri»nii. 1 
 
 vk iwy thanks in tht^r langiu^*), but 1 o.'Uirnb«t«Kf m .. 
 
 .is if oHk shiitH to th^ po»r little nntlV'ior,- for nvh ) p ^.■.•. 
 
 f bleBsed tiiem for ihcir liumanity to ud with a t^finv n( 
 it whirh froHi jv b<t'<r m-iii nu«'ht pers'l-" nJ'ire have t':uii.<i » 
 i» along with it. 
 
 i now it only .ri"!iiu,inftd :\'~ \m to niaki' « -^ faroweil U> ihr'Ht- s 
 ■«.- and confiiiing ^M;o|>lr ; tiatlirvod tht-w "unid tat' on ilv 
 h, ami talked to t,li« <• ;■» hr-ithers tWr vthine kij».)Ji*v- t 
 ■?till a return to maki*. I t<'l't them %»-... I know .. 
 'n»m which tluy were s^j-unUiil by ihc ^'.u'i<;r Mid ^U 
 rciouriV'S that ul>"iudcd ui liv^i^ ksr* cniMni^l re# • • ., 
 •■.iv ofl" to the s<nith, the LicaMr d..»r.»}ti.n <>( rlftyiifbt r .• . .. 
 '■■M\y of tho c(;ld, the 'm 5k^.^c'« aji tl i' bnnx. \iw fre\]K*''. • <''V 
 .iio kay;ik. and the. Jishui.t' iiv; f u -'' '«• mi|>1.u'i *- i^^hfim 
 ^^-v, midor bold a'^--^ '."a'uiuu.i, ;jt;i ijvi,r»;, ?W', iiMjrfn insj. t ;b'r«' 
 ' f<"<r waynns oT i>ati nt niiiA-h. ( uy-'-- »h.'n» drinvwsjjj • the 
 A'ith it' L'.i'l!.,i,d.s .md hnuiinr.: ^v 
 ■ -♦ton, an ' . s best Ciiio})in>r-8tj»iui,i 
 wh acttlcmcnt.v 
 'Twcy lihttined with briatldoss • .rerc-f. • 
 
 Umi, H.S Peter.- en (k'scvi'icn. tjic bi;^ a—iiK, 'I.. H^h.t^ * hitSt. 
 
 ~t4ix; .vid the Iciig uptii Hutor lumt'. viilr sU. * « U sii-i tiirt 
 
 h*«y K>oked .it t.-ich other uith a fi^';)ii'ii j.m-'' .-< > t.-» h* mu 
 
 .»od. They woidd arixniii.^ly havi^ hi.) -.-• jH.'treiftr th.;t 1 
 
 • i some day return .and carry a load i.f i;,. wi '>><«rn u» t)»e •■'vt 
 
 .•^•its ; and I ahall ru^t wonder if- - giii-.t*.s perhaps by HarK* - 
 
 ■»^^^aftcr attempt the journey *»MK>ut. ot,t»er auL 
 - - was our pai-ting. A K-tter which I *ddre?:<ed, at th« 
 2j.» 
 
 •«;?;< vs. as 1'Ar ■ • 
 
 ,lp 
 
 '"lip i!**'!' •ir.'-'t t'f ji)d > '"-^ 
 
i i 
 
 •j 
 
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 *'/ 
 
A FAREWELL ADDRESS. 
 
 417 
 
 Aoeoiiio- 
 <ltili. 
 
 A liiVf- 
 
 lIlL'ilS. 
 
 m'\ and Wliitey, our represontiitive dogs through very inany trials, onArTiR 
 
 I could not part with them, the leaders of my team ; I have them ; 
 
 still. 
 
 But Nualik, the poor mother, had something still to remind me 
 of. She had accompanied ua throughout tlie transit of Ktah Bay, 
 with her boy Accomod;ih, waiting anxiously for the moment when 
 the first salt water would enablu me to fulfil my promised exoroi- 
 salion of the demon in his sto'uach. There was no alternative 
 row but to fulfil the pkdge with faithful ceremony. The boy was 
 taken to the water's edge, and his exorbitant little nangah faith- 
 fully embrocated in the presence of both his parents. I could not 
 speak my thanks in their language, but I contributed my si-anty 
 stock of silk shirts to the poor little suflferer, — for such he was, — 
 ^nd I blessed them for their humanity to us with a fervour of 
 heart which from abetter nuin might peradvcuture have carried a 
 blessing along with it. 
 
 And now it only remained for us to make our farewell to these 
 desolate and confiding people. I gathered them round me on the 
 ice-beach, and talked to theui as brothers for whose kindness I 
 had still a return to make. I told them what I knew of the 
 tribes from which they were separated by the glacier and thv. soa, 
 of the resources that abounded in those less ungenial regions lUii 
 V ;ry far off to the south, the greater duration of daylight, the les.s 
 intensity of the cold, the facilities of the hunt, the frequent drift- 
 wood, the kayak, and the fishing-net. I tried to explain to them 
 how, under bold and cautious guidance, thoy might reach there 
 in a few seasons of patient march. I gave them drawings of the 
 coast, with its headlands and hunting-grounds, as far as Capo 
 Shackleton, and its best camping-stations from Red Head to the 
 Danish settlements. 
 
 They listened with breathless interest, closing their circle round u^ ■ fftct 
 me ; and, as Petersen described the big u-ssuk, the white whale, 
 the bear, and the long open water hunts with the kayak and the 
 rifle, they looked at each other with a significance not to be mis- 
 understood. They would anxiously have had me promise that I 
 would some day return atid carry a load of them down to the set- 
 tlements ; and I ,>-hall not wonder if — guided perhaps by Hans — 
 they hereafter attempt the journey without other aid. 
 
 This was our parting. A letter which 1 adilressed, at the 
 2i> 
 
i 
 
 w 
 
 li 
 
 i 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ? 1 : 
 
 
 \ I 
 
 1 
 
 
 a If 
 
 418 
 
 ATTEMPT TO EMBARK. 
 
 CIAI>TKH 
 LVJI. 
 
 A luimrli 
 at iiiid- 
 ni){lit. 
 
 Olillgod to 
 iTlrcat iii- 
 
 Wlilcl I)) II 
 
 Kilo. 
 
 H;ilt near 
 
 moment of reaching the settlements, to the LutI orim Mi.ssions, 
 tJie tutelar society of the Esquimaux of Greenland, will attest the 
 sincerity of my professions and my willingness to assist in giviui' 
 them effect. 
 
 It was in the soft subdued light of a Sunday evening, June 17, 
 tJiat, after hauling our boats with much hard labour through the 
 hummocks, we stood beside the open sea-way. Pifforo midiiiglit 
 we had launclied the lied Eri:, and given three cheers for lleiny 
 (iriuiiell and " luMi.eward bound," unfurling all our flags. 
 
 But we were not yet to euibark ; for the gale which had bL-eu 
 long brooding now began ..■o dash a heavy wind-/i/>/>i'r again.st tli(^ 
 Hoc, and obligctl us to retreat before it, hauling our boals back 
 with each fresh breakage of the ice. It rose nujre fiercely, and 
 we were obliged to give way before it still more. Our goorls, 
 which IkkI been stacked upon the ice, luid to be carried further in- 
 ward. We worked our way back thus, step by step, before tliu 
 breaking ice, for about two hundred yards. At la.st it l)ocaiiie ap 
 jiarent that the men mu.st sleep and rest, or sink; and, giving iq- 
 lor the present all tht^ughts of embarking, I hauled the boats at 
 once nearly a mile from tJie water's edge, whore a ''rgv' icebeig 
 was frozen tight in the Hoes. 
 
 But here we were still ])ursued. All the next night it]''i.\v fear 
 fully, and at last our berg crashed away through the broken ico. 
 and our asylum was ilcstroyed. Again we fell to hauling back t\w 
 boats ; until, fearing that tlie contin'uance of the gale nught induce 
 a ground-swell, which would Iwive been fatal to us, I came to a 
 halt near the si-^peof u low iceberg, on which I felt confident that 
 we could haul up in case of tiie entire disruption of the tloe>. 
 'I'he entire area xas dready interseotcd with long cracks, and the 
 surface began to .show a perceptible undulation beneath our feet. 
 
 It was well for us I luid not gratified tlie men by taking tlio 
 outside track ; we .should certainly have been rafted off into tlio 
 ^torm, and without an apparent possibility of escape. 
 
 I clindjed to the summit of the berg ; but it was impo.s.^ible to 
 penetrate the obscurity of mist, and spray, and cloud further than 
 u thoufuuul yards. The sea tore the ice np almost to the very ba.sc 
 of the berg, and all around it lookod like one vast tunmltuous cal- 
 dron, the ice-tables crasliing tog'Mior in every possible imjs tdou witli 
 ileafening claniour 
 
SUTHERLAND ISLAND. 
 
 419 
 
 CHAPTER LVIII. 
 
 BCTlIEIliaM) ISLAND— HAKI.UYT ISLAND— NOKTllUMllKKLAND ISLAND — 
 KITZ-CLARENCE ROCK — DALKYMPLE ROCK — OIVINO OUT— BREAK UP OF 
 THE FLOE — BROKK.X DOWN— WEARY MAX's REST — THE FOURTH— SHORT 
 lOMSIONS. 
 
 TiiL gale (lied away to a calm, and the water became as trauqml as chai-thr 
 if the gale had never been. All hands were called to prepare for ' '^ '" 
 embarking. The boats were stowed, and the cargo divided be- a cuiin. 
 tween them equally ; the sledges unlashed and slung outside the 
 gunwales ; and on Tuesday the 19th, at 4 P.M., with the bay as 
 smooth as a garden-hike, I put off in the Faith. She was followed iiic i.oatn 
 by the lied Eric on our quarter, and the Hope astern. In the '""' '" *'* 
 Faith I had with me ^Ir. M'(iary, and Petersen, Ilickey, Stephen- 
 son, and "\Vhii»ple. Mr. lirookts was in the Hope, with Hayes, 
 Sontag, Morton, GoOdfcllow, and Blake. Bousall, l\iley, and 
 (Iddfre/ made the crew of t)ie Eric. 
 
 The wind freshened as wt doubled the wcstenunost point of Cape Capc 
 Alexander, and, as we looked out on the exi)anse of thv sound, W( ^ "' 
 saw the kittiwakes and the ivory-gull a^id jagexs dipping their 
 wings in the curling waves, ''liey seemed the very sanie birds we 
 had left two years before screaiiiing aiid catching fish in the beau- 
 tiful water. We tried to make our first re«t at Sutlu.'r]juid Island ; sntiui- 
 but we found it so barricaded bv the precipitous icc-bclt that it ,"!" , 
 was impo.ssilile to laiul. I clambered iliyself from the boat's mast 
 upon the platfcrm and lilleil our kettles wiHi ."now, and then, after 
 cooking our supper in the boats, we stood away foi' I'.akluyt. It 
 wiis an ugly crossing : ve liad a short li-.oppuig sea from the soutli- 
 east; and, after a while, the liid JJoat swamped. Kiley and God- riic Rat 
 frey managed to struggle to the Faith, ami Bousall to the Hope ■ ^l"'^^ 
 hut it was impossible to remove the cargo of o\ir little comrade; it 
 was as much as we could do to keep her atloat ajid let her tow be- 
 hind us. Just at this time, too, the Hope made a signal of dis- 
 tress ; and Brooks hailed us to say that .-iiie was making wu'^ef 
 faster than he could fn e her. 
 
 
Ill 
 
 1! 
 
 '!-' ') 
 
 420 
 
 HAXLUYT ISLAND. 
 
 CBAPTKK 
 LVIII. 
 
 A Burvey 
 of the ice. 
 
 Haklnyt 
 
 The wind was hauling round to the westward, and we could not 
 take the sea abeam. But, as I made a rapid survey of the area 
 around me, studded already with floating shreds of floe-ice, I saw 
 ahead the low, grey blink of the pack. I remembered well tlio 
 experience of our Beechy Island trip, and knew that the iiiargiii of 
 these large fields is almost always broken by inlets of open water 
 which gave mnch the same sort of protection as the creeks and 
 rivers of an adverse coast. We were fcjrtunate in finding one of 
 these, and Aistening ourselves to an old floe, ahmgside of which 
 our weary men turned in to sleep without hauling up tl)e boats. 
 
 When Petersen and myself returned from an unsuccessful hunt 
 upon the ice, we found them still asleep, in spite of a cold and 
 drizzling rain that might have stimulated wakefulness. I did not 
 disturb them till eight o'clock. We then retreated from our break- 
 water of refuge, generally pulling along by the boat-hooks, but 
 sometimes dragging our boats over the ice ; and at hiat, bending to 
 our oars as the water oper.ed, reached the shore of Ilakluyt 
 Island. 
 
 It was hardly less repulsive *^^han the ice-cliffs of the day before ; 
 but a spit to the southward gave us the opportunity of hauling up 
 as the tide rose, and we finally succeeded in transferring ourselves 
 and all our fortunes to the land-ice, and thence to the rocks be- 
 yond. It snowed hard in the night, and the work of calking went 
 on badly, though we expended on it a prodigal share of our re- 
 maining white lead. We rigged up, however, a tent for the sick, 
 and re-inforced our bread-dust and tallow supper by a few birds. 
 We had shot a seal in the course of the day, but we lost him by 
 his sinking. 
 
 In the morning of the 2 2d we pushed forward through the 
 Northum- snow-storm for Northumberland Island, and succeeded in reaching 
 i'J'"d.^ it a little to the eastward of my former landing-place. Myriads of 
 auks greeted us, and we returned their greeting by the appropriate in- 
 vitation to our table. A fox also saluted us with an admirable 
 imitation of the " Huk-huk-huk," which among the Esquimaux is 
 the never-unheeded call of distress ; but the rascal, after seducing 
 us a mile and a half out of-our way, escaped our guns. 
 
 Our boats entered a little patch of open water that conducted 
 us to the beach, directly below one of the hanging glaciers. The 
 interest with which these impressed me when I was turning back 
 
FITZ-CLARENCE ROCK. 
 
 4tl 
 
 from my Beechy Island effort was justified very fully by wh.at I 
 saw of them now. It seemed as if a caldroa of ice inside the 
 coast ridge was boiling over, and throwing its crust in huge frag- 
 ments from the overhanging lip into the sea below. The glacier 
 must have been eleven hundred feet high ; but even at its summit 
 we could see lines of viscous movement. 
 
 We cro.ssed Murchison Channel on the 2M, and encamped for 
 the night on the land floe at the base of Cape Parry ; a hard day's 
 travel, partly by tracking over ice, partly through tortuous and 
 zigzag leads. The next day brought us to the neighbourhood of 
 Fitz-Clarence Rock, one of the most interesting monuments that 
 rear themselves along this dreary coast : in a region more familiar 
 to men, it would be a landmark to the navigator. It rises from a 
 field of ice like an Egyptian pyramid surmounted by an obelisk. 
 
 I had been anxious to com nunicate with the Es([uiinaux of 
 Netelik, in the hope of gaining some further intelligence of IJans. 
 Our friends of Etah had given me, in their own style, a complete 
 itinerary of this region, and we had no difficulty in instructing 
 Godfrey how to trace his way across the neck of land which stood 
 between us and the settlement, lie made the attempt, but found 
 the snow-drift impassable ; and Petersen, whom I sent on the same 
 errand to Tessiusak, returned equally unsuccessful. 
 
 The next day gave us admirable progress. Tlie ice opened in 
 leads before us, isumewhat tortuoua, but, on tho whole, favouring, 
 and for sixteen hours I never left the helm. We were all of us 
 exhausted when the day's work came to a close. Our allowance 
 had been small from the first ; but the delays we seemed fated to 
 encounter had made me reduce them to Avhat I then thought the 
 minimum quantity, six ounces of bread dust and a lump of tallow 
 the size of a walnut : a paste or broth, made of these before set- 
 ting out in the morning and distributed occasionally through the 
 day in scanty rations, was our only fare. We were all of us glad 
 when, running the boats under the lee of a berg, we were able 
 to fill our kettles with snow and boil up for our great restorative 
 tea. I may remark that, under the circumstances of )uo.4t priva- 
 tion, I found no comforter so welcome to the party as this. We 
 drank immoderately of it, and always with advantage. 
 
 While the men slept after their weary labour, M'Gary and my- 
 self climbed the berg for a ^ iew ahead. It was a saddening one. 
 
 OHAPTRR 
 LVIII. 
 
 Hitnclnn 
 
 KillCilT. 
 
 Fitr C'Hr- 
 ciice UucIl 
 
 Unsnc- 
 ccNHtiil at- 
 tL'ni|)t» to 
 rfiiL'h tlio 
 Ksi|ul- 
 
 I'lllllX 
 
 «uttlu- 
 mviit. 
 
 Scanty 
 lure 
 
 Tea tlifl 
 best rr.sto- 
 rative. 
 
 f't'i-' 
 
'1 'I 
 
 tt'T 
 
 422 
 
 DKCLIMNO STRKNUTH OK THK TARTY. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 L\ III. 
 
 Dulrymple 
 Kuck. 
 
 Kffects of 
 liixiitn- 
 :ifnt fuoil. 
 
 OJiliRcil to 
 
 Hltit. 
 
 We had lost sight of Gary Lsland ; but shoreward, up Wost'-n- 
 holm Channel, the ice seemed as if it had not yet begun to yield 
 to the influences of summer. Kveiything showed how intense the 
 last winter had been. V.'e were close upon the 1st of July, aJid 
 had a right to look for the North Water of the whalers where ^\^^ 
 now had solid ice or close pack, both of them almost equally un- 
 favourable to our ])rogress. Far off in the distance — how far 1 
 could not measure — rose the Dahymple Rock, projecting from the 
 lofty precipice of the island ahead ; but between us and it the 
 land-ice spread itself from the base of Saunders's Island unbroken 
 to the Far iSouth. 
 
 The next day's progress was of course slow and wearisonio, 
 pushing through alternate ice and water for the land-belt. AVe 
 fastened at last to the great floe near the shore, making our Imr- 
 boui- in a crack which opened with the changes of tide. 
 
 The imperfect diet of the party Wcas showing itself more and 
 more in the decline of their mu.scular power. They soei'itd 
 scarcely aware of it themselves, and referred the dilKculty they 
 found in dragging and pushing to something uncommon about the 
 ice or sludge rather than to their own weakness. But, as we en- 
 deavoured to renew our labours through the morning fog, beltoil 
 in on all sidef. by ice-fields so distorted and rugged as to defy our 
 efforts to cro'*s them, the truth seemed to burst upon every one. 
 We had lost the feeling of hunger, and were almost satisfied with 
 our pasty broth and the huge draughts of tea which accompaiiicd 
 it. I was anxious to send our small boat, the Uric, across to the 
 lumme-hill of Appah, where I knew from the Esquimaux we 
 should find plenty of birds ; but the strength of the party was in- 
 sufficient to drag her. 
 
 We were sorely disheartened, and could only wait for the fog to 
 rise, in the hope of some smoother platform than that which was 
 about us, or some lead that might save us the painful labour (if 
 tracking. I had climbed the iceberg ; and there was nothing in 
 view except Dalrymple Rock, with its red brassy face towering in 
 the unknown distance. But I hardly got back to my boat, before 
 a gale struck us from the north-west, and a floe, taking upon ii 
 tongue of ice about a mile to the north of us, began to swing ui)on 
 it like a pivot and close slowly in upon our narrow resting-place. 
 
 At first our own floe also was driven before the wind ; but in a 
 
AX AWFUL STORM. 
 
 4«» 
 
 little while it encountered the stationary ice at the foot of the very ciiai-tkh 
 rook itself. On the instant the wildest imaginable ruin rose ' '^"' ' 
 around us. The men sprang mechanically each one to his station, I'l-it^i'iic 
 i)eivruig back the Doats una stores ; but 1 gave up tor the nionieiit ,|,„,. 
 all hope of our escape. It was not a nip, such as is familiar to 
 Arctic navigators ; but the whole platform, where we stood and 
 for hundreds of yards on every side of us, crumbled, and crushed, 
 and piled, and tossed itself madly under the pressure. I do not 
 Injlieve that of our little body of men, all of them tii^ciplinid in 
 trials, able to measure danger while combating it,— I do not be- 
 lieve there is one who this d.-iy can explain how or why — hardly 
 wlien, in fact — we found ourselves afloat. We only know that in 
 the midst of a clamour utterly indescribable, throtigh which the 
 l»raying of a thousand trumpets cnuld no mt>re have been heard 
 than the voice of a nian, we were shaken, and raiswl, and whirled, iosmmi u\ 
 and let down again in a swelling waste of broken humnioeks, and, ' '*" "'"""' 
 xs the men grasped their boat-hooks in the stillness that followid, 
 the boats eddied away in a tumultuous skrcH^'d of ice, and snt>w, 
 and water. 
 
 We were borne along in this liianner as long as the unbroken dumh 
 rcnmant of the inshore floe continued revolving, — utterly power- [l"",^!.' "^* 
 li-ss, and catching a glimpse every now and tiien of the brazen H'^^ k«1u. 
 headland that looked down on us through the snowy sky. Ai 
 l;ust the floe brought up against the rocks, the looser fragments 
 that hung rounrl it began to separate, and we were able by oars 
 and boat-hooks to force our battered little flotilla clear of them. 
 To our joyful surprise, we soon found ourselves in a stretch of the 
 land-water wide enough to give us rowing-room, and with the as- 
 sured promise of land clos*' ahead. 
 
 As we neared it, we saw the same forbidding wall of bclt-ioe as 
 at Sutherland and llakluyt. We pulled along its margin, seckiiig 
 in vain either an opening of access or a nook of shelter. The 
 gale rose, and the ice began to drive again ; but there was nothing 
 to be done but get a grapnel out to the belt and hold on for the 
 rising tide. The JJope stove her bottom and lost part of her 
 weather-boarding, and all the boats were badly chafed. It was an 
 awful storm ; and it was not without constant exertion that wo 
 kept afloat, baling out the scud that broke over us, and warding 
 off the ice with boat-hooks. 
 
4:24 
 
 WEARY MAN 8 RK8T. 
 
 CH U'TKIt 
 LVIII. 
 
 SoulliiK 
 
 lIlK Ico- 
 
 diir. 
 
 A Wfl- 
 
 COMll! 
 
 luuiid. 
 
 K(f({-liuiit- 
 iu«. 
 
 " Weary 
 Man's 
 
 Stopped 
 bv t'le Ice, 
 
 At tlirce o'clock tlio title was high eiioiigh for us to scale tlio 
 i(;e-cllff. One by one we pulled up the boats upon a narrow slair, 
 the whole sixteen of us uniting at each pull. Wo were too nuicli 
 worn down to unload ; but a deep and narrow gorge opened in 
 tl'o clitls almost at the spot where wo clambered up ; and, as we 
 l)ushed tiie boats into it on an even keel, the rocks seemed to close 
 above our heads, until an abrupt turn in the course of the ravine 
 placed a protecting cliff between us and the gale. We were com- 
 pletely encaved. 
 
 Just as we had brought in the last boat, the Rfd Bnc, and woro 
 shoring her up with blocks of ice, a long-unused, but familiar and 
 unmistakable sound startled and gladdened every ear, and a linck 
 of eiders flecking the sky for a moment i)assed swiftly in front 
 of us. We knew that we must be at their breeding-grounds ; and 
 as we turned in wet and hungry to our long-coveted sleep, it wius 
 only to dream of eggs and abundance. 
 
 We remained almost three days in our crystal retreat, gather- 
 ing eggs at the rate of twelve hundred a day. Outside, the storm 
 raged without intermission, and our egg-hunters found it dillicult 
 to keep their feet ; but a merrier set of gourmands than were 
 gathered within ne /er surfeited in genial diet. 
 
 On the 3d of July the wind began to moderate, though tlio 
 snow still fell heavily ; and the next morning, after a patriotic 
 egg-nog, the liquor borrowed grudgingly from our alcohol-flask, 
 and diluted till it was worthy of temperance praise, — we lowered 
 our boats, and bade a grateful farewell to " Weary Man's Rest." 
 We rowed to the south-east end of Wostenholmc Island ; but 
 the tide left us there, and we moved to the ice-foot. 
 
 For some days after this wo kept moving slowly to the south, 
 along the lanes that opened between the belt-ice and the floe. 
 The weather continued dull and unfavourable for observations of 
 any sort, and we were off a largo glacier before we were aware 
 that further progress near the shore was impracticable. Great 
 chains of bergs presented themselves as barriers in our way, the 
 spaces between choked by barricades of hummocks. It was hope- 
 less to bore. We tried for sixteen hours together without finding 
 a possibility of egress. The whole sea was rugged and broken 
 in the extreme. 
 
 I climbed one of the bergs to the height of about two hundred 
 
 I 
 
to scale til.) 
 larrow slalf, 
 ro too niiiili 
 e opciu'd ill 
 and, as wu 
 lied to clone 
 f the ravine 
 ! were com- 
 ic, and were 
 funiiliaraiid 
 and a ilnck 
 ^^y in front 
 ounds ; aiKJ 
 [eep, it was 
 
 eat, gatlier- 
 
 !, the stonn 
 
 i it dillicult 
 
 than were 
 
 though the 
 a patriotic 
 cohol-fla.sk, 
 we lowered 
 an's Rest." 
 iland ; but 
 
 the south, 
 i the lloe. 
 'vations of 
 vcre aware 
 Great 
 • way, the 
 wa.s hope- 
 ut findint; 
 iid broken 
 
 jwaaty; 
 
 I 
 
 !'•■ 
 
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 'V.r .siuit! d ly.s artor this vv.> kept; r.i')vi:i. 
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RKPAIRING THE BOATS. 
 
 425 
 
 feet, and, looking well to the west, was satisfied that a lead which 
 I saw there could be followed in the direction of Conical Rocks, 
 ;uid beyond toward Cape Dudley Digges. But, on conferring with 
 Brooks and M'Gary, I was startled to find how much the boats 
 liiid suffered in the rude encounters of the last few days. The 
 Hope was in fact altogether unseaworthy : the ice had strained 
 lier bottom-timbers, and it required nearly all our wood to repair 
 her ; bit by bit we had already cut up and burned the runners and 
 cross-bars of two sledges ; the third we had to reserve as essential 
 
 CIIAPTKR 
 LVIII. 
 
 The boats 
 Injured l>y 
 the stonu. 
 
 to our ice-crossmgs. 
 
 In the meantime, the birds, which had been so abundant when 
 we left Dalrymple's Island, and which we had counted on for a 
 ciintinuous store, seemed to have been driven off by the stOrni. 
 We were again reduced to short daily rations of bread dust, and I 
 was aware that the change of diet could not fail to tell upon the 
 strength and energies of the party. I determined to keep iu- 
 sliore, in spite of the barricades of ice, in the hope of renewing, to 
 some extent at least, our supplies of game. We were fifty-two 
 hours in forcing this rugged passage ; a most painful labour, which 
 l)iit for the disciplined endurance of the men might well have been 
 deemed impracticable. 
 
 Short 
 rations 
 
 Ugttill. 
 
 Um 
 
IM.r/""""».r'|l'i".Vlll^?,'M!l?«WIW^PftlJIW««l«ii^!| 
 
 426 
 
 VIEW FROM AN ICEBFRO, 
 
 CHAPTER LrX. 
 
 A LOOK-OUT- I'ROVIDEXOE HALT — THE (JLACIKK - I'KdVIIjKXCK DIKT. 
 
 T ■! 
 
 'I :? 
 
 CIIAl-TKR 
 MX. 
 
 Aiioilicr 
 ^''in'icr In 
 
 A look-out 
 liiiiii an 
 ice-berg 
 
 An In- 
 
 litiHpitnble 
 
 thore. 
 
 
 Onck through the barrier, tlie leads began to open again, and on 
 the 1 1 th we found ourselves approaching Cape Dudley Digges, 
 with a light breeze from the north-west. It looked for some hours 
 as if our troubles were over, when a glacier came in .sight not laid 
 down on the charts, whose tongue of floe extended still further out 
 to sea than the one we had just passed with so much labour. 0;ir 
 first resolve was to double it at all hazards, for our crews were too 
 much weakened to justify another tracking through the hummocks, 
 and the soft snow which covered the land-floes was an obstacle 
 quite insuperable. Nevertheless, we forced our way into a le;i(l 
 of sludge, mingled with the comminuted ice of the glacier ; but 
 the only result was a lesson of gratitude for our escape from it. 
 Our fraU and weather-worn boats were quite unequal to tlie duty. 
 
 I again climbed the nearest berg, — for these ice-mountahis were 
 to us like the look-out hills of men at home, — and stirvoyed the 
 ice to the south far on toward Cape York. My eyes never looked 
 on a spectacle more painful. We were in advance of the season : 
 the floes had not broken up. There was no " western water." 
 Here, in a cid-de-sac, between two barriers, bt)th impassable to men 
 in our condition, with stores miserably inadeqiiate and streiigtli 
 broken down, we were to wait till the tardy summer should open 
 to us a way. 
 
 I headed for the cliffs. Desolate and froA\niing as they were, it 
 was better to reach them and halt upon the inhospitable shore than 
 iiw;)it tlie fruitless ventures of the sea. A narrow lead, a mere 
 fissure at the edge of the land-ice, ended opposite a low })latforni; 
 we had traced its whole extent, and it landed us close under tlie 
 shadow of the precipitous shore. 
 
 My sketch, intended to represent this wild locality, gives a very 
 imperfect idea of the scene. 
 
 Where the cape lies directly open to the swell of the north-weft 
 winds, at the base of a lofty precipice there was left still clingini; 
 
 W'iiJi iit^ 318 1 
 
I'KXCK DIKT, 
 
 again, and on 
 »udley Digges, 
 for some liours 
 I sight not laid 
 till further out 
 li labonr, Our 
 crews were tod 
 ;he Imniinocks, 
 IS an obstacle 
 ay into a load 
 e glacier ; but 
 escape from it. 
 al to the duty, 
 aountains wei'i; 
 [ surveyed the 
 js never looked 
 of the season : 
 estern water." 
 »assable to men 
 
 and strength 
 3r should open 
 
 y, gives a very 
 
 the north-west 
 ft still clinging 
 
 PROVIDENCE HALT. 
 
 to the rock a fragment of tlie ■winter ice-belt not more than five 
 IVet -wide. The tides rose over it and the waves washed against it 
 I'ontinually, but it gave a perfectly safe perch to our little boats. 
 Above, cliff seemed to pile over cliff, until in the high distance the 
 rocks looked like the overlajtjiing scales of ancient armour. They 
 were at least eleven hundred i'eet high, their summits genendly lost 
 in fog and mist ; and all the way uj) we seemed to see the birds 
 whose home is among their clefts. The nests were thickest on the 
 shelves some fifty yards above the water ; but both lunime and 
 tridactyl gulls filled the entire air with glimmering specks, rawing 
 and screeching with an ii\cessant clamour. 
 
 Kisllni; 
 uikIit tl'.e 
 
 rROT;t>BXCE HALT. 
 
 To soften the scene, a natund bridge opened on our right hand 
 into a little valley cove, green with mosses, and beyond and above 
 it, cold and white the glacier. 
 
 l'r:i' 
 
 
428 
 
 THK GLACIER. 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 LIX. 
 
 J ' 
 
 I 
 
 Form of 
 thof{tacier, 
 
 View of 
 tl<e Rreat 
 frozen 
 ucean. 
 
 VcRcta- 
 tiuii. 
 
 Animal 
 life. 
 
 Vain at- 
 tempts to 
 ftiid futil. 
 
 This glacier was about seven miles across at its " debouche " 
 it sloped gradually upward for some five miles back, and then 
 following the irregularities of its rocky sub-structure, suddenly be 
 came a steep crcvassed hill, ascending in abrupt terraces. Then 
 came two intervals of less rugged ice, from which the glacier passed 
 into the great vier de glace. 
 
 On ascending a high craggy hill to the northward, I had a siil. 
 lime prospect of this great frozen ocean, which seems to form tlie 
 continental axis of Greenland, — a vast undulating plain cf purple 
 tinted ice, studded with islands, and absolutely gemming tl:^ hori- 
 zon with the varied glitter of sun-tipped crystal. 
 
 The discharge of water from the lower surface of the glacier ex- 
 ceeded that of ap> of the northern glaciers except that of IIiuii- 
 boldt and the one near Etah. One torrent on the side nearest me 
 overran the ice-foot from two to five feet in depth, and spread it- 
 self upon the floes for several hundred yards ; and another, findini: 
 its outlet near the summit of the glacier, broke over the rocks, and 
 poured in cataracts upon the beach below. 
 
 The ranunculus, saxifrages, chickweeds, abundant mosses, and 
 Arctic grasses, flourished near the level of the first talus of the 
 glacier : the stone crops I found some two hundred feet higher. 
 The thermometer was at 90° in the sun ; in the shade at 38". 
 
 I have tried to describe the natural features of the scene, but 1 
 have omitted that which was its most valued characteristic. It 
 abounded in life. The lumme, nearly as large as canvas-backs, 
 and, as we thought, altogether sweeter and more juicy ; their eggs, 
 well known as delicacies on the Labrador coast ; the cochlearia. 
 growing superbly on the guano-coated surface ; — all of them in 
 endless abundance : — imagine such a combination of charms for 
 scurvy-broken, hunger-stricken men. 
 
 I could not allow the fuel for a fire ; our slush and tallow was 
 reduced to very little more than a hundred pounds. The more 
 curious in that art which has dignified the memory of LucuUus, 
 a,nd may do as much for Soyer, made experiments upon the organic 
 matters within their reach, — the dried nests of the kittiwake, the 
 sods of poa, the heavy mosses, and the fatty skins of the birds 
 around us. But they would none of them burn j and the most 
 fastidious consoled himself at last with the doubt whether heat. 
 though concentrating flavour, might not impair some other excel- 
 
A HOLIDAY WEEK. 
 
 429 
 
 MeuKie 
 diet. 
 
 lence. We limited ourselves to an average of a bird apiece per ohaptkh 
 meal, — of choice, not of necessity, — and renewed the zest of the ^'^' 
 table with the best salad in the world — raw eggs and coclJearia. 
 
 It was one glorious holiday, our week at Providence Plait, so 
 full of refreshment and all-happy thoughts, that I never allowed 
 myself to detract from it by acknowledging that it was other than 
 |iremcditated. There were only two of the party who had looked 
 out with me on the bleak ice-field ahead, and them I had pledged 
 k' silence. 
 
 ,li 
 
' I^UIIUIIMV* 
 
 430 
 
 TUE CRIMSON C1.IKK3. 
 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 ( , . 
 
 •■\i\ 
 
 ClIAI'TEll. 
 LX. 
 
 T'lcpiiiiiic; 
 provlsioiiH, 
 
 Disnstrv jt 
 
 Kcrttillg 
 
 out. 
 
 Tlie criin- 
 SOil cliffs. 
 
 THE CKIMSON CLIFFS — THE ESQUIMAUX EDEN — DEPRESSION OF THE COAST 
 
 — INVENTOKY— IMAIilK LOSINU OUR WAY — AT THE RUE-UADDIKS— TIIK 
 
 OPEN SEA— EFFECTS OP HUNOER— RESCUE OP THE FAITH. 
 
 It was the 1 8tli of July before the aspects of the ice about us "ave 
 me the hope of progress. We had prepared ourselves for tlie new 
 encounter with the sea and its trials by laying in a store of lumine : 
 two hundred and fifty of which had been duly skiinied, spread 
 open, and dried on the rocks, avS the entreiiuts of our bruad-du>t 
 and tallow. 
 
 My journal tolls of disaster in its record of our setting out. Li 
 launching the I/ope from the frail and perishing ice-wharf on which 
 we found our first refugo from the gale, she was precipitated iiitn 
 the sludge below, carrying away rail and bulwark, losing overboard 
 our best shot-gun, Bonsall's favourite, and, worst of all, tliat uni 
 versal favourite, our kettle, — soup-kettle, paste-kettle, tea-kettle, 
 water-kettle, in one. I may mention before I pass, that the kettle 
 found its substitute and successor in the remains of a tin can 
 which a goi>d aunt of mine had filled with ginger-nuts two yeais 
 before, and which had long survived the condiments that once 
 gave it dignity. " Such are the uses of adversity." 
 
 Our descent to the coast followed the margin of the fast ice. 
 After passing the Crimson Clitis of Sir John Ross, it wore aluio.st 
 the dress of a holiday excursion, — a rude one perhaps, yet truly 
 one in feeling. Our course, except where a protruding glacier 
 interlered with it. was nearly parallel to the shore. The birds 
 along it were rejoicing in the young summer, and when we halted 
 it was upon some green-clothed cape near a stream of water from 
 the ice-fields above. Our sportsmen would clamber up the chtTs 
 and come back laden with little auks ; great generous fires of turf, 
 that cost nothing but the toil of gathering, blazed merrily ; and 
 our happy oarsmen, after a long day's work, made easy by the 
 promise ahead, would stretch themselves in the sunshine and 
 dream happily away till called to the morning wash and prayers. 
 
THK K.Stit;iMAUX KDKN. 
 
 431 
 
 ION OF THE COAST 
 [JK-UADblES— TIIK 
 II. 
 
 scttin<T out. Ill 
 -wliiirl' on whit'li 
 )rccipitated into 
 losing overboard 
 of all, that uni- 
 ettle, toa-kettlc, 
 i, that the kettle 
 lis of a tin can 
 nuts two yeais 
 iients that once 
 
 jre. Tlie birds 
 when we lialted 
 1 of water from 
 )er up the cliffs 
 JUS fires of turf, 
 [1 merrily; and 
 de easy by the 
 sunshine and 
 h and prayers. 
 
 Wo enjoyed it the more, for wc all of us knew that it eould not cmaitkr 
 
 liwt. — ;_ 
 
 SM=*i:.i^.i«„ 
 
 PASSING THK LIUM.SON (,'MKKH. 
 
 nimix 
 Jen. 
 
 This coa.st must have been a favourite region at one time witli the Ksqui. 
 the natives, — a sort of Esquimaux Eden. We seldom encamped '"'" 
 without finding the ruins of their habitations, for the most part 
 overgrown with licliens, and exhibiting every mark of antiquity. 
 One of these, in hititude 76° 20', was once, no doubt, an extensive 
 villagi?. Cairns for tlie safe deposit of meat stood in long lines, 
 six »)r eight in a grouj) ; and the huts, built of large rocks, faced 
 each other, as if disposed on a street or avenue. 
 
 The same reasoning which deduces the subsidence of the coast oppression 
 from the actual base of the Temple of Serapis, proves that the de- "[.|^'^*"' 
 l)re.ssion of the Greenland coast, which I had detected as far nortli 
 iw Upernavik, is also going on up here. Some of these huts were 
 washed by the sea or torn away by the ice that had descended 
 
 {Sir' 1 
 
 
48t 
 
 INVENTORY. 
 
 CIIAPTKB 
 I.X. 
 
 t'lipi! 
 
 ^ <>j k. 
 
 Stock of 
 pruvisloiis. 
 
 Fuel 
 Account. 
 
 with the tides. The turf, too, a representative of very ancient 
 growth, was cut off even witli the watcr'.s edge, giving sections 
 two feet thick. [ Iiad not noticed before such unmistakablo evi- 
 (h'lice of tltf Ifprcssion of this coast : ita conver.se elevation I hail 
 (il)scrvcd to the north of Wostenhohne Sound. The axis of oscill- 
 ation must be somewhere in the neighbourhood of latitude 77". 
 
 We reached Cape York on the 2l8t, after a tortuous but roman- 
 tic travel through a misty atmosphere. Jlere the land-leads cea.sc(l, 
 with the exception of some small and .scarcely-practicable opcninp* 
 near the shore, which were evidently owing to the wind that pre- 
 vailed for the time. Everything bore proof of the late develop- 
 ment of the season. The red snow was a fortnight behind its 
 time. A fast floe extended with numerous tongues far out to the 
 south and east. The only question was batwecn a new rest, for 
 the shore ices to open, or a desertion of the coast and a trial of tho 
 open water to the west. 
 
 We sent off a detachment to see whether tlie Esquimaux might 
 
 not be passing the summer at E])i8ok, behind thr r' " ler of Cape 
 
 Imalik, and began an inventory of our stock on hand. I give tie 
 
 result : — 
 
 Dried lumme 195 birds. 
 
 Pork-slush 112 pounds. 
 
 Flour 60 " 
 
 Indian meal 60 " 
 
 Meat-bisouit 80 " 
 
 Bread 348 " 
 
 Six hundred and forty pounds of provision, all told, exclusive of 
 our dried birds, or some thirty-six pounds a man. Tom Hickey 
 found a turf, something like his native peat, which we thought 
 might lielp to boil our kettle ; and with the aid of this our fuel- 
 account stood thus : — 
 
 Turf, for two boilings a day 7 days 
 
 Two sledge-runners 6 " 
 
 Spare oais, sledges, and an empty cask 4 " 
 
 Seventeen days in all; not counting, however, the Red Boat 
 which would add something, and our emptied provision-bags, 
 wliich might carry on the estimate to about three weeks. 
 
 The return of the party from Imalik gave us no reason to 
 hesitate. The Esquimaux had not been there for several years. 
 There were no birds in the neighbourhood. 
 
LOSING OUR WAY. 
 
 433 
 
 I cliinbetl the rocks a second time with Mr. M'Gary, and took ciiaitku 
 a careful Burvey of the ice with my glass. The " fast," as the __ 
 winders call the immovable shore-ice, could bo seen in a nearly \'''* '7"" 
 unbroken awcei), passuig by linshnell s Island, and jouun<,' tlie 
 coast not far from where I stood. Tlie outside iloes were large, 
 and had evidently been not htng broken ; but it cheered my heart 
 to see that there was one well-defined lead which followed tiie 
 main floe until it lost itself to seaward. 
 
 I called my officers together, explained to them the motives riep«rR. 
 which governed me, and prepared to re embark. The boats were ,.".en,. 
 hauled up, examined carefully, and, as far as our means permitted, hftiking. 
 repaired. The Red Eric was stripped of her outfit and cargo, to 
 lie broken uj) for fuel when the occasion should come. A' large 
 beacon-caini was buili ■in aa eminence, open to view from the 
 south and west; and a ^ .d flannel shirt, spared with soiiie reluc- 
 tance, was hoisted nt, a nennant t^i draw attention to the spot. 
 Here I deposited ducchict reoo.d of our condition and purposes, 
 and then directed our cnuse south by west into the ice-fields. 
 
 Eydegices the icfi hrnugn which we were moving became more 
 and more impacted ; and it sometimes reqidred all our ice-knowledge 
 to determine whether a particular lead was practicable or not. 
 The irregularities of the surface, broitcu ^y hummocks, and oceu- 
 sionally by larger masset', made it difficult io see far ahe;ul; 
 besides which, we were often embarrassed by the fogs. I was Losing the 
 awakened one evening from a weary sleep in my fox-skins, to dis- *"^' 
 cover that we had fairly lost our way. The officer at the helm of 
 the leading boat, misled by the irregular shape of a large ice- 
 berg that crossed his track, had lost the main lead some time 
 l)efore, and was steering shoreward far out of tlie true coui'se. 
 The little canal in v/hich he liad locked us was hardly two boats'- 
 lengths across, and lost itself not far off in a feeble zigzitg both 
 behind and before us : it was evidently closing, and we could not 
 retreat. 
 
 Without apprising the men of our misadventure, I ordered the a camp cb 
 boats hauled up, and, under pretence of drying the clothing and 
 stores, made a camp on the ice. A few hours after, the weather 
 cleared enough for the first time to allow a view of the distance, 
 and M'Gary and myself climbed a berg some three hundred feet 
 high for ihe purpose. It was truly fearful : we were deep in the 
 
 
 tlie iQt. 
 
 \ 
 
11!' 
 
 434 
 
 AT THE RUK-EADDIES. 
 
 i.>': 
 
 A fearful 
 prospect. 
 
 The 
 
 sledees 
 again. 
 
 Afloat once 
 uiui'u. 
 
 M^ 
 
 eHAPTKR recesses of the bay, suirounded on all 8ide.'=t by stupendous icebertTs 
 ^^' and tangled floe-pieces. My sturdy second officer, not naturally 
 impressible, and long accustomed to the vicissitudes of ■whaliii" 
 life, shed tears at the prospect. 
 
 Therg was but one thing to be done : cost what it might, we 
 must harness our sledges again and retrace our way to the west- 
 ward. One sledge had been already used for firewood ; the IM 
 Eric, to which it had belonged, was now cut up, and her hght 
 cedar phanking laid upon the floor of the other boats ; and we went 
 to work with the rue-raddics as in the olden time. It Avas not till 
 the third toilsome day was well spent that we reached the berg 
 which had bewildered our helmsman. We hauled over its tongnie, 
 and joyously embarked again upon a free lead, with a fine brteze 
 from the north. 
 
 Our little squadron was now reduced to *^70 boats. The land 
 to the northward was no longer visible ; and whenever I left the 
 margin of the " fast " to avoid its deep sinuosities, I was obliged to 
 trust entirely to the compass. We had at least eight days' allow- 
 ance of fuel on board ; but our provisions were running very low, 
 and we met few birds, and failed to secure any larger game. We 
 saw several large seals upon the ice, but they were too watchful 
 for us ; and on two occasions we came upon the Avalrus sleeping, 
 — once within actual lance-thrust ; but the animal charged in the 
 teeth of his assailant and made good his retreat. 
 
 On the 28th I instituted a quiet review of the state of things 
 befove us. Our draft on the stores we had laid in at Providence 
 Halt had been limited for some days to three raw eggs and twa 
 breasts of birds a day ; but we had a small ration of bread-dust 
 besides ; and when we halted, as we did regularly for meals, our 
 fuel allowed us to indulge lavishly in the great panacea of Arctic 
 travel, tea. The men's strength was waning under tliis restricted 
 diet ; but a careful reckoning up of our remaining supplier jirovod 
 to me now that even this was more than we could afford ourselves 
 without an undue reliance on the fortunes of the hunt. Our next 
 land was to be Cape Shackleton, one of the most prolific; bird- 
 colonies of the coast, which we were all looking to, much as .sailors 
 nearing home in their boats after disaster and short allownnije at 
 sea. But, meting out our stores through the number of days that 
 must elapse before we could expect to share Its hospitable welcome, 
 
 Reckoning 
 iuppli«s. 
 
EFFECTS OF HUNGER. 
 
 435 
 
 I found tliat five ounces of bread-dust, fo'ir of tallow, and three of chaptkb 
 bird-meat, must from this time form our daily ration. ^^' 
 
 So far we had generally coasted the fjist ice : it had given us an 
 occasional resting-place and refuge, and we were able sometimes to 
 re-inforce our stores of provisions by our guns. But it made our 
 progress tediously slow, and our stock of small-shot was so nearly 
 exhausted that I was convinced our safety depended on an increase The open 
 of speed. I determined to try the more open sea. *'^*' 
 
 For the first two days the experiment was a failure. We were 
 surrounded by heavy fogs ; a south-west wind brought the outside 
 pack upon us and obliged us to haul up on the drifting ice. We 
 were thus carried to the northward, and lost about twenty, miles. 
 My party, much overworked, felt despondingly the want of the 
 protection of the land-floes. 
 
 Nevertheless, I held to my purpose, steering S.S. vv. as nearly 
 as the leads would admit, and looking constantly for the tliinning 
 out of the pack that hangs around the western water. 
 
 Although the low diet and exposure to wet had again reduced 
 our party, there was no apparent relaxation of energy ; and it was 
 not until some days later that I found their strength seriously 
 giving way. 
 
 It is a little curious that the effect of a short allowance of food Effect of a 
 does not show itself in hunger. The first symptom is a loss of f'"""* *'" 
 
 <= . . lowance 
 
 power, often so imperceptibly brought on that it becomes evident of food, 
 only by an accident. I well remember our look of blank amaze- 
 ment as, one day, the order being given to haul the Hope over a 
 tongue of ice, we found that she would not budge. At first I 
 thought it was owing to the wetness of ths snow-covered surface 
 in which her runners were ; but, as there was a heavy gale blow- 
 ing outside, and I was extremely anxious to get her on to a larger 
 floe to prevent being drifted off, I lightened her cargo and set both 
 crews upon her. In the land of promise off Crimson Cliffs, such 
 a force would have trundled her like a wheelbarrow : we could 
 almost have borne her upon our backs. Now, with incessant 
 labour and standing-hauls, she moved at a snail's pace. 
 
 The Faith was left behind, and barely escaped destniction. The Tiie Fatth 
 outside pressure cleft the floe asunder, and we saw our best boat, „^,y 
 with all our stores, drifting rapidly away from us. Tlie sight pro- 
 duced an almost hysterical impression upon our party. Two days 
 
436 
 
 THE "FAITH SECURED. 
 
 I« 
 
 
 enAPTKn of want of bread, I am sure, would have destroyed us ; and we had 
 "' now left us but eight pounds of shot in all. To launch the Hope 
 again, and rescue her comrade or share her fortunes, would have 
 been the instinct of other circumstances ; but it was out of the 
 question now. Happily, before we had time to ponder our loss, a 
 flat cake of ice eddied round near the floe we were upon ; M'Gary 
 and myself sprang to it at the moment, and succeeded in floating 
 it across the chasm in time to secure her. The rest of the crew 
 rejoined her by only scrambling over the '-r ashed ice as we brouglit 
 her in at the hummock-lines. ^--" 
 
 \ • 
 
theskal! the seal! 
 
 437 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 TUB SEAL : THE seal:— THE FESTIVAIi — TERKA PIRMA— PAtJL ZAOHARIAS 
 — THE PRAULEIN PLAISCHER — THE NEWS — AT THE SETTLEMENTS — THE 
 WELCOME. 
 
 Things grew worse and worse with us : the old difficulty of chapter 
 breatliing came back again, and our feet swelled to such an extent •^^'- 
 that we were obliged to cut open our canvas boots. But the iiinesa and 
 symptom which gave me most uneasiness was our inability td sleep. * ""^ "'"'■ 
 A form of low fever which hung by us when at work had been 
 kept down by the thoroughness of our daily rest ; all my hopes of 
 escape were in the refreshing influences of the halt. 
 
 It must be remembered that we were now in the open bay, in 
 the full line of the great ice-dvift to the Atlantic, and in boats so 
 frail and unseaworthy as to require constant baling to keep them 
 afloat. 
 
 It was at this crisis of our fortunes that we saw a large seal a scni in 
 floating — as is the custom of these animals — on a small patch of *'^*'*" 
 ice, and seemingly asleep. It was an ussuk, and so large that I 
 at first mistook it for a walrus. Signal was made for the Hope to 
 follow astern, and, trembling with anxiety, v/e prepared to crawl ' 
 down upon him. 
 
 Petersen, with the large English rifle, was stationed in -the bow, 
 and stockings were drawn over the osts as mufflers. As we 
 ueared the animal, our excitement became so intense that the men intense 
 could hardly keep stroke. I had a set of signals for such occa- ment. 
 sions, which spared us the noise of the voice ; and when about three 
 hundred yards ofi^, the oars were taken in, and Ave moved on in 
 deep silence Avith a single scull astern. 
 
 He was not asleep, for he reared his head when we were almost 
 within rifle-shot ; and to this day I can remember the hard, care- 
 worn, almost despairing expression of the men's thin faces as they Life at 
 saw him move : their lives depended on his capture. 
 
 I depressed my hand nervously, as a signal for Petersen to fire. 
 M'Gary hung upon his oar, and the boat, slowly but noiselessly 
 
 stake. 
 
438 
 
 THE FESTIVAL. 
 
 ^l 
 
 f 
 
 Ik 
 
 CHAPTER 
 LXI. 
 
 Paralysed 
 by anxiety. 
 
 Seizing 
 till prize. 
 
 Tlie feast. 
 
 The poor 
 
 ilogs 
 
 (aved. 
 
 sagging ahead, seemed to me without certain range. Lookini; at 
 Petersen, I saw that the poor fellow was paralyzed by lii.s anxiety, 
 trying vainly to obtain a rest for his gun against the cut-water of 
 the boat. The seal rose on his four-flippers, gazed at us for a 
 moment with frightened curiosity, and coiled himself for a plunf,'e. 
 At that instant, simultaneously with the crack of our rifle, he re- 
 laxed his long length on the ice, and, at the very brink of the 
 water, liis head fell helpless to one side. 
 
 I would have ordered anothe" shot, but no discipline could have 
 controlled the men. With a wild yell, each vociferating according 
 to his own impulse, they urged both boats upon tlie floes. A 
 crowd of hands seized the seal and bore him up to safer ice. The 
 men seemed half crazy ; I had not realized how much we were re- 
 duced by absolute famine. They ran over the floe, crying and 
 laughing, and brandishing their knives. It was not five minutes 
 before every man was sucking his bloody fingers or mouthing long 
 strips of raw blubber. 
 
 Not an ounce of this seal was lost. The intestines found their 
 way into the soup-kettles without any observance of the prelimin- 
 ary home-processes. The cartilaginous parts of the fore-flippers were 
 cut off in the melee, and passed round to be chewed upon ; and 
 even the liver, warm and raw as it was, bade fair to be eaten before 
 it had seen the pot. That night, on the large halting-floe, to 
 which, in contempt of the dangers of drifting, we happy men had 
 hauled our boats, two entire planks of the Red Uric were devoted 
 to a grand cooking-fire, and we enjoyed a rare and savage feast. 
 
 This was our last experience of the disagreeable effects of 
 hunger. In the words of George Stephenson, " The charm m as 
 broken, and the dogs were safe." The dogs I have said little 
 about, for none of us liked to think of them. The poor creatures, 
 Toodla and Whitey, had been taken with us as last resources 
 against starvation. They were, as M'Gary worded it, " meat on 
 the hoof," and " able to carry their own fat over the floes." Once, 
 near Weary Man's Rest, I had been on the point of killing them ; 
 but they had been the leaders of our winter's team, and we could 
 not bear the sacrifice. 
 
 I need not detail our journey any further. Within a day or two 
 we shot another seal, and from that time forward had a full sup- 
 ply of food. 
 
TERRA FIRMA. 
 
 439 
 
 On the 1 st of August we sighted the Devil's Thumb, and were 
 again among the familiar localities of the whalers' battling-ground. 
 The bay was quite open, and we had been making easting for two 
 days before. We were soon among the Duck Islands, and, passing 
 to the south of Cape Shackleton, prepared to land. 
 
 " Terra firma ! Terra firma ! " How very pleasant it was to look 
 upon, and with what a tingle of excited thankfulness we drew near 
 it ! A little time to seek a cove among the wrinkled liilis, a little 
 time to exchange congratulations, and then our battered boats 
 were hauled high and dry upon the rocks, and our party, with 
 hearts full of our deliverance, lay down to rest. 
 
 And now, with the apparent certainty of reaching our homes, 
 came that ners'Ous apprehension which follows upon hope lolig de- 
 ferred. I could not trust myself to take the outside passage, but 
 timidly sought the quiet-water channels running deep into the 
 archipelago whicii forms a sort of labyrinth along the coast. 
 
 Thus it was that at one of our sleeping-halts upon the rocks — for 
 we still adliered to the old routine — Petersen awoke me with a 
 .story. He had just seen and recognised a native, who, in his frail 
 kayak, was evidently seeking eider-down among the islands. The 
 man had once been an inmate of his family. " Paul Zacharias, 
 don't you know me 1 I'm Curl Petersen !" " No," said the man; 
 " his wife says he's dead ;" and, with a stolid expression of wonder, 
 he stared for a moment at the long beard that loomed at liim 
 through the fog, and paddled away with all the energy of fright. 
 
 Two days after this, a mist had settled down upon the islands 
 which embayed us, and when it lifted we found ourselves rowing, 
 in lazy time, under the shadow of Karkamoot. Just then a fami- 
 liar sound came to us over the water. We had often listened to 
 the screeching of the gulls or the bark of the fox, and mistaken it 
 for the " Huk" of the Esquimaux ; but this had about it an inflec- 
 tion not to be mistaken, for it died away in the familar cadence of 
 a " halloo." 
 
 "Listen, Petersen! oars, men!" "What is if?" — and he 
 listened quietly at first, and then, trembling, said, in a half whisper, 
 " Dannemarkers ! " ' 
 
 I remember this, the first tone of Christian voice which had 
 greeted our return to the world. How we all stood up and peered 
 into the distant nooks ; and how the cry came to us again, just as 
 
 I'nul 
 Zacliaiias, 
 
 A familiar 
 sound. 
 
 A JoyftU 
 greeting 
 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 
 m: 1 , 1 
 
 LXI. 
 
 K>| ' 
 
 The Duck 
 
 B^ 
 
 Islands. 
 
 On " Tcna 
 
 Bfi ' 
 
 flrmu." 
 
 m ' '!" 
 
 
 hIi 
 
 
 ^Kk 
 
 
 ^:i ■ m- 
 
440 
 
 THE FRAULEIN FLAISCHER. 
 
 \ 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 iP' 
 
 siKlit. 
 
 Carlie 
 Mossyn 
 
 DiiAPTKR having seen nothing, we were doubting whether the whole was 
 
 1 not a dream ; and then how, with long sweeps, the white asli 
 
 cracking under the spring of the rowers, we stood for the cape that 
 the sound proceeded from, and how nervously we scanned the 
 green spots which our experience, grown now into. instinct, told us 
 would be the likely camping-ground of wayfarers. 
 A vMsei in By-and-by — for we must have been pulling a good half hour— - 
 the single mast of a small shallop showed itself ; and Petersen, who 
 had been very quiet and grave, burst out into an incoherent fit of 
 crying, only relieved by broken exclamations of mingled E'anish 
 and English. " 'Tis the Upernavik oil-boat ! The Fraulein Flais- 
 cher ! Carlie Mossyn, the assistant cooper, must be on his rciad to 
 Kingatok for blubber. The Mariane (the one annual ship) has 
 come, and Carlie Mossyn — " and here he did it all over again, 
 gulping down Ids words and wringing his hands. 
 
 It was Carlie Mossyn, sure enough. The quiet routiric of a 
 Danish settlement is the same year after year, and Petersen had 
 hit upon the exact state of things. The Mariane was at Proven, 
 and Carlie Mossyn had come up in the Fraulein Flaischer to get 
 the year's supply of blubber from Kingatok. 
 
 Here we first got our cloudy vagut idea of what had passed in 
 the big world during our absence. The friction of its fierce rota- 
 tion had not much disturbed this little outpost of civilization, and 
 we thought it a sort of blunder as he told us that France and Eng- 
 land were leagued with the Mussulman against the Greek Church. 
 He was a good Lutheran, this assistant cooper, and all ne\\s with 
 him had a theological complexion. 
 
 " What of America, eh, Petersen 1" — and we aU looked, Awaiting 
 for him to interpret the answer. 
 
 " America 1 " said Carlie ; " we don't know much of that country 
 here, for they have no whalers on the coast ; but a steamer and a 
 barque passed up a fortnight ago, and have gone out into the ice 
 to seek your party." 
 
 How gently all the lore of this man oozed out of him ! he seenied 
 an oracle, as, with hot-tingling fingers pressed against the gunwale 
 of the boat, we listened to his words. " Sebastopol ain't tiken." 
 W here and what was Sebastopol 1 
 
 But " Sir John Franklin ? " There we were at home again,— 
 our own delusive little speciality rose uppermost. Franklin's 
 
 Tlie first 
 Dews. 
 
i! 
 
 SAFE ON SHORE AT LAST. 
 
 4-n 
 
 party, or traces of the dead which represented it, had been found chaptkr 
 nearly a thousand miles to the south of where we had been search- ''^'" 
 ing for them. He knew it ; for the priest {Pastor Kraag) had a 
 German newspaper which told all about it. And so we " out oars " 
 pgain, and rowed into the fog.i 
 
 .inother sleeping-halt has passed, and we have all washed clean Prcparins 
 at the fresh-water basins and furbished up our ragged furs and *" '*"''■ 
 woollens. Kasarsoak, the snow top of Sanderson's Hope, shows 
 itself above the mists, and we hear the yelling of the dogs. Peter- 
 sen had been foreman of the settlement, and he calls my attention, 
 with a sort of pride, to the tolling of the workmen's bell. It is 
 six o'clock. We are nearing the end of our trials. Can it be u 
 dream 1 — 
 
 We hugged the land by the big harbour, turned the corner by The bont!< 
 the old brew-house, and in the midst of a crowd ui children, '"'"'^'i ^^ 
 hauled our boats for the last time upon the rocks. 
 
 For eighty-four days we had lived in the open air. Our habits 
 were hard and weather-worn. We could not remain within the 
 four walls of a house without a distressing sense of suffocation. 
 But we drank coffee that night before many a hospitable threshold, 
 and listened again and again to the hymn of welcome, which, sung a iiymn o( 
 by many voices, greeted our deliverance. 
 
 welcome. 
 
 :'i' Iff 
 
 
 Vf 
 
 li 
 
 igUl; 
 
 OKEKN-LAKDKR 8 OANCB. 
 
442 
 
 UPERNAVIK. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 'I i 
 
 Bellot. 
 
 Needful 
 rest. 
 
 coHCLU- "We received all manner of kindness from the Danes of Upemavik. 
 
 SION rwm 
 
 ." The residents of this distant settlement are dej^endent for their 
 
 !^'i".^!f "^ supj)lies on the annual trading-ship of the colonies, and they of 
 course could not minister to our many necessities without niucli 
 personal inconvenience. But they fitted up a loft for our recep- 
 tion, and shared their stores •with, us in liberal Christian charity. 
 
 They gave us many details of the expeditions in search of Sir 
 John Franklin, and added the painful news that my gallant friend 
 and comrade, Bellot, had perished in a second crusade to save him. 
 We knew each other by many common sympathies : I had divided 
 with liim the hazards of mutual rescue among the ice-fields ; and 
 his last letter to me, just before I left New York, promised me 
 the hope that we were to meet again in Baffin's Bay, and tliat he 
 would unite himself with our party as a volunteer. The French 
 service never lost a more chivalrous spirit. 
 
 The Danish vessel was not ready for her homeward journey till 
 the 4th of September ; but the interval was well spent in regaining 
 health and gradually accustoming ourselves to in-door life and 
 habits. It is a fact, which the physiologist will not find it diffi- 
 cult to reconcile with established theories, that we were all more 
 prostrated by the repose and comfort of our new condition than 
 we had been by nearly three mouths of constant exposure and 
 effort. 
 
 On the 6th I left Upemavik, with all our party, in the Marianc, 
 a stanch but antiquated Uttle barque, under the command of Cap- 
 tain Ammondson, a fine representative of the true-hearted and 
 skilful seamen of his nation, who promised to drop us at the 
 Shetland Islands. Our little boat, the Faith, wliich was regarded 
 by all of us as a precious relic, took passage along with us. Ex- 
 cept the furs on our backs, and the documents thr.i recorded our 
 labours and our trials, it was all we brought back of the Advance 
 and her fortunes. 
 
 On the 11th we arrived at Godhavn, the inspectorate of North 
 
 Leave 
 Uper- 
 
 nuvik. 
 
WELCOMED BACK. 
 
 443 
 
 Greenland, and had a characteristic wtlcoine from my excellent conclc- 
 friend, Mr. Olrik. The Mariane had stopped only to discharge a ^'"'*' 
 few stores and receive her papers of clearance ; but her departure GoJiiavn. 
 was held back to the latest moment, in h( pes of receiving news of 
 Captain. Ilartstcne's squadron, which had not been heard of since 
 the 21st of July. 
 
 We were upon the eve of setting out, however, when the look- a steamer 
 out man at the hill-top announced a steamer in the distance. It '" ''*^'"" 
 ilrew near, with a barque in tow, and we soon recognised the stars 
 and stripes of our own country. The Faith was lowered for the 
 last time into the water, and the little flag which had floated so 
 near the poles of both hemispheres opened once more to the breeze. 
 With Brooks at the tiller and Mr. Oliik at my side, followed by 
 all the boats of the settlement, we went out to meet them. 
 
 Not even after the death of the usuk did our men lay to their uowinp to 
 oars more heartily. We neared the squadron and the gallant men ^'"' 
 that had come out to seek us ; we could see the scars which their 
 own ice-battles had impressed on the vessels ; we knew the gold 
 lace of the officers' cap-bands, and discerned the groups who, glass 
 in hand, were evidently regarding us. 
 
 Presently we were alongside. An officer, whom I shall ever 
 remember as a cherished friend, Captain Hartstene, hailed a little 
 man in a ragged flannel shirt, "Is that Dr. Kanel" and with the 
 " Yes !" that followed, the rigging was manned by our countrymen, cheers of 
 and cheers welcomed us back to the social world of love which welcome, 
 they represented. 
 
 THE FAITH, 
 
 Now at the store of Memrs. Guilds & Peterson, 124 Arch Street. Philadelphia. 
 
 :■ ! 
 
 !l.. t! 
 
 
 rate of North 
 
ill 
 
 i- 1 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Instructions of the Secretary of the Navy to Passed Assistant 
 Surgeon Kane. 
 
 Navi Dkpartmekt, NoTcinbcr 27, 185i 
 
 Sir, — Lady Franklin having urged you to undertake a search for her husband, 
 Sir John Franklin, and his companions, and a vessel, the Advance, having been 
 placed at your disposition by Mr. Grinnell, you are hereby assigned to sj)ecial 
 duty for the purpose of conducting an overland journey from the upper waters 
 of Baffin's Bay to the shores of the Polar Seas. 
 
 Relying upon your zeal and discretion, the Department send you forth upon .an 
 undertaking which will be attended with great peril and exposure. Trusting 
 that you will be sustained by the laudable objecu in view, and wishing you success 
 and a safe return to your friends, I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 Passed Assistant Surgeon £. K. Kanb, 
 United States Navy, riilUdelplila. 
 
 John F. KENNEDr. 
 
 i 
 
 i: ■ (■ 
 
 ■f-'H 
 
 'A- 
 
 Navt nKPARTMKNT, February, 9, 1853. 
 
 Sir, — In connection with the special duty assigned to you by the order of this 
 Department bearing date November 27, 1852, your attention is invited to objects 
 of scientific inquiry ; particularly to such as relate to the existence of an open 
 Polar Sea, terrestrial magnetism, general meteorology, and subjects of importance 
 in connection with natural history. 
 
 You will transmit to the Department, when opportunities offer, reports of 
 your progress and the results of your search, and, on your return to the United 
 States, a full and detailed narrative of the incidents and discoveries of your ex- 
 ploration by land and sea, as matters of the scientific observations herein referred 
 to. 
 
 Repeating my best wishes for your success, I am, very respectfully, &c. 
 
 JouN P. Kenhedt. 
 Passed Assistant Surgeon E. K. Kami, 
 United States Mavy, New York. 
 
446 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Vtrlitninary Report of Pulsed Aiaistant Surijeon Kane to tJi^ Secrdar>j 
 
 of t fie Navy. 
 
 1' r' 
 
 :(;"l.: 
 
 LH 
 
 li' 
 
 Hon. Jamks C. DonniN, ffceretary of the A'nry. 
 
 Rib, — The expedition towhicii I wan asglKiied by orders from the Deparlmpiit, 
 under (Into tlie 27t,h of Noveinlier, 1852, left New York in tlie brig Adrauce, 
 one hundred and twenty trnns burden, on tlie 30th of May following. Our com- 
 pany consi.<t(.d of eighteen persons in all ; of whom ten were regularly attacl.cd 
 to the naval service, the others being engaged by pri»'ato liberality. 
 
 Our de.stination was to the highest penetrable point of Bafiin's Hay, from which, 
 according to instructions from the Department, we were to attempt a search for 
 the missing vessels of Sir John Franklin. This regioti was then entirely unex- 
 plored, and it was selected on that account. 
 
 The copies which I annex of my letters heretofore addressed to the Department 
 indicate my ctmrse up to the time of leaving Upernavik, in hitit . •■ "^'-i" 47' N. 
 It will be seen from them that I engageil at tlmt puint an Esquimtu hunter ami 
 an interpreter, deeming their aid essential to the success of our expedition. I had 
 also purchased supplies of fresh meat and fish, which were carefully dried and 
 set aside to meet emergencies. 
 
 On reaching Melville Hay I found the shore ices so decayed that I did not 
 deem it advisable to attem])t the usual pas.sane along the fast floes of the land, 
 but stood directly to the northward and westward, as indicated by my log, until 
 I met the Middle Pack. Here wo headed nearly direct for Cape York, and aut- 
 ceeded in crossing the bay without injury in ten days after first encountering tiie 
 ice. On the 7th of August we reached the headland of Sir Thomas Smith's 
 Sound, and passed the highest point attained by our predecessor, Captain 
 luglefield, R.N. 
 
 So far our observations accorded completely with the experience of this gallant 
 officer in the summer of 1852. A fresh breeze, with a swell setting in from tlie 
 southward and westward; marks upon the rocks indicating regular tides; no ice 
 visible from aloft, and all the signs of continuous open water. 
 
 As we advanced, however, a belt of heavy stream ice was seen, — an evident 
 precursor of drift ; and a little afterward it became evident that the chanwl to 
 the northward was obstructed by a drifting pack. 
 
 We were still too far to the south to carry out the views I had formed of our 
 purposed search, and it became my duty, therefore, to attempt the penetration 
 of this ice. Before doing this, I selected an appropriate inlet for a provision- 
 depOt, and buried there a supply of beef, pork, and bread ; at the same place ve 
 deposited our Francis's life-boat, covering it carefully with wet sand, and over- 
 laying the frozen mass with stones and moss. We afterward found that the 
 Esquimaux had hunted around this inlet ; but the cache, which we had thus 
 secured as our own resort in case of emergency, escaped detection. 
 
 No one having yet visited this coast, I landed on the most prominent western 
 headland of a group of small islands, — the Littleton islands of Inglefield,— and 
 erected there a flagstaflF and beacon; near this beacon, according to preconcertoJ 
 arrangement, wo deposited official despatches and our private letters of farewell. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 447 
 
 ^i' 
 
 [le Department 
 
 My firtt (lediRn in «ntflrinf the pnck was to fore* n pntnatje to the north ; but, 
 ofit-r reiichiiiK latitmlt' 78° 45' N., wo fnuiid thf ice liiiUKinn the American shore, 
 Aiiil extviuiinK in adril'ting manH ,;oinplftely ncroHS tho chnniivi. ThiH ico k"^' 
 dually bore down upon us, and we were forced to wek tJie coniimratively open 
 gpncuH of tiie Greonifiiid coast. Still, we Hhould have inevitaldy heen beset and 
 swept to the south, but for a small landlocked bay under wliotte cliffs we founil a 
 temporary asylum. We named it Kefu);e Inlet : it caiTies fifty fathoms of water 
 within a biscuit-toss of its northern headland, and, but for a glacier which 
 oecufiies its inner curve, would prove an eligible winter harbour. 
 
 We were detained in this lielpiu.ss situation three valuable days, tlie pack out,, 
 side hardly admitliiif; tlie passage of a boat, liut, on tho 13th, fearing lest the 
 rapidly ailvancing cold might prevent our penetrating further, we waiped out 
 into tho drift, and fastened to a grounded berg. 
 
 That the Department ioay oorrec^tly apprehend our subsequent movements, it 
 is necessary to descril)e some features peouliar to our podtion. Tlie coast 
 trended to the N.N.K. It was metamorphic in structure, rising in ab(iiiit pre- 
 cipitous cliffs of basaltic greenstone from eight hundred to twelve huiulit'd feet 
 ill jierpendicular height. The shore at the base of this wall was invested by a 
 permanent belt of ice, measuring from three ' i forty yards in width, with a mean 
 summer thickness of eighteen feet. Tho ice clung to the rocks with ejctreme 
 tenacity; and, unlike similar formations to the south, it had resisted the tiiawini; 
 influences of summer. The tidal carronts had worn its seaward face into a 
 gnarled mural escarpment, against whioh the floea broke with splendid disjilaya 
 of force; but it still jiniserved an upper surface comparatively level, and ada))ted 
 as a sort of higtiway for further travel. The drifting ice or pack outside of it 
 was utterly impenetrable; many bergs recently discharged were driving back- 
 ward and forward with the tides; and thus, pressing U|)0K the ice of the floes, 
 had raised up hills from aixty to seventy feet high. The mean rise and fall of 
 tlie tide was twelve feet, and its rate of motion two and a half knots an hour. 
 
 In this state of things, having no alternative but either to advance or to dis- 
 continue the search, I determined to take advantage of a small interspace which 
 occurred at certain stages of the tide between the main pack and the coast, and, 
 if possible, press through it. I was confirmed in this purpose by my knowledge 
 of the extreme strength of the Advance, and my confidence in the spirit and 
 fidelity of my comrades. The effort occupied us until the 1st of September. It 
 was attended by the usual dangers of ice penetration. We were on our beam 
 ends whenever the receding tides left us in deficient soundings ; and on two of 
 such occasions it was impossible to secure our stoves so as to prevent the brig 
 from taking fire. We reached latitude 78° 43' N. on the 29th of August, having 
 'ost a part of our starboard bulwarks, a quarter boat, our jib-boom, our best 
 lowe anchor, and about six hundred fathoms of hawser ; but with our brig in 
 all essentials uninjured. 
 
 We were now retarded by the rapid advance of winter : the young ice w.is 
 forming with such rapidity that it became evident that we must soon be frozen 
 in. At this juncture my officers addressed to me written opinions in favour of a 
 return to a more southern harbour ; but, as such a step would have cost us our 
 dearly purchased progress and removed us from the field of our intended obser- 
 vations, I could not accede to their views. I determined, therefore, to start on 
 foot with a party of obsei-vation, to seek a spot which might be eligible as a 
 starting point for our future travel, and, if such a one were found, to enter at 
 once upon the full duties of search. 
 
 : 
 
 :tfi: 
 
418 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 This step determined on, the command of the brig was committed to Mr. 
 Ohlsen, and I started on the 29th of August with a detachment, carrying a whale 
 boat and sledge. The ice soon checked the passage of our boat ; but I left her 
 and proceeded with a small sledge along the ledge of ice which, under the name 
 of " ice-foot," I have before described as clinging to the shore. 
 
 We were obliged, of course, to follow all the indentations of the coast, and our 
 way was often completely obstructed by the discharge of ro. ks from the adjacent 
 cliffs. In crossing a glacier we came near losing our party, and were finally com- 
 pelled to abandon the sledge and continue our journey on foot. We succeeded, 
 however, in completing our work, and reached a projecting cape, from which, at 
 an elevation of eleven hundred feet, I commanded a prospect of the ice to the 
 north and west as high as latitude 80° N. A black ridge running nearly due 
 north, which we found afterward to be a glacier, terminated our view along the 
 Greenland coast to the eastward. Numerous icebergs were crowded in masses 
 throughout the axis of the channel ; and, as far as our vision extended, the entire 
 surface was a frozen sea. The island named Louis Napoleon on the charts of 
 Captain Inglefield does not exist. The resemblance of ice to land will readily ex • 
 plain the misapprehension. 
 
 The result of this journey, although not cheering, comfirmed me in my inten- 
 tion of wintering in the actual position of the brig ; and I proceeded, immediately 
 on our return, to organize parties for the fall, with a view to the establishment 
 of provision dep3ts to facilitate the further researches of the spring. In selecting 
 sites for these and the attendant travel, our parties passed over more than eight 
 hundred miles. The coast of Greenland was traced one hundred and twenty-tive 
 miles to the north and east, and three caches were established at favourable 
 points. The largest of these (No. III. of chart) contained eight hundred pounds 
 of peramican; it was located upon an island in latitude 79° 12' 6" N., longitude 
 66° 25' W., by Messrs. M'Qary and Bonsall. These operations were continued 
 until the 20th of November, when the darkness arrested them. 
 
 Our brig had been frozen in since the 10th of September. We had selected a 
 harbour near a group of rocky islets in the south-eastern curve of tiie bay, where 
 we could establish our observatory, and had facilities for procuring water and for 
 daily exercise. We were secure, too, against probable disturbance during the 
 winter, and were sufficiently within the tidal influences to give us a hope of 
 liberation in the spring. 
 
 As we were about to winter higher north than any previous expedition, ard, 
 besides a probable excess of cold, were about to experience a longer deprivation 
 of solar light, the arrangements for the interior were studied carefully. 
 
 The deck was housed in with boards and calked with oakum. A system of 
 warmth and ventilation was established : our permanent lamps were ased with 
 chimneys, to prevent the accumulation of smoke; cooking, ice-raelti!.,;, and wash- 
 ing arrangements were minutely cared for ; the dogs were kennelled in squads, 
 and they were allowed the alternate use of snow houses and of the brig, as their 
 condition might require. Our domestic system was organized with the most 
 exact attention to cleanliness, exercise, recreation, and withal to lixeu routine. 
 
 During the winter which followed, the sun was one hundred and twenty days 
 below the horizon ; and owing to a range of hills toward our southern meridian, 
 the maximum darkness was not relieved by apparent twilight even at uooit- 
 day. 
 
 The atmospheric temperatures were lower than any that had been recorded by 
 others before us. We had adopted every precaution to secure accuracy in these 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 449 
 
 observations, and the indications of our nuraeroua thermometers — alcohollf, 
 ethereal, and mercurial — were registered hourly. 
 
 From them it appears that the mean annual temperature of Rensselaer Har- 
 bour, as we named our winter home va lower than that of Melville Island, as 
 recorded by Parry, by two degrees. In certain sheltered jiositions, the process 
 of freezing was uiiintermitted for any consecutive twenty-four hours throughout 
 the year. 
 
 The lowest temperature was observed in February, when the mean of eight 
 instruments indicated minus 70° Fahrenheit. Chloroform froze; the essential 
 oils of sassafias, juniper, cubebs, and winter green, were resolved into mixed 
 .■olid and liquid; and on the morning of February 24 we witnessed cloric ehther 
 congealed for the first time by a natural temperature. 
 
 In the early part of this winter I erected an astronomical observatory, and 
 mounted our "transit " and theodolite upon pedestals of stone cemented by ice. 
 Ureat care was taken by Mr. Sontag, the astronomer to the expedition, iu deter- 
 mining our geographical position. The results for the determination of longitude, 
 as based upon moon culminations, are in every respect satisfactory ; they are 
 corroborated by occultations of planets and the late solar eclipse of May ]855. 
 An occultation of Saturn simultaneously observed by Mr. Sontag and myself, at 
 temperatures of minus 60" and 53°, dififered but two seconds. This is the lowest 
 temperature at which such an observation has ever been taken. 
 
 The position of our observatory may be stated as iu latitude 78° 37' N., longi- 
 tude 70° 40* 6" W. 
 
 A room artificially heated was attached to the ob.servatory as a magnetic station. 
 The observations were both absolute and relative, and were sustained by a corps 
 of volunteers among the officers. 
 
 A strong tendency to tonic spasm, probably induced by the lengthened cold and 
 darkness, was the chief trial of our party. General disease was readily controlled 
 by a careful hygiene ; and the unremitting and intelligent exertions of Dr. I. I. 
 Hayes, the surgeon of the expedition, kept the scurvy iu complete subjugation. 
 
 But this anomalous form of spasmodic disease was encountered with difficulty. 
 It extended to our dogs, assuming the aspect of tetanus : in spite of every effort, 
 no less than fifiy-seveu perished, many of tiiem with symptoms not unlike those 
 of hydrophobia. 
 
 The loss of these animals interfered seriously with my original scheme of search. 
 They had been collected at various points of the coast of Greenland, and had been 
 trained for their office with extreme c^re and labour. I had contemplated em- 
 ploying them in following the coast, and with this view had devoted the labours 
 of the fall to the cganizaticn of a chain of depdts. Now, however, a new system 
 of operations was to be established, with different appliances. New sledges were 
 to be built, and cooking-utensils and field-equijiments provided, suited to larger 
 parties and of more portable character. The latter period of darkness was en- 
 tirely occupied with these new preyiarations. 
 
 Our party was unhappily too small for an extended system of field-operations 
 by unassisted human labour ; and the only remaining hope of continuing the 
 search was to be found in a passage through or over the great ice -fields to the 
 north, — an effort the success of which was rendered very doubtful by the crowded 
 bergs and distorted ice of this frozen area. With this object I organized a party 
 of our strongest men (all volunteers) under my personal charge, and sent an ad- 
 vanced corps under Mr. Brookg, the energetic first officer of the expedition, t« 
 place a relief-cirgo of provisions at ten days' journey from the brig. 
 
 2 F 
 
 f.' : 
 
 I i 
 
450 APPENDIX. 
 
 On the 27th of March, the ninth day of their absence, a heavy gale from the 
 north-north-east broke upon this party. The thermometer fell to 57° below zero; 
 and the ice-ridges (hummock -lines) were so obstructed by snow-drift that they 
 could not deposit their stores beyond fifty miles from the brig. Four of the most 
 valuable members of the party, Messrs. Brooks and Wilson, Jefferson Baker, and 
 Pfiter Schubert, were frozen at the extremities; and, a single man being left to 
 attend them, the others returned to the brig in a state of extreme exhaustion. 
 The name of the brave fellow who remained with his comrades was Thomas 
 Hickey, an Irisliman. 
 
 The main company under my own command started at once for the floes; with 
 but little hope of rescuing our comrades; Mr. Ohlsen, one of the returned party, 
 volunteering to guide us. He was sewed np in furs, and strapped upon a small 
 sledge, which we dragged after us; but symptoms of mentjil disturbance rendered 
 his heroism unavailing, and, but for striking the trail of the party, we must all 
 of us have perished. 
 
 On this occasion I was deeply touched by the confidence of the disabled men 
 in the certainty of their relief. Although they were nearly concealed by snow- 
 drift, and dependent for warmth upon their sleeping-bags, they had patiently 
 and hopefully awaited our arrival. The discovery of a small canvas tent in the 
 midst of these immense plains of ice I must remember as providential. 
 
 I mention gratefully the endurance and self-denial of my comrades upon this 
 fearful march. They had been eighty-one out of eighty-four hours without sleep, 
 and had halted for the purpose of melting ice for drink. The tendency to sleep 
 Could only be overcome by mechanical violence ; and when at last we got back to 
 the brig, still dragging the wounded men instinctively behind us, there was not 
 one whose mind was found to be unimpaired. 
 
 This disastrous effort cost us two valuable lives, Jefferson Baker and Petor 
 Schubert. Tho first of these was a native of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, a 
 trustworthy and faithful follower; he died of locked-jaw, thirty-six hours after 
 his return to the brig. The other was cook to the expedition, and a volunteer 
 upon the dutj which caused his death. Our little party had throughout, from 
 the nature of the service, been in close relations with one another, and these men 
 are remembered by us all with sympathy and respect. 
 
 As soon after tliis as the health of our company could justify, I set out with 
 my original party to renew the attempt from a higher point on the Greenland coast, 
 carrying with me an India-rubber boat. This journey was undertaken in the 
 latter part of April, and continued into May, It was f >llowed by others, whicli 
 extended the search, almost without intermission, until the 10th of July. These 
 journeys may be thu.^ summed up : — 
 
 March Mr. Brooks and. Dr. Kane. 
 
 April, May Dr. Kane, Messrs. M' Gary and Bonsall. 
 
 June Dr. Hayes and William Godfrey. 
 
 June, July William Morton, and Haus Heindrick, our 
 
 native hunter. 
 
 The arrival of the Esquimaux in April enabled us to add four dogs to the three 
 that remained of our original stock, and thus to equip a slender team. Tho 
 value of these animals for Arctic ice-travel can hardly be overestimated. The 
 earlier journeys of March, April, and May, proved incomparably more arduous 
 and exposing than those performed with dogs, while their results were entirely 
 disproportionate to thw lalaour they cost us. It was invariably the case timt 
 
7 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 451 
 
 ! 
 
 ■,m 
 
 the entire party, on its return from the field, passed at once upon the sick- 
 iint. 
 
 Out of nc -ly three thousand miles of travel, no less than eleven hundred were 
 made by the dog-sleJge; and during the fall, winter, and spring of the ensuing 
 year (1854-55) I made, in person, no less than fourteen hundred miles with a 
 single team. 
 
 Setting out from our winter quarters, three expeditions effeoted the jiassage of 
 the bay:— 1. To the north, with Messrs. M'Giry and L'onsall, along the base of 
 » great glacier which issued from the coast of 'Jreenland in latitude 79° IS*. A 
 copy of this glacier, as surveyed by me in 1855, accompanies this report. 2. To 
 the south-west, by Dr. Hayes and William Godfrey. 3. To the north-west, and 
 along the shores of a new channel, by \V. Morton and our Esquimaux hunter, 
 Hans. The original reports of these journeys, with my own observations, are 
 now under seal and subject to the orders of the Department. I give only a sum- 
 mary of results, referring for particulars to the track chart projected on the spot 
 from the original field-notes, which I have the honour to tK'nsniit ^ith this re- 
 port. 
 
 Greenland reaches its furthest wescern point at Cape Alexander, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of latitude 78° 10' N. and after passing longitude 70° W. of Greenwich, 
 trends nearly due east and west, (E. 20° N.) This northern face of Greenland 
 is broken by two large bays, at the base of which are numerous granitoid islands, 
 which, as you approach longitude 65° W., assume the form of an archipelago. 
 Fifteen islands were surveyed and located here. The aspect of the coast is im- 
 posing, abutting upon the water-line in headlands from eight hundred to fourteen 
 hundred feet high, and one range of precipice presenting an unbroken wall of 
 forty-five miles in length. Its geological structure is of the older red sandstones 
 and Silurian limestones, overlying a primary basis of massive syenites. The sand- 
 stones to the suuth of 78° seem to form the floor of the bay. They are in scries, 
 with intercalated greenstones and other ejected plutonic rocks, and form the chief 
 girders of the coast. Upon this and colhiteral subjects I shall, with your per- 
 mission, address a special report to the Department. 
 
 The further progress of our parties towards tlie Atlantic was arrested by a 
 great glacier, which issued in latitude 79° 12' N., longitude 64° 20' \V., and ran 
 directly north. This forms an insuperable barrier to exploration in this direc- 
 tion: it is continuous with the mer de glace of interior Greenland, and is the 
 largest true glacier known to exist. Its great mass adapts itself to the configu- 
 ration of the basis-country whicli it overlies. Its escarpment abutting upon tlie 
 water presents a perpeudiculai' face varying from three to five hundred feet in 
 height. 
 
 The lines of crevasse and fracture are on an unexampled scale of interest. The 
 bergs, which are ejected in lines, arrange themselves in a sort of escalade, which 
 confers a character of great sublimity upon the landscape. 
 
 It was followed along its base, and traced into a new and northern land, trend- 
 ing far to the west. This land I have named Washinnton. The large bay which 
 separates it from the coast of Greenland and the glacier I have described bears 
 on my chart the name of our liberal countryman, Mr. Teabody 
 
 The coasts of this new territory, adjoining Peabody iiay, iiave been accurately 
 delineated by two parties, whose results correspond. U« south-western cape is 
 in latitude 80° 20* N., by observatimi with artificial horizon ; its longitude, by 
 chronometer and bearings, 66° 42' W. of Greenwich. The cape was doubled by 
 William Mortoa and our Esquimaux, with a team of dogs, and the land to the 
 
 W' 
 
 
 r-i 
 
 - ' > " 
 
 lii ■. H. 
 
 I i.) 
 
 H: S? 
 
 i'"!" 
 
452 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 : 
 
 I ' I 
 
 nortli traced until tliey reached the large indentation named Constitution Bay. 
 The whole of this line was washed by open water, extending in an iceless channel 
 to the opposite shores on the west. This western land I have inscribed with the 
 name of Henry Grinnell. 
 
 The course of this channel at its southern opening was traced, by actual sur- 
 vey, in a long horse-shoe curve, sharply defined against the solid ice of f?raitli's 
 Sound, and terminating at its extremes against two noble headlands about forty 
 miles apart. The western coast was followed, in subsequent explorations, to a 
 mural face of nine hundred feet elevation, preserving throughout its iceless cha- 
 racter. Here a heavy surf, beating directly against the rocks, checked our future 
 progress. 
 
 This precipitous headland, the furthest point attained by the party, was named 
 Cape Independence. It is in latitude 81° 22* N. and longitude 65° 35' W, It 
 was only touched by 'William Morton, who left the dogs and made his way to it 
 along the coast. From it the western coast was RO<^n stretching far toward the 
 north, with an iceless horizon, and a heavy swel! rol; ,;gin with white caps. At 
 a height of about five hundred feet above the sea this great expanse still pre- 
 sented all the appearance of an open and iceless sea. In claiming for it tliis 
 character I have referen' ^ only to tnj facta actually observed, without seeking 
 confirmation or support from any deduction of theory. Among such facts are 
 the following: — 
 
 1. It was approached by a channel entirely free from ice, having a length of 
 fifty-two and a mean width of thirty-six geographical miles. 
 
 2. The coast-ice along the water-line of this channel had been completely de- 
 stroyed by thaw and water-action ; while an unbroken belt of solid ice, one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five miles in diameter, extended to the south. 
 
 3. A gale from the north-east, of fifty-four hours' duration, brought a heavy 
 sea from that quarter, without disclosing any drift or other ice. 
 
 4. Dark nimbus clouds and water-sky invested the north-eastern horizon. 
 6. Crowds of migrr.tory birds were observed thronging its water 
 
 Two islands on the threshold of this sea, the most northern islands known, bear 
 the names of Sir John Franklin and his associate, Captain Crozier, the leaders of 
 the gallant party for which we had been in seai'ch. 
 
 To the north-west the coasts became mountainous, rising in truncated cones, 
 like the Magdalena Clifi's of Spitzbergen. The furthest distinctly-sighted point 
 was a lofty mountain, bearing N. 5° E., (solar;) its latitude, by estimate and in- 
 tersection, was E. 2° 30*. Its longitude, as thus determined, would give 66° W., 
 (approximative). 
 
 I would suggest for it the name of the late Sir Edward Parry, who, as he has 
 carried his name to the most northern latitude yet reached, should have in this, 
 the highest known northern land, a recognition of his pre-eminent position among 
 Arctic explorers. 
 
 The extension of the American coast to the south-west, as it appears upon the 
 chart, was the work of Dr. Hayes and William Godfrey, renewed and confirmed 
 by myself in April of the present year. It completes the survey of the coast as 
 far as the Cape Sabine of Captain Inglefield. The land is very lofty, sometimes 
 rising at its culminating peaks to the height of two thousand five hundred feet. 
 The travel along the western and north-western coast was made for the most part 
 upon the ice-foot. One large bay, in latitude 79' 40' N,, longitude 73° W., by 
 pstimate, extended forty miles into the interior, and was terminated by a glacier. 
 A large island occuDies the south-western curve of that bar. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 453 
 
 I- 
 
 A B>:mraaiy of the operations of tlie expedition will tiierefore couiprelieiul— 
 
 1. Tiie survey and delineation of the north coast of Greenland to ita termina- 
 tion by a g. eat glacier. 
 
 2. Tl»e survey of this glacial mass and its extension northward into the new 
 land named Washington, 
 
 3. The discovery of a large channel to the north-west, free from ice, and lead- 
 iii>.' into an open and expanding area equally free. The whole embraces an ice- 
 le?!H area of four thousand two hundred miles. 
 
 4. The discovery and delineation of a large tract of land forming the extension 
 ncfiiliuard of the American continent. 
 
 6. The completed survey of the American coast to the south and west as far 
 as Cape Sabine, thus connecting our survey with the last-determined position of 
 Captiiin Inglefield, and completing the circuit of tlie straits and bay heretofore 
 known at their southernmost opening as Smith's Sound. 
 
 The summer of 1854 had brought with it few changes bearing toward the 
 liberation of our brig. The melted snows did not run in the water-cjhannels un- 
 til the SOth of June, and our limited flora showed a tardy and inauspicious season. 
 
 On the 12th of July, the ice being still unbroken as far as Anoatok, I set out 
 in a whaleboat with five volunteers, to communicate, if possible, with our Eng- 
 lish brethren whom we supposed to ue at Beechy Island. The declining state of 
 our resources suggested this attempt, although it promised many difficulties. 
 
 It occupied us until the 6th of August. We found a solid pack extending from 
 Jones's to Murchison Sounds, between Clarence Head and Northumberland 
 Island. To the west the ice still invested the American shore, extending some 
 twenty miles from Cape Isabella. Between this and Mitie Island was a solid 
 surface, the curved shore-line occupied by an extended glacier. 
 
 After endeavouring several times to bore, we were forced to make Hakhiyt 
 Island, on the Greenland side, and landed there to rest and renew our stock of 
 provisions. The pack still filled the channel between that island and Cape Parry ; 
 and it was only with extreme effort that we were able to carry our boat over the 
 ice. We had approached in this manner within ten miles of the latter point, 
 when, seeing no chance of success, the winter rapidly advancing upon us, I re- 
 luctantly gave orders for our return to the brig. During this journey, which was 
 full of exciting contingencies, we passed over tlie track of Bylot and Baflin, the 
 explorers of 1016. 
 
 Our preparations for the second winter were modified largely by controlling 
 circumstances. The physical energies of the party had sensibly declined. Our 
 resources were diminished. We had but fifty gallons of oil saved from our 
 summer's seal-hunt. We were scant of fuel ; and our food, which now consisted 
 only of the ordinary marine stores, was by no means suited to repel scurvy. Our 
 molasses was reduced to forty gallons, and our dried fruits seemed to have lost 
 their efficiency. 
 
 A single apartment was bulkhcaded off amidships as a dormitory and abiding- 
 room for our entire party, and a moss envelope, cut with difficulty from the 
 frozen cliflTs, made to enclnse it like a wall. A similar casing was placed over our 
 deck, and a small tunnelled entry — the tossut of the Esquimaux — contrived to 
 enter from below. We adopted as nearly as we could the habits of the natives, 
 burning lamps for heat, dressing in fox-skin clothing, and relying for our daily 
 supplies on the success of organized hunting-parties. ■ 
 
 The upper tribes of these Esquimaux had their nearest winter settlement at a 
 spot distant, by dog-journey, about seventy-five miles. We entered into regular 
 
484 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 communication with this rude and simple-minded people, combining our efforts 
 with theirs for mutual support, and interchanging numerous friendly offices. 
 " Bear-meat, seal, walrus, fox, and ptarmigan, were our supplies. They were 
 eaten raw, with a rigorous attention to their impartial distribution." 
 
 With the dark months, however, these supplies became very scanty. Tte ex- 
 ertions of our best hunters were unavailing, and my personal attempts to reach 
 the Esquimaux failed less on account of the cold (minus 52°) than the ruggednesa 
 of the ice, the extreme darkness, and the renewal of tetanic diseases among oui 
 dogs. Our poor neighbours, however, fared worse than ourselves : famine, at- 
 tended by frightful forms of disease, reduced them to the lowest stages of misery 
 and emaciation. 
 
 Our own party was gradually disabled. Mr. Brooks and Mr. Wilson, both of 
 whom had lost toes by amputation, manifested symptoms of a grave character. 
 William Morton was severely frozen ; and we were deprived of the valuable ser- 
 vices of the surgeon by the effects of frost-bite, which rendered it necessary for 
 him to submit to amputation. 
 
 Scurvy with varying phases gradually pervaded our company, until Mr. Bon- 
 sall and myself only remained able to attend upon the sick and carry on the daily 
 work of the ship, if tliat name could still appropriately designate the burrow 
 which we inhabited. Even after this state of things had begun to improve, the 
 demoralizing effects of continued debility and seemingly hopeless privation were 
 unfavourably apparent among some of the party. I pass from this topic with the 
 single remark that our ultimate escape would have been hazarded, but for the 
 often painfully-enforced routine which the more experienced among us felt the 
 necessity of adhering to rigorously under all circumstances. 
 
 In the latter part of March the walrus again made their appearance among the 
 broken ice to the south, and we shared with the Esquimaux the proceeds of the 
 hunt. The hemorrhages which had much depressed our party subsided, and we 
 began slowly to recover our strength. The sun came back to us on the 2l8t of 
 February; and by the 18th of April the carpenter aud several others were able 
 to resume their diities. 
 
 In view of the contingencies which I had long apprehended, I found it necessary 
 tn abandon the brig. We had already consumed for firewood her upper spars, bul- 
 warks, deck-sheathing, stanchions, bulk-heads, hatches, extra strengthening-tim- 
 bers— in fact, everything that could b U \ken without destroying her sea-worthiness. 
 The papers which I append show thv' results of the several surveys made at this 
 time by my orders. It will be seen from them tuat we had but a few weeks' 
 supply left of food or fuel ; that the path of our intended retreat was a solid 
 plain of ice, and that to delay a third winter, while it euuld in no wise promote 
 the search after Sir John Franklin, would prove fatal to many of our party. 
 
 Our organisation for the escape was matured with the greatest care. Three 
 boats — two of them whale-boats twenty-four feet in length, and the third a light 
 cedar dingy of thirteen feet — were mounted upon runners cut from the cross- 
 beams of the vessel and bolted, to prevent the disaster of breakage. These 
 runners were eighteen feet in length, and shod with hoop-iron. No nails were 
 used in their construction ; they were lashed together so as to form a plitvUe 
 Bledge, and upon it the boats were cradled so as to be removable at pleasure. 
 
 A fourth sledge, with a team of dogs, was reserved for the transport of our 
 sick, four of whom were still unable to move, and for carrying on our stock or 
 provisions. An abandoned Esquimaux hut, about thirty-five miles from the brig, 
 was fitted up as well aa our means permitted, to serve as an entrepot of stores 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 455 
 
 and a wayside shelter for those of the party who were already broken down, or 
 who might yield to the first trials of the journey. 
 
 The cooking-utensils were made from our old stove-pipe. They consisted of 
 simple soup-boilers, enclosed by a cylinder to protect them from the wind. A 
 metal trough to receive fat, with the aid of moss and cotton canvas, enabled us to 
 keep up an active fire. My provisions were packed in water-i)roof bags, adapletl 
 in shape to the sheer of the boats, and in no case rising above tlie thwarts. They 
 consisted, with the exception of tea, coffee, and small stores for the sick, exclu- 
 sively of melted fat and powdered biscuit. 
 
 The clothing was limited to a fixed allowance. Moccasins for the feet were 
 made of our woollen carpeting, which had been saved for the purpose, aud numer- 
 ous changes of dry blanket-socks were kept for general use. For bedding our 
 buffalo-robes were aided by eider-down quilted into coverlets : the experience of 
 former travel having assured us that, next to diet and periodical rest, good bed- 
 ding and comfortable foot-gear were the most important things to be considered. 
 
 I took upon myself the office of transporting the sick and our reserve of pro- 
 visions, employing for this purpose a dog-sledge and our single team of dogs. I 
 carried down my first load of stores in April, and on the 15th of May began the 
 removal of the sick. By the middle of June all our disabled men and some 
 twelve hundred pounds of stores had in this manner been transferred by a series 
 of journejrings equal in the aggregate to eleven hundred miles. 
 
 On the 17th of May, having authenticated by appropriate surveys the necessi- 
 ties of our condition, and made all our preparations for the journey, the sledge- 
 boats left the vessel, dragged by the officers and men, under the immediate charge 
 of Mr. Henry Brooks — a duty which he fulfilled with unswerving fidelity and 
 energy. 
 
 My collections of natural history were also carried as far as the sick-station at 
 Anoatok ; but, under a reluctant conviction that a further eff'ort to preserve them 
 would risk the safety of the party, they were finally abandoned. It is grateful 
 to me to recollect the devotion of my comrades, who volunteered to sacrifice 
 shares of both food and clothing to secure these records of our labours. 
 
 We were able, not without difficulty, to carry our chronometers and the various 
 instruments, magnetic and others, which might allow me still to make and verify 
 our accustomed observations. We left behind the theodolite of the United States 
 Coast Survey and the valuable self-registering barometric apparatus furnished 
 by the American Philosophical Society. Our library, as well those portions 
 which had been furnished by the government and by Mr. Grinnell as my own, 
 were necessarily sacrificed. We preserved only the documents of the Expedition. 
 
 The first portions of our journey filled me with misgivings, as the weakness of 
 the party showed itself in dropsical swellings and excessive difficulty of respira- 
 tion. In spite of a careful system of training, the first exposure to temperaturer. 
 ranging about zero and below it were to an invalid party extremely trying ; and 
 for the first eight days the entire distance accomplished from liie ship did not 
 exceed fifteen miles. Although the mean rate of transportation was afterward 
 increased, it never exceeded three and a half miles a-day over ice. Some idea may 
 be formed by the Department of tiie nature of this journey from the fact, that 
 every three and a half miles thus attained cost us from twelve to fifteen miles of 
 actual travel. 
 
 To sustain the party by the aid of fresh food required dog-journeys to the south 
 settlements of the Esquimaux, distant from us about seventy-five miles. I found 
 it necessary, also, to return from time to time to the brig, with the view of aug- 
 
 '^! 
 
 m 
 
 Bi M 
 
 . M 
 
 fr. 
 
 ' t. 
 
456 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 n 
 
 
 inenling our supplies. My last visit to her was on the 8th of June, for the pur- 
 pose of procuring some pork to serve for fuel. She was then precisely as when 
 we left her on the 17th of May, immovably frozen in, with nine feet of solid ice 
 under her bows. We availed ourselves of the occusional facilities which these 
 visits allowed us to increase our stock of bread, of which we succeeded in baking 
 fiiur hundred and eighty poinids. 
 
 Continuing our southward progress, we neared Littleton Island. Our sick, 
 first left at Anoatok, were gradually brought down to the boats as some of them 
 gained strength enough to aid in the labour of dragging. The condition of tlie 
 ice as it became thinner and decaying made this labour more difficult ; and, in the 
 course of our many breaks through, several of the party narrowly escaped being 
 carried under by the tides. In the effort to liberate our sledges from the broken 
 ice after one of these accidents, Acting Carpenter Ohlsen received an internal 
 injury. Paralysis of the bladder was rapidly followed by tetanic symptoms, and 
 he died on the 12th of June, three days after his attack. He has left behind 
 him a young wife, who depended entirely upon him for support. He was buried 
 upon Littleton Lsiand, opposite a cape which bears his name. 
 
 From this stage cf our journey up to the time of reaching the first open water, 
 which was near Cape Alexander, we were comforted by the friendly assistance of 
 the Esquimaux of Etah. These people faithfully adhered to the alliance which 
 we had established during the winter. They brought us daily supplies of birds, 
 helped us to carry our provisions and stores, and in their daily intercourse with 
 us exhibited the kindest feeling and most rigid honesty. When we remembered 
 that they had been so assuming and aggressive upon our first arrival that I was 
 forced to seize their wives as hostages for the protection of our property, their 
 present demeanour was not without its lesson. Once convinced of our superior 
 ity of power, and assured of our disposition to unite our resources with theirs for 
 mutual protection and support, they had relied upon us implicitly, and strove 
 now to requite their obligations toward us by ministering to our wants. 
 
 We left them on the 18th of June at the margin of the floe. In thirty one 
 days we had walked three hundred and sixteen miles, and had transported our 
 boats over eighty-one miles of unbroken ice. The men, women, and children of 
 the little settlement had also travelled over the ice to bid us good-bye, and we did 
 not part from them without emotion. 
 
 The passage between this point and one ten miles north-west of Hakluyt Island 
 was in open water. It was the only open water seen north of Cape York, in 
 latitude 75° 59' N. We ran this under sail in a single day, hauling upon the ice 
 to sleep. This ice was a closed pack, hanging around the north and south chan- 
 nels of Murchison Sound, and seemingly continued to the westward. The laud- 
 ices were still unbroken, and we were obliged to continue our journey by alter- 
 nate movements over ice and water. So protracted and arduous were these, that 
 between the 20th of June and the 6th of July we had advanced but one hundred 
 miles. 
 
 Our average progress was about eight miles a day, stopping for our hunting 
 parties and for sleep. Great care was taken not to infringe upon the daily 
 routine. We had perpetual daylight ; but it was my rule, rarely broken even by 
 extreme necessity, not to enter upon the labours of a day until we were fully 
 refreshed from those of the day before. We halted regularly at bed-time and for 
 meals. The boats, if afloat, were drawn up, the oars always disposed on the ice 
 as a platform for the stores; our butfalo-skins were spread, each man placed him- 
 self with his pack according to his number, the cook for the day made his fire, 
 
1*1 
 
 41 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 457 
 
 riud the ration, however scanty, was formally measured out. Prayers were never 
 intermitted. I believe firmly tiiat to these well-sustained observuuoea we are 
 largely indebted for our final escajie. 
 
 As we moved onward, we were forced to rely jirincipally on our guns for a 
 supply of food. We suU'ered, when off the coast immediately north of Wosten- 
 holme Sound, from a scarcity of game, and were su'ijected to serious sickness in 
 consequence. 13ut at Dalryniple Island, a little further south, we recruited 
 rapidly on eggs of the eider-duck ; and from this point to Conical Rock we found 
 birds in abundance. Again, at the most uncertain period of our passage, when 
 our stock of provisions were nearly e.\hausted, we were suddenly arrested in our 
 course by high and rugged land-ice, which hugged a glacier near Cape Dudley 
 Digges. We were too weak to drag our boats over this barrier, and were driven 
 in consequence to land under the cliffs. To our joyful surprise, we found them 
 teeming with animal life. This transition from enfeebling want to the jilenty 
 ■which restored our strength, we attributed to the direct interposition of Provi- 
 dence. The lumme (Urise, Brunichii, and Troile) was the fowl which we here 
 found in greatest numbers. We dried upon the rocks about two hundred pounds 
 of its meat, which we carefully saved for the transit of Melville Day. 
 
 The rest of the coast, except under the glaciers, was followed v.ith less diffi- 
 culty. V»'e found peat of good quality, and ploity of food. Our daily allowance 
 of birds was twelve to a man. They were boiled into a rich soup, to which we 
 added a carefully measured allowance of six ounces of bread. 
 
 On the 21st we reached Cape York, and, finding no natives, made immediate 
 preparations for crossing Melville Bay. An extended view showed the land-ice 
 nearly unbroken, and a large drift of p.ack to the southward and westward. A 
 beacon-cairn was built, and strips of red flannel fastened to a flagstaff so placed 
 as to attract the attention of whalers or .searching-parties. I depusited here a 
 notice of our future intentions, a list of our provisions on hand, and a short 
 summary of the discoveries of the cruise. 
 
 Up to the 26th of July our traverse of Melville Hay was along the margin of 
 the land-ice, with only twice a resort to portage. We came then upon compara- 
 tively open drift extending to the southward and westward, which, after mature 
 consideration, I determined to follow. There were arguments in favour of a 
 different course, perhaps for the time less hazardous ; but the state of health 
 among my comrades admonished me that it was best to encounter the risks that 
 were to expedite our release. The reduced bulk of our stores euabled us now to 
 consolidate the party into two boats, breaking up the remaining one for fuel, of 
 which we were in need. Our lengthened practice of alternating boat and sledge- 
 management had given us something of assurance in this mode of travel, and we 
 were, besides, familiarized with privation. It was a time of renewed suflering ; 
 but, in the result, we reached the north coast of Greenland, near Horse's Head, 
 on the 3d of August, and, following thence the inside passage, arrived on the 6th 
 at Upernavik, eighty-three days after leavi : the Advance. We did not intermit 
 our observations by sextant and artificial horizon as we came down the bay, and 
 succeeded in adding to our meteorological and magnetic registers. These, in- 
 cluding a re-survey of the coast as laitt down in the Admiralty charts, will be 
 iucliided in a special rei)ort to the Department. 
 
 We were welcomed at the Danish settlements with characteristic hospitality. 
 The chief trader, Knud Gelmeydeu Fleischer, advanced to us from the stores of 
 the Boyal Greenland Trading Company at Upernavik whatever our necessities 
 required ; and when we afterward reached Godhavn, the seat of the royal in- 
 
 I'! 
 
 4< 
 
 i f 
 
 3 
 
 >mt\ii 
 
408 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Bpectorate, Mr, Olrik, the inspector, lavislied the kindest iittcntions upon our 
 party. 
 
 We had taken passage at Upernavik in tlie Danish brig Marianne, then upon 
 her annual visit to the Greenland colonies, Captain Anmndsen, her very courtciMis 
 and liberal commander, having engaged to land us at the Shetland Isles on his 
 return route to Copenhagen. But, touching for a few days at Disoo, we wero 
 met by the vessels which had been sent after us, under the command of Lieutenant 
 Hartsteiie. I have no words to express tha gratitude of all our party toward 
 that noble-spirited officer and his associates, and toward our countrymen at home 
 who had devised and given effect to the expedition for our rescue, — I have the 
 honour to be, very respectfully, sir, your most obedient servant, 
 
 E. K, Kane. 
 
 FisKSHNABS, Sonrn GRSRNUim, July 6, 1SA3. 
 
 Sir, — Wo reached this place on the 5th instant, after a run of twelve days 
 from St, John's, Newfoundland, 
 
 By means of special facilities extended to our expedition by the Danish govern- 
 ment, we have been able to obtain from the Royal Cireenland Company supplies 
 of finish dried codfish, as also a native Esquimaux as hunter. This boy will 
 take with him his kayak, and is expected to prove of essential service. 
 
 We have as yet encountered no ice. It is my intention to stop at Sukkertoppen 
 to purchase reindeer-skins. — I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 £. E, Kane. 
 
 Hon. Sbcrktart or tub Navt, 
 Washington. 
 
 Upebkavik, North Grbenland, Jnly 24, 1853, 
 
 Sir, — I have \he honour to report the safe arrival of myself and party at 
 Upernavik, 
 
 Being much delayed by calms, I deemed it unadvisable to stop at Godhavn, 
 but have lost no time in proceeding north. Our full complement of dogs is now 
 on board, and we leave in a few hours for Melville Bay, 
 
 I have engaged the valuable services of Mr. Carl Johan Petersen, late inter- 
 preter to Captain Penny's expedition of search. If we should meet the Esqui- 
 maux north of Cape Alexander, he will be essential to our party. 
 
 The officers and men are in excellent health and spirits, — I am, sir, very re- 
 spectfully, your obedient servant, E, K. Kane. 
 
 Hon. Secrbtart op the Navt, 
 Washington. 
 
 [Deposltea In Caim-lat. 78" 24' N,— August 7, 1888.] 
 
 Advance, August 7, 1853. 
 
 Sib, — I have the honour to report our successfM transit of Melville Bay, and 
 safe arrival within the waters of Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, 
 
 This letter will be deposited in a cairn on Littleton Island, iu latitude 78° 24' 
 N, The prospects of a further progress have led me to leave near this spot a 
 metallic life-boat, with a supply of stores, aa a means of retreat should our vessel 
 be imprisoned in the ice. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 4:.9 
 
 ;t 
 
 The course of our party will be fVom this date alonR the coast of Orccnlaiul, 
 trending to the north and east. If a poBsible chance presents itself of forcing 
 the brig into a northern sea, I will endeaTour, before availing myself of such a 
 chance, to leave another cairn, announcing ray point of departure. 
 
 Our officers and men are in excellent health and spirits, and no cases have yet 
 Qccurred of scurvy or other serious disease. 
 
 After the brig is obliged to go into winUr quarters, I intend to start with a 
 carefully-equipped party to establish a depot for the final labours of next season. 
 Uur dogs are in admirable condition, and well broken to harness.— I am. sir. very 
 respectfully, your obedient servant, E. K. Kanb. 
 
 Hon. Seckrtart or tub Navt, 
 'WaBhington. 
 
 »'!■ 
 
 No. III. 
 
 SURVEYS BEFORE ABANDONING THE BEIG. 
 Orders to Mr. M^Gary to examine the State of the Ice. 
 
 To Second Officer, Jamks M'Gart. 
 
 Sir, — William Godfrey and the sledge will be placed at your disposition. 
 After sleeping at Auoatok, proceed on the next day to Cape Uatherton and Flag- 
 staff Point, returning to the brig on Monday, 14th of May. 
 
 The object of this journey is, that you may compare the ice of th's season with 
 that seen in your last year's inspection. You are requested to note accurately 
 the condition and advance of the open water, and report in writing your opinion 
 as to the possibility of its reaching our brig in time to escape during the coming 
 year. — Respectfully yours, E. K. Kane, 
 
 Communding Kspedition. 
 
 Bnio Advance, April 12, 1850. 
 
 ;ti.vt , 
 
 Second Officer M^ Gary' a Report. 
 
 Brio Advan'ce, May 15, 18M. 
 To E. K. Kane, Esq., Commanding Grinnett Expedition. 
 
 Sir, — By your orders I examined the ice at this time last year from the point 
 at which I now renew my inspection. 
 
 Last year the open water was about a mile south of Fog Inlet, and the ice 
 broken into floes or drift for about two miles further : the water along the ice- 
 foot reached to Esquimaux Point. The surface-ice of the channel was thin and 
 wet, and broken into small pools. Water was seen in the offing as far as the e^ e 
 could reach with your telescope, (a 20-diam. Fraunhiifer). 
 
 At the present date from the same stations no water can be seen, but heavy, 
 rank ice, very hummocky to westward, and covered with snow-drifts. By going 
 to Littleton Island, (Flagstaff Point), about fifteen miles further down the 
 
 411 
 
460 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 clianiiel, I fouinl the water between six and eiijht miles off ; beyond it tlie sky 
 wiw dark and uvcrj thinn clear and open. To the westward the water met the 
 ice about ten miles (liHtiiiit. 
 
 My opinion h thnb thcro in no poHNililo chance of the water cominn within 
 twenty niiluH of the lnii,'. The flii>! In old ami heavy, and it breaks slowly. It 
 is now more tiian twice as fur fioni llio biii^tts it wan at this time lust year. It 
 will have to break up faster than ever I saw ico break to reach uh thia Heason. 
 I regard it thercfuru as imposaible fur the vestiel to bo liberated with the coming 
 y«ar.— Yours respectfully, Jamks M'Gaky, 
 
 SuconU UHlcor. 
 
 Orders /or a full [inspection of the remaining Stock of Provisions. 
 
 'I'O MU88US. liltOOKS, UlLBT, MoillOK. 
 
 Gkntlkmkn, — You will hold a survey upon the beef, pork, flour, and bread, 
 remaining in the stores of the expedition, and report in writing ujton their condi- 
 tion and the quantity on hand fit for use. — Very respectfully, your obedient ser- 
 vant, K. K. Kane, 
 
 Comnianding KzpctJition. 
 
 Biiio Advanck, May 10. 1855. 
 
 Report of Inspectloiu 
 
 BiiiQ Advance, Slay Ifi, 17. 
 
 To E. K. Kane, Esq., Commander Orinnetl Expedition, 
 
 Sir,— In accordance with your order of the 16th inst., we have carefully 
 examined the condition and quantity of the provisions remaining on board, 
 uamelj, led', pork, Hour, and bread, and report the following:— 
 Seven barrels beef unfit for use ; 
 Six barrels pork entirely unfit for eating ; 
 and since June 1854, with the nicest selection, we got but sixty pounds eatabb 
 pork. 
 
 Four barrels flour in good condition ; 
 Bre;ul there is none left ; 
 and in our opinion thirty-six days' provisions is the most there is. — Very respect- 
 fully, your obedient servants, Henry Brooks, 
 
 GEORaB Riley, 
 William Morton. 
 
 Orders to Carpenter, Second Officer, and Mr. Bonsall, to examine and 
 report on the condition of the Brig. 
 
 Mkssrs. Ohlsen, M'Gart, Bohsalu 
 Gentlbmsn, — You will do me the favour to hold a careful survey upon the 
 
wiaiotis. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 4ni 
 
 bri;;, and give me your opinion in writinfi; wliether it bo posHihIc to cut from iier 
 iiiurfl firewood without romlurint; her uiiseaworthy. 
 
 lliive we one mouth's firewood on board or in the sliip?- RcspnctfuIIy, ynur 
 
 obedient servant, K. K. Kanr, 
 
 Comniniiillng Exiieilltloi). 
 Buo Advamcb, Ihiy 10, 1823. 
 
 Report on Condition of the Brig. 
 \ 
 
 Brio Advawcr, Jray 17, 1858. 
 Sir, — In accordance with your ordera, wo have lield a cari'ful purvey upon 
 tlie brif^, and give it as our decided opinion tliat we cannot cut frum her more 
 firewood without rendering lier unseawortiiy. 
 
 We liave computed the present nnioutit of firewood on board, including the 
 trebling, to be equal to fourteea days' consumption. — We are, reaiioctfully, yur 
 obedient servants, CnuisTiAN Ohlskn, Uarpenttr. 
 
 J. M'(Jaky, Second Officer. 
 
 To K. K. Kanb, Enq., ' AmOS BoNSALU 
 
 CummaiidioK Kxpeilitlon. 
 
 m 
 
 i\: 
 
 lunds eatablo 
 
 No. IV. 
 Letter from the Hon. Secretary of the Navy to Lieut. Hartstene. 
 
 Navt Dkpartmk\t, May 25, 18.^6. 
 
 Sir, — A resolution of Congress, approved February 3, 18.-?, authorizes the 
 Secretary of the Aavy "to provide and despatch a suitable naval or other 
 steamer, and, if necessary, a tender, to the Arctic seas, for the purpose of 
 rescuing or affording relief to Passed Assistant Surgeon K. K. Kane, of the 
 United States Navy, and the officers and men under his command." 
 
 The barque Release and steamer Arctic having been procured and especially 
 fitted and equipped for this service under your supervision and inspection, with 
 full rations and extra provisions for two years, and clothing peculiarly adapted 
 for the climate of the Arctic regions, and such officers and men detailed as the 
 Department, as well as yourself, considered nef^essary and sufficient, and the 
 command of the expedition having been alreaily assigned to you, you will, so 
 soon as the above-named vessels are in all respects ready for sea, proceed with 
 them, by all means as early as the first of June, in the prosecution of the obje t 
 of the resolution of Congress, economizing as much as possible in the use of coal. 
 
 It is understood from reliable sources that you can renew your supply of coal 
 at Waigat Island, at which point it would seem to be advisable that you shouhl 
 touch, unless unforeseen circumstances admonish you to do otlierwise, or some 
 more practicable point should be ascertained by you. I will endeavour to procure 
 and forward to you letters of introduction from the representative of Denmark to 
 the governor of the Danish settlements, at which it may be useful and prudent 
 that you should touch, for the purpose of making inquiry and procuring infor- 
 mation. 
 
 Dr. Kane sailed from New York iu the Advance early in June 1853, since 
 which time the Department has received no information from him. It is be- 
 lieved, however, that intelligence was received of him at Upernavik, in Joly 
 
 '. s\ 
 
 m 
 
 %M 
 
 W 
 
462 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 1853, by his father, Judge Kane, of Philadelphia. The expedition was then 
 goinjj north ; and this is the last that has been heard from it. The Department, 
 however, learns, and deems it proper to put you in possession of the information, 
 that it was the intention of Dr. Kane, after leaving Upernavik, on his way up, to 
 make a depot of provisions and erect a beacon, &c., at Cape Alexander, the east 
 cape of Sraitli's Sound, or at Cape Isabella. — most probably the former. The 
 Department further learns that it was then the intention of Dr. Kane to pass up 
 Smith's Sound and proceed west ; and in case it was nececsary for him to aban- 
 don his vesael, he would make for Beechy Island, 
 
 Should you fall in with any of Franklin's party, your own humane feelings 
 will suggest the propriety of extending to them all the relie'f in your power. 
 
 Before sailing, you will acquaint Lieutenant C. C. Simms, who has been 
 ordered to command the Arctic, and whom, of course, you will consider as your 
 second in command, fully with all your plans and intentions, and appoint places 
 of rendezvous, so that, in case tlie two vessels of the expedition may at any time 
 become sejiarated, each may know where to look for the other. 
 
 You will seize any opportunity that may offer of communicating with the De- 
 partment, informing it of your progress and your future movements ; and you 
 will also take particular care to avail yourself of every occasion for leaving, as 
 you proceed, records and signs to tell of your condition and intentions. For this 
 purpo!?3 you will erect liagstaffs, make piles of stones, or other ma.rks, in con- 
 spicuous places, burying a bottle at the base containing your letters. Should the 
 two vessels be separated, you will direct Lieutenant Simins to do likewise. 
 
 The Department has every confidence in your judgment, and relies implicitly 
 upon your sound discretion. You are aware of the generous considerations whicii 
 prompted Congress to authorize this mission of humanity. I have determined 
 to trust you with its execution, untrammelled by stringent directions, which 
 might embarrass you, and conflict with the suggestions of ircumstances and de- 
 velopments of the future. Judge Kane, the father of the doctor, is in possession 
 01 'nuch important information left by his son, to be used in the event of a seiircli 
 for him. This will aid you much. I would suggest, however, that you should, 
 unless constrained by strong hopes of future success, avoid passing a winter in 
 the Arctic regions, and on no account uselessly hazard the safety of tlie vessels 
 under your command, or, what is of more importance, unnecessarily expose to 
 danger the officers and men committed to your charge. Your attention is also 
 especially directed to the care and preservation of their health, for which 
 hygienics have been abundantly furnished. 
 
 I transmit herewith, for your information and guidance, a copy of the instruc- 
 tions to Dr, Kane, dated November 27, 1862, as also copies of a aeries of letters 
 from Sir Edward Parry, Sir Francis Beaufort, and other Arctic '.uthoritii-a, 
 written by command of the British Admiralty, and kindly furnished to Dr, 
 Kane, with the object of advancing the interests of the expedition to which Le 
 had been assigned by the Department. 
 
 Sincerely trusting that you may be enabled to carry out successfully the objects 
 of the expedition under your command, and that a divine Providence will protect 
 you in the hazardous enterprise for which you and your companions have so 
 uobly volunteered, I am, respectfully, your obedient servant. 
 
 I 
 
 J. C. DOBd^M, 
 
 Lieut. Henbt ,;. IIartstenb, 
 S. Niivy, Coinmanding Expedition for Relief 
 of Dr. ICunc and Companions, Mew York. 
 
 wfbk 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 463 
 
 n was then 
 Department, 
 information, 
 is way up, to 
 ier, tlie east 
 )rmer. The 
 le to pass up 
 iiim to aban- 
 
 lane feelings 
 power. 
 10 has been 
 lider as your 
 ppoint places 
 r at any time 
 
 with the Be- 
 lts ; and you 
 r leaving, as 
 ,s. For this 
 a,rks, in con- 
 Should the 
 lewise. 
 ies implicitly 
 rav.ions whicli 
 e determined 
 :tions, which 
 jices and de- 
 in possession 
 it of a searcli 
 you should, 
 a winter in 
 the vessels 
 ly expose to 
 ntion is also 
 for which 
 
 the instruc- 
 
 ies of letters 
 
 '.uthoritifs, 
 
 bed to Dr. 
 
 to which he 
 
 y the objects 
 will protect 
 ons have so 
 
 DOBBVH. 
 
 
 Report of Lieut. Hartstene to tM Hon. Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 Unitkd States Barque Release, 
 LiBVELT, Isle or Disco, Gkeknlaku, July 9, 1859. 
 
 Sib, — I have the honour to inform you of the arrival of the Arctic expedition 
 here on the 5th instant, after a most boisterous passage, during most of which we 
 were enveloped in dense fogs, and were much retarded by towing the Arctic 
 nearly to the southern point of Greenland, where it was deemed advisable to 
 separate, thiit this vessel might hasten un to make some necessary arrangements ; 
 but, much t() my agreeable surprise, by good management and favourable winds, 
 our consort (vime in a few hours after us, having used steam but for a short time. 
 
 The first iceberg was seen in ktitude 51° 30' N., longitude 51° 40' W.; 
 and about sixty miles further north we found thick extreme ridges of " sailing 
 ice," so heavy as to make it necessary to avoid them, which we successfully 
 managed during daylight; but, after dark, while going under all sail six knots, 
 we ran suddenly into one of them, bringing us up all standing, and caused our 
 consort, towing astern, to foul us, without, however, doing any material damage. 
 Pressing on, we bored through, ant! had but fairly relieved ourselves, when we 
 encountered a heavy blow, with much sea and ice in all directions, requiring 
 incessant care and manoeuvring to prevent being thrown against, to the inevitable 
 flestruction of the vessels. Since then we have had bergs daily in sight. The 
 nuiL>l)ers increased as we advanced north to this place, oflf where there are now 
 several hundred, stalking quietly and majestically. 
 
 The accounts of the extreme severity of the present winter have induced me to 
 remain here a few days to have a quantity of fur clothing prepared, to enable us 
 to winter, as we shall probably be compelled to do, with more safely in the 
 Arctic ice. Through the many facilities ofiFered, and the obliging kindness of 
 Mr. Olrik, the government agent, we have succeeded in effecting all, and are now 
 ready, and will leave this day for the Waigat Strait, to take as much coal aa 
 possible, and proceed north to Cape Alexander, touching off Upernavik for infor- 
 mation. 
 
 Our records and communications, at the different points touched .it after e' ter- 
 ing the ict ,arrier, will be deposited in bottles buried within twelve feet north by 
 compass of cairns erected on the most conspicuous and accessible points. 
 
 To avoid further risk of human life in a search so extremely hazardous, I 
 ■vnild suggest the impropriety of making any efforts to relieve us if we should 
 . " .eiiurn, feeling confident that we shall be able to accomplish all necessary for 
 cur own release under the most extraordinary circumstancci;. 
 
 In conclusion, it affords me much yleasure to state that we are all well and iu 
 full spirits. — Very respectfully ko., your obedient servant, 
 
 H. J. Hartstknk, 
 Lieutenant comnianUliii,' Arctic EspetlltioiL 
 Hon. J. C. Dobbin, . 
 
 Secrutury of tlie Navy, Wiuhlnjton, D.C. 
 
 rjil 
 
 
 "' / 1 
 
 . 4 1 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 J:! 
 
 11 : 
 
 ' Ji 
 
 11 ■ 
 
 
 
 \ fi : W 
 
4m 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Report of Lieut. Ilartstene to tliellon. Secretary of the Navy, 
 
 United States Barqtje Release, off Upernavik, July 16, 1855. 
 
 Sir, — Herewith enclosed is a duplicate of my last communication, left at 
 Lievely, to be sent to its destination by the first opportunity. 
 
 On the 10th, in company with the Arctic, we started from the latter place fur 
 the coal district in Waigat Strait ; but, on arriving oflf the supposed position of 
 it, t'ae weather became so boisterous and thick that, after several times narrowly 
 escaping running on shore by shaving the coast toe close, I reluctantly abandoned 
 the idea of losing time here on an unr .tainty, and made immediately for tins 
 liort, where we have ju-'t arrived. While becalmed oflf Hare Isle, at the north- 
 west entrance of the ¥ aigat btrait, I succeeded in obtaining there about nine 
 toni of inferior coal, w) \ i\, nowever, will answer very well for cooking-purposes. 
 
 On our passage ur. w j fell in with two English whalers who had been up as far 
 as Korsehead Islo, and, .^fter ineffectual effort<< to enter Melville Ikiy, had given 
 it up and we'o on their \s ay to try the we:iteri. coost. They represented the 
 last wii.'p- as having been very severe, Drd th. ice now unusually close, and 
 think we shall not be able to enu.:' *""• ■ :v( wef '«, 
 
 I shall remain here but a few i;o •■ to ob'u..; " me furs, and by to-morrow 
 morning will be at the ice-barrier, as \i-. har-' a pt;nng favourable wind. 
 
 There is no news of the missing furiy \\re are all well. — Very respectfully 
 your obedient servant, H. J. Hartstknh, 
 
 Lieutenant comn:< nding Arctic Expedition. 
 Hon. J. C. DoBBiv, 
 
 Secvetaiy of the Navy, Washington, D.C. 
 
 Report of Lieut. Ilartstene to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 h 
 
 yf 
 
 United States Oarque Release, Baffin's Bat, 
 Lat. 69° 39' N., Ion. 63° 30' W., September 8, 1855. 
 Sir, — We have suddenly and unexpectedly fallen in vii^ an English whaler, 
 which necessitates me to draw up, rather hastily, an i,ccvM 
 my last communication of the 16th of July, from Uptrr''...! 
 which date both vessels stood to the northward, and '. a i 
 drifting down in an extended floe, but so loose as ' . f^i. d' 
 under sail some forty miles to Wedge Island, whtiu its .. : . 
 moor to bergs and await several days, when su " lenly, t^.". i 
 
 mr efforts since 
 c ;,hc afternoon of 
 ' ii'jurs net the ice 
 ' our working along 
 fitness obliged us to 
 tt'ou*- \ny apparent 
 
 cause, bui the remarkably mysterious currents, it disappcaici^- and loft us open 
 water, through which we steamed uninterruptedly to Sugar- Loaf Island, ami 
 entered the closely-packed floe of Melville Bay, through which, by strenuous and 
 untiring efforts, and being so fortunate as ri jvor to have entered a false lead or to 
 have lost any by drifts, we forced a passage into the N jrth Water on the morninj; 
 of the 13th August, twenty-eight days after our entrance of the barrier. With 
 our invaluable little Arctic ahead, we passed within good view of the coast from 
 Cape York to Wostenholme Island, when I deemed ii advisable and hastened on in 
 the steamer (leaving this vessel in charge of Lieutenant Simms, to follow with 
 all despatch) to Cape Alexander, which, with Sui-iiei'^and Island near to, both 
 
 most conspicuous points, beyond the Tv-ach of Es'iuLi.a*. 
 
 • e thoroughly exa- 
 
AFPKNDIX. 
 
 465 
 
 rained ; but not the slightest evidence was found to indicate that they l>ad ever 
 before been trodden by civilized men. Much chagrined and disappointed, I de- 
 ]iosited a record of our visit, and further instructions for the Release; then 
 round^ the cape with a strong head-wind, and ice extending in a compact mass 
 to the western shore and as ftir north as could be seen, leaving, however, a nar- 
 row lead so near the land as to allow us to discern the smallest objects. We 
 pas.sed on ; but naught was seen until we reached the most north-western 
 point in sight, which we supposed to be Cape Hatiierton, but was afterwards 
 proved to be Pelhara Point, wiiere a few stones were observed together. A 
 party, with Acting Master Lovell and Dr. Kane, of the steamer, landed imme- 
 diately, and found beneath this carelessly-erected mark a small vial with the 
 letter K cu* 'n the cork, containing a large mosquito, with a small piece of car- 
 tridge paper for one of Sharpe's rifles, prepared in Philadelphia, the ball of which 
 was lying by it ; on this was written, apparently with the point of the ball, " Dr. 
 Kane, 1853." This was extremely perplexing, but assured us of his having been 
 there, and I determined to push on as far north as possible. But, on rounding 
 this point, which was found to be in latitude 78° 32' N., — further, il is believed, 
 than any one before had ever reached on this side, — we were opposed by a solid, 
 hummocky field of very heavy ice, to which no limit was visible, interspersed with 
 many bergs, all drifting to the southward. Under sail, we dropped with it, 
 anxiously watching for an opening, examining Cape Ilatherton and Littleton Island 
 in our retrograde, without any success, though Dr. Kane, in his last letter to his 
 brother, which I have adopted as my guide, emphatically says, " On Cape Alexan- 
 der or Cape Hatherton I will deposit my boat and erect a 'cairn.'" We finally took 
 refuge under a projecting point, some fifteen miles north-west of Cape Alexander, 
 when we were startled by the hail of human voices. A party, including myself and 
 the surgeon of the Arctic, brother of Dr. Kane, started off forthwith, exultiiigiy, 
 with light hearts, confident that they were of the missing party ; but, after a 
 long and anxious pull, we were met by two Esquimaux, wlio appeared very 
 anxious to go off to the brig ; but, on being refused, they significantly pointed up 
 a deep, most beautiful, and finely sheltered bay, inducing us to think that there 
 was there a settlement; and, as we should lose no time, I assented. And well 
 were we compensated for our trouble ; for, after reaching the bottom of it, some 
 three miles distant, we landed, and soon reached a settlement of some thirty of 
 them, in seven tents, all covered with canvas. We now discovered mapy other 
 articles, such as tin pans and pots, canvas, and iron spikes, preserved- meat cans, 
 a knife and fork, bake-pan for a vessel's galley, various spools of thread, several 
 Guernsey frocks, and a cotton shirt, with the initials, "11. 13." marked with 
 red thread, which was supposed to have been the property of the boat- 
 swain of the Advance, whose wife was a Mahonese, and the marking was evi- 
 dently her handiwork. There were also broken oars and pieces of slats ; and, 
 finally, we found the tube of a telescope, which was recognised as having be- 
 longed to Dr. Kane. A close examination of the most intelligent of them, at 
 three separate periods, by myself, Mr. Lovell, and Dr. Kane's brother, aided by 
 an Esquimaux vocabulary and representations in drawing of vessels, persons, 
 and boats, put us in possession of what I believe to be the fact, — namely, that 
 Dr. Kane (whose name the natives pronounced very distinctly, and described 
 most unmistakingly his appearance) havi' g lost his vessel in the ice somewhere 
 to the north of this, had been here, with Carl Petersen (his interpreter) and 
 seventeen others, in two boats and a sled, and, after remaining ten days, they 
 went south, to Upernavik. With all these evidences, I deemed it my duty to 
 2 O 
 
 it ' -K. 
 
 
 1'ilM.|'i 
 
 
 .1 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 i" ■■■:, ! ; 
 
 
466 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 return south, touching again at Cape Alexander and Sutherland Islands ; and, 
 joining the barque, towed her to Hakiuyt Island, to water ship and examine for 
 relics. In the meantime the south side of Northumberland Island was passed aiul 
 repassed by the Arctic, she returning ; and with the barque we stood over to tlie 
 entrance of Lancaster Sound, and, thinking possibly he may have gone to Beechy 
 Island, I left the barque, to examine the coast between Capes Horsburg and 
 Warrander, and, in the^ rctic, attempted to reach tiie island ; but, after passing Cape 
 Bullin, found the field-ice firmly packed, which we coursed from shore to shore, 
 without any opening to induce a further attempt. In the meantime we became 
 firmly beset; and the weather, becoming thick with snow, led me to suppose for a 
 time that we were in our winter quarters ; but, by dint of steam and a powerful 
 bow, we succeeded, after twenty-four hours' heavy battering, in relieving ourselves. 
 Returning off the cruising-ground of our consort, and not seeing her, I ran north 
 as far as Cape Combermore, where we were again opposed by a solid barrier of 
 the firmest ice ; thus having made nearly the whole circuit of the nortliern part 
 of Baffin's Bay, with the exception of a deep indentation between Capes Comber- 
 mere and Isabella, which, from its ice-bound and cheerless appearance, forbade 
 the idea of any one having attempted to land on its shores. We then returned, 
 and, in company, visited and examined Possession and Pond's Bays, firing guns, 
 burning blue-lights, and throwing up rockets ; but here again we were disap- 
 pointed, and I unhesitatingly deemed it my duty to proceed forthwith to Uper- 
 iiavik, feeling confident that the party had gone there through Melville Bay,— no 
 uncommon undertaking, as tho ci'ews of many whalers lost in the ice had done so 
 before. Therefore, on the morning of the 31st of August, we again pushed on 
 for the ice-barrier, which we passed, after many difficulties and narrow escapes, 
 in one of which the vessel was, in a snow-storm, brought in collision witli an ice- 
 berg, against whose sides she was thrown most ruthlessly for several hours, to 
 our apparent inevitable destruction, but from which she was finally released, 
 with slight damages to her starboard upper works. 
 
 In couch"ion, I would add, we are all well ; and, should we not meet with the 
 missing party at Upernavik, shall again proceed north, and winter in the ice.— 
 Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 H. J. IIartstkne, 
 Lleuten&nt commanding Arctic Expedition. 
 
 Hon. J. C. DoBBiK, 
 Secretary of the Navy, Wiisliington, D.C. 
 
 ■ \ 
 
 Report of Lieut. Hartstene to the lion. Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 United States Barque Release, New York, October 11, ISoJ. 
 
 Sir,— I have the honour to report the arrival here, this day, of the Arctic 
 expedition, with Dr. Kane and his associates, who were received on board at 
 Lievely, where they had arrived several days previous, having deserted their brig 
 in Smith's Sound, about thirty miles to the northwaRl and eastward of the 
 furthest point reached by us, and, by unprecedented energy and determination, 
 maile their way down in boats and sledges. 
 
 In five days after my last communication to the Department (a copy of which, 
 as well as of all others since leaving, are heref ith enclosed), w« sUcceeiled in 
 *' boring " a passage through the middle " pack ' of Baffin's Bay, and in roachin^ 
 
 ' 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 467 
 
 Lievely, where we were detained until the 18th ultimo, coaling, watering, and 
 jn-eparinj,' to receive our increased numbers. Sailing on that day in company with 
 the Arctic, we have, without any incident worthy of note, returned all in health. 
 
 No tra,ce3 whatever of Sir John Franklin or his party were discovered. 
 
 Our ves.sel3 have both proved themselves all that could have been desired, 
 |iarticularly the Arctic, she having, in addition to her steam-motive power, the 
 qualities of a good, weatherly, moderate-sailing vessel. They have been pretty 
 severely nipped ami chafed by the ice, but are generally in good condition. 
 
 I enclose a list of the officers, men, and crews of the Release and Arctic, as 
 well as of Dr. Kane's pa\t 
 
 As the crews of botli vessels were shipped with the understanding that they 
 were to be discharged on the return of the expedition to the United States, I 
 respectfully request authority from the Department to pay them off. — I am, very 
 respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 H. J. Hartstenb, 
 Lieutenant commanding Arctip Expedition. 
 Hon. J. C. Dor.BiN, 
 
 Secretary of the Navy, Wasliington, D. C. 
 
 
 ! <l 
 
 H 
 
 Mr 
 
 List of the Officers and Crew of the United States Barqiie Release. 
 
 H. J. Hartstene, lieutenant commanding. 
 James Laws, acting assistant surgeon. 
 Wni. S. Lovell, acting muster. 
 Jos. P. Fytt'c, passed midsliipman. 
 Van U. Hall, boatswain. 
 Clmrles Sever, captain's clerk. 
 'J'lionuis I'raiililyii, purser's steward, 
 liicliaid iM. Clai ko, surgec!rs steward. 
 ]{obert Bruce, boatswain's mate. 
 William Suiitli, do. 
 
 David liatey, captain of I'orefnp. 
 Charles Jidiiison, captain of maintop. 
 George Devys, gunnel's mate. 
 
 Tliomas Ford, gunner's mate. 
 William Phiiiiiey, quartermaster. 
 Josepli Morris, do. 
 
 Benjamin -Moore, sallmaker's mate. 
 Charles WMlianis, carpenter's mate. 
 Fnincis Taylor, captain of liold. 
 William Henry, sliip's cook. 
 Louis Lawrence, seainaii. 
 Andrew Lawson, do. 
 Hyron Potler, do. 
 
 John Haley, do, 
 
 John Smitli, do 
 
 George IJidwold, da. 
 
 .1 
 
 PASSENGERS. 
 
 Passed Assistant Surgeon E. K. Kane, United States Va.\j. 
 Belonging to Dr. Kane's paHy. 
 
 John W. Wilson. 
 Amos Bonsall. 
 L I. Hayes. 
 
 August Sontag. 
 Henry Goodfellow. 
 William Morton. 
 
 Geo. Stephenson. 
 Thomas Hickcy. 
 
 List of the Officers and Crew of the United States Steam-bHij Arctic 
 
 Charles C. Simms, lieutenant commanding. 
 John K. Kane, acting assistant surgeon. 
 Watson Smith, acting master. 
 Uarman Newell, 1st assistant engineer. 
 William Johnston, acting 3d assistant do 
 John Van Uyke, purser's steward. 
 Abraham W. Kendcll, surgeon's steward. 
 Samuel Whiting, acting boatswain. 
 William Kichardsou, acting cuipeiiter. 
 William Carey, boatswain's mate. 
 John Blinn, do. 
 
 Wi'.'iam Grovcr, quartermaster. 
 Waiter Wilkinson, do. 
 
 Uichard Hartley, captain of liold. 
 I Joseph Drown, ship's cook. 
 John Fox, '.'d class fireman. 
 John Giioci-t, do. 
 George Tyler, do. 
 John Thompson, seaman. 
 Jolin Brown, do, 
 
 George Price, do. 
 
 James Botsford, do. 
 
468 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 PASSKNOERS BKLONOINO TO DR. KANE S PARTY. 
 
 r>oatswn!n Henry Brooks, U.S. Niivy. 
 ,)tiuies M'Guiy. 
 George Uiley. 
 
 William Godfrey 
 Charles Blake. 
 George Whipple. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 Report of a Journey hy Messrs. Bonsall and M'Gart/ to establish Provision 
 Depdts along tlie Greenland Coast. 
 
 Sir, — We have the honour to submit the following report, t.aken from tlie 
 journal and field-notes of our party : — 
 
 September 20, Tuesdai/.—'We left the ship about one o'clock with the " Sledge 
 Faith " and seven men, and arrived at Coffee Gorge at eight o'clock. As it was 
 low-water, we were unable to gain the land-ice, and encamped on the floe. You 
 accompanied us for the first stage of our journey with the dogs. 
 
 September 21, Wednesda;/. — Started this morning about eight o'clock and tra- 
 velled until noon, when, as we were about to halt for dinner, we came upon weak 
 ice, which gave way. The after-part of the sledge went down, but the floats pre- 
 vented it from sinking. In order to draw it out without breaking the ice, we 
 unlashed and took off part of the load. Our thermometer was broken, and some 
 few of the articles were wet ; everytliing else was uninjured. At 2 p.m. we con- 
 cluded to pitch our tent, as we could not get on tlie land-ice until high-water ; 
 besides, Mr. M'Gary and two of the men were very wet. By 4 p.m. we succeeded 
 in drawing up the sledge, and reloaded for an early start the next morning. 
 
 September 22, Thiirsday.— At 8 a.m. we set off on the land-ice, and at the ex- 
 I''.ration of two hours found we had travelled only two miles. We then spent 
 two hours in lowering down the sledge and cargo upon the bay-ice, which we 
 found perfectly strong. But by this time the ice had set off from the shore, and 
 four of us were forced to walk about a mile up the land-ice before we found a 
 suitable place of descent. We then travelled about five miles on the floe, when 
 we were stopped by an open crack. We attempted to get on the land-ice again, 
 but, finding that impossible, we started out into the bay, hoping to cross it on the 
 old floe ; but this we failed to do, as the crack ran through it to an indefinite 
 extent. We therefore determined to return to the point we had left and await 
 tlie flood-tide, which would close the crack. We encamped near the land-ice, 
 with a strong wind blowing from the S.E. accorap.anied by snow. 
 
 September 23, Fridai/.— This morning Mr. M'Gary started off shore to search 
 for a crossing-place, the ice being not yet closed. He returned at 7 a.m. and 
 reported that the lead was closing, and in half an hour crossed it in perfect 
 safety. We travelled quite rapidly over the smooth ice for two miles, when we 
 came to more thin ice, but by careful search and trial found a place sufficiently 
 strong to bear us. At this point we found an open Ciack running off shore, and 
 were forced to unship the cargo from the sledge and get it upon the land-ice, on 
 which we progressed with difficulty about a mile, when we found it necessary to 
 divide our load and transport half of it at a time. In this manner we travelled 
 until 6 P.M., when we enavraped on the land-ice, and Mr. M'Gary and one of the 
 mcu returned about four miles to orocure water. 
 
 If t 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 469 
 
 September 24, Saturday. — Started at 7.30 a.m., and found, after walking a 
 few hundred paces, that we shoukl be able to regain the tloe-ice. This occupied 
 us about an hour and a half. The ice was from twelve to sixteen inches thick. 
 Encamped at 5 p.m. about ten miles from Chimney Rock. 
 
 September 25, Shiida//. — We did not start till 9 a.m., as it was Sunday. We 
 then pushed forward toward Cape Russell over old floe-iee well covered with snow 
 and quite smooth. About 2 P.M. we made the Cairn, and i)roceeded to caclie the 
 pemmican (bag No. 5, weij;ht 105 lbs.), also one-lialf of our meal and half a bag 
 of bread, attheba.se of the rock on which the cairn is built, being about one 
 thousand paces from a prominent cape, and the same distance from the cape west 
 of it. Encamped near the cliffs at 4 p.m., having travelled about fourteen miles. 
 We took no observations, the weather being cloudy. 
 
 September 2^, Monday. — We started at 7.30 a.m., and, liaving smooth ice, 
 made about two and a half miles per hour. The coast has nearly the same trend 
 as that of yesterday (E.S.E.) About 11 a.m. wedi.scovered a deep gorfe running 
 into the land, and stopped tliere a short time to find water, but without "success. 
 We named this spot " Sunny Gorge :" as its course was S.E. and N.W., the s\in 
 shone directly upon it, while at the same time we were in the shadow of the clitl's. 
 We discovered the remains of five Esquimau.^ huts, which, thougi\ very old and 
 in ruins, appeared to be larger and better constructed than any wu had seen 
 before. We .also met with our first bear tracks to-day ; but they were apparently 
 a week old. This morning our cook shot a silver-grey fox near our tent. During 
 the night the wind blew quite strong from tlie E., and this morning changed to 
 N.E. with a liglit breeze; but I took compass-bearings and. appro.vimate dis- 
 tances of the most j)rominent objects along the line of coast. At noon when we 
 lialted for dinner we were forced to melt ice to drink, as we were very thirsty. 
 At 4 p.m. we came to some running water in a gorge,-— the first we had seen since 
 we left Glacier Bay. From tliis point we discovered an island or point, appa- 
 rently about six miles in length, running out from the cliffs, and partly forming 
 the coast of a bay. After making preparations for repelling the bears in case 
 they should discover our pemmican, we turned in, having travelled from sixteen 
 to eighteen miles. 
 
 September 27, Tuesday. — Set off at 8 a.m., and walked about twenty miles over 
 the bay toward j'esterd ay's station, where we arrived about 3 p.m. From this 
 ])oint the land changes, from the high cliffy of limestone and greenstone, to rolling 
 hills of red granite, which trend a little to the S. of E., and are intersected by 
 small bays and islands. We have been looking out, but without success, for the 
 dark mass seen by you from Cape George Russell when on the first travelling 
 party. Encamped about 4 p.m., having made about fifteen miles. 
 
 September 23, Wednesday. — L^ii our encampment about 8 a.m., and pushed 
 on ;!i the face of an easterly snow-storm, which fell so thick that we could not 
 see the coast-line more than a few yards ahead ; but, having taken boarings on 
 the preceding day, we were not at a loss. Last night, owing to the thawing of 
 the ice, our buffalo-skin became very wet, which rendered us extremely cold .and 
 uncomfortable. In the afternoon we arrived at a suitable point for making the 
 second cache, and deposited the pemmican bag No. ^ , weighing 110 lbs., and half 
 a bag of bread. We built a cairn upon the rock above the cache, to mark the 
 spot, which bears from the centre of the cairn E. by N.^N. distant ten piices. 
 It being late, we pitched our tent, having travelled this day about fourteen miles. 
 By placing some loose articles under the buffalo, we were much more comfortable 
 than on the precediiig night. The temperature was so much lower than we had 
 
 i -V- 
 
 l!|l 
 
 ii&: 
 
470 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 yet experiencetl, tbat our stocking8 froze to the soles of our boots ; yet none of us 
 were frost-bitten. 
 
 September 29, TJiursdai/.—'We could not set out till 8 a.m., owing to the sick- 
 ness of t.wo of our men, who got better, however, after travelling an hour or two. 
 About twenty miles above our encampment the glacier comes down to the shores 
 of the sound, covering the land completely, and extending as far as tl;^ eye c;»n 
 fe;ich toward the N. by K. The weather was extremely cold. We made about 
 twelve miles to-day. 
 
 September 30, Friday. — \i was clear and very cold all the day. Mr. M'Gary, 
 myself, and two of the men, were slightly frost-bitten. We passetl almost parallel 
 with the glacier (about N. by E.); but, as the refraction was very great, we 
 were not a little confused as to our coastline, though we thought we saw dark 
 land to the northward. At 4.30 p.m. we halted and pitched our tent, having 
 travelled eleven or twelve miles. As the sun went down the cold increased, so 
 that it was nearly morning by the time we felt comfortable. 
 
 October 1, Saturday. — We started at 8.15 a.m., and travelled N. by E. over 
 very heavy floe. TKe snow, which had been gradually deepening, was about six 
 or seven inches in depth, and very cold to our feet, althouj^h none of us were 
 frost-bitten to-day. The cold, being so intense, induced us to halt earlier than 
 usual, hpving travelled only about ten miles. We have had but little encourage- 
 ment to-day, as we can see nothing but glacier as far as the eye '"\n reach. The 
 men complain of cold at night, and we get but little sleep. Owing to the severe 
 cold, I found it impossible to write my log : I wrote it this morning in the sun- 
 shine. To-day we burned the last of our alcohol, though we used it with the 
 greatest economy. We attempted to burn rum, but found it was not sufficiently 
 strong. We then had recourse to the staves of the cask and other small pieces of 
 wood, together with a few pounds of lard. We progressed about ten or twelve 
 miles to-day, having struck a lead of smooth ice which ran in oi;'- course. 
 
 October 2, Sunday. — We found the travelling much better than yesterday, as 
 we followed the lead of last evening. We are still looking out for land to the 
 northward, none being in sight even from the highest bergs. The nights become 
 sensibly colder as v/e advance, and lately some of us have suff"ered considerably 
 from cramp in the limbs, though no serious cases have occurred. Mr. M'Gary, 
 who has not slept for several nights, is now quite unwell. We made to-day about 
 twelve miles, having had comparatively good travelling, although the snow is deep. 
 
 October 3, Monday. — Last night we slept more comfortably tlian we had done 
 for some time. This morning an easterly gale sprung up directly off the glacier, 
 which blew the snow so much as to make the travelling impracticable ; and, my 
 frozen feet rendering me quite lame, we resolved to remain in our tent. Mr. 
 M'Gary and two men walked to a berg about two miles distant, and in two hours 
 returned with the news that they saw land at a long distance to the north of us. 
 
 October 4, Tuesday. — This morning, the gale having subsided, we prepared for 
 an early start. We dug our sledge out of the drift and made for the land sighted 
 yesterday. The wind, having packed the snow, made it more firm, and ren- 
 dered the travelling easier. About 3 p.m. we halted to melt snow for drink, but 
 the high wind made it difficult to keep the fire burning. While some of the 
 party were cooking supper, others climbed a high berg, and on their return re- 
 ported better ice than we have had for some time ; also, from present appearances 
 a fair prospect of making land in two days more. We have advanced about ten 
 or twelve miles. The wind is east, and weather cloudy. AH our fuel ia 
 expended. 
 
AITKNDIX. 
 
 471 
 
 r il 
 
 October 5, Widncadai/. — Started about 7 a.m. ; but, as I lost my wntcli-kcy, 
 we could only guess the time by the sun. About 11 a.m. mc caine to an almost 
 impenetrable mass of bergs, and were soon stopped by an open crack rutining 
 nearly K. and W. for sevral miles in each direction frum our position. It was 
 about thirty fathoms wide. We sent parties out to seek a crossing ; but, finding 
 it was a tide-crack extending probably many miles, we concluded to await the 
 turn of the tide, which would close it. On the opposite side we cnuld discern 
 nothing but high icebergs with narrow passages between them choked up by 
 hummocks and squeezed ice. Finding it iuifiossible to make land to the eastward, 
 we attempted to cross to the westward ; but, seeing no change in the appearance 
 of the ice, we pitched our tent and turned in, as it was near sunset. We begin to 
 fear we shall be obliged to return to the other side of the glacier, owing to tlio 
 bad appearance of the ice; besides, as the men are growing wp^Mciiiind are still 
 affected with cramp, they are less able to draw the- sietige over the increasing 
 difficulties of th'^ way. With all our toil, we made this day but eight miles in a 
 straight line. < 
 
 October 6, Thumday. — The crack closed last night. To <lay we rose early, 
 crossed it about 6 a.m., and commenced forcing our way among hummocks and 
 squeezed ice. After twisting about ai;)ong the bergs for two or three hours and 
 advancing only about a mile, we came to a full stop ; and, a.s we found it impos- 
 sible to proceed, we left the sledge. Five of the party started on foot tiirough 
 the ravines between the bergs, crossed three more cracks, but found great dith- 
 culty in walking, on account of the broken character of the ice. After travelling 
 about two miles through the gorges we ascended to the top of an iceberg, whence 
 a desolate scene burst upon our view. Before us, at the distance of twenty-five 
 or thirty miles, the land, which runs about W.N.W. and E.S.E., assumed the 
 character of the coast near Cape Frederick VII. ;* but between us and the land 
 was a solid mass of bergs having narrow passages between them similar to those 
 we had just passed through. In taking the bearings of the most prominent 
 points with the sextant, I froze my fingers severely. Finding it impossible to 
 ])rogress further in our course toward the land, we turned back very reluctantly, 
 as our near approach to it had raised our hopes. In the meantime Mr. M'Gary 
 had been in another direction, but returned equally unsuccessful. We therefore 
 concluded to make for the first land on the south side of the glacier and deposit 
 the peramicau. After hard labour we regained the crack we had crossed this 
 morning, but, finding it open, we were forced to wait till it closed. This morn- 
 ing our cook wounded a fox, which gave two of the men a long chase before they 
 secured it. Baker is quite unwell to-day. 
 
 October 7, Friday. — Last night the crack closed, but we feared to cross it in 
 the dark. This morning we rose about five o'clock, but were obliged to wait till 
 eight, as the crack was not sufficiently close to admit of our crossing. We had 
 just passed over it when it began to open, and before we had finished lashing our 
 sledge it had opened several feet. About 9 a.m. we pursued our way outside of the 
 bergs on the south side of the crack, and found the ice much better for travelling. 
 We headed directly for the piint on the south side of the sound. Encamped about 
 4 P.M., the weather excessively cold. Some of the men complain of frozen feet 
 Baker is much better. 
 
 October 8, Saturday. — Started this morning at sunrise and travelled fast over 
 
 * This name was applied by my predecessor to a supposed cape. We retained the name 
 during our early parties for a large headland in lat. ?S° 5.V8', long. CS" 50'.— E. K. K. 
 
 ti 
 
 i 
 
 ii-fi i 
 
472 
 
 Ain'ENUIX. 
 
 a.tt 
 
 I 
 
 ''\ii 
 
 111 
 
 t-i-ii 
 
 : ■■ . 
 
 1; 
 
 vm 
 
 tlio tloe, wJiicli was comparatively smooMi. It was so cold tl..*i, we could not stop 
 to rest, and for the siiine reaaim took a very short time for (iiniier. Yesterday 
 we took more of the alcohol from cache, 'is the gallon we first took had been con- 
 Humed. I think we lost both rtiiu and alcohol by evaporatioti. This evening I 
 opened the thermometers which were sent for deposit at the cache, and found, 
 much to my re^'ret and disai)pointment, that they were both broken, althouj,'h 
 they were packed securely. I had my nose and two of my fingers frozen to-day. 
 I was not aware of my nose being frozen until I was informed of it, when I h;i(l 
 it rubbed with snow, which seemed to make it worse. Mr. M'Gary's feet wen; 
 frozen a^ain today. A strong breeze sprung up from the E. about 7 p.m. We 
 made about fifteen miles. 
 
 October Si, SunUai/. — The wind ceased during the night, and this morning we 
 started at sunrise. We had smooth ice, and made <.;ood speeil. About 10 a.m. 
 a white fox came in view. I shot iiim without injuring the skin. We had ho]itMl 
 to make the cache -point this evening, but at sunset we were still several mihs 
 from it ; and, as it became very cold, we concluded to encamp. We travelled 
 about seventeen miles to-day. 
 
 October 10, Monday. — We started at 7 a.m. ; and, as the sun bad not yet ri.sen, 
 the cold was so severe that we could scarcely prevent our faces from being frozen. 
 About 9 A.M. we made the point of tlie island, to which we carried o*. bags of 
 pemmican and our heaviest stores, which we covered witii the largest stones wi- 
 could find, to prevent the animals from attacking our meat. This was laborious 
 work, as the stones had to be carried some distance up the hill. After stopping 
 up every crevice a fox could work through, we covered it with loose stones and 
 moss. While we were employed in building the cache, Mr. M'Gary was engaged 
 in making a stew of one of the foxes we had shot; in which operation he froze 
 his finger severely. We built the cairn on a point of rock thirty paces E.iS. 
 from the cache, and at the same distance from tiie point of a remarkable rock on 
 the highest part of the island, bearing S. by W..JW. There were two small 
 islands about two thousand paces from the cache, the larger bearing E. by N.,JN., 
 and the smaller E.N.E. Owing to the severity of the cold, I was unable to take 
 sextant-bearings of these points ; but, from the situation of the island and posi- 
 tions of the cache and cairn, as well as the fixed points, it could readily be found. 
 As it was nearly night by the time we had finished our caciie, we concluded to 
 encamp on the island. This was the coldest day we had yet experienced. 
 
 October 11, Tuesday.- After a cold and sleepless night, we. set out very early, 
 and travelled fast, in order to reacli the cache where we had left half a bag of 
 bread. We arrived there after a hard day's travel of about twenty-five miles. 
 
 October 12, Wednesday. — Started very early this morning, and travelled fast, 
 stopping at noor only, to melt snow, as we were all very thirsty. Made about 
 fifteen miles this day. 
 
 October 13, Tlmrsday. — Set out early, and walked fast, in order to gain a 
 stream of water we had passed on our outward journe ■ We reached it about 
 10 A.M., but found it frozen solid. We then took some moss, and melted enougii 
 for a drink. We hurried on, hoping to meet Cape Frederick before nightfall ; 
 but in about an hour wc came to an open crack, which checked our progress fur 
 the time, as we tried in vain i, i get on the land-ice. We waited until after dark ; 
 but, as the crack did not close, we pitched our tent. Just then a white foj came 
 in sight, which was soon shot, making the fifth since leaving the vessel. The 
 day closed with a high wind and a snow-storm. We made about twelve miles. 
 
 October 14. Friday. — Rose this morning at peep of day, crossed the crack. 
 
Tl 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 473 
 
 which was now closed, and j)ushed on for Cape Freiloriok. We were arrested by 
 cracks and l>ay-ico every half mile ; and, as this was all wolid floe when we pasRed 
 it in going out, there must have been a strong yale hero since then. Opposite 
 Sunny (Jorge we came to an open crack, which dchiyed us about half an hour ; 
 but, finding a loose piece of ice sufficiently large to bear us and our sledge, we 
 ferried ourselves over without difficulty. About camping-time we arrived opjK)- 
 site to our first c.iche, but were unable to get upon the laiid-ico, owing to the low 
 tide. In passing thu place where we cached the fox on our outward journey, we 
 found foxes and ravens hud eaten the carcass, leaving scarcely a vestige of it. 
 We made to-day about fifteen miles. 
 
 October 15, ^'a/«r</fl.v.— Early this morning, the tide having risen, we endeav- 
 oured to secure some bread from the cache. This we accomplished by one man 
 standing upon the shoulders of another. Wo immediately set off, but were soon 
 stopped by a crack, which we crossed about a mile further up. We then came 
 to the bay, and, steering direct for the opposite cape, would have crossed without 
 difriculty ; but, as we neared the cai)e, the ice was broken up, and about sunset 
 we came to a crack about one hundred fathoms wide, which it seemed impossible 
 to cross; but in about half an hour we succeeded in detaching a large jiiece of 
 ice, on which we ferried ourselves over as before. We travelled on over tlie 
 smooth ice till near dark, when we came to another crack, which we did not 
 attempt to cross, but i)itciied our tent and turned in. On the return of flood-tide 
 the cracks closed, and, by sending a man ahead to try the strength of the ice, 
 we succeeded in crossing fifteen cracks in tiie sjiace of four or five miles. We 
 encamped for the night, having travelled about twenty-five miles. 
 
 October 16, Sundai/. — We set nS ^t daj light, determined, if possible, to reach 
 the vessel to-day. We headed directly for the cape of the bay in which our 
 vessel was lying. About two hours after starting, we discovered an object nearly 
 three miles from us in-shore, which on a nearer approach proved to be a tent, 
 iJefore reaching it, we discovered it to belong to our commander, who, with one 
 of the men and the Newfoundland dogs and sledge, was coming to meet us; and 
 we were very glad to see them after our long absence. We soon had a warm 
 drink, — a luxury we had not tasted for a week. The party then took upon our 
 sledge the tent and baggage of the dog-sledge ; and leaving the man with them, 1 
 returned to the vessel with you, after having fallen into the water, — no very 
 ))leasant afi"air with the thermometer below zero. We arrived at the vessel at 
 half-past twelve o'clock, and Mr. M'Gary and paiiy joined us about half-past 
 three. — We remain, your obedient servants, 
 
 James M'Gart, 
 
 Am09 BoNSAIili.* 
 To Dr. E. K. Kane, Commanding Arctic Expedition. 
 1>RIG Advan'ck, Smith's Sound, October 30, 1883. 
 
 r 
 
 r 
 
 Compiled by me from f i^'nul fleld-notea.— A. Uumsau. 
 
474 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Journal of a Travelling I'artij into th« IiUerior eastward from Itensselaer 
 
 Harbour. 
 
 Parly eotuUling qfifr, Wilton, Dr, Ilaya, and I/anit, Iht E$quimaux, 
 
 Bkio Auvamci, March 'JD, ISM. 
 To Dr. E. K. Kanr. Commanding American Arctic Erf edition. 
 
 The subjoined journal is a copy from (i ronnii note-book kept dftily, and tli» 
 accompanying chart in projocto'" ■' tiic field-notes. — Respectfully submitted, 
 your obedient servant, I. I. IIayks, Hunjcon to Kxpcdition. 
 
 Sfjilember 8, Thursdaij. — Left the brig at 7 p.m., equipiuHl by order as follows : 
 — two buffalo-robes sewed togctlier and covered with India-rubber cloth, to servo 
 as a tent ; tliirty pounds of peramican, two of bread, one of meat-biscuit, one of 
 chocolate, and one of coffee, constituted our stock of provisions. Each man 
 carried a tin-cup strapjied to his waist, an extra pair of boots, (Ksquimaux), a 
 Lady Franklin gun, and a Danish rifle. The tent weighed twenty-six pounds. 
 
 Our course lay due east, but from this we were obliged to deviate on meeting 
 the inlet at the terminatitm of the bay. We followed the course of a ravine, 
 which afforded us a more level track, and encamiiod about eight miles from the 
 brig, Reside a small stream, which opened into a plaiu half a mile long by about 
 a hundred yards bmnd, and covered witli rich gra.s3. One hure was seen during 
 our march, and I observed a few single specimens of saxifrage still in full bloom. 
 A heath — Andromeda tetragona— which grew luxuriantly about the rocks and 
 protected places afforded us a plentiful supply of fuel , and, had it nut been 
 completely saturated with snow, "onld have made us an admirable fire. At 
 11 P.M. our thermometer showef' ".4 Fahrenheit. 
 
 September 9, Fviday. — Set ( ^levon o'clock, having first ascended the 
 
 highest bluff within reach, from >■ .i-a I could sight the headlands of the bay, 
 for the purpose of connecting our route with them, and with the plateau beyoiul. 
 We therefore travelled as nearly due east as the winding i)ath among the rough 
 syenitic bluffs would allow. We reached the base of the greenstone debris, aiid 
 ascended it, at an angle of from 25° to 30°, to an elevation nearly equal to that 
 of the headland before mentioned. A half mile brought us to the termination of 
 a talus, which seemed to be succeeded by another beyond, and above a partially 
 broken-d jwn escarpment. We encamped in a gorge at 8.30 p.m., having travelled 
 by rude estimate fifteen miles. A hare shot by Mr. Wilson afforded us a good 
 supper, cooked Esquimaux-fashion by Hans, on a flat stone, with the burning rags 
 from around our pemmican. Thermometer at 3 p.m., +23°, at 11 a.m., -1-16°.2. 
 
 September 10, Saturdaii. — Reatly and on our march at 10.30 a.m. A heavy 
 fog which hung over the bay obscured the headlands, and prevented our connect- 
 ing our position with that of any known point. We were, I supposed, at least 
 two points to the south of ea.st from the ve-ssel. We ascended to the highest 
 point of the plateau by a succession of steps, three in number, which brought us 
 to an elevation one-third higher than the terminating headland. From this point 
 we could see the syenites we had just left again cropping out much less bluffy, 
 and terminating the table-land to the eastward by a continuous line, trending 
 generally north-west and south-east. The opposite shore of the sound could be 
 distinguislied by high conical peaks ; and a headland nf the easteru shore was 
 distinctly visible, with its table-land, wliich ran back until it was lost in tlie 
 ayeuitic outcropping, which terminated the eastern view by a range of long bluff;-, 
 
APPKNDIX. 
 
 47r) 
 
 1 lienmlner 
 
 rch •J9, IS.Vt. 
 
 (lily, and tli> 
 ly Bubiiiitted, 
 KxpcditUm. 
 
 er as follows : 
 doth, to servo 
 >iscuit, one of 
 Each man 
 Ssquimaux), a 
 six piiuiida. 
 tto on mcoling 
 3 of a ravine, 
 uilea from the 
 long hy about 
 IS seen during 
 in full bloom, 
 the rocks and 
 id it nut been 
 able fuo. At 
 
 ascended the 
 ds of the b:iy, 
 ateau beyond, 
 ong the rough 
 ne debria, and 
 equal to that 
 termination of 
 ave a partially 
 iving travelled 
 leil us a good 
 le burning rajrs 
 A.M., +W.-2. 
 M. A heavy 
 d our connect- 
 [Wf^ed, at least 
 the highest 
 ch brought us 
 rom this point 
 ch less bluffy, 
 line, trending 
 ound could be 
 «ru shore was 
 as lost in tlie 
 of long bluffs, 
 
 trending apparently north and south. To the soiith «!.tst and M>uth won viBible A 
 long continuous misthnnk, reaching 4" or 6° of altitude, ttnd terniin.iting below 
 in vertical linc.i, alternately ligiit and dark. This ' supposed to be a great in- 
 fernal glacier, from (ifty to sixty miles (IJMtant. Its upper lino or snifafo was 
 lost in the rai.st, and could in no place be detonuinoil. We reachec the rid^'o to 
 the eastward at !) p.m., and iiii'ani{)ed. As r.eitlier water nor fuel could be 
 found, we were obliged to content ourKelveH with raw penimuan and a little 
 brandy,— tt meal by no means unpalatwble after a hard journey of at least twenty 
 miles, 
 
 Srptemher 11, Siindap. — Our route lay due east over a gently undulating 
 country. Nearly every two miles we found a lake or pool, from which we pro- 
 cured water by breaking ice six or eight inches tliick. The travelling was more 
 tedious than over the unbroken plain of yesterday, as wo had often to jump from 
 rock to rock, B;it a single high bluff was seen. It was hemisjilierieal, and 
 from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high. Having made about eight 
 miles, wo encamped at 8 p,m, Thermoinoter at midnight, -fU^.S, I 'found it 
 impossible to lay down our track by a seiies of triangulations, as at the distance 
 of a mile one point could not be distingnishe<l from another. Many reindeer and 
 fox tracks were seen during the day, but no living thing passed witliin view, 
 
 Septemher 12. M<mday. — Set out at 10.30 a.m. Our route growing moie in- 
 terrupted by fissures and gorges, added to the difficulties of travel. On one 
 occasion I tumbled headforemost down some rocks ; but hapi)ily the tent which 
 I was carrying saved me from injury. The stock of my gun and my pocket- 
 thermometer we' l^roken, Hans expressed a determination to proceed no fur- 
 ther in our pres. nt course. He pointed east, exclaiming, " No good ;" " EequI- 
 maux none ;" and, looking west, he said " Sloupkie," and started in the latter 
 direction. On ascending the highest point in our vicinity, we discovered a river 
 about three miles distant, running nearly north-west. This we showed our 
 Esquimaux friend, whereupon he set off immediately and reached its banks at 
 8 p.m.— half an hour before we arrived. We travelled about len miles to-day, 
 and during f)ur journey found the most luxuriant growth of androraeda which 
 we have met witli in North Greenland. Besides serving for fuel, a quantity of 
 it spread under our tent made a much softer bed than the stones, 
 
 Septemher 13, Tuesday. — Hans having expressed his unwillingness to go any 
 further, we thought it best to leave him in charge of the tent, &c., and, without 
 the encumbrance of baggage, to proceed up the river in order to find its source, 
 which I hoped to do in one day's travel. I felt certain that the glacier 
 we had sighted on the 10th could not be very distant, I supposed the river to 
 be a continuation of that crossed by Dr, Kane with his first full party. About 
 a mile from the tent we came to a fork in the river, one branch of which ran 
 north-west, the other west. We followed the latter, and after ten miles travel 
 we came to a succession of terraced plains, occasionally appearing on either side 
 of the stream, generally covered with rich gra.ss, and marked ii. every direction 
 by reindeer-tracks. We saw five of these animals feeding along the borders oi 
 the stream. These meadow-lands (for such they really seemed) indicated by 
 their vegetable life a temperature much warmer than that along the coast, and 
 in their apparent richness contrasted strangely with the desolate scenery around. 
 This plain was at least two miles in diameter and about five in length. From 
 this point we obtained the first sight of the glacier, which is about fifteen miles 
 distant. We could see its upper surface in one continuous and unbroken line, 
 through an arc of more than 90°. When within about half a mile of the glacier, 
 
 n 
 
 
 If 
 
 %■'■■ t: 
 
476 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 n 
 
 •■fi!? 
 
 
 M 
 
 a beautiful meteor fell directly before us, revealing in the dim twilight the real 
 character of the huge mirror beneath us. From the glacier rose loud reports 
 like distant thunder. It was nearly midnight when f/e reached its base, and we 
 immediately undertook its ascent. Along the base, to the height of fifty or 
 fciixty feet, was a bank of snow continuous with the face of the glacier, and rising 
 at an angle of 30°. This we ascended without difficulty ; but the smooth surface 
 of the ice baffled us in our attempts to scale it. I now wished for our tent, that 
 we might rest here the following day and make further attempts to reach the 
 summit of the glacier. We were already tired and cold. 
 
 September 14, Wednesday. — As constant exercise is necessjiry in order to keep 
 warm, we set out on our return, and reuchci tor encampment about noon, after 
 a walk of twenty miles. The trend of this glacier is north- north-east, its altitude 
 above the general level of the country from three hundred to four hundred feet, 
 and the distance between its crevasses from twenty to forty feet. These crevasses 
 are generally small, being from one to three feet wide, and about tlie same in 
 depth, and partially filled with snow. The face of the glacier rose, at an angle 
 of about 35°, to an elevation of one hundred and sixty feet, when it rounded olf 
 as it gradually approached the vier de glace above. 
 
 September 15, Thursday. — Having accomplished the object of our journey, we 
 determined upon returning to the vessel, although we had been absent less tiiau 
 half the allotted time. We kept our old track until we reached the camping- 
 ground of the fourth night out, when we struck off to the north of east. We saw 
 three deer; but, with all the dexterity of an experienced hunter, Hans failed to 
 approach them near enough for a shot. An old and weather-worn skull of a 
 musk-ox was found during the day's march. 
 
 September 16, Friday. — V/e reached the brig at 3 a.m., after acont'nuous walk 
 of nineteen hours, during wiiich time we halted but for one meal. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 I. I. Hayes, M.D., Surgeon to the Expedition. 
 
 Journal of a Party sent out to Deposit a Self-Registering Thermometer at 
 some available })oint to the northward of Marshall Bay, under charge 
 of Br 1. 1. Hayes. 
 
 October 21, Friday. — Left the brig at a quarter-past eleven, the party consist- 
 ing, besides myself, of Mi;. Morton, steward, and John Blake, seaman. A sledge 
 diawn by four Newfoundland dogs carried our tent, buffalo-robes, sleeping-bags, 
 provisions,— in short, everything practicable and necessary for comfort and con- 
 venience in Arctic travelling. Our only extra weight was a keg of alcohol, to be 
 deposited' in cache. I ca.rried a pocket-sextant and [lortable compass strapped to 
 my waist. For the first two miles we found the travelling excellent, over newly- 
 formed ice intermingled with heavy pieces and hummocks. Our load being light, 
 the dogs drew the sledge in a half-trot, causing us to keep up a brisk walk. On 
 meeting with rough hummocky ice, we unharnessed the dogs and drew the sledge 
 ourselves for the next two or three miles, passing Coffee Gorge and camping for 
 the night about five miles beyond. It was the work of half an hour to pitch our 
 tent, unharness our dogs, collect snow for water, and carefully stow our dogs in 
 one side of our tent and ourselves in ti.e other. On opening our provision-bag 
 we were not a littlo mortified to find oar fresh beef and pemmican had been for- 
 
""^■r 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 477 
 
 gotten, and were forced to make out with a much less palatable dish than our 
 commander liad kindly intended, — a stew of pork and bre.td. 
 
 October 22, Saturday. — Roused Morton and John at six, it being not yet quite 
 light. A pot of coffee and pork-stew constituted our breakfast. Hy half-past 
 
 ' j'ht we were on our march, and at twelve we halted to melt snow for the dogs 
 opposite to the point to the eastward of Marshall Hay. I took sextant-altitudes 
 of the cliffs, called by Commander Kane Tennyson Monument, stepping a base- 
 line of two hundred yards. The results are : — height of cliffs to top of debris, 
 seven hundred and twelve feet ; height of debris, three hundred and fifty feet. 
 Upon a rude estimate, the debris runs out at an .angle of forty degrees. At half- 
 past twelve we were off again on a ' dog-trot," keeping a straiglit course for the 
 outermost point of a large cape, hoping to reach it by nooi. of the following d.ay. 
 About three o'clock we pitched our tent in the centre of a laige old floe, abuut ten 
 miles from the nearest point of the opposite shore. We were here in full view of 
 the bay, in the centre of which rose tiie rugged faces of the syenites— the same 
 range crossed in my inland journey in St i I ember, Chimiey Rock was repognised 
 as the same he.-idland sighted from tlie plateau in that journey, bearing N. 60° E. 
 ]3y half-past five we were ready to turn in. On unwrapping the thermometer, to 
 my great mortification and astonishment I found it broken, — an accident which 
 must have occurred in the lashing of the sledge. It was, however, most carefully 
 wrapped in woollen, and placed in the centre of the sleeping-bags and buffalo- 
 robes, 80 that I thought there could be no danger of accident. As I was much 
 interested in the results to be obtained, the defeat was no small disappointment, 
 and the idea of turning back, which appeared the only alternative, no less un- 
 pleasant. As endeavouring to obtain sigiits of the opposite coast-line and make 
 a survey of this was second.ary to tlie other object, I thought that, in the uncer- 
 tainty of having clear weather, and the great probability that another effort 
 ..ould be made by Dr. Kane to obtain a result so desirable, it would be useless 
 to proceed further at present, except to deposit the keg of alcohol at the first 
 cache made by Messrs. M'Gary and Bonsall near Chimney Rock. This I deter- 
 mined to do the next day. By imu ersing the broken thermometer in melting 
 snow to ascertain rudely its correction, I found the temperature of the air to bo 
 — 21° 5', the wind, which had been blowing stiffly from the eastward, having 
 nearly subsided. Morton and I had our hands severely frost-bitten during the 
 day, — he in melting snow, and I in carelessly exposing my hands in manipulating 
 with the sextant at Tennyson Monunent. Alternate pounding and rubbing 
 brought, us off with each a single blister. 
 
 October 23, Sunday. — Were ready to start by 8.10 a.m. Morton and I occupied 
 tlie place of the dogs in drawing the sledge, leaving John in charge of the dogs, 
 tent, &;c. We reached the cache at half-past twelve, a distance of fifteen miles. 
 The cache remained undisturbed ; but the numerous tracks arouml, and tlie 
 efforts made to undermine the pile of stones, showed the necessity of great pre- 
 caution in depositing provisions. The keg of alcohol was placed at one end of 
 the bag of peramican, and the cache additionally strengthened. The debris was 
 mostly of limestone, and not extending so high as is common in those already 
 passed. I was very anxious to fulfil the desire of Dr. Kane to obtain a suite of 
 specimens of the cliffs and debris ; but the cliffs were difficult to ascend, and, by 
 the time I had reached half way, I found it would be impossible to gain tiie top 
 without first descending. Specimens of the rock as far as I ascended, were 
 carefully wrapped in p.aper and marked in series. A stiff breeze ■was blowing 
 around the point, and, by the time I reached the bottom, I v.aii so chilled that I 
 
 
 ■J 
 
 
 
 r '] 
 
 l/:i" 
 
 ini 
 
 ■ii ■■ 
 
 ii'l 
 
 :" , !^ 
 
 il 
 
 I J 
 
 m 
 
 
-w 
 
 478 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 felt little like making another effort ; besides, I had already gone up by a gorge 
 to take a look, without doing any good, and it was growing late. Sextant- 
 altitudes were taken of the top of the greenstone and the debris, with a stejj]jed 
 base of two hundred paces, which gave severally six hundred and three hundred 
 feet. Started back at three o'clock, a light snow falling. Eeached the tent 
 about 7 P.H. 
 
 October 24, Monday. — Commenced my journey at 10 a.m., parsing over nearly 
 the same track as on the 22d. We made the land-ice, to avail ourselves of tie 
 lee of the cliffs against the strong wind, and pitched our tent at a quarter-past 
 three. We found, on unpacking the sledge, that a stanchion and top-bar had 
 been broken. One of the dogs iiaving made his exit at one corner of the tent two 
 nights previously, John soon had us safely fastened in. We ate our stew, drank 
 our coffee, an-l I smoked my last cigar; after which we pulled into our blanket- ba^-s. 
 
 October 25, Tuesdav. — Were ready and on our way to the brig by 9.45 a.m., 
 keeping along tlie la je to Coffee Gorge. Dr. Kane had previously called my 
 attention to a set of > ,king-stones, the phenomena of which he explained satis- 
 factorily. As soon as we sighted the vessel, the dogs kept us on a half-run until 
 half-past one, at which time we reached it. — Very respectfully, 
 
 I. I. Hayes Surgeon to Expedition. 
 
 To Dr. £. K. Kahb, Commcmding Arctic Exptditkm. 
 
 Report oftlie Advance Party, and Attemjit to Reach tlie Northern Shore 
 in charge of Henry Brooks. 
 
 Rensselaer Harbour, April 4, 1864. 
 
 Sir, — I have the honour to submit the subjoined abstract from our field-notes:— 
 
 March 19. — This day we left the brig at 1 p.m., and travelled in a northerly 
 direction three miles, over very good new floes nearly parallel with the north- 
 eastern shore of Rensselaer Bay, and about two miles distant from it. The 
 sledge dragged so heavily thatat times it became immovable except by a standing 
 pull. This was probably the effect of the intense cold, which causes the runners 
 to adhere to the snow. Mr. Brooks desired me to return to the brig and inform 
 you of our slow progress. At half-past one o'clock you arrived with five men 
 from our camp, bringing the big sledge as a substitute for the Esquimaux sledge, 
 and the large India-rubber boat with two canisters of pemmican, which added 
 greatly to our load. 
 
 March 20. — We started at 10 a.m., travelling over good ice ; but the sledge 
 dragged so heavily that Mr. Brooks first ordered the boat, and afterwards the two 
 canisters of pemmican, to be taken off. The latter were deposited on the soutli 
 side of a hummock, on the top of which was placed a i-ed flag. I took the bear- 
 ings of the neighbouring icebergs and headlands, to aid in finding this spot again. 
 To-day I noted two large icebergs which I saw last summer to the south of their 
 present position. About the middle of August one was situated near Refuge 
 Inlet, the othw near Bedevilled Reach, (Force Bay,) and about four miles from 
 shore. Mr. M'Gary and I ascended the latter in company with you. It is now 
 situated about four miles from Coffee Gorge, and two miles from shore. 
 
 This afternoon we encountered the chain of icebergs which extends without in- 
 terruption from the north point of Bedevilled Reach to first cape beyond Chimney 
 
 mi 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 479 
 
 Rock, or perhaps even further ncrtb. These icebergs, wliich are very numerous, 
 are generally long and flat, and situated close together. We crossed this chain 
 from S.S.E. to N.N.W., and north from the north headland of Rensselaer Bay, 
 its mean breadth being about three miles. These icebergs run parallel to tiie 
 land except where bays are formed, in which case they stretcli diiectly across 
 from one headland to the other. Single icebergs are scattered on both sides of 
 the chain to the distance of six miles. 
 
 To-day we travelled due north only two miles and a half ; but following, as we 
 did, a very tortuous road between hummocks and icebergs, our walk was increased 
 to more than five miles. The h^.titude of our camp this night was 78° 44' ; ami 
 the n^Agnetic variation to-day was 111" S.W. 
 
 March 21. — A tiiick fog this morning made it impracticable to start before 
 10.30 A.M. We continued our course due north, winding round icebergs and 
 hummocks. At noon I ascended an iceberg about eighty feet in height ; the 
 horizon was still obscured by fog, but as far as the eye could reach I could dis- 
 cover no level floes. The icebergs, moved by wind or tide, are driven against the 
 floes and break them ; which apjiears to be the cause of the formation of hum- 
 mocks. The snow being in many places above our knees rendered the walking 
 very fatiguing. In the afternoon we found the hummocks so high that we were 
 forced to divide our load and draw only half of it over them at a time, iiy this 
 arrangement we progressed but one mile and a half, although we walked more 
 than four times that distance. At 6 p.m. the fog partially disappeared, when 
 Mr, Petersen and I climbed to the summits -of some icebergs, from whence we 
 could see nothing but hummocks in every direction, though to the N.N.E. they 
 seemed rather lower, and occasionally interrupted by small level floe-pieces. 
 
 March 22, — On setting out to-day we altered our course from due N. to N.N.E., 
 crossing heavy hummocks during the first two hours. At 11 a.m., the hum- 
 mocks becoming less, we again changed our course to due N., dragging our sleuge 
 over the deep snow which had accumulated in the ravines. In the afternoon we 
 travelled over good new floes interspersed with hummocks, at one of which we 
 found a seal-hole covered with th'n ice. About 4 p.m. the fog became so thick 
 as to conceal the land. We travelled by compass until 7 p.m., when we encamped 
 in lat. 78° 49' 5", being four miles due north from our last station. 
 
 March 23. — This morning, seeing nothing but hummocks in our course, we 
 took a N. W. direction over a very old floe, which made the sledging exceedingly 
 heavy. At noon, after crossing some high hummocks, we came t" another old 
 floe, the extent of which could not be discerned on account of the fog. Here the 
 sledge was so obstructed by snow that at times it could only be moved by a stand- 
 ing pull. By 4 p.m. we had crossed this floe, the diameter of which is about two 
 miles. On its northern side it had come in contact with a new floe having tables 
 seven feet thick, withsliarp edges. The mean level of tlie old floe was aboutsix 
 feet higher than that of the new one. The remainder of the day we h.ad a good 
 road on new floes, but, having seen iio land since morning, we were forced to 
 pursue our course by compass. In the afternoon a fine breeze sprung up from 
 theN.E., accompanied by light snow. We encamped at 7 p.m. 
 
 March 24. — Baker was too sick to walk, and as it still blew a strong breeze 
 from the N.E., we resolved to lay to. No land visible. 
 
 March 25. — We set out this morning at 9.20 a.m., and, after crossing some 
 hummocks, travelled to the northward on good floes. I found our latitude at 
 noon, by the artificial horizon, to be 78° 66' 8" ; the dead reckoning for the same 
 Lour being 78* 66' 0", The north headland of Rensselaer Bay bore exactly south 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 r h'i 
 
 :|,i» 
 
480 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 about fifteen miles distant. At 1 p.m. we reached a ridge of hummocks, one of 
 which Mr. Brooks, Mr. Petersen, and I ascended, and found they extended round 
 the horizon from S.S.W. through N. to N.N.P]. The western shore could be 
 traced to a point bearing north from us, where it disappeared, leaving an open space 
 of about 50° on the horizon, at which point the lowlands on the eastern side of 
 the bay commenced. The west land appeared very high to the W. by S. and W. 
 from us, but a fog near shore disclosed only the tops of the mountains. A little 
 to the N. of W. it becomes low, and apparently more distant ; to the W. by N, 
 it appears dark, and therefore must be in shadow at 1 p.m., which makes the 
 trend of the coast there W. of N. and E. of S. ; but it is possible that it is only 
 the mountain-wall forming f.he western boundary of a glacier, which seems here 
 to descend into the souu'l. From W.N.W. toward N.W. the land increases in 
 height, and appears to be much traversed by ravines and valleys, judging from 
 the black lines of shadow which interrupt the coast-line in many places, but 
 which was greatly distorted by refraction. On the east side, at the point where 
 the Esquimaux hut is situated, the land could be distinctly seen south of Force 
 Bay, an indentation of which forms a large bay. Rensselaer Bay bears a little 
 W. from S., and the mountains which lie between it and Glacier Bay (which 
 bears S.E,), appear dark and lofty. The middle of Marshall Bay bears a little 
 S. from E. From this point toward the N.E. the land becomes gradually lower 
 till it disappears in E. N. E. This portion of the eastern shore was not sufficiently 
 distinct to take exact bearings. 
 
 In the afternoon we crossed with difficulty some old floes and hummocks. At 
 3 P.M. we found good new floes leading us toward the N.N.E. along the line of 
 hummocks. We encamped at 7 p.m., having travelled seven miles in a northerly 
 direction. 
 
 March 26. — We continued our journey N.N.E. along the hummocl. . which 
 run without interruption nearly in a straight line extending N. and W. to the 
 boundary of the horizon. It blew a strong breeze from the north, which in the 
 afternoon increased to a light gale and compelled us to lay to, at 2.30 p. m., having 
 advanced on our journey two and a half miles. 
 
 March 27. — This morning we started at 11.30 A.M., against a moderate north 
 wind, which h.ad blown very strong during the night. As the thick weather did 
 not permit us to see more than a mile ahead, we continued to follow the edge of 
 the ridge of hummocks. These hummocks consist of pieces of ice from one to 
 two feet thick, having sharp edges, and piled up from ten to fifteen feet high. 
 Single piles sometimes exceed thirty feet in hpight, and when seen at a distance 
 have the appearance of icebergs. Occasionally higher vidges are seen running 
 nearly parallel to each other and at right angles to the outer edge of the hum- 
 mocks. They seem to have been formed by the meeting of floes which have 
 been drifted N.N.E. and S.S.W. This would indicate that two currents met 
 here coming from opposite directions. Near the middle the sound seems to be 
 entirely free from icebergs ; we passed not a single one since the 23d of March, 
 and toward the W. and N. there were none in sight. 
 
 We could see no land to-day ; the fog increased so much that we were obliged 
 to halt at 3 p.m. in lat. 79° 4', only one mile and a half to the N.N. E. from our 
 last camp. 
 
 March 28. — We were forced to lay to during the entire day, owing to tliick 
 weather, and a strong breeze from N. by E. which blew in squalls. 
 
 March 29.— This morning was clear and very cold, with a light breeze from 
 the north. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 481 
 
 On asceniling some of the highest hummocks, Mr. Petersen and I failed to 
 perceive a single opening in their chain, which still extended to the N.N.E. 
 Nearly in the same direction a faint white line could be discerned near the hor- 
 izon, which was probably the Great Glacier, elevated by refraction. 
 
 We were at this time about thirty miles from the opposite (west) shore : and, 
 as the limit of our ourward journey was the second of April, it was obvious we 
 could not reach it ; for we had now only four days left, and very little can be 
 accomplished in that time among these hummocks. Mr. Brooks, therefore, gave 
 orders to return to the brig. We started at 11.30 a.m., and, after crossing some 
 hummocks, travelled S.S.E. on a good new floe five miles in diameter. This 
 course was chosen with the intention of crossing the chain of icebergs and hum- 
 mocks which runs parallel to the land further north, and then to take thesmooth 
 land-ice (ice-fact) for the rest of our journey ; but at 4 p.m. we were stopped by 
 a very old floe, the surface of which appeared to be covered with old rounded 
 hummocks about ten feet high. The spaces between them being partially filled 
 with deep loose snow rendered the travelling very difiicult ; but we sijon reached 
 anew floe, which afi'orded a good roa'i. We halted at 8 p.m. between hummocks 
 at the south end of the floe, having travelled nearly S.S.E. about seven miles. 
 
 March 30. — This morning Mr, Brooks, Mr. Wilson, Bfvker, and Peter, were 
 unable to walk, on account of frost-bites, Mr. Brooks sent me to the brig, ac- 
 companied by Ohlsen and Petersen, to inform you of the condition of the party. 
 We started at 10.20 a.m., and arrived on board at 11 p.m., having walked 
 nearly south about thirty miles, — KespectfuUy submitted, your obedient ser- 
 vant, A. SoNTAO, Astronomer to the Expedition. 
 
 
 i 
 
 I ii 
 
 Hi 
 
 ' 4 
 
 I 
 
 Report of Surgeon upon Condition of Rescue-Party, March, 1854. 
 
 To E. K. Kane, U.S.N., Commanding Second American Arctic Expedition. 
 
 Sir, — I have the honour respectfully to submit the following report of the 
 state of health on board the Brig Advance, agreeably to your order : — 
 
 Of the six men left on board at the time of your departure five were invalids. 
 Messi's. J. Carl Petersen and August Sontag had, in addition to the fatigue of 
 their long journey, premonitory symptoms of scurvy. Mr. Goodfellow, Q. 
 Stephenson, and G. Whipple, had all suffered more or less from scorbutic attacks 
 during the winter, and from which they hoA not yet recovered. The two latter 
 were, however, able, and did render efficient service to the sick after your return, 
 — Stephenson as nurse, and Whipple as cook. 
 
 Mr. Bonsall was the first to arrive at the vessel. He came about two hours 
 in advance of the remainder of your party. From him I learned you were ad- 
 vancing, and that he was sent forwa.-d by your orders to give directions for the 
 reception of the sick. 
 
 The necessary preparations being completed, I went out on the floe to meet 
 you. Messrs. Brooks and Wilson, J. T. Baker, and Pierre Schubert, lay on 
 the sledge sewed up in bufl"alo-robes and other furs. The remainder of the party 
 were drawing the sledge. As they passed me, I was startled by their ghastly 
 appearance. They gave me not even a glance of recognition, and when I hailed 
 them they met me only with a vacant, wild stare. Their persons were covered 
 over with frost ; from their beards were euspended large lumps of ice ; their 
 2 H 
 
 M 
 
482 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 V 
 
 i.i 
 
 tread was slow and feeble ; and it was a sad sight to see wh;\t had tliree days 
 previous been a jiarty of siiong and vigorous men now all bent down as with the 
 weight of years. 
 
 For sixty-six liours they had been constantly on foot and exposed in the low 
 temperatures of from 35° to 50" below zero. They had had no rest since leaving 
 the vessel. The loss of sleep, the constant exposure, the depiessing effects of 
 the extreme cold, and the great fatigue consequent upon their long journey, had 
 ]u-oduced alarming prostration. They were almost to a man delirious. Keeping 
 tiie direction of the vessel as if by instinct, they knew of nothing that transpired. 
 When they arrived at the ship, and when you gave the order to halt, they all 
 dropped the lines and made for the ship's side, the same instinct directing them 
 to their beds. 
 
 There was therefore some difficulty in getting force enough to attend to the 
 sick, and it was with a little delay tiiat they were carried to the upper deck, 
 where they were properly allowed to remain some time before taking them into 
 the warm air of tiie cabin. 
 
 Having placed them in their bunks, that had previously been fitted up with 
 as much care as possible, dressed their wounds, and attended to their present 
 M-ants, my attention was directed to the remainder of the party. I found they 
 had rolled into their bunks "booted and spurred "just as they had come in 
 from the ice, and were all now fast locked in a heavy sleep, from which it seemed 
 impossible to awake them ; and, indeed, I made no effort. With them, as with 
 tlie wounded, what they most needed was rest and quiet. 
 
 Reaction soon commenced. What had before assumed only the form of the 
 simplest mental aberration now broke out in raving delirium, and for two days 
 the ship presented all the ap,pparaaces of a mad-house. Not an individual of 
 the party escaped, although some were much more seriously affected than others. 
 Many of theni seemed to think themselves out on the ice perishing with cold : 
 and when they at last awoke, most of them had not the least remembrance of 
 ■what had occurred during the last twenty hours of the journey. Except small 
 doses of morphine, it seemed impolitic to do anything for them at the first outset 
 of their wild raving. The excessive sleepiness had completely overpowered them, 
 and they would only partially arouse at intervals, and give vent to an imploring' 
 cry for aid or an exhortation to hurry on. 
 
 At last, after twenty-four hours, they began one by one to awake and ask for 
 food. They were in this state for fortj-eight hours ; and Mr. Ohlsen, who ha I 
 been eighty houis constantly exposed, and had travelled not less than one hun- 
 dred and twenty miles, was unconscioiis of wliat was taking place for the greater 
 part of two and a half days. He would ask for food frequently, eat with great 
 voraciousness, and again fall back into a torpid sleep, seeming to recognise whih 
 awake nothing but the meal which he was eating. His brain-symptoms were 
 accompanied by strabismus. During his sleep his mind ran continually upon 
 the tent on the ice, and he seemed to think himself pushing forward, guidiiii: 
 the party to it ; con.scious still, seemingly, of being the only one who knew whe^e 
 if was. 
 
 You were the last one affected, and among the first to recover. After seeing 
 that the sick wore comfortably cared for, you lay down in your cot, and I bogan 
 to congratulate myself that you had escaped ; but after two or three hours I 
 heard you suddenly cry out, " Halloo on deck there ! " On going aft to ascertain 
 what was wanted, I received instructions to "call all hands to lay aft and take 
 two reefs in the stove-pipe." As to all hands being now temporarily crazy I had 
 
'W^ 
 
 t\ 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 483 
 
 no further doubts ; for I would respectfully stiliinit that your mind might per- 
 haps have been at this moment a little wandering. 
 
 At this time the frost-bitten patients are all doing well. They have rallied as 
 well as can be expected in the short time after so great prostration. No prog- 
 nosis of tiie cases can, however, be ventured upon safely. Pierre will probably 
 lose part of one of his feet. Baker, part of one, or perhaps both. Messrs. Wil- 
 son and Urooks are in the same condition, being frozen above the phalangeal 
 joints. 
 
 Mr. Ohken has a frost-bite on one of his toes, but it will prove only a flesh- 
 wound. Jlr. Petersen's symptoms grow more unpleasant. Mr. Sontag has an 
 acute attack of scurvy, with pericarditis. Of the original party of eight, Thomas 
 Hickey alone remains well and sound. 
 
 The remainder of the ship's company are all in a very reduced condition. 
 Symptoms of scurvy are visible in every one, and the severe exposure of this 
 trying journey has favoured its development. Mr. Bonsall, Mr. Morton, William 
 Godfrey, J. Blake, and Hans Ilendrick, are those least aflfected and most able 
 for duty. 
 
 I think, however, that there is every reason to hope for a speedy restoration 
 to perfect health of the major part of the ship's company. Allow me to express 
 a hope also that you may soon be enabled under Providence to again take the 
 field for the further conduct of your explorations. — Respectfully submitted, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 I. I. Hates, Surgeon to the Exj>edition. 
 
 Brig Advasck, Rkksselaee Harbour, April 5, 18ti4.* 
 
 J! 
 
 EASTERN COAST OF SOUND : 
 Report of Messrs. M'Gary and Bonsall, Juiie-Juhj, 1854, 
 
 Brio Advance, July 3, 1854. 
 
 Sir, — According to your orders, Mr, ]\I'Gary'aud I took charge of a party 
 sent out to explore the eastern coast of Smith's Sound and tlie Great Glacier 
 which terminates it. 
 
 Junei. — We left the vessel at 4.30 p.m., and reached tlie land-ice on the 
 eastern shore of our bay in about two hours. A strong wind set in from the 
 north, and at 8.30 p.m., when about two miles Bouth of Coft'ee Gorge, we con- 
 cluded to encajnp. The thermometer in the shade stood at 26°. 
 
 June 5. — This morning was calm, the thermometer at 25°. After getting 
 breakfast, we started at 7.45 a.m., and travelled up the liindice about half way 
 to the terminus of (ilacier Bay, where we took tlie flue, and reached tlie opposite 
 tide at 4.30 p.m., when we encamped. Thermometer, 27°. 
 
 June 6. — Started at 7.30 a.m., feeling quite cold, the thermometer being at 
 15°. We passed up the coast of Marshall Bay as far as the two gorges, when we 
 took the floe and crossed to Chimney Rock, the road being much clearer of hum- 
 mocks than any before travelled across this bay. 
 
 * Jeffersen Temple Baker antl Peter Schubert, affected as by the above report, died on 
 the 7tli of April and 2'.M of May. I. I. Hayks. 
 
 •f 
 
 ~\ 
 
 il 
 
 
 
484 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 We arrived at 6 p.m., and found the cache at this place had been destroyed by 
 a bear. He had eaten the bread, and with a strolie of his paw had destroyed tiie 
 can of alcoiiol. We encamped near tlie rocks, with a strong northerly breeze 
 accompanied by snow. Thermometer, 23°. Thomas complained very much of 
 his knees, and several bluish spots appeared in the skin, evidently caused by 
 scurvy. Mr. M'tJary's eye was very painful, though better than during the 
 day. 
 
 June 7. — We started at 8 a.m., with a light north breeze and the thermometer 
 at 24". Soon after passing Cape Russell, although the sun shone on our backs, 
 the reflection of his rays from the land-ice was very painful to our eyes. Morton 
 and Riley were both snow-blind, and sutfer"' great pain. 
 
 We reached the cache about 5 p. m., and found that this one had also been visited 
 by a bear. lie had rolled one of the barrels of bread over the ice-foot into the 
 ■water, had oaten a can of chocolate, some potatoes, &c., and in his search had 
 torn several of the bags. Thermometer this evening, 35°. Made twenty miles 
 to-day. 
 
 June 8. — We did not start to-day until 12 M., as we were fatigued from our 
 long march yesterday. We went seven miles up the coast to the ravine near the 
 west cape of the large bay, at which place we encamped, as I wished to take solar 
 bearings from this position. Before supper I returned to the cache, a distance 
 of seven miles, in order to procure some articles we had forgotten. 
 
 June 9. — This morning the thermometer stood at 30°, with a clouded sky and 
 a cool breeze from thi S.W. We left at 7.20 a.m., and, crossing the ice-foot 
 about a mile from our encampment, started across the bay for the low point oi 
 land on the opposite side of it. At noon I took solar bearings of the prominent 
 points in the interior of the bay. 
 
 After nine hours' travel over hummocks and deep snow, we reached a point of 
 land running out into the bay about a mile and a half. From this point a crack 
 twelve feet wide ran in a northerly direction into the bay. This we crossed on 
 the ice-foot, and encamped on the opposite side. Thomas is better, and Morton 
 and Riley complained less of their eyes. Mr. M'Gary is no better. 1 here took 
 an observation for longitude. Thermometer at 34°. 
 
 June 10. — Just after midnight, while asleep in our tent, we were suddenly sur- 
 prised by a visit from a bear. Mr. M'Gary was awakened by the scratching of 
 the snow near his head. He soon aroused us ; but, to our consternation, there 
 was not a gun within reach, they having been carelessly left on the sledge. In 
 the meantime the bear had walked leisurely around the tent, aud finally thrust 
 his head inside, when we assailed him with burning matches and paper without 
 effect. Thomas, with more presence of mind than any of us, proposed to cut a 
 hole in the back part of the tent and get the boat-hook. The be<ar was at this 
 time eating the remainder of our seal, which we had buried in the snow in front 
 of our tent-door. Thomas rushed out and struck him on the nose with the boat- 
 hook, which forced him to recede to the other side of the sledge. He then seized 
 the rifle and handed it to me. The bear had gone about twenty-five yards from 
 us when I fired and sent the ball through hi:; lungs. He ran about a hundred 
 yards and fell dead. We then skinned him, and at the expiration of two hours 
 were ready to turn in again. 
 
 We rested longer than usual, and, after breakfast, cut up the bear, took part 
 of the hind-quarters, and left the remainder for the dogs when they should arrive. 
 
 We travelled over very deep snow, and, iifter crossing two cracks, encamped at 
 8 P.M. Mr. M'Gary'a eyes are so much worse as to render him entirely blind. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 485 
 
 He also suffers from pain in his legs. Riley's eyes are quite well today, Mor- 
 ton's much better, and Thomas's rather worse. 
 
 We saw several burgomaster-gulls, as well as other varieties, around the cracks 
 we crossed. The ice in cue of these cracks was only three feet thi(!k. Thermo- 
 meter, 3(5°. 
 
 June 11. — The weather this morning was quite warm, the thermometer being 
 at 43°. Last evening we cooked a large quantity of bear-liver, and ate heartily 
 of it, after which we turned in as well as usual. This morning we all sutl'ered 
 severe pains in our bones, and headache, hut did not know whether to attribu'^ 
 it to having eateu the bear's liver or to the hot sun of yesterday. We were not 
 able to proceed until 3 p.m., when, feeling rather better, we set otf, and made 
 ten miles over very deep snow. 
 
 At ten P.M. we encamped near an iceberg about tv/o miles from Cache No. 2. 
 A dense fog now set in from the N., and obscured all objects at more than a few 
 yards' distance. We are all better this evening, except Mr. M'Gary and Mor- 
 ton. Theraxometer, 15°. ' 
 
 June 12. — We started to-day at noon, having waited for the sun to go round 
 so far as not to shine in our faces. At about 1.30 p.m. we reached our cache, 
 which we found safe. We took all the provisions on our sledge, for fear our 
 noi'thern caciie should have been destroyed. We found the water in many places 
 several inches deep under the snow, which caused us to sink through it at every 
 step, making the travelling very difficult. We keep regular watch since our 
 adventure with the bear. Thomas was not so well this evening. Thermometer, 
 31°. 
 
 June 13.— The thermometer stood at 40° at 10 a.m., at which time we started. 
 We found the snow deeper and the travelling more difficult than yesterday. We 
 worked hard to reach the islands, and, after crossing several cracks in their 
 vicinity, arrived at the foot of the land-ice at 6 p.m. We found this ice broken 
 up and very difficult to cross. We pitcheil our tent on it, and went to examine 
 the cache, which we discovered had been destroyed by the bears, the tin canister 
 only left untouched. 
 
 As the bear-tracks were numerous and recent, I was led to suppose it had not 
 been long since the cache was destroyed. The flagstaff was torn down and dragged 
 some distance, but the cairn remained almost entire. We ate a supper of bear- 
 steaks, not, satisfied to pronounce the meat unfit for food without giving it a 
 further trial. Thermometer, 40°. 
 
 June 14. — This morning is quite warm, the thermometer standing at 46°. I 
 took a meridian-altitude, and devoted the day to washing, as there were numer- 
 ous pools of water on the rocks. This evening I took an observation for Icngi- 
 tude, and hope to get a corresponding one to-morrow morning. 
 
 The sun has been very severe upon us on our journey, every one being more 
 or less blistered. Morton lust all the skin of his face ; Riley and Mr. M'(iary 
 complain of their eyes. Thermometer, 37°. 
 
 June 15. — This morning we rose early and prepared for a start ; but, as the 
 wind blew heavy from tlie S.E., and Mr. M'(iary being yet quite sick, we de- 
 ferred it until to-morrow. I took bearings by compass of all the prominent 
 points visible from the island. The weather continues very fine. Thermometer, 
 42°. 
 
 June 16. — As the fog was so thick this morning as to prevent us from seeing 
 more than a few yards ahead of us. we concluded to wait until it should clear 
 away. We did not get off until 11.30 A. u., having first taken a meridka-altituda 
 
 n 
 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
 iji! 
 ij'"' 
 
 'II 
 
488 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr. M'Gary and I sot off for the Glacier, and reached an island within two 
 hundred yards of the perpendicular face, a nearer approach being prevented by 
 the accuniuhition of bergs, berg-ice, and precipitous hummocks, interspersed 
 with holes of water. Thi'^ island was about the same height of thv perpendicu- 
 lar face at tliis point (t'vo hundred and fifty feet) ; and I think I had a bettor 
 opportunity for observation than upon the glacier itself. From this point tin) 
 glacier appears to have gradually covered the land with a sheet of ice twenty in- 
 thirty feet thick, in a succession of rid^'es and knolls, until it reaches the shore, 
 where, still pushing outward, large flakes are precipitated to the foot, and others, 
 sliding over them, descend into the water and remain stationary, until in their 
 turn they are forced by other discharges i>'to a depth sufficient to float them, and 
 are then carried away by currents 't.i.o the sea. Their manner of breakage 
 appears to be into long flakes, whicl. are forced over the descent until, their 
 overhanging weight overcoming the tenacity of the ice, the piece becomes detached. 
 Above the perpendicular face it is split into a succession of parallel cracks and 
 corresponding indentations, forming a series of steps, sometimes horizontal, but 
 more frequently following the inclinations of the ground under them and extending 
 back to where the glacier becomes almost level. Ueyond this are seen numerous 
 fissures, where the ice has cracked u^xm taking a new angle of descent and beeu 
 forced onward to the final launch. 
 
 We were fortunate in reaching this point, as an approach at any other would 
 have been imjjossible, owing to the discharge of bergs and hummocks, which 
 appeared to extend out into the sound for several miles in all directions from our 
 position. 
 
 The glacier above its face has a gradual ascent of a few feet to the mile, until 
 in the interior it reaches an apparent altitude of six or seven hundred feet ; but 
 the quantity of snow and deep chasms upon its surface prevent +javelling upon it. 
 
 As an indication of the motton of the ice, deep muttered sounds and crashes 
 are heard at intervals, resembling sliarp thunder and distant cannon. At some 
 points masses of small blocks and round pieces are seen, as though crushed by 
 the weight of the mass above. The surface appears to take tl>e formation of tlie 
 land under it, as it is broken into vaUeys and indentations, carrying the surface- 
 water off in streams in the same manner as land-drainage. The heads of the 
 valleys and the dividing ridge were not distinctly visible. I here made a sketch 
 of the opposite face, showing the character of the discharge of bergs ; and I also 
 took compass-bearings of the islands and glacier. 
 
 On arriving at our encampment, we found that Hans had reached it at one 
 o'clock, after two days' travel from the vessel. As the dogs were tired Mr. 
 M'Gary concluded to let them rest over to-morrow, although we should then 
 have started on our return if the skdge had not arrived. Thermometer, 49°. 
 
 June 17. — This morning it was thick weather, and snowed quite fast during 
 the greater part of the day. We remained in eamp until 10 p.m., when we com- 
 menced packing our sledges and preparing for a start. We were ready by mid- 
 night, and, after getting on the floe, both sledges started together at 12.30 
 
 A.M. 
 
 June 18. — Morton and Hans followed our old tracks until clear of the cracks 
 near the islands, and then turned toward the N., at about double our speed. 
 They both walked, as the snow was too soft and deep for them to ride, their load 
 being heavy. We travelled until 7.30 a.m., when we encamped, having made 
 about twelve miles. Mr, M'Gary's eye was very painful this morning. We 
 started again in the evening and walked fast, the snow bearing ua quite well. 
 
■p 
 
 ^m 
 
 ArrKNDix. 
 
 487 
 
 We fell into our old tracks a little to the westward of Cache No. 2., ami, after- 
 ward following them, we encamped at 6.30 in the morning of— 
 
 JunelQ, — Having made about thirteen miles. Mr. MOary sufTered very much 
 from the pain in hit> eye this morning. We started at 9 a.m., and the day being 
 warm rendered the snow soft ; but the travelling iiiiproved uh we advitiiced. Wti 
 crossed several cracks, in one of which we shot a long-tailed duck. Thomas fell 
 in to-day in attempting to jump aeros.s one of these cracks. We pas.scd our old 
 encampment about 2 a.m. ; we there filled our water-o;ih» from pools on the ice. 
 
 June 20. — At 5 a.m. we arrived at Hear Point, our encampment of the 10th. 
 We found the carcass of the bear had been eaten by the gulls. We encamped 
 within gun-shot, hoping to get some gulls ; but they were too shy, and would not 
 alight while we stayed. We found the can of blubber safe, which would afford 
 us fuel sufficient to last till we should reach thevessel. After breakfast we turned 
 in and slept until 6 p.m., and at 9.30 p.m. we started across the bay. 
 
 June 21. — We reached the land-ice at <i a.m., and deposited some pemmican 
 for Morton on his return. We then travelled on six miles further to Dr. Kane's 
 Cache, where wo encamped at 5 a.m., very tired, after a day's travel of twenty 
 miles. We found all safe, and after supper— or more jiroperly breakfast — we 
 turned in, the wind blowing strong from the west, (true.) At 11 P.m. we loaded 
 our sledge and started towards the vessel on the land-ice. Our sledge ran very 
 heavily, owing to a light fall of snow. 
 
 June 22. — We travelled on until 6 a.m., when we encamped, having made but 
 ten miles. I here took an altitude of the cliffs. We started again at 9 p.m., a 
 slight snow falling, accompanied by a north wind. This soon increased, and 
 about 11 P.M. we stopped to take an altitude of the clilTs, and found the water 
 running from them and forming pools on the land-ice. This is the first appear- 
 ance of running water, though yesterday we observed several wet places on the 
 cliffs and small pools on the ice. The ice-foot is much broken, and in .^ome places 
 the pieces are from twenty to thirty feet oflF shore, leaving quite a canal. 
 
 June 23. — We continued on until we reached the Cliffs of the bay, at 2 a.m. 
 We were very tired, as we had not haltetl to rest pince nine o'clock last evening. 
 W^e had difficulty in pitching our tent, owing to the violence of the wind. We 
 turned in and rested until 7 p.m., but could not cross the ice-foot until 10 p.m.. 
 as the tide was too low. The snow was very deep, and, as there was a sheet of 
 water between the snow and ice, we sank to our knees at every step. After 
 eight hours of toil we reached the shore. 
 
 June 24. — We passed up the foot-ice at 6.30 a.m., and encamped, having tra- 
 velled about fourteen miles since ten o'clock last evening. We started again about 
 9 P.M., and travelled down the land-ice. 
 
 June25. — At 12.30 a.m. we reached the headland, and then took the floe 
 crossing Glacier Bay, where we encamped at 4.30 a.m. The fioe on the bay was 
 worse travelling than any we have had since leaving the vessel. The snow was 
 so very soft that we sank to our hips in the drifts, which had four or five inches 
 of water under them. This travelling continued for thirty or forty miles at a 
 time, wetting our feet and causing the sledge to sink into the bottom. The water 
 was standing in pools in all directions, and su-rounding every hummock. We 
 made to-day about twelve miles. We started this morning at ten o'clock, and 
 pushed on toward Coflee (iorge, the land-ice being covered with ponds. About 
 three o'clock we passed the gorge, and encamped at the Black Cliff, two miles 
 south of it, at 4 a. m. of — 
 
 June 26.— We started this afternoon at three o'clock, and, after sighting the ves- 
 
 ! 
 
4S8 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 sel, a tliick fog set in, which very mnteriaiiy ohscurotlour vision ; but by following 
 our old tracks we crossod the buy and rcuuhed the veuuul at 7 P.M. — Youra, &c,, 
 
 A. UuNSALL. 
 To Dr. E. K. Kamx, Comnuxnding Arctic Expedition. 
 
 Report of a Sledge Journeti to the Nortfi-weM Coasts of Smith's Strait 
 b>/ Dr. 1. 1, Hayes and IViUium Godfrey, 
 
 I'll 
 
 To Dr. E. K. Kank, U.S.N. 
 
 Sill, — I liave tlie lionour respectfully to submit the f illowin;; report of a jour- 
 ney made by me under your orders for the purpose uf deteriuining tlie nortliera 
 coasts of Sniitli's Strait : — 
 
 Afai/ 20. — I K'fttiie vessel at 2.30 p.m., aceompanied by William Godfrey, sea- 
 miin. Our ecjuipnient was as follows ; A lij^iit 8led)j;e and team of seven doys, 
 80 lbs. of penimican, 16 lbs. of bread, 18 lbs. of lard and rope-yarn for fuel ; a 
 reindeer-skin sleeping-bag for ea^'h, a lamp and pot for cooking, sextant, pocket- 
 compass, telescope, Sharpe's rille, two extra pairs of stockings and one of boots 
 for each. 
 
 Kor the first ten miles our course lay nearly due N., after which we encountered 
 ridges of hummock running parallel with the axis of the channel, and through 
 which we worked our way by running off a little to the eastwai'd. Halted at S 
 P.M., having made about fifteen miles. 
 
 A/ay 21. — Started at 6 a.m. ; the travelling generally smooth, with occasional 
 ridges of hummocks, generally running in parallel lines. I was obliged frequently 
 to run off to the westward, as no other passage I'ould lie seen, and was thus j)re- 
 vented making as much easting as your orders reouirei', A meridian-altitude 
 gave melat. 7'.)° S'6 '. From this point I obtained excelle ., sights of the S.E. coast 
 of the channel, and took solar bearings of the several capes. During the after- 
 noon our track was more rough and tortuous, sometimes running to the W. and 
 again to the E. of N. Hy rude estimate we nui'le fifty miles, and at 5.10 p.m. 
 were brought to a halt bj a wall of broken ice ranging from five to thirty feet in 
 height above the general level of the floe, and running in a direction N.E. by K. 
 From this point the north headland of Rensselaer Bay bore S. 4° \V. (true). 
 
 May 22. — This morning we set out at six o'clock, and on ascending the highest 
 neighbouring pinnacle I found this line of hummocks to extend as far as the eye 
 could reach N.E. by E. and S.W. by W., no termination or break appearing in 
 its surface to the N. and W. 
 
 This prospect cast a sudden damper on the hope I had yesterday entertained 
 of a speedy passage to the shore. The land was distinctly visible, and appeared 
 not more than twenty or twent' 'm UbU. it. I supposed the ridge of 
 
 broken ice to be the san vh! uad baillo^ Vlei«.i3. Bonsall and M'Oary last 
 fall ; and as I did m . lything coui.i be gained by pushing along this 
 
 barricade, which api uu parallel w' he coast, I determined to enter it 
 
 at the first break, an a the land which . omed high through the disappear- 
 
 ing fog. 
 
 After travelling along the uord of this formidable barrier about three miles, 
 I succeeded in effecting an entraiu'e, and at the end of a day's journey of twenty 
 or twenty-five miles I fouiid, to my disappointment, that i :ead of encamping, 
 
AP?KNDIX. 
 
 480 
 
 Ad I liml liope<l, umlor tlie liiRh cliffs (»f tlie Hhore, wo were forceil to build our 
 hiiow-houHu ill the iiiidHt uf this wilileriicfH of linikoii ice. 
 
 Our linear distance from our lawt ciicainpinent was not more than ten miles, aa 
 our track was very tortuous ; aud, moreover, we had iwla footof level iravelling. 
 Ilut'e nuiHHea of ice from twenty to forty feet in height were licaiied to«ether, 
 around which tlie fierce winds of winter had jiiled the driftiii); snow. In cro8»iiig 
 these ridgea our 8led);o would frequently capsize, and roll t)ver and over, dons, 
 carjco, and all, into the drift, below. Soinetiiue.s the sledge would bo half buried 
 in the hard snow iiuo which it had fallen, in which case its liberation would be 
 attended with difficulty. 
 
 The dogs were continually breaking their harness or lines, Bud, owinj? to the 
 character of the roud, this diiy's travel tired them i».)re tlmn three times that 
 distance over smooth ice. A meridian-altitude gave ino lat. 7l>^ 23' 5 ", but this 
 result I obtained with difficulty, and it is scarcely reliable. Future observations 
 made at this point determined the latitude more accurately. The general course 
 I endeavoured to j)ursue was N. 20° W. in the direct jn of a lieudland \>{ the 
 coast made on the 27th, But to this it was never possible to adhere for five 
 minutes consecutively. We ran E., W., N., and even S., aa we were occasion- 
 ally forced to retrace our steps in order to penetrate at another jjoint. I had al- 
 ready, so early as yesterday noon, felt the premonitory symptoms of snow-blind- 
 ness, and to-day my eyes were so weak as to lender the use of the se.vtant painful. 
 
 Mai/ 23. — This morning I could not see in the least, ami as riding on the 
 sledge was not possible, we were obliged to lay to. My eyes improved a little 
 du?''ig the day, and at 9.30 p.m. I managed to get one open. We immediately 
 set out again ; but an hour's use closed it, and we encamped. 
 
 Mai/ 24. — Continued in camp during the day. I have never in my life had 
 the misfortune to have crowded into the short space of thirty-six hours so much 
 bodily pain as I sutl'ered from this attack. V»'illiam fared better. A [>air of 
 light-blue glasses had been loaned me by Mr. Petersen, and, thinking William's 
 eyes as driver were of more account than my own, I desired him to weai them. 
 Although I do not think gla.sses are always of service, yet they are useful when 
 the sun shines brightly, especially on the face ; but on a cloudy or misty day they 
 are of no value whatever. 
 
 May 25. — Set out at 4 a.m., and during the first two hours made nearly due 
 N. ; then, until 11.30 a.m. our course bore N. W. over the same description of 
 road we had yesterday. I then halted to fix our position aud lay down the coast- 
 line as it trended to the northward. 
 
 The meridian-observation gave me lat. 79° 24' 4" with artificial (raei'curial) 
 horizon. The most distant visible headland of the coast bore N. 120 E. (magn.). 
 Bluffsightedon the22d, N.IOOE. (magn.). This hiis since been our course. Inter- 
 mediate blufl", N. 110 E. (magn.). The dogs were pretty well rested by 1.30 p.m., 
 and we again got under way, and at 5.30 we halted, having travelled during the 
 day about five miles in a direct line from the bluff, but not less tliiiu twenty in 
 our tortuous course. 
 
 May 26.— Started at 6 a.m., our course being N. by N.N.E. Made about the 
 same distance as yesterday, and halted at 4 p.3i. At the close of this day 
 William was completely exhausted. The dogs were broken down, and almost 
 unable to drag along. Their harness, having been rejieatedly broken, would 
 scarcely hold together. Every spare line we had was brought into requisition ; 
 and finally we had recourse to strips cut from the waistbands and extremities of 
 the legs of our seal-skin pantaloons. It now became a question with me as to the 
 
490 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 C ■■ '' 
 
 ^% 
 
 
 possibility of re.aching the land. Seven days' provisions had already been cou- 
 suiiied, and we were fitted out for but ten. The severe nature of our journey 
 precluded any abatement in our daily allowance. The deceptive nature of the 
 country rendered it very uncertain when we could reach the shore, having made 
 no perceptible advance tov.ard it during the three preceding days. I was by no 
 means certain that it vould not require as long a time to return to the vessel as 
 we had already been out. in whicii event our only plan would be to kill one of the 
 dogs for food for the others, as well as for ourselves. Feeling confident, how- 
 ever, that you would rather such a sacrifice should be made than that I should 
 fail to effect a landing on the shore, I determined to push on to-morrow as far as 
 l)08sible. 
 
 After having cooked and eaten our simple supper of coffee and peraraican, and 
 attended as well as I could to the necessities of my sick comrade, I left him at 
 the sledge and walked on •with the view oi exploring the track for our travel to- 
 morrow. For eight miles I found it similar to that which we had encountered 
 for the last five days ; but to my gi-eat joy I then struck upon the borders of an 
 old floe, which appeared to run in-shore. I travelled on this smooth plain about 
 two miles, and ascended a high hummock, from whence I could see this field 
 locl^id against the bluffy headland toward which we had been for several days 
 directing our course. On my return to the sledge I selected the best track, care- 
 fully walking through every cliiisra and around every point which I thought 
 passable, leaving conspicuous markings by my foot-tracks. My determination was 
 to push my way forward as far iis possible, by drawing William on the sledge in 
 case he should not be able to walk. 
 
 May 27. — Reached the sledge at 2 a. m. after a walk since ray last night's rest of 
 not less tiian forty miles, over rough masses of ice and drifts of snow. I then 
 turned into my sleeping-bag. At 7.30 a.m. rose, cooked our breakfast, and 
 started by 9.30 a.m., one hour having been consumed in mending our harness. 
 As the dogs had no food on the previous evening, two of them had eaten their 
 harness-lines to satisfy their hunger, and a third had consumed all his harness 
 which was within his reach. An extra whip-lash furnished a line ; a belt cut 
 into strips, and a slice of William's pantaloons, fitted out the harness. 
 
 This morning William was able to travel, his cramps having left him. In 
 three hours and a half we reached the old floe, and in three hours more we 
 made the land, at the bluffy headland toward which we had directed our course 
 since the 22d, and to which bearings were made on the 2.5th. This point is to 
 the north and east of a little bay which seemei', to terminate about ten miles in- 
 land. The dogs were tired and worn down, and their harness in a sad condition. 
 It would require several hours to repair our sledge, as one of the runners was 
 broken and nearly all the rivets lost. On examining our provisions, I found we 
 had but about eighteen pounds of pemmican left. Eight days had been spent in 
 making the passage of the channel, and I had no reason to suppose better for- 
 tunes would attend us on our return. 
 
 As yet we had seen no bear, and since leaving the eastern coast not a single 
 seal. The extreme improbability of taking any of these animals was too great to 
 base upon it any plan of operations. The propriety of sacrificing part of the dogs 
 for the sustenance of the remainder was very douotful ; especially as it was im- 
 possible for me to know how far that might interfere with your future plans. 
 
 The travelling to the northward was good. The land ice was broad and 
 smooth, and the floe outside much less hummocky than at a greater distance 
 from the shore. I felt assured that I was at or near the mot'.th of the chanutl 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 491 
 
 you had so confidently iiredicted would be found opening to the northward of the 
 so-called Smith's Sound. Everything setnied favourable to our progress, except 
 our short allowance of food. Had I possessed the whole world, I would have 
 given it for fifty pounds of penimican. 
 
 There was now no alternative ; and, after a halt of sufficient length to fix our 
 jiosition and rest the dogs, I reluctantly put about for the brig. I conjectured 
 that we were at least one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles to the north 
 and east of previous explorations. To make a survey of this new coast could 
 uow be my only object. 
 
 May 28. — We rose this morning by two o'clock. I left William to repair the 
 harness and mend the sledge, while I ascended a neighbouring peak. But, before 
 I could reach a point which would command an extended view, a thick fog set 
 in, and, as it rolled along the sides of the mountain, it completely sliut me out 
 from the scene beneath. 1 had, however, a fine view of the interior. Peak after 
 jieak rose above the misty sea, and a great mountain-chain seemed to follow the 
 trend of the coast line. . . 
 
 Returning in time for the noonday observation, I found our position on the 
 land-ice to be lat. 77° 42' 9" N., and Ion. 71° 17' W. Thecoastliiie to the south 
 trended S, 171 W. (magn.), W. 27 S. (true); to the north N. 151 E. (magn.), 
 W. 43 E. (true). Got under way at 10 a.m. ; travelled along the landice, which 
 averaged from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in width, covered with light 
 snow, which made the travelling pretty good. With both of us on the sledge, the 
 dogs made from five to six miles an hour. 
 
 At 6 P.M. we halted at the north cape of a deep bay. The land between these 
 two stations falls 5° more off to the west than the general trend of the coast. 
 
 The observation to determine the positions of the dififerent points along this 
 line, as well as the capes, bays, and headlands that follow, you will find in tabu- 
 lar form appended to this report. 
 
 May 29. — Started again to cross the bay at 6 a.m. We found the snow two 
 feet deep and wet, making it impossible for the dogs to draw us on the sledge. 
 
 The coast b'itwei'n the first and second halting-stations, as far down as Cape 
 Sabine, consists of high clitlii of magnesian limestone. The debris was usually 
 low, rising at an angle of about forty degrees, and the cliflFs generally rose smooth 
 and unbroken to a height of not less than one thousand feet, terminating above in 
 gentle slopes wliich rose into lofty peaks whose sides were mostly covered with snow 
 and ice, while the deep valleys separating tliem were often fided with glacier. 
 
 Below the points marked x y on the chart, the cliffs presented a series of es- 
 carpments, rising step after step to a height of six hundred feet above a debris of 
 about two hundred. The centre was depressed about fifty feet below either end ; 
 and the graceful sweep of outline of this semi-basin, with the beautiful regular- 
 ity of the steps, pave a symmetrical beuuty to the cliffs which those of the 
 southern side of the channel did not possess. I would respectfully suggest them 
 PS being well worthy of a name. 
 
 (Sketches en cloned). 
 
 After observing the meridian-altitude of the sun at noon, we started again. 
 Unlike yesterday, the land-ice was narrow and covered with deep snow. The 
 dogs made but little headway, the travelling being very laborious. William's 
 cramps were increasing ; and, with the hope of finding a smoother road, I took 
 the Hoe, which proved tu be little better. The snow was not quite si. deep ; but, 
 as we had ridges of hummocks to pass, we were both obliged to walk most of the 
 way, and reached the o^jposite shore after a continuous journey of seven hours. 
 
 
403 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I ': . 
 
 At 4.30 P.M. we halted to raelt snow and refresh ourselves with a cup of 
 coffee, having made about twelve miles' course S. 5 E. We now lay under the 
 cape bounding the deep bay we crossed yesterday. With the exception of 
 Sanderson's Hope, soutli of Dpernavik, this mass of rock is the most majestic I 
 have ever beheld. Its longest face, presenting on Smith's Sound, is at least 
 five miles ; and the face presenting N. about three miles without a break. At 
 tlie point its altitude is fifteen hundred feet, measured by sextant-angles with a 
 ba-se-line stepped upon the floe. The background is much higher. We this day 
 gave our dogs our last scrap of ijemnaican. 
 
 May 30. — We got under way at 6 a.m., having deemed it expedient to lighten 
 our load iis much as possible by leaving behind us our sleeping-bags and every 
 article which could at all be dispensed with ; among which was a suite of geolo- 
 gical specimens which I had taken the trouble to collect from the broken cliffs of 
 the bluff reached on the 27th. I retained a pair of sealskin boots, which I 
 thought might serve as a breakfast for the dogs, our stockings, the compass, 
 sextant, telescope, rifle, and lamp. All else was thrown off, to the amount of 
 about forty pounds. 
 
 lly reasons for this sacrifice I have before stated. I knew full well the service 
 the sleeping-bags would be to you during your future journey ; but, as William 
 could no longer walk, I found it impossible to drag Lim and all our cargo on the 
 sledge. In dispensing with those articles so valuable to us, I hoped to facilitate 
 our arrival at the vessel, and thereby avoid the necessity of killing one of our 
 dogs, thus causing a loss which could not be replaced. 
 
 Our travelling for the first few miles n-day was very rough ; but the further 
 we receded from the shore we had hardpj snow and less sludge. We rode alter- 
 nately until we reached the middle of the •jhannel, when the dogs could drag us 
 both at the rate of five miles an hour. 
 
 The general trend of the coast from the cape last described is W. 57° S. At 
 a mile from tiie sliorc five heaiUands were distinctly visible nearly on a line ; at 
 five miles further, another headland appeared; and at ten miles more, another. 
 Our ciiurse was S.S.W., (true.) A thick fog soon appeared, and I did not get 
 another sight of the shore until noon, when a meridian-altitude gave me lat. 
 79" 6 '. I obtained good bearings to the cape where I left the land-ico, and theint«r 
 mediate points between it and Cape Sabine to the south. These, together with 
 observations previo; sly made, enable me to chart the coast-line from Cape 
 Sabine to thirty miles north of the furthest point reached by me. Tiiij material, 
 together with the chart projected therefrom, is now in your possession. 
 
 (Track-Chart accompanies.) 
 
 Between the seventh cape mentioned above, and the next point of land to the 
 Bouth, is a bay which I wps at first inclined to believe might be a channel opening 
 to the westwai'd ; but as the fog cleared away I could distinctly see the land 
 around t ;ie greater part of its margin, which 'lonvinced me it was only a deep bay 
 ha"ing a narrow en.rance. I hiid no means whereby to determine the true bear- 
 ing of the land from this ])oint, and in projecting the chart could only place it in 
 coi.nection witli my last positively-determined position and Cape Sabine, previ- 
 ously tho most northern determined point of land. To-day I called into requi- 
 sition tlie pair of old Ksquimaux boots which I had already anticipated might 
 prove serviceable. By cutting them into strips, and mixing with them a little of 
 the lard we had for our lamp, the hungry animals made quite a hearty meal. 
 
 May 31. — Soon after leaving this station we encountered ridges of hummocks 
 which materially interrupted our progress; but they were neither so high nor 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 493 
 
 difiBcult to pass as those further up the channel. We liad, however, comparatively 
 smooth travelling, the hummocks being about twenty miles from the west shore. 
 Tliis smooth floe seems to be continuous along tlie shore to the bluflf where I 
 eftected my first landing, at which i)lace it runs to a point. 
 
 Our course across the channel was as near S.E. as the sluggishness of the com- 
 pass and the motion of the ice would allow. Aa we were enveloped in a dense 
 fog, the compass was our only guide. At6 p.m. tiie land began to loom up tlirough 
 the fog, and I soon determined it to be Esquimaux Point. We then shaped our 
 course more to the northward, and at 10 p.m. made the laud-ice ou tlie north side 
 of liedevilled Reach. 
 
 \'(e gave the dogs the shakings of the bread-bag and the scrapinus of the hard- 
 cloth, mixed up with scraps of a pair of skin mittens, and some strips cut from 
 the lower extremities of our pantaloons. 
 
 Jime 1. — We continued pushing our way along the shore without halting, and 
 readied the vessel at 1 a.m. 
 
 In our journey down the west coast but two icebergs were seen, andaione in 
 crossing the channel until we came within eight miles of the east coast. The belt 
 Bcems to hug the eastern shore and to widen and thicken as you advance up the 
 channel, being eight miles in width at Force Hay. 
 
 Very little animal life was seen. We discovered foot-tracks of several bears, 
 but came in contact with none. Foot-marks of fox and ptarmigan were seen at 
 different points along the west coast, and occasionally a seal was observed ou the 
 ice ; but they were too timid to allow our approach. 
 
 It f.Tords me great pleasure to speak well of the services of my companion. 
 He is an excellent driver, and understands well the management of the dogs. 
 
 In presenting this report, I beg to express my regret that I have not been able 
 to do so at an earlier date, as well as that the observations for the survey of tlie 
 newly-discovert-d coast-line are given so little in detail. But when you are ap- 
 prised that after my first attack of snow-blindness I had not the proper use of my 
 eyes, — often not being able to see ten fathoms from me, sometimes being totally 
 blind, — you will, I trust, excuse both the delay and the deficiency. The data 
 are, however, suflBcient to enable me to fix the positions of the landmarks with 
 reliable accuracy. The new coast line which I am enabled to add to the chart is 
 about two hundred miles in extent, and in the twelve days' absence, during two 
 of which we were inactive, the dogs travelled not less than four hundred miles. 
 The last day's travel was seventy miles, and after disposing of our sleeping fix- 
 tures our rest was procured by basking in the sun, lying on ttie snow, or on the 
 sledge, under the lea of a snow-bank. — Respectfully submitted, your obedient 
 servant, I. I. IIav»s. 
 
 Dr. E. K. Kane, U.S.N., 
 Commanding Arctic Expedition, in search of, tte. 
 
 BuiQ ADVAUCB, Kensselakk Hakbour, July 12, 1854. 
 
 ■l!ll 
 
 Mr. Morton's Report of Journey to north and east during the months of 
 
 Ju7ie and July, 1864. 
 
 Sir,— Jttnc 4.— I left the vessel at 4 p.m. in company with the party of Me8!>rs. 
 M'Gary and Bonsall, and arrived at Cache Island on the 14th. The details of 
 this journey are fully given in Mr. lionsall's report. 
 
494 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 M ■; 
 
 ¥^) 
 
 \U 
 
 (-51 
 
 I remained at this place with Messrs. M 'Gary and Bonsall's partj', waiting for 
 Hans, wlio arrived with tlie dog-sledge two days later. 
 
 June 18. — Allowing v.wenty-four hours' rest tor Hans and the dogs, we set out 
 at 0.30 A.M. in company with tiie .itiier party, with whom we were forced to 
 travel a mile on tlieir way to tiie west, in order to avoid some cracks and oiwu- 
 injrs in the ice near the glacier. 
 
 After leaving them we pursued a northerly course nearly parallel with the glacier, 
 and from five to seven miles distant from it, according to the condition of the ice. 
 
 The snow was deep and free from hummocks ; but, as the travelling was very 
 heavy, we averaged only about three and a half miles per hour; whicii in a con- 
 tinued journey of seven and a half hours, m;ide our tutiil distance but little more 
 than twenty-six miles. 
 
 The a[)pearance of the phuMer is accurately described in Mr. Bonsall's report. 
 
 When about twelve miles out I took a back-bearing to Cache Island, and found 
 it N. 284° K. magn. (N. 170° E. true). We encamped at 8 a.m., our course 
 having been N. 103° K. magn. (N. 5° W. true). A back-bearing from the camp 
 to Cache Island gave N. 285° E. magn. (N. 177° E. true). 
 
 We started again at 9.30 p.m., and halted at midnif;ht in order to take obser- 
 vations, 
 
 June 19. — We resumed our journey at 1 a.m. During three successive hours 
 the travelling was very heavy; tlie sledge would sometimes V)e buried in the snow 
 notwithstanding all our exertions to prevent it. Afterward the travelling became 
 better, and we moved off at the rate of four miles per hour until 4.20 A.M., when 
 we were suddenly checked by meeting the barrier of icebergs mentioned by Mr. 
 Bonsall in his journey in September 1853. The icebergs and hummocks were 
 so close together that we could not see one hundred yards in any direction. We 
 pursued a westerly course about five miles along the edge of the hummocks and 
 icebergs, wlien we discovered an opening between them, which we entered, and 
 after a short circuitous route struck again on the right course. We halted at 
 5.45 A.M., and after supper climbed a high iceberg to select our course for the 
 next day. From this point I discovered some rocks projecting from the face of 
 the glacier, and also some hills on its surface. The sun was so much obscured 
 that I could not obtain a solar bearing. 
 
 At 10.30 P.M. we resumed our journey, our course being N. 76° E. magn. (N. 
 32° W. true) ; but at the end of three miles our progress was arrested by ice- 
 bergs, hummocks, and cracks. We therefore were forced to retrace our steps, 
 and at midnight arrived again at our last encampment. We then followed a 
 westerly course, and four miles brought us to a group of icebergs, between which 
 we found great difficulty in making our way, having to ferry ourselves occasion- 
 ally over the numerous lanes of witer, or to make bridges over them from the 
 ■floe-pieces wiiich were piled up in hummocks on the edges of the cracks. 
 
 June 20. — We succeeded in getting tiirough the bergs by 2.30 a.m. Hans shot 
 a ddvekie in one of the cracks. At tlie same time we first sighted the west land 
 with three prominent capes. We soon got on better ice than we had yet passed 
 over, and made good headway to the N. and E. to within twelve miles of the 
 glacier and about forty miles of the west shore. 
 
 The level surface of the glacier was interrupted by rocks and land-hills, except- 
 ing which, the background was nothing but snow or glacier. The land beoomesi 
 continuous to the N., and has an appearance similar to the hills west of our 
 winter quarters, only the debris is comparatively not so high. 
 
 No seals were seen during the two preceding days, but today we saw several, 
 
,>jll 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 495 
 
 occasioii- 
 from the 
 
 several, 
 
 and tlireo dovekics. We encamped at 7.20 a.m., .and at 11.20 p.m. started again 
 and stood for a pciint of land which I supposed to be a cape, as theie was a va- 
 cancy between it and the west land. The ice was good and free from bergs ; only 
 two or three in sight. 
 
 The weather became very t'lick and misty. We sufiered from cold, a strong 
 N.E. wind blowing (.fl' the glacier at the time. Temp. +20°. The west land 
 which I saw faintly yesterday was soon obscured, and the cape for which I stood 
 vanished from our view, only a small portion of the east shore remaining faintly 
 visible. I steered my course entirely by bearings of the ca.\)e which 1 took yesterday. 
 
 Ju)ie 21. — At 7 A.I', we reached the month of a channel having to the northward 
 and westward a fine headland. Here stretching ahead we found open wateri.-vnd be- 
 fore I was aware of it we had gone some distance on rotten ice, which was so weak 
 that we could not get within a mile and a half of the open water. My first inten- 
 tion was to go up the channel on the ice, but the water prevented it. We retraced 
 our steps carefully, calling the dogs after us, as they were very much frighteneil. 
 Birds, apparently ducks, were seen in great numbers flying over the open water. 
 
 On reaching the safe ice we travelled in an easterly direction, standing for the 
 cape on the Civst side of the channel, and halted a mile from it at 7.40 a.m. 
 
 After supper, or more properly breakfast, I wtnt to the cape, and around it at 
 the distance of four miles from our camp. The temperature of the water was 
 ■+40". I found it would be difficult to pass the cape with a sledge, as the ice- 
 foot was scarcely broad enough ; but beyond the cape the ice-foot became better, 
 and would apparently afford good travelling. We returned, fed the dogs, and 
 turned in, after taking a meridian-altitnde of the sun. 
 
 We started .it 11.30 p.m. One of us climbed up the ice-belt, while the other 
 handed up the dogs and provisions, making a ladder of the sledgfe. While here 
 we saw a large flock of geese. 
 
 We then prepared for a journey up the channel, by making a cache of half our 
 provisions, which would bs enough to take us to the vessel on our return. It 
 was very difficult to get around the cape, as the ice-foot was nearly all worn away 
 and the clifis were very steep. This caused me to reflect what could be done in 
 case the narrow ice-foot should be washed away before my return. I observed a 
 ledge on the face of the cliff's about seventy feet above the ice-belt, over which I 
 could escape myself, and leave the dogs and sle.lge beiilnd. 
 
 We put the sledge on one runner, and tl'.us passed around the most narrow 
 part of the ice-foot. The water under us was very deep and transparent. Its 
 temperature was 30" close alongside the ice-foot, but in a rapid titlew.iy. We 
 here lost our thermometer. 
 
 June 22. — At 0.30 a.m. we got around the cape and found good travelling ; we 
 went freely at the late of six miles per hour. After passing three or four bluff's 
 with smal! inlets, we got beydud the cliff's, where a low country opened on us. 
 Here we saw nine seals in a shkiII bay. 
 
 The land-ice across this shallow bay or inlet extended in some places two miles 
 f'om the water's edge, where piles of gravel were formed, so that the sledge was 
 drawn between hummocks of gravel. On account of this broad land-ice, we were 
 enab'.ed, in seme i)laces, to make a short cut, instead of following all the inden- 
 tations of the coa.st. About two miles in-shore were cliff's which appeared per- 
 pendicular, and not unlike tiie broken walls of houses. About midnight I ob- 
 ;^erved pieces of ice moving up the channel, toward the north, at the rate of four 
 knots per hour; and now when we are encamping they are moving down the 
 channel at the same rate. 
 
 M 
 
 
406 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ;.l 
 
 The ice here is entirely broken up, and the channel is navigable for vessels of 
 any size. Eider-ducka are so numerous that Hans killed two at one shot. Large 
 flocks of geese are flying in-shore and up the channel, and the rocks are covered 
 with tern, who are now breeding. Dovekies are very numerous, and ivory-gulls 
 and burgomasters have made tlieir appearance. 
 
 We have travelled fifty miles to-day, and mubt be forty-five miles up the chan- 
 nel. It has been very cold, and so cloudy that I have not been able to see the 
 sun since I entered the channel, which runs north (true), and seems to he about 
 thirty-five miles wide. The opposite (western) shore runs apparently in a straiglit, 
 line, and is very high ; the mountains, having a form resembling a sugar-loaf, 
 extend far back in the interior. This coast-line is interrupted by only two bays. 
 June 2^. — In consequence of a gale, we did not start until 0.30 a.m. After 
 travelling about six miles we were arrested by floe-ice in an inlet, which was 
 pressed over the land-ice against the mountains to the height of one hundred feet. 
 13eyond this there was no ice-belt. We secured the dogs and left the sledge, as 
 it would be impossible to transport them over these hummocks, which we suc- 
 ceeded in ourselves crossing with great diSiculty. Our object was to ascertain 
 the state of tlie travelling on the other side. We found it worse, with few land- 
 ing-places, the cliffs overhanging the water and broken masses of ice. On these 
 we ferried ourselves over to such pieces of ice as were attached to the coast. In 
 tliis manner we travelled about four miles, and returned, after sighting a high 
 cape on the north side of a bay before us, opposite to which lay an island. On 
 reaching the sledge we made ourselves as comfortable as possible, and resolved to 
 go on to-morrow without it. Here the ducks were less numerous, but gulls were 
 seen in numbers, 
 
 J%ne 24, — We started on foot at 3 a,m., taking with us a small stock of pro- 
 visions. W^e found great difficulty in crossing some places, where, in the absence 
 of land-ice, we were forced to crawl over the rocks, or get on loose floating pieces 
 of ice and jump from one to another, or else ferry ourselves until we could again 
 reach the land. 
 
 When about nine miles on our way to-day, we saw a bear with a young one at 
 a short distance from us. Five of our dogs had followed us, and, seeing the bear, 
 gave chase to it. Tlie bears ran a considerable distance in-shore. The young 
 one, which could not move fast enough, was pushed ahead by the old one, which 
 sometimes turned round and faced the dogs in order to enable the little one to 
 pain ground. Finally she stopped, and, taking the cub between her fore-legs, 
 guarded it, and at the same time kept the dogs at a distance. She would some- 
 times make a jump at them, but always kept her eye on the little one, and never 
 left it unprotected. She was thus fighting them off when we came up, and Hans 
 shot her dead, and then killed the cub. We skinned both of them, and gave the 
 old one to the dogs, but cached the young one, to be eaten on our return. The 
 skins we wished to take with us to the ship. We found at this place the runner 
 of an Esquimaux sledge. Many small pieces of willow, about an inch and a 
 half in diameter, had drifted up the eastern slope of this bay. Much grass 
 was seen, as well as many plants, all of which I have reported to Dr. Kane. 
 We had wood enough, including the sledge-runner, to cook a large part of the 
 bear. 
 
 After this delay we started, in the hope of being able to reach the cape to the 
 north of us. At the very lower end of the bay there was still a little old fast ice, 
 over which we went without following the curve of the bay up the fiord, which 
 shortened our distance considerably. Hans became tired, and I sent him more 
 
 I m 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 497 
 
 inland, where the travelling was less laborious. As I proceeiled toward the 
 ciipe alipad of me, the water caine again close in-shore. I endeavoured to reach 
 it, but found this extremely difficult, as there were piles of broken rocks rising 
 on the cliflFs, in many places to the height of one hundrt'd feet. The clitl'H above 
 these were perpendicular, and nearly two thousand feet high. I climbed over 
 the rubbish ; but beyond it the sea was washing the foot of the clifl's, and, as 
 there were no ledges, it was imjiossible for me to advance another foot. I was 
 much disappointed, because one hour's travel would have brought me round the 
 cape. The knob to which I climbed was over five hundred feet in height, and 
 from it there was not a speck of ice to be seen. As far as I could discern, the 
 sea was open, a swell coming in from the northward and running crosswise, as if 
 with a smiiU eastern set. The wind was due N., — enough of it to make 
 white caps, — and the surf broke in on the rocks below in regular breakers. 
 The sky to the N.W. was of dark rain-cloud, the first that I had seen since 
 the brig was frozen up. Ivory-gulls were nesting in the rocks above me, and out 
 to sea were mollemoke and silver-backed gulls. The ducks had not 'been seen 
 north of the first island of the channel, but petrel and gulls hung about the waves 
 near the coast. 
 
 June 25. — As it was impossible to get around the cape, I retraced my steps, 
 and soon came up to Hans, who had remained a short distance behind. 
 
 When we returned to the spot where the bears were killed, the dogs had 
 another feed ; they had not followed us any further, but remained near the car- 
 cass of the bear. Three of them were lying down, having eaten so much they 
 were unable to run. 
 
 After a difficult passage around the southern cape of the bay, we arrived at 
 our camp, where we had left the sledge at 5 p.m., having been absent thii-ty-six 
 hours, during which time we had travelled twenty miles due north of it. 
 
 /wnc 26.— liefore starting I took a meridian-altitude of the sun (this being 
 the highest northern point I obtained except one, as during the lasi. two days 
 the weather had been cloudy, with a gale blowing from the north), and then set 
 off at 4 P.M. on our return down the channel to the south. 
 
 I cannot imagine what becomes of the ice. A strong current sets it almost 
 constantly to the south ; but, from altitudes of more than five hundred feet, I 
 saw only narrow strips of ice, with great spaces of open water, from ten to 
 fifteen miles in breadth, between them. It must therefore either go to an open 
 space in the north, or dissolve. The tides in-shore seemed to make both north 
 and south ; but the tide from northward ran seven hours, and there was no 
 slack- water. The wind blew heavily down the channel from the open water, and 
 had been freshening since yesterday nearly to a gale; but it brought no ice with it. 
 
 To-day we again reached the entering cape of the channel, and camped at the 
 place where we deposited half of our provisions on our journey to the north. I 
 hei'e found the thermometer which I had lost on the 21st. The water, five feet 
 deep, taken from a rock, gave -f 40", the tide setting from northward. The air 
 in the shade was -f 34°. 
 
 June 27. — We started at 2 p.m. and travelled four hours ; but the snow was so 
 soft, in consequence of the warm sun, tliat we made slow progress. We camped 
 at 6 P.M., intending to commence our night-travelling again. 
 
 June 28. — We started at 2 a.m., and travelled along the land, in order to 
 discover more accurately where the glacier joins it. About thirty miles from the 
 entrance of the channel it overlaps the land, which here becomes gradually lower. 
 This land is of low round knobs, about eight hundred feet high. 
 •2 1 
 
 V''\ 
 
Ml VI 
 
 408 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I' P 
 
 ml 
 
 '1; 'it 
 
 i i 
 
 Two large cracks running east and west caused us some delay. We had to go 
 a great distance, to the west near one of theni, until v\e found a loose piece in it 
 large enough to ferr. ourselves and the sledge over. A great number of seals 
 were around the cracks. We halted at 9.45 a.m., opposite the place where the 
 land and gliicier unite. 
 
 June 21). — We started at 0.40 a.m., and went to the south between the icebergs. 
 We were detained by two cracks which we met with to-day. We saw the west 
 shore to the south-of-west from us, which, as far as the eye could reach, did not 
 appear to alter its trend. 
 
 June 30. — We started at 1.40 A.M., and soon got clear of the icebergs. We 
 found better travelling-ice ; but the .snow was soft, and melting very fast. In a 
 few days more it will be impossible to travel here. 
 
 This morning we sighted Cache Island, and shaped our course for Sunny 
 Gorge. I saw the western shore today, and think it was about sixty miles 
 distant. 
 
 Julp 1. — We started at 2.30 a.m. The travelling to-day was very heavy, the 
 snow being so soft that we sometimes sank to our knees in water ; yet we got 
 along safely. A great number of seals were on the ice, and the west shore in 
 sight. 
 
 Juli/ 2. — We started at 0.30 a.m., and travelled fast towards Sunny Gorge. 
 The places between the old hummocks were filled with water. The dogs were 
 sometimes actually swimming, and the sledge floating. At 8 A.M. we halted, 
 being very much exhausted ; we gave the dogs half feed. After a siiort rest we 
 started again at 1 p.m., and reached the belt at 2.30 p.m. This belt-ice was firm 
 and solid, twenty paces wide and eighteen feet thick. We reached Sunny Gorge 
 at 3.40 P.M., where we encamped. 
 
 July 3. — We started at 4.40 a.m., and travelled along the land-ice, which, m 
 some places, is completelv (.-••irflowed by water falling in cascades and torrents 
 trom the tops of the c'lifn. It has already made trenches for itself in some places 
 by cutting the laud-ice completely through down to the gravel. 
 
 Wiien v/e passed Cape George Russell I saw tli' '';ohol-keg sticking out of the 
 land-ice, and tried to get it ; but this was impossilue. I then made a hole in it 
 and tasted the contents, but found the alcohol much diluted by snow-water. The 
 dogs' feet were considerably cut by the honey-combed ice. We camped near 
 Chimney Rock at 11 a.m. 
 
 We started again at 7 p.m. and ci'ossed Marshall Bay, which was covered witii 
 water. Minturn River had made for itself a channel more than one hundred 
 yards wide, over which we ferried ourselves, sledge, and dogs, on a large loose 
 piece of ice. To the west of Marshall Bay a torrent of water came down every 
 ravine, which obliged us to go off the ice-foot and on the floe around it. 
 
 Jidi/ 4. — At 7 A.M. we arrived at the brig, after an absence of thirty days. — 
 I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, William Morton. 
 
 'i 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note 1, p. 15. 
 
 SpRiyos, properly spenklnf;, as outlets of subterrnnoon dralnajjo, are almost unknown in 
 North Greenland, At Godlmven, Disco, at tlie line of junction of the crcenstdnes and the 
 basls-Kvunltes, there Is a permanent pprinR, with a winter temperature of 33'5' Fahr.; but 
 the so-called sprincs of the Danish settlements, as far north as 73°, are derived from a sur- 
 fecc-dralnago which Is suspended during tlie colder months of the year. 
 
 Note2, p. 15. 
 
 The shark-oil trade Is of recent prowtli In Korth Greenland. It has Litely been extended as 
 far north as Proven. At Niorkanck, the seat of greatest ylild, about three hundred fish are 
 taken annually. The oil is expressed from the liver of the Arctic shark (S. borealis) the 
 Jlvowculder of the Icelamlers .- it is extremely pure, rcsisllns cold, and well adapted to 
 lubrication. It brings a liiglicr pi ro in the Copenhagen market tluin tlie best seal oils. 
 
 , I 
 1 
 
 Note 3, p. 17. 
 
 There are no Moravian missions In North Greenland, and but three of their settlement* 
 in the poutli. Named In the order of their date of colimization, they are New Ilernhut, 
 Liclitenfels, and FrederlckstaliL With these exceptions, the cntiio coast is Lutheran. Tiie 
 Lutheran missions, althouKb distinct In organization from tiie Itoyal Greenland Company, 
 are nevertheless under the direct patronaKe of Rovernment, and administered by a board 
 appointed by the crown. Tlie Moravians have no special facilities, and are dependent for 
 their supplies upon private negotiations and the courtesy of the Danish trading vessels. 
 
 Not« 4, p. 19. 
 
 Tlicre are four .sizes of reindeer skins, of distinct qualities and marked values amonpr the 
 Esquimaux:—!. lienncsoHk — the largest males, (renerally without antlers. 2. Nersutok — 
 males of lesser size, retaining their antlers duiinKtlie winter. 3. Koluak — females still 
 smaller, but not materially so, 4, Nohkak— the yearlinRS or younger animals. These lapt 
 are prized for children's clothing. It is the Bennesoak which is so useful as an Arctic sleep- 
 ing bag in the sledge Journeys. 
 
 '■'il 
 
 Note 5, p. 21, . ■ • 
 
 Within comparatively recent periods the Esquimaux had summer settlements around 
 Wilcox Tolnt and the Melville Glacier; but In 182G the small-pox so reduced tUem that they 
 were concentrated about Upernavlk. Except occiislonal parties for the chase of the white 
 bear or tlifl collection of eider-down, there are no i.ativcs north of Yotlik. Cape Shackleton 
 and Ilor>e'8 Head are, however, visited annually for eggs ond dow n. By the tortuous route 
 of the Colonial Itinerary, the latter Is rated at twenty-eight Danish, or about one liundreU 
 and thiity-five statute, miles from Upernavlk. 
 
900 
 
 NOTEa, 
 
 Note 6, p. 27. 
 
 The North Water, althouffh Us position vailos with the character and period of tlie sennon, 
 may be found, under ordinary conditions, In the month of Augast off Cape York. The local 
 name given to It by the whalers Is the Capo York Water. 
 
 Note 7, p. 28. 
 
 Tills moss — an nnrccoRnlsed sphaunum— was studded with the pale yellow flowers of ths 
 Ranunculus oublnll. No less than four species of Drabawcru afterward found on the Island. 
 
 Note 8, p. 29. 
 
 Poa and alopecnrus, with their accompanylni? bird-life, are abundant on the soufhcra 
 faces of Cupe Alexander; but uU the headlands to the north are utterly destitute of appa- 
 rent veKetatlou. On Sutherland's Island a scanty supply of scurvy grass {Cochlearia /ene$- 
 irata) may be found. 
 
 Note 9, p. 30. 
 Tills Ice was not distinguishable ft'om aloft at the time of leaving tlie brig. 
 
 Note 10, p. 33. 
 
 My survey of this harbour shows forty fathoms water to within a blscuIt-toss of Its 
 northern headland,— a square face of gneiss rock; thence east by south (true), heading for 
 a small glacier, you may carry seven fathoms to within two hundred yards of land. The 
 southern side is shoal and rocky. The holding-ground is good, and the cove completely 
 landlocked, except a small channel from the westward ; but, owing to the prevalence of 
 fogs as well as wind-eddies f^om the cliffs and persistence of local Ice, I cannot recommend 
 It for a winter harbour. 
 
 Note 11, p. 35. 
 
 This animal presented one of those raie cases of a well-developed second process protrud- 
 ing about six inches. I was unable to preserve the specimen. 
 
 Note 12, p. 35. 
 
 These were the results of direct pressure,— more properly, " crashed Ice." The ice-hilli 
 of Von Wrangeil and American authorities are grounded ices npreared by wave and tidal 
 actions. 
 
 Note 13, p. 38. 
 
 These are arranged In lines not unlike those described by Captain Bayfield on the Labra- 
 dor coast. They are undoubtedly the result of ice-transportation, the process being still 
 going on. At the head of Force Bay are traces of an ancient moraine. 
 
 Note 14, p. 39. 
 
 My note-books contain many instances of the facility with which the Esquimaux dog 
 relapses into a savage state. There is an Island near the Hoisteinberg fiords where such 
 animals hant the reindeer In packs, and are habitually shot by the natives. 
 
 Note 15, p. 41. 
 
 See page 192. For comparisons of difference of longitude between my own and Captain 
 Inglefleld s surveys, consult any point on Admiralty charts north of 78° 37',— the latitude of 
 Kunuelacr Harbour, which was regarded as our vrime meridian. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note 16, I), 42. 
 
 This valley li flanked by terraced beuch-llnos; Its background Is the scat o( an ancient 
 inuralne worthy of htiiUy. 
 
 Note 17, p. 45. 
 
 A case of similar peril Is reported by Caiilain Cator, of II.D.Sf. steamer Intrtpid. Ills 
 vosscl was caiTled bodily up the liiclliiud face of an Icfbuig, and, after being lii^h and dry 
 cut of water, launched again without Injury. See " Nautical llugazlne." 
 
 Note 18, p. 47. 
 
 The observations of our parties extended the ranpe of the musk-ox lOvihoi motchntiis) to 
 the Greenland coast. None of us saw a llvlnif sneeimen ; but the Kre:it nnniber of skeletons, 
 their btale of preservation and probable foot-tracks, when taken In cnnjuiutlon with tho 
 Information of the Esquimaux, leave nie no room to douot but that these animals have been 
 recent visitors. 
 
 Note 20, p. 51. 
 
 Except for cases of sudden effort and not calling for continued exertion or exposiire, grog 
 was not looked upon as advisable. Hot coffee was a frequent and valuable stimulus. 
 
 Note 21, p. 56. 
 
 The tenacity with which the Ice-belt adheres to the rocks Is well shnwn by Its ;iblllty to 
 resist the overflow of tlio tides. The displacement thus Ofcasloned Is hometlmt's, however, 
 so excessive that the entire mass is floated away, tarrying with It tho fnigmenti. w hlcli had 
 been luted to it from below, as well as tliose incorporated witli Its mass by deposits from 
 above. 
 
 Note 22, p. 66. 
 
 A reindeer-skull found In the same gorge was completely fossilized. That the snow- 
 waters around Rensselaer Harbour held large quantities of carbonate of lime in solution was 
 proved not only by thetufaceous deposit which incrusted tho masses, but by actual tests. 
 The broken down magneslan limestones of the niper plateaux readily explain this. 
 
 Note 23, p. 57. 
 
 The several minor streams vhlcli make up Mary .Mintuin Hlvcr run nearly parallel with 
 tho axis of the Interior glacier from which they take their origin, and imlte in a single canal 
 without Intermediate lakes. 
 
 Note 24, p. 58. 
 
 The flower-growth ot the valley of Mary Sllnturn River proves that certain favouring 
 influences— especiallj those of reverberation of heat from the rock , and continued distilla- 
 tion of water through protecting mosses— give a local richness to the .\rcfic ttora which 
 seems to render It Independent of arbitrary zones. No less than five (Jrucifers were col- 
 lected at this favoured spot, two species of Dniba, the Cochlearia fenestrata, Hespeiis pallasli, 
 and Veslcaria arctlca. The poppy grew at a little distance trom the stream ; and, still fur- 
 ther shaded by tho rocks, was tlK^ Oxyrla digyna in such quantities as to afford bountiful 
 salads to our party. The iinmediaie neighbourhood of tlie water-course presented a beau- 
 tiful carpet of Lychnis and Ranunculus, varied by Dryas octopetala and I'otentilla pulchclla 
 growing from beds of richest moss. For the deterndnatlon of the species of these plants I 
 am indebted to Mr. Durand; it was not until my return and my plants had been subjected 
 to his able analysis that I was aware that Vesical la was upon my list I had never seen it 
 north of Egedesuiinde, latitude C8°; yet both It and HuspurU are also among Dr. Hayes's 
 cullectious. 
 
COS 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Nolo 25, p. 69. 
 
 I'he Unci of Junction of flnci lorvo 'tidcly as an Index to tlie direction of diifL 
 mock* sro guncrally ivt riKlit angles to tliu axis of drift. 
 
 The hum* 
 
 h 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 "I 
 
 ill 
 
 
 ■I 
 
 ?l 
 
 ■k 
 
 ii 
 
 Note 26, p. 05. 
 
 Tho dimensions nnd Kcncriu structure of tlio Mcdp;e are of vital Importance for a success* 
 ful Journey. Very sllKlit, almost Imiierccptlblu, differences cause an Increase of friction 
 more than equal to Ihv ilrauKli- dI' an additional man or duK. The curvature of the runners 
 — that of nilnlnimn resistance - depends upon riciiients not easily romputed : It Is best deter- 
 mined experimentally. Tho Failh—v/UWU for the heavy and snoweove.cd Ico of Smith's 
 Straits was tho best sledge I ever saw— dllTered somewhut from tho excellent model of 
 Cajiliim M'Cllntoek, furnished mo by the Ilrltlsh Admiralty: Its Increased breadth of 
 runner kept It from burying In the snow; while Its less(;r height made It atronf^er and 
 diminished the strain upon tho lashlntcs, I subjoin the dlmenslout of two nearly similar 
 sledges, — Mr. irCllntock's and my own:— 
 
 APClintoei'i. 
 
 ft. In. 
 
 Lenffth of runner t.1 
 
 HclKhtof do U lU 
 
 Horizontal width of all parts '.'j 
 
 Tlilckncss of all parts. I^ 
 
 length, resting on a piano surface 6 
 
 Cross-bart), six In number, making a 
 
 width of 3 
 
 ne Faith. 
 
 tx. 
 
 Length of runner « 13 
 
 Height of do 
 
 Horizontal width of rail 
 
 „ „ base of runner 
 
 „ „ other parts 
 
 Thickness of all parts „ 
 
 Length, resting on a plane surface G 
 
 Cross-bars, five In number, making a 
 width of. 3 
 
 In. 
 U 
 8 
 
 ^! 
 
 2 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 The shoeing of the large sledges of English expeditions was of burnished one clghlh- 
 Inch Iron; our own were of annealed threo-slxtcenths-lnch steel, as llgl-.t as possible, to 
 admit of slightly countersunk rivets. Seal-skin lashings were used for the cross-bars, 
 applied wet; tho wood was hickory and oak, not the Canada elm used by the I.uicastcr 
 Sound parties. 
 
 A sledge thus constructed, with a canvas cover on which to place and confine the cargo, 
 would rcaully load, according to the state of the travel, from one hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred pounds per man. Tho Fail\ has cariled sixteen hundred pounds. 
 
 Note 27, p. 67. 
 
 These boats were not well adapted to their purpose, their bulk being too great for porta- 
 bility. The casing of basket-willow I regard as bettor than a wooden frame or distension 
 by simple inflation with air. No sledge, however, should be without the India-rubber flouts 
 or portable boat of Lieutenant Halkett. 
 
 Note 28, p. 67. 
 
 This Is quoted fi-oni the original report of the party. There are no syenites upon this 
 plane; thor'^cks are entirely destitute of hornblende. They are of the same bottom-series 
 as the fiords about our harbour, highly feldspathlc and sometimes porphyritic granites pass- 
 ing into coarse gneisses. 
 
 Note 29, p. 69. 
 
 One end of tlie cord represented a fixed point, by being anchored to the bottom ; the free 
 end, with an attached weight, rose and fell with the brig, and recorded its motion on the 
 grooved circumference of a wheel. This method was liable to objections; but it was cor- 
 rected by daily soundings. The movements of our vessel partook of those of the floe in 
 vhich she was imbedded, and were unaccompanied by any lateral deviation. 
 
NOTKS. 
 
 603 
 
 Nolo 31, p. 72. 
 
 Tlio nlmoRt Incoinproheniilblo iikp of tliciio mimll konnflii m dormltorlM wim nfterwunl 
 utistactorlly nsccrtiiltifil fioin tln' Ksfiultmiux tliuniKi'lvca. They nr« nimki'ii of ii.i far south 
 ns KHnitik (iichi' l!))i'niiivik), nnd iii u iit tliln nionu'tit iitnortrd to In ritMi of nrrlvuli of hunt- 
 liiK partlci, itc. I'nIIke the Sllicilitn iiohitfn, th<'y iiru nut cticloncd l)y u Nvcnnil chiitiibur. 
 'I 'lu hardy tenant, nit'tn(Ml hi ftim, at a tcni|icriiluro nf — 00* !■ dependent fur wurinth U|M)n 
 Itti own powers and lliu iluw conduction of tliu thick wall*. 
 
 Note 32, !>. 74. 
 
 llnlr evidently flom the ninsk-ox wni found near ItcfuK" Inlet. The last of these anU 
 niHiN seen by the Kiiqiilinaux waa lu the lute aprluK uf 18A0, near Cape Ucorge Kussell. 
 Hurt' Metck saw a ((roup of six. 
 
 ft. 
 
 In. 
 
 .13 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 8 
 
 . 
 
 a* 
 
 . 
 
 lii 
 
 . 
 
 2 
 
 . 
 
 n 
 
 Note33, p. 81. 
 
 For an acennnt of the destrttctlon of provl.ilon ilepftts by Ytrnrn, nee the reports nf the 
 llnKulurly etllelent slcdtte-operallons of Coniuiodoro Aiiittln (rarlluincnt|iry lllue-ltook). 
 The wolverine {Oulo luseus), the most deHlruellve animal to Arctic cached, l.t nut found 
 north of Lancaatei' Sound. So deMnictlvo are the lieam about I'eahody liay, that nothlni; 
 but A mctHllIc cylinder with conical tcnnlnutlons gave any protection against their uasaultai 
 
 Note 34, p. 90. 
 
 The liquids subjected to tlicse low temperatures were for the most part the ethers and 
 volatile oils. 
 
 Note 35, p. 130. 
 
 'lliere Is a local reservoir of Interior Ice around Cope Alexander ond toward Cape Sau- 
 inaurez, which may be, however, a process from the e>'i:at tner <it glact of the Interior. 
 
 Notes 36 to 41 inclusive, pp. 130, 131. 
 
 I Intended to refer by these numerals to a somewhat enlarRed summary of the geofpiostlc 
 rimracteis of thU coast; but I And it Impracticable to comlense my obHcrvations into the 
 narrow limits which have been reserved for these notes. Like many other tojilcs of more 
 scientific than popular Interest, they may find a place In the Ofikiul Keports upon wiiich I 
 am now engaged under the orders of the Navy Ocpartuicnt. 
 
 Note 42, p. 131. 
 
 Where this face came In contact with opposir;;{ masses if rocks,— as at Islands or at the 
 sides of Us Issuln^-trouRh, — abrupt fractures and exce8.sl\o crevassing Indicated the resist- 
 ance to the passage of the Ice-strram. 1 think I have mentioned a small island near the 
 cache that was already partially burled by the advance of the glacier uni. the discharged 
 fragments at its base 
 
 Note 43, p. 133. 
 
 Our surveys give four points for the doti -mination of the trend of this interior mer <fe 
 gliiet:—!. Up the flord of Marshall I5uy; 2. In the interior, about lat. 78° 32', as ol)served by 
 Dr. Hayes; 3. South of Force Bay; 4. Near Etah. These give tlie axis of the stream 
 nearly due north and south. 
 
 Note 44, p. 133. 
 Australia, between Dass and Torres Straits, measures about sixteen hundred miles. 
 
504 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Note 45, p. 133. 
 
 Looking upon the glaciers of Grccnlind as canals of exudation, for the most part at right 
 angles to the general axis of the interior ice, we have a system of discharge, both on tlie 
 east and west coasts, coincident in direction with the fiords, wliich themselves bear a fixed 
 reliition to the coast-line. This coast-line, however, having now been traced to its northern 
 face, analogy would sustain the view of the central mer tie glace finding its exit into an 
 unknown Polar space. 
 
 I have spoken of Humboldt Glacier as connccttng the two continents of America and 
 Greenland. The expression requires explanation : — 
 
 All of .\rctlc America north of Dolphin and Union Straits is broken up Info large Insular 
 musses, and may be considered as a vast archipelago. While, theiefore, a liberal definition 
 would assign these iand-maases to the .*merioan continent, Grinntli Land cannot st ictly 
 be regarded as part oi the continent of Arierlca. Waslilngfon Land seems. In physical 
 characters and position, to be a sort of ml'lille ground, which, according to the different 
 views of geogwphers, may bo assigned indifferently fo either of the two great divisions. 
 From the American liind-masses it Is separated by a channel of but tliirty-five miles in 
 width; arid, i.t this point, Greenland, losing its peninsular character, paitikes in general 
 character with the land-masses of the West. A water-channel not wider than I^ancaster 
 Sound or Muichison's, which have heretofore net been regarded as breakiiig a geo^-ra- 
 phlcal continuity, is all Uiat Intervenes. 
 
 Note 46, p. 136. 
 Extract from Report of I. I. Hayes, if.D., Surgeon to Expedition. 
 
 " YoTi were carried to the brig nearly insensible by tl;e more able men of the party, 
 and so swollen from scurvy as to be hardly recognisable. I beliere that a few hours' 
 more exposure would have terminated your lite, and at the time regarded your ultimate 
 • ecovery as nearly hopeless." 
 
 '. * 
 
 Note 47, p. 143. 
 
 This term Is applied tr the circular hole which the fetid seal {P. hispida) constructs 
 In the younger floes, aui. through which it finds access to tiie air and sun. The term 
 alluk is ap\illud also to the sei'l itself when killed beside Its retreat. 1 find I have sometimes 
 written the word as atluk. He who has attempted the orthography of an unwritten 
 language will excuse the variation. 
 
 Note 43, p. 173. 
 
 The dovekie (f/rw grylle) not unfrequenfly winters among the open Ice to the south- 
 ward. I killed a specimen in full winter plumage, in the middle pack of Uafhn's lUy, lato 
 In February. 
 
 Note 49, p. 178. 
 
 The linmediafe appearance of drifting Ico under the influence of >,vinds is well known to 
 Arctic navitiatiirs; and this entire absence of it during a continued gale from the north 
 seems to indicate either 8 far-extended open wf. jr, or ice so solid and unbroken as to bo 
 Incuuable of motion. 
 
 Note 50, p. ISl. 
 
 The frequency with which the seal— both ti'.e hispid and bearded species— occuired in the 
 open chaiMiel may explain why it is so fu.ouiite a resort of tlie white bear. No less than 
 five of these animals were counted, and two were killed. They seemed, however, generally 
 to seek the inlanu ravines whieii were the breeding-grounds of fowL Ko marine life was 
 reported, unless a small fish— probably t cottus— which was caucht by the klttiwako pull; 
 yet from the hones of cetaceans found on ilie beach, I do not dcubt but that both the sea- 
 uiiicoru {Uonodon monocerot) and white whivle fi'equent the channel 
 
NOTES. 
 The bird-life was move extended. I throw Into tabular form a list of tlic — 
 Binls seen about lite Open Water. 
 
 505 
 
 Brent goose 
 
 Eider-duck 
 
 Anas bemicla 
 
 Hying diagonally across cliannel to 
 N. and E. 
 
 In great numbers in southern part 
 of Kennedy Channel. 
 
 Flying inland up .Morris Bay; pro- 
 bably breeding. 
 
 Breeding in nick N. of Cape Jaclc- 
 .son; very nunierons. 
 
 N'ortli of Cape JctTerson and out to 
 seaward. 
 
 Same. 
 
 Same. 
 
 Southern parts of chai^nel. 
 Same. 
 
 Breeding in great numbers S. of Cape 
 Jefferson. 
 
 S. muUisshna 
 
 S. spectabllis 
 
 King-duel; 
 
 Dovekle 
 
 Arctic Detrel 
 
 Uria crvUe 
 
 Procellaria glaclnlis..... 
 
 Larus ebui-notis 
 
 L. argeiitalus? 
 
 Ivoiy-jtiill..„ 
 
 An asti hacked ffull.. ( 
 (ui.i'-v-.piUed).... j 
 
 Burgoiniister 
 
 Kittlewake 
 
 Sea-swallow 
 
 !>. glaucus 
 
 L. trvdactylus 
 
 
 
 
 The season was not snfflclently ailvanced to allow me to judt;u of the characters of tlio 
 flora ; but botit .Morton and Hans think tliat the growth was mucli more forward tliun tliat 
 of our own harbour. Tliey describPthe recesses of Lafayette Bay as rivalling in richness the 
 growth of Jlinturn River. Tliey brought back no collections; and it was only by carefully 
 can'.paiing known specimens fiiund about Ueiisselaer Bay with those seen and recognised 
 to the north by Hans that I was able to determine upon a certain number of plants. 
 Some otliers— after availing my.self of the advice of my friend Mr. Duraiid, to wiioso 
 courtesy as well as patient skill I am glad to bear tribute— I have not felt myself at liberty 
 to insert in this iiniited list This enumerat'.on must not be regarded a.s an index of the 
 actual vegetation; but, with every reservation for the Imperfect observation and the early 
 season, 1 am not satislled tliat the florn. of Kennedy Cliainiel indicates a milder climate to 
 the north of our winter harbour. I subjoin my <tcunty list:— 
 
 Ranunculus nivalis 
 
 In quantities about the mossy slopes of Lafayette 
 
 Bay. 
 Well ailvanced and recognisable. 
 Found ill Lafayette Bay ; the silique recognised by 
 
 Sir. Durand. 
 Two fomis (one probably alpina) associated wltli 
 
 cognisable lychnis and cerastium 
 
 Beginning to show itself. 
 This latter in dried state. 
 In quantities »■. equate for food. 
 
 Seen dried and budding along the channel. 
 
 Papaver nndicaule 
 
 Ilesperls pallasii 
 
 Saxifraga oppositifolia 
 
 „ flag'dlaris 
 
 Oxvria diiivnus 
 
 Saiix uva ursl 1 
 
 „ arctiea j 
 
 1 
 
 If we add to these three grasses, poa, alopecurns, and festnca, with the usual Arctic 
 cryptogams, we have, except in the anomalous case of ilesperis, no plants not common 
 to Lower Smith's iftraits and Green's Cliannel. 
 
 Note 51, p. 183. 
 
 These remarks will be expanded elsewhere. Tlie presence of marine shells (Saaicava 
 and Astarte) on the upper terrace-levels about Dallas Bay, and similar facts noticed by 
 Sii Kdward Belcher and tlie Barrows Straits observers, leave liulc room to doubt the 
 
606 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 cnnclusion. T!ut I do not cite the elevation of the coast, cither as deduced frnm the 
 Ksqnlmaux habitations or otliciwise, exct:pt as it Illustrates changes in the rclutiong 
 which the water and ice once bore to each other. I do nut cun ect It with the ques- 
 tion of an open sea. 
 
 Note 52, p. 184. 
 
 This sledRe-mnner was of wood and bone toifethcr, with h(,:. s perforated for the seal-skin 
 lashini^s used by the natives to scarf their worlt. It affords u.imiatakoalde evidence either 
 of a cuiTent-driii, h.mI oopwional open water from the sound, or of the former presence of 
 natives to the north,— this luttur implying competent hunting-resources. 
 
 
 S: i 
 
 •if 
 
 Note 53, p. 184. 
 
 A popular analysis of these conditions may be seen in Protessor Forbes's recent work on 
 the glaciers of Norway. We cannot refer this open water to ary analofrous causes witli 
 thi, ■ which explain tlie othei rolynias on tliis estuary. Davis Siraits, off Cape Walsinif- 
 ham, wiicic Hio channel narrows to one hundred and twenty miles, and Smith Straits, 
 wliich between Capes i».>V'-'la ':aJ Olilsen liave a bicadtli of only thirty-six, are at those 
 points cloRpcd with Immense fields of ice, extending In the earl!';r season from shore to 
 sliore and airestlng the passage of the drift ft'om above. It is easy to explain the occur- 
 rence of polynia below these two barriers,- tiie Nortli Water of the wlialers, and the upper 
 water which I met lu my nnsncccsoful cfl"ort to reacli Heecliy Island. But between Capes 
 ]5arrow and .laclison, wlicre Kennedy Cliamicl is conirncted tr thirty-five miles across, 
 and where the ices from above, if there were such, ought to be HiTesled as in the other twr) 
 Mses. wt found *his open water; while below it, ir. Peaboay Bay, where analogies would 
 suggest the probability of another polynia, wo found a den8ely-imi)acted solid mass. I do 
 not sec how, independently of direct observation, this state of facts could be explained 
 without supposing an Iceless area to the farther North. 
 
 How far tills may extend, --wlietlier it does or 'oi t ,,* communicate with a Polar 
 basin, — wo are witliout facts to de'ermine. I woulc; , , jwever, as a cautionary check 
 to some theories In connection with such an open baimi, iiiat tiie influence of rapid tides 
 and currents In destroying Ice by abrasion can hardly be realized by those who luivo not 
 witnessed their action. It is not uncommon to see such tidal sluices remain open :: le 
 midst of winter. Such, Indeed, are the polynia of tiio Russia is, the strombois ui tlie 
 Greenland Danes, and the familiar "open holes" of the whalers. 
 
 Note 64, p. 191. 
 
 1 regret that, after a careful study of the work of my predecessor. Captain Inglefleld, I 
 nni unable 'o make his landmarks on the K. coast of Greenland onespond witli my own. 
 Tlie few sh(rt hours spent by tliu Isahel on Sniith'3 Straits, and the many difficulties 
 which we know to be attendant upon a liaiTicd snrvey, readily account for discrepancies 
 of beaviiig and position A sketch ins'.Mted by Captain Inglefleld, in Ids narrative at 
 page VO, locates Capo FredericK VII. as the Hist headland to tho N. of tlie second inden- 
 tion, which, according to my stnvcy, should bo "Force Bay." But the absence of 
 I'eklutUk (Littleton Island), which is unniistakeably prondnent as a feature of tlie coas', 
 embarrasses me. My skctciics of this coast arc in detail. 
 
 
 Note 55, p. 200. 
 
 The entire coast between Wiale Sound and Cape Alexander Is studded with small 
 glaciers. Some of these are of Saussure's second order, — mere troughs upon the flanks 
 of the coast-rldge; but, for the mr)st part, they are connected wltli interior mers de glace, 
 and are urged forward in their descent by the glacial accumulations of large areas. The 
 mer de glace which occupies the central plateau of Nortliuinberland is completely isolated 
 and washed by the sea, and Is necessarily dependent for its increments upon the atmo- 
 spheric precipitation of a very limited surface; yet it sustains in its discharge no less than 
 seven glaciers,— pel haps more,— one of which Is half a mile In diameter by two hundred 
 feet in depth. It Is a startling Instance of the redundance of Arctic ice-growth. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 607 
 
 Note 56, p. 256. 
 
 Tills propensity of the bear— in fact, of all prcdntory nnlmals-ls alliuird fo by Rcoresby 
 and others. It was curiously shown In the March journey of 1854, when a woollen shirt 
 of Mr. M'Gary'i was u ' lally torn to slircda and twisted into colls. 
 
 ri 
 
 The subjoined are given ns aids f o physica.' Inquiry on the part of future travellers : — 
 Directions to situ of Rentselaer Harbour, 
 
 1. The observafory was placed upon the nortliemmost of the rcrky Rroup of islets that 
 foimed our harbour. It Is seventy-six EnRllsh feet from the limhest and norlhernmoHt 
 Niillcnt point of this island, In a direction S. 14° K, or in one with said point and the S.K. 
 piojecticn of the southernmost Islet of the group. 
 
 2. A natural face of gneiss rock formed the western wall of the observatory. A cre- 
 vice in this rock has been filled with melted load, in the centre of which Is a copper 
 Ijolt Eight feet from this bolt, and in tlie direction indicated by tlic crevice, stood tlio 
 magnetometer. This direction is given in cose of local disturbance from tlio nature of the 
 surrounding rocks. 
 
 3. On the highest point of the Ish.nd mentioned In paragraph 1, is a deoi>ly-chlselled 
 arrow-mark filled witli lead. This is twenty-nine feet al)cve the mean tidal plane of 
 our winter quarters for the years 1853-64. Tl. .• arrow points to a mark on a rocky faie 
 denoting the lowest tide of the season ; both of tlicse are refeiTed by sextant to known points. 
 
 4. In nn enlarged crack five feet due west of above arrow is a glass Jar containing docu- 
 ments. (See p. 206.) 
 
 6. A calm calls attention to these marks: nothing Is plac°.d wltliin It 
 
1 
 
GLOSSARY OF ARCTIC TERMS. 
 
 Bay-ice, ice of recent formation, so called because forming most readily in baya 
 
 and slieltered spots. 
 Berg (see Iceberg). 
 
 Beset, so enclosed by floating ice as to be unable to navigate. 
 Bight, an indentation. 
 
 Blasting, breaking the ice by gunpowder introduced in canisters. 
 Blink (see Ice blink). 
 
 Bore, to force through loose or recent ice by sails or steam. 
 Brash, ice broken up into small fragments. 
 
 Calf, detached masses from berg or glacier, rising suddenly to the surface. 
 Crow's nest, a look-out place attached to the top-gallant-masthead. 
 
 Dock, an op'^ning in the ice, .irtiticial or natural, oflfering protection. 
 Drift-ice, detached ice in moi'on. 
 
 Field-ice, an extensive surface of floai :)g ice. 
 Fior'. an abrupt opening in the coastline, admitting the sea. 
 Fire-hnle, a well dug in the ice as a safeguard in case of fire. 
 Floe, a detached portion of a field. 
 
 Glacier, a mass of ice derived from the atmosphere, sometimes abutting upon 
 the sea. 
 
 Hummocks, ridges of broken ice formed by collision of fields. 
 
 Ice-anchor, a hook or grapnel adapted to take hold upon ice. 
 
 Ice-belt, d rontinued niar<,'in of ice. which in high northern latitudes adheres to 
 
 t'ae '■-oast above the ordinary level of the sea. 
 Icelfrg, a large floating mass of ice detached from a glacier. 
 Iceblink, a peculiar appearance of the atmosphere over distant ice. 
 Ice-chisel, a long ciiisel for cutting holes in ice. 
 Ice-face, the abutting face of the ice-belt. 
 
 Ice-foot, the Danish name for the limited ice-belt of the m-^re southern coast. 
 Ice-hook, a small ice-anchor. 
 
 Ice-raft, ice, whether field, floe, o.- detached belt, transporting foreign matter. 
 Icctah'e, a flat surface of ice. 
 
510 
 
 OLOSSAUV OF ARCTIC TKRMS. 
 
 Land-ice, floes or fields adhering to the coast, or included between headlands. 
 Lane or lead, a navigable opening in the ice. 
 
 Nip, the condition of a vessel pressed upon by the ice on both sides. 
 
 Old ice, ice of more than a season's growth. 
 
 Pack, a large area of floating ices driven together more or less closely. 
 Polynia, a llussian term for an open- water space. 
 
 Riieraddy, a shoulder-belt to drag by. 
 
 Tide-hole, a well sunk in the ice for the purpose of observing tides. 
 Tracking, towing along a margin of ice. 
 
 Water-sky, a peculiar appearance of the sky over open water. 
 
 Young ice, ice formed before the setting in of winter ; recent ioe. 
 
 ! ; 
 
 ■;?3 
 
headlands. 
 
 ly.