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P 6- e ^^^' ?^?^^ ^y tOi CoW2Ji0<^ Longmans' Colonial Library The First Crossing OF GREENLAND By FRIDTJOF NANSEN TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY HUBERT MAJENDIE GEPP, B.A. I-ATE LECTURER ON ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UPSALA NEW EDITION mitb Iftumeroue 5«u0trations an^ ynsap LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST i6th STREET 1893 A a rights reserved 4 2 8 2 5 3 G'?4^ \^\ BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. ->♦- /"w-j^ Edition, 2 z'o/r. , 8z/<7 . November 1890. A'iezy Edition, abridged, i »£»/. , wl/ay'i:A 1892, crown 8vo . Reprinted .... February 1893. Reprinted for Colonial Library July 1893. 3 TO MY FIVE COMRADES IN TOKEN OF GRATITUDE AND GOOD-FELLOWSHIP. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. I FEEL that I cannot send this book out to meet its fate with- out attaching to it a hearty expression of my gratitude to all those who gave their help to the expedition with which it is concerned. Among these I must assign a prominent place to Herr AuGUSTiN Gam^l, in virtue of the ready liberality with which he offered his support to an undertaking which was very gene- rally considered to be the scheme of a lunatic. And after him I must thank the Committee of the Norwegian " Studentersam- fund," or " Students' Union," who organised the collection of, and the large number of my countrymen who contributed to, the considerable sum which I received on my return home in defrayal of the outstanding expenses of the expedition. And, lastly, I must acknowledge the kindness of all the Danish offici , ' ; with whom we came in contact, both in Denmark and Green- land, as well as the unbounded hospitality with which we were treated on all sides. But my chief thanks are nevertheless owing to my five comrades, to whose combined efforts the successful result of our undertaking is of course mainly due. Every one who has conducted an expedition will know how ready the world is to do the great injustice of heaping the whole praise or blame for its success or failure on the shoulders of the leader alone. And this injustice is greater than. usual in the case of an expedition like ours, in which each member serves as one of a team of vn VIM PIUiFACE TO FIRST EDITION. draught cattle, and the result of which cannot therefore be dependent on the efforts of a single individual. My comrades, too, I must thank for the terms of good-fellow- ship on which we lived, and for the many pleasant hours we spent together in spite of ungenial surroundings. On these hours I have often dwelt with peculiar fondness in the course of my narrative. 1 have once more called to life many a little incident, which to others indeed may seem trivial, but which has a special value to us. If in so doing T have been induced to extend my tale to undue length, I must ask the good reader to bear with me if he can ; and if not, to remember that here at least all the blame must be laid on me and me alone. FRIUTJOF NANSEN. LVSAKER, ClIRISTIANlA, October 1S90. PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. In preparing the present edition of Dr. Nansen's account of the first crossing of Greenland in one volume, some curtail- ment of the larger work has been found necessary. For- tunately I have found it possible to effect this without reduc- ing the space allotted to the narrative of the actual expedition. Dr. Nansen's great work deals with many subsidiary matters of the highest importance to those interested in Arctic travel, both in the historical and the practical aspects of the subject, which is one that has ever possessed a fascination for the English race. It also contains a full account of the Eskimo of Greenland, and an appendix dealing with the scientific results of the expedition. In preparing a popular edition of the work, I have thought it advisable to retain the story of the daring journey through the floe-ice off the ca.st coast, and the heroic crossing to the west coast, intact, re- ferring those who wish to learn Dr. Nansen's views on these cognate subjects to the larger work. Following out this scheme, the chapters in vol. i. on " Equipment," " Ski and Skilobning," "The Voyage to Iceland," "Cruising in the Ice," "The Bladder-nose Seal," and "Life on the /ason," have been slightly abridged, and the historical chapters dealing with previous attempts to penetrate the ice-belt of the east coast of Greenland, and to explore the " Inland ice," have been omitted altogether. On the other hand, the introduction, and the chapters dealing with the attempts to land, the drifting in the ice, and the fortunes of the expedition while working IX PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. its way up the cast coast, have been retained intact. In vol. ii. the account of the crossing of the "Inland ice" until the ex|)c'(lition arrived in (lodthaab is reprinted entire, while the chai)ters entitled **An ICskimo Narrative," "'I'hc Eskimo of Greenland," and "A Shooting Trip to Ameralikfjord," together with the ai)pendix, have been omitted. Nearly all the illustrations given in the larger edition are included in the present one. C. J. LONGMAN. CONTENTS. cirAP. 1. INTRODUCTION II. TIIK KQUIPMRNT . III. "ski" and "SKILOnNINO" IV. TIIK VOYAOK TO ICELAND . V. CRUISING IN TUB ICR . VI. TIIR lU.ADDRR NOSR SRAL AND ITS CAPTURR VII, ATTKMPT TO LAND — DRIFTING IN THE ICE Vm. STILL DRIFTING IX. I'HR EAST COAST OF GRRENLAND X. THE RAST COAST— AN ESKIMO RNCAMPMRNT XL TIIR EAST COAST— ANOTHER STAGE NORTHWARDS XII. THE RAST COAST— FURTHER DEALINGS V^'ITH THE ESKIMO XIII. OUR LAST ENCAMPMENT ON THE EAST COAST , XIV. OUR START FOR THE WEST COAST— THE ASCENT OF THE ICE XV. THE CROSSING OF THE "INLAND ICE" — WE CHANGE OUR COURSE FOR GODTHAAH— SOME FEATURES OF THE CLIMATE AND THE SNOW XVL THE CROSSING OF THE "INLAND ICE "—A STORM IN THE INTERIOR — OUR DOMESTIC LIFE XVIL THE CROSSING OF THE "INLAND ICE "—THE FIRST SIGHT OF LAND AND FIRST DRINK OF WATER .... XVIII. THE CROSSING OF THE "INLAND ICE " — THE DESCENT TO AMERALIKFJORD XIX. OUR VOYAGE, AND ARRIVAL AT GODTHAAB xi rAGR I 21 48 68 78 91 125 147 163 191 209 228 243 267 287 302 321 350 xu CONTENTS. Ml I CHAP. XX. XXI. XXII. xxrii. XXIV. XXV. WAITINC. IN AMKRAl.lKFJORD . , . , . WINTKR QtlARTKRS \T r.ODTHAAI? FIRST MCSSONS IN TIIK " KAYAK " CHRISTMAS AT (iODTHAAU SARDI.OK AND KANGEK — NOTES FROM MY DIARY FURTHER ATTEMPTS ON IHE " INLAND ICE "—THE SHIP THE SHIP !— THE VOYAGE HOME pahe 375 3S9 402 410 417 434 INDEX 44S \ V , P/»nE 375 ) 3-^:9 402 410 • 417 : sail' ! 434 . 448 ^CaWftRfeXaSiSH «a»-«»"- — . '- ^ ■■ xn CONTENTS. Chapter I. INTRODUCTION. OFF THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND, 1882, (From a sketch ana a photograph by the A ut/ior.) In the summer of 1882 I was on board the Vik'mg, a Norwegian sealer, which was caught in the ice off that part of the east coast of Greenland which is still unexplored, or, more precisely, somewhere in the neighbourhood of lat. 66° 50' N. For move than three weeks 56- 54- 52" SO" 48'» 46' 44- 1 "^^^^^^^I ^^S^'- 1 ->, 1 ^"^ / "^P^T'T*^""' i"^^' isae P'miikmi^'^^S^^jfk^ GlaeUr i )C^ ^*" ^ / ,-... f«EP«-...- &f f 'l*t y!S!*]S^_ -rr •*< ^f^'^^sp]^^^ 28^0. 'vz msMoidiaaa. i^^'^;^ ------ — iv^lc^^^f'^ -'^ :■:. -«f4S "^^^f^-^^^* 1- **«■ V 1 .*i*Jair^*" III ' 1 -"* i .js0^^^ Sg 6e» ""'^^^^^A^ f ^Bk / ^^^^: / Sff-esyt: / 64? 1 l' ■■ f Go^d W^ Br •^#**lrS>M/< ^B^r^^ -^ «,9:'i; r^^-/ *--^^ ««W*1 #^ ^(»A>^ S ^ 38" ■281 MAP OF SOUTHERN GREENLAND, Shewing the Route of the Norwegian Expedition in 1888. The Ooaat drawn under the superintendence of Captain a. Holm from the latest Surveys. SCALE. w 30 30 ic so eo 10 so 90 1W fn^Jkblns • •■ Voyage in the "Jo^on." Route of the Bxpedition. N.O.— TAe dots shew camping places for the greater part of iht joumeg, but in the ice-belt indi- cate point* at which obtervationt were taken. Excursion to Ujaragauit in March 1889. Belt ofjloc-ice skirting the east coast. y ^ ^ ^ ^' Joe. .-^ »»• .5 eff V *fi 7^ H ^C? m \.\ "% ^1^ ^^'^^'i 'is. k»^^ %| »'t«aek t3i9€9(m fJu^2I. -A*^' noon. 'J3t2, ««'«» .64' i23,iw0a. •fcpyfc^^C 62t «rO( ■"»«*: 4gdbimm^i *«-M*rt«^j •*>* ini i iKijfcj, or fiw J^afil'^j 52°V:f. Greenwich 50" ACROSS GREENLAND. I we were absolutely fixed, and every day, to the terror of the crew, we drifted nearer to the rocky coast. Behind the fields of floating ice lay peaks and glaciers glittering in the day- light, and at evening and through the night, when the sun sank lowest and set the heavens in a blaze behind them, the wild beauty of the scene was raised to its highest. Many times a day from the maintop were my glasses turned west- wards, and it is not to be wondered at that a young man's fancy was drawn irresistibly to the charms and mysteries of' this unknown world. Unceasingly did I ponder over plans for reaching this coast, which so many had sought in vain, and I came to the conclusion that it must be possible to reach it, if not by forcing a ship through the ice, which was the method tried hitherto, then by crossing the floes on foot and dragging one's boat with one. One day, indeed. I incontinently pro- posed to make the attempt and walk over the ice to shore alone, but this scheme came to nothing because the captain conceived that he could not in the circumstances allow any one to leave the ship for a length of time. On my return I was asked to write an article in the Danish "Geografisk Tidskrift " (vol. vii., p. 76), and in this I expressed it as my opinion that it would be possible to reach the east coast of Greenland without any very great difficulty if the expedition forced their way as far as practicable into the ice on board a Norwegian sealer, and then left the ship and passed over the floes to shore. I will not say that I had not at this time some notion more or less visionary of penetrating from the coast into the interior, but it was not till a later occasion that the idea took a definite form. One autumn evening in the following year, that is to say, 1883 — I remember it still as if it were only yesterday— I was sitting and listening indifferently as the day's paper was being read. Suddenly my attention was roused by a telegram which told us that Nordenskiold had come back safe from his expedi- tion to the interior of Greenland, that he had found no oasis, but only endless snowfields, on which his Lapps were said to INTRODUCTION. to say, I was being which expedi- o oasis, said to have covered, on their "ski,"^ an extraordinary long distance in an astonishingly short time. The idea flashed upon me at once of an expedition crossing Greenland on " ski " from coast to coast. Here was the plan in the same form in which it was afterwards laid before the public and eventually carried out. My notion, put briefly, was that if a party of good "skilobers" were equipped in a practical and sensible way, they must get across Greenland if they began from the right side, this latter point being of extreme importance. For if they were to start, as all other expeditions have done, from the west side, they were practically certain never to get across. They would have all the flesh-pots of Egypt behind them, and in front the un- explored desert of ice and the east coast, which is little better. And furthermore, if they did get across, they would have the same journey back again in order to reach home. So it struck me that the only sure road to success was to force a passage through the floe-belt, land on the desolate and ice-bound east coast, and thence cross over to the inhabited west coast. In this way one would burn all one's ships behind one, there would be no need to urge one's men on, as the east coast would attract no one back, while in front would lie the west coast with all the allurements and amenities of civilisation. There was no choice of routes, "forward" being the only word. The order would be : — " Death or the west coast of Greenland" ^ As these implements and their use will be treated of at length in Chap. III., it will only be necessary here to introduce the terms to the reader. "Ski" (pi. "ski" or "skier"), literally a "billet" or thin slip of wood, and connected etymologically with the Eng. "skid" and "shide," is the Norwegian name for the form of snowshoe in general use among the northern nations of the Old World. The pronunciation of the word in Norway may be considered practically identical with the Eng. "she." Tb** compounds of the word which will occur in the course of the narrative are "skilober," a snowshoer, and " skilobning," snowshoeing, both formed from the verb "lobe," to run. The only reason why the established English term "snowshoe" should not have been employed throughout is that this course would have led to inevitable confusion with the very dissimilar Indian snowshoe, of which also frequent mention is made. ACROSS GREENLAND. Not till the autumn of 1887 did I resolve to give my serious attention to the scheme. My original idea had been to carry out the expedition with private means, but, as I was strongly urged on more than one side to apply to the Norwegian University for the necessary funds, in order to give the expedition a more public and national character, I consented, and sent to the authorities an application for a grant of 5000 kroner, or rather more than jC^TS* ^" ^id of a journey on the lines I have already described. My application received the warmest support from the University Council, and was passed on to the Government for their consideration, and in order that the proposal might be laid by them before the " Storthing," or National Assembly, in the regular manner. The Govern- ment, however, answered that they could not see their way to give the scheme their suppo»-t, and one of the newspapers even went so far as to maintain iiiat there could be no conceivable reason why the Norwegian people should pay so large a sum as 5000 kr. in order to give a private individual a holiday trip to Greenland. Most people who heard of the scheme con- sidered it simple madness, asked what was to be got in the interior of Greenland, and were convinced that I was either not quite right in the head or was simply tired of life. Luckily it was not necessary for me to procure help from Government, " Storthing," or any one else. At this time I received an offer from a gentleman in Copen- hagen to provide the sum for which I had applied to Govern- ment. This was Herr Augustin Gam^l, who had already contributed to the cause of Arctic research by the equipment of the " Dijmphna " expedition. This offer, coming as it did from a foreigner, and one quite unacquainted with me person- ally, and in aid of an expedition which was generally considered to be the scheme of a madman, seemed to me so truly generous that I could not for a moment hesitate to accept it. I first published my plan in January 1888 in the Norwegian magazine Naturen^ in an article entitled "Gronlands Ind- landsis," Having given some account of the earlier attempts to tNTkODUCTtON. $ lenerous penetrate to the interior of Greenland, 1 continued: — "My plan, described briefly, is as follows : With three or four of the best and strongest 'skilobers' I can lay my hands on, I mean to leave Iceland in the beginning of June on board a Norwegian sealer, make for the east coast of Greenland, and try in about lat. 66° N. to get as near to the shore as possible. I should have liked to land farther north in the unknown regions of Scoresby Fjord, but for this it would be necessary to hire a special vessel, and, as it would probably be difficult to raise funds for this purpose, I have for the present given up this idea. If our vessel is not able to reach the shore, though the sealers, who have often been close in under this unexplored coast, do not consider such a thing improbable, the expedition will leave the ship at the farthest point that can be reached, and will pass over the ice to land. In the summer of 1884, for instance, there was extremely little ice, and the seal were taken almost close under the shore. For the pur- pose of crossing the open water which will probably be found near the coast, a light boat will be dragged on runners over the ice. That such a crossing of the ice is possible, I feel I can assert with confidence from my previous experience. When I was in these regions in 1882 on board the Viking, and we were caught in the ice, and drifted for twenty-four days along the very coast where I now intend to land, I had numerous opportunities while out shooting and for other purposes of be- coming familiar with the nature of the ice and conditions of snow, and besides, we were often obliged by sudden * nips,' or jamming of the ice, to drag our boats over the floes for consider- able distances. I therefore think there is every probability of our being able to reach land in this way. I should like it to be for preference somewhat north of Cape Dan, where the coast has never yet been explored by Europeans, and offers in itself much of interest to the traveller. To the south the coast is now comparatively well known, as the Danish 'Konebaad' expedition, under Captain Holm, in 1884 reached a point to the north of Cape Dan, and wintered at Angmagsalik, a ACROSS GREENLAND. • colony of heathen Eskimo, in the neighbourhood of the cape. After having examined the coast as far as the time at our disposal will allow, we shall begin the crossing of the 'Inland ice ' at the first opportunity. If we reach land to the north of Cape Dan. we shall begin the ascent from the end of one of the fjords close by ; if we land farther south, we shall push up to the end of Sermilikfjoi'd before we take to the ice. " We shall try at once to climb as high as possible on the bare rock, even if the gradient be considerably steeper ; for, when we are eventually obliged to take to the ice, we shall thus find it flatter and smoother, and shall escape the worst ice-falls of the glaciers, which with their crevasses and general roughness would be likely to prove troublesome and dangerous. Once upon the ice, we shall set our course for Christianshaab, on Disco Bay, and try to reach our destination as soon as possible. The advantage of making for Disco Bay instead of taking a point farther south is that we shall probably find the snow in better condition farther north. And besides, by Disco Bay, where the land is not much cut up by fjords, it will be comparatively easy for us to find our way tc habita- tions, while Disco Island, which lies off the coast, and will be visible to us with its terraced basalt cliffs, will prove a good landmark and help us to find one of the two colonies, Jakobs- havn or Christianshaab, which lie on Disco Bay about thirty- five miles apart. "The distance from the point on the east coast where I intend to land in Disco Bay is about 670 kilometres or 420 miles. If we calculate that we shall be able to cover on a daily average from fifteen to twenty miles, which is exceedingly little for a * skilober,' the crossing will not take more than a month, and if we carry with us provisions for double that time there seems to be every probability of our success. "The provisions will have to be hauled on sledges of one kind or another, and besides the * ski ' we shall also take 'truger,' the Norwegian counterpart of the Canadian snow- sho^ which may serve our purpose better when the snow is INTRODUCTION^. wet and soft. VVe shall also, of course, take the instruments necessary for observations . . . &c. &c." It is not to be wondered at that several more or less energetic protests against a plan of this kind appeared in the newspapers, but they were one and all distinguished by an astonishing ignorance of the various conditions of, and the possibility of passage over, extensive tracts of ice and snow. In this connection I cannot deny myself the pleasure of reproducing some portions of a lecture delivered in Copen- hagen by a young Danish traveller in Greenland, and printed in the Danish magazine Ny Jord for February 1888. "Other plans," the lecturer says, " have never passed beyond the stage of paper, like the proposals to cross the 'Inland ice' in balloons, which were brought forward at the end of the last century. And among these paper-schemes we must include the proposal which has just emanated from the Norwegian zoologist, Fridtjof Nansen, of the Bergen Museum." . . . " There is much that is attractive in the fundamental idea of Nansen's scheme, in his proposal to start from the east coast, and cross to the colonies on the other side instead of taking the reverse way, and in his intention, he being a good 'skilober' himself, to make * ski ' his means of conveyance. But all who acknowledge the merits of the fundamental idea must, if they know anything of the real condition of things, refuse any further sanction to the scheme. The very method by which Nansen proposes to reach the coast, that is to say, by abandoning the firm ship's-deck and creeping like a polar bear from one rocking ice-floe to another on his way to the shore, shows such absolute recklessness that it is scarcely possible to criticise it seriously." . . . "Let us suppose, however, that fortune favours the brave, and that Nansen has reached the east coast of Green- land. How will he now set about getting up on to the real flat expanse of the ' Inland ice,' or, in other words, how will he pass the outer edge, where peak upon peak rise through the ice-mantle, and in all probability present at nearly every ACROSS GREENLAND. point an impenetrable barrier?" . . . "Nanscn's proposal to climb the liif^h mountains of the coast and from their summits step upon the expanse of ice which is dammed up against them thus betrays absolute ignorance of the true conditions." . . . ** With what can be seen from the shore my experience ends, and 1 will not attempt to criticise the idea of crossing the inner tract of ice on 'ski,' or the possibility of taking enough pro- visions, or any similar questions. But I think that there is a probability that this part of the scheme may be carried out if Nansen can once pass the outer edge of the ice. "But there is one very different question on which I think I am not only qualified but bound to speak. And I say that, in my opinion, no one has the moral right, by setting out upon a venturesome and profitless undertaking, to burden the T^skimo of Danish East Greenland with the obligation of helping him out of the difficulty into which he has wantonly thrust himself. The few of us who know anything of the condition of things in East Greenland have no doubt that if Nansen's scheme be attempted in its present form, and the ship does not reach the coast and wait for him till he has been obliged to abandon his design, the chances are ten to one that he will either uselessly throw his own and perhaps others' lives away, or that he will have to take refuge with the Eskimo and be conducted by them along the coast down to the Danish colonies on the western side. And I say that no one has a right to force upon the East Greenlanders a long journey, which will be in many ways injurious to them." There is no doubt that these passages were written with every good intention, but they are, nevertheless, characteristic specimens of the almost superstitious terror with which many people, and among them some who pose as authorities, and claim to have special knowledge of the subject, have regarded the "Inland ice" of Greenland and the passage of tracts of ice and snow generally, even in these latter days. The writer of the above article had himself in the course of several years' exploration passed along the edge of the "Inland ice," but it INTRODUCTION. J L^ecms never to have entered into his head to make a lillle incursion into the interior. The first few steps would certainly have cleared his mind of some of his absurd hallucinations, and he would eventi illy have learned what an "absolute ignorance of the true conditions " really means. In another article, which betrays, if possible, even less know- ledge of the subject, the writer declared that even if Nansen himself were mad enough to make any such attempt he would not get a single man to accompany him. In England, too, the press delivered itself of several articles adverse to the plan of the expedition. But, in spite of these warning voices and in spite of the general opinion that the whole scheme was simple madness, there were, nevertheless, plenty of men who wished to join me. I received more than forty applications from people of all sorts of occupations, including soldiers, sailors, apothe- caries, peasants, men of business, and University students. There were many others, too, who did not apply, but who said they were more than eager to go, and would have sent in their names, had it been of the slightest use. Nor were these applicants all Norwegians, for I received many letters, too, from Danes, Dutchmen, Frenchmen, and Englishmen. I could, however, take none who were not thoroughly accustomed to the use of "ski," and men, too, of proved energy and endurance. Finally, I chose three Norwegians : Otto Sverdrup, a retired ship's captain ; Oluf Dietrichson, first-lieutenant in the Norwegian infantry ; and Kristian Kristiansen Trana, a peasant from the north of Norway. As I had originally thought of taking reindeer, and ima- gined, besides, that some l^pps would be of use to me, as possessing that sense of locality and power of adaptation to all sorts of circumstances which such children of nature have as a common birthright, I had written to two well-known men living in Finmarken, asking them if they could find me a couple of Mountain- Lapps ^ willing to join the expedition. I * As many who have travelled in the north of Norway and Sweden will 'f 1 i i I 1 I 10 ACROSS GREENLAND. stipulated that they should be plucky men, who were known to be clever mountaineers and to possess powers of endurance above the average ; that they should be made fully aware beforehand of the dangerous nature of the undertaking, and that the fact must be clearly impressed upon them that there was just as much probability of their never returning home again as of surviving. And I further added that they must be unmarried men of an age between thirty and forty, as I considered that at this time of life the powers of both body and mind are best prepared to meet the trials of such an undertaking. It was a long time before I received an answer to my inquiry. The post among the inland districts of Finmarken is leisurely, and is taken across the mountains in reindeer sledges every fortnight. At last when the time fixed for our start was approaching, I received an answer telling me that 1 could have two good men from Ka:asjok, if I was willing to pay them handsomely. 1 accepted their terms and tele- graphed to them to come at once. The next thing I heard was that they were on the way and would arrive on such and such a day. I was exceedingly anxious to see them, of course. They were expected one Saturday evening, and I had some people down at the station to meet them and take them to their lodgings. But no Lapps arrived that day or on Sunday either, and we all wondered what had become of them. Then know, the Lappish population falls into several more or less distinct divisions. The most interesting section, the real nomadic Lapps of the reindeer-herd and skin-tent, form as a matter of fact a small part of the whole. They are commonly known in Norway as " Fjeldlapper " (" Mountain-Lapps "), and it was from among them that I had intended to take my two men. Far the greater number of the Lapps are settled either on the Norwegian coast as " Solapper " (" Sea-Lapps "), where they maintain themselves chiefly by fishing ; or in the interior, at .such villages or centres as Karasjok, Kauto- keino, Jokkmokk, K/ ickjock, and Karesuando, as well as in most of the upper valleys of northern Sweden. The " Elvelapper " (" River-Lapps "), to whom I refer below in connection with Balto's origin, are merely a small colony settled by the river Tana, and are, as I have said, supposed to be of mixed Lappish and Finnish blood. INTRODUCTION. II e known ndurance ly aware cing, and hat there ng home [ley must )rty, as I oth body such an !r to my inmarken reindeer I for our me that IS wiUing md tele- 5 I heard luch and f course, ad some them to Sunday Then divisions, ideer-herd Tl)ey are jps "), and nen. Far gian coast chiefly by k, Kauto- ost of the Lapps"), ;ly a small sed to be on Monday I was told that they really had come, and so indeed they had, but by a goods train instead of the ordinary express for passengers. I hurried down to their lodgings at once, found their door, and, as I entered, saw standing in the middle of the room a good-looking young fellow, but more like a I'inn than a T^app, and away in the corner an old man with long black hair hanging about his shoulders, small in stature, and looking more stunted still as he sat huddled up on a chest. He had a much more genuiiie Lappish look about him than the other. As I came into the room the elder man bent his head and waved his hand in the Oriental manner, while the younger greeted me in the ordinary way. The old fellow knew very little Norwegian, and most of my conversa- tion was with the younger. I asked them how they were, and why they came by the goods train. " We do not understand trains," answered he, "and, besides, it was a little cheaper." " Well, how old are you both ?" "I am twenty-six, and Ravna is forty-five," was the answer. This was a pretty business, for I nad stipulated that they should be between thirty and forty. " You are both Mountain-Lapps, I suppose ? " " Oh no ! only Ravna ; I am settled at Karasjok." This was still worse, as I had made a point of their being Mountain- Lapps. " But are not you afraid to go on this trip ? " said L " Yes, we are very much afraid, and people have been telling us on the way that the expedition is so dangerous that we shall never come home alive. So we are very much afraid, indeed ! " This was really too bad, for the poor fellows had never even been told what they had undertaken to do. I was very much inclined to send them back, but it was too late to get any one else to take their place. So, as I had to keep them, it was best to console them as well as I could, and tell them that what people had been saying was all rubbish. It was no manner of use to discourage them at the outset, for they were likely to lose their spirits quite quickly enough anyhow. Though they did not perhaps look quite so strong and wiry as I could have wished, still they seemed to be good-natured IS ACROSS GREENLAND. I' i Pi 11' and trustworthy fellows. These qualities, indeed, they have shown to the utmost, and in endurance they have proved little, if at all, inferior to us. In other respects I found them of no particular use, as far as the accomplishments which I expected to find in them are concerned, and, as a matter of fact, they were never used for reconnoitring purposes. Balto, my younger Lapp, on his return home wrote a short account of his experiences while he was away. This has been translated into Norwegian from the original Lappish by Pro- fessor Friis, of Christiania, and I propose to include in my narrative those passages of his which seem to me most charac- teristic and likely to afford most interest to the general reader. After describing his voyage from Finmarken and telling how people on the way discouraged them, and informed them, among other things, that I was a simple maniac, he continues : — " On April 14th we left Trondhjem and reached Christiania on the 1 6th. Nansen had sent a man to the railway station to meet us. This was Sverdrup, who came up to us and asked : 'Are you the two men who are going with Nansen? ' We answered that we were the two. Sverdrup then told us that he was going with Nansen too, and had come on purpose to meet us. ' Come along with me,' he said; and he took us to a hotel, which is in Toldbodgaden, No. 30. An hour afterwards Nansen and Dietrich son came to see us. It was a most glorious and wonderful thing to see this new master of ours, Nansen. He was a stranger, but his face shone in our eyes like those of the parents whom we had left at home ; so lovely did his face seem to me, as well as the welcome with which he greeted us. All the strange people were very kind and friendly to us two I^pps while we were in Christiania town, and from this time we became happier and all went well with us." As through the whole course of my narrative we shall have the company of the five men I have already mentioned, the most fitting thing I can do will be to present them duly to the reader, with some short account of the antecedents of each. they have )ved little, lem of no expected fact, they te a short ! has been h by Pro- de in my )st charac- ral reader, jlling how ;m, among 2S : — " On lia on the n to meet :ed : 'Are [ answered It he was meet us. a hotel, ifterwards a most r of ours, our eyes so lovely ith which kind and nia town, vent well hall have oned, the duly to 5 of each. OTTO SVERDRUP. ;| ii ' i! • il 1 |l (H I ' !^ i 14 ACROSS GREENLAND. I will begin with my own countrymen and take them in the order of their age. Otto Sverdrup was born on October 31, 1855, at the farm of Haarstad, in Bindalen, in Helgeland. His father, Ulrik Sverdrup, a member of an old Norwegian family, was an owner of farm and forest property. Accustomed from childhood to wander in the forest and on the mountains on all kinds of errands and in all sorts of weather, he learned early to look after himself and to stand on his own legs. Early, too, he learned to use his "ski," and a rough and impracticable country like that of Bindalen naturally made him an active and clever "skilober." At the age of seventeen he went to sea, and sailed for many years on American as well as Norwegian vessels. In 1878 he passed the necessary examination in Christiania and sailed as mate for several years, being during this period once wrecked with a Norwegian schooner off the west coast of Scotland. On this occasion he showed to the full the sort of stuff he was made of, and it was mainly his coolness and perseverance which saved his crew. Since this he has sailed as captain on a schooner and a steamer, and one year spent the fishing season with a smack on the banks off the coast of Nordland. Of late years he has for the most part remained at home with his father, the latter having meanwhile sold his property in Bindalen and moved southwards to the farm of Trana, near Stenkjer. Here he has spent his time at all sorts of work, in the forest, on the river, floating timber, in the smithy, and fishing at sea, where as boat's-captain he was unsurpassed. Some years ago a man was wanted at Gothenburg to take charge of the Nordenfeldt submarine boat which was to be taken across the North Sea to England. A reward was offered, but no one was found willing to undertake this risky task. Sverdrup at this juncture accidentally appeared, and he offered his services at once. He p-evailed upon a relative to go with him as engineer, and the two proposed to navigate the strange craft across the North Sea without further help. The prospect »ff?rr",.' -y ryil^^*^^%- ^*V!^'^ ■ ■ ■'. ■'•'■^■ '^Vllll^ - ^fl^ l ^^t S f f ^r m tp'^^ if'- X ' '■*■■' '^■•' ' " '* , ./J OLUF CHRISTIAN DIETRICHSON. ,11 in 16 ACROSS GREENLAND to Sverdrup was one of pure sport, but at the last moment the authorities changed their minds, and the boat was eventually towed across. It is plain that a man of this type was specially created for such an expedition as ours In the course of his va^^rant and chequered life he had learned to find his way out of all kinds of difficult situations, and 1 need scarcely add that we never found him wanting in either coolness or resource. Oluf Christian Dietrichson was born in Skogn, near Levanger, on the 31st of May 1856, and was the son of Peter Wilhelm Krejdal Dietrichson, the official doctor of the district. He was educated at Levanger, Trondhjem, and Christiania, entered the military school as a cadet in 1877, and received a commission as second lieutenant in the Trondhjem brigade in 1880, being pronv ted to the rank of first lieutenant in 1886. During the present summer he has received his captaincy. He has all his life been a keen sportsman, and by good physical training he has hardened and developed his naturally strong and well-built frame. Of late years he has every v/inter gone long tours on " ski " through the greater part of Southern Norway, has passed through most of our valleys, from Skien in the south to Trondhjem in the north, and there are not many who have seen so much of the country in its winter aspect as he. The acquirements of his military education stood the ex- pedition in good stead. He undertook our meteorological diary practically single-ha.nded, and the results of our surveys and our maps are due to him. He discharged these duties with an amount of zeal and self-denial which are more than admirable, and the merit of such work as he produced in such circumstances will only be appreciated by those who have had a similar experience. To take observations and keep a meteorological diary with the usual exactitude and punctuality, when the temperature is below - 20° F., when one is dead-tired, or when death ahd destruction are at hand ] INTRODUCTION. V ogn, near or to write when the fingers are so injured and swollen by the frost that it is almost impossible to hold a pencil, needs an amount of character and energy which is far from common. ->.- -»A.... w -»»jw» * -^^ •,-<^^^;jV9f'«TW-«M| f:' KRISTIAN KRISTIANSEN TRANA. Kristian Kristiansen Trana was no more than twenty-four years old when he joined the expedition. This was con- siderably below the age which I considered most suitable for such a task ; but, as he was plucky and strong and exceedingly B i8 ACROSS GREENLAND. I ii " on eager to go with us, I did not hesitate to take him on Sver- drup's recommendation, and I had no reason whatever to regret my choice. He was born on February i6, 1865, at a cottage on the farm of Trana, which is now the property of Sverdrup's father. At his home he has been chiefly engaged in forest work, but had been to sea once or twice, and was therefore likely to be a handy man. He proved steady and trustworthy, and when Kristian said that he was going to take anything in hand, I always knew that it would be done. Samuel Johannesen Balto is a Lapp settled at Karasjok, and was twenty-seven when he joined us. He is of average height, and has none of the outer Lapp characteristics ; he belongs, in fact, to the so-called " River- Lapps," who are generally people of some size and have much Finn blood in them. He has spent most of his time at forest work, but for several years he has been out in the fishing season, and for a while, too, he has helped to tend reindeer among the Mountain-Lapps, being for a part of the time in the service of Ravna He is a lively, intelligent fellow ; he did everything he undertook with great energy, and in this respect was very different from his com- panion Ravna. He showed some powers of endurance too, was always willing to lend a hand at any job, and was thus of great use to us. And, lastly, his ready tongue and broken Norwegian constituted him to a great extent the enlivening spirit of the expedition. Ole Nielsen Ravna is a Mountain-Lapp from the neighbour- hood of Karasjok, and when he joined the expedition was forty-five or forty-six, he not being quite sure of the year himself. He has spent all his nomadic life in a tent, and wandered with his reindeer about the mountain wastes of Finmarken. His herd, when he left it for Greenland, was of no great size, and contained from 200 to 300 deer. He was the only married member of the expedition, and left a wife and five children behind him at home. As I have already said, I did not know this beforehand, as I had insisted upon INTRODUCTION. 19 im on Sver- whatever to all my companions being unmarried. Like all Mountain- Lapps, he was pre-eminently lazy, and when we were not actually on the move no occupation pleased him so much as to sit quietly in a corner of the tent with his legs crossed, SAMUEL JOHANNESEN BALTO. OLE NIELSEN RAVNA. doing absolutely nothing, after he had once brushed himself clean of snow. Rarely indeed was he seen to undertake any work unless he were directly called upon to do so. He was very small, but surprisingly strong, and capable of any amount 30 ACROSS GREENLAND. of endurance, though he always managed to save his strength and reserve his powers. When we started lie knew very little Norwegian, but for this very reason his remarks were extremely comical and provided us with plenty of amusement. He could not write, and had no acquaintance with so modern an apparatus as a watch. But he could read, and his favourite book was his Lappish New Testament, from which he was never parted. Both the Lapps had come, as they declared themselves, merely to gain money, and interest and adventure had no place in their minds. On the contrary, they were afraid of everything, and were easily scared, which is not to be wondered at when it is remembered how very little they understood of the whole busmess at the outset. That they did not come back so ignorant as they went will be seen from some of Balto's observations, which I shall subsequently quote. Ravna and Balto were good-natured and amiable ; their fidelity was often actUAlly touching, and I grew very fond of them both. «. V '\ ■>.. ♦ r Chapter II. THE EQUIPMENT. It was my original intention to take, if possible, dogs or reindeer to drag our baggage. Plainly the advantage of such a course is considerable if one can only get the animals to the spot where the sledging will begin. Many men of experience have maintained that neither dogs nor reindeer are really any help for long slelging expeditions, because they can only drag their own food for a limited period This argument I do not understand, for, t.irely, if one cannot use the animals for the whole journey, one can take them as far as their provender lasts and then kill them. If one has a sufficient number of dogs or deer, and takes as much food for them as they can drag over and above the baggage of the expedition, then one can advance rapidly at the beginning without taxing one's own powers to any extent. At the same time, too, there is this advantage, that one can always procure a supply of fresh meat by slaughtering the animals one by one. For this reason so large a quantity of other food will not be necessary. And so, when one is at last obliged to kill the remaining animals, the expedition ought to have advanced a considerable distance without any exhaustion of the strength of its members, while they the whole time will have been able to eat their fill of good fresh meat. This is an important point gained, for they will thus be able to take up the work as fresh and strong as when they started. It will no doubt be urged that these advantages will not be gained if dogs are taken. But I can answer from my own experience that hunger is a sufficiently good cook to render dog's flesh 81 22 ACROSS GREENLAND. Ml! anything but unpalatable. The Eskimo indeed reckon it a delicacy, and it is certain that any one who could not in the circumstances bring himself to eat it would not be a fit person to accompany such an expedition at all. If I could have obtained good dogs, I should therefore have taken them. Dogs are in some important points prefer- able to reindeer, because they are much easier to transport and much easier to feed, since they eat much the same as the men ; while reindeer must have their own provender, consist- ing mainly of reindeer-moss, which would be a bulky and heavy addition to the baggage. However, it was quite im- possible for me to obtain dogs which I could use in the time at my disposal, and 1 had to give up this idea. I then thought of reindeer, and not only wrote to Finmarken to make inquiries, but even bought moss for them in the neighbourhood of Roros. But then I found that there would be so many difficulties in connection with their transportation, and still more when we should have to land them in Greenland, that I abandoned the scheme altogether, and determined to be content with men alone. When every scrap of food on which a man is going to live will have to be dragged by himself, it is a matter of course that good care will be taken to make everything as light as possible, and to reduce food, implements, and clothing to a minimum of weight. When one is busy with an equipment of this kind one begins instinctively to estimate the value of a thing entirely with reference to its lightness, and even if the article in question be nothing but a pocket-knife, the same con- siderations hold good. But care must be taken, nevertheless, not to go too far in the direction of lightness, for all the imple- ments must be strong, since they will have to stand many a severe test. The clothing must be warm, since one has no idea what amount of cold it will have to meet ; the food must be nourishing and composed of different ingredients in suitable proportion, for the work will be hard — harder, probably, than anything to which the workers have hitherto been accustomed. THE EQUIPMENT. n One of the most important articles of equipment for a sledge expedition is, of course, the s/edge. Considering that in the course of time so many Arctic expeditions have been sent out, and especially from ICngland, one would suppose that the experience thus gained would have led to a high develop- ment in the form of the sledge. 'I'his is, however, not the case; and it is a matter for wonder, indeed, tha. polar ex- peditions so recent as the Second German Expedition of 1869 and 1870 to the east coast of Greenland, the Austrian and Hungarian expedition of 1872-1874 to Franz Joseph Land, and even the great English expedition of 1875 ^"^ 1876 under Nares to Smith's Sound, set out with such large, clumsy, and unpractical sledges as they actually took. Cer- tainly the two latest expeditions, that of Greely in 1881-1884, and the rescue party led by Schley and Soley, were better equipped in this respect. The general mistake has been that the sledges have been too heavily and clumsily built, and at the same time too large. And as in addition to this the runners were usually narrow, it is not difficult to understand that these sledges sank deep into the snow and were often almost immovable. Some expeditions have certainly made use of the Indian toboggan, which consists of a single board curved upwards in front. It is generally of birch or some similar wood, and is about eight feet long by eighteen inches or more broad. Even in the beginning of this century these toboggans were used for Arctic purposes, and Franklin had some on his first expedition. The English traveller, Dr. Rae, and after him Greely, used similar sledges with very low and narrow runners, one on each side. Of course, sledges of this type ride well and high in loose snow, and are so far good and practical; but when the surface is not very loose they give rise to too much friction, and are comparatively heavy to pull. Strangely enough, the organisers of a few expeditions have thought of placing their sledges on broad runners. Payer, however, in his book upon the Austrian and Hungarian expedi- u ACkOSS GREENLAND. i I I*' ' ,1"' II IB! i! \\,li tion, says that "broad runners make progress in deep snow much easier"; and he speaks of having them 2f inches in breadth. We Norwegians look upon this expedient as simply natural, as we are accustomed to our old-fashioned " skikjaelke," which is a low hand-sledge on broad runners, resembling our ordinary " ski." This was my model for the form of sledge which we actually adopted. Our sledge seemed to possess all desirable qualities : it was strong and light, rode high in loose snow, and moved easily on all kinds of surfaces. I based my design partly, too, upon that of the sledge which is described in the narrative of the Greely Expedition, and was used by the rescue party. OUK SLEDGE. All the woodwork of the sledges except the runners was of ash, and of as good and tough material as could be procured. And, as picked ash possesses such wonderful strength, we were able to make the upper parts of the sledge light and slender, without reducing their strength too much. The runners of two of the sledges were of elm, and those of the rest of a kind of maple {Acer pIatanoides\ as these two woods glide remarkably well upon the snow. This, as it happened, was not a point of much importance, because I had the runners shod with thin steel plates, which I had intended to take off when we were once upon the loose snow, but which were nevertheless used the whole way except in the case of one sledge. THE EQUIPMENT. 25 The accompanying drawing will no doubt give a sufficiently good idea of the structure of our sledge, and not much further description will be necessary. No nails or pegs were used, but all the joints were lashed, and the sledges were thus more elastic under shocks and strains, which would have often caused nails to start. As a matter of fact, nothing whatever was broken the whole journey through. The sledges were about 9 feet 6 inches long by i foot 8 inches broad, while the runners, measured from point to point along the steel plate, were 9 feet 5I inches. The fact that they were turned up behind as well as in front gave the whole sledge more strength and elasticity, and there was this advantage besides, that, had the fore end of a sledge been broken, we could have turned it round and dragged it equally well the other way. The chair-back-like bow which is shown in the drawing was made of a slender bar of ash bent into position. It proved of great service for push- ing and steering purposes, especially when we were passing over difficult ground, and were obliged to take two men to each sledge. The weight of each sledge without the steel runners was about 25 lbs., and with them rather more than 28 lbs. Along the central line of these plates were attached narrow bars of steel with square edges, which were meant to serve as a kind of keel, and to make the sledges steer better on ice and to prevent them from swerving. This is an important point, for when one is passing along the crevasses of a glacier the swerving of a sledge may take it and its load, and even possibly one or more of the party, down into the depths of the ice. These bars were of excellent service while they lasted ; but, as they were exposed to continual shocks and hard wear among the rough ice near the east coast, tliey were soon torn off, and this was especially the case when we climbed into low temperatures, as the steel tlien became as brittle as glass. Future expeditions, therefore, which make use of these keels under their runners, ought to have them attached in a different way. The strongest method would be, of course, to have them ' ll * II -iH li^ .n /\'(>,s\v iihimNi .i/v/). n»ntlr> \\\ o\\^ pirrr wilh thr Nlrrl pInloM, ImiI in Ihh vhhc \\\nc \\\\\\U\ l»o Ihr »liN(«lvnnlnH(* |I>mI ihry «mmiM not he lokfn olV ttt will. Am iI»o «h<\\vin}; ;tl\o\v«, Ihru' WMs u ridi'.r nmiUMi-; jiloiig Ihr tippi^t MiHiU'i'ol' OiU^h iiinnrr. I'hc miuiumm wnv m;ulr rom pin;»liv«'lv thin tov ll\o siKo ol lif^.hlncsM, niid llu'sc cxlru ridges g{\\r lluM\\ thr nrtVNSiUV siiUnrris niul rinniirily. I hiul r{\lrnliU«Hl iImI 0;>«*I\ ^U^l^r Nhoiihl l)r ,sulli«MriU work I'ov «>nt^ nu\«> ; ImU, «s it is u ^,»muI thing, whrt\ one Ih on tlilH- onit gtouiwl, to HC\u\ Kwc K^( tho p;ntv on ;»hr;nl to rxplorc, tttui «\s il\ IvHwr stunv thr IrinliM' has tlu* h.n»lost work to do, I thou>»l\t it nuvst jMiU tioal t\> take only l\v(* sUnlgos, and always pvit tw\> n\rn to thr ti rho adNantagvM^f leaving a iiwn^luM ol" snvall sU la\,mMM>»\os is this, On vlittieult j.;ioni\il, wIumv tlu' WvMk is hav\l, it is vovy tronhles\>n\o to have to n\anuMiviv l or tl\uv o( tho jurty to oaoh sioilgo. in\d thus pnsh \^n withvMit atw svtv h vK^lav or inovM\\iM\ioi\vv. Soiuo- times, invUv\K wv^ had tv> \"an\ iln^n Innhlv. K>ads and all. W hon >vo pu^)>\>sc\l tv> sail our slodj;os, as wo hatl sovora! opportunities ot dvMnji. we platvil twv> or tlnve of them side hy sivie, livid son\e '"ski" vm K^n^^ stafVs ao»\>ss tho\n, and lashovl the wh^>)e t';>st. V\m" nusts we havl U»n\hov> pv>los hroui^ht for l)\e purp^vse, and tvM sails tho tUH>r ot' vmu" to«\t anil twv> tar- jMuhns, With atuNther Kunlvv> vntt in t"u>i\l, somewhat after ihe fashion v>f a earriai^^ pole, we i\>uld UAA a gooil eourse {U\v\ nn\ko tA\r \M\\i;tx"ss. Anv v^ne whv> shouKl equip hiiuself s^HNMaUy tV^r :i;\ilinv; w\mjU1 ot' in^u^o he ahle to manage things mooh more «\\s\lv ai\d su^wsst^ullv than we tiivl Siiiling as a mvx\e of pn\givssion was tu-^t triovl vn> the " Tnku\d iee" of l^ow'-nUnd bv ;he A»\\erio;U\ tnwellor Peary, and 1 think that fuuux'' e\pt\!n\ons will do well to give morv" aiteniion to the s«lv<\"J that^ ius hitherto Kvn done. 1 tVvl su»e. too. that o«i TNR HQVIPMHNT. 97 this nu'lhixl ol H('llin^( over the ^rottnd ni.iy l>r adopted with n(lviiMtaf.;c' on the grciit Huowliclds ol the Aiitnrotic continent. The consliiiclion o( our "ski," on which wc ho nuK'li dc- pcndjMl, was of m« nuirh importance ns that of our sledges; l)nl, as I intend to devote an eniire chapter to the sul)jcct ol "skiKihniiiK" generally, as well as to the part these inslru- n»cnls played in the expi-ditiiMi, I will say no more about them Cor the present. We took with us also /m/iaft snoivshoex^ and their Norwegian eoiinter|)art. the so <'allew, the Indian snowshoe consists of a kind of plaited network of moose- or other sinews stretched upon a frame of ash, or some equally tough wood, the whole construc- tion somewhat resembling that of an ordinary tennis-bat. Ours were some 4.' inches in length by 15 i inches in breadth. The Norwegian " truger " are of much less elaborate struc- ture, and are made of simple osier-work, in the form shown by the accompanying illustration. Ours were small, being only 15^ inches in length and loA inches across. These ** truger" are used not infrequently in dilTerent parts of Norway both in i 36 ACROSS GREENLAND. I! winter and spring, and on the snow which one finds in the latter season, when "ski" are scarcely so good for practical purposes, they may be very serviceable. In many districts, however, they are employed more for the aid of horses than men. These " hestetruger," as they are called, are of exactly the same pattern, though the manner of attachment of course differs in the two cases. Our little mountain ponies soon become accustomed to these aids to progress, and can there- fore be used when the amount or condition of the snow would render the employment of less accomplished animals quite impossible. It will be understood from what follows hereafter that all these forms of snowshoe are, for general use, much inferior to our " ski " on the feet of any one who is accustomed to the use of the latter. The reason why I took these other implements was because I thought they would be of more service when we had to drag our heavy sledges uphill. We used them for this purpose too — that is to say, I myself and two of the others used the Indian snowshoes; our fourth man could never learn to manage these and took to the " truger," though they let him considerably deeper into the snow, while the Lapps expressed a lofty contempt for both kinds, and would have nothing what- ever to say to them. But it was not long before we all took to our " ski " for good, and found them preferable even for uphill work. These snowshoes have, however, two advantages as compared with " ski." When the latter are not covered with skin beneath they are more troublesome to use than snowshoes in mild weather, when the snow is sticky, and they are in any case considerably heavier to carry. To make sure of getting a serviceable l>oaf, which should be light enough to drag over the rough sea-ice and yet not weak enough to succumb to the violent shocks and sudden strains which it was sure to be exposed to among the capricious floes, I had one specially built in Christiania. Its length was 19 feet, its greatest breadth 6 feet, and its depth inside 2 feet. The boarding was double, each jacket being | inch thick, the THE EQUIPMENT. 29 inner of pine, the outer of the best Norwegian oak, the two as carefully riveted together as possible, and the intervening space filled by a layer of thin canvas. The ribs were of bent ash i inch broad and | inch thick, and were placed at intervals of 6 inches. Below the boat I had, besides the keel, runners of pine added to support it while it was being hauled over the ice. The boat proved a great success; it was strong and elastic enough to resist the pressure of the floes ; but for the future I should be inclined to recommend single boarding in- stead of double, not only because in the former case the boat is easier to repair, but because the intervening space is liable to hold water and increase the weight. Again, I found that the added runners were really of very little use, while they were always liable to get nipped in the ice, and thus help to destroy the whole boat. The sleeping-bag is, of course, a most important article of equipment for all Arctic expeditions. In our case, the nature of the material of which the bag should be made needed our best consideration, as it was necessary that it should be at the same time light and sufficiently warm. On previous expedi- tions sometimes wool and sometimes skins have been used. Wool, of course, lets the perspiration through much more readily, and there is not so much condensation of moisture inside as in the case of skin ; but, on the other hand, wool has the disadvantage of being very heavy in comparison with the amount of warmth which it affords. For a time I thought of 30 ACROSS GREENLAND. trying woollen bags, but I came to the conclusion that they would not be warm enough, and I now think that if we had taken them we should have scarcely reached the west coast 9f Greenland alive. After several experiments I determined to use reindeer-skin, as the best material which I could procure in the circumstances. Reindeer-skin is, in comparison with its weight, the warmest of all similar materials known to me, and the skin of the calf, in its winter-coat especially, combines the qualities of warmth and lightness in quite an unusual degree. This particular skin, however, 1 could not procure in time, and I was obliged to HALF THE EXPEDITION IN ITS SLEEPINOBAG. be satisfied with that of the doe, which is considerably heavier. Reindeer-skin has this disadvantage, that the fur does not stand much wear, and the skin, if exposed much to wet, soon loses its hair. From this point of view, dog-skin is a good deal better and stronger, but it gives nothing like the warmth of reindeer- skin. Wolf-skin is still better than dog-skin, and the only objection to it is its cost. However, our reindeer-skin lasted well through the whole journey and the winter on the west coast. It was specially prepared for us by Brandt, the well- known furrier at Bergen, and I had every reason to be satisfied with it. We took two sleeping-bags, calculated to hold three men 'fe THE EQUIPMENT. 31 n that they t if we had est coast 9f indeer-skin, :um:jtances. warmest of the calf, in rvarmth and icular skin, obliged to ly heavier. not stand soon loses leal better " reindeer- the only kin lasted the west the well- s satisfied iree men each. This proved a thoroughly practical arrangement, since one bag for three men is, of course, much lighter than three, each for a single occupant, and much warmer, too, because the three mutually profit by each other's heat. In this respect one bag for all of us would have been still better, but I dared not risk the arrangement, for, had the sledge carrying the one bag gone down a crevasse, we should have been left entirely without protection against the low temperature of the nights ; while, as it was, if we had been unlucky enough to lose one of our bags, we should still have had the other left, into which we could have put four men under pressure, and so taken turn and turn about. Our bags had a hood-shaped flap, which could be buckled over our heads when necessary. As long as the cold was not extreme we found it warm enough with this flap just laid over us ; but when the temperature got lower we were glad enough to have it buckled as tight as the straps would allow, for the aperture still left gave us quite enough ventilation. Very little, indeed, of the cold night-air of the interior of Greenland inside a sleeping-bag is more than sufficient. To protect the bags against outside moisture I had had some covers made of thin oilcloth, but we abandoned these soon after we started across the " Inland ice." As our bags were of reindeer-skin, I did not think it neces- sary to take india-rubber air mattresses, and, as they are very heavy, it was a great advantage to be able to do without them. In the way of clothes we had, except for a few reserve things, very little but what we were actually wearing when we left Norway. With the exception of two tunics of reindeer-skin which the Lapps wore, and a little coat lined with squirrel-skin which I took, but scarcely used, we had no furs, but wore woollen things throughout. Next our skins we had thin woollen shirts and drawers, then thick, rough jerseys. and then our outer garments, which consisted of a short coat, knickerbockers, and gaiters. These were all made of a kind of ja ACROSS GREENLAND. ij 1 ( I Mm'f Norwegian homespun, which gave every satisfaction. Whether the work be hard or not, woollen clothes are far the best, as they give free outlet to the perspiration, whereas cotton, linen, or skins would check it. Above all things, we had to take care that we did not get overheated, because the succeeding chill was so likely to lead to freezing. As we got warm we had, therefore, to gradually abandon one garment after another, and we might often have been seen in fifty and sixty degrees of frost working in our jerseys, and yet perspiring as on an ordinary summer's day. In wind, snow, and rain we generally wore outside our other clothes a light suit of some thin, brown, canvas-like stuff. This was reputed completely waterproof, but it turned out to be nothing of the kind. In wind and snow, however, it did excellent service, and we used it often on the " Inland ice," as it protected us well against the fine driven snow, which, being of the nature of dust, forces itself into every pore of a woollen fabric, and then, melting, wets it through and through. To these canvas coats were attached hoods for the head, which were large enough to project well in front of the face. These protected us excellently from the wind, which in a low temperature can be exceedingly trying, not to say dangerous, to one's cheeks and nose. For our feef we took, besides ordinary boots, the peculiar form known in Norway as "lauparsko." The soles of these latter consist of a piece of pliant leather turned up along the sides and at the toe, and sewn to the upper leather on the upper surface of the foot. Inside these " lauparsko " we wore first a pair of thick, well-shrunk woollen stockings, and over them thick, rough goat's-hair socks, which, in addition to being warm, have the excellent quality of attracting moisture to themselves, and thus keeping the feet comparatively dry. The two Lapps had two pair of "finnesko" each, as well as one pair which Balto insisted on presenting to me. These " finnesko " when good are made of the skin of the legs of the reindeer buck, l|L THE EQUIPMENT. 33 the pieces with the hair on being laid for twenty-four hours or so in a strong decoction of birch or similar bark, or some- times tanned in tar-water. The skin of the hind legs is used for the soles and sides, and that of the fore legs for the upper leather, the hair being left outside throughout the boot. These "finnesko," then, which, as I have said, are worn with the hair outside, and which the Lapps fill with sedge or "sennegrses," wrapping their bare feet in the grass and using no stockings, are a pre-eminently warm covering for the feet, and very suitable for use on " ski " or snowshoes. The reason why I had not taken them for our general use was because 'LAUPARSKO. I supposed we should be much exposed to the wet, which these shoes will not stand. In this respect one has to take very great care of " finnesko," or they will soon be spoilt. As a matter of fact, we were not much in the wet, and the pair of shoes which Balto gave me I wore nearly the whole way across the " Inland ice," as well as during the following winter, and brought them back to Norway with a good deal still left in them. Nor was this all, for they were not new when I got them, as Balto had already used them for a winter. I can therefore speak with confidence as to the suitability of "finnesko" for such expeditions, and can give them the warmest recommendation. They weigh scarcely anything at c u ACROSS GREENLAND. all, and one can take a couple of reserve pairs for each of the members of an expedition without feeling the addition. On our hands we used large woollen gloves, as well as in extreme cold an extra pair of dogskin gloves with the hair outside, neither having any separate divisions for the fingers. The l^apps used their ordinary gloves of reindeer- skin, which also have the furry side outwards. When these gloves are filled, like the ** finnesko," with " sennegra^s," they are exceedingly warm. For use while writing, sketching, and .— ^ ■' ^^''-^ — '-^r-f. WOODEN EYE-PROTECTORS. taking observations, we also had ordinary woollen gloves with fingers. On our heads we wore caps of the costermonger pattern, with flaps for the ears and the back of the neck, and, besides these, hoods of cloth as well as those attached to our can-^ as jackets. With all these three on we were thoroughly well protected against the severest cold, even when the wind was blowing. The spectacles^ for prevention of snow-blindness, are another important article of equipment for a sledge-expedition. We THB EQUIPMENT. 35 used spectacles of dark, smoke-coloured glass, some without and some with baskets of plaited wire to protect the eye against light coming from below and the sides. I myself chiefly used a pair of the latter, which had been given me by Nordenskiold, and which I found excellent. We also used spectacles or eye-protectors of wood with a narrow horizontal slit for each eye, like those commonly used by the inhabitants of Arctic regions. These are very serviceable, especially for the reason that there is no glass to collect moisture and obstruct the sight. They have, however, the disadvantage that the field of vision is very considerably reduced, and it is particularly inconvenient not to be able to see the ground at one's feet when one is travelling on "ski." But I should fancy that this defect might to some extent be met by making a vertical slit as well as a hori- zontal. Our fenf, which was kindly procured by Lieutenant Ryder of Copenhagen, was constructed so that it could be taken into five pieces : two sides, two ends, and the floor, all of them of waterproof canvas My notion had been that we should be able to use all these sections as sails for our sledges, but the ends and sides were of such thin material that I was afraid the wind would tear them to shreds. The canvas was otherwise most successful against the rain, wind, and driving snow. But as it is necessary to have a thin material for the purpose of saving weight, I would recommend future expeditions to have their tents sewn in one piece with the floor; the whole would then have the construction of a bag with but one opening, which would serve as the tent-door, as well as two small holes in the floor for the poles, which would be put through them and rammed down into the snow. The strong canvas floor of such a tent can nevertheless be used as a sail, as the thinner pieces can be left to hang down and be gathered together in front. By this means one would avoid the inconvenience of having the fine snow driven in through the laced joins. Our PI i i« ili'i III I 'I i 36 ACROSS GREENLAND. tent was in thif? respect so imperfect that we would some- times wake in the morning and find our sleeping-bags com- pletely buried in snow. The floor-surface of our tent was just large enough to hold the two sleeping-bags when they A^ere placed alongside one another, but in opi)osite ways. The tent poles were three in number, two being used as uprights, and the other joining them at the top ; they were all of bamboo and proved quite sufficient for the purpose, and the two smaller ones were used as staffs while we were on the move. The guy-ropes were fastened with broad iron crampon-like hooks, which gave a good hold. On the whole, the tent stood very well in the snow, though in several storms we were very much afraid that it would go, and I would therefore recommend others to have good storm-guys. We had some, indeed, but one or two of them gave at the point of attachment and were not easy to repair. The exact weight of the tent, after I had made considerable alterations and reductions, I do not quite remember, though I know that with guys, pegs, and poles it did not altogether exceed eighteen pounds. The value of a good cooking apparatus to the members of a sledge-expedition can scarcely be overrated, for often by its help every drop of drinking-water over and above that which can be melted by the heat of the body must be obtained. The most important qualification is that it shall make the most of t.he fuel, or, in other words, that it shall render combustion as complete as possible, and let none of the heat escape till it has done its work. In this way the weight of one of the most important articles of equipment is reduced to a minimum. Yor fuel there is, no doubt, nothing at all comparable with alcohol, which should be as pure as possible. In addition to other advantages, such as its cleanliness, it has the great merit of yielding more heat than anything else in comparison to its weight. It has certainly two defects, for, in the first place, as a liquid it is easily spilt and wasted, though this may be avoided t THE EQUIPMENT. 37 by using the very best of barrels and taps, and by only giving it into careful hands ; and, in the second place, it is drinkable, and at critical times may prove a strong temi)ta- tion to the best of men. But this, again, may be prevented by adding enough wood-naphtha to make it unpleasant, as we in fact did. The idea of our cooker was originally taken from that used by the Grcely expedition, and after a number of experiments made with the assistance of a friend, I determined fmally to adopt the apparatus which is represented by the accompanying drawing. This drawing will, no doubt, make the cons'.: uctiun quite intelligible. At the bottom is the heating-chamber, con- taining a spirit-lamp with several wicks. The air enters by a number of holes at the bottom in sufficient quantity to msure c'!! i I ■ ! Ill 11 ;j; 40 ACROSS GREENLAND. quality which has both advantages and disadvantages. If any substance is too easily digested, it is taken into the body at once, the stomach becomes empty again, and a feeling of hunger ensues. On the other hand, many people will find a substance like pemmican too hard to digest, and in such cases a large amount of nutriment will be passed through without doing its proper work. But easily digestible sub- stances have, on the whole, a greater nutritive value in pro- portion to their weight than such as are less readily assimilable, and therefore it must be considered that the possession of the former quality in an article of food is a strong recommendation for its use by Arctic travellers. As bread we used partly the Swedish biscuit known as " kniikkebi od," which is very light and has not that dryness of taste which causes a feeling of thirst, and partly meat biscuits. These had to be specially ordered in England, and contained a certain percentage of meat powder as well as flour. They proved palatable as well as nourishing. For warm drink, which, though no necessity, is undoubtedly a great comfort, we generally used chocolate in the morning and pea- soup in the evening. We also took tea and coffee, the latter in the form of ex- tract, of which we had rather more than a quart. After having tried this two or three times in the afternoon and evening, and found that, though it made us feel better and cheered us up for the time, we got little or no sleep in the night afterwards, I confined its use to a morning every now and then. But, as it did not seem to suit us even at this time of day, it was finally tabr oed altogether, till we had almost reached the west coast, much to the despair of the Lapps. Tea, as far as I can judge, does considerably less harm, and is besides a very refreshing drink. We often used weak tea with condensed milk or a little sugar, especially in the morn- ing, after all our chocolate was gone. My experience, however, leads me to take a decided stand against the use of stimulants and narcotics of all kinds, from ti a: tl r ,giiiMpri. \T THE EQUIPMENT. 41 es. If any he body at L feeling of e will find id in such 2d through stible sub- ue in pro- Lssimilable, 5ion of the mendation known as dryness of Lt biscuits, contained ur. They doubtedly J morning rm of ex- •t. After loon and etter and :ep in the ivery now this time d almost e Lapps, arm, and weak tea he morn- ed stand ids, from J tea and coffee on the one hand, to tobacco and alcoholic drinks on the other. It must be a sound principle at all times that one should live in as natural ard simple a way as possible, and especially must this be the oase when the life is a life of severe exertion in an extremely cold climate. The idea that one gains by stimulating body and mind by artificial means betrays in my opinion not only ignorance of the simplest physiological laws, but also a want of experience, or perhaps a want of capacity to learn from experience by observation. It seems indeed quite simple and obvious that one can get nothing in this life without paying for it in one way or another, and that artificial stimulants, even if they had not the directly injurious effect which they undoubtedly have, can produce nothing but a temporary excitement followed by a corresponding reaction. Stimulants of this kind, with the exception of chocolate, which is mild in its effect and at the same time nourishing, bring practically no nutritive substance into the body, and the energy which one obtains in antici- pation by their use at one moment must be paid for by a corresponding exhaustion at the next. It may, no doubt, be advanced that there are occasions when a momentary supply of energy is necessary, but to this I would answer that I cannot imagine such a state of things arising in the course of a protracted sledge-expedition, when regular and steady work is required. It is often supposed that, even though spirits are not in- tended for daily use, they ought to be taken upon an expedi- tion for medicinal purposes. I would readily acknowledge this if any one could show me a single case in which such a remedy is necessary ; but till this is done I shall maintain that this pretext is not sufficient, and that the best course is to banish alcoholic drinks from the list of necessaries for an Arctic expedition. Though tobacco is less destructive than alcohol, still, whether it is smoked or chewed, it has art extremely harmful effect upon men who are engaged in severe physical exertion, and not least so when the supply of food is not abundant. Tobacco ij ■ : 'i! li m \i n !{ I 1 m m J I ' i ! III.' ill I hi 111 I If 43 ACROSS GREENLAND. has not only an injurious influence upon the digestion, but it lessens the strength of the body, and reduces nervous power, capacity for endurance, and tenacity of purpose. With regard to the complete prohibition of tobacco in Arctic work, there is one circumstance to be borne in mind which has not to be considered in connection with spirits, as habitual hard drinkers are scarcely likely to take part in these expeditions : the circum- stance that most men are so accustomed to its use that they will keenly feel the want of it. For this reason it would pro- bably be advisable not to make the change too sudden, but to limit the use by degrees, and at the same time, perhaps, not to take excessive smokers and chewers of tobacco upon such expeditions at all. Among us, four were smokers, Ravna and I being the excep- tions, but our supply of tobacco was but small. During the crossing only one pipe was allowed on Sundays and other specially solemn occasions. Our other provisions, over and above those which I have already mentioned, consisted of butter, some " rsekling," or dried strips of halibut, which is of a very fat nature, Gruyere cheese, the Norwegian " mysost " or whey-cheese, two boxes of oatmeal biscuits, some " tyttebaer " or red whortleberry jam, some dried " karvekaal " or caraway shoots, some peptonised meat, eight pounds of sugar, a few tins of condensed milk, and a few other things, all in small quantities. We were also presented by the Stavanger Preserving Com- pany with some tins of provisions, which we much enjoyed while we were drifting in the ice, and afterwards while we were working our way in the boats up the coast again. This extra supply we had to some extent to thank for the fact that our provisions, which were calculated to last for two months, actually held out for two months and a half, that is to say, from the time we left the J^cison till Sverdrup and I reached Godthaab. Indeed, we really had a good deal left at the end, especially of dried meat, and some of us used these remnants long after we had reached our winter-quarters. Of the dried I Ijl! 1 1'! THE EQUIPMHNT. 43 meat which had passed the " Inland ice " there was even some left at Christmas. In connection with the provision supply I may also mention our two double-barrelled guns with their ammunition. Each of them had a barrel for ball of about "300 calibre, and a shot barrel of 20-bore. The small calibre of these barrels allowed of a considerable reduction in the weight of the ammunition, and I found the guns perfectly satisfactory, whether for seal or sea-birds. They would have been quite sufficient for bear also in the hands of a good shot, for here, as at other times, the most important factor is the man behind the sights. Our guns were intended as well to procure us food on the east coast, especially if it had been necessary to pass the winter there — and with this in view I had thought of leaving a cache of ammunition with one gun on the eastern side — as to give us a supply of fresh meat on the west coast if we did not find people at once. For, given the sea-coast, a gun, and something to put in it, there need never be a lack of food. The scientific instrutnents of the expedition consisted first of a theodolite, an excellent instrument by a Christiania maker. It was certainly heavy, about 7 lbs. in itself, and had a stand which weighed little less ; but, on the other hand, it proved exceedingly trustworthy for both terrestrial and astronomical observations. In future I should prefer to have the theodolite, as well as other instruments, made of aluminium, which would save much in weight. The sextant was a nice little pocket instrument by Perken, Son, & Rayment, of London, which did excellent service. For the artificial horizon we used mercury, which never froze at raid-day. The great weight of mercury leads me to think that oil would be more serviceable for this purpose. The rest included an azimuth dial with three compasses, for the testing of magnetic deviation as well as for trigono- metrical observAtions ; five pocket compasses ; three aneroid barometers from the above-mentioned Englibh makers ; and 1 , ! i ■ I II '^il l|' tii i III ^11 til 44 ACROSS GREENLAND. a hypsomcter, or boiling-point barometer, with the necessary thermometers. The principle of this last barometer depends upon the accurate determination of the boiling-point of pure water, which, as is well known, varies with the atmospheric pres- sure, and therefore, of course, with the altitude. I found this a particularly convenient form of barometer, and its incon- siderable weight makes it especially suitable for an expedition like ours, whereas a mercurial instrument would be much too heavy and difficult to transport. Our thermometers consisted of six special instruments intended to be tied to strings and whirled rapidly round in the air. The bulb is thus brought into contact with so many particles of air that the effect of the sun's rays upon it may be almost disregarded, and the temperature of the air can thus easily be taken in the full sunshine. If the bulb of one of these sling-thermometers be covered with a piece of some thin stuff like gauze and then wetted, one can readily find the degree of moisture present in the air by comparison with a dry-bulb instrument. We had, besides the above, a minimum and an ordinary alcohol thermometer, both presented us by a Christiania maker. Our time-keepers were four ordinary watches of the half- chronometer movement. The usual chronometer watches are scarcely suitable for such work, as in certain positions they are liable to stop. We were in fact exceedingly unlucky with our watches, as one of them, owing to a fall, stopped entirely ; another, for the same reason apparently, became somewhat inaccurate ; and a third, an old watch of my own, came to a stand-still, probably for want of cleaning. The fourth, how- ever, stood the whole journey well, an'd proved an excellent time-keeper. I consider that the expedition was particularly well equipped in the way of instruments, and this was to a large extent due to Professor H. Mohn, the Director of the Meteorological THE EQUIPMENT. 45 Institute at Chrlstiania, who gave the most unremitting atten tion to the question of our scientific outfit. At the request of Professor Pettersson, of Stockholm, I took on his behalf the necessary apparatus for obtaining samples of air during our journey. This consisted chiefly of a number of moderate-sized glass cylinders carefully ex- hausted of air and hermetically sealed. On being opened they were of course at once filled, and the vessels were so arranged that they could be easily sealed again by the help of a spirit-lamp and a blowpipe. The air obtained could thus be transported any distance in its original condition. A necessary addition to the outfit of a modern exploring party is, of course, a photographic apparatus. I took a little camera to use with the theodolite stand, two roll-holders for Eastman's American stripping films, and ten rolls of twenty- four exposures each. The c?mera alone weighed two and a quarter pounds. I made about 150 exposures, and on the whole was well satisfied with the apparatus and the results. Glass plates would, of course, have been much too heavy and inconvenient. I also had two red lamps, one of glass and the other of paper, for changing the rolls, and a few stearine candles to use in them. Our remaining instruments, tools, and other things included tv/o pairs of aluminium glasses and a couple of pedometers^; an axe, with various smaller implements, such as knives, files, awls, pincers, screwdriver, small screws for the steel plates under the sledge-runners, a sailmaker's palm, sewing materials, and so on ; scales for weighing out the rations ; Tyrolese crampons or "steigeisen," ice-nails for our boots, Manilla-rope for the crevasses, as well as other cords for the sledges and various purposes; ice-axes with bamboo-shafts, which were also used as "ski "-staffs ; a spade for the snow, to screw on to one of these shafts ; several bamboos for masts and steering purposes while our sledges and boats were under sail, and block- tackle for hoisting the boats and sledges when necessary; drawing materials, sketch- and note-books ; a table of loga- i 'il « iil!l ill l! •I III 4^ ACROSS GREENLAND. rithms; nautical almanacs for 1888 and 1889; burning-glass, flint and steel, and matches, which latter were partly packed in air-tight tin boxes, and kept here and there among the baggage in order that, if we lost some, we should still have enough left; three cans of methylated spirit holding rather more than two gallons apiece; tarpaulins, some of water- proof canvas, and others of oil-cloth, to cover the sledges ; six bags intended for making portages over difficult ground, but really used as portmanteaus for each member's private effects ; long boat-hooks of bamboo, as well as short ones, which could also be used as paddles, and proved exceedingly serviceable in narrow water-ways ; oars, reserve swivel-rowlocks, and a hand-pump and hose to bale the boats with when they were loaded. Finally, we had a little medicine-chest contain- ing splints and bandages for broken limbs, chloroform, cocaine in solution for the alleviation of pain from snow-blindness, toothache drops, pills, vaseline, and a few other things, all of course reduced to a minimum of weight. Finally, I may say that four of our sledges when fully loaded averaged some 200 pounds, while the fifth amounted to nearly double as much. In April we made a little experimental trip up into the woods near Christiania, all the members of the party except one being present. Balto's description of the excursion is worth reproducing : — " One afternoon we went out of the town up into the woods to spend the night there, and try the reindeer-skin sleeping bags. In the evening, when we had reached the wood where we were to pass the night, we put up our tent. Then it was said that we were going to make coffee in a machine to be heated by spirit. So the pot of this machine was filled with snow, and we lighted the lamp beneath. It went on burning for several hours, but never managed to produce a boil. So we had to try and drink the lukewarm water with coffee extract added to it. It did not taste of anything whatever, for it THE EQUIPMENT. 47 was almost cold. At night when it was time to sleep, the four Norwegians crawled into the bags, and Nansen offered us places there too, but we were afraid it would be too hot. We did not want bags to sleep in, we thought, and so we lay down outside. In the morning I woke about six and saw our men sleeping like bears in their sacks. So I lay down again and slept till nine, when I woke the others, for I knew that a horse had been ordered to take us back at ten." This description shows plainly enough that certain parts of our outfit, as our cooking-machine, for instance, were not so satisfactory as they might have been, but there was plenty of time left for improvements. We gave our best attention to "the matter, and when we actually started at the beginning of May, after having procured several important things at the eleventh hour, we had nearly everything in the desired state of efficiency, and plenty of time during our voyage to finish all that was not yet ready. Chapter III. ''SKI" AND ''SKILODNING.' The expedition I am about to describe owed its origin entirely to the Norwegian sport of "skilobning."i I have myself been accustomed to the use of "ski" since I was four years old, every one of my companions was an experienced " skilober," and all our prospects of success were based upon the supe- riority of "ski" in comparison with all other means of loco- motion when large tracts of snow have to be traversed. I therefore think that I cannot do belter than set apart a chapter for the description of " ski " and the manner of their use, since so little is known about the sport outside the few countries where it is practised as such, and since a certain amount of familiarity with it and its technical terms will be necessary to the full comprehension of some part of the narrative which follows. It is, of course, not unnatural that those who have never seen the performance should be surprised to learn that a man can by the help of two pieces of wood, shaped for the purpose, progress as rapidly over the surface of the snow as he really does. " Ski," then, are long narrow strips of wood, those used in Norway being from three to four inches in breadth, eight feet more or less in length, one inch in thickness at the centre under the foot, and bevelling off to about a quarter of an inch at either end. In front they are curved upwards and pointed, and they are sometimes a little turned up at the back end too. The sides are more or less parallel, though the best forms have * See note to page 3. 48 rigin entirely myself been r years old, 1 " skilober," )n the supe- ms of loco- raversed. I art a chapter nr use, since 'w countries amount of necessary to ative which have never that a man he purpose, IS he really )se used in 1, eight feet the centre of an inch id pointed, :k end too. forms have ON LEVEL GROUND. (_From a photograph.) O so ACROSS GREENLAND. I III il w\m 1 1 M their greatest width in front, just where the upward curve begins, but otherwise they are quite straight and flat, and the under surface is made as smooth as possible. 'I'he attachment con- sists of a loop for the toe, made of leather or some other sub- stance, and fixed at about the centre of the " ski," and a band which passes from this round behind the heel of the shoe. The principle of this fastening is to make the " ski " and foot as rigid as possible for steering purposes, while the heel is allowed to rise freely from the "ski" at all times. On flat ground the " ski " are driven forward by a peculiar stride, which in its elementary form is not difficult of acquire ment, though it is capable of immense development. They are not lifted, and the tendency which the beginner feels to tramp away with them as if he were on mud-boards in the middle of a marsh must be strenuously resisted, lifting causes the snow to stick to them, so they must be pushed forwards over its surface by alternate strokes from the hips and thighs, the way being maintained between the strokes by a proper management of the body. The " ski " are kept strictly parallel meanwhile, and as close together as possible, there being no resemblance whatever, as is sometimes supposed, to the motion employed in skating. In the hand most "skilobers" carry a short staff, which is used partly to correct deficiencies of balance, but by the more skilful chiefly to increase the length of th^ stride by propulsion. In many country districts this pole often reaches a preposterous length, and in some parts, too, a couple of short staffs are used, one in each hand, by the help of which, on comparatively flat ground, great speed can be obtained. When the snow is in thoroughly good condition the rate of progress is quite surprising, considering the small amount of effort expended, and as much as eight or nine miles can be done within the hour, while a speed of seven miles an hour can be maintained for a very considerable length of time. Uphill the pace is, of course, very much slower, though here also the practised "skilober" has great advantages over all others. Here the " ski " must be lifted slightly, as the snow sticking to "SKI'* AND "SKILODNING." ft them counteracts the tendency to slip backwards. If the gradient be steep, various devices may be employed, the most effectual and characteristic being that shown in the annexed illustration. UP- AND DOWN-HILL. (By E. Nielsen, after a photograph.) The " ski " are turned outwards at as wide an angle as the steep- ness of the slope renders advisable, and are advanced alternately one in front of the other, the track left in the snow exactly resembling the feather-stitch of needlewomen. This method 52 ACROSS GREENLAND. 11 Hi' requires some practice, and cannot be employed if the " ski " are above a certain length, as the heels will then necessarily overlap. By its means a slope of any gradient on which the snow will lie may be ascended quickly and easily, but the position is somewhat too strained to be maintained for long. Another and easier, though much slower way, is to mount the hill sideways, bringing the " ski " almost, if not quite, to a right angle with the slope, and working up step by step. Or again, especially on the open mountain, the " skilober " will work his way upwards by tacking from side to side and following a zigzag course, taking instinctively the most advantageous line of ascent. In any case, if he be up to his work he will cover the ground quickly and without undue exertion, and, as a matter of fact, as Olaus Magnus wrote in 1555, "there is n<-» mountain so high but that by cunning devices he is able to attain unto the summit thereof" Downhill, the " ski " slide readily and are left to themselves, the one thing necessary being to maintain the balance and steer clear of trees, rocks, and precipices. The steeper the slope the greater the speed, and if the snow be good the friction is so slight that the pace often approaches within a measurable distance of that of a falling body. The author of " Kongespeilet," an old Norse treatise, was speaking not altogether at random when he described the "skilober" as out- E.tripping the birds in flight, and declared that nothing which luns upon the earth can escape his pursuit. The snow is not by any means always in a good condition for " skilobning," and its moods are very variable and capri- cious. Wet snow due to a mild temperature is ;)articularly unfavourable, as it sticks fast to the under surface of the "ski," especially if they are not covered with skin, and will often accumulate into a mass ten inches or a foot thick, the weight of which makes progress terribly laborious or well-nigh im- possible. This is a fate which has befallen many an unlucky " skilober " when he nas been out on the open mountain, or more especially in the deep loose snow of the forest, and a !li|| "SKI" AND "SKILOBNING." 53 Der as out- sudden rise of temperature has surprised him when many miles distant from a habitation. Nor do the "ski" move readily on newly fallen snow the temperature of which is not sufficiently low, though even when it falls in extreme cold it has a tendency to stick. The same is the case with snow raised from the ground and driven by the wind. The particles are then as fine as dust, and as they pack into drifts they form a peculiar cloth-like surface on which ordinary wooden " ski " will scarcely move at all. This is worst of all when the snow has originally fallen at a low temperature, as the particles are then extremely fine in the first instance, before the wind has had any effect on them. This was the kind of snow we had to deal with during nearly the whole of our crossing of the " Inland ice," and was the reason why our progress was so very slow and wearisome. But besides being slippery the surface must also be tolerably firm, or the "ski" will sink too deep. Snow that has fallen during a thaw, has had time to sink and pack well together, and has then been exposed to frost, is in excellent condition for the purposes of the "skilober." Things are even more favourable when a frost succeeding a rapid thaw has turned the surface into a hard icy crust, and if this is subsequently covered with an inch or so of newly-fallen snow, or preferably hoar-frost, the going reaches the pure ideal, and the pace which may then be obtained without effort is simply astonishing. If this crust lie, as it often does, bare of loose snow or rime, the "ski" slide fast enough, but have no proper hold on the surface, and the pace on rough and difficult ground may very soon become uncontrollable and dangerous. Of all the sports of Norway, "skilobning" is the most national and characteristic, and I cannot think that I go too far when I claim for it, as practised in our country, a position in the very first rank of the sports of the world. I know no form of sport which so evenly develops the muscles, which renders the body so strong and elastic, which teaches so well the qualities of dexterity and resource, which in an equal degree calls for ! mM iilliii :lm 1 !!!" II r 'il^' I iii 1^ ^ ■ ■i 4' 1 'ff '1* ■f: 1 ll 1 1' i — ■iL A STEEP DESCK'IT IN THE FOREST. {From a drawing by A, B/och.) ''SI! 1 hi ;ilJi!3 I'll ill branch of "skilobning" whicli lends in ihc same degree to develop power of balance, control of the " ski," or courage and confident bearing. Pi tc 1^ ' am^ JUMPING ON "SKI. (From a (drawing by A. Blcch.) The jumping is done on a steep hillside, which has a gradient of perhaps from 30° to 40°. In the middle of the hill a bank of snow is built, or there may be some natural "SKI" AND ''SKILOBNING." 6l ; degree to ourage and Vijt A break in the ground or projecting rock which serves the same purpose. The jumper slides down from the top of the hill on to this bank, which, owing to the great pace which he has already attained, throws him far out into the air, whereupon /Mm^ JUMPING ON "SKI." (By E. Nielsen, from an instantaneous photograph.) \ has a e of the natural after a longer or shorter journey through space he alights on the slope below and continues his headlong course at an even greater speed than before. The jumper may, and as a rule does, very much increase the length of his leap by gathering 63 ACROSS GREENLAND. IHii'iw'ii ■iM ¥ i \A himself together and taking a spring just as he leaves the pro- jecting bank. In this way sixty, seventy, or even ninety feet may he cleared when the snow is in good order and the hill and bank of suitable dimensions. A well-known "skilober" from Telemarkcn, Sondre Aucrsen Nordheim by name, is reported to have jumped ninety-six No'-wegian or ninety-nine English feet from a projecting rock, and to have kept his balance when he alighted below. The perpendicular fall necessitated by such jumps is very considerable, from thirty to forty feet being no uncommon thing, a height which lakes one to the roof of an ordinary three-storied house. This comparison will enable the reader to appreciate the magnitude of the performance, which can otherwise hardly be realised by those who have never witnessed it. While passing through the air the jumper must maintain all his presence of mind, must keep his "ski" straight and under control, and as he touches the ground he will generally shoot out one foot rather in front of the other and sink on one knee, to break in some measure the shock of contact. It is only the enormous speed attained and the elasticity of the snow which make such leaps pofisible, and therefore it is necessary that the slope of the hill should be quite as steep below the jump as above it, and that the snow should also be in a con- dition favourable for the purpose, since if the "ski" are checked in the slightest degree at the moment of contact the difficulty of maintaining the balance is immensely increased. Of course violent falls are frequent, and the spectator who for the first time sees the unfortunate jumper rolling down the hill — arms, legs, and "ski" all whirling round together in a cloud of snow — will naturally conclude that broken limbs must often be the result. As a matter of fact, however, serious accidents are extremely rare. But the finished " skilober " must be able to do more than jump. At some of the open competitions he is also required to show his skill in turning his "ski" to one side or the other within given marks, and by bringing them quite round to stop "SKI" AND ''SKILOBNING." 63 es the pro- Jty feet may lie hill and jber " from is reported ne English lance when ed by such : being no roof of an •ill enable rformance, who have lintain all md under ally shoot one knee, It is only the snow necessary jelow the n a con- ski" are ntact the icreased. Ltor who ig down ether in n limbs lowever, >re than equired e other to stop short before any given obstacle, both of these manoeuvres having to be executed at full speed, that is to say, in the descent of a steep hill. In these arts the "Telemarkinger" 'facilis descensus averni." an awkward corner. {From a drawing by A, Bloc It.) are complete masters, and the younger school of Christiania "skilobers" have proved their worthy pupils. But, apart from these special arts, " ski " must be considered as being first and foremost instruments of locomotion, and K/ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) k /, ^ J'ii, (■/ r^ ^ ^ M ^ K V 5.- .% % A /a 1.0 I.I 11.25 |50 "^ 2.5 2.2 U 11.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) S7i2-4503 V

rizes are given les. a sport which her hand, there lis task so uni- body and arms the arms par- ecially the case ommon among e years in the us during our eed to which a It so much de- ties, the nature at nothing like conditions be ; able to cover ay's run. Tway was held e was 50 km., irse, which was character, and test the com- larken peasant he part of his est on record, brdenskiold at 4, 1884. The lars of age, one on his Green- land expedition and had then done a great feat on the "ski" on the "Inland ice." The distance on this occasion was 220 km., or nearly 136^ English miles, and it was covered by the winner in 21 hrs. 22 min., rests included. The second man, a Lapp of forty, was only 5 sec. behind the winner, and of the first six, five of whom were Lapps, the last came in 46 min. after the first. The course was for the most part level, being laid mainly over the frozen lakes, and the snow must have been in a very favourable condition. Finally, I will say a few words about the " ski " we made use of ourselves in the course of the expedition, which in the cir- cumstances seem to find their place here more appropriately than in the preceding chapter on " Equipment." visiii^r^^ 3 D i r>iip¥i.i:'''"r''-| THE "ski" of the EXPEDITION IN PLAN, ELEVATION, AND SECTION. Our " ski " were not of any fixed Norwegian type, but were specially designed to suit the nature of the ground and state of snow which I expected to find in the interior of Greenland. We took nine pair, two of oak and the rest of birch. The oak " ski " were 7 ft. 6^ in. long, while in front at the curve they were 3I in. broad and 3I in. under the foot. On the upper surface was a ridge running the whole length of the " ski," which gave the necessary stiffness without adding too much to the weight. On the under surface were three narrow grooves. The seven pair of birch " ski " were of about the same form and dimensions, except that by the carelessness and negligence of the maker they were made rather narrower in front at the 66 ACROSS GREENLAND. curve, the sides being parallel all through. This want of breadth in front prevents the " ski " from riding so well upon the snow, as they act more like a snow plough, and move some- what heavily. These "ski" were delivered so short a time before we left that we unfortunately were unable to get others, and had to take them as they were. These birch " ski," too, were shod throughout with very thin steel plates, and in the middle of the plates, just under the foot, were openings 34^ in. by 2jV in., in which were inserted strips of elk-skin with the hair on. The object of the steel plates was to make the " ski " glide better on coarse, wet snow, of which I expected a good deal, and that of the strips of skin to prevent the " ski " from M ! "LAUPAKSKO" AFFIXED TO "SKI," SHOWING THE FASTENINGS. slipping back during ascents and the heavy work of hauling as much as the steel-plates would have otherwise caused them to do. We found, however, none of this expected snow, and might well have done without these extra contrivances. The two pair of oak " ski," which Sverdrup and I used, proved in every way satisfactory, and I can thoroughly recommend the pattern for future work of the kind. The fastenings we used were very simple, and consisted in nothing but a toe-strap of thick, stiff leather, and a broadish band of softer leather running round behind the heel. The stiff fastenings of withies or cane which are commonly used in Norway for jumping and ordinary work generally are in my ;^^>:iSS^Tfr^ "5^-/" AND ''SKILOBNING." 67 opinion quite unsuited to the conditions of a long exploring journey. They are by no means necessary for a complete con- trol of the "ski," and they tire and chafe the feet much more than a soft and flexible fastening like leather. My experience tells me that the less one is conscious of the pressure of the fastenings in these long journeys, the less one draws upon one's stock of endurance. ASTENINGS. ROCKS ON THE NORTH COAST OF THE FAROE ISLANDS. {By Th. Holmboe, after a photograph.) Chapter IV. THE VOYAGE TO ICELAND. As I have already said, I proposed to reach the east coast of Greenland by getting a Norwegian sealer to pick us up in Iceland and take us on further. After negotiations in several quarters I finally came to terms with the owners of the sealer Jason of Sandefjord. It was agreed that the ship should call for us in Iceland, and do its best to put us ashore on the east coast of Greenland, while I, on our part, undertook that she should suffer no pecuniary loss by having 68 THE VOYAGE TO ICELAND. 69 to neglect her own business on our account. My agreement with the captain of the Jason, Mauritz Jacobsen, a cool- headed and experienced Arctic skipper, was that on his way to Denmark Strait, after the season was over in the Jan Mayen waters, he should call for us in Iceland about the beginning of June, at Isafjord for preference, or Dyrafjord in case ice should prevent him getting into the former place. On May 2 I left Christiania to go by way of Copenhagen and London to Leith, where I was to meet the other members of the party. They left Christiania the day after me, taking steamer from Christianssand to Scotland, and carrying the whole outfit of the expedition with them. Many sensible people shook their heads doubtfully, and took us sadly by the hand the day we left. They evidently thought, if they did not say : " This is the last time we shall see you, but God grant that you never manage to reach land ! " There was a deal of excitement, too, caused by thi'^ nbsurd little expedition, which could not even rise to the dignity of its own steamer, but had to leave home in an ordinary passenger-boat, the owners of which, by the way, had liberally given it a free passage. Of cheering, too, there was plenty in our honour. People thought it was just as well to give these poor fellows some gratification during the short time now left to them for the enjoyment of life. In Ravna's case this enjoy- ment was for the moment brief indeed, for he had to sacrifice to the gods of the deep or ever he reached the open sea. Balto thus describes the departure from Christiania : " As we passed out of the town on our way to the quays great numbers of men and women accompanied us, to wish us good luck and cheer us on our way. We were received with similar demonstrations by the people of all the little towns from Chris- tiania to Christianssand, for they thought we should never come back alive. They expected, perhaps, that we should meet with the same fate as Herr Sinklar, when he set out for Norway to plunder and to ravish." I met the rest of my party in Leith again, and found them ;r! 70 ACROSS GREENLAND. #i;t enjoying themselves much, thanks to the kindness of their fellow-countrymen there resident. Balto in his narrative speaks of the Norwegian Consul as a " new father " to him, and a hospitable entertainer of the whole party. If the truth be told, Balto managed to find "new fathers" in many different places. After receiving many proofs of Scottish kindness and hospitality, on the evening of May 9 we went on board the Danish steamer T/tyra, which lay at Granton, and which was to take us the first stage of our journey to Ice- land. It was midnight when we said good-bye to the last of our friends, who saw us off on the deserted quay, and then we steamed out into the darkness on our way north- wards. From the time we left Scotland I began taking daily samples of the air by means of the apparatus I have already men- tioned. The object was mainly to measure the amount of carbonic acid prevalent in the different regions. I continued this sample-taking regularly across the sea to Iceland, and thence to the east coast of Cireenland, and brought also home with me a certain number of specimens from the " Inland ice " itself. While we were in the Faroe Islands, where we were delayed two days by bad weather, we had heard bad news of the state of the ice round Iceland. It was said that it had come farther south this year than had been known within the memory of man, and the east coast of the island was reported inaccessible. This was confirmed only too soon, for we met the ice when we were hardly within 140 miles of shore. We pushed on northwards to see if we could reach land further up, but it was to no purpose, as the ice was everywhere. Several sailing vessels, too, which we met, informed us that it extended a long way to the north. On Wednesday, May 16, we made another attempt to reach land on the eastern side, though this was off Berufjorden, a long way south; here, too, we were stopped some ninety miles THE Voyage to Iceland. a less of their lis narrative ler" to him, irty. If the fathers" in indness and nt on board Jranton, and irney to Ice- ^ to the last d quay, and r way north- daily samples already men- e amount of I continued Iceland, and ht also home Inland ice" were delayed i of the state had come within the was reported for we met shore. We and further everywhere. ned us that npt to reach rufjorden, a ninety miles from land. This left us nothing to do but make for the south-west, and we steamed along the rocky and pic- turesque southern coast withafair wind behind us. In the evening we passed Orcefajokull, the highest mountain in Iceland, which rises out of the sea to a height of some 6400 feet. As the setting sun cast its last rays upon the mountain's snowy sides, and on the veil of mist which enwrapped its sum- mit, while now and again the breaking of the veil allowed us to see for a moment the soft outlines of the conical peak, the scene was one of unusually impres- sive grandeur. On the morning of May 17, we approached the Vestmanna Islands, which lie some miles to sea, off A < ^ -5 o •—1 < ►J -^ u X H a 'A < c/l Q 7-. < J in < y. 'A < in > w K H < ACROSS GREENLAND. :<:! the middle of the southern coast of Iceland. It was a glorious sunny day, and the sea was smooth and l)right as glass as we glided in between the lofty precipitous basalt rocks which form this group of islands and lay to off Heimaey, the largest of them all, and the only one inhabited. Here the sea eats away the layers of basalt rock, leaving perpendicular walls which fall sheer into the sea, and are honeycombed with great cavities and grottoes. The whole CLIFFS ON THE NORTH COAST OF THE VESTMANNA ISLANDS. {From a photograph,) scene had a distinctly Mediterranean aspect, and at once suggested a comparison with Capri, not by any means to the latter's undisputed pre-eminence. We were steaming straight for these wonderful cliffs, about which the breakers threw their spray, and the screaming sea-birds wheeled in thousands. 'J'here was something strangely fascinating m the whole : a brilliant summer-like day, a bright-green sea as clear as crystal, and right opposite us, on the mainland, the highest peak but one in Iceland, the volcano Eyafjallajokul, THE VOYAGE TO ICELAND. 73 was a glorious as glass as we Ics which form irgest of ihem rock, leaving sea, and are The whole 1 .^;'-r k ISLANDS. and at once means to re steaming he breakers wheeled in iscinating m green sea as mainland, the yafjallajokul, whose great white snow-mantle lay before us still glittering in the evening sun. In the background, again, were other peaks and glaciers, among which the huge white dome of Hekla was most prominent. T.atcr we passed Reykjanfts, which carries the only light- house which Iceland possesses. The spot is one of absolute desolation, and is especially exposed to shocks of earthquake, which have already damaged the lighthouse, and threaten before long to demolish it altogether. Beyond are a few rocks and islands which are chiefly re- ,i;.; ii!'',rJi:i/i ■.■■N» THE ONLY LIGHTHOUSE IN ICELAND. (By I'll, Holmboe,/rom a sketch by the Author.) markable for the number of Great Auk {Aica impennis) to which they formerly gave shelter. After a hard struggle against a head wind and heavy sea, which again and again completely neutralised the Thyrd!s efforts to push on, we reached Reykjavik, the capital of Ice- land, in the course of the night. Our stay was shore, but next morning we were allowed some hours on shore. About midday we left, and now set our course for the promontory of Snefellsnoes, on our way north to Isafjord, our eventual destination. In the evening, just as the sun was setting, we passed Snefellsjokull. an old volcano which 'ir- 74 ACROSS CRRENLAND. lies on the extreme point of the promontory. The pcnk is most impressive as one passes close beneath it, for it rises out of the sea to a height of more than 4500 feet. It is well known as a most useful sea-mark, and its white cap has guided many a vessel into safety. As we passed it was perhaps at its best, as the last rays of the sinking sun were just reddening its mantle of snow. Whereas May 18 had been comparatively springlike, the r" «.'»■■ * THE "THYRA" PASSING SNEFFU.SJOKUM^ {By Th. Holmboe, front a sketch by the Author.) day following plunged us into the depths of winter again. When we came on deck in the morning we were net by a stiff breeze from the north, with sleet and snow. The high basalt mountains on the mainland were decked from head to foot in white, and the floes which we saw floating by from time to time were precursors which assured us that the main body of ice was not far off. We were now close to Onundafjord, and, as the breeze promised to increase to a THE VOYAGE TO ICELAND. 75 i^inter again. gale and the snow was falling thickly, we took refuge in the excellent harI)our which the inlet aflbrds, there to await better weather. The storm now increased rapidly, and we had full oi)i)ortunity of learning what the wind of these northern parts can do. No one ventured on deck who was not obliged, One could kce|) one's feet there indeed if it were necessary, hut to bring one's nose for more than an instant out of shelter was an experiment to which there was little tempta- tion. The ship, however, lay very comfortably where she was, and, as it hapi)ened to be Whitsun Eve, we did our best to make things as pleasant as possible down below. When we woke next morning we were already in Isafjord, where we intended to go ashore. Here, too, winter prevailed no less absolutely, and everything was under snow. Isafjord is the second of the three towns of Iceland, and is a pretty little place, buried, together with its excellent harbour, among the surrounding mountains. Here I was told that the drift-ice lay not far to the north, as it had, in fact, come south of Cape Nord. Strong northerly winds might bring it still farther south, and block the approach to the fjord. It was extremely rarely that this had happened, but there was just a possibility of it, and the /ason might have some difficulty in getting into Isafjord to fetch us. To avoid this risk I made up my mind to go back to Dyrafjord, which lies a little farther south, and is never blocked by the ice, and await her there, as we had agreed to do if it were necessary. So I sent a letter ashore for the Jason^s captain, telling him of our movements, and we started southwards again. Next morning when we came on deck the weather was splendid, and we were running fast up the approach to Dyra- fjord. The winter had now retired to some extent to the mountains, and along the sea-shore there were a few signs of spring to gladden us. We were soon anchored off Thing- eyre, the little trading centre of the fjord, and we now took leave of the captain and crew of the Thyra^ who had from '■■'i Mill Mi !: lil 76 i4C/?OS5 GREENLAND. the first done all they could to make our stay on board as pleasant as possiblCj and who now fired a farewell salute in our honour. At Thingeyre we were hospitably welcomed by Herr Gram, the merchant of the place, who had kindly offered us shelter while we were to wait for the Jason. At a farm near Dyrafjord I bought a little pony to take with us for the purposes of the expedition. I meant to use it to help us with our boats and baggage in the floes, and if we could get it so far, on the way up on to the " Inland ice." I was not sanguine that it would be of much use to us, but when we were obliged to kill it, it would give us many a meal of good fresh meat When I left Norway I had thought of buying two ponies, but when I saw what they could do I felt sure one would be quite enough. As it happened, our little beast was not of much use. In the spring it is not easy to get fodder in Iceland, and in spite of all my efforts I could only scrape together enough for a month. The pony we took was a very handsome little animal, and, curiously enough, he was used to the work we wanted him for, as he had been put to the plough for a while, which is quite unusual in Iceland, where the ponies are as a rule used only for riding or as pack-horses. On June 3, in the morning, we could see far out at the mouth of the fjord a little steamer slowly working inwards. At first we could make nothing of her, but soon came to the con- clusion that she must be one of the small steamers used by the Norwegian Whaling Company in Isafjord. As she came nearer we made her to be the Jsafold, which is one of these boats, but what she could want here on a Sunday morning we could not imagine. After saluting the Fy/ia she anchored and sent a boat on shore amid our increasing excitement. I had begun to suspect the truth, when, to my astonishment as well as joy, I recognised in the first who stepped ashore Captain Jacobsen of the Jason. Our meeting was almost frantic, THE VOYAGE TO ICELAND. 77 es, and if we but the story was soon told. He had reached Isafjord, and, not finding us there, had thought of coming on to Dyrafjord with the Jason. But with the strong wind blowing it would have taken his heavily-rigged ship a whole day to make the voyage, and, as the Norwegian Company's manager most kindly offered to send the Isafold to fetch us, he had taken the opportunity of coming too. We lost no time in getting ready, and there was no lack of willing hands to bring our goods on board. Amid general interest our little pony was led on to the landing-stage. He did all he could to resist, poor little fellow, and had almost to be carried; had he but known the sad fate in store for him, I scarcely think we should have got him on board at all. When all was done and we had said farewell to "*Herr Gram, our kind entertainer, and the other friends we had made in Dyrafjord, we steamed out of the ijord and to sea northwards. The Jason, as we learned, had been tolerably successful hitherto, as she wao also the whole season as compared with her fellows. Up to this time she had taken 4500 young seal and 1 100 old. - FORCING OUR WAV THROUGH THE ICK. {By Th, Uolmboe^ from an instantaneous photograph.") 1 1 Chapter V. CRUISING IN THE ICE. As we leave the land behind us we are followed by hundreds of kittiwakes, in billowy masses of white and blue, chattering in endless chorus, now sinking as they swoop low on extended wing over the vessel's wake, now rising as they soar lightly in their graceful evolutions up towards the blue sky. It is a glorious northern night. The sun has sunk into the sea ; in the west and north the day has laid herself dreamily to rest in her sunlit bath. Above are the coloured heavens ; below, the sea, calm as a mirror, and rocked to sleep in melancholy thought, while it reflects in still softer, gentler tones the mellow radiance of the sky. Between heavens and 78 CRUISING IN THE ICE. 79 meaus photograph.') sea is the black form of the Jason^ labouring and moaning as her engines drive her westward. Behind us the rocky coast of Iceland, a fringe of violet blue, is slowly sinking into the sea. Behind us lie home and life : what lies before us ? We cannot teil, but it must be beautiful. A start on such a night is full of promise. I am sitting alone in the stern of the vessel and gazing out into the night at the gathering clouds, which, still tinged by the sun, are sailing over the horizon to the north-west. Behind them lies Greenland, as yet invisible. All nature is, as it were, sunk in her own dreams, and gently and quietly the mind, too, is drawn back into itself to pursue the train of its own thoughts, which unconsciously borrow a reflection of the colours of the sky. Among all things that are beautiful in life are not such nights most beautiful ? And life — is it much more than hope and remembrance? Hope is of the morning, it may be, but on such nights as this do not memories, all the fair memories of bygone days, arise dewy and fresh from the mists of the distant past, and sweep by in a long undulating train, sunlit and alluring, till they dis- appear once more in the melting western glow? And all that is mean, all that is odious, lies behind, sunk in the dark ocean of oblivion. The very next day, June 5, we reached the ice, which this year has come a long way south. The impression which the floe-ice of the Arctic seas makes upon the traveller the first time he sees it is very remarkable. Most people will find that what they actually see is not a little different from what they have expected. A world of wonders and enchantments, a complete horizon of wild fantastic forms, ever changing, ever new, a wealth of brilliant rainbow hues playing and glowing amid the cold purity of the crystal ice, such are the features of the picture which the ingenuity of the imagination so often fondly creates. Such, too, are often the illustrations of books, written apparently to give the reader v'j I 11 !? V^ |lS|||)i l«;:r| 80 ACROSS GREENLAND. impressions of scenes which the writer can never have beheld himself. But not such is this ice- world. These mighty fan- tastic forms are wanting; all is monotony and uniformity, features which nevertheless leave an indelible impression on the mind. In small, indeed, it has forms enough and in infinite diversity, and of colours all tints and strange effects of green and blue, flashing and playing in endless variation ; but as to its large features, it is just their overpowering sim- plicity of contrast which works so strongly on the observer's mind : the drifting ice, a huge white glittering expanse stretch- ing as far as the eye can reach, and throwing a white reflection far around upon the air and mist ; the dark sea, often showing black as ink against the white ; and above all this a sky, now gleaming cloudless and pale-blue, now dark and threatening with driving scud, or again wrapped in densest fog — now glowing in all the rich poetry of sunrise or sunset colour, or slumbering through the lingering twilight of the summer night. And then in the dark season of the year come those wonderful nights of glittering stars and northern lights playing far and wide above the icy deserts, or when the moon, here most melancholy, wanders on her silent way through scenes of desolation and death. In these regions the heavens count for more than elsewhere ; they give colour and character, while the landscape, simple and unvarying, has no power to draw the eye. Never shall I forget the first time I entered these regions. It was on a dark night in March 1882 when we, on board a Norwegian sealer, met the first floes in the neighbourhood of Jan Mayen, and ice was announced ahead. I ran on deck and gazed ahead, but all was black as pitch and in- distinguishable to me. Then suddenly something huge and white loomed out of the darkness, and grew in size and white- ness, a marvellous whiteness in contrast to the inky sea, on the dark waves of which it rocked and swayed. This was the first floe gliding by us. Soon more came, gleaming far ahead, rustling by us with a strange rippling sound, and dis- CkUlStNG IN THE ICB. 81 appearing again far behind. Then I saw a singular light in the northern sky, brightest down at the horizon, but stretching far up towards the zenith. I had not noticed this before, and as I looked I heard a curious murmur to the north like that of breakers on a rocky coast, but more rustling and crisper in sound. The whole made a peculiar impression upon me, and I felt instinctively that I stood on the threshold of a new world. What did all this mean ? Were these the fields of ice in front of us and to the north ? But what were the sound and light? The light was the reflection which the white masses of ice always throw up when the air is thick, as it was that night, and the sound came from the sea breaking over the floes while they collided and grated one against the other. On still nights this noise may be heard far out to sea. But we drew nearer and nearer, the noise grew louder, the drifting floes more and more frequent, and now and again the vessel struck one or another of them. With a loud report the floe reared on end, and was thrust aside by our strong bows. Sometimes the shock was so violent that the whole ship trembled and we were thrown off" our feet upon the deck. Not long, indeed, were we allowed to doubt that we were now voyaging in waters new and strange to us. We shortened sail, and for a day or two cruised along the edge of the ice. Then one evening it blew up for a storm, and, as we were tired of the sea, we resolved to push into the ice and ride out its fury there. So we stood straight ahead, but before we reached the margin of the ice the storm fell upon us. Sail was still further shortened, till we had but the topsails left, but we still rushed inwards before the wind. The ship charged the ice, was thrown from floe to floe, but on she pushed, taking her own course in the darkness. The swell grew heavier and heavier, and made things worse than ever. The floes reared on end and fell upon each other; all around us was seething and noise; the wind whistled in the rigging, and not a word was to be heard save the captain's calm but vigorous orders, which prevailed over the roaring of the sea. F Bi ACROSS GREENLAND. Precisely and silently were they obeyed by the pale men, who were all on deck, as none dared risk his life by staying below, now that the ship was straining in every joint. We bored steadily inwards into the darkness. It was no use trying to guide the vessel here ; she had to be left to herself, like the horses on the mountains at home. The water seethed and roared round our bows ; the floes were rolled over, split in pieces, were forced under or thrust aside, nothing holding its own against us. Then one looms ahead, huge and white, and threatens to carry away the davits and rigging on one side. Hastily the boat which hangs in the davits is swung in on to the deck, the helm is put down, and we glide by uninjured. Then comes a big sea on our quarter, breaking as it nears us, and as it strikes us heavily we hear a crash and the whistling of splinters about our ears, while the port is thrown across the deck, a floe having broken the bulwarks on the weather-side. The ship heels over, we hear another crash, and the bulwarks are broken in several places on the lee-side too. But as we get further into the ice it grows calmer. The sea loses its force, the noise is deadened, though the storm tears over us with more fury than ever. The wind whistles and shrieks in the rigging, and we can scarcely keep our footing on the deck. The storm seems to rage because it cannot roll at its will in the open sea ; but here at last we can ride at our ease. We had played a dangerous game by taking to the ice in a storm, but we had come out of it unscathed and were now in smooth water. When I came on deck next morning the sun was shining, the ice lay white and still around us, and only the broken bulwarks grinning in the morning sun called to mind the stormy night. This was my first meeting with the ice. Very different was it indeed this second time. We saw it now on a fine bright day, a dazzling white expanse quivering and glittering in the sunshine far away towards the horizon, while the sea rocked gently and peacefully against its edge. CRUISING IN THE ICE. 83 le pale men, fe by staying y joint. We no use trying ) herself, like vater seethed ed over, split Lhing holding le and white, gging on one ,vits is swung , we glide by rter, breaking hear a crash vhile the port the bulwarks hear another places on the tier. The sea e storm tears whistles and 3 our footing it cannot roll an ride at our ng to the ice and were now morning the ound us, and ng sun called different was a fine bright ttering in the ■le sea rocked It must not be supposed that this drifting ice of the Arctic seas forms a single continuous field. It consists of aggrega- tions of larger and smaller floes, which may reach a thickness of thirty or forty feet or even more. How these floes are formed and where they come from is not yet known with MY FIRST MKETING WITH THE POLAR ICE (1882). (By Tk. Hohnhoe.) certainty, but it must be somewhere in the open sea far away in the north, or over against the Siberian coast, where no one has hitherto forced his way. Borne on the Polar current, the ice is carried southwards along the east coast of Greenland. Here it meets the swell of the sea, and the larger solid masses rTT" ; IP! 1 lip! m ; I JIll ill! I ^ll 84 ACROSS GREENLAND. are broken into smaller and smaller floes as they come farther south. By the pressure of the waves, and consequent packing, the floes are sometimes also piled one upon another, and then form hummocks or crags of ice which may often rise twenty or thirty feet above the water. It is this broken and scattered polar ice which the sealer meets in Denmark Strait, and it is among these floes, which can indeed be dangerous obstacles enough, that he forces his way with his powerful vessel in pursuit of the bladder- nose. For several days we worked southwards, skirting the ice. On Wednesday we see the point of Staalbjerghuk in Ice- land, and estimate that we are about thirty miles distant from it. On Thursday, June 7, we get into a tongue of open ice, and see here and there seals, bladder-nose, upon the floes. There is life on board the Jason at once. " It is a good sign to see seal so soon, on the first ice we get into. We shall have a good season this year very likely, and we want it too, after all these bad years," and so on. And visions of a real handsome catch, as in the good old Greenland days, arise in the lively imagination of many a sealer. The men are all deeply interested in the success of the vessel, as their earnings are dependent thereon. Hope too, luckily, has a tendency with many folk to follow the direction of their wishes. Easily is it raised, but just as easily disappointed. We saw more seal on the ice, and our captain determined to try for a little haul. So the boats of one watch were sent out. Sverdrup and Dietrichson, who had never been out before, were of course consumed with eagerness to see and try their rifles on these masses of game. They were no little delighted when they had received the due permission and the boats were under way, but as beginners they were put in charge of skilled shooters. We soon heard reports on various sides of us, but only a shot now and again — no lively firing, nothing like the continuous blaze and rattle all over the ice which is the CRUISING IN THE ICE. as accompaniment of a good haul. They were evidently youngsters and mainly small seal which lay scattered hereabout. In the afternoon, when this detachment had come back, the boats of the other watch were sent out. 1 stayed on board the whole day, and shot a number of seal from the stern of the vessel. Curiously enough, one can, as a rule, get nearer to the seal with the larger vessel than with the boats. They have learned to fear the latter, and often take to the water quite out of range, while one can sometimes bring the big ship right up to the floe on which they lie before they decamp. We got 187 seal altogether that day, which is no great bag. They were chiefly youngsters, though there were some old ones among them. Dietrichson's boat got twenty seal, and Sverdrup's thirty-six. That day, too, we saw several sealers in the ice to the west of us, and next day we had a talk with some of them. Of course they all wanted to talk with the Jason, which had the Greenland expedition on board. The captain of the Magdalena, of Tonsberg, came to see us and carried off" the post we • had brought from Iceland for the other vessels, promising to have it delivered, as the Jason was bound for the east coast of Greenland, and it was uncertain whether we should see the other sealers for some time. The postal system of the Arctic Sea is managed in a somewhat remarkable way. If any of the vessels touch at Iceland they carry off the post for the rest of the fleet. The reader will perhaps think that the Arctic Sea covers a large area, and that it would be doubtful whether one vessel would find the others in these parts. But it is not really so. The sealing-grounds are not so extensive that one is not quite as well informed about one's fellow's actions and movements as one generally is about the business of one's neighbour in a small town at home. The sealers like to keep close together, and no one will separate any distance from the rest for fear the others may come in for a haul while he is away. He dare not run the risk of getting nothing while the others are taking seal, on the mere chance fir ui ii MiJini I I' lllllllll III I'i-H il'll :lvl hill 86 ACROSS GREENLAND. of getting a larger haul all to himself another time. The struggle for existence is here maintained in the same way as elsewhere in the world. ^ Later in the afternoon we passed the Geysir of Tonsberg. The captain came on board and had supper and a glass of grog with us. He was in such high spirits that none of us had the heart to tell him that he had lost three of his children from diphtheria since he sailed from home. Captain Jacobsen had been told it in a letter which he got in Iceland, but the father had heard nothing of it, nor did he learn it from us. One can thus live up here in the Arctic Sea without a suspicion of what is going on in the world. One's joys and sorrows are bound up in the seal and sealing, and the whole of Europe might well collapse without the knowledge or regard of this section of its population. On Sunday, June lo, we have thick and foggy weather. For several days we have been unable to take an observation and cannot tell how far we have advanced, though the current, which is strong here, must have carried us far to the west at the same time that we have made a good deal of way south. We must have reached that point where, if there is to be any prospect of getting to land at present, the edge of the ice should be taking a more westerly or north-westerly direction. Of this there is no sign ; there are masses of ice extending in a south-westerly direction. This does not look at all hopeful. The real sealing season begins to get very near, and it may take the Jason a long time to make her way to the north- east again against the current, especially as it has begun to blow from the east. Meantime the other ships may be taking seal, and I had bound myself not to let my expedition inter- fere with the vessel's real business. So that morning we came to the conclusion that we must give up all attempts to land for the present, and wait for a better chance. We turn eastwards for the ordinary sealing- grounds, but wind and current are now in our teeth, and we have to beat up against them. CRUISING IN Tlin ICE. »7 Next day it clears up and we get a sight of land, the first alluring sight of the east coast of (Ireenland. We see high, jagged mountain tops, evidently the country north of Cape 1 )an. We are not so far away as we expected, perhaps rather more than sixty miles. We find a narrow inlet cutting deep into the ice in the direction of land. It seems to stretch far inwards, and we cannot see the end of it even from the masthead. We THE FIRST SIGHT OF GREENLAND ON JUNE II. (From a sketch by the Author.) determine to try how far we can get, and it is possible that we may find seal there too. We have the wind in our favour and make our way in quickly. We soon find the way blocked, but a sealer does not lose heart at such trifles. We force a passage, and the floes of ice have to give way before the stout bows of the Jason. Then we get into a large open pool with no ice in sight between us and land. This looks promising. We take our latitude and longitude, and at noon find ourselves at 65° 18' N. and 34° 10' W. We are IL rlil i i,'i * H'l > w l\:f 18 ^C/?055 GREENLAND. Still some fifty miles from land, but our hopes begin slowly to rise as wc think that we may perhaps after all be able to effect our landing without further waiting. But after steaming inwards for another couple of hours at good si)eed we again sight ice from the masthead right in front of us. We go a little way into it and see that it is packed, so that our vessel will find it difficult to force a passage through. We are now some forty miles from land, and, as the ice ahead is rather heavily packed and rough, it seems scarcely advisable to try and land now. It will be better to wait till later in the year when the ice will have diminished. It certainly seems to us that the ice farther north is more open, and that we shall be able to get considerably nearer land that way, but, as I have said already, the Jason is out sealing, and if she forces her way through up there she will run the risk of getting stuck and losing the best of the season. This risk is not to be thought of, so we make our way out again, and say farewell to the east coast of Greenland for the present. The fog soon hides the land again from our sight. Balto's description of his first sight of Greenland shows that the impression it made upon his mind was not altogether satisfactory. He writes : " After sailing for some days in the direction of Greenland we at last came within sight of land, but it still lay far in the distance, some sixty or seventy miles away beyond the ice. That part of the coast which we could now see had no beauty or charm to the eye, but was dismal and hideous to look upon. Mountain peaks terrifically high rose like church-steeples into the clouds which hid their summits." Next day we have a good proof of the strength of the current in these seas. We have been beating up to the north-east the whole night long with a strong easterly breeze. Next day at noon we again see land in the same direction as on the day before, and, if possible, we are a little way still farther south. The current has been bearing us to the south- vrest all along. CRUISING IN illE ICE. 89 The next few days we beat up to the nOi^h • ast along the edge of the ice, but make Utr^p way, as the wind is strong against us and the current carries 'is back. As hitherto, we see a great deal of whale. They are chiefly the " bottle nose," several of the larger species of whalebone whales, most of them probably the blue-whale, and most of them moving westwards, possibly towards Greenland. Whales have evi- dently their migrations, though we know little or nothing about them. Now and again we see one of the smaller kinds of whalebone whale, which our sealers sometimes called " klapmyts "-whale, as they maintain that it is in the habit of frequenting the grounds where the "klapmyts," i.e.^ the bladder-nose seal, is caught. It seemed that it might possibly be the same species as that found on the coasts of Finmarken, where it is called the "seie "-whale {Balanoptera borealis). Once or twice, too, I saw the killer-whale {Orca gladiator)^ the little species so readily known by its prominent back-fin. It is an unusually powerful little whale, is active in its move- ments, and provided with a set of dangerous teeth. It is the terror of the big whales ; when it appears they flee pell-mell, and one of these little gladiators alone is enough to put the giants of the sea to flight, and even to drive them ashore before him. Nor is this terror the big whales have for their enemy all ungrounded, as he pursues them and attacks them from the side. The killer generally hunts in companies, the members of which rush straight in upon the whales and tear great pieces of blubber out of their side. In pain and despair the big whales lash the water and break away with the speed of lightning, but closely followed by these little monsters, who do not desist until their victims, exhausted by loss of blood and exertion, throw up the game. Not only the whale, but the seal too, is the victim of the killer's rapacity. The Eskimo have told me that they have seen this animal — "ardluk," as they call him — devour a seal in a single mouthful. The killer of our coasts seems to some extent to lead a 90 ACROSS GREENLAND. i-\.'< 'UW more peaceful life. He is an habitual visitor at our herring- fisheries, and then seems to live on nothing but herring and coal-fish, among which, however, he causes a deal of panic and confusion. He seems to show no tendency to attack the great whales with whom he comes into contact daily on these occasions, nor do they seem to have any fear of him. The reason of this mutual relation is not quite certain. Possibly at these times the killer gets enough fish-food and feels no desire for whale-blubber, but it is also probable that the great whalebone whales which appear at the herring- fisheries, viz., the fin-whale (^Balanopicra nmsadus), and the pike- whale {Balienoptera rosirata)^ are not the particular species which he is accustomed to attack. I am inclined to think that these two species are too quick for him, and that he therefore prefers the larger but less strong and speedy blue-whale, and possibly, too, the hump-backed whale {Megaptera boops). Now and then we see seals asleep in the water. As they bob up and down with the waves they look like live ship- fenders floating on the surface. A few we see, too, on the scattered, drifting ice-floes. This probably means that there are more on the ice inside, but the air is thick and we have no time to look. We are impatient to see our fellows again ; it may be that they are hard at work, while we should be here poking about in the ice, and very likely catching nothing, while they are in the thick of it. That would never do. At last we got a little wind from the west, and a couple of days' sail brought us to the rest of the fleet again. There was a general sigh of relief on board the Jason when it was known that the others had caught nothing since we left them. III NAVIGATION IN THE ICE — "HARD A-STARBOARD. (5,7 the Author, from a photograph.) Chapter VI. THE BLADDER-NOSE SEAL AND ITS CAPTURE. The bladder-nose, the "klapmyts" of the Norwegians and Cystophora cristata of naturalists, has its nearest connec- tions among seal-kind in the sea-elephants of western North America and the Antarctic Ocean, one point of resemblance being the hood which the male bears upon its nose, a feature which makes it strikingly distinct from all other Arctic seals. It oftens attains considerable size, and next to the blue-seal {P/wca barbata), is the largest of the seals found in Arctic waters from Greenland lO Spitzbergen. It takes to the water 91 1^ 35: I'' llijllil I m liiiig! illii i I I 'I 92 y4C/?055 GREENLAND. immediately after birth, when it carries a coat of smooth hair, light or nearly white below, and grey on the back. At the first change this becomes somewhat spotted, and gradually as the young seal grows it becomes more and more dappled, till at maturity the coat has a greyish-white ground with numerous black spots, large and small, irregularly distributed over the whole body. These spots are smallest upon the head, but they are here so closely set that the effect is often that of a continuous black. , As I have already said, the male seal has a kind of hood MALE OF THE BLADDER-NOSE SEAL. (By E. Nielsen, from a sketch by tht Author^ or bladder on its nose, which can be blown out to a size which is quite astonishing, and then gives the head a most extraordinary appearance. But it is seldom that this is done, and I have only seen it when the animal is excited or irritated, as for instance by being shot at. At ordinary times the hood is folded, and generally hangs over the end of the nose like a short proboscis. This seal is an excellent swimmer and diver, and to obtain its food, which consists chiefly of fish, it sometimes descends to extraordinary depths. How deep it will go is not known, but some idea may be formed from the fact that I once found kind of hood THE BLADDER-NOSE SEAL AND ITS CAPTURE. 93 between Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen some of the peculiar Norwegian red fish, the " bergylt " {Sebasfes norvegicus), in the stomach of a bladder-nose. This is quite a deep-sea fish, its habitat ranging from sixty to ninety fathoms below the surface. If the pressure at this depth, which amounts at least to eleven atmospheres, be realised, it will be seen that this seal must possess a chest of considerable strength. As another proof of its immense power, I may mention that it can jump out of the water on to a floe the edge of which lies as much as six feet above the surface. I have often seen them shoot suddenly FEMALE AND YOUNG OF THE BLADDER-NOSE SEAL. {By E. Nielsen, from sketches by the Author.) out of the sea, describe a curve in the air, and plump down some way inside the edge of an ice-floe, which was quite as high above the water as I have said. The impetus necessary for this purpose implies an amount of power which the observer is scarcely likely to realise at first. The bladder-nose is almost entirely a seal of the open sea. It does not keep much to the coasts, but follows the drifting floes in its migrations, and occurs all over the Arctic Ocean and the northern Atlantic, from Spitzbergen to Labrador and Baffin's Bay. It is not quite certain whether it goes further w iliiii iJijiiH' ¥,'■ It''- I»il 94 ACROSS GREENLAND '.'V. west, but it is not likely to do so to any great extent. Its easterly limits seem to be the neighbourhood of Spitzbergen, for it is not found off Nova Zembla. The tract which this seal chiefly frequents is the stretch of sea which lies between Iceland and Greenland. Here during the moulting-season they gather in enormous numbers, and here it is that the Norwegian sealers get their best hauls. The bladder-nose season generally begins in June, at which time the sealers arrive in Denmark Strait after their season with the saddleback- or harp-seal {Phoca Greenlandica\ which is taken in the neighbourhood of Jan Mayen. Even before this some of them have also been engaged in the capture of the bottle-nose whale I^Hyperoodon diodoti) off the north- east of Iceland. The first thing, of course, is to find the seal, and this is often a difficult task, for it must not be supposed that they are at all generally distributed over the ice. The sealers often have to search for weeks, skirting the edge of the ice- fields and examining every bay or inlet which admits of a passage in. The glasses are in constant use in the crow's- nest on the main-top. Then, if after long search signs of seal are at last discovered far away among the floes, and the ice does not lie too close to make a passage possible, the engines are at once put to their highest speed. The one object is now to push in and anticipate one's competitors. Just as at the card-table there is no fellowship, so among the sealers of the Arctic seas altruism is a virtue unknown. Every ship does its best to outwit its fellows, and nothing brings so much satisfaction as the success of an ingenious trick. So, if there happen to be several vessels in one's neighbour- hood when one discovers seal, and there is reason to believe that the others are still in ignorance of the find, the first thing is to entice the others away and set off in pursuit alone. To gain this object recourse is had to the most extraordinary stratagems. To steam off at full speed in quite a different direction, as if one already saw or expected to see seal in THE BLADDER-NOSE SEAL AND ITS CAPTURE. 95 that quarter, so draw the others off, and then a while aftCF- wards sneak back and start off to make one's capture alone, is an artifice in daily use at these times. When the vessel is then being driven with all the speed she can bear onwards among the floes, and the crew begin to suspect that seal have been sighted from the look-out, there is soon life on board. The men gather in the bows and along the ship's side to get the first sight of their prey from the deck, and then all hands are set to work to get the boats ready and to see whether the bread and bacon lockers and beer-cask are properly supplied, whether there are cartridges enough in the box, and the rifles are all clean and in good order. Every detail is now seen to, and if there is nothing else to be done the skinning-knives have their last edge put on, that they may do their work well upon all the seal in prospect. Then up the men go on deck again to have another look ahead, following the direction of the long glass up in the crow's-nest above. Then, when one seal at last appears, they talk and gesticulate, and as more and more come gradually into sight, scattered like black dots among the floes, the excitement increases, and the men gather together into groups and eagerly discuss the probabilities of a real haul. Meanwhile the ship pushes slowly and steadily on, and the captain shouts his orders from above, with now and again an oath or execration directed at the two poor wretches who are sianding at the wheel and striving their utmost to do what they are told with promptitude and care. The curses, indeed, pass in at one ear and out at the other as they stand there working, till the sweat runs off them, while the ship, amid noise and crashing, labours from floe to floe, and at each shock trembles in every joint, sometimes so violently that it is no easy matter to keep one's footing upon the deck. All the time the engines are pushed to the utmost, and the screw leaves its swirling eddies, which are soon obliterated by the ice. The captain sits in the crow's-nest and feasts his eyes on the crowds of seal ahead, laying his plan of campaign the 96 ACROSS GREENLAND. r Av I while and directing the vessel's course. It is an exciting time, this approaching of the seal, and expectation and anxiety prevail throughout the ship. Then, when at last the order to get ready comes, there is a shriek of joy from one end of the vessel to the other. In the forecastle the confusion is at its highest; no more sleep is allowed, the men get into their sealing- clothes, and a good meal is prepared on the crackling stove to give the boats' crews heart for their work. By this time, perhaps after several hours' steam through the ice, the ship is well among the seal, which are to be seen lying on all sides about the iloes. But she still pushes on, till she is in the very midst of them, and the final order for the start is given. At once all hands drop into the boats, which are hanging clear in their davits over both sides of the ship. Then the shooters — there is only one in each boat's crew, and he takes command — receive their orders from the captain, and the boats are lowered away. The ship has meanwhile slackened speed, and all life is transferred to the boats. Quickly they drop into the water and bear away, each in its own direction. It is a fine sight to see a sealer's ten boats thus get under way. The shooter stands up in the bows with his eye fixed on his seal. The coxswain stands in the stern at his post, and the other three or four men of the crew bend eagerly to their oars; all is excitement and expectation, more intense than before. When the seal are actually reached the fusillade begins, often with all the liveliness of a hot brush between skirmishing parties. If the day be fine and sunny, and there are plenty of seal around, 1\ ing basking lazily upon the floes, there is a fascination about the scene which will never cease to charm the mind of one who has been present at it. The main object of the shooter is, of course, to be the first back to the ship with a load of seal, and he tries to excite his men to the same ambition and urges them to their best efforts. The mode of approach is interesting. It is no use stalking THE BLADDER-NOSE SEAL AND ITS CAPTURE. 97 the seal or drawing warily near under shelter of the floes, for this method is nearly certain to make them take to the water. On the contrary, one must avoid bringing one's boat behind a piece of ice which will conceal it from view, after the seal have once caught sight of it. It must be taken along in as open water as can be found, and as directly as may be in the face of the seal which are to be first approached. They ought to be able to see the boat, if possible, from the very first, for if they are taken at all by surprise they disappear at once. As a seal catches sight of a boat in the distance he generally raises his head, but if it is not near enough to alarm him he will very likely lie down at his ease again. Then, as the boat comes nearer, he lifts his head again, shows a certain amount of uneasiness, and looks first up at the strange object and then down at the water below him. The boat is brought still closer, the oarsmen rowing" with all their power ; the seal grows rest- less, drags himself still further out towards the edge of the floe, and gazes in his uncertainty at the boat and the water alternately. Now that he gives unmistakable signs of dis- appearing, the boat's crew, at their captain's order, set up a series of most terrific yells. The seal is at first petrified with astonishment at this strange phenomenon, but he soon recovers and drags himself still nearer to the edge. More yells, still more unearthly and longer sustained than the first, stop him once more, and he stretches out his neck listening intently and staring in wonderment at the boat, which is all the while pressing in nearer and nearer to him. But now he bends over the edge of the floe, stoops down, and stretches his neck towards the water in spite of repeated yelling from the boat. He has now made up his mind to go, and if the boat is not yet will in range the only thing the shooter can do is to raise his rifle quickly and put a ball into the side of the floe just below his head, scattering the snow and ice in a shower over his chest and face. This is a new danger, and in terror he draws back again and drags himself on to the floe, gazing intently at the edge, where evidently a malicious and unseen enemy lurkg G K * ^ i mi 98 ACROSS GREENLAND. close at hand. While the seal is still pondering upon this new mystery, the boat has been brought by its vigorous oarsmen well into range. At the words " Well rowed ! " the oars are shipped and the boat glides on, the crew sitting still as the shooter raises his rifle, at the report of which the seal, shot in the forehead, lays his head down upon the ice for the last time. If there are more seal on the same floe or the surrounding "m". SF :^}f^^H^y^r:'."i :,, i;:^ ii SHOOTING BLADDER-NGSE.— "THE OTHERS LIE QUIETLY GAZING AT THEIR DEAD COMRADES. ..." (By E. Neilsen, from a sketch by the A nthor.) ice, a large number may be shot then and there. But the chief point is to hit the first ones so as to kill them on the instant. If this is done one can proceed at one's leisure, and if there are really many seal about one can make a good haul straight away. When I was out in 1882 I remember shooting my whole boat's load on the same spot, and I could have multiplied the number again and again if I had been able to go on shooting. For when one is once well in among the seal, and has the dead bodies of those one has shot lying THE. BLADDER-NOSE SEAL AND ITS CAPTURE. 99 GAZING AT round one on all sides, the others lie quietly gazing at their dead comrades, whom they take still to be alive. They evi- dently think that, if these can lie there so quietly while the enemy is in their midst, there can be no reason for them to move. On the other hand, if the shooter is unlucky enough not to hit the first seal or seals in an immediately fatal spot such as the head, so that any of them begin to jump about the floe in their pain, or fall splashing into the water, it is pretty certain that the rest will take alarm and disappear too. For this reason it is much better to shoot wide altogether than to wound a seal, and it will easily be understood how important it is for a sealing-boat to be in charge of a really good shot. As soon as the seal are shot they are skinned, and if there are several on the same floe the whole crew disembark and set to work. The great thing is to get them all done with the least possible delay, lest the other boats should get a chance of pushing on before. The object of every shooter is therefore to get quick and clever skinners among his crew. A good skinner will get through his work in an incredibly short space of time, and I have often seen the whole process completed in a couple of minutes. First comes a long slit down the front from head to tail, and a few cuts on each side to separate the layer of blubber from the flesh; then, with a few more gashes by the head and hind-limbs, the whole skin is drawn off; the fore-limbs are then cut away, and the process is complete. Only the skin and the thick layer of blubber which lies between it and the flesh are taken, the rest being left on the ice as food for the sea-birds. The capture of the bladder-nose in Denmark Strait is not an industry of very long standing. It was inaugurated by the Norwegians in 1876, and their example was followed by a few English and American vessels. For the first eight years the venture was an unprecedented success : the seal were more than plentiful, and were shot down in thousands. During this period something like 500,000 head were captured, and it is •* > 5 5 THE BLADDER-NOSE SEAL AND ITS CAPTURE. loi J 1, ; ' 1 / '' |(jS iff ::, ';.; If'i i'ii(i' ■■'' ,1 10' i 1 'l i m- I i 9 I .-.^ 10 O § (A probable that quite as many were killed and lost. After these years of plenty came a change, and ever since the pursuit has been practically a failure, all the vessels alike being equally unsuccessful. The reason of this change has puzzled the brain of many a sealer. He looks to unfavourable conditions of wind, sea, and ice, but in none of these can he find consolation or encourage- ment to hope for better things in the future. It might be the case that the conditions were unfavourable for a year or two, but the ill success of summer after summer for a period of four or five years can scarcely be explained in this way. For instance, as regards the ice, I can testify from my own experi- ence that the /ason made her way several times into ground which would undoubtedly have been called good when I was out in 1882, but on these latter occasions we found no seal. When we did find them they lay always farther in, where the ice was packed closest, and whenever it happened to open they invariably moved off, and always again farther inwards. The question now arises whether the bladder-nose still exists in its original multitudes. All who look upon the subject impartially must at once acknowledge it as obvious that there has been a considerable decrease in the numbers of the seal owing to the simple butchery to which they have been exposed. To me, who have had opportunities of visit- ing the sealing-grounds in two different periods, the difference between past and present was very striking. Here, on the very same ground where in 1882 I saw seal on all sides as soon as we had pushed a little way into the ice, and where I helped to shoot them down by thousands, there was now scarcely a sign of life to be seen. That there is *a decrease in their numbers is certain, but I was no doubt inclined at first to consider this decrease greater than it really was, and to attribute to it alone the failure of the industry in recent years. On July 3, 1888, I was induced to modify my opinion on this point. We had penetrated, as my narrative will subse- 102 ACROSS GREENLAND. is [ji In 'K\& but further to the north there seem to be still higher tops. Never have I seen a landscape of more savage beauty, or nature in wilder confusion, than here — a landscape of sharp peaks, ice, and snow. We were probably about thirty-five miles from land, but as we see ice ahead we turn southwards, continually drawing nearer. It looks as if we could get right into shore down by Cape Dan, as the belt here trends inwards. But as we get nearer we find that there is more ice than we expected. On our way south we pass several enormous icebergs, and on one or two of them we saw rocks. When one first sees these monsters at a distance they look like tracts of land, and several times we thought we saw islands lying right ahead, though when we came nearer we found them to be nothing but ice. South of Cape Dan especially were numbers of these giants lying aground. However, we could make no attempt to land that day, nor on the next. There was too much ice, the belt being from fifteen to twenty miles wide, and it seemed better to see how things looked further south. On the 1 6th we passed Cape Dan, which is unmistakable with its round dome-like form. The ice still lay far out to sea, the belt being over fifteen miles in width. Further west, however, the blue tint of the air suggests that there is a deep inlet stretching landwards. We pin our hopes on this channel, make for it, and in the course of the night actually reach it. When I came upon deck on the morning of the 17th I saw plainly enough that the landing must be attempted that day, and a climb to the masthead only served to strengthen my resolve. The mountains round Sermilikfjord lay enticingly before us. Further west we could see the "Inland ice," the goal of our aspiration, stretching far inwards in a white un- dulating plain. This was the first time we had come within sight of it. It could not have been much more than ten or twelve miles to the nearest land, and for the first bit the ice was fairly prac- ATTEMPT TO LAND— DRIFTING IN THE ICE. 109 inmistakable ticable. Further in certainly it seemed to be somewhat closely packed, but I could see small pools here and there, and on the whole the ground looked as if it might well have been worse. At places I could see a good deal of small ice, which makes the portage of the boats difficult, though, again, it is better to deal with than the larger floes, which are often hard to move when it is a case of forcing the boats through the water. But what especially struck me as making the outlook hope- ful was the reflection from open water which I could see from the masthead beyond the ice, and between it and land. The probability, therefore, was that when we had broken our way through the middle of the ice-belt, where the floes lay closest, we should then find looser ice merging into the open water beyond. It would, no doubt, have been an easy matter for a boat like the Jason to push her way through this little belt, for often before we had gone through much worse ice. But then it had been a case of seal, the real business of the ship, while now things were in a somewhat different position. Had the vessel been mine I should not have hesitated a moment about taking her in ; but we were only guests on board, and, besides, she was not insured against the risks of effecting a landing in Greenland. The currents and soundings of these waters are as yet unknown, and if the Jason were to lose her propeller in the ice she would probably be gone beyond all chance of salvation. She could not well supply its place, and, worst of all, in case the ship had to be abandoned here, it might be very difficult for her crew of sixty-four men to make their way iu inhabited parts with the small stock of provisions they had on board. And furthermore, as I believed that we could get through without help, I never thought for an instant of asking the captain to take us further than to the edge of the ice, but gave orders to have our things packed and the boats got ready. As I have already said, we had brought one boat with us, which had been specially made for us in Christiania. But, p^ m no ACROSS GREENLAND. \mi0 as this would have been heavily laden with the somewhat voluminous equipment of the expedition, I gladly accepted the captain's kind offer of one of the JasorHs smaller sealing-boats. So we had the two lowered and brought alongside, and there arose an unusual bustle on board with the opening of oar cases and the packing of the boats. I cannot say which were more eager to help, the members of the expedition or the ship's crew ; but I think I may assert with confidence that the eagerness of the latter was not due to their anxiety to see the last of us, but to simple good-will of the most unselfish kind. The last touches were given to our despatches and home letters ; and if any of us had a specially dear friend to whom he wished to send a final farewell, it was sent, I take it, for it was not quite certain when the next meeting would be. But my companions seemed in a particularly chee'ful humour, and there was no consciousness to be seen in i,ie little band of preparation for a serious struggle. Nor was this to be wondered at, seeing that after six weeks of waiting and longing the hour of release was now at hand. The sensation which the sight of land that morning gave me was nothing short of delicious. As I then wrote to a friend, our prospects looked brighter than I had ever dared to hope. I had a sense of elasticity, as when one is going to a dance and expecting to meet the choice of one's heart. A dance indeed we had, but not on the floor of roses which we could have wished, and our heart's choice certainly kept us a long time waiting. Towards seven o'clock in the evening everything is ready for our start. Sermilikfjord lies now straight in front of us. According to the results of cross-bearings taken from points on shore we ^ught to be about nine miles from its mouth. I go up to the mast-head for the last time to see where the ice looks easiest, and what will be our best course. The reflection of open water beyond the ice is now more clearly visible than before. In a line somewhat west of Kong Oscars Havn the ice seems most open, and I determine to take that course. More confident than ever I descend to the deck, and now ATTEMPT TO LAND— DRIFTING IN THE ICE. iii the hour of departure is at hand. The whole of the /ason's crew were assembled. It spite of our joy at the prospect of a successful start, I think it was with much regret that we bid farewell to these brave sea-folk, with whom we had now spent six weeks, and among whom we had each of us found many a faithful friend, who at this moment assumed a doubt- ful air, or turned away his head with an expressive shake. No doubt they thought they would never see us again. We shook hands with Captain Jacobsen last of all, and in his calm, quiet way this typical Norwegian sailor bid us a kind farewell and wished us God-speed. Then down the ladder we went, and into the boats. I took charge of our Jason boat with Dietrichson and Balto at the oars, while Sverdrup steered the other with Ravna and Kristiansen. " Ready ? Give way then ! " And as the boats rush through the dark water before the first vigorous strokes, the air rings with three lusty cheers from sixty-four voices, and then come two white clouds of smoke as the Jasoris guns send us her last greeting. The report rolls heavily out into the thick, saturated air, proclaiming to the silent, solemn world of ice around us that we have broken the last bridge which could take us back to civilisation. Henceforth we shall follow our own path. Then good-bye ! and our boats glide with regular strokes into the ice to meet the first cold embrace of that nature which for a while is to give us shelter. All of us had the most implicit faith in our luck; we knew that exertion and danger awaited us, but we were convinced that we must and should get the better of them. When we had got some way into the ice a boat and twelve men in charge of the second mate overtook us. They had been sent by Captain Jacobsen to help us as far as they could the first part of the way by dragging our boats or forcing a passage. They kept with us for a while, but when I saw they could be of very little use to us, as we worked our way through as fast as they did, I thanked them for their kindness and 112 ACROSS GREENLAND. \\m m sent them back. We then reach a long stretch of slack ice, wave farewell to the boat, and push on with unabated courage. At first we advanced quickly. The ice was open enough to let us row our way to a great extent among the floes, though now and then we had to force a passage by the help of crow- bars and axes. There were few places where we had to drag our boats over the ice, and then the floes were small. It had begun to rain a little before we left the Jason ; it now grew heavier, and the sky darkened and assumed a curiously tempestuous look. It was an odd and striking sight to see these men in their dark-brown waterproofs, with their pointed hoods, like monks' cowls, drawn over their heads, working their way surely and silently on in the two boats, one fol- lowing close in the other's wake, amid the motionless white ice-floes, which contrasted strangely with the dark and stormy sky. Over the jagged peaks by Sermilikfjord black banks of cloud had gathered. Now and again the mass would break, and we could see as if through rents in a curtain far away to a sky still glowing with all the lingering radiance of an Arctic sunset, and reflecting a subdued and softer warmth upon the edges of the intercepting veil. Then in a moment the curtain was drawn close again, and it grew darker than ever, while we, stroke upon stroke, pushed indefatigably on, the rain beating in our faces. Was this an image of our own fate that we had seen, to have all this radiance revealed to us and then hidden and cut off by a veil of thick, impenetrable cloud ? It could scarcely be so, but the soul of man is fanciful and superstitious, ready to see tokens on all sides of him, and willing to believe that the elements and the universe revolve on the axis of his own important self. The ice now gave us rather more difficulty, and we had often to mount a hummock to look out for the best way. From the top of one of these look-outs I waved a last farewell to the Jason with our flag, which she answered by dipping hers. Then we start off again, and quickly, as we have no time to spare. mm ATTEMPT TO LAND-DRIFTING IN THE ICE. 113 From the first we had had a big iceberg far to the west of us, but now for a long time we had been astonished to see how much nearer we were getting to it, though we were not working in its direction, as our course lay considerably to the east. We saw it must be the current which was taking us west. And so it was ; we were being carried along with irresistible force, and it soon became plain that we could not pass to the east of this iceberg, but would have to go under its lee. Just here, however, we drift suddenly into a tearing mill-race which is driving the floes pell-mell, jamming them together and piling them one upon another. Both our boats are in danger of destruction. Sverdrup drags his up on to a floe, and is safe enough. We take ours on towards an open pool, though every moment in danger of getting it crushed. The only course is to keep a sharp look-out, and clear all the dangerous points by keeping our boat always over the so- called " foot," or projecting base of the floe, or in a recess or inlet in its side, when a nip is threatened. This is not easy in these irresistible currents, but by our united efforts we succeed, and reach a large open pool to the lee of the iceberg, and are for the time secure. Now comes Sverdrup's turn ; I signal to him to follow us, and he succeeds, keeping his boat in calmer water than we had. We now find many good lanes of open water on our way inwards. The ice jams only once or twice, especially when the current carries us against one of the icebergs which lie stranded round about us, but it soon opens again, and we pass on. Our prospects are good, and our hearts are light. The weather is better too : it has ceased to rain, and the king of day is just rising behind the jagged background of Sermilikfjord, setting the still clouded heaven in a blaze, and lighting his beacons on the mountain tops. Long stretches of water lie in front of us, and I already fancy I can see from the boat the open water beyond the ice. We are very near the land to the west of Sermilikfjord, and I can clearly and distinctly see the stones and details of the H iff 11 Hj I"'' ..■'II' ' 1 4 t ffl' 1 1 114 ACROSS GREENLAND. ' ,ii rocks and mountain side. It does not seem possible that anything can stop us and prevent our landing, and we are so self-confident that we already begin to discuss where and when we shall take our boats ashore. Just at this moment the ice packs, and we are obliged to find a place of safety for our boats, and drag them up. This we do, Sverdrup a little way off us. We have not secured a very desirable harbour for our boat, as the approach is too narrow, and when the floes part again and we are taking her out, a sharp edge of ice cuts through a plank in her side. She would no longer float, and there was nothing to be done but unload her and pull her up on to the floe for repairs. Sverdrup and Kristiansen took her in hand and mended her again with really masterly skill, and with little loss of time, considering the wretched implements they had to use. We had nothing to give them but a bit of deal which had formed the bottom board of one of the boats, some nails, a hatchet, and a wooden mallet. This broken boat, however, settled our fate. While we were at work the ice had packed again, the clouds had gathered, and the rain began to pour down in torrents, enveloping all around in gloom and mist. The only thing to be done was to get up our tent and wait. It is now ten o'clock on the morning of the i8th of July. The best thing we can do is to crawl into our sleeping-bags and take the rest which is not unwelcome to us after fifteen hours' hard and continuous work in the ice. Before we turned in it grew a little clearer seawards, and through a break we caught sight of the Jason far away. She was just getting up full steam, and a while later she disap- peared in the distance, no doub< comfortably believing that we were now safe on shore. This wj.s our last glimpse of her. "When Ravna saw the ship for the last time," writes Balto, " he said to me : ' V/hat fools we were to leave her to die in this place. There is no hope of I'.fe ; the great sea will be our graves.' I answered that it would not have been right for us two Lapps to turn back. We shoiild not have been paid, and '*£ii::i ATTEMPT TO LAND— DRIFTING IN THE ICE. 115 perhaps the Norwegian consul would have had to send us to Karasjok out of the poor-rates. This would have been a great disgrace." While we were asleep it was necessary for one of us to keep watch in order to turn the others out, in case the ice should open enough to let us make further progress. Dietrichson at once volunteered for the first watch. But the ice gave little or no sign of opening. Only once had I to consider the possi- bility of setting to work again, but the floes closed up immedi- ately. Dragging our boats over thig ice was not to be thought of; it was too rough, and the floes were too small. So, while the rain continues, we have more time for sleep and rest than we care for. In fact, we were already in the fatal current. With irresistible force it first carried us westwards into the broader belt of ice beyond Sermilik fjord. Here it took a more southerly direction and bore us straight away from shore, at a pace that rendered all resistance on our part completely futile. Had we not been detained by our broken boat, we should probably have been able to cross the zone where the current ran strongest and get into quieter water nearer shore. As it was, the critical, time was wasted, and we were powerless to recover it. The force of the current into which we had thus fallen was considerably greater than had been previously supposed. That a current existed was well known, and I had taken measures accordingly, but, had I had a suspicion of its real strength, I should certainly have gone to work in a different way. I should in that case have taken to the ice considerably further to the east, and just off Cape Dan, and had we then worked inwards across the line of the stream we should probably have got through the ice before we were driven so far west, i.e., past the mouth of Sermilikfjord, and into the broader belt of ice where the current turns southwards. Then we should, as we had ex- pected, have reached shore all well on July 19, and chosen our landing-place where we had pleased. But now it was our fate to see how 'T^ell we might have managed. ^Ve had seen the M Jill ii!'< ii6 ^C7?055 GREENLAND. open water under the shore, we had seen the rocks on the beach ; a couple of hours of easy work, and we should have been there. But Paradise was barred in our faces ; it was the will of Destiny that we should land many miles to the south. Meanwhile the rain is descending in streams, and we are constantly at work keeping our tent-floor clear of the pools of water which finds its way in through the lace-holes. After we have spent nearly twenty-four hours in the tent, mainly engaged in this occupation, the ice opens enough to tempt us to continue our efforts to reach land with renewed courage and restored vigour. This was at six o'clock on the morning of July re;. The rain has abated somewhat, and through an opening in the fog we can see land somewhere near Sermilikfjord. We are much more than double as far distant from it as we had been — some twenty miles, in fact ; but we look trustfully for- ward to the future. For even if we did not reach shore at Inigsalik, as we had hoped, we can still do so further south at Pikiudtlek. All we have to do is to work resolutely across the current, and we must get to shore sooner or later. As far as we could see, this was plain and simple reasoning and gave us no ground for apprehension, but experience was to show us that our premisses were not altogether in accordance with fact. The main factor in the calculation, the strength of the current, was unfortunately an extremely uncertain quantity. However, determination and courage were not wanting. We worked with glee, got to the lee of a huge iceberg, found lanes of open water stretching far inwards, and pushed a good way on towards land. Then the ice packs again, and we have to take refuge on a floe once more. The sun now finds its way through the clouds from time to time, so we pull our boats right up on to the floe, set up our tent, and settle down as comfortably as we can, get a change of clothes on, and dry a few of our wet things. This was a process I had especial need of, as in the course of our day's work I had fallen into the water. ATTEMPT TO LAND-DRIFTING IN THE ICE. 117 owing to the breaking of the edge of a floe as I was jumping into the boat. An involuntary bath of this kind was, how- ever, an almost daily experience to one or other of the ex- pedition. Later on in the day the sun comes out altogether, and we pass a really pleasant afternoon. We do thorough justice to the tins of provisions sent us from the Stavanger Preserving Factory, and we have no lack of drink. Had we had no more beer in our keg, we could have found plenty of the most delightful drinking-water in pools on the floes. Our keg, I may say, belonged to the boat the /nson had handed over to us. All the small boats attached to the sealers are provided with a keg of beer and a chest of bread and bacon. The keg and chest the captain had let us carry off well supplied, much to our present comfort. We now for the first time can hear rather clearly the sound of breakers on the edge of the ice towards the sea, but pay no particular attention to the fact. We seem to be drifting straight away from land, and the tops of the mountains by Sermilikfjord gradually diminish. That evening I sit up late, long after the others have crept into their bags, to take some sketches. It is one of those glorious evenings with the marvellously soft tones of colour which seem to steal so caressingly upon one, and with that dreamy, melancholy light which soothes the soul so fondly, and is so characteristic of the northern night. The wild range of jagged peaks in the north by Sermilikfjord stands out boldly against the glowing sky, while the huge expanse of the " Inland ice " bounds the horizon far away to the west, where its soft lines melt gently into the golden background. The evening was lovely, and the " Inland ice " lay temptingly and enticingly just before me. Strange that a narrow strip of drifting floes should be able to divide us so hopelessly from the goal of our desires ! Is not this often the case in life ? The land of enchantment looks so alluring and so near. One spring would take us there, it seems. There is but one obstacle in our way, but that one is enough. ii8 ACROSS GREENLAND. fli'Hl As I sit and sketch and meditate I notice a rumbling in the ice, the sound of a growing swell which has found its way in to us. I turn seawards, where it looks threatening, and, think- ing that there is a storm brewing out there, but that that is of small consequence to us, I go at last to join my slumbering comrades in the bags to sleep the sleep of the just. Next morning, July 20, I was roused by some violent shocks to the floe on which we were encamped, and thought the motion of the sea must have increased very considerably. When we get outside we discover that the floe has split in two not far from the tent. The Lapps, who had at once made for the highest points of our piece of ice, now shout that they can see the open sea. And so it is ; fai in the distance lies the sea sparkling in the morning sunshine. It is a sight we have not had since we left the Jason. I may here reproduce the entries in my diary for this and the following day : — " The swell is growing heavier and heavier, and the water breaking over our floe with ever-increasing force. The blocks of ice and slush, which come from the grinding of the floes together, and are thrown up round the edges of our piece, do a good deal to break the violence of the waves. The worst of it all is that we are being carried seawards with ominous rapidity. We load our sledges and try to drag them inwards towards land, but soon see that the pace we are drifting at is too much for us. So we begin again to look around us for a safer floe to pitch' our camp on, as our present one seems somewhat shaky. When we first took to it it was a good round flat piece about seventy yards across, but it split once during the night, and is now preparing to part again at other places, so that we shall soon not have much of it left. Close by us is a large strong floe, still unbroken, and thither we move our camp. " Meanwhile the breakers seem to be drawing nearer, their roar grows louder, the swell comes rolling in and washes over the ice all round us, and the situation promises before long to be critical. '*:£::i ATTEMPT TO LAND— DRIFTING IN THE ICE. 119 for this and " Poor Lapps ! they are not in the best of spirits. This morning they had disappeared, and I could not imagine what had become of them, as there were not many places on our little island where any of us could hide ourselves away. Then I noticed that some tarpaulins had been carefully laid over one of the boats. I lifted a corner gently and saw both the Lapps lying at the bottom of the boat. The younger, Balto, was reading aloud to the other out of his Lappish New Testament. Without "Attracting their attention I replaced the cover of this curious little house of prayer which they had set up for them- selves. They had given up hope of life, and were making ready for death. As Balto confided to me one day long after- wards, they had opened their hearts to one another here in the boat and mingled their tears together, bitterly reproaching themselves and others because they had ever been brought to leave their homes. This is not to be wondered at, as they have so little interest in the scheme. " It is glorious weather, with the sun so hot and bright that we must have recourse to our spectacles. We take advantage of this to get an observation, our bearings showing us to be in 65° 8' N. and 38" 20' W., i.e., 30 minutes or about 35 miles from the mouth of Sermilikfjord, and from 23 to 25 minutes or about 30 miles from the nearest land. " We get our usual dinner ready, deciding, however, in honour of the occasion, to treat ourselves to pea-soup. This is the first time we have allowed ourselves to cook anything. While the soup is being made the swell increases so violently that our cook- ing apparatus is on the point of capsizing over and over again. " The Lapps go through their dinner in perfect silence, but the rest of us talk and joke as usual, the violent rolls of our floe repeatedly giving rise to witticisms on the part of one or other of the company, which in spite of ourselves kept our laughing muscles in constant use. A.^ far as the Lapps were concerned, however, these jests fell on anything but good ground, for they plainly enough thought that this was not at all the proper time and place for such frivolity. I20 ACROSS GREENLAND. i -^^ ''''l linii'!:: 1*!'^ " From the highest point on our floe we can clearly see how the ice is being washed by the breakers, while the columns of spray thrown high into the air look like white clouds against the background of blue sky. No living thing can ride the floes out there, as far as we can see. It seems inevitable that we must be carried thither, but, as our floe is thick and strong, we hope to last for a while. We have no idea of leaving it before we need ; but when it comes to that, and we can hold on no longer, our last chance will be to try and run our boats out through the surf. This will be a wet amusement, but we are determined to do our best in the fight for life. Our provisions, ammunition, and other things are divided between the two boats, so that if one is stove in and sinks we shall have enough to keep us alive in the other. We should probably be able to save our lives in that case, but of course the success of the expedition would be very doubtful. " To run one of our loaded boats into the water through the heavy surf and rolling floes without getting her swamped or crushed will perhaps be possible, as we can set all our hands to work, but it will be difficult for the crew of the remaining boat to get their ship launched. After consideration we come to the conclusion that we must only put what is absolutely necessary into one boat, and keep it as light as possible, so that in case of extremity we can take to it alone. For the rest, we shall see how things look when we actually reach the breakers. " We have scarcely half a mile left now, and none of us have any doubt but that before another couple of hours are passed we shall find ourselves either rocking on the ].en sea, making our way along the ice southwards, or sinking to the bottom. " Poor Ravna deserves most sympathy. He is not yet at all accustomed to the sea and its caprices. He moves silently about, fiddling with one thing or another, now and again goes up to the highest points of our floe, and gazes anxiously out towards the breakers. His thoughts are evidently with his herd of reindeer, his tent, and wife and children far away ATTEMPT TO LAND— DRIFTING IN THE ICE. 121 on the Finmarken mountains, where all is now sunshine and summer weather. '• But why did he ever leave all this ? Only because he was offered money ? Alas ! what is money compared with happiness and home, where all is now sun and summer ? Poor Ravna ! " Val ar farval det svdraste bland orden Och mycket skont der finnas an p& jorden." " It is but human at such moments to let the remembrance dwell on what has been fairest in life, and few indeed can have fairer memories to look back upon than yours of the mountain and reindeer-herd. " But here, too, the sun is shining as kindly and peacefully as elsewhere, down on the rolling sea and thundering surf, which is boiling rouac^ s. The evening is glorious, as red as it was yesterday, anr' j doubt it will be to-morrow and ever after, setting the western sky on fire, and pressing its last long pas- sionate kiss on land and ice and sea before it disappears behind the barrier of the * Inland ice.' There is not a breath of wind stirring, and the sea is rolling in upon us ruddy and polished as a shield under the light of the evening sky. The words of our good old song come unconsciously into my mind : — " Havet er skjbnt naar det roligen hvselver Staalblanke skjold over vikingers grav." " Beautiful it is, indeed, with these huge long billows coming rolling in, sweeping on as if nothing could withstand them. They fall upon the white floes, and then, raising their green, dripping breasts, they break and throw fragments of ice and spray far before them on to the glittering snow, or high above them into the blue air. But it seems almost strange that such surroundings can be the scene of death. Yet death must come one day, and the hour of our departure could scarcely be more glorious. " But we have no time to waste ; we are getting very near now. The swell is so heavy that when we are down in the 122 ACROSS GREENLAND. f\0k :p:i(!t! ' hollows we can see nothing of the ice around us, nothing but the sky above. Floes crash together, break, and are ground to fragments all about us, and our own has also split. If we are going to sea we shall need all our strength in case we have to row for days together in order to keep clear of the ice. So all hands are ordered to bed in the tent, which is the only thing we have not yet packed into the boats. Sverdrup, as the most experienced and cool-headed among us, is to take the first watch and turn us out at the critical moment. In two hours Kristian- sen is to take his place. " I look in vain for any sign which can betray fear on the part of my comrades, but they seem as cool as ever, and their conversation is as usual. The Lapps alone show some anxiety, though it is that of a calm resignation, for they are fully con- vinced that they have seen the sun set for the last time. In spite of the roar of the breakers we are soon fast asleep, and even the Lapps seem to be slumbering quietly and soundly. They are too good children of nature to let anxiety spoil their sleep. Balto, who, not finding the tent safe enough, is lying in one of the boats, did not even wake when some time later it was almost swept by the waves, and Sverdrup had to hold it to keep it on the floe. " After sleeping for a while, I do not know how long, I am woke by the sound of the water rushing close by my head and just outside the wall of the tent. I feel the floe rocking up and down like a ship in a heavy sea, and the roar of the surf is more deafening than ever. I lay expecting every moment to hear Sverdrup call me or to see the tent filled with water, but nothing of the kind happened. I could distinctly hear his familiar steady tread up and down the floe between the tent and the boats. I seemed to myself to see his sturdy form as he paced calmly backwards and forwards, with his hands in his pockets and a slight stoop in his shoulders, or stood with his calm and thoughtful face gazing out to sea, his quid now and again turnmg in his cheek — I remember no more, as I djzed off" to sleep again. , nothing but ire ground to it. If we are >e we have to e ice. So all he only thing ), as the most :he first watch Durs Kristian- y fear on the ^er, and their some anxiety, are fully con- ist time. In it asleep, and and soundly, ity spoil their ^h, is lying in time later it to hold it to w long, I am my head and eking up and ; surf is more nent to hear , but nothing his familiar ent and the as he paced his pockets lis calm and and again d'jzed off to ^ 1 8 'A U >,:> 124 ACROSS GREENLAND. "I did not wake again till it ^vas full morning. Then I started up in astonishment, for I could hear nothing of the breakers but a distant thunder. When I got outside the tent I saw that we were a long way off the open sea. Our floe, however, was a sight to remember. Fragments of ice, big and little, had been thrown upon it by the waves till they formed a rampart all round us, and the ridge on which our tent and one of the boats stood was the only part the sea had not washed. " Sverdrup now told us that several times in the course of the night he had stood by the tent-door prepared to turn us out. Once he actually undid one hook, then waited a bit, took another turn to the boats, and then another look at the surf, leaving the hook unfastened in case of accidents. We were then right out at the extreme edge of the ice. A huge crag of ice was swaying in the sea close beside us, and threatening every moment to fall upon our floe. The surf was washing us on all sides, but the rampart that had been thrown up round us did us good service, and the tent and one of the boats still stood high and dry. The other boat, in which Balto was asleep, was washed so heavily that again and again Sverdrup had to hold it in its place. " Then matters got still worse. Sverdrup came to the tent- door again, undid another hook, but again hesitated and waited for the next sea. He undid no more hooks, however. Just as things looked worst, and our floe's turn had come to ride out into the middle of the breakers, she suddenly changed her course, and with astonishing speed we were once more sailing in towards land. So marvellous was the change that it looked as if it were the work of an unseen hand. When I got out we were far inside and in a good harbour, though the roar of the breakers was still audible enough to remind us of the night. Thus for this time we were spared the expected trial of the seaworthiness of our boats and our own seamanship. Chapter VIII. STILL DRIFTING. "The 2ist of July is a quiet day following a stormy night. All is rest and peace ; we are drawing steadily away from the sea, the sun is shining kind and warm, round us stretch the fields of ice in silence and monotony, and even the Lapps seem relieved. "One thought only consumes me: the prospect of the ex- pedition failing for this time, and of a year being thus thrown away. Well, we can only do our best, and for the rest, as we say at home, 'anoint ourselves with the good virtue of patience.' " We take advantage of the sun to get an observation. We found ourselves to be 64° 39' N. and 39° 15' W. We can still see the peaks by Sermilikfjord, and the 'Inland ice' from Pikiudtlek northward toward Inigsalik stretches majestically in front of us, looking with its flat unbroken horizon like one vast white expanse of sea. No peaks rise from its surface except a fringe of dark tops and rocky points here and there along its outer edge. " Down here the coast is very different from the surround- ings of Sermilik, Angniagsalik, and Ingolfsfjeld. There, further north, the land rose high, abrupt, and wild out of the sea, the calm surface of the * Inland ice ' hidden behind a glorious range of Titanic peaks, whose sublime beauty captivated and held the eye, and whose summits the all-levelling ice-mantle has never been able to envelop, destroy, and carry with it to the sea. Here, on the contrary, the land is low, the ice-sheet has brought its limitless white expanse down to the very shore, 135 126 ACROSS GREENLAND. ''m wm\: i"i and ihe few projecting points that do appear are humble and unobtrusive. They have been planed by the ice, which by its overpowering might has borne all before it seawards. Wild- ness there is here too, but the wildness of desolation and monotony. There is nothing to attract the eye or fix its gaze, which therefore roams helplessly inwards over the alluring desert of snow, till it is lost in the far distance, where the horizon bars its further range. Sad to say, it is all too far distant from us. It is strange that we should have been so near our goal and then driven so far to sea again. " The floes now part a little, and we see a stretch of slack ice leading inwards. We launch one boat and try to make some way, but to little purpose, as the slush of ice and snow that lies between the floes and comes from their grinding together in the swell is so thick that our heavily-laden craft will make no progress. So we abandon the attempt ; to drag our sledges and boats over the floes is out of the question too, as the channels between them are too wide. We still hear the breakers in the distance ; the swell still rolls in and keeps the ice packed close." This day, the first on which we found time to do anything but simply work our way ahead or sleep, our meteorological record was begun. It was kept mainly by Dietrichson, who always, even in the most trying circumstances, devoted him- self to it with most praiseworthy ardour. We noted chiefly the temperature, the pressure, the moisture of the air, the direc- tion and force of the wind, and the extent and form of the clouds. Observations were taken as often and as circumstan- tially as possible, but of course on such an expedition, every member of which is as a rule fully occupied with work of an arduous kind, many gaps are likely to occur in the meteoro- logical record. This is especially the case at night, when one takes the rest earned by a day of real exertion. Yet I think I may say that the record we brought home is in spite of all remarkably complete, and contains many valuable observations, thanks to Dietrichson's indefatigable zeal. STILL DRIFTING. 127 The days that now follow, spent in drifting in the ice south- wards along the coast, are somewhat monotonous, each much as its fellow. Every day we watch intently the direction we are drifting, the movements of the ice, and every gust of wind, in the hope that a lucky turn may bring us in to land. From the darkness of the air overhanging the ice, we feel sure there must be open pools along the shore, or else in the ice to the south of us. It is a life of hopes and disappointments, and yet a life not without pleasant memories for many of us. As some of my readers may find it interesting, and especially such as may contemplate future expeditions in the ice, I will give a short extract from the entries in my diary at this time. "Late in the afternoon of July 21, from a high hummock of ice, we can see a very narrow channel stretching far away to the south of us. As far as we can judge we are drifting along this towards its end, which seems to be far in towards shore. Our hope of a change in our luck, and a speedy land- ing, naturally at once increases. ^'/ufy 22. — In the night a fog comes on and hides every- thing from us. We cannot tell which way we are drifting, but the breakers sound no less distinct than they have been. Later at night, however, we do not hear them so plainly, and the swell quiets down a little. " The fog continues the whole day, and the rolling as well. At noon, however, it clears up so much overhead that, by the help of a pool of water on our floe as an artificial horizon, I can take an observation. I find our latitude to be 64° 18' N., so we are moving well southwards. " As in the course of the morning the ice opens a little, we try an empty boat in the slush between the floes. We can get on, but it is very slowly, and we think it is better to save our strength, as in the fog we cannot see which way we had better work. Possibly a good chance of pushing for land may offer, and we shall then want all our energy. " In the afternoon it clears, and we seem to be possibly a little nearer land. A gentle breeze from the magnetic N. by w 128 ACROSS GREENLAND. m 'tWli |. '& ^'i«i E., or about the true VV. by N., begins to blow, and we hope it may increase and part the ice, though the rolh'ng still goes on. What we want is a good storm from land, vvhich would kill this swell which is rolling in and holding the ice together, and would carry the floes seawards instead, while we should be able to push in between them. " We see a number of big seal, bladder-nose, lying on the floes around us. Many of them bob their big round heads out of the pools close alongside our floe, stare wonderingly at these new dwellers on the ice who have thus appeared, and then, often with a violent splash, vanish again. This is a daily experience. We could easily shoot them, but, as we do not want them now, we leave them in peace. We have enough fresh meat as yet, a big haunch of our little horse which we brought off the /ason. Through the afternoon the ice remains packed. "J^u/y 23. — During the night we keep watch, two hours apiece, and we get a good laugh at Ravna. He does not understand the clock, and did not know when his two hours were up. So to make safe he willingly kept at it for five or six hours before he turned the next man out, with the innocent inquiry whether he did not think the two hours were over. "At half-past seven Dietrichson calls us up. We find the ice open, and, though there is slush between the floes, prac- ticable. After loading our boats and waiting half an hour on account of the ice packing again, we really get some way in to some pools which I can see from a high point stretch land- wards. For a time we get on fast. Before we left our last floe a flock of some black duck flew past us, making north. The sight was like a greeting from land, and served to raise our hopes still further. It Is quite astonishing, otherwise, what a scarcity of bird-life there is up here. There is not even a gull to be seen. "We work inwards towards land the whole day, wait patiently while the ice packs, but push on all the harder when it opens again. As we get near land our hopes rise. A raven comes STILL DRIFTING. 129 flying from the south-west and passes over our heads, making northwards. This is another greeting from land, and we arc still more encouraged. *' We see several big seal, full-grown bladder-nose, lying about the floes round us. The temptation is too strong for a sportsman to withstand, and Sverdrup and I start off to shoot an old ^ hcetkfant^^ as we call him, />., an old male with the bladder on his nose, who was lying close by. I managed to stalk him successfully and shot him, but when we got up to him he was not quite dead. In my zoological zeal I wish to improve the occasion by making observations on the colour of the eyes, the form of the bladder in the living animal, and other points which are not yet clearly known to science. While I am thus engaged the seal flaps along towards the edge of tiic floe, and before we know what he is about he is slipping off the ice into the water. As he '!s falling I drive the seal-hook I am carrying into him, and Sverdrup does the same with his boat- hook. It is now a case of pull-devil, pull-baker between us, and we try and hold up the seal's tail and hinder parts, in which his strength lies, so that he shall not get a stroke in the water with them. For a time we succeed, but with difficulty, for in his death-agony his strength is great. So, finding that we have not a really good hold of him, I tell Sverdrup to take the rifle and shoot him, and I will try and keep him up mean- while. He thinks, however, that his hold is better than mine, and that I had better leave go, and, while we are hesitating, both our hooks come away, the seal gives a couple of violent flaps, and is gone. Crestfallen and discomfited, we look now blankly in each other's faces, now helplessly into the dark water, where an air-bubble rises mockingly here and there to break on the surface, and to give us our seal's last greeting. Though he would have been of no great use to us, we felt not a little foolish at having lost so fine a booty in so silly a way. Sver- drup, too, thought he was the biggest seal he had ever seen. Compassionate readers may console themselves with the thought His struggles were 1 that his sufferings were of no long duration 130 ACROSS GREENLAND. J il but the last convulsions of his death-agony. The bullet had certainly been of somewhat small calibre, but had hit him in the right place, in the head. " As the evening wears on we are stopped. We have got '"nto some unusually rough and difficult hummocky ice, which is closely packed, and makes the hauling of the boats almost impossible. So we spread our tent with the sleeping-bags on the top in order to be more ready for a start in case the ice opens. We then get into our bags, setting the usual watch, but as it turns out the ice does not open. The dew is very , . '^m"' AT WORK WITH THE BOATS. (By K. NieliCH, a/ter photographs.) heavy during the night, so that the bags are found very wet in the morning. ^^Ju/y 24. — To-day the ice is packed just as close, and we determine to drag the boats and sledges landwards. Most of our baggage is laid on ti)e sledges, so that they can be put into the boats when we come to open water. Just as we are ready to start, the ice opens, ynd we manage to punt ourselves along a good way, though eventually we have to take to haul- ing. We get on but slowly, as the ice is not at all good ; but this is at least better than nothing, and we are steadily ap- proaching land. Our hopes are at their culmination. It is STILL DRIFTING. 131 very wet in Ltion. It is the coast north of Igdloluarsuk which we see before us, and we begin at once to reckon how long it will take us to reach I'ikiudtlck, where we shall be able to begin our journey over the ice. To-day, too, wc see more birds : a raven and a flock of eight short-tailed skuas. Birds are always a comfort to us, and make our life much brighter. "As the ice is difficult and the sun hot in the middle of the day, we halt and pitch our tent while dinner is being prepared Tt consists to-day of raw horse-flesh and marrowfat peas. The ] reparation gave rise to a comical scene. From the iorses leg which wc brought with us from the Jason I proceeded to cut off as much meat as I thought was enough for six men, chopped it up on the blade of an oar, turned it into one o; the divisions of our cooker, sprinkled some salt on it, added the contents of a couple of tins of peas, stirred the whole mixture up, and our dinner was ready, Balto had been standing by my side the whole time, watching every movement intently, and indeed now and agnin giving me his assistance. He was hungry, and was looking forward to a good dinner, as he told me. Though, like the Lapps and other unenlightened folk generally, he had very strong prejudices against horse-flesh, yet, when he saw me pour the peas in, he mformed me that it looked uncommonly good. I said nothing, and gave him no hint that it was going to be eaten raw, but when it was all ready took the dish and put it down before the others, who were sitting outside the tent, and told them to help tb.r. elves. Those who had the good fortune to see it will not easily forget the face that Balto assumed at this juncture. It first expressed the supremest astonishment and incredulity, and inen, when he discovered that it was bitter earnest, there ;bJowed a look of disgust and contempt so intensely comical that it was quite impossible for us to restrain oui laughter. Balto now told Ravna in Lappish how matters stood, and he, up to this time an indifferent spectator, now turned away with an expression of, if it were possible, still greater scorn. " The rest of us, not letting this spoil our appetites, fell to 132 ACROSS GREENLAND with vigour, and did full justice to this nourishing and whole- some dish, with which we were more than satisfied. The two Lapps, had they said anything at all, would have called us heathens, for, as they explained one day afterwards, it was only heathens and beasts of the field that ate meat raw. But at the time they said nothing, but maintained an attitude of dumb despair at the fate which had thrown them into the society of savages, who had, as they often used to say, ' such strange ways, quite different from those of the Lapps.' They could scarcely endure to see us eating. I could, of coucse, easily have cooked some of the meat for them, but we had to be sparing of the spirit. We were likely to want it all later on, and it was only two or three times during our wanderings in the floe-ice that we allowed ourselves the luxury of cooking anything. As a rule all our food was cold, and for drink we had either plain water, of which we had an abundance in larger and smaller pools on the floes, or else a mixture of water and preserved milk, which made a pleasant and refreshing beverage. This time the Lapps were treated to tinned beef instead of the horse-flesh, and they seemed quite consoled for the first dis- appointment, the beef being pronounced by Balto to be ' good clean food.' How common it is to see things in this life turned completely upside down by prejudice ! " In connection with the above I will quote an answer Balto gave one day after we reached home to some one who asked what his worst experience had been in the course of his travels. " The worst thmg," said Balto, " was once when we were drift- ing in the ice and were just being carried out into the Atlantic. I asked Nansen whether he thought we should get to land, and he said ' Yes.' Then I asked him what we should do if we did, and he said we should row northwards. I wanted to know what we should live on if we did not get over to the west coast, and he said we should have to shoot something. Then I asked how we should cook it when we got it, and Nansen answered that we should have to eat it raw, which made Balto very depressed." STILL DRIFTING. '33 ig and whole- id. The two ive called us wards, it ^^as sat raw. But m attitude of hem into the to say, 'such ^apps.' They Id, of coucse, but we had to nt it all later ur wanderings iry of cooking I for drink we dance in larger ; of water and hing beverage, instead of the • the first dis- to be 'good lis life turned answer Balto )ne who asked of his travels. we were drift- the Atlantic. to land, and 1 do if we did, nted to know to the west thing. Then and Nansen h made Balto •* Towards evening we again advance a little, but, as the ice is not close-packed, and the swell is heavy, while the eddies and suction caused by the rolling of the floes are nasty for the boats, we soon resolve to camp for the night and wait for better times. There was a thick wet fog about us which soaked our clothes through, and a biting north-west wind, a message from the 'Inland ice,' which I hoped presaged the opening of the floes. ' HE STOPPED, REGAKOED US FOR AN INSTANT, AND ..." ''/u/y 25. — At half-past four I am woke by Kristian- "'"---" ---:_- sen, the watch, calling in at the tent-door, ' Nansen, there is a bear coming.' I tell him to get a rifle out of the boat, slip my boots on meanwhile, and run out in a very airy costume. The bear was coming at full speed straight for the tent, but just as Kristiansen came back with the rifle he stopped, regarded us for an instant, and suddenly turned tail. At that moment he was no doubt within range, but the rifle was in its case, and before I could get it out it was too late. It was very annoy- 'I''':rii 'i*f"'! 134 ACROSS GREENLAND. ing, but the others at least had the pleasure of seeing a polar bear, which they had long sighed for. " Balto was the only one who did not wake at the alarm in the night. In the morning he told us that during his watch, which came just before Kristiansen's, he had been so afraid of bears that he had not dared to stir from the tent the whole time. He was much astonished and very incredulous when we told him there really had been a bear about the place. " After breakfast we started off hauling again, but had to give up at the very next floe, because the swell was increasing. Ever since the day we were out among the breakers we have had more or less of this rolling, which besides keeps the ice packed and prevents our getting to land. "During the day the ice opens very much from time to time, but soon packs again. I dare not try to push on, as there is so much brash between the floes, and as there are no safe harbours of refuge for us to take to when the ice nips with the extreme suddenness which is its way now. The 'feet' or projecting bases of the floes are at other times safe resorts, but now they are quite spoilt by these nasty eddies, which are most destructive to boats. " As we can find nothing better to do we set to work to clean the sledge-runners of rust, so that they will move better. When this is done we get our dinner ready, which to-day consists of bean-soup, to which the remains of yesterday's raw meal and some more meat are added. During the cooking we take the latitude, which is 63° 18' N. ; and the longitude, taken later in the afternoon, proves to be about 40° 15' W. We are thus about eighteen minutes, ur nearly twenty miles, from land, and have drifted considerably further away than we were yesterday. Our hopes, which were then so bright, grow dim again, but a raven passing us to-day too brings us some consolation. " Dinner is at last ready and the soup poured out into the few cups we possess, which are supplemented by meat-tins. We fall to, and all — the Lapps even included — find the soup ex- cellent. Then to his horror and despair Ravna suddenly dis- STILL DRIFTING. >35 covers that the meat in the soup is not properly cooked. From this moment he refuses to touch another mo:sel, and sits idle with a melancholy look on his face which sets us all laughing. On such occasions his puckered little countenance is inde- scribably comical. Balto is not much better, though he manages to drink the soup, which he finds ' first-rate ' ; but the meat he gently deposits in a pool of water by his side, hoping that I UuMESTlC LIFE ON THE FLUE-ICE. (From a phot'gfaph.) shall not notice it. He now declares that he can say, in the words of the prophet Elias : * Lord, that which I have not eaten, that can I not eat.' I tried to make him understand that Elias could certainly never have said anything of the kind, because he did eat what the Lord sent him, but that another man, known as the Apostle Peter, no doubt did say something like this, though it was in a vision, and the words were meant figuratively. Balto only shook his head doubtingly, and still 136 ACROSS GREENLAND. mf M maintained that none but heathens and beasts of the field would eat raw meat. We console the Lapps by giving them a meat- biscuit each. It is, of course, no use trying to teach old dogs to bark, and I really believe they would both have died of starvation rather than eat raw horseflesh. " To-day both Dietrichson and Kristiansen complain of irri- tation in the eyes, and I recommend every one to be careful to wear their glasses henceforward. "The ice remains about the same during the afternoon, while we drift fast southwards. In the course of the previous night we had been carried away from land, but we now seem to be drawing nearer it again. In the afternoon we are right off Skjoldungen, an island well known from Graah's voyage. Since we have come south of Igdloluarsuk we have again had a glorious Alpine region in view, with sharp and lofty peaks, and wild fantastic forms, which in the evening and sunset glow are an especially fascinating sight. "The rolling is increasing in an astonishing way, though we are far from the edge of the ice. There must be a very heavy sea outside. " We begin to find it cold at night, and put all the tarpaulins and waterproofs we can spare under our sleeping-bags. We may just as well make things as pleasant as possible. " When the rest go to bed I take the first watch in order to finish my sketches of the coast. This is very difficult, as we are so far south that the nights have already begun to darken considerably. My thoughts, however, soon desert pencil and sketch-book for contemplation of the night. " Perfect stillness reigns, not a breath of wind is stirring, and not even the growing swell can destroy the prevailing peace. The moon has risen large and round, and with a strange ruddy glow, up from the ice-fields to the east, and in the north there is still a narrow golden strip of evening light. Far away under the moon and above the ice is a gleaming band which shows the open sea ; inside this and all around is ice and snow, and nothing but ice and snow ; behind lie the Greenland Alps with STILL DRIFTI^'G. 137 their marvellously beautiful peaks standing out against a dusky, dreamy sky. '• It is strange indeed for a summer night, and far different from those scenes that we are wont to connect with moonlight and summer dreams. Yet it has fascination of its own, which more southerly regions can scarcely rival. " On the ice before me stand the boats, the sledges, and the NIGHT AMONG THE FLOKS. (By E. Nielsen, from a sketch by the Author.) tent, in which my tired comrades are lying in sound slumber. In a pool of water by my side the moon shines calm and bright. All nature lies in an atmosphere of peace. So lately we had the day with all its burning eagerness and impatience, with its ponderings and restless designs upon the goal of our under- taking — and now all is stillness and repose. Over all the moon sheds her soothing light, her beams floating through ' ^^ 138 ACROSS GREENLAND. ■ .p M"' I: the silence of the polar night, and gently and softly drawing the soul in their train. The thoughts and powers of Nature herself seemed to pervade all space. One's surroundings of place and time vanish, and before one appears the perspective of a past life instead. "And, when all comes to all, what is our failure to be reckoned? Six men drifting southwards on a floe, to land eventually at a point other than that contemplated. And either, in spite of this, we reach our goal — and in that case what reason have we to complain ? — or we do not reach it, and what then? A vain hope has been disappointed, not for the first time in history, and if we have no success this year we may have better luck the next. "July 26. — No change, except that we are nearer the edge of the ice and the open sea. The swell seems to have gone down considerably, and, though the sea is much nearer, we feel the rolling less than yesterday. "We are drifting southwards along the coast, apparently at great speed. " For the time there is nothing for us to do, as the ice does not lie close enough to let us haul our boats and sledges while this rolling is going on, but is packed too close to let us row or punt our boats through. "We are kept in the tent by the rain. "We have to encourage the Lapps, who seem to lose their spirits more and more, because they think we shall end by being driven out into the Atlantic. We are sitting and talking of our prospects of reaching land, and we agree that in any case we shall be able to manage it at Cape Farewell. We calculate how much time this will leave us, and come to the conclusion that we shall still be able to work up the coast again and cross the ice. Some of the others maintain that even if we are too late this year it will be best to start northwards at once, get through the winter as we best can, and then cross over to the west coast in the spring. My opinion is that this will not be a very prudent proceeding, as it will be difficult for us to STILL DRIFTING. 139 keep the provisions intact which we have brought with us for the crossing. Dietrichson thinks that this will be the only course open to us, as he considers a return entirely out of the question, and as he says, * We shall risk nothing but our lives, anyway.' " While this discussion is going on, Balto says to me : ' Don't talk about all this, Nansen ; we shall never get to land. We shall be driven out into the Atlantic, and I only pray to my God to let me die a repentant sinner, so that I may go to heaven. I have done so much wrong in my life, but regret it bitterly now, as I am afraid I shall not be saved." I then asked him if he did not think it necessary to repent of his sins, even if he were not on the point of death. He said that he had no doubt one ought, but there was not so much hurry about it in that case. However, if he came out of this alive, he would really try and lead a better life. This seemed to me a naive confession of a peculiar faith, a faith which is, however, probably not uncommon in our society. I then asked him if, in case he reached his home again, he would give up drinking. He said he thought he would, or at any rate he would drink very little. It was this cursed drink, he told me, that was the cause of his being here in the ice. I asked how that was, and he said that he was drunk when he met a certain X., who asked him whether he would join the Greenland expedition. He was then in high spirits, and quite thought he was equal to anything of the kind. "But next morning when he woke up sober, and remem- bered what he had said, he repented bitterly. He thought then that it was too late to undo it all, but he would now give any amount of money not to have come with us at all. Poor fellow ! I consoled him and Ravna as well as I could, though I must freely confess that their despondency and cowardice often caused me considerable annoyance. But as a matter of fact the poor fellows did not enter into the spirit of the undertaking at all. I do not feel sure whether my consolation was of much avail, but I have reason to think so. They used often to come I40 ACROSS GREENLAND. W to me after this, and appeared relieved when I gave them any information about the continent of Greenland, and the drift of the ice, things of which they seemed to have little or no com- prehension. " Otherwise our spirits are excellent, and we are really com- fortable as we sit here in the tent. One or two of us are read- ing, others writing their diaries, Balto is mending shoes, and Ravna, as usual, and as he prefers, is doing nothing. Never theless, our prospect of soon being carried out to sea again cannot be called entirely pleasant. " In the afternoon it clears a little, the rain holds up, and we can see land, which looks quite as near as it did before. ■■^- HAULING AMONG THE HUMMOCKS. {By A, Block, /rom a sketch by the Author.) " A litde later we determine to push in through the ice. It is dangerous work, but we must make the attempt, as we are being carried towards the open sea at great speed. We make a good deal of way inwards, though we are in constant risk of getting our boats crushed. We have to keep all our wits about us if we are to get the boats into shelter when the ice packs. One time we take refuge at the very last moment on a thin little floe, which splits into several pieces under the pressure, though the fragment on which we stand remains intact. "As the ice continues packed, we begin hauHng, though this is no easy matter while this rolling goes on. The floes at one moment separate, at another are jammed together, and STILL DRIFTING. MI it is very difficult to get the sledges safely from one to the other without losing them in the sea. Often we have to wait a long time before we can get back and fetch the rest of the train from the floe on which we have left it. By moving cautiously, however, we manage to push on at a fair pace. But it is all of little use. It serves to give us exercise, which is an important thing, but otherwise our work does little good. The sea works faster than we do, and there is every probability of our being carried out into the breakers again. Well, so let it be ; but we must first find a good ship to carry us. We set about carefully surveying all the floes round us, and we now understand pretty well what the points of a good floe are. At last we find one, of solid blue ice, thick, but not large, and in shape something like a ship, so that it will ride the seas well, and without breaking across. It has high edges, too, which will keep the sea from breaking over it, and at the same time there is one lower place which will let us launch our boats without much difficulty. It is without comparison the best floe we have been on as yet, and on it we propose, if we are driven out, to remain as long as we can stick to it, however furiously the breakers rage around us. " Of course we had as usual made sure, before we decided upon this floe, that there were pools of water upon it. Such there are indeed on most of these floes, for the snow which covers the ice melts and provides the most excellent drinking- water, which collects in pools of larger or smaller size. "Nevertheless we looked very* foolish this time when we were filling our boiling-pot, and, happening to taste the water, found it was brackish. It had not struck us that most of the snow was now melted away, and that our water came from the underlying salt-water ice. However, on examining the highest points of the floe, where the snow still remained, we found plenty of good water. " This evening we had an excellent cup of coflee and were all in high spirits. If any one could have put his head into our comfortable tent, and seen us encamped round our singing 142 ACROSS GREENLAND. m\ coffee-pot and carelessly talking about all sorts of trifles, it would never have struck him that these were men who were on the point of engaging in a struggle with ice, sea, and breakers, which was not likely to be altogether a joke. But let us enjoy the moment, look just so far in front of us as is necessary, and for the rest leave the day to attend to its own evil. "We are now just off the mountains of Tingmiarmiut. Along the whole of this magnificent coast of East Greenland one group of wild Alpine peaks succeeds the other, each more beautiful than the last. Really it is not so bad after all to lie drifting here in the ice. We see more of the coast and more of the beauties of nature altogether than we should have otherwise. " To-night it is fine, still, and cold, with a bright moon, as it was yesterday. " It must be that coffee which is making me sit out here and talk nonsense, instead of creeping into my sleeping-bag as I ought, in order to gather strength for the exertions of to-morrow. Good-night ! "/u/y 27. — Did not go to bed after all till well into the morning. There is no doubt it was a clear case of coffee- poisoning. " Walked about talking to Sverdrup through his watch and afterwards, recalling our school-days. Life and the world seem so strangely distant to us as we drift in the ice up here. "/u/y 28. — Yesterday we did nothing, and the same is the case to-day. Our fear of being driven out into the breakers again was by no means groundless. Yesterday we were within much less than half a mile, and yet we almost wished to go, as by putting out to sea we should bring this life in the ice to an end. The sea was moderate and the wind fair, and we might thus have reached Cape Farewell within twenty-four hours. When there we should certainly have been able to push through the ice and get to land. However, we were not to go to sea after all. After we had drifted along the ice at its outer edge for a time, we began to move inwards in a field of STILL DRIFTING. «4.3 moon, as floes, which seemed to extend away south. The ice-belt is here very narrow, and on taking our bearings upon several points on the coast we found that, though at the outer edge of the ice, we were not more than eighteen miles from land at Mogens Heinesens Fjord. "The weather, which was yesterday bitterly cold with a wintry and clouded sky, is bright again to day. The sun is shining warm and encouragingly down upon us. The 'Inland ice' north and south of Karra akungnak lies stretched before us pure and white, looking to the eye a level and practicable plain, with rows of crags peeping through the ice — the so-called ^jinnataks^ — away behind, more of them, by the way, than arc marked on Holm's map. The expanse of snow beckons and entices us far into the unknown interior. Ah, well 1 we too shall have our day." With this sanguine expression of confidence, which was perhaps remarkable considering the number of times we had been disappointed, my diary for :his section of our journey curiously enough concludes. The next entry is dated July 31, and thus begins : — "A strange difference between our surroundings now and those when I last wrote ! Then they were ice, solitude, and the roaring of the sea, now they are barking dogs, numbers of native Greenlanders, boats, tents, and the litter of an en- campment — in short, life, activity, and summer, and above all, the rocky soil of Greenland beneath our feet." These lines were written as we were leaving the first Eskimo encampment we had come to, but before I continue from this point I had better explain how we managed to get so far. On the evening of July 28, after having finished the entry in my diary which I have quoted above, we drifted into a fog which concealed the land from us. In the course of the after- noon the ice had several times opened considerably, though we were very near its outer edge, where one would have ex- pected the swell to keep it packed close. It had not, however, opened to such an extent that we could safely take the boats •44 ACROSS GREENLAND. inwards, because of the rolling. Hut as some of us were taking the ordinary evening walk before turning in, we were struck by the way in which the floes were separating. It looked to us as if the ice were opening even out seawards, which was an extremely unusual sight. We felt we really ought to set to work, but we were tired and sleepy, and no one seemed at all inclined for such a proceeding. To tell the truth, too, I was now quite tired of being disappointed in the way we had been, and was very strongly disposed to put straight out to sea. We had now so often worked inwards through open ice, and the only result of all our labour had been to get driven out to sea again. This time, thought I, we will see what happens if wc sit idle instead of working. And so we crept into our bags, though leaving the usual man on watch with orders to call us out in case the ice opened still more. In the night the fog thickened and nothing was to be seen of our surroundings. Sverdrup's watch came on towards morn ing. He told us afterwards that as he walked up and down in the fog and after a time looked at the compass, it struck him that he must have gone clean out of his wits. Either he or the instrument must have gone mad, for the black end of the needle was pointing to what he held to be south. For if he looked along the needle with the black end away from him he had the breakers on his left. But if the end of the needle pointed to the north, as it ought, then the breakers must be on the west or land side. This could not be, so he must sup- pose that either he or the needle had gone crazy, and, as this is not a weakness to which compasses are liable, therefore the fault must lie with him, though it was a state of things which he had certainly never contemplated. Subsequendy the phenomenon was explained in a somewhat different way, for the breakers he had heard proved to be the sea washing the shore. In the morning I happened to be lying awake for a time. It was now Ravna who had the watch, and, as usual, he had kept at it for four hours instead of two. I lay for some time STILL DRIFTING. MS were taking re struck by Doked to us lich was an It to set to cemed at all 1, too, I was re had been, to sea. We ice, and the n out to sea ippens if wc to our bags, ;rs to call us s to be seen iwards morn- and down in it struck him Either he or k end of the For if he y from him If the needle ers must be e must sup- and, as this e, therefore |te of things quently the nt way, for Kvashing the I for a time, [ual, he had some time watching with amusement iiis bearded little face as it peeped through the opening into the tent. At first I thought he was wondering whether his two hours were not up and he might wake Kristiansen, who was to follow him. But then it struck me that to-day there was a peculiar, uneasy expression in this face, which was not at all familiar. So at last I said : " Well) Ravna, can you see land ? " And he answered eagerly in his queer, naive way : ** Yes, yes, land too near." Both the Lapps habitually used ait/or^ "too,' instead of meget, "very." I jumped out of the bag and from the tent-door saw land much nearer than we had ever had it before. The floes were scattered, and I could see open water along the shore. Ravna was indeed right ; land was much too near for us to be lying idly in our bags. So I turned the others out, and it was not long before we had dressed and breakfasted. The boats were launched and loaded, and we were soon ready. Before we left this floe, which had carried us so well and was in all probability to be our last, I went up on to its highest point to choose our best course for land. Our surroundings were changed indeed. The whole field of ice seemed to have been carried away from land and outwards to the south-east. I could see nothing but ice in that direction, and there was that whiteness in the air above it which betokens large fields. Towards the south, on the contra, y, and along the shore, there seemed to be nothing but open water. We were not far from the edge of this water, and it stretched northwards also for some way along the coast, ending at a point where the ice seemed to lie close into the land. We were therefore now on the inner edge of the ice- belt, and the outer edge was not distinctly visible from where I stood. It is strange how quickly one's fate changes. It was quite plain that we should now soon be on shore, and, had this been told us yesterday, not one of us would have allowed the possibility of such a thing. So off we started and pushed quickly landwards. The water was open enough for us to row pretty well the whole way, there being only two or three places where we had to force a passage. K fj:"'1. 146 ACROSS GREENLAND. Some hours later we were through the ice. The feelings that possessed us as we took our boats by the last floe and saw the smooth, open water stretching away in front of us up to the very shore are scarcely to be described in words. We felt as if we had escaped from a long and weary imprisonment and now all at once saw a bright and hopeful future lying before us. Life was indeed bright and hopeful now, for when can it be brighter than when one sees the attainment of one's wishes possible, when uncertainty at last begins to pass into certainty? It is like the tremulous joy which comes with the breaking day, and when is not the dawn lairer and brighter than the full noontide ? Chapter IX. THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. The lirst thing we did when we were through the ice was to look for the nearest land. We wanted to feel the Greenland rocks beneath our feet as soon as possible, and, besides, I had long promised chocolate and a Sunday dinner for the day we first touched dry land again. Almost opposite to us, and nearer than anything else, was the high rounded summit of Kutdlek Island. It would, how- ever, have taken us too much out of our way to put in here, as we were going north. So we steered across the open water to the more northerly island of Kekerta/suak. On the way we passed under a huge iceberg which lay stranded here in the open water. On its white back sat flocks of gulls, strewn like black dot-s about its surface. As we went by, a big piece of ice fell crashing into the water, and crowds of seabirds rose and wheeled round us, uttering their mono- lonous cries. This was all new to us. To have living crea- tures about us again was cheering indeed, while it was even still more grateful to be able to row unhindered through all this open water. As we advanced, however, we found that we had still some obstacles to pass before reaching land, as there was another belt of ice stretching southwards parallel with the shore. But it was of no great breadth, and, as the ice was fairly open, we forced our way through without much trouble. At last our boats, flying the Norwegian and Danish flags, glided under a steep cliff, the dark wall of which was mirrored in the bright water, and made it nearly black. The rock echoed our voices 147 148 ACROSS GREENLAND. as we spoke, and the moment was one of extreme solemnity. Beyond the chff we found a harbour where we could bring our boats ashore. Then we scrambled out, each striving to get first to land and feel real rocks and stones under his feet, and to climb up the cliffs to get the first look round. We were just like children, and a bit of moss, a stalk of grass, to say nothing of a flower, drew out a whole rush of feelings. All was so fresh to us, and the transition was so sudden and complete. The Lapps ran straight up the mountain side, and for a long while we saw nothing more of them. .'■ :--^^~~-—^--~-. r'i>p;? KUTDLEK ISLAND AM) CAPK TORDENSKJOLD. (/■> i/te Avthot-) But as soon as the first flood of joy was over we had to turn to more prosaic things, that is to say, our promised dinner. The cooker was put up on a rock down by the boats, and the chocolate set under way. Plenty of cooks were ready to help, and meanwhile I thought I might as well follow the Lapps' example and go for a mountain climb, to see how things looked, and how the land lay further north. So I started up, first over some bare rock, over a drift of snow, and then across some flat, moorlike ground, grown with lichens and heather, and sprinkled with huge erratic boulders. ii« THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. M9 I can still clearly and distinctly remember every stone and every stalk. How strange it was, too, to have a wider view again, to look out to sea and see the ice and water shining far below me, to see the rows of peaks round about me lying bathed in the hazy sunshine, and to see, too, the " Inland ice " stretched out beibre me, and, I might say, almost beneath my feet. To the south was the high rounded summit of Kutdlek Island, and beyond it the fine outline of Cape Tordenskjold. I welcomed the latter as a fellow-countryman, as not only the name but ihe form recalled Norway. I sat down on a stone to take a sketch and bask in the sun. As I rested there, delighting in the view and the mere fact of existence, I heard something come singing through the air and stop in the neighbourhood of my hand. It was a good well-known old tune it sang, and I looked down at once. It was a gnat, a real gnat, and presently others joined it. I let them sit quietly biting, and took pleasure m their attack. They gave me, these dear creatures, sensible proof that I was on land, as they sat there and sucked themselves full and red. It was long, no doubt, since they last tasted human blood. But this was a pleasure of which, as shall soon be told, we had afterwards reason to grow more than tired. I sat a while longer, and presently heard a familiar twitter. I looked up and saw a snow-bunting perched on a stone close by, and watching the stranger's movements with his head first on one side and then on the other. Then he chirped again, hopped on to the next stone, and, after continuing his inspection for a while, flew off. At such times and places life is always welcome, and not least so when it comes in the form of a twittering little bird, and finds a response in the small bird element of one's own nature, especially if one has long been outside the regions of spring and summer. Even a spider which I came acoss among the lichens on a stone on my way up was enough to turn my thoughts to home and kindlier scenes. ISO ACROSS GREENLAND. From my point of vantage I could see a good way to the north. It looked as if we were to have open ice for the first bit, but beyond Inugsuit the floes seerned to lie closer, and clearly promised to give us trouble. But it was now time for me to go down and join the others, as the chocolate must be nearly ready. It was nothing like so, however, when I reached the shore. The water was not yet boihng, and it was plainly iV***;f*^^ OUK I r.iST I.ANDIXG-PI.ACK. {Front a /'liotogyaph.) a case of unskilful cooks. But they had certainly not had much practice while we were drifting south, as, if I remember right, we had only cooked three times in twelve days. Meanwhile I spent the time in taking a photograph of the scene — of a spot which takes a prominent place in the history of our expedition. At last the long-expected chocolate was ready, and six patient throats could at last enjoy deep draughts of the glorious nectar. Besides fuller allowances of the ordmary fare, we were treated, THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. 151 ill honour of the clay, to adjuncts in the form of oatmeal biscuits and Gruy^re cheese, and our native delicacies " mysost " and " tytteb[er"-jam. It was indeed a divine repast, surpassing anything we had had hitherto ; we deserved it and equally well enjoyed it, and our spirits were at the height of animation. Balto's account of our stay on this island sets forth that " the spot was quite free of snow, grass-grown, and covered with heather and a few juniper-bushes. We had quite a little feast here, and were treated to all the best we had — cheese, biscuits, jam, and other small delicacies. The cooking-machine was put up on a rock ; we made chocolate, and sat round the pot, drinking, with the sea lying at our feet. Nansen took several pictures, and the place was named Gam<^l's Haven." We came to the conclusion that we might for this once take our time and enjoy life to the full, but that this must be the last of such indulgence. Henceforth our orders were to sleep as little as possible, to eat as little and as quickly as possible, and to get through as much work as possible. Our food was to consist in the main of biscuits, water, and dried meat. To cook anything or to get fresh meat there would be Httle or no time, though there was plenty of game. The best of the season was already passed, and little of the short Greenland summer remained, ilut still we had time to reach the west coast, if only we used that time well. It was a question of sticking to our work, and stick to it indeed we did. Our grand dinner was at last finished, and about five o'clock in the afternoon we embarked again and started on our way north. At first we pushed on quickly, as the water-way was good and cle?r, but as evening came on things changed for the worse. The ice packed closer, and often we had to break our way. From time to time, however, we came upon long leads of open water and made ground fast. The sun sank red behind the mountains, the night was still and woke all our longings, the day lay dreaming beyond the distant peaks, but there was little time for us to indulge in sympathy with Nature's moods and phases. The whole iJ^ht we worked northwards 152 ACROSS GREENLAND. / f"! ff ifl u tlirougli the ice. Al midnight it was hard to see, but witli attention we could dislinguish ice from open water by the reflection from the glowing evening sky. I was tlie more anxious to push on, for it was not far to the ill famed glacier of Tuisortok, where Captain Holm on his voyage along the coast in 1884 was kept by ihe ice seventeen days. I imagined that the reason why this spot had so evil a reputation was because the current iield the floes more closely l^acked here than elsewhere, and it seemed to me of vital importance that we should reach this point of difficulty as soon as possible, in order to take the first opportunity caused by the opening of the ice to push by. In the course of the night we reached the headland of Kangek or ('ape Rantzau, where the ice was packed so close that we could row no longer, but had to force our way. IJefore oiu* axe, long boat-hooks, and crowbars all obstacles had, however, to recede, and we worked steadily on. But the new ice formed on the water between the floes added much to our labour, as towards morning it grew thicker and hindered the boats considerably, and it even remained unmelted till well into the day. Towards moining, too, our strength began to give out ; we had now worked long and were hungry, as we had eaten nothing since our great dinner of the day before. Some of us were so sleepy, too, that we could scarcely keep awake. In our zeal to push onwards, and our enjoyment of our now life, we had quite forgotten bodily needs, which now asserted themselves with greater insistence. So we landed on a floe to rest and refresh ourselves. Ikeakfast was a pure enjoy- ment, though we could scarcely allow tluit we had time to sit still to eat it. Then came the sun , his beams shot up through space, lighter and lighter grew the sky, the spot on the north- east horizon burned brighter and brighter, and then the globe of fire himself rose slowly above the plain of ice. We let mind and body bask in his rays ; new life quickened in us, and weariness had in a moment fled away. Once more we set to work in the growing dawn THE BAST COAST OF GREENLAND. '53 igry, as we we set to lUit tlie ice was closer packed than ever, and inch by inch and foot by foot we had to break our way. Often things looked simply hopeless, but my indefatigable comrades lost not heart ; we had to push through, and push through we did. \Vq passed Cape Rantzau, passed Karra akungnak, which is known from Helm and Garde's voyage in 1884, and reached Cape Adelaer, where things were bad, even to de- spair. The floes lay jammed together, huge and unwieldy, and refused to move. With our long boat-hooks we tried to part them, but in vain. All six as one man fell to, but ihey lay like rocks. Once more we put all our strength into our work, and now they gave. A gap of an inch inspirited us ; we set to again, and thfty opened further. We now knew our strength, and perseverance was sure of its reward. Pre- sently they had parted so far that we could take the boats through after hacking off the projecting points of ice. Thus we pass on to the next floe, where the same performance is repeated. By united exertion pushed to its utmost limits, we force our way. It needs no little experience to take l)oats safely through ice like this. One must have an eye for the weak points of the floes, must know how to use to the best advantage the forces at one's disposal, must be quick to seize the opportunity and push the boats on just as the floes have parted, for they close again immediately, and if the boats are not through, and clear, they are at once unmercifully crushed. Several times, when we were not quite quick enough, Sver- drup's boat, which followed mine, was nipped between the floes till her sides writhed and bulged under the pressure ; but lier material was elastic, and she was finally always brought tlirough without real mishap. At last we passed Cape Adelaer, and worked along the shore, through ice that still lay closely packed, to the next promontory, which I have since named Cape Garde. We reached this cape about noon, and determined to land and get something to eat, and some sleep, both of which we sorely needed after more than twenty-four hours' hard and continuous 'f^ u y 154 ACROSS GREENLAND. work in the ice. We had just with great difficulty dragged our boats up the steep rocics, pitched our tent, and begun our pre- parations for dinner, when there occurred an event which was entirely unexpected, and to our minds indeed little short of miraculous. My diary of the next day records the occurrence thus : — " Yesterday, July 30, about noon, after an incredibly labori- ous struggle through the ice, we had at last put in by — let us for the moment call it Cape Garde — a promontory to the north of Karra akungnak to get some food and a few hours* sleep. The much-dreaded glacier, Puisortok, lay just in front of us, but we hoped to get by it without delay, though it had kept Holm back for no less than seventeen days. While we were having some dinner, or, more accurately, were busy getting it ready, I heard amid the screams of the gulls a cry of a diflcrent kind, which was amazingly like a human voice. I drew the others' attention to the fact, but there was so little probability of our finding human beings in these regions that for some time we were contented to attribute the noise to a 'diver' {Colytfibus) or some similar bird, which was perhaps as little likely to occur up here as a human being himself However, we answered these cries once or twice, and they came gradually nearer. Just as we were finishing our meal there came a shout so distinct and so close to us that most of us sprang to our feet, and one vowed that that could be no 'diver.' And indeed I think that even the staunchest adherent of the sea-bird theory was constrained to waver. Nor was it long before Balto, who had jumped up on a rock with a telescope, shouted to us that he could see two men. I joined him at once, and soon had the glass upon two black objects moving among the floes, now close to one another, now apart. They seemed to be looking for a passage through, as they would advance a bit and then go back again. At last they come straight towards us, and I can see the paddles going like mill-sails — it is evidently two small men in 'kayaks.' They come nearer and nearer, and Balto begins to assume THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. 155 a half-astonished, half-uneasy look, saying that he is almost afraid of these strange beings. They now come on, one bending forwards in his canoe as if he were bowing to us, though this was scarcely his meaning. With a single stroke they come alont;side the rocks, crawl out of their 'kayaks,' one carrying his small craft ashore, the other leaving his in the water, and the two stand before us, the first representatives of these heathen Eskimo of the east coast, of whom we have heard so much. Our first impression of them was distinctly favourable. We saw two somewhat wild but friendly faces smiling at us. One of the men was dressed in a jacket, as well as breeches, of sealskin, the two garments leaving a broad space uncovered between them at the waist. He had on ' kamiks,' the peculiar Eskimo boots, and no covering for the head except a few strings of beads." Here my entry describing this strange meeting is broken off, though my recollection of the scene is still as vivid as if it had all happened yesterday, and it is an easy matter for me to supply all that is wanting. The other one had, to our surprise, some garments of European origin, as his upper parts were clad in an "anorak," a sort of jacket, of blue cotton stuff with white spots, while his legs and feet were cased in sealskin trousers and " kamiks," and his waist was also to a large extent quite bare of clothing. On his head he had a peculiar broad and flat-brimmed hat, formed of a wooden ring over which blue cotton stuff had been stretched. On the crown was a large red cross covering its whole expanse. This pattern of head-dress, in various garish colours, and generally with the cross upon it, is very common among the Eskimo of the east coast. They use them when in their " kayaks," partly for the shade they afford, and partly for the decorative effect Later they showed us some of these hats with great pride. They were little fellows, these two, evidently quite young, and of an attractive appearance, one of them, indeed — he with the beads in his hair — being actually handsome. He had a dark, almost chestnut-brown skin, long jet-black hair drawn back 156 ACROSS GREENLAND. lin m. Irom the forehead by tlie band of beads and falHng round his neck and shoulders, and a broad, round, attractive face v.ith features almost regular. There was something soft, someuiing ahnost effeminate, in his good looks, so much so indeed that we were long in doubt whether he was a man at all. Both these little fellows were of light and active build, and were graceful in all their movements. As they approached us they began to smile, gesticulate, and talk as fast as their tongues would go, in a language of which, of course, we understood not a single word. They pointed south, they pointed north, out to the ice and in to the land, then at us, at our boats, and at themselves, and all the time chattering with voluble persistence. Their eloquence, indeed, was ijnite remarkable, but little did it enable us to comprehend dieni. We smiled in our turn and stared at them in foolish helplessness, while the Lapps showed open indications of un- easiness. They were still a little afraid of these "savages," and held themselves somewhat in the background. Then I produced some papers on which a friend had written in Eskimo a few questions the answers to which I was likely to find serviceable. These questions 1 now proceeded to apply in what was meant to pass for tolerable Eskimo, but now came the Grecnlanders' turn to look foolish, and they stared at me and then at each other with an extremely puzzled air. I went through the performance again, but with exactly the same result, and not a word did they understand. Per severing, 1 tried once or twice more, the only effect of which was to make them gesticulate and chatter volubly together, leaving us as wise as we were before. In despair I threw the papers down, for this was a performance that could only lead to premature grey hair. I wanted to find out something about the ice further north, but the only semblance of success was that I thought I heard them mention Tingmiarmiut, at the same time pointing northwards, and once, too, Umanak — or, at least, I seemed to catch some sounds which these names might be supposed to represent — but even this left us in 77/ Zi EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. '57 ig round his ve face with t, something indeed that t all. Both d, and were ticulate, antl gc of which, hey pointed to the land, all the time ■nee, indeed, comprehend ni in foolish itions of un- i "savages," had written I was likely oceeded to skimo, but and they lely puzzled ith exactly and. Per- ct of which y together, threw the i only lead hing about uccess was liut, at the ■nanak — or, lese names left us in exactly the same state of darkness. Tlicn I had recourse to signs, and with better success, for I learned that there were more of them encamped or living to the north of I'uisortok, and that it was necessary to keep close under the glacier to get by. Then they pointed to Puisortok, made a number of strange gesticulations, and assumed an inimitably grave and serious aii, admonishing us the while, all of which ai^parently meant that this glacier was extremely dangerous, and that we must take the greatest care not to run into it, nor to look at it, nor to speak as we passed it, and so on. These East (Ircenlanders, it is said, have a number of superstitious notions about this particular glacier. Then we tried by means of signs to make them understand that we had not come along the land from the south, but from the oi)cn sea, which intelligence only produced a long-drawn sonorous murmur, deep as the bellow of a cow, and, as we supposed, meant to express the very extremity of astonishment. At the same time they looked at one another and at us with a very doubtful air. Either they did not believe a word we told them, or else, perhaps, they took us for supernatural beings. The latter was probably their real estimate of us. Then they began to admire our equipment. The boats, above all, attracted their attention, and the iron fittings espe- cially excited the greatest astonishment and admiration. We gave them each a bit of meat-biscuit, at which they simply beamed with pleasure. Each ate a little and carefully put away the rest, evidently to take home to the encampment. All this while, however, they were shivering and quaking with the cold, which was not to be wondered at, as they had very little in the way of clothing on, and, as I have said, were com- pletely naked about the waist, while the weather was any- thing but warm. So, with some expressive gestures telling us that it was too cold to stand about there in the rocks, they prepared to go down to their canoes again. By signs they asked us whether we were coming northwards, and, as we answered affirmatively, they once more warned us against the IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 *^M til Hi US 22 SB* - UUU I.I 1.25 1.4 1 1.6 Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 87^-4503 ,v "% ^ V •N? \\ c> s 158 ACROSS GREENLAND. perils of Puisortok, and went down to the water. Here they put their skin-capes on, got their " kayaks " ready, and crept in with the lightness and agility of cats. Then with a few strokes they shot as swiftly and noiselessly as water-fowl over the smooth surface of the sea. Then they threw their har- poons or bird-spears, which flew swift as arrows and fell true upon the mark, to be caught up again at once by the "kayaker" as he came rushing after. Now their paddles went like mill-sails as they darted among the floes, now they stopped to force their way or push the ice aside, or to look for a better passage. Now, again, an arm was raised to throw the spear, v/as drawn back behind the head, held still a moment as the dart was poised, then shot out like a spring of steel as the missile flew from the throwing-stick. Meanwhile they drew further and further from us; soon they looked to us like mere black specks among the ice far away by the glacier ; and in a moment more they had passed behind an iceberg and disappeared from our view. And we remained behind, reflecting on this our first meeting with the east coast Eskimo. We had never expected to fall in with people here, where, according to Holm and Garde's experience, the coast was uninhabited. These we thought must be some migrant body, and in this belief we retired to our tent, crept into our bags, and were soon fast asleep. Balto's description of this meeting, though written a year after the occurrence, agrees so closely with the notes in my diary which were entered the day after it, but have never been accessible to him, that I think I ought to quote it in justice to his memory, if not for its own sake. " While we were sitting and eating," he writes, "we heard a sound like a human voice, but we thought it was only a raven's cry. Presently we heard the same sound again, and now some of us thought it was a loon screaming. Then I took the glasses and went up on to a point of rock, and, looking about, saw something black moving across an ice-floe. So I shouted, ' I can see two men over there on the ice,' and Nansen came running up at THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. 159 Here they r, and crept with a few er-fowl over w their har- nd fell true nee by the eir paddles !S, now they r to look for to throw the 1 a moment ing of steel inwhile they oked to us the glacier ; an iceberg led behind, ast Eskimo, ere, where, coast was grant body, 5 our bags, ten a year otes in my never been n justice to vere sitting man voice, y we heard ht it was a t up on to ling black 1 see two ling up at once and looked through the glass too. We now heard them singing their heathen psalms, and called to them They . heard us at once, and began to row towards us. It was not long before they reached us, and as they came closer one of them gave us a profound bow. Then they put in to shore, and, getting out, dragged their canoes up on to land. As they came near us they lowed like cows, which meant that they wondered what sort of folk we were. Then v,'e tried to talk to them, but we could not understand a word of their language. So Nansen pulled out his conversation-book and tried to talk to them that way; but it was no use, because we could not make out how the letters were pronounced in their language. Then Nansen went down to the boats and fetched some biscuit, which he gave to them, and afterwards they rowed away again northwards." About six o'clock in the afternoon I woke and went out of the tent to see what the ice was doing. A fresh breeze was blowing off the land, and the floes had parted still more than before. There seemed to be a good water-way leading north, and I called my companions out. We were soon afloat and steering northwards for the dreaded glacier, in the best water we had had as yet. I was in con- stant fear, however, that things would be worse further on, and lost no time. But things became no worse, and the ice up here consisted chiefly of larger and smaller glacier-floes, which are much better than sea-floes to have to deal with in wooden boats, which are not cut by their sharp edges as skin- boats are. What hindered us most was that the water between the floes was full of small brash of the broken glacier ice. We pushed through, however, and the water proved compara- tively good the whole way. Without meeting serious obstacles we passed the glacier, sometimes rowing right under the per- pendicular cliffs of ice, which showed all the changing hues of glacier-blue, from the deepest azure of the rifts and chasms to the pale milky,-white of the plain ice-wall, and of the upper surface, on which the snow still lay here and there in patches. i6o ACROSS GREENLAND. m i i s It is dilTicult to see what it really is that has given this glacier its evil reputation. It has very liitle movement in- deed, and therefore seldom calves, and when it does the pieces which come away must be relatively small, for there are no large icebergs to be seen in the sea near its edge. Nor is there depth enough of water to make such possible, and, furthermore, at several points the underlying rock is visible, so that the glacier does not even reach the water throughout its whole extent. However, Graah and even earlier writers record the excessive dread which the Eskimo have for this dangerous glacier, which is always ready to fall upon and crush the passer-by, and far away from which, out at sea, huge masses of ice may suddenly dart up from the depths and annihilate both boat and crew. The name Puisortok also points in this direction, as it means " the place where something shoots up." It occurs at more than one point on the eastern coast in connection with glaciers, though its real force and intention is not easily explicable. That the Greenlander crews employed by Holm and Garde had the same superstitious dread of this same glacier is made very plain in their interesting narrative. Garde tells us that the idea prevalent among the natives of the southern part of the west coast is that " when one passes Puisortok one has to row along under an overhanging wall of ice which may fall at any instant, and over masses of ice which lurk beneath the surface of the water, and only await a favourable moment to shoot up and destroy the passing boats." The Eskimo of the south-west have no doubt got their superstitious notions from the wild natives of the east coast with whom they have come into contact. The latter even have a number of rules of conduct which should govern the behaviour of the passer-by if he wish to escape alive. There must be no speaking, no laughing, no eating, no indulgence in tobacco, neither must one look at the glacier, nor mention the name Puisortok. If he do the latter, indeed, the glacier's resentment is such that certain destruction is the result. THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND. i6i In spite of all this one thing is certain, that Puisortok falls far short ofits reputation. As I afterwards discovered, it is not even in connection with the great sheet of " Inland ice." It is a comparatively small local glacier lying upon a mountain ridge which is separated from the "Inland ice" by a snow-covered valley on its inner side. This is, of course, the reason of its relatively slight movement, which, according to Garde's measure- ments, is not above two feet in the twenty-four hours. Its very form and inclination also point to the fact that it is only local. The only remarkable thing about it is that it has so long a frontage to the sea. Garde estimates its breadth at about five miles, which is apparently correct. This fact, as Garde suggests, must plainly be the reason why the Eskimo are so afraid of it, for, as it comes right out into the sea, and has no protecting belt of islands and rocks, they are forced to pass along its face in the course of their journeys up and down the coast. The Eskimo dread any passage of the kind, which is not unreasonable, as the glaciers are continually calving, or dropping masses of ice from their upper parts, and the danger to passing craft 's by no means imaginary. For if a boat happen to be off a glacier at the moment of its calving, it will in most cases, no doubt, be lost beyond all hope of salvation. Even if the falling masses do not come into direct contact with it, the water is agitated to such a tremendous extent, and the floes and floating fragments of ice are thrown about so violently, that the chances of escape are very small. All the great glaciers, however, lie far in the recesses of narrow fjords, which in the course of ages they have themselves cut out or deepened by their powerful onward movement. But it s seldom that the Eskimo find their way into these fjords, and it is not as a rule necessary for them to pass close under these huge cliffs of ice, whose dangerous caprices they nevertheless well know. It is therefore, after all, not so much a matter for wonder that they feel anxiety when they have to pass so long a stretch of glacier as Puisortok, notwithstanding its compara- tively gentle ways. n pii h lilifil 1 1 Ik.^HI m M 9 162 ACROSS GREENLAND. Be this as it may, we passed the glacier without mishap, and no superstitious terror prevented us from enjoying to the full the fantastic beauty of these mighty walls of ice. The water was still comparatively favourable as we worked north, and we pushed on fast. Our courage rose and rose, and we grew more and more convinced that nothing would now hinder us from reaching oilr goal. THE ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT AT CAPE BILLE. {By A'. Niehen,from a photograph.) Chapter X. THE EAST COAST— AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. As we drew near Cape Bille, the promont9ry which lies to the north of Puisortok, we heard strange sounds from shore — as it were, a mixture of human voices and the barking of dogs. As we gazed thither we now caught sight of some dark masses of moving objects, which, as we examined them more closely, we found to be groups of human beings. They were spread over the terrace of rock, were chattering in indistinguishable Babel, gesticulating, and pointing towards us as we worked our way quietly through the ice. They had evidently been watch- ing us for some time. We now too discovered a number of skin-tents which were perched among the rocks, and at the same time became aware of a noteworthy smell of train-oil or some similar substance, which followed the off-shore breeze. Though it was still early, and though the water in front of us seemed open for some distance, we could not resist the temp- tation of visiting these strange and unknown beings. At the moment we turned our boats towards shore the clamour in- creased tenfold. They shrieked and yelled, pointed, and 163 1 64 ACROSS GREENLAND. rushed, some down to the shore, others up on to higher rocks in order to see us better. If we were stopped by ice and took out our long boat-hooks and bamboo poles to force the floes apart and make ourselves a channel, the confusion on shore rose to an extraordinary pitch, the cries and laughter growing simply hysterical. As we got in towards land some men came darting out to us in their "kayaks," among them one of our acquaintances of the morning. Their faces one and all simply beamed with smiles, and in the most friendly way they swarmed round us in their active little craft, trying to point us out the way, which we could quite well find ourselves, and gazing in wonder at our strong boats as they glided on regardless of ice which would have cut their fragile boats of skin in pieces. At last we passed the last floe and drew in to shore. It was now growing dusk, and the scene that met us was one . of the most fantastic to which I have ever been witness. All about the ledges of rock stood long rows of strangely wild and shaggy-looking creatures — men, women, (FrvmaMoto^raM.) ^^^ children all in much the same scanty dress — staring and pointing at us, and uttering the same bovine sound which had so much struck us in the morning. Now it was just as if we had a whole herd of cows about us, lowing in chorus as the cowhouse door is opened in the morning to admit the expected fodder. Down by the water's edge were a number of men eagerly struggling and gesticulating to show us a good landing-place, which, together with other small services of the kind, is the acknowledged Eskimo wel- come to strangers whom they are pleased to see. Up on the rocks were a number of yellowish-brown tents, and lower down AN ESKIMO BOY FROM CAPE BILLE. THE EAST COAST— AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. 165 t us was one canoes, skin-boats, and other implements, while more "kayaks" swarmed round us in the water. Add to all this the neighbour- ing glacier, the drifting floes, and the glowing evening sky, and, lastly, our two boats and six unkempt-looking selves, and the whole formed a picture which we at least are not likely to for- get. The life and movement were a welcome contrast indeed to the desolation and silence which we had so long endured. It was not long, of course, before our boats were safely moored, and we standing on shore surrounded by crowds of natives, who scanned us and our belongings with wondering eyes. Beaming smiles and kindliness met us on all sides. A smiling face is the Eskimo's greeting to a stranger, as his language has no formula of welcome. Then we look round us for a bit. Here amid the ice and snow these people seemed to be comfortable enough, and we felt indeed that we would willingly prolong our stay among them. As v/e stopped in front of the largest tent, at the sight of the comfortable glow that shone out through its outer open- ing, we were at once invited in by signs. We accepted the invitation, and as soon as we had passed the outer doorway a curtain of thin membranous skin was pushed aside for us, and, bending our heads as we entered, we found ourselves in a cosy room. The sight and smell which now met us w .;, to put it mildly, at least unusual. I had certainly been givtA to under- stand that the Eskimo of the east coast of Greenland were in the habit of reducing their indoor dress to the smallest possible dimensions, and that the atmosphere of their dwellings was the reverse of pleasant. But a sight so extraordinary, and a smell so remarkable, had never come within the grasp of my imagi- nation. The smell, which was a peculiar blending of several characteristic ingredients, was quite enough to occupy one's attention at first entrance. The most prominent of the com- ponents was due to the numerous train-oil lamps which were burning, and this powerful odour was well tempered with human exhalations of every conceivable kind, as well as the i66 ACROSS GREENLAND. f,l')f pungent effluvia of a certain fetid liquid which was stored in vessels here and there about the room, and which, as I subsequently learned, is, from the various uses to which it is applied, one of the most im- [)ortant and valuable commodities of Eskimo domestic economy. Into further details I think it is scarcely advisable to go, and 1 must ask the reader to accept my assurance that the general effect was anything but attractive to the unaccustomed nose of the new- comer. However, familiarity soon has its wonted effect, and one's first abhorrence may even before long give way to a certain degree of pleasure. But it is not the same with every one, and one or two of our party were even constrained to retire incontinently. For my own part, I soon found myself sufficiently at ease to be able to use my eyes. My attention was first arrested by the number of naked forms which thronged the tent in standing, sitting, and reclining positions. All the oc- cupants were, in fact, attired in their so-called "natit" or indoor dress, the dimensions of which ESKIMO GARMENTS, ETC, FROM THE EAST COAST OF GREENLAND, IN THE ETHNO- GRAPHICAL MUSEUM AT CHRISTIANIA. I. Woman's breeches; II. Man's indoor dress ; III. Woman's indoor dress ; IV. Amulet-strap worn by men ; V. " Kamik," or Eskimo boot ; VI. and VII. Knives. THE EAST COAST- -AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. 167 arc so extremely small as to make it practically invisible to the stranger's inexperienced eye. The dress consists in a narrow band about the loins, which in the case of the women is reduced to the smallest possible dimensions. Of false modesty, of course, there was no sign, but it is not to be wondered at that the unaffected ingenuousness with which all intercourse was carried on made a very strange impression upon us conventional Europeans in the first in- stance. Nor will the blushes which rose to the cheeks of some among us when we saw a party of young men and women who followed us into the tent at once proceed to attire themselves in their indoor dress, or, in other words, divest themselves of every particle of clothing which they wore, be laid to our discredit, when it is remembered that we had been accustomed to male society exclusively during our voyage and adventures among the ice. The Lapps especially were much embarrassed at the unwonted sight. The natives now thronged in in numbers, and the tent was soon closely packed. We had been at once invited to sit down upon some chests which stood by the thin skin-curtain at the entrance. These are the seats which are always put at the disposal of visitors, while the occupants have their places upon the long bench or couch which fills the back part of the tent. This couch is made of planks, is deep enough to give room for a body reclining at full length, and is as broad as the whole width of the tent. It is covered with several layers of seal-skin, and upon it the occupants spend their whole indoor life, men and women alike, sitting often cross-legged as they work, and taking their meals and rest and sleep. The tent itself is of a very peculiar construction. The framework consists of a sort of high trestle, upon which a number of poles are laid, forming a semicircle below, and converging more or less to a point at the top. Over these poles a double layer of skin is stretched, the inner coat with the hair turned inwards, and the outer generally consisting IB" f^iw~- !'| I'^i • «; ' 1^ i r ' '^ . ^ k) w THE EAST COAST— AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. 169 of the old coverings of boats and "kayaks." The entrance is under the above-mentioned trestle, which is covered by the thin curtain of which I have already spoken. This particular tent housed four or five different families. Each of them had its own partition marked off upon the common couch, and in each of the stalls so formed man, wife, and children would be closely packed, a four-foot space thus having sometimes to accommodate husband, two wives, and six or more children. Before every family stall a train-oil lamp was burning with a broad flame. These lamps are flat, semicircular vessels of pot-stone, about a foot in length. The wick is made of dried moss, which is placed against one side of the lamp and con- tinually fed with pieces of fresh blubber, which soon melts into oil. The lamps are in charge of the women, wlio have special sticks to manipulate the wicks with, to keep them both from smoking and from burning too low. Great pots of the same stone hang above, and in them the Eskimo cook all their food which they do not eat raw. Strange to say, they use neither peat nor wood for cooking purposes, though such fuel is not difficult to procure. The lamps are kept burning night and day ; they serve for both heating and lighting pur- poses, for the Eskimo does not sleep in the dark, like other people ; and they also serve to maintain a permanent odour of train oil, which, as I have said, our European senses at first found not altogether attractive, but which they soon learned not only to tolerate, but to take pleasure in. As we sat in a row on the chests, taking stock of our strange surroundings, our hosts began to try and entertain us. The use of every object we looked at was kindly explained to us, partly by means of words, of which we understood nothing, and partly by actions, which were somewhat more within reach of our com- prehension. In this way we learnt that certain wooden racks which hung from the roof were for drying clothes on, that the substance cooking in the pots was seal's flesh, and so on. Then they showed us various things which they were evidently very N 170 ACROSS GREENLAND. m li Hi ! proud of. Some old women opened a bag, for instance, and brought out a little bit of Dutch screw-tobacco, while a man displayed a knife with a long bone handle. These two things were, no doubt, the most notable possessions in the tent, for they were regarded by all the company with especial veneration. Then they began to explain to us the mutual relations of the various occupants of the tent. A man embraced a fat woman, and thereupon the pair with extreme complacency pointed to some younger individuals, the whole pantomime giving us to understand that the party together formed a family of husband, wife, and children. The man then proceeded to stroke his wife down the back and pinch her here and there to show us how charming and delightful she was, and how fond he was of her, the process giving her, at the same time, evident satisfaction. Curiously enough, none of the men in this particular tent seemed to have more than one wife, though it is a common thing among the east coast Eskimo for a man to keep two if he can afford them, though never more than two. As a rule the men are good to their wives, and a couple may even be seen to kiss each other at times, though the process is not carried out on European lines, but by a mutual rubbing of noses. Domestic strife is, however, not unknown, and it sometimes leads to violent scenes, the end of which generally is that the woman receives either a vigorous castigation or the blade of a knife in her arm or leg, after which the relation between the two becomes as cordial as ever, especiallyif the woman have children. In our tent the best of understandings seem to prevail among the many occupants. Towards us they were especially friendly, and talked incessantly, though it had long been quite clear to them that all their efforts in this direction were absolutely thrown away. One of the elders of the party, who was evi- dently a prominent personage among them, and probably an "angekok" or magician, an old fellow with a wily, cunning ex- pression, and a more dignified air than the rest, managed to explain to us with a great deal of trouble that some of them had come from the north and were going south, while others THE EAST COAST— AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. 171 instance, and while a man se two things the tent, for al veneration, ations of the a fat woman, :y pointed to giving us to / of husband, troke his wife show us how e was of her, satisfaction, irticular tent is a common eep two if he As a rule the p be seen to t carried out 3. Domestic ids to violent nan receives e in her arm becomes as ren. evail among ally friendly, quite clear e absolutely ho was evi- probably an cunning ex- managed to ne of them while others had come from the south and were bound north ; that the two parties had met here by accident, that we had joined them, and that altogether they did not know when they had had such a good time before. Then he wanted to know where we had ESKIMO WOMAN FROM TTIK EAST COAST OF GfvF.ENLAND. (From a photogra/h tal-ett by t/w Danish " Konebaad" expedition.) come from, but this was not so easily managed. We pointed out to sea, and as well as we could tried to make them under, stand that we had forced our way through the ice, had reached land further south, and then worked ,up northwards. This information made our audience look very doubtful indeed, 172 ACROSS GREENLAND. i< and another chorus of lowing followed, the conclusion evi- dently being that there was something supernatural about us. In this way the conversation went on, and all things considered, we were thoroughly well entertained, though to an outside observer, our pantomimic efforts would, of course, have seemed extremely comical. I will not be rash enough to assert that all the faces that surrounded us were indisputably clean. Most of them were, no doubt, naturally of a yellowish or brownish hue, but how much of the colour that we saw in these very swarthy counte- nances was really genuine we had no means of deciding. In some cases, and especially among the children, the dirt had accumulated to such an extent that it was already passing into the stage of a hard black crust, which here and there had begun to break away and to show the true skin beneath. Every face, too, with few exceptions, simply glistened with blubber. Among the women, especially the younger section, who here as in some other parts of the world are incontinently vain, washing is said to be not uncommon, and Holm even accuses them of being very clean. But as to the exact nature of the process which leads to this result it will perhaps be better for me to say no more. It might be supposed that the surroundings and habits of these people, to which I have already referred, together with many other practices, which I have thought it better not to specify, would have an extremely repellant effect upon the stranger. But this is by no means the case when one has once overcome the first shock which the eccentricity of their ways is sure to cause, when one has ceased to notice such things as the irrepressible tendency of their hands to plunge into the jungle of their hair in hot pursuit, as their dirt-encrusted faces — a point on which, I may remark, we ourselves in our then condition had little right to speak — and as the strange atmos- phere in which they live ; and if one is careful at first not to look too closely into their methods of preparing food, the general impression received is absolutely attractive. There is a frank and homely geniality in all their actions which is very THE EAST COAST— AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. 173 winning, and can only make the stranger feel thoroughly com- fortable in their society. People's notions on the subject of good looks vary so much that it is difficult to come to a satisfactory determination with regard to these Eskimo. If we bind ourselves down to any established ideal of beauty, such as, for instance, the Venus of Milo, the question is soon settled. The east coast of Green- land, it must be confessed, is not rich in types of this kind. But if we can only make an effort and free our critical faculty from a standard which has been forced upon it by the influences of superstition and heredity, and can only agree to allow that the thing which attracts us, and on which we look with delight, for these very reasons possesses the quality of beauty, then the problem becomes very much more difficult of solution. I have no doubt that, were one to live with these people for a while and grow accustomed to them, one would soon find many a pretty face and many an attractive feature among them. As it was, indeed, we saw more than one face which a European taste would allow to be pretty. There was one woman especially who reminded me vividly of an acknowledged beauty at home in Norway ; and not only I, but one of my companions who happened to know the prototype, was greatly struck by the likeness. The faces of these Eskimo are as a rule round, with broad, outstanding jaws, and are, in the case of the women especially, very fat, the cheeks being particularly exuberant. The eyes are dark and often set a little obliquely, while the nose is flat, narrow above and broad below. The whole face often looks as if it had been compressed from the front and forced to make its growth from the sides. Among the women, and more especially the children, the face is so flat that one could almost lay a ruler across from cheek to cheek without touching the nose ; indeed, now and again one will see a child whose nose really forms a depression in the face rather than the reverse. It will be understood from this that many of these people show no signs of approaching the European standard of good looks, but it is not exactly in this direction 174 ACROSS GREENLAND. tt that the Eskimo's attractions, generally speaking, really lie. At the same time there is something kindly, genial, and complacent in his stubby, dumpy, oily features which is quite irresistible. Their hands and feet alike are unusually small and well- shaped. Their hair is absolutely black, and quite straight, ^i^;; ESKIMO BEAUTY, FKOM THE EAST COAST, IN HER OLD AGE. (By E. Nielsen, /rom aphoiogtaph taken by the Danish " Konel)aad" expedition.) resembling horse-hair. The men often tie it back from the forehead with a string of beads and leave it to fall down over the shoulders. Some who have no such band have it cut above the forehead or round the whole head with the jawbone of a shark, as their superstitions will not allow them on any account to let iron come into contact with it, even when the THE EAST COAST— AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. 175 doubtful course of having it cut at all has been resolved upon. But, curiously enough, a man who has begun to cut his hair in his youth must necessarily continue the practice all his life. The women gather their hair up from behind and tie it with a strip of seal-skin into a cone, which must stand as perpendi- cularly as possible. This convention is, of course, especially stringent in the case of the young unmarried women, who, to obtain the desired result, tie their hair back from the forehead and temples so tightly that by degrees it gradually gives way, and they become bald at a very early age. A head which has felt the effects of this treatment is no attractive sight, but the victim in such cases has generally been a long time married and settled in life, and the disadvantage is therefore not so keenly felt. After we had been sitting in the tent for a while one of the elders of the company, the old man with the unattractive ex- pression, of whom I have already spoken, rose and went out. Presently he came in again with a long line of seal-skin, which, as he sat on the bench, he began to unroll. I regarded this performance with some wonder, as I could not imagine what was going to happen. Then he brought out a knife, cut off a long piece, and, rising, gave it to one of us. Then he cut off another piece of equal length and gave it to another, and the process was repeated till we all six were alike provided. When he had finished his distribution he smiled and beamed at us, in his abundant satisfaction with himself and the world at large. Then another of them went out, came back with a similar line, and distributed it in like manner ; whereupon a third followed his example, and so the game was kept going till we were each of us provided with four or five pieces of seal-skin line. Poor things ! they gave us what they could, and what they thought would be useful to us. It was the kind of line they use, when seal-catching, to connect the point of the harpoon to the bladder which prevents the seal from escaping, and it is astonishingly strong.' After this exhibition of liberality we sat for a time looking 176 ACROSS GREENLAND m at one another, and I expected that our hosts would show by signs their desire for something in return. After a while, too, the old man did get up and produce something which he evidently kept as a possession of great price and rarity. It was nothing else than a clumsy, rusty old rifle, with the strangest contrivance in the way of a hammer that it has ever been my good luck to see. It consisted of a huge, unwieldy piece of iron, in which there was a finger-hole to enable the user to cock it. As I afterwards found, this is the ordinary form of rifle on the west coast of Greenland, and it is specially constructed for use in the " kayak." After the old man had shown us this curiosity, and we had duly displayed our admiration, he made us understand by some very unmistakable gestures that he had nothing to put in it. At first I pretended not to grasp his meaning, but, this in- sincerity being of no avail, I was obliged to make it plain to him that we had nothing to give him in the way of ammunition. This intimation he received with a very disappointed and de- jected air, and he went at once and put his rifle away. None of the others showed by the slightest token that they expected anything in return for their presents. They were all friendliness and hospitality, though no doubt there was a notion lurking somewhere in the background that their liberality would not prove unproductive, and, of course, we did not fail to fulfil our share of the transaction next day. The hospitality, indeed, of this desolate coast is quite unbounded. A man will receive his worst enemy, treat him well, and entertain him for months, if circumstances throw him in his way. The nature of their surroundings and the wandering life which they lead have forced them to offer and accept universal hospitality, and the habit has gradually become a law among them. After we considered we had been long enough in the tent we went out into the fresh air again, and chose as our camping- ground for the night a flat ledge of rock close to the landing- place. We then began to bring our things ashore, but at once a crowd of natives rushed for our boats, and numbers of hands THE EAST COAST—AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. 177 were soon busy moving our boxes and bags up on to the rocks. Every object caused an admiring outburst, and our willing helpers laughed and shouted in their glee, and altogether enjoyed themselves amazingly. The delight and admiration that greeted the big tin boxes in which much of our provender was packed were especially unmanageable, and the tins were ESKIMO, FROM THE CAMP AT CAPE BILLE, (From a pltotograph.) each passed round from hand to hand, and every edge and corner carefully and minutely examined. As soon as the boats were empty we proposed to drag them up, but here again all insisted on giving their help. The painter was brought ashore, manned by a long line stretching far up the rocks, and the boats hauled up each by the united efforts of twenty or thirty men. This was splendid sport, and when M 178 ACROSS GREENLAND. one of us started the usual sailor's chorus to get them to work together, the enthusiasm reached its height. They joined in, grown folk and children alike, and laughed till they could scarcely pull. They plainly thought us the most amusing lot of people they had ever seen. When the boats were safe ashore we proceeded to pitch our tent, an operation which engaged all their attention, for nothing can interest an Eskimo so much as any performance which belongs to his own mode of life, such as the management of tents and boats and such things. Here their astonishment does not overcome them, for they can fully understand what is going on. In this case they could thus admire to the full the speedy way in which we managed to pitch our little tent, which was so much simpler a contrivance than their great complicated wigwams, though at the same time it was not so warm. Our clothes, too, and, above all, the Lapps' dress, came in for their share of admiration. The tall, square caps, with their four horns, and the tunics with their long, wide skirts and edging of red and yellow, struck them as most remarkable, but still more astonished were they, of course, in the evening, when the two Lapps made their appearance in their reindeer-skin pelisses. All must needs go and feel them and examine them, and stroke the hair of this wonderful skin, nothing like which they had ever seen before. It was not seal-skin, it was not bear-skin, nor was it fox-skin. " Could it be dog-skin ? " they asked, pointing to their canine companions. When we ex- plained that it was nothing of that kind they could get no further, for their powers of imagination had reached their limit. Balto now began to gibber and make some very signi- ficant movements with his hands about his head, with the idea of representing reindeer horns, but this awoke no response- Evidently they had never seen reindeer, which do not occur on that part of the east coast which they frequent Then we distributed the evening rations, and ate our supper sitting at the tent-door, and surrounded by spectators. Men, women, and children stood there in a ring many ranks deep. THE EAST COAST— AN ESKIMO ENCAMPMENT. 179 closely watching the passage of every morsel of biscuit to our lips and its subsequent consumption. Though^ their mouths watered to overflowing at the sight of these luxuries, we were constrained to take no notice. We had no more in the way of bread than we actually needed, and, had we made a distribution throughout all this hungry crowd, our store would have been much reduced. But to sit there and devour one's biscuits under the fire of all their eyes was not pleasant. Our meal over, we went and had a look round the encamp- ment. Down by the water were a number of " kayaks " and a few specimens of the " umiak " or large skin-boat, which espe- cially interested me. One of the men was particularly anxious to show me everything. Whatever caught my eye, he at once proceeded to explain the use of by signs and gestures. Above all, he insisted on my examining his own "kavak," which was handsomely ornamented with bone, and all hib weapons, which were in excellent condition and profusely decorated. His great pride was his harpoon, which, as he showed me triumphantly, had a long point of narwhal tusk. He explained to me, too, very clearly the use of the throwing-stick, and how much addi- tional force could be given to the harpoon by its help. Every Eskimo is especially proud of his weapons and "kayak," and expends a large amount of work on their adornment. By this time the sun had set and the night fallen, and con- sequently the elements of weirdness and unreality which had all the time pervaded this scene, with its surroundings of snow and ice and curious human adjuncts, were now still more predominant and striking. Dark forms flitted backwards and forwards among the rocks, and the outlines of the women with their babies on their backs were especially picturesque. From every tent-door through the transparent curtain shone a red glow of light, which with its suggestions of warmth and comfort, led the fancy to very different scenes. The resem- blance to coloured lamps and Chinese lanterns brought to one's mind the illuminated gardens and summer festivities away at home, but behind these curtains here lived a happy i8o ACROSS GREENLAND. lP