North-Pole Voyages
by Zachariah Atwell Mudge · English · Gutenberg #39013 · 544,029 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: North-Pole Voyages
Author: Zachariah Atwell Mudge
Release date: February 29, 2012 [eBook #39013]
Most recently updated: January 8, 2021
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTH-POLE VOYAGES ***
Produced by Emmy, Albert Laszlo and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
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[Transcriber's Note: This author often uses "run" where we to-day would
use "ran." This was retained.]
[Illustration: Captain C. F. Hall.
See page 289]
NORTH-POLE VOYAGES:
EMBRACING
SKETCHES OF THE IMPORTANT FACTS AND INCIDENTS
IN THE LATEST
AMERICAN EFFORTS TO REACH THE NORTH POLE
FROM THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION TO THAT OF THE POLARIS.
BY REV. Z. A. MUDGE,
AUTHOR OF "VIEWS FROM PLYMOUTH ROCK," "WITCH HILL," "ARCTIC
HEROES," ETC., ETC.
Five Illustrations.
NEW YORK:
NELSON & PHILLIPS
CINCINNATI: HITCHCOCK & WALDEN.
SUNDAY-SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
NELSON & PHILLIPS,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
PREFACE.
FOR more than three hundred years an intense desire has been felt by
explorers to discover and reveal to the world the secrets of the
immediate regions of the North Pole. Nor has this desire been confined
to mere adventurers. Learned geographers, skillful navigators, and
scientific men of broad and accurate study, have engaged in these
enterprises with enthusiastic interest. The great governments of the
Christian world have bestowed upon them liberally the resources of their
wealth and science, and never to a greater extent than within the last
three years. Failure seems but to stimulate exertion. Scarcely have the
tears dried on the faces of the friends of those who have perished in
the undertaking before we hear of the departure of a fresh expedition.
Something like a divine inspiration has attended these explorations from
the first, and their moral tone has been excellent.
This volume sketches the latest American efforts, second to no others in
heroism and success, and abounding in instructive and intensely
interesting adventures both grave and gay.
We have followed in this volume, as in its companion volume, "The Arctic
Heroes," the orthography of Professor Dall, of the Smithsonian
Institution, in some frequently-occurring Arctic words.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. NORTHWARD 9
II. ANCHORED AT LAST 17
III. THRILLING INCIDENTS 23
IV. LOST AND RESCUED 31
V. MORE HEROIC EXCURSIONS 43
VI. THE OPEN SEA 53
VII. AN IMPORTANT MOVEMENT 60
VIII. TREATY MAKING 68
IX. ARCTIC HUNTING 75
X. THEE ESCAPING PARTY 89
XI. A GREEN SPOT 99
XII. NETLIK 109
XIII. THE HUT 120
XIV. ESQUIMO TREACHERY 131
XV. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 142
XVI. DRUGGED ESQUIMO 150
XVII. BACK AGAIN 160
XVIII. SCARES 171
XIX. SEEKING THE ESQUIMO 179
XX. DESERTERS 186
XXI. CLOSING INCIDENTS OF THE IMPRISONMENT 194
XXII. HOMEWARD BOUND 201
XXIII. NARROW ESCAPES 209
XXIV. ESQUIMO KINDNESS 216
XXV. MELVILLE BAY 221
XXVI. SAVED 228
XXVII. OFF AGAIN 234
XXVIII. COLLIDING FLOES 241
XXIX. THE WINTER HOME 249
XXX. GLACIERS 255
XXXI. A STRANGE DREAM AND ITS FULFILLMENT 263
XXXII. THE CROWNING SLEDGE JOURNEY 270
XXXIII. LAST INCIDENTS OF THE EXPEDITION 279
XXXIV. SOMETHING NEW 287
XXXV. A FEARFUL STORM 295
XXXVI. THE AURORA 304
XXXVII. THE DYING ESQUIMO 311
XXXVIII. CUNNING HUNTERS 317
XXXIX. ROUND FROBISHER BAY 326
XL. THE "POLARIS" 333
XLI. DISASTER 344
XLII. THE LAST OF THE "POLARIS" 357
XLIII. THE FEARFUL SITUATION 364
XLIV. THE WONDERFUL DRIFT 371
XLV. THE WONDERFUL ESCAPE 380
Illustrations.
CAPTAIN C. F. HALL 2
WALRUSES--A FAMILY PARTY 81
CAPTAIN BUDDINGTON 337
UNLOADING STORES FROM THE "POLARIS" 345
PERILOUS SITUATION OF THE "POLARIS" 354
NORTH-POLE VOYAGES.
CHAPTER I.
NORTHWARD.
THE readers who have been with us before into the arctic regions will
recollect the good American brig Advance, and her wonderful drift during
live months, in 1851, from the upper waters of the Wellington Channel,
until she was dropped in the Atlantic Ocean by the ice-field which
inclosed her. Dr. Kane, then her surgeon, took command of this same
vessel, in 1853, for another search for the lost Franklin. We have seen
that the place of Franklin's disasters and death was found while Kane
was away on this voyage, so the interest of the present story will not
connect with that great commander, except in the noble purposes of its
heroes.
The Advance left New York on the thirtieth of May, having on board, all
counted, eighteen men. Kind hearts and generous purses had secured for
her a fair outfit in provisions for the comfort of the adventurers, in
facilities for fighting the ice and cold, and in the means of securing
desired scientific results. Of the thousands who waved them a kind
adieu from the shore many said sadly, "They will never return."
We shall make the acquaintance of the officers and men as we voyage with
them, and a very agreeable acquaintance we are sure it will be. The
rules by which all agreed to be governed were these and no others:
"Absolute obedience to the officer in command; no profane swearing; no
liquor drunk except by special order."
The voyagers touched at St. John's, and among other kindnesses shown
them was the gift by the governor of a noble team of nine Newfoundland
dogs.
At Fiskernaes, the first Greenland port which they entered, they added
to their company Hans Christian, an Esquimo hunter, nineteen years of
age. Hans was expert with the Esquimo spear and kayak. He will appear
often in our story, and act a conspicuous part; he at once, however,
prepossesses us in his favor by stipulating with Dr. Kane to leave two
barrels of bread and fifty pounds of pork with his mother in addition to
the wages he is to receive. The doctor made his cup of joy overflow by
adding to these gifts to his mother the present for himself of a rifle
and new kayak.
The expedition next touched at Lichtenfels. Dr. Kane obtained here a
valuable addition to his outfit of fur clothing. Stopping at Proven, a
supply of Esquimo dogs was completed; lying to briefly at Upernavik, the
most northern port of civilization, their equipment in furs, ice-tools,
and other necessary articles known to arctic voyagers, was rendered
still more complete. At this last port the services of Carl Petersen
were engaged for the expedition. We have met this intelligent, heroic
Dane among our "Arctic Heroes." He will for a long time appear in the
shifting scenes of our story.
On the twenty-seventh of July the "Advance" drew near to Melville Bay.
The reader who has accompanied the earlier arctic explorers into this
region will remember their terrific experience in this bay. Every arctic
enemy of the navigator lurks there. Their attacks are made singly and in
solid combinations. At one time they steal upon their victim like a
Bengal tiger; at other times they rush upon him with a shout and yell,
like a band of our own savages. Giant icebergs; fierce storms; cruel
nips; silent, unseen, irresistible currents; with ever-changing,
treacherous "packs" and "floes," and the all-pervading, relentless cold,
are some of these enemies. A favorite movement of these forces is to so
adjust themselves as to promise the advancing explorer or whaler a
speedy and complete success; then, suddenly changing front, to crush and
sink him at once, or to bind him in icy fetters, a helpless, writhing
victim, for days, weeks, or months, and finally, perhaps, to bury both
ship and men in the dark, deep waters of the bay.
The "Advance" was at this time treated by these guardians of the
approach to the North Pole with exceptional courtesy. We suspect that
they secretly purposed to follow them into more northern regions, and
there to attack them at even greater advantage. This they certainly did.
But just to show them what it could and was minded to do, the evil
spirit of the bay invited them at one time to escape impending danger by
fastening to a huge berg. This they did, after eight hours of warping,
heaving, and planting ice-anchors, a labor of prostrating exhaustion.
Hardly had they begun to enjoy the invited hospitality of the berg, when
it began to shower upon them, like big drops from a summer cloud, pieces
of ice the size of a walnut, accompanied by a crackling, threatening
noise from above. A gale from out of its hiding-place on shore came
sweeping upon them at the same time, driving before it its icy
supporter. Mischief was evidently intended. The "Advance" retreated from
the berg with all possible haste, and had barely gone beyond its reach
when it launched after it its whole broadside, which came crashing into
the water with a roar like a whole park of artillery. Could any thing be
rougher? But then it was true to its icebergy character.
The "Advance" was not injured, but the ice held as a trophy more than
two thousand feet of good whale line, which had to be cut in the
retreat.
These bergs, though thus harsh and treacherous as a rule, _can_ do a
generous thing. May be, like some people, they are all the more
dangerous on account of exceptional generosity. The loose ice, soon
after this incident, was drifting south, and would have borne the
navigators with it back from whence they had come, perhaps for hundreds
of miles. But a majestic berg came along whose sunken base took hold of
the deep water current, and so, impelled by this current, it sailed
grandly northward, sweeping a wide path through the rotten floes. It
condescendingly offered to do tugboat service for the "Advance," and
invited its captain to throw aboard an ice-anchor. We wonder he dared to
trust it, but he did, and, grappling its crystal sides, made good
headway for awhile until other means of favorable voyaging were
presented.
Soon after the explorers parted from this bergy friend the midnight sun
came out over its northern crest, kindling on every part of its surface
fires of varied colors, and scattering over the ice all around blazing
carbuncles, sparkling rubies, and molten gold.
August fifth the "Advance," fairly clearing the hated Melville Bay,
sailed along the western coast of the "North Water" of Baffin Bay. At
Northumberland Island, at the mouth of Whale Sound, their eyes were
again delighted by an exhibition of beautiful colors, delicately tinted,
but this time not made by a gorgeous sunrise over a gigantic iceberg.
The snow of the island and its vicinity bore, over vast areas, a reddish
hue, and great patches of beautiful green mosses broke its monotony,
while here and there the protruding sandstone threw in a rich shading of
brown. So God paints the dreariest lands in colors of great beauty, and
scatters over them profusely at times the richest sunlit gems.
On the sixth of August they passed the frowning headland of Smith's
Sound, known as Cape Alexander. It stands like the charred trunk and
limbs of some mighty oak, at the entrance of an unexplored, gloomy
forest, seen in the murky darkness. Cape Alexander seemed a mighty
sentinel of evil purpose, toward all who dared pass to the mysterious
regions beyond. It inspired the sailors with superstitious fear, and
admonished their officers that eternal vigilance must be the price of
safety in the waters beyond.
Arriving at Littleton Island, our explorers built a monument of stones
as a conspicuous object from the sea, surmounted by the stripes and
stars, put under it a record of their voyage thus far, and, two miles
north and east, upon the mainland, deposited a metallic life-boat, with
provisions and various stores. These were for a resort in case of
accident in their further progress.
While making this deposit they discovered the remains of Esquimo huts,
and graves of some of their former occupants. The dead had been buried
in a sitting posture, their knees drawn close to their bodies; the few
simple implements belonging to the deceased were buried with them. In
one grave was a child's toy spear. So even the rude Esquimo child has
its toys, and, no doubt, the mother looks upon its trinkets, as she lays
them beside its dead body, with tearful interest.
Soon after making these deposits in the life-boat, the "Advance," while
making a vigorous struggle with the broken ice, was borne into a
land-locked inlet, which Dr. Kane called Refuge Harbor. It was rather a
cosy place for an arctic shore, and in it the explorers waited for the
movement of the ice.
While here they were much annoyed by their dogs, fifty in number. Two
bears had been shot, which were the only game which had been taken for
them. They were now on short allowance, and were as ravenous as wolves.
They gulped down almost any thing which could go down their throats,
even devouring at one time a part of a feather-bed. Dr. Kane's specimens
of natural history fared hard at their jaws. He happened once to set
down in their way two nests of large sea-fowl. They were filled with
feathers, filth, moss and pebbles--a full peck, but the dogs made a rush
for them and gobbled down the whole. There were plenty of wolves not far
from the brig, on which they delighted to feed. But the hunters had no
luck in trying to take them. Rifle balls glanced from their thick hides
as if they had been peas from a toy gun. They needed the Esquimo harpoon
and the Esquimo skill. But fortunately a dead narwhal, or sea-unicorn,
was found. Under its soothing influence, when fed out to them, the dogs
became more quiet.
After remaining a few days at Refuge Harbor, a desperate push was made
to get the vessel farther north and east. For twelve days they manfully
battled with the ice, and made forty miles. This brought them to the
bottom of a broad shallow bay, which they named Force Bay. Here they
fastened the brig to a shelving, rocky ledge near the shore.
CHAPTER II.
ANCHORED AT LAST.
ON Wednesday, August seventeenth, the heralds of a storm from the South
reached the brig. They made their announcement by hurling against her
sides some heavy floe-pieces. Understanding this hint of what was
coming, the explorers clung to their rocky breakwater by three heavy
hawsers. Louder and louder roared the blast, and more fiercely crashed
the ice which it hurled against the ledge. At midnight one of the
cables, the smaller of the three, parted, and the storm seemed to shout
its triumph at this success as it assailed the writhing vessel more
vigorously. But the ledge broke the power in a measure of the wind and
ice, and was, indeed, a godsend to the imperiled men, so they put it
down on their chart as Godsend Ledge.
The next day the huge, human-faced walrus came quite near the brig in
great numbers, shaking their grim, dripping fronts. The dovekies, more
cheerful visitors, scud past toward the land. Both walrus and fowls
proclaimed in their way the terribleness of the increasing tempest. The
place of the broken hawser had been supplied, and the worried craft
strained away at three strong lines which held on bravely. Everything on
board was stowed away, or lashed securely, which could invite an
assault by the wind.
Saturday, late in the afternoon, Dr. Kane, wet, and weary with watching,
went below and threw himself for rest and warmth into his berth.
Scarcely had he done this before a sharp, loud twang brought him to his
feet. One of the six-inch hawsers had parted; its sound had scarcely
been lost in the uproar before a sharp and shrill "twang! twang!"
announced the snapping of the whale line. The brig now clung to the
ledge by a single cable--a new ten-inch manilla line, which held on
grandly. The mate came waddling down into the cabin as the doctor was
drawing on his last article of clothing to go on deck. "Captain Kane,"
he exclaimed, "she wont hold much longer; it's blowing the devil
himself."
All hands now gathered about the brave manilla line on which their fate
seemed to depend. Its deep Eolian chant mingled solemnly with the rattle
of the rigging and the moaning of the shrouds, and died away in the
tumult of the conflicting wind and sea. The sailors were loud in its
praises as they watched it with bated breath. It was singing its death
song, for, with the noise of a shotted gun, and a wreath of smoke, it
gave way, and out plunged the brig into the rushing current of the
tempest-tossed ice.
Two hours of hard and skillful labor were bestowed on the vessel to get
her back to the ledge; first by beating, or trying to do so, up into the
wind; and then by warping along the edge of the solid floe, but all in
vain. A light sail was then set, that they might keep command of the
helm, and away they scud through a tortuous lead filled with heavy,
broken ice.
At seven o'clock on Sunday morning the vessel was heading, under full
way, upon huge masses of ice. The heaviest anchor was thrown out to stay
her speed. But the ice-torrent so crowded upon the poor craft that a
buoy was hastily fastened to the chain, and it was slipped, and away
went "the best bower," the sailor's trusted friend in such dangers.
The vessel now went banging and scraping against the floes, one of which
was forty feet thick, and many of which were thirty feet. These
collisions smashed in her bulwarks, and covered her deck with icy
fragments. Yet the plucky little brig returned to the conflict after
every blow with only surface wounds.
These assaults failing to turn back or to destroy the little invading
stranger, the arctic warriors now brought into the field their mightiest
champions. Not far ahead, and apparently closing the lead, was a whole
battalion of icebergs. It was an unequal light, and down upon them, with
unwilling haste, came the "Advance." As it approached it was seen that a
narrow line of clear water ran between the bergs and the solid, high
wall of the floe. Into this the vessel shot, with the high wind directly
after it. The sailors, caps in hand, were almost ready to send to the
baffled enemy a shout of triumph, when the wind died away into a lull,
which amounted, for a moment, to almost a dead calm. But on that moment
the fate of the expedition appeared to hang. The enemy saw his
opportunity and began to close up. There seemed no possible escape for
the brig. On one side was the steep ice-wall of the floe, on which there
could be no warping. On the other were the slowly but steadily advancing
bergs in a compact line. Just in time, the anxious, waiting, and almost
breathless crew, hailed their deliverer. It was a broad, low,
platform-shaped berg, over which the water washed. It came sailing
swiftly by, and into it they planted an ice-anchor attached to a tow
line. Away galloped their crystal racer, outrunning the "pale horse"
which followed them! So narrow became the channel between the bergs and
floe e'er they reached the open water beyond, that the yards had to be
"squared" to prevent them from being carried away, and the boats
suspended over the sides were taken on deck to prevent them from being
crushed. They came round under the lee of a great berg, making the enemy
of a moment ago their protector now. Dr. Kane says: "Never did
heart-tried men acknowledge with greater gratitude their merciful
deliverance from a wretched death."
But the fight was not over. A sudden flaw puffed the "Advance" from its
hiding-place, and drove it again into the drifting ice along the edge of
the solid floe. Once she was lifted high in the air on the crest of a
great wave, and, as it slipped from under her, she came down with
tremendous force against the floe. The masts quivered like reeds in the
wind, and the poor craft groaned like a struck bullock.
At last they reached a little pond of water near the shore. They had
drifted since morning across Force Bay, ten miles. A berg, with
pretended friendliness, came and anchored between the brig and the
storm. The situation seemed to warrant a little rest, and the men went
below and threw themselves into their bunks. Dr. Kane was yet on deck,
distrusting the treacherous ice. Scarcely had the men begun to sleep
before the vessel received a thump and a jerk upward. All hands were
instantly on deck. Great ice-tables, twenty feet thick, crowding forward
from the shore side with a force as from a sliding mountain, pressed the
vessel against the shore front of the berg; had this been a
perpendicular wall, no wood and iron wrought into a vessel could have
prevented a general crash. But the unseen Hand was apparent again. The
berg was sloping, and up its inclined plane the vessel went, in
successive jerks. The men leaped upon the ice to await the result.
Personal effects, such as could be carried and were deemed
indispensable, were in readiness in the cabin for leave-taking. Sledge
equipments and camping conveniences were put in order and placed at
hand. The explorers had experienced a midnight assault, and were ready
for the flight. But Dr. Kane bears warm testimony concerning the
coolness and self-possession of every man. While awaiting the fate of
the vessel, on which hung their own fate also, not a sound was heard
save the roaring of the wind, the crashing ice, and the groaning of the
vessel's timbers, as she received shock after shock, and mounted
steadily up the ice-mountain. Having attained a cradle high and dry
above the sea, the brig rested there several hours. Finally she quietly
settled down into her old position among the ice rubbish of the sea.
When the escape was apparent, there was for a moment a deep-breathing
silence among the men, before the rapturous outburst of joyful
congratulation.
While this last thrilling incident had been transpiring, four of the men
were missing. They had gone upon the ice some hours before to carry out
a warp, and had been carried away on an ice-raft. When the morning came,
and the vessel grounded in a safe place, a rescue party was sent out,
who soon returned with them. A little rest was now obtained by all.
CHAPTER III.
THRILLING INCIDENTS.
AFTER a brief rest our explorers continued their voyage. They warped the
vessel round the cape near which they found shelter, into a bay which
opened to the north and west. Along the shore of this bay they toiled
for several days and reached its head. It seemed impossible to go
farther, for the ice was already thick and the winter at hand. A
majority of the officers, in view of these facts, advised a return
south. But Dr. Kane thought they might winter where they were, or
further north if the vessel could be pushed through the ice, and their
explorations be made with dog-sledges. To learn more fully the
practicability of his view he planned a boat excursion. While this was
in contemplation an incident came near ending all further progress of
the expedition. The brig grounded in the night, and was left suddenly by
the receding tide on her beam ends. The stove in the cabin, which was
full of burning coal, upset and put the cabin in a blaze. It was choked
by a pilot-cloth overcoat until water could be brought. No other harm
was done than the loss of the coat and a big scare.
About the first of September the doctor and seven volunteers started in
the boat "Forlorn Hope" to see the more northern shore-line. The boat
was abandoned at the end of twenty-four hours, all the water having
turned to ice, and the party tramped many a weary mile, carrying their
food and a few other necessary things. Dr. Kane attained an elevation of
eleven hundred feet, from which, with his telescope, he looked north
beyond the eightieth degree of latitude, and through a wide extent of
country east and west. From this observation he decided that sledging
with dogs into and beyond this region was practicable. This had seemed
doubtful before. He therefore returned with the decision to put the
"Advance" into winter-quarters immediately.
A few facts interesting to the scientific were learned on this
excursion. A skeleton of a musk ox was found, showing they had been, at
no distant time, visitors to this coast. Additions were made to their
flowering plants, and up to this date twenty-two varieties had been
found.
The brig was now drawn in between two islands, and the mooring lines
carried out. The explorers were in a sheltered, and, as to the ice, safe
winter home. They called it Rensselaer Harbor. Near them an iceberg had
anchored as if to watch their movements. A fresh-water pond on the
upland promised them its precious treasure if they would _cut_ for it.
An island a few rods distant they named Butler Island, and on this they
built a store-house. A canal was cut from the brig to this island, and
kept open by renewed cutting every morning. They then run the boat
through this canal, thus transferring the stores from the hold to the
store-house.
While one party was thus engaged, others were equally busy in other
directions. The scientific corps selected a small island which they
called Fern Rock, and put up a rude "observatory," from which not only
the stars were to be watched, but the weather, the meteors, and the
electrical currents were to be noted.
While this outside work was going on Dr. Kane was taxing his ingenuity
to arrange the brig, now made roomy by the removal of the stores, so as
to have it combine the greatest convenience, warmth, and healthfulness.
A roof was put over the upper deck, which was then made to answer for a
promenade deck for pleasure and health.
Even the wolfish Esquimo dogs were remembered in this general planning.
A nice dog house, cozy and near, was made for them on Butler Island. But
the dogs had notions of their own about their quarters. Though so savage
at all times as to be willing to eat their masters if not kept in abject
fear, yet they refused to sleep out of the sound of their voices. They
would leave their comfortable quarters on the island and huddle together
in the snow, exposed to the severest cold, to be within the sound of
human voices. So they had to be indulged with kennels on deck.
While these matters were being attended to the hunters scoured the
country to learn what the prospect was for game. They extended their
excursions ninety miles, and returned with a report not very
encouraging. They saw a few reindeer, and numerous hares and rabbits. It
was plain that hunting would not make large returns.
The winter came on with its shroud of darkness. On the tenth of
September the sun made but a short circuit above the horizon before it
disappeared again. In one month it would cease to show its disk above
the surrounding hills; then would come a midday twilight for a few days,
followed by nearly a hundred days of darkness in which no man could
work. Even now, at noon, the stars glowed brightly in the heavens,
though but few of them were the familiar stars of the home sky.
While the work of which we have spoken was going on Dr. Kane's thoughts
were much upon the necessity of establishing, before the winter nights
fully set in, provision depots at given distances northward for at least
sixty miles. These would be necessary for a good start in the early
spring of a dog-sledge journey North Poleward. For the spring work the
Newfoundland dogs, of which he had ten, were in daily training.
Harnessed to a small, strong, beautifully made sledge called "Little
Willie," the doctor drove his team around the brig in gallant style.
These Newfoundlanders were a dependence for heavy draught. The Esquimo
dogs were in reserve for the long, perilous raids of the earnest
exploration into darkness and over hummocks.
While all this busy preparation was going on the morning and evening
prayers were strictly maintained, bringing with them a soothing
assurance of the Divine care.
On the twentieth of September the provision deposit party started on an
experimental journey. It consisted of seven men in all, M'Gary and
Bonsall officers. They carried about fourteen hundred pounds of mixed
stores for the "cairns." They took these stores upon the strong,
thorough-built sledge "Faith," and drew it themselves, by a harness for
each man, consisting of a "rue-raddy," or shoulder-belt, and track-line.
The men then generously did a service they would in future have the dogs
do.
While this party was gone the home work went on, enlivened by several
incidents involving the most appalling dangers, yet not without some
comic elements.
The first was occasioned by rats. What right these creatures had in the
expedition is not apparent; nor do we see what motive impelled them to
come at all. If it was a mere love of adventure, they, as do most
adventurers, found that the results hardly paid the cost. They were
voted a nuisance, but how to abate it was a difficult question. The
first experiment consisted of a removal of the men to a camp on deck for
a night, and a fumigation below, where the rats remained, of a vile
compound of brimstone, burnt leather, and arsenic. But the rats survived
it bravely.
The next experiment was with carbonic acid gas. This proved a weapon
dangerous to handle. Dr. Hays burnt a quantity of charcoal, and the
hatches were shut down after starting three stoves.
The gas generated below rapidly, and nobody was expected, of course, to
go where it was. But the French cook, Pierre Schubert, thinking his soup
needed seasoning, stole into the cook room. He was discerned by Morton,
staggering in the dark; and, at the risk of his own life, he sprung to
his relief, and both reached the deck bewildered, the cook entirely
insensible.
Soon after this Dr. Kane thought he smelt a strange odor. The hatches
were removed and he went below. After a short tour between decks, he was
passing the door which led to the carpenter's room, and he was amazed to
see three feet of the deck near it a glowing fire. Beating a hasty
retreat, he fell senseless to the floor at the foot of the stairs which
led to the upper deck. The situation was critical. A puff of air might
envelope the hold in flames, with the doctor an easy victim; but the
divine Hand still covered him. Mr. Brooks, reaching down, drew him out.
Coming to the air the doctor recovered immediately and communicated his
startling discovery quietly to those only near him. Water was passed up
from the "fire-hole" along side, kept open for just such emergencies.
Dr. Kane and Ohlsen went below, water was dashed on, and they were safe.
The dead bodies of twenty-eight rats were the net result of this
onslaught with carbonic acid gas. But they were but few among so many.
The rat army was yet in fighting order.
The other incident was less serious, yet quite on the verge of fatal
consequences. Several Esquimo dogs became the mothers of nice little
families. Now these young folks in the kennels were considered intruders
by the master of the vessel--rather hard on them since they were not to
blame in the matter. But it happens with dogs as with the human race,
that they sometimes suffer without fault of their own. Six puppies were
thrown overboard; two died for the good their skins might do as mittens;
and, alas! seven died more dreadful deaths--they were eaten by their
mammas! Whether these puppy calamities bore heavily upon the brains of
the dog mothers or not we cannot tell, but the fact recorded is that one
of them went distracted. She walked up and down the deck with a drooping
head and staggering gait. Finally she snapped at Petersen, foamed at the
mouth, and fell at his feet. "She is mad!" exclaimed Petersen.
"Hydrophobia!" was the dreadful cry which passed about the deck. Dr.
Kane ran for his gun. He was not a moment too soon in reappearing with
it. The dog had recommenced her running and snapping at those near. The
Newfoundland dogs were not out of her reach, and the hatches leading
below were open. But a well-directed shot ended at once her life and the
danger.
It was now the tenth of October. The sun, though just appearing above
the horizon to the surrounding country, only sparkled along the edge of
the hill-tops to the gazers from the "Advance." The depot party had been
gone twenty days, and Dr. Kane was beginning to feel anxious about
them. He harnessed four of his best Newfoundlanders into the "Little
Willie," and, accompanied by John Blake, started in search of them.
For a little time the party progressed very well. But after awhile the
new ice between the broken floes was found thin. The seams thus frozen
had to be leaped. Sometimes they were wide, and the dogs in their
attempts to spring across broke in. Three times in less than as many
hours one had received an arctic bath. The men trotted along side,
leaping, walking, running, and shouting to the dogs. Extended and
exhausting diversions were made to avoid impassable chasms or too steep
hummocks. Thus four days had passed in a fruitless search for the
missing ones.
On the morning of the fifth day, about two hours before the transient
sun showed his glowing disk, Dr. Kane climbed an iceberg to get a sight
of the road ahead. In the dim distance on the snow a black spot was
seen. Is it a bear? No, it now stretches out into a dark line. It is the
sledge party! They see their leader's tent by the edge of a
thinly-frozen lead; into this they launch their boat and come on,
singing as they come. The doctor, in breathless suspense, waits until
they draw near, and counts them: one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven! They are all safe! Three cheers go up from both parties, followed
by hearty hand-shaking and congratulations. The depot enterprise was a
success.
CHAPTER IV.
LOST AND RESCUED.
THE sun had disappeared, but the moon completed her circuit in the
heavens with great beauty. Her nearest approach to the horizon was
twenty-five degrees. For eight days after the return of the party to the
vessel it shone with almost unclouded brightness, as if to give them a
joyful welcome.
When November came our explorers were well settled in their
winter-quarters. They had made them by judicious ventilation and a
careful distribution of heat tolerably comfortable. Below decks they had
a uniform temperature of sixty-five degrees above zero, and under the
housing of the upper deck it never went below zero, while outside the
thermometer averaged twenty-five degrees minus.
While shut up in the darkness, relieved only by the light from the
sparkling stars and the glowing moon, the daily routine of the ship's'
duties were strictly performed. Each had his assigned work. The
monotonous meals came at the stated hour, and the bell noted the
changing watches. The morning and evening prayers, and the religious
observance of the Sabbath, were pleasant and profitable prompters to
serious thought. These became more and more needed as the inactive
season progressed. The continued darkness without, made dense often by
heavy clouds, wore upon the spirits of the men; besides, their light
within became less cheerful by the failure of the supply of oil. The
lamps refused to burn poor lard, and muddy corks and wads of cotton
floating as tapers in saucers filled with it gave but a lurid light and
emitted an offensive smoke and odor. It would be strange, indeed, if in
this ice-imprisoned company there were no homesick ones, however bravely
the feeling might be suppressed. Hans, the Esquimo, at one time packed
his clothes and shouldered his rifle to bid the brig's company good-bye.
A desperate, lone journey homeward he would have had of it! It was
whispered that in addition to his drawings to his mother there was at
Fiskernes a lady-love. He, however, was persuaded to stay on shipboard,
and Dr. Kane gave him for his sickness a dose of salts and promotion.
They worked well, and he seems to have been very contented afterward.
The usual resort was had to dramatic performances, fancy balls, and the
publication of a paper called the "Ice-blink." A favorite sport was the
"fox-chase," in which each sailor in turn led off as fox in a run round
the upper deck, followed by the rest in chase. Dr. Kane offered a
Guernsey shirt as a prize to the man who held out the longest in the
chase. William Godfrey sustained the chase for fourteen minutes, and
_wore_ off the shirt.
November twenty-seventh the commander sent out a volunteer party under
Bonsall to see if the Esquimo had returned to the huts which had been
seen in the fall. The darkness at noonday was too great for reading, and
the cold was terrible. The party returned after one night's encamping,
the sledge having broken, and the tent and luggage being left behind. A
few days after Morton started alone to recover the lost articles. In two
days and a half he returned bringing every thing. He tramped in that
time, with the cold forty degrees below zero, sixty-two miles, making
only three halts. The darkness during the time was such that a hummock
of ice fifty paces ahead could hardly be seen.
The effect of the darkness on the dogs was very marked, but so long as
there was any sledging for them to do their spirits kept up. One of the
Newfoundlands, named Grim, was a character. He was noted for a profound
appreciation of his dinner, of which he never had enough, for a
disrelish for work, and a remarkable knowledge of the arts of hypocrisy.
His cunning fawning, and the beseeching wink of his eye, procured for
him warm quarters in the deck-house, and a bed on the captain's fur
coat, while his fellows had to be content with their kennel. Though Grim
thus proved his knowledge of the best place at the dog-table, and the
best bits it afforded, as well as the best place to sleep, he never
could understand a call to the sledge-harness. He always happened at
such times to be out of the way. Once, when the dog-team was about to
start, he was found hid in a barrel, and was bid join the party. But
Grim was equal to the occasion. He went limping across the deck, as much
as to say, Would you have a poor lame dog go? The joke was so cute that
he was allowed to remain at home, and after that he became suddenly lame
as soon as a movement toward the sledges was made. Grim thus attained
the usual success of shallow-brained, flattering hypocrisy--many favors
and universal contempt. His end, too, was very befitting his life. His
master, thinking he was becoming too fat in his lazy dignity, commanded
him to join a sledge party. Grown presumptuous by indulgence, he
refused, and showed his teeth, besides pleading lameness. But the order
was peremptory this time, and a rope was put round his body and attached
to the sledge, and he was made to trot after his faithful fellows. At
the first halt he contrived to break the rope, and, carrying a few feet
of it dragging after him, started in the darkness for the ship. Not
having come home when the party returned, search was made for him with
lanterns, as it was thought the rope might have caught and detained him
in the hummock. His tracks were found not far from the vessel, and then
they led away to the shore. Old Grim was never seen again.
Grim could be spared, but the explorers were much alarmed soon after his
death by a strange disease among the whole pack. They were at times
frenzied, and then became stupid. They were taken below, nursed, tended,
and doctored with anxiety and care, for on them much depended. But all
died except six. Their death threw a cloud over the prospect of further
successful exploration.
But a still darker event threatened the explorers. Every man was more or
less touched with the scurvy, except two, and some were prostrate. It
was with great joy, therefore, that, on the twenty-first of January,
1854, they saw the orange-colored tints of the sun faintly tracing the
top of the distant hills. Daylight and game would be important medicines
for the sick. A month later and Dr. Kane made a long walk, and a hard
scramble up a projecting crag of a headland of the bay, and bathed in
his welcome rays. It was about a week later before he was seen from the
deck of the "Advance."
A very busy company now was that on board the brig, making preparations
for spring work. The carpenter was making and mending sledges; the
tinker making and mending cooking apparatus for the journeys; many busy
hands were at work on the furs and blankets for a complete renewed
outfit for wearing and sleeping. But though March had come, the average
cold was greater than at any time before. Still a sledge party was in
readiness to start by the middle of the month, to carry provisions for a
new deposit beyond those made in the fall. The party consisted of eight
men. A new sledge had been made, smaller than the "Faith," and adapted
to the reduced dog-team. To this the load was lashed, a light boat
being, placed on top. The men harnessed in but could hardly start it.
The boat was then removed and two hundred pounds of the load, and thus
relieved away they went, cheered by the hearty "God bless you!" of their
shipmates. Dr. Kane had added to their provisions by the way, as an
expression of good-will, the whole of his brother's "great wedding
cake."
But as they started their ever watchful commander thought he saw more
good-will than ability to draw the load, and a suspicion, too, impressed
him that the new sledge was not all right. So he followed, and found
them in camp only five miles away. He said nothing about any new orders
for the morning, laughed at the rueful faces of some of them, and heard
Petersen's defense of _his_ new sledge as the best which could be made.
He saw them all tucked away in their buffaloes, and returned to the
brig. We have before referred to a sledge called the "Faith." It was
built by Dr. Kane's order, after an English pattern, except that the
runners were made lower and wider. It had been thought too large for the
present party. The doctor now called up all his remaining men. The
"Faith" was put on deck, her runners polished, lashings, a canvas
covering, and track-lines were adjusted to her. By one o'clock that
night the discarded two hundred pounds of provisions and the boat were
lashed on, and away the men went for their sleeping comrades. They were
still sound asleep when the "Faith" arrived. The load of the new boat
was quietly placed upon it, all put in traveling order, and it was
started off on an experimental trip with five men. The success was
perfect. The sleepers were then awakened, and all were delighted at the
easier draught of the heavier load. Dr. Kane and his party returned to
the vessel with the discarded sledge.
Ten days slipped away, and no tidings from the depot party. The work of
clearing up the ship, and putting the finishing touch to the preparation
for the distant northern excursion, which was to crown the efforts of
the expedition, and unlock, it was hoped, at last, some of the secrets
of the North Pole, progressed daily. At midnight of the eleventh day a
sudden tramp was heard on deck, and immediately Sontag, Ohlsen, and
Petersen entered the cabin. Their sudden coming was not so startling as
their woe-begone, bewildered looks. It was with difficulty that they
made their sad tale known. Brooks, Baker, Wilson, and Schubert were all
lying on the ice, disabled, with Irish Tom Hickey, who alone was able to
minister to their wants. The escaped party had come, at the peril of
their own lives, to get aid. They had evidently come a long distance,
but how far, and where they had left the suffering ones, they could not
tell, nor were they in a condition to be questioned.
While the urgent necessities of the new comers were being attended to,
Dr. Kane and others were getting ready the "Little Willie," with a
buffalo cover, a small tent, and a package of prepared meat called
pemmican. Ohlsen seemed to have his senses more than the others, though
he was sinking with exhaustion, having been fifty hours without rest.
Dr. Kane feeling that he _must_ have a guide or fail to find the lost
ones, Ohlsen was put in a fur bag, his legs wrapped up in dog-skins and
eider down, and then he was strapped on the sledge.
Off dashed the rescue party, nine men besides their commander, carrying
only the clothes on their backs. The cold was seventy-eight degrees
below the freezing point.
Guided by icebergs of colossal size, they hurried across the bay, and
traveled sixteen hours with some certainty that they were on the right
track. They then began to lose their way. Ohlsen, utterly exhausted, had
fallen asleep, and when awakened was plainly bewildered. He could tell
nothing about the way, nor the position of the lost ones. He had before
said that it was drifting heavily round them when they were left. The
situation of the rescue party was becoming critical, and the chance of
helping the lost seemed small indeed; they might be anywhere within
forty miles.
Thus situated Dr. Kane moved on ahead, and clambered up some ice-piles
and found himself upon a long, level floe. Thinking the provision party
might have been attracted by this as a place to camp, he determined to
examine it carefully. He gave orders to liberate Ohlsen, now just able
to walk, from his fur bag, and to pitch the tent; then leaving tent,
sledge, and every thing behind, except a small allowance of food taken
by each man, he commanded the men to proceed across the floe at a good
distance from each other. All obeyed cheerfully and promptly, and moved
off at a lively step to keep from freezing; yet somehow, either from a
sense of loneliness, or involuntarily, there was a constant tendency of
the men to huddle together. Exhaustion and cold told fearfully upon
them; the stoutest were seized with trembling fits and short breath, and
Dr. Kane fell twice fainting on the snow. They had now been eighteen
hours out without food or rest, and the darkness of their situation
seemed to have no ray of light, when Hans shouted that he thought he saw
a sledge track. Hardly daring to believe that their senses did not
deceive them, they traced it until footsteps were apparent; following
these with religious care they came after awhile in sight of a small
American flag fluttering from a hummock. Lower down they espied a little
Masonic banner hanging from a tent pole barely above the drift. It was
the camp of the lost ones! It was found after an unfaltering march of
twenty-one hours. The little tent was nearly covered by the drift.
Dr. Kane was the last to come up, and when he reached the tent his men
were standing in solemn silence upon each side of it. With great
kindness and delicacy of feeling they intimated their wish that he
should be the first to go in.
He lifted the canvas and crawled in, and in the darkness felt for the
poor fellows, who were stretched upon their backs. A burst of welcome
within was answered by a joyful shout without. "We expected you," said
one, embracing the doctor; "we _knew_ you would come!" For the moment
all perils, hunger, and exhaustion were forgotten amid the
congratulations and gratitude.
The company now numbered fifteen, the cold was intense, but one half the
number had to keep stirring outside while the rest crowded into the
little tent to sleep. Each took a turn of two hours, and then
preparations were made to start homeward.
They took the tent, furs for the rescued party, and food for fifty
hours, and abandoned every thing else. The tent was folded and laid on
the sledge, a bed was then made of eight buffalo skins, the sick, having
their limbs carefully sewed up in reindeer skins, were then put in a
reclining position on the bed, and other furs and blanket bags thrown
around them. The whole was lashed together, allowing only a breathing
place opposite the mouth. This _embalming_ of the sufferers, and getting
them a good meal, cost four hours of exposure in a cold that had become
fifty-five degrees minus. Most of the rescuers had their fingers nipped
by the frost.
When all was ready the whole company united in a short prayer.
Now commenced the fearful journey. The sledge and its load weighed
eleven hundred pounds. The hummocks were many; some of them were high,
and long deviations round them must be made; some which they climbed
over, lifting the sledge after them, were crossed by narrow chasms
filled with light snow--fearful traps into which if one fell his death
was almost certain. Across these the sledge was drawn, some of them
being too wide for it to bridge them, so it had to be sustained by the
rope, and steadily too, for the sick could not bear to be lashed so
tight as not to be liable to roll off, and the load was top-heavy.
In spite of these obstacles all went bravely for six hours. The
abandoned tent was nine miles ahead, the sledge on which life depended
bravely bore every strain, the new floe was gained, and the traveling
improved, so that good hope was entertained that the tent, its covert
and rest, would be gained. Just then a strange feeling came over nearly
the whole party. Some begged the privilege of sleeping. They were not
cold, they said; they did not mind the wind now; all they wanted was a
little sleep. Others dropped on the snow and refused to get up. One
stood bolt upright, and, with closed eyes, could not be made to speak.
The commander boxed, jeered, argued, and reprimanded his men to no
purpose. A halt was made and the tent pitched. No fire could be
obtained, for nobody's fingers were limber enough to strike fire, so no
food or water could be had.
Leaving the company in charge of M'Gary, with orders to come on after
four hours' rest, Dr. Kane and Godfrey went forward to the tent to get
ready a fire and cooked food. They reached the tent in a strange sort of
stupor. They remembered nothing only that a bear trotted leisurely
ahead of them, stopping once to tear a jumper to pieces which one of the
men had dropped the day before, and pausing to toss the tent
contemptuously aside. They set it up with difficulty, crept into their
fur bags, and slept intensely for three hours. They then arose,
succeeded in lighting the cooking lamp, and had a steaming soup ready
when the rest arrived.
Refreshed with food and rest, the feeble re-adjusted, they commenced the
home stretch. Once the old sleepiness came over them, and they in turn
slept three minutes by the watch and were benefited. They all reached
the brig at one o'clock P.M. All were more or less delirious when they
arrived, and could remember nothing of what had happened on the way,
with slight exception. The rescue party had been out seventy-two hours;
of this time only eight hours were spent in halting. They had traveled
about eighty-five miles, most of the distance dragging their sledge.
Dr. Hayes took the sick in hand. Two lost one or more toes; and two,
Jefferson Baker, a boyhood playfellow of Dr. Kane, and Pierre Schubert,
the French cook, died.
CHAPTER V.
MORE HEROIC EXCURSIONS.
ON the seventh of April, a week after the return of the party just
noted, our explorers were startled by shouts from the shore. Dark
figures were seen standing along the edges of the land ice, or running
to and fro in wild excitement. It was not difficult to make them out as
a company of Esquimo. Dr. Kane, seeing by their wild gesticulations that
they were unarmed, walked out and beckoned to a brawny savage, who
seemed to be a leader, to approach. He understood the sign, and came
forward without fear. He was full a head taller than the doctor, and his
limbs seemed to have the strength of those of the bear. He was dressed
with a fox skin, hooded jumper, white bear-skin trousers, and bear-skin
boots tipped with the claws. Though he had evidently never before seen a
white man, he manifested no fear. His followers soon crowded around and
began to use great freedom, showing an inclination to rush on board the
ship. This they were made to understand they must not do. Petersen came
out and acted as interpreter, and matters went on more smoothly. The
leader, whose name was Metek, was taken on board, while the rest
remained on the ice. They brought up from behind the floes fifty-six
dogs and their sledges, and, thrusting a spear into the ice, picketed
them about the vessel.
While Dr. Kane and Metek were having their interview in the cabin, word
was sent out that others might come on board. Nine or ten mounted the
ladder with boisterous shouts, though ignorant of how Metek had fared.
They went every-where, handled every thing, talked and laughed
incessantly, and stole whatever they could. Finally all hands had to be
mustered, and restraint laid upon the Esquimo to keep them within due
bounds. This they took good naturedly; ran out and in the vessel, ate,
and finally _sat_ down like tired children, their heads drooping upon
their breasts, and slept, snoring the while most famously.
In the morning, before they departed, the commander assembled them on
deck for an official interview. He enlarged upon his wonderful qualities
as a chief, and the great benefits to his visitors of his friendship. He
then entered into a treaty with them, the terms of which were very few
and simple, that it might be understood, and the benefits mutual, that
it might be kept. He then showed his beneficence by buying all their
spare walrus meat and four dogs, enriching them in compensation with a
few needles, beads, and treasures of old cask staves. The Esquimo were
jubilant. They voted, in their way, Dr. Kane a great captain, promised
vociferously to return in a few days with plenty of walrus meat, and
loan their dogs and sledges for the great northern journey, all of which
they never remembered to do.
When the visitors had gone, it was ascertained that an ax, a saw, and
some knives, had gone with them. Besides, the store-house on Butler
Island had been entered, and a careful survey of the vicinity revealed
the fact that a train of sledges were slyly waiting behind some distant
hummocks for a freight of its treasures.
All this had a hard look for friendly relations with the Esquimo; but
our explorers felt that conciliation, with quiet firmness, was their
best policy. The savages could do their sledge excursions much harm,
and, if they would, could greatly aid them.
The next day there came to the vessel five natives--two old men, a
middle aged man, and two awkward boys. They were treated with marked
kindness, some presents were given them, but they were told that no
Esquimo would in future be admitted to the brig until every stolen
article was restored. They were overjoyed at the gifts, and departed,
lifting up their hands in holy horror on the mention of theft; yet in
passing round Butler Island they bore away a coal barrel. M'Gary was
watching them, and he hastened their departure by a charge of fine shot.
Notwithstanding all this, one of the old men, known afterward as
Shung-hu, made a circuit round the hummocks, and came upon an
India-rubber boat which had been left upon the floe, and cut it in
pieces and carried off the wood of the frame-work.
Soon after this a sprightly youth, good-looking, with a fine dog team,
drove up to the vessel in open day. When asked his name, he replied
promptly, "Myouk I am." He spoke freely of his place of residence and
people, but when asked about the stolen articles he affected great
ignorance. Dr. Kane ordered him to be confined in the hold. He took this
very hard, at first refusing food. He soon after began to sing in a
dolorous strain, then to talk and cry, and then to sing again. The
hearts of his captors were made quite tender toward him, and when in the
morning it was found that the prisoner had lifted the hatches and fled,
taking his dogs with him, even the commander secretly rejoiced.
April twenty-fifth, M'Gary and five men started with the sledge "Faith,"
on another exploring excursion. They took a small stock only of
provisions, depending on the supply depots which had been made in the
fall. The plan this time was, to follow the eastern coast line a while,
which run north and west, cross over Smith Sound to the American side,
where it was hoped smooth ice would be found; and once on such a
highway, they anticipated that the Polar Sea would greet their delighted
vision, and may be speak to them of the fate of the lost Franklin.
Two days after M'Gary's party left, Dr. Kane and Godfrey followed with
the dog sledge loaded with additional comforts for the journey, the men
trotting by its side. Only three dogs remained of the original supplies,
which, harnessed with the four purchased of the Esquimo, made a
tolerable team.
Ten men, four in health and six invalids, were left to keep the vessel.
Orders were left by the commander to treat the Esquimo, should they come
again, with fairness and conciliation, but if necessity demanded to use
fire arms, but to waste no powder or shot. The credit of the gun must be
sustained as the bearer of certain death to the white man's enemies.
Dr. Kane and his companions overtook the advanced party in two days.
They pushed forward together with tolerable success for four days more,
when they all became involved in deep snow-drifts. The dogs floundered
about nearly suffocated, and unable to draw the sledge. The men were
compelled to take the load on their backs, and kick a path for the dogs
to follow. In the midst of these toils the scurvy appeared among the
men, and some of the strongest were ready to yield the conflict
altogether. The next day, May fourth, Dr. Kane, while taking an
observation for latitude fainted, and was obliged to ride on the sledge.
Still the party pushed on; but they soon met with an obstacle no heroism
could overcome. They were without food for further journeying! The bears
had destroyed their carefully deposited stores. They had removed stones
which had required the full strength of three men to lift. They had
broken the iron meat casks into small pieces. An alcohol cask, which had
cost Dr. Kane a special journey in the late fall to deposit, was so
completely crushed that a whole stave could not be found.
On the fifth of May Dr. Kane became delirious, and was lashed to the
sledge, while his brave, though nearly fainting, men took the back
track. They arrived at the brig in nine days, and their commander was
borne to his berth, where he lay for many days, between life and death,
with the scurvy and typhoid fever. Thus closed another effort to unlock
the secrets of the extreme polar region.
Hans made himself exceedingly useful at this time. He was promoted to
the post of hunter, and excused from all other duties; he was besides
promised presents to his lady-love on reaching his home at Fiskernaes.
He brought in two deer, the first taken, on the day of this special
appointment. The little snow-birds had come, of which he shot many. The
seal, too, were abundant, and some of them were added to the fresh
provisions. These wonderfully improved those touched by the scurvy.
One day Hans was sent to hunt toward the Esquimo huts, that he might get
information concerning the nearness to the brig of clear water. He did
not come back that night, and Dr. Hays and Mr. Ohlsen were sent with the
dog-sledge to hunt him up. They found him lying on the ice about five
miles from the vessel, rolled up in his furs and sound asleep. At his
side lay a large seal, shot, as usual, in the head. He had dragged this
seal seven hours, and, getting weary, had made his simple camp and was
resting sweetly.
May twentieth, Dr. Hays and Godfrey started with the dog team, to make
another attempt to cross Smith Strait and reach, along the American
side, the unknown north. The doctor was a fresh man, not having been
with any previous party. The dogs were rested, well fed, and full of
wolfish energy. The second day he fortunately struck into a track free
from heavy ice, and made fifty miles! But this success was after the
arctic fashion, made to give bitterness to immediate failure. On the
third day they encountered hummocks, piled in long ridges across their
path; some of them were twenty feet high. Over some of these they
climbed, dragging after them both sledge and dogs. Long diversions were
made at other times, and their path became in this way so very tortuous
that in making ninety miles advance northward they traveled two hundred
and seventy miles!
Snow-blindness seized Dr. Hays in the midst of these toils. But, nothing
daunted, after short halts, in which his sight improved, he pushed on.
But Godfrey soon broke down, though one of the hardiest of explorers.
Their dogs, too, began to droop; the provisions were running low, and so
the homeward track was taken. Before they reached the vessel they were
obliged to lighten their load by throwing away fifty pounds weight of
furs, the heaviest of which had been used as sleeping bags.
This excursion resulted in valuable additions to the extreme northern
coast-line survey.
On the afternoon of June fourth, M'Gary, with four men, started on a
last desperate effort to push the survey, on the Greenland side, a
hundred miles farther, by which Dr. Kane thought the limits of the ice
in that direction might be reached. Morton, one of the company, was to
keep himself as fresh as possible, so that when the rest came to a final
halt he might be able to push on farther. Hans was kept at the vessel
until the tenth, four days later, when he started light with the
dog-sledge to join them. His part was to accompany Morton on the final
run.
The hunter of the vessel being gone, Dr. Kane, who was now much better,
took his rifle to try his skill at seal hunting. This animal is not
easily taken by unpracticed game seekers. He lies near the hole which he
keeps open in the ice, and at the slightest noise plunges out of sight.
Seeing one lying lazily in the sun, the doctor lay down and drew himself
along softly behind the little knobs of ice. It was a cold, tedious
process, but finally getting within a long rifle shot, the seal rolled
sluggishly to one side, raised his head, and strained his neck, as if
seeing something in an opposite direction. Just then the doctor saw with
surprise a rival hunter. A large bear lay, like himself, on his belly,
creeping stealthily toward the game. Here was a critical position. If he
shot the seal, the bear would probably have no scruples about taking it
off his hands, and, perhaps, by way of showing that might makes right,
take him before his rifle could be reloaded. While the doctor was
debating the matter the seal made another movement which stirred his
hunter blood, and he pulled the trigger. The cap only exploded. The
seal, alarmed, descended into the deep with a floundering splash; and
the bear, with a few vigorous leaps, stood, a disappointed hunter,
looking after him from the edge of the hole. Bruin and Dr. Kane were now
face to face. By all the rules of game-taking the bear should have
eaten the man; he was the stronger party, the gun was for the moment
useless, he was hungry, and had lost his dinner probably by the
intrusive coming of the stranger, and, as to running, there was no
danger of his escape in that way. But the bear magnanimously turned and
ran away. Not to be outdone in Courtesy, Dr. Kane turned and ran with
all his might in the opposite direction.
On the twenty-sixth, M'Gary, Bonsall, Hickey, and Riley returned. The
snow had almost made them blind; otherwise they were well. They had been
gone about three weeks, had made valuable surveys, and fully satisfied
the expectations of their commander. Hans caught up with them after two
weeks of heroic travel alone with his dogs and sledge. He and Morton
had, in accordance with the programme, pressed on farther northward.
The returned party had their adventure with a bear to tell. They had all
lain down to sleep in their tent after a wearisome day of travel. The
midnight hour had passed when Bonsall felt something scratching at the
snow near his head, and, starting up, ascertained that a huge bear was
making careful observations around the outside of the tent. He had, in
looking round, already observed, no doubt, the important fact that the
guns, and every thing like a defensive weapon, were left on the sledge
some distance off, though perhaps the importance to him of this fact he
did not appreciate. There was consternation, of course, in the camp, and
a council of war was called. It had hardly convened before bruin, as a
party concerned, thrust his head into the tent door. A volley of lucifer
matches was fired at him, and a paper torch was thrust into his face.
Without minding these discourteous acts, the bear deliberately sat down
and commenced eating a seal which had been shot the day before and
happened to be in his way. By the laws of arctic hospitality this should
have been considered fair by the tent's company, for strangers are
expected to come and go as they please, and eat what they find, not even
saying, "By your leave." But the stranger did not conform to the usage
of the country. Tom Hickey cut a hole in the back of the tent, seized a
boat-hook, which made one of its supporters, and attacked the enemy in
the rear. He turned on his assailant and received a well-aimed blow on
his nose, by which he was persuaded to retire beyond the sledge and
there to pause and consider what to do next. While the bear was thus in
council with himself, Hickey sprang forward, seized a rifle from the
sledge, almost under the nose of the enemy, and fell back upon his
companions. Bonsall took the deadly weapon and sent a ball through and
through the bear, and the disturber of the rest of our explorers
afforded them many bountiful repasts.
CHAPTER VI.
THE OPEN SEA.
MORTON and Hans returned to the brig on the tenth of July, after having
been on their separate exploration three weeks and a half. Their story
is full of thrilling incidents and important results.
The first day they made twenty-eight miles, and were greatly encouraged.
The next day the arctic enemies of exploration appeared on the field,
skirmishing with deep snow through which dogs and men had to wade. Next
came a compact host of icebergs. They were not the surface-worn,
dingy-looking specimens of Baffin Bay, but fresh productions from the
grand glacier near which they lay. Their color was bluish white, and
their outlines clearly and beautifully defined. Some were square, often
a quarter of a mile each side. Others were not less than a mile long,
and narrow. Now and then one of colossal size lifted its head far above
its fellows, like a grand observatory. Between these giant bergs were
crowded smaller ones of every imaginable size and form.
Through these our explorers had to pick their way. Beginning one night
at eight, they dashed along through a narrow lane, turning this way and
that, for seven hours. Then they came against the face of a solid
ice-cliff, closing the path altogether. Back they urged their weary
dogs, and their own weary selves, looking for an opening by which they
might turn north, but none appeared until they reached the camp from
which they had started. Resting awhile, they commenced anew.
Sometimes they climbed over an ice hillock, making a ladder of their
sledge. Morton would climb up first, and then draw up the dogs, around
whose bodies Hans tied a rope; then the load was passed up; lastly Hans
mounted, and drew up the sledge.
Having broken through the bergy detachment of their arctic foes and
reached smoother ice, other opposing columns met them. Dense mists,
giving evidence of open water, chilled and bewildered them; but the
welcome birds, giving other proof of the nearness of the Polar Sea,
cheered them on.
The next attack was in the form of insecure ice. The dogs were dashing
on in their wild flight when it began to yield beneath them. The dogs
trembled with fear and lay down, as is their habit in such cases. Hans,
by a skillful mingling of force and coaxing, succeeding in getting the
party out of the danger.
At one time a long, wide channel presented its protest to their farther
progress. To this they were obliged so far to yield as to go ten miles
out of their way to reach its northern side.
Their right of way was also challenged by seams in the ice often four
feet deep, filled with water, and too wide for their best jumping
ability. These they filled up by attacking the nearest hummocks with
their axes and tumbling the fragments into it until a bridge was made.
This work often caused hours of delay.
The signs of open water became more and more apparent. The birds were so
plenty that Hans brought down two at one shot. Soon they struck the icy
edge of a channel. Along this they coasted on the land side. It brought
them to a cape around which the channel run close to a craggy point.
Here they deposited a part of their provisions to lighten the sledge.
Morton went ahead to learn the condition of the land-ice round the
point. He found it narrow and decaying, so that he feared there would be
none on their return; yet, forward! was the word. The dogs were unloosed
and driven forward alone; then Hans and Morton tilted the sledge
edgewise and drew it along, while far below the gurgling waters were
rushing southward with a freight of crushed ice.
The cape passed, they opened into a bay of clear water extending far and
wide. Along its shore was a wide, smooth ice-belt. Over this the dogs
scampered with their sledge and men with wonderful fleetness, making
sixty miles the first day! The land grew more and more sloping to the
bay as they advanced until it opened from the sea into a plain between
two elevated rocky ranges. Into this they entered, steering north, until
they struck the entrance of a bay; but the rugged ice across their path
forbid farther sledge-travel in that direction. So they picketed,
securely, as they thought, the dogs, took each a back load of
provisions, and went forward. Their trusty rifles were in hand, and
their boat-hook and a few scientific instruments were carefully secured
to their persons. Thus equipped, they had tramped about nine miles from
the last camp when an exciting scene occurred. It was a bear fight,
shaded this time with the tender and tragic. A mother-bear and her child
came in sight. They were a loving couple, and had plainly been engaged
in a frolic together. Their tracks were scattered profusely about, like
those of school children at recess in a recent snow. There were also
long furrows down the sloping side of an ice-hill, upon and around which
the footprints were seen. Morton declared that they had been coasting
down this slope on their haunches, and this opinion was supported by the
fact that Dr. Kane did, at another time, see bears thus coasting!
Five of the dogs had broken away from their cords and had overtaken
their masters. So they were on hand for the fight.
Mother and child fled with nimble feet, and the dogs followed in hot
pursuit. The bear, being overtaken by her enemies, began a most skillful
and heroic skirmishing. The cub could not keep up with its mother, so
she turned back, put her head under its haunches and threw it some
distance ahead, intimating to it to run, while she faced the dogs. But
the little simpleton always stopped just where it alighted, and waited
for mamma to give it another throw! To vary the mode of operation, she
occasionally seized it by the nape of the neck and flung it out of harms
way, and then snapped at the dogs with an earnestness that meant
business. Sometimes the mother would run a little ahead and then turn,
as if to coax the little one to run to her, watching at the same time
the enemy.
For a while the bear contrived to make good speed; but the little one
became tired and she came to a halt. The men came up with their rifles
and the fight became unequal, yet the mother's courage was unabated. She
sat upon her haunches and took the cub between her hind legs, and fought
the dogs with her paws. "Never," says Morton, "was animal more
distressed; her roaring could have been heard a mile! She would stretch
her neck and snap at the nearest dog with her shining teeth, whirling
her paws like the arms of a windmill." Missing her intended victim, she
sent after him a terrific growl of baffled rage.
When the men came up the little one was so far rested as to nimbly turn
with its mother and so keep front of her belly. The dogs, in heartless
mockery of her situation, continued a lively frisking on every side of
her, torturing her at a safe distance for themselves.
Such was the position of the contending parties when Hans threw himself
upon the ice, rested upon his elbows, took deliberate aim, and sent a
ball through the heroic mother's head. She dropped, rolled over,
relieved at once of her agony and her life.
The cub sprung upon the dead body of its mother and for the first time
showed fight. The dogs, thinking the conflict ended, rushed upon the
prostrate foe, tearing away mouthfuls of hair. But they were glad to
retreat with whole skins to their own backs. It growled hoarsely, and
fought with genuine fury.
The dogs were called off, and Hans sent a ball through its head; yet it
contrived to rise after falling, and climbed again upon its mother's
body. It was mercifully dispatched by another ball.
The men took the skin of the mother and the little one for their share
of the spoils, and the dogs gorged themselves on the greater carcass.
After this incident the journey of our explorers soon ended. Hans gave
out, and was ordered to turn leisurely aside and examine the bend of the
bay into which they had entered. Morton continued on toward the
termination of a cape which rose abruptly two thousand feet. He tried to
get round it, but the ice-foot was gone. He climbed up its sides until
he reached a position four hundred and forty feet, commanding a horizon
of forty miles. The view was grand. The sea seemed almost boundless, and
dashed in noisy surges below, while the birds curveted and screamed
above. Making a flag-staff of his walking-stick, he threw to the wind a
Grinnell flag. It had made the far southern voyage with Commodore
Wilkes, and had come on a second arctic voyage. It now floated over the
most northern known land of the globe.
Feasting his eyes with the scenery for an hour and a half, Morton struck
his flag and rejoined Hans. The run home had its perils and narrow
escapes, but was made without accident, and with some additional
surveys.
CHAPTER VII.
AN IMPORTANT MOVEMENT.
IT was now well into July. The last proposed survey was made, and all
hands were on shipboard. But the arctic fetters still bound the
"Advance," with no signs of loosening. The garb of midwinter was yet
covering land and sea, and in every breeze there was a dismal whisper to
the explorers of another winter in the ice. The thought was appalling to
both officers and men. They had neither health, food, nor fuel for such
an experience. To abandon the vessel and try to escape with the boats
and sledges was impossible in the prostrate condition of the men.
Having carefully studied the situation Dr. Kane resolved to try to reach
Beechy Island, and thus communicate with the British exploring
expedition, or by good luck with some whaler, and so secure relief. This
island we have often visited in our voyages with the "Arctic Heroes." It
is, it will be recollected, at the mouth of Wellington Channel.
When this plan was announced to the officers it was approved cordially.
Both officers and men were ready to volunteer to accompany him; he chose
five only--M'Gary, Morton, Riley, Hickey, and Hans. Their boat was the
old "Forlorn Hope." The outfit was the best possible, though poor
enough. The "Hope" was mounted on the sledge "Faith;" the provisions
were put on a "St. John's sledge." The "Faith" started off ahead; the
smaller sledge, to which Dr. Kane and two of the men attached
themselves, followed.
It took five days of incessant toil, with many head flows, to reach the
water and launch the "Hope," though the distance from the brig was only
twenty miles.
The boat behaved well, and they reached Littleton Island, where they
were rejoiced to see numerous ducks. Watching their course as they flew
away, the explorers were led to several islets, whose rocky ledges were
covered with their nests, and around which they hovered in clouds. The
young birds were taking their first lesson in flying, or were still
nestling under their mothers' wings. In a few hours over two hundred
birds were taken, the gun bringing down several at one shot, and others
were knocked over with stones. But the men were not the only enemies of
the ducks. Near by was a settlement of a large, voracious species of
gull. They swooped down, seized, gobbled up, and bore away to their
nests the young eiders, without seeming to doubt that they were doing a
fair and, to themselves, a pleasant business. The gulls would seize the
little eiders with their great yellow bills, throw their heads up, and
then their victims would disappear down their throats, and in a few
moments after they would be ejected into their nests and go down the
throats of their young. The ducks fought the gulls bravely in the
interests of their brood, but the victory was with the stronger.
Our voyagers pitied, of course, the bereaved eider mothers, despised the
cormorant gulls, but gladly increased their stock of needed provisions
with both. They filled four large india rubber bags with these sea-fowl
after cleaning and rudely boning them.
Leaving this profitable camping place, the boat was soon in the open
sea-way. One day's pleasant sailing was quite as much in that way as
experience taught them to expect. A violent storm arose, the waves ran
high, and their clumsy boat, trembling under the strain, was in danger
of sinking at any moment. The safety of the whole company depended
entirely upon the skill and nerve of M'Gary. For twenty-two successive
hours he held in his strong grasp the steering oar and kept the head of
the boat to the sea. A break of the oar or a slip from his hand and all
was lost! They finally grappled an old floe in a slightly sheltered
place, and rode out the storm.
For twelve days heroic exertions were made to get the boat through the
pack which now beset them, with the view of working south and west.
Little progress was made and the men, wet, weary, and worn, began to
fail. In view of this state of things the commander directed his course
to Northumberland Island, near which they were coasting. Here they found
three recently occupied, but now forsaken, Esquimo huts. The foxes were
abundant, and their young ones greeted the strangers with vociferous
barking. They found here, too, what was more valuable--the scurvy grass.
Rest, fresh fowl, and cochlearia greatly refreshed the whole party.
Seeing the utter impossibility of going south, they made the best of
their way back to the brig. It was a sad and joyful meeting with their
old comrades. Their return safely was joyful, but the return spoke of
another winter.
By great exertions the brig was loosened from her icy cradle and warped
to a position more favorable for an escape should the open water reach
the vicinity. On the seventeenth of August, instead of a glad breaking
up of the old ice, came the formation of new ice, thick enough to bear a
man. The question of an escape of the brig seemed settled. The allowance
of wood was fixed to six pounds a meal; this gave them coffee twice a
day and soup, once. Darkness was ahead, and if the fuel utterly failed
it would be doubly cheerless. The Sabbath rest and devotions became more
solemn. The prayer, "Lord, accept our gratitude and bless our
undertakings," was changed to, "Lord, accept our gratitude and restore
us to our homes."
Affairs looked so dark that Dr. Kane deemed it wise to leave a record of
the expedition on some conspicuous spot. A position was selected on a
high cliff which commanded an extensive view over the icy waste. On its
broad, rocky face the words, "'Advance,' A. D. 1853-54," were painted in
large letters which could be read afar off. A pyramid of heavy stones
was built above it and marked with a cross. Beneath it they reverently
buried the bodies of their deceased companions. Near this a hole was
worked into the rock, and a paper, inclosed in a glass vessel sealed
with lead, was deposited. On this paper was written the names of the
officers and crew, the results in general thus far of the expedition,
and their present condition. They proposed to add to the deposit a paper
containing the date of their departure, should they ever get away, and
showing their plans of escape.
Now, more earnestly than ever, the winter and what to do was looked in
the face. Some thought that an escape to South Greenland was still
possible, and even the best thing to do. The question of detaching a
part of the company to make the experiment was debated, but the
commander arrived at a settled conviction that such an enterprise was
impracticable.
In the mean time the ice and tides were closely examined for a
considerable distance, for the slightest evidence of a coming liberation
of the poor ice-bound craft.
As early as August twenty-fourth all hopes of such a liberation seemed
to have faded from every mind. The whole company, officers and crew,
were assembled in council. The commander gave the members his reasons in
full for deeming it wise to stand by the vessel. He then gave his
permission for any part of the company who chose to do so to depart on
their own responsibility. He required of such to renounce in writing
all claims upon the captain and those who remained. The roll was then
called, and nine out of the seventeen decided to make the hazardous
experiment. At the head of this party was Dr. Hayes and Petersen.
Besides the hope of a successful escape, they were influenced in the
course they were taking by the thought that the quarters in the brig
were so straitened that the health and comfort of those remaining would
be increased, and the causes of disease and death diminished by their
departure; and still further, if the withdrawing party perished, an
equal number was likely to die if all remained.
The decision having been made, Dr. Kane gave them a liberal portion of
the resources of the brig, a good-bye blessing, with written assurances
of a brother's welcome should they return. They left August
twenty-eight.
Those who remained with Dr. Kane were Brooks, M'Gary, Wilson,
Goodfellow, Morton, Ohlsen, Hickey, and Hans. The situation of these was
increasedly dreary on the departure of half of their companions. They
felt the necessity of immediate systematic action to drive away
desponding thoughts, as well as to make the best possible preparation
for the coming struggle with darkness, cold, poverty, and disease. The
discipline of the vessel, with all its formality of duties, was strictly
maintained. The ceremonies of the table, the religious services, the
regular watching, in which every man took his turn unless prevented by
sickness, the scientific observations of the sky, the weather and the
tides, the detailed care of the fire and the lights, all went on as if
there was no burdens of mind to embarrass them.
In view of the small stock of fuel, they commenced turning the brig into
something like an Esquimo igloe or hut. A space in the cabin measuring
twenty feet by eighteen was set off as a room for all hands. Every one
then went to work, and, according to his measure of strength, gathered,
moss. With this an inner wall was made for the cabin, reaching from the
floor to the ceiling. The floor itself was calked with plaster of Paris
and common paste, then two inches of Manilla oakum was thrown over it,
and upon this a canvas carpet was spread. From this room an avenue three
feet high, and two and a half feet wide, was made. It was twelve feet
long, and descended four feet, opening into the hold. It was moss-lined,
and closed with a door at each end. It answered to the _tossut_ of the
Esquimo hut, or the sort of tunnel through which they creep into their
one room. All ingress and egress of our explorers were through this
avenue on their hands and knees. From the dark hold they groped their
way to the main hatchway, up which, by a stairway of boxes, they
ascended into the open air.
The quarter-deck also was well padded with turf and moss. When this was
done, no frost king but the one presiding over the polar regions could
have entered. Even he had to drop his crown of icicles at the outer door
of the avenue.
The next step was to secure, so far as possible, a supply of fuel for
the coming darkness. A small quantity of coal yet remained for an
emergency. They began now, September tenth, to strip off some of the
extra planking outside of the deck, and to pile it up for stove use.
Having thus put the brig itself into winter trim, they went diligently
to work to arrange its immediate vicinity on the floe. Their beef-house
came first, which was simply a carefully stowed pile of barrels
containing their water-soaked beef and pork. Next was a kind of
block-house, made of the barrels of flour, beans, and dried apples. From
a flag-staff on one corner of this fluttered a red and white ensign,
which gave way on Sundays to a Grinnell flag. From the block-house
opened a traveled way, which they called New London Avenue. On this were
the boats. Around all this was a rope barrier, which said to the outside
world, Thus far only shalt thou come! Outside of this was a magnificent
hut made of barrel frames and snow, for the special use of Esquimo
visitors. It was in great danger of a tearing down for its coveted
wood.
CHAPTER VIII.
TREATY MAKING.
THE stock of fresh provisions was now alarmingly low. To secure a fresh
supply, Dr. Kane and Hans started with the dog team on a seal hunt. The
doctor was armed with his Kentucky rifle, and Hans with a harpoon and
attached line. They carried a light Esquimo boat to secure the prey if
shot. They expected to find seal after a ten miles' run, but the ice was
solid until they had traveled another hour. Now they entered upon an icy
plain smooth as a house floor. On the dogs galloped, in fine spirits,
seeming to anticipate the shout which soon came from Hans--"Pusey,
puseymut!"--seal, seal! Just ahead were crowds of seals playing in the
water. But the joy of the hunters was instantly turned into a chill of
horror. The ice was bending under the weight of the sledge, and rolling
in wavy swells before it, as if made of leather. To pause was certain
death to dogs and men. The solid floe was a mile ahead. Hans shouted
fiercely to his dogs, and added the merciless crack of his whip to give
speed to his team; but the poor creatures were already terror-stricken,
and rushed forward like a steam-car. A profound silence followed, as
painful as the hush of the wind before the destructive tornado. Nothing
more could be done; the faithful dogs were doing their utmost to save
themselves and their masters. They passed through a scattered group of
seals, which, breast-high out of water, mocked them with their curious,
complacent gaze. The rolling, crackling ice increased its din, and, when
within fifty paces of the solid floe the frightened dogs became
dismayed, and they paused! In went the left runner and the leading dog,
then followed the entire left-hand runner. In the next instant Dr. Kane,
the sledge and dogs, were mixed up in the snow and water. Hans had
stepped off upon ice which had not yet given way, and was uttering in
his broken English, piteous moans, while he in vain reached forward to
help his master. He was ordered to lay down, spread out his hands and
feet, and draw himself to the floe by striking his knife into the ice.
The doctor cut the leader's harness and let him scramble out, for he was
crying touchingly, and drowning his master by his caresses. Relieved of
the dog he tried the sledge, but it sunk under him; he then paddled
round the hole endeavoring to mount the ice, but it gave way at every
effort, thus enlarging the sphere of operation most uncomfortably, and
exhausting his strength. Hans in the mean time had reached solid
footing, and was on his knees praying incoherently in English and
Esquimo, and at every crushing-in of the ice which plunged his master
afresh into the sea exclaimed, "God!" When the fatal crisis was just at
hand, deliverance came by a _seeming_ accident. How often does God
deliver by such seeming accidents! One of the dogs still remained
attached to the sledge, and in struggling to clear himself drew one of
the runners broadside against the edge of the circle. It was the
drowning man's last chance. He threw himself on his back so as to lessen
his weight, and placed the nape of his neck on the rim of the ice
opposite to but not far from the sledge. He then drew his legs up slowly
and placed the ball of his moccasin foot against the runner, pressing
cautiously and steadily, listening the while to the sound of the
half-yielding ice against which the other runner rested, as to a note
which proclaimed his sentence of life or death. The ice, holding the
sledge, only faintly yielded, while he felt his wet fur jumper sliding
up the surface; now his shoulders are on; now his whole body steadily
ascends; he is safe.
Hans rubbed his master with frantic earnestness until the flesh glowed
again. The dogs were all saved, but the sledge, Esquimo boat, tent,
guns, and snow-shoes were all left frozen in to await a return trip. A
run of twelve miles brought them, worn and weary, but full of gratitude,
to the brig. The fire was kindled, one of the few remaining birds
cooked, a warm welcome given, so that the peril was forgotten except in
the occasion it gave for increased love to the _Deliverer_.
We have had no occasion to notice the Esquimo since the escape from
prison of young Myouk. Soon after Dr. Hayes's party left, three natives
came. They had evidently noted the departure of half of the number of
the strangers, and came to learn the condition of those left behind. It
was Dr. Kane's policy to conciliate them, while carrying toward them a
steady, and when needed, as it was often, a restraining hand.
These visitors were quartered in a tent in the hold. A copper lamp, a
cooking-basin, and a full supply of fat for fuel, was given them. They
ate, slept, awoke, ate and slept again. Dr. Kane left them eating at two
o'clock in the morning when he retired to the cabin to sleep. They
seemed soon after to be sleeping so soundly that the watch set over them
also slept. In the morning there were no Esquimo on board. They had
stolen the lamp, boiler, and cooking-pot used at their feast; to these
they added the best dog--the only one not too weary from the late
excursion to travel. Besides, finding some buffalo robes and an
india-rubber cloth accidentally left on the floe, they took them along
also.
This would not do. The savages must be taught to fear as well as to
respect and love the white men. Morton and Riley, two of the best
walkers, were sent in hot pursuit. Reaching the hut at Anoatok, they
found young Myouk with the wives of two absent occupants, the latter
making themselves delightfully comfortable, having tailored already the
stolen robes into garments worn on their backs. By searching, the
cooking utensils, and other articles stolen from the brig but not
missed, were found.
The white officers of the law acted promptly, as became their dignity.
They stripped the women of these stolen goods and tied them. They were
then loaded with all the articles stolen, to which was added as much
walrus meat of their own as would pay their jail fees. The three were
then marched peremptorily back to the brig; though it was thirty miles
they did not complain, neither did their police guardians in walking the
twice thirty. It was scarcely twenty-four hours after these thieves had
left the brig with their booty before they were prisoners in the hold.
"A dreadful white man" was placed over them as keeper, who never spoke
to them except in words of terrifying reproof, and whose scowl exhibited
a studied variety of threatening and satanic expressions. The women were
deprived of the comfort of even Myouk's company. He was dispatched to
Metek, "head-man of Etah and others," "with the message of a
melo-dramatic tyrant," to negotiate for their ransom. For five long days
the women sighed and cried, and sung in solitary confinement, though
their appetites continued excellent. At last the great Metek and another
Esquimo notable arrived, drawing quite a sledge load of returned stolen
goods. Now commenced the treaty making. There were "big talks," and a
display on the part of Dr. Kane of the splendors and resources of his
capital, its arts and sciences, not forgetting the "fire-death," whose
terrific power so amazed the Etah dignitaries. On the part of the
Esquimo there were many adjournments of the diplomatic conferences to
eat and sleep. This was well for the explorers no doubt, as plenty of
sleep and a good dinner are very pacific, it is well known, in their
influence even on savages. In the final result the Esquimo agreed: Not
to steal, to bring fresh meat, to sell or lend dogs, to attend the white
men when desired, and to show them where to find the game. On the part
of _Kablunah_ (the white men) Dr. Kane promised: Not to visit the
_Inuit_ (Esquimo) with death or sorcery; to shoot for them on the hunt;
to welcome them on board the ship; to give them presents of needles,
pins, two kinds of knives, a hoop, three bits of hard wood, some kinds
of fat, an awl, and some sewing-thread; to trade with them of these, and
all other things they might want, for walrus and seal meat of the first
quality.
Dr. Kane sent Hans and Morton to Etah, on the return of Metek, as his
representatives, and this treaty was there ratified in a full assembly
of its people.
This treaty was really of much importance to the famishing, ice-bound,
scurvy-smitten strangers. It was faithfully kept on the part of the
natives, but it was believed that the example of the white man's
prodigious power given by Morton and Riley, in the tramp of sixty miles
in twenty-four hours, had quite as much to do with its faithful
observance as any regard to their promise. They might not understand the
binding nature of promises however solemnly made, but they could
comprehend the meaning of strong arms and swift feet.
Having made peace with the Etahites, Dr. Kane sent M'Gary and Morton to
the hut at Anoatok on a like errand. They found there of men, Myouk,
Ootuniah, and Awatok--Seal Bladder--who were at first shy. The rogue,
Myouk, suspected their visit might mean to him another arrest. Seeing it
did not, all went merry as a marriage-bell. The treaty was ratified by
acclamation.
CHAPTER IX.
ARCTIC HUNTING.
EARLY in October the Esquimo disappeared from the range of travel from
the brig. Hans and Hickey were sent to the hunting grounds, and they
returned with the unwelcome news, no walrus, no Esquimo. Where could
they have gone? Were they hovering on the track of the escaping party
under Dr. Hayes? and where were these? Would the natives return from a
trip south, and bring any news of the battle they were fighting with the
ice and cold?
While such queries may have been indulged by the brig party, they had
serious thoughts concerning their own condition. Their fresh provisions
were nearly exhausted. Without walrus or bear meat, their old enemy,
scurvy, would come down upon them like an armed man. There was now
plainly another occasion for one of those accidental occurrences,
through which the eye of a devout Christian sees God's kind hand. In the
midst of these painful thoughts the shout by Hans was heard ringing
through the brig: "Nannook! nannook!"
"A bear! a bear!" chimed in Morton.
The men seized their guns and ran on deck. The dogs were already in
battle array with the bear, which was attended by a five-months-old
cub. Not a gun was in readiness on the instant, and while they were
being loaded the canines were having rough sport with bruin. Tudla, a
champion fighter, had been seized twice, by the nape of his neck, and
made to travel several yards without touching the ground. Jenny, a
favorite in the sledge, had made a grand somerset by a slight jerk of
the head of the bear, and had alighted senseless. Old Whitey, brave but
not bear-wise, had rushed headlong into the combat, and was yelping his
utter dissatisfaction with the result while stretched helpless upon the
snow. Nannook considered the field of battle already won, and proceeded,
as victors have always done, to a very cool investigation of the spoils.
She first turned over a beef barrel, and began to nose out the choice
bits for herself and child. But there was a party interested in this
operation whom she had not consulted. Their first protest was in the
form of a pistol ball in the side of her cub. This, to say the least,
was rather a harsh beginning. The next hint was a rifle ball in the side
of the mother, which she resented by taking her child between her hind
legs and retreating behind the beef-house. Here, with her strong
forearms, she pulled down three solid rows of beef barrels which made
one wall of the house. She then mounted the rubbish, seized a half
barrel of herring with her teeth, and with it beat a retreat. Turning
her back on the enemy was not safe, for she immediately received, at
half pistol range, six buck shots. She fell, but was instantly on her
feet again, trotting off with her cub under her nose. She would have
escaped after all but for two of the dogs. These belonged to the
immediate region, and had been trained for the bear hunt. They
embarrassed her speed but did not attack her. One would run along ahead
of her, so near as to provoke the bear to attempt to catch him, and then
he would give her a useless chase to the right or left, the other one,
at the right moment, making a diversion by a nip in her rear. So coolly
and systematically was this done that poor Nannook was hindered and
exhausted without being able to hurt her tormentors in the least.
This game of the dogs brought again Dr. Kane and Hans on the field of
conflict. They found the bear still holding out in the running fight,
and making good speed away from the brig. Two rifle balls brought her to
a stand-still. She faced about, took her little one between her fore
legs, and growled defiance. It took six more balls to lay her lifeless
on the blood-stained snow!
This method of conquering the foe was no doubt, from the bear point of
view, mean and cowardly; instead of the hand-to-paw fight, recognized as
the Arctic lawful way of fighting, it was sending fire-death at a safe
distance for the attacking party. With her own chosen weapons--two
powerful arms, and a set of almost resistless teeth--the bear was the
stronger party. But then it was the old game of brains against brute
force, with the almost sure result. As to the cruelty, the bear had no
reason to complain. She came to the brig seeking, if haply she might
find, a man, or men, to appease her craving hunger and feed her child.
The men sought and obtained her life that they might stay the progress
of their bitter enemy, the scurvy, and save their own lives!
When the mother fell, her child sprung upon her body and made a fierce
defense. After much trouble, and, we should think, some danger from her
paws and teeth, both of which she used as if trained for the fight, she
was, caught with a line looped into a running knot between her jaws and
the back of her head, somewhat as farmers catch hogs for the slaughter.
She was marched off to the brig and chained outside, causing a great
uproar among the dogs.
The mother-bear's carcass weighed when cleaned three hundred pounds;
before dressing, the body weighed six hundred and fifty. The _little_
one weighed on her feet one hundred and fourteen pounds. They both
proved most savory meat, and were eaten with gratitude, as the special
gifts of the great Giver.
This bear capture was soon followed by one no less exciting and truly
Arctic in its character. It was the hunt and capture of a walrus, the
lion of the sea, as the bear is the tiger of the ice. The story is as
follows:---
About the middle of October Morton and Hans were sent again to try to
find the Esquimo. They reached on the fourth day a little village beyond
Anoatok, seventy miles from the brig. Here they found four huts, two
occupied and two forsaken. In one was Myouk, his parents and his brother
and sister; in the other was Awahtok, Ootuniah, their wives, and three
young children. The strangers were made to feel at home. Their moccasins
were dried, their feet rubbed, two lamps set ablaze to cook them a
supper, and a walrus skin spread on the raised floor for them to stretch
and rest their weary limbs. The lamps and the addition to the huts'
company sent the thermometer up to ninety degrees above zero, while
outside it was thirty below. The natives endured this degree of heat
finely, as the men and children wore only the apparel nature gave them,
and the women made only a slight, but becoming, addition to it. The
strangers after devouring six small sea-birds a piece enjoyed a night of
profuse perspiration and sound sleep.
In the morning Morton perceived that Myouk and his father were preparing
for a walrus hunt, and he cordially invited himself and Hans to go with
them. The two strangers accepted the invitation thus given, and the
party of four were soon off.
A large size walrus is eighteen feet long, with a tusk thirty inches.
His whole development is elephantine, and his look grim and ferocious.
The Esquimo of this party carried three sledges; one they hid under the
snow and ice on the way, and the other two were carried to the hunting
ground at the open water, about ten miles from the huts. They had nine
dogs to these two sledges, and by turns one man rode while the other
walked.
As they neared the new ice, and saw by the murky fog that the open water
was near, the Esquimo removed their hoods and listened. After a while
Myouk's countenance showed that the wished-for sound had entered his
ear, though Morton, as attentively listening, could hear nothing. Soon
they were startled by the bellowing of a walrus bull; the noise, round
and full, was something between the mooing of a cow and the deep baying
of a mastiff, varied by an oft-repeated quick bark. The performer was
evidently pleased with his own music, for it continued without cessation
while our hunters crept forward stealthily in single file. When within
half a mile of some discolored spots showing very thin ice surrounded by
that which was thicker, they scattered, and each man crawled toward a
separate pool, Morton on his hands and knees following Myouk. Soon the
walruses were in sight. They were five in number, at times rising
altogether out of the deep, breaking the ice and giving an explosive
puff which might have been heard, through the thin, clear atmosphere, a
mile away. Two grim-looking males were noticeable as the leaders of the
group.
[Illustration: Walruses--A Family Party.]
Now came the fight between Myouk, the crafty, expert hunter, and a
strong, maddened, persistent walrus. Morton was the interested
looker-on, following the hunter like a shadow, ready, if it had been
wanted, to put in his contribution to the fight in the form of a
rifle-ball. When the walrus's head is above water, and peering
curiously around, the hunter is flat and still. As the head begins to
disappear in the deep he is up and stirring, and ready to dart toward
the game. From his hiding-place behind a projecting ice knoll the hunter
seems not only to know when his victim will return, but where he will
rise. In this way, hiding and darting forward, Myouk, with Morton at his
heels, approaches the pool near the edge of which the walruses are at
play. Now the stolid face of Myouk glows with animation; he lies still,
biding his time, a coil of walrus hide many yards in length lying at his
side. He quickly slips one end of the line into an iron barb, holding
the other, the looped end, in his hand, and fixes the barb to a locket
on the end of a shaft made of a unicorn's horn. Now the water is in
motion, and only twelve feet from him the walrus rises, puffing with
pent up respiration, and looks grimly and complacently around. What need
_he_ fear, the mighty monarch of the Arctic sea! Myouk coolly, slowly
rises, throws back his right arm, while his left arm lies close to his
side. The walrus looks round again and shakes his dripping head. Up goes
the hunter's left arm. His victim rises breast-high to give one curious
look before he plunges, and the swift, barbed shaft is buried in his
vitals! In an instant the walrus is down, down in the deep, while Myouk
is making his best speed from the battlefield, holding firmly the looped
end of his harpoon-line, at the same time paying out the coil as he
runs. He has snatched up and carries in one hand a small stick of bone
rudely pointed with iron; he stops, drives it into the ice and fastens
his line to it, pressing it to the ice with his foot.
Now commence the frantic struggles of the wounded walrus. Myouk keeps
his station, now letting out his line, and then drawing it in. His
victim, rising out of the water, endeavors to throw himself upon the
ice, as if to rush at his tormenter. The ice breaks under his great
weight, and he roars fearfully with rage. For a moment all is quiet. The
hunter knows what it means, and he is on the alert. Crash goes the ice,
and up come two walrusses only a few yards from where he stands; they
aimed at the very spot but will do better next time. But when the game
comes up where he last saw the hunter he has pulled up his stake and run
off, line in hand, and fixed it as before, but in a new direction. This
play goes on until the wounded beast becomes exhausted, and is
approached and pierced with the lance by Myouk.
Four hours this fight went on, the walrus receiving seventy lance
thrusts, dangling all the while at the end of the line with the cruel
harpoon fixed in his body. When dying at last, hooked by his tusk to the
margin of the ice, his female, which had faithfully followed all his
bloody fortune, still swam at his side; she retired only when her spouse
was dead, and she herself was pricked by the lance.
Morton says the last three hours wore the aspect of a doubtful battle.
He witnessed it with breathless interest.
The game was, by a sort of "double purchase," a clever contrivance of
the Esquimo, drawn upon the ice and cut up at leisure. Its weight was
estimated at seven hundred pounds.
The intestines and the larger part of the carcass, were buried in the
crevices of an iceberg--a splendid ice-house! Two sledges were loaded
with the remainder, and the hunters started toward home. As they came
near the village the women came out to meet them; the shout of welcome
brought all hands with their knives. Each one having his portion
assigned, according to a well understood Esquimo rule, the evening was
given up to eating. In groups of two or three around a forty pound
joint, squatting crook-legged, knife in hand, they cut, ate, and slept,
and cut and ate again. Hans, in his description of the feast to Dr.
Kane, says: "Why, Cappen Ken, sir, even the children ate all night. You
know the little two-year-old that Aroin carried in her hood--the one
that bit you when you tickled it?"
"Yes."
"Well, Cappen Ken, sir, that baby cut for herself, sir, with a knife
made out of an iron hoop, and so heavy it could hardly lift it, cut and
ate, sir, and ate and cut, as long as I looked at it."
Morton and Hans returned to the brig with two hundred pounds of walrus
meat and two foxes, to make glad the hearts of their comrades.
Besides these Arctic monsters of the sea, and shaggy prowlers of the
land and ice, there was another sort of game, requiring a different kind
of hunting, found nearer home.
We have related the experiment, a year before this, of the explorers
with the rats. They had failed to smoke them out by a villainous
compound, and, as the experience came near burning up the vessel, it was
not repeated. They bred like locusts in spite of the darkness, cold, and
short rations, and went every-where--under the stove, into the steward's
drawers, into the cushions, about the beds, among the furs, woolens, and
specimens of natural history. They took up their abode among the bedding
of the men in the forecastle, and in such other places as seemed to them
cosy and comfortable. When their rights as tenants were disputed they
fought for them with boldness and skill.
At one time a mother rat had chosen a bear-skin mitten as a homestead
for herself and family of little ones. Dr. Kane thrust his hand into it
not knowing that it was occupied, and received a sharp bite. Of course
his hand left the premises in rather quick time, and before he could
suck the blood from his finger the family had disappeared, taking their
home with them.
Rhina, a brave bear-dog, which had come out of encounters with his
shaggy majesty with special honors, was sent down into the citadel of
the rats. She lay down with composure and slept for a while. But the
vermin gnawed the horny skin of her paws, nipped her on this side, and
bit her on that, and dodged into their hiding-places. They were so
many, and so nimble, that poor Rhina yelled in vexation and pain. She
was taken on deck to her kennel, a cowed and vanquished dog.
Hans, true to his hunter's propensity, amused himself during the dreary
hours of his turn on the night watch, by shooting them with his bow and
arrow. Dr. Kane had these carefully dressed and made into a soup, of
which he educated himself to eat, to the advantage of his health. No
other one of the vessel's company cared to share his pottage.
Hans had one competitor in this "small deer" hunting, as the sailors
called it. Dr. Kane had caught a young fox alive, and domesticated it in
the cabin. These "deer" were not quick enough to escape his nimble feet
and sharp teeth. But unfortunately he would kill only when and what he
wanted to eat.
December came in gloomily. Nearly every man was down with the scurvy.
The necessary work to be done dragged heavily. The courage of the little
company was severely taxed but not broken. But where were the escaping
party under Dr. Hayes? Were they yet dragging painfully over their
perilous way? were they safe at Upernavik? or had they perished?
While such queries might have occupied the thoughts of the dwellers in
the "Advance," on the seventh of the month Petersen and Bonsall of that
party returned; five days later Dr. Hayes arrived, with the remainder
of his company. Their adventures had been marvelous, and their escape
wonderful. It will be a pleasant fancy for us to consider ourselves as
sitting down in the cabin of the "Advance," and listening to their story
from the lips of one of their party.
CHAPTER X.
THE ESCAPING PARTY.
HAVING, as has been seen, provided for all the contingencies of our
journey as well as circumstances permitted, we moved slowly down the
ice-foot away from the brig. The companions we were leaving waved us a
silent adieu. A strong resolution gave firmness to our step, but our way
was too dark and perilous for lightness of heart. At ten miles distance
we should reach a cape near which we expected to find open water, where
we could exchange the heavy work of dragging the sledges for the
pleasanter sailing in the boat. This we reached early the second day.
But here we experienced our first keen disappointment. As far as the eye
could reach was only ice. Before us, a thousand miles away, was
Upernavik, at which we aimed, the first refuge of a civilized character
in that direction. As we gazed at this intervening frozen wilderness it
did indeed seem afar off. Yet every man stood firm through fourteen
hours of toil before we encamped, facing a strong wind and occasional
gusts of snow. After this the shelter of our tent, and a supper of cold
pork and bread with hot coffee, made us almost forget the wind, which
began to roar like a tempest.
We looked out in the morning, after a good night's rest, hoping to see
the broken floe fleeing before the gale, giving us our coveted open sea.
But no change had taken place. We had no resort but to weary sledging.
We carried forward our freight in small parcels, a mile on our journey,
finally bringing up the boat.
We took from under a cliff of the cape the boat "Forlorn Hope," which
Dr. Kane had deposited there. It was damaged by the falling of a stone
upon it from a considerable height. Petersen's skillful mending made it
only a tolerable affair. Thus wearied and baffled in our efforts at
progress, we returned early to our tent, and slept soundly until three
o'clock in the morning, when we were aroused by shouting without. It
came from three Esquimo, a boy eighteen years old, and two women. The
boy we had before seen, but the women were strangers. They were filthy
and ragged--in fact scarcely clothed at all. The matted hair of the
women was tied with a piece of leather on the top of the head; the boy's
hair was cut square across his eyebrows. One of the women carried a baby
about six months old. It was thrust naked, feet foremost, into the hood
of her jumper, and hung from the back of her neck. It peered innocently
out of its hiding-place, like a little chicken from the brooding wing of
its mother.
They shivered with cold, and asked for fire and food, which we readily
gave them, and they were soon off down the coast in good spirits.
These visitors were only well started when Hans rushed into our camp,
excited and panting for breath. He was too full of wrath to command his
poor English, and he rattled away to Petersen in his own language. When
he had recovered somewhat his breath, we caught snatches of his
exclamations as he turned to us with, "Smit Soun Esquimo no koot! no
koot! all same dog! Steal me bag! steal Nalegak buffalo."
The fact finally came out that our visitors had been to the brig and
stolen, among other things, a wolf-skin bag and a small buffalo skin
belonging to Hans, presents from Dr. Kane. Hans took a lunch, a cup of
coffee, and continued his run after the thieves.
The ice had now given way a little, and small leads opened near us.
Loading the boat, we tried what could be done at navigation. But the
water in the lead soon froze over and became too thick for boating,
while yet it was too thin for sledging; so after trying various
expedients we again unloaded the boats and took to the land-ice. But
this was too sloping for the sledges, so we took our cargo in small
parcels on our backs, carrying them forward a mile and a half, and
finally bringing the sledges and boat. Bonsall had, on one of these
trips, taken a keg of molasses on the back of his neck, grasping the two
ends with his hands. This was an awkward position in which to command
his footing along a sideling, icy path. His foot slipped, the keg shot
over his head, and glided down into the sea. Coffee without molasses was
not pleasant to think of, and then it was two hours after our day's work
was done before we could find even water. Our supper was not eaten and
we ready to go to bed until ten. We slept the better, however, from
hearing, just as we were retiring, that Bonsall and Godfrey had
recovered the keg of molasses from four feet of water.
The next morning we resolved to try the floe again. It was plain we
could make no satisfactory progress on the land-ice, so we loaded first
the small sledge and run it safely down the slippery slope. Then the
large sledge, "Faith," was packed with our more valuable articles.
Cautiously it was started, men in the rear holding it back by ropes. But
the foothold of the men being insecure, they slipped, lost their control
both of themselves and the sledge, and away it dashed. The ice as it
reached the floe was thin; first one runner broke through, now both have
gone down; over goes the freight, and the whole is plunged into the
water! Fortunately every thing floated. A part of our clothes were in
rubber bags and was kept dry; all else was thoroughly wet. No great
damage was done except in one case. Petersen had a bed of eider-down, in
which he was wont snugly to stow himself at night. When moving it was
compressed into a ball no larger than his head. It was a nice thing,
costing forty Danish dollars. It was, of course, spoiled. So rueful was
his face that, though we really pitied him, we could not repress a
little merriment as he held up his dripping treasure. Seeing a smile on
Dr. Hayes's face, he hastily rolled it up into a wad, and, in the
bitterness of his vexation, hurled it among the rocks, muttering
something in Danish, of which we could detect only the words "doctor"
and "Satan."
Our situation seemed gloomy enough. The men's courage was giving way,
and one took a final leave and returned to the "Advance." Yet we pressed
forward; we were not long in readjusting the load of the "Faith," and
met with no further accident during the day; but our fourteen hours toil
left us six more hours of ice-travel before we could reach what seemed
to be a long stretch of clear sea.
Hans returned from his pursuit, having overtaken the thieves, but did
not find about them the stolen goods. He proposed to remain and help us,
but we could go no farther that night. We encamped, and obtained much
needed rest and sleep.
We were awakened at midnight to a new and unexpected discouragement.
M'Gary and Goodfellow arrived from the "Advance" bringing a peremptory
order from Dr. Kane to bring back the "Faith." We could not understand
this. We had been promised its use until we reached the open sea. We had
only one other, which was very poor and utterly insufficient for our
purpose. We were sure it was not needed at the brig; what could the
order mean? But there it was in black and white, so we delivered it up,
and the messengers returned with it on the instant.
This journey of Goodfellow and M'Gary was a wonderful exhibition of
endurance. They had worked hard all day; having eaten supper, they were
dispatched with the message. They were back to the brig to breakfast,
having traveled in all to and fro thirty miles without food or rest.
Our sledging, almost insufferable before, was more difficult now.
Petersen exhausted his skill in improving our poor sledge with little
success. We made about six miles during the day, gained the land at the
head of Force Bay, and pitched our tent. We had shipped and unshipped
our cargo, and had experienced the usual variety of boating and
sledging. Several of us had broken through the ice and been thoroughly
wet. Old rheumatic and scurvy complaints renewed their attacks upon the
men.
While the supper was cooking, three of the officers climbed a bluff and
looked out upon the icy sea. To our joy they reported the open water
only six miles away. With a good sledge we could reach it in one day's
pull. With our shaky affair it would take three. Indeed, it seemed a
hopeless task to make at all six miles with it. Such was the situation
when our supper was eaten and we had lain down to sleep. Its solace had
scarcely come to our relief when Morton's welcome voice startled us. He
had come to bring back the "Faith." How timely! And then he brought also
a satisfactory explanation of its being taken away. Dr. Kane had been
informed that a dissension existed among us, and that the sledge was not
in the hands of the officers. The next morning the good sledge "Faith"
was loaded, and the men, now in good spirits, made fine speed toward
the open sea. Morton pushed on after the thieves. Late in the afternoon
he returned with them. He had overtaken them where they had halted to
turn their goods into clothing. They had thrown aside their rags, and
were strutting proudly in the new garments they had made of the stolen
skins. Morton soon left, with his prisoners, to return to the "Advance."
We did not reach the open water until midnight. Every thing was now put
on board the boat, and we sailed about two miles and drew up against
Esquimo Point, pitched our tent on a grounded ice-raft, and obtained
brief rest.
In the morning, Riley, who had been sent to us for that purpose,
returned to the "Advance" with the "Faith." We packed away eight men and
their baggage in the "Forlorn Hope." It was an ordinary New London
whale-boat rigged with a mainsail, foresail, and a jib. Her cargo and
passengers on this occasion brought her gunwale within four inches of
the water. But for five miles we made fine progress. Then suddenly the
ice closed in upon us, compelling us to draw the "Hope" up upon a solid
ice-raft, where we encamped for the night. Near was a stranded berg from
which we obtained a good supply of birds, of which we ate eight for
supper.
In the morning, while our breakfast was cooking, the ice scattered and a
path for us through the sea was again opened, and we bore away joyously
for the capes of "Refuge Harbor." With varying fortune, we passed under
the walls of Cape Heatherton, and sighted the low lands of Life-boat
Bay. There, as has been stated, in August, 1853, Dr. Kane left a Francis
metallic life-boat. Could we reach this bay and possess ourselves of
this life-boat, a great step would have been taken, we thought, toward
success. For awhile all went well; then came the shout from the officer
on the lookout, "Ice ahead!" We run down upon it before a spanking
breeze, and got into the bend of a great horseshoe, while seeking an
open way through the floe. We could turn neither to the right nor left,
and we were too deep in the water to attempt to lay-to. The waves rolled
higher and higher, and the breeze was increasing to a tempest. Our
cargo, piled above the sides of the boat, left no room to handle the
oars, if they had been of any use. There was no resort but to let her
drive against the floe. John sat in the stern, steering-oar in hand;
Petersen stood on the lookout to give him steering orders; Bonsall and
Stephenson stood by the sails; the rest of us, with boat-hooks and
poles, stood ready to "fend off." The sails were so drawn up as to take
the wind out of them. Petersen directed the boat's head toward that part
of the ice which seemed weakest, and on we bounded. "'See any opening,
Petersen!' 'No sir.' An anxious five minutes followed, 'I see what looks
like a lead. We must try for it.' 'Give the word, Petersen.' On flew the
boat. 'Let her fall off a little--off! Ease off the sheet--so--steady! A
little more off--so! Steady there--steady as she goes.'"
Petersen, cool and skillful, was running us through a narrow lead which
brought us into a small opening of clear water. We were beginning to
think that we should get through the pack when he shouted, "I see no
opening! Tight every-where! Let go the sheet! Fend off."
Thump went the boat against the floe! But the poles and boat-hooks, in
strong, steady hands, broke the force of the collision. Out sprang every
man upon the ice.
No serious damage was done to our craft. Our first thought was that we
were in a safe, ice-bound harbor. But no! See, the floe is on the move!
We unshipped the cargo in haste, and drew up the "Hope" out of the way
of the nips. The stores were next removed farther from the water's edge,
the spray beginning to sprinkle them. The whole pack was instantly in
wild confusion, ice smiting ice, filling the air with dismal sounds. But
it was a moment for _action_, not of moping fear. Our ice-raft suddenly
separated, the crack running between the cargo and the "Hope!" This
would not do! A boat without a cargo, or a cargo without a boat, were
neither the condition of things we desired; but as the ice bearing the
boat shot into the surging water, it was evident no _human_ power could
hinder it. Yet _divine_ power could and did prevent it--just that Hand
always so ready to help us in our time of need, and seeming now almost
visible. The boat's raft, after whirling in the eddying waters, swung
round, and struck one corner of ours. In a minute of time the "Hope"
was run off, and boat, cargo, and men were once more together.
Soon the commotion brought down a heavy floe against that on which we
had taken refuge, and no open water was within a hundred yards of us.
CHAPTER XI.
A GREEN SPOT.
WE seemed now to be in a safe resting-place. Dr. Hayes and Mr. Bonsall,
accompanied by John and Godfrey, took the advantage of this security to
go in search of the life-boat, which they judged was not more than two
miles away.
After a walk over the floe of one hour they found it. It had not been
disturbed, and the articles deposited under it were in good order. There
were, besides the oars and sails, two barrels of bread, a barrel of
pork, and one of beef; thirty pounds of rice, thirty pounds of sugar, a
saucepan, an empty keg, a gallon can of alcohol, a bale of blankets, an
ice anchor, an ice chisel, a gun, a hatchet, a few small poles, and some
pieces of wood. They took of these a barrel of bread, the saucepan
filled with sugar, a small quantity of rice, the gun, the hatchet, and
the boat's equipments. They were to carry this cargo, and drag the
life-boat, back to the camp, unless a fortunate lead should enable them
to take to the boat.
They ascended a hill, before starting, to get a view of the present
state of the fickle ice. All was fast in the direct line through which
they came. But, a mile away, washing a piece of the shore of Littleton
Island, was open water. They concluded to push forward in that
direction, and wait the coming of their companions in the "Hope."
They reached this open water in six hours--a slow march of one mile--but
it must be remembered that they had to carry their cargo, piece by
piece, then go back and draw along the boat, thus going over the
distance many times. Besides, they had to climb the hummocks with their
load, and lower it down the other side and tumble about generally over
the rough way.
The island thus reached was three fourths of a mile in diameter. They
landed in a tumultuous sea, which only a life-boat could survive. There
was no good hiding-place from the storm, which was increasing. They were
completely wet by the spray, and ready to faint with cold and hunger. In
a crevice of the rock a fire was kindled, the saucepan half filled with
sea water, and an eider duck John had knocked over with his oar was put
into it to stew. To this was added four biscuit from the bread barrel.
The hot meal thus cooked refreshed them, but it was their only
refreshment. Bonsall and Godfrey crept under the sail taken from the
boat, and, from sheer exhaustion, fell asleep. John and Dr. Hayes sought
warmth in a run about the island. Dr. Hayes wandered to a rocky point,
which commanded a view of the channel between the island and the "Hope."
He watched every object, expecting to see her and her crew adrift. He
had not watched long before a dark object was seen upon a whirling
ice-raft. After a close and careful second look, he saw that it was
John. He called but received no answer. John's raft now touched the floe
and away he went, jumping the fearful cracks, and disappearing in the
darkness. What could inspire so reckless an adventure? Had he seen the
"Hope" in peril, and was this a manly effort to save her and his
comrades? He was going in the direction in which he had left them.
Bonsall and Godfrey were soon frozen out of their comfortless tent, and
joined Dr. Hayes on the rocky point. They took places of observation a
short distance apart, and watched with intense anxiety both for the
"Hope" and John. The morning came, the sea grew less wild, and the wind
subsided, but nothing was seen of the boat.
Leaving Dr. Hayes and his party thus watching on the island, we will
glance at the experience of those of us who were left in the camp.
Soon after they left, the wind and the waves played free and wild. The
spray wet our clothes, buffaloes, and blankets, as it flew past us in
dense clouds. Our bread-bag, wrapped in an india rubber cloth, was kept
dry. We pitched our tent in the safest place possible, but were driven
out by the increasing deluge of spray. We tried to cook our supper, but
the water put out the lamp. So we obtained for thirty hours neither rest
nor a warm meal. Dry, hard bread without water, was our only food.
Finally the floe broke up, and, hastily packing, ourselves and stores
into the "Hope," we went scudding through the leads, earnestly desiring
but scarcely daring to hope that we should fall in with Dr. Hayes and
his party. As we approached Littleton Island the lead closed, and the
pack for a moment shut us in. As we waited and watched, we saw a dark
object moving over the floe in the misty distance. Had we been on the
lookout for a bear, we might have sent a bullet after it at a venture.
But a moment only intervened before John, nimbly jumping the drifting
ice-cakes, sprung into the boat! He brought the welcome news of the
whereabouts of our companions with the life-boat, and his needed help in
our peril. Soon a change of tide brought open water, through which, with
all sails set, we bore down on the island. About eight o'clock we saw
Dr. Hayes watching for our coming from his bleak, rocky lookout.
So rough was the sea that we could not land, but rowed round Cape
Ohlsen, the nearest main-land, where we found a snug harbor with a low
beach. The life-boat and her crew followed. The cargoes were taken from
the boats, and they were hauled up. From a little stream of melted snow
which trickled down the hill-side our kettles were filled. The camp was
set ablaze, some young eiders and a burgomaster, shot just before we
landed, were soon cooked, a steaming pot of coffee served up, and we
talked over our adventures as we satisfied our craving hunger. John was
questioned concerning his wild adventure. He had not seen the "Hope,"
nor did he know where she was. But he was concerned about her, and
"wanted to hunt her up."
After dinner we set ourselves at work, preparing the boats for a renewed
voyage, which we had some reason to hope would be one of fewer
interruptions. The "Hope" was repatched and calked by Petersen. A mast
and sail was put into the life-boat, which we named the "Ironsides." The
heavier part of the freight was put on board the "Hope," of which
Petersen took command, with Sontag, George Stephenson, and George
Whipple as companions and helpers. Dr. Hayes commanded in the
"Ironsides," with whom was Bonsall, John, Blake, and William Godfrey.
Having spread our sails to a favoring breeze, we gave three cheers and
bore away for Cape Alexander, about fourteen miles distant. As we sped
onward the scene was delightful. On our left was Hartstene Bay, with its
dark, precipitous shore-line, and white glacier fields in the
background. The outlines of Cape Alexander grew clearer over our bows,
and cheered us onward. But a dark, threatening cloud crept up the
northern sky, sending after us an increasing breeze, and tipping the
waves with caps of snowy whiteness. The storm-king came on in frequent
squalls, giving earnest of his wrath. We could not turn back, nor did
such a course at all accord with our wishes; nor could we run toward the
shore on the left, where only frowning rocks awaited us. We could only
scud before the tempest toward Cape Alexander, come what would. The wind
roared louder and the waves rolled higher, yet on we flew. We came
within half a mile of the cape unharmed. Now the current, as it swept
swiftly round the cape, produced a "chopping sea." The "Hope," being
made for a heavy sea, rounded the point in good style. The "Ironsides"
was shorter, stood more out of the water, and was, therefore, less
manageable. John, who was intrusted with the steering-oar, in minding
the business of Bonsall and Godfrey instead of his own, let it fly out
of the water, and so permitted the boat to come round broadside to the
current. Of course the sea broke over us at its pleasure, filling every
part which could be filled and sinking us deep in the water. But for its
metallic structure and air-tight apartment we should have sunk; as it
was we held fast to the sides and mast to prevent being washed
overboard, and thus we drifted ingloriously round the cape.
Here we found our consort, ready to come to our assistance; but as the
water was smooth under sheltering land, we bailed out our boat, took in
our sails, unshipped the mast, and rowed for a small rock called
Sutherland's Island, hoping to find a harbor. But we found none, nor was
it safe to land anywhere upon the island. There was nothing to do but to
pull back again in the face of the wind. The men were weary and
disheartened; the sun had set and it was growing dark; our clothes were
frozen and unyielding as a coat of mail; cutting sleet pelted our faces,
and we were often compelled to lose for a moment part of what we had
with such toil gained. But the sheltering main-land of the cape was at
last gained, and we coasted slowly along for some distance looking for a
haven. We finally came to a low rocky point, behind which lay a snug
little harbor. "A harbor! here we are boys; a harbor!" shouted the
lookout. The men responded with a faint cheer--they were too much
exhausted for "a rouser."
The boats were unladen and drawn upon the land. Every thing in the
"Ironsides" was wet, but the stores of the "Hope" were in perfect order.
We pitched our tent, cooked our supper, and lay down to sleep. The sea
roared angrily as its waves broke upon the rocky coast, and the wind
howled as it came rushing down the hill-side; but they did but lull us
to rest as we slept away our weariness and disappointment.
Two days we were detained in this place. Once a little fox peered at us
from the edge of the cliff, which set our men upon a fruitless hunt for
either his curious little self or some of his kindred. We greatly
desired a fox stew, but fox cunning was too much for us.
We started for Northumberland Island on the eighth of September. To
reach it we must pass through a wide expanse of sea which was now clear;
not a berg greeted our vision, no fragments of drifting ice-packs met
our sight. The wind was nearly "after us," and the boats glided through
the waves as gloriously as if carrying a picnic party in our own home
waters. The spirits of the men run over with glee. "Isn't this
glorious?" cried Whipple as the boats came near enough together to
exchange salutations; "we have it watch and watch about."
"And so have we," replied Godfrey.
"We're shipping a galley and mean to have some supper," shouted
Stephenson.
"And we have got ours already!" exclaimed John. "Look at this!" he
added, flourishing in the air a pot of steaming coffee.
But these joys were emphatically of the _arctic_ kind, which are in
themselves prophecies of ill. Bergs were soon seen lifting their
unwelcome heads in the distance, and sending through the intervening
waters their tidings of evil. Next came long, narrow lines of ice; then
these were united together by a thin, recent formation. We were now
compelled to dodge about to find open lanes. Coming to a full stop, the
officers climbed an iceberg to get a view of the situation. The pack was
every-where, though in no direction was it without narrow runs of open
water. Then and there they were compelled, after careful consultation,
to decide a question deeply concerning our enterprise. It was this:
Should we take the outer passage, or the one lying along shore. The
first would afford a better chance of open water, but if this failed us,
as it was even likely to do at this late season, we must certainly
perish. The second gave us a smaller chance of boating, but some chance
to live if it failed. But we were on a desperate enterprise, and were
inclined to desperate measures. But Petersen, who had twenty years'
experience in these waters, counseled the inner route, and by his
counsel the officers felt bound to abide.
While this consultation was going on the sea became calm, and the boats
could be urged only by the oars. It was night before we found a
sheltered, sloping land behind a projecting rock. The boats were
anchored in the usual way--by taking out their loads and lifting them
upon the land.
The tents were pitched upon a terrace a few yards above the boats. This
terrace, we were surprised to find, was covered with a green sod, full
of thrifty vegetation. The sloping hill-side above had the same
greenness. A little seeking brought to our wondering sight an abundant
supply of sorrel and "_cochlearia_," anti-scurvy plants which our men
much needed. Some of the men soon filled their caps with them. A fox had
been shot and was already in the cook's steaming pot, to which a good
supply of the green plants was added. Such a supper as we had! Nothing
like it had been tasted since we left home! Our scurvy plague spots
disappeared before its wonderful healing power. The men became as
hilarious as boys when school is out. They reveled and rolled upon the
green arctic carpet like young calves in a newly found clover field.
They smoked their pipes, "spun yarns," and laughed cheerily, as if their
lives had not just now been in peril, and as if no imminent dangers lay
at their door. Our camp had indeed been pitched by the all-guiding Hand
in a goodly place. The men declared on retiring that they felt the
healing _cochlearia_ in their very bones, and it is certain that we all
felt the glow of our changed condition throughout our whole being.
The next day two of us climbed the highest land of the island for a
glance at our situation. We found it as depressing as our paradise of
greenness had been encouraging. We could see southward the closed
ice-pack for twenty miles, and faint indications of the same condition
of the sea could be discerned for twenty more miles.
We returned, and a council was called in which all, men and officers,
were called upon freely to discuss, and finally to decide by vote, the
question, Shall we go forward or attempt to return to the "Advance." All
the facts so far as known were fairly brought out. Upernavik was six
hundred miles in a straight line; the brig was four hundred. Dangers, if
not death, were everywhere, yet none desponded. Whipple, or "Long
George," as his messmates called him, made a heroic speech which
expressed the feelings of all. He exclaimed: "The ice can't remain long;
I'll bet it will open to-morrow. The winter is a long way off yet. If we
have such luck as we have had since leaving Cape Alexander, we shall be
in Upernavik in two weeks. You say it is not more than six hundred miles
there in a straight line. We have food for that time and fuel for a
week. Before that's gone we'll shoot a seal."
We voted with one voice--"Upernavik or nothing." The decision was made.
CHAPTER XII.
NETLIK.
WE were unwillingly detained on the island several days more. During the
detention we were visited by an Esquimo, who came most unexpectedly upon
us. His name was Amalatok. He had been at the ship last winter, and had
seen Dr. Kane in his August trip. His dress was strikingly arctic--a
bird-skin coat, feathers turned in; bear-skin pants, hair outward;
seal-skin boots; and dog-skin stockings. He carried in his hand two sea
birds, a bladder filled with oil, some half-putrid walrus flesh, and a
seal thong. He sat down on a rock and talked with animation. While thus
engaged he twisted the neck from one of the birds, inserted the
fore-finger of his right hand under the skin of its neck, drew it down
its back, and thus instantly skinned it. Then running his long thumb
nail along the breastbone, he produced two fine fat lumps of flesh,
which he offered in turn to each of our company. These were politely
declined, to his great disgust, and he bolted them down himself, sending
after them a hearty draught of oil from the bladder. The other bird, the
remaining oil, and the coil of seal-hide we purchased of him for three
needles.
Soon after Amalatok's wife came up with a boy--her nephew. The woman
was old, and exceedingly ugly looking; the boy was fine looking,
wide-awake, and thievish--we watched him narrowly. In the evening the
Esquimo left for their home on the easternly side of the island.
In the afternoon of the fourteenth of September we left the island, and
set our course toward Cape Parry. The sky had been clear, the air soft
and balmy, and the open sea invited us onward. But a cold mist soon
settled down upon us, succeeded by a curtain of snow, shutting out all
landmarks, and leaving us in great doubt as to our course. The compass
refused to do its office, the needle remaining where it was placed. We
struck into an ice-field and became perfectly bewildered. As we groped
about we struck an old floating ice-island, about twelve feet square. On
this we crawled and pitched our tent. The cook contrived, with much
perseverance and delay, to light the lamp, melt some snow, and make a
pot of coffee. This warmed and encouraged us. But as the snow fell
faster and faster, we could not unwrap our bedding without getting it
wet; so we huddled together under the tent to keep each other warm. None
slept, and the night wore slowly away as our ice-island floated we knew
not whither. There was great occasion for despondency, but the men were
wonderfully cheerful. Godfrey sung negro melodies with a gusto; Petersen
told the stories of his boyhood life in Copenhagen and Iceland; John
gave items of a "runner's" life in San Francisco; Whipple related the
horrors of the forecastle of a Liverpool packet; and Bonsall "brought
down the house" by striking up,
"Who wouldn't sell his farm and go to sea?"
During this merriment a piece of our raft broke off, and came near
plunging two of the men into the sea.
The morning dawned and showed the dim outlines of some large object near
us, whether iceberg or land we could not tell. Before we could well make
it out we were near a sandy beach covered with bowlders. We tumbled into
the boats and were soon ashore. As we landed, Petersen's gun brought
down two large sea-fowl. We were in a little time high on the land, our
tent pitched, and all but John, the cook, lay down in the dry, warm
buffalo-skins and slept away our weariness. John in the meantime
contended through six long hours with the wind, which put out his lamp,
the snow, which wet his tinder when he attempted to relight it, and the
cold, which froze the water in the kettle during the delay, as well as
chilled his fingers and face, and cooked us at last a supper of sea-fowl
and fox. As we ate with appetites sharpened by a fast of twenty-four
hours, we heard the storm, which raged fearfully, with thankfulness for
our timely covert. God, and not our wisdom, had brought us hither.
When the morning broke we learned that we had drifted far up Whale
Sound, and were camped on Herbert Island. After a little delay we
entered our boats, rowed for several hours through "the slush" the snow
had created near the shore, and then spreading our canvas, we sailed for
the mainland. We struck the coast twenty miles above Cape Parry.
We had scarcely time to glance at our situation before we heard the
"Huk! Huk! Huk!" of Esquimo voices. It was the hailing cry of a man and
a boy who came running to the shore. While Petersen talked with the man,
the boy scampered off.
The man was Kalutunah, "the Angekok" or priest of his tribe. He had
been, as will be recollected, at the ship in the winter. He said the
village was only a short distance up the bay, where was plenty of
blubber and meat, which we might have if we would allow him to enter our
"oomiak" and pilot us there!
While we were talking with Kalutunah, the boy had spread the news of our
visit through the village. On came a troop of men, women, and children,
rushing along the shore, and throwing their arms about, and shouting
merrily, with howling dogs at their heels. The "Kablunah" and
"Oomiak"--white men and ship--had come and they were happy.
We took on board Kalutunah from a rocky point, before the crowd could
reach it, and pushed off and rowed up the bay. Our passenger was
delighted, having never before voyaged in this wise. He stood up in the
boat and called to his envious countrymen who ran abreast of us along
the shore, exclaiming, "See me! See me!"
We landed in a little cove, at the head of which we pitched our tent.
The sailors drew up the boat over the gentle slope, shouting,
"Heave-oh!" At this the natives broke out into uproarious laughter.
Nothing of all the strange shouts and sights brought to their notice so
pleased them. They took hold of the ropes and sides of the boats, and
tugged away shouting, "I-e-u! I-e-u! I-e-u!" the nearest approach they
could make to the strange sound of the white faces.
A short distance from the beach, on the slope, stood the
_settlement_--two stone huts twenty yards apart. They were surrounded by
rocks and bowlders, looking more like the lurking places of wild beasts
than the abodes of men.
The entertainment given us by our new friends was most cordial. A young
woman ran off to the valley with a troop of boys and girls at her heels,
and filled our kettles with water. Kalutunah's wife brought us a steak
of seal and a goodly piece of liver. The lookers-on laughed at our
canvas-wick lamp, as it sputtered and slowly burned, and the chief's
daughter ran off and brought their lamp of dried moss and seal fat.
We gave them some of our supper, as they expected of course that we
would. They made wry faces at the coffee, and only sipped a little; but
Kalutunah with more dignity persevered and drank freely of it. We passed
round some hard biscuit, which they did not regard as food until they
saw us eat them. They then nibbled away, laughing and nibbling awhile
until their teeth seemed to be sore. They then thrust them into their
boots, the general receptacles of curious things.
After supper the white men lighted their pipes. This to the natives was
the crowning wonder. They stared at the strangers, and then looked
knowingly at each other. The solemn faces of the smokers, the devout
look which they gave at the ascending smoke from their mouths as it
curled upward, impressed the Esquimo that this was a religious ceremony.
They, too, preserved a becoming gravity. But the ludicrous scene was too
much for our men, and their faces relaxed into smiles. This was a signal
for a general explosion. The Esquimo burst into loud laughter, springing
to their feet and clapping their hands. The religious meeting was over.
The "Angekok," who seemed desirous to show his people that he could do
any thing which the strangers could, desired to be allowed to smoke. We
gave him a pipe, and directed him to draw in his breath with all his
might. He did so, and was fully satisfied to lay the pipe down. His
awful grimaces brought down upon him shouts and laughter from his
people.
The mimic puffs, and the poorly executed echoes of the sailors'
"Heave-oh," went merrily round the village.
Having established good feeling between ourselves and the Esquimo, we
entered upon negotiations for such articles of food as they could spare.
But they in fact had only a small supply. They wanted, of course, our
needles, knives, wood, and iron, and were profuse in their promises of
what they would do, but their game was in the sea.
It was midnight before the Esquimo retired and we lay down to sleep. Dr.
Hayes and Stephenson remained on guard, for our very plausible friends
were not to be trusted where any thing could be stolen. The stars
twinkled in the clear atmosphere while yet the twilight hung upon the
mountain, and all nature was hushed to an oppressive silence, save when
it was broken by the sudden outburst of laughter from the Esquimo, or
the cawing of a solitary raven.
Leaving Stephenson on guard, Dr. Hayes walked toward the huts. Kalutunah
hearing his footsteps came out to meet him, expressing his welcome by
grinning in his face and patting his back. The huts were square in front
and sloped back into the hill. They were entered by a long
passage-way--tossut--of twelve feet, at the end of which was an ascent
into the hut through an opening in the floor near the front. Into this
the chief led the way, creeping on all fours, with a lighted torch of
moss saturated with fat. Snarling dogs and half-grown puppies were
sleeping in this narrow way, who naturally resented in their own amiable
way this midnight disturbance. Arriving at the upright shaft, the chief
crowded himself aside to let his visitor pass in. A glare of light,
suffocating odors, and a motley sight, greeted the doctor. Crowded into
the den, on a raised stone bench around three sides, were human beings
of both sexes, and of all ages. They huddled together still closer to
make room for the stranger, whom they greeted with an uproarious laugh.
In one of the front corners, on a raised stone bench, was a mother-dog
with a family of puppies. In the other corner was a joint of meat. The
whole interior was about ten feet in diameter, and five and a half high.
The walls were made of stone and the bones of animals, and chinked with
moss. They were not arched, but drawn in from the foundation, and capped
above with slabs of slate-stone.
The doctor's visit was one of curiosity, but the curiosity of the
Esquimo in reference to him was more intense and must first be
gratified. They hung upon his arms and legs and shoulders; they patted
him on the back, and stroked his long beard, which to these beardless
people was a wonder. The woolen clothes puzzled them, and their
profoundest thought was at fault in deciding the question of the kind of
animal from whose body the material was taken. They had no conception of
clothing not made of skins.
The boys' hands soon found their way into the doctor's pockets, and they
drew out a pipe, which passed with much merriment from hand to hand, and
mouth to mouth.
Kalutunah drew the doctor's knife from its sheath, pressed it fondly to
his heart, and then with a mischievous side glance stuck it into his own
boot. The doctor shook his head, and it was returned with a laugh to its
place. A dozen times he took it out, hugged it, and returned it to its
place, saying beseechingly, "Me! me! give me!" He did want it _so much_!
The visitor's pistol was handled with great caution and seriousness.
They had been given a hint of its power at the sea-shore, where Bonsall
had brought a large sea-fowl down into their midst by a shot from his
gun.
While this examination of the doctor was going on he examined more
closely the objects about him. There was a window, or opening, above the
entrance, over which dried intestines, sewed together, were stretched to
let in light. The wall was covered with seal and fox skins stretched to
dry.
There were in the hut three families and one or two visitors, in all
eighteen or twenty persons. The female head of each family was attending
in different parts of the hut, to her family cooking. They had each a
stone, scooped out like a clam shell, in which was put a piece of moss
soaked in blubber. This was both lamp and stove, and was kept burning by
feeding with fat. Over this a stone pot was hung from the ceiling, in
which the food was kept simmering. These, and the animal heat of the
inmates, made the hut intensely warm. Seeing the white man panting for
breath, some boys and girls laid hold of his clothes to strip him, after
their own fashion. This act of Esquimo courtesy he declined. They then
urged him to eat, and he answered, "Koyenuck"--I thank you--at which
they all laughed. Though he had dreaded this invitation, he did not
think it good policy to declare it. A young girl brought him the
contents of one of the stone pots in a skin dish, first tasting it
herself to see if it was too hot.
All eyes were upon the visitor. Not to take their proffered pottage
would be a great affront. To him the dose seemed insufferable, though of
necessity to be taken. Shutting his eyes, and holding his nose, he
bolted it down. He was afterward informed that it was one of the
delicacies of their table, made by boiling together blood, oil, and seal
intestines!
After thus partaking of their hospitality, the doctor left the Esquimo
quarters, escorted by "the Angekok" and his daughter.
We were astir at dawn, preparing to leave this little village known as
Netlik. We had obtained a valuable addition to our slender store of
blubber, and a few pairs of fur boots and mittens, for which we amply
paid them.
Knowing that the Esquimo had never heard of the commandment, "Thou shalt
not covet," and that they did not understand well the law of "mine" and
"thine," we watched them closely as our stores were being passed into
the boat. When we were ready to push off it was ascertained that the
hatchet was missing. Petersen openly charged them, as they stood upon
the shore, with the theft. They all threw up their hands with
expressions of injured innocence. "My people _never_ steal!" exclaimed
the affronted chief.
One fellow was so loud in his protestations of innocence that Petersen
suspected him. The Dane approached him with a flash of anger in his
eye, which told its own story. The Esquimo stepped back, stooped, picked
up the hatchet, on which he had been standing, and gave it to Petersen
with one hand, and with the other presented him a pair of mittens as a
peace-offering.
We pushed off, and they stood shouting upon the beach until their voices
died away in the distance as we pulled across the bay.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE HUT.
WE now made for Cape Parry with all speed, though this was slow speed.
The young ice which covered the bay was too old for us, or, at any rate,
it was too strong for easy progress. It was sunset when we reached the
cape. Beyond this there had been open water seen by us for many days
past, from the elevated points of observation which we had sought. From
this point, therefore, we expected free sailing southward, and rapid
progress toward safety and our homes. But here we were at last at Cape
Parry against a pack which extended far southward. In our desperation we
tried to force the boats through. The "Ironsides" was badly battered,
and the "Hope" made sadly leaky by the operation, and no progress was
made. We then pushed slowly down the shore through a lead, and having
gone about seven miles, darkness and the ice brought us to a stand, and
we drew up for the night.
In the morning we observed a lead going south from the shore at a point
twelve miles distant. For six days, bringing us to the twenty-seventh of
September, we fought hard to reach the lead, but failed. We could now
neither retreat nor go forward. Ice and snow were every-where. The sun
was running low in the heavens, seeming to rise only to set; and soon
the night, which was to have no sunrise morning until February, would be
upon us. Our food was sufficient for not more than two weeks, and our
fuel of blubber for the lamp only was but enough for eight or ten days.
Our condition seemed almost without hope, but it had entered into our
calculations as a possible contingency, and we girded ourselves for the
struggle for life, trusting in the Great Deliverer.
We were about sixteen miles below Cape Parry, and about midway between
Whale Sound and Wolstenholme Sound. We pitched our tent thirty yards
from the sea on a rocky upland. After securing in a safe place the boats
and equipments, we began to look about us for a place to build a hut. It
was, indeed, a dreary, death-threatening region. Time was too pressing
for us to think of building an Esquimo hut, if, indeed, our strength and
skill was sufficient.
While we were looking round and debating what to build and where, one of
our party found a crevice in a rock. This crevice ran parallel with the
coast, and was opposite to, and near, the landing. It was eight feet in
width, and level on the bottom. The rock on the east side was six feet
high, its face smooth and perpendicular, except breaks in two places,
making at each a shelf. On the other--the ocean side--the wall was
scarcely four feet high, round and sloping; but a cleft through it made
an opening to the crevice from the west.
We at once determined to make our hut here, as the natural walls would
save much work in its construction. The only material to be thought of
was rocks. These we had to find beneath the snow, and then loosen them
from the grasp of the frost. For this we fortunately had an
ice-chisel--a bar of iron an inch in diameter and four feet long, bent
at one end for a handle, and tempered and sharpened at the other. With
this Bonsall loosened the rocks, and others bore them on their shoulders
to the crevice. When a goodly pile was made we began to construct the
walls. Instead of mortar we had sand to fill in between the stones. This
was as hard to obtain as the stones themselves, as it had to be first
picked to pieces with the ice-chisel, then scooped up with our tin
dinner plates into cast-off bread-bags, and thus borne to the builders.
This work was done by four of us only, the other four being engaged in
hunting, to keep away threatened starvation. In two days our walls were
up. They run across the crevice, that is, east and west, were fourteen
feet apart, four feet high, and three thick. The natural walls being
eight feet apart, our hut was thus in measurement fourteen feet by
eight. The entrance was through the cleft, from the ocean side. We laid
across the top of this door-way the rudder of the "Hope," and erected on
it the "gable." One of the boat's masts was used for a ridgepole, and
the oars for rafters. Over these we laid the boats' sails, drew them
tightly, and secured them with heavy stones. Being sadly deficient in
lumber, Petersen constructed a door of light frame-work and covered it
with canvas; he hung it on an angle, so that when opened it shut of its
own weight. A place was left for a window over the door-way, across
which we drew a piece of old muslin well greased with blubber, and
through which the somber light streamed when there was any outside.
We then endeavored to thatch the roof and "batten" the cracks
every-where with moss. But to obtain this article we had to scour the
country far and near, dig through the deep snow, having tin dinner
plates for shovels, wrench it from the grip of the frost with our
ice-chisel, put it in our bread-bags and "back it" home.
In four days, in spite of all obstacles, our hut assumed a homelike
appearance--at least homelike compared with our present quarters. We
said: "To-morrow we shall move into it and be comparatively
comfortable." But that day brought the advance force of a terrific storm
of wind and snow. It caught some of us three miles from the tent. We
huddled together in our thin hemp canvas tent and slept as best we
could. Two of our company crawled out in the morning to prepare our
scanty meal. They found the hut half full of snow, which had sifted
through the crevices. But they brought to the tent's company a hot
breakfast after some hours' toil; we ate and our spirits revived.
We tried all possible expedients to pass away the time, but the hours
moved slowly. The storm continued to howl and roar about us with
unceasing fury for four days. Our little stock of food was diminishing,
our hut was unfinished, and winter was upon us in earnest. Our situation
was one of almost unmitigated misery.
On Friday, October sixth, the storm subsided, and nature put on a
smiling face. We renewed our work on the hut, clearing it of snow with
our dinner-plate shovels, and then, under greater difficulties than
ever, because the snow was deeper and our strength less, we finished it.
The internal arrangements were as follows: an aisle or floor, three feet
wide, extended from the door across the hut. On the right, as one
entered, was a raised platform of stone and sand about eighteen inches
high. On this we spread our skins and blankets. Here five of us were to
sleep. On the back corner of the other side was a similar platform, or
"breck" as the Esquimo would call it; here three men were to sleep. In
the left-hand corner, near the door, Petersen had extemporized a stove
out of some tin sheathing torn from the "Hope," with a funnel of the
same material running out of the roof. This sort of fire-place stove
held two lamps, a saucepan, and kettle. On a post which supported the
roof hung a small lamp.
Into this hut we moved October ninth. Compared with the tent it was
comfortable. It was evening when we were settled. At sundown Petersen
came in with eight sea-fowl, so we celebrated the occasion with a stew
of fresh game, cooked in our stove with the staves of our blubber kegs,
and we added to our meal a pot of hot coffee.
The supper done, we talked by the dim light of our moss taper. A storm,
which was heralded during the day, was raging without in full force,
burying us in a huge snow-bank. We discussed calmly our duties and
trials, and we all lay down prayerfully to sleep.
What shall we do now? was the question of the morning. Indeed, it was
the continual question. John reported our stores thus: "There's three
quarters of a small barrel of bread, a capful of meat biscuit, half as
much rice and flour, a double handful of lard--and that's all." Our
vigilant hunting thus far had resulted in seventeen small birds; that
was all. Some of us had tried to eat the "stone moss," a miserable
lichen which clung tenaciously to the stones beneath the snow. But it
did little more than stop for awhile the gnawings of hunger, often
inducing serious illness; yet this seemed our only resort.
The storm still raged. We were all reclining upon the brecks except
John, who was trying to cook by a fire which filled our hut with smoke,
when we were startled by a strange sound. "What is it?" we asked. We
could not get out, so we listened at the window. "It was the wind," we
said, for we could hear nothing more. In a half hour it was repeated
clearer and louder. We opened the door by drawing the snow into the
house, and made a little opening through the drift so we could see
daylight. "It was the barking of a fox," says one. "No," said another,
"it was the growling of a bear." Whipple, who was half asleep,
muttered, "It was just nothing at all."
While these remarks were being made the Esquimo shout was clearly
recognized. Petersen put his mouth to the aperture in the snow and
shouted, "Huk! huk! huk!" After much shouting, two bewildered Esquimo
entered our hut. They were from Netlik, the village we had last left,
and one was Kalutunah. Their fur dress had a thick covering of snow,
and, hardy though they were, they looked weary almost to faintness. They
each held in one hand a dog-whip, and in the other a piece of meat and
blubber. They threw down the food, thrust their whip-stocks under the
rafters, hung their wet outer furs upon them, and at once made
themselves at home. The chief hung around Dr. Hayes, saying fondly,
"Doctee! doctee!"
John put out his smoking fire, at the Angekok's request, and used his
blubber in cooking a good joint of the bear meat. We all had a good meal
at our guests' expense. Necessity was more than courtesy with hungry
men.
While the cooking and eating were going on, we listened to the marvelous
story of the Esquimo. They left Netlik, forty miles north, the morning
of the previous day on a hunting excursion with two dog-sledges. The
storm overtook them far out upon the ice in search of bear, and they
sheltered themselves in a snow hut for the night. Fearing the ice might
break up they turned to the land, which they happened to strike near our
boats and tent. Knowing we must be near, they picketed their dogs under
a sheltering rock and commenced tramping and shouting.
The supper eaten, the story told, and the curiosity of our visitors
satisfied in closely observing every thing, we made for them the best
bed possible, tucked them in, and they were soon snoring lustily.
In the morning we tunneled a hole from our door through the snow.
Kalutunah and Dr. Hayes went to the sea-shore. The dogs were howling
piteously, having been exposed to all the fury of the storm during the
night without the liberty of stirring beyond their tethers. Besides,
they had been forty-eight hours without food, having come from home in
that time through a widely deviating track. Every thing about them was
carefully secured which could be eaten, and they were loosened.
Dr. Hayes turned toward the hut, and having reached the snow-tunnel he
was about to stoop down to crawl through it, when he observed the whole
pack of thirteen snapping, savage brutes at his heels. Had he been on
his knees they would have made at once a meal of him. They stood at bay
for a moment, but seeing he had no means of attack, one of them
commenced the assault by springing upon him. Dr. Hayes caught him on his
arm, and kicked him down the hill. This caused a momentary pause. No
help was near, and to run was sure death. It was a fearful moment, and
his blood chilled at the prospect of dying by the jaws of wolfish dogs,
whose fierce and flashing eyes assured him that hunger had given them a
terrible earnestness. His eye improved the moment's respite in sweeping
the circle of the enemy for the means of escape, and he caught a glimpse
of a dog-whip about ten feet off. Instantly he sprang as only a man thus
situated could spring, and clearing the back of the largest of the dogs,
seized the whip. He was now master of the situation. Never amiable, and
terribly savage when prompted by hunger, yet the Esquimo dog is always a
coward. Dr. Hayes's vigorous blows, laid on at right and left with much
effect and more sound and fury, sent the pack yelping away.
In our discussions of the question of subsistence, we had about decided
that we must draw our supplies from the Esquimo or perish. Our hunting
was a failure, and our supply of food was about exhausted. So when
Kalutunah came back we proposed to him through Petersen to purchase
blubber and bear meat with our treasures of needles, knives, etc., so
valuable in the eyes of the natives. He looked at our sunken cheeks and
desolate home with a knowing twinkle of his eye, and a crafty expression
on his besotted face. This was followed by the questions, "How much
shoot with mighty guns? how much food you bring from ship?" These
questions, and the speaking eye and tell-tale face, were windows through
which we saw into the workings of his dark heathen mind. They meant, as
we understood them, "If you are going to starve we had better let you.
We shall then get your nice things without paying for them."
But Petersen understood and outmanaged the crafty chief.
"How we going to live?" he boldly exclaimed, facing the questioner.
"Live! Shoot bear when we get hungry, sleep when we get tired; Esquimo
will bring us bear, we shall give them presents, and sleep all the time.
White man easily get plenty to eat. Always plenty to eat, plenty sleep."
The glory of life from the Esquimo point of view is plenty to eat and
nothing to do. They held those who had attained to this high estate in
profound respect. The starving could scarcely be brought within the
range of their consideration. Hence the policy adopted by Petersen, and
it had its desired effect. Kalutunah and his companion tarried another
night, and departed promising to return with such food as the hunt
afforded, and exchange it for our valuables.
Two weeks--days of misery--passed before their return. We set fox-traps,
constructed much after the style of the rabbit-traps of the boys at
home, tramping for this purpose over the coast-line for ten miles. One
little prisoner only rewarded our pains, while the saucy villains showed
themselves boldly by day, barking at us from the top of a rock, dodging
across our path at the right and left, and even following us within
sight of the hut. But all this was done at a safe distance from our
guns.
Petersen went far out to sea on the ice, but neither bear nor seal
rewarded his toil. We had burned up our lard keg for our semi-daily fire
to cook our scanty meals, and now, with a sorrow that went to our
hearts, began to break up the "Hope." We knew this step argued badly for
the future, but what could we do? Besides, it was poor, water-soaked
fuel, and would last but a little while. We saved the straightest and
best pieces for trade with the Esquimo.
Our scanty meals, badly helped by the stone moss, told upon our health.
Stephenson gasped for breath with a heart trouble; Godfrey fainted, and
was happily saved a serious fall by being caught in John's arms.
CHAPTER XIV.
ESQUIMO TREACHERY.
THE kind Providence which had interfered for us in so many cases came
with timely help. October twenty-sixth, Kalutunah and his companion
returned. They had been south to Cape York, nearly a hundred miles,
calling on their way at the village called Akbat, thirty miles off. They
had killed three bears, the most of which they had upon their sledges.
They sold us, reluctantly, enough for a few days. We ate of the
refreshing meat like starving men, as we really were. Our sunken eyes
and hollow cheeks _seemed_ to leave us at a single meal. The faint
revived, and our despondency departed. Our past sufferings were for the
moment at least forgotten, and we looked hopefully upon the future.
The next day the Esquimo called and left a little more meat and blubber.
We caught two small foxes, one of them in a trap, and the other was
arrested by a shot from Dr. Hayes's gun. The audacious little fellow run
over the roof of our hut and awoke the doctor, who, without dressing,
seized his double-barreled gun, and bolted into the cold without. It was
dark, and he fired at random. The first shot missed, but the second
wounded him, and he went limping down the hill. The doctor gave chase
and returned with the game, but came near paying dear for his prize,
barely escaping without frozen feet.
On Sunday, the twenty-ninth, in the midst of pensive allusions, and more
pensive thoughts, concerning home, in which even Petersen's
weather-beaten face betrayed a tear, an Esquimo boy came in from Akbat.
His bearing was manly, his countenance fresh and agreeable, if not
handsome, and his dress, of the usual material, was new. He drove a fine
team with decided spirit. He was evidently somebody's pet, and we
thought we saw a mother's partial stamp upon him. He was on his way to
Netlik, and our curious inquiries brought from him the blushing
acknowledgment that he was going "a courting!" He was nothing loath to
talk of his sweetheart, and he bore her a bundle of bird-skins to make
her an under garment as love-token. We gave him a pocket-knife and a
piece of wood, to which we added two needles for his lady-love. He was
full of joy at this good fortune, but when Sontag added a string of
beads for her his cup run over. He had on his sledge two small pieces of
blubber, a pound of bear's meat, a bit of bear's skin. These he laid at
our feet, and dashed off toward Netlik in fine spirits.
When he was gone we renewed our ever-returning, perplexing,
never-settled question, What shall we do? We could agree on no plans of
escape, for all seemed impossible of execution. Yet we did agree in the
expediency of opening a communication with the brig. But how to do it
was the question.
Our dependence upon the Esquimo growing more humiliatingly absolute
every day, pained us. We feared their treachery, of which we already saw
some signs. "What _shall we do_?" was ever repeated.
While thus perplexed, Kalutunah made his appearance. With him were a
young hunter, and a woman with a six months' old baby. The little one
was wrapped in fox-skin, and thrust into its mother's hood, which hung
on her neck behind. It peered out of its hiding-place with a contented
and curious expression of face. Its mother had come forty miles,
sometimes walking over the hummocky way, with the thermometer
thirty-eight degrees below zero, with a liability of encountering
terrific storms, and all to see the white men and their _igloe_. Mother
and child arrived in good condition.
We conversed with the chief about our plan of going to Upernavik on
sledges, and proposed to buy teams of his people, or hire them to drive
us there. He received the proposal with a decided dissent, amounting
almost to resentment. His people, he said, would not sell dogs at any
price; they had only enough to preserve their own lives.
This we knew to be false. We offered a great price, but he scorned the
bribe, and talked with an expression of horror about our plan of passing
with sledges over the Frozen Sea, as he called Melville Bay.
While we were urging the sale by him of dogs and sledges he looked
quizzically at our emaciated forms and sunken cheeks, and turning to the
woman with a significant twinkle in his eye, he sucked in his cheeks.
She returned the knowing glance, and sucked in her cheeks. This meant:
We shall get all the white men's coveted things without paying when we
find them starved and dead. This was a comforting view of the case--for
them.
We dropped the plan of going south, and proposed to the chief to carry
some of our party to the ship. This he readily assented to, and said at
least four sledges should go with Petersen, if to each driver should be
given a knife and piece of wood. We closed the bargain gladly, and
Petersen was to start in the morning.
Guests and entertainers now sought rest. We gave the mother and child
our bed in the corner. This was to us a self-denying act of courtesy,
compelled by policy. We had usually given a good distance between us and
such lodgers on account of certain specimens of natural history which
swarmed upon their bodies, which, though starving, we did not desire.
But to put her in a meaner place would be a serious affront, for which
we might be obliged to pay dearly.
About midnight voices were heard outside, and soon our young lover, the
boy-hunter, entered, accompanied by a widow who was neither young, nor
beautiful. The hut was in instant confusion. There was but little more
sleep for the night, which was peculiarly hard on Petersen, who was to
start in the morning on his long journey.
We had no food with which to treat our guests, which they saw, and so
supped upon the provisions which they brought. The widow ate raw young
birds, of which she brought a supply saved over from the summer. The
Angekok had decided that her husband's spirit had taken temporary
residence in a walrus, so she was forbidden that animal. She chewed
choice bits of her bird and offered them to us. We tried _politely_ to
decline the kindness, but our refusal plainly offended her.
The widow's husband had been carried out to sea on an ice-raft on the
sudden breaking up of the floe, and had never been heard from. Whenever
his name was mentioned she burst into tears. Petersen told us that,
according to Esquimo custom in such cases, we were expected to join in
the weeping.
At the first attempt our success was very indifferent. On the next
occasion we equaled in sincerity and naturalness the expressed sorrow of
the heirs of a rich miser over his mortal remains. Even the tears we
managed so well that the widow, charitably forgetting our former
affront, offered us more chewed meat.
In the morning Petersen was off, Godfrey accompanying him at his own
option.
The same evening John and Sontag went south with the widow and young
hunter. Thus four of us only were left in the hut, and of these, one,
Stephenson, was seriously sick. His death at any time would not have
been a surprise to us. The hut was colder than ever, and our food nearly
gone. A few books, among which was a little Bible, the gift of a friend,
were a great source of comfort.
In a few days John and Sontag returned. They had fared well during their
absence. They were accompanied by two Esquimo, who brought us food for a
few days, for which they demanded an exorbitant price. They, like people
claiming a higher civilization, took advantage of our necessity. When
they were about to depart on a bear hunt, Dr. Hayes proposed that two of
us accompany them with our guns, but they declined. We went with them to
the beach, saw them start, watched them as they swiftly glided over the
ice, and, dodging skillfully around the hummocks, faded into a black
speck in the distance.
The day was spent as one of rest by four of our number, while two of us
visited the traps, returning as usual with nothing. The evening came. A
cup of good coffee revived us. The temperature of our den _came up_ to
the freezing point. We were in the midst of this feast of hot coffee and
increased warmth, when we heard a footfall. We hailed in Esquimo, but no
answer. Soon the outer door of our passage way opened, a man entered and
fell prostrate with a deep moan. It was Petersen. He crept slowly in as
we opened the door, staggered across the hut, and fell exhausted on the
breck.
Godfrey soon followed, even more exhausted. They both called piteously
for "water! water!"
They were in no condition to explain what had happened. We stripped them
of their frozen garments, rubbed their stiffened limbs, and rolled them
in warm blankets. We gave them of our hot coffee, and the warmth of the
hut and dry clothes revived them, but the sudden and great change was
followed by a brief cloud over their minds. They fell into a disturbed
sleep, and their sudden starts, groans, and mutterings, told of some
terrible distress.
Petersen, while sipping his coffee, had told us that the Esquimo had
thrown off their disguise and had attempted to murder them; that he and
Godfrey had walked all the way from Netlik with the Esquimo in hot
pursuit. We must watch, he said, for if off our guard they might
overwhelm us with numbers.
This much it was necessary for us to know; the details of their terrible
experience he was in no mood to give.
We immediately set a watch outside, who was relieved every hour; he was
armed with Bonsall's rifle. Our other guns we fired off and carefully
reloaded, hanging them upon their pegs for instant use.
Petersen and Godfrey awoke once, ate, and lay down to their agitated
sleep. No others slept, or even made the attempt. The creak of the boots
of the sentinel as he tramped his beat near the hut, on a little plain
cleared of snow by the wind, was the only sound which broke the solemn
silence. The enemy would not dare attack us except unawares, knowing, as
they did, that there were eight of us, armed with guns. At midnight
noises were heard about the rocks of the coast. They were watching, but
seeing the sentinel, and finding it a chilling business to wait for our
cessation of vigilance, they sneaked away. In the morning one of our men
visited the rocky coverts and found their fresh tracks.
We received at the earliest opportunity the details of Petersen's story.
They left us on the third of November, and were gone four days. They
arrived in Netlik in nine hours, and were lodged one in each of the two
_igloes_. Their welcome had a seeming heartiness. They had a full supply
set before them of tender young bear-steak and choice puppy stew. Many
strangers were present, and they continued to come until the huts were
crowded.
The next day the hunters all started early on the chase, to get, as
Kalutunah said, a good supply for their excursion to the ship, as well
as a store for their families. This looked reasonable, but when night
came the chief and a majority of the men returned not, nor did they
appear the next day. The moon had just passed its full, no time could be
spared for trifling, and Petersen grew uneasy. This feeling was
increased by the strangers which continued to come, the running to and
fro of the women, the side glances, and the covert laugh among the
crowd.
Kalutunah returned on the evening of the third day of our men at the
hut. Several sledges accompanied him, and one of them was driven by a
brawny savage by the name of Sipsu. He had shown his ugly face once at
our hut. He was above the usual height, broad-chested and strong limbed.
He had a few bristly hairs upon his chin and upper lip, and dark, heavy
eyebrows overshadowed his well set, evil-looking eyes. He was every inch
a savage. While the crowd laughed, joked, and fluttered curiously about
the strangers, Sipsu was dignified, sullen, or full of dismal stories.
He had, he said, killed two men of his tribe. They were poor hunters, so
he stole upon them from behind a hummock, and harpooned them in the
back.
Whatever shrewdness Sipsu possessed, he did not have wit enough to hide
his true character from his intended victims.
About twelve sledges were now collected, and Petersen supposed they
would start early in the morning for the "Advance," so he ventured to
try to hurry them a few hours by suggesting midnight for the departure.
To this suggestion they replied that they would not go at all, and that
they never intended to go. The crowd in the hut greeted this
announcement with uproarious laughter.
Petersen maintained a bold bearing. He rose and went to the other hut
and put Godfrey upon the watch, telling him what had happened. He then
returned and demanded good faith from the chiefs. They only muttered
that they could not go north; they could not pass that "blowing
place"--Cape Alexander. He then asked them to sell him a dog-team; he
would pay them well. They evaded this question, and Sipsu said to
Kalutunah, in a side whisper, "We can get his things in a cheaper way."
Now commenced the game of wait and watch between the two parties; the
chiefs waited and watched to kill Petersen, and he waited and watched
not to be killed. He had his gun outside, because the moisture of the
hut condensing on the lock might prevent it from going off. He had told
the crowd that if they touched it it might kill them, and this fear was
its safety. Those inside thought he had a pistol concealed under his
garments. They had seen such articles, and witnessed their deadly power.
Their purpose now was to get possession of this weapon, and Sipsu was
the man to do it.
Petersen, cool as he was prompt and skillful, had not betrayed his
suspicions of them; so he threw himself upon the breck and feigned
himself asleep, to draw out their plans.
The strategy worked well. The gossiping tongues of men, women, and
children loosened when they thought him asleep, and they revealed all
their secrets. Petersen and Godfrey were to be killed on the spot, and
our hut was to be surprised before Sontag and John returned from the
south. Sipsu the while moved softly toward Petersen to search for the
pistol. Just at this moment Godfrey came to the window and hallooed to
learn if his chief was alive. Petersen rose from his sham sleep and went
out. A crowd were at the door and about the gun, but they dared not
touch it. The intended victims kept a bold front, and coolly proposed a
hunt. This the natives declined, and they declared they would go alone.
It was late in the night when our beset and worried men started. They
were watched sullenly until they were two miles away, and then the
sledges were harnessed for the pursuit. Fifty yelping dogs mingled their
cries with those of the men, and made a fiendish din in the ears of the
flying fugitives. What could they do if the dogs were let loose upon
them, having only a single rifle! One thing they intended should be
sure; Sipsu or Kalutunah should die in the attack.
When the pursuers seemed at the very heels of our men, _that one gun_
made cowards of the Esquimo chiefs. They seemed to understand _their_
danger. The whole pack of dogs and men turned seaward, and disappeared
among the hummocks. They meant a covert attack.
Keeping the shore and avoiding the hiding-places, Petersen and Godfrey
pressed on. The night was calm and clear, but the cold was over fifty
degrees below zero. When half way, at Cape Parry, they well-nigh fainted
and fell. But encouraging each other, they still hurried onward, and
made the fifty miles (it was forty in a straight line) in twenty-four
hours. The reader understands why they arrived in such distress and
exhaustion.
CHAPTER XV.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS.
DURING the two days following the return of Petersen and Godfrey we
spent our working hours in building a wall about our hut. It was made of
frozen snow, sawed in blocks by our small saw. This wall served a double
purpose, that of breaking the wind from our hut, and as a defense
against the Esquimo. It gave our abode the appearance of a fort, and we
called it Fort Desolation. John muttered: Better call it Fort
Starvation! This was in fact no unfitting designation. Our food was
nearly gone. Those who alone could keep us from starving were seeking
our lives. A feeble, flickering light made the darkness of our hut
visible. Darkness, and dampness, and destitution were within, and
without were fears. We could not be blamed, perhaps, if the death which
threatened us seemed more desirable than life. Yet we could not forget
Him who had so often snatched us from the jaws of our enemies--cold,
hunger, and savages--and we trusted him to again deliver us. And this he
did, for the next day Kalutunah and another hunter appeared. They did
not come as enemies, but as angel messengers of mercy from the
All-Merciful!
The chief was at first shy, nor could he so far lay aside the cowardice
of conscious guilt as to lay down for a moment his harpoon, at other
times left at the hut door. He brought, to conciliate us, a goodly piece
of walrus meat. After spending an hour with us he dashed out upon the
ice on a moonlight hunt for bears.
Petersen spent the day in making knives for the Esquimo, in anticipation
of restored friendship. With an old file he filed down some pieces of an
iron hoop, punching rivet holes with the file, and whittling a handle
from a fragment of the "Hope." Though the knife, when done, was not like
one of "Rogers's best," it was no mean article for an Esquimo blubber
and bear meat knife.
The next day four sledges and six Esquimo made us a call. One of them
was our old friend the widow, with her bundle of birds under her arm.
They were all shy at first, showing a knowledge at least of the wrong
intended us, but we soon made them feel at home. It was indeed for our
interest to do so. They bartered gladly walrus, seal, bear, and bird
meat, a hundred pounds in all. It made a goodly pile, enough for four
days, but, alas! the duty of hospitality, which we could not wisely
decline, compelled us to treat our guests with it, and they ate one
third! In three hours they were off toward Netlik.
The next day an Esquimo man came from Northumberland Island; we had not
seen him before, and he did not appear to have been in the council of
the plotters against us. He sold us walrus meat, blubber, and fifty
little sea fowl.
Our health absolutely demanding a more generous diet, we ate three full
meals, such as we had not had since leaving the ship. Our new friend's
name was Kingiktok--which is, by interpretation, a rock. Mr. Rock was a
man of few words, and of very civil behavior. We fancied him, and
courted his favor by a few presents for himself and wife. They were
gifts well bestowed, for he at once opened his mouth in valuable and
startling communications. He said that he and his brother Amalatok were
the only two men in the tribe who were friendly to us. Amalatok was the
man we met on Northumberland Island, who will be remembered as skinning
a bird so adroitly, and offering us lumps of fat scraped from its
breast-bone with his thumb nail.
Mr. Rock's talk run thus: He and this brother were in deadly hostility
to Sipsu. The reason of this hostility was very curious. The brother's
wife, whom we thought decidedly hag-like in her looks, was accounted a
witch. _Why_ she was so regarded was not stated. Now the law of custom
with this people is that witches may be put to death by any one who will
do it by stealth. She may be pounced upon from behind a hummock and a
harpoon or any deadly weapon may deal the fatal blow in the back, but a
face to face execution was not allowed. It was understood that Sipsu
assumed the office of executioner, and was watching the favoring
circumstances. On the other hand the husband, and his brother, Mr.
Rock, watched with courage and vigilance in behalf of the accused, while
she lacked neither in her own watching. Thus the family had no fraternal
relations with the villagers, though visits were exchanged between them.
Concerning the conspiracy, Mr. Rock thus testified: Sipsu had for a long
time counseled the tribe not to visit nor sell food to the white men,
holding that they could not kill the bear, walrus, and seal, and would
soon starve, and so all the coveted things would fall into Esquimo
hands. Kalutunah, on the other hand, held that their "booms"--guns--could
secure them any game, and that our poverty of food was owing to a dislike
of work.
There had arisen, too, a jealousy about the presents we gave. Sipsu's
let-alone policy caused his wife to complain that she only of the women
was without even a needle. This drove him to a reluctant visit to us in
which he got but little, so the matter was not bettered.
Besides this, the condition of apparent starvation, in which the
visitors found us from time to time, finally gave popularity to Sipsu's
position, and Kalutunah yielded to the older and stronger chief.
When Petersen and Godfrey arrived at Netlik, Kalutunah went fifty miles
to inform Sipsu at his home of the good occasion offered to kill them.
Sipsu was to lead the attack, and Kalutunah follow. The arrangement was
as we have stated, but failed on account of Sipsu's fear of the
"auleit"--pistol. Having failed, his chagrin and anger led to the hot
pursuit, in which he intended to set the dogs upon our men. But this
failed when he saw how near he must himself venture to the "_boom_."
This story agreed so well with what Petersen and Godfrey saw and
suspected that we fully believed it.
Mr. Rock left us in the morning, and that evening eleven natives, one of
whom was Kalutunah, called upon us on their way from Akbat to Netlik.
The Angekok was full of talk and smiles. He gave us a quarter of a young
bear, for which we gave him one of Petersen's hoop-iron knives. He was
not pleased with it, for he had learned before the difference between
iron and steel. He attempted to cut a piece of frozen liver with it and
it bent. He then bent it in the form of a U, and threw it spitefully
away, grunting, "No good." We satisfied him with a piece of wood to
patch his sledge.
Among our guests were two widows having each a child. One of the little
ones was stripped to the skin, and turned loose to root at liberty. It
was three years old, and plainly the dirt upon its greasy skin had been
accumulating just that length of time.
One of the hunters was attended by his wife and two children--a girl
four, and boy seven years old.
The fat fires of the several families were soon in full blaze, which,
added to the heat of nineteen persons, warmed our hut as it was never
warmed before. The heat set the ceiling and walls dripping with the
melted frost-work, and every thing was wet or made damp. Besides, the
air became insufferable with bad odors. It was now Fort Misery.
But the frozen meat at which we had been nibbling was soon thrown aside
for hot coffee, steaming stew, and thawed blubber. Strips of blubber
varying from three inches to a foot in length and an inch thick
circulate about the hut. Strips of bear and walrus also go round. These
strips are seized with the fingers, the head is thrown back, and the
mouth is opened, one end is thrust in a convenient distance, the teeth
are closed, it is cut off at the lips, and the piece is swallowed
quickly, with the least possible chewing, that dispatch may be made, and
the process repeated. The seven-year-old boy stood against a post,
astride a big chunk of walrus, naked to the waist, as all the guests
were. He was sucking down in good style a strip of blubber, his face and
hands besmeared with blood and fat, which ran in a purple stream off his
chin, and from thence streamed over the shining skin below. Our
disconsolate widow supped apart, as usual, on her supply of sea-fowls.
Four, each about the size of a half-grown domestic hen, was all she
appeared to be able to eat!
We all ate, and had enough. Then followed freedom of talk such as is
wont to follow satisfied appetites, and jokes and songs went round.
Godfrey amused the women and children with negro melodies, accompanied
by a fancied banjo. Dr. Hayes and Kalutunah try to teach each other
their languages. Bonsall looks on and helps. The chief is given "yes"
and "no," and taught what Esquimo word they stand for. He tries to
pronounce them, says "ee's" and "noe," and inquiringly says, "_tyma?_"
(right?) Dr. Hayes nods, "tyma" with an encouraging smile, at which the
chief laughs at the "_doctee's_" badly pronounced Esquimo.
They try to count, and the Angekok says "_une_" for one, strains hard at
"too" for two, and fails utterly at the "th" in three.
The "doctee" tries the Esquimo one, gets patted on the back with "tyma!
tyma!" accompanied with merry laughs. The chief tries again, gets
prompted by punches in the ribs, and significant commendation in
twitches of his left ear.
Having reached ten, the Esquimo numerals are exhausted. Sontag, with the
help of Petersen, questions one of the hunters about his people's
astronomy. The result in part is as follows, and is very curious.
The heavenly bodies are the spirits of deceased Esquimo, or of some of
the lower animals. The sun and moon, are brother and sister. The stars
we call "the dipper" are reindeer. The stars of "Orion's belt" are
hunters who have lost their way. The "Pleiades" are a pack of dogs in
pursuit of a bear. The _aurora borealis_ is caused by the spirits at
play with one another.
It has other teachings on the science of the heavens equally wise. But
they are close observers of the movements of the stars. We went out at
midnight to look after the dogs, and Petersen asked Kalutunah when they
intended to go. He pointed to a star standing over Saunders Island, in
the south. Passing his finger slowly around to the west he pointed at
another star, saying, "When that star gets where the other is we will
start."
Our guests at last lay down to sleep, but we could not lie down near
them nor allow them our blankets; so we watched out the night.
CHAPTER XVI.
DRUGGED ESQUIMO.
THE visitors left in the morning. We were now all well except
Stephenson. Though we had just eaten and were refreshed, in a few days
we might be starving, so we renewed our planning. To open a
communication with the "Advance" seemed a necessity. Petersen
volunteered to make another effort if he could have one companion.
Bonsall promptly answered, "I will be that companion," at which we all
rejoiced, as he was the fittest man for the journey next to the Dane.
A dog-team and a sledge were an acquisition now most needed for the
proposed enterprise. In a few days an old man came in whom we had never
seen, belonging far up Whale Sound; then came a hunter from Akbat with
his family. Of these men after much bartering we purchased four dogs.
Petersen commenced at once the manufacture of a sledge out of the wood
left of the "Hope." All of his excellent skill was needed to make a
serviceable article with his poor tools and materials.
On the twentieth of November the sledge was nearly finished, and a
breakfast on our last piece of meat assured us that what was done for
our rescue must be done soon. But God's hand was, as usual, opened to
supply us; in the evening a fox was found in our trap. Stephenson, who
had been cheered by our tea, received the last cup.
We were reduced to stone-moss, boiled in blubber, and coffee, and a
short allowance of these, when two hunters left us three birds, on which
we supped.
We were now out of food. The Esquimo had, most of them, gone north,
owing to the failure of game at the south; soon all would be gone.
Further discussion led us to the conclusion that we must all return to
the "Advance," and start soon unless we chose to die where we were. So
we commenced preparations for the desperate enterprise.
To carry out this plan it was absolutely necessary to have two more
dogs, for which we must trust to our Esquimo visitors. A sledge drawn by
six dogs could convey our small outfit and poor invalid Stephenson. We
purposed to direct our course straight for Northumberland Island, which
we hoped to reach by lodging one night in a snow-hut. For each person
there must be a pair of blankets. Our clothing was wholly insufficient
for such a journey, so we set at work to improve it the best we could.
Our buffalo robes had been spread upon the stone breck for beds. They
were of course frozen down; in some places solid ice of several inches'
thickness had accumulated, into which they were imbedded. When
disengaged, as they had to be with much care and great labor, the under
side was covered with closely adhering pebble-stones. The robes were
hung up to dry before we could work upon them. We now slept on a double
blanket spread on the stones and pebbles--a sleeping which refreshed us
as little as our moss food.
We now, under the instructions of Petersen, cut up the buffalo robes and
sewed them into garments to wear on our journey. We refreshed ourselves
with frequent sips of coffee, of which, fortunately, we had a plenty,
and made out one meal at night on walrus hide boiled or fried in oil, as
we fancied. It was very tough eating.
At the close of the second day's tailoring four hunters came in from
Akbat, with five women and seven children. We stowed them all away for
the night, and gladly did so for the opportunity of purchasing
forty-eight small birds, a small quantity of dried seal meat, and some
dried seal intestines imperfectly cleansed; but better, if possible, was
the purchase of two dogs. Our team of six was complete. The hand of the
great Provider was plainly manifested.
The visitors were soon gone, but the four hunters came back the next
day. They were bent on mischief. They stole, or tried to steal, whatever
they saw, and seemed glad to annoy us.
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