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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of North-Pole Voyages, by Zachariah Atwell Mudge
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: North-Pole Voyages
+
+Author: Zachariah Atwell Mudge
+
+Release Date: February 29, 2012 [EBook #39013]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTH-POLE VOYAGES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Emmy, Albert László and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[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 igloë 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 _igloë_. 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
+_igloës_. 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. Unfortunately for us, close upon
+their heels came another party, from the south also, and equally bent on
+mischief. Among them was an old evil-eyed woman. Whatever she saw she
+coveted, and all that she could she stole. Going to her sledge as the
+party was about to start, we found a mixed collection of our articles,
+some of which could have been of no use to her. But we had missed two
+drinking cups which we could not find. We charged her with the theft,
+but she protested innocence. We threatened to search her sledge, and she
+straightway produced them, and, to conciliate us, threw down three
+sea-fowl. We were gladly thus conciliated.
+
+The whole party became so troublesome that we were compelled to drive
+them away. The hunters lingered about, intending, we feared, to steal
+our dogs, two of which were purchased of them. We set a watch until they
+seemed to have left the vicinity, but no sooner was the sentinel's back
+turned than one of them and one of the dogs were seen scampering off
+together. Bonsall seized his rifle, and a sudden turn round a rock by
+the thief saved him from the salutation of an ounce of lead.
+
+On the twenty-ninth of November we were ready for a start. Our outfit
+was meager enough. It consisted of eight blankets, a field lamp and
+kettle, two tin drinking cups, coffee for ten days, eight pounds of
+blubber, and two days' meat. This last consisted of sea-fowls boiled,
+boned, and cut into small pieces. They were frozen into a solid lump. We
+hoped to be at Northumberland Island in two days, and get fresh
+supplies.
+
+The sled was taken out through the roof of the hut, loaded, and the load
+well secured, and poor Stephenson carried out and placed on top of it.
+The dogs were then harnessed, and we moved away.
+
+The thermometer was forty-four degrees below zero when we left the hut,
+but it was calm, and the moon shone with a splendid light. We were weary
+and ready to faint at the end of one hour, how then could we endure days
+of travel! The sledge was a poor one, the runners, the best our material
+afforded, were rough, and the dogs could not drag the sledge without two
+of us pushed, which we did in turn. We had thus gone about eight miles
+when Stephenson said he would walk. This we refused to let him do,
+knowing his extreme weakness. But soon after he slid off the sledge. Dr.
+Hayes assisted him to rise, and supported his attempt to walk. He had
+thus gone about a mile when he fell and fainted.
+
+Near us was an iceberg in whose side was a recess something like a
+grotto. Into this we bore our companion, and added to the shelter by
+piling up blocks of snow. The lamp was lighted to prepare him hot
+coffee. For some time he remained insensible, and when he came to
+himself he begged us to leave him and save ourselves. He could never, he
+said, reach the "Advance," and he might as well die then as at a later
+hour.
+
+Go without Stephenson we would not. Go with him seemed impossible. In
+fact we were all too weary to take another step, so we concluded to
+camp. But this, after unloading our sledge and making some effort, we
+could not do. We had no strength to make a hut, and we were already
+bitten by the frost; so we resolved to repack the sledge and return to
+the hut.
+
+All arrived at the hut that day, but how and exactly at what time we did
+not know, only that some were an hour behind others, and that several
+finished the journey by creeping on their hands and knees. We had just
+enough consciousness left to bring in our blankets and spread them on
+those we left on the breck, and to close up the hole in the roof. We
+then lay down and slept through uncounted hours.
+
+When we awoke it was nearly noon. Though hungry, cold, and weak, we were
+not badly frost-bitten. The first desirable thing was a fire. The
+tinder-box with its fixings could not be found. The one having it in
+charge remembered it was used at the berg, and this we all knew, and
+that was all any one knew about it. Without this we could have no fire.
+Never before in all our exigencies was such a feeling of despair
+expressed on our countenances. In this plight one in attempting to walk
+across the tent struck something with his foot. We all knew the
+tinder-box by its rattle. Our lamp was soon lighted, coffee was made,
+and half of our meat warmed. The other half was given to Petersen and
+Bonsall, who started immediately to go, as we had once before planned,
+to the brig, while the rest remained in the hut.
+
+Dr. Hayes and Sontag accompanied them to the shore. The last words of
+the noble Petersen were: "If we ever reach the ship we will come back
+to you, or perish in the attempt, so sure as there is a God in heaven."
+
+Four days passed, after our companions left us, of accumulating misery.
+The hut was colder than ever, and we were in utter darkness most of the
+time. Our food was now scraps of old hide, so hard that the dogs had
+refused it.
+
+In this our condition of absolute starvation, three hunters, with each a
+dog-team, came to us from Netlik, one of whom was Kalutunah. They
+entered our hut with only two small pieces of meat in their hands,
+enough for a scanty meal for themselves. We appropriated one piece to
+ourselves without ceremony. The visitors frowned and protested, but this
+was not a moment with us for words. We soon satisfied, or seemed to
+satisfy, them by presents, and both pieces were soon steaming.
+
+Dr. Hayes renewed his proposal for the Netlik people to carry us to the
+"Advance." Kalutunah refused curtly. Would they _let_ teams to us for
+that purpose? No! The spirit of the refusal was, We won't help you. We
+know you must starve, and we desire you to do so that we may possess
+your goods. It was evident they understood our desperate condition
+perfectly.
+
+These convictions of their purposes and feelings were confirmed when one
+of our number found buried in the snow, near their sledges, several
+large pieces of bear and walrus meat. This they were evidently
+determined we should not taste.
+
+Kalutunah did not pretend that destitution or short supplies at Netlik
+made a journey to the brig inconvenient, but, as if to taunt us, said
+that a bear, a walrus, and three seals had been taken the day before.
+
+The case then, as we saw it, stood thus: Six civilized men must die
+because three savages, who had plenty, choose to let them, that they
+might be benefited by their death. We at once and unanimously decided
+that it should not be so, and that the Esquimo should not thus leave us.
+
+Not willing to do them unnecessary harm, Dr. Hayes proposed to give them
+a dose of opium; then to take the dogs and sledge and push forward to
+Northumberland Island, leaving them to come along at their leisure when
+they awoke. We could, we thought, push forward fast enough to be out of
+the reach of any alarm that might reach Netlik.
+
+To this proposal all agreed. To carry it into execution we became
+specially sociable, and free with our presents. To crown the freeness of
+our hospitality we set before them the stew just prepared, into which
+Dr. Hayes had turned slyly when it was over the fire a small vial of
+laudanum. To prevent any one getting an over dose it had been turned out
+into three vessels, an equal portion for each. It was, of course, very
+bitter.
+
+They at first swallowed it very greedily, but tasting the bitter
+ingredient only ate half of it.
+
+The next few moments were those of intense anxiety. Would it stupefy
+them? Soon, however, their eyes looked heavy, and their heads drooped.
+They begged to lie down, and we tucked them up this time in our
+blankets.
+
+We were in our traveling suits ready for a start, dog-whips at hand. As
+a last act Godfrey reached up to a shelf for a cup, and down came its
+entire contents with a startling noise. Dr. Hayes put out the light with
+his mitten, and cuddled down instantly by the side of Kalutunah. The
+chief awoke, as was feared, grunted, and asked what was the matter. The
+"doctee" patted him and whispered, "Singikok," (sleep.) He laughed,
+muttered something, and was soon snoring.
+
+Fearing from this incident that we could not trust the soundness nor
+length of time of their sleep, we carried off their boots, coats, and
+mittens, that they might be detained in the tent until relief came.
+Stephenson was, most fortunately, better than he had been for some time,
+being able to carry a gun and walk. All the firearms being secured, Dr.
+Hayes stood at one side of the door outside with a double-barrelled
+shot-gun, and Stephenson on the other with a rifle. The purpose was if
+they awoke to compel them, at the mouth of the guns, to drive us north.
+
+Sontag and the others brought up the most of the meat which was buried
+in the snow, and put it in the passage way. This would last five or six
+days, and keep the prisoners from starving until help came. The dogs
+being harnessed, we mounted the sledges and once more turned our backs
+on Fort Desolation.
+
+The dogs objected decidedly to this whole proceeding; they especially
+disliked their new masters, and were determined on mischief. John and
+Godfrey were given by their team a ride a mile straight off the coast
+instead of alongside of it, as they desired to go. Dr. Hayes was worse
+used by his. They drew in different directions, went pell-mell, first
+this way, then that, at one time carrying him back nearly to the hut.
+Finally they became subdued apparently, and sped swiftly in the way they
+were guided. The other sledges had in the mean time dropped into the
+desired course. All seemed to be going well, when, just as the doctor's
+dogs had shot by the other teams, they suddenly turned round, some to
+the right and others to the left, turning the sledge over backward, and
+rolling the men into a snow-drift. The doctor grasped firmly the
+"up-stander" of the sledge, and was dragged several yards before he
+recovered his feet. As the dogs at this moment were plunging through a
+ridge of hummocks, the point of the runner caught a block of ice. The
+traces of all the dogs excepting two snapped, and away went the freed
+dogs to their imprisoned masters. They yelped a taunting defiance as
+they disappeared in the distance.
+
+The doctor and Mr. Stephenson, taking each a dog, went to the other
+teams, and we were again on the fly, leaving the third sledge jammed in
+the hummock. We reached in safety the southern point of Cape Parry,
+found a sheltering cave, and camped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+BACK AGAIN.
+
+
+WE tarried in our camp full two hours. We obtained a pot of hot coffee
+and rest. The whips had been used so freely that they required
+repairing, for without their efficient help there could be no progress.
+
+All being in readiness, we were about starting when three Esquimo came
+in sight. They were those we had left asleep in our hut! Dr. Hayes and
+Mr. Sontag seized their guns, and rushed down the ice-foot to meet them.
+They stood firm until our men, coming within a few yards, leveled their
+guns at them. They instantly turned round and threw their arms wildly
+about, exclaiming in a frantic voice, "Na-mik! na-mik! na-mik!"--don't
+shoot! don't shoot! don't shoot!
+
+Dr. Hayes lowered his rifle and beckoned them to come on. This they did
+cautiously, and with loud protestations of friendship. By this time
+Whipple had come up. Each of our men seized a prisoner, and marched him
+into the camp. Reaching the mouth of the cave, the doctor turned
+Kalutunah round toward his sledge, pointed to it with his gun, and then
+turning north, gave him to understand, mostly by signs, that if he took
+the whip which lay at his feet, and drove us to the "Oomeaksoak" (ship)
+he should have his dogs, sledge, coat, boots, and mittens; but if they
+did not do so that he and his companions would be shot then and there;
+and to give emphasis to his words, he pushed him away and leveled his
+gun.
+
+The chief went sideling off, crying, "Na-mik, na-mik!" at the same time
+imitated the motion of a dog--driving with his right hand, and pointed
+north with the other. His declaration was, "Don't shoot! I'll drive you
+to the ship!"
+
+Dr. Hayes seeing he was understood, told Kalutunah that the dogs and
+sledges were the white men's until the promise was fulfilled, to which
+he answered, "tyma"--all right, approaching with smiles and the old
+familiarity, as though some great favor had been done him. He could
+respect pluck and strength if nothing else.
+
+The prisoners had been awakened by our escaped dogs, which, on arriving
+at the hut, run over the roof and howled a startling alarm. Their
+masters starting up, found means of lighting a lamp, and being refreshed
+by sleep and the food we left, entered at once on the pursuit. Coming to
+the abandoned sledge, they harnessed the dogs and made good time on our
+trail, bringing away with them as many of our treasures as they could
+well carry.
+
+They were rare looking Esquimo just at this moment. They had cut holes
+in the middle of our blankets and thrust their heads through. One had
+found a pair of cast-off boots and put them on; the others had bundled
+their feet up in pieces of blanket. Neither of them had suffered much
+from cold.
+
+We expressed our confidence in their promises by restoring their
+clothes. They jumped into them, happy as Yankee children on the Fourth
+of July. They were as obedient, too, as recently whipped spaniels. They
+touched neither dogs, sledge, nor whip until they were bidden. "Onward
+to Netlik!" we shouted as we mounted our sledges and dashed away. Our
+distant approach was greeted by the howling of a pack of dogs, which
+snuffed our coming in the breeze. As we drew nearer, men, women, and
+children ran out to meet us. As soon as we halted fifty curious and
+wondering savages crowded around us, pressing the questions why we were
+brought by their friends, and why we came at all. But our bearing was
+that of those who came because they pleased to come without
+condescending to give reasons why. We told Kalutunah that three of us
+would go to each of the two huts, and stop long enough to eat and sleep,
+and then we would continue our journey. A renewed leveling at him of our
+guns, and pointing northward, brought out the prompt "tyma," giving the
+gaping bystanders a hint of the nature of our arguments for the services
+of their friends.
+
+When we had entered the huts, the crowd rushed in too, making quite too
+many for comfort or safety. We told our hosts to order out all but the
+regular occupants of the huts, as many strangers had come in who were
+lodging in the adjoining snow-huts. They did not understand our right
+to give such a command until a hint about our "booms" convinced them.
+Ours was the right of self-preservation by superior strength.
+
+We had traveled fifteen successive hours, making in the time fifty
+miles. So weary were we that even these Esquimo dens, affording as they
+did refreshment and rest without danger of freezing, were delightful
+places of entertainment. The women kindly removed our mittens, boots,
+and stockings, and hung them up to dry. They then brought us frozen
+meat, which intense hunger compelled us to try to eat, but the air of
+the hut was one hundred and twenty degrees warmer than that without, and
+we fell asleep with the food between our teeth. Having taken a short nap
+we were aroused by the mistress of the house, who had prepared a
+plentiful meal of steaming bear-steak. We ate and slept alternately
+until the stars informed us that we had rested twenty-seven hours. We
+intimated to Kalutunah that we would be going, and in a few moments he
+had every thing in readiness.
+
+Our next halting place was Northumberland Island, a distance, as we
+traveled, of thirty miles, which we made in six hours. Here we found two
+huts belonging to our old friends, Amalatok and his brother, "Mr. Rock."
+We divided ourselves into companies of threes as before, and made
+ourselves at home in the two households. Mr. Rock, aided by his wife,
+and the witch-wife of his brother, was kindly attentive. Our fare was
+varied by abundant supplies of sea-birds, which in their season swarm
+here. We tarried until our physical strength was sensibly increased. We
+learned that Petersen and Bonsall had been at this hospitable
+halting-place, eaten and rested, and pushed northward under the guidance
+of Amalatok.
+
+Our next run was to Herbert Island, and, passing round its northwestern
+coast, we struck across to the mainland, and halted near Cape Robertson,
+at the village of Karsooit. We were on the northern shore of the mouth
+of Whale Sound. We had made a run of fifty miles, halting to eat our
+frozen food only once. We had walked much of the way to prevent being
+frozen, and to lighten the load of the dogs over a rough way.
+
+The village consisted of two huts half a mile apart. One of them
+belonged to Sipsu, our old enemy. He received us gruffly, and because he
+felt that he must. His only kindness was a fear of our _booms_. The huts
+were crowded, there being here, as at Netlik, many stranger visitors
+from the south. We were almost suffocated on entering, passing as we did
+from a temperature of fifty degrees below zero to one seventy-five
+above. Our entertainers immediately laid hold of our clothes and began
+to strip us. They were much surprised at our persistence in retaining a
+certain part of them. We feasted on seal flesh, slept, were refreshed
+and encouraged.
+
+Our stay was short, and our next run was to a double hut, a distance of
+thirty miles, which we made in five hours. We had been joined at
+Karsooit by an old hunter named Ootinah. We were on four sledges, the
+dogs were in good condition, the ice smooth, the drivers full of
+merriment and shouts of "Ka! ka!" by which their teams were stimulated
+onward.
+
+Our next run was to be one of sixty miles, including the rounding of
+Cape Alexander, and ending at Etah. It was to be a terrific adventure we
+well knew. At the mention of it our drivers shrugged their shoulders.
+The natives dread the storms of this cape, with their blinding snows, as
+the wandering Arabs of the desert do a tempest-cloud of sand.
+
+The first twenty miles was made comfortably. But we were yet many miles
+from the rocky fortress guarding the Arctic Sea, when we were saluted
+with a stunning squall. It cut us terribly, though it was but an eddy,
+for the wind was at our backs; it was only a rough hint of what we might
+expect when the giant of the cape sent his blast squarely in our faces.
+The night came on, lighted only by the twinkling stars. The ice was
+smooth, and the wind at our backs drove our sledges upon the heels of
+the dogs, who ran howling at the top of their speed to keep out of their
+way. The cliffs, a thousand feet above us, threw their frowning shadows
+across our path, pouring upon the plain clouds of snow sand, and
+shouting in the roaring wind their defiance at our approach. Yet we sped
+swiftly on, until a dark line was seen ahead with wreaths of
+"frost-smoke" curling over it. "Emerk! emerk!" shouted the Esquimo.
+"Water! water!" echoed our men. Our teams "reined up" within a few
+yards of a recently opened crack, now twenty feet across and rapidly
+widening. We were quite near Cape Alexander, but between it and us was
+ice, across which numerous cracks had opened. Against the cape was open
+water, whose sullen surges fell dismally upon our ears. It was plain
+that we could not go forward upon the floe; to mount the almost
+perpendicular wall to the land above was impossible; to turn back and
+thus face the storm would be certain death. Our case seemed desperate.
+Even the hardy Esquimo shrunk at the situation and proposed the return
+trail, against which to us, at least, ruinous course they could not be
+persuaded until the pistol argument was used.
+
+In our peering through the darkness for some way of escape we caught a
+glimpse of the narrow ice-foot, hanging over the water at the bottom of
+the cliff. Along this we determined to attempt a passage.
+
+We ascended this ice-foot by a ladder made of the sledges. Then we ran
+along the smooth surface and soon passed the open water below; but we
+had advanced a short distance only before a glacier barred our progress
+and turned us to the floe again. A short run on this brought us to
+another yawning crack with its impassable water. We ran along its margin
+with torturing anxiety, looking for an ice bridge. Finding a place where
+a point of ice spanned the chasm, within about four feet, Dr. Hayes made
+a desperate leap to gain the other side. Lighting upon this point, it
+proved to be merely a loose, small ice-raft which settled beneath his
+feet. Endeavoring to balance himself upon it to gain the solid floe
+beyond he fell backward, and would have gone completely under the water;
+but Stephenson, standing on the spot from which the doctor jumped,
+caught him under the arms and drew him out. As it was he had sunk deep
+into the cold stream, filling his boots and wetting his pants.
+
+In the mean time a better crossing was found, and Dr. Hayes followed the
+last of the party to the other side.
+
+We returned to the ice-foot and found a level and sufficiently wide
+drive-way, and made good progress, soon reaching and running along that
+part of the icy road which overlooked the open water below. We met with
+no interruption until we came to the extreme rocky projection of the
+cape. Here the ice-foot was sloping, and for several feet was only
+fifteen inches wide! Twenty feet directly below was the icy cold, dark
+water, sending up its dismal roar as it waited to receive any whose foot
+might slip in attempting the perilous passage. The wind howled fearfully
+as it swept over the cliff and along the ice-foot in our rear, pelting
+us incessantly with its snow sand.
+
+"Halt!" was passed along the line, and the whole party, men and dogs,
+crouched under the overhanging rocks, seeming for the moment like beings
+doomed to die a miserable death in a horrid place.
+
+There was no time for indecision, and the pause was but for a moment.
+Dr. Hayes, taking off his mittens, and clinging with his bare hands to
+the crevices of the rock, was the first to make the desperate
+experiment. His shout announcing his safe landing on the broad belt
+beyond the dangerous place, welling up as it did from a heart
+overflowing with emotions of joy and gratitude, sent a thrill of
+gladness along the shivering and shrinking line, of which even our poor
+dogs seemed to partake.
+
+The teams, each driven by its master, were next brought up, as near as
+safety permitted, to the narrow, slippery pathway. The dogs were then
+seized by their collars, and one by one dragged across safely. Next the
+sledges were brought forward. Turning them upon one runner, they were
+pushed along until the dogs could make them feel the traces; then a
+fierce shout from their drivers caused a sudden and vigorous spring of
+the animals, which whirled the sledges beyond the danger of sliding off
+the precipice. Cautiously, one by one, then came the remaining members
+of the party, all holding their breath in painful suspense, and each, we
+trust, in silent prayer, until all were safe over. The Divine arm and
+eye had been with us! We could not have gone back, nor have turned to
+the right or left. A few inches less of width in the ice-foot, or
+slightly more slope, and we had all perished!
+
+Except some frost bites on our fingers, every man was all right. We had
+traveled five miles on the ice shelf above the foaming sea. We now had
+a smooth, safe ice-foot, which conducted us soon to the solid ice-field
+of Etah Bay. Across this, fifteen miles, we scampered with joyous speed,
+and arrived at the village of our old Esquimo friends, a worn and weary,
+but thankful party.
+
+Good news met us at the hut. Petersen and Bonsall had, we were told,
+preceded us, and arrived safely at the ship.
+
+But our trials were not ended. There was a sledge journey of ninety-one
+miles yet awaiting us. Dr. Hayes's frosted feet gave him intense pain
+and he could not sleep. There was danger, if the heat of the hut thawed
+them, that he would lose them altogether. So, after only four hours'
+rest, he whispered his intention of a speedy departure toward the
+"Advance," to Sontag, who was to take charge of the party; he then crept
+stealthily out of the hut, accompanied by Ootinah, the faithful Esquimo
+from Karsooit. Sontag was not to mention his departure to his comrades
+until they were rested and refreshed.
+
+He had hardly started before the rest of our company were at his heels.
+They did not wish their leader to endure the perils of the journey
+without them; besides, they too had reason for a desire to be speedily
+at the brig.
+
+The wind was high, the floe full of hummocks, the cold intense, and
+altogether the journey was not unlike in its dangers that already
+endured. Whipple, ere they had reached the end, began to whisper that he
+was not cold, and finally fell from the rear sledge, benumbed and
+senseless, and was not missed until he was a hundred yards behind. He
+was lifted again to the sledge, but others gave signs of the approach of
+the same insensibility.
+
+But the track becoming smoother, the drivers cracked their whips and
+shouted fiercely, goading onward their teams to their utmost speed in
+the fearful race for life. Now old familiar landmarks are passed; the
+hull of the dismantled ship opens in the distance, and its outlines grow
+clearer until we shout with feeble voices, but in gladness of heart,
+"_Back again!_" During the last forty hours we had been in almost
+continual exposure, with the thermometer eighty degrees below zero, in
+which time we had traveled a hundred and fifty miles. During the run of
+ninety-one miles from Etah to the "Advance" we encamped once only, but
+failing to light our lamp, or to secure any protection from the cold, we
+immediately decamped and finished our run of forty-one miles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SCARES.
+
+
+WHEN the Esquimo arrived with Bonsall and Petersen, Dr. Kane resolved at
+once to send them back with supplies for the remaining portion of Dr.
+Hayes's company, supposed to be, if living, at the miserable old hut.
+Petersen and Bonsall were utterly unable to accompany them. Of the
+scanty ship's store he caused to be cleaned and boiled a hundred pounds
+of pork; small packages of meat-biscuit, bread-dust, and tea were
+carefully sewed up, all weighing three hundred and fifty pounds; and the
+whole was intrusted to the returning convoy, who gave emphatic
+assurances that these treasures, more precious than gold to those for
+whom they were intended, should be promptly and honestly delivered. But
+this promise, we have seen, they did not keep, and, probably, did not
+intend to keep; they ate or wasted the whole. This untrustworthy trait
+of the Esquimo character goes far to show that nothing but Dr. Hayes's
+"boom" could have assured their help in his desperate necessities.
+
+When Dr. Hayes arrived it was midnight. Dr. Kane met him at the gangway
+and gave him a brother's welcome. All were taken at once into the cabin.
+Ohlsen was the first to recognize Hayes as he entered, and, kissing
+him, he threw his arms around him and tossed him into the warm bed he
+had just left. The fire was set ablaze, coffee and meat-biscuit soup
+were prepared, and, with wheat bread and molasses, were set before them.
+In the mean time their Esquimo apparel was removed and hung up to dry.
+They ate and slept; but many weary days passed, under skillful treatment
+by Dr. Kane, and kind care by all, before they fully recovered from the
+strain of their terrible exposures and fearful journey.
+
+When the returned comrades were duly cared for, Dr. Kane turned his
+attention to the conciliation of the Esquimo who had accompanied them
+back. They, of course, had their complaints to make, and, may be,
+meditated revenge, though they were, as usual, full of smiles. It was
+the white chief's policy to impress them with his great power and stern
+justice. He assembled both parties, the Hayes men and their Esquimo, in
+conference on deck. Both were questioned as if it were a doubt who had
+been the offenders. This done, he graciously declared to the savage
+members of the council his approval of their conduct, which he made
+emphatic, in the Esquimo way, by pulling their hair all around.
+
+The great Nalekok having thus expressed his good will, showed it still
+further by introducing his guests, now to be considered friends, into
+the mysterious _igloë_ below where they had not before been permitted to
+enter. Their joy was that of indulged children during a holiday. They
+were seated in state on a red blanket. Four pork-fat lamps burned
+brilliantly; ostentatiously paraded were old worsted damask curtains,
+hunting knives, rifles, chronometers, and beer-barrels, which, as they
+glowed in the light, astonished the natives. With a princely air, which,
+no doubt, seemed to the recipients almost divine, he dealt out to each
+five needles, a file, and a stick of wood. To the two head men,
+Kalutunah and Shunghu, knives and other extras were given. A roaring
+fire was then made and a feast cooked. This eaten, buffaloes were spread
+about the stove, and the guests slept. They awoke to eat, and ate to
+sleep again. When they were ready to go, the white chief explained that
+the sledges, dogs, and some furs, which his men had taken, had been
+taken to save life, and were not to be considered as stolen goods, and
+he then and there restored them. They laughed, voted him in their way a
+good fellow, and, in fine spirits, dashed away, shouting to their
+wolfish dogs. They had taken special care, however, to add to the
+treasures so generously given, a few stolen knives and forks.
+
+As the whole company are now crowded into the little cabin, and the
+darkness is without, so that the days pass without much incident, except
+that all are crowded with heavy burdens upon mind and body, we will
+listen to a few of the yet untold stories of the earlier winter.
+
+At one time Dr. Kane attempted a walrus hunt. Morton, Hans, Ootuniah,
+Myouk, and "a dark stranger," Awahtok, accompanied him. He took a light
+sledge drawn by seven dogs, intending to reach the farthest point of
+Force Bay by daylight. But as the persistency of the Esquimo had
+overladen the sledge, they moved slowly, and were overtaken by the night
+on the floe in the midst of the bay. The snow began to drift before an
+increasing storm. While driving rapidly, they lost the track they had
+been following; they could see no landmarks, and in their confusion,
+turned their faces to the floating ice of the sound.
+
+The Esquimo, usually at home on the floe, whether by night or by day,
+were quite bewildered. The dogs became alarmed, and spread their panic
+to the whole party. They could not camp, the wind blew so fiercely, so
+they were compelled to push rapidly forward, they knew not whither.
+Checking, after a while, their speed, Dr. Kane gave each a tent-pole to
+feel their way more cautiously, for a murmur had reached his ear more
+alarming than the roar of the wind. Suddenly the noise of waves startled
+him. "Turn the dogs!" he shouted, while at the same moment a wreath of
+frost smoke, cold and wet, swept over the whole party, and the sea
+opened to them with its white line of foam, about one fourth of a mile
+ahead. The floe was breaking up by the force of the storm. The broken
+ice might be in any direction. They could now guess where they were, and
+they turned their faces toward an island up the bay. But the line of the
+sea, with its foaming waves, followed them so rapidly that they began to
+feel the ice bending under their feet as they ran at the sides of the
+sledge. The hummocks before them began to close up, and they run by them
+at a fearful risk as they hurried cautiously forward, stumbling over the
+crushed fragments between them and the shore. It was too dark to see the
+island for which they were steering, but the black outline of a lofty
+cape was dimly seen along the horizon, and served as a landmark. As they
+approached the shore edge of the floe they found it broken up, and its
+fragments surging against the base of the ice-foot to which they desired
+to climb. Being now under the shadow of the land, it was densely dark.
+Dr. Kane went ahead, groping for a bridge of ice, having a rope tied
+round his waist, the other end of which was held by Ootuniah, who
+followed, at whose heels came the rest of the party. The doctor finally
+succeeded in clambering upon the ice-foot, and the rest one after
+another followed with the dogs.
+
+The joy of their escape broke out into exultation when they ascertained
+that the land was Anoatok, only a short distance from the familiar
+Esquimo huts. God had guided them with his all-seeing eye to where they
+would find needed refreshment! In less than an hour they were feasting
+on a smoking stew of walrus meat.
+
+Having eaten their stew and drank their coffee they slept--slept eleven
+hours! Well they might "after an unbroken ice-walk of forty-eight miles,
+and twenty haltless hours!" The Esquimo sung themselves to sleep with a
+monotonous song, in compliment to the white chief, the refrain of which
+was, "Nalegak! nalegak! nalegak! soak!"--"Captain! captain! great
+captain!"
+
+Without further special incident the party returned to the brig.
+
+At one time an alarm was brought to Dr. Kane that a wolf was prowling
+among the meat barrels on the floe. Believing that a wolf would be more
+profitably added to their store of meat than to have him take any thing
+from it, he seized a rifle and ran out. Yes, there he is, a wolf from
+the tip of his nose to the end of his tail! Bang goes the rifle, whiz
+goes the ball, making the hair fly from the back of--one of the
+sledge-dogs! He was not hurt much, but he came near paying with his life
+for the crime of running away from Morton's sledge.
+
+The fox-traps made occasion for many long walks, great expectations of
+game, and grievous disappointment. Dr. Kane and Hans were at one time
+examining them about two miles from the brig. They were, unfortunately,
+unarmed. The doctor thought he heard the bellow of a walrus. They
+listened. No, not a walrus, but a bear! Hark, hear him roar! They sprung
+to the ice-foot, about ten feet above the floe. Another roar, round and
+full! He is drawing nearer! He has a fine voice, and, no doubt, is
+large, and fat, and savory! But then a bear must be killed before he is
+eaten, and that is just where the difficulty lies. It don't do for two
+men to run, for that is an invited pursuit, and bears are good runners.
+"Hans!" exclaimed Dr. Kane, "run for the brig, and I will play decoy!"
+Hans is a good runner, and this time he did "his level best."
+
+Dr. Kane remains on the ice-foot alone. It is too dark to see many yards
+off, and the silence is oppressive, for the bear says nothing, and so
+Kane makes no reply. He queries whether, after all, there is any bear.
+How easy it is for the imagination to be excited amid these shadowy
+hummocks, and this dreary waste through which the wind roars so
+dismally! He gets down from his comparatively safe elevation upon the
+floe, puts his hand over his eyes, and peers into the darkness. No bear
+after all! But what's that rounded, shadowy thing? Stained ice? Yes,
+stained ice! But the stained ice speaks with a voice which wakes the
+Arctic echoes, and charges on our explorer. It is a hungry bear! Dr.
+Kane's legs are scurvy-smitten affairs, but this time they credit the
+fleetness of those of the deer. He drops a mitten, and his pursuer stops
+to smell of it, to examine it carefully, and to show his disgust at such
+game, by tearing it to pieces. These bears are famous for losing the
+bird by stopping to pick up his feathers. The man stops not, but drops
+another mitten as he flies. Before these articles are duly examined he
+has reached the brig. Dr. Kane has escaped, and the bear has lost his
+supper.
+
+It is now bruin's turn to run, for fresh hunters and loaded rifles are
+after him. He does run, and escapes!
+
+But if there were fears without the brig, there were fightings with a
+fearful enemy within. The crowded condition of the cabin, after the
+Hayes party returned, made it necessary for the pork-fat lamps to be set
+up outside the avenue, in a room parted off in the hold for their use. A
+watch was set over them, but he deserted his post, the fat flamed over
+and set the room ablaze. Eight of the men lay in their berths at the
+time helplessly disabled. The fire was only a few feet from the
+tinder-like moss which communicated with the cabin. The men able to work
+seized buckets, and formed a line to the well in the ice always kept
+open. In the mean time Dr. Kane rushed into the flames with some fur
+robes which lay at hand, and checked it for the moment. The water then
+came, and the first bucket full thrown caused a smoke and steam which
+prostrated him. Fortunately, in falling he struck the feet of the
+foremost bucket-man. He was taken to the deck, his beard, forelock, and
+eyebrows singed away, and sad burns upon his forehead and palms. Nearly
+all received burns and frost-bites, but in a half hour the fire was
+extinguished. The danger was horrid, and the escape wonderful! Neither
+wild beasts nor the flames hurt whom God protects!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+SEEKING THE ESQUIMO.
+
+
+DECEMBER twenty-fifth came, and our ice-bound, darkness-enshrouded,
+sick, or, in a measure, health-broken explorers tried to make it a merry
+Christmas. They all sat down to dinner together. "There was more love
+than with the stalled ox of former times, but of herbs none." They
+tried, at least, to forget their discomforts in the blessings they still
+retained, and to look hopefully on the long distance, and the many
+conflicts between them and their home and friends.
+
+Immediately after Christmas a series of attempts were commenced to open
+a communication with the Esquimo at Etah, ninety-one miles away. The
+supply of fresh meat was exhausted. The traps yielded nothing, and
+Hans's hunting could not go on successfully in the dark. The
+scurvy-smitten men were failing for the want of it, and so every thing
+must be periled to make the journey. The first thing to be done was to
+put the dogs, if possible, into traveling order. They were now few in
+number, for fifty had died, and the survivors had been kept on short
+rations. Their dead companions, which had been preserved in a frozen
+state, were boiled and fed to them for fresh food. Dog _did_ eat dog,
+and relished and grew stronger on the diet.
+
+Dr. Kane and Petersen made the first attempt, starting on the
+twenty-ninth of December. They had scarcely reached the forsaken huts of
+Anoatok, "the wind-loved spot," so often used as a resting place, when
+the dogs failed. A storm, with a bitter, pelting snow-drift, confined
+them awhile. An incident occurred here--one of the many which happened
+to the explorers--which shows plainly the unseen, but ever present, eye
+and hand which attended them.
+
+They were just losing themselves in sleep when Petersen shouted:
+"Captain Kane, the lamp's out!" His commander heard him with a thrill of
+horror! The storm was increasing, the cold piercing, and the darkness
+intense. The tinder had become moist and was frozen solid. The guns were
+outside, to keep them from the moisture of the hut. The only hope of
+heat was in relighting the lamp. A lighted lamp and heat they _must_
+have. Petersen tried to obtain fire from a pocket-pistol, but his only
+tinder was moss, and after repeated attempts he gave it up. Dr. Kane
+then tried. He says:--
+
+"By good luck I found a bit of tolerably dry paper in my jumper; and,
+becoming apprehensive that Petersen would waste our few percussion caps
+with his ineffectual snappings, I took the pistol myself. It was so
+intensely dark that I had to grope for it, and in doing so touched his
+hand. At that instant the pistol became distinctly visible. A pale,
+bluish light, slightly tremulous but not broken, covered the metallic
+parts of it, the barrel, lock, and trigger. The stock too was clearly
+discernible, as if by the reflected light, and, to the amazement of both
+of us, the thumb and two fingers with which Petersen was holding it, the
+creases, wrinkles, and circuit of the nails, clearly defined upon the
+skin. The phosphorescence was not unlike the ineffectual fire of the
+glowworm. As I took the pistol my hand became illuminated also, and so
+did the powder-rubbed paper when I raised it against the muzzle.
+
+"The paper did not ignite at the first trial, but the light from it
+continuing, I was able to charge the pistol without difficulty, rolled
+up my paper into a cone, filled it with moss sprinkled over with powder,
+and held it in my hand while I fired. This time I succeeded in producing
+flame, and we saw no more of the phosphorescence."
+
+When the storm subsided they made further experiment to reach Etah. But
+dogs and men found the wading impossible, and they returned to the brig,
+the dogs going ahead and the men walking after them. They made the
+forty-four miles of their circuitous route in sixteen hours!
+
+Thus closed the year 1854.
+
+The three following weeks were mainly occupied by Dr. Kane in a careful
+preparation for another attempt to reach Etah, this time with Hans. Old
+Yellow, one of the five dogs on which success in a measure depended,
+stalked about the deck with "his back up," as much as to say, "I must
+have more to eat if I am going." Jenny, a mother dog, had quite a family
+of little ones. Yellow being very hungry, and not seeing the use of such
+young folks, gobbled one of them down before his master could say,
+"Don't you." Dr. Kane taking the hint, and thinking that the puppies
+would not be dogs soon enough for his use, shared with Yellow the rest
+of the litter. So both grew stronger for the journey.
+
+The new year, 1855, came in with a vail of darkness over the prospects
+of our explorers. The sick list was large, and threatened to include the
+whole party. A fox was caught occasionally, and beyond this stinted
+supply there was no fresh meat. On Tuesday, January twenty-third, the
+commander and Hans, with the dog-team, turned their faces toward the
+Esquimo. All went well for a while, until hope rose of accomplishing the
+journey, getting savory walrus, and cheering their sinking comrades.
+Suddenly, Big Yellow, in spite of nice puppy soup, gave out, and went
+into convulsions. Toodla, the next best animal, failed soon after. The
+moon went down, and the dark night was upon the beset but not confounded
+heroes. Groping for the ice-foot, they trudged fourteen wretched hours,
+and reached the old _igloë_ at Anoatok. The inevitable storm arose, with
+its burden of snow driven by a strange, moistening southeast wind,
+burying the hut deep and warm. The temperature rose seventy degrees! An
+oppressive sensation attacked Dr. Kane and Hans, and alarming symptoms
+were developed. Water ran down from the roof, the doctor's sleeping bag
+of furs was saturated, and his luxurious eider down, God's wonderful
+cold defier, was "a wet swab."
+
+After two days in this comfortless hut, the storm having subsided, they
+once again pushed toward Etah! Their sick, failing comrades were the
+spur to this desperate effort. But it was in vain, for the deep, moist
+snow, the hummocks and the wind, defied even desperate courage. They
+returned to the hut and spent another wretched night.
+
+In the morning, in spite of short provisions, exhaustion, continued
+snowing, they climbed the ice-foot, and for four haltless hours faced
+toward the Esquimo! But in vain. Dr. Kane says: "My poor Esquimo, Hans,
+adventurous and buoyant as he was, began to cry like a child. Sick, worn
+out, strength gone, dogs fast and floundering, I am not ashamed to admit
+that, as I thought of the sick men on board, my own equanimity was at
+fault."
+
+Dr. Kane scrambled up a familiar hill that was near and reconnoitered.
+He was delighted to see, winding among the hummocks, a level way! He
+called Hans to see it. With fresh dogs and fresh supplies, they could
+certainly reach Etah. So, after another night at the hut, they returned
+to the brig, comforting the sick with the assurance that success would
+come on the next trial.
+
+The month closed with only five effective men, including the commander,
+and of these some were about as much sick as well. Dr. Kane could not
+be spared from his patients, so, February third, Petersen and Hans tried
+another Etah adventure. In three days they returned, with a sorrowful
+tale from poor Petersen of heroic efforts ending in exhaustion and
+defeat.
+
+But God always sent many rays of light through the densest darkness
+besetting our explorers to cheer them and inspire hope. The yellow tints
+of coming sunlight were at noonday faintly painted on the horizon. The
+rabbits prophesied the spring by appearing abroad, and two were shot.
+They yielded a pint of raw blood, which the sickest drank as a grateful
+cordial. Their flesh was also eaten raw, and with great thankfulness.
+
+Following these moments of comfort came a dismal and anxious night.
+Thick clouds over-spread the sky, a heavy mist rendered the darkness
+appalling, followed by a drifting snow and a fearful storm. The wind
+howled and shrieked through the rigging of the helpless, battered brig,
+as if in mockery of her condition and the sufferings of her inmates.
+Goodfellow had gone inland with his gun during the brief day, and had
+not returned. Roman candles and bluelights were burned to guide him
+homeward. Altogether it was a night to excite the superstitious fears of
+the sailors, and they proved to be not beyond the reach of such fears.
+Tom Hickey, the cook, having been on deck while the gale was in its full
+strength, to peer into the darkness for him, ran below declaring that he
+had seen Goodfellow moving cautiously along the land-ice and jump down
+on the floe. He hurried up his supper to give the tired messmate a warm
+welcome, but no one came. Dr. Kane went out with a lantern, looked
+carefully around for some hundreds of yards, but found no fresh
+footsteps. Tom seriously insisted that he had seen Goodfellow's
+apparition!
+
+Such was the state of things when one of the sailors went on deck. There
+was hanging in the rigging an old seal-skin bag containing the remnant
+of the ship's furs. Its ghostly appearance in ordinary darkness had been
+the occasion of much jesting. Now, to the excited imagination of the
+sailor, it pounded the mast like the gloved fist of a giant boxer,
+glowed with a ghastly light, and muttered to him an unearthly story. He
+did not stop to converse with it, but hastened below with the expression
+of his fears. His messmates laughed and jeered at his tale, but their
+merriment was but the whistling to inspire their own courage.
+
+The morning came and so did Goodfellow, none the worse for his night's
+experience. The storm subsided, Hans killed three rabbits, they all
+tasted a little and felt better, and the seal-skin bag was never known
+from that time to utter a word. _Fears_ may endure for a night but joy
+cometh in the morning! Dr. Kane devoutly remarks: "See how often relief
+has come at the moment of extremity; see, still more, how the back has
+been strengthened to its increasing burden, and the heart cheered by
+some unconscious influence of an unseen POWER."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+DESERTERS.
+
+
+HANS had been for some time promising the hungry company a deer. He had
+seen their tracks, and he was watching for them with a good rifle, a
+keen eye, and a steady hand. He came in on the evening of February
+twenty-second with the good news that he had lodged a ball in one at a
+long range, and that he went hobbling away. He was sure he should find
+him dead in the morning. The morning came and the game was found, having
+staggered, bleeding, only two miles. He was a noble fellow, measuring in
+length six feet and two inches, and five feet in girth. He weighed about
+one hundred and eighty pounds when dressed. The enfeebled men with
+difficulty drew him on board. His presence caused a thrill of joy, and
+his luscious flesh sent its invigoration through their emaciated frames.
+
+The following Sunday, as Dr. Kane was standing on deck thinking of their
+situation, he lifted up his eyes toward a familiar berg, for many months
+shrouded in darkness, and saw it sparkling in the sunlight. The King of
+Day was not yet above the intervening hills, but he had sent his sheen
+to proclaim his coming. Glad as a boy whom the full mid-winter moon
+invites to a coasting frolic, he started on a run, climbed the
+elevations, and bathed in his refreshing rays.
+
+During the month of February, Petersen, Hans, and Godfrey had been sent
+out on the track of the Esquimo, but they returned and declared that
+Etah could not be reached. Their commander said, "Nay, it can!"
+
+By the sixth of March the brig was again without fresh meat. The sick
+were once more suffering for it, and the well growing feeble. Hans, the
+resort in such emergencies, was given a light sledge, the two surviving
+dogs, and to him was committed the forlorn hope. His departure called
+forth from his commander a "God bless you!" and prayers followed him.
+
+His story is simple and touching. He lodged the first night in the
+"wind-loved," forsaken, desolate, yet friendly hut of Anoatok. He slept
+as well as he could in a temperature fifty-three degrees below zero. The
+next night he slept in a friendly hut at Etah. The oft-tried feat was
+accomplished. But he found the Etahites lean and hungry. Hollow cheeks
+and sunken eyes spoke of famine. The skin of a young sea-unicorn, their
+last game, was all of food which remained to the settlement. They had
+even eaten their light and fire blubber, and were seated in darkness,
+gloomily waiting for the sun and the hunt. They had eaten, too, all but
+four of their ample supply of dogs.
+
+They hailed the coming of Hans with a shout. He proposed to join them in
+a hunt, but they shook their heads. They had lost a harpoon and line in
+the attempt to take a walrus the day before. The ice was yet thick, and
+the huge monster in his struggles had broken the line over its sharp
+edge. Hans showed them his "boom," and bidding them come on, started for
+the hunting-grounds. Metek--Mr. Eider Duck--speared a fair-sized walrus,
+and Hans gave him five conical balls in quick succession from a Marston
+rifle, and he surrendered at discretion.
+
+The return of the hunters caused great joy in the city of Etah, whose
+two huts poured out their inhabitants to greet their coming, and aid in
+rendering due honors to the game itself. As usual they laughed, feasted,
+and slept, to awake, laugh, eat, and sleep again. Hans and his boom were
+great in their eyes, but the Kablunah, whose representative he was, rose
+before their vision as the glorious sun which scatters the long winter
+darkness.
+
+Hans obtained a hunter's share, and his appearance on the deck of the
+"Advance," heralded by the yelping of the dogs, sent a thrill of joy
+through every heart. As Dr. Kane grasped his hand on the deck, and began
+to listen to his story, he exclaimed: "Speak louder, Hans, that they may
+hear in the bunks!" The bunks did hear, and feel too, as the good news
+came home to their hunger-wasted bodies in refreshing food.
+
+As the commander had requested, Hans brought Myouk with him to assist in
+hunting. The smart young hunter was delighted to be with the white men,
+though his itching fingers would secrete cups, spoons, and other
+valuables, which were made to come back to their proper places by sundry
+cuffs and kicks, which, though perhaps not altogether pleasant of
+themselves, caused him to cuddle down in his buffalo at his master's
+feet like a whipped spaniel, and their relations grew daily more
+enjoyable.
+
+Hans and Myouk made soon after an unsuccessful hunt. This made the fresh
+meat question come up again with its emphatic importance. The fuel
+question, too, was becoming more and more a cause of concern. The
+manilla cable had been chopped up and burned, and such portions of the
+brig as could be spared, and not destroy her sea-going value, had gone
+in the same way. Now the nine feet of solid ice in which she was
+imbedded seemed to say that she would never float again, so she might as
+well yield her planks to the fire. But to see her thus used went to the
+hearts of her gallant men.
+
+On the nineteenth of March Hans was dispatched to the Esquimo, well
+supplied with the first quality of cord for their harpoons, and such
+other prompters to, and helps in, the walrus hunt as occurred to his
+commander. He would bless thereby and please these starving people,
+hoping that the blessing would return in the form of fresh walrus to him
+and his suffering men.
+
+During the absence of Hans there were unusual and painful developments
+at the brig. William Godfrey and John Blake had given Dr. Kane much
+trouble from the first. They were now evidently bent on mischief, and
+made constant watchfulness over them a necessity. Just as Hans left they
+feigned sickness, and were suspected of desiring rest and recruited
+strength for desertion. Their plan was believed to be to waylay Hans and
+get his sledge and dogs. Dr. Kane contrived so shrewdly to keep one of
+them at work under his eye, and the other in some other place, that they
+did not perceive his suspicions of them. One night Bill was heard to say
+that some time during the following day he should leave, and this was
+reported to the commander by a faithful listener. He was, of course
+watched, and at six o'clock was called to prepare breakfast. This he
+commenced doing uneasily, stealing whispers with John. Finally he seemed
+at his ease, and cooked and served the breakfast. Dr. Kane believed he
+meant to slip out the first opportunity, meet John on deck, and desert;
+he therefore armed himself, threw on his furs, made Bonsall and Morton
+acquainted with his plans, and crept out of the dark avenue and hid near
+its entrance. After an hour of cold waiting John crept out, grunting and
+limping, for he had been feigning lameness, looked quickly round, and
+seeing no one, mounted nimbly the stairs to the deck. Ten minutes later
+Godfrey came out, booted and fur-clad for a journey. As he emerged from
+the tossut his commander confronted him, pistol in hand. He was ordered
+back to the cabin, while Morton compelled John's return, and Bonsall
+guarded the door preventing any one passing out. In a few moments John
+came creeping into the cabin, awful lame and terribly exhausted in his
+effort to breathe a little fresh air on deck. He looked amazed as by the
+glare of the light he saw the situation.
+
+The commander then explained to the company the offenses of the
+culprits, giving from the log-book the details of their plotting. He had
+prepared himself for the occasion, and Bill, the principal, was punished
+on the spot. He confessed his guiltiness, promised good behavior, and in
+view of the few men able to work, his hand-cuffs were removed and he was
+sent about his customary business. In an hour after he deserted. Dr.
+Kane was at the moment away hunting, and his escape was not noticed
+until he was beyond the reach of a rifle ball.
+
+The next two weeks were weary, anxious weeks, though the ever-watchful
+Hand tendered in good time occasion for hope. Six sea-fowl and three
+hares were shot by Petersen, and gave indispensable refreshment to the
+sick.
+
+On the second of April, just before noon, a man was seen, with a
+dog-sledge, lurking behind the hummocks near the brig. Dr. Kane went out
+armed to meet him. It proved to be Godfrey the deserter, who, seeing his
+old comrades, left the sledge and run. Leaving Bonsall with his rifle to
+make sure of the sledge, the doctor gave chase, and the fugitive, seeing
+but one following, stopped and turned around. He said he had made up
+his mind to spend the rest of his life with Kalutunah and the Esquimo,
+and that no persuasion nor force should prevent him. A loaded pistol
+presented at his head did, though, persuade him to return to the brig.
+When he reached the gangway he refused to budge another step. Petersen
+was away hunting, Bonsall and Dr. Kane were so weak that they could
+barely stand, and all the other men, thirteen, were prostrated with the
+scurvy, so that they could not compel him by physical force. As the
+doctor was desirous not to hurt him, he left him under the guardianship
+of Bonsall's weapons while he went below for irons. Just as he returned
+to the deck Godfrey turned and fled. Bonsall presented his pistol, which
+exploded the cap only. Kane seized a rifle, but being affected by the
+cold, it went off in the act of cocking. A second gun, fired in haste at
+a long range, missed its mark. So the rebel made good his retreat.
+
+He had come back with Hans' sledge and dogs, and reported him sick at
+Etah from over exhaustion. But there was one consolation in the
+affair--the sledge was loaded with walrus-meat. The feast that followed
+revived the drooping men wonderfully. They ate, were thankful, and
+looked hopefully on the future.
+
+Godfrey was suspected of having come back to get John. The desertion of
+two well men when so many were sick would imperil the lives of all. The
+commander felt that the safety of the whole required the faithfulness of
+each man, he therefore explained the situation to the men and declared
+his determination to punish desertion, or the attempt to desert, by the
+"sternest penalty."
+
+Hans became now the subject of anxiety. Some unfair dealing toward him
+on the part of Godfrey was feared. It was thought but just that he
+should be sought, and, if in trouble, relieved. But who should go? Dr.
+Kane finally resolved to go after him himself. Besides, the question of
+more walrus was again pressing.
+
+April tenth the doctor was off. The first eleven hours the dogs carried
+him sixty-four miles, a most remarkable speed for their short rations.
+
+While thus speeding along, far out on the floe, he spied a black speck
+in-shore away to the south. Was it some cheat of refraction? He paused,
+took his gun, and sighted the object, a device of old Arctic travelers
+to baffle refraction. It is an animal--yes, a man! Away went the dogs,
+ten miles an hour, while the rider cheated them with the shout,
+"Nannook! nannook!"--a bear! a bear! In a few moments Hans and the
+doctor were in grateful, earnest talk. He had really been sick. He had
+been down five days, and, as he expressed it, still felt "a little
+weak." He took his commander's place on the sledge and both went to the
+friendly hut at Anoatok, where hot tea and rest prepared both for the
+return to the brig.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CLOSING INCIDENTS OF THE IMPRISONMENT.
+
+
+HANS had his story of adventure while at Etah. But the most important
+item in his estimation, and that which might prove far reaching in its
+results, was the fact that a young daughter of Sunghu appointed herself
+his nurse during his sickness, bestowing upon him care, sympathy, and
+bewitching smiles. She had evidently done what Godfrey tried in vain to
+do--she had entrapped him, at the expense, too, of a young Esquimo lady
+at Upernavik.
+
+Hans had been successful in the hunt, and, besides what he had sent by
+Godfrey, had deposited some walrus at Littleton Island. He was at once
+sent after this, and intrusted at the same time with an important
+commission. Dr. Kane had been for some time meditating another trip
+toward the polar sea. To do this he desired more dogs. The Esquimo had
+been reducing their stock to keep away starvation, but Kalutunah had
+retained four. These, and such others as he could find, Hans was
+authorized to buy or hire, at almost any price. This northern trip made,
+the next move might be toward the abandonment of the "Advance." She
+could never float, it was plain, for now, late in April, the open water
+was eighty miles south.
+
+While Hans was gone, the sick, yet numbering two thirds of the whole,
+and in a measure all of the other third, except the commander, were
+without fresh food, as they had been for several days. Yet the sunshine
+and the occasional supplies had put them all on the improving list. They
+could sit up, sew or job a little, making themselves useful, and keeping
+up good spirits. But, hark! what sound is that breaking on the still,
+clear air. It comes nearer. Bim, bim, bim, sounds upon the deck. It is
+Hans, whose coming is ever like the coming of the morning. A rabbit-stew
+and walrus liver follow his arrival, and over such royal dainties good
+cheer pervades the family circle.
+
+Hans brought Metek with him, and Metek's young nephew, Paulik, a boy of
+fourteen. Metek and Hans spoke sadly of the condition of the Esquimo
+settlements. We have seen that the escaping party found those of the
+south flying northward from starvation. The report now was that they had
+huddled together at Northumberland Island until that yielded to the
+famine, and now they had come farther north. It was a sad sight to see
+men, women, and children fleeing over the icy desert before their
+relentless foe. Yet, says Hans, they sung as they went, careless of
+present want, and thoughtless of the morrow. Many had died, and thus
+year by year these few, scattered, improvident people decline, giving
+earnest that in a few years all will be gone.
+
+Though light-hearted, death did bring its sorrows to these benighted
+heathen. Kalutunah lost a sister; her body was sewed up in skins, not
+in a sitting posture but extended, and her husband, unattended, carried
+it out to burial, and, with his own hand, placed upon it stone after
+stone, making at once a grave and a monument. A blubber lamp was burning
+outside the hut while he was gone, and when he returned his friends were
+waiting to listen to his rehearsal of the praises of the dead, and to
+hear the expressions of his sorrow, while they showed their grief by
+dismal chantings.
+
+If sorrow did not keep the deceased in the memory of the living, imposed
+self-denials did. The Angekok, or medicine man, as our Indians would
+call him, determines the penance of the mourner, who is sometimes
+forbidden to eat the meat of a certain bird or beast, under the idea
+that the spirit of the departed has entered into it; at another time the
+mourner must not draw on his hood, but go with uncovered head; or he may
+be forbidden to go on the bear or walrus hunt. The length of time of
+these penances may be a few months or a year. The reader will recollect
+the widow with her birds, who appeared so often in the narrative of the
+escaping party.
+
+Though thus mourning for the dead, these Esquimo do not hold life as a
+very sacred trust. The drones and the useless are sometimes harpooned in
+the back merely to get rid of them. Infants are put out of the way when
+they greatly annoy their parents. Hans, on one of his returns from Etah,
+had a story to tell illustrative of this. Awahtok, a young man of
+twenty-two, had a pretty wife--_pretty_ as Esquimo beauty goes--sister
+of Kalutunah, and about eighteen years old. Dr. Kane had regarded this
+couple with some interest, and the husband "stuck to him as a plaster."
+Their first-born was a fine little girl. Well, Hans reported with
+becoming disgust and indignation that they had buried it alive under a
+pile of stones! When Dr. Kane next visited Etah he inquired of his
+friends Awahtok and his wife after the health of the baby, affecting not
+to have heard about its hard fate. They pointed with both hands
+earthward, but did not even shed the cheap, customary tear. The only
+reason reported for this murder was, that certain of its habits, common
+to all infants, were disagreeable to them!
+
+Such is the mildest heathenism without Christianity. These and other
+similar gross sins were common among the South Greenland Esquimo, but
+have disappeared before the teachings of the Moravian missionaries.
+
+Hans returned with the walrus he had deposited at Littleton Island, but
+he had made no progress in getting dogs, so Dr. Kane resolved to go to
+Etah for that purpose himself. Besides, having learned that Godfrey was
+playing a high game there and defying capture, and also fearing his
+influence over the friendly relations of the Esquimo, he resolved to
+bring him back to the brig. Metek was just starting for Etah, so he
+invited himself to return with him, while Paulik, his nephew, remained
+with Hans. This arrangement effected, Dr. Kane was soon approaching
+Etah, perfectly disguised in the hood and jumper of Paulik, whose place
+on the sledge he occupied. The whole city ran out to meet their chief,
+among whom was the deserter, who shouted, and then threw up his arms
+with the most savage of them. He did not perceive his commander until a
+certain well understood summons entered his ear, and a significant
+pistol barrel gleamed in the sunlight near his eyes. He surrendered to
+this "boom" argument without discussion, and trotting or walking, he
+kept his assigned place ahead of the sledge through the eighty and more
+miles to the brig, halting only at Anoatok. We hear nothing of further
+attempt at desertion.
+
+A little later Dr. Kane made another visit to Etah. The hunt had become
+successful, and the famine was broken; all was activity and good cheer.
+The women were preparing the green hides for domestic use. Great piles
+of walrus tushes were preserved for various useful purposes; some of
+these the children had selected as bats, and were engaged in merry
+sport. Their game was to knock a ball made of walrus bone up the
+slanting side of a hummock, and then, in turn, hit it as it rolled down,
+and so keep it from reaching the floe. They shouted and laughed as the
+game went on, much as our boys do over their sports.
+
+Dr. Kane observed on this trip a way of taking walrus which has not, we
+think, been noted before. The monster at this early season sometimes
+finds the ice open near a berg only. He comes on the ice to sun
+himself; finds the change from the cold sea very agreeable, stays too
+long, the water freezes solid, and he cannot return. As he is unable to
+break the ice from above, he either waits for the current about the berg
+to open the ice again, or works himself clumsily to some already open
+place. In this helpless state the dogs scent him afar off, and the
+hunters, following their lead, make him an easy prey.
+
+Hans came in on the twenty-fourth of April, accompanied by Kalutunah,
+Shanghee, and Tatterat, each of the Esquimo having sledges, and sixteen
+dogs in all. Hans had been sent to Cape Alexander, where Kalutunah was
+sojourning, to invite him to the brig in order to secure his aid in the
+proposed northern trip. He was fed well, and propitiated by a present of
+a knife and needles. He said, "Thank you," and added, "I love you well,"
+which might uncharitably be taken to mean, "I love your presents well."
+The result of the presents, feasting, and flattery was a start north by
+the three Esquimo, with Dr. Kane and Hans, all the dog teams
+accompanying. The old route across Kennedy Channel to the west side, and
+so north-poleward, was attempted. First came a very fair progress; then
+came the hummocks, over which, by the aid of their dogs, they clambered
+until thirty miles from the brig had been made. Then Shanghee burrowed
+into a snow-bank and slept, the cold being thirty degrees below zero;
+the rest camped in the snow and lunched. Just as a fair start was again
+made, the party neared a huge male bear in the act of lunching on seal.
+In vain the doctor attempted to control either dogs or drivers.
+"Nannook! nannook!" shouted the Esquimo as they clung to their sledges,
+and the dogs flew over the ice in wild and reckless pursuit. After an
+exciting chase the bear was brought to a halt and to a fight, which the
+rifles and spears soon terminated against bruin. A feast by dogs and
+men, and a night's halt on the ice followed, to Dr. Kane, at least, both
+vexatious and comfortless.
+
+The next day he would press on to the north. But bear tracks were
+every-where, and the savage chiefs preferred hunting to exploring;
+besides, they had, they said, their families to support, and there was
+no use trying to cross the channel so high up. The English of it was, we
+are "going in" for the bears, and you may help yourself. A day more was
+spent in a wild hunt among the bergs, and the party returned to the
+brig.
+
+A little later still another attempt was made to unlock further the
+secrets of the extreme icy north, this time by only Kane and Morton with
+a six-dog sledge, the explorers walking. This, the last effort of the
+kind, ended in the usual way, excepting some additions to the surveys.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND.
+
+
+THE final escape from the brig must now be commenced. From the early
+fall its necessity had been thought of, and preparations for it
+commenced. Since the sick had begun to improve, the work in reference to
+it had been going on with system. Coverlets of eider down, beds, or furs
+which could be used as such, boots, moccasins, a full supply to meet
+emergencies, were prepared. Provision bags were made and filled with
+powder, ship-bread, pork-fat, and tallow melted down, and cooked
+concentrated bean soup. The flour and meat biscuit were put in double
+bags. Two boats had been made from the ship's beams twenty-six feet
+long, seven feet across, and three feet deep. Incredible toil by weak
+and sick men had been expended upon these boats. A neat "housing" of
+light canvas was raised over each of them. One other boat, the "Red
+Eric," was in readiness. There was no assurance that either of these
+boats would long float, yet all was done which the circumstances allowed
+to make them sea-worthy.
+
+The three boats were mounted on sledges. The necessary outfit, so far as
+they could bear, was to be stowed away in them.
+
+Every thing being in readiness, a vast amount of _thinking_ having been
+employed by the commander in reference to all contingencies, a
+peremptory order of march was issued for the seventeenth of May. The men
+were given twenty-four hours to get ready eight pounds of such personal
+effects as they chose. From the date of starting the strictest
+discipline and subordination was to be observed, which came hard upon
+the long-indulged, improving sick ones. The perfectness of the
+preparations had a good effect, yet there were many moody doubters. Some
+insisted that the commander only meant to go further south, holding the
+brig to fall back upon; some thought he would get the sick nearer the
+hunting grounds; others believed that his purpose was to secure some
+point of lookout for the English explorers, or whaling vessels.
+
+When the memorable day of departure came, the boats were in the cradle
+on the sledges, and the men, with straps over their shoulders and
+drag-ropes from these to the sledges, started for the ice-foot along
+which they were to travel. They had not yet received their loads, so
+they glided off easily, exciting a smile on some rueful countenances.
+
+In twenty-four hours the boats were laden, on the elevated drive-way,
+covered with their canvas roof, and, with a jaunty flag flying, were
+ready for a final leave the next day. The exhausted men, for nearly all
+of them were yet invalids, returned to the vessel, ate the best supper
+the supplies afforded, "turned in," prepared for their first effort at
+dragging the boat-laden sledges.
+
+But one sledge could be moved at once, with all hands attached; the
+first day they made two miles only with this one. For several days they
+made short distances and returned early to a hearty supper and warm beds
+in their old quarters, so that they marched back to the drag-ropes in
+the morning refreshed. The weather was, by the kind, overruling Hand,
+"superb."
+
+The final leave-taking was somewhat ceremonious. All the men were
+assembled in the dismantled room which had been so long both a prison
+and providential home. It was Sunday; all listened to a chapter of the
+Bible, and prayers. Then, all silently standing, the commander read a
+prepared report of what had been done, and the reasons for the step
+about to be taken. He then addressed the company, honestly conceding the
+obstacles in the way of escape, but assuring them that energy and
+subordination would secure success. He reminded them of the solemn
+claims upon them of the sick and wounded; called to their minds the
+wonderful deliverance granted them thus far by the infinite Power, and
+exhorted them still confidently to commit all to the same Helper.
+
+The response to this appeal was most cheering to Dr. Kane. The following
+engagement was drawn up by one of the officers and signed by every
+man:--
+
+"The undersigned, being convinced of the impossibility of the
+liberation of the brig, and equally convinced of the impossibility of
+remaining in the ice a third winter, do fervently concur with the
+commander in his attempt to reach the south by means of boats.
+
+"Knowing the trials and hardships which are before us, and feeling the
+necessity of union, harmony, and discipline, we have determined to abide
+faithfully by the expedition and our sick comrades, and to do all that
+we can, as true men, to advance the objects in view."
+
+The party now went on deck, hoisted a flag and hauled it down again, and
+then marched once or twice around the vessel. The figure head--the fair
+Augusta--"the little blue girl with pink cheeks," was taken by the men
+and added to their load. She had been nipped and battered by the ice,
+and a common suffering made her dear to them. When Dr. Kane remonstrated
+against the additional burden, they said: "She is, at any rate, wood,
+and if we cannot carry her far we can burn her."
+
+The final departure was too serious for cheers, and when the moment came
+they all hurried off to the boats and the drag-ropes.
+
+Four men were sick, and had to be carried; and Dr. Kane was with the
+dog-team the common carrier and courier, as we shall see, so that there
+were but twelve men to the boats; these were organized into two
+companies, six each, for the two sledges; M'Gary having command of the
+"Faith," and Morton command of the "Hope." Each party was separate in
+matters of baggage, sleeping, cooking, and eating; both were
+concentrated, in turns, upon each sledge under the command of Brooks.
+Both morning and evening of each day all gathered round, with uncovered
+heads, to listen to prayers. Every one had his assigned place at the
+track-line; each served in turn as cook, except the captains.
+
+From an early day of the preparations, Dr. Kane had been at work
+refitting and furnishing the broken-down, forsaken hut at Anoatok. For
+this purpose many trips were made to it with the dog-team; it was made
+tight as possible; the filth carefully removed; cushions and blankets
+were spread upon the raised floor at the sides and a stove set up;
+blankets were hung up against the walls, and the whole made to look as
+cheerful as possible. While the sledges were approaching this place by
+short stages, Dr. Kane, with his team, brought to the hut the four sick
+men; they were Goodfellow, Wilson, Whipple, and Stephenson. Dr. Hayes,
+yet limping on his frozen foot, bravely adhered to the sledges. When the
+sick entered the hut none could wait upon the others, except Stephenson,
+who could barely light the lamp, to melt the snow and heat the water.
+But Dr. Kane made them frequent visits, supplying their wants, and
+reporting the daily progress toward them of their whole company. They
+grew better, and were able to creep out into the sunshine. Besides
+carrying the sick to Anoatok, Dr. Kane had, with his dogs, conveyed
+there and stocked near the hut most of the provisions for their march
+and voyage; eight hundred pounds out of fifteen were now there, and he
+proposed to convey the rest. This was done to relieve the overladen
+sledges.
+
+The red boat--"Red Eric"--joined the party on the floe a few days after
+the start, increasing their burden, but assuring them of increased
+comfort and safety when they reached the open water.
+
+One incident of this period will illustrate its hardships and the
+Christian courage with which they were met.
+
+It was soon after the last sick man was borne to the hut that Dr. Kane,
+having, in one of his dog-team trips, camped on the floe, came upon the
+boat party early in the morning. They were at prayers at the moment,
+and, as they passed to the drag-ropes, he was pained at the evidence of
+increased scurvy and depression. Brooks's legs were sadly swollen, and
+Hayes ready to faint with exhaustion. They must have more generous
+meals, thought the noble-hearted commander. Taking Morton, he hastened
+back to the brig. As they entered a raven flew croaking away; he had
+already made his home there. Lighting the fires in the old cook-room,
+they melted pork, cooked a large batch of _light_ bread without salt,
+saleratus, or shortening, gathered together some eatable, though
+damaged, dried apples and beans, and, the dogs having fed, hastened back
+to the men on the floe. Distributing a good supper to their comrades as
+they passed, and taking Godfrey along with them, they hastened to the
+hut. The poor fellows confined in it were rejoiced to see them. They
+had eaten all their supplies, their lamp had gone out, the snow had
+piled up at the door so that they could not close it, and the arctic
+wind and cold were making free in their never-too-warm abode. The poor
+fellows were cold, sick, and hungry. The coming of their commander was
+as the coming of an angel messenger of good tidings. He closed their
+door, made a fire of tarred rope, dried their clothes and bedding,
+cooked them a porridge of pea-soup and meat-biscuit, and set their
+lamp-wick ablaze with dripping pork-fat. Then, after all had joined in
+prayer of thankfulness, a well relished meal was eaten. This was
+followed by a cheerful chat, and a long, refreshing forgetfulness in
+their sleeping-bags of all privations. When they awoke the gale had
+grown more tempestuous, with increasing snow. But they went on burning
+rope and fat until every icicle had disappeared, and every frost mark
+had faded out.
+
+On their arrival at the hut the night before, Dr. Kane, seeing the
+condition of things, sent Godfrey forward to Etah for fresh supplies of
+game. After a time he returned with Metek, and the two sledges well
+laden with meat. A part of this was hurried off to the toilers at the
+drag-ropes.
+
+Having blessed by his coming these weary voyagers, Dr. Kane, with
+Morton, Metek, and his sledge, went once more to the brig. They baked a
+hundred and fifty pounds of bread and sent it by Metek to Mr. Brooks,
+and the faithful messenger, having delivered it, returned immediately
+for another load. While he was gone, a hundred pounds of flour pudding
+was made, and two bagfuls of pork-fat tried out. This done, the three
+lay down upon the curled hair of the old mattresses, they having been
+ripped open and their contents drawn out to make the most comfortable
+bed the place afforded. They slept as soundly "as vagrants on a
+haystack."
+
+The next day they set their faces toward the sledge company and Anoatok,
+both sledges having heavy loads, which included the last of the fifteen
+hundred pounds of provisions.
+
+Dr. Kane had made one of his last trips to the brig: he would return for
+provisions only; but all his specimens of Natural History, collected
+with much toil, his books, and many of his well-tested instruments, he
+was compelled to leave. His six dogs had carried him, during the
+fortnight since the company left the brig, between seven and eight
+hundred miles, averaging about fifty-seven miles a day. But for their
+services the sick could scarcely have been saved, and the rest would
+have suffered more intensely.
+
+Leaving, as usual, a part of the food with Mr. Brooks's party, they
+hastened on to replenish the stores and cheer the hearts of the lonely
+dwellers in the hut.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+NARROW ESCAPES.
+
+
+HAVING brought forward the provisions to Anoatok, Dr. Kane, with the
+help of Metek and his dogs, began to remove them still farther south,
+making one deposit near Cape Hatherton, and the other yet farther, near
+Littleton Island. But an immediate journey to Etah for walrus had become
+necessary. The hard-working men were improving on this greasy food, and
+they wanted it in abundance. Dr. Kane found the Etahites fat and full.
+He left his weary, well-worn dogs to recruit on their abundance, and
+returned with their only team, which was well fed and fresh. They made
+the trade without any grumbling.
+
+When he came back the Brooks party were within three miles of Anoatok.
+They were getting along bravely and eating voraciously, and the old cry,
+"more provisions!" saluted the commander. Leaving the dogs to aid in
+transferring the stores to the southern stations, Dr. Kane and Irish Tom
+Hickey started afoot to the brig to do another baking. It was a sixteen
+hours' tramp. But ere they slept they converted nearly a barrel of
+flour, the last of the stock, into the staff of life. An old
+pickled-cabbage cask was used as a kneading trough, and sundry volumes
+of the "Penny Cyclopedia of Useful Knowledge" were burned during the
+achievement. Tom declared the work done to be worthy of his own
+country's bakers, and he had been one "of them same," so he deemed that
+praise enough. When the doctor lamented that the flour so used was the
+last of the stock, Tom exclaimed: "All the better, sir, since we'll have
+no more bread to make."
+
+Godfrey came to the brig on the third day, with the dogs, to carry back
+the baking. But a howling storm delayed them all on board. It was
+Sunday, and the last time that Dr. Kane expected to be in the cabin with
+any of his men. He took down a Bible from one of the berths and went
+through the long-used religious service. The dreary place was less
+dreary, and their burdened hearts were no doubt made lighter by thus
+drawing near to God.
+
+The commander and Tom left the next day with the sledge load, leaving
+Godfrey to come on after farther rest. But scarcely had the sledge party
+delivered their load of bread, and begun the sound sleep which follows
+hard work, when Godfrey came in out of breath with the hot haste of his
+journey. He reluctantly confessed the occasion of his sudden departure
+from the brig. He had lain down on the contents of the mattresses to
+sleep. Suddenly Wilson's guitar, left with other mementoes of two
+winters' imprisonment, sent forth music soft and sad. Bill was sure he
+heard aright, for he was awake and in his right mind. He fled on the
+instant, and scarcely looked behind until he reached his companions. He
+had never heard of the musical genius of Eolus, and it was not strange
+that the old forsaken, mutilated, ghostly, looking brig should excite
+the imagination of the lonely lodger.
+
+The invalids of the huts were now doing well. Their housekeeping assumed
+a home-like appearance--after the fashion of Arctic homes--and they
+welcomed the doctor with a dish of tea, a lump of walrus flesh, and a
+warm place. The Brooks party were not afar off.
+
+A storm which out-stormed all they had yet seen or felt of storms came
+down upon our explorers at this time.
+
+When the storm had blown past, Morton was dispatched to Etah with the
+dogs, accompanied by two Etahites who had been storm-bound with the
+boat-parties. His mission was to demand aid of these allies on the
+ground of sacred treaty stipulations, and well-recognized Esquimo laws
+of mutual help. Dr. Kane took his place with the men on the floe.
+Sledging was now not only made by the storm and advancing season more
+laborious, but very dangerous; around the bergs black water appeared,
+and over many places there were to be seen pools of water. The boats
+were unladen, and their cargoes carried in parcels by sledges, yet
+serious accidents occurred. At one time a runner of the sledge carrying
+the "Hope" broke in, and the boat came near being lost; as it was, six
+men were plunged into the water. Sick and well men worked for dear life,
+and affairs were growing more than cloudy when the helping hand of the
+great Helper was seen as it had been so often. Morton returned from
+Etah, having been entirely successful in his appeal to the natives for
+aid. They came with every sound dog they possessed, and with sledges
+loaded with walrus. The dogs alone were equal to ten strong men added to
+the expedition. Dr. Kane took one of the teams, and with Metek made his
+last trip to the brig, and on his return commenced bringing down the
+invalids of the hut to the boats. As he came near the floe-party he
+found Ohlsen sitting on a lump of ice alone, some distance in their
+rear. He had prevented the "Hope's" sledge from breaking through the ice
+by taking for a moment its whole weight on a bar which he had slipped
+under it. He was a strong man, and the act was heroic, but he was
+evidently seriously injured. He was pale, but thought his only
+difficulty was "a little cramp in the small of his back," and that he
+should be better soon. Dr. Kane gave him Stephenson's seat on the
+sledge, carried him to the boat, and gave him its most comfortable
+place, and muffled him up in the best buffalo robes. Dr. Hayes gave him
+tender and constant attention all that night, but he declined rapidly.
+
+Having stowed the sick away in the boats, the morning prayers being
+offered, the men on the sixth of June started anew at the drag-ropes.
+Two hours' drawing sufficed to show all hands their insufficiency for
+the task. Just then a spanking breeze started up. They hoisted the sails
+of the boats, and the wind increased to a gale and blew directly after
+them. Away the sledges sped toward the provision depot near Littleton
+Island. Ridges in the ice which would have delayed them at the
+drag-ropes for hours, but gave them the rise and fall as they glided
+over them of a ship on the waves. God, who "holds the wind in his fist,"
+had unloosed it for their benefit. The foot-sore, weary men, who a few
+moments ago felt that an almost impossible task was theirs, were now
+jubilant, and broke out into song--the first sailor's chorus song they
+had sung for a year. They came to a halt at five o'clock P. M., having
+made under sail the distance of five drag-rope days.
+
+While here they were joined by old Nessark, and by Sipsu, the surly
+chief who appears so conspicuously in the narrative of Dr. Hayes's
+escaping party. They came with their fresh dog-teams, and offered their
+services to the explorers. Nessark was sent after the last of the sick
+men at the hut.
+
+The following five or six days were those of peril and discouragement.
+At one time a sledge had broken in, carrying with it several of the men,
+bringing affairs to a gloomy crisis. But the men scrambled out, and, to
+still further lift the burdens from the party, five sturdy Esquimo
+appeared, with two almost equally strong women. They laid hold of the
+drag-ropes with a will, and worked the rest of the day without demanding
+any reward. So there was always help in their time of need.
+
+Nessark came in good time with Wilson and Whipple, the last of the sick;
+the old hut was now deserted, and all were with the boats except one.
+Hans had been missing for nearly two months. Early in April he came to
+his commander with a long face and a very plausible story; he had, he
+said, no boots; he wanted to go to one of the Esquimo settlements a
+little south to get a stock of walrus-hides. He did not want the dogs;
+he would walk, and be back in good time. But the hitherto faithful and
+trusted Hans had not returned. When inquiry was made of the people of
+Etah they said he certainly called there, and engaged of one of the
+women a pair of boots, and then pushed on to Peteravik, where Shanghee
+and his pretty daughter lived. The last information they had of him they
+gave with a shrug of the shoulders and a merry twinkle of the eye. He
+had been seen by one of their people once since he left Etah; he was
+then upon a native sledge, Shanghee's daughter at his side, bound south
+of Peteravik. He had forsaken the explorers for a wife!
+
+The party were one day feeling their way along cautiously, pioneers
+going ahead and trying the soundness of the ice by thumping with boat
+hooks and narwhal horns. Suddenly a shout of distress was heard. The
+"Red Eric" had broken in! She contained the document box of the
+expedition, the loss of which would make their whole work profitless to
+the world even should the party be saved. She had on board too many
+provision bags. But, after great exposure and labor, all was saved in
+good condition, and the boat hauled upon the ice. Several of the men had
+narrow escapes. Stephenson was caught as he sunk by the sledge runner,
+and Morton was drawn out by the hair of his head as he was disappearing
+under the ice. A grateful shout went up from all hands that nothing
+serious resulted from the accident.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ESQUIMO KINDNESS.
+
+
+THE company made slow and tiresome progress by Littleton Island, and
+were carrying their entire load forward in parcels to the mainland at
+the northern opening of Etah Bay, when the sad news was whispered to Dr.
+Kane, who was with the advanced party, that Ohlsen was dead. A gloom
+spread over the whole company. The fact was carefully concealed from the
+Esquimo, who were sent to Etah under the pretext of bringing back a
+supply of birds, the entire dog force being given them to hasten their
+departure.
+
+The funeral service, though attended by sincere grief, was necessarily
+brief. The body was sewed up in Ohlsen's own blankets, the burial
+service read, the prayer offered, and it was borne by his comrades in
+solemn procession to a little gorge on the shore, and deposited in a
+trench made with extreme difficulty. A sheet of lead, on which his name
+and age was cut, was laid upon his breast; a monument of stones was
+erected over it, to preserve it from the beasts of prey, and to mark the
+spot. They named the land which overshadowed the spot Cape Ohlsen.
+
+Having given two quiet hours, after the funeral service, to the solemn
+occasion, the work at the drag-ropes was continued. The Esquimo
+returned in full force, and with abundant provisions. They took their
+turn at the drag-ropes with a shout; they carried the sick on their
+sledges, and relieved the whole expedition from care concerning their
+supplies. They brought in one week eight dozen sea-fowl--little
+auks--caught in their hand-nets, and fed men and dogs. All ate, hunger
+was fully satisfied, care for the time departed, the men broke out into
+their old forecastle songs, and the sledges went merrily forward with
+laugh and jest.
+
+Passing round Cape Alexander, down Etah Bay, a short distance toward the
+settlement, the expedition encamped. The long-sought, coveted open water
+was only three miles away; its roar saluted their ears, and its scent
+cheered their hearts. The difficult and delicate work of preparing the
+boats for the sea-voyage now commenced. In the mean time the people of
+Etah, men, women, and children, came and encamped in their midst,
+leaving only three persons--two old women and a blind old man--in the
+settlement. They slept in the "Red Eric," and fed on the stew cooked for
+them in the big camp-kettle. Each one had a keepsake of a file, a knife,
+a saw, or some such article of great value. The children had each that
+great medicine for Esquimo sickness, a piece of soap, for which they
+merrily shouted, "Thank you, thank you, big chief." There was joy in the
+Esquimo camp which knew but one sorrow--that of the speedy departure of
+the strangers. At the mention of this one woman stepped behind a tent
+screen and wept, wiping her teary face with a bird-skin.
+
+Dr. Kane rode to Etah to bid the aged invalids good-bye. Then came the
+last distribution of presents. Every one had something, but the great
+gift of amputating knives went to the chief, Metek, and the patriarch,
+Nessark. The dogs were given to the community at large, excepting
+Toodla-mik and Whitey; these veterans of many well-fought battle-fields
+were reserved to share the homeward fortunes of their owners. Toodla was
+no common dog, but earned for himself a place in dog history. As we are
+to meet the dogs no more in our narrative, we will give Toodla's
+portrait to be set up with our pen sketches. He was purchased at
+Upernavik, and so he received the advantages of, at least, a partially
+civilized education. His head was more compact, his nose less pointed
+than most dogs of his kind, and his eye denoted affection and
+self-reliance, and his carriage was bold and defiant. Toodla, at the
+commencement of the cruise, appointed himself general-in-chief of all
+the dogs. Now it often happens, with dogs as well as with men, that to
+assume superiority is much easier than to maintain it. But Toodla's
+generalship was never successfully disputed. The position, however, cost
+him many a hard-fought battle, for the new comers naturally desired to
+test his title to rule. These he soundly whipped on their introduction
+to the pack. He even often left the brig's side, head erect, tail
+gracefully curled over his back, and moved toward a stranger dog with a
+proud, defiant air, as much as to say, "I am master here, sir!" If this
+was doubted, he vindicated his boasting on the spot. Such tyranny
+excited rebellions of course, and strong combinations were formed
+against him; but dogs which had been trounced individually make weak
+organizations, and the coalitions gave way before Toodla's prowess. It
+is but fair, however, to say that he had strong allies upon whom he fell
+back in great emergencies--the sailors. Toodla died in Philadelphia, and
+still lives--that is, his stuffed skin still exists in the museum of the
+Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. His reputation is of the same
+sort as that of many of the heroes of history, and worth as much to the
+world.
+
+Dr. Kane having distributed the presents and disposed of the dogs, there
+was nothing now but the farewell address to render the parting ceremony
+complete. Dr. Kane called the natives about him and spoke to them
+through Petersen as interpreter. He talked to them as those from whom
+kindness had been received, and to whom a return was to be made. He told
+them about the tribes of their countrymen farther south whom he knew,
+and from whom they were separated by the glaciers and the sea; he spoke
+of the longer daylight, the less cold, the more abundant game, the
+drift-wood, the fishing-nets, and kayaks of these relatives. He tried to
+explain to them that under bold and cautious guidance they might, in
+the course of a season or two, reach this happier region.
+
+During this talk they crowded closer and closer to the speaker, and
+listened with breathless attention to his remarks, often looking at each
+other significantly.
+
+Having thus parted with the natives, our exploring party hauled their
+boats to the margin of the ice. The "Red Eric" was launched, and three
+cheers were given for "Henry Grinnell and Homeward Bound." But the storm
+king said, "Not yet!" He sounded an alarm in their ears, and they drew
+the "Eric" from the water and retreated on the floe, which broke up in
+their rear with great rapidity. Back, back, they tramped, wearily and
+painfully, all that night, until the next day they found a sheltering
+berg near the land, where they made a halt. Here they rested until the
+wind had spent its wrath, and the sea had settled into a placid quiet.
+Their voyaging on the floe with drag-ropes and sledges was ended.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+MELVILLE BAY.
+
+
+ON the nineteenth of June the boats were launched into the sea, now
+calm, the "Faith" leading under Kane, and the "Eric" under Bonsall, and
+the "Hope" under Brooks following. The sea birds screamed a welcome to
+the squadron, and flew about them as if to inquire why they came back in
+three vessels instead of one, as when they sailed northward two years
+before. But there was no leisure for converse with birds. They had just
+passed Hakluyt Island, when the "Eric" sunk. Her crew, Bonsall, Riley,
+and Godfrey, struggled to the other boats, and the "Faith" took the
+sunken craft in tow. Soon after Brooks shouted that the "Hope" was
+leaking badly, and threatening to sink. Fortunately the floe was not far
+off, and into one of its creek-like openings they run the boats,
+fastened them to the ice, and the weary men lay down in their bunks
+without drawing the boats from the water and slept.
+
+The next day they drew their leaking crafts ashore, and calked them for
+another sea adventure. For several days they struggled with varying
+fortunes until they brought up, weary, disheartened, and worn down by
+work and an insufficient diet of bread-dust, and fastened to an old floe
+near the land. Scarcely were they anchored when a vast ice raft caught
+upon a tongue of the solid floe about a mile to the seaward of them, and
+began to swing round upon it as a pivot, and to close in upon our
+explorers. This was a new game of the ice-enemy. Nearer and nearer came
+the revolving icy platform, seeming to gather force with every whirl. At
+first the commotion that was made started the floe, to which they were
+fastened, on a run toward the shore as if to escape the danger. But it
+soon brought up against the rocks and was overtaken by its pursuer. In
+an instant the collision came. The men sprang, by force of discipline,
+to the boats and the stores, to bear them back to a place of safety, but
+wild and far-spread ruin was around them. The whole platform where they
+stood crumbled and crushed under the pressure, and was tossed about and
+piled up as if the ice-demon was in a frenzy of passion. Escape for the
+boats seemed for the moment impossible, and none expected it; and none
+could tell when they were let down into the water, nor hardly how, yet
+they found themselves whirling in the midst of the broken hummocks, now
+raised up and then shaken as if every joint in the helpless, trembling
+boats was to be dislocated. The noise would have drowned the uproar of
+contending armies as ice was hurled against ice, and, as it felt the
+awful pressure, it groaned harsh and terrific thunder. The men, though
+utterly powerless, grasped their boat-hooks as the boats were borne away
+in the tumultuous mass of broken ice and hurried on toward the shore.
+Slowly the tumult began to subside, and the fragments to clear away,
+until the almost bewildered men found themselves in a stretch of water
+making into the land, wide enough to enable them to row. They came
+against the wall of the ice-foot, and, grappling it, waited for the
+rising tide to lift them to its top. While here the storm was fearful,
+banging the boats against the ice-wall, and surging the waves into them,
+thus keeping the imperiled men at work for dear life in bailing out the
+water. They were at last lifted by the tide to the ice-foot, upon which
+they pulled their boats, all uniting on each boat. They had landed on
+the cliff at the mouth of a gorge in the rock; into this they dragged
+the boats, keeping them square on their keels. A sudden turn in the cave
+placed a wall between them and the storm, which was now raging
+furiously. While they were drawing in the last boat, a flock of eider
+ducks gladdened their hearts as they flew swiftly past. God had not only
+guided them to a sheltered haven, but had assured them of abundant food
+on the morrow. They were in the breeding home of the sea-fowl. Thus
+comforted they lay down to sleep, though wet and hungry. They named
+their providential harbor the "Weary Man's Rest," and remained in it
+three days, eating until hunger was appeased, and gathering eggs at the
+rate of twelve hundred a day, and laughing at the storms which roared
+without.
+
+On the fourth of July, after as much of a patriotic celebration as their
+circumstances allowed, they again launched into the sea.
+
+For some days they moved slowly south, but it was only by picking their
+way through the leads, for they found the sea nearly closed. As they
+approached Cape Dudley Digges their way was entirely closed. They pushed
+into an opening that led to the bottom of its precipitous cliff. Here
+they found a rocky shelf, overshadowed by the towering rocks, just large
+enough and in the right position at high tide to make a platform on
+which they could land their boats. Here they waited a whole week for the
+ice toward Cape York to give way. The sea-fowl were abundant and of a
+choice kind. The scurvy-killing cochlearia was at hand, which they ate
+with their eggs. It was indeed a "providential halt," for the fact was
+constantly forced upon them that they had come here, as they had to
+"Weary Man's Rest," by no skill or knowledge of their own.
+
+It was the eighteenth of July before the condition of the ice was such
+as to make the renewal of their voyage possible. Two hundred and fifty
+choice fowl had been skinned, cut open, and dried on the rocks, besides
+a store of those thrown aboard as they were caught.
+
+They now sailed along the coast, passing the "Crimson Cliffs" of Sir
+John Ross. The birds were abundant, their halting-places on the shore
+were clothed with green, and the fresh-water streams at which they
+filled their vessels were pouring down from the glaciers. They built
+great blazing fires of dry turf which cost nothing but the gathering.
+After a day's hard rowing the sportsmen brought in fresh fowl, and,
+gathered about their camp-fire, all ate, and then stretched themselves
+on the moss carpet and slept. They enjoyed thankfully this Arctic Eden
+all the more as they all knew that perils and privations were just
+before them.
+
+They wisely provided during these favored days a large stock of
+provisions, amounting to six hundred and forty pounds, besides their
+dried birds. Turf fuel, too, was taken on board for the fires.
+
+They reached Cape York on the twenty-first of July. From this place they
+were to try the dangers of Melville Bay, across which in their frail
+boats they must sail. It had smiled upon their northward voyage; would
+it favor their escape now? It certainly did not hold out to them
+flattering promises. The inshore ice was solid yet, and terribly
+hummocky. The open sea was far to the west, but along the margin of the
+floe were leads, and fortunately there was one beginning where they had
+halted. The boats were hauled up, examined, and as much as possible
+repaired. The "Red Eric" was stripped, her cargo taken out, and her hull
+held in reserve for fuel. A beacon was erected from which a red flannel
+skirt was thrown as a pennant to the wind to attract attention. Under
+this beacon records were left which told in brief the story of the
+expedition. This done, and the blessing of God implored, the voyagers
+entered the narrow opening in the ice.
+
+For a while all went well, but one evening Dr. Kane was hastily called
+on deck. The huge icebergs had bewildered the helmsman in the leading
+boat, and he had missed the channel, and had turned directly toward the
+shore until the boat was stopped by the solid floe. The lead through
+which they had come had closed in their rear, and they were completely
+entangled in the ice!
+
+Without telling the men what had happened, the commander, under the
+pretense of drying the clothes, ordered the boats drawn up, and a camp
+was made on the ice.
+
+In the morning Kane and M'Gary climbed a berg some three hundred feet
+high. They were appalled by their situation; the water was far away, and
+huge bergs and ugly hummocks intervened. M'Gary, an old-whaleman,
+familiar from early manhood with the hardships of Arctic voyaging, wept
+at the sight.
+
+There was but one way out of this entanglement; the sledges must be
+taken from the sides of the boats, where they had been hung for such
+emergencies, the boats placed on them, and the old drag-rope practice
+must be tried until the expedition reached the edge of the floe. One
+sledge, that which bore the "Red Eric," had been used for fuel; so the
+"Red Eric" itself was knocked to pieces, and stowed away for the same
+use. About three days were consumed in thus toiling before they reached
+the lead which they had left, launched once more into waters, and sailed
+away before a fine breeze.
+
+Thus far the boats had kept along the outer edge of the floe, following
+the openings through the ice. But as this was slow work, though much
+safer, they now ventured a while in the open sea farther west; but they
+were driven back to the floe by heavy fogs, and on trying to get the
+boats into a lead, one of those incidents occurred so often noticed, in
+which God's hand was clearly seen. All hands were drawing up the "Hope,"
+and she had just reached a resting-place on the floe, when-the "Faith,"
+their best boat, with all their stores on board, went adrift. The sight
+produced an almost panic sensation among the men. The "Hope" could not
+possibly be launched in time to overtake her, for she was drifting
+rapidly. But before they could collect their thoughts to devise the
+means of her rescue, a cake of ice swung round, touched the floe where
+they stood, reaching at the same time nearly to the "Faith," thus
+bridging over the chasm. Instantly Kane and M'Gary sprung upon it, and
+from it into the escaping boat. She was saved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+SAVED.
+
+
+MATTERS were getting into a serious condition. The delays had been so
+many that the stock of birds had been eaten, and the men had been for
+several days on short allowance, which showed itself in their failing
+strength. They were far out to sea, midway of the Melville Bay
+navigation, and the boats were receiving a rough handling, and required
+continual bailing to keep them from sinking.
+
+It was just at this crisis that the ever timely aid came. A large seal
+was seen floating upon a small patch of ice, seeming to be asleep. A
+signal was given for the "Hope" to fall astern, while the "Faith"
+approached noiselessly upon him, with stockings drawn over the oars.
+Petersen lay in the bow with a large English rifle, and as they drew
+near, the men were so excited that they could scarcely row; the safety
+of the whole company seemed staked upon the capture of that seal. When
+within three hundred yards, the oars were taken in, and the boat moved
+silently on by a scull-oar at the stern. The seal was not asleep, for
+when just beyond the reach of the ball he raised his head. The thin,
+care-worn, almost despairing faces of the men showed their deep concern
+as he appeared about to make his escape. Dr. Kane gave the signal to
+fire; but poor Petersen, almost paralyzed by anxiety, was trying
+nervously to get a rest for his gun on the edge of the bow. The seal
+rose on his fore-flipper, looked curiously around, and coiled himself up
+for a plunge. The rifle cracked at the instant, and the seal at the same
+moment drooped his head one side, and stretched his full length on the
+ice at the brink of his hole. With a frantic yell the men urged the
+boats to the floe, seized the seal, and bore him to a safer place. They
+brandished their knives, cut long strips of the seal, and went dancing
+about the floe, eating and sucking their bloody fingers in wild delight.
+The seal was large and fat, but not an ounce of him was wasted. A fire
+was built that night on the floe, and the joyous feast went on until
+hunger was appeased; they had driven away its gnawings, and, happily, it
+returned no more.
+
+On the first of August they had passed the terrible bay, and sighted
+land on its southern side. Familiar landmarks of the whalers came in
+sight. They passed the Duck Islands and Cape Shackelton, and coasted
+along by the hills, seeking a cove in which to land. One was soon found,
+the boats drawn up, a little time spent in thanksgiving and
+congratulations, and then they lay down on the dry land and slept.
+
+They continued to coast near the shore, dodging about among the islands,
+and dropping into the bays, and landing for rest at night. It was at
+one of these sleeping-halts on the rocks that Petersen saw one of the
+natives, whom he recognized as an old acquaintance; he was in his kayak
+seeking eider-down among the rocks. Petersen hailed him, but the man
+played shy. "Paul Zacharias," shouted Petersen, "don't you know me? I am
+Carl Petersen!"
+
+"No," replied the man; "his wife says he's dead."
+
+The native stared at the weather-beaten, long-bearded man for a moment
+as he loomed up through the fog, and then turned the bow of his boat,
+and paddled away as if a phantom was pursuing him.
+
+Two days after this the explorers were rowing leisurely along in a fog,
+which had just began to lift and dimly reveal the objects on shore. At
+this moment a familiar sound came to them over the water. It was the
+"huk" of the Esquimo, for which they had often taken the bark of a fox
+or the startling screech of the gulls; but this "huk! huk!" died away in
+the home-thrilling "halloo!"
+
+"Listen, Petersen! what is it?"
+
+Petersen listened quietly for a moment, and then, trembling with
+emotion, said, in an undertone, "Dannemarkers!"
+
+Then the whole company stood up and peered into the distant nooks, in
+breathless silence to catch the sound again. The sound came again, and
+all was a moment silent. It was the first Christian voice they had heard
+beyond their own party for two years. But they saw nothing. Was it not
+a cheat after all of their nervous, excited feelings? The men sat down
+again and bent to their oars, and their boats swept in for the cape from
+which the sound proceeded. They scanned narrowly every nook and green
+spot where the strangers might be found. A full half hour passed in this
+exciting search. At last the single mast of a small shallop was seen.
+Petersen, who had kept himself during the search very still and sober,
+burst into a fit of crying, relieved by broken exclamations of English
+and Danish, gulping down his words at intervals, and wringing his hands
+all the while. "'Tis the Upernavik oil-boat!" "The Mariane has come! and
+Carlie Mossyn--"
+
+Petersen had hit the facts. The annual ship, Mariane, had arrived at
+Proven, and Carlie Mossyn had come up to get the year's supply of
+blubber from Kinqatok.
+
+Here our explorers listened while Carlie, in answer to their questions,
+gave them a hint of what had been going on in the civilized world during
+their long absence. The Crimean war had been begun and was in bloody
+progress, but "Sebastopol wasn't taken!" "Where and what is Sebastopol?"
+they queried. "But what of America?" Carlie didn't know much about that
+country, for no whale ships were on the coast, but said "a steamer and a
+bark passed up a fortnight ago seeking your party."
+
+"What of Sir John Franklin?" they next inquired. Carlie said the priest
+had a German newspaper which said traces of his boats and dead had been
+found! Yes, found a thousand miles away from the region where our
+explorers had been looking for them!
+
+One more row into the fog and one more halting on the rocks. They all
+washed clean in the fresh water of the basins, and brushed up their
+ragged furs and woolens. The next morning they neared the settlement of
+Upernavik, of which Petersen had been foreman, and they heard the
+yelling of the dogs as its snowy hill-top showed itself through the
+mist, and the tolling of the workmen's bells calling them to their daily
+labor came as sweet music to their ears. They rowed into the big harbor,
+landed by an old Brewhouse, and hauled their boats up for the last time.
+A crowd of merry children came round them with cheerful faces and
+curious eyes. In the crowd were the wife and children of Petersen. Our
+explorers were safe; their perils were over!
+
+Having lived in the open air for eighty-four days, they felt a sense of
+suffocation within the walls of a house. But divided among many kind,
+hospitable homes, they drank their coffee and listened to hymns of
+welcome sung by many voices.
+
+The people of Upernavik fitted up a loft for the reception of the
+wayfarers, and showed them great kindness. They remained until the sixth
+of September, and then embarked on the Danish vessel "Mariane," whose
+captain was to leave them at the nearest English port on his way to
+Denmark. The boat "Faith" was taken on board, as a relic of their
+perilous adventure; the document box containing their precious records,
+and the furs on their backs--these were all that were saved of the
+heroic brig "Advance."
+
+The "Mariane" made a short stay at Godhavn. The searching company under
+Captain Hartstene had left there for the icy north one the twenty-first
+of July, since which nothing was known of them.
+
+The "Mariane" was on the eve of leaving with our explorers when the
+lookout shouted from the hill-top that a steamer was in the distance. It
+drew near with a bark in tow, both flying the stars and stripes. The
+"Faith" was lowered for the last time, and, with Brooks at the helm, Dr.
+Kane went out to meet them. As they came alongside Captain Hartstene
+hailed: "Is that Dr. Kane?" "Yes!" Instantly the men sprung into the
+rigging and gave cheers of welcome; and the whole country, on the
+arrival of the long-lost explorers, repeated the glad shout of welcome;
+and the Christian world echoed, "Welcome!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+OFF AGAIN.
+
+
+DR. KANE'S party came home, as we have seen, in the fall of 1855. Dr.
+Hayes, with whom we have become acquainted as one of that number, began
+immediately to present the desirableness of further exploration in the
+same direction to the scientific men of the country, and to the public
+generally. His object was to sail to the west side of Smith's Sound,
+instead of the east, as in the last voyage, and to gather additional
+facts concerning the currents, the aurora, the glaciers, the directions
+and intensity of "the magnetic force," and so to aid in settling many
+interesting scientific questions. He aimed also, of course, to further
+peer into the mysteries of the open Polar Sea.
+
+These efforts resulted in the fitting out for this purpose, in the
+summer of 1860, the schooner "United States," and the appointment of Dr.
+Hayes as commander. She left Boston July sixth, manned by fourteen
+persons all told. The vessel was small, but made for arctic warfare, and
+as she turned her prow North Poleward, she bore a defiant spirit, and,
+like all inexperienced warriors, reckoned the victory already hers. But
+if the vessel was "green" her commander was not. He was well able to
+help her in the coming battle with icebergs and floes.
+
+Among her men were only two besides the doctor who had seen arctic
+service, one of whom was Professor August Sontag, who had been of Kane's
+party, and had also been of the number who accompanied Dr. Hayes in the
+attempt to escape. Of the rest of the crew were two young men nearly of
+an age, about eighteen, who are represented as joining the expedition
+because they would, and in love of adventure. Their names were George F.
+Knorr, commander's clerk, and Collins C. Starr. Both pressed their
+desire to go upon Dr. Hayes, and Starr told him that he would go in
+_any_ capacity. The commander told him he might go in the forecastle
+with the common sailors, and the next day, to the surprise of the
+doctor, he found him on board, manfully at work with the roughest of the
+men, having doffed his silk hat, fine broadcloth, and shining boots of
+the elegant young man of the day before. The commander was so pleased
+with his spirit that he promoted him on the spot, sending him off to be
+sailing-master's mate.
+
+In a little less than four weeks of prosperous sailing, the "United
+States" was at the Danish port of Proven, Greenland. It was the
+intention of the commander to get a supply here of the indispensable
+dog-teams, but disease had raged among them, and none could be bought.
+The vessel was delayed, in order that the chief trader, Mr. Hansen, who
+was daily expected from Upernavik, might be consulted in the matter.
+When he arrived he gave a gloomy account of the dog-market, but kindly
+_gave_ the expedition his own teams. The couriers which had been sent
+out to scour the country for others, returned with four old dogs and a
+less number of good ones.
+
+On the evening of the twelfth of August the explorers arrived at
+Upernavik. The Danish brig "Thialfe" lay at anchor in the harbor, about
+to sail for Copenhagen with a cargo of skins and oil, so the first
+letters to the dear ones at home were hastily written to send by her.
+They bore sad news to at least one family circle. Mr. Gibson Caruther
+retired to his berth well on the evening of their arrival, and in the
+morning was found dead. He had escaped the perils of the first Grinnell
+Expedition under Capt. De Haven to die thus suddenly ere those of his
+second voyage had begun. He was beloved, able, and intelligent, and his
+death was a great loss to the enterprise. His companions laid him away
+in the mission burial-ground, the missionary, Mr. Anton, officiating.
+
+Before leaving Upernavik, Dr. Hayes secured the services of an Esquimo
+interpreter, one Peter Jensen, who brought on board with him one of the
+best dog-teams of the country; and soon after he came, two more Esquimo
+hunters and dog-drivers were enlisted; and a still better addition to
+the expedition were two Danish sailors, one of whom is our old friend
+whom we left here some five years ago rejoicing in re-union with wife
+and children--Carl Christian Petersen. Petersen enlisted as carpenter
+as well as sailor.
+
+With these six persons added to her company, making it twenty in all,
+the "United States" left Upernavik to enter upon the earnest work of the
+expedition. The settlement had scarcely faded in the distance, when the
+icebergs were seen marshaling their forces to give the little voyager
+battle. A long line of them was formed just across her course, some more
+than two hundred feet high and a mile long. They were numberless, and at
+a distance seemed to make a solid, jagged ice-wall. When the schooner
+was fairly in among them, the sunlight was shut out as it is from the
+traveler in a dense forest. She felt the wind in a "cat's-paw" now and
+then, and so the helm lost its control of her, and she went banging
+against first one berg and then another. The bergs themselves minded not
+the little breeze which was blowing, but swept majestically along by the
+under current. The navigators were kept on the alert to keep the vessel
+from fatal collision with its huge, cold, defiant enemies, as the
+surface current drove it helplessly onward. Sometimes, as they
+approached one, the boats were lowered, and the vessel was towed away
+from danger; at another crisis, as it neared one berg, an anchor was
+planted in another in an opposite direction, and she was warped into a
+place of security. Occasionally they tied up to a berg and waited for a
+chance for progress.
+
+While thus beset with dangers, there were occasions of some pleasant
+excitement. The birds were abundant and of many varieties, affording
+sport for the hunters and fresh food for the table; the seals sported in
+the clear water, and were shot for the larder of the dogs; and Dr. Hayes
+and Professor Sontag found employment with their scientific instruments.
+
+Such had been the state of things for four days, when one morning the
+vessel was borne toward a large berg, of a kind the sailors called
+"touch-me-nots." It was an old voyager, whose jagged sides, high towers,
+deep valleys and swelling hills, showed that time, the sun, and the
+tides, had laid their hands upon it. Such bergs are about as good
+neighbors as an avalanche on a mountain side, just ready for a run into
+the valley below. Warps and tow-boats, instantly and vigorously used,
+failed to stop the schooner's headway. She touched the berg, and down
+dropped fragments of it larger than the vessel, followed by a shower of
+smaller pieces; but they went clear of the vessel. Now the berg began to
+revolve, turning toward the explorers, and as its towering sides settled
+slowly over them, fragments poured upon the deck--a fearful hail-storm.
+There was no safety for the men except in the forecastle, and there
+appeared to be no escape for the schooner. But just in time an immense
+section of the base of the berg, which seemed to be far below the water
+line, broke off, and rose to the surface with a sudden rush, which threw
+the sea into violent commotion. The balance of the berg was changed; it
+paused, and then began, slowly at first but with increasing rapidity,
+to turn in the opposite direction. If this was intended as a retreat of
+the bergy foe, it defended well its rear. At its base, from which the
+piece had just been broken, was an icy projection toward the vessel; as
+the berg revolved, this tongue came up and struck the keel. It seemed
+intent upon tossing the vessel into the air, or rolling her over and
+leaving her bottom side up upon the sea. The men seized their poles and
+pushed vigorously to launch the vessel from the perilous position, but
+in vain. Just in time again the unseen Hand interfered for their
+deliverance. Deafening reports, like a park of artillery, saluted their
+ears, and a misty smoke arose above the berg. Its opposite side was
+breaking up, and launching its towering peaks into the sea. The berg
+paused again and began to roll back, and thus for the moment released
+the vessel. The boat had in the meantime fastened an anchor in a
+grounded berg, and the welcome shout came, "Haul in!" Steadily and with
+a will the men drew upon the rope, and the vessel moved slowly from the
+scene of danger, not, however, before the returning top of the berg had
+launched upon her deck a shower of ice-fragments, in fearful assurance
+that its whole side would soon follow and bury them as the shepherd's
+hut is buried by a mountain slide. A few moments later and the side came
+down with a tremendous crash, sending its spray over the escaped vessel,
+and tossing it as the drift-wood is tossed in the eddies beneath a
+water-fall.
+
+All that day the roar of the icy cannon was continued, as if a naval
+battle was in progress for the empire of the north, and berg after berg
+went down, strewing the sea with their shattered fragments, while misty
+clouds floated over the field of conflict.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+COLLIDING FLOES.
+
+
+AFTER this ice encounter the expedition put into a little port called
+Tessuissak, to complete their outfit of dogs. An impatient tarry of two
+days enabled them to count, on the deck of the little vessel, thirty
+first-class, howling dogs, whose amiable tempers found expression in
+biting each other, and making both day and night hideous with their
+noise.
+
+This port was left on the twenty-third of August, and, much to the joy
+of all, the dreaded Melville Bay was clear of the ice-pack; the
+icebergs, however, kept their watch over its storm-tossed waters.
+Through these waters driven before a fierce wind, and buried often in a
+fog so dense that the length of the vessel could not be seen, the
+"United States" sped. Its anxious commander was on deck night and day,
+not knowing the moment when an icy wall, as fatal to the vessel as one
+of granite, might arrest its course and send it instantly to the bottom
+of the sea. Once they passed so near a berg just crossing their track
+that the fore-yard grazed its side, and the spray from its surf-beaten
+wall was thrown upon the deck. A berg at one time hove in sight with an
+arch through it large enough for a passage-way for the schooner. The
+explorers declined, however, the novel adventure. The passage of
+Melville Bay was made, with sails only, in fifty-five hours. The pack
+which had invariably troubled explorers seemed to have been enjoying a
+summer vacation, and the bergs were off duty. The expedition had reached
+the North Water and lay off Cape York.
+
+The ocean current which sweeps past this cape, and opens the way to the
+other side of Baffin Bay, is wonderful. It is the great Polar current
+which comes rushing down through Spitzbergen Sea, along the eastern
+coast of Greenland, laden with ice, and taking the waters of its rivers
+with their freight of drift-wood as it passes. Leaving most of the wood
+along its shore, a welcome gift to the people, it sweeps around Cape
+Farewell, courses near the western shore in its run north until it has
+passed Melville Bay. When it has crossed over to the American shore near
+Jones Strait, it joins the current from the Arctic Sea, turns south, and
+makes the long journey until it reaches our own coast, dropping its ice
+freight as it goes, and sending its cooling air through the
+heat-oppressed atmosphere of our summer.
+
+As our explorers approached the shore of Cape York they looked carefully
+for the natives. Soon a company of Esquimo were seen making their wild
+gesticulations to attract attention. A boat was lowered, and Dr. Hayes
+and Professor Sontag went ashore, and as they approached the
+landing-place one of the Esquimo called them by name. It was our old
+friend Hans, of the Kane voyage, who, the reader will recollect, left
+his white friends for an Esquimo wife. The group consisted, besides
+Hans, of his wife and baby, his wife's mother, an old woman having
+marked talking ability, and her son, a bright-eyed boy of twelve years.
+Hans had found his self-imposed banishment among the savages of this
+extreme north rather tedious. He had removed his family to this lookout
+for the whale ships, and had watched and waited. It was the dreariest of
+places, and his hut, pitched on a bleak spot the better to command a
+view of the sea, was the most miserable of abodes. It had plainly cost
+him dear to break his faith with his confiding commander and the friends
+of his early Christian home.
+
+Dr. Hayes asked Hans if he would go with the expedition. He answered
+promptly, "Yes."
+
+"Would you take your wife and baby?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Would you go without them?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He was taken on board with his wife and baby. The mother and her boy
+cried to go, but the schooner was already overcrowded.
+
+Leaving Cape York, the vessel spread her sails before a "ten-knot"
+breeze, and dodging the icebergs with something of a reckless daring,
+seemed bent on reaching the Polar Sea before winter set in. At one time
+what appeared to be two icebergs a short distance apart lay in the
+course of the vessel. The helmsman was ordered to steer between them,
+for to go round involved quite a circuit. On dashed the brave little
+craft for the narrow passage. When she was almost abreast of them the
+officer on the lookout shuddered to see that the seeming bergs were but
+one, and that the connecting ice appeared to be only a few feet below
+the surface. It was too late to stop the headway of the vessel, or to
+turn her to the right or left. She rushed onward, but the water of the
+opening proved to be deeper than it appeared, and her keel but touched
+once or twice, just to show how narrow was the escape.
+
+Hans was delighted with his return to ship life. His wife seemed pleased
+and half bewildered by the strange surroundings. The baby crowed,
+laughed, and cried, and ate and slept--like other babies.
+
+The sailors put the new comers through a soap-and-water ordeal, to which
+was added the use of scissors and combs. Esquimo do not bathe, nor
+practice the arts of the barber, and consequently they keep numerous
+boarders on their persons. When this necessary cleansing and cropping
+was done, they donned red shirts and other luxuries of civilization.
+With the new dresses they were delighted, and they were never tired of
+strutting about in them. But the soap and water was not so agreeable. At
+first it was taken as a rough joke, but the wife soon began to cry. She
+inquired of her husband if it was a religious ceremony of the white men.
+
+The vessel made good time until she came within three miles of Cape
+Alexander. It was now August twenty-eighth, and so it was time these
+Arctic regions should begin to show their peculiar temper. A storm came
+down upon them, pouring the vials of its wrath upon the shivering vessel
+for about three days. During a lull in the storm the schooner was hauled
+under the shelter of the highlands of Cape Alexander and anchored. She
+rocked and plunged fearfully. At one time when these gymnastics were
+going on, the old Swedish cook came to the commander in the cabin with
+refreshments, but he was hardly able to keep his "sea legs." He remarks
+as he comes in, "I falls down once, but de commander sees I keeps de
+coffee. It's good an' hot, and very strong, and go right down into de
+boots."
+
+"Bad night on deck, cook," remarks the captain.
+
+"O, it's awful, sar! I never see it blow so hard in all my life, an' I's
+followed de sea morn'n forty years. An' den it's so cold! My galley is
+full of ice, and de water, it freeze on my stove."
+
+"Here, cook, is a guernsey for you. It will keep you warm."
+
+"Tank you, sar!" says the cook, starting off with his prize. But
+encouraged by the kind bearing of his captain, he stops and asks, "Would
+the commander be so kind as to tell me where we is? De gentlemen fool
+me."
+
+"Certainly, cook. The land over there is Greenland; the big cape is Cape
+Alexander; beyond that is Smith's Sound, and we are only about eight
+hundred miles from the North Pole."
+
+"De Nort Pole! vere's dat?"
+
+The commander explains as well as he can.
+
+"Tank you, sar. Vat for we come--to fish?"
+
+"No, not to fish, cook; for science."
+
+"O, dat it! Dey tell me we come to fish. Tank you, sar."
+
+The old cook pulls his greasy cap over his bald head and thinks.
+"Science!" "De Nort Pole!" He don't get the meaning of these through his
+cap, and he "tumbles up" the companion-ladder, and goes to the galley to
+enjoy his guernsey.
+
+Dr. Hayes and Knorr went ashore and climbed to the top of the cliffs,
+twelve hundred feet. The wind was fearfully breezy, and Knorr's cap left
+and went sailing like a feather out to sea. The view was full of arctic
+grandeur, but not flattering to the storm-bound navigators. Ice was
+evidently king a little farther north.
+
+Soon after the explorer's return to the vessel the storm gathered fresh
+power, and the anchors began to drag. Soon one hawser parted, and away
+went the schooner, with fearful velocity, and brought up against a berg.
+The crash was appalling, and the stern boat flew into splinters. The
+spars were either bent or carried away; and, as they attempted to hoist
+the mainsail, it went to pieces. The crippled craft was with difficulty
+worked back into the projecting covert of Cape Alexander. Her decks were
+covered with ice, and the dogs were perishing with wet and cold, three
+having died.
+
+Having repaired damages as well as they could, they again pushed into
+the pack of Smith's Sound, which lay between them and open water,
+visible far to the north. Entering a lead under full sail, they made
+good progress for awhile; but suddenly a solid floe shot across the
+channel, and the vessel, with full headway, struck it like a battering
+ram. The cut-water flew into splinters, and the iron sheathing of the
+bows was torn off as if it had been paper.
+
+Pushing off from the floe, and passing through a narrow lead, they
+emerged into an area of open water. But the floe was on the alert. This
+began to close up, and, taking a hint of foul play, the explorers
+steered toward the shore. But the ice battalions moved with celerity,
+piled up across the vessel's bow, and closed in on every side. In an
+hour they held her as in a vice, while the reserve force was called up
+to crush her to atoms. The foe was jubilant, for the power at his
+command was kindred to that of the earthquake. An ice-field of millions
+of tons, moved by combined wind and current, rushed upon the solid
+ice-field which rested against the immovable rocks of the shore. Between
+these was the schooner--less than an egg-shell between colliding,
+heavily laden freight trains. As the pressure came steadily, in well
+assured strength, she groaned and shrieked like a thing of conscious
+pain, writhing and twisting as if striving to escape her pitiless
+adversary. Her deck timbers bowed, and the seams of the deck-planks
+opened, while her sides seemed ready to yield.
+
+Thus far the closing forces were permitted to strike severely on the
+side of the helpless vessel, to show that they could crush her as rotten
+fruit is crushed in a strong man's hand. Then He, without whose
+permission no force in nature moves, and at whose word they are
+instantly stayed, directed the floe under the strongly timbered "bilge"
+of the hull, and, with a jerk which sent the men reeling about the deck,
+lifted the vessel out of the water. The floes now fought their battle
+out beneath her, as if they disdained, like the lion with the mouse in
+his paw, to crush so small a thing. Great ridges were piled up about
+her, and one underneath lifted her high into the air. Eight hours she
+remained in this situation, while the lives of all on board seemed
+suspended on the slenderest thread.
+
+Then came the yielding and breaking up of the floes. Once, at the
+commencing of the giving way, an ice prop of the bows suddenly yielded,
+let the forward end of the vessel down while the stern was high in the
+air. But finally the battered craft settled squarely into the water.
+
+She was leaking badly, and the pumps were kept moving with vigor. The
+rudder was split, and two of its bolts broken; the stern-post started,
+and fragments of the cut-water and keel were floating away. But, strange
+to say, no essential injury was done. She was slowly navigated into
+Hartstene or _Etah_ Bay, where we have been so often, anchored safely,
+and repairs immediately commenced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+THE WINTER HOME.
+
+
+ONE more effort, after the repairs were finished, was made to push
+through the ice-floe of Smith's Sound. This resulting in failure, it was
+plainly impossible to get farther north. The vessel was brought into
+Etah Bay again, a harbor found eight miles north-east of Cape Alexander,
+and eighty by the coast from the harbor of the "Advance," though only
+twenty in a straight line, and preparations were at once begun for
+winter. Peter, the Esquimo dog-driver, and Hans were appointed a hunting
+party. Sontag, the astronomer, with three assistants, was mainly engaged
+in scientific observations and experiments. There was work for all the
+rest. Some were engaged in unloading the cargo and lifting it by a
+derrick to a terrace on the shore, far above the highest tide, where a
+storehouse was made for it. The hold of the schooner was cleared,
+scrubbed, and white-washed, a stove set up, and made a home for the
+sailors. The sails and yards were "sent down," the upper deck roofed in,
+making a house eight feet high at the ridge, and six and a half at the
+sides.
+
+The crew moved into their new quarters on the first of October. The
+event was celebrated by a holiday dinner. There was joy on shipboard;
+thankful for escapes granted by the great Protector, trustful for the
+future, and, greatly encouraged by present blessings, none were unhappy.
+The hunters were very successful, bringing in every day game of the best
+kind, and in great abundance. A dozen reindeer were suspended from the
+shrouds, and clusters of rabbits and foxes were hung in the rigging;
+besides these, deposits of reindeer were made in various directions. The
+hard-working men ate heartily of the relishing fresh food, and laughed
+to scorn the scurvy. They called the place of their winter quarters Port
+Foulke.
+
+When the floe became frozen, the sledges were put in readiness for the
+dog-teams. The dogs having been well fed, were in fine condition.
+
+Blocks of ice were used to make a wall about the vessel, from the floe
+to the deck, between which and her sides the snow was crowded, making a
+solid defense against the cold.
+
+On the fifteenth of October the sun bade them farewell for four months,
+and they anticipated the coming darkness under circumstances certainly
+much better than had been often granted to arctic sojourners.
+
+As there was yet a long twilight, dog-trips were very exhilarating. Dr.
+Hayes once rode behind his dogs twelve measured miles in an hour and one
+minute, without a moment's halt. Sontag and the captain raced their
+teams, the captain beating, as was becoming, by four minutes.
+
+The dogs were made to know their masters--a knowledge quite necessary
+for the good of all. Jensen observed that one of his team was getting
+rebellious. "You see dat beast," he said. "I takes a piece out of his
+ear." The long lash unrolls, the sinewy snapper on its tip touches the
+tip of the dog's ear, and takes out a piece as neatly as a sharp knife
+would have done.
+
+The same day Jensen's skill at dog driving was put to a severe test. A
+fox crossed their path. Up went their tails, curling over their backs,
+their short ears pricked forward, and away they went in full chase. In
+such a case woe be to the driver who cannot take a piece of flesh out of
+any dog in the team at each snap of his merciless whip. Jensen was
+usually master of such a situation, but it so happened that a strong
+wind blew directly in the face of the team and carried the lash back
+before it reached its victim. Missing its terrible bite, the dogs became
+for a while unmanageable and raced after the fox at full speed. To make
+matters worse, treacherous ice lay just ahead. The dogs were already on
+the heels of the fox, and about to make a meal of him, when Jensen
+regained full control of his whip. It stung severely, now this one and
+then that. Their tails dropped, their ears drooped, and they paused and
+obeyed their master. But they were greatly provoked at the loss of the
+game, and at the harsh subjection, and, with characteristic amiability,
+they commenced to snap at and bite each other. Jensen jumped from the
+sledge and laid the whip-stock on them, knocking them to the right and
+left, until, it is presumed, made very loving by the process, they went
+about their assigned business.
+
+Parties of the explorers were out nearly every day, hunting, or pursuing
+the scientific inquiries.
+
+Knorr, the secretary of the commander, was off with Hans. He had his
+adventure to talk about on his return. He wounded in the valley a
+reindeer, which hobbled on three legs up a steep hill. The young hunter
+followed, and, getting within easy range, brought it down by a
+well-aimed shot. The deer being in a line with Knorr, came sliding down
+the hill, and, knocking against him, both went tumbling down together.
+Fortunately he carried no broken bones, but only bruises to the vessel
+as mementoes of his deer hunt.
+
+Sontag, on the same day, had his perilous incident. He had climbed to
+the top of a glacier by cutting steps in the ice. Across the ice was a
+crack, bridged over with thin ice, but entirely concealed by it.
+Stepping on this he broke through and fell into the chasm; fortunately
+it was a narrow one, and the barometer which he carried, crossing the
+creek, broke the fall and probably saved his life. On what a slender
+thread hangs this mortal existence!
+
+During this sledging season Dr. Hayes visited the homes of our old
+acquaintance at Etah, which was only four miles from the schooner; but
+they were deserted. Near the huts was a splendid buck, busily engaged in
+pawing up and eating the moss from under the snow. He seemed so
+unsuspecting, and withal so honestly engaged, that the doctor, though
+he had crept on the leeward side, within easy range, was reluctant to
+fire. Twice he aimed, and twice dropped his gun from its level. Bringing
+it to sight the third time he fired, and the ball went crashing through
+the noble animal. We hear nothing of compunction in eating him on the
+part of any on shipboard, and probably the pitying reader would have had
+none.
+
+Our old friend Hans does not appear so favorably in the present
+narrative as he did in that of Dr. Kane. His five years of chosen exile
+among his purely heathen countrymen does not seem to have left many
+traces of his Christian education. Some allowance, however, must be made
+for a difference of estimate of his character by his former and present
+commander. In Dr. Hayes's judgment, "he is a type of the worst phase of
+the Esquimo character."
+
+Hans's domestic relations are represented as not of the most happy kind.
+His wife's name is Merkut, but is known to the sailors as "Mrs. Hans."
+She passes for a "beauty," as Esquimo beauty goes; has a flush of red on
+rather a fair cheek when, exceptionally, she uses soap and water enough
+for it to be seen through the usual coating of dirt. Their baby, ten
+months' old, bears the pleasant name of Pingasuk--"Pretty One." Hans has
+a household of his own. He pitched a tent, when the schooner went into
+winter-quarters, under the roof of the upper deck. The Esquimo Marcus
+and Jacob make a part of his family. Here, wrapped in their furs, where
+they choose to be, they huddle together, warm "as fleas in a rug,"
+though the temperature is seldom higher than about the freezing point.
+Little "Pretty One" creeps out of the tent about the deck, having for
+covering only the ten months' accumulation of grease and dirt, not
+unfrequently accompanied by its mother, who on such occasion is
+guiltless of "costly array," or much of any whatever.
+
+Hans's gentlemen lodgers were taken on board as dog-drivers, but they
+seemed to have been of no possible use except to give occasion for the
+mirthful jokes of the sailors.
+
+Peter, chief dog manager, a converted Esquimo, brother to Jacob, gave
+his commander excellent satisfaction and stood high in his esteem. He
+was skillful, industrious, and trustworthy. Between him and Hans an
+intense jealousy existed. Hans had, under Dr. Kane, no rival in his
+sphere. Peter was now, at least, a peer, and so the glory of his
+exaltation from Esquimo hut-life was greatly eclipsed. His master even
+preferred Peter before him; but Prof. Sontag clung, with a little of the
+Dr. Kane partiality, to the favorite of the former voyage.
+
+Hans had no reason, however, to complain of the consideration shown him
+by his chief. At one time he gave him, to quiet his jealousy, a new suit
+of clothes, with the very reddest of flannel shirts. In these he
+appeared at the Sunday inspection and religious service, quite as elated
+at his personal adornment, though probably not more so, as the "fine
+gents" of our home Sabbath assemblies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+GLACIERS.
+
+THE glacier is one of the wonderful things of the northern regions. We
+will visit one with Dr. Hayes, and, on our return to the vessel, listen
+to some curious and interesting facts concerning it. Although there was
+no sunshine at the time of the first glacier excursion, the twilight was
+long and clear; it was October twenty-first. The run was made to the
+foot of the glacier from the vessel, with the dogs, in forty minutes. It
+appeared here as a great ice-wall, one hundred feet high and a mile
+broad. The glacier in descending the valley extended in breadth not
+quite to the slope of the hills, so it left between them and each of its
+sides a gorge. It is very curious that the ice should not lean against
+the hills as it slips along and thus fill up all the valley as water
+would.
+
+Our party first stopped and examined the front face of the glacier. It
+was nearly perpendicular, but bulging out a little in the middle. It was
+worn in places by the summer streams which run over it, and marred in
+other parts by the fall of great fragments into the valley below. While
+our visitors were gazing at it a crystal block came down as an angry
+hint for them to stand from under. Wisely heeding the warning, they
+turned up one of the gorges between the glacier side and the hill. Here
+was rough traveling, and, we should think, dangerous too. There were
+strewed along in their path ice fragments from the glacier on one side,
+and rocks and earth which had slid down the hill on the other. If the
+glacier was as evil disposed as its children, the icebergs, it might let
+loose some of its projecting crags on their heads.
+
+Finding a favorable place, they began to cut steps in the side of the
+glacier in order to mount to its surface. Having reached the top they
+cautiously walked to the center of the icy stream, drove two stakes on a
+line in it, and then two half way between these and the sides of the
+glacier. Then they measured the distance of these stakes from each
+other, and sighted from their tops fixed objects on the hills. They
+purposed to come in the spring and examine the distance apart of the
+stakes, and sight from them the fixed objects, so as to determine how
+fast the frozen river was moving down the valley. Having set the stakes
+they scampered back to the vessel.
+
+After a little rest another journey to the glacier was made, this time
+without the dogs, the sledges, having a light outfit, being drawn by the
+men. These were young Knorr, the sailor M'Donald, Mr. Heywood, a
+landsman from the west--an amateur explorer--the Dane, Petersen, and the
+Esquimo, Peter. When they arrived at the gorge, the way was so rough
+that they were compelled to carry the sledge loads in parcels on their
+backs. It was rough work, and they sought an early camp; but with the
+frowning ice-cliffs on one side and hill-crags on the other, both
+evil-minded in the use of their icy and rocky missiles, and with also
+the uneven bed of rocks beneath them, no wonder they did not sleep. They
+were soon astir, pushed farther up the gorge, and finding a favorable
+place, began to cut steps up the glacier. The first one who attempted to
+mount reached some distance, then slipped, and in sliding down carried
+with him his companions who were following, and the whole company were
+promiscuously tumbled into the gorge. The one going ahead had better
+luck the next trial, carrying a rope by which the sledge was drawn up,
+and all mounted in safety.
+
+They now started off up this ice-river toward the great sea of ice from
+whence it flowed. The surface was at first rough, and of course slightly
+descending toward its front edge. Dr. Hayes walked in advance of the
+sledge party, carrying a pole over his head grasped by both hands, being
+fearful of the treacherous cracks hidden by their ice. Soon down he went
+into one, but the pole reached across the chasm and he scrambled out.
+The depth of the chasm remains a mystery to this day. The ice grew
+smoother as they proceeded, and they made about five miles, pitched
+their canvas tents, cooked with their lamp a good supper, made coffee,
+ate and drank like weary men, crept into their fur sleeping bags, and
+slept soundly though the thermometer was about fifteen degrees below
+zero. The next day they traveled thirty miles, and came upon an even
+plain where the surface of the ice-sea was covered with many feet of
+snow, the crust of which broke through at every step. This made very
+hard traveling, yet the following day they tramped twenty-five miles
+more. Now came the ever-at-hand Arctic storm. They camped, but lower and
+lower fell the temperature, and fiercer and fiercer blew the wind. They
+could not sleep, so they decided to turn their faces homeward. The frost
+nipped their fingers, and assailed their faces, as they hastily packed
+up and started. They were five thousand feet above the level of the sea,
+and seventy miles from the coast, and were standing in the midst of a
+vast icy desert. There was neither mountain nor hill in sight. As in
+mid-ocean the sailor beholds the sea bounded only by the sky, so here
+they beheld only ice, which stretched away to the horizon on every
+side--truly a sea of ice. Clouds of snow whirled along its surface, at
+times rising and disappearing in the cold air, or drifted across the
+face of the setting moon--beautiful clouds of fleecy whiteness to the
+eye, but "burning" the flesh as they pelted the retreating explorers,
+like the fiery sand-clouds of the Great Sahara. They scud before the
+wind, which they dared not for a moment face, nor halted until they had
+traveled forty miles and descended two thousand feet. They then pitched
+their tents, the cold and wind having lessened though yet severe. They
+arrived at the ship the next evening, not seriously the worse for their
+daring "sea-voyage" on foot.
+
+Having been refreshed by food and rest, no doubt our explorers discussed
+the great glacier problem, and pleasantly chased away many an hour in
+talk about what they had seen and what they had read on this interesting
+subject. We think their conversation included some of the following
+facts:--
+
+The ice upon which they had been voyaging is a part of a great ocean of
+ice covering the central line of Greenland from Cape Farewell on the
+south to the farthest known northern boundary, a distance of at least
+twelve hundred miles. Instead of being formed of drops of water like
+more southern oceans, it is made up of crystallized dew-drops and
+snow-flakes, which have been falling for ages, and which in these cold
+regions have no summer long enough, nor of sufficient heat, to convert
+them into water again.
+
+But if the crystal dews and snows continue to fall for ages, and never
+melt, what prevents them from piling up to the sky, and sinking the very
+continent? The all-wise Director of the universe has made a very curious
+arrangement to prevent such a result. This ice-ocean runs off into the
+sea in great ice-rivers which find their way to the shore on both sides
+of the continent, just as the water does which falls from the clouds on
+the top of the Andes of South America. There we see the mighty Amazon,
+one of its rivers, almost an ocean of itself, as it sweeps along its
+banks between mountains, and through immense forests. Greenland has its
+Amazons in vastness and grandeur, as well as its smaller rivers and
+little streams. It has also its lakes and sublime Niagaras, its falls
+and cascades. But they are ice instead of water; that is all the
+difference between this Arctic circulation and that of warmer regions.
+
+But of course this ice is not like that which many of the readers see
+every winter. It is a half-solid, pasty kind of substance. It holds
+together, yet slides along from the higher land where it accumulates,
+filling up the valleys, breaking through the openings in the mountain
+and hilly ridges, and pouring over the precipices; slowly, silently, but
+with mighty force, ever pressing onward until it reaches the sea.
+
+These ice rivers move very slowly. It will be remembered that Dr. Hayes
+drove some stakes down in the one he visited in October. In the
+following July he visited the glacier again, and compared the relation
+of these to the landmarks he had noted. He thus found that this
+ice-river moved over one hundred feet a year. It had come down the
+valley ten miles. Two more miles would bring it to the sea. Some glacier
+streams which they visited were yet many miles from the shore, one as
+far away as sixty miles. The Great Glacier of Humboldt, farther north,
+was several times visited by Dr. Kane and parties of his explorers. Its
+face is a solid, glassy wall three hundred feet above the water-level,
+and in extending from Cape Agassiz, a measured distance north, of sixty
+miles, and then disappearing in the unknown polar regions. Surely this
+must be the mouth of the Amazon of glacier rivers.
+
+But the history of these rivers does not end when they reach the sea.
+When their broad and high glassy front touches the water it does not
+melt away nor fall to pieces, but goes down to the bottom, and if it be
+a shallow bay or arm of the sea, pushes the water back and fills up the
+whole space, it may be for many miles. When it reaches water so deep
+that more than seven eighths of its front is below the surface, it
+begins to feel an upward pressure, just as a piece of wood when forced
+below its natural water-line will spring back. So after a while this
+upward pressure breaks off the massive front, perhaps miles in extent,
+and many hundred feet in height. As this is launched into the sea its
+thunder crash is heard for miles, and the water boils like a caldron,
+while the disengaged mass rolls and plunges until, finding its
+equilibrium, it sails away a majestic ICEBERG. Hereafter the snow will
+at times cover it with a mantle of pure whiteness; the fierce storms
+will beat upon its defiant brow; the beams of the rising and setting sun
+will display their sparkling glories on its craggy top, or, falling upon
+the misty cloud which envelopes it, will encircle it with all the
+varying hues of the rainbow. As it voyages in stately dignity southward,
+anchored, it may be, at times for months, it will pass in sullen silence
+the drear, long, dark Arctic night, and emerge into the brief summer to
+be enlivened as the home of innumerable sea-fowl, who will rear their
+young upon its cold breast. Ultimately it will go back to the drops of
+water from which it came, to make a part of the great ocean, and
+possibly to sail away in clouds over the frozen regions, and to drop
+again upon its glassy plain in sparkling crystals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+A STRANGE DREAM AND ITS FULFILLMENT.
+
+
+THE winter was fully settled down upon Port Foulke, but the dwellers in
+the schooner "United States" knew nothing of the anxieties and suffering
+from cold and hunger which most of the arctic voyagers have known. There
+was one foe, however, which they, in common with all who had gone before
+them, had to fight; namely, depression of mind produced by the weeks of
+inactivity and darkness. We have seen how many means were used by
+earlier as well as later explorers to meet and vanquish this foe. Dr.
+Hayes availed himself of the hints given by his predecessors, and had
+some devices peculiarly his own. To the "school of navigation," dramatic
+performances, and the publishing of a weekly "newspaper," was added the
+pleasant stimulus of a celebration of the birthday of every man on
+board. Such occasions were attended by special dinners, the passing of
+complimentary notes of invitations to the intended guests, which
+included all, and by fun-making, at which all laughed as a matter of
+course.
+
+On Sunday all assembled in their clean and best suits. Brief religious
+service was performed in the presence of all, and the day was spent in
+reading or conversation, save the performance of the necessary routine
+work.
+
+During the favoring light of the moon some excursions were attempted.
+One was made by Professor Sontag, accompanied by Hans and Jensen with
+two dog sledges. The object was to reach the harbor where Dr. Kane's
+"Advance" had been left, and ascertain if possible her fate. He started
+early in November, but returned in a few days, baffled by the hummocks
+and wide intervening, treacherous ice-cracks. The party had an encounter
+with and captured a bear and her cub. The mother fought with maternal
+fury for her child, tossed the dogs one after another until some of the
+stoutest and bravest retired bleeding and yelping from the field, and at
+times charged upon and scattered the whole pack, while the cub itself
+behaved bravely in its own defense. When the men came up they threw in,
+of course, the fatal odds of rifle balls. Once Hans, his gun having
+failed to go off, seized an Esquimo lance and ran at the beast.
+Accepting the challenge of a hand-to-hand fight, she made at him with
+such spirit that he dropped the lance and ran, and nothing saved the cub
+from supping on Esquimo meat but two well-directed balls, which whizzed
+at the right moment from the guns of Sontag and Jensen. The bears made a
+splendid resistance to the unprovoked attack upon them in the peaceable
+pursuit of an honest calling, that of getting a living, but were
+conquered and eaten.
+
+Among the sad events of the winter was a fatal disease among the dogs.
+They all died but nine by the middle of December. This was alarming, for
+upon them depended mainly the spring excursions North Poleward. Such
+being the situation, Sontag took at this time the surviving dogs, and,
+on a sledge with Hans as a driver, started south in pursuit of Esquimo.
+If they could be brought with their dogs into the vicinity of the ship
+and fed, there would be a fair chance of having dog-sledges when they
+were wanted. The nearest known Esquimo family was at Northumberland
+Island, a hundred miles off, and others were at the south side of Whale
+Sound, fifty miles farther--perhaps all had gone to the most distant
+point. They departed in fine spirits, and well equipped. Hans cracked
+his whip, and the dogs, well fed and eager for a run, caused the sledge
+to glide over the ice with the velocity of a locomotive. Their
+companions sent after them a "hip! hip, hurrah!" and a "tiger." The moon
+shed her serene light on their path, and all seemed to promise a speedy
+and successful return.
+
+The second night after their departure the solicitous commander had a
+strange, disquieting dream. He says in the journal of the following
+morning: "I stood with Sontag far out upon the frozen sea, when suddenly
+a crash was heard through the darkness, and in an instant a crack opened
+in the ice between us. It came so suddenly and widened so rapidly that
+he could not spring over it to where I stood, and he sailed away on the
+dark waters of a troubled sea. I last saw him standing firmly upon the
+crystal raft, his erect form cutting sharply against a streak of light
+which lay upon the distant horizon."
+
+Christmas came and was duly regarded. Stores of nice things, the gifts
+of friends far away, were brought out from secret corners where they had
+been hid. The tables were loaded with that which satisfied the appetite
+and gratified the eye, while the rooms of officers and men blazed with
+cheerful lights. Outside a feeble aurora seemed to be trying to exhibit
+an inspiring illumination, which contrasted strongly with its cloudy
+background.
+
+January, 1861, came, and half its days passed, yet no tidings came from
+Sontag. The twilight had returned, and already the coming sun was
+heralded along the golden horizon. The commander was becoming uneasy
+concerning the missing ones, and began to devise ways of knowing what
+had become of them. Mr. Dodge was sent to follow their tracks, which he
+did as far as Cape Alexander, where he lost them and returned. A party
+was instantly put in readiness for farther search, and was about to
+start on the morning of January twenty-seventh, when a violent storm
+arose, detaining it two days. As it was on the instant of starting
+again, two Esquimo suddenly appeared at the vessel's side. One of them
+was Ootiniah, who appears so creditably in the narrative of Dr. Hayes's
+boat voyage. They were bearers of sad news. Professor Sontag was dead.
+Hans was on his way to the vessel with his wife, father and mother, and
+their son, a lad who was left behind with mother when Hans was first
+taken on board of the schooner. Some of the dogs had died, and the
+family were necessarily moving slowly.
+
+Two days later Hans came in with the boy only, having left the dogs and
+the old people near Cape Alexander and come on for help. He was very
+cold and much exhausted, and both were sent below for food, warmth, and
+rest, before being questioned concerning the disastrous journey. The
+large sledge, drawn by fresh men, was sent for those left behind. The
+old people were found coiled up in an excavation made in a snow bank,
+and the dogs huddled together near them, neither dogs nor Esquimo being
+able to stir, and so all were bundled in a heap on the sledge and drawn
+to the schooner. The hardy savages soon revived under the influence of
+good quarters and good eating, but the dogs, five in number, the remnant
+of the strong force of thirty-six, lay on the deck unable to stir, and
+not disposed to eat.
+
+Hans's story was this:--
+
+They made a good run the first day, passing Cape Alexander, and camped
+in a snow hut on Sunderland Island. The next day they reached an Esquimo
+settlement, but found its huts forsaken. Resting and eating here, they
+started for Northumberland Island, and having traveled about five miles,
+Sontag, becoming chilled, sprang from the sledge and ran ahead of the
+dogs for warmth by exercise. Hans having occasion to halt the team to
+disentangle a trace fell some distance behind. He was urging forward his
+team to overtake his master when he saw him sinking. He had come upon
+thin ice covering a recently open crack, and had broken through. Hans
+hastened up and helped him from the water. A light wind was blowing,
+which disposed Sontag not to attempt to change his wet clothes--the
+fatal error. They hastened back to the hut in which they had spent the
+night. At first the professor ran, but after a while jumped on the
+sledge, and when he reached the hut he was stiff and speechless. Hans
+lifted him into the hut, drew off his wet clothes, and placed him into
+his sleeping bag. Having tightly closed the hut, he set the lamp ablaze,
+and administered to him a portion of brandy from a flask found on the
+sledge. But the cold had done its fatal work; he remained speechless and
+unconscious for nearly twenty-four hours, and died.
+
+Hans closed up the hut to prevent beasts of prey from disturbing the
+body, continued south, and on the second night came upon a village where
+he was rejoiced to find several native families, who were living in the
+midst of abundance. Here Hans rested until two Esquimo boys, whom he
+hired with the Sontag presents, could go to Cape York after his wife's
+parents and their son. They over-drove or starved four of the dogs,
+which were left by the way.
+
+The natives whom he found were ready on the moment of his arrival to
+return to the vessel with him, and Ootiniah and his companion were the
+first to show their good-will by starting with Hans on his return.
+
+A few weeks later the body of Sontag was brought to the vessel, a neat
+coffin was made for it, and the whole ship's company followed it,
+mourning, to its last resting-place. The burial service was read, and it
+was carefully secured from molestation. At a later period a mound was
+raised over it, and a chiseled stone slab, with his name and age, marked
+the head.
+
+August Sontag was only twenty-eight years of age when thus suddenly cut
+off. His loss to the expedition was very great.
+
+Hans's parents and brother were added to his own family on deck, and
+proved to be much more efficient helpers in domestic affairs than Mrs.
+Hans. The boy was washed and scrubbed and combed by the sailors, with
+whom he became a great favorite, filling much the place on board as a
+pet monkey, and proved to be full as annoying to the old cook, who, in
+his extreme vexation at his mischievous tricks, threatened to "kill
+him--_a le-e-t-le_." The old folks getting tired of the close quarters
+on board, built after a while a snow hut on the floe, and set up
+housekeeping for themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE CROWNING SLEDGE JOURNEY.
+
+
+"THE glorious sun" reappeared February eighteenth, tarrying only a
+moment, but giving a sure prophecy of a coming to stay. Scarcely less
+welcome was the appearance soon after of Kalutunah, Tattarat, and Myouk,
+all old acquaintance whom the reader will not fail to recognize.
+Kalutunah was Angekok and Nalegak--priest and chief. His gruff old
+rival, who advised the starvation policy toward the escaping party in
+the miserable old hut, had been harpooned in the back and buried alive
+under a heap of stones. These comers brought the much-desired dogs, and
+they were followed by other old friends from Northumberland Island with
+additional dog-teams. These natives were treated with consideration--the
+were made content with abundant food and flattered with presents, all of
+which told favorably upon the success of the enterprise of the generous
+donors.
+
+In the middle of March the northward excursions commenced. The first
+consisted of a party of three, Dr. Hayes and Kalutunah driving a team of
+six dogs, and Jensen with a sledge of nine. It was to be a trial trip,
+and the experiment began rather roughly. A few miles only had been made
+when Jensen, whose team was ahead, broke through the ice, and dogs and
+man went floundering together into a cold bath. The other team,
+fortunately, was just at hand, so they were drawn out, and all returned
+to the vessel for a fresh and warm start. The next trial they were gone
+four days, and traversed the Greenland shore to Cape Agassiz and to the
+commencement of the Great Glacier. The cold at one time was sixty-eight
+and a half degrees below zero. Yet the sun's rays through even such an
+atmosphere blistered the skin! The grains of snow became like gravel,
+and the sledge runners grated over it as if running on the summer sand
+of our own sea-shore. Kalutunah had an ingenious remedy for this. He
+dissolved snow in his mouth, and pouring the water into his hand coated
+the runners with it. It instantly freezing, made something like a glass
+plating for them.
+
+Kalutunah was greatly puzzled in attempting to understand why this
+journey was made. But his perplexity took the form of disgust when the
+fresh tracks were seen of a bear and cub, and the white chief forbade
+the chase. He argued in the interest of Dr. Hayes, who might thereby
+have a new fur coat, pointed to the hungry dogs, and finally pleaded for
+his own family, who were longing for bear meat. But all in vain. The
+circumstances had changed since, in the same spot nearly, he had urged
+the dogs after a bear in spite of Dr. Kane, and thus defeated the
+purpose of his long trip.
+
+On their return they turned into Van Rensselaer Harbor, the place made
+so famous by Dr. Kane's expedition. Every thing there was changed.
+Instead of smooth ice, over which Dr. Kane's party came and went so
+often, there were hummocks piled up every-where in the wildest
+confusion. Where the "Advance" was left when her men took a last look at
+her was an ice-pile towering as high as were her mast-heads. Old
+localities were undiscernible from the snow and icy aggressions. A small
+piece of a deck-plank picked up near Butler Island was all that could be
+found of the "Advance." The Esquimo told nearly as many diverse stories
+of her history after the white men left her as there were persons to
+testify, and some individuals, apparently to increase the chance of
+saying some item of truth, told many different stories. According to
+these witnesses she drifted out to sea and sunk, (the most probable
+statement,) she was knocked to pieces so far as possible and carried off
+by the Esquimo, and she was accidentally set on fire and burned. The
+graves of Baker and Pierre remained undisturbed, but the beacon built
+over them was broken down and scattered.
+
+The result of this experimental trip was the decision of the commander
+not to attempt to reach the Open Polar Sea by the Greenland shore, but
+to cross Smith Sound at Cairn Point, a few miles north of the schooner.
+To this point provisions were immediately carried on the sledges for the
+summer journey beyond.
+
+On the third of April the grand effort to reach the North Pole
+commenced. The party consisted of twelve persons, who were early at
+their assigned positions alongside of the schooner. Jensen was at the
+head of the line of march, on the sledge "Hope," to which were harnessed
+eight dogs; Knorr came next, "the whip" of the "Perseverance," with six
+dogs. Then came a metallic life-boat with which the Polar Sea was to be
+navigated, mounted on a sledge and drawn by men each with shoulder strap
+and trace. Flags fluttered from boat and sledges, all was enthusiasm,
+and at the word "march" the dogs dashed away, the men bent bravely to
+their earnest work, the "swivel" on deck thundered its good-bye, and the
+party were soon far away.
+
+The very first day's exposure nearly proved fatal to several of the
+party. One settled himself down in the snow muttering, "I'm freezing,"
+and would have proved in a half hour his declaration had not two more
+hardy men taken him in charge. The spirits of the men ran low, and they
+were two hours in building a snow-hut in which to hide from the pitiless
+wind. A rest at Cairn Point and increased experience gave them more
+energy, and the next snow-hut was made in less than one hour. They
+proved the snow-shovel a fine heat generator. On the fifth night out
+they were overtaken by a storm, and were detained two days in their hut.
+This was a pit in the snow eighteen feet long, eight wide, and four
+deep. Across its top were placed the boat-oars; across these the sledge
+was laid; over the sledge was thrown the boat's sails; and over the
+sails snow was shoveled. They crawled into this hut through a hole which
+they filled up after them with a block of snow. Over the floor--a
+leveled snow floor--they spread an India-rubber cloth; on this was laid
+a carpet of buffalo-skins, and over this another of equal size. Between
+these they crept to sleep, the outside man of the row having no little
+difficulty in preventing his companions from "pulling the clothes off."
+The wind without blew its mightiest blow, and piled the snow up over the
+poor dogs, which were huddled together for mutual warmth, and were kept
+restless in poking their noses above the drift. The cooks were obliged
+to call to their help the commander in order to keep the lamp from being
+puffed out, and two hours were consumed in getting a steaming pot of
+coffee. But after a while the bread and coffee, and dried meat and
+potato hash, were abundantly and regularly served, and the men contrived
+to pass in talk and song and sleep the hours of the really dreary
+imprisonment.
+
+Before the storm had fully subsided, the party went on the back track to
+bring up to this point a part of the provisions they had been obliged to
+deposit. This done, they put their faces to the opposite, or American
+side of the sound. But the difficulties were truly fearful. The ice,
+like great bowlders, was scattered over the entire surface, now piled in
+ridges ten, twenty, and even a hundred feet high, and then scattered
+over a level area with only a narrow and ever-twisting way between them.
+Over these ridges the sledges had to be lifted, the load often taken off
+and carried up in small parcels, and the sledges and boat drawn up and
+let down again. Frequently in the midst of this toil a man would fall
+into a chasm up to his waist; another would go out of sight in one.
+These terrible traps were so covered with a crust of snow that they
+could not be discerned. The boat was, of course, capsized often, and
+much battered. When a ridge had been scaled, and the party had picked
+their way for a time through the winding path among the ice-bowlders,
+they would come to a sudden impassable barrier, and be obliged to
+retrace their steps. A whole day of gigantic exertion, and of many miles
+of zigzag travel, would sometimes advance them only a rifle-shot in a
+straight line.
+
+Of course it was simply impossible to carry the boat, and it was
+abandoned. They were yet only about thirty miles from Cairn Point, but
+had traveled perhaps five times that distance.
+
+For several days after this the heroic explorers struggled on. A fresh
+snow with a half-frozen crust was added to their other obstacles.
+Hummocks and ridges and pitfalls grew worse and worse. The sledges
+broke, the limbs of the men were bruised and sprained, their strength
+exhausted, and at last their spirits failed. They had toiled twenty-five
+days, advanced half way across the sound, and brought along about eight
+hundred pounds of food.
+
+On the twenty-eighth of April the main party were sent homeward. Dr.
+Hayes, Knorr, M'Donald, and Jensen, pushed on toward the American shore.
+Their way was, as one of the party remarked, like a trip through New
+York over the tops of the houses. They progressed a mile and a half,
+and traveled at least twelve, carrying their provisions over the ground
+by repeating the journey many times. Such was the daily experience,
+varied by many exciting incidents. Jensen sprained a leg which had been
+once broken; the dogs were savage as the wildest wolves with hunger,
+though having a fair amount of food; once Knorr in feeding them stumbled
+and fell into the midst of the pack, and would have doubtless been
+devoured as a generous morsel of food tossed to them, had not M'Donald
+pounced upon them at the moment with lusty blows from a whip-stock. All
+four of the explorers held out bravely in this fearful strain on mind
+and body, even young Knorr never shrinking from the hardest work, nor
+the longest continued exertions.
+
+On the eleventh of May the party encamped under the shadow of Cape
+Hawkes, on Grinnell Land, off the American coast. The distance from
+Cairn Point, in a straight line northwest, was eighty miles. They had
+been traveling thirty-one days, and made a twisting and clambering route
+of five hundred miles.
+
+The travel up the coast had the usual variety of dangers, hair-breadth
+escapes, and exhausting toil. A little flag-staff, planted by Dr. Hayes
+during the Kane expedition, was found bravely looking out upon the drear
+field it was set to designate, but the flag it bore had been blown away.
+Remains of Esquimo settlements long deserted were found. A raven croaked
+a welcome to the strangers, or it may be a warning, and followed them
+several days.
+
+On the fourth day up the coast Jensen, the hardiest of the vessel's
+company, utterly failed. He had strained his back as well as leg, and
+groaned with pain. What could be done? The party could not proceed with
+a sick man, nor would they for a moment think of leaving him alone. So
+the following course was adopted by the commander: M'Donald was left in
+the snow-hut with Jensen, with five days' food and five dogs, with
+orders to remain five days, and then, if Hayes and Knorr, who were to
+continue on, had not returned, to make his best way with Jensen back to
+the vessel.
+
+The journey of Dr. Hayes and Knorr was continued two full days. On the
+morning of the third day they had proceeded but a few miles when they
+came to a stand. They had on their left the abrupt, rocky, ice-covered
+cliffs of the shore; on their right were high ridges of ice, through
+which the waters of an open sea broke here and there into bays and
+inlets which washed the shore. Farther progress north by land or ice was
+impossible. They climbed a cliff which towered eight hundred feet above
+the sea, whose dark waters were lost in the distance toward the
+north-east. North, standing against the sky, was a noble headland, the
+most northern known land, and only about four hundred and fifty miles
+from the North Pole. The spot on which our explorers stood was about one
+degree farther north than that occupied by Morton, of Kane's
+Expedition, yet on the shore of the same open water. Now, if they only
+had the boat they were obliged to leave among the hummocks in Smith
+Sound, with the provisions and men they had _hoped_ to bring to this
+point, how soon would they solve the mystery locked up from the
+beginning, and in the keeping of his Frosty Majesty of the Pole itself!
+But, alas! there were neither boat nor provisions, and the movement of
+the treacherous floes warned the daring strangers that the bridge of ice
+over which they had come to this side might soon be torn away, and make
+a return impossible. They built a monument of stones, raised on it a
+flag of triumph, deposited beneath it a record of their visit placed in
+a bottle, and turned their faces homeward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+LAST INCIDENTS OF THE EXPEDITION.
+
+DR. HAYES and Knorr were buffeted by a fierce storm soon after starting.
+They were over fifty miles from M'Donald and Jensen, only ten of which
+were traversed before they were obliged to encamp. But the storm howled,
+and tossed the snow-clouds about them, making it impossible to build a
+snow hut. After a brief halt, and feeding the dogs with the last morsel
+of food which remained, they pushed on. The snow was deep, often nearly
+burying the dogs as they plunged along; the hummocks and rocks over
+which they climbed lay across their path, and the wind blew with
+unabated fury; yet they halted not until the remaining forty or more
+miles were accomplished, and they tumbled into the hut of their
+companions. The dogs rolled themselves together on the snow the moment
+they were left, utterly exhausted. The weary men slept a long, sound
+sleep. When they awoke a steaming pot of coffee and an abundant
+breakfast awaited them. They had fasted thirty-four hours, and traveled
+in the last twenty-two over forty miles, which the hummocks and deep
+snow made equal to double that distance of smooth sledging. The last few
+miles were made in a state of partial bewilderment, so their final
+safety was another of their many marked deliverances. The remaining run
+to the vessel had its daily perils and escapes. As they were approaching
+the American shore they stepped across a crack on the ice. They had
+traveled but a short distance when they perceived that there was an
+impassable channel between them and the land ice. They ran back to
+recross the crack, and that had become twenty yards wide. They were, in
+fact, on an ice-raft, and were sweeping helplessly out to sea! They had
+hardly collected their thoughts after this terrifying surprise before
+one of the shore corners of their raft struck a small grounded iceberg,
+and on this, as on a pivot, the outer edge swung toward the shore,
+struck its margin, allowed them to scamper off, and then immediately
+swung again into the open water, and shot out to sea.
+
+The poor dogs, being insufficiently fed, and necessarily overworked, now
+began to fail. Jensen's lameness compelling him to ride, increased their
+burden. One died just before the party left the hummocks, and two soon
+after. A fourth having failed, the commander, thinking to shorten his
+misery, shot him. The ball only wounding him, he set up a terrible cry,
+at which his companions flew at him, tore him in pieces, and, almost
+before his last howl had died away in the dreary waste, they had eaten
+the flesh from his bones.
+
+They arrived at the schooner safely after two months' absence, during
+which they had traveled thirteen hundred miles.
+
+The commander was cheered to learn that the party who returned under
+M'Cormick had reached Port Foulke in safety. The whole ship's company
+were in good health. The vessel was immediately thoroughly examined and
+put in sailing order. As the summer came on, the birds, the green
+mosses, hardy little flowers, several species of moths and spiders, and
+even a yellow winged butterfly, appeared to greet its coming. The open
+water was daily coming nearer the schooner. While awaiting the loosening
+of its icy fetters, a boat's crew had an exciting walrus hunt. Dr. Hayes
+had been on a hill-top which overlooked the bay, when the hoarse
+bellowing of distant walrus saluted his ears. Drifting ice-rafts were
+coming down the sound, on which great numbers of these monsters could be
+seen. He hurried to the vessel, and called for volunteers. Soon a
+whale-boat was manned, and the men, armed with three rifles and a
+harpoon and line, dragged it to the open water, launched it, and rowed
+into the midst of the drift-ice. The first cake of ice which they
+approached contained a freight of twenty-four walruses, pretty well
+covering it. The lubberly, ugly looking sea-hogs appeared as content as
+their very distant relatives of our sties, while they huddled together
+and twisted for the sunniest spot, and bellowed in one another's ears.
+Our hunters were all eager for the fight as they approached with muffled
+oars, but on coming near to the floe, it was apparent that the hunt was
+not to be all fun, nor the fighting on one side only. The hides of the
+monsters looked like an iron plating, and were, in fact, an inch thick,
+smooth, hairless, and tough, suggesting a good defensive ability; while
+their great tusks, projecting from a jaw of elephantine strength, hinted
+unpleasantly to the invaders that their antagonists were prepared for
+assault as well as defense. Very likely if one could have seen at that
+moment the countenances of our boat's crew, they would have shown more
+of a wish to be in the vessel's cabin than they would have cared to
+confess with their lips. But there was no flinching. There were two male
+walruses in the herd--huge, fierce-looking fellows, which roused up a
+moment to scan the strangers, and then, giving each other a punch in the
+face with their tusks, stretched out again upon the ice to sleep.
+
+In this walrus party there were, besides the two fathers, mothers with
+children of various ages, from the "little ones" of four hundred pounds,
+to the "young folks." Of course they were a loving, happy group. The
+boat came within a few times its length of the ice-raft. Miller, an old
+whaleman, was in the bow of the boat with a harpoon. Hayes, Knorr, and
+Jensen stood in the stern with their rifles leveled each at his selected
+victim, while the oarsmen bent forward to their oars. At the word the
+rifles cracked, and the oarsmen at the same moment shot the boat into
+the midst of the startled walrus. Jensen hit one of the males in the
+neck, not probably doing him much harm; Hayes's ball struck the other
+bull in the head, at which he roared lustily. Knorr killed a baby
+walrus dead, but he disappeared from the raft with the rest, probably
+pushed off by his mamma. When the old fellow which was wounded by the
+commander rolled into the water, Miller planted his harpoon in him with
+unerring skill, and the line attached spun out over the gunwale with
+fearful velocity. There were a few moments of suspense, and then up came
+the herd, a few yards from the boat, the wounded bull with the harpoon
+among them. They uttered one wild, united shriek, and answering shrieks
+from thousands of startled walruses, on the walrus laden ice-rafts for
+miles around, filled the air. It was an agonized cry for help, and the
+answering cry was, "we come!" There was a simultaneous splash from the
+ice-rafts, and the hosts, as if by the bugle call, came rushing on,
+heads erect, and uttering the defiant "huk, huk, huk!" They came
+directly at the boat, surrounding it, and blackening the waters with
+their numbers. The wounded bull, attached still to Miller's line, led
+the attack. The hunters had aroused foemen worthy of their steel, and
+they must now fight or die. It seemed to be the purpose of the walruses
+to get their tusks over the side of the boat, and so easily tear it to
+pieces or sink it, and then, having its audacious crew in the water,
+make short work of them. As they came on, Miller, in the bow, pricked
+them in the face with his lance, the rowers pushed them back with their
+oars, while Hayes, Jensen, and Knorr sent, as fast as they could load
+and fire, rifle-balls crashing through their heads. At one time a huge
+leader had come within a few feet of the boat. Hayes and Jensen had just
+fired, and were loading, but Knorr was just in time to salute him with a
+ball. The men were becoming weary, while the walrus assaulting column
+was constantly supplied with fresh troops. The situation was now
+critical, when, as if to crush his enemy and end the conflict in victory
+on his side, a walrus Goliath, with tusks three feet long, led on a
+solid column of undismayed warriors. Two guns had just been fired, as
+before. His terrible weapons were fearfully near the gunwale, when
+Knorr's gun came to the rescue; its muzzle was so near his open mouth
+that the ball killed him instantly, and he sunk like lead. This sent
+consternation through the walrus ranks. They all dove at once, and when
+they came up they were a considerable distance off, their tails to their
+foes, and retreating with a wild shriek. The battle was ended, and the
+saucy explorers were victors. The sea in places was red with blood. The
+harpooned bull and one other were carried as trophies to the vessel.
+
+On the twelfth of July the schooner floated, after an ice imprisonment
+of ten months. The Esquimo seeing that the white friends were about to
+leave them, gathered on the shore in sorrowful interest. They had been
+the receivers of gifts great in their estimation, and they had rendered
+the strangers no small favors, especially in the use of their dogs,
+without which no excursions of importance could have been made.
+Kalutunah actually wept on parting with Dr. Hayes. He had enjoyed under
+his patronage the Esquimo paradise--"plenty to eat, plenty sleep, no
+work, no hunt." He spoke feelingly of the fading away of his people.
+"Come back," he said, "and save us; come soon or we shall be all gone."
+
+He had reason to express these fears concerning his people. Since Dr.
+Kane left thirty-four had died, and there had been in the same time only
+nineteen births. There seemed to be in all the settlements, from Cape
+York to Etah, only a hundred!
+
+The explorers bid adieu to Port Foulke on the fourteenth, and sailed
+away to the west side of Smith Sound, and reached a point about ten
+miles south of Cape Isabella. The hope was entertained by the commander
+that he might work his way with the vessel north through the now
+loosening ice over which he had just been traveling with sledges, get
+through even Kennedy Channel, to the open sea on the shore of which he
+had so lately stood, and then sail away to the North Pole. What a
+stimulating thought! But he found the schooner ice-battered, and,
+weakened by the "nips" she had experienced, was unequal to the required
+fight with the defiant pack which every-where filled the sound. So the
+explorers turned homeward. They arrived at Upernavik on the twelfth of
+August after many exciting incidents but no accident. Here they learned
+the startling news of the commencement of the great Rebellion. During
+their absence President Lincoln had been inaugurated, the black cloud
+of war had settled heavily over the whole country, and the bloody battle
+of Bull Run had been fought. They were now to return home and transfer
+their interest in fighting ice-packs, bergs, and Polar bears, to the
+conflicts of civil war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+SOMETHING NEW.
+
+
+WHILE the civilized world were awaiting with deep interest the results
+of the search for Sir John Franklin, and while learned geographers and
+practical navigators to the regions of cold were devising new methods of
+search for him, a young engraver was working out a problem in reference
+to this great enterprise peculiarly his own. Without special educational
+advantages, without the resources of wealth or influential friends, but
+with the inspiration of one feeling, "a divine call" to the undertaking,
+he matured his plans and began to publish them abroad. He seems to have
+at once imparted his own enthusiasm to others. The mayor of his own
+city, Cincinnati, the governor and senator of his own State, Ohio, the
+latter the eminent Salmon P. Chase, late Chief-Justice of the United
+States, became his patrons. Coming east, many of the great and wise men
+of our large cities gave him an attentive hearing, and not a few
+encouraged his project. The princely merchant, Henry Grinnell, who had
+already done so much in the Franklin search, took him at once into
+kindly sympathy.
+
+From New York he went to New London. From the old whalemen, at least
+from individuals of them of marked character and large experience in
+Arctic navigation, he obtained encouraging words.
+
+His plan of search which thus so readily commended itself was this: He
+would go into the region where it was now known that Franklin and some
+of his men had died; he would live with the Esquimo, learn their
+language, adopt their habits of life, and thus learn all that they knew
+of the history of the ill-fated expedition. He assumed that many of its
+men might yet be alive, and if they were, the natives would know it,
+know where they were, and could guide him to them.
+
+To prepare himself for this work he became conversant with Arctic
+literature, learning all that the books on the subject taught; he
+applied himself closely to the study of the practical science bearing on
+his enterprise, learning the use of its instruments. He sought
+interviews and correspondence with returned explorers and whalemen. In
+fact, his heart was in the work with a downright enthusiasm.
+
+The marked features of his plan seemed to be two--it was inexpensive and
+new. As to the manning of his expedition, he proposed to go alone; as to
+vessels, he asked none. He only asked to be conveyed to the proposed
+Esquimo country, and to be left with its natives. We might name a third
+attractive feature of this plan, one which always inspires interest--it
+was bold, bordering on the audacious!
+
+We need hardly say to our readers that the name of this new candidate
+for Arctic perils and honors was Charles Francis Hall--a name now
+greatly honored and lamented.[A]
+
+Mr. Hall was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, in 1821, where he worked
+a while at the blacksmith's trade, but left both the trade and his
+native place in early life for the Queen City of the West. The result of
+Mr. Hall's enthusiastic appeals was an offer by the firm of Williams &
+Haven, whale-ship owners of New London, to convey him and his outfit in
+their bark "George Henry" to his point of operations, and if ever
+desired, to give him the same free passage home in any of their ships.
+The "George Henry" was going, of course, after whales, and proposed thus
+to convey him as an obliging incident of the trip.
+
+This proposal was made in the early spring of 1860. On the twenty-ninth
+of May he sailed. His outfit was simple, and had the appearance of a
+private, romantic excursion. It consisted of a good sized, staunch
+whale-boat built for his special use, a sledge, a few scientific
+instruments, a rifle, six double-barreled shot-guns, a Colt's revolver,
+and the ammunition supposed to be necessary for a long separation from
+the source of supply. A start was given him in a small store of
+provisions; beyond that he was to supply himself. A tolerable supply of
+trinkets were added as a basis of trade with the natives. What funds
+this miniature exploring expedition required was given largely by Mr.
+Grinnell.
+
+The "George Henry" was accompanied by _a tender_, a small schooner named
+the "Rescue," having already an Arctic fame. The officers and crew of
+both vessels numbered twenty-nine, under command of Captain S. O.
+Buddington.
+
+We have spoken of Mr. Hall as the only man of his exhibition; he had
+after all one companion. The previous year Captain Buddington had
+brought home an Esquimo by the name of Kudlago, who was now returning to
+his fatherland and to his wife and children. Upon him Mr. Hall largely
+depended as an interpreter, a friend, and guide, in his work.
+
+The run of the "George Henry" to the Greenland coast was made with but
+one marked incident. That was to Mr. Hall a very sad one, giving him the
+first emphatic lesson in the uncertainty of his most carefully devised
+schemes. It was the death and burial at sea of Kudlago. He had left New
+London in good health, taken cold in the fogs of Newfoundland, and
+declined rapidly. He prayed fervently to be permitted to see his wife
+and children--only that, and he would die content. He inquired daily
+while confined to his berth if any ice was in sight. His last words
+were, "_Teiko seko? teiko seko?_"--Do you see ice? do you see ice? The
+Greenland shore was just in sight when he departed, and his home and
+family were three hundred miles away.
+
+The "George Henry" and her tender, the "Rescue," sailed north, along the
+Greenland coast, as far as Holsteinberg, where Mr. Hall purchased six
+Esquimo dogs. The vessel then stood southwest across Davis Strait and
+made, August eighth, a snug harbor, which Mr. Hall called Grinnell Bay,
+a little north of what is known as Frobisher Strait. Here Mr. Hall was
+to land and commence his Esquimo life, alone and far away from a
+Christian home, while the vessel went about its business capturing
+whales. His feelings on the voyage are indicated by the following
+extract from his diary:
+
+"A good run with a fair breeze yesterday. Approaching the north axis of
+the earth! Aye, nearing the goal of my fondest wishes. Every thing
+relating to the arctic zone is deeply interesting to me. I love the
+snows, the ices, the icebergs, the fauna and the flora of the North. I
+love the circling sun, the long day, _the arctic night, when the soul
+can commune with God in silent and reverential awe_! I am on a mission
+of love. I feel to be in the performance of a duty I owe to mankind,
+myself, and God! Thus feeling I am strong at heart, full of faith, ready
+to do or die in the cause I have espoused." How he felt when actually
+engaged in his "mission of love," we shall see.
+
+We must not, however, think of Mr. Hall in a region comparable to that
+which included the winter-quarters of Kane and Hayes in the expeditions
+we have just described. They were at least twelve degrees farther north,
+Mr. Hall being south of the arctic circle, so that his winter nights
+were shorter and milder. His present field of operation was on a coast
+visited by the whale-ships, and where they at times wintered. Besides,
+natives had been for many years in contact with white men, and were in
+_some_ respect more agreeable companions. He will therefore, as we
+follow him, lead us into new scenes of peculiar interest, and show us
+novel features in the character of the Esquimo.
+
+The whale-ship "Black Eagle," Captain Allen, lay in Grinnell Bay on the
+arrival of our voyagers, and the captain soon appeared on the deck of
+the "George Henry," with several Esquimo. One of these natives, named
+Ugarng, especially attracted Mr. Hall's attention. He was intelligent,
+possessing strong lines of character, and a marked physical development.
+He had spent a year on a visit to the United States. Speaking of New
+York, he said with a sailor's emphasis: "No good! too much horse! too
+much house! too much white people! Women? Ah! women great many--good!"
+Ugarng will become a familiar acquaintance.
+
+Mr. Hall had been giving special attention on the voyage across Davis
+Strait to his dogs, and they were now to become a chief dependence. He
+fed them on _capelin_, or dried fish. One day he called them all around
+him, each in his assigned place, to receive in turn his fish. Now there
+was one young, shrewd dog, Barbekark, who had not heard, or had never
+cared to heed the proverb that "honesty is the best policy." He said to
+himself, "If I can get _two_ of the fish while the other dogs get but
+one, it will be a nice thing to do;" so, taking his place near the head
+of the row, he was served with his capelin. Then, slipping out, he
+crowded between the dogs farther down, and with a very innocent look
+awaited his turn. His master thought this so sharp in young Barbekark
+that he pretended not to see the trick, and dealed him a fish as if he
+had received none. On going the round again his master found him near
+the head of the row and then at the foot, so the rogue obtained
+Benjamin's portion. Seeing his success, he winked his knowing eye as
+much as to say, "Ain't I the smartest dog in the pack!" But Barbekark
+had entered on a rough road with many turns, as all rogues do. After
+going round several times, during which the trick was a success, Mr.
+Hall _skipped_ the trickster altogether. It mattered not what place he
+crowded into, there was no more fish for him. The upshot was that he
+received many less than did his companions. Never did a dog look more
+ashamed. From that time he kept his place when fish were distributed.
+
+Mr. Hall, making the vessel his home, made frequent visits ashore, and
+received many Esquimo visitors on board, and was thus becoming
+acquainted with the people. An early visitor was Kokerjabin, wife of
+Kudlago, accompanied by her son. She had learned in her tent that her
+anxiously awaited husband had been left in the deep sea. She entered the
+cabin and looked at her husband's white friends, and at the chest which
+contained his personal goods, with deep emotion; but when Captain
+Buddington opened the chest, the tears flowed freely; and when she, in
+taking out things, came to those Kudlago had obtained in the States for
+herself and her little girl, she sat down, buried her face in her
+hands, and wept with deep grief. She soon after went ashore with her son
+to weep alone.
+
+Another very marked character was Paulooyer, or, as the white men called
+him, Blind George. He was now about forty years of age and had been
+blind nearly ten years, from the effects of a severe sickness. To this
+blindness was added domestic sorrow. His wife Nikujar was very kind to
+him for five years after his loss of sight, sharing their consequent
+poverty. But Ugarng, who had already several wives, offered her a place
+in his tent as his "household wife"--the place of honor in Esquimo
+esteem. The offer was tempting, for Ugarng was "a mighty hunter," and
+rich at all times in blubber, in furs and skin tents and snow huts. So
+she left poor George, taking with her their little daughter, called
+Kookooyer. This child became a pet with Ugarng, as she was with her
+blind father.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[A] See Frontispiece.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+A FEARFUL STORM.
+
+
+WHILE the "George Henry" lay at Grinnell Bay, Mr. Hall talked much with
+the masters of the whale-ships and with the most intelligent of the
+natives concerning his proposed journey to King William's Land. This was
+a far-away region, where the remains of the Franklin expedition had been
+found. He proposed to secure the company of one or more Esquimo and make
+an attempt to reach it with a dog-sledge, and to take up his abode with
+its natives in search of information of the lost ones. But both his
+white and Esquimo advisers agreed that it was too late in the season to
+begin such a journey. Mr. Hall would then take the whale-boat built for
+him, man it with natives, and make the attempt by water. But this was
+deemed impracticable until spring. So he decided to make his home on
+board the vessel so long as she remained on the coast, and pursue his
+study of the Esquimo language and his survey of the region of country,
+with this home as a base of operations.
+
+On his return from one of his inland excursions with Kudlago's son, whom
+the whites called _captain_, he saw his widow, apart from all the
+people, weeping for her great bereavement. Her son ran to her and tried
+to comfort her, but she would not be comforted. When Mr. Hall approached
+she pointed to the spot where their tent was pitched when Kudlago left
+for the United States. She also showed him the bones of a whale which he
+had assisted in capturing.
+
+Soon after this the widow visited the vessel with her daughter,
+Kimmiloo, who had been the idol of her father. She looked sad on the
+mention of her father's name, but, child-like, her eyes gleamed with joy
+on seeing the fine things his chest contained for her. Captain B.'s wife
+had sent her a pretty red dress, necktie, mittens, belt, and other like
+valuables of little white girls. But Mr. Hall suggested that Kimmiloo's
+introduction to the dress of civilization should be preceded by soap and
+water. The process of arriving at the little girl through layers of dirt
+was very slow. When this was done, her kind friend Hall took a _very
+coarse_ comb, and commenced combing her hair. This had never been done
+before, and of course the comb "pulled" in spite of the care of the
+operator, but Kimmiloo bore it bravely. Her locks were filled with moss,
+greasy bits of seal, and disgusting reindeer hairs, besides other things
+both _active_ and numerous. A full hour was spent on the hair, but when
+the comb went through it easily, then the little girl run her fingers
+into it and braided quickly a tag on each side of her head; she then
+drew these through brass rings which Mr. Hall had given her. Her Esquimo
+fur trowsers and coat were thrown off, and the now clean and really
+beautiful girl put on the red dress. Her happiness would have been
+complete had her father been there to share her joy.
+
+Mr. Hall's kindly nature led him to study the natives in these
+incidents, and to record them in his journals. Ugarng was one time in
+the cabin when Mr. Hall had put a few small balls of mercury on a sheet
+of white paper. It was a new article to the Esquimo, and he tried to
+pick it up with his thumb and finger, but it escaped his grasp. His
+efforts would scatter it over the sheet in small globules, and then as
+he lifted the corners of the paper it would run together, and Ugarng
+would commence catching it with new vigor. He continued his efforts for
+a full half hour. Amused at first, but finally losing his temper, he
+gave it up, exclaiming petulantly that there was an evil spirit in it.
+
+Blind George became a constant visitor. At one time Mr. Hall gave him a
+much worn coat, showing one of the several holes in it. George
+immediately took a needle, and, bringing his tongue to the aid of his
+hands, threaded it, and mended _all_ of the rents very neatly. At
+another time Mr. Hall put into George's hand a piece of steel with a
+magnet attached. The way the steel flew from his hand to the magnet
+amazed him. At first he seemed to think it was not really so; but when
+he clearly felt the steel leap from his fingers, he threw both steel and
+magnet violently upon the floor. But feeling he was not hurt, and that
+some little girls laughed at him, he tried it again more deliberately,
+and was better satisfied. Mr. Hall next gave him a paper of needles,
+desiring him to bring the magnet near them. He did so, and when the
+needles flew from his hand by the attraction he sprung to his feet as if
+an electric current had touched him, and the needles were scattered in
+every direction over the floor. He declared that Mr. Hall was an
+"Angekok."
+
+On the fourteenth of August another whaling vessel belonging to the
+owners of the "George Henry" arrived at Grinnell Bay. Her name was the
+"Georgiana," Captain Tyson; so there were now four vessels near each
+other--the "Rescue" and "Black Eagle," besides those just named. There
+were social, merry times. But Captain Buddington, having built a hut
+here that some of his men might remain to fish, took his vessels farther
+south, for winter-quarters, into a bay separated from Frobisher Bay on
+the south by only a narrow strip of land. This Mr. Hall named Field Bay.
+Here, snugly hid in an inlet of its upper waters, the vessels proposed
+to winter. The Esquimo were not long in finding the new anchorage of the
+whites, and in a few days a fleet of kayaks containing seven families
+appeared. Among them was Kudlago's oldest daughter, now married to a
+native the sailors called Johnny Bull. She had not heard of her father's
+death, and stepped on deck elated at the thought of meeting him. "Where
+is my father?" she inquired of Ugarng's wife. When she was tenderly told
+the sad story of his death she wept freely.
+
+Mr. Hall was at once busy visiting the "tupics," summer tents made of
+skins, pitched by the natives near the shore. He also rowed to the
+islands in various directions, generally accompanied by one or more
+Esquimo. On one of these visits to an island with a boy he had a narrow
+escape. After several hours' ramble they returned to the landing, where
+they had left their boat fastened to a rock. The tide had risen and the
+boat was dancing on the waves out of reach. Here was a "fix!" They were
+far away from the vessel, the night, cold and dark, was coming on, and
+they were without shelter. But necessity sharpens one's wits, After some
+delay and perplexity, Mr. Hall hit upon this plan: He took the seal-skin
+strings from his boots, and the strings by which various scientific
+instruments were attached to his person, tied them together, and thus
+made quite a long and strong line. To this he tied a moderate sized
+stone. Holding one end of the line in his hand, he tossed the stone into
+the boat and gently drew it to him, jumped into it, and was soon at the
+vessel. If Mr. Hall had not been a _green_ boatman he would not have
+fastened his boat below high-water mark when the tide was coming in! He
+probably did not again.
+
+One day the crew of the "Henry" captured a whale in the bay, and the
+Esquimo joined with others in towing the monster to the ship. In one of
+the boats was an Esquimo woman with a babe; she laid her child in the
+bow of the boat and pulled an oar with the strongest of the white men.
+Before they reached the vessel the wind blew a gale, the sea ran high,
+and at times the spray shot into the air and came down in plentiful
+showers into the boat. The mother cast anxious glances at her child,
+and, as if it was for its life, rowed with giant strength. At last the
+prize was safely moored to the "Henry," and the natives were rewarded
+with generous strips of its black skin, which they ate voraciously, raw
+and warm from the animal. They carried portions of it to their tupics on
+shore for future use. This skin is about three fourths of an inch thick,
+and, in even Mr. Hall's estimation, is "good eating" when raw, "but
+better soused in vinegar."
+
+Soon after this, Captain Tyson brought the "Georgiana" round into Field
+Bay, and the crews of the two vessels were often together when a whale
+made its appearance, a circumstance sometimes the occasion of strife
+when he is captured. One day Smith, an officer of the "Henry," fastened
+a harpoon in a whale, and was devising means to secure his prey. Captain
+Tyson, who was near in his boat, killed the monster with his lances, and
+without a word, left Smith to enjoy the pleasure of taking it to his
+vessel. The generous act was appreciated on board the "Henry."
+
+On the twenty-sixth of December a terrible storm commenced, causing the
+boats which were cruising for whales to scud home. The three
+vessels--the "Henry," "Rescue," and "Georgiana"--were anchored near each
+other, and near an island toward which the wind was blowing. It was
+about noon when the storm began, and as the day declined the wind
+increased, bringing on its wings a cloud of snow. When the night came on
+it was intensely dark, and the waves rose higher and higher as, driven
+by the tempest, they rolled swiftly by and dashed upon the rocky shore.
+The vessels labored heavily in the billows and strained at their
+anchors, now dipping their bows deep in the water, then rising upon the
+top of a crested wave, and leaping again into the trough of the sea, as
+if impatient of restraint and eager to rush upon the rocks to their own
+destruction. The roar of the sea and the howling of the winds through
+the shrouds were appalling to all on board, while they awaited with
+breathless interest the integrity of the anchors, on which their lives
+depended.
+
+As the night wore on the watch on deck, peering through the darkness,
+saw the dim outlines of the "Rescue" steadily and slowly moving toward
+the shore. "She drags her anchors!" were the fearful words which passed
+in whispers through the "George Henry." But all breathed easier to hear
+the report from the watch soon after that she had come to a pause nearly
+abreast of the "Henry."
+
+About midnight the storm put forth all the fury of its power, and the
+small anchor of the "Georgiana" gave way, and the others went plowing
+along their ocean beds, and, as the vessel neared the island, her
+destruction and the loss of all on board seemed certain. The endangered
+craft worried round a point of rocks, pounding against them as she went,
+and reached smoother and safer waters, where her anchors remained firm.
+The ghostly-looking forms of her men were soon after seen on the island,
+to which they had escaped! In the mean time the men on the "Henry" were
+in constant fear that their vessel would be dashed upon rocks.
+
+Just as the morning was breaking the "Rescue" broke away and went
+broadside upon the island. With a crash the breakers hurled her against
+the rocks, and seemed to bury her in their white foam. She was at once a
+hopeless wreck, but her crew still clung bravely to her. When the
+morning light had fully come, at the first lull in the storm, while yet
+the waves rolled with unabated fury, a whale-boat was lowered into the
+sea from the stern of the "Henry" with a strong line attached, and mate
+Rogers and a seaman stepped into it. Cautiously and skillfully it was
+guided to the stern of the "Rescue." Into it her men were taken, and
+drawn safely to the "Henry." All were saved! A shout of joy mingled with
+the tumult of the elements!
+
+The "Henry" safely outrode the storm. The "Georgiana" was not seriously
+injured, and her men returned to her and sailed away for other
+winter-quarters. The "Rescue" was a complete wreck, and, what was a
+stunning blow to the enterprise of Mr. Hall, his expedition boat, in
+which, with an Esquimo crew, he had hoped to reach the far-away land of
+his lone sojourn and search for the Franklin men, was totally wrecked
+too! What now should he do? That was to him the question of questions.
+One thing he resolved _not_ to do--he would not abandon his mission.
+Captain Buddington thought at first that he might spare him one of the
+ship's boats in which to reach King William's Land; but, on careful
+inquiry, he found that the only one he could part with was rotten and
+untrustworthy. So waiting and watching became his present duty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE AURORA.
+
+
+MR. HALL had an eye for the beautiful in nature. The aurora deeply
+impressed him, inspiring feelings of awe and reverence. It will be
+noticed that explorers in the low latitude of Frobisher Bay are treated
+to displays of the aurora on a scale of magnificence and beauty never
+seen in the high latitudes of the winter-quarters of Dr. Kane and Hayes.
+Night after night through the months of October, November, and December
+Mr. Hall's sensitive nature was in raptures at the wonderful sights. The
+heavens were aglow. The forms of brightness, and colors of every hue,
+changed with the rapidity of fleecy clouds driven before the wind.
+Before the mind had comprehended the grandeur of one scene, it had
+changed into another of seeming greater beauty of form, color, and
+brightness. Thousands of such changes occurred while he gazed. No wonder
+he exclaims: "Who but God could conceive such infinite scenes of glory!
+Who but God execute them, painting the heavens in such gorgeous
+display!"
+
+Again he exclaims: "It seemeth to me as if the very doors of heaven have
+opened to-night, so _mighty_ and _beauteous_ and _marvelous_ were the
+waves of golden light which swept across the azure deep, breaking forth
+anon into floods of wondrous glory. God made his wonderful works to be
+remembered."
+
+Mr. Hall had been on deck several times, witnessing the enrapturing
+display, and had returned into the cabin to go to bed, when the captain
+shouted down the companion-way: "Come above, Hall, at once! _The world
+is on fire!_" Mr. Hall hastened on deck. He says: "There was no sun, no
+moon, yet the heavens were flooded with light. Even ordinary print could
+be read on deck. Yes, flooded with _rivers_ of light!--and _such_ light!
+light all but inconceivable! The golden hues predominated; but in rapid
+succession prismatic colors leaped forth.
+
+"We looked, we saw, and we trembled; for even as we gazed the whole belt
+of aurora began to be alive with flashes. Then each pile or bank of
+light became myriads; some now dropping down the great pathway or belt,
+others springing up, others leaping with lightning flash from one side,
+while more as quickly passed into the vacated space; some, twisting
+themselves into folds, entwining with others like enormous serpents, and
+all these movements as quick as the eye could follow. It seemed as
+though there was a struggle with these heavenly lights to reach and
+occupy the dome above our heads. Then the whole arch above became
+crowded. Down, down it came! nearer and nearer it approached us! Sheets
+of golden flames, coruscating while leaping from the auroral belt,
+seemed as if met in their course by some mighty agency that turned them
+into the colors of the rainbow.
+
+"While the auroral fires seemed to be descending upon us, one of our
+number exclaimed, 'Hark! hark!' Such a display, as if a warfare were
+going on among the beauteous lights, seemed impossible without noise.
+But all was silent."
+
+After the watchers, amazed at what they saw, retired to the cabin, they
+very naturally commenced a lively conversation on what they had
+witnessed. Captain Buddington declared that, though he had spent most of
+his time for eleven years in the northern regions, he had never
+witnessed so grand and beautiful a scene. And he added in an earnest
+tone: "To tell you the truth, friend Hall, I do not care to see the like
+again!"
+
+In November Mr. Hall became acquainted with two remarkable Esquimo whom
+we shall often meet. Their names were Ebierbing and his wife Tookoolito,
+but were known among the white people as Joe and Hannah. They had been
+taken to England in 1853, and lionized there for two years. They had
+visited the great and good of that land at their homes, and had aptly
+learned many of the refinements of civilization. Queen Victoria had
+honored them with an audience, and they had dined with Prince Albert.
+Joe declared that the queen was "pretty--yes, quite pretty;" and the
+prince was "good--very good." They made their visit on shipboard in a
+full-blown English dress, but when Mr. Hall returned their visit in
+their _tupic_ on shore they were in the Esquimo costume. Yet Tookoolito
+busied herself with her _knitting_ during his call. She said, as they
+conversed: "I feel very sorry to say that many of the whaling people are
+bad, making the Innuits bad too; they swear very much, and make our
+people swear. I wish they would not do so. Americans swear a great
+deal--more and worse than the English. I wish no one would swear. It is
+a very bad practice I believe."
+
+Tookoolito's spirit and example had done much to improve her people,
+especially the women; these, many of them, had adopted her habit of
+dressing her hair, and of cleanliness of person and abode. In her and
+her husband, whom we shall meet often, we shall see the Esquimo as
+modified by a partial Christian civilization.
+
+Mr. Hall made frequent visits to the Esquimo village on shore, mingling
+with the people, conforming to their habits, and studying their
+character. Their summer, skin-covered huts--tupics--had now given way to
+the _igloos_, the snow-house, essentially like those we have before
+seen. We will accompany Mr. Hall in a visit made in October. He found on
+creeping into a hut a friend whom he knew as a pilot and boatman; his
+name was Koojesse. He was sitting in the midst of a group of women
+drinking with a gusto hot seal blood. Our white visitor joined them, and
+pronounced the dish excellent. On going out he was met by blind George.
+"Mitter Hall! Mitter Hall!" shouted the blind man on hearing Mr. Hall's
+voice. There was a pensive earnestness in the call which arrested his
+attention. "Ugarng come to-day!" continued George. "He come to-day. My
+little Kookooyer way go! She here now. Speak-um, Ugarng! My little
+pickaninny way go! Speak-um."
+
+The facts were these: Ugarng, who, as we have stated, had married
+George's wife, and taken with the mother his little daughter, was at the
+village attended by the latter. George, who was very fond of the child,
+desired her company for a while. Mr. Hall did of course "speak-um."
+Ugarng and the darling Kookooyer were soon seen in happy intimacy with
+her father.
+
+Mr. Hall's attention was attracted by an excited crowd, who were
+listening to the harangue of a young man. He was evidently master of the
+situation, for at one moment his audience clenched their fists and raved
+like madmen, and then, under another touch of his power, they were calm
+and thoughtful, or melted to tears. He was an _Angekok_, and was going
+through a series of _ankootings_, or incantations. His howlings and
+gesticulations were not unlike those of the heathen priests of the East,
+and of the medicine men of our Indians. On seeing Mr. Hall the Angekok
+left his snow-platform, from which he had been speaking, and ran to him
+with the blandest smiles and honied words. He put his arm in his and
+invited him into his tent, or place of worship, as it might be called;
+others ran ahead, and it was well filled with worshipers. Koojesse, who
+was passing at the time with water for the ship, on a wave of the
+Angekok's hand set his pail down and followed. All faithful Esquimo in
+this region obey the Angekok. If he sees one smoking, and signifies that
+he wishes the pipe, the smoker deposits it in the Angekok's pocket.
+
+When in the tent the Angekok placed Koojesse on one side, and Mr. Hall
+facing him on the other side. Now commenced the service. The Angekok
+began a rapid clapping of his hands, lifting them at times above his
+head, then passing them round in every direction, and thrusting them
+into the faces of the people, muttering the while wild, incoherent
+expressions. The clapping of his hands was intermitted by a violent
+clapping of the chest on which he sat, first on the top, then on the
+sides and end. At times he would cease, and sit statue-like for some
+moments, during which the silence of death pervaded the audience. Then
+the clapping and gesticulations broke forth with increased violence. Now
+and then he paused, and stared into the farthest recess of the tent with
+the fiery eyes and the hideous countenance of a demon. At the right
+time, to heighten the effect, the wizard, by a quick sign or sharp word,
+ordered Koojesse to fix his eyes on this point of the tent, then on
+that, intimating in mysterious undertones that in such places _Kudlago's
+spirit shook the skin covering_! Koojesse, though one of the most
+muscular and intelligent of the natives, obeyed with trembling
+promptness, while the profuse sweat stood in drops upon his nose,
+(Esquimo perspire freely _only_ on the nose,) and his countenance
+beamed with intense excitement. The climax was at hand. The Angekok's
+words began to be plain enough for Mr. Hall's ears. Kudlago's spirit was
+troubled. Would the white man please give it rest? One of his
+double-barreled guns would do it! White man! white man! give Kudlago's
+spirit rest! Give the double-barreled gun!
+
+The cunning wizard! But Mr. Hall, who, though brimful of laugh, had been
+a sober-looking listener, was not to be caught with this chaff, _except
+in his own interest_. He whispers to Koojesse, "Would the Angekok be a
+good man to go with me in the spring to King William's Land?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply.
+
+Then Mr. Hall turned to the Angekok and said aloud, "If you go with me
+next spring on my explorations you shall have one of my best guns."
+
+Thinking the gift was to be given immediately, his crafty reverence
+shouted, thanked Mr. Hall, threw his arms about his neck, and danced
+with an air of triumph about the tent, seeming to say as he looked upon
+his amazed followers, "I have charmed a kablunah"--white man.
+
+Mr. Hall tried to set him right about the terms of the gift--that it was
+to be when he had served him in the spring. But he would understand it
+as he would have it. His joy found a fullness of expression when,
+pointing to his two wives, he said to Mr. Hall, "One shall be yours;
+take your choice." He was disgusted when the white man told him that he
+had a wife, and that kabluna wanted but one wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+THE DYING ESQUIMO.
+
+
+CHRISTMAS and New Year's (1861) were not forgotten as holidays by the
+sojourners in the regions of cold and ice. Mr. Hall gave his friend
+Tookoolito a Bible as a memento of December twenty-fifth. She was much
+pleased, and at once spelled out on the title-page, _Holy Bible_.
+
+Mr. Hall having heard that an Esquimo named Nukerton was seriously sick,
+invited Tookoolito to visit her with him. Sitting down with the sick
+one, with Tookoolito as an interpreter, Mr. Hall spoke to her of Jesus
+and the resurrection, while many of her friends stood listening with
+intense interest. Tookoolito bent over her sick friend weeping, and
+continued the talk about God, Christ, and heaven, after Mr. Hall had
+ceased.
+
+Mr. Hall visited the sick one daily, administering to her bodily and
+spiritual wants. Going to see her on the fourth of January, he found
+that a new snow-hut had been built for the dying one, and her female
+friends had carried her into it, opening, to pass her in, a hole on the
+back side. It was at once her dying chamber and her tomb. For this
+purpose it was built in conformity to the Esquimo usage. He found
+Nukerton in her new quarters of stainless snow, on a bed of snow
+covered with skins, happy at the change though she knew that she had
+been brought there to die, _and to die alone_, as was the custom of her
+people. Mr. Hall proposed to carry her to die on board the ship. But
+even Tookoolito objected to this. It was better she should die alone;
+such was the custom of their fathers. Mr. Hall remained to watch alone
+with the dying one, but, on his leaving her igloo to do an errand at a
+neighboring tent, her friends sealed up its entrance. He threw back the
+blocks of snow piled against it and crept in. Nukerton was not dead; she
+breathed feebly; the lamp burned dimly, and the cold was intense; the
+solemn stillness of the midnight hour had come; sound of footsteps were
+heard, and a rustling at the entrance. Busy hands were fastening it up,
+not knowing, perhaps, that Mr. Hall was within. "Stop! stop!" he
+shouted, and all was silent as the grave. "Come in!" he again said.
+Koodloo, Nukerton's cousin, and a woman came in. They remained a few
+moments and left. Mr. Hall was alone again, and remained until the
+spirit of the dying woman departed. He gently closed her eyes, laid out
+the body as if for Christian burial, closed up the igloo, and departed.
+
+Mr. Hall knew cases, later in his stay with this people, in which the
+dying were for some time alone before the vital spark was extinguished.
+The only attendance that the sick have is the howling and mummery of the
+Angekoks, who are sometimes women. They give no medicine.
+
+Mr. Hall made several sledge excursions with his Innuit friends. One to
+Cornelius Grinnell Bay was full of thrilling incidents, of storms, of
+perils by the breaking up suddenly of the ice on which he had encamped,
+and one showing the wolfish rapacity of Esquimo dogs. He also had a bear
+chase and capture. But these, though full of exciting interest, are
+similar to those of other explorers, already related. The Esquimo
+themselves, with all their knowledge of the ice and storms, have many
+desperate adventures. A party of them was once busily engaged in
+spearing walrus, when the floe broke up and they went out to sea, and
+remained three months on their ice-raft! The walrus were plenty, and
+they had a good time of it, and returned safely.
+
+We have given our readers an incident relating to Mr. Hall's dog,
+Barbekark--a not very creditable incident, it will be remembered, so far
+as that dog's discernment of moral right is concerned. But then we must
+remember that heathen dogs are not supposed to know much in that
+respect. Barbe, as we will call him for shortness, appears again in our
+story in a way which shows that he was very knowing about some matters
+at least.
+
+One day, at nine in the morning, a party of the ship's company, attended
+by the native Koojesse, started for an excursion into Frobisher Bay.
+When well out of sight of the vessel a blinding storm arose, making
+farther progress both difficult and dangerous. Koojesse counseled an
+immediate construction of a snow-hut, and a halt until the storm
+subsided, which was the right thing to do. But the white leader ordered
+a return march. The dogs, as they generally will with a fierce wind
+blowing in their face, floundered about in reckless insubordination.
+Their leader, a strong animal, finally assumed his leadership, and
+dragged them for a while toward some islands just appearing in sight.
+But Barbe set back in his harness, pricked up his ears, and took a
+deliberate survey of the situation. To be sure he could _see_ only a few
+rods in any direction, but his mind was made up. He turned his head away
+from the islands, and drew with such vigor and decision that all, both
+men and dogs, yielded to his guidance. Through the drifts, and in the
+face of bewildering clouds of snow which darkened their path, he brought
+the party straight to the ship! A few hours more of exposure and all
+would have perished.
+
+Young Barbe was a brave hunter as well as skillful guide. On a bright
+morning in March, the lookout on the deck of the "Henry" shouted down
+the gangway that a herd of deer were in sight. Immediately the
+excitement of men and dogs was at fever-heat. The dogs, however, did not
+get the news until Koojesse had crept out, and from behind an island had
+fired upon the deer. His ball brought down no game, but the report of
+the gun called out Barbe with the whole pack of wolfish dogs at his
+heels, in full pursuit of the flying, frightened deer. The fugitives
+made tortuous tracks, darting behind the islands, now this way, and
+then off in another direction. But Barbe struck across their windings
+along the straight line toward the point at which they were aiming,
+while the rest of the dogs followed their tracks, and so fell behind.
+Koojesse returned to the vessel, the hope which just now was indulged of
+a venison dinner was given up, and the affair was nearly forgotten,
+except that some anxiety was felt lest the dogs should come to harm in
+their long and reckless pursuit.
+
+About noon Barbe came on board having his mouth and body besmeared with
+blood. He ran to this one, and then to that, looking beseechingly into
+their faces, and then running to the gangway stairs, where he stopped
+and looked back, as much as to say, "An't you coming? Do come, I'll show
+you something worth seeing!" His strange movements were reported to Mr.
+Hall in the cabin, but being busy writing he took no notice of it. One
+of the men having occasion to go toward the shore Barbe followed him,
+but finding that he did not go in the right direction he whined his
+disappointment, and started out upon the floe, and then turned and said
+as plainly as a dog could speak, "Come on; this is the way!"
+
+A party from the ship determined now to follow. Barbe led them a mile
+northward, then, leaving them to follow his foot-prints in the snow, he
+scampered off two miles in a western direction. This brought the men to
+an island, under the shelter of which they found the dogs. Barbe was
+sitting at the head of a slaughtered deer, and his companions squatting
+round as watchful sentinels. The deer's throat had been cut with Barbe's
+teeth, the jugular vein being severed as with a knife. The roots of the
+tongue, with bits of the windpipe, had been eaten, the blood sipped up,
+but nothing more. Several crows were pecking away at the carcass
+unforbidden by Barbe, who petted crows as his inferiors.
+
+Barbe wagged his tail and shook his head as the men came up, and said in
+expressive dog-language, "See here, now! didn't I tell you so!"
+
+The disturbed and blood-stained snow around showed that the deer had
+fought bravely. One of his legs was somewhat broken in the bloody
+conflict, which incident might have determined Barbe's victory.
+
+The men skinned the deer, and bore the skin and dissected parts to the
+vessel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+CUNNING HUNTERS.
+
+
+OUR sketch of Mr. Hall's Esquimo life brings us to the early summer of
+1861. He had made many excursions in and about Frobisher and Field Bays
+which we have not noted. Their results were mainly valuable for the
+relics obtained of the visits here of the famous old explorer Frobisher,
+nearly three hundred years ago. There were, too, he ascertained,
+traditions among the natives of these visits, as well as that of Parry,
+nearly fifty years before, which so well accorded with the known facts
+as to show the reliability of such traditions.
+
+An incident occurred during one of these excursions which illustrates
+the deceitful effect of refraction in the northern atmosphere. He landed
+on a headland in Frobisher Bay, and secured an enchanting view of land
+and sea. Points of historic interest were under his eye, and nature was
+clothed with a wild Arctic beauty. But an object of still more thrilling
+interest comes in view. A steamer! Yes, there is her hull and
+smoke-pipe, all very unmistakable! See, she tacks, now this way, then
+that, working her way no doubt toward the land on which he stands.
+
+Mr. Hall ran to the camp, and told the good news to Koojesse and
+Ebierbing, his companions. His mind was fairly bewitched with visions of
+news from civilization, from his country, and perhaps letters from his
+dear ones of the family circle. Each shouldered his loaded gun, and
+walked round to the point on the shore toward which the steamer was
+coming. They would make a loud report with their guns, and _compel_
+those on board to notice them. When they reached the spot there was no
+steamer. The Esquimo looked with blank amazement, and turned inquiringly
+toward Mr. Hall. Had she sailed away? No, that was impossible. It was
+only that rock yonder, half buried in snow! There, it does even now look
+like a steamer! Wait a while. No, it no more looks like a steamer than
+it looks like a cow! It is a cruel "sell!"
+
+It will be recollected that the "George Henry" had made her
+winter-quarters in a little nook in Field Bay called Rescue Harbor. From
+his home in her cabin Mr. Hall was going forth on his explorations. But
+the whalers had made a "whaling depot" on a cape of Frobisher Bay, which
+commanded a view of its waters and of the waters of Davis Strait. Here
+they watched for whales, or made excursions after them. To this depot
+Mr. Hall made an excursion with Koojesse about the middle of June. On
+their way over the ice, Koojesse gave illustrations of two Esquimo
+methods of taking seal that were very peculiar. The dogs scented the
+seal and broke into a furious run, making the sledge "spin" over the
+ice. Soon Koojesse perceived him lying with his head near his hole. On
+the instant the dogs and their driver set up a vociferous, startling
+yell. The seal lifted up his head, frightened almost out of his wits, so
+that the dogs were within a few rods of him before he so far recovered
+his senses as to plunge into his hole and escape.
+
+Koojesse said that only young seals are so caught. In this case fright
+had nearly cost the poor seal his life.
+
+At another time Koojesse saw a seal sunning himself, and lying, as is
+their habit, near his hole. The hunter stopped the sledge, took his gun,
+and, keeping back the dogs, lay down and drew himself along upon his
+breast, making at the same time a peculiar, plaintive sound, varied in
+intonation. To this "seal talk," as the Esquimo term it, the animal
+listens, and is charmed into a pleasant persuasion that some loving
+friend is near. He looks, listens, and then lays his head languidly upon
+the ice. So the wily hunter approaches within easy range, the rifle
+cracks, and the fatal ball goes through the vitals of the confiding
+seal. Thus seals, like men, sometimes die of alarm, and are sometimes
+taken in the flatterer's snare.
+
+Mr. Hall found the whale depot a busy place. Numerous tents of the white
+men and Esquimo were grouped together, in the midst of which, on a
+substantial flag-staff, the stars and stripes were waving. The Esquimo
+and dogs proclaimed their welcome in their peculiar way, and the
+officers and crew made the visitor feel at home.
+
+The question soon discussed concerned a boat for Mr. Hall's journey to
+King William's Land. Captain Buddington said seriously that the question
+had been much on his mind, and had been anxiously considered, and his
+painful conclusion was that he had no whale-boat adequate for the
+undertaking. The boat made on purpose for that service, which had been
+lost when the "Rescue" was wrecked, was the only one brought into those
+waters which could convey him safely. To go in any other would be to
+throw away his life. So Mr. Hall said heroically: "I will make the best
+of my stay here, in explorations and study of the Esquimo traits and
+language. Do you return to the States, get another suitable boat, and,
+God willing, I will yet go to King William's Land."
+
+Touching incidents of Innuit life were constantly passing before Mr.
+Hall. Here is one. There was a young man, Etu, about twenty-five years
+of age, whom our old acquaintance, Ugarng, had taken into his favor. Etu
+had the misfortune to be born spotted all over his body, precisely like
+the snow-white and black spotting of the skin of one species of seal.
+His heathen parents seemed on this account to have loathed their child,
+for, after enduring his presence a few years in the family, the father
+carried him to an unfrequented barren island to die. But God, who cared
+for the child Ishmael and the little Moses, watched over Etu. He caught
+the sea-birds which flocked to the land _with his hands_--an
+extraordinary exploit. The summer thus passed and winter came, and the
+boy yet lived. It so happened--shall we not the rather say, God so
+ordered--that a kayak of natives rowed that way. They were surprised
+when they saw a boy alone on a drear island, and the child was
+frightened at their presence. But when they made friendly signs he
+rushed into their arms.
+
+The boy returned to his people, but being shunned and slighted he became
+discouraged and indolent. Such was his situation when Ugarng took him
+into his family. One day Mr. Hall entered the tent of Ebierbing and
+found there a girl thirteen years of age, Ookoodlear, weeping as though
+her heart would break. She also was of Ugarng's family, but had been
+staying with the kind Tookoolito, wife of Ebierbing. Her trouble was
+that Ugarng was coming to take her away and make her the wife of Etu!
+Marry a seal-spotted man! the thought was awful! Then, she was so young!
+
+Ebierbing took with him a friend, and called upon Etu and told him the
+dislike felt toward him of the girl. Poor Etu! Then Tookoolito agreed
+with Ugarng to take charge of Ookoodlear, so the marriage was prevented.
+
+Marriage contracts among the Esquimo are made by the parents or other
+friends, often in the childhood of the parties. Those immediately
+concerned seldom have any thing to do or say in the matter. Among the
+Esquimo of Whale Sound the proposed bridegroom was sometimes required to
+be able to carry off to his igloo, in spite of herself, his intended
+bride. The resistance in such cases on the part of the woman is
+supposed to depend upon circumstances.
+
+There is no marriage ceremony. In these Esquimo communities the two
+great events, marriage and death, transpire without special note. Among
+the natives of the region we are now visiting the newborn child
+generally first sees the light alone with its mother, and in an igloo
+built expressly for her.
+
+Late in July the ice broke up and liberated the "George Henry" from her
+icy prison. The sailors returned on board, and she sailed away on a
+whaling cruise. Mr. Hall was left alone with his Innuit friends. He had
+planned a voyage of exploration in his whale-boat with a crew of them,
+to be absent about two months. On his return, if he found the whalers in
+those regions he would go to the States in one of them; if not, he would
+remain in Esquimo life until their return.
+
+Ebierbing and Tookoolito were of course to be of his party. But
+Ebierbing was taken seriously sick and so was prevented from
+accompanying him, much to his regret. His crew, as finally selected,
+were Koojesse and wife, Charley (his Esquimo name is too long to write)
+and his wife, Koodloo, and a widow, Suzhi, remarkable for her great size
+and strength, weighing two hundred.
+
+The party were off the ninth of August. They passed through Lupton
+Channel, a narrow run of water connecting Field Bay with Frobisher Bay.
+A white whale preceded them, leisurely keeping the lead, as if conscious
+that there were no harpoons in the boat; perhaps he assumed his safety
+from the presence of the women. The sea-fowl were abundant. The Esquimo,
+to save ammunition, adopted one of their own amusing yet cruel ways of
+capturing them. They rowed softly and swiftly to a cluster of them in
+the water. Just as the birds were about to fly the whole crew set up a
+most terrific yell, at the same time stamping and throwing their arms
+about with wild gesticulations. Down go the frightened birds, diving,
+instead of flying, to escape the enemy. The crew now seize their oars,
+and the steerer guides the boat by the disturbed surface of the water to
+the spot where they come up. The moment they show their heads the uproar
+is renewed. Down go the birds again without taking breath. This course,
+though exciting sport to the hunters, is soon death to the poor birds,
+which, exhausted and finally drowned, are picked from the surface of the
+water. One of the ducks taken in this way was a mother with a
+fledgeling. As the parent gasped in its dying agony, the child would put
+its little bill in her mouth for food, and then nestle down under her
+for protection.
+
+The explorers having entered Frobisher Bay, sailed west along its
+northern shore. They camped at night on the land, and made slow progress
+by day. The Esquimo were in no hurry, while Mr. Hall would make good
+time to the extreme west of the bay and survey that line of coast, as
+the waters had hitherto been deemed a strait. But his free and easy
+companions were more disposed to have a good time than to add to
+geographical knowledge. At one time Koojesse, taking up Mr. Hall's
+glass, saw a bear some miles away on an island. Fresh duck was plenty on
+board, and a chase after "_ninoo_" at the expense of time was
+unnecessary. But it would be _fun_; that settled the matter. Away sped
+the rickety old whale-boat, impelled by strong hands. Bruin soon snuffed
+the strangers, stood and looked, then comprehending the danger, turned
+and ran over to the other side of the island. Soon the boat was in sight
+of him, and he plunged into the water. The Esquimo now adopted a part of
+the game they had played so successfully on the ducks. They occasionally
+made a sudden and deafening uproar. Ninoo would stop and turn round to
+see what was the matter, and so time was gained by his pursuers. But he
+made good speed for the main land, and after a while began so far to
+comprehend the situation that no noise arrested his course. On he went
+for dear life. The balls soon reached him and dyed his coat in crimson,
+yet he halted not until one struck his head. This enraged him; he deemed
+the play decidedly foul. He turned, showed his teeth, and this brought
+the boat to a stand-still. The hunters did not care for a hand-to-paw
+fight. The rifle settled the unequal conflict, and ninoo's body was
+towed ashore.
+
+The bladder of the bear was inflated, and with some other _charms_, put
+on a staff to be elevated on the top of the tupic when the party
+encamped, and in the bow of the boat when sailing. This insured good
+luck according to Esquimo notions.
+
+The explorers were, while in camp at one time, in want of oil for their
+lamp. Koodloo found some strips of sea-blubber and carried it to Suzhi,
+who was "in tuktoo"--that is, in bed. She sat up, rested upon her
+elbows, put a dish before her, took the blubber, bit off pieces, chewed
+it and sucked the oil out, and then spirted it out into the dish. In
+this way she "milled" oil enough to fill two large lamps. This done she
+lay down again and slept, with unwashen hands and face. There were no
+white sheets to be soiled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+ROUND FROBISHER BAY.
+
+
+THE explorers found occasionally during their voyage encampments of
+natives. In these many incidents occurred illustrating Esquimo habits.
+At one place the women were busily employed on seal-skins, making
+women's boots. One of them was diligently sewing while her big boy
+_stood_ at her breast nursing!
+
+Before reaching the head of the bay Mr. Hall's party was joined by a
+boat load of Esquimo, and several women canoes. A beautiful river
+emptied into the bay here which abounded with salmon, which proved most
+excellent eating. Vegetation was abundant. The women brought Mr. Hall a
+good supply of berries, resembling, in size and color, blueberries. They
+were deemed a great luxury. Wolves barked and howled about the camp. The
+aurora danced and raced across the heavens in strange grandeur. The deer
+roamed about the rocky coast undisturbed except by the occasional visits
+of the Innuits.
+
+Mr. Hall, having pretty thoroughly explored the head of the bay,
+purposed to return on the side opposite that on which he came. Here were
+hills covered with snow. It had no attractions for his Esquimo
+companions, and they muttered their discontent at the route. Ascending
+one of these hills, Mr. Hall planted on it, with much enthusiasm, a
+flag-staff from which floated the stripes and stars. On returning to the
+encampment he found his tent occupied by several Esquimo busily engaged
+in various items of work. One of the women having done him a favor he
+gave her some beads, asking her at the same time what she had done with
+those he had given her on a former occasion. She said she had given them
+to the Angekok for his services in her sickness. Mr. Hall went to a tin
+box and took out a copy of the Bible and held it up before the woman,
+saying, "This talks to me of heaven!" Instantly, as though a light from
+heaven had flashed upon them all, both men and women left their work,
+and springing to their feet looked at Mr. Hall. At first they seemed
+terrified; then a smile of joy came over their faces, and they said,
+"Tell us what it talks of heaven."
+
+As well as he was able, with but a slight knowledge of their language,
+he unfolded to them the great truths of Revelation. When he paused one
+of his hearers pointed downward, inquiring if it talked of the grave, or
+perhaps meaning the place of the wicked. When he answered "Yes," they
+looked at each other with solemnity and surprise.
+
+But an incident which occurred soon after showed that these Esquimo did
+not feel the presence of eternal things. A white whale had been seen and
+chased by the men and women. He escaped, and the men returned in bad
+humor. As one of the women was helping to unload the boat her husband
+threw a seal-hook at her with great force. She parried the blow, and it
+caught in her jacket. She calmly removed it, and continued at her work
+as if nothing had happened.
+
+Esquimo men are generally the mildest, if not the most affectionate, of
+savages in their relation of husbands; yet in their fits of passion they
+throw any thing that is at hand at their wives, a hatchet, stone, knife,
+or spear, as they would at a dog.
+
+At one time the Esquimo men all left Mr. Hall's boat on a hunt. He
+continued his voyage with the three women rowers. The boat was
+pleasantly gliding along, when in passing an island it fell into a
+current which rushed over a bed of slightly covered rocks with the
+rapidity of a mill-race, seething and whirling in its course. The women,
+though frightened, rowed with great vigor, Suzhi showing herself more
+than an ordinary man in the emergency. For some time the struggle was
+fearful and uncertain. To go with the current was certain death; to get
+out of it seemed impossible. At last slowly, steadily, they gained on
+the rushing current, and then the boat shot into a little cove in
+tranquil waters. They landed and rested six hours.
+
+Mr. Hall had now, September twelfth, been out thirty-five days, and he
+determined to return to Rescue Harbor, hoping to find that the "George
+Henry" had returned from her whaling trip. This pleased the Esquimo, but
+they did not like his south-side route. Koojesse would, in spite of Mr.
+Hall, steer the boat toward the opposite side, and the rowers enjoyed
+the joke. At one time our explorer wished to stop and make further
+examination of a certain locality, but Koojesse was heading the boat
+northward. His captain urged him to stop, and he replied with savage
+sharpness, "You stop; I go!" Even the women rowers when alone with Mr.
+Hall set up an independent authority at one time, and it was only after
+considerable urging that they yielded to the white man. Once when
+Koojesse was acting contrary to orders, Mr. Hall turned upon him with
+tones of authority and a show of determination. He yielded, and five
+minutes afterward the whole Esquimo crew were as jovial as if nothing
+had occurred. Yet it was not quite certain that this was a safe course.
+The life of the lone white man was in their hands.
+
+During this voyage Mr. Hall was treated without stint to the delights of
+one Esquimo practice. We have spoken of the wild songs of their
+incantations, rising often into a dismal howl. One of the crew, a woman,
+had a gift in this way, and when she _ankooted_ the rest accompanied, or
+came in on the chorus. In this way they often made the night of their
+encampment hideous. One day the boat was gliding smoothly along under
+the steady strokes of the rowers. The unemployed were nestling down in
+their furs, dreamily musing, while the dreary expanse of sky and sea was
+profoundly still, save the distant screech of the sea-fowl, and the
+occasional bark of the seal. Suddenly the female enchanter commenced her
+mystical song. Her voice was shrill as a night-bird's, and varied by
+sharp and sudden cracks, like fourth-of-July firecrackers. The Esquimo
+crew came in on the chorus, and the rowers put forth at the same time a
+frantic energy, their eyes glaring and countenances fearfully distorted.
+The whole scene was intensely demoniac. The enchanters seemed
+intoxicated with their howlings, and continued them through the night
+and most of the two following days.
+
+Only one incident more of a noticeable character occurred on this
+excursion. When one of their nightly encampments had just commenced _a
+gold fever_ seized the Esquimo, and shook the little community as if
+they had been white folks. A huge lump of gold had been found! It was
+precisely the article for which the sovereign of England and her savans
+had sent here, three hundred years before, the sturdy Frobisher, with a
+fleet of empty ships. It was emphatically _fool's gold_.
+
+Friday, September twenty-seventh, 1861, the explorers arrived at Rescue
+Harbor. The "George Henry" was already there. Her energetic officers and
+crew had toiled through all the season and taken nothing! The explorer
+and the ship's commander, after a warm supper, sat in the cabin talking
+over the incidents of their experience while separated until a late hour
+of the night. The whole community were jubilant at their return, as
+fears were indulged that the crazy craft had sunk with all its
+occupants.
+
+Mr. Hall was not long in finding the tupic of his friends, Ebierbing and
+wife. When the wife of Tookoolito saw him she buried her face in her
+hands and burst into tears so great was her joy. While chatting with
+them, Mr. Hall heard the plaintive sound of an infant voice. Turning
+back the folds of Tookoolito's fur wrapper a little boy was seen only
+twenty-four days old, an only child.
+
+October twentieth came, and the whalers had secured three whales--an
+encouraging success after a long failure. But her captain had not
+intended to stay another winter. His time was out, and so, nearly, were
+his provisions. But while Rescue Harbor was yet clear of ice, and he was
+getting ready to return, purposing to take with him the still
+enthusiastic explorer, the heavy "pack" was outside of the harbor in
+Davis Strait. It had come, an untimely, unwelcome voyager from the
+north. While the anxious whalemen were looking for a "lead" to open and
+permit them to sail homeward the Frosty King of the north waved his icy
+scepter, and Davis Strait was as unnavigable as the solid land. Another
+winter was spent in Rescue Harbor, and it was not until early in August,
+1862, that the vessel was set free and spread her sails for home. This
+year, too, was diligently improved by Mr. Hall in explorations and the
+further study of the Esquimo language and character. He confidently
+expected to return, after a short stay in the United States, and carry
+out his proposed plan of explorations in King William's Land. He took
+home with him Ebierbing and Tookoolito, with their infant boy,
+Tuk-e-lik-e-ta. The dog Barbekark made one of the returning party.
+
+They arrived in New London September thirteenth, 1862, after an absence
+of two years and three and a half months.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+THE "POLARIS."
+
+
+WE have seen that Mr. Hall's enthusiasm for arctic research was unabated
+when he returned from his first adventure. In 1864 he was off again. He
+sailed from New London in the whaler "Monticello," accompanied by his
+Esquimo friends, Ebierbing and Tookoolito. The "Monticello" entered
+Hudson Bay, landed the daring explorers on its northern shores, and left
+them to their fortunes. From thence they made the long, dreary journey
+to King William's Land, where the relics of Franklin's party had been
+found, some of whom Hall hoped to find alive. For five years he lived an
+Esquimo life, experiencing many thrilling adventures, and escaping many
+imminent dangers. At one time he saved his own life only by shooting an
+assailant who was leading against him a party who had conspired to
+murder him. The result of his long sojourn in this region of cold was a
+store of knowledge of the Esquimo habits and language, but nothing
+important relating to the fate of the Franklin expedition. Many sad
+confirmations were indeed found of the fact before generally accepted,
+that they had all miserably perished.
+
+On his return, Mr. Hall, nothing daunted by hardships and failures,
+commenced writing and lecturing on the theory of an open Polar Sea. As
+he had done before, so now he succeeded in impressing not only the
+popular mind but scientific men and statesmen with the plausibility of
+his theory and the practicability of his plans. Another North Pole
+expedition was proposed; Congress appropriated to it fifty thousand
+dollars, and Mr. Hall was appointed its commander. A craft of about four
+hundred tons, being larger than either of its predecessors on the same
+errand, was selected, and named the "Polaris." She was a
+screw-propeller, and rigged as a fore-topsail schooner. Her sides were
+covered with a six-inch white oak planking, nearly doubling their
+strength. Her bows were nearly solid white oak, made sharp, and sheathed
+with iron. One of her boilers was fitted for the use of whale or seal
+oil, by which steam could be raised if the coal was exhausted. She was
+supplied with five extraordinary boats. One of these must have been the
+last Yankee invention in the boat line. It is represented as having a
+capacity to carry twenty-five men, yet weighing only two hundred and
+fifty pounds; when not in use it could be folded up and packed snugly
+away. The "Polaris" was, of course, amply equipped and ably manned, and
+great and useful results were expected from her. President Grant is said
+to have entered with interest into this enterprise of Captain Hall, and
+the nation said, "God bless him and his perilous undertaking!" though
+many doubted the wisdom of any more Arctic expeditions. A few days
+before his departure Mr. Hall received from the hand of his friend,
+Henry Grinnell, a flag of historic note. It had fluttered in the wind
+near the South Pole with Lieutenant Wilkes, in 1838; had been borne by
+De Haven far northward; it had gone beyond De Haven's highest in the
+Kane voyage, and was planted still farther North Poleward by Hayes. "I
+believe," exclaimed Captain Hall, on receiving it, "that this flag, in
+the spring of 1872, will float over a new world, in which the North Pole
+star is its crowning jewel."
+
+The "Polaris" left New York June 29, 1871, tarried for a few days at New
+London, and was last heard from as she was ready to steam northward, the
+last of August, from Tussuissak, the most northern of the Greenland
+outposts. At this place Captain Hall met our old acquaintance, Jensen,
+of the Hayes expedition. He was flourishing as "governor" of a few
+humble huts occupied by a few humbler people, and he put on
+consequential airs in the presence of his white brother. He would not be
+a dog-driver again to an Arctic exploration--not he! Hall says he had "a
+face of brass in charging for his dogs." But the full complement of
+sixty was made up here, and his stock of furs was increased.
+
+As our voyagers are now about to enter upon the terribly earnest
+conflicts of North Pole explorers, and as their complement of men _and
+women_ are complete, we will further introduce them to our readers.
+
+The commander, Hall, they know; he is well-proportioned, muscular, of
+medium height, quiet, but completely enthusiastic in his chosen line of
+duty, believing thoroughly in himself and his enterprise, yet believing
+well too easily of others, especially of the rough men of his command,
+some of whom have grown up under the harsh discipline of the whale-ship
+or the naval service. The next in command is the sailing-master, Captain
+S. O. Buddington of our last narrative. Captain Tyson, commissioned as
+assistant navigator to the expedition, has been introduced to the reader
+at Frobisher Bay, while in command there of a whale-ship. We shall have
+occasion to become very intimate with him. Here is our old acquaintance,
+William Morton, whom we knew so favorably by his heroic deeds in the Dr.
+Kane expedition; he is second mate now.
+
+Of course, Captain Hall's old friends of his first and second Arctic
+experience, Ebierbing and Tookoolito, his wife, are here. They are now
+known as Joe and Hannah, and although it does some violence to our taste
+to drop their Esquimo names, we will conform to the usage about us, and
+know them in this narrative by these English names. They are accompanied
+by an adopted daughter from among their people, about ten years old,
+whom they call Puney.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Buddington.]
+
+And here, too, is our old friend Hans, taken on board at Upernavik.
+Having been with Kane and Hayes, nothing daunted by the perils of their
+voyages, he is here to see, if possible, with Hall, the North Pole,
+though no doubt thinking much more of his twenty-five dollars a month as
+hunter and dog-driver than of the desired discoveries. His wife and
+their three children are with him, for, like a good husband and father,
+he would not be separated from his family. The children are Augustina, a
+girl about thirteen years, heavy built, and most as large as her mother;
+Tobias, a boy of perhaps eight, and a little girl, Succi, of four years.
+Think of such a group daring the known and unknown perils of Arctic ice
+and cold!
+
+With the rest of the ship's company we shall form acquaintance as our
+narrative progresses.
+
+On the twenty-fourth of August the "Polaris" left Tussuissak, and fairly
+began her Arctic fight in the ice, current, and wind encounters of
+Melville Bay. But on she steamed, passing in a few days through the Bay
+into the North Water, into Smith Sound, passing Hayes's winter-quarters,
+yet steaming on by Dr. Kane's winter-quarters, not even pausing to
+salute our old friends Kalutunah and Myouk, sailing up the west side of
+Kennedy Channel, the scene of Dr. Hayes's conflicts and heroic
+achievements, the "Polaris" finally brings up in the ice barriers of
+north latitude 82° 16´. The highest points of previous voyages in this
+direction are far south. That new world of which the North Pole star is
+"the crowning jewel," is less than six hundred miles farther. If that
+open sea located in this latitude by confident explorers was only a
+fact, how easily and how soon would the brave "Polaris" be there! But
+the ice-floe, strong and defiant, and the southern current, were facts,
+and the open sea nowhere visible. The "Polaris" was taken in hand by the
+ice and current in the historic, Arctic fashion, and set back about
+fifty miles. The Ice King had said, "Thus far and no farther," and
+pointed with his frosty fingers southward.
+
+The "Polaris" early in September was glad to steam in under the land,
+anchor to an iceberg, and make her winter-quarters. Captain Hall called
+the harbor "Thank-God Harbor," and the friendly anchorage "Providence
+Berg." He had a right here now, for a little farther north, at a place
+he called "Repulse Harbor," he went ashore, threw the stripes and stars
+to the breeze, and took possession of the land "in the name of God and
+the President of the United States." We shall not expect to hear that a
+territorial representative from this land enters the next Congress. If
+this part of our national domain has a representative in the life-time
+of our distinguished acquaintance, Kalutunah, we nominate him for the
+position, as one of the nearest known inhabitants.
+
+Now commenced in earnest preparations for an Arctic winter. We have seen
+how this is done, and Hall and some, at least, of his officers knew how
+to do it. The hunters were abroad at once, and an early prize was a
+musk-ox weighing three hundred pounds. His meat was tender and good,
+having no musky odor. This was but the beginning of the good gunning
+afforded by this far northern region. Two seals were soon after shot.
+The country was found to abound in these, and in geese, ducks, rabbits,
+wolves, foxes, partridges, and bears. The scurvy was not likely to
+venture near our explorers.
+
+A pleasant incident occurred on shipboard about this time which the
+reader will better appreciate as our story progresses. It was September
+twenty-fourth. The Sabbath religious service of the preceding day had
+been conducted by Chaplain Bryant in his usual happy manner. At its
+close Commander Hall made some kind, earnest remarks to the men by which
+their rough natures were made tender, and they sent a letter from the
+forecastle to the cabin expressing to him their thanks. To this he
+replied in the following note:--
+
+      "SIRS: The reception of your letter of thanks to me of
+      this date I acknowledge with a heart that deeply feels
+      and fully appreciates the kindly feeling that has
+      prompted you to this act. I need not assure you that
+      your commander has, and ever will have, a lively
+      interest in your welfare. You have left your homes,
+      friends, and country; indeed, you have bid farewell
+      for a time to the whole civilized world, for the
+      purpose of aiding me in discovering the mysterious,
+      hidden parts of the earth. I therefore must and shall
+      care for you as a prudent father cares for his
+      faithful children."
+
+October tenth, after careful preparation, Captain Hall started northward
+on an experiment in the way of sledging. He purposed more extended
+sledge journeys in the spring, until the Pole itself should be reached.
+He took two sledges, drawn by seven dogs each. Captain Hall and Joe
+accompanied one, and Mr. Chester, the mate, and Hans, the other. Their
+experience on this trip was simply of the Arctic kind, of which we have
+seen so much. Deep snows, treacherous ice, which was in a state of
+change by the action of winds and currents, intense cold, and vexed and
+vicious dogs, all put in their appearance. But Captain Hall says, "These
+drawbacks are nothing new to an Arctic traveler. We laugh at them, and
+plod on determined to execute the service faithfully to the end." The
+sledge expedition was gone two weeks, and traveled north fifty miles.
+They discovered a lake and a river. They came to the southern cape of a
+bay which they had seen from the "Polaris" in her drift from above. They
+named the bay Newman Bay, and attached Senator Sumner's name to the
+cape. From the top of an iceberg they surveyed the bay, and believed it
+extended inland thirty miles. Crossing the mouth of the bay they
+clambered up its high northern cape, which they called Brevoort. Here
+they looked westward over the waters up which a good distance past this
+point the "Polaris" had sailed, and which they had named Robeson Strait.
+They peered longingly into the misty distance, and fondly hoped to
+penetrate it with sledge or steamer in the spring. Joe, the architect of
+the journey, built here their sixth snow-hut. It was warmer than at
+Thank-God Harbor, and birds, musk-oxen, foxes, and rabbits, were seen,
+and bear and wolf tracks were in the vicinity. Captain Hall was joyous
+at the future prospect. He wrote a dispatch from this high latitude in
+which he says, "We have all been well up to this time." A copy of it was
+placed in a copper cylinder and buried under a pile of stones. The party
+turned their faces homeward; Captain Hall's Arctic explorations were
+ended.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+DISASTER.
+
+
+[Illustration: Unloading Stores from the "Polaris."]
+
+ABOUT noon of October twenty-fourth Captain Hall and his party were seen
+in the distance approaching the ship. Captain Tyson, the assistant
+navigator, went out to meet them. Not even a dog had been lost, and
+Captain Hall was jubilant over his trip and the future of the
+expedition. While he was absent the work of banking up the "Polaris"
+with snow as an increased defense against the cold, the building of a
+house on shore for the stores, and their removal to it from the ship,
+had gone forward nearly to completion. He looked at the work, greeted
+all cheerfully, and entered the cabin. He obtained water, and washed and
+put on clean underclothes. The steward, Mr. Herron, asked him what he
+would have to eat, expressing at the same time a wish to get him
+"something nice." He thanked him, but said he wanted only a cup of
+coffee, and complained of the heat of the cabin. He drank a part of the
+cup of coffee and set it aside. Soon after he complained of sickness at
+the stomach, and threw himself into his berth. Chester, the mate, and
+Morton, second mate, watched with him all night, during which he was at
+times delirious. It was thought he was partially paralyzed. The
+surgeon, Dr. Bessel, was in constant attendance, but after temporary
+improvement he became wildly delirious, imagining some one had poisoned
+him, and accused first one, then another. He thought he saw blue gas
+coming from the mouths of persons about him. He refused clean stockings
+at the hand of Chester, thinking they were poisoned, and he made others
+taste the food tendered him before taking it himself, even that from
+sealed cans opened in his cabin. During the night of November seventh he
+was clear in his mind, and as Surgeon Bessel was putting him to bed and
+tucking him in, he said in his own kind tone, "Doctor, you have been
+very kind to me, and I am obliged to you." Early in the morning of
+November eighth he died, and with his death the American North Polar
+Expedition was ended.
+
+The grave of their beloved commander was dug by the men under Captain
+Tyson, inland, southeast, about a half mile from the "Polaris." The
+frozen ground yielded reluctantly to the picks, and the grave was of
+necessity very shallow.
+
+On the eleventh a mournful procession moved from the "Polaris" to the
+place of burial. Though not quite noon it was Arctic night. A weird,
+electric light filled the air, through which the stars shone
+brilliantly. Captain Tyson walked ahead with a lantern, followed by
+Commander Buddington and his officers, and then by the scientific corps,
+which included the chaplain, Mr. Bryan; the men followed, drawing the
+coffin on a sled, one of their number bearing another lantern. The
+fitting pall thrown over the coffin was the American flag. Following the
+sled were the Esquimo--last in the procession but not the least in the
+depth and genuineness of their sorrow. At the grave, Tyson held the
+light for the chaplain to read the burial service. As the solemn, yet
+comforting words were uttered, "I am the resurrection and the life,
+saith the Lord," all were subdued to tears. Only from the spirit of the
+Gospel, breathing its tender influence through these words, was there
+any cheerful inspiration. The day was cold and dismal, and the wind
+howled mournfully. Inland over a narrow snow-covered plain, and in the
+shadowy distance, were huge masses of slate-rock, the ghostly looking
+sentinels of the barren land beyond. Seaward was the extended ice of
+Polaris Bay, and the intervening shore strown with great ice-blocks in
+wild confusion. About five hundred paces away was the little hut called
+an observatory, and from its flag-staff drooped at half-mast the stars
+and stripes.
+
+Far away were his loved family and friends, whose prayers had followed
+him during his adventures in the icy north, who even now hoped for his
+complete success and safe return; and far away the Christian burial
+place where it would have been to them mournfully pleasant to have laid
+him. But he who had declared that he loved the Arctic regions, and to
+whose ears there was music in its wailing winds, and to whose eyes there
+was beauty in its rugged, icy barrenness, had found his earthly
+resting-place where nature was clothed in its wildest Arctic features.
+A board was erected over his grave in which was cut:--
+
+    "TO THE MEMORY OF
+
+    C. F. HALL,
+
+    _Late Commander of the North Polar Expedition._
+
+    Died November 8, 1871,
+
+    Aged fifty years."
+
+When the funeral procession had returned to the ship, all moved about in
+the performance of their duty in gloomy silence. It is sad to record
+that the great affliction caused by the death of Hall was rendered more
+intense by the moral condition of the surviving party. Two hideous
+specters had early in the expedition made their appearance on board the
+"Polaris." They were the spirits of Rum and Discord! Commander Hall had
+forbidden the admission of liquor on shipboard, but it had come _with_
+the medicines whether _of_ them or not. It was put under the key of the
+locker, but it broke out--no, we will not do injustice even to this
+foulest of demons: _an officer_, selected to guard the safety and
+comfort of the ship's company, broke open the locker and let it out.
+This brought upon him a reprimand from Captain Hall, and later a letter
+of stricture upon his conduct. The doctor's alcohol could not be safely
+kept for professional purposes, which raised "altercations" on board. So
+Rum and Discord, always so closely allied, went stalking through the
+ship, with their horrid train. Insubordination, of course, was from the
+first in attendance. Hall had, it would seem, in part _persuaded_ into
+submission this ghastly specter. Where, on shipboard, the lives of all
+depend upon submission to one will, rebellion becomes, in effect,
+murder. We have seen that Dr. Kane argued down this bloody intruder by a
+pistol in a steady hand leveled at the head of the chief rebel; and that
+Dr. Hayes saved his boat party by the same persuasive influence over
+Kalutunah. But Hall was not reared in the navy, and was cast in a gentle
+mold.
+
+On the Sunday following the burial of Hall it was announced that from
+that time the Sunday service would be omitted. "Each one can pray for
+himself just as well," it was remarked. The faithful chaplain, however,
+seems to have held religious service afterward for such as pleased to
+attend. Hall had taken great pleasure in it, and it had, we think,
+attended every Arctic expedition through which we have carried the
+reader.
+
+After such a purpose to dismiss public worship from the vessel we are
+not surprised to learn that "the men made night hideous by their
+carousings." Nature without had ceased to distinguish night from day,
+and our explorers did not follow the example of their predecessors in
+this region, and _make_ day and night below decks by requiring the light
+to be put out at a stated hour. So the noise and card-playing had all
+hours for their own. Under these circumstances, as if to make the
+"Polaris" forecastle the counterpart of one of our city "hells,"
+pistols were put into the hands of the men. Discord was now armed, and
+Alcohol was at the chief place of command.
+
+The Christmas came, but no religious service with it. New-Year's day
+brought nothing special. The winter dragged along but not the wind,
+which roared in tempests, and rushed over the floe in currents traveling
+fifty-three miles an hour. It played wild and free with the little bark
+which had intruded upon its domains, breaking up the ice around it, and
+straining at its moorings attached to the friendly berg.
+
+Spring came at last. Hunting became lively and successful. His majesty,
+the bear, became meat for the hunters after a plucky fight, in which two
+dogs had their zeal for bear combat fairly subdued. Musk-oxen stood in
+stupid groups to be shot. White foxes would not be hit at any rate.
+Birds, trusting to their spread wings, were brought low, plucked and
+eaten. Seals coming out of their holes, and stretching themselves on the
+ice to enjoy dreamily a little sunshine, to which they innocently
+thought they had a right as natives of the country, were suddenly
+startled by the crack of the rifles of Hans and Joe, and often under
+such circumstances died instantly of lead. It seemed hardly fair. In
+fact we are confident that the animals about Polaris Bay contracted a
+prejudice against the strangers, except the white foxes, who could not
+see what _hurt_ these hunters did--at least to foxes--and they were of a
+mind that it was decided fun to be hunted by them.
+
+The Esquimo have been in this high latitude in the not distant past, as
+a piece of one of their sledges was found.
+
+Soon after Hall's death the chief officers had mutually pledged in
+writing that, "It is our honest intention to honor our flag, and to
+hoist it upon the most northern point of the earth." During the spring
+and summer some journeys northward were made, but were not extended
+beyond regions already visited. The eye which would have even now looked
+with hope and faith to the region of the star which is the "crowning
+jewel" of the central north, was dim in death. Captain Buddington, now
+in chief command, had faith and hope in the homeward voyage only.
+
+[Illustration: Perilous Situation of the "Polaris."]
+
+On the twelfth of August, 1872, the "Polaris" was ready, with steam up,
+for the return trip. On that very day there was added to the family of
+Hans a son. All agreed to name him Charlie Polaris, thus prettily
+suggesting the name of the late commander and of the ship. Little
+Charlie was evidently disgusted with his native country, for he
+immediately turned his back upon it, the ship steaming away that
+afternoon. The "Polaris" had made a tolerably straight course up, but
+now made a zig-zag one back. On she went, steaming, drifting, banging
+against broken floes, through the waters over which we have voyaged with
+Kane and Hayes, until they came into the familiar regions of Hayes's
+winter-quarters. On the afternoon of the fifteenth of October the wind
+blew a terrific gale from the north-west. The floe, in an angry mood,
+_nipped_ the ship terribly. She groaned and shrieked, in pain but not in
+terror, for with her white oak coat of mail she still defied her icy
+foe, now rising out of his grasp, and then falling back and breaking for
+herself an easier position. The hawsers were attached to the floe, and
+the men stood waiting for the result of the combat on which their lives
+depended. At this moment the engineer rushed to the deck with the
+startling announcement that the "Polaris" had sprung a leak, and that
+the water was gaining on the pumps. "The captain threw up his arms, and
+yelled the order to throw every thing on the ice." No examination into
+the condition of the leak seems to have been made. A panic followed, and
+overboard went every thing in reckless confusion, many valuable articles
+falling near the vessel, and, of course, were drawn under by her
+restless throes and lost. Overboard went boats, provisions, ammunition,
+men, women, and children, nobody knew what nor who. It was night--an
+intensely dark, snowy, tempestuous night.
+
+It was in this state of things, when the ship's stores and people were
+divided between the floe and her deck, that the anchors planted in the
+floe tore away, and the mooring lines snapped like pack-thread, and away
+went the "Polaris" in the darkness, striking against huge ice-cakes, and
+drifting none knew where. "Does God care for sparrows?" and will he not
+surely care for these imperiled explorers, both those in the drifting
+steamer, and those on the floe whom he alone can save, unhoused in an
+Arctic night on which no sun will rise for many weeks, exposed to the
+caprice of winds, currents, and the ever untrustworthy ice-raft on which
+they are cast?
+
+We will leave the floe party awhile in His care, and follow the fortunes
+of the brave little vessel and her men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+THE LAST OF THE "POLARIS."
+
+
+THOSE left on board of the "Polaris" were oppressed with fears both for
+themselves and those on the floe. The leak in the ship was serious, and
+the water was gaining in the hold, and threatened to reach and put out
+the fires, and thus render the engine useless. Besides, the deck pumps
+were frozen up, and only two lower ones could be used. But "just before
+it was too late," hot water was procured from the boiler and poured in
+buckets-full into the deck-pumps, and they were thawed out. The men then
+worked at the pumps with an energy inspired by imminent danger of death.
+They had already been desperately at work for six unbroken hours, and
+ere long the fight for life was on the verge of failure. Just then came
+to the fainting men the shout "steam's up," and tireless steam came to
+the rescue of weary muscles.
+
+As the dim light of the morning of October sixteenth dawned on the
+anxious watchers, they saw that they had been forced by the violent wind
+out of Baffin Bay into Smith Sound.
+
+Not until now, since the hour of separation, had they counted their
+divided company. The assistant navigator, the meteorologist, all the
+Esquimo, and six seamen were missing; part of the dogs had also gone
+with the floe party. Fourteen men remained, including the commander and
+the mate, the surgeon, and the chaplain.
+
+Men were sent to the mast-head to look for the missing ones, but the
+most careful gaze with the best glass failed to discern them. Hope of
+their safety was inspired by the fact that they had all the boats, even
+to the little scow; yet it was not certainly known that the boats had
+not been sunk or drifted off in the darkness, and thus lost to them. So
+all was tantalizing uncertainty.
+
+An examination revealed the encouraging fact that a good supply of fuel
+and provisions remained on board. A breeze sprung up at noon by whose
+aid the "Polaris" was run eastward, through a fortunate lead, as near to
+the land as possible. Here lines were carried out on the floe and made
+fast to the hummocks, all the anchors having been lost. She lay near the
+shore, and grounded at low water. An examination showed that the vessel
+was so battered and leaky, that surprise was excited that she had not
+gone down before reaching the shore. It was decided at once that she
+could not be made to float longer. The steam-pumps were stopped, the
+water filled her hold, and decided her fate.
+
+The sheltered place into which the "Polaris" had by Divine guidance
+entered was Life-Boat Cove, only a little north of Etah Bay, every mile
+of which we have surveyed in former visits. The famous city of Etah with
+its two huts was not far away, but out of it and its vicinity had come
+timely blessings to other winter-bound explorers.
+
+Our party at once commenced to carry ashore the provisions, clothing,
+ammunition, and all such articles from the vessel as might make them
+comfortable. The spars, sails, and some of the heavy wood-work of the
+cabin, were used in erecting a house. When done their building was quite
+commodious, being twenty-two feet by fourteen. The sails aided in making
+the roof, which proved to be water-tight, and the snow thrown up against
+the sides made it warm. Within, it was one room for all, and for all
+purposes. "Bunks" were made against the sides for each of the fourteen
+men. A stove with cooking utensils was brought from the ship and set up;
+lamps were suspended about the room, and a table with other convenience
+from the cabin were put in order.
+
+But before this was done a party of Esquimo with five sledges made their
+appearance. They stopped at a distance, and signified their friendly
+purpose by their customary wild gesticulations and antics. The white men
+at first took them for the floe party, and raised three rousing cheers
+of welcome. We doubt not, though it is not stated, that they were led on
+by our special friend, Kalutunah. The surly Sipsu, it will be
+remembered, had received what he had sought to give to another, a
+harpoon planted in the back, and was dead. So there was left none to
+rival Kalutunah. Myouk, the boy that was, in Kane's day, was reported as
+an old man now. Esquimo grow old rapidly. The whole party went to work
+with a will, having pleasant visions before them of a new stock of
+needles, knives, and other white-man treasures. They clambered over the
+hummocky floe, bringing loads of coal from the ship, and with their
+sleds brought fresh-water ice for the melting apparatus. Several
+families finally came, built their huts near the vessel, and spent the
+winter. The ship-wrecked whites had nearly worn out their fur suits, and
+their supply had been greatly reduced by the losses on the floe. So the
+Esquimo replenished their stock, and their women repaired the worn ones.
+Thus God makes the humblest and the weakest able at times to render
+essential help to the strong, and none need be useless.
+
+The winter wore off. There was no starvation, nor even short rations.
+The coal burned cheerfully in the stove until February, and then fuel
+torn from the "Polaris" supplied its place. The friendly natives brought
+fresh walrus meat, and scurvy was kept away. For all their valuable
+services the Esquimo felt well repaid in the coveted treasures which
+were given them.
+
+The time during the sunless days was passed in reading, writing,
+amusements, and discussions, according to the taste and inclination of
+each. Of course there were some daily domestic duties to be done. The
+scientific men pursued their inquiries so far as circumstances allowed.
+
+The dismal story which has so often pained our ears concerning the
+Esquimo was true of them generally during the winter--they were
+suffering with cold and hunger, and three, one of whom was Myouk, died.
+The explorers returned the Esquimo kindness by sharing with them, in a
+measure, their own stock of provisions.
+
+The spring came, and with it successful hunting. One deer was shot, and
+some hares caught. Chester, the mate, who seems to have been _the_
+Yankee of the party, planned, and assisted the carpenter in building two
+boats. The material was wrenched from the "Polaris." They were each
+twenty-five feet long and five feet wide, square fore and aft, capable
+of carrying, equally divided between them, the fourteen men, two months'
+provisions, and other indispensable articles. When these were done they
+made a smaller boat, and presented it to the Esquimo; it would aid them
+in getting eggs and young birds about the shore.
+
+Clear water did not reach Life-Boat Cove until the last of May. On its
+appearance in the immediate vicinity the waiting explorers put every
+thing in readiness for their departure. The boats were laden, and each
+man assigned his place. Bags were made of the canvas sails in which to
+carry the provisions. What remained of the "Polaris" was given to the
+Esquimo chief--we guess to our friend Kalutunah--as an acknowledgment of
+favors received. On the third of June, in fine spirits and good health,
+the explorers launched their boats and sailed southward. At first the
+boats leaked badly, but they sailed and rowed easily, and proved very
+serviceable. It was continuous day, and the weather favorable. Seals
+could be had for the pains of hunting them, and the sea-fowl were so
+plenty that ten were at times brought down at a shot. On the downward
+trip old localities were touched, such as Etah, Hakluyt Island, and
+Northumberland Island. The average amount of Arctic storms were
+encountered, the drift ice behaved in its usual manner, though not as
+badly as it has been known to do. The little crafts had their
+hair-breadth escapes, and were battered not a little. Every night, when
+the toils of the day were over, the boats were drawn upon the floe,
+every thing taken out, and the only hot meal of the day was prepared.
+Each boat carried pieces of rope from the "Polaris," and a can of oil.
+With these a fire was made in the bottom of an iron pot. Over this fire
+they made their steaming pots of tea.
+
+The party halted a while at Fitz Clarence Rock in Booth Bay, about
+sixteen miles south of Cape Parry, and within sight of the high, bleak
+plain on which Dr. Hayes's boat-party spent their fearful winter. On the
+tenth day of their voyaging they had reached Cape York. In comparison to
+Dr. Kane's trip over the same waters, theirs was as a summer holiday
+excursion. But Melville Bay was now before them with its defiant bergs,
+hummocks, currents, stormy winds, and blinding snows--a horrid crew! No
+wonder that the fear prevailed among them that if not rescued they could
+never reach any settlement. Chester, however, said, "We can, and will."
+But the rescuers were not afar off. For another ten days they were made
+to feel that their battle for life was to be a hard-fought one. On the
+twenty-third they saw, away in the distance, what appeared to be a
+whaler. Could it be! They dared scarcely trust their eyes, for the
+object was ten miles away. Yes, it was a steamer, and beset, too, so she
+could not get away. New courage was inspired, and they toiled on. But
+for this timely spur to their zeal they would have lost heart, for one
+of the boats in being lifted over the hummocks was badly stove, and
+their provisions were giving out, though they had calculated that they
+had two months' supply. Soon after they saw the steamer they were seen
+by the watch from the mast-head. They were taken for Esquimo, but a
+sharp lookout was kept upon their movement, which soon showed them to be
+white men. Signals of recognition were immediately given, and eighteen
+picked men were sent to their relief. Seeing this, Captain Buddington
+sent forward two men, and the rescuers soon met and returned with them.
+With even this addition to their strength, it took six hours to drag the
+boats the twelve miles which intervened between them and the whaler.
+They were received with a kind-hearted welcome by the noble Scotchman,
+Captain Allen, of the "Ravenscraig," of Dundee. Their toils were over,
+and their safety insured. We will return to those on the floe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+THE FEARFUL SITUATION.
+
+
+ONE of the anchors of the "Polaris," in starting on the night of the
+separation, tore off a large piece of the floe with three men upon it.
+As the "Polaris" swept past them they cried out in agony, "What shall we
+do?" Captain Buddington shouted back, "We can do nothing for you. You
+have boats and provisions; you must shift for yourselves." This was the
+last word from the "Polaris."
+
+Seeing the sad plight of these men, Captain Tyson, who from the first
+had been upon the floe, took "the donkey," a little scow which had been
+tossed upon the ice, and attempted to rescue them. But the donkey almost
+at once sunk, and he jumped back upon the floe and launched one of the
+boats. Some of the other men started in the other boat at the same time,
+and the three men were soon united to the rest of the floe party.
+
+One of the last things Tyson drew out of the way of the vessel as its
+heel was grinding against the parting floe were some musk-ox skins. They
+lay across a widening crack, and in a moment more would have been sunk
+in the deep, or crushed between colliding hummocks. Rolled up in one of
+them, and cozily nestling together, were two of Hans's children! Does
+not God care for _children_!
+
+Our darkness and storm-beset party did not dare to move about much, for
+they could not tell the size of the ice on which they stood, nor at what
+moment they might step off into the surging waters. So they rolled
+themselves up in the musk-ox skins and _slept_! Captain Tyson alone did
+not lie down, but walked cautiously about during the night. The morning
+came, and with it a revelation of their surroundings. Huge bergs were in
+sight which had in the storm and darkness charged upon the floe, and
+caused the breaking up of the preceding night. It had been a genuine
+Arctic assault. Their own raft was nearly round, and about four miles in
+circumference, and immovably locked between several grounded bergs. It
+was snow-covered, and full of hillocks and intervening ponds of water
+which the brief summer sun had melted from their sides. Those who had
+laid down were covered with snow, and looked like little mounds. When
+the party roused, the first thing they thought of was the ship. But she
+was nowhere to be seen. A lead opened to the shore inviting their escape
+to the land. Captain Tyson ordered the men to get the boats in immediate
+readiness, reminding them of the uncertainty of the continued opening of
+the water, and of the absolute necessity of instant escape from the floe
+in order to regain the ship and save their lives. But the men were in no
+hurry, and obedience to orders had long been out of their line. They
+were hungry and tired, and were determined to eat first; and they didn't
+want a cold meal, and so they made tea and chocolate, and cooked canned
+meat. This done they must change their wet clothes for dry ones.
+
+In the mean time the drifting ice _was_ in a hurry and had shut up in
+part the lead. But Tyson was determined to try to reach the shore though
+the difficulties had so greatly increased during the delay. The boats
+were laden and launched, but when they were about half way to the shore
+the lead closed, and they returned to the floe and hauled up the boats.
+Just then the "Polaris" was seen under both steam and sail. She was
+eight or ten miles away, but signals were set to attract her attention,
+and she was watched with a glass with intense interest until she
+disappeared behind an island. Soon after, Captain Tyson sent two men to
+a distant part of the floe to a house made of poles, which he had
+erected for the stores soon after they began to be thrown from the
+vessel. In going for these poles the steamer was again seen, apparently
+fast in the ice behind the island. She could not then come to the floe
+party, being beset and without boats, and so Tyson ordered the men to
+get the boats ready for another attempt to reach the land, and thus in
+time connect with the vessel. He lightened the boats of all articles not
+absolutely necessary, that they might be drawn to the water safely and
+with speed. He then went ahead to find the nearest and best route for
+embarking. The grounded bergs in the mean while, relaxed their grasp
+upon the explorers' ice-raft, and they began to drift southward. With
+malicious intent, on came a terrific snow-storm at the same time. Tyson
+hurried back to hasten up the men. They were in no hurry, but, with
+grumbling and trifling, finally made ready as they pretended, one boat
+crowded with every thing both needful and worthless. When at last it was
+dragged to the water's edge, it was ascertained that the larger part of
+the oars and the rudder had been left at the camp far in the rear. In
+this crippled condition the boat was launched. But not only oars and
+rudder, but _will_ on the part of the men was wanting. So the boat was
+drawn upon the floe, and left with all its valuables near the water. The
+night was approaching, the storm was high, and the men were weary, so no
+attempt was made to return it to the old camp. All went back to the
+middle of the floe. Tyson, Mr. Meyers, one of the scientific corps, and
+the Esquimo, made a canvas shelter, using the poles as a frame, and the
+others camped near them. Captain Tyson, after eating a cold supper,
+rolled himself in a musk-ox skin, and lay down for the first sleep he
+had sought for forty-eight hours. His condition seemed to be a specially
+hard one. While, on the night of the great disaster, he was striving to
+save the general stores, the saving of which proved the salvation of the
+company, others were looking after their personal property, so they had
+their full supply of furs and fire-arms, while his were left in the
+ship. He, however, slept soundly until the morning, when he was
+startled by a shriek from the Esquimo. The floe had played them an
+Arctic trick; it had broken and set the whole party adrift on an
+ice-raft not more than one hundred and fifty yards square. What remained
+of their old floe of four miles' circumference contained the house made
+of poles, in which remained six bags of bread, and the loaded boat, in
+which were the greater part of their valuables. Here was a fearful state
+of things! Yet one boat remained with which they might have gone after
+the other one, but the men seemed infatuated and refused to go. Away the
+little raft sailed, crumbling as it went, assuring its passengers that
+they must all stow away in their one boat or soon be dropped in the sea.
+For four days they thus drifted, during which the Esquimo shot several
+seals. On the twenty-first Joe was using the spy-glass, and suddenly
+shouted for joy. He had spied the lost boat lodged on a part of the old
+floe which had swung against the little raft of our party. He and
+Captain Tyson, with a dog-team, instantly started for it, and after a
+hard pull returned with boat and cargo. Soon after, their old floe, in
+an accommodating mood, thrust itself against the one they were on, the
+boats were passed over, and every thing was again together--boats and
+provisions.
+
+Let us now look around upon our party more critically. The whole number
+was twenty, including the ten weeks' old Charlie Polaris, who, of
+course, was somebody. As we have stated, _all_ the Esquimo were of this
+party. Both the cook and steward were here. Much the larger number of
+the dogs belonging to the expedition were on the floe, but no sledges.
+Fortunately, in addition to the two boats, one of the kayaks had been
+saved. It might, in the skillful hands of a Joe, meet some emergency.
+
+As there was only faint hope now of again seeing the "Polaris," and as
+their ice-boat seemed to sail farther and farther from the shore, they
+began to make the best winter-quarters their circumstances allowed.
+Under the direction of Joe, as architect and builder, several snow
+houses were put up. One was occupied by Captain Tyson and Mr. Myers; one
+by Joe and family; a larger one by the men; and one was used for the
+provisions, and one for a cook house. All these were united by an arched
+passage way. Hans and family located their house apart from the others,
+but near.
+
+The huts erected, their next pressing need was sledges. The men, with
+great difficulty, dragged some lumber from the old store-house, and a
+passable one was made.
+
+Though the quantity of provisions was quite large, yet with nineteen
+persons to consume it, (not to reckon little Charlie's mouth, who looked
+elsewhere for his supply,) and with possibly no addition for six months,
+it was alarmingly small. Besides, in their unprincipled greed, some of
+the party broke into the store-room and took more than a fair allowance.
+So the party agreed upon two meals a day, and a weighed allowance at
+each meal.
+
+It was now the last of October. The sun had ceased to show his pleasant
+face, and the long night was setting in. To add to their discomfort, the
+question of light and fuel assumed a serious aspect. The men, either
+from want of skill or patience, or both, did not succeed well in using
+seal fat for these purposes, in the Esquimo fashion; so they began, with
+a reckless disregard to their future safety, to break up and burn one of
+the boats.
+
+Hans, with a true Esquimo instinct, when the short allowance pinched
+him, began to kill and eat the dogs. He might be excused, however. Four
+children, with their faces growing haggard, looked to him for food.
+
+Thus situated, our floe party drifted far away from the land--drifting
+on and on, whether they slept or woke--drifting they knew not to what
+end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+THE WONDERFUL DRIFT.
+
+
+EARLY in November Captain Tyson saw through his glass, about twelve
+miles off to the southeast, the Cary Islands, so they were in the "North
+water" of Baffin Bay, and south-west from Cape Parry, where we have been
+so many times. From this cape, or a little south of it, it would not be
+a great sledge trip to where they last saw the "Polaris," and where they
+had reason to think she now was. So our party made one more effort to
+reach the shore. The boats being in readiness the night before, they
+started early in the morning. Of course their day was now only a noon
+twilight, and the _morning_ was most midday. But the floe was not in a
+favoring mood. The hummocks were as hard in their usage of the boats and
+men as usual. The deceitful cracks in the ice at one time put the lives
+of the dogs and men in great peril; and, as if these obstacles were not
+enough, a storm brought up its forces against them. They had dragged the
+boats half way to the shore when they retreated "before superior
+forces."
+
+Their huts being of perishable material, were reconstructed. A little
+later the men built a large snow hut as "a reserve." All were weak
+through insufficient food. Mr. Meyers was nearly prostrate, and went to
+live with the men; Captain Tyson, whose scanty clothing, added to care
+and short rations, caused him to suffer much, took up his quarters with
+Joe and Hannah, and their little Puney. Not the least of the trial in
+the Esquimo huts were the piteous cries of the children for food. Joe
+and Hans were out with their guns every day during the three hours'
+twilight, hunting seals. The first one captured was shot by Joe,
+November sixth. Nearly two weeks passed before any further success
+attended the hunters; then several were shot, and Captain Tyson, who was
+ready to perish, had one full meal--a meal of uncooked seal meat, skin,
+hair, and all, washed down with seal blood. _Some_ others had not been
+so long without a full meal, as the bread continued to be stolen.
+
+The _home_ Thanksgiving Day came. A little extra amount of the canned
+meat was allowed each one, and all had a taste of mock-turtle soup and
+canned green corn, kept for this occasion, to which was added a few
+pieces of dried apple. How far it all fell short of the _home_ feast may
+be judged by the fact that Captain Tyson, to satisfy the fierce hunger
+which remained after dinner, finished "with eating strips of frozen
+seals' entrails, and lastly seal skin, hair and all."
+
+The hunters had seen tracks of bears, so they were on the lookout for
+them while they hunted seal. One day Joe and Hans went out as usual with
+their guns. They lost sight of each other and of the camp. Joe returned
+quite late, expecting to find Hans already in his hut. When he learned
+that he had not returned, he, as well as others, felt concerned about
+him. Accompanied by one of the men, he went in search of him. As the
+two, guns in hand, were stumbling over the hummocks, they saw in the
+very dim twilight, as they thought, a bear. Their guns were instantly
+leveled and brought to the sight, and their mouths almost tasted a
+bear-meat supper. "Hold on there! That's not a bear! what is it?" "Why,
+it's Hans!" Well, he _did_ look in the darkness like a bear, as in his
+shaggy coat he clambered, on all-fours, over the ice-hills.
+
+December came in with its continuous night. Seals could not be
+successfully hunted in the darkness, and where seals could not be seen
+bears would not make their appearance. The rations became smaller than
+ever, and ghastly, horrid starvation seemed encamped among our drifting,
+forlorn party. Under these circumstances a specter even _worse_ than
+starvation appeared to Joe. To him, at least, it was a terrifying
+reality. It was the demon form of Cannibalism! He had looked into the
+eyes of the men in the big hut, and they spoke to him of an intention to
+save themselves by first killing and eating Hans and family, and then
+taking him and his. He and Hannah were greatly terrified, and he handed
+his pistol to Captain Tyson, which he was not willing to part with
+before. He was assured that the least child should not be touched for so
+horrid a purpose without such a defense as the pistol could give.
+
+Christmas came. The last ham had been kept for this occasion, and it was
+divided among all, with a few other dainties, in addition to the usual
+morsel.
+
+The shore occasionally appeared in the far away distance. They were
+drifting through Baffin Bay toward the _western_ side, so that their
+craft evidently did not intend to land them at any of the familiar ports
+of Greenland. It seemed to have an ambition to drop them nearer home.
+
+As the year was going out, and Joe's family were gnawing away at some
+_dried_ seal skin, submitted, to be sure, to a process Hannah called
+cooking, a shout was heard from him. "Kayak! kayak!" he cried. He had
+shot a seal, and it was floating away. Fortunately the kayak was at
+hand, and the game was bagged. As usual, it was divided among all. The
+_eyes_ were given to Charlie Polaris, and they were nice in his eyes,
+and mouth, too.
+
+New Year's came, and Captain Tyson dined on two feet of frozen seal
+entrails, and a little seal fat. There was now nothing to burn except
+what little seal blubber they could spare for that purpose. One boat had
+been burned, their only sled had gone the same way, and the reckless,
+desperate men could hardly be restrained from burning the only one now
+remaining, and thus cut off all good hope of final escape. To be sure,
+their provocation to this act was very great; the temperature was
+thirty-six below zero! In their strait, the desperate expedient was
+entertained of trying to get to land. The emaciated men would have to
+drag the loaded boat over the hummocky ice without a sledge. The women
+and children must be added to the load or abandoned. It would be a
+struggle for life against odds more fearful than that which now
+oppressed them. But what _should_ they do! God knew! Hark! what shout is
+that! "Kayak! kayak!" The kayak was at hand, but it had to be carried a
+mile. Yet it paid, for a seal shot by Joe was secured just in time to
+keep the men from utter desperation. To this item of comfort another was
+added a few days later. The sun reappeared January nineteenth, after an
+absence of eighty-three days, and remained shining upon them two hours.
+He brought hope to fainting hearts. Through January there was a seal
+taken at long intervals, but one always came just before it was too
+late! The men continued to grumble and deceive themselves with the idea
+of soon getting to Disco, "where rum and tobacco were plenty." How sad
+that man can sink _below_ the brute, which, however hungry, never cries
+out for "rum and tobacco!"
+
+Leaving for a moment the white men, let us look into the Esquimo huts
+and see how the terrible condition of things affects them. The men are
+almost always out hunting, but just now, as we step into Joe's snow
+dwelling, he is at home. The only light or fire is that which comes from
+the scanty supply of seal oil. Captain Tyson is trying to write with a
+pencil in his journal, but he appears cold in his scanty covering of
+furs, and looks weak and hungry. Joe and Hannah are striving to pass
+away the weary hours by playing checkers on an old piece of canvas which
+the captain has marked into squares with his pencil. They are using
+buttons for men, and seem quite interested in the game. Little Puney is
+sitting by, wrapped in a musk-ox skin, uttering at intervals a low,
+plaintive cry for food. It is the most cheerful home "on board" the
+floe, but surely it is cheerless enough.
+
+We shall not wish to tarry long in the hut of Hans, for besides the
+unavoidable misery of the place, Mr. and Mrs. Hans are noted for the
+boarders they keep--about their persons. Under the most favorable
+circumstances they regard bathing as one of the barbarous customs of
+civilization. The reader will recollect that the first experience Mrs.
+Hans had of a personal cleansing was on board Dr. Hayes's vessel, and
+she then thought it a joke imposed by the white people's religion, too
+grievous to be borne. On another exploring vessel she and her husband
+were cruelly required to put off their long-worn garments, wash and put
+on clean ones, and put the old "in a strong pickle," for an obvious
+reason. It is not certainly known that they were ever washed at any
+other times.
+
+Mrs. Hans's hut is not in the most tidy order, but the circumstances
+must be taken into the account, and also the fact of the sad neglect of
+her early domestic education. We have just drifted from her native
+land--or, rather, _ice_--where she was married, in Dr. Kane's time, it
+being a runaway match, at least on the part of the husband.
+
+Well, here they are, father, mother, and four children, on a voyage
+unparalleled in the history of navigation. Mr. and Mrs. Hans do not play
+any household games; they do not know what to do at home, except to eat,
+and feed the children, and make and mend skin clothing. We know full
+well to what sad disadvantage the eating is subjected at the time of our
+call, and we are authorized to say, to the credit of Mrs. Hans, that as
+to the making and mending, she has been of real service to the men on
+this voyage.
+
+The children of Hans cannot fail to attract our attention and sympathy.
+Augustina, the first-born, usually fat and rugged if not ruddy, is thin
+and pale now, and sits chewing a bit of dried seal skin, or something of
+the sort, and trying to get from it a drop of nourishment; her brother,
+Tobias, has thrown his head into her lap as she sits on the ground. The
+poor little fellow has been sick, unable to eat even the small allowance
+of meat given him, and has lived, one hardly knows how, on a little dry
+bread. Succi, the four-year-old girl, squats on the ground--that is, the
+canvas-covered ice floor--hugging her fur skin about her, and in a low,
+moaning tone repeats, "I is _so_ hungry!" Her mother is trying to pick
+from the lamp, for the children, a few bits of "tried-out" scraps of
+blubber. Little Charlie's head is just discernible in the fur hood
+which hangs from the mother's neck at her back. If he gets enough to
+eat, which we fear is not the case, he is sweetly ignorant of the perils
+of this, his first trip, in the voyage of life. We shall not want to
+stay longer in this sad place.
+
+February was a dreadful month on board the floe. The huts were buried
+under the snow. It was with difficulty that Joe and Hans, almost the
+entire dependence of the party, could go abroad for game, and when they
+did they secured a few seals only, very small, and now and then a
+dovekie, a wee bit of a pensive sea-bird. Norwhal, the sea unicorn, were
+shot in several instances, but they sunk in every case and were lost.
+Hunger and fear seemed to possess the men in the large tent, and Joe and
+Hannah began to be again terrified by the thought that these hunger-mad
+men would kill and eat them.
+
+Now, will not God appear to help those in so helpless a condition? Yes,
+his hand has ever been wonderfully apparent in all Arctic perils. On the
+second of March, just when the dark cloud of these drifting sufferers
+was never darker, it parted, and a flood of light burst upon their camp.
+Joe shot an _oogjook_, belonging to the largest species of seal. He was
+secured and dragged by all hands to the huts. He measured nine feet,
+weighed about seven hundred pounds, and contained, by estimation, thirty
+gallons of oil. There was a shout of seal in the camp! The warm blood
+was relished like new milk, and drank freely. All eat and slept, and
+woke to eat again, and hunger departed for the time from the miserable
+huts it had so long haunted. Joe and Hannah dismissed their horrid
+visions of cannibalism. God was, the helper of these hungry ones, and
+they _were_ helped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+THE WONDERFUL ESCAPE.
+
+
+OUR voyagers needed all the strength and courage which the timely
+capture of the great seal had given them. They had drifted into a warmer
+sea, and windy March was well upon them. Their floe began to herald its
+fast approaching dissolution. The weary and anxious drifters were
+startled by day, and awakened suddenly by night, by a rumbling, mingled
+with fearful grindings and crashes underneath them. Heavy ice-cakes,
+over-rode by the heavier floe, ground along its under surface, and when
+finding an opening of thin ice, rushed with a thundering sound to the
+upper surface. The din was at times so great that it seemed to combine
+all alarming sounds:--
+
+    "Through all its scale the horrid discord ran;
+     Now mocked the beast--now took the groan of man."
+
+On the eleventh a storm commenced. Whole fleets of icebergs, having
+broken away from the icy bands in which the floe had held them, hovered
+round to charge upon the helpless campers. The vast area of ice on which
+they had been riding for so many months was lifted in places by mighty
+seas beneath, causing it to crack with a succession of loud reports and
+dismal sounds, some of which seemed to be directly under them. The wind
+drove before it a dense cloud of snow, so that one could scarcely see a
+yard. Night came with a darkness that could be felt. The icy foundation
+of their camp might separate at any moment, and tumble their huts about
+their ears, or plunge them in the sea. They gathered their few treasures
+together, and stood ready to fly--but where? Death seemed to guard every
+avenue of escape. Suddenly, soon after the night set in, the disruption
+came. Their floe was shattered, with a fearful uproar, into hundreds of
+pieces, and they went surging off among the fragments on a piece less
+than a hundred yards square. They were within twenty yards of its edge,
+but God had kindly forbid the separation to run through their camp and
+sever them from their boat or from each other.
+
+After raging sixty hours the storm abated, and their little ice-ship
+drifted rapidly in the pack. A goodly number of seals were shot, and
+they began to breathe more freely. After a short time another _oogjook_
+was captured, so food was plenty.
+
+March wore away, seals were plenty, and readily taken; and though the
+bergs ground together and made fierce onsets into the pack, our ice-ship
+held gallantly on her way. One night the inmates of Joe's hut were about
+retiring, when a noise was heard outside. "What is it, Joe? is the ice
+breaking up?" Joe does not stop to answer, but rushes out. But in ten
+seconds he comes back in a greater hurry, pale and breathless. "There's
+a bear close to my kayak," he exclaims in an excited tone. Now the
+situation was this: The kayak was within ten paces of the entrance to
+the hut, and the loaded guns, which can never be kept in an Esquimo hut
+on account of the moisture, were in and leaning against the kayak. If
+the bear should take a notion to put his nose at the hut door, and,
+liking the odor, knock down the snow wall with his strong paw, and
+commence a supper on one of its inmates, what was to hinder him? But
+bears, like many young people, often fail to improve their golden
+opportunities. He found some seal fat and skins in the kayak, and these
+he pulled out, and walked off with them a rod or two to enjoy the feast.
+Joe crept out of the hut, and ran to alarm the men. Captain Tyson
+followed, slipped softly up to the kayak and seized his gun, but in
+taking it he knocked down another one and alarmed the bear, who looked
+up and growled his objections to having his supper disturbed. Tyson
+leveled his rifle, snapped it, but it missed fire. He tried a second and
+third time, and it did not go--but _he_ did, for his bearship was taking
+the offensive. Content to see his enemy flee, the bear returned to his
+supper. How many foolish bears have we seen on our explorations lose
+their lives by an untimely _eating_; but some men, more foolish, lose
+_more than life_ BY DRINKING. The captain returned to the field with a
+new charge in his gun. This time it sent a ball _through_ the bear; the
+ball entering the left shoulder and passing through the heart, came out
+at the other side. He staggered, but before he fell Joe had sent
+another ball into his vitals. He dropped dead instantly. This affair
+occurred when it was too dark to see many yards, and was much pleasanter
+in its results than in its duration.
+
+The seal hunting was successful, and with bear meat and blubber, a full
+store, there was no hunger unappeased; but the wind blew a gale, and the
+sailless, rudderless, oarless little ice-ship, now banging against a
+berg, and now in danger of being run down by one, all the while growing
+alarmingly smaller, finally shot out into the open sea away from the
+floe. This would not do. So, feeling that they might soon be dropped
+into the sea, they loaded the boat with such things as was strictly
+necessary, and all hands getting aboard, sailed away. A part of their
+ammunition, their fresh meat, a full month's supply, and many other
+desirable things, were abandoned. The boat, only intended to carry eight
+persons, was so overloaded with its twenty, including children, that it
+was in danger of being swamped at any moment. The frightened children
+cried, and the men looked sober. They sailed about twenty miles west,
+and landed on the first tolerably safe piece of ice which they met. Hans
+and family nestled down in the boat, and the rest, spreading on the floe
+what skins they had, set up a tent, and all, after eating a dry supper
+of bread and pemmican, lay down to rest. Thus, boating by day, and
+camping on the ice at night for several days, they drew up on the fourth
+of April upon a solid looking floe. Snow-huts were built, seals were
+taken, and hope revived. But what is hope, resting on Arctic promises?
+The gale was abroad again, the sea boisterous, and their floe was thrown
+into a panic. Fearful noises were heard beneath and around them, and
+their icy foundations quaked with fear. Joe's snow-hut was shaken down.
+He built it again, and then lot and house fell off into the sea and
+disappeared. Thus warned, the camp was pushed farther back from the
+water. But they did not know where the crack and separation would next
+come. Thus they lived in anxious watchings through weary days, the gale
+unabated. Finally, one night, the feared separation came. All hands
+except Mr. Meyers were in the tent; near them, so near a man could
+scarcely walk between, was the boat, containing Meyers and the kayak;
+but with mischievous intent, the crack run so as to send the boat
+drifting among the breaking and over-lapping ice. Mr. Meyers could not
+manage it, of course, under such circumstances, and the kayak was of no
+use to any but an Esquimo, so he set it afloat, hoping it would drift to
+the floe-party. Here was a fearful situation! The floe-party, as well as
+Mr. Meyers, was sure to perish miserably if the boat was not returned.
+There was only a dim light, and objects at a short distance looked hazy.
+It was a time for instant and desperate action. Joe and Hans took their
+paddles and ice-spears and started for the boat, jumping from one piece
+of floating, slippery ice to another. They were watched in breathless
+suspense until they _seemed_, in the shadowy distance, to have reached
+the boat, and then all was shut out in the darkness.
+
+The morning came, and the floe party were glad to see that the boat had
+three men in it. It was a half mile off, and the kayak was as far away
+in another direction. It was soon clear that the boat could not be
+brought back without a stronger force. Tyson led the way, and finally
+all but two of the men made the desperate passage of the floating ice to
+the imperiled craft. It was with difficulty that, with their combined
+force, the boat was returned to the floe. The kayak was also recovered.
+
+For a brief time there was quiet all around. The aurora gleamed, and
+displayed its wonderful beauty of form and motion; while the majestic
+icebergs, in every varied shape, reflected its sparkling light. The
+grandeur of sea and sky seemed a mockery to the danger-beset voyagers.
+The elements might be grand, but they had combined to destroy them, for
+a new form of peril now appeared. The sea came aboard of their icy
+craft. They were sitting one evening under their frail tent, the boat
+near, when a wave swept over their floe, carrying away tent, clothing,
+provisions--every thing except what was on their persons or in the boat.
+The women and children had been put on board in fear of such an
+occurrence, and the men had just time to save themselves by clinging to
+the gunwale. The boat itself was borne into the middle of the floe. When
+the wave subsided the boat was dragged back, lest another push by a
+succeeding one might launch it into the sea from the other side. It was
+well they did this, for another wave bore it to the opposite edge and
+partly slipped it into the water. This game of surging the boat from one
+side to the other of the floe, was kept up from nine o'clock in the
+evening to seven in the morning. All this time the men were in the
+water, fighting the desperate battle for its safety, and the
+preservation of their own lives; the conflict being made more terrible
+by the fact that every wave bore with it ice-blocks from a foot square
+to those measuring many yards, having sharp edges and jagged corners,
+with which it battered their legs until they were black and blue. It was
+the severest test of their courage and endurance yet experienced. But
+God was their helper. Not one perished, and when the defeated sea was by
+his voice commanded to retire, and the day appeared, they were not
+seriously harmed. But they were cold and wet, without a change of
+clothes and utterly provisionless.
+
+It is not surprising that after their rough handling on the floe they
+should seek a larger and safer one. This they did, launching their
+crowded boat into the turbulent sea, and, working carefully along,
+succeeded in landing safely on one stronger looking; nothing worse
+happening than the tumbling overboard of the cook, who was quickly
+rescued. Here, cold, half-drowned, hungry, and weary to faintness, they
+tried to dry and warm themselves in the feeble rays of the sun, and wait
+for their food at the hand of the great Provider in the use of such
+means as were yet left to them. They had preserved their guns and a
+small supply of powder and shot. Snow and rain came on, and continued
+until noon of the next day, April twenty-second. Their hunger was
+fearful. Mr. Meyers had been slightly frost-bitten when drifting away
+alone in the boat, his health seemed broken, and he was actually
+starving.
+
+In the afternoon of this day Joe went as usual with his gun. He had
+caught nothing on this floe, and now there were no signs of seals,
+though it was his fourth time out that day. What should they do? God had
+their relief all arranged. Joe saw what he did not expect to see, and
+what was seldom seen so far south--a bear! He ran back to the boat,
+called Hans with his trusty rifle, and the two lay down behind the
+hummocks. All were ordered to lie down, keep perfectly quiet, and feign
+themselves seals, the Esquimo helping out the deception by imitating the
+seal bark. Bruin came on cautiously. He, too, was hungry. What are those
+black objects, and what is that noise, he seemed to say? They don't look
+_quite_ like seals! The noise is not _just_ like the seal cry! But
+hunger is a weighty reason with men and bears, on the side of what they
+desire to believe, so the bear came on. When fairly within an easy range
+both rifles cracked, and he fell dead. The whole party arose with a
+shout. Polar was dragged to the boat and skinned. His warm blood slaked
+their raging thirst. His meat, tender and good, satisfied their gnawing
+hunger. They were saved from a terrible death! Seals were secured soon
+after, and hope again revived.
+
+It was not long before their ice-craft crumbled away, so they were
+obliged to repeat the experiment, always full of danger, of launching
+into the sea and making for a larger and safer one. April twenty-eighth
+they were beset by a fleet of bergs, which were crashing against each
+other with a thundering noise, and occasionally turning a threatening
+look toward the frail craft of our drifters. So angrily at last did one
+come down upon them that they abandoned their floe and rowed away.
+Surely there is no peace for them by night or day, on the floe or afloat
+in their boat. They dare not lie down a moment without keeping one half
+of their number on the watch. But what is that in the distance? A
+steamer! A thrill of joy goes through the boat's company. Every possible
+signal is given, but she does not see them, and another night is spent
+on the floe. The next morning every eye was straining to see a whaler.
+Soon one appears. They shout, raise their signals, and fire every gun at
+once. But she passes out of sight. April thirtieth, as the night was
+setting in foggy and dark, the shout from the watch of "steamer" brought
+all to their feet. She was right upon them in the fog before she was
+seen. Hans was soon alongside of her in his kayak, telling their story
+as best he could. In a few moments the whaler was alongside of their
+piece of ice. Captain Tyson removed his old well-worn cap, called upon
+his men, and three cheers were given, ending with a "tiger" such as the
+poor fellows had not had a heart to give for many long months. The
+cheers were returned by a hundred men from the rigging and deck of the
+vessel. It was the sealer "Tigress," Captain Bartlett, of Conception
+Bay, Newfoundland. They soon had the planks of a good ship beneath them
+instead of a treacherous floe; curious but kind friends beset them,
+instead of threatening bergs; and every comfort succeeded to utter
+destitution. They had been on the floe six months, and floated more than
+sixteen hundred miles.
+
+They were speedily conveyed, by the way of Conception Bay and St. Johns,
+to their own homes, the telegraph having flashed throughout the length
+and breadth of the land their coming, and the nation rejoiced. But there
+were tears mingled with the joy, that one, the noble, the true, the
+Christian commander of the expedition, Charles Francis Hall, lay in his
+icy grave in the far north.
+
+As speedily as possible the "Tigress" was purchased and fitted out by
+the United States Government in search of the "Polaris" party. Captain
+Tyson and Joe were among her men. She reached Life-boat Cove about two
+months after Captain Buddington and his men had left. They learned that,
+much to the grief of the natives, the "Polaris" had floated off and
+sunk. The Buddington party arrived home in the fall, by the way of
+England.
+
+As we may not meet our Esquimo friends again, with whom we have made so
+many voyages, the reader will want to know the last news from them.
+Hans and his family returned to Greenland in the "Tigress." Joe has
+bought a piece of land and a house near New London, Connecticut, and
+intends, with his family, to remain there, getting a living by fishing.
+
+Thus ended the last American North Pole Expedition. The last from other
+Governments have not been more successful. Yet, while we write, England
+and Austria are reported as getting ready further North Polar
+expeditions to start in the spring of 1875. It must be allowed that the
+icy sceptered guardian of the North has made a good fight against the
+invaders into his dominions. But the nations of the earth are determined
+to send men to sit on his throne, though they find it a barren and
+worthless, as well as a cold domain.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+_PUBLICATIONS OF NELSON & PHILLIPS_, 805 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
+
+
+    The Story of a Pocket Bible.
+      Ten illustrations. 12mo.                        $1 25
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+      Or, Martin Luther his own Biographer. By Charles
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+      From the German of Rev. Carl Strack. By Catherine
+      E. Hurst. 16mo.                                  1 25
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+      By J. B. Wakeley, D.D. 12mo.                     1 25
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+      A contribution to the History of the Reformation.
+      By J. F. Hurst, D.D. 12mo.                         75
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+      By Charles Adams, D.D. 16mo.                     1 25
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+    Lady Huntington Portrayed.
+      By Rev Z. A. Mudge. 12mo.                        1 25
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+      F. Crafts. 12mo.                                        1 50
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+      And other Stories. By Mrs. H. C. Gardner. 12mo.         1 25
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+      From the French of Madame Carraud. By Mrs. Mary
+      Kinmont. Beautifully Illustrated. Bound in Muslin.
+      16mo.                                              $1 25
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+      By Miss Eleanor Kinmont. With Illustrations. 16mo.
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+      By the Author of "Weldon Woods." Four Illustrations.
+      16mo.                                               1 00
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+      Or, the Lost Diamonds. And The Young Governess.
+      By Mrs. Emma N. Janvier. 12mo.                      1 25
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+    My Sister Margaret.
+      A Temperance Story. By Mrs. C. M. Edwards. Illustrated.
+      12mo.                                               1 25
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+      A Story of the Days of Martyrdom in England Three
+      Hundred Years Ago. Five Illustrations. 16mo.           90
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+      Or, The Feversham Temper. By E. A. W., Author of
+      "The Home of the Davenports," etc. 12mo.            1 25
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+      Or, Evening Amusements for the Little Ones at Home.
+      With Twenty Illustrations by Paul Konewka. 16mo.      75
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+      Or, The Boys and Girls of Pleasant Valley. By Mrs.
+      Sarah A. Mather, Author of "Itinerant Side," etc.
+      12mo.                                               1 25
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+      Or, Life in an American German Family. By Miss
+      Mary H. Norris. 12mo.                               1 25
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+    Through Trials to Triumph.
+      A Story of Boy's School-life. By Miss H. A. Putnam.
+      Illustrated. 12mo.                                  1 25
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+
+HOME STORY SERIES.--No. 1.
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+
+Four Volumes. 16mo. $4 75.
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+LYNTONVILLE LIBRARY.
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+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Text uses "Sunghu", "Shung-hu" and
+"Shunghu" once, also "kablunah" and "kabluna." Text also uses both
+"Fiskernaes" and "Fiskernes." Both are correct.
+
+Page 24, "iceburg" changed to "iceberg" (them an iceberg)
+
+Page 147, "waste" changed to "waist" (naked to the waist)
+
+Page 156, word "the" removed from text. Original read (utter darkness
+the most)
+
+Page 276, "coaked" changed to "croaked" (raven croaked a welcome)
+
+Page 277, "clifts" changed to "cliffs" (ice-covered cliffs of)
+
+Page 292, "been" added to text (Hall had been giving special)
+
+Page 321, "Tookolito" changed to "Tookoolito" (with the kind Tookoolito)
+
+Page 365, "Hugh" changed to "Huge" (Huge bergs were in)
+
+Page 394, "Live" changed to "Life" (Love in Daily Life)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's North-Pole Voyages, by Zachariah Atwell Mudge
+
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