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NORTHWARD
OVER THE'GREAT ICE"
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NORTHWARD
OVER THE "GREAT ICE"
A NarraUve of Life and Work along the
Shores and upon the Intei^ior Ice- Cap
of Northern Green land in the Years
1886 and i8gi-i8gj
WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE LITTLE TRIBE OF SMITH-SOUND
ESKIMOS, THE MOST NORTHERLY HUMAN BEINGS IN THE
WORLD, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY AND
BRINGING HOME OF THE "SAVIKSUE," OR
GREAT CAPE-YORK METEORITES
BY
ROBERT E. PEARY
CIVIL ENGINEER, U.S.N.
MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
MEMBER OK THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
WITH MAPS, DIAGRAMS, AND ABOUT EIGHT HUNDRED
ILLUSTRATIONS
In Two Volumes
VOL. II.
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
M DCCC XCVIII
Copyright, i8g8,
By FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY.
All rights reserved.
Prrsswork by the University Press,
Cambridge, U.S.A.
CONTENTS OF VOL. 11.
PART III.
NORTH-GREENLAND EXPEDITION OF 1893-1894.
CHAPTER
I. — Philadelphia to Cape York
II. — House-Building and Hunting
III. — Autumn and Winter Work
IV. — On the " Great Ice "
v. — On the "Great Ice" {^Coutinued)
VI. — Discovery of the " Saviksue "
VII. — Reconnaissance of Melville Bay — Astrup
VIII. — Meteorological and Auroral Notes — Baldwin
PART IV.
NORTH-GREENLAND EXPEDITION OF 1894-1895.
I. — Boat Voyage, Palcon to Lodge
II. — Boat Voyage, Falcon to Lodge {Continued^
III. — The Walrus Hunt ....
IV. — Transporting Meat to the Lodge
V. — Fall Ice- Cap Work ....
VI. — Fall Hunting, Arctic Day and Night .
PAGE
I
35
63
83
103
121
157
175
205
225
245
265
285
VI
Contents of Vol. II
CHAPTER
VII. — December Journey to Cape York
VIII. — Return from Cape York
IX. — Winter Routine
X. — Sledge Trips of the Long Night
XI. — Miscellanea ....
XII. — A Week at Peterahwik .
XIII. — Upward Ice-Cap Journey
XIV. — The Land Beyond the Ice-Cap
XV. — The Land Beyond the Ice-Cap {Continued)
XVI. — Return Ice-Cap Journey
XVII. — After the Return .
Objects and Results of North-Greenland Expeditions of
1893 to 1895 ....
PART V.
SUMMER VOYAGES OF 1896-1897.
The '' Saviksue " or Cape York Meteorites
PAGE
355
371
393
417
435
459
483
505
5^5
550
551
INDEX OF VOL. II.
619
ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND DIAGRAMS
IN VOL. II.
JOSEPHINE DIEBITSCH PEARY
ESKIMO GIRL OF UPERNAVIK
HEADPIECE
THE "FALCON" .
AHNGODOBLAHO .
THE BURROS .
OUR STATEROOM
BATTLE HARBOUR, LABRADOR
LABRADOR ESKIMO MAN
ROUTE OF NORTH GREENLAND EXPEDITION
LABRADOR ESKIMO GIRL AND CHILD
LABRADOR HOME ....
SPEAKING A GREENLAND PILOT
HOLSTELNBORG, GREENLAND
A 33-INCH BEAUTY ....
NATIVES OF UPERNAVIK
PASTOR MORCH AND HIS CHAPEL
THE CEMETERY AT UPERNAVIK
ANDREAS THE PILOT
TASIUSAK, 73° 24/ N. LAT.
THE DUCK ISLANDS ....
WHALERS' LOOKOUT, DUCK ISLANDS
CAPT. HARRY BARTLETT
CHIEF-ENGINEER FISCHER .
THE "FALCON'S" FIREMEN .
CAPE YORK FROM THE SOUTH .
MIDNIGHT OFF CAPE ALEXANDER
HEADPIECE
GLACIERS OF THE CRIMSON CLIFFS
CAPE POWLETT
THE "FALCON" AT HER MOORINGS
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF FALCON HARBOUR
DISCHARGING SHIP THROUGH TRASH ICE
FRAMING THE HOUSE
JIMMY AND THE DOGS .
LANDING A BURRO .
A TEAM OF DOGS
GREY SANDSTONE CLIFFS
A SCENE IN THE WALRUS HUNT
HOISTING A HUGE BRUTE ON BOARD
CAPE ALEXANDER
CRYSTAL PALACE GLACIER (KANE) .
ICE-PACK OFF LITTLETON ISLAND .
Frontispiece
1893
13
14
15
16
18
19
20
21
23
24
26
27
28
30
36
38
39
40
41
42
44
45
46
48
49
50
51
52
53
55
VIU
Illustrations
EDGE OF THE UNBROKEN PACK
SITE OF POLARIS HOUSE
THE SAVAGE CLIFFS OF NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND .
SCENE IN OLRIKS BAY
"SHE REACHED FOR THE GOLDEN BAR" ....
HEADPIECE
THE DEPARTING "FALCON"
UNCONCERNED ABOUT THE DEPARTURE OF THE " FALCON "
FIRST STAGES OF THE LODGE
SURROUNDINGS OF THE LODGE
THE DINNER HOUR
A BURRO TRAIN .
PAY DAY
THE LODGE NEAPING COMPLETION
THE BABY'S FIRST OUTING
IN THE DINING-ROOM
THE "FA.ITH" STOVE BY THE GLACIER CONVULSION .
THE COMPLETED LODGE
CLIMBING TO THE MORAINE
LEE AT THE MORAINE
TAILPIECE
SUGAR-LOAF MOUNTAIN, MIRROR GLACIER, Etc.
HEADPIECE
FIRST CAMP ON THE ICE-CAP
THE CACHE IGLOOS .....
THE PARTY AT THE IGLOOS
MAKING CAMP
SECURING A LOOSE DOG
TURNING OUT
READY TO START
CAMP EQUINOCTIAI
"THEIR FUR A MASS OF ICE AND SNOW" ....
SOME FROZEN FAST
AFTER THE RETURN
HEADPIECE
THE SIGNAL AT THE CACHE
ON THE RETURN
"SUMMER WEATHER"
KESSUH THE LEADER
ENTRIKIN
BALDWIN
CLARK
PEARY
THE "SAVIKSOAH" AS EXCAVATED FROM THE SNOW
AND ICE
HEADPIECE
SLEDGING INTO OLRIKS BAY
SAVIKSOAH MOUNTAIN FROM SITE OF THE "WOMAN"
FACE OF MARIE GLACIER
SAVAGE GLACIER
COAST EN ROUTE TO PETERAHWIK
FACSIMILE OF PAGE OF NOTE-BOOK
" A GLITTERING WINTRY DAY "
PANIKPAH
TUPIK AT NETIULUMI
56
57
59
60
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
73
74
75
76
77
78
80
81
82
84
85
86
87
89
91
93
94
96
98
99
01
04
05
06
08
Illustrations ix
PAGE
TRAVELLING COMPANIONS 135
A CAVE AT PETOWIK 137
GETTING DOGS ACROSS A LEAD 138
TYPICAL COAST SCENE 139
AT CAPE YORK 141
HEAD OF SAVIKSOAH BAY 142
VIEW EAST FROM THE METEORITE 143
HARD AT WORK 144
LOOKING NORTH ACROSS PETOWIK GLACIER . . .146
COAST NORTH OF PETOWIK GLACIER . . . . .747
PROFESSOR CHAMBERLIN 14S
THE "FALCON" IN THE HARBOUR AGAIN . . . .150
BRIDGMAN AT KANGERDLOOKSOAH 152
CLIFFS OF LION ISLAND 154
TAILPIECE 155
MAP OF MELVILLE BAY 158
HEADPIECE 159
TAILPIECE 174
THERMOGRAPH AND BAROGRAPH SHEETS OF EQUINOC-
TIAL STORM 176
HEADPIECE 177
TAILPIECE 203
MARIE AHNIGHITO PEARY 206
HEADPIECE 207
"THE 'FALCON' SWUNG ON HER HEEL" . . . .208
CONICAL ROCK 209
"A WILD FUR-CLAD CREW" 210
"BLACK CLIFFS OF THE IRON BOUND SHORE". . .211
CAPE ATHOL 212
A STREAM OF DRIFT ICE 213
BIRD CLIFFS OF SAUNDERS ISLAND 214
NUMEROUS KITTIWAKES ON THEIR NESTS . . . .215
THE CLIFF- AND GLACIER-PRISONED DEPTHS OF GRAN-
VILLE BAY 217
RUINS OF BOAT-PARTY HUT 218
BLACK POOEENYAH AND THE IGNIMUT GLACIER . . 219
REMARKABLE BELL ROCK 220
KANGAHSUK (THE GREAT CAPE) 221
TWO KAYAKERS MET US . 222
" ONE OF THOSE WILD SUNSETS " 223
TAILPIECE 224
MLSU-MI-SU GLACIER 226
LIEADPIECE 227
"ONE OF THE ICE-STREAMS OF THIS PRECIPITOUS
SHORE" 228
"PIERCED BY A MAGNIFICENT TUNNEL" . . . .230
HEADING FOR THE ARCHWAY 231
ITTIBLOO GLACIER 233
VIEW IN OLRIKS BAY 234
BOAT CAMP IN OLRIKS BAY 235
SALMON-RIVER GLACIER 237
MT. GYRFALCO 238
THE NARROWS BECAME A CAVE OF THE WINDS . . 239
GREAT LAKE IN THE DEER PASTURES 241
BERGS AND TRASH ICE 243
X
Illustrations
WALRUS HEAD . .
HEADPIECE .......
A KARNAH TUPnC
DISMANTLING A TUPIK ....
MY PICKED CREW .....
ONE OF MY KAYAKERS ....
EASTERN END OF HERBERT ISLAND
A HERD OF WALRUS
FAST TO A WALRUS
WARPING A WALRUS UPON AN ICE-PAN
OUR ICE-RAFT
'•A GREAT BERG LIKE AN OCEAN LINER'
"PUTTING THE STONE" ....
MY WALRUS FLEET .....
WELCOME BACK TO KARNAH
IN FULL WINTER RIG ....
HEADPIECE
THE MISTRESS OF THE TUPH<: .
WOMEN BUILDING IGLOOS .
PLAN OF NIPSANGWAH'S NEW IGLOO
IGLOO UNDER CONSTRUCTIOxN .
WINTER IGLOO
"DRESSED IN A NONDESCRIPT RIG"
THE "MARY PEARY" AND HER CREW
UNDER THE SCULPTURED CLIFFS .
A GIANT BASTION
NARWHAL SKULL
LONG-TAILED DUCKS AND BLACK GUILLEMOT
ARCTIC HARE
A WALRUS STEAK
TAILPIECE
BOWDOIN GLACIER IN OCTOBER
HEADPIECE
LEE AND IIENSON STARTING FOR THE ICE-CAP
"FLAHERTY"
CLIMBING TO THE MORAINE
CARRYING A SLEDGE ....
PACKING . •
DOGS AT THE MORAINE ....
VIEW FROM THE ICE-CAP
HARD AT WORK
IN CAMP
"THE DIM GREY SUNLESS LIGHT" .
GARGOYLE CLIFF, MT. BARTLETT
HEADPIECE
ICEBERG AND YOUNG ICE
CROSS-SECTION PEARY ARCTIC HOUSE
ANNIVERSARY LODGE, PLAN
ANNIVERSARY LODGE, LONGITUDINAL SECTION
ANNIVERSARY LODGE, CROSS-SECTION
THE LODGE
MY SUITE OF APARTMENTS .
DEPARTURE OF SUN ....
"THE GHASTLY PALLOR OF A WHITE AND FROZEN
LANDSCAPE"
246
247
24S
249
250
251
252
254
255
257
258
259
260
261
263
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
274
276
277
278
280
2S1
2S2
2S3
2S4
286
287
288
289
291
293
295
296
297
298
299
300
304
305
306
30S
310
312
314
316
3^8
320
322
Illustrations
XI
TAILPIECE
SLEDGE DOGS
HEADPIECE
"NUMEROUS GLACIERS IN GLISTENING SPLENDOUI-
MADAME TELLIKOTINAH ....
MISS TELLIKOTINAH
RAISED BEACHES
THE BIRD CLIFFS
PARKER SNOW BAY
CHILDREN OF NUIKINGWAH
CAPE YORK IN WINTER GARB .
TAILPIECE . . . . .
TRAVELLING COMPANIONS . .
HEADPIECE
HOMEWARD BOUND
WOMAN IN FULL WINTER COSTUME
"PLUMP, COMFORTABLE AHHU " .
ACCESSIONS TO OUR PARTY
"AHGOTAH OF THE WOODEN LEG"
IHRLLIE
"ROUND FACE GLOWING LIKE A BRONZE SUN
TAILPIECE
TYPE COSTUMES .
HEADPIECE
WINTER VISITORS
AN ARCTIC LAUNDRESS
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY .
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY .
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY .
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY .
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY .
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY.
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY .
AN ESKIMO MOTHER'S BURDEN
"LASSIE" .
A WINTER NIGHT
HEADPIECE
AN UP-GRADE
ELATINGWAH .
MYOUKSOAH .
ESKIMO CHILDREN
"A CANAL OF BLACK WATER AT ITS FOOT"
" THE SAVAGE BLACK LOVER OF THE NORTH WATER
MENDING A KAMIK
DECEMBER MOONLIGHT O'N THE NORTH WATEI
KIOSHOO ....
"KETOO" AND "TOOKY"
KEATE GLACIER .
TOWSER .
LION ....
AN ARCTIC BRONZE
HEADPIECE
BABY LAKE
"HE WEIGHS EIGHT POUNDS"
AHWEAH
324
326
327
328
330
331
333
335
336
337
339
340
342
343
344
345
347
348
350
351
353
354
356
357
358
359
360
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
372
373
374
376
377
379
380
382
383
384
385
387
388
389
390
394
395
396
397
398
xii Illustrations
PAGE
KOODLOOKTOO 399
"PANIKPAH OF THE OLD GUARD" 400
FROST EVERGREENS 401
MY COFFEE-POT 402
SEAL AND HUNTER 403
"A BUXOM AND OLEAGINOUS LADY" ..... 404
ALAKAHSINGWAH 405
AHTOOKSUNGWAH 406
AHWEAHGOODLOO 408
RETURN OF THE SUN -409
AHTUNGAHNAKSOAH 410
ESKIMO DRAWINGS 412
DRAWINGS OF A 14-YEAR-OLD ESKIMO GIRL . . .414
ARROTOKSOAH 415
CAPE ALEXANDER 418
HEADPIECE 419
SIPSU 420
PETERAHWIK .421
KOODLAH 422
TWO MAPS OF COAST BY DIFFERENT NATIVES . . 423
ESKIMO BOY 424
ESKIMO DRAWING 425
A GOOD JOKE 426
PLAN AND SECTION OF SNOW IGLOO AT PETERAHWIK 427
WARMING HIS WIFE'S COLD FEET 428
HEAD OF POLAR BEAR 429
WOMEN PREPARING A BEARSKIN 430
RETURNING FROM PETERAHWIK 432
TAILPIECE 433
THE LODGE IN WINTER 435
HEADPIECE 437
SOKER 438
UP THE LANDWARD SLOPES OF THE ICE-CAP . . .441
MY ESKIMO COMRADES 442
A SHELTER 444
LEE AND THE "LONG SERPENT" 445
A CAMP 446
FEEDING THE DOGS 448
NOOKTAH AND THE "JOSEPHINE" ...... 449
GOOD-BYE 450
THE GORDIAN KNOT WAS NOWHERE 451
THE DISASTER AT THE FOUR-HUNDREDTH MILE . . 453
LEE AND HIS FIREPLACE 454
MATT AND THE TENT-SLEDGE 455
LOOKING DOWN ON THE NORTHERN LAND . . .456
MATTHEW A. HENSON 460
HEADPIECE 461
ICE-CAP CREVASSE ^ 463
"THREE EXHAUSTED MEN AND NINE STARVED DOGS" . 464
MORAINE CONE 467
THE NORTHERN LAND FROM THE MORAINE . . .468
OUR BOULDER SHELTER 470
"HE SANK ON HIS HAUNCHES" 472
"WITH A BULLET BACK OF THE FORE SHOULDER" . 47c
DEAD MUSK-OX 477
Illustrations
Xlll
"THE FAITHFUL SHADOWS WE CALLED DOGS"
SOMBRE NORTHERN LANDSCAPE
HUGH JOHNSON LEE .
HEADPIECE ....
SAMBO, THE MUSK-CALF .
"MUSK-OX IS VERY GOOD'
STILL PUSHING ON .
CATARACT OF THE ACADEMY GLACIER
LOOKING ACROSS ACADEMY GLACIER
GETTING WEARY AGAIN .
A SHORT REST ....
MY LITTLE THEODOLITE .
THE MORAINE FROM THE LAND
VIEW NEAR ICE-CAP .
THE RELENTLESS WHITE SLOPE
TAILPIECE
SOME OF MY INSTRUMENTS .
HEADPIECE
DINNER-TIME
DRIFTED IN
OUR TRAIL ACROSS THE FROZEN SAHARA
THE "PATHFINDER" .
SIX
OF THE "GREAT ICE'
BAY
FIVE
THREE
TWO
"AT LAST THE WHALE-SOUND SUMMITS
"THE SOFT MOTTLED SURFACE OF THE
THE SOLE SURVIVOR .
"FAITHFUL NOBLE SERVITORS"
MIDNIGHT CALM ....
HEADPIECE
THE SHORE LEAD
JULY MIST-WREATHS .
ALONG THE SCULPTURED CLIFFS
CASCADE IN THE SCULPTURED CLIFFS
"MISS BILL" AND HER FAMILY
THE GHASTLY ROCKS OF CAPE SABINE
SAVIKSOAH BAY ....
AN AUGUST SNOWSTORM
CONE ISLAND, JONES' SOUND
WHALER EMERGING FROM THE FOG
WEST COAST AT DEXTERITY HARBOUR
VILLAGE OF WEST-COAST ESKIMOS AT
HARBOUR
ESKIMO WOMAN AT DEXTERITY HARBOUR
TAILPIECE
MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF "SAVIKSUE" AND
OF "HOPE" IN 1897 ....
HEADPIECE
"TENT" OR "AHNIGHITO" METEORITE
EASTERN PART OF METEORITE ISLAND
PANORAMA OF SITE OF SAVIKSUE .
DEXTER
VO\'
ITY
AGP
479
480
484
485
486
487
489
491
493
495
496
497
499
501
502
503
506
507
508
509
5"
512
513
514
515
516
519
521
522
523
526
527
528
529
531
532
534
536
538
539
541
543
545
547
548
549
METEORITE ISLAND,
TAIN .
FROM TOP OF SAVIKSOAH MOUN-
552
553
555
557
faces 558
559
XIV
Illustrations
17.
1897
THE ICE FERRY-BOAT
THE "UOG" .
HAULING THE "DOG" OVER THE ROCKS
ACROSS THE BAY ICE ....
MOVING THE "WOMAN" ON ROLLERS
"KITE" DOCKED IN THE ICE
THE "TENT" OR "AHNIGHITO" IN SITU
THE "SAVIKSUE" AS LEFT IN 1S96 .
CARRYING THE HUNDRED-TON JACK
ROAD FOR THE METEORITE .
AFTER A HALF REVOLUTION
TWO OF MY HYDRAULIC JACKS
THE METEORITE ON MY RETURN IN 1S97
THE "HOPE" AT METEORITE ISLAND, AUG.
CAPTAIN JOHN BARTLETT ....
THE MASONIC GROUP
LAUNCHING THE "AHNIGHITO" ON BOARD
CROSSING THE BRIDGE
THE ESKIMOS' FAREWELL TO THE " SAVIKSOAH
A MOMENTARY HITCH ......
"STOP THE WINCH"
METEORITE IN THE HATCH COMBINGS .
RAMMING THE ICEBERG BARRIER .
MY ESKIMO LABOURERS
WORKING UNDER THE METEORITE .
METEORITE AT 'TWEEN-DECKS LEVEL .
REMAINS OF GREELY HOUSE AT CAPE SABINE
HOISTING METEORITE OUT OF THE "HOPE"
THE STORM UNDER THE LEE OF WOLSTENHOLM
THE "DOG" IN SITU
RELATIVE SIZES OF " SAVIKSUE " AND SIX-FOO
THE "AHNIGHITO" IN SITU
THE "WOMAN" IN SITU
PILE OF TRAP COBBLES ABOUT THE "WOMAN"
SHOWING SURFACE OF "AHNIGHITO" METEORITE
WIDMANSTATTEN FIGURES OF "AHNIGHITO" AND
" WOMAN "
ANCIENT ESKIMO KNIVES MADE FROM METAL OF THE
"SAVIKSUE"
ANCIENT ESKIMOS OBTAINING METAL FROM THE
"WOMAN"
THE SCULPTOR'S STUDIO ON METEORITE ISLAND
HOMEWARD BOUND WITH THE STAR STONE
ISLAND
T MAN
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
569
570
571
573
575
577
579
580
581
582
583
585
5S6
587
588
589
590
591
592
595
596
597
598
599
601
603
605
607
613
615
616
618
CIRCUMPOLAR CHART (HEILPRIN) faces 6i?>
PART 111.
NORTH-GREENLAND EXPEDITION OF I 893- 1 894.
CHAPTER I.
PHIIADELPHIA TO CAPE YORK.
The Falcon Reaches Philadelphia— New York, Boston, Portland,
St. John's — Battle Harbour, Labrador — Moravian Missions, Hope-
dale AND OKKAK — I.ABRADOR ESKIMOS — THROUGH HeLL GATE AND THE
Ice Pack to Greenland — Crossing the Arctic Circle — Holsteinborg
AND Godhavn — A Breath of the Tropics — Upernavik and Tasiusak —
My Arctic Roosters — The Duck Islands — Across Melville Bay —
The Quickest Run on Record.
ESKIMO GIRL OF UPERNAVIK.
CHAPTER I.
PHILADELPHIA TO CAPE YORK.
F
R I D A Y morning,
June 23, 1893, was
raw and disagree-
able, with a light, drizzling
rain, as my tug cast off
from a Philadelphia pier,
and went puffing down
the dull grey expanse of
the Delaware to meet the
Falcon. A week and a
day before, the cable had
flashed the news of her
departure from St. John's, and the day before, the wire
had brought tidings from the breakwater that she had
been sighted there. The rain gradually ceased, the
clouds began to break away, and when, just below
Wilmington, we swung round alongside a trim black-
hulled, yellow-masted bark, with two white crow-nests
far up aloft, the stormy morning had merged into a
perfect day.
At five in the afternoon she was fast at her pier,
which had kindly been offered for her use by Super-
intendent Sweigard, of the Reading Railway. For
the next three days she lay at this pier, the centre of
interest for thousands of visiting Philadelphians. In
4 Northward over the "Great Ice"
the midst of the throng of visitors, as opportunity of-
fered, the various items of her miscellaneous supplies
were brought on board : among these, a steam launch
— an oil burner — named in honour of one to whom I
was under lasting obligations, Gen. I. J. Wistar ; two
whale-boats, the Mary Peary and the Faith, compan-
ions of the last expedition, and which, through the
courtesy of Commodore Kirkland, U. S. N., had been
stored at the League Island Navy Yard ; the six dogs,
THE "FALCON."
Pau, Lion, Ahngodoblaho first and second, Merkto-
shar, Panikpah, my noble assistants on the " White
March," and companions through the three months'
lecture tour, by which I had raised a large portion
of the sinews of war for the expedition ; the carrier-
pigeons which were to carry messages through the
White North ; and last, the queer little ragged-coated,
long-eared, pathetic-eyed burros that had come from
far-off Santa Fe to serve as material for a somewhat
Philadelphia to Cape York 5
novel experiment in arctic methods. For three days,
hundreds of visitors patted the dogs, pitied the burros,
and climbed over and into every part of the Falcon,
then, at midnight of the 26th, she slipped out from
the pier, and dropped with the ebb-tide down the
Delaware. Two days later, the observer at Sandy
Hook saw a strange black craft steaming up from the
southward ; and passing up through the lower bay,
with all her bunting flung out, the Falcon pointed her
black nose towards one of the Brooklyn wharves, in
the shadow of the great bridge, and late in the after-
noon was aorain fast with the mooring lines. Three
days of curious visitors
here, interspersed with
stowine on board sev-
eral thousand pounds
of pemmican, the pro-
visions for the party,
the arms and ammuni-
tion, the hardware and
miscellaneous articles,
gathered from north
and south and east and
west to their rendezvous
here, and then late Sun-
day afternoon the Fal-
■con cast off her lines and
steamed up the East
River, just as the little
Kite had done twoyears
before, amid the cheers,
the waving of handker-
chiefs, and the deafen-
ing whistles from the ahngodoblaho.
evening fleet of Sound
steamers, and dipping flags and tooting whistles from
6 Northward over the "Great Ice"
every other craft in and along the river. Fifty
hours later, with spring and bow and stern lines taut,
the Falcon was hugging historic Constitution Wharf
in Boston, the fluttering flags at her tops glowing in
the last rays of the setting 4th-of-July sun. From
the very next slip, years ago, had started out Dr.
Kane's Expedition. Here for two days, from early
morning till late in the evening, crowds of interested
Bostonians clambered over the ship, left presents.
THE BURROS.
souvenirs, and cards on board, or, lacking these, wrote
God-speed and wishes for success in every available
nook and corner.
Leaving Boston at eight o'clock in the evening, the
run to Portland was made durino; the nio-ht, and a
couple of hours before noon of the next day the Fal-
con, again with bunting streaming from every mast,
steamed through the mao^nificent seaward grate of Port-
land harbour, past the familiar scenes of my boyhood,
and up to her berth at Custom-House Pier, amid the
Philadelphia to Cape York 7
shrill screamine of whistles and tug-boats dartinor here
and there. Only a day could be spared here to give
old friends and acquaintances a chance to see the arc-
tic ship, and this day was utilised to gather in a few
last articles of equipment, which, failing to be deliv-
ered in time at Philadelphia or New York, had been
traced and hurried up by telegraph to reach the ship
here. The one night in Portland was taken advan-
tage of by the city government to give the party a
farewell banquet, and by at least one of the departing
expedition that banquet was most deeply enjoyed and
appreciated.
Saturday afternoon, July 8th, the Falcon swung away
from her pier in Portland harbour. At the same mo-
ment, from another pier farther up the harbour, a little
tug came puffing out, with Mrs. Peary, myself, and one
or two other members of the expedition, accompanied
by Professor Heilprin, to board the Falcon in mid-
stream. It was a glorious day, and the familiar shores
and islands of the harbour wore their most charming as-
pect in the brilliant summer sunshine. We responded
to the salutes from Cape Cottage and other residences
along the shore road as we steamed out, and at two
o'clock the pilot left us off Ram Island Ledge, and,
laying a course to clear Halfway Rock Light, we were
at last fairly started on our northward voyage.
I had hoped to visit for an hour or so my little
Eagle Island, but our direct course was too far from
it, and I did not care to delay the ship solely for that,
so I was content to see its green dome standing out
against the misty background of beautiful Casco Bay.
As the sun went down, the wind freshened, raising a
little sea, which thumped against the weather-bow, and
occasionally came splashing up on the quarter-deck.
When darkness settled upon us, the water was alive
with phosphorescence, and startled fishes, darting
8 Northward over the "Great Ice"
away from the ship's side, caused flashes Hke the glow
of summer heat-hghtning.
It is a strange sight that the Falcons deck presents.
Forward, on the starboard side, are the eight Httle
burros, munching continuously at their hay, and sel-
OUR STATEROOM.
dom showing any signs of animation beyond the slow
lifting of an ear. Poor little fellows ! Just across the
deck from the burros, are the two Ahngodoblaho dogs.
One of* them has already come to the conclusion that
the burros are good to eat, and makes frantic efforts
Philadelphia to Cape York 9
to get at them. Along either side of the deck-house,
are piled the bales of hay, and in the waist of the ship,
along both rails, is a continuous row of oil barrels.
Passing down the companion-way, immediately in
front is the door leading to the main cabin, and, en-
tering this, a door is seen opening both to port and
starboard from it. On the port side, the door leads
to a series of three staterooms in line, with accommo-
dations for eight of the party, and on the left the door
BATTLE HARBOUR, LABRADOR.
leads to our own little stateroom, scarcely, if any, larger
than the one on the Kite, but somewhat more con-
veniently arranged, and much more pleasant from the
addition of a circular swinging port in the ship's side,
directly above the berth. The washstand, a small
chest of drawers built against the wall, and a box
stood on end to assist in climbino^ into the narrow
bunk comprise the furniture of this little room.
Late Wednesday afternoon. Cape Pines, on the
southern Newfoundland coast, was sighted off the port
lo Northward over the "Great Ice"
bow, and when the late sunset came, the bluffs of the
cape, only a few miles from us, with a little white light-
house perched upon their top, were thrown into sharp
relief against the crimson glories of the western sky.
About midnight we rounded Cape Race, and at seven
o'clock Thursday morning, when I came on deck, the
giant rock portal of St. John's harbour was directly
ahead of us, the familiar red-brown cliffs on either side
glowing in the bright morning sunshine.
Stopping at St. John's only long enough to fill with
coal, the Falcon got away on the 15th, and ploughed
her way northward. In the waist and forward, her
deck was washed constantly, and the poor little burros
stood knee-deep in the water. The rain and wind,
the latter always disagreeable to the Eskimo dog,
kept these four-footed friends of mine in a constant
state of vociferous protest against the weather.
About ten o'clock I missed my grey Ahngodoblaho
dog, and after an unsuccessful search, we at last dis-
covered the rope and harness by which he had been
fastened, hanging over the ship's side, near where he
had been the night before.
Poor fellow ! I mourned him all day long. Though
possessing, perhaps, the least stamina of any of the
surviving dogs of the 1892 Inland-Ice journey, he
had during his sojourn in civilisation become the
most affectionate of the team, and had even learned
some civilised customs, such, for instance, as shakinof
hands. It seemed a pity that, after having gone
through so much, he should have been lost at this
time, and, like one of Hall's Eskimos, have died on
his way home, just after he had seen the first ice.
On the I 7th, after a night of heavy weather off the
Strait of Belle Isle, weather in which two of my bur-
ros succumbed, the Falcon touched into Battle Harbour
on the Labrador coast, to purchase dogs. There is a
Philadelphia to Cape York
II
wild view from here of wind-swept grey sea, dotted
with a numerous fleet of icebergs, and fading away
in the distance into the shrouding fog. The rocks
and shores of this coast, to my mind, are more som-
bre and desolate
in appearance
than the shores
of Greenland as
far north as Dis-
co Bay, almost
twenty degrees
higher latitude.
The scattered
patches of moss
and turf are
bright with flow-
ers, and I saw
two or three spar-
rows flitting over
the grey rocks.
My efforts to
obtain dogs met
with little suc-
cess, and at earli-
est daylight we
steamed out
across the breezy
white-caps of St.
Lewis Sound.
Late in the after-
noon, we began
to run through
streaks of foe, and the iceberors seemed more numer-
ous. At nine o'clock we rounded Wolf Rock and
hauled more to the westward along the now receding
Labrador coast. The nights were now decreasing
LABRADOR ESKIMO MAN.
Moravian Mission.
Philadelphia to Cape York
13
rapidly in length, it being- fairly light at ten p.m., and
there were indications of southerly winds during the
nio-ht and in the mornino- which meant no foe.
During the night, we passed the mouth of Hamil-
ton Inlet, and the next noon were off bold Cape Har-
LABRADOR ESKIMO GIRL AND CHILD.
Moravian Mission.
rison. At five p.m. we passed the point of Kidliauit,
or outer Ironbound Island. A very pronounced mir-
age was noticed among the Icebergs to the north-east
for an hour during the forenoon. The next morning,
we stopped a few minutes at the fishing station of
Turnavik to leave a mail. For an hour before and
14 Northward over the "Great Ice"
after reaching the station we were surrounded by Httle
brown-sailed fishing-boats, one or two hundred of
which rendezvous at this place. Lighted as they were
by the slanting rays of the evening sun, they pre-
sented a very picturesque sight. Hopedale, the Mo-
ravian mission station, about midway of the Labrador
coast, was my next stop, on the 20th. Here, for the first
time on this coast, I saw the Eskimos themselves, and
I found them difficult to deal with, as in every other
A LABRADOR HOME.
place where they have been in contact with the whites.
Although there were numbers of dogs about the set-
tlement, the owner of every desirable dog, by a strange
coincidence, was away fishing, and the few men still
remaining at the station who had dogs they wished
to sell, by another strange coincidence, had sent them
to a distant island.
Three Moravian missionaries — Kastner, Hansen,
and Simon, — with their wives, are at this station. A
few oranges were very acceptable to these isolated
Philadelphia to Cape York 15
people, and in return I was pressed to accept a pre-
sent of lettuce and rhubarb from the mission gar-
den. These gardens present a pitiful appearance.
Just back of the village, amid a little clump of stunted,
grey-bearded fir and spruce trees, are a series of small
enclosures, surrounded by a close fence of split logs
driven into the ground. Over the entrance of each
of these enclosures is inscribed some Scripture name,
such as Enon or Saron, and within the shelter of these
fences are grown the potatoes, lettuce, rhubarb,
SPEAKING A GREENLAND PILOT.
horseradish, and other vegetables which supply the
wants of the missionaries. A few pansies also show
their bright heads.
The most touching place, however, was the pleasure
garden, if I may be allowed the term, a little enclosure
around the sides of which ran a gravel walk, with two
others intersecting it in the centre. At the intersec-
tion of these two walks is a little rough board shelter,
open on one side, and with a rude wooden table in the
centre, the whole facing southward, the dreariest pos-
sible apology for a summer pavilion. In front of this
i6
Northward over the " Great Ice "
are one or two little beds of struggling flowers, and
everywhere else through the enclosure the rank wet
grass grows in the shadow of the stunted trees. These
trees to me are more striking pictures of loneliness,
desolation, and barrenness than the barest of bare rocks.
The settlement itself consists of three or four neat,
strongly built houses, which form the quarters and
stores of the missionaries, surrounded by the small
HOLSTEINBORG, GREENLAND.
wooden structures occupied by the natives, of whom
there are some one hundred and fifty at this place.
None of the natives here live in stone or turf houses.
Back of the principal house is an enormous pile of
sawed and split wood, the common property of the
settlement. This wood is gathered at the heads of the
inlets in the autumn after the fishing is over, and rafted
down to the settlement by the natives.
Philadelphia to Cape York 17
From Hopedale we threaded our way through fog
and heavy ice to the mission station of Okkak. The
appearance of this station is very similar to that of
Hopedale, though there seems to be a larger number
of native habitations. Nearly all the natives, we
found on landing, were away at various points along
the coast, fishing, and, in this case, just the reverse of
the conditions at Hopedale, they had all their dogs
with them. On learning this, I remained ashore only
long enough to obtain from the missionary the loca-
tion of these camps to the northward, and then went
on board ship.
Late on the 2 2d I had twenty-five dogs on board,
including the five of my old team, and I decided not
to waste more time in the fog and ice of this inhospit-
able coast, but to bear away at once for Greenland.
So the Falcoiis prow was headed for the entrance of
Hell Gate, the wild passage leading northward from
the bay, under the cliffs of the Bishop's Mitre, a great
mountain towerincr in red-brown grrandeur three thous-
and feet above us.
The mission natives whom we had seen about this
bay were very similar in appearance to the Greenland
natives, and in one or two of them, darker than the
rest, I fancied that I detected a resemblance to some of
our old Whale Sound acquaintances. Though some
of the men had on sealskin trousers, most of them
were dressed in garments made of civilised material,
the coats, or timiaks, without exception, being of
white blanketing, trimmed with bands of red cloth
about the bottom and the wrists and the front of the
hood. The pattern of these garments was that of the
fur garments of all the Eskimos on the western shores
of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, having the pointed
hood. The upper garment of the women was of the
same material and much of the same cut, except that
Northward over the " Great Ice '''
it had the long rounded tail to the coat. Some of the
women had a single very abbreviated skirt of some
woven material, while others wore simply the heavy
blanket trousers. All, both men and women, wore
the regulation Eskimo foot-a;ear.
Passing between the almost
overhano^inof cliffs of Hell Gate,
we emerged from the northern
end of the passage, and were
once more in the ice.
All night long the Falcon
fought the ice, till every tim-
ber creaked and loose articles
in the cabin and staterooms
danced a merry jig. All night
the cry of the man at the bridge
and the answerino" shout from
the wheel of " port," " port,
sir," " steady," " starboard,"
"hard over," kept sleep from
the eyes of the younger mem-
bers of the party. At 10:30
o'clock on Sunday morning,
July 23d, after passing through
some four miles of heavily
packed ice, the Falcon punched
^^jgjj^k her nose through into the open
JH^Hk sea, and we were free.
^^■1^^ Throughout the day, a long,
heavy swell from the north-
west, a reminder of the past
week of heavy weather, kept the Falcon rolling in a
manner that placed many of the party hors de combat.
Tuesday and Wednesday were days of thick fog
that dripped constantly from the masts and rigging,
keeping everything on deck as wet as in a summer
A 33-INCH BEAUTY.
Philadelphia to Cape York
19
shower. Our reckoning showed that we would cross
the Arctic Circle at noon, and a little before that time
the ship was decked with all her bunting, with the
Stars and Stripes at the fore, the Expedition flag at the
main, and the British ensign and the ship's flag at the
mizzen. As the ship's bell struck eight bells, a salute
of three guns was fired from the old piece on the fore-
castle, and we then all descended to the cabin, where
a punch had been brewed for the occasion. A bit of
NATIVES OF UPERNAVIK.
Strawberry syrup gave the punch the proper colour,
and a lemon or two slashed into it gave the finishing
touch. In this we drank success to the Expedition, and
the health of the ladies and of Captain Bartlett. As
this was the captain's first crossing of the Arctic Circle,
a five-dollar gold piece, the only thing available, was
presented to him as a souvenir of the occasion.
About three o'clock in the afternoon, the lookout
discovered low-lying rocks close on our starboard bow,
and the fog lifting a little later, gave us a view of the
20
Northward over the "Great Ice
bold Greenland coast, only a few miles distant. Care-
fully scanning the horizon in the intervals when the
fog lifted from us a little, we discovered at last a bea-
con on an island a few miles to the south of us.
Steaming down to it, a solitary kayaker was seen ap-
proaching the ship, and, coming on board a few min-
utes later, he informed us that we were at the entrance
PASTOR MORCH AND HIS CHAPEL.
Upernavik.
of the passage into Holsteinborg. Then, coming on
the bridge, he piloted us into the harbour, where we
dropped anchor at six o'clock in the evening.
Holsteinborg (66° 56' N. Lat.) is situated on a pro-
jecting peninsula of the mainland, which here rises to
a considerable height, but is partly bordered by a strip
of flat lowland, intersected by valleys. The houses^
Philadelphia to Cape York 21
with a church and missionary dwelling, stand at the
mouth of a valley, somewhat higher above the sea
than most Greenland settlements. The harbour is
spacious, offering a safe anchorage for ships. On the
north side of the harbour, the ruins of the original
settlement, which was founded in 1759, ^^^ found.
This spot is overgrown by willows, whose luxuriance
is exceptional in a spot so near the open sea, but may
be explained by the shelter offered by the mountain
THE CEMETERY AT UPERNAVIK.
chain on the north side. The settlement is just within
the Arctic Circle, the sun being visible for a few days
at midnight.
The Governor of Holsteinborg was absent on one
of his summer tours, and only Assistant-Governor
Franzen was at home. I found him very pleasant and
anxious to be of all possible assistance, the instruc-
tions from the Danish Government in regard to the
Expedition having reached the colony. In a few hours,
seventeen dogs had been purchased and put aboard.
2 2 Northward over the "Great Ice"
We learned from the Governor that our celebration,
when our vessel crossed the Arctic Circle at noon,
had been the cause of considerable alarm in the
little village, as the people had heard our guns and
were fearful that in the heavy fog we had run upon
some rock.
Next to Godhavn this little Greenland town, Hol-
steinborg, is the prettiest and most picturesque. The
harbour is not quite so completely enclosed as at God-
havn, but there are numerous little bights running out
from it that make perfect shelter for small boats.
The hamlet itself, consisting of four or five Danish
houses, occupying a common enclosure surrounded by
a neat painted fence, is at a considerable elevation
above the water-level, and grouped to the westward of
this enclosure are the dwellinors of the Eskimos.
O
These dwellings seem to be more regularly and closely
built than those at any other of the Greenland settle-
ments which I have visited.
Just a few minutes before midnight the Falcons
bow was pointed westward, the propeller began its
revolutions, and we steamed out of the harbour to
the sound of our whistle and the saluting cannon of
the town, with the yellow midnight sunlight just tip-
ping the ragged peak of Kellnerhatten, which stands
guard over the little settlement. One of the most
picturesque scenes of the voyage was our pilot-boat
veering away from the side of the ship, sharply out-
lined against the blazing northern sky, and the occu-
pants of the boat swinging their hats and giving three
cheers for the Expedition.
Early on the 28th, we entered the harbour of God-
havn. The anchor was no sooner down than the natives
were alongside us with the numerous little articles so
familiar to visitors to these Greenland ports — the toy
kayaks, muffs, footstools, tobacco-cases, ivory carvings.
Philadelphia to Cape York
23
slippers, bird-skins, and rugs made from various furs
and trimmed and decorated with bits of brilliantly
dyed seal leather. Some of the men brought off more
substantial if less interesting articles, in the way of
ducks, salmon trout, rock cod, and so on.
ANDREAS THE PILOT.
I found that my fur clothing, ordered from Copen-
hagen, was ready for me, and so were twenty dogs.
Returning to the ship, I had the presents intended for
our Greenland friends brought up and put in one of
the boats to take ashore. Then, accompanied by
24 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Mrs. Peary, I left the ship again and, landing, went up
to the Inspector's house.
Here, after the first greetings were over, I told
Mrs. Andersen that for a little while I wanted to take
possession of the Inspector's billiard room, and that
she was not to look into the room or out of the win-
dows to see what was going on until she had my per-
mission. Then three or four pairs of willing hands
TASIUSAK, 73° 24' N. LAT.
The Most Northerly Settlement in the World with Permanent Civilised
Inhabitants.
brought up from the boat a case of oranges, another
of lemons, a big watermelon, and half a dozen pine-
apples, all of which had been purchased and carefully
treasured during the voyage for this occasion. They
were unpacked and piled upon the billiard table, and
round them were placed several souvenirs for the
members of the family, including a silver mug for my
godchild, now a stalwart little fellow of seven. Then
Mrs. Andersen was requested to come in.
Philadelphia to Cape York 25
Never shall I forget the expression on the good
woman's face and the way her eyes filled with tears
as she entered the room, now redolent with the per-
fumes of the tropics, and saw the table loaded down
with fruits which she had not seen for years and
years. She could hardly desist from picking up the
pineapples and oranges and inhaling their perfume ;
and if ever there were happy children they were those
of the Andersen family as they rushed away with an
oranofe in each hand.
We got underway a little before ten in the evening
and reached Upernavik at five o'clock in the afternoon
of the second day.
The fog was our most persistent enemy. When-
ever we had a port to make all the way north from
Battle Harbour, Labrador, to Upernavik, the incessant
fog hampered and delayed us. It had already cost
me days of time, wasted in trying to find the entrance
to the various harbours.
At Upernavik, where I had counted on finding a
large supply of good dogs, I was disappointed in find-
ing that I could obtain at most ten or eleven, as the
others were scattered about the limits of the colony,
on outlying islands and distant settlements, and it
had been impossible to gather them in. I found Gov-
ernor Olsen now in charge at Upernavik, and anxious
to be of all possible assistance, like the officials of all
the other ports where I stopped. Here too I met my
old friend of 1886, Pastor Morch, the only ordained
Eskimo pastor in Greenland. Our stay at Uper-
navik was only long enough to get the dogs on board,
and also a native pilot, Andreas Peters, who was to
show us the way to Tasiusak, forty miles to the north-
ward, where the Governor informed me he was confi-
dent I could obtain a number of very good dogs.
Steaming away from Upernavik and out from under
26 Northward over the "Great Ice"
the majestic peak of Sanderson's Hope, we reached
Tasiusak at two o'clock in the mornino-. When I
turned out, we were within one hundred yards of the
most northerly house occupied by civilised man on the
face of the globe. This one house, surrounded by
Eskimo huts, forms Tasiusak. Here I obtained seven-
teen good dogs.
Our stay at Tasiusak was only an hour and a half,
and we then steamed northward again with eighty-
seven dogs on board. If ever there was pandemo-
nium on a ship it was on the Falcon, with nearly a
THE DUCK ISLANDS.
hundred of these howling, fighting, restless brutes on
board. It was impossible to keep them fastened, and
they were over and into everything. The boys gave
them the name of "Arctic roosters," from their sleep-
disturbing peculiarities.
The Falcon arrived at the Duck Islands on the
south side of Melville Bay about noon, and, after land-
ing a party on the eastern island, she steamed over to
the outer islands and anchored in nine fathoms of
water, just in the passage between the two. A second
party landed on the inner island, while another, includ-
Philadelphia to Cape York
27
ing Mrs. Peary and myself, landed on the outer one.
We found birds very scarce, and the few remain-
ing females were very wild, probably the result of five
whalers stopping there during June.
The outer island is the highest of the group, and
climbing to its summit, which by my aneroid is 260 feet
above the sea-level, I found perched upon it a circular
stone wall breast-high, with an opening to the south.
WHALERS' LOOKOUT, DUCK ISLANDS.
This is the Whalers' Lookout, from which, early in the
season, they scan the north and north-west for a favour-
able lead through which their vessels may make their
way through the ice.
A few feet south-west of this lookout, the island
ends in a vertical cliff, from which, as I drew near,
two ravens sailed out, probably a nesting pain Turn-
ing northward from the summit, there is a gradual
28
Northward over the "Great Ice
descent over a muddy, rocky slope strewn with
patches of yellow poppies, down to the northern point
of the island. Part way down, on a bluff, facing
west, are half a dozen piles of stone, the rude graves
of sailors who died while waiting for their ships to get
through the bay ; and as
if with kindly meaning,
even on this barren rock
nature had sprinkled
the poppies more abun-
dantly about these
heaps of stone than at
any other point on the
island.
From the Whalers'
Lookout, Horsehead to
the south, Cape Shackle-
ton to the south-east.
Sugar Loaf to the east,
and Wilcox Head to the
north-east are distinctly
visible. These islands
are shown without any
attempt at accuracy
on the present charts.
Their number is three
instead of two as
indicated. The two
westward islands are
separated by a very
narrow passage. The
most western and southern of these two islands pre-
sents to the sea a vertical cliff towards the south-west,
and its highest point is 260 feet above the sea-level.
It commands the entire horizon. Sloping to the
north, it ends in a rocky point, and to the west, some-
CAPT. HARRY BARTLETT.
Philadelphia to Cape York 29
what south of this point, is a beach, if the term may
be used, composed of the whitest cobble-stones. Some
two hundred yards or more to the west of the centre
portion of this island is a rock which is bare at low
water. About midway of the channel between these
islands there is a rock, presumably the one on which
the Panther struck ; south of this there is an anchor-
ao^e of ten fathoms.
The second or middle island is long and compara-
tively low, its western face being precipitous and drop-
ping at an angle of 30^ The top of this face forms
a nearly straight ridge along the western side of the
island, and is the highest part of the island. East-
ward this ridge slopes down to a low, flat valley, ris-
ing aeain to a similar but somewhat lower rid^e on
the eastern side of the island. The southern end of
this valley is occupied by a little shallow pond, from
which a small brook trickles away to the southern end
of the island. There is also another pond formed by
a dyke thrown across the northern part of the island
by the action of the sea and possibly the effect of the
piling ice.
North of this island are three rocks projecting from
the water, and about two miles north of east of it is
the third island of the group, presenting round emi-
nences of rock at both its northern and southern ends,
with a valley of shallow depression between them.
The leno-th of the middle island is something like a
mile, the eastern island about the same, and the
extreme western island somewhat shorter. All the
islands are covered with glacial detritus, and show
the effects of crlacial action.
The three islands have been in times past a great
resort for eider-ducks, but the whalers eoino- north
have been in the habit of stopping to get eggs and
ducks, and this, with the fact that for the last three
30
Northward over the "Great Ice
seasons the ducks have been attacked later during the
season, may account for their being scarce, and they
may have sought other breeding-places. The result
of five hours' shooting was only about forty birds.
Quite a number of other species were noted on the
island, but we only obtained four. These were two
black guillemots, a young brant, and three burgo-
master gulls. The
other birds seen
were a snow-owl, a
pair of BriJnnich's
guillemots, ravens,
two sand-pipers —
variety unknown —
and also numbers
of snow-buntings.
On the southern
end of the middle
island, where the
brook comes to
the sea, there is a
coarse, rocky apol-
ogy for a beach,
and there is also
a short beach of
round cobble-
stones on the east-
ern side of the outer
island, about mid-
way of the passage
between the two islands, and this would be about the
only available landing-place in heavy weather on this
island.
At eight P.M. on July 31st, with the temperature 42°
F., we fairly began the passage of the dreaded Melville
Bay. We left the Duck Islands at 4:40 o'clock, our
CHIEF-ENGINEER FISCHER.
Philadelphia to Cape York
31
course beine N. N. E. maoj^netic. There was not a
cloud in the sky. The wind was light and directly
ahead. A few large bergs were scattered around the
horizon, but otherwise we were sailing over a summer
sea where two years and a month before we had
battled with the pack ice nearly every inch of our
THE "FALCON'S" FIREMEN.
way for three dreary weeks. There was no ice sky,
and all the indications were for pleasant weather for
the next day or two. My hopes began to rise that
we should beat the record. I promised each fireman
one pound sterling if we beat thirty hours, and one
dollar additional for every hour under this. The
offer of a reward for good time across the bay had
32 Northward over the "Great Ice"
its effect, and all through the night the Falcons
propeller pulsated with unaccustomed rapidity. The
water was absolutely smooth, without the slightest
indication of wave or swell, and during much of the
time there was a perfect calm. At 10:45 ^-^i-' after
leaving the Duck Islands, we ran into a stream of
loose pan ice, and steamed through it for four hours and
a half. Some of these pans were of considerable size,
but all of the ice was so thin and rotten that it was
hardly more than water-saturated snow, and its resist-
CAPE YORK FROM THE SOUTH.
ance was so slight that no attempt was made to avoid
the pans, but the ship kept right on her course through
them. About four a.m. there was fog for a short time,
but after that there was the same brilliant, calm
weather as during the preceding night.
At ten o'clock, the course was changed to east by
north for Cape York, and at 1 1:30 a.m. the cape itself
was seen directly ahead of us ; and now we ran up the
fore-and-afters to take advantage of the light north-
easterly breeze which had sprung up. The cape was
apparently about forty miles distant, and if this was
Philadelphia to Cape York 33
the case, the prospects were very fair for our complet-
ing the passage in twenty-four hours.
Flocks of little auks had been swimming in the water
since ten o'clock in the morning, and this in itself in-
dicated the proximity of land.
The temperature of the air was 40° F., and the water
39°, showing that there had been no considerable
amount of ice in this portion of the bay for a long time.
As we neared the northern edge of the bay, the
north-east wind filled our fore-and-afters, relieving the
engines from the drag of the ship's spars and masts,
the water was as smooth as glass, the little auks were
flying and swimming about in every direction, and the
firemen down in the stoke-hole, incited by my promise
of reward, were literally standing over the fire, raking
the ashes here, putting fresh coal on there, stirring
the fire in another place, and watching the steam
gauge to see that the pressure never relaxed. It was
an exhilarating sight to see the white foam rolling
backward from the Falcons iron-clad bow. Higher
and higher the black cliffs of the cape rose straight be-
fore us. Farther and farther up to the westward to-
wards Conical Rock, the familiar coast-line rose into
view ; and at last, at full speed, with the Stars and
Stripes and the Expedition flag rustling in the breeze,
the good ship Falcon dashed past the point of the cape
into the bay just eastward. She had made the pas-
sage of Melville Bay in twenty-four hours and fifty
minutes, the quickest run on record.
CHAPTER II.
HOUSE-BUILDING AND HUNTING.
No News of Verhoeff — Capk York — Northward along the Coast —
BowDOiN Bay — House-Building — Landing the Burros — Death of
Megipsu — The Walrus Hunt — Tons of Meat — A Narrow Escape —
Cape Alexander and Littleton Island— The Unbroken Pack — Site of
Polaris House — A Dirty Night — Deer Pastures of Olriks Bay — Back
to Falcon Harbour, .--
CHAPTER II
HOUSE-BUILDING AND HUNTING.
N
ONE of the natives
at Cape York had
seen or heard any-
thing of Verhoeff.
I rowed out to the bluffs
of the cape and chmbed to
their crest.
There is no trace of the
summit ever havincr been
visited by any except the
natives, one or two of
whose fox-traps I found on
top, and I do not recall any record of the ascent having
been made, though it is quite likely that it has been ac-
complished, as it is not difficult. Certain it is, however,
that never were the conditions more perfect for an out-
look from the cape than now. The edge of the ice-
cap came right down to the head of the ravine, up which
we climbed, and as I stepped upon it I remembered
that it was five days less than a year since I had stepped
from its edge a little farther north on the completion
of my trip to the north-east coast of Greenland. Af-
ter enjoying the prospect for a few moments, a cairn
was erected, and a bottle containing a record of the
visit deposited in it. After a round of views from
37
o
8 Northward over the " Great Ice
Cape York, I descended and pulled out to the ship,
which then steamed west and north-west along the
coast.
During August ist and 2d, we steamed north along
the coast, and two to five miles from it. On the after-
noon of the second day, we were approaching bold
Cape Parr)', with its bristling, vertical wall facing the
west and north-west, standing guard at the southern
entrance of Whale Sound. Some time before round-
ing Cape Parry, the observer, coming north, sees
Hakluyt and Northumberland Islands. During the
GLACIERS OF THE CRIMSON CLIFFS.
long summer days, the water about Cape Parry is alive
with the whirrinor wino-s and Q-leamine white breasts of
countless little auks that breed in that neio^hbourhood.
Rounding Cape Parry, the course of the Falavi was
directly towards the opening between Herbert and
Northumberland Islands. The Inland Ice beyond
the glaciers in Omenak or Murchison Sound was dis-
tinctly visible. From Cape Parry, in pleasant weather,
the bold bluffs of the Carey Islands are visible to the
west.
Keeping along the shore to Barden Bay, I landed at
the settlement of Netiulumi and took on board two
Eskimos, Kessuh and Myah, whom I found there, with
House-Building and Hunting
39
their families and all their belongings. At eight a.m.
on August 3d, we entered the mouth of Bowdoin Bay-
in Inglefield Gulf. The bay was dotted with icebergs,
just as it was on August 4th last, when Astrup and I
looked down into it from the Inland Ice. We found
a fresh breeze blowing out of the bay against us, but
as there was no pan ice, and the icebergs were scat-
CAPE POW^LETT.
tered, we were able easily to avoid them and keep on
to Anniversary Camp, in the eastern angle of the bay
head. We reached the little rock-walled harbour at
9:30 A.M., and at ten o'clock the Falcon was safely
moored within a stone's throw of the rocks, aft and on
either beam, and with her head pointing straight down
the bay.
The harbour is a perfect one. The anchor ahead
was down in fifteen fathoms, and there were eight
fathoms under the ship's stern.
As soon as the anchor went over I went ashore to
decide upon the precise site of the house, so that the
stores might be landed directly in front of it. I found
the ring of stones, which had been used to hold our
40
Northward over the " Great Ice
tent down when Mrs. Peary and I were here on Aug-
ust I ith, a year ago, just as they had been left, and the
site of the house was selected within fifty feet of the
former site of our tent.
As soon as the reconnaissance for the house site was
completed, I went back to the ship, and turned in to
obtain a few hours of much-needed sleep, for I had
been up the last two nights, taking advantage of the
THE "FALCON" AT HER MOORINGS.
exquisite weather and the opportunity of making pho-
tographs, and noting the peculiarities of these shores.
Then began the work of unloading the stores and
building the house. Sunday was a day of rest, and
most of the party took advantage of it to sleep through
a good part of the forenoon. It was a raw, disagree-
able day.
Monday, August 7th, was another disagreeable day,
House-Building and Hunting 41
with occasional showers and one or two transitory
gHmpses of the sun. Everyone was at work upon
the house, and every frame was up and in place when
we went to dinner.
During the afternoon a start was made on the first
shell of tarred-paper covering. With all the frames
up, the work progressed more rapidly.
. «'»4_k -* .e:Sp«_-_:ai ^"Ti^ii
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF FALCON HARBOUR.
Bowdoin Glacier and Sentinel Nunatak in the Distance.
Late in the afternoon, the burros were landed, and
immediately afterwards we had quite a little excite-
ment in connection with them. Two were landed
first and taken to their stables, built of bales of hay,
where they were carelessly left by one of the younger
42
Northward over the " Great Ice
members of the party, who went to the shore to bring
up another burro that was coming off. A minute
later, as I was standing near the house, I heard a
shout from the ship and a commotion in the direc-
tion of the stable, and looking there I saw one of the
poor burros coming at full speed over the rocks, bray-
ing at the top of his voice, and with thirty or forty of
DISCHARGING SHIP THROUGH TRASH ICE.
August 3-12, 1893.
the doo^s after him. He was sensible enough to run
directly towards us for protection. We drove the
dogs off, and then hurried towards the stable, where
we found a pack of the dogs worrying the second
burro, which had been unable to free himself. Driv-
ing the dogs off, we found that this poor little fellow
had been bitten quite seriously, though not danger-
ously. After this the burros were carefully guarded
House-Building and Hunting 43
from the ship to the stable, and a watch set over
them there.
The dogs acted like wolves, and yet I think that I
should have had little trouble with them if they had
not already become accustomed to the scent and taste
of the burros, two or three of them having been fed
to the dogs while on board ship.
August 1 2th, about noon, the Falcon got under
way on her cruise for our winter's meat supply. I
had on board my two Eskimo hunters, Myah and
Kessuh, with their kayaks, walrus harpoons, lines,
lances, floats, and drags. I had told them the object
of the ship's trip, and they were wild with excitement
at the idea of going on the oomiaksoak (big ship) to
hunt azvick (walrus).
As we got under way, the sun broke through the
morning clouds, bringing out in their most varied
hues the brilliant and manifold colours of the cliffs of
Bowdoin Bay. There was not a breath of air, and
each iceberg in the bay found its double in a perfect
mirror on the smooth water surface. A little more
than an hour's winding in and out among the bergs
brought us to the entrance of the bay, and, passing
the brilliant red-brown Castle Cliffs on our left, we
steamed along westward close under the grand, grey
Sculptured Cliffs of Karnah.
Inglefield Gulf opened out behind us, deep blue in
colour, dotted with occasional Icebergs, and canopied
with the sky of Italy. The Hurlbut and Hubbard
Glaciers pushed their burnished fronts out from the
cliffs on either side In the foreground ; and far up at
the head of the gulf, the mighty sweep of the great
Heilprln Glacier glistened like a polished silver shield.
xA.t the western end of the Sculptured Cliffs of Kar-
nah, the character of the shore changes completely
from vertical grey cliffs, descending directly Into the
44
Northward over the '* Great Ice "
water, with the ice-cap showing at the very front of
their crests, to a flat, low fore-shore, rising into gradu-
ahy sloping hills, with hanging glaciers descending
into the ravines between them.
Beginning at Karnah also, shoal water extends in
a nearly semicircular curve along the northern shore
of the Sound out to Cape Cleveland. Just where this
change in the character of the coast takes place, in a
If
FRAMING THE HOUSE.
luxuriant grassy meadow coming directly to the shore,
is the Eskimo settlement of Karnah, consisting, in
the winter-time, of two double stone igloos close to
the shore, and a third single one, perhaps a hundred
yards back. In the summer-time, the settlement is
composed of a variable number of tupiks, from two
to a half-dozen. Just now, there were three tupiks,
occupied, as we had already learned from the natives
House-Building and Hunting
45
with us, by Annowkah, Nipsangwah, his brother, and
Arngoodloo, and their famihes. Annowkah, with his
wife, Megipsu, the " Daisy," had been among the
permanent attaches of Red Cliff House, and Nip-
sangwah, his brother, had visited Red Cliff on two or
three occasions. Arngoodloo, however, was a new
acquaintance, a strong, healthy, fresh-looking young
fellow.
JIMMY AND THE DOGS.
I stopped here and went in a boat to get a couple
of these men, with additional walrus harpoons and
floats, to assist us in the hunt. As I landed I was met
by the sorrowful news that Megipsu, our faithful, in-
telligent seamstress at Red Cliff House, had died only
two days before, and Annowkah, with the little or-
phaned Koodlooktoo, was sitting silent and sorrowful
in the gloomy tupik. Nipsangwah would not leave
46 Northward over the '' Great Ice "
his brother, and so Arngoodloo was the only recruit
whom I could obtain here. I brought him on board
with his walrus-line, harpoon, lance, and float, and then
steamed on towards the walrus grounds lying between
the eastern end of Herbert Island and Cape Cleveland.
As we approached Herbert Island, we passed through
the field of magnificent icebergs which always hover
about this locality ; and just before getting abreast of
LANDING A BURRO.
the eastern end of the island, the whole northern coast,
from Peterahwik to distant, blue Cape Alexander,
opened up past Cape Cleveland.
Nothing could present a greater contrast than the
conditions here now and those we met in the two
previous seasons. Two years ago this very day, Gib-
son, Dr. Cook, Astrijp, and Verhoeff started on their
journey from Red Cliff House to Herbert, North-
House-Building and Hunting 47
umberland, and Hakluyt Islands, and were obliged
to pick their way through several miles of floating ice.
A year ago this very day, with Mrs. Peary and my
Eskimo crew, in the whale-boat Alary Peary, I passed
through the same waters, and found large quantities
of floatinof ice and numbers of largfe floes. Now, not
a pan or bit of floe ice was to be seen in any direction.
There were only icebergs and the fragments which
had been broken off from them. As ice-floes and
cakes of ice are the favourite resorts of the walrus, it
beean to look as thoup^h we misfht not be successful
in getting them, and both Captain Bartlett and I
scanned the horizon very sharply.
It was 2:30 P.M. and we were just about abreast of
the eastern end of Herbert Island, when we saw three
walrus upon a little cake of ice which we had passed
at some distance. Both whale-boats, the Faith and
the Mary Peary, were lowered, with three or four
men in each to pull, and one of the Eskimos with his
harpoon, line, and float in the bow. Through my
glasses I watched the boats approach the unsuspecting
animals, which seemed to be asleep. A little later the
sharp crack of a rifle from the Captain's boat, and the
plunge of one animal only into the water, while the
other two remained upon the ice-cake, showed me
that the Captain had started the score with two of the
great brutes to his credit.
By this time I had discovered numbers of other
walrus, singly, and in groups of twos, threes, and tens,
west of us, near the shores of Herbert Island ; and as
soon as the Falcon had swune round and hoisted the
two dead walrus on board, we steamed away in that
direction. Only a mile or so had been covered, when
cakes of ice were seen on either bow, each carrying
apparently ten or fifteen of the animals.
Boats were quickly lowered and pulled away, one
48
Northward over the " Great Ice "
in each direction. Soon the sharp reports of the rifles
from both boats, and the hoarse bellowing of the
walrus showed that the sport had really commenced.
For the next ten hours the sport continued. As
fast as the walrus were killed they were either secured
to a cake of ice, or to a sealskin or cask float, and
were then left for the ship to pick up while the boat
pulled away after more victims. The Falcon steamed
A TEAM OF DOGS.
about from float to float, and ice -cake to ice -cake,
hoistino- in dead animals and lowerintr them into the
hold, and from time to time the boats came to the ship
for lines and floats. At midnight, there were twenty-
four of the great, unwieldy masses of flesh in the hold
of the Falcon.
It was a strangle sio^ht to see these uncouth Qriants
House-Buildino- and Huntino- 49
^ ^xx^ ^^^ s^
of the deep as diey were hoisted aboard ship by a
rope passed through a loop cut in the inch-thick skin
at the back of the neck, the savage tusks gleaming
from the great mouths surrounded by coarse bristles,
and the eyes bloodshot with the rage and pain of the
death strueo^le. Sometimes a hu^e carcass would
slip from the hook as it was being lowered through
the hatchway, and, falling into the hold, the old /vz/-
C07i. would tremble from stem to stern with the shock.
GREY SANDSTONE CLIFFS.
Entrance of Bowdoin Bay.
The sight in the hold itself after the animals were
all aboard was even more striking. Nearly twenty
tons of brown, unwieldy, misshapen meat were piled in
confusion, just as the animals had been lowered be-
low decks. Yet to me it was a most pleasing sight,
because it meant ample food for all my dogs and my
native dependants through the winter.
The presence of the Falcon seemed to render the
50
Northward over the " Great Ice
animals a little less pugnacious than usual, and only
in two instances was there any excitement.
An exciting event of the evening was the narrow
escape of one of the ship's men. A walrus had been
shot upon a cake of ice, and the boat was alongside
with one man on the cake with the walrus. As the
Falcon forged alongside she just touched the ice-cake,
breaking off a piece from under water, which as it
A SCENE IN THE WALRUS HUNT.
rose struck the bow of the Mmy Peary, lifting it high
out of the water and sending the boat back fifty feet
or more away from the cake. At the same instant
the cake, with the man and the walrus on it, began
rolling over, and an instant later had capsized com-
pletely, throwing the man into the water under the
ship's stern, and, as it seemed from the bridge, directly
upon the blades of the propeller, which at the instant
was turning backward to stop the ship.
House-Buildino- and Huntino^ 51
A jump for the entrine lever on the bridge and the
propeller was stopped, and the next instant everyone
rushed aft to throw a line to the man. Suddenly we
heard the cry, " I 'm all right," coming up through the
HOISTING A HUGE BRUTE ON BOARD.
rudder well, and looking down we saw the sailor
clinging to the rudder itself. By this time the boat
had recovered from the impetus that sent it adrift,
and, pulling up under the stern, released the man from
his unpleasant position. A liberal portion of my best
whiskey, which followed the plucky fellow as he went
52 Northward over the "Great Ice"
dripping into the forecastle to change his clothes,
made him regard the affair much in the light of a joke.
At one A.M. on August 13th, the Falcon passed Cape
Cleveland, steaming northward for Cape Alexander,
and an hour later everyone on board, except the men
on duty, turned in, thoroughly tired with the day's
efforts and excitement. At 8:30 A.M., as I awoke, we
were just passing Cape Alexander, and I could see
the bold headland through my stateroom port, di-
rectly abeam, and only two or three miles distant.
CAPE ALEXANDER.
Going on deck, I had my first view of the Crystal
Palace Glacier, then of Pandora Harbour ; then a little
farther along, I looked into Foulke Fjord, with
Brother John's Glacier at its head, localities and ob-
jects that had been vividly pictured by the pen of Dr.
Hayes. At 10 o'clock, we were abreast of Littleton
Island. Off the entrance of Foulke Fjord, we saw a
few pans of ice, and by the time we reached Littleton
Island the water was covered with them, the passage
between Littleton and the mainland being apparently
blocked.
House-Building and Hunting 53
Though the morning was overcast and it was very
black and thick to the south, the western shore from
below Cape Isabella to Cape Sabine was distinctly-
visible, and Cape Hawkes could be made out to the
northward. The Falcon's head was pointed directly
at Cape Sabine, but at 11:30 a.m., in about the lati-
tude of Cairn Point, we came up to the edge of the
unbroken ice, and were compelled to bear away to the
westward. A careful survey of the horizon, made
CRYSTAL PALACE GLACIER (KANE).
Typical Ice-Cap Reflection above Glacier.
with our best o-lasses from the masthead, showed the
edo^e of the Kane Basin ice, extending in an unbroken
line, unintersected by a single lead or crack, from
Cairn Point to the western shore at Cape Isabella.
A few large floes were out in the centre of the Sound,
but with the exception of these there was no loose
ice except along the eastern shore from Littleton
Island up to Cairn Point. Although it looked very
thick and black to the south of us, it was bright and
54 Northward over the "Great Ice"
clear to the north. A fresh northerly breeze was
blowing off the ice, and the temperature of the air was
34° F. Clouds hung over the upper portion of the
shore from Cape Isabella south, but Cape Sabine was
clear, and from the masthead could be seen Cape
Louis Napoleon to the north, while Cape Ingersoll
and Cape Frederick VII. stood out clearly.
Countless little auks were perched upon and swim-
mine alongr the edee of the ice, a certain s'lQ-n of the
absence of any open pools of water in the ice. The
ice did not appear particularly rough and hummocky,
and a hundred yards or so of the edge of it were thin
and rotten. It had evidently been absolutely undis-
turbed thus far this season.
At 1 1 45 A.M., we turned back towards the Greenland
shore, and, keeping along the edge of the ice, came
nearly into the coast a little below Cairn Point ; then
comine down alone the shore we saw numbers of
walrus in the water, but owing to the overcast day
and the fresh breeze none of them was out on the ice.
When abreast of Lifeboat Cove the ship was stopped,
and, with Mrs. Peary, the Captain, and all the rest of
my party, I went ashore in the boat to the site of
Polaris House.
One of the natives with us, Kessuh, as a boy of
twelve or fifteen, had been here at Lifeboat Cove with
his parents when the Polaris party were here. He
took us at once to the site of the house, showed us
where the ship was run on the rocks, and then told
us how she afterwards floated off and drifted down
nearly abreast of the upper end of Littleton Island,
and sank out of sieht. The site of the house and its
neighbourhood were littered with a great variety of
miscellaneous articles and ship's fittings, but everything
in the way of wood or iron that could be made use of
by the natives had disappeared. Each member of
House-Building- and Huntino^ 55
'fc>
the party obtained a souvenir of some kind, among
them being a pair of ankle irons, a pair of handcuffs,
a brass hose coupling, and various brass composition
articles of ship fittings. A number of these articles
bore the stamp of the United States Navy Yard at
Washington, and were dated from 1865 to 1870.
In a little bight in the rocks, just north of the
house, was a tangled mass of rope, and among the
ICE-PACK OFF LITTLETON ISLAND.
August 13, 1893.
rocks directly back from the shore there were scat-
tered great quantities of loose leaves of various books.
Nowhere along the coast of Greenland have I seen
such a desolate strip of shore as the site of Polaris
House and its neighbourhood, and the first glance
shows that the selection of the site was not a matter
of choice, but of the direst necessity.
After a couple of hours spent in examining these
barren rocks, we returned to the ship, and then
56 Northward over the "Great Ice"
steamed slowly south along the shore, looking for a
night's anchorage for the ship. Passing down the
channel between Littleton Island and the mainland,
which was now practically free of ice, a look was taken
at the little cove in the mainland abreast of Littleton
Island, which has been referred to by some authorities
as possibly a good refuge. The impression made by
it was not satisfactory, so we steamed slowly round
Cape Ohlsen and into the indentation in the shore
just south of it. The appearance of this, too, was
EDGE OF THE UNBROKEN PACK.
Between Littleton Island and Cape Sabine. August 13, 1893.
not satisfactory, and as there was now a half-gale
blowing down off the land, just the kind of weather,
in fact, that Sir Allen Young experienced here in the
Pandora in 1876, we stood out into the ice off Little-
ton Island for the niorht.
About one o'clock next morning, a party landed on
McGary Island after eider-ducks, but it appeared to
be a little bit late in the season, and, although they
found numerous caches of eggs and birds made by the
natives, the ducks themselves seemed scarce and wild,
and only about twenty were bagged. Coming back
House-Building and Hunting 57
to the ship for breakfast, the ship then steamed a httle
north of Littleton Island into the walrus grounds, and
four big fellows were obtained during the forenoon.
As all the animals, however, were in the water, it was
much more difficult to get them here than at Herbert
Island. One of them drove both his tusks through
the planking of the Mary Peary before he was killed.
SITE OF POLARIS HOUSE.
While the two whale-boats were out after walrus, I
landed in a small boat upon the inside of Littleton
Island, and climbed to its highest point. The ruins
of two or three cairns were seen, but there was no-
thing in them, and I did not visit the site of the Nares
Cairn on the north-western point of the island. It is
a terribly desolate, barren-looking piece of rock, and
yet in the little pond in its centre several ducks were
swimming, and I saw also two ravens, two burgo-
master gulls, and one hare, while all around the island
the air and water were alive with little auks.
At three o'clock the weather began to come in thick
58 Northward over the "Great Ice"
from the south, the wahus disappeared, the boats re-
turned, and at four we started south from Sunrise
Point for Hakluyt Island. At six o'clock we passed
Cape Alexander, steaming against a stiff south-west
breeze, with rain and a pronounced swell from the
south. Sonntag Bay and George W. Childs Glacier
were the last objects that we saw on shore before the
rain and fog blotted it out. What sailors call a dirty
night followed, the wind coming in a wild gale from
the south-west, but, fortunately for our comfort, it did
not reach its maximum intensity until after midnight,
when we were already to a certain extent under the
lee of Hakluyt Island, and getting more and more
shelter from it every moment. At five o'clock in the
morning the wind was whistling as only an arctic gale
can whistle, but, with Hakluyt and Northumberland
Islands as a wind-guard, we were very comfortable.
The sea, however, made any attempt at landing on
Hakluyt impracticable, so I was obliged to give up
my proposed foray upon the bird colonies and bear
away for Olriks Bay, on the south coast of Inglefield
Gulf, for deer.
I know of no grander sight in all this Whale-Sound
reorion than the savag-e, north-west-facino- cliffs of
Northumberland Island, that look like crouching black
lions between the glaciers which sweep around their
feet. The furious south-wester hid their summits in
ominous grey clouds, and lashed the waves before
them into a mist of flying spray. As we steamed east-
ward into Murchison Sound we left the storm behind
us, and by the time we were abreast of the eastern
end of Herbert Island we were sailine in a summer
sea, with the warm sunlight beating down upon the
deck.
It was amusing to watch the relieved expression of
my faithful Eskimo hunters at this change. They
House-Building and Hunting 59
had been very sea-sick, as well as considerably dis-
turbed mentally during the night.
Passing the eastern end of Herbert Island, two
hours' steaming brought us to the mouth of Olriks
Bay, which I had crossed on the sledge with Mrs.
Peary a year ago last April. We steamed slowly up
the centre of the bay, twelve or fourteen miles, and
came to the reindeer haunts, of which my Eskimo
friends had told me so many times at Red Cliff.
THE SAVAGE CLIFFS OF NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND.
A long and wide stretch of gently rolling hills on
the north side of the bay, facing south, gave every ap-
pearance of being a deer country, but at first neither
the Captain nor myself with our glasses could make
out any of the animals, though both Myah and Kes-
suh persisted in saying that there were amisiiah
(plenty) there. At last, however, two or three were
discovered, then two or three more, and, as we slowly
worked up the bay, a group of a dozen here, and fif-
teen or twenty there, until the Captain, in his excite-
6o
Northward over the " Great Ice "
ment, said he could not see the ground on account of
the deer.
One party was dropped ashore in the Maiy Pea7y,
abreast of a group of six or seven. A Httle farther
along, another was sent ashore not far from another
group of the browsing animals. Still farther up the
bay, I landed with faithful Myah, while the Captain and
one or two of the men went a mile or two farther in the
SCENE IN OLRIKS BAY.
boat. Only a short time elapsed before the cracking
of the rifles was heard, and the result of the night's
hunt (the various parties getting back to the ship all
the way from two to seven o'clock in the morning)
was seventeen deer.
At ten o'clock we weighed anchor, and at one o'clock
were rounding the cape at the entrance of Olriks
Bay on our way back to Falcon Harbour.
1
House-Building and Hunting 6i
This Olriks Bay, which is very inaccurately shown
upon the charts, is different in its characteristics from
any of the fjords which I have seen in this region. In
its outer portion for a distance of some ten or twelve
miles, its characteristics are very similar to those of
other indentations of the Whale-Sound region, as, for
instance, Bowdoin, McCormick, Robertson, and Acad-
emy Bays. Then it makes for a short distance rather
a sharp turn to the left, then turns again back to its
previous direction, and then for an unknown distance,
though not less than fifteen miles, it stretches east-
ward into the land, a shallow, placid river of almost
constant width, with rollino- shores alone its ereater
extent, giving place finally to black, vertical cliffs near
its head. The extreme head of the fjord must be very
near to the head of Academy Bay.
Four hours from the mouth of Olriks Bay, and
the Falcon was back to her moorings in Falcon Har-
bour, with her four days' voyage completed. In these
four days she had visited all the principal points of in-
terest in this region, and obtained an ample supply of
meat for the dogs and the natives of my settlement,
and a good beginning on the meat supply for my own
party. During these four days of navigation, we had
seen not a single pan or floe of ice south of Littleton
Island, nor a yard of ice-foot along the shore, nor a
particle of ice at the head of any of the bays. This
was a most unusual condition of things in these
waters.
CHAPTER III.
AUTUMN AND WINTER WORK.
Departure of the Falcon — Commknckment of Ick-Cap Work — An Ar-
rival AT THE Lodge— Stormy Weathkr — Deer Hunting — Completion
OF Lodge — Glacier Convulsion — Irreparable Damage — End of Fall
Ice-Cap Work — Winter Sledge Trips — Work on Equipment— Return
of the Sun — Resumption of Ice-Cap Work — Lee Lost on the Ice-Cap —
Transporting Dog Food.
CHAPTER III.
AUTUMN AND WINTER WORK.
HE 20th of Aug-
ust, 1893, when
the Falcon left the
Httle harbour named after
her, was a perfect arctic
day, warm, clear, and bril-
liant. Three members of
my party were on board
her on their way to Igloo-
diowni, off which Eskimo
settlement they were to be
dropped in the whale-boat,
and whence they were to bring back as many natives
as possible to pack the Inland-Ice supplies at the house,
which we had decided to call " Anniversary Lodge,"
to the edge of the ice-cap some four miles away.
The rest of us stood about the rocks watching the
good ship get under way, then gave her three cheers
as she steamed southward, following her with our
eyes till she disappeared round the point of Bowdoin
Bay. Then every one of us, tired and sleepy from
the almost constant wakefulness and letter-writino- of
the last thirty-six to forty-eight hours, fell asleep on
the rocks in the warm sunshine.^
' The party left thus by the Falcon numbered fourteen persons, as follows :
Samuel J. Enlrikin, my first assistant ; Eivind Astrlip, second assistant ; Ed-
ward E. Vincent, surgeon ; E. B. Baldwin, meteorologist ; George H. Clark,
VOL. II.— 5 65
66 Northward over the "Great Ice"
The Igloodiowni party returned in two days with
seventeen natives, and during the rest of August the
greater portion of these natives were engaged in pack-
ing the suppHes to the ice-cap, while others were cut-
ting up and caching the wahus we had secured for
dog food. The main strength of the party was en-
gaged in completing the house.
On August 29th Astriip received his orders placing
him in command of the Inland-Ice party, and left the
same day for the ice-cap with Carr, Davidson, and
THE DEPARTING "FALCON."
Lee, five sledges, and fifty dogs, to establish a depot
of supplies as far in on the Inland Ice as possible in
the direction of Independence Bay. This was the
work for which his experience with me in the previous
expedition especially fitted him, and I felt that I could
leave the details to his judgment. The condition of
the surface of the ice-cap, with the fine weather which
we had been experiencing, and which, it seemed
taxidermist ; Hugh J. Lee, George H. Carr, James Davidson, Walter F.
Swain, Mrs. Peary, Mrs. Susan J. Cross ; my coloured man, Matthew Henson,
and myself, with Mr. F. A. Stokes, artist, an independent member of the Ex-
pedition.
Autumn and Winter Work
67
likely, woukl continue, gave me reason for the most
sanguine expectations for the result of the fall cam-
paign, and I hoped that its end would see the supplies
at least a hundred miles in on the ice, and possibly
even abreast of Petermann Fjord.
The following day my native labourers were paid,
and the same day Entrikin, with the launch General
Wistar and two whale-boats, accompanied by three of
the party, left the lodge to take them home, and on
UNCONCERNED ABOUT THE DEPARTURE OF THE "FALCON."
the way to endeavour to obtain more walrus off Her-
bert Island. Though hampered by a succession of
accidents to the launch, Entrikin carried out his in-
structions in a satisfactory manner, returning the na-
tives to their homes and killing three walrus.
Immediately after his return from this trip, he
started again in the whale-boat Faith, with a party
for Olriks Bay after deer.
The Inland-Ice work progressed slowly. I kept
posted as regards the movements of the party, at first
68
Northward over the " Great Ice
by means of my powerful binoculars, and then by
trips of various members of the party, and on the
night of September 7th, in response to a call from
Astrup for more dogs, the letter being brought by
one of the carrier-pigeons, I visited him myself at
his camp six miles in on the cap, and found him
suffering from something in the nature of a chill, and
the Doctor was immediately sent up to attend to him.
[^•;
FIRST STAGES OF THE LODGE.
He returned a day or two later and reported Astrup
much better and able to continue the work.
On September 12th, an interesting event occurred at
Anniversary Lodge in the arrival of a little nine-
pound stranger, Marie Ahnighito Peary. Both mother
and little one, as the result of the Doctor's care
and Mrs. Cross's skilled nursing, passed through the
ordeal in safety.
This little blue-eyed snowflake, born at the close of
the arctic summer day, deep in the heart of the White
North, far beyond the farthest limits of civilised people
Autumn and Winter Work
69
or habitations, saw the cold, grey hght of the arctic
autumn once only before the great night settled upon
us. Then she was bundled deep in soft, warm arctic
furs, and wrapped in the Stars and Stripes.
SURROUNDINGS OF THE LODGE.
The first six months of her life were spent in con-
tinuous lamplight. When the earliest ray of the re-
turning sun pierced through the window of our tiny
room, she reached for the grolden bar as other children
reach for a beautiful toy. Later, when the great night
70
Northward over the " Great Ice
of the arctic winter had given way to the great day
of the arctic summer, and she hved constantly in the
uninterrupted hght and brilliant arctic sunshine, the
effect upon her was the same as upon the hyacinth
and tulip bulbs which, kept for weeks in a dark cellar
and then placed in a window, expand and blossom
with astonishing rapidity. When, at the age of eleven
months, little Ahnighito left her native land, she was
physically and mentally at least a year in advance of
THE DINNER HOUR.
her actual age. Throughout the winter she was the
source of the liveliest interest to the natives. Entire
families journeyed from far-away Cape York to the
south, and from distant Etah to the north, to satisfy
themselves by actual touch that she was really a crea-
ture of warm flesh and blood, and not of snow, as they
at first believed.
My next news from the party on the ice-cap was on
September 1 3th, when Astriip was brought down suffer-
ing from stomach trouble and threatened with what
Autumn and Winter Work 71
was diagnosed as gastric fever. His tent and most of
the supplies were then twelve miles in from the edge
of the ice, with two sledge loads three miles farther
in ; but the precise location of the latter was not
known, storms having covered them after they were
left.
I decided immediately to let his party continue the
work until he was in a condition to return, and, in case
he should not be able to return to the cap at the end
of the week, to take charge of the work myself. Carr
A BURRO TRAIN.
and Davidson, therefore, started back to rejoin Lee,
who had remained at the tent on the ice-cap. They,
however, encountered a storm, in which they lost
their way, and after wandering about all night, being
obliged to cache their loads, finally made their way
down to the land and regained the lodge. Making a
second attempt, a day or two later, they succeeded in
reaching the tent, where Lee had been entirely alone
for a week, just as another storm broke upon them
and made all three of them prisoners in the tent for
another week, when they were able to get out and re-
72 Northward over the "Great Ice"
turn to the lodge, which they reached on September
23d.
Two days later I went back with the boys to take
charge of the Inland-Ice work myself, and on arriving
at the moraine, at the edge of the Inland Ice, found
that all three of the sledges which they had brought
out and left at the moraine had been blown away
without leaving- a vestip-e. This necessitated our re-
turn to the lodge to put together new sledges. While
these mishaps were occurring in connection with the
ice-cap work, Entrikin was hunting deer for our meat
supply for the winter, and in bad weather attending
to the interior fittincrs of the lod^e. Durine the deer
hunt in Olriks Bay, from which he returned on the
1 6th, he obtained thirty-three deer. On the 26th he
started again in the Mary Peary for a deer hunt in
the neighbourhood of Hubbard Glacier.
On September 30th I succeeded in reaching the
cam.p on the ice-cap, accompanied by Davidson and
Lee. The following day, after a few hours' search, we
discovered the lost sleds:es and loads which had been
advanced by Astriip beyond his tent.
This work successfully accomplished, we returned
to the tent and thence to the lodge to get additional
dogs. Returning to the ice-cap the following day we
had, at the end of four days' work, advanced all the
supplies twenty-six and one-half miles from the moraine.
I was satisfied with the result of our work, for the
three of us had in four days, with twenty dogs and in
continuous stormy weather, moved the supplies a dis-
tance of fourteen miles. I intended on the followingr
day to return to the lodge for two more men and ad-
ditional dogs, and, with this addition to our force,
move everything in to a point fifty miles from the
moraine. If I could accomplish this I would feel satis-
fied with the fall work. The next morning, however.
Autumn and Winter Work
n
brought a howling gale from the south-east, the snow
flying in such a way as to make it impossible to keep
a course. This confined us to camp for two days. On
the third day, though the weather was still very thick,
we started for the moraine, I in advance on snow-shoes,
and the boys following with their teams and light
sledges. The recent fall of snow had made the trav-
elling so heavy that I out-distanced the dogs, and on
.«<» v**
PAY DAY.
reaching the moraine the boys were not in sight. I
thought they would have no difficulty in following me,
and kept directly on to the lodge.
Here I found Entrikin just returned from the hunt-
ing trip to Hubbard Glacier with twenty-seven deer
and skins.
My two boys did not come in until nine o'clock the
next morning, when they arrived at the lodge looking
74 Northward over the "Great Ice"
like drowned rats. They had been caught just as
they reached the moraine by a renewed outburst of
the storm, and, unable to find the snow igloo or fix
up any kind of a shelter, had crawled into their sleep-
ing-bags, which soon drifted full of snow, and this
melting from the warmth of their bodies, had soaked
them thoroughly.
The storm of which this was the beginning lasted
continuously for an entire week, when almost every
THE LODGE NEARING COMPLETION.
available man in the party went to the moraine camp
with the dogs, sledges, burros, and all additional
equipment needed for an increased ice-cap party.
Three or four Eskimos accompanied us to build
a new snow igloo at the moraine, to serve as a
shelter during the remainder of the fall campaign.
The demon of the storm was, however, still on duty
at the moraine, and the furious driving drift across
its top made it impossible to complete the igloo.
The old one was unsafe, so, after making every-
Autumn and Winter Work
75
thing secure for the night, everyone returned to the
lodge.
Two days later we were able to get back to the
moraine, and it took six of us the entire day to free
the igloo and sledges from the deep deposit of snow
of the last forty-
eight hours.
From this time,
October i8th,
until November
9th, there was a
constant succes-
s i o n of s n o w-
storms and hiofh
winds, and, al-
though someone
was constantly on
" picket duty " at
the moraine ie-
loo, there was
throughout all
these days never
a time when it
was practicable to
start upon the In-
land Ice, wind,
snow, and dark-
ness relieving
each other in de-
fending that
breastwork.
On the night of October 31st, while I was at the
moraine, waiting an opportunity to get on the ice-
cap, a big wave, caused by the breaking of a huge ice-
berg from the Bowdoin Glacier, rushed into Falcon
Harbour, burst up through the solid ice near the shore
THE BABY'S FIRST OUTING.
76
Northward over the " Great Ice "
in a roarino- cataract of water and foam ; rolled the
steam launch, which had been hauled up for the winter
at the head of the harbour, over and over and stove
her in ; dashed the whale-boat Faith, which had been
hauled up at the mouth of the brook, a hundred yards
up the valley and ruined her ; then receding, carried
down with it into a vortex of o-nndino- ice-cakes all
my oil barrels, the dory, several bales of hay from
the burro stable, and a number of puppies. No trace
IN THE DINING-ROOM.
of the dory was seen afterwards, but all the oil barrels
were accounted for, though three or four were smashed
completely, and the contents entirely lost, and nearly
all were injured and more or less of the oil lost. This
loss of oil and some of the launch fittings put the in-
stallation of our electric-light plant entirely out of the
question.
On November 9th, I went to the moraine with the
idea of going in to the cache and fixing it up for the
winter, it being too late in the season now to advance
Autumn and Winter Work
11
the supplies any farther. The following day we
started in on the ice-cap, travelling till long after
dark. Before we had our tent fairly pitched, another
storm began and kept us in the tent for about forty
hours, we expecting every moment to have the tent
torn from over us. Then a lull in the storm, although
the barometer was still going down, enabled us to
strike the tent and start back for the moraine, which
we fortunately reached, and thence made our way
THE FAITH STOVE BY THE GLACIER CONVULSION.
down through the valley to the lodge. This ended
the fall work on the ice-cap. The sun had been absent
now for sixteen days. Soon after our return, the
first sledges and natives arrived to visit us. The re-
mainder of the month was almost continuously stormy
and cloudy, and the month closed with our Thanks-
giving celebration, the thermometer outside standing
at - 20° F.
The comparatively calm and clear weather of De-
cember was a very agreeable change from the con-
j^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
tinuous atmospheric disturbance of October and
November. Work was commenced and steadily con-
tinued on the Inland-Ice equipment. Visits from the
natives were numerous and of long duration, and
these, with the care of our dogs, caused the first half
of the month to pass rapidly. With the arrival of
the December moon, we began sledge trips to the
various native settlements for dog food. Everyone
having returned from these trips, I gave the party a
THE COMPLETED LODGE.
two days' rest previous to Christmas and the athletic
sports booked for that day.
The day after Christmas, I started for the settle-
ments of Ooloosheen and Keate, on Herbert and
Northumberland Islands, by way of Karnah. The
object of the trip was to obtain a supply of dog food,
and my programme contemplated sending home a
load of meat which had been promised to me at Kar-
nah, an examination of a cache of walrus meat made
in the autumn on the eastern end of Herbert Island,
Autumn and Winter Work 79
and the purchase of as much meat as I could bring
back from Ooloosheen and Keate. This trip lasted
five days, and resulted in bringing- back to the lodge
some sixteen hundred pounds of dog food.
Immediately after New Year's other sledge trips
were made. All the parties were back at the lodge
on January 7th, and this ended the sledging trips of
this moon. They were not to be resumed until the
appearance of the next one.
In these various sledge journeys some seven hun-
dred miles were travelled, between twenty-five hundred
and three thousand pounds of dog meat were brought
to the lodge, and both men and dogs gained beneficial
exercise and experience in the field. During all these
journeys in the midnight hours of the arctic winter
night no mishap occurred, and the members of the
party, owing to the perfection of their fur clothing, ex-
perienced no discomforts whatever.
The sunless and moonless interval from now until
January 21st was taken up with pushing the work on
the clothing and sledges for the Inland-Ice trip. Dur-
ing the week commencing on that date, three parties
were put into the field after deer. Thirty were ob-
tained. The next week was also largely spent in the
field.
The results of the week's work were to add twenty-
one more deer to our larder. With the increased
daylight of early February the natives began killing
walrus off Peterahwik, and, with over thirty saddles
of venison safely stored away, I turned my attention
from the deer pastures of Kangerdlooksoah in Academy
Bay to the walrus-haunted ice-floes of Peterahwik, and
from early February until the party went on to the ice-
cap this place furnished most of my dog food. Seven
trips were made by members of the party to this set-
tlement and the neiorhbourinof one of Nerke.
So
Northward over the " Great Ice
On the 15th of the month, by chmbing the slopes of
Mount Bartlett, Mrs. Peary and myself got our first
glimpse of the sun, which we had last seen one hundred
and fourteen days before. On February i8th, the sun
shone again upon the lodge. On the same day, Lee,
with two Eskimos and a team of dogs, started for the
cache on the Inland Ice, and with the return of the
CLIMBING TO THE MORAINE.
god of day, work on the equipment was pushed with
redoubled energy.
According to my original programme, I had ex-
pected to start from the cache established in the pre-
vious fall, twenty-six and one-half miles from the
moraine, on March ist ; and in furtherance of this
programme, Lee was going in to free the cache from
the winter's snows, bag the pemmican, and construct
snow igloos in readiness for the party when it arrived.
Autumn and Winter Work 8i
Unfortunately, while hunting for the cache, Lee
lost his way during a storm, and after wandering
about on the ice-cap for a night and a day, descended
into Inglefield Gulf, and finally, after forty-four hours
LEE AT THE MORAINE.
without food or sleep, reached the lodge by way of
the Castle Cliffs in an exhausted condition and with
a frozen toe.
This mishap disarranged my schedule somewhat,
and the delay incident to it necessitated a second trip
82 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
to Nerke and Peterahwik for an additional supply of
meat.
The magnitude of this work of transporting dog
food will be appreciated when it is known that I had
now a ravenous pack of eighty to ninety Eskimo dogs,
all the food for which had to be hauled from either
Nerke or Peterahwik, distances of fifty and sixty miles
respectively. This pack had to be fed at least as
often as once every other day, and it required for a
sino-le feed the maximum sledee load of meat that
could be hauled from either of the above-mentioned
places by the route through Tooktoo Valley and over
the Kahkoktah Glacier. The weather all this time
was cloudy and threatening.
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE "great ICE."
The Start — Good-bye — The Ick-Cap Caravan — The Cache Igloos —
PiBLOCKTO — Lee AND ASTRUP DISABLED AND RETURN TO LODGE — "EQUI-
NOCTIAL" Camp — Havoc of the Furious Storm— More of the Party
Sent Back.
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE
GREAT ICE.
I
T was on March 6,
1894, that the start
was made for the long
Inland-Ice trip. In the
morning, eight members
of my party with five Eski-
mos, some eighty dogs,
and the last articles of
equipment, left Anniver-
sary Lodge in the morn-
ing for Moraine Camp.
The weather all through
the first days of March was cloudy and threatening.
The day on which the start was made, however, was
bright and clear. The party was to push in on the
Inland Ice from Moraine Camp as far as practicable,
and I was to join them early the next morning and
brine them hot tea in order to save their alcohol.
Two of the Eskimos were to return to me as soon
as the party camped, and report their location. When
these couriers came back to the lodo-e late in the even-
ing, I saw that I could easily go up to the party in
the morning and return to the lodge, overtaking them
the next day. With the earliest dawn of light I was
off with two Eskimos, carrying several gallons of
85
86
Northward over the "Great Ice
boiling-hot tea in canteens, and a big tin chart case,
all closely wrapped in the winter coat of the reindeer,
to keep the tea from freezing in transit.
I was encouraged on reaching;- the moraine to see
no derelict dogs there, and though the encampment of
the party was less than two miles beyond the moraine,
I considered it a grood omen that this Rubicon had
finally been passed ; that this Titan breastwork along
which, throughout the previous fall, we had so per-
1.
4-
- -•»•
«e»
•^..
-^.n.
fllft
jrii^ «^
FIRST CAMP ON THE ICE-CAP.
sistently battled the triple demons of the ice-cap, cold,
storm, and darkness, had at length been carried. As
I approached the camp, which, with the sleeping-bags,
sledges, and dogs, tethered in teams of five or six,
occupied a very considerable area, I saw everything
indistinctly through the white veil of the fine snow-drift
which the biting wind from the interior was sweeping
alono- to a heio^ht of three or four feet over the frozen
surface. Entrikin, Astrup, and Baldwin, who met me
just on the outskirts of the camp, although closely
enveloped in their heavy furs, had apparently felt the
effects of the all-penetrating ice-cap wind on this their
On the "Great Ice
87
first night on the cap, as was shown by the shghtly
pinched and cerulean tinge of what could be seen of
their faces. This effect disappeared very quickly after
a pull at the hot tea.
The boys had had a great deal of trouble with the
numerous loose dogs, inevitable in such a pack, and
had obtained but very little sleep.
I remained with the party until breakfast was fin-
ished, the dogs hitched in, and the line of march taken
THE CACHE IGLOOS.
up, and then, with Ingeropadu only, I turned back to
the lodge. After going a short distance, I stopped to
have another look at the caravan, and the memory of
the scene, with the memory of a subsequent one, when
farther on, will remain long with me. It was a sublime
spectacle to see that company of thirteen men, a dozen
sledges, and over ninety dogs, climbing the alabaster
88 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
slopes of the infinite ice-cap, their destination the fro-
zen fastnesses of the north. Never before had such a
sight been seen on the great, desolate ice ; never, I
thought to myself, would the scene be repeated.
On the morning of the 8th, I took my final depart-
ure from the lodge. I quote from my journal as
follows :
" I was awakened at seven o'clock this morning,
and after a light breakfast started, Mrs. Peary accom-
panying me, for, I hope, my last upward trip to the
moraine camp. Matt had turned out an hour earlier,
and had captured and harnessed seven dogs belong-
ing to some of our Eskimo visitors. Koolootin^wah
and faithful old Ingeropadu, with Eskimo sledge and
these dogs, had gone on ahead. I said ' Good-bye ' to
everyone at the lodge, including the little blue-eyed
mite of a girl that looked up wonderingly at me from
her bed. Of the natives, Etoo plainly answered back
'Good-bye' in English. Up past Kessuh's and Pan-
ikpah's igloos we walked, across Baby Lake, and up
the valley to Glacier View, then to the Rock Turn,
where I said ' Good-bye ' to Mrs. Peary, as two years
ago I had said ' Good-bye ' to her in McCormick Bay,
a few miles distant.
" Past the upper and lower mule caches, and so on
over every foot of the well-known trail to the moraine.
" Here Ingeropadu turned back, leaving Kooloo-
tingwah to go on with me to the party. We left the
bamboo pole, the first milestone (figuratively speak-
ing) on the route, at noon. The day was clear and
calm, the snow presented a firm surface, and although
the temperature was in the neighbourhood of 30° be-
low zero, the direct heat of the sun was so pronounced
that while climbing the slope to Pigeon Camp I was
obliged to take off my deerskin shirt in order to avoid
getting into a perspiration.
On the "Great Ice"
89
" Some two miles beyond Pigeon Camp we passed
the snow igloo and camp site occupied by the party
the previous night, and at 4:30 p.m., a few miles be-
yond Plateau Camp, I saw the party in the distance
ahead of us, a series of black dots crawling up the
slope of one of the snow hummocks. At six p.m., we
reached the boys just as they camped at the snow igloo
which Lee's Eskimo companions had constructed and
occupied in February the night before he was lost. The
THE PARTY AT THE IGLOOS,
western sky was a blaze of crimson and gold, the east-
ern dark with the purple shades of night. The camp
itself, with the numerous dogs tied in groups of five
and six, the harnesses and other items of sledge equip-
ment supported upon tripods formed with the ski, the
sledges scattered here and there, the snow igloo, the
little silk tent, the sleeping-bags with their tent-like
protections, and the many figures moving about hither
and thither, all projected against the background of
the glowing west, combined to form a scene which re=
go Northward over the "Great Ice"
minded me very strongly of an Indian encampment on
the prairie at sunset."
By the time I had made a tour of inspection of the
camp, Astriip, who was utihsing the snow igloo as a
cook-house, had made the pea soup and tea, and, after
disposing of a cupful of each with my ration of pem-
mican and biscuit, I pulled on my deerskin kooletah
and combination deerskin boots and trousers, and lay
down on the snow in the lee of one of the sledges.
Here I was perfectly warm, though the temperature
during the night was 30° below zero ; but finding it
impossible to protect myself from the annoyance of
the drift, which eddied about the sledge and blew in
my face in spite of every effort, I changed my position
towards midnight for a semi-recumbent one on top of a
sledge. Our Eskimo companions and one or two of the
party slept in the igloo, the others in the little tent and
the sleeping-bags. As I changed my position, the bril-
liant, scintillating stars overhead, and the sinuous, white
drift banners of the " Great Ice," wakened to life by the
sibilant breath of the north-east wind, rustling in and
out through the sleeping encampment, formed a scene
strikingly characteristic of this great white desert.
At sunrise I awakened Astriip to make the tea, and
at ten o'clock I left camp, with Lee and Gotooniah
and their teams, to push forward to the cache, and
construct an igloo while the main party followed later
on. On the way to the cache we passed near the tent
from which Lee had started out and got lost. Leav-
inof Lee to strike the tent and brinof it alone on his
sledge, I kept on with Gotooniah to the cache.
While yet two miles distant, we saw the cache ahead
of us, and on reaching it found that since October the
snow had drifted about it to the depth of some four
feet, and had also formed a drift upon its top, which
was visible at some distance, even without the assist-
On the "Great Ice" 91
ance of the bamboo pole which had been erected be-
side the pile of supplies.
Ootooniah immediately went to work constructing
an igloo, and had it completed just as the whole party
arrived, the line of sledges winding along over the
snow like a huge black centipede.
As soon as their dogs were tethered, all the Eski-
mos began a second igloo, adjoining the first, and
when it was completed the two were united by an
MAKING CAMP,
arched opening. The tent which Lee had brought up
was erected in a line with the igloos on one side, and
the little kitchen-tent on the other. As we were likely
to remain here at least two days digging out the cache,
assigning the sledge loads, bagging the pemmican,
and repairing the sledges, most of which had suffered
more or less from the journey to the moraine, and
thence over the rough, hard sastriigi up to Pigeon
Camp, I had a snow fireplace, if such an anomaly can be
imagined, built in each igloo, one for the alcohol
92 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
cooker and the other for wood, of which we had quite
a supply in the shape of broken boxes.
The first night at this camp, some of the party slept
in the igloos, others outside in their bags, and I in my
sleeping-suit in the lee of the igloo. There was a
continuous lio-ht wind and drift throuofhout the nig-ht.
The following day was clear, with a north wind and
drift. It was devoted to digging out the cache and
thoroughly overhauling and repairing the sledges.
Tea was kept on tap all day to encourage the boys in
their disagreeable work.
A serious incident of the day was the death of one
of my dogs from the real piblockto, or dreaded dog
disease of this region. I did not have him shot, as I
wished to satisfy myself as to the character of his
malady. Towards the last he nearly gnawed his legs
off.
The next day, March i ith, was calm and clear, with
no drift. Sledge loads were assigned, and the mem-
bers of the party occupied themselves in sewing their
respective shares of pemmican into bags containing
twelve to fifteen eight-pound cans each, and arranging
their loads. The Eskimos left at 4:30 a.m. to return
to the lodge.
On Monday, March 12th, we finally got started
away from the cache igloos, after losing at least two-
thirds of the day by a series of hitches and mishaps,
which seem to be the inevitable accompaniment of
getting a large pack of Eskimo dogs under way after
a day or two in camp.
We found the going very heavy, the ice-cap ahead
of us having a considerable gradient. The surface of
the snow was cloth-like in texture, and the dogs of
the various teams were not accustomed to one an-
other and were constantly fighting. Lee's toe, which
he had nipped again, was in a very bad shape in the
On the "Great Ice" 93
morning-, but he had grit and insisted upon pushing on.
At night he was evidently in no condition to proceed
farther. Astrup also came to me some time after we
had made camp, saying that he was not able to go on,
as he felt all the symptoms of an attack of illness such
as sent him back from the ice-cap in September last.
The loss of two of my best men meant not only a
serious impairment of the strength of the party, but
reduced the party to the minimum number with which
SECURING A LOOSE DOG.
my original programme of work for the season could
be carried out. As those who remember my plan as
outlined before leaving the States will recall, it was
my intention, after reaching the north-east coast, to
start one party northward from Independence Bay,
while another party simultaneously went south and
east to Cape Bismarck, and thence back over the ice-
cap to Whale Sound ; and one or two men remained
at Independence Bay to await there the return of the
northern detachment, recuperate the exhausted dogs^
94 Northward over the "Great Ice"
survey that region, and obtain a supply of musk-ox
meat.
Eight in the entire party would give three, the most
desirable number, in each of the travelling parties, and
two for the Independence-Bay party. With six in
the main expedition, each party would be reduced to
the minimum number of two.
This serious crippling of my party at the very start
caused me a sleepless night. I tried to hope against
TURNING OUT.
hope that the next day might bring some improvement
in the condition of Astriip and Lee. The extent of
my hope may, however, be judged from the fact that
I cached here their share of the rations.
On the 13th, what with the up grade, the strong
wind, the drift in our faces, and the two disabled men,
we advanced only two miles. At this camp, eight of
the least effective dogs, that evidently would not be
able to stand the arduous work and exposure, were
killed and utilised as food for the others. At the
On the "Great Ice" 95
conclusion of this march, it was certain that Lee and
Astriip must go back. At first I had intended to send
them back by themselves, but on thinking the matter
over during the night, I felt that my responsibility re-
quired that someone able to look out for them in case
of mishap should accompany them, and as no one
could make the trip to the lodge more rapidly than
myself and one companion, I decided to take Clark
with me and see them safely down.
At nine a.m. we left this camp, Astriip ^ and Lee rid-
ing upon one of the seven-foot sledges drawn by eight
dogs, with Clark driving, and myself in advance, set-
ting the pace and encouraging the team. The day
was clear and the travelling fair, what wind there was
being at our backs, and we made good progress until
we began to climb the slope to Pigeon Camp. The
sun had set before we reached Pigeon Camp, but the
long, brilliant arctic twilight lit the ice-cap and the
valley and glaciers below.
By this time, Lee, in spite of his warm clothing,
had become chilled from the long ride, and this, with
the pounding and jarring of the sledge over the sas-
triigi^ caused him so much agony from his now greatly
inflamed and swollen toe, that he thought he would
attempt walking. He actually did walk from here to
the moraine, a distance of six miles and a half, and
then to the lodge, four miles farther, though every
step, as I could see, caused the poor fellow to grit his
teeth.
At the moraine, we left the sledge and fastened the
' Astriip was an entirely different man on this Expedition from what he had
been on the previous one. He seemed to have lost all the stamina which he
possessed in 'gi-'ga. The previous September he had come down from the
ice-cap incapacitated after three weeks' work. Now he was disabled at the
expiration of a week, and though during my absence he made a journey to Cape
York, still, later in the season he was on two occasions taken ill soon after
starting on trips upon which I had sent him, and obliged to return to the lodge.
96 Northward over the ** Great Ice"
dogs securely, and, while Clark remained behind to
help the boys, I hurried on as rapidly as possible to
have something hot in readiness for them. I reached
the lodge at eleven p.m., healthily tired from the thirty-
five-miie tramp. The others came in about midnight.
It was bright moonlight as I came down the valley, and
Baby Lake was a glistening sheet of white, and every
stone and angle of the ledges were easily recognisable.
When leaving the ice-cap, I had intended to start
READY TO START.
back from the lodge the next morning, but reaching
it as late as we did, and feeling that we needed a good
sleep, I postponed our departure till the afternoon, and
made use of the opportunity to get a meridian observ-
ation for rating my chronometers. It was about four
P.M. when Clark and I started back to the ice-cap.
Before we left the moraine camp the sun had set,
and before we reached Pigeon Camp we had only the
moonlight to show us our downward tracks. These
we followed till midnight, when we reached the snow
On the "Great Ice" 97
igloo beyond Pigeon Camp. Taking out a block or
two from the side of this igloo, we pushed the sledge
in as far as it would go, and partially reclosed the
opening. I curled myself up on the extra harness
and spare pemmican bag on one side of the igloo,
while Clark stretched himself on the sledge, and thus
disposed we slept until six o'clock the following morn-
ing in a temperature of — 35° F. Resuming the march,
we reached the party at two o'clock in the afternoon.
In accordance with my instructions, Entrikin had
pushed two sledges and loads five miles ahead, and
had utilised the rest of his time during my absence in
overhauling the equipment.
As soon as Clark and myself had had a cup of tea
and some biscuit, camp was struck, the remaining
sledges were loaded, and we pushed on to the two ad-
vanced sledges, where we camped.
The next morning, and through the three following
days, snow, thick weather, and drift made it impossi-
ble for us to march. The time was occupied, how-
ever, in constructing a new sledge from two of the
spruce runners and the uprights and cross-bars of
our two seven-foot sledges. This work was done
almost entirely by Entrikin, assisted to some extent
by Clark. It was commenced and completed in tem-
peratures of —35° to —40° F.
On Tuesday morning, March 2 2d, although the
weather was still very unfavourable, we got under way,
but the furious head-wind and stineine drift, with the
temperature of —35° F., compelled us to halt after go-
ing only three miles, the dogs absolutely refusing to
pull. Here we camped. Entrikin and Baldwin, with
the alcohol cooker and myself, occupied the little
protean tent, while the other three of the party occu-
pied the silk tent. The dogs were fastened as usual,
each team was divided into groups, and, dinner over.
98
Northward over the "Great Ice"
we turned in. About five o'clock next morning, I was
awakened by a sudden increase in the force of the
wind, which now blew with such violence that, had
not our tent been all in one piece, connected with the
floor cloth on which we were lying, I should have ex-
pected to have had it blown away at any moment.
The drift which accompanied this storm was almost
indescribable, and had the members of the party been
any less perfectly clothed than they were, it would
CAMP EQUINOCTIAL.
have been impossible to have gone out of our shelter.
As it was, however, Baldwin made his regular observ-
ations at the observatory sledge, about one hundred
feet from the tent, and he and I took turns in carry-
ing hot tea and pea soup to the three men in the silk
tent, about fifty feet distant. Throughout the day
and the following night, the wind steadily increased in
violence, until it became impossible to shout so as to
be heard from one tent to the other, even with the
utmost effort of our lungs.
On the "Great Ice" 99
On Thursday afternoon, the drift forced an entrance
into the silk tent, and in order to escape being smoth-
ered, its occupants were obhged to get out as best
they could and retreat to the larger tent. In doing
this, Davidson had his heel, and Clark a toe, two fin-
gers, and a thumb, frost-bitten. As soon as they were
safely in our tent, Entrikin turned out of his bag and
gave his place to Clark. I turned my deerskin sleep-
ing trousers over to Davidson, and the Doctor curled
"THEIR FUR A MASS OF ICE AND SNOW."
himself up on the foot of the big bag. This left a
small space between the pole and the tent opening, in
which Entrikin and I could stand. This space was
constantly decreasing in size from the drift, which, in
spite of our best efforts, continued to force itself
through the fly, after the entrance of the boys. After
a time, there was room for only one of us, and we al-
ternated in standing up, steadying ourselves by the
pole, now and then curling up on the snow-drift for a
few winks of sleep, and making tea several times dur-
loo Northward over the "Great Ice"
ing the night to warm up the boys and keep up their
spirits. The straining and flapping of the tent, the
deafeninof roar of the wind, the deviHsh hissing- of the
drift, the howhng and screaming of the poor dogs,
made a pandemonium never to be forgotten.
One consoHno^ feature was the fact that, owino- to
the quaHty and construction of our fur clothing, no
one of the party suffered severely from the cold while
in the tent. Personally, though without sleeping-bag
or any other covering beyond my deerskin travel-
ling garments, I was entirely warm and comfortable
throughout the storm.
Early on Friday morning, March 23d, the wind be-
gan to subside, and at seven a.m. I was out looking
upon a scene that made me sick at heart. Half my
dogs were frozen fast in the snow, some by the legs,
some by the tails, and some by both. Two were dead,
and all were in a most pitiable condition, their fur a
mass of ice and snow driven into it by the pitiless
wind. Several had freed themselves and had destroyed
the double sleeping-bag and many of the harnesses
which had been blown off the tripods, Baldwin's
anemometer, barograph, and thermograph, which, as
the result of his ingenuity and perseverance, had kept
on recordino- throughout the storm, showed that for
thirty-four hours the average wind velocity had been
over forty-eight miles per hour, and the average tem-
perature about —50° F., with a minimum of over
— 60° F. When these figures are considered in con-
nection with our elevation of some five thousand feet,
the unobstructed sweep of the wind, and the well-
known fact that ice-cap temperatures accompanied by
wind are much more trying to animal life than the same
temperatures at sea-level, it is believed that the judg-
ment will be that this storm beats the record as the
most severe ever experienced by any arctic party.
On the "Great Ice
lOI
All PViday was spent in digging out the sledges, feed-
ing the dogs, getting them in shape as far as practica-
ble, and making and repairing harnesses.
Davidson's heel placed him entirely hors de combat,
necessitating his return to the lodge, and as the Doc-
tor two days before had confided to me that he felt he
ouofht to be at the Iodide lookino- after Lee, I decided
to send him back with the Doctor. I made arrange-
ments for them to start early on Saturday morning.
•"* ^
aat^^St-' '■
'^WI^^L '
wi^^Ktssi
f^spy
'^''^^mMm ^
1" WiSi" '?
■ • ,«,! 1
,^
.f%
S .-r;'. .
^•^m^mm^'
SOME FROZEN FAST.
Clark's frost-bitten hand was not injured to speak of,
the effect being superficial only. His feet, however,
were frost-bitten in several places, and, while their
condition at present was not such as to incapacitate
him from travelling, the chances were perhaps more
than even that additional exposure might make them
worse. As he, however, had said nothing of turning
back, and I knew him to be desirous of keeping on,
I felt that I could not send him back if he, after thor-
I02 Northward over the "Great Ice"
oughly understanding the pros and cons of the case,
still wished to go ahead, and was willing to assume
the entire risk and responsibility as to his own per-
sonal safety.
I told him, therefore, that if he went on beyond
this point, and should have more trouble with his feet,
he would be obliged to return alone on his ski, without
sledge or dogs, as I could neither spare another mem-
ber of the party nor dogs to take him back.
I told him to talk the matter over with the Doctor
and let me know his decision. An hour or two later,
finding him at work on some harnesses, I asked him
if he had made up his mind. He answered in his
deliberate Yankee way, as if anything different had
never occurred to him :
" Oh, I guess I shall go ahead all right, sir," and
go ahead he did.
Thick weather delayed the departure of Davidson
and the Doctor till noon, when they finally left us,
Davidson wrapped in a sleeping-bag and seated upon
one of the seven-foot sledges, cirawn by five dogs.
This further reduction of my party to four destroyed
all possibility of carrying out my original programme.
I felt that the party thus reduced should remain a
unit, and this meant either the entire abandonment of
the east-coast work or its execution by the same party
that did the northern work after its return to Inde-
pendence Bay.
CHAPTER V.
ON THE "great ICE " {Continued).
The Start from Camp Equinoctial — Continued Mishaps — Mirage —
Low Temperatures — More Storms — The Dread Piblockto in Full
Force — The Last Advance Camp — Provision Cache — The Return —
Struggling Back under Difficulties — Many Dogs Give Out — The
Lodge Reached — Causes of Failure.
CHAPTER V.
ON THE " GREAT ICE (Continued).
A
FTER they had
gone, the afternoon
was devoted to
, strengthening and sewing
up holes in the tent, and
repairing the torn sleep-
* ina--baofs. A cache was
also made of the supplies
that were now superfluous,
owincf to ti 5 reduced size
of the party. A complete
readjustment was made of
The next day we left camp, each
of my companions with a large sledge, drawn by a
team of eighteen does. This arrano"ement was neces-
sary to enable us to take all of the supplies. What
the handling of teams like this means only those who
know something of the peculiarities of the Eskimo dog
can understand. In spite, however, of their two days'
rest after the storm, it troubled me to find that my
dogs were not in condition, and after travelling seven
miles in a temperature of — 46° F., with a fresh south-
easterly wind, we were obliged to halt and camp on their
account.
The following day gave early promise of being a
105
sledges and loads
io6 Northward over the "Great Ice
favourable one, but we had travelled only a short dis-
tance when the wind and drift met us again, and at
the end of three miles forced us to camp. Tuesday,
the 27th of March, was a bright, sunshiny day, with
just a light north-easterly breeze, and comparatively
high temperature (—30° F.). The demon of the
ice-cap, however, had only begun to play his cards.
Less than two
miles away from
the camp, one of
the sledges, while
eoino- over a
huge, marble-like
sastriigi, broke in
the bend of one
of the runners,
and we were de-
layed an hour
or two lashing
another sledge
alongside it, mak-
ing a three-run-
ner sledge. At -
the end of the
fifth mile another
sledge, the Long
Serpent^ ran up-
on the sharp edge
of an ugly, rag-
ged sasti^ugi, and
hung there brok-
en-backed. This
ended the day's
march, and we went into camp to unload and repair
both sledges.
This was the first day since leaving the cache ig-
THE SIGNAL AT THE CACHE.
On the "Great Ice" 107
loos that we had been able to see more than a few-
yards about us. The surface of the Inland Ice lay-
in long swells. Each successive one was slightly
higher than the preceding, and all rose somewhat
higfher to our ricrht, and descended somewhat lower
to our left. The surface was firm, yet cloth-like in
texture, and the rasping of the sledge runners over it
came to my ears crisp and resonant, even when three-
quarters of a mile away. At frequent intervals were
huge sasti'ugi, offspring of the storm, marble-like in
whiteness and hardness, all pointing towards Kane
Basin, whence the equinoctial storm had issued, and,
hurtling across the icy canopy of Prudhoe Land, had
fallen upon the party at Equinoctial Camp.
Throughout the entire march there were constant
miracfe effects, causing curious distortions of the
members of the party, sledges, and dogs ; and a
white frost-cloud of condensation accompanied each
team. A brilliant parhelion also displayed its pris-
matic colours for an hour or two during the day.
At this camp, three of the dogs that were unable to
ofo on were killed and used as doe food. After the
dogs were fastened and fed, I found that the boys
were so discouraged by the mishaps of the day that
I made no attempt to have the sledges repaired, but
fixed up a milk punch, and had everyone turn in.
The next morning, the temperature by the spirit
thermometer was —51° F., rising later to — 36°F., but
accompanied then by north-east wind and drift. In
this weather and temperature, and without shelter, the
sledges were repaired, and the harnesses overhauled
and repaired. This simple statement conveys no idea
of what this work really meant. While engaged in it,
Entrikin got the bottoms of his feet nipped, and this
was the begrinnino^ of his serious trouble.
After his work was done, the Long Serpent was a
io8 Northward over the " Great Ice "
much stiffer and easier-running sledge than before, and
I had hopes that it would last to Independence Bay.
Although it was after six o'clock when the sledges
were completed, we harnessed up and went on for a
few miles rather than camp a second night in the
same place.
During this march, the wind and temperature, act-
ing upon the moisture of Baldwin's breath, froze his
kooletah so rigid that he could neither walk nor turn
ON THE RETURN.
his head, and was obliged to come into camp lying on
his sledge. Here w^e came to his assistance, and re-
moved the ice and snow, which had almost completely
closed the face opening of his kooletah.
The next day was clear, with temperatures ranging
from —36° F. to —40° F. With everything in repair
and a fair surface over which to travel, we should have
made good progress, but the wind and drift directly
ahead were on hand again, and at the end of ten miles
Entrikin's team balked, and, in spite of all efforts, re-
On the ''Great Ice" 109
fused to go farther. In his efforts to start the sledge,
Entrikin strained his back, and this, together with his
frost-bitten feet, put him in a decidedly sober mood.
The next morning, when we awoke, Clark's nose, which
had projected too far through the face of his kooletah,
was frozen to his sleeping-bag, and had to be thawed
off by the warmth of his hands.
Entrikin was in no condition to march, so we re-
mained in camp to give him a chance to rest and get
in condition. The temperature during the day was
well down in the minus forties, falling at seven p.m. to
— 55° F. and remaining throughout the night between
-55° F. and -57° F.
Everyone except myself passed an exceedingly com-
fortless night. Being unencumbered by a sleeping-
bag, I was able, if my feet got chilly, to restore the
warmth by pounding them upon the snow.
The next day we pushed ahead five miles more, but
the work showed that Entrikin was not yet in trim to
stand a good day's march. The continued low tem-
perature, too, in the forties and fifties below zero, with
the almost constant wind, gave my dogs no chance to
recover from the effects of the equinoctial storm, and
had a perceptibly numbing effect upon the physical and
mental faculties of my party. One of my best dogs
died this day from the effects of that storm. Several
had frost-bitten feet, and were unable to pull properly.
Others were passing blood. Lion, the hardy vet-
eran of the previous trip, was laid up with a sore leg,
and almost all the animals still had more or less of
the snow of the equinoctial storm remaining in their
coats.
As a last resort, I decided to remain in this camp
two days, to give Entrikin a final chance, and to see if
it were possible to get the dogs in any better condition.
Throughout these two days the temperature was well
no Northward over the "Great Ice"
down in the forties below zero. The temperature in
the tent at my head for the two mornings was — 45° F.
and —44° F., respectively.
On the morning of April 3d, Entrikin's feet and
back were in much better condition, and I felt en-
couraged to think that he could now keep on without
further trouble. The going during the day was very
good, the surface hard, smooth, and level, interrupted
only occasionally by the big sasti^ugz. At the end of
"SUMMER WEATHER."
Temp. —4° F., in Direct Sun Rays, April 15, 1894.
the day's march we had covered fifteen miles, but the
encouraging effect of this was more than counteracted
by an occurrence which gave me more uneasiness than
any other mishap thus far. One of the dogs was at-
tacked by the piblockto, and bit nearly all the dogs in
two other teams before he was shot.
On April 4th, for the first time, the day passed
without mishap, and the end of the march found us
fifteen and one-quarter miles from the last camp.
On the ''Great Ice" m
The next day again we advanced fifteen miles.
Soon after making camp at the end of this march, it
began snowing heavily, with a strong south wind.
This was the beginning of a storm that confined us
to the tent for the next three days, and gave the fin-
ishing stroke to my poor dogs. When the storm
ceased many of them were buried completely in the
snow, several frozen down, and two were dead from
exposure. All our sledges were completely snowed
in, and the tent itself half buried in a big drift.
The following march was only seven miles, and
this distance was made with the utmost difficulty.
The frost-bitten feet were much worse, and two more
dogs with the piblockto had bitten nearly every dog
in the pack. One of these dogs, the Agitator, a
powerful, big, wolfish brute, the last survivor of the
dogs purchased on the Labrador coast, presented just
before he was killed as savage and gory a spectacle
as I have ever seen. He had run amuck through the
team, and, half blind as he was with froth and blood,
had been mercilessly torn and shaken by the dogs
that he had attacked. As the rifle was levelled at
him, he stood exhausted and panting, with head and
neck swollen to twice their natural size, ears torn in
shreds, eyes bloodshot, bloody foam dripping from
his jaws, and his entire body flecked with foam and
blood and clotted tufts of fur. Though so weak that
he could scarcely stand, he was just gathering him-
self for another spring at the dog nearest him, when
the bullet passed through his brain, and he collapsed
in a quivering heap on the blood-bespattered snow.
It was very evident that the dread disease had
gained a firm foothold in my pack, and the end could
not be far away.
On April loth, after taking an account of stock, so
to speak, and turning the whole matter over care-
112 Northward over the "Great Ice"
fully, I decided that it was not advisable to attempt
to proceed any farther this season. We were now
128 miles from the lodo^e. As to the condition of
my party, one was now entirely out of the race with
frosted feet, and must return to the lodge. Another
was not entirely recovered from an attack of cramps
at the last camp, and I feared another storm would
bring them on again. The third had both heels and
great toes frost-bitten, and was having daily attacks
KESSUH THE LEADER.
of bleeding from the nose. All, however, showed
true grit, and were willing to push on. But the
crushing blow was the existence in my pack of the
dreaded and incurable piblocJdo, induced by the ex-
treme exposure of the past four weeks, and which,
with continued work and exposure, might easily re-
duce my pack to half its present number, or even
exterminate it entirely.
Another serious feature of the case was the late-
ness of the season. Instead of being at Independ-
On the "Great Ice" 113
ence Bay on the ist of April, as I had planned, it
was now the loth, and we were only one-fourth of
the way there. While I appreciated the fact that
two, or perhaps three, of us might possibly get as far
as Independence Bay, even in the existing state of
affairs, anything beyond that would be entirely out
of the question, and to do this would consume all of
my pemmican, alcohol, and other provisions, which
could not be replaced, and would thus destroy every
chance of a second attempt next spring. So I regret-
fully turned my face towards the lodge.
Having decided that my journey to the north coast
of Greenland must be given up for this season, the
next thing to do was to cache the pemmican and mark
its position by a prominent signal. This was done by
piling the pemmican bags on each other around the
base of a fourteen-foot bamboo pole, driven into the
snow two and one-half feet till it came to a bearing upon
an icy crust. The bags were then covered deep with
snow, forming a pile some five feet high. The pole
just above this was braced by a tripod formed of two
ski and a sledge runner, and the top of the pole itself
was surmounted by an empty cracker tin, firmly wired
to it. This signal could be easily seen for a distance
of between two and three miles under ordinary con-
ditions, and with the sun in a favourable position, so
as to have its rays reflected from the sides of the
cracker tin, probably twice that distance.
This cache is situated 124 miles north-east, half-
east (true), from the moraine camp, and is at an ele-
vation of some 5500 feet above the sea-level. The
surface of the Inland Ice before reaching this point
had been practically level during the last two or three
marches, and it was apparently the same in every
direction from the cache, though probably still rising
slightly to the north-east and east.
114 Northward over the "Great Ice"
The work of erecting the signal, together with the
rearranging of the sledge loads and repairing the har-
nesses, took up the whole day, and the "following
morning we started back over our outward sledge
tracks.
ENTRIKIN.
On our first return march we covered eighteen and
a half miles, the result of our greatly reduced loads,
and the fact that the wind was now behind us in-
stead of in our faces. Then the clogs were played out
and we camped. During this march another dog was.
On the "Great Ice" 115
attacked with the piblockto. After reaching camp,
three others that showed undoubted symptoms of the
disease were shot. As we made camp, there were all
the indications of another storm, a solid mass of dark,
sullen clouds sweeping rapidly over us from the south-
east. By the time our dinner was finished the storm
burst upon us, and furious wind with snow and drift
held sway throughout the night, and until late the
following afternoon, when there came a lull which
enabled us partially to dig out the sledges, and for a
short time gave hopes of our being able to move on.
Another dog was found at his last gasp and put out
of misery. The lull was of short duration, and the
wind and drift closed in on us and drove us back to
the hut until the next mornino-.
Baldwin, in an attempt to reach the observatory
sledge, was thrown down by the fury of the wind,
nearly suffocated by the drift, and struggled back to
the tent, his clothing driven full of the fine snow, and
he himself numb and almost helpless with the cold.
Early the next morning, the storm ceased, and I found
two more of my dogs dead and another frozen to the
stake to which he was fastened, and evidently not good
for more than one more march. The entire forenoon
was spent in digging out the sledges and tent and in un-
tanalino; the doo-s. In the afternoon we covered four-
teen more miles on our return. Entrikin was obliged
to ride all day on account of the condition of his feet.
Words are powerless to give an idea of the relief
afforded us by the calm night which we passed at this
camp, after the days and nights of storm and wind
shrieking past the tent.
The next morning the thermometer at my head was
up to — 32° F., yet three more of my dogs were unable
to travel, and were killed before we left camp. This re-
duction in the number of does, and the exhausted con-
II 6 Northward over the "Great Ice"
dition of those left, compelled me to cache here some
three hundred pounds of supplies. During this day's
march we covered sixteen miles in what seemed to us
summer weather and complete calm, the thermometer
BALDWIN.
registering —4° F. when placed upon a piece of fur and
exposed directly to the rays of the sun. This day
again, Entrikin, in spite of repeated efforts to hobble
along with his feet muffled in several thicknesses of
fur, was oblio-ed to ride the entire distance.
On the "Great Ice" n;
Monday, April i6th, was a clear, calm day, with
the thermometer at —40° F. I found two more dogs
nearly dead in the morning, and big Kessuh, the
most powerful animal in the pack, was taken very
sick soon after we started. Eleven miles from the
camp I was obliged to cache one sledge and the
greater portion of the load, and divide the dogs be-
tween the other two sledges. At the end of sixteen
miles we went into camp.
The morning of the 17th found three more dogs
in no condition to travel, and during the march we
had for accompaniments heavy drift and wind. We
were encouraged, however, soon after starting, by
coming upon our old acquaintances, the giant sastrugi
of the equinoctial, and an hour later we crossed the
wind divide of Prudhoe Land, where the atmospheric
currents from the interior separate, part flowing north-
ward to Kane Basin and part southward to Inglefield
Gulf and Whale Sound. Two hours after this, I
came upon our outward sledge tracks, now twenty-
three days old, still distinct and easily traceable.
After following these tracks for three miles, another
team gave out, and we encamped with fourteen miles
to our credit. During this march, one of the dogs
fell exhausted in his harness and was shot. The
Kessuh dog continued very sick.
Wednesday, April i8th, was a brilliant, clear, calm
day. Still another dog was found exhausted in the
morning. At 10 : 30 a.m., while yet three miles dis-
tant, we saw the cache at Equinoctial Camp ahead of
us, and reached it at noon. Here the observatory
sledge was left, and after eating our lunch we hurried
on in hopes of gaining the cache igloos for our next
camp. At eight p.m., it was evident that we were past
the cache igloos, our course having lain a little to the
east, and we were now converging towards the well-
II 8 Northward over the "Great Ice"
travelled route between the cache igloos and the
moraine. The pronounced down grade was so fav-
ourable that we had already covered eighteen and
one-half miles, and we fastened the dogs and erected
the tent for what I intended, unless the weather was
of the very worst,
should be our last
camp on the ice-
cap.
The march this
day with the daz-
zling sun directly
in our faces had
seriously affected
our eyes, and I
knew that, to
cover the twenty-
four miles be-
tween our present
camp and the
moraine, we must
be relieved from
this annoyance
by travelling at
night. We there-
fore remained in
this camp twenty-
three hours.
Then, leaving
the three -run-
ner sledge, and
attaching the
twenty-five remaining dogs (big Kessuh having died
during the night) to the long sledge, on which was
packed nothing but our tent, cooking apparatus, and
sleeping-gear, we began the last stage of our retreat.
CLARK.
On the "Great Ice"
119
About a mile and a quarter from camp, we came
upon one of the bamboo mile posts on the trail from
the moraine to the cache igloos, and taking up the
familiar course from this to Pigeon Camp, we passed
other poles and tent sites, and so on downward, with
the ice-caps of Red Cliff Peninsula and those between
PEARY.
Inglefield Gulf and Olriks Bay gradually climbing
above the edge of the ice-cap ahead of us.
Abreast of Pigeon Camp, we found the surface of
the ice-cap scoured and tortured into frozen waves
of such size and raggedness as to be impassable for
the sledge, the crests of the waves constantly catch-
I20 Northward over the "Great Ice"
ing on the cross-bars. We were now only six miles
from the moraine, so the dogs were detached from
the sledge and divided among the bo3's, while I went
ahead. We passed on down to the moraine camp,
which we reached at seven o'clock in the morning.
Here I left the boys to rest and to take a nap, and
hurried on down the valley to the lodge, to get hot
drink and stimulants ready for them against their
arrival, I reached Anniversary Lodge about nine
o'clock.
The causes of failure of the trip are to be found
primarily in the extremely antagonistic weather, and
secondarily in my failure to properly appreciate the
limits of endurance of the Eskimo dog. With regard
to the weather, the number and duration of the
storms, the incessancy and violence of the wind, and
the uninterrupted low temperatures were exceptional
even for this region ; and the exemption of the mem-
bers of the party from permanent injury, as a result
of their continued exposure, shows conclusively the
perfection and adequateness of their clothing.
With regard to the second cause of our defeat, I
confess that previous to this experience I had believed
the Eskimo dog of Whale Sound capable of enduring
the severest stress of weather possible in this latitude.
This may hold true at sea-level, but on the ice-cap,
when the weather is in its fiercest mood, the toughest
Eskimo dog needs shelter.
The frost-bites of the members of the party were
the result of inexperience, and had there been the
slightest cessation of the low temperatures, they
would have had an opportunity to yield to treatment.
CHAPTER VI.
DISCOVERY OF THE " SAVIKSUE."
Recuperating from the Ice-Cap Exposure — Sledge Trip to Olriks
Bay— Westward to Peterahwik — Off for Cape York in Search of the
"Iron Mountain" — Round Cape Parry — The Ignimut — Across Wol-
STENHOLM SOUND — OVERLAND —THROUGH THE LEADS OFF PeTOWIK — CaPE
York — A Young Bachelor's Den — Discovery of the " Saviksue " — Re-
turn TO Cape York — Storm-Bound — :Arduous Return Trip to Lodge —
A Wild Toboggan Ride — Arrival of the Falcon — Departure of the
Party.
CHAPTER VI.
DISCOVERY OF THE SAVIKSUE.
IT required something
like two weeks for
the ice-cap party to
recover from the strain
and exposure of the work
and storms on the " Great
I))
ce.
Inaction was unbear-
able to me, and as soon
as my dogs were in con-
dition to travel again, I
started, accompanied by
Mrs. Peary, to explore and survey Olriks Bay.
In a sledge trip of five days' duration, we reached
the very head of the bay, nearly fifty miles from its
mouth.
We were the first white persons ever to penetrate
the innermost recesses of this striking fjord, which
winds like a g-reat river between oriant cliffs and roll-
ing deer pastures, to its source against the face of the
Marie Glacier sweeping down from the " Great Ice."
Olriks Bay, which is shown with absolute inaccu-
racy on all the charts of this region, is interesting in
that it is different from any other bay or fjord in the
123
124 Northward over the "Great Ice"
entire region from Melville Bay to the Hun-iboldt
Glacier, "its characteristics are more those of a river
than of a bay or fjord, as will be seen at once from
the map and the statement of its dimensions, which
are : length fifty miles, and a maximum breadth at
the mouth of five miles, narrowing in two places to
about ii miles, and an average width from mouth to
head of little, if any, over 2^ miles. The bay is di-
SLEDGING INTO OLRIKS BAY.
Mrs. Peary's Equipage.
vided naturally into three sections, namely, the outer,
middle, and inner reaches, by the contractions of the
outer and inner narrows. The head of the bay is but
a short distance from the head of Academy Bay, the
same ice-stream throwing- down a branch into each.
My desire to examine this inlet dated from April,
1892, when I crossed its mouth on a sledge, and
this desire was much increased by the visual evi-
dence from the ice-cap, during March and April of
126 Northward over the "Great Ice"
this year, of its extension eastward far beyond the
hmits shown on the charts.
The absence of any bergs in this bay, at the time of
the visit of the Falcon last August, led me to think
there could be no discharo-ino" orlaciers at or near its
head. The present trip, however, discovered two dis-
charging glaciers, only one of which, however, appears
to produce bergs of any size, and the absence of
bergs in the lower portion of the bay can easily be
accounted for by the extreme shallowness of the
FACE OF MARIE GLACIER.
Head of Olriks Bay.
middle portion between the two narrows, which would
prevent the bergs from passing out, and also the posi-
tion and environment of the bay, which causes a con-
centration of the summer heat in such a way as
undoubtedly rapidly melts the bergs. The glaciers
of this bay, numbering six, include a very considerable
one, Savage Glacier, near its mouth, directly opposite
Kanga. This glacier is apparently the largest of
the unique series of glaciers which occupies every
break in the cliffs on the south shore of the Sound
Discovery of the "Saviksue" 127
from Netiulumi eastward, and in the number and ex-
tent of its crevasses it is certainly the most vicious-
looking of them all.
In physical characteristics, the inner and outer sec-
tions of the bay are quite similar, but the middle is
different from either. The two former are confined by
high vertical cliffs and steep bluffs, standing at the
maximum angle of repose possible for the coarse ma-
terial of which their slopes are composed, while in
the middle section the terrene reaches away from the
shore in a succession of rounded hills and ridges,
gradually increasing in height until it reaches the ice-
cap on either side.
A day or two later I made another trip partly over-
land, westward to the scene of the spring walrus hunt
at Peterahwik, to secure dog food for my teams, and
survey the coast beyond McCormick Bay.
At Peterahwik, just abreast of the ruins of some
fifty snow igloos, where a month before had been the
bustling, populous village of the walrus hunt, I found
the edge of the black North Water swirling, under a
dense canopy of fog, against the rocks of the shore,
and my further progress was stopped.
Completing my surveys to this point, and purchas-
ing a considerable quantity of walrus meat, I returned
to the lodge.
On the 1 6th of May, I left the lodge again with
Lee, my iron-runner sledge, and ten dogs, in search
of the '' Iron Mountain," of Melville Bay.
When turning over in my mind the project for my
1 89 1 and 1892 Expedition to Whale Sound, the discov-
ery of this " Iron Mountain" was naturally one of the
minor attractions of this region, and during the win-
ter at Red Cliff House I obtained from the natives
considerable information in regard to the mysterious
object ; learned that it had been visited by many of
128 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
the present generation of the natives ; and made a
bargain with one of the young men of the tribe to
give him a gun if he would guide me to it when my
party returned southward.
The lateness of the season, thick weather, and the
presence of much ice when, in August, 1892, the Kite
steamed southward past Cape York, rendered any
delay inadvisable, so the attempt to locate it was
abandoned for the time.
Again in 1893 and 1894, the discovery of this "moun-
SAVAGE GLACIER.
tain " had its place in the schedule of the work which I
hoped to accomplish, and when, on the ist of August,
1 893, my ship the Falcon dropped anchor inside of Cape
York, after the quickest passage on record through
Melville Bay (24 hrs., 50 min.), and from the summit
of Cape York itself I saw the coast to the eastward
in the reputed locality of the "mountain" apparently
free of heavy ice, I hesitated some time before decid-
ing that it was hardly advisable to risk any delay to,
or interference with, the main object of my Expedition
by taking the Falcon out of her course.
Discovery of the "Saviksue"
129
Among the possibiHties of my present trip was a
return over the Inland Ice from Cape York or the
"Iron Mountain," to some point in Olriks Bay, either
as a matter of choice in the event of pleasant weather
and a rapid down trip, or as a matter of compulsion
in the event of the breaking up of the sea ice between
Cape York and Wolstenholm Sound, before we were
ready to return.
THE COAST EN ROUTE TO PETERAHWIK.
Behind the sledge trailed my new odometer, play-
fully known by the boys as "the locomotive," and
warranted to stand all shocks from the ice or a follow-
ing sledge.
It was a glittering wintry day, with fresh south
wind, the temperature 25° F., and abundant cumuli
casting cloud shadows on the white expanse of the
bay and distant ice-caps.
At Castle Cliffs, on the ice-foot under the lee of a
great sandstone boulder, we found the tupiks or seal-
I30 Northward over the "Great Ice"
skin tents of Panikpah and Koolootingwah. Panik-
pah was to be our driver from here on, and while I
cHmbed up the rocks for a round of angles from the
cairn at this point, he brought out his kooletah and
extra kamiks and lashed them on the sledge, while
Lee untangled the dogs.
From Castle Cliffs we drove, as the crow flies,
straight across the gulf to Tigerahomi Point, the an-
gle in the coast-line beween the mouths of Olriks and
Academy Bays. Half an hour before midnight we
\
FACSIMILE OF PAGE OF NOTE-BOOK.
reached the now deserted villacje of Narksami. This
villao-e is situated in a westward-facino- cove fronting^
Herbert Island, and is walled by steeply sloping
mountains. The habitations numbered four ; stone
igloos built against a bank just above high water, and
just south of the boulder-strewn delta of a great /kook
(river) from the ice-cap. Here we stopped to repair
the sledges and prepare supper, which was cooked on
an open fireplace in front of the igloos, with seal
blubber for fuel. This repast of seal meat, brown
Discovery of the "Saviksue" 131
bread, pea soup, and tea finished, we started on and
at four A.M. arrived at the northern point of Ohiks Bay.
Here perched on shehered shelves of the rocks we
found three tupiks. In niches in the pudding-stone
ledge were several fireplaces, and on the ice-foot two
seals and numerous pieces of blubber and walrus
meat. We were travelling in the season of sunshine
and plenty. The big clean tupik of Ootooniah was
vacant, he and his wife being away visiting, and this
offered such a good opportunity for undisturbed sleep
'A GLITTERING WINTRY DAY."
after our nineteen hours' march, that we immediately
availed ourselves of it and turned in.
Eight or nine hours of refreshing sleep put us
in trim for the next day's work, and we pushed
across the mouth of Olriks Bay to Ittibloo, where
we found four tupiks occupied by about twice as
many families.
Stopping but a short time at this place, we pushed
on along the south shore towards Netiulumi. We
had not proceeded more than three or four miles on
our way when we were overtaken by two sledges.
132 Northward over the "Great Ice"
These turnouts were so entirely different from each
other that they are worthy of notice. One was a
family conveyance, a large sledge upon which was
piled the tupik, with all the hunting gear and house-
hold goods of the family, until the load was so high
that it had been necessary to lash on a board to serve
as an intermediate step by which to reach the top.
Perched upon this sat Ootooniaksoah with his wife
Ahkatah and his four- or five-year-old boy Teddyling-
wah. This load was
drawn by seven small
dogs, which were strain-
ing every muscle under
the persuasive influence
of Ootooniaksoah's
twenty -foot rawhide
lash, that played on and
about them with reports
like a volley from a
seven-shooter.
A strikingr contrast,
the other sledge ; Nup-
sah out on a seal-hunt
with three powerful
brawny dogs and noth-
ino- on his sledore but
his seal-chair. The for-
mer turnout reminded
me of those family picnic-wagons, so many of which
may be seen entering Fairmount Park on Sunday
morning ; the latter, a bachelor in his sulky, speeding
a favourite pacer.
At Netiulumi, we occupied the tupik of one-eyed
Merktoshar and his kindly wife Ahma. Their tupik
offered the advantage of being pitched on the ice of
the bay, away from the filth and offal which surrounded
PANIKPAH.
Discovery of the " Saviksue " 133
the tupiks of the village ; of being free of children, and
having a bed of clean fresh deerskins.
Among the natives here was Tallakoteah, who at
Red Cliff, two years ago, had acted as my mail carrier,
taking letters to Cape York to deliver to a whaler.
He had fulfilled this mission faithfully, as my letters
had reached their destination after my own return
home, and Tallakoteah now delivered to me a brief
note from Capt. Allen of the Tei'ra Nova, dated June
6, 1892, acknowledging the receipt of my mail.
This man was thoroughly conversant with the region
about Cape York, having lived there several seasons,
and professed to be well acquainted with the location
of the " Iron Mountain," which he said he had seen
repeatedly. He told me that there were three savik-
sue (great irons) of varying sizes, the smallest about
the size of a mikkie (dog), indicating a dog curled up,
the second considerably larger, and the third still
larger than the second.
He also said that one of them was neither very
high above the water-level nor very far from the
water, while the other two were up on the side of the
mountain. He agreed to go with us to Cape York
and QTuide me to them.
He would take his own sledge and four dogs, and
for the consideration of a knife I obtained from
Ahngeenyah five more fine animals, which would give
me sixteen dogs in all, three of my original team hav-
ing been given to Panikpah to enable him to get
back home.
At one A.M. of the 19th, we left Netiulumi,
Tallakoteah and myself on one sledge drawn by ten
dogs, Lee following with the second sledge drawn by
six. The midnight hours were gloomy and overcast,
but this did not trouble us as long as fresh dogs and
snow-free ice permitted us to dash at full gallop west-
134 Northward over the "Great Ice"
ward for Cape Parry, the black promontory which
stands guard at the southern entrance of Whale
Sound.
Three hours later we rounded the cape, into the
teeth of a driving snow-storm, whose fast-falling flakes
hid everything from our eyes, but did not keep from
our ears the sound of waves, and the puffing of nar-
whals in the open water close on our right. A few
miles south of Cape Parry, the violence of the storm
TUPIK AT NETIULUMI.
had reached such a pitch that we could make no head-
way against it, and we sought the opportune shelter
of an igloo which Tallakoteah had excavated in a
snow-bank, during his upward trip from Cape York
some weeks previous.
In these contracted quarters, we remained some
twenty hours, when a loose dog walking over the
roof of our shelter brought the whole thino- down
upon us, and drove us out into the storm, which had
Discovery of the "Saviksue" 135
fortunately abated somewhat at this time. A glance
at the ruins decided me to attempt to push on. We
found the snow deep and heavy, and underlaid with
several inches of slush. Through this the dogs could
scarcely drag the sledges alone, and riding for us was
entirely out of the question.
Off Bell Rock, the summit of which looked down
on us for a few moments through the mist and snow,
Tallakoteah shot a seal, the less desirable portions of
TRAVELLING COMPANIONS.
w^hich furnished the dogs an acceptable repast, while
the choicer cuts were reserved for ourselves. Just
below the entrance to Booth Sound, we found five
tupiks pitched just above the ice-foot, the five families
awaiting the cessation of the storm in order to con-
tinue their journey.
With our arrival the work of striking these tupiks
was commenced, and we stopped long enough to
have Tahwanah's wife, Nelleekah, cook our seal
136 Northward over the "Great Ice"
meat, off which we made a hearty meal, and then
pushed on again. It was still snowing, the travelling
grew constantly heavier and heavier, and the ice was
intersected by cracks which, masked by the deep
snow, allowed us to step into them without warning.
This kept us constantly wet to the hips. We passed
the site of the winter hut of the boat party from the
Advance in 1854, and a little farther on a snow igloo
and tupik, the occupants of which immediately gath-
ered up their belongings and joined our caravan.
At three p.m., we came up to open water imping-
ing directly against the shore, and, crossing the ice-
foot on a shaky bridge of floating ice-cakes, we
reached the snow-covered shore, and followed it to
the north point of Wolstenholm Sound, the " land of
Noogli" and the neighbourhood of the ignimut, or
firestone, of the natives. Guided by my Eskimo
friends, I visited the site of this interesting deposit
of pyrites, which the natives have used for steel in
obtaining fire, but, owing to the unusual depth of
snow, did not actually see it.
Leaving the point, we went along the shore a short
distance, then descended into the slush-covered, crack-
intersected ice of the Sound, inside the open water.
Our course was directed through the foe across the
Sound towards Saunders Island, which, after a few
hours, was faintly visible ; then the sun broke through
a rift in the clouds, and the island, with its regularly
banded cliffs, loomed up before us like a huge car-
nelian. Before we reached it, a fresh south wind be-
gan to whirl the white drift over the surface of the
bay and into our faces, and we sought shelter in a
niche in the rocks forming its south-eastern shore.
Three sledges overtook us just as we arrived here,
and their occupants immediately began building a
combination tupik and igloo, erecting a low snow
Discovery of the ''Saviksue" 137
wall, and throwing over this the folded tupiks.
While this was being done, Lee and myself were
enjoying a luxurious repast of seal steaks and tea,
cooked over a fireplace in a small cave in the rocks.
We obtained here six and a half hours' sleep, and
started for Cape Athol at two in the afternoon.
At six P.M., we came upon open water off Cape
Athol, a broad lead reaching from the cape clear
across to Saunders Island. After a single glance at
this lead, my driver whirled his team around and
THE CAVE AT PETOWIK.
Lee Feeding the Dogs.
Started at full speed for Narksami, to cross overland
to the ice south of the open water. Following up the
valley of the great kook at the mouth of which the
village is situated, we climbed to the snow-covered
interior plateau some thousand feet above the sea-
level, then southward across this plateau about six
miles to another valley, descending which, we came
out on the sea ice again in a little cove about five
miles north of Petowik Glacier. While crossing this
plateau, we saw seven deer, one of which was shot.
138 Northward over the "Great Ice"
The sea ice now was smooth and free of snow, and
we swept at good speed along the wild shore cliffs,
past the rookeries of little auks, past the contorted
sides of Mt. Agony, to a cave close beside the Pe-
towik Glacier, perhaps the very one in which Kane
hauled up his boats. This cave is a regularly arched
grotto in the solid gneissose rock at or just above
GETTING THE DOGS ACROSS A LEAD.
high-water mark. It is about twenty feet high and
wide at the entrance and twenty feet deep, but only
five feet high at the inner end. There is a still smaller
extension of the cave back into the rocks, which is
used by the natives as a cache, the entrance being
closed by loose stones.
Above the mouth of the cave the cliff rises vertically
for hundreds of feet, and on either side a projecting
Discovery of the **Saviksue"
139
buttress shields the
mouth of the cave com-
pletely from the wind.
This cave is a well-
known and favourite
half-way house of the
natives in their travels
along this coast, and at
its inner end we found
a quantity of dried
grass forming a bed,
and a well-blackened
fireplace with remains
of seals and birds.
After a "grand
gorge," as Lee ex-
pressed it, of venison
steaks, liver and bacon,
seal meat, pea soup,
tea, and corn bread, we
stretched ourselves on
the rocks in this shel-
ter and slept soundly.
While we slept, the sun
shone in warmly, but
by the time we had
finished breakfast and
were ready to start, our
usual companion, bad
weather, was on hand
to accompany us, and
we left the cave in a
driving snow -squall.
The blue-green wall of
the great Petowik
Glacier, projecting far
HO Northward over the "Great Ice"
out from the shore, compelled us to make a long de-
tour seaward, and we soon encountered, in the shape
of a broad lead, or lane, of water, a premonition of the
obstacles that lay before us.
Some time was spent in discovering a practicable
crossing, and beyond this were many other leads and
a dreary expanse of deeply slush-covered and in places
rotten ice. My driver proceeded with the greatest
reluctance, and at last confessed to his fear of the ice,
which, he said, was very thin, and at the least wind
would be broken up and floated out into the North
Water, the ominous blue-black loom of which was close
at hand, we now being several miles off the face of
the glacier. As it was now, however, just as far to
retreat as to advance, I flattered him a little, telling
him he was too big and too brave a man to turn back,
and insisted on proceeding, which we did.
The slush and leads continued, and the wet and
heavy travelling, combined with the haunting fear that
we might strike an impassable lead, rendered the hours
extremely trying to me. At last we were able to head
in towards the shore south of the glacier, and ferrying
across two broad leads on cakes of ice, we finally
reached Cape Dudley Digges. In crossing the last
lead, the odometer caught in the ice and was twisted
out of shape.
From the cape, a broad outward-curving lead
stretched clear across the unnamed bay which I will
call Parker Snow Bay, between the Cape and Parker
Snow Point, and drove us nearly out to Conical Rock,
into an interminable network of leads caused by the
strong- tidal action between the rock and the shore.
At length we Qrained the shore ice a few miles south
of Conical Rock, and from here on were troubled by
no more leads. Deep snow, however, in front of each
of the numerous glaciers which pour their icy currents
Discovery of the "Saviksue" 141
through every break in the Crimson CHffs, retarded
our progress, and at last, thoroughly tired and sleepy
with the nervous tension of the day, I directed Talla-
koteah when about fifteen miles from Cape York to run
the sledofe ashore beside a bier rock for a few hours'
rest. We had been thirteen and a half hours on the
march. Along the entire shore from Petowik to where
we stopped, the cliffs were alive with countless millions
of little auks, and numerous looms, kittiwake gulls,
AT CAPE YORK.
burgfomasters and Greenland falcons. One re-entrant
angle in the cliffs was colonised on one side by looms,
and on the other by kittiwake gulls and little auks, the
former occupying the lower floor. Perched on every
available rock and ledge, alight like swarms of insects
or clouds of dust on the snow, the number of atoms
of life was inconceivable. Again under way, with
fairly decent going except in front of the glaciers, we
reached the Cape York tupiks, four in number, at three
142 Northward over the "Great Ice"
in the morning. During the entire journey from the
cave to Cape York, we obtained only occasional
ghmpses of the summits of the chffs through the fog
and driving snow-squaUs. I had told Tallakoteah
before reaching Cape York that I wished to sleep in
a tupik which was clean, roomy, and not infested with
children, so I was immediately shown to the habita-
tion of Tahweenyah, the oldest and most influential
man of the village. Here after a supper of tea, bread,
and boiled seal meat, Lee and myself turned in for a
HEAD OF SAVIKSOAH BAY.
comfortable sleep, while the wind whistled and the
snow beat against our skin shelter on a low rock pomt
of this wild Arctic promontory, facing southward
across the icy, bear-haunted wastes of Melville Bay.
At last we had reached " Imnaminomen" (Cape
York) after ten days of struggle with the difficulties of
Arctic-spring travelling, but even now the outlook
was not encouraging for a termination of our troubles,
and there was every probability that we might be
storm-bound here for several days.
Three days later, the storm had abated sufficiently
Discovery of the " Saviksue " 143
for us to start, and having left in charge of Tahweenyah
everything that we would not absolutely need for a
three days' trip, and with all sixteen of our dogs
attached to Tallakoteah's sledge, we entered upon the
last stage of our journey.
Skirting along the shore, we passed round the south-
east point of Cape York with its numerous deserted
igloos, to the village beside the glacier where the
Falcon stopped last summer. From this point our
course lay straight across the bay to the islands on
VIEW^ EAST FROM THE METEORITE.
the eastern side, where there were said to be four
igloos, and where we thought to find my old acquaint-
ance " little " Kessuh, the same youth that I had
expected would be my guide two years ago. The
snow was very deep, and Lee and myself were com-
pelled to take turns in snow-shoeing ahead of the
dogs. The entire circuit of this bay, which is certainly
laro^e enouo-h to deserve a name on the charts, from
the Eskimo village which we had just left, round to
the islands ahead of us, is a glacier face broken by
a few nunataks. Arrived at the island igloos, we
144 Northward over the *' Great Ice"
found them deserted, but a fresh sledo^e track led from
them round the end of the island, and following this
we soon came to a cave in the rocks, and in the cave
was our little friend fast asleep upon a luxurious bed
of bearskins with a deerskin thrown over him.
The habitation of this young bachelor was so
unique that it merits some description. Just out-
side the cave was his sledge, just within the entrance
HARD AT W^ORK.
his dogfs were fastened, then came his bed with his
gun leaning against the rocks at his head. A niche
in the rocks some four feet above the floor formed
his fireplace, and in the inner extension of the cave
behind his head were the carcasses of four or five
seals, more bearskins, some bear meat, several birds,
his harpoon, lines, and other belongings. As he
said to me, he had no koona (wife) to make him a
tupik, so he was obliged to find a ready-made one.
Discovery of the "Saviksue" 145
He jumped at the opportunity of accompanying us,
and in a few moments was dressed and had his dogs
fastened to his sledge. Six of my dogs were added
to his four. Lee crot on the sledo^e with him, and
with this arrangement of loads, fresh dogs, and hard
snow we left the cave at a gallop, which speed was
kept up past the outer island and eastward along the
shore till after midnight, when we reached the west-
ern point of the double-armed bay, running into the
land north of Bushnan Island. There is another
island, not shown on the charts, lying across the mouth
of this bay inside of Bushnan, and passing inside of
this we headed for the eastern arm of the bay.
By this time, under the influence of the clear cold
nieht, the snow had become firm enouofh so that we
were able to discard the ski from the runners, and
this, with the numerous seals on the ice, kept the dogs
in a constant state of excitement and at their utmost
speed. Kessuh succeeded in shooting one seal, which
gave the dogs a good feed and provided for our
dinner.
At 4:15 in the morning, we had reached the head
of the bay, the dogs were fast to the ice-foot, and
Tallakoteah and myself were climbing over it in search
of the " Iron Mountain."
After passing some five hundred yards up a narrow
valley, Tallakoteah began looking about until a bit of
blue trap-rock, projecting above the snow, caught his
eye. Kicking aside the snow, he exposed more pieces,
saying this was a pile of the stones used in pounding
fragments from the "iron mountain." He then indic-
ated a spot four or five feet distant as the location
of the long-sought object. Returning to the sledge
for the saw-knife, he began excavating the snow, and
at last, after digging a pit some three feet deep and
five feet in diameter, just at 5:30 Sunday morning,
VOL. 11. — 10
146 Northward over the "Great Ice"
May 2^, 1894, the brown mass, rudely awakened from,
its winter's sleep, found for the first time in its cycles
of existence the eyes of a white man gazing upon it.
I kept Tallakoteah at work enlarging the pit and
excavatina about the meteorite until Lee and Kessuh
arrived, when he was relieved by the latter. In addi-
tion to the thick blanket of snow, the meteorite was
completely covered with a half-inch-thick coating of
ice. The work of excavation satisfactorily completed,
I spent the remainder of the perfect, cloudless day of
LOOKING NORTH ACROSS PETOW^IK GLACIER.
Sunday, until four o'clock in the afternoon, in measur-
ing, sketching, and photographing the heavenly visitor
and taking angles for a rough map of the vicinity, and
then descended to the sledge for a little needed sleep.
Tallakoteah tells me that the Innuits call the meteor-
ite a woman in a sitting position, and says it used to
be much laro-er and higher than it is now. but that his
people have gradually worn it down, and that years
ago natives from Peterahwik broke off the head and
carried it away. He also voluntarily told how the an-
cient knives of his people used to be made, namely, by
Discovery of the " Saviksue " 147
inserting several small flattened pieces of the metal
in a bone or ivory back, and then with a piece of trap
lying near, showed me how the flakes of iron were
detached. Nothing could be more interesting than
his re-enacting of this ancient practice.
I scratched a rough " P " on the surface of the
metal, as an indisputable proof of my having found the
meteorite, in case I should not be able, later on, to reach
it with my ship ; and built a small cairn upon the top
COAST NORTH OF PETOWIK GLACIER.
of a big gneissose boulder, 112 yards distant, in which
I placed a brief record :
" Sunday, May 27, 1894.
" This record is deposited to show that on the above
date R. E. Peary, U. S. Navy, and Hugh J. Lee of the
North-Greenland Expedition of 1893-94, with Talla-
koteah, an Eskimo guide, discovered the famous ' Iron
Mountain,' first mentioned by Capt. Ross, and have
carefully examined the same.
[Signed] " R. E. Peary, U.S.N.,
' ' ComLfg Expedition. "
148 Northward over the "Great Ice"
'Then, after a last look at the celestial straggler, I
descended to the sledge where Lee had already pre-
ceded me, and stretching myself upon it immediately
fell asleep. Two hours later, I awoke to find the
entire sky overcast and a chill wind blowing up the
bay. The weather demon had given us just one
perfect day in which to learn the secret of the " Iron
Mountain," and was now resuming his baleful sway.
PROF. CHAMBERLIN.
Supper, breakfast, or dinner, just as one chooses to
call it, over, the dogs were hitched up and we started
to locate the second and largest mass, which my guide
told me was on the island at the entrance to the bay.
Passing at a good pace down the bay, we soon reached
the site of this second meteorite, some seven miles
distant on the eastern end of the island. Its loca-
Discovery of the " Saviksue " 149
tion was pointed out to me, but the depth of snow
covering the entire island was so great that I made
no attempt to dig for it, satisfied to know where it
was. At midnight we started on our return, and
ten days later, on the 6th of June, were back at the
lodge. This return journey was one of invaluable
experience in spring sledging in the Arctic, Part of
the time we were storm-bound, buried in drifts at the
base of the wild shore cliffs. Then we were struggling
at a snail's pace through deep slush, intersected by
hidden cracks and wide leads of open water. The
disintegration of the sea ice had proceeded so rapidly
since our downward trip that we were repeatedly com-
pelled to take to the shore, climb the shore bluffs,
sometimes carrying sledges and outfit on our backs,
and make long detours overland.
In one place, we were obliged to scale a nearly
vertical curtain-like drift, the crest of which rose 1050
feet above sea-level.
Up this we carried the sledge loads on our backs,
along zigzag steps cut in its face, then pushed and
pulled the sledges and dogs after.
Open water at Cape Parry necessitated our going
overland to Netiulumi from Booth Sound, and our
course lay up a large glacier right in the teeth of a
gale. The lee of the glacier face offered a grateful
temporary shelter, and then we commenced the ascent
of the lateral gorge along the south side of the glacier.
Confined in this gorge, the wind repeatedly nearly
swept us from our feet, and when at last we scaled the
glacier side to its surface, it was in much the same way
that flies crawl up a wall. The surface of this glacier
rises with a gradual slope straight away to the ice-cap
domes overlooking Barden Bay, 3362 feet above sea-
level.
It was four in the afternoon when we reached the
150 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
summit of one of these domes, and looked down into
the bay at our feet, and out over the outer expanse of
Whale Sound and its triple islands.
The direct descent from where we stood to the
lower portion of the Tyndall Glacier was a nearly ver-
tical ice-slope, surcharged upon a vertical cliff, and we
were forced to make a detour southward to the more
THE "FALCON" IN THE HARBOUR AGAIN.
practicable slopes at the glacier head. After trav-
elling some few miles in this direction, we seated our-
selves upon the sledges for one of the grandest and
most exhilaratincr of toboo-oran slides.
The start was a giant ice-dome, more than three
thousand feet above the sea ; the toboggan slide, the
serpentine icy slope of the great Tyndall Glacier ;
the toboggan, one of the clippers of the new fleet of
Discovery of the "Saviksue" 151
sledges, built since the advent of the Peary expedi-
tions, a sledge eight feet long, twenty inches wide,
seven inches high, shod with tusks of the walrus, and
fastened with thono^s of the seal and walrus ; the to-
boggan steerer, fur-clad Tallakoteah, with his matted
black hair flying back from his face.
Seated, both of us, astride the sledge, with heels
pressed into the snow, almost an instant after we
started, the dogs were trailing in a confused mass be-
hind the sledge, the ablest ones at full gallop to keep
up with the sledge, the others dragged by their traces,
whirling and tumbling over and over, in a cloud of
flying snow.
Fans of blinding snow flew backward from our vi-
brating feet, and so, mile after mile, we dashed down our
Cyclopean toboggan chute, the great red-brown rock
buttresses enclosing it, rich and warm with the glowing
sunlight, whirling past us with dizzying rapidity.
The bay ice below rose rapidly to meet us, two or
three bergs imprisoned in it grew as grows the loco-
motive of the lightning express when thundering
straight at one at a speed of sixty miles per hour,
the islands sank to the horizon, the ice-domes in our
rear disappeared behind the slope of the glacier, and
at last, veering sharply to the left into the snow-filled
gorge beside the glacier, to avoid the crevasses in its
lower portion, we reached the level of the bay, breath-
less, with clothing snow-filled, and our dogs animated
snow-balls. Half an hour later, we were at Netiu-
lumi, the centre of an admiring group of natives, and
my dusky driver was restored again to the arms of
his anxious Ahwahtingwah.
June 6th we were back at the lodge. From this
time till the last of July, the days passed, broken by
occasional hunting trips, in looking for the arrival of
the ship.
152 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
On July 31st, about six p.m., Mrs. Peary, while
sweeping the bay with the binoculars, saw two
sledges approaching, the drivers' whips playing upon
the dogs constantly, urging them to their utmost
speed. We at once surmised that they were bring-
ing us news of the arrival of the ship off Karnah,
twenty miles distant, beyond which the winter's ice
BRIDGMAN AT KANGERDLOOKSOAH.
still remained intact. At nine p.m. they arrived, but
long before they reached us we heard their shouts of
''Oomiaksoah ! oomiaksoah /" ( " A ship ! a ship ! " )
They could give us very little information, however,
as they had no letter and did not know the names of
anyone on board except " Larry," the steward.
I decided to send Entrikin off at once to ascertain
the state of affairs and bring back the mail. Accord-
Discovery of the *'Saviksue" 153
ingly he left the lodge about midnight, with instruc-
tions to return as quickly as possible. At 12:30 a.m.
on August 2d he returned, accompanied by Messrs.
H. G. Bryant, the commander of the Auxiliary Expe-
dition, and Emil Diebitsch, Mrs. Peary's brother. They
told us that the Falcon had arrived in Murchison Sound
on July 25th, when farther progress was checked by the
ice. Bryant and Diebitsch then tried to reach Anni-
versary Lodge by way of McCormick Bay and Tooktoo
Valley on a dog sledge, piloted by old Myuh, one of the
giants of the tribe, but owing to leads in the ice too
wide to be crossed, they were compelled to give up
the attempt. Then the ice gradually opened enough
to allow the Falcon to get within about ten miles of
Karnah. The natives from this settlement at once
visited the ship, and Mr. Bryant tried to make two
of the men understand that they should return to the
settlement, get their dogs and sledges, bring them to
the ship, and take him to Peary's igloo. This they
agreed to do, but apparently misunderstood him, for
instead of returning to the ship they proceeded di-
rectly to the lodge, while Mr. Bryant was patiently
awaiting their return. On board >^^ Falcon ^\\\\ Mr.
Bryant was a party of six scientific gentlemen : Prof.
T. C. Chamberlin, Prof. Wm. Libbey, Jr., Emil Die-
bitsch, H. L. Bridgman, Dr. H. E. Wetherell, and
Dr. Axel Ohlin.
Bryant was anxious to get away to Ellesmere Land
as quickly as possible to search for traces of the young
Swedes, Bjorling and Kallstenius, and the next day I
went back with him to the Falcon.
Snatching a few hours' sleep on board, I returned
to the lodge accompanied by Prof. Chamberlin, who
desired to pursue some special glacial investigations,
and \}i\^FcLlcon steamed away westward for Ellesmere
Land.
154 Northward over the "Great Ice"
August 20th the Falcon was able to force her way up
Bowdoin Bay to the lodge. The next two days were
spent in putting coal ashore, and getting the baggage
and those going home on board. At eleven a.m., on
August 23d, she steamed out of Bowdoin Bay, leaving
Matt in charge of the lodge, bound for Academy Bay,
where I hoped we would be able to get a number of
deer, the skins to be utilised in the outfit of my Inland-
CLIFFS OF LION ISLAND.
Head of Inglefield Gulf.
Ice party next spring, and the meat turned over to the
party on the Falcon, as their fresh-meat supply had
been exhausted. We met with little success in Acad-
emy Bay, and the next two days were spent in tra-
versing new country in the hope of finding the deer,
but not until the last day did we come upon their
tracks, and found they were too far inland to make it
desirable to hunt them now.
We therefore returned to the lodo^e on the 26th,
Discovery of the "Saviksue"
155
where I exchanged Lee for Matt, and then th.^ Falcoji
steamed south with everyone else on board. David-
son and Carr were invaHded, the former with a frosted
heel, the latter with a weak back ; the other members
of my party had discovered that Arctic work was not
entirely the picnic they had imagined, and wisely re-
garding discretion as the better part of valour, had de-
cided to return home; Lee and Henson alone possessed
the grit and loyalty to remain. My intention was to
proceed in the Falcon to the site of the meteorites,
endeavour to embark the smaller and send it home,
then return from Cape York in my whale-boat. Un-
fortunately the heavy winter ice had not yet moved
out of Melville Bay, and the ship was unable to get
within twenty-five miles of the meteorites. I then
had Captain Bartlett take me back as far as Petowik
Glacier.
CHAPTER VII.
RECONNAISSANCE OF MELVILLE BAY ASTRUP.
CHAPTER VII.
RECONNAISSANCE OF MELVILLE BAY
-ASTRUP.
Anniversary Lodge, May i, 1894.
To R. E. Peary, U.S.N.
Si?^: — I have the honour
to submit the following re-
port of my sledge journey
to Melville Bay :
As soon after my re-
turn from the ice-cap as
my physical condition per-
mitted it, I decided to
make a sledge journey to
the Eskimo settlement at
Cape York, and, if the
conditions were favourable, proceed eastward along
the coast to get, if possible, a close view of the un-
explored shores of Melville Bay. Certain circum-
stances, however, seemed to be rather against the
success of this project. All the pemmican had
been taken on the ice-cap, so I would have to dis-
pense with this valuable article of diet for a sledge
' The contents of this chapter have already been published, Astriip having
disposed of his paper immediately after his return home in 1894.
Recognising, however, that his apparent discourtesy was only the natural re-
sult of youthful eagerness to see himself in print, I am only too glad to give his
work what I hope will be a more permanent form and wide-spread circulation
than it would be likely to obtain in the form in which he himself published it.
159
i6o Northward over the "Great Ice"
traveller and his dogs. In other words, for my
meat supply I would have to rely entirely on the
game I might find on my way. It therefore became
essential for me to get a good native hunter for my
companion, and this I found in my favourite native
friend, Koolootingwah. Of instruments, I had only a
railroad compass and a thermometer ; besides this, a
pocket compass, watch, a pair of field-glasses, snow-
goggles, charts, tables, etc. The provisions I took
with me were figured to last me four weeks, with ad-
ditional fresh meat obtained on the road, and con-
sisted of 25 lbs. army bread, 15 lbs. bacon, 18 tablets
pea soup, 10 lbs. sugar, and 3 lbs. tea. Besides this,
the outfit consisted of two Winchester carbines, 50
cartridges, cooking-gear, light sleeping-gear, hatchet,
extra kamiks, etc. We had a new sledge built on
the native pattern, and eight good dogs.
On the morning of April 6th everything was ready
for a start, and at 9:30 we got off, although the weather
was somewhat doubtful, with a cloudy sky, and the
thermometer three above zero. The bay was full of
heavy white fog banks, and a sharp north-east wind
swept down over the naked hills behind the head-
quarters. As we travelled along, the weather im-
proved, and the going being excellent we reached the
settlement of Oloshynnia at the south-west corner of
Herbert Island before midnight. We found but very
few natives here, but nevertheless got a kind recep-
tion. The following morning, a mild but foggy one
(+8° F.), we started for Netchilumi, where we arrived
after a short day's journey. Here we remained until
the morning of the 9th on account of stormy and
thick weather, when we finally took leave of the place,
accompanied by Telokoteah and wife, who also were
bound for Cape York. They had seven fine dogs,
and kept up with us all the way to their destination.
Reconnaissance of Melville Bay i6i
Instead of rounding Cape Parry, a route which was
at this time impracticable on account of open water,
we took refuge on the land in a little cove, a few miles
west of Barden Bay, where the bed of a rivulet, higher
up gradually forming a deep gorge, indicated a con-
tinuous mountain pass extending across to Booth
Sound. Up through this gorge we laid our course
and passed its highest part in an altitude of eight
hundred to one thousand feet.
Although the weather was clear and beautiful when
we left Netchilumi, we here entered a region of biting-
winds and dense fog, while on the other side of the
divide we soon again descended into a more peaceful
atmosphere. This condition of the atmosphere over
the snow-capped and mountainous land tongue which
we had just passed was no doubt caused by the close
proximity of open water, which after the great equi-
noctial storms last month now extended from the
south side of Barden Bay all around Cape Parry, and
into Wolstenholm Sound as far as the western end of
Saunders Island. In many places along the shore it
left us only a narrow border of ice, often but a few
feet in width, to travel upon, while in other places the
ice was entirely gone, making it necessary for us to
travel upon the land, which was here fortunately flat
and smooth.
In the afternoon we passed the place where Dr.
Hayes and his comrades of the Kane Expedition
spent a few months of misery, after being obliged
to give up their planned boat journey through Mel-
ville Bay. The place, marked by a few ruins of a
stone hut, had a very desolate look, increased, perhaps,
by the memory of the sad story of the men who once
struggled for life over these shores. A few miles
past this spot, we found the snow-covered ground
near the beach literally covered with traces of deer.
VOL. II. — II
i62 Northward over the ** Great Ice"
We stopped for a short time while the two natives,
who were very anxious to try their luck, set out over
a little hill near by, each supplied with a Winchester
rifle. I soon after heard a shot, and, on one of the
natives signal, Telokoteah's wife and I drove the two
dog teams up to the place, where a few minutes after
the meat and the skin of a small deer, shot by Koo-
lootingwah, were put on the sledges. We now con-
tinued our journey along the shore on the north side
of Wolstenholm Sound until 6:30 p.m., when we
camped after thirteen hours' steady travelling. A
small snow house was built in a suitable snow-drift,
and the night spent in perfect comfort.
The following morning we started in the most
beautiful weather with the temperature of —1° F. only.
When passing the eastern end of Saunders Island we
discovered fresh tracks of three bears, the mother and
two young ones. The natives and our dogs became
quite excited, so we had a pretty lively time for four
or five hours, sliding over the unbroken ice-field with
unusual high speed. Finally, when no signs of the
bears themselves could be seen, but only ravens and
foxes, the bears' never-failing companions, the hunt
was given up, and the course regained. The map
appeared everywhere to be more or less wrong, but
I did not attempt to correct it, as I had no time to
spare. At 9 p.m. we passed Cape Athol, where the
ice commenced to be free of snow. Koolootingwah
told me that the natives, when obliged on account of
open water, cross overland from Nexosimy, on the
south side of Wolstenholm Sound, to Cape York,
sleeping once on the way. At midnight we stopped
at a place called Iglooduhungny, after sixteen hours
of continued travelling, during which the dogs had
been on a trot or a run most of the time. We had
expected to find natives at the place, but could only
Reconnaissance of Melville Bay 163
discover a deserted snow igloo. We were soon, how-
ever, comfortably quartered. Next day we reached
Cape York. On the way we passed Petowik Glacier,
which does not appear to be a very active one. This
was also confirmed by Koolootingwah, who said that
it produced but few icebergs. A couple of miles to
the westward of the glacier, he also pointed out to me
one of the places where the natives find material for
the stone lamps and cooking pots. During the day
we passed many seals sleeping on the ice in the warm
sun rays. The travelling on the ice was excellent
most of the way, but the endurance of the Eskimo dog
will nevertheless remain a mystery to me forever.
It was midnight before we reached Cape York, or, as
it is called by the natives, Imnonginumi. The temperat-
ure was there as low as —21° F., probably caused by
the extensive glaciers situated everywhere to the
north and north-eastwards of the colony. I could
just discover one star in the sky at midnight, which
reminded me agreeably of the near approach of con-
tinuous sunlight. The natives of the place received
us with their customary kindness, and were all eager
to assist us in spite of the night's broken sleep.
The 1 2th, 13th, and 14th of April, we remained at
Cape York, partly to give our dogs a rest, partly kept
there by stormy weather. During this stay I spent
my time as best I could, conversing with the natives
of the place, and attending to their home concerts,
where nearly the whole colony, with the exception of
the children, who were not admitted, were present, to
listen to the very strange and, according to my opin-
ion, far from attractive song- of the Ano^ekok.
On the 15th, in the morning at six o'clock, we
finally set out for the islands in Melville Bay, from
where I hoped to get a good view of the coast in case
it should be impracticable to reach this itself. As
164 Northward over the "Great Ice"
we travelled along we passed the two only settle-
ments east of Cape York, both situated on good-
sized islands not shown on the map. Bushmann
Island we passed on the south side, taking from there
almost a due easterly course. At six p.m. we camped,
after having travelled something over forty miles.
We were then almost due south of a black and very
conspicuous mountain-wall a little to the east of Cape
Melville, and not over eight miles from the nearest
shore. In the beautifully clear and balmy evening
we could sight already the distant glacier which I had
anticipated finding on the north-eastern shores of Mel-
ville Bay. In fact, all the way from Cape York and
eastward, as far as I then could see, I found the coast-
line continually broken by large and active glaciers.
The ice over which we travelled this first day from
Cape York was very smooth and quite different from
what I had expected. With the exception of a bor-
der of ice about a mile in width, the surface of which
was composed of broken and irregular ice-pieces,
often obtaining a height of from four to six feet, all
the rest of the way was perfectly level and smooth.
I think, however, that this was largely due to Koo-
lootingwah's experience in ice navigation, as we al-
ways seemed to have plenty of broken ice on each
side of us, but usually a clear road ahead.
After a night's comfortable rest in a snow io-loo, we
continued our journey the following morning at eight
o'clock, in calm but somewhat hazy weather. At
noon, land could be seen indistinctly to the north-
east, but in the afternoon everything was again hid-
den in mist. We camped at five p.m., after having
covered a distance of something near thirty miles ; it
was then snowing heavily. Also that day we had
very level ice, but the sledge did not run quite as
easily over the sand-like snow-drifts and through the
Reconnaissance of Melville Bay 165
loose snow we had now come into. When we started
the next morning we found that a few inches of snow
had fallen during^ the niMit. The weather was still
hazy, so no land could be sighted during the early-
part of the day ; but at noon, just as everything
looked most gloomy, the fog suddenly cleared away,
and revealed to us a grand and impressive scene.
High, dark mountains, gigantic glaciers, and lofty
bluish-tinted snow-peaks, all illuminated by the bril-
liant rays of the sun, lay scattered along the horizon
in wild disorder, and formed the attractive picture
of Melville Bay. By following the east-south-east
course, which we had entered the same morning, we
reached in the afternoon a small lonely island at six
o'clock, where I decided to stop over a day for sur-
veying purposes. The island proved to be identical
with Thom Island, on the map, and had in its centre
a cone-shaped rock formation three to four hundred
feet high, which would afford an excellent spot for a
series of bearings to the mainland.
After another comfortable niorht in a snow house, we
awoke and found the day perfect for the purpose we
had in view. The air was unusually clear, and the
most distant cliffs could be seen with remarkable clear-
ness. I got a good observation of the sun, and also
all desirable bearings to different points on the shore.
The latitude given to this island (5'n the map was 75°
40', while my observation was nearly the same, or 75°
41' and 44". The compass variation I found to be
88^ west. I also drew some rough sketches of the
shore-line, including several new islands, to assist my
memory later on if necessary. Of the one hundred
and fifty miles of coast land between Cape Melville
and Red Head, which I could overlook from the sum-
mit of the little island, more than ninety miles con-
sisted of larofe or small glaciers, all of which, with
i66 Northward over the "Great Ice"
very few exceptions, perhaps, I judged to be very
active ones, as well on account of their broken and
irreeular surface, as on account of the enormous num-
ber of icebergs which everywhere were visible along
the coast.
While speaking of the glaciers of Melville Bay,
I will also mention that I could sight to the south of
Red Head, the indistinct outline of an apparently
large glacier, the southern border of which was either
entirely below the horizon or too far distant to be
seen. There can be little doubt that this glacier ex-
tends almost unbroken down to the resfion of Devil's
Thumb, thus completing the largest successive series
of glaciers hitherto found in Greenland.
In regard to the coast land itself, which here and
there projected through the icy crust, nothing of un-
usual interest in regard to its greoloeical characteristics
could be discovered, although there must be here, as
everywhere in North Greenland, an open and product-
ive field for scientific investigation. The trap forma-
tion, with its gloomy colour in sharp contrast with the
white snow-domes, appeared to be of frequent occur-
rence, while the coast in general was as usual of the
archaean structure. The steep bluffs of the coast land
nearest to the sea had a regular height of a couple of
thousand feet, while the land in the background, wher-
ever there was any, rose up to a considerably higher
elevation. Thus the dome of Cape Walker had pro-
bably an altitude of over three thousand feet, while a
lofty snow-covered dome, at least fifteen miles back
from the coast-line, had the appearance of being not
far from five thousand feet high. At Cape Melville
there was quite an area of low land running out in a
tongue to the southward, and in the distance looking
very much as if it consisted of several islands, a con-
jecture which was denied by Koolootingwah. He
Reconnaissance of Melville Bay 167
afterwards made me a sketch of that vicinity, which I
have made use of while outlining this cape. This low
land, which I only saw in the distance, was apparently
composed of crystalline rocks (granite gneiss), as
were all the lower islands which I had observed to the
south. When I was through with my observations
on the island, I built a small cairn on the summit, and
placed in its centre a tin can containing a few notes
regarding my journey.
While I was thus occupied ashore, Koolootingwah
was out seal-hunting, as we needed some meat, both
for ourselves and the dogs. He succeeded in killing
one medium-sized specimen in less than an hour's
time. I watched him creeping up to the animal,
through my field-glass, until at last it looked as if he
could touch the seal with his hand, from which position
he fired and killed it. At the same time I observed
in another direction on the ice between twenty-five
and thirty seals in one single herd. With this addition
to our fuel, provisions, and dog food I thought then
of continuing upon our journey the following day,
southward in the direction of the cape named Red
Head, which place would be very favourable for some
additional observations. The same day wc observed
the first snow-bunting of the season. When we looked
out the following mornino" at five o'clock the weather
had changed entirely. A strong southerly wind was
blowing, filling the air with drifting snow. We had
therefore to spend the day indoors, which would have
been little enough pleasure for me but for my native
companion, who told me many interesting facts illus-
trating the extreme pluck of these people during their
hard existence in this remote region. Among other
things he told me that the bear hunters of the tribe
very frequently went over to the east side of Melville
Bay, and also that the present condition of the ice
i68 Northward over the "Great Ice"
for sledge travelling was not exceptionally favourable.
Further, I found that every landmark, glacier, or little
island had its own native name and was quite familiar
to Koolootingwah. Some bear hunters had even
this spring (March month) been ashore somewhere
near Red Head where they had seen tracks of deer, and
the young hunter Kooko told me while I was at Cape
York of the remarkable mountain peak (" Devil's
Thumb ") which he had sighted last year on one of
his trips to the south side. Melville Monument
(native, " Ooshookshua "), a small peaked island be-
tween Cape Walker and Cape Seddon, which seen
from the south-west is shaped very much like the
Devil's Thumb, seem to be perfectly familiar to every
man in the tribe. Judging from my own experience
in Melville Bay, and further from the information I
have gathered from the natives, but principally from
what I have seen myself of the travelling ability of the
Whale-Sound natives, which is truly remarkable, I
believe that there is no reason why they should not
be able to communicate every year regularly with the
most northern Danish settlements, if the necessary
attractions were at hand. It would perhaps necessit-
ate overland travelling in one or more places, but
as their attributed superstitious fright for the inland
with its great ice-cap does not exceed that of the
average white man, this circumstance would be no
serious objection to the practicability of this journey.
It is true that their hunting and exploring trips have
hitherto been limited to the more northern part of
the same, but, from what I have orathered from them-
selves, this is by no means caused by open water or other
hindrances, but alone by their perfect ignorance of the
close proxiinity of their long-lost southern brethren.^
' Some of Astriip's observations are not entirely in accordance with my own
information, but it is not necessary to call attention to these seriatim.
Reconnaissance of Melville Bay 169
Next morning was the 20th of April. A strong
wind was still blowino- from the south. All our dogf
food was gone, and of our provisions we had but
enough left to last us ten days. I therefore decided,
instead of working farther southward, it would be
wiser to go up in the unknown north-east corner of
the bay and continue the observations there, touching
the shore at different places, and in this way at the
same time work my way back to Cape York. I there-
fore set out at seven a.m. with the course directly for
Cape Murdock, that is, the distant bluffs which, ac-
cording to the map, I considered to be this cape.
As I got near, however, I discovered that these steep
cliffs were nothing but a lonely nunatak, situated far
into the broken, irregular surface of an imposing
glacier. By following my course we reached, at 1 130
P.M., a little island which on the inside almost touched
the glacier face. As the place commanded a good
view of the surrounding country, and as the fog which
we had encountered in the morning had mostly cleared
away, I told Koolootingwah to build our usual little
snow house near the beach while I took the instru-
ment and ascended the three- to four-hundred-feet-
high summit of the island to get a few compass bear-
ings. After a while I was visited by Koolootingwah,
who also wanted to Q-et a orood view of this desolate
corner of the great ice-fields of Melville Bay. But
even to the modest native this place seemed to offer
no attraction. The rocky ground was everywhere
covered with large snow-drifts, swept down there by
the frequent winds from the near glaciers. In some
places where the rocks projected through the snow
the old markings of former glacial activity could be
observed.
The sights I got were not many on account of the
returning mist, therefore I soon returned to the igloo,
170 Northvv^ard over the ''Great Ice"
marking the summit with a small mound of the few
stones that could be found. A couple of yards away
from our camp were some deep marks in the snow-
drift close to a little iceberg where a bear had been
digging for a seal hole not a long time before. The
same or another bear had curiously enough been on
a trip up to the top of the very bluff I had just visited.
Koolootinofwah told me afterwards that these animals
often visit the shores to get the necessary vegetable
addition to their diet. When we ate our supper that
night we were suddenly attracted by the barkings of
the dogs outside, and imagined at once that this was
caused by the approach of a bear. In one second we
were outside, but were unable to discover the least
suspicion of an enemy. When I turned my eyes back
to the igloo, I found that during my quick but un-
graceful motion through our twelve-inch door-hole I
had torn down very nearly half of the house. Kooloo-
tingwah and I were both very sad when we realised
the enormity of the wreckage, which also included an
overturned teapot.
The following morning at seven o'clock, we con-
tinued our journey in calm, misty weather. We had
hardly travelled two hours when rounding a point of
a small island we discovered a bear, not over half a
mile away. By repeating the native word '' nan7tuk"
a few times, the dogs caught on to the fact and soon
we were on a wild hunt after the giant, who almost
on first sight of us had understood the danger of his
situation and now trotted away as fast as his heavy
limbs would carry him. Our dogs, however, gained
rapidly on him, and when we were about three hun-
dred yards away, Koolootingwah, who was sitting in
front of me on the sledge, cut the line which holds all
the dog traces, so as to set the dogs free. It now took
them but a few seconds to reach the bear and stop
Reconnaissance of Melville Bay 171
him. It was a fine sight to see them form a half-circle
in front of the large beast, which now was kept busy
in trying to ward off his enemies. Every time the
bear attempted to jump on a dog with his fore paws,
the dog jumped twice as far away in order to escape
the blow, and in the meanwhile the dogs on the other
side took this opportunity to attack the bear. A
couple of minutes after the dogs had overtaken him,
Koolootingwah and myself arrived at the place, armed
with our rifles. We shot each three times before we
had finished him. The skin was a large one and very
beautiful. When we were through with the skinning
we gave the dogs a good feed, cut ofT a piece also for
ourselves, packed the sledge, and at ten a.m. we were
again under way, with the course for an island about
ten miles W. S. W. of yesterday's camp. Here I
stopped a couple of hours to get an observation of
latitude, and also a set of bearino^s. The latitude of
the place I found to be 76° 4' 20", but this result
is not absolutely reliable, as the glass spirit-level of
the telescope, since the last observation, had received
a small crack while passing over some hummocky ice
and lengthened the air bubble so much that it pro-
jected a good deal beyond the ends of the marked
scale on the same. At 5:30 p.m., we made camp after
an interesting but also very toilsome day. The weather
was then clear. The going was soft and heavy, and
with the additional weight of a bearskin and meat on
the sledge, the dogs went on slowly, although one of
us was usually walking. I think we made upwards of
twenty-five miles that day.
The two following days, the 22d and 23d of April,
during which we enjoyed the best of weather, brought
us safely to Cape York. Here we remained the two
next days, as the weather was stormy, and the dogs
needed some rest. First, on the 26th at six a.m., we re-
172 Northward over the "Great Ice"
sumed our journey, no longer alone but in company
with thirty-five natives, with eight sledges pulled by
forty-five dogs. In other words, it was the whole
Cape-York colony on the road, each family with their
complete outfit of skins, harpoons, stoves, children, and
meat. The cause for this great emigration was not
scarcity of food at the colony, but rather a sudden at-
tack of travelling fever, as the most of the families re-
solved to leave the place on the morning of the start.
Before night many of them had left us, pitching their
tents at different places along the coast. Only two
sledges followed us to Whale Sound. We spent the
night at the head of a little bay running into the west
of Conical Rock (native, Ipsuischo). Here we also
remained the following day, starting late in the after-
noon to take advantage of the night for travelling.
We advanced very rapidly and reached the western
end of Saunders Island at four o'clock in the morning,
where we made camp. On the south side of this isl-
and there is an Eskimo settlemient named " Akpan,"
which, however, we did not visit as it was at that time
deserted. There are here, as well as at Noxosimy, right
opposite on the south side of Wolstenholm Sound,
old igloos which long since have been abandoned by
the natives on account of the intruding sea water.
Similar signs of a sinking coast-line were noticed
near the Crimson Cliffs by Dr. Kane, who supposed
the axis of the movement of oscillation, to which the
whole Greenland land-mass is generally believed to be
a subject, to be situated somewhere to the south of
the 77th parallel. If there is really a depression of
the southern and elevation of the northern part of the
country going on, the position of the axis of this move-
ment may, however, be situated somewhat farther to
the north. My reasons for this supposition are partly
based upon statements repeatedly made by a number
Reconnaissance of Melville Bay 173
of reliable natives, some of whom were old men, namely,
that the land is slowly sinking or, as they express it,
''the water rising" both at Netchilumi and at the
settlement Kieti on Northumberland Island (Lat.
']']'' 15'). It is only natural that these people, who
invariably build their habitations so close to the beach-
line, would observe even a comparatively slow change
in the level of the sea, and I have no doubt about their
reliability in this particular case. According to their
statement, the axis would thus hardly be situated to
the south of the 78th parallel.
Our camp on Saunders Island was situated in a
large grotto, running in at sea-level under the south-
west cape of the island, and was indeed a very pictur-
esque one. According to Koolootingwah, the natives
at times hunt walrus on a large scale in the open water
to the westward of this island, principally on account
of their tusks, as these animals are all full-grown males,
while the walrus killed at Nerkey and Petowik usu-
ally are females and young ones. When we left Saun-
ders Island the same night at 9:30 the sky was cloudless.
Instead of going around the long crook of Cape Parry,
I decided to go over the ice-cap from the head of
Granville Bay to Whale Sound, as Koolootingwah
knew this route and recommended it as very often
being used by the natives. We therefore laid our
course right in Granville Bay, the head of which we
reached at six a.m. Here we started up the western
of the two glaciers which come down almost to the
water's edge at this place, and scaled the ice-cap due
north until we reached a divide in an altitude which I
should estimate to be fifteen hundred feet, and in a dis-
tance from the head of Granville Bay of about six miles.
Our satisfaction was g-reat when we sigfhted from this
point the familiar scene of Whale Sound. After a quick
slide of about two miles down the north side of the
174 Northward over the "Great Ice"
divide, and over a small and comparatively steep
glacier on the west side of Olriks Bay at its mouth,
we reached the sea ice at one p.m., and four hours af-
terwards the settlement of Noxomy. Here we ate our
last meal and spent the last night of our pleasant
journey.
The next morning we set out for home, where we
were heartily welcomed, arriving, as I had carefully
planned, in good time for supper.
In closing my report I will add with reference to
the accompanying map that it is, as can be seen from
the report, the result of a very rough and hurried sur-
vey, and can hardly be called more than a sketch map.
The position of its main points around the north-east
corner of Melville Bay are largely determined by
sights taken from the three points of a large triangle,
the sides of which were obtained by two single lati-
ude observations. At your request, you will find en-
closed also a profile of the coast-line, as seen from.
Thom Island.
Very respectfully
Your obedient servant,
ElVIND ASTRUP.
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CHAPTER VIII.
METEOROLOGICAL AND AURORAL NOTES BALDWIN.
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CHAPTER VIII.
METEOROLOGICAL AND AURORAL NOTES BALDWIN.
Anniversary Lodge, August 15, 1894.
R. E. Peary, C.E.,
U.S.N.,
Commanding North-
Greenland Expedi-
tion, i8gj-^.
Sir : — I have the hon-
our of submitting the fol-
lowing preliminary report
of meteorological work
done at this place from
August 3, 1893, to August
I, 1894, and upon the Inland Ice from March 5 to
April 27, 1894.
Through the courtesy of the Hon, Mark W. Har-
rington, Chief of the U. S. Weather Bureau, the
meteorological equipment of the Expedition was sup-
plemented by the use of an observatory, as required
at all Weather-Bureau stations of the first order.
All deductions as to climatic conditions have fortun-
ately been rendered more perfect by the satisfactory
working of the barograph and thermograph, both
durinor the Arctic ni^ht and the Inland-Ice sledsfe
journey. Wind velocities are recorded as indicated
VOL. 11. — 12
178 Northward over the ''Great Ice "
by Robinson's anemometer (Weather Bureau pat-
tern).
Temperatures in all cases are Fahrenheit.
Atcgust, i8gj.
Temperature and Pressure [^pressure for eleven days).
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
4.28° 59-o° o" the 13th 29.0° on the 29th
29.713" 29.953" on the 27th 29.270" on the 25th
Ice formed on harbour during several nights previ-
ous to the departure of the Falcon ( 20th), but the
temperature of the air in the observatory (40 feet
above sea-level) did not sink to the freezing-point till
the 23d at nine p.m.
The weather was, in general, cloudy, with light
showers on six different nights, from the south, pleas-
ant and exhilarating, with light winds alternating from
the north and south.
September, i8gj.
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
30.5° 53-7° on the 4th 7.5'^ on the 30th
29.791" 30.373" on the i8th 29.032" on the 15th
2 ft. . . .36.4° on the 2d 31-6° on the 9th
Temp. Soil .
4 ft .... 33.8° on the 5th 30.3° on the 9th
Nearly perfect weather for the first two weeks.
Cloudy, with light snows from the south-east or south-
west during the second half of the month. Much
wind.
From the i8th to the 20th, or during fifty-four con-
secutive hours, the wind velocity equalled 17.5 miles,
attaining, on the 19th for eleven consecutive hours, a
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 179
velocity of 25.6 miles. Between eight a.m. and nine
A.M. the velocity was thirty-eight miles, and for the
next hour and a half a movement of sixty-three miles
was registered (forty-two miles per hour).
On the 2 2d an average of seventeen miles (S. E.)
for twenty-four hours, with a maximum average for
the first eleven hours of twenty miles, was recorded.
High wind also prevailed during the 24th. It was
at this time of violence that the boats Mary Peary
and 'Doris were driven across the harbour, and the
Doris hurled swiftly upon the rocks of the shore.
The destruction of the observatory also was averted
only by the prompt action of the natives, who clung
bodily to its supports, just as it started from its
fastenings. At this crisis I was assisting you in res-
cuing the boats, and could not, therefore, determine
by register the maximum rate of the wind, but it was,
beyond a doubt, for a space of fifteen minutes, from
fifty-five to sixty miles per hour, as estimated by five-
minute averages at various times during the storm.
October, i8gj.
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
23.0° 45-o° on the loth 1.5° on the 30th
29.804" 30.413" on the 4th 28.836" on the 26th
2 ft 32.1° on the 13th 18.8° on the 31st
Temp. Soil .
4 ft . . . .31.4° on the ist 25.0° on the 29th
But three days of clear weather, viz., 2d, 17th, and
1 8th. Precipitation (in nearly every instance snow)
inclusively as follows : 7th, g-i5th, i9-28th, and 31st.
Notes : — i6th. Sun bright ; clouds crimson and of vari-
ous striking hues. O.^e great cloud in the west ap-
peared like a huge ball of fire resting upon the ice-
cap. 2ist : Weird aspects of the moon seen through
i8o Northward over the "Great Ice"
thick fall of snow ; its reflection made it appear to be
in the south-west on the snow-capped cliffs overlook-
ing the bay. A moment later its cloud and snow
shield passed away, and it shone forth in true arctic
splendour directly in the south at the entrance of the
bay, 2 2d : Beautiful clear moonlight night, pink-
coloured horizon in the south, and stars shining like
diamonds. Bay freezing and no motion of water
perceptible. Silvery streak of moonlight extending
southward on the forminsf ice, the entire length of the
bay. 25th : High wind from eleven p.m. of yester-
day to six P.M. to-day. Weather at this hour (nine
P.M.) from effects of south-east cloud-blanketing, calm,
warm, delightful. Moon endeavouring to wear
corona. 26th : Last clay of possible sunshine. Sun
not visible, but position defined from 11:30 a.m. to
twelve M. by bright streak of light on clouds in south.
Moon hazy — coronal — during day. Clouds, driven by
light wind, passed through cirro-cumulus, cirro-stratus,
and stratus stao-es to nimbus, with snow from five p.m.
to nine p.m. 27th, a.m. : Effects of sunlight on clouds
over south of bay very fine — colouring of deep orange
varying in intensity on clouds of changing form.
30th, forenoon : Reflection of clouds produced pleas-
ing " just-before-sunrise " effects, and yet a depress-
ing sensation as the thouofht that the sun would not
rise grew upon one ; it seemed as though it would
and must appear.
From the 8th to the 31st inclusive, high south-east
winds prevailed almost constantly, with an hourly
average for the entire month of ii.i miles. From
two p.m. of the 9th to two p.m. of the 12th, the aver-
age velocity was 17.3 miles, with a maximum average
velocity for eleven hours on the 9th and roth of 25.1
miles. On the i 7th for a space of nineteen hours the
average velocity was 18.6 miles. Between eight a.m.
Meteorological and Auroral Notes i8i
of the 19th and two p.m. of the 20th, the wind attained
an average velocity of 20.9 miles, with a maximum
eleven-hour velocity of 25.6 miles. Forty-three hours
commencing at eight a.m. of the 23d, the average was
28.4 miles, with a maximum six-hourly average of
32.5 miles, ending at two p.m. of the 24th. From
eight A.M. to nine p.m. of the 28th, the average veloc-
ity was 19.3 miles, while for seven hours preceding
nine p.m. of the 31st it was 21.3 miles.
November, i8gj.
TemperatU7-e and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
-7.7° 30-o° on the 5th -23.0° on the 29th
30.098" 30.318" on the 23d 29.045" on the 18th
v- A c •/ f 2 ft. . 18.2° on the ist 6.0° on the 28th
Temp. Sou : \
(4 ft. . 23.2 on the ist 14.0° on the 28th
Notes :— ist : Temperature touched zero for the
first time this season. Thickness of ice on lake north
of lodge, 4.25 inches; on bay, 17.12 inches. 5th:
Maximum temperature occurred. At 10:30 A.M. cum-
ulo-stratus clouds over south portion of bay and over
gulf beyond were gorgeously coloured : to the right
and extending over the ice-capped cliffs was a vast
canopy of the deepest rose-red ; to the left, a rich
field of gold ; later these became rose-red, partially
overveiled with a thin bronze-hued cloud. 6th, ten
A.M. to two P.M. : Diffused da3dight generated by snow-
filled clouds; fine cloud colouring; nine p.m., "dead
calm " and snow falling perpendicularly.
The wind this month made an hourly average of
10.7 miles for eleven-hour periods on the following
dates (nine p.m. to eight a.m.) : ist-2d, 6th, 9-1 ith, 1 7th,
2T)d-2/\.th. , of 13.6 for six-hour periods on the 2d, 9th,
i82 Northward over the "Great Ice"
1 8- 1 9th. On the 5th occurred a maximum velocity
of 26.7 miles for seven hours, with a maximum single-
hour velocity of 33 miles between six and seven p.m.
The average for all winds during the month was 6.7
miles per hour.
For September, October, and November the aver-
age for all winds was 7.5 miles per hour.
Decenibe7% i8gj.
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
-17.4° 14-7° on the 3d -26.4° on the i8th
29.624" 30.300" on the 17th 29.117" on the 4th
j 2 ft ... , 1.0° on the 4-6th -10.0° on the 26-30th
Temp. Soil
4 ft. . . . 12.0° on the ist -2.0° on the 30th
Prevailingly cloudless. Sky rich blue. 26th., a.m. :
Very quiet, peculiarly arctic, clear, and pleasant.
Light cirrus band in zenith extending in south and
north-west direction ; bright southern horizon, the
entire celestial dome richly contrasting in colour, — red
of horizon, white of upper daylight as cast by the sun
of more southern latitudes, and blue of the north polar
sky. Auroral light and the silvery moon now circling
the horizon, — beautiful moonlight days, and still more
beautiful moonlight nights.
JamLary, iSg^.
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
—22.2° 5.0° on the 2ist -34.0° on the 17th
29.754" 30.219" on the 17th 28.923" on the 3d
Temp. Soil: j ^ ^t. . . . -7.0° on the 3d -15.0° on the 19th
(4 ft i.o°on the ist & 4th -4.0° on the 28th
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 183
t>
Generally "clear," with ligiit falls of snow, usually
from the south-east, on the following dates : ist, 2d,
5th, 1 2- 1 6th, and 21st.
On the first, the New Year opened with cloudy sky
and general gloomy conditions of weather. At eight
A.M., but two or three of the brightest stars were dimly
visible. Snow from ten a.^i. to nine p.m. Dark at three
P.M. 5th : Light of returning sun much augmented at
mid-day. Outlines of distant cliffs more clearly discern-
ible and lieht thrown higher above southern horizon.
20th: Storm began at nine p.m. with wind blowing at
twelve miles per hour. 21st: Storm continues ; vast
snow-clouds blowing from the north-east off ice-cap
and over cliffs. Maximum single-hour velocity of
wind twenty-four miles from seven to eight p.m.
February, iSg^.
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
-24.0° ~3-0° on the 17th -34.2° on the ist
29.284" 30.014" on the 9th 28.849" on the i6th
i 2 ft. -13.0° on the 20th -21.0° on the 6th
■^' ■ ( 4 ft. -6.0° on the TSt -10.0° on the nth, r4th,i6th
Clear during first half of the month, but cloudy,
with frequent south-east snowfalls, during the second
half.
5th : Barometer low (28.980°, same as minimum
observed at Fort Coneer). 7th : Barometer ao^ain
low (28.928°). 15th: Lunar corona visible in the
east about 2:30 p.m., changing to halo somewhat
later and visible as such till 8:30 p.m. Sunset clouds
in the west of a beautiful rose colour. Sun barely visi-
ble near the lodge for the first time this year (1894).
t84 Northward over the "Great Ice"
i6th : Very low barometer. Pink colours on western
sky remarkably fine, particularly those lying in bands,
having the appearance of "pink auroras." Violet
hues in the north, very striking, the returning sun re-
painting the scenes of autumn.
March, i8g^.
Temperature (eleven days last of mouth) :
Mean.
Maximum.
Minimum.
-12.7°
10.0° on the 29th
-31.5'' on the 20th
Temp. Soil :
j 2 ft..
Uft..,
, . -14.0° on the 4th
. . -8.0° on the 4th
-15.0° on the 2d
-S.s"" on the 2d
The soil thermometers were read on the 2d and 4th
only, just before my departure with you on the In-
land-Ice sledging journey. These readings, how-
ever, in connection with others noted during the last
of February, indicate a seasonal rise in the tempera-
ture of the soil.
Barometer readings at Anniversary Lodge incom-
plete, but may be practically obtained by reduction of
barograph and aneroid readings made on the Inland
Ice.
20th: High north wind at nine p.m., but calm and clear
during the day. 21st: High north wind, with short
calms. Air filled with snow crystals. Observatory
destroyed during the night of 21st and 22d, — frag-
ments of it having been blown two miles away on the
ice of the bay. 28th : Violent storm on the Inland
Ice, indicated by vast dark clouds of snow, carried
with extreme velocity and at great height (above the
loftiest surrounding peaks) far beyond the land border.
29th and 30th : Clear at the lodge, but still drifting
violently on the ice-cap.
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 185
April, i8g4.
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
-2.4° 17.0° on the 26th -26.0^ on the ist
29.926" 30.615" on the loth 29.098" on the 23d
Generally north-east wind (light at the lodge),
but high on the 9th. Clear sky, with light snows on
the 20th, 2 1 St, and 26th,
May, iSg/f,
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
27.0° 47-o° on the 24th -2.o°on the nth
30.097" 30.860" on the 17th 29.602" on the 4th
^ , ., ( 2 ft. ... 22.0° on the SI St 2.^° on the 4th
Temp, soil : \ 01 o 1 ,
( 4 ft. . . . 13.0 on the 31st 0.5 on the 4th
Generally calm, varied by light breezes from the
south-east or south-west during the forenoons. Two
P.M. and nine p.m. observations show frequent north-
east or north-west winds with general cloudiness of
sky and ten different days on which snow fell.
7th : Heavy snow-storm on the ice-cap. 24th, p.m.:
Warm — oppressive to person exercising, — caused by
thick cloud-blanketing. Clouds moving briskly from
the south-east and having rainy appearance, followed
by snow and much wind during the afternoon of the
25th. 27th : At evening, sky cloudless, but at six p.m.
became gradually overcast with cirrus clouds. In the
north-west, halo around sun, radius 26° and on upper
limb, arc of second ring. Disappeared at end of two
hours, with change of cirrus clouds to cirro-stratus
form. 28th : Snow-storm ; thick on ice-cap. On the
1 86 Northward over the "Great Ice"
29th occurred high wind with velocity of twenty miles
per hour. Snowfall ; flakes large and beautiful. 30th.
Storm continued — heavy on ice-cap ; snowflakes sm^U
and round.
Jtuie, i8g4.
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
35.5" 50.0° on the 9th 20.0° on the 5th
29.630" 30.163" on the nth 29.168" on the 15th
Generally cloudy, with much fog, accompanied by
light south-east breezes during the last ten days of the
month. Leads and pools forming in the ice of the
bay and gulf, and snow rapidly melting from the
slopes.
loth : Brook east of lodge running in large
volume. About four inches of snow fell during the
night. iith and 12th: Fog. 14th, 10:45 p.m.:
Barometer (reduced) 29.235 (within .07 of the mini-
mum), high north wind, with heavy drift on the In-
land Ice and on the bay. Articles, such as boards,
oars, barrels, and trunks, carried violently away.
J2ily, i8g^.
Temperature and Pressure :
Mean. Maximum. Minimum.
39.7° 52.0° on the 22d 25.0° on the 28th
29.765" 30.131" on the 30th 29.413" on the 21st
Cloudy, with fog during the first half, but clear
and " calm " — delightful — during the last days of the
month.
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 187
RESUME
T
emperature
*Pressure
(in degrees).
^in inches).
Month.
Mean.
Maximum.
Minimum.
Mean.
Maximum.
Minimum.
August, 1893. . . .
42.8
59-0
29.0
29.713
29-953
29.270
September," . . . .
30
s
53-7
7-5
I 29.791
30.373
29.032
October, " . . . .
23
0
45-0
1-5
29.804
30.413
28.836
November, " . . . .
- 7
7
30.0
— 23.0
30.098
30.318
29.045
December, " . . . .
-17
4
U-7
— 26.4
29.624
30.300
29.117
January, 1894. . . .
— 22
2
5-0
-34-0
29-754
30.219
28. 923
February, " . . . .
March, "
-24
— 12
0
7
- 3-0
10. 0
-34-2
-31-5
29.284
30.014
28.849
April, "
— 2
4
17.0
-26.0
29.926
30.615
29.098
May, "
27
0
47.0
— 2.0
30.097
30.860
29.602
June, " . . . .
.35
5
50.0
20.0
: 29.630
30.163
29.168
July, " ....
39
7
52.0
25.0
29.765
30.131
29-413
Means
Q.'i
3T-7
- 7.8
29.708
30.305
29.123
* Mean for August, eleven clays (last of month) ; for year, eleven months
(March wanting).
Very respectfully,
E. B. Baldwin,
Meteorologist Expedition.
Anniversary Lodge, Aug. 7, 1894.
R. E. Peary, C.E., U.S.N. ,
Com7na7iding North- Greenland Expedition, i8gj-^.
Dear Sir: — In compliance with your request of
July 1 2th, for separate special report of the equinoc-
tial storm encountered by the Inland-Ice party, I have
the honour to submit the following :
From seven p.m. of March 15th, the barograph
(checked by aneroids) fell, with very slight variations,
from a reading of 24.98 inches on that date, to one of
24.60 inches at four p.m. of March 20th, the observa-
tory sledge meanwhile having been advanced a dis-
tance of five miles over a practically level surface at
1 88 Northward over the "Great Ice"
an elevation of over six-sevenths of a mile. Thence
seven miles to Camp No. 4, now better known as
Camp Equinoctial. A rise in elevation caused a cor-
responding depression of the barograph pen to a
reading of 24.40 inches at eight p.m. of the 20th,
Taking this as an initial point for storm data, we find
the following :
From eieht p.m. of the 20th to nine a.m. of the
2 1 St (thirteen hours), a barographic depression of .15
inch ; constant thermographic depression from -32.0°
to -39.5° (-42.0° by thermometer exposed to wind) ;
average wind velocity, twenty-nine miles.
From nine a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (y^ hours), a baro-
graphic depression of . 1 1 inch; thermographic -39.5°
to -40.5° (-44.0° by thermometer exposed six feet
above the thermograph) ; average wind velocity, 31.5
miles.
From 4:30 P.M. to 7:15 p.m. (2^ hours), a barographic
depression of .04 inch ; thermographic, -40.5° to -42.0°
(-46.5° by thermometer) ; average wind velocity,
38.2 miles.
From 7:15 p.m. March 21st to four a.m. of the 2 2d,
the barograph suffered a depression of .10 inch, at
which time the pen passed below the 24-inch registra-
tion line, this being the limit to which the instrument
had been set. The thermograph meanwhile continued
to decline till eight a.m. of the 22d, at which hour
the pen passed below the -50.0° line, the lowest at
which it seemed advisable to set the instrument with-
out injury to its mechanism through manipulation in
such low temperatures.
During the 2 2d, the fury of the storm was at its
worst, rendering it impossible to get at the instruments,
the wind movement alone being noted by the dial of the
anemometer. In these readings you kindly assisted,
and o-reat care was exercised in observing the reels-
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 189
tration numbers, the violence of the storm sues^est-
ino- double vio-ilance. The four readino-s made from
7:15 P.M. March 21st to five a.m. March 23d give a
total movement, in jj\ consecutive konrs, of 162^
miles, or at an average of /fS.i miles per Jiour.
At ten A.M. of the 23d, a reading of the surveying
aneroid, which for eight months had tallied closely
with the barograph, indicated an atmospheric pressure
of 23.90 inches, the tendency then being upward, in
which manner it continued at a nearly uniform rate
for fifty hours, or till noon of the 25th, at which time
it registered 24.75 inches, this being nearly the normal
for several days preceding the storm. We may
therefore conclude that the barograph reached a
minimum of at least 23.80 inches about midnight of
the 2 2d, and that this low pressure, in connection
with an induced gravity impulse of the colder and
heavier atmosphere rushing from the Inland-Ice
plateau lying to the east and north-east still another
mile above the camp, gave rise to a storm of extra-
ordinary violence.
The thermograph indicated a temperature con-
stantly below the -50° line, rising to -43° (same by
thermometer exposed) at ten a.m., and to a maximum
for the day of -39° at one p.m. ; the maximum for
the mid-day hours of the two days preceding being
-51° on the 22d and -42° on the 21st.
The minimum temperature for the night of the
22d was probably not higher than -60°.
For thirty-eight hours during which the thermograph
fell to minimums for the three preceding nights, we
obtain an average rate of decrease of temperature of
.79° per hour. Owing to the tension of the spring
which regulates the elevation of the pen of the ther-
mograph increasing with a decrease of temperature,
the thermograph registered from three degrees to
iQo Northward over the ''Great Ice"
three and a half deo^rees too hieh when the thermo-
meter (with corrections apphed) indicated a true temp-
erature of from -41.8° to -45.0°.
Instead, therefore, of a temperature of -50.0'' at
eight P.M. of the 2 2d we should have one of- 53.0°.
Addinor to this 12° obtained as a total decrease of
temperature for the fourteen hours succeeding, at a
uniform rate of .79° per hour, we obtain a ininiinuin
of -6^, and certainly not higher than -60°. In all
cases Fahrenheit degrees are meant.
The appended sheets from the barograph and
thermograph indicate the atmospheric pressure and
temperature from eleven a.m. March 19th to eleven
A.M. March 26th. The dotted lines refer to inter-
polations. It will thus appear that the average temp-
erature during the thirty-fonr ho2crs of greatest wind
velocity was belozu -50° F.
The wind direction was as follows : from the north-
west during the night of the 19th and forenoon of
the 20th ; from the north-east thereafter, with much
calm during the 24th, and again high from the east on
the 25th. Wind velocities are given as indicated by
Robinson's anemometer. This instrument, together
with the thermograph and barograph, is of the same
pattern as used at all U. S. Weather Bureau stations
of the first order.
The thermometers used were specially manufactured
for your Expedition of 189 1-2 by Green of New York.
They were at that time corrected by Professor Marvin
of the Weather Bureau and recompared by the same
high authority in June, 1893. They will again be
tested upon the return of the present Expedition.
Very respectfully,
E. B. Baldwin,
Meteorologist Expedition.
\
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 191
AURORAL NOTES.
October. i8gj.
Hourly watch for the appearance of aurorse, and
notes, whether visible or not, were begun on the
15th of this month, and continued regularly there-
after till the I St of March. None occurred, however,
during- October.
t>
November, i8gj.
Auroras visible: loth, 6 a.m.; nth, 5 a.m.; i6th,
3 a.m. ; 27th, 4-8 P.M.; 29th, 7 P.M. ; 30th, 11 p.m.
— or on ten different watch hours.
loth. — The thermometer stands at 10° below zero,
and a breeze from the north-east comes from the ice-
cap. See that yellowish-white arch, perfect in form,
uniform in density, spanning the heavens from west
to east ! Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, — this por-
tion of the zodiac seems veiled in the golden hue.
Three minutes pass — the light is fading fast away.
Now turn — look to the north ! There, from ten to
fifteen degrees below Polaris, before — even upon —
Cephus, Cassiopeia, Perseus, and far towards Atiriga,
appears a series of ascending beams of light, a train
of "merry dancers," performing in the presence of
this celestial audience. But two minutes pass, and
arch and beam have alike disappeared forever in the
east.
i6th. — Aurora visible in the south between three and
four A.M. Complete arch from west to east, much ob-
scured by hazy condition of the atmosphere. Highest
point of the convex edge 18° above the horizon, 4:10
A.M., arch becomes double, each one 2° in width, with
dark space or segment 1° wide lying between. Lower
arch passing over star Procyon, and both arches grad-
192 Northward over the "Great Ice"
ually disappearing from the ends towards the middle
points, vanishing, finaUy, as a luminous patch.
2ytJi. — Aurora or aurorae began at 4:20 p.m., form-
ing parallel bands or arches extending from north-west
to south-east. Varying in tenuity, the arches appear to
move as semicircles from the north-east to the south-
west. Continuing as described till 7 145 to 8 p.m., one
of the arches forms itself into a luminous curtain,
covering Pleiades, Polaris, head of Draco and the
body of Her cities. In the north a lunar halo accom-
panies the appearance of the aurora from 4 : 20 to
5 --Z^ P-M-
zgth. — /\t seven p.m. aurorae very similar to those
noted on the 27th appear and continue for the space of
of fifteen minutes. Hanging as four luminous curtains
of moderate brightness they extend from west to east
across the sky, the northernmost at its middle convex
point rising, in altitude, 10° above the horizon, and, ap-
pearing to wave from west to east, finally disappears in
that quarter ; the next, extending from horizon to
the opposite point, gradually fades away equally at all
points ; the third and fourth, separated by a space of
5°, spread or rather vault from east to west, their middle
convex points being elevated from the southern hori-
zon about 45° and 40° respectively. All of these are
noticed to be of greater luminosity in their eastern
portions, their final disappearance being marked by
luminous patches having the appearance of the glow-
ing of distant fire.
Weather : cloudless, with slight breeze from the
north-east.
A bright curtain at eleven p.m. extending from
south-west to north-east, and covering the head of
Cetiis, body of Orion, and the feet of Gemini. A
north-east breeze accompanies a temperature of
-20° F. In ten minutes' time it has quite disap-
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 193
peared, only to reappear in four minutes as a bright
curtain waving in the south-west and a luminous
patch in the north-east. Now changes the curtain-
like portion to a shining mass, forked like a Y at the
most distant point in the south-west, the entire dis-
play soon ceasing up to the body of Orion, whence
there suddenly springs an arch far into the north-
east ; which, disappearing, is immediately followed by
streamers shooting up with lightning-like rapidity in
the south-west, only to change into curtains folding
themselves towards the north-east, encirling, as it were,
Orion with a silvery vest, its upper edge ornamented
by Betelgeux and Bellatrix, its lower, by the starry
Belt. At 11:17 we note the chano:ino- tints of ei'een
in this particular place. Yet another minute and our
curtain portion gives way to several beams, or " merry
dancers," in the south-west, flitting farther towards the
north-east and nearer bold Orion, and seeminof to vie
with each other in efforts to stand highest.
But their merry-making is of short duration. They
vanish ; a light from the deep south-west diffuses it-
self onward and upward, covering the head of Cetus
with remarkable brightness, at which moment there
suddenly plunges from near Hyades a brilliant meteor,
precipitating itself in the direction of Jllenkar and
Mira, and followed in like manner, three minutes
later, by a second — both coursing through the over-
spread brightness into the very jaws of the celestial
Whale.
And now, progressing by degrees, this luminosity
extends itself in one lono- belt, covering Orion, the
limbs of Pollux, Cancer and the on-coming Leo, sink-
ing lower and lower towards the southern horizon,
seeming to form into illumined clouds of the stratus
variety, which, finally dissipating themselves, leave the
celestial dome ag-ain free and undimmed.
194 Northward over the "Great Ice"
December, i8gj.
Aurorse : 5th, 9-10 p.m. ; 6th, 4 a.m. ; 7th, 7-8 a.m.,
10 A.M., 5 P.M. ; 8th, 4 A.M. ; 9th, 6 a.m. ; loth, 4 a.m. ;
nth, 9-10 A.M.; I2th, II P.M. ; 13th, 9-10 p.m., 12
midnight ; 15th, 10 p.:m., 3 a.m., 10 a.m. ; 25th, 9 a.m. ;
29th, 9-10 p.m. ; 30th, 7-10 A.M., lo-ii P.M. — or on
twenty-eight different hours.
We look upon the northern horizon at nine o'clock
to-night and observe a yellowish light thinly veiling
the stars, thence upward twenty degrees, and this
bordered by a deeply contrasting blackness some four
or five degrees wide, and it in turn gradually shading
into a whitish mantle of cirrus gauze covering the
remainder of radiant space through which the south
seems to shine with the softened paleness of southern
zones.
East is Gemini resting upon Mt. Bartlett. South-
east is Oj'ioji slowly advancing westward. North are
Virgo and Coma Berenices bathing in the flaxen flood.
The Leos, Major and Minor, are submerged. They
seem to rouse their shaggy selves and shaft and flame
spring forth. The clock strikes the half-hour upon
9 : 30 ; 't is the cleath-knell of the unsuspecting Zr-'^-i''/
In quick succession Cancer and Gemini ]o\n the fray,
hurling their burnished beams straight up. And now,
directing their fiery flight by true-eyed Betelgenx and
Be/Iairix, from giant Orion, handsome hunter of the
heavens, red and green-edged lances leap. " The
very 'Pillars of Hercules'!" exclaims Lieutenant
Peary as he views the scene. And so think all
of us, as we continue to gaze till the last lance is
thrown, till the final flare ceases at the stroke of ten,
and we are again awed by the accustomed stillness of
the arctic nio-ht.
yt/i. — It is three o'clock in the afternoon and a thin
Meteorolog-ical and Auroral Notes 195
band of whitish hght stretches across the sky from
north-east to south-west, thus forming a complete
arch. Not a cloud is to be seen, and therefore we
cannot attribute its existence to cloud illumination.
In tracing its course with reference to the constella-
tions and the brighter stars, you begin at Alpha and
Delta Pei^sci, pass along this elevated pathway across
the limbs of Cassiopeia, loins of CcpJieiLS, body and
head of Draco, and body of Hercules, where, between
Ras A I Get hi (a Hercitlis) and Ras A I HagiLc {a
Ophiuchi), it terminates.
Immediately in our zenith it revolves as a vast
semicircle, uniformly to the westward, or at right an-
gles to its projection in the heavens, when, arriving
at Polaris, it gradually dies away. The surface wind
meanwhile has h&^n from the north-west.
It scarcely dissolves itself ere, at 4:15, there ap-
pears a second, forming itself as an undulating
curtain, spiked on high by the golden Umik and Ser-
pens, Alpheta {a Corona Borealis), Mirac, Cor Car-
oli, at which point the ciirtain form ceases ; it thence
passing over Ursa Major, and finally settling on the
rump of the Lynx, completes itself as an arch. Inci-
dentally we note the flight of a brighter meteor from
its convex point and directly along its course to the
sonth-west. We should also have noticed the descent
in the opposite direction of two meteors which fol-
lowed the track of the former arch.
At 4:25 all this vanishes, and we wait till 4:55, when
from the Sickle, or head of Leo, now in the west of
north, there is seen a clear tinge of red spreading to
the head of Leo Minor, and thence passing into a dif-
fused white light, extending completely round the
horizon. A moment after five o'clock we note the
reappearance of the glow in the north-west, red-green
in colour, and soon followed by a red beam shooting
196 Northward over the •* Great Ice"
suddenly upward eight or ten degrees from the jaws,
of Leo. These fading away, naught auroral is visible
save the yellowish light which rests everywhere upon
the horizon.
The watch ticks its way to 5:18, a semicircle of
light once more grrows downward from our almost
polar zenith, westward to Ras AL Gethi and Ras Al
Hague, eastward to Alpha dinA Delta Persei.
Thus it occupies, with reference to the constella-
tions, almost the same position as at first — two hours
eighteen minutes earlier. In other words, it has fol-
lowed the sun in his course westward, or, plainer,
remained stationary during the revolution of the earth
two hours eighteen minutes eastward.
At 5:28 we observe that it has split into two semi-
circles separated by an intervening space of two de-
grees' width, the terminal points, however, still resting,
as stated, on Perseus and Hercules. Three minutes
later these again integrate, revolving steadily north-
westward, till, hanging upon the Big Dipper, or Ursa
Major, we mark a total disappearance of the band at
5:45 P.M.
nth. — Light-coloured arch, appearing in the west at
9:45 A.M., extending from north to south generally,
follows the course of stars Lambda and Gamma Ge7ni-
norum. Cancer, body of Leo Major, rises at ten a.m.
to Leo Minor, revolving thence to Psi Ursa Major,
Cor Caroli, Mirac, Alpheta, and finishes at Beta and
Zeta Herculis. Visible one hour.
7J//2.— Aurora of arch form visible from nine p.m. to
10:20 P.M. extends from Mir a and Meiikar to Mirac
and Arcturtis, covering stars immediately below
Algenib and Markab, Pisces, Eq2tuleus, Delphinus,
Aqtdla, Taurus, Pons, Ras A I Hague, Ras A I Gethi,
and Alpheta.
i^th. — Auroral arch noted at 2:30 a.m., covering
Meteoroloo^ical and Auroral Notes 197
stars in the head of Hydra, Canis Minoi'-, head of
Monocei^os and body of Orion. Luminous spots al-
ternating at ten-minute intervals in the south-east.
At 3:30 the arch covers the hind quarters of Leo
Major, Sextans, neck of Hydra, hind-quarters and
limb of Monoceros and upper portion of Argo, from
which at 3:40 a.m., a bright light diffuses itself, the
entire arch gradually disappearing shortly afterwards.
Between ten a.m. and 10:12 a.m. an evanescent
auroral arch, coY^rmg Pleiades, Perseus, Camelopardus,
Polaris, Ursa Minor, Draco, and Herc2iles, revolves
as a vast semicircle to Atcriga, head of the Lynx,
Ursa Major, Corona Borealis, and the head of Sei^pens.
2gth. — 9:50 P.M. auroral beams, twenty degrees in
height, visible in the south-west, shift rapidly eastward,
and seem to cross, in stately file by means of a bridge
of dark, low-lying stratus clouds, the ice and waters of
Inglefield Gulf in the south, and to terminate in the
south-east, covering, as they march, J/<?;2/§(2r and J/zV^^
{Alpha and Theta Ceti), belt of Orion {Delta, Epsilon,
Zeta) and Procyon {Alpha Canis Minoris).
10:05 P-^- These form themselves into an arch
from Orion to Procyon, and extending thence in close
array to the limbs of Gemini.
10:18 P.M. Nearly vanish, but almost immediately
reappear.
10 : 24 P.M. Disappears, but succeeded by a single
ghost-like tower of light stalking from the south-west
towards Rigel{Beta Orioitis), and finally, at 10:30 P.M.,
dissipating itself with a hazy group of beams near the
lower limbs of Orion.
jotk. — 7:55 A.M. brings us a gentle breeze from the
north-east and a temperature of -19° F. Stretching
gracefully across the sky from north-west to south-east,
hangs a complete auroral curtain, its light somewhat
dimmed by the reflected light of the moon, just now
198 Northward over the ** Great Ice"
sunk beneath the horizon in the south-west, and the
refracted hght of the slowly returning sun. Gemini,
Cancel^, Leo Minor, Canes Venatici, Bootes, Serpens,
Hercules, and Ophiuchus combine to agitate it into
greater intensity and richer contrast against the clear
dark-blue of the northern heavens.
But now the silvery curtain-folds knot themselves
into a series of electric balls suspended in the same
arch order. One of them descends, coverinor the head
oi Leo Major, which also now receives a meteoric arrow
direct from Bootes. A second mass is seen resting
upon the rump of Ursa Major, filling the bowl of the
Big Dipper, and rising in luminous fermentation to
the lips of Ursa Minor.
Now to the south-east see that reddish tinge. To
the north-west behold the delicate interminoflinof of
red and green. Yet look still farther beyond yon
rocky ridge, past the awful chasms of Bowdoin Glacier,
over and upon the silent fields of the eternal ice-cap —
what spectacle rises there / A bright spot, a fiery mass,
a gorgeous tabernacle of colour, red and green, it
grows, elevating itself from the low-circling Gemini
to Canes Venatici, a coruscating semi-arch of splendour.
8:15 A.M. arrives, and this too has crumbled, all save
a grotesque patch resting upon Cancer, whence there
presently protrudes a long arm, reaching even to Po-
laris, and soon followed by a second, grasping finally
Cor Caroli. Here imagination at once associates
these protuberances with the claws of the celestial
Crab, greatly elongated.
We note 9:30 o'clock. Form vanishes ; distortion
succeeds. Broken shafts, walls, columns, and heaps
of the electric debris lie scattered where former sym-
metry prevailed. Slowly northward, past Polaris,
even to Cassiopeia, are these evanescent and scattered
ruins carried.
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 199
Meanwhile the Gemini, undiscouraged, have con-
structed a second house of purple and scarlet and
pushed it likewise onward and upward, only to see it
fall rapidly into destruction as the watch notes 10:50
A.M.
joth. — We have just "turned in" at 11:30 p.m.,
when Mr. Lee calls us to view a scene of weird
grandeur. A double aurora, parallel arches spanning
the heavens from south to north : the easternmost
arch springing from the feet of Gemini, crossing
Auriga, Cassiopeia, and Cepheus, and resting finally
upon Lyra; the westernmost, o'ervaulting Taurus,
Algol Per sei, Andro7neda, Lacerta, and Cygnus.
The clouds afire / we exclaim, as the electric flames
flash upon and among the forms of black stratus clouds,
now scudding away in scattered planes before a brisk
vapour-laden wind from the south-east.
y a?i2iary, iSg^.
Observation of auroras as follows :
2d, 7-10 A.M., 6-8 P.M. ; 3d, 6-7 A.M. ; 4th, 5-7 a.m. ;
1 2th, 4 P.M., 6 P.M., 9 P.M. -1 2 M. ; 13th, 12 midnight
to 5 A.M. ; 27th, 5-6 A.M. — or on twenty-six different
hours.
2d. — At 6:15 P.M. of January 2d, our nation's Capitol
and the Agricultural Building at the World's Colum-
bian Exposition are vividly brought to mind by the
appearance, in the south, of an aurora taking the form
and proportions of the main pediments to those struct-
ures, the figure of speech in the second instance being
intensified by the tympanum ornamentation formed
over the constellations, Taurus, Aries, Pisces, and Pe-
gasus— the Bull, the Ram, the Fishes, and the Winged
Horse.
Five, — six, — seven minutes pass, and three parallel
arches succeed one another in o'erspanning the south-
200 Northward over the "Great Ice"
ern heavens. 6:23 by the watch, a bright nebulous
space surrounds the pole star. But now, between
this and the third arch, a fourth, even more radiant
than the rest, bids us exclaim, " The Golden Door ! "
as we recall the feature of the now world-famed
Transportation Building.
Beams, "patches," striae of light ensue. At 6:45
the entire southern half of the heavens is illuminated,
the rays converging towards the zenith. Northward
moves this spacious semi-dome, meeting finally a
fifth arch and countless beams now quickly evolving
from the vaulted north, till, the rays meeting in the
zenith, the vast expanse of heaven becomes a corona
of glory. Meanwhile, a cold north-east wind blows
and meteors dart at intervals from the constellation
Pegasits, till, at eight o'clock, the display ceases with
the decadence of auroral beams which shoot upward
fifteen decrees above the north arc of the horizon.
jd. — The ushering of the Old Year out and the New
Year in, has certainly been attended with auroral dis-
plays remarkable for the latitude and longitude of
Anniversary Lodge, alike for duration, variety of
form, and beauty of colouring.
At seven a.m., from Sexta7is to Sei'Pens (to Umtk,
Alpha Serpentis) curves an arch composed of the
union of three luminous segments, the central one
covering; Coma Berenices, and the rio-ht or northern
wing of Virgo ; the other two, the places above desig-
nated, while from each bright mass there radiate
upward, for a space of fifteen or twenty degrees, con-
verging rays of colour, the whole suggesting swinging
censers. Unconnected with these there soon appears
a fourth, suspended just above Cancer, now in the west.
Still higher and quite in our zenith, uniting Lyra,
head of Draco, Ursa Minor and the space thence to the
right arm of Auriga, is one broad belt of silvery light.
Meteorological and Auroral Notes 201
At 7 :40 by the clock, we note the fall of a meteor
in the vicinity of the Sickle and the birth of nebulous
clouds in various localities of the clearest blue.
Unlike the movement of the aurorae heretofore de-
scribed, in this instance the general motion of the
swaying masses is towards the south-west. A gentle
wind meanwhile blows from the opposite quarter. Yet
we must not conclude that the propulsion of the au-
rora in this particular direction is due to this circum-
stance.
We successively note 8:30 and 9:30 o'clock, at which
times the display is still visible as a sheet of fine rays
in the west and as a nebulous haze in the south, but
finally disappearing with the decadence at ten p.m. of
a nebulous cloud just above the northern horizon.
12th. — 6:30-6:40 P.M. : Faint auroral beams in the
south-east generally below Taurus. Cloudy ; wind
from south-east.
Again, nine p.m. : Observed auroral fires in the south,
south-west, west, and north-west, covering Orion, Cettis,
Pegasus, and space below ^j/r^^;, spreading northward
and limiting itself as a vast twisted roll of light from
L,yra and covering Draco, Ursa Major, and Gemini,
the roll at ten p.m. resembling in its northern half a
deeply serrated band of light. Five minutes later it
gathers itself into huge balls of light having a puffing,
rushinor motion southward as of luminous clouds of
steam.
We note, 10:35: Nearly vanished, very faint haze
in the west of zenith. Eleven p.m. Again as a band
across Gemini, Ursa Major, and Draco. Twelve mid-
night, continues ; one a.m., faint ; two a.m., faint in the
north-west ; three a.m., faint in the south and south-
east ; four a.m., faint in south-west. Clear; north-east
wind. Five a.m., faint in the south-east ; six a.m., faint
in south-east and south ; seven a.m., faint in south-
202 Northward over the "Great Ice"
east, south, and south-west. At eight and nine a.m.
still faintly visible. Ten a.m., not visible ; 10:30 a.m.,
reappears as parallel cream-coloured bands from the
south to the north, in the zenith and west. Eleven
A.M. : Visible as a faint stream of light from the south,
northward past the zenith. Twelve noon, faint ; one
P.M., not visible ; two p.m., again faintly visible ; three
P.M., faint; four p.m., faint and having fan shape in
the south. Five P.M. : Faintly covering Z,ji/?2-^', Cainelo-
pardus and Cepheus, thereafter gradually disappearing.
22d. — Washington's Birthday remembered inthought
and speech as the writer journeyed by sledge across the
frozen surface of McCormick Bay ; celebrated in colour
and grandeur as an aurora flashed across the sky from
south-west to north-east ! Now dancing, now darting,
and, shuttle-like, frequently alternating in direction,
the otherwise clear sky is resplendent. A light north-
east wind blows and night prevails ; nevertheless,
seemingly in a very low atmosphere and extending
generally over the heavens in irregularly shaped cur-
tains of folds and particularly noticeable from Taumis,
across Uisa MajoT- to Bootes, this brilliant display
continues from 6:30 p.m. to ten p.m.
2^tJi. — Returning from the above-mentioned sledge
journey the writer, with dog driver Sipsu, had crossed
Robertson Bay during the day and McCormick Bay the
following nio-ht, having to face a blindino- snow-drift
during the early morning hours. Darkness and un-
certainty of way were our lot as we at last arrived at
the head of the bay and hesitated to cross the wide
and numerous tide cracks in the ice. Suddenly, an
aurora, certainly of great beauty and power of light,
appeared in the S. S. W. and gave us illumination
sufficient to deliver us from our perplexity. The stars
Meteoroloo^^ical and Auroral Notes 203
were invisible by reason of the falling snow and we
could only guess at the time, — probably six a.m.
2'jth. — 5:10 A.M. to 7 A.M. The night has been far
spent in travelling by sledge across Inglefield Gulf.
Cloud and space glow. At the lodge, bright auroral
beams were reported over the southern sky from an
elevation of 45° to the zenith. At six a.m., the pheno-
menon took the form of two parallel bows extending
in a true east and west direction, the brighter one
passing nearly through the zenith, the lower one to
within 30° above the southern horizon.
March, iSg^..
Aurorae : The light of the arctic day too strong for
determination of their existence. Still, on a few oc-
casions, during the earlier days of the month, what
seemed to be auroral light was observed on the Inland
Ice.
E. B. Baldwin.
PART IV.
NORTH-GREENLAND EXPEDITION 1894-1895.
CHAPTER I.
BOAT VOYAGE FALCON TO LODGE.
Farewell to the Falcon — My Program — Along the Arctic Coast in
A Whale-Boat— Hut of the Advance Boat Party— My Eskimo Crew—
" Land of Noogli " — Ancient Inhabitants — Barden Bay — The Nale-
gaksoah — A Wild Sunset.
MARIE AHNIGHITO PEARY, AGED i6 MONTHS.
Born September 12, 1893, at Anniversary Lodge, 77° 40' N. Lat.
CHAPTER I.
BOAT VOYAGE FALCON TO LODGE.
W
HEN on the
28th of August,
1894, I pulled
away in my whale-boat
General Wistar from the
side of the ill-fated whaler
Falcon^ lying-to in Smith
Sound, off the glistening
wall of the Petowik Gla-
cier, my feelings were not
of the cheeriest.
Yet I had no reason to
think that xv chances of carrying out my cherished
plans -ere, .^arring unavoidable accidents, other than
good.
Though the Falcon was separating me from those
near and dear to me, she was carrying them to safety
and comfort, and she was leaving me with a small
but experienced, effective, homogeneous, and loyal
party.
In the boat with me was my coloured man, Henson,
a dark-skinned, kinky-haired child of the Equator, and
five of my faithful, trusty Eskimo allies, dusky child-
^ Less than two months later the Falcon, after landing my party in Philadelphia,
was lost with all on board, while returning from that port to St. John's.
207
2o8 Northward over the " Great Ice "
ren of the Pole. Nearly two hundred miles north,
at the lodge, at the head of Bowdoin Bay, was my
other companion, brave, loyal Lee, awaiting my re-
turn. At the lodge with him was an ample supply
of all the essentials of life, except meat, requisite to
carry us through the winter and early spring.
Cached on the " Great Ice," at various distances of
from twenty-six to one hundred and twenty-eight
miles from the lodge, were all except a few minor
"THE 'FALCON' SWUNG ON HER HEEL."
supplies needed for the white march across the
" Great Ice " the following spring and summer.
My general program was, as soon as I should have
regained the lodge, to proceed with some of my
native allies to the deer pastures of Kangerdlooksoah,
and draw upon them for our own meat supply for
the coming winter ; then levy tribute on the walrus
at their feeding-grounds in Omenak Sound, for my
winter supply of dog food. After that I would visit
those of the caches upon the "Great Ice" located
within a distance of fifty miles from the lodge, dig
them out, rearrange them again upon the surface of
Boat Voyage 209
the snow, and re-erect any signals that might have
been broken off or blown down by the wind.
I should then endeavour to pass the winter, leisurely
working upon our equipment for the long sledge
journey ; exercising the utmost care to keep ourselves
in physical condition ; and conserving every energy,
physical and mental, for a fight to the finish, when
once again we attacked the "Great Ice."
All the time I recognised two eventualities which
might defeat everything. The first was the breaking
CONICAL ROCK.
out of the piblockto, or epidemic dog madness, among
the native dogs, which, if the attack was serious,
might almost exterminate the animals of the tribe,
and render it impossible for me to obtain dogs for the
journey across the ice-cap. Second, the arrival to
either one of us of that end which, in the words of brave
Horatio, of that other three, "comes to each man
soon or late."
I placed the latter possibility second intentionally,
because without dogs it would be folly to think of at-
tempting the conquest of the " Great Ice," while the
2IO Northward over the "Great Ice"
reduction of our number to two would not necessarily
mean the same.
The journey to Independence Bay had once before
been made by two men, and there seemed no rea-
son why it should not be made by the same number
again.
As I stood in the stern-sheets of my boat watching
the black form of the Falcon, her propeller began
'A WILD-FUR-CLAD CREW."
again its monotonous pulsations, she swung on her
heel, gradually gathered headway, and threading her
way among the bergs and floes, disappeared in the ice
of the southern horizon, bearing those dear to me
south to the lands of the sun,
I fancy it was an impr'essive sight to those on
board to see my little boat dashing away northward
Boat Voyage 2 1 1
into the rapidly gatliering gloom of the arctic winter
night/
The setting of the picture was appropriate. The
long, crystalline blue wall of Petowik directly abreast,
with the slope of the mighty ice-stream above it ;
northward, in declining perspective, Mt. Agony, Red
Mountain, and their companions, buttresses of a
savage, precipitous shore, terminating in distant Cape
"BLACK CLIFFS OF THE IRON-BOUND SHORE."
Athol, with Wolstenholm Island off-lying; southward
the sharp point of "Jenna" (Conical Rock) rising
from the water ; and beyond it the black fire-born
coast cliffs that end in Cape York.
As I turned in the opposite direction, northward
' " As vision failed and lineaments became indistinct, our last view was of the
tall, erect, fur-clad explorer, standing amidships, and again by the signal code,
bidding us good-bye and good fortune, as his prow was pointed northward and
poleward.
" Half an hour later, v/e saw a white speck on the dark expanse of waters,
telling us that the boat had set her sail to the favouring breeze, and that all was
going well with her gallant party." — From letter- by H. L. Bridgman.
212 Northward over the "Great Ice"
towards the gloom of the coming arctic night, for
which my boat was heading, my eyes rested upon my
Eskimo crew, puhing with ah the strength of their
iron-muscled backs for the shelter of the bleak rocks
of Cape Athol. A strange, wild, fur-clad crew, yet
sturdy and faithful,
Kardah, or " Three-ply," as we called him because
of his habit of repeating everything three times ;
Ingopahdo, or "Freckles," the father of a healthy
family of six ; quiet, honest Kahdahsu ; round-faced
CAPE ATHOL.
Akpudisoahho, and faithful old Nooktah, — the latter
father of " Miss Bill," the Eskimo girl who accom-
panied Mrs. Peary home, and son of Koolootoonah,
the old chief of Netiulumi, who gave the boat party
from the Advance such a fright by an alleged plot to
murder them.
With an American leader, an African coxswain, and
an Eskimo crew, I had the Equator, the Temperate
Zone, and the Pole, all compressed into a space of
twenty-eight feet.
Boat Voyage
213
The brief arctic summer was at an end, and the Hfe-
less grey sky hanging low over the black, snow-capped
cliffs of the iron-bound shore and the icy waves of the
North Water, made my crew as anxious as myself to
reach the lodge at the earliest possible moment, and
lessen the chance of beino- caugrht in one of the violent
storms which frequently mark this season of the year.
The morning calm freshened to a stiff off-shore
breeze, and shaking out our sail, the General Wistar
A STREAM OF DRIFT ICE.
gathered fresh speed, and went dashing merrily through
the racing whitecaps towards Cape Athol.
It was a striking coincidence that, forty years (less
half an hour) before, the " boat party " had left Kane's
ship the Advance in Rensselaer Harbour, in an attempt
to fight their way along this same coast to Upernavik.
But that party was bound south, in retreat, while I
was bound north, to commence a new campaign. The
coincidence was more strongly accentuated by the
fact that my first landing, twenty hours after separat-
ing from the Falcon, was at the place where that party
had been stopped by the ice, and where they were
2 14 Northward over the "Great Ice"
obliged to build a small stone shelter, in which they
lived some three months, until forced by starvation
to return to the ship.
The tumbling whitecaps were anything but soothing
to the nerves of my dusky crew, as evidenced by the
grey pallor of their faces, and they were more than
BIRD CLIFFS OF SAUNDERS ISLAND.
pleased when, forced by off-lying ice to run in close
under the shore, we lost the wind, and they were
obliged to run out the oars and raise Paddy's
" ash breeze."
We reached the bare, grey, wave- and ice-worn rocks
of Cape Athol at 1:30 p.m., and climbing to an eleva-
tion of one hundred feet or more to reconnoitre Wol-
Boat Voyage
215
stenholm Sound, I saw a wide stream of rather closely
packed ice lying between the cape and Saunders
Island, and extending out against Wolstenholm
Island. As the only way to avoid this ice was to
make a detour entirely around the latter island, and
force our way through another perhaps equally or
more difficult stream outside, I determined to push
NUMEROUS KITTIWAKES ON THEIR NESTS.
straight on for Saunders Island and not stop until
compelled to. The now strongly running ebb-tide
would, I knew, assist us. Descending to the boat, by
the time we reached the ice the tidal effect was al-
ready being felt in loosening the pressure of the pans,
and as we advanced our progress became easier, until
finally we emerged into placid, ice-free water off
Saunders Island.
2i6 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Pulling along the outer shore of this island over a
lazy, glassy swell from the south-west, we passed the
site of the, for several years, unoccupied settlement of
"Akpani," and reached, late in the afternoon, the
great bird cliffs of Saunders Island, where I stopped
a few hours to shoot some of the looms or guillemots
which breed there in countless thousands.
There were numerous young looms, or akpah, and
kittiwakes here, many of the former swimming with
their mothers, and emitting an almost continuous
shrill, tremulous whistle, while the latter were all on
the nests, some of which were so low down as to be
reached from the boat.
The northern end of Saunders Island is a huge,
semi-detached mass of rock, a thousand feet or more
in height, called by the natives Tooloogsoah (Rock
of the Great Raven).
At 8:30 P.M., after landing my crew a few minutes
for water on a flat berg, I left the base of towering
Tooloogsoah, in whose sea-hewn caverns the blue-
green swells were roaring sleepily, and pulled away
northward for the " land of Nooo^li."
Before us lay the wide and usually wind-swept
mouth of Wolstenholm Sound, which, with its floating
ice and swift tidal currents, is under unfavourable
circumstances a disagreeable stretch of navio-ation.
Fortunately now it was very calm and not a piece of
ice was visible, only a fleet of great bergs, against
whose polished sides the glassy swell rose and fell
languidly. Ahead of us in the blue distance rose
snow-capped Oobloodahingwah, and black Pooeen-
yah in the arms of its circling glacier ; with the low
" land of Noogli," land of the ignimttt, the pre-
cious fire-stone of the natives, at their feet, invisible
below the horizon. On our right lay the placid ex-
panse of the Sound, reaching eastward to the mot-
Boat Voyage
2 17'
tied Nuna Kahlilowah, and into the cliff- and glacier-
prisoned depths of Granville Bay.
To our left, far out on the western horizon floated
the outlines of the sombre Carey Islands, with their
tragic secret of the fate of young Bjorling and his
brave companions.
Behind us, the vivid red- and yellow-banded cliffs of
Saunders Island, a Titan agate set in lapis-lazuli.
Long before we had crossed the Sound, the roar
of the heavy North-Water swell breakinor in foamino-
"THE CLIFF- AND GLACIER-PRISONED DEPTHS OF GRANVILLE BAY."
thunder upon the low, iron shore of Noogli, came
out throuo-h the calm nio-ht-air to meet us. No land-
ing was possible until we reached the little bifurcated
inlet known by the natives as Tessuissak (the Lake),
a few miles above Noogf-li. PuUino- into this throuMi
a labyrinth of half-submerged boulders, we found at the
head of the northern arm a tiny sheltered bight,
where at 4:30 a.m. of the 29th we landed for food
and rest.
After our simple supper (or breakfast?) of salt
beef, biscuit, and tea. Matt and four of my huskies fell
2i8 Northward over the "Great Ice"
asleep lying about the fire, while I went with Nook-
tah westward across the low land to the seaward side,
and examined the remains of the hut built by the boat
party from the Advance in September, 1854. It was
the first time a white man had looked upon the place
since that party left it in December of the same year.
The inclosure between the low stone walls was about
RUINS OF BOAT-PARTY HUT.
Hayes, 1854.
9x15 feet, and the appearance of the walls, and the
pieces of wood, iron, cloth, crockery, etc., in and
about them, hardly looked as if they had been there
forty years.
The hut is not over a mile above the entrance to
the inlet, and is but a short distance from high-water
level. The spray from heavy seas reaches it. Poppies
and purple flowers were blooming near.
Boat Voyage 219
On the way back to the boat and about half-way
across the strip of land, I found the bones of a whale
{argwo), and Nooktah told me that generations ago
they were abundant here, and that years ago one was
seen off Cape York, but that now they are all gone.
From a neighbouring ridge of cobble and coarse
gravel a hundred and twenty-five feet above sea-level,
the eye commands the whole of this peculiar strip of
low foreshore, lying at the foot of the mountains
from Wolstenholm Sound to Cape Parry.
BLACK POOEENYAH AND THE IGNIMUT GLACIER.
To the south, Pooeenyah rears its black sides from
the centre of the lonimut Glacier standinp; p;uard over
the precious fire-stone and the "land of Noogli." One
arm of the glacier bends southward to the little cove
just inside the point of Noogli, and here, in a lime-
stone escarpment fronting the glacier, is the ignimut
or fire-stone, a vein of pyrites, which for unnumbered
generations has furnished the natives of this region
with the means of obtainino- fire.
The other arm bends northward towards the inlet
in which my boat was moored.
2 20 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Eastward, the narrow, shallow southern arm of
Booth Sound reaches up a valley, towards the head of
which sweep down two or three glaciers. Up this
valley, over the glaciers and across the ice-cap, is a
trail to Barden Bay and Netiulumi.
Northward is land-locked Booth Sound, with the
well-remembered Anoah Glacier flowing down to its
north-eastern angle, and the remarkable Bell Rock
risinof from its centre. This Bell Rock is the laro^est
and most striking of those sharp-pointed rocks rising
directly out of the sea, of which there are several in
this region, as Dalrymple and Conical Rocks, and the
'REMARKABLE BELL ROCK.
Little Matterhorn. Ail are known by the natives as
ill "
Jenna.
Bevond Booth Sound, the orrim, sable bastion of
Cape Parry closes the view.
We left the little bight at noon, and after pulling
out of the inlet had a light southerly air, to which we
spread our sail, thus assisting the oars very materially
as w^e resumed our northward course towards Cape
Parry.
While passing the mouth of Booth Sound, my na-
tives told me of the burial-place of a long-past gener-
ation of Eskimos on the northern point of the
Boat Voyage 221
entrance, and of igloos of the same period near the
shore a short distance farther north. Just below Cape
Parry, Nooktah pointed out the sites of ancient stone
igloos, and told of their being inhabited years and
years ago by very large men who came from a distant
land in the west, and ate many of the Eskimos (! !),
then went away again.
The frowning black cliffs of Cape Parry, Kangah-
suk (the Great Cape) of the natives, was rounded at.
KANGAHSUK ("THE GREAT CAPE).
Cape Parry.
7:40 P.M., and, pulling in the teeth of the fresh breeze
which came rushino- out of Whale Sound, we arrived
at Netiulumi late in the eveniuQ^. The rock forma-
tion at Cape Parry, crystalline superimposed upon
stratified, is the same as that of Bell Rock, and the
latter might almost be a fragment of the former, sun-
dered by some cataclysm and swept southward to its
present site.
222 Northward over the "Great Ice"
When half-way across Barden Bay, two natives,
Myah and Aletta, met us in their kayaks. They
had been across the glacier to Booth Sound for deer,
and each had upon the after-part of his kayak a deer-
skin and saddle of venison. They kept us company
as we approached the village.
A heavy ground-swell was rolling in from the North
TWO KAYAKERS MET US.
Water, raising such a surf along the rocky shore, that
we could land in but one place, a bit of partially shel-
tered beach a few rods up the bay from the village.
Here, after I had shouted instructions to the crowd
of men gathered on the beach, my steering oar held
the Geiiei^al straio-ht to her course while the ash blades
drove her swiftly in upon the foaming crest of a breaker,
and the moment the bow touched the beach, half a
Boat Voyage
223
hundred willing hands, led by Kyogwito the Nalegak-
soah in the frock-coat and slouch hat which I had
given him, seized painter and gunwale and dragged
the boat up beyond the reach of the next breaker.
Then she was shored up on an even keel, and Ingo-
pahdo kindled a fire against the rocks which en-
closed the beach, while I distributed biscuit among
the natives, and purchased the deerskins and venison
ONE OF THOSE WILD SUNSETS."
of our escorts, for a couple of hatfuls of the same
commodity.
I was much amused by the actions of my friend the
Nalegaksoah. The winter before I had given him a
Prince-Albert coat, a black sombrero, and a sabre
bayonet, and with them bestowed upon him the title
of Nalegaksoah (Great Chief), and now, after he had
liquidated the claims of hospitality by helping to drag
my boat through the surf, and had seen me and my
crew safely landed, he climbed in solitary state up the
bank and sat there in his royal garments, till I invited
^24 Northward over the "Great Ice"
him to descend and accept my hand and a few hat-
fuls of biscuit.
It was a picturesque scene : a crowd of natives about
the boat, leaning over the gunwale, and looking at
everything with eager interest ; another group about
the yellow flames of the fire ; while still others were
perched upon the rocks that walled the beach.
While all this was in progress, southward, above
the death-pale ice-cap, hung dense blue-black clouds ;
northward, across the turbulent Sound, the splendour
of one of those wild sunset afterglows, regal with
savage colour, such as can be seen only in the Arctic
regions at the end of the brief summer, flamed through
the gateway between Herbert and Northumberland
Islands, bringing the gloomy, foreboding day to a close ;
and all around the hoarse shore of the bay sounded
the intermittent roar of the surL
CHAPTER II.
BOAT VOYAGE FALCON TO LODGE {Continued).
Death in an Eskimo Village — Happy Natives — A Glacier Episode-
Heavy Weather — Olriks Bay — The Anoahtaksoah — The Deer Hunt
— School of Narwhal — Across the Sound — Ice-Blockade in Bowdoin
Bay — Back to the Lodge.
CHAPTER II.
BOAT VOYAGE FALCON TO LODGE {Cotttinued).
^ ^ Itti
E left Netiulumi
130 A.M. for
;bloo, and
though the flood-tide was in
our favour, the head-wind,
which we met as soon as
we got out of the bay,
made the pull a long and
tedious one. At Narksami,
seven miles east of Netiu-
lumi, we landed and found
large quantities of narwhal
meat, some cached under stones, and some unpro-
tected. There were several tupiks here until the day
before, when the death of a woman caused all the in-
habitants to move precipitately to Netiulumi. I saw
the never-again-to-be-used tupik in which she had died.
The poles had been removed, allowing the tupik to
collapse, but otherwise it and its contents were, and
would remain, untouched by human hand, just as when
the woman died. I saw her grave also, a pile of stones
upon a ledge of rock back of the tupik. Lying beside
it were the woman's drying frame, two tin cups, and
her one dog, which had been strangled. Her young
baby had also been strangled, and buried under the
227
228 Northward over the "Great Ice
stones with its mother. Strange custom of a strange
people. Scattered about were several old graves con-
taining fragments of bones. Leaving Narksami after
my crew had laid in a good supply of their great deli-
cacy, the viaktah, or skin of the narwhal, I tried
beating up the Sound, but found it of no avail, and
was obliged to resort to the oars again and hug the
shore, taking advantage of the lee of every point.
Through all this laborious work, my happy, child-
like crew was a constant source of interest to me.
"ONE OF THE ICE-STREAMS OF THIS PRECIPITOUS SHORE."
Glacier West of Ittibloo.
During the first two days of the voyage, they had
been very quiet. Perhaps the rythmic lift and dip of
the boat upon the long North-Water swells, heaving
against the outer coast, had disturbed them ; perhaps
they were suspicious of the September vagaries of wild
" Immaksoah" (the North Water).
But now, well within the limits of " Ikaresungwah "
Boat Voyage 229
(Whale Sound), and hugging the shore within a boat's
length, they were garrulous as so many sparrows.
The regular stroke of the oars seemed an incentive to
■continuous chatter. Spicy gossip of the tribe, the
wonderful ship, incidents of our voyage, speculations
as to my plans, apostrophes to the waves, the sky, the
shore, the birds, — an incessant stream. Never did an
inquisitive burgomaster gull stoop with wide white
wings to inspect the boat but what he was chaffed and
derided ; not a flock of bustling little auks whirred
past but they were followed by encouraging words
equivalent to " Go it, little ones," " That 's right,"
" You '11 get there " ; and the sight of a seal's glistening
black head emerging from the water, would be the sig-
nal for a volley of " TakiL ! " " Taku-u-u ! " (" Look "),
"' Puisse !'' in inimitable accents, and as much excite-
ment as if it was the first seal of their lives. Yet, at a
word of caution from me, the noise would cease, the
broad backs strain and sway till the oars bent like
whalebone, and the boat forged slowly through the
boiling tide-rip round a projecting point.
Creeping laboriously along, we reached glittering
Misumisu, the largest berg-forming glacier of the
numerous ice-streams which flow down the gorges of
this precipitous shore.
This glacier projects well out into the sea, and a
short distance back from its face it was pierced from
side to side by a magnificent tunnel, which would have
spanned a four-track railway.
The air between the crystal roof and liquid floor of
this tunnel was blue as indigo. I had an idea of pass-
ing through this royal arch, and the boat was heading
for it and about to enter, when an enormous block of
ice from the keystone fell with a crash and roar into
the water, sending peals of thunder and white-capped
breakers through the archway, and we incontinently
230 Northward over the "Great Ice"
turned straight out into the Sound, my crew pulHng
as I never saw them before or since.
This debacle was the sio-nal for a general disinteera-
tion alono- the o-lacier face, and thoug-h no laro-e here
was born, fragment after fragment flew outward, and
buttress after buttress cracked,^ toppled, and fell, till
the entire glacier face was hidden in a fury of crashing
ice, leaping waves, and hissing spray, as if the glacier
were some huge white marine monster entangled upon
the shore, and beating the sea into foam with its gleam-
ing head, in its effort to escape.
'•PIERCED BY A MAGNIFICENT TUNNEL."
Even when several miles awa}', we could still hear
the loud reports of the rending ice, and the muffled
roar of the waves hurling themselves into the newl)-
formed crevasses and caverns.
It was eight p.m. when we arrived at Ittibloo, after
thirteen hours of tedious work. Here I found the
three tupiks of Ootooniah, Ikwah, and Mahsotia.
Big brown-eyed Ahrinyahloo, Ootooniah's wife, in-
formed me with a significant gesture, and as unconcern-
Boat Voyage 231
edly as she would have told me that she did n't sleep
well the nieht before, that her unborn babe had been
dead for several days, killed by her exertions in
lifting stones while at work on the winter igloo.
This house-building of these women, coming as it does
at a critical period of the year, is perhaps one of the
most effective obstacles to the increase of the tribe.
HEADING FOR THE ARCHWAY.
Again a brilliant sunset flamed on us for a little
time through the wide gateway of Murchison Sound,
then was quenched in rapidly gathering leaden clouds.
Here I accepted the hospitality of Ootooniah's
large and cleanly tupic, while Matt occupied the any-
thing but downy thwarts of the boat, drawn up on
the beach.
At seven a.m., we left Ittibloo with the flood-tide, to
pull across the mouth of Olriks Bay to Kanga, seven
miles distant, and then up the north shore of the bay
to the deer pastures.
When we started, the sea was perfectly calm, but
before we had gone two miles the wind came rushing
out of the bay, and increased in fury until it became
a question whether we would reach the shore. I was
232 Northward over the "Great Ice"
towing Kahdahsu's kayak astern, and the drag of this
made the Ge?ieral very sluggish in meeting the waves,
till I hauled it up and lashed it alongside. Finally
we were able to gain a partial shelter behind the rock
point of Kanga and haul the boat out through the
surf. Though we had wind and wave in quantity to
make it amply exciting, we by no means got the worst,
or even my staunch whale-boat would scarcely have
lived through the wicked chop-sea that rose from the
meetinof of the strong flood-tide and furious wind.
On the south side of the bay, where the wind fell in
fiercest force from the mountains above the Savage
Glacier, the tops were shaved from the waves, and
whirled aloft in clouds and revolving pillars of spray,
while over the crests and through every gorge of the
mountains swept a dark cataract of drift, its ominous
roar reaching us above the fury of wind and sea,
Throuofh all this turmoil the sun was shininp" bril-
liantly, and blue sky canopied the wild scene. It
was just such 2S\Q)\}i\&x anoaJitaksoah{^x&2X wind) as we
had in Academy and again in McCormick Bay two
years ago. While Matt and the Eskimos spread their
soaked outer clothing and the contents of the boat
on the rocks to dry in the sun and wind, I climbed to a
sheltered nook between huge blocks, a hundred feet up
the rocky side of Kanga. Below me the turbulent
blue ice-free waters of the great fjord reached away to
the giant bastion of Herbert Island, then out through
the ample channels of Whale and Murchison Sounds,
broken here and there by an occasional gleaming berg.
To my right, northward across the Sound, rose the
soft grey battlements of the Sculptured Cliffs of Kar-
nah, and the flowing lines of the Red Cliff Peninsula
ice-cap and its pendent glaciers.
To my left, the dazzling white faces of the south-
shore glaciers protruded through every rift in the
Boat Voyage
233
black cliffs ; and beneath my perch the waves roared
as they dashed against the primeval foundations of
dark Kanga,
Gradually wind and sea subsided, and at 4:45 p.m.
we ran the boat down, loaded her, and pushed off in-
to the swirling- flood-tide, leaving Kahdahsu's kayak
weighted down with bie stones, well above hip;h-water
ITTIBLOO GLACIER.
The Only Example, in this Region, of a Sea-Level Glacier with Terminal
Moraine.
mark. The surface of the bay was now almost
smooth, and, urged by oars and the tidal current, we
slipped rapidly past the steep bluffs of the north shore.
These bluffs at first glance seem to be a talus slope
of loose rock, but the inclination is so steep as to in-
vite a critical examination, which shows them to be
really sandstone cliffs, veiled by a layer of disintegrated
material held in position by the narrow ledges of the
numerous strata.
234 Northward over the "Great Ice"
When some five miles up the bay, the evening land
breeze began drawing inward. I had the sail shaken
out, the oars were taken in, my dusky crew disposed
themselves for sleep between the thwarts, and we sped
rapidly along, passing through the outer narrows and
reaching the delta of the Salmon River, more than
half-way up the middle bay, before the wind deserted
us. As it subsided, the bay filled with dense fog.
Later it began snowing, and at two a.m. we were
VIEW IN OLRIKS BAY.
Looking through the Upper Narrows.
obliged to land and pull the boat up, the rapid current
of the ebb-tide making progress against it an impossi-
bility. As " Ingo" said, '' Iniaksoak tiinatu kooksoah''
(" The sea here runs like a great river").
After a venison supper, we spread the tarpaulin
over the stern-sheets of the boat and turned in. to be
awakened at nine a.m. by my natives, when I found
the usual morning gale blowing out of the bay, the
tide rapidly rising, and the white-capped waves rush-
ing directly in upon our shore. Retreat by hauling
the boat farther up was impossible, as steep gravel
Boat Voyage
235
banks rose directly from high-water mark to a height
of thirty to forty feet.
The best we could do was to force the bow of the
boat into this bank at high-water mark. Then every-
one worked with a will to carry the cargo up the
bank, load the stern of the boat down with half a ton
or more of stones, and carry out spring lines each way
to bi"" boulders to hold her immovable.
BOAT CAMP IN OLRIKS BAY.
These preparations were scarcely completed and
the waves breaking heavily against the boat, when
the wind ceased, the waves subsided as if by magic,
and quickly reloading we pushed off and pulled up
the bay on the tail of the flood-tide, to a sheltered rock
cove under Mt. Gyrfalco, close by the upper narrows.
236 Northward over the "Great Ice"
As soon as the boat was hauled up and secured I
gave four of my Eskimos a ritie each, and started them
away after deer. Ah that night, the next day, and the
next night it snowed silently and steadily, obliterating
the last trace of summer.
My forced inaction here showed me for the first time
how weary I was in mind and body, and I did not find
it amiss to while away the time in full measure of
sleep, alternating with strolls up the valley. Henson
did a little scouting and killed three hare and a fox.
A big snowy owl also floated for a moment near the
camp like a huge snowflake.
In the early morning of the third day it was calm
and apparently trying to clear. The clouds and fall-
ing snow gave way to a sky of hammered steel, then
the demon of the " Great Ice " descended from his
lair in another anoalitaksoah. A mighty cataract of
drifting snow, its surface glistening like liquid silver,
its depths blue-black as a thunder-cloud, came pouring
with the roar of a hundred Niagaras over the crests
of the southern cliffs into the bay, and mingled with
the sheets of hissing spray torn from the tortured
water.
The narrows became a cave of the winds, through
which the shriekino" STusts hurtled in solid walls, and
the entire bay, from sea to mountain summit, became
a deafeninof, blindintr Arctic Inferno.
Our little cove was the only sheltered spot in the en-
tire bay,and even here it was impossible to stand against
the climax of the eusts. So imminent was the danger
of the boat being picked up bodily and smashed
against the rocks, that, with the assistance of Matt and
Kahdahsu, I piled rocks in her stern, passed the
grapnel rope across the bow, and weighted it down on
each side with stones, and then ran out spring lines
each way from the stern to big boulders. My hunters
Boat Voyage 237
had not come back yet, and as it was now fifty hours
since they went out, I felt sure they had found deer.
Matt started up the valley in hopes of meeting them,
but soon came back saying that in exposed places the
wind was picking up the gravel and small stones and
hurling them with such force that he could not stand
it. About noon I worked my way, between the squalls,
up to a completely protected spot under the cliffs.
Here, seated in a niche in hoary lichen-covered rocks,
with the cold wind whistling past me, wild clouds
SALMON-RIVER GLACIER.
Olriks Bay.
scurrying overhead, and the huge ribs of mother earth,
gaunt with the cold and starvation of centuries, pro-
truding in every direction, I was besieged by a host of
unpleasant fancies, from which the necessity of caring
for the boat finally rescued me. As the tide rose,
and the waves, rolling into the cove, began to lift the
boat. Matt and myself took turns in fending her oft*
from the rocks with the sail-sprit. At last the anoah-
238 Northward over the " Great ice "
taksoah ^ subsided and we thoroughly enjoyed a
supper of broiled hare.
During the night, the ice of the bay above the nar-
rows, shattered by the fierce blows of the anoahtak-
MT. GYRFALCO.
soak, began drifting out through the narrows and
past our camp.
' The vicious but fortunately short-lived fury of the "Great Winds" of
Northern Greenland is astonishing. A sudden local tilting of the atmospheric
balance, perhaps its own accumulated weight, starts a section of the cold heavy
air of the interior ice-cap towards the nearest point of the coast. Gravity con-
stantly accelerates its motion as it moves down the incline of the ice-ca]). till at
last it plunges a roaring snow-laden torrent down the steep landward slopes of
the ice, and falling into the deep bays or fjords is compressed between their
precipitous and frequently converging cliffs, and goes screaming and hissing to
the open sea, a huge air-jet under a pressure capable of moving all but the
heaviest objects, and comparable in its effects to the destructive water-jet from
the monitors of Western hydraulic mining.
Boat Voyage
'■39
This made me very anxious to get away and down
the bay ahead of it, but I could not leave till my
hunters came in. At three a.m., Ingeropahdu and
Akpalisoaho came in with three skins and two saddles
of venison. The former had shot one deer, the latter
two.
"THE NARROWS BECAME A CAVE OF THE WINDS."
They said they had been all the way across to Kan-
gerdlooksoah, and saw many deer. Matt and my-
self turned out to have breakfast with them, and after
this I shot a falcon, and Matt went up the valley again
and got two more hare and a white fox.
Nooktah and Kardah kept me waiting till nine a.m.,
when they came in with three skins and three saddles,
all obtained by Nooktah.
240 Northward over the "Great Ice"
As soon as they arrived we hurried off to get ahead
of the ice. Their tardy arrival lost us the ebb-tide,
and compelled us to start with wind and tide against
us.
While passing down the bay we saw four oogsook
{phoca barbata) on the ice, but failed to secure any.
While passing through the outer narrows I shot a
hare on the north point, thus adding one day's meat
supply to our larder.
It is a novel and by no means unpleasant sensa-
tion, this of feeling that the crack of your rifle or
shotgun has added a meal, or a day's or even (in
the case of a deer) a week's rations to your meat
supply.
The delta point midway of the outer bay was
reached about midnight, and in the shelter of this
point I threw the grapnel out in shoal water and a
sandy bottom, and we got a few hours' sleep while
waiting for the tide to turn in our favour.
Here, while lying stretched out in the open boat, I
saw at midnight the first star of the season.
With the beginning of the ebb-tide, we left our
moorings. The wind was against us, but we reached
Ittibloo in five or six hours, and got ourselves a hot
breakfast. Ootooniah, during our absence, had been
somewhere on the south side of the bay, and obtained
three deer. Their skins, with one saddle of venison,
I purchased. While we were here, there was a heavy
surf rolling in from the northward, and apparently in-
creasing somewhat. There was no wind to speak of,
yet my huskies seemed rather nervous about starting.
However, we got away, and reached Kanga without
trouble in the early afternoon. Here we remained
four hours for sleep and the turning of the tide.
Kahdahsu's kayak, left on our wa}^ up the bay, had
been swept away, only the harpoon line, tangled in
Boat Voyage
241
the rocks, remaining ; and the entire aspect of the
beach had been changed by the furious waves which
had in places eaten into the mountain slope itself.
When the flood-tide began to run, we pushed off,
and, hugging the shore to avoid the fresh head-wind
as much as possible, crept slowly along to Narksami,
and then to Tigerahomi, where we arrived at mid-
night
The kooks (rivers) at both these places had water
running under the ice, but small streams had been
GREAT LAKE IN THE DEER PASTURES.
frozen now for several days. I had hoped to find the
wind at Tigerahomi blowing directly out of the gulf,
so that we could stand across for the entrance to Bow-
doin Bay ; but, instead, it was blowing fresh from the
Castle Cliffs, directly against us, so that if we started
across we could at best only make the Sculptured-
Cliffs Glacier, and then have to pull up to the mouth
of the bay.
Hauline the boat hiorh upon the lee side of the
Tigerahomi delta, and making her secure agamst the
242 Northward over the "Great Ice"
event of another blow, which the lowering aspect of
the clouds indicated as possible, we turned in. Ever
since leaving Kanga the clouds had been heavy over-
head, and dark and low and savage above the black
distances of Whale and Murchison Sounds ; yet, while
rounding the convexity of the shore between Kanga
and Narksami, where we could look well up the gulf,
I could see the sun shining brightly on the distant ice-
cap beyond Josephine Peary Island.
I woke at nine, to find the wind less strongr, and
veered some to the eastward. After breakfast we got
away, and pulled up to Tigerahomi Point, where we
set sail and stood across to Bowdoin Bay. Just as
we were pushing off, a school of narwhal passed us,
and it was an interesting sight to see them dashing
to windward, their long white horns flashing out of
the water in regular cadence, and the waves dashing
in jets of spray from their bluff foreheads. There
were at least six magnificent horns in the school.
We were on a line with the Castle Cliffs at two p.m.,
when we encountered ice.
The new ice was now rapidly forming in every
place where the water was not constantly agitated by
the wind, and cementingf the fraements of the last
winter's ice firmly together.
The entire bay was a chaos of trash ice, icebergs,
and large fields of last winter's ice, cemented by this
heavy young ice ; an utter contrast to the condition
of the bay last year at this time. There was practi-
cally no water at all, and it was only after six hours
of the most arduous efforts that I got my boat to a
point just above the East Glacier, and within five
miles of the lodo-e.
Here the boat was hauled up and secured, our
meat cached, and we walked the remainder of the
distance to the lodge, the Eskimos carrying the deer-
1
Boat Voyage 243
skins. I went on ahead, and as I came over East- Har-
bour Point I saw the blue smoke curHng up from the
lodo-e and o-ot a whiff of the bituminous-coal flavour.
This assured me that all was well there. It was a
cheerful sight to see this evidence of home in this
wild, wintry land. And yet a wave of utter loneli-
ness swept over me as I thought of the aching void
there ; the absent brown eyes and baby blue eyes.
BERGS AND TRASH ICE.
I reached the lods^e at ten p.ai. and found Lee writ-
ine by the liorht of a bit of candle.
He looked badly and told me he had not been feel-
ing well since the ship left, and that the previous
Saturday he was confined to his bed. He thought it
malaria, but after talking with him awhile, I found
it to be a pronounced case of nostalgia. Poor boy,
he had been very homesick and lonesome, had eaten
but little, and that irregularly, and was all out of
sorts.
244 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Matt and the Eskimos came in an hour later, and
after a hearty meal, with ample coffee and biscuits for
my faithful crew, everyone turned in.
Thus ended this boat journey of over two hundred
miles at the end of the Arctic summer. A journey
entirely free from hardships, and with but a single
critical episode, the passage of the mouth of Olriks
Bay. Yet other boat journeys along the same coast,
at the same season of the year, have been fraught with
appalling hardships and dangers.
And the reason for this difference ? I think it can
be summed up in the words Jitiiess and experience.
My boat was fit, my clothing and equipment were
fit, the party was fit, both on the thwarts and in the
stern-sheets, and I was thoroughly acquainted with
my boat, my men, the coast, and the sea and shore
craft of the region.
CHAPTER III.
THE WALRUS HUNT.
A Season of Abundant Ick — From the Lodge to Karnah — An Arctic
Fleet — Stormy Weather — The Walrus Grounds — Ready for Busi-
ness— Harpooning a Big Bull — Attack of the Herd — Victory at
LAsr — Eskimo Butchery — A Narrow Escape — More Captures — Ath-
letic Sports — Young Ice— Back to Karnah — Welcome to " Angesok."
WALRUS HEAD.
CHAPTER III.
THE WALRUS HUNT.
T
HOUGH back to
the lodge in safety,
after an arduous
trip, there was no time for
rest or dallying. The ac-
cumulation of my winter's
supply of meat — reindeer,
and Arctic hare for our-
selves, and walrus meat
for my dogs — called for
the exercise of all our en-
ergies. My faithful Eski-
mos were ready to start off again at once, if only they
mieht first be allowed to visit their families at Kar-
nah, and let them know that they had returned safely
from stormy " Imnaminomen" (Cape York).
Last year at this time there were only occasional
fragments of heavy ice floating in the dark wind-swept
waters of Bowdoin Bay. Now from the face of the
Bowdoin Glacier, well down beyond South Point and
East Glacier, the bay was a compact mass of heavy,
last winter's ice, and beyond that a zone of scattered
pans, cemented together by young ice, which was
hourly increasing in thickness. Not a moment was to
be lost if the whale-boat was to be taken out of the
247
248 Northward over the "Great Ice"
bay. In twenty hours after our arrival, my dusky
crew was off, in charge of Matt, for the deer pastures
of Kangerdlooksoah, leaving Lee, Nooktah and my-
self at the lodge. A week later. Matt returned with
six deer and several hare. Then for the walrus hunt.
A KARNAH TUPIK.
Typical Summer Tent.
The day after Matt returned was Sunday. The
following morning, Monday, the i 7th, I left the lodge
with Lee and seven Eskimos — Kardahsu, Panikpah,
Elingwah, lokudi, the boys Pooadloonah and Sipsu,
and lokudi's wife Tookoomingwah — in the General
Wistar for Karnah en ronte to the walrus grounds.
The morning was dark and threatening, but the wind
of Sunday having pushed the ice away from the east
The Walrus Hunt 249
shore of the bay, presented an opportunity which
could not be lost. As we started, the ice borne
upon the flood-tide was already swinging back against
the shore, and it was only by dint of hardest pull-
ing, that we kept ahead of it and got into clear
water beyond East-Glacier Cove. From here we
had open water and a stern breeze across the bay
and along the Sculptured Cliffs to Karnah, where
we arrived in the afternoon, and the natives turned
out en masse to haul my boat up out of reach of
DISMANTLING A TUPIK.
waves and ice. The wind had been steadily increas-
ing for some time before my arrival, then it began
snowing, and as I climbed the bank to the tupiks,
the eye could penetrate but a few yards through the
driving flakes, into the roaring wilderness of white-
capped waves, tossing ice-pans, and detonating bergs.
I made arranofements for Lee to be domiciled in the
tupik of round-faced, smiling Akpudisoahho, while
I occupied that of Kardah, my last winter's host at
Ooloosheen.
250 Northward over the "Great Ice
A stormy night, with furious snow-laden squalls
rushing out of the gulf, was followed by a day so
dark and windy that it was useless to start for the
walrus grounds, as none of the animals would be out
on the ice, and I devoted the day to a study of the
village. Another stormy night and then the weather
moderated so that I could get away. Assembling all
the able-bodied boys and men of the village, with
MY PICKED CREW.
both my whale-boats and five kayaks, I pushed off
from the ice-fringed shore. In the General Wistar
were Lee, myself, and five picked Eskimos, while the
Mary Peary was manned by eight Eskimos.
Such an imposing fiotilla had never before sailed
from an Eskimo village in these high northern regions,
and it marked an enormous forward stride in develop-
ment. Hitherto the native hunting had of necessity
been confined to single-handed efforts, each man for
The Walrus Hunt 251
himself, or at most two comrades working together.
Now my whale-boats offered facilities for an entire
settlement to combine forces for a common object.
It was a dirty afternoon, vicious snow-squalls chas-
ing each other in rapid succession out of the gulf and
down the Sound, giving only occasional glimpses of
the sharp ridge of Bastion Point, the eastern end of
Herbert Island. About two miles and a half east of
Cape Cleveland, the bluffs end against the regular
convex of a boulder delta, formed" by an ice-cap tor-
ONE OF MY KAYAKERS.
rent, which for a month or two in early summer roars
down a deep ravine with a burden of stones and
gravel. Just in the angle where bluffs and delta meet,
there are a few paces of sandy beach across which
a boat may be drawn up until her stem is against
the base of the bluff, and she is sheltered from the
drifting ice, the rabid waves, and the furious east
winds by the breakwater of the delta. Niches in the
rock offer facilities for fires, and from a perch well
up the bluffs the eye commands the entire Sound
252 Northward over the "Great Ice"
eastward till it merges into Inglefield Gulf, westward
until it is lost in the expanse of Smith Sound, and
southward to the shore of Herbert Island. With the
aid of a good glass, a walrus or an oogsook can be picked
out upon the floating ice anywhere within those limits.
I had camped in this very spot in September three
years before, after my memorable first encounter with
the walrus, and here, late at night, I now directed the
course of my fleet. It was long after dark when we
beached the whale-boats and kayaks, and dragged
them up above high-water mark. A supper of veni-
son, hardtack, and cocoa took the edge off the day's
EASTERN END OF HERBERT ISLAND.
Bastion Point.
work, and everyone had crawled in under the tar-
paulins and sails thrown over the boats, as falling
snow aided the darkness to obliterate the desolate
world.
The next morning we were up and had eaten our
breakfast long before the late morning light was suf-
ficient to enable us to start. Everything except oars,
rifles, harpoons, and lines, was left at the camp. The
Eskimos were too slow and cautious with the walrus
The Walrus Hunt 253
to suit me, and I had made up my mind to handle a
harpoon myself, and arranged my boat accordingly,
with, I must confess, some degree of confidence, as I
had already tried my skill at throwing the harpoon
with the natives, and found that I had nothing to be
ashamed of, either as regards range or accuracy.'
Lee held the tiller, five of the best Eskimos manned
the oars, and I took my stand in the space forward
of the bow oar.
Lee had beside him, in the stern, another repeater
carrying the same cartridge. Both boats and the
three kayaks left camp at the same time, but soon
separated, my boat going in one direction, accompa-
nied by one kayaker, and the other boat and two
kayaks taking another.
It was another dirty morning, with the snow-squalls
still chasing each other through the Sound, and the
air tremulous with a low continuous roar, as of distant
surf, above which from time to time rose the crash
and thunder of capsizing and disrupting icebergs.
The settino- of the scene was savas^e in the extreme.
The barren, snow-covered shores, the dead-white,
ghastly ice-floes, and spectral bergs, driven here and
there by winds and currents, and the black water
swirling between, were rendered tenfold more dismal
and desolate by the sombre twilight of the Arctic
autumn.
^ On the small, iriangular decking at the bow was coiled my long, stout wal-
rus line, one end fastened to the boat-ring, the other, with its steel-edged ivory
barb, attached to the harpoon shaft, which lay across the gunwales against tv\o
small pins. Five or six coils of the line were detached fr^m the rest and lay
a little apart, so that they could be eas^ily grasped and held in my left hand at
the instant of launching the harpoon. On the deck, also, were a score of loose
rifle cartridges and my three-barrelled gun, reduced now, since its last accident,
to a length of eighteen inches, a regular Mafia weapon, in fact. Just behind
me, and leaning against the starboard gunwale, was my Winchester repeater.
It and the three-barrel both carried the powerful 45-90-300 cartridge. I ex-
pected to do most of my killing with the three-barrel, but the repeater was in
readiness to repel the attack of a herd.
254 Northward over the "Great Ice"
We soon sighted a herd of some fifty of the animals
upon a cake of ice, but the day was too raw and cold
for them to sleep comfortably, and they were restless,
constantly fighting among themselves.
We pulled noiselessly towards them behind the
screen of a small berg, till concealment was no longer
possible ; then with a low " Shake her up, inimk-
sue,'' from me, the boat swerved out past it, and with
all the speed of five iron backs and powerful pairs of
arms, dashed at the quarrelling monsters. For an
instant they were too startled to move ; then the huge
half-frightened, half-enraged brutes plunged bellowing
for the water.
A HERD OF WALRUS.
But I was already within range, and springing to
my full height, with a motion that called every mus-
cle from scalp to toes into play, I hurled my harpoon
at the nearest, a big bull that had plunged directly at
the boat. The heavy shaft with its trailing line flew
through the air, and caught the huge fellow fair in the
shoulder, the iron-edged head pierced the tough hide,
the shaft diseno-aeed itself and floated loose, and, with
a roar, the animal disappeared in a vortex of blood-
stained foam and water.
Rapidly I tossed the remaining coils of line over-
The Walrus Hunt 255
board. The boat's headway had now carried her close
to the ice, and she was dancing like a cork in the
waves made by the plunging- animals. The next in-
stant the ponderous brute, with the momentum of a
hundred feet of pain, rage, and fright-inspired motion,
set the line taut, and changed it from a sinuous, flexi-
ble thono^ to a vibrant rod of steel sineine like a
deep eolian, with a fierce note that sent every drop
of blood leaping through my distended veins, and set
every nerve and fibre in my body quivering with sup-
pressed excitement.
FAST TO A WALRUS.
The boat reeled, quivered, whirled as on a pivot,
her bow crashed into the ice with a shock which sent
my excited Eskimo crew sprawling on their backs be-
tween the thwarts, then slid off, and the next moment
we were tearing through the water, with the foam
spurting from our bows, and the water boiling under
our stern.
For the first few yards, only the head of the animal,
to which we were fast, was visible ; then, with a rush
and a splash, the herd rose like one animal close to
and all about the boat. What savage-looking brutes
256 Northward over the "Great Ice"
they were ! Their great heads armed with gleaming
white tusks, their small, deep-set, bloodshot eyes, and
their thick, bristle-studded lips, opening to give vent to
the most vicious roars.
A well-directed volley from the two Winchesters at
the most pugnacious of the animals, Lee taking one
side of the boat and i the other, sent the herd under
again, and enabled me to cast a rapid glance about
me, to see that everything was all right, and that we
were not in danger of being smashed against any of
the ragged cakes of ice which lay in our swift course.
The respite was only for a moment, but it gave us
the opportunity to replenish the magazines of our
rifles, and when the herd again, with a simultaneous
rush that threw their bodies half out of the water,
rose roarine amono- the oar blades, the flash of the
rifles in their very faces, and the bullets crashing
against their massive heads, sent them under a^ain.
Several times after this they returned to the attack,
but even their iron skulls and savage pertinacity were
no match for the almost continuous fire of our Win-
chesters, and at last, with three or four of their num-
ber dead, and several others leaving crimson trails
behind them, the herd left the boat, and grathered
about the one to which we were fast.
Then, as opportunity offered, when the captive ani-
mal rose to the surface aeain, a sinsfle bullet from
my three-barrel penetrated the base of his skull.
There was an interrupted bellow as his head sank
into the water, a few big bubbles rose to the surface,
and then the dead weight of two tons settled slowly
upon the line, until it hung straight down from the
bow of the boat, while the remainder of the herd
dashed, roaring and bellowing, away among the ice-
bergs. The struggle was at an end.
Then the dead animal was towed to the nearest
The Walrus Hunt
257
suitable cake of ice, a flat pan some fifty feet across,
when everyone landed ; the lines were transferred to
the ice, the walrus pulled up till its head was out of
water, and then, with the deftness born of long ex-
perience, my Eskimos cut holes in the surface of the
ice-cake, a couple of slits in the thick hide of the wal-
rus, rove an impromptu
tackle and fall from the
lines, and then all hands
swaying on the line, and
lauehinor and shoutino^
like fur-clad demons,
gradually warped the
lifeless mass of the dead
" elephant of the north"
out upon the surface of
the ice. As the hind
flippers came fairly on
the ice, the Eskimos
dropped the lines, seized
their knives, and swarm-
ing upon the carcass, in
an extremely short time
had it dismembered and
piled in pieces suitable
for passing into the boat,
each piece having a han-
dle made with a slash of the knife through the edge of
the toueh skin. None too soon was the work accom-
plished.
Absorbed in watching the dismemberment of the
huge animal, I paid no attention to our surroundings.
Now looking up, I saw that, while our ice-raft was
rapidly drifting out of the Sound before the wind, a
oriant bere, with its massive pale-o^reen base a hun-
dred fathoms or more down in the swift grasp 01 the
WARPING A WALRUS UPON AN
ICE-PAN.
258 Northward over the "Great Ice"
flood-tide, was rushingr resistlessly in the opposite di-
rection, and bearing directly down upon us.
Already it seemed to tower over us. A collision
was inevitable. I raised a quick alarm.
Again a series of frantic demonstrations from my
Eskimo comrades, as they literally fell over them-
selves in their efforts to get the meat thrown into
the boat. Scarcely had we pushed off and gained a
hundred feet from our blood-stained raft, when the
OUR ICE-RAFT.
great berg, like an ocean liner rushing upon a pilot-
boat, crashed into it and shattered it into a dozen
■crimson fragments.
Next in the midst of a nest of bergs near Herbert
Island we found four together upon a cake of ice
that was completely hidden by their great bodies.
There was considerable trash ice about, which bothered
us in approaching them. I succeeded, however, in
The Walrus Hunt
259
getting within range, and Kardahsu and myself
both drove harpoons at the largest, a grizzly yet tusk-
less monster that came straight at the boat as he
plunged from the ice. Kardahsu's harpoon failed,
and, for an instant, I was uncertain as to my own,
which followed the animal into a whirlpool of foam.
The next instant the hissing line told me that my
aim had been true. This animal was a powerful
one, but the quantity of ice close about us gave it
A GREAT BERG LIKE AN OCEAN LINER."
that its
harpoon
no chance to tow us. Kardahsu, fearing
struggles might break my line, seized his
and line, leaped nimbly out upon the ice, ran to the
place where his unerring instinct told him the ani-
mal would appear, and, as its head emerged from the
water, drove his harpoon into its neck. Then taking
a quick turn about a projecting piece of ice, the great
brute was securely anchored, and despatched with
26o Northward over the " Great Ice "
the lance. When, at last, the huge carcass hung limp
and inert upon the lines, crimsoning the ice and water
for yards around, we lost no time in hauling it on to
the ice and cutting it up, as our position was anything
but agreeable,
rapid motions
ous disinteera-
bergs by which
rounded. This
to be extremely
the oldest, the
they had ever
entirely h a i r-
was grey, corru-
scaly, and both
broken off close
jaw-bone. The
getting fresher
ment, the errat-
and ominous
the bergs by
were surrounded were increasing, the debdcles were
becoming more and more frequent, and I hastened
to get out of the dangerous neighbourhood. It
was too dark now for further hunting, and we pulled
PUTTING THE STONE.'
owing to the
and continu-
tion of the
we were sur-
brute proved
old and large,
natives said,
seen. It was
less, the skin
gate d, and
its tusks were
down to the
wind was
every m o-
ic movement
cracking of
which we
The Walrus Flunt
261
away across the Sound to camp, with my boat loaded
to the gunwale with the rich, dark meat and oily
blubber which was to support my dogs through the
winter.
During several stormy, disagreeable days the hunt
was continued with varied success and adventures.
Sipsu fastened one animal by the merest " fluke," his
harpoon piercing the web of the hind flipper within
two inches of its edge ; Akpudisoahho secured a
MY WALRUS FLEET.
big bull by a magnificent long, left-handed throw ;
a cow and calf were obtained on a bit of ice directly
under the overhanging cliffs of a gigantic berg ; and
once I sent the kayakers in advance to harpoon one
of the animals, and give me an opportunity to observe
their tactics. The two boats followed slowly in their
rear. Paddling noiselessly and keeping as much as
possible behind cakes of ice, the kayakers approached
the huge game until Ingeropadoo saw an opportunity
to flank the ice on which the animals rested, and,
262 Northward over the "Great Ice"
hidden from them by its inequahties, dimbed out of
his kayak upon it. Seeing this, the other men im-
mediately climbed out upon other cakes of ice, and
pulled their kayaks after them for safety. Carefully
adjusting harpoon, line, float, and drag, Ingeropadoo
began crawling across the ice with harpoon ready in
his right hand, the coiled line in his left, and the
float and drag^ trailinof behind him. The boats still
kept creeping nearer.
Two or three bulls in the herd were uneasy, and
kept lifting their ponderous heads, looking about and
bellowing. This uneasiness on their part led Inger-
opadoo to make his final rush for them too soon, and
before he could get within certain harpoon range, the
herd was in the water.
When it was too stormy for the boats to go out I
whiled away the time with a series of athletic games
among the natives on the strip of level beach. There
were running and standing high and long jumps, throw-
ing the harpoon, putting the stone, lifting, etc., and the
eagerly sought prize for each event was a biscuit.
But at last there came a clear, calm, bitter night,
and the next morningf the surface of the little bieht
beside the delta was glazed and motionless, and on
the beach behind the receding tide a vitreous film, the
certain and immediate precursor of the formation of
permanent young ice throughout the Sound. It was
evident our departure could not be longer delayed if I
wished to get my meat near the lodge by boat. I
kept one of the Eskimos up the bluffs with the binoc-
ulars all the forenoon looking for walrus, but, though
he commanded the entire width of the Sound and
up and down for twelve or fifteen miles each
way, he failed to discover a single animal. Reluc-
tantly at last I gave the word to launch and load the
boats, and we left for Karnah with gunwales scarcely
The Walrus Hunt
263
out of water, and after breaking our way through
several miles of young ice, reached the settlement at
dark.
As soon as we were within ear-shot of the place,
one of my crew shouted at the top of his voice,
"" Angesok ahwikstte shadago "(" The' big one ' has killed
many walrus"), and at the call all the women and
WELCOME BACK TO KARNAH.
children and old men of the village rushed down to
the beach to greet me and receive into full fellowship
one who was now the peer of any hunter in the tribe,
— one who in true Innuit fashion, with harpoon and
line, had met and conquered their most formidable
game, the great aliwik (walrus).
CHAPTER IV.
TRANSPORTING MEAT TO THE LODGE.
Fall Moving of the Eskimos — Winter Habitations — A Temporary
Fright — Under the Karnah Cliffs — Discomforts of Fall Navigation
— An Arctic " Return from the Hunt" — A Perilous Jam — Just in the
Nick of Time — Satisfaction — Cutting up the Meat — A Walrus Inferno
— Walrus Meat.
IN FULL "WINTER RIG.
I
CHAPTER IV.
TRANSPORTING MEAT TO THE LODGE.
A
LL night again, as
during our pre-
vious stay at
Karnah, the wind blew
violently out of the gulf,
as if it were a veritable
cave of the winds, and the
tardy grey morning light
showed the black waters
of the Sound, beyond the
line of grounded bergs
which marks the edge of
Karnah shoals, covered with racing whitecaps. It
was no weather for my heavily loaded boats to face,
and I utilised the day in making sketches and meas-
urements of the igloos, and obtaining various inform-
ation from the people. Karnah was evidently going
to be a populous place during the winter. The pop-
ulation numbered sixty-one, of whom nineteen were
men and young men, fifteen women and young
women, and twenty-seven children ; the proportion
of the sexes being thirty-four males to twenty-seven
females.
The village was still in summer garb, that is, the
inhabitants, with the exception of one family, were
267
268 Northward over the "Great Ice"
still living in tupiks, of which there were ten ; but the
construction of winter residences was well under way.
The five old igloos here, only two of which were
occupied last winter, were all being repaired and re-
built, and five new ones were nearly completed. All
the roof and bed
platform stones,
which must be
large, flat, and
thin, as well as
many of those for
the walls, had to
be brought by
the men on their
backs from the
mountains, some-
times a distance
of several miles.
The construction
of the igloos falls
very largely upon
the women, and
in an emergency
they even assist in
bringing stones.
These ig-loos
vary in size, from
nine to fourteen
feet in lenofth in-
side, and occasion-
ally two, more
rarely three, are
built close together, the party wall doing double
duty and thus economising material and labour.
In plan and method of construction, each igloo is built
like all the others. There is a lon^, low, narrow stone
THE MISTRESS OF THE TUPIK.
Transporting Meat to the Lodge 269
tunnel of an entrance ; a small standing room ; a shal-
low platformed alcove on either side for meat and the
stone lamps ; and a large platformed alcove in the
rear, — the family bed. A single small window of seal
intestines over the entrance admits a little light.
The construction of ofie of these primitive habita-
tions, half excavated beneath, half built above the
surface, would seem at first glance to demand nothing
WOMEN BUILDING IGLOOS.
beyond a considerable outlay of manual labour in
transporting and arranging the stones. Yet the span-
ning of a space twelve by fourteen feet in such a way
as to support a heavy load of stones, turf, and snow,
is not an entirely simple problem in a country where
there is literally not a splinter of wood or anything
that can serve as a substitute for it. Yet these
children of the ice have met and solved this problem
PLAN
CKOSS SE.CXIOINJ OfM A S
Pj-AN IrSeCTlON OFSTONE. lai.OO
K ARM AH Se.pt. 19 94- R.E.R
Transporting Meat to the Lodge 271
with the cantilever principle, and the roofs of these
old stone houses are everyone supported with massive
stone cantilevers, firm and unyielding as a masonry
arch. In the plan and arrangement of his house,
too, the Eskimo has met and solved each problem
that confronted him, and though the entrance is never
closed, yet no draught or current of air disturbs the
quiet interior, the thick non-conducting walls of stone
J
IGLOO UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
Rafter Stones on the Right.
and turf are perfect insulators from the savage cold,
and the heat from every drop of the precious oil
burned in the stone lamps is fully conserved. Many
of these igloos have every appearance of being cent-
uries old. Vertebrae of the now extinct whale are
almost invariably built into their walls, and frequently
such enormous stones are used in supporting the roofs,
that it seems impossible they could have been handled
without mechanical appliances.
272 Northward over the ** Great Ice"
These stone dwellings are occupied from the latter
part of September till April or May, depending upon
the season, locality, and movements of the occupants.
By May they become very damp, and then the family
betakes itself to its tupik, removing, at its departure
WINTER IGLOO.
Entrance and Window not Completed.
from the igloo, the window and a portion of the roof,
so that throughout the summer the sun and wind may
have free access to the interior. There is no owner-
ship of these igloos beyond the period of actual occu-
pancy. Any one of them is free to each and all, and
Transporting Meat to the Lodge 273
it is the exception rather than the rule that a family
lives in the same igloo, or in fact in the same place,
two years in succession. It is, this year, say, at
Etah, the next at Cape York, the next at Ittibloo,
and so on. The building of a new igloo is rather a
rarity also, and is necessary only when, for some special
reason, as this year at Karnah, an unusually large
number of natives are attracted to one place. Usu-
ally no more families locate in a place than the exist-
ing igloos will shelter.
As the day was darkening into twilight, and Lee
and Panikpah were cooking supper over a blubber
fire built against the side of a bio: boulder, I saw two
stranee figures comino^ alono- the distant westward
shore, and my exclamation of surprise being caught
by the natives nearest me, in a moment the entire
village was in a state of excitement. Who could it
be coming from that direction, where there were no
settlements except beyond McCormick and Robert-
son Bays ? Advancing with some of the men to meet
the strangers, I recognised at a distance the peculiar
cut of a Cumberland-Gulf deerskin coat which I had
given to Nooktah, and at once the thought flashed
through my mind that the lodge had caught fire and
been destroyed, or that Matt had met with some seri-
ous accident, and faithful Nooktah and old Ahtung-
ahnah, as I now identified the second comical figure
(dressed in a nondescript rig composed partly of her
own last year's fur, much the worse for wear, and
partly in cast-off garments given her by members of
my party), had come overland by the well-known route
through Tooktoo Valley and down McCormick Bay
to bring me the news. It took me but a few moments
after this to get within speaking distance and make
the hurried inquiries which happily set my mind at
rest. They had left the lodge to hunt deer in Took-
2 74 Northward over the "Great Ice"
too Valley, and not finding any, and with mouths
watering for a feast of fresh walrus meat, had tramped
for two days and nights along the roundabout trail to
the village. In the evening I went to a large, unoc-
cupied igloo, which was utilised by the young people
DRESSED IN A NONDESCRIPT RIG."
of the settlement as a sort of playroom. Here I found
assembled all the children of the village, engaged in
various games and larking just like so many country
children at home. Though at first somewhat awed
and stilled by my entrance, they soon recovered and
went on with their sport.
Transporting Meat to the Lodge 275
The following morning I got under way in the face
of a fresh head-wind, but, by keeping close to the
shore under the shelter of the Sculptured Cliffs, came
along very comfortably as far as the entrance to Bow-
doin Bay. Here I stopped for a few moments for
Akpudisoahho to land and bring down three fine
narwhal horns which he had cached here. In cross-
ing the bay to the east side, we encountered young
ice, much of which was so firm that we found it im-
possible to break a channel for the boat in the usual
manner, with feet and boat-hooks. Working round
these heavy areas entailed much loss of work and time,
and it was dark when we came to the end of naviga-
tion, where a narrow shore lead ceased half-way be-
tween the Castle Cliffs and East Glacier. The steep
talus slope at this place afforded absolutely no foot-
hold, and we were obliged to effect a landing upon a
still remaining fragment of last year's ice-foot. Here
we made tea and supped on a few biscuit, then, as
our landing-place afforded no facilities for lying down,
we half sat, half reclined against the angular frag-
ments of the talus, wherever our bodies could be made
to adapt themselves to their irregularities. It was
much like a night on a sleeperless " owl " train with the
steam-pipes frozen. Yet, in spite of these little draw-
backs and the fact that it was snowing merrily, the
night was by no means the most uncomfortable that
I have experienced. As soon as it was light enough
to see, the load of the Mary Peary was thrown upon
the ice-foot, so that her crew might hurry back in her
to Karnah before they were beset by the young ice.
With the change of the tide, a very narrow shore lead
began to open, into which the General Wistar was
put. As we worked our way along this lead, it slowly
widened under the influence of wind and tide, so that
we passed the East-Glacier Cove without difficulty,
276 Northward over the "Great Ice"
and on up the shore a mile beyond. Here a sudden
motion of the ice crushed m^y boat against the ice-foot
until her ribs cracked, her seams began to open, and
my Eskimos tumbled precipitately ashore. After a
few moments of suspense the pressure relaxed, and
we extricated the boat from her dangerous position.
Then she was towed like a canal-boat, by the men
climbing along the shore, as far as the Middle-River
THK "MARY PEARY" AND HER CREW.
Delta. Looking backward and down upon them, the
men and the boat made a picturesque Arctic " Return
from the Hunt." The boat, with its heaped-up load
of vivid crimson meat, floating in the narrow ribbon
of black water close to the shore, was the only bit of
colour in the wide expanse of grey cliffs, dead-white
ice, and lead-coloured sky. Tossed about on top of
the load were the walrus heads with their powerful
tusks, a blotch of white in the stern was a string of
Transporting Meat to the Lodge 277
Arctic hare, two or three purphsh-black spots indi-
cated the meat of an oogsook (bearded seal), while the
bow was graced, not by the branching antlers of a
great stag, but by three glittering, white, polished
ivory shafts, straight as arrows and sharp as lances,
UNDER THE SCULPTURED CLIFFS.
the eight-feet-long tusks of the narwhal or fabled
unicorn.
From the Middle- River Delta I hurried on ahead
to the lodge, and sent Matt back to relieve Lee and
carry him something to eat. By dark, everyone had
reached the lodge. Soon after I left the boat the
278 Northward over the "Great Ice"
lead closed up entirely, and Lee cached the meat and
hauled the boat up out of danger. A clear, starlit
night, fresh with wind from a bank of black clouds in
the south, paled gradually into morning light, which
showed me from the windows, close to my couch, a
A GIANT BASTION.
narrow lead forming at East-Harbour Point, and by
the time we had hurriedly finished our coffee, the
increasing wind was fretting tiny whitecaps upon it.
This was evidently our opportunity to bring the
General VVistar and its load to the lodge, and
Lee, Matt, and the Eskimos hastened away down the
Transporting Meat to the Lodge 279
shore. A few hours later the Geiici'al, under full
sail, rounded the point at a racing pace, and was
worked up to within a few hundred yards of the
brook, whence the Eskimos backed the meat to
the lodge. Then, after dinner, everyone started off
to bring up the load of the Mary Peary, left below
the East Glacier, The attempt was frustrated, how-
ever, by the jamming of the ice upon the shore at the
Middle- River Delta, closing the lead completely.
For three days after this, a snow-laden south-easter
held full sway. We had reached the bay just in the
nick of time, for the storm was making wild work
along the lee shore of the savage Karnah cliffs.
Sunday morning the wind subsided and shifted in
direction, and the outward swing- of the ice began to
open the shore lead, which we were eagerly waiting
for. The General VVistar was again launched and,
with everyone working like beavers, forced to the
meat cache, loaded, and brought up to the rocks di-
rectly in front of the lodge, where the cargo was
removed, and she was then warped to the head of the
harbour and dragged well up the rocks to her winter
quarters. The season of navigation was closed.
The bringing of the meat to the lodge at this time
was the seizure of a golden opportunity. With the
turning of the tide the ice settled back again upon
the east shore, and at daylight the next morning
there was not a particle of open water between the
lodge and the East Glacier, and the shore lead never
opened again until the following summer.
It was with a feeling of satisfaction that I realised
the fact that all the results of the September hunting
were safely housed, the venison, birds, and hare
hanging frozen in long rows in the corridor, and the
walrus meat stacked in the large east room of the lodge.
This room presented a unique appearance : the great
28o Northward over the "Great Ice"
hams, fore shoulders, rib and flank and neck pieces,
piled high around the walls, till scarcely room was
left for the stove, a passageway, and a small working
place in the centre. Huge rubber-like flippers as
large as snow-shovels, narrow-
ing down to wrists like propel-
ler shafts, reached out of the
mass at the passer-by ; and from
the top of the pile glared the
splendid trophies of the hunt, —
the savaofe heads with the fire-
light glancing from the gleam-
ing ivory tusks, blotched with
the blood and froth of the death
struggle.
But now that the harvesting
was done, the husking of the
corn, the threshing of the grain,
was in order. The bio^ chunks
of meat, already frozen, would,
with the steadily increasing cold,
become more refractory than
stone, because equally as hard
and much tougher. In its pres-
ent shape, too, the meat was
entirely unavailable for sledge
work, because of the useless
weiofht of bones and skin.
No time could be more pro-
pitious than the present, with
my merry gang of Eskimos eager for the work, to
get it all in the most compact and effective shape.
The coal-bin in the corner of the room was filled to
overflowing with coal from the pile out on the rocks.
Then the stove was fired till it glowed like a gigantic
carbuncle, and meat heaped round it.
NARWHAL SKULL.
Transporting Meat to the Lodge 281
When this had thawed out, it was dragged into the
centre of the room, other pieces put in its place, and
then everyone feU to with sharpened knives, cutting
the rich dark meat and heat-o-ivinof blubber into small
pieces and pressing solidly into empty flour or biscuit
tins, for use on the ice-cap ; cutting the tough, almost
indestructible, yet nutritious skin into strips which
could be swallowed whole by a dog, for use during
the winter at the lodge ; and putting the bones aside
for their own use.
LONG-TAILED DUCKS AND BLACK GUILLEMOT.
About six o'clock each day a pail of coffee and a
pan of biscuits would be taken in to the Eskimos by
Lee or Matt, a big iron pot would be placed half full
of water upon the stove, into which each one would
drop some special tidbit which he had laid aside dur-
ing the day ; then the pot filled up with juicy bones.
While this was getting hot, other bones would be
toasted before the fire, and the feast, interspersed
282 Northward over the "Great Ice"
with laughter and gossip, would continue until the
word " Sinnimeiiahdowah " (" I want to sleep ") from
me would quiet everyone, the matted heads would
find a resting-place against the nearest piece of wal-
rus, the black eyes would close, and silence reign un-
til stertorous snores set
the atmosphere vibrating.
Another time a walrus
head, one of their great
delicacies, would be the
piece de resistance of the
evening's feast. Placed
in the midst of the eager
group, one would carve
lumps from the thick gel-
atinous lips, another slice
the rich tongue, another
gouge an eye and, punct-
uring it with his knife,
suck it as we suck the
pulp from a grape-skin,
while another, with a deft-
ly shaped bit of board,
would extract the exquis-
ite omelette of the brain,
till finally the massive
skull would be left as bare
and white as if cleaned
by ants or shrimps.
At these times I doubt
if Dante or Dore could
have done justice to the scene : The air heavy with
the peculiar flabby-musky odour of the lifeless yet fresh
walrus blood and flesh ; the glowing stove, the sullen
red eye of the quintessence of all evil, filling the room
with bloodshot gloom, through which showed the
ARCTIC HARE.
Transporting Meat to the Lodge 283
blood-smeared faces, white teeth, and gHttering eyes
of the group of fur-clad demons quarrelling over the
massive skull ; while from the background, hideous
misshapen deformities of webbed hands reached out
for them ; and from above, heavily mustached faces,
with white-fanged mouths, glared at them.
The completion of this work left me with nearly
two clear, solid tons of the richest, most substantial,
nutritious food for man and doo- that this region af-
A -WALRUS STEAK.
fords — the dark, firm meat and dense blubber of the
North-Atlantic walrus.
The accompanying sketch of a steak from the fore
shoulder of a walrus will give an idea of the relative
proportions of skin, blubber, and meat on these huge
inhabitants of Arctic waters.
The meat of the walrus ranks second to that of the
seal, as regards flavour and also as regards quantity
consumed ; though the reason for this latter is, that the
seal, being more numerous, and an inoffensive animal,
can be captured by young men and timid hunters,
while only the strongest and most fearless hunters
dare attack the walrus.
284 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Next to the meat of the bear, that of the wahus,
the natives insist, stays by them the longest when en-
gaged in arduous work ; and dogs well fed upon it
continue in prime condition under the hardest work
and in the severest temperatures.
CHAPTER V.
FALL ICE-CAP WORK.
Attempt to Rehabilitate my Caches — Lee and Matt Unsuccessful —
My own Attempt — A Six Days' Snow-Storm on the Ice-Cap Five
Thousand Feet above the Sea — Bitter Fancies — My Caches Irrevo-
cably Lost — A Stunning Blow — The Struggle to Get Back— The
Land Buried in Snow — Like a Shipwrecked Castaway — Makeshifts
Caused by the Catastrophe — Apprehensions.
CHAPTER V.
FALL ICE-CAP WORK.
T
H E next work on my
programme was the
rehabilitation of the
nearer of the caches of
provisions which I had
left on the Inland Ice the
previous spring and sum-
mer. Had it not been
imperative that I should
first assure my winter's
meat supply for both men
and dogs, I should have
searched for these caches immediately after my return
from the ship ; but there had been no alternative left
me. Now was the first opportunity.
The last day of September having seen all my
walrus meat safely housed, Lee, Henson, and Nook-
tah started the 2d of October, with sledge and twelve
dogs, to visit the caches as far as Camp Equinoctial,
dig them out, rearrange them upon the surface of the
snow, and re-erect such signals as might have been
blown down. The weather for the next few days was
clear and comparatively calm, and I was congratulat-
ing myself upon its favouring character, when late in
the fourth day the party returned without having
287
288 Northward over the "Great Ice"
fotind any caches, and without having gotten farther
than the first or alcohol cache.
They reported a most extraordinary depth of new
snow on the ice-cap. They found two bamboo pole
signals, one at Plateau Camp and one this side.
When first erected last spring these poles stood eight
LEE AND HENSON STARTING FOR THE ICE-CAP.
and nine feet above the snow, now only about a foot
was visible.
This was all very serious news and required that I
should myself personally start for the ice-cap as soon
as practicable. I should have started the next day,
had it not been that the dogs needed food and rest.
It was late Friday when the party returned.
Monday morning, October 8th, at daylight I was
on my way up the familiar trail across Baby Lake,
past the mule cache, and up to the moraine with
Fall Ice-Cap Work
289
Matt, Maksingwah, more familiarly known as " Fla-
herty," and ten of my best dogs.
It was very late in the season now ; we had but a
few hours of daylight, and work upon the ice-cap
could be prosecuted only under serious disadvantages.
The morning was calm,
bright, and clear after the
two previous cloudy and
threatening days, and we
reached the moraine In
fairly good time. Before
noon we were under way
up the heavy littoral
gradient of the ice-cap in
the face of a light north-
east breeze, over a sur-
face very suitable for
snow-shoes, and pushed
on as far as the two ski
points which, now barely
projecting above the
snow, marked the old site
of Plateau Camp. When
we reached these, it was
nearly dark, the evening
air was decidedly sharp,
the thermometer stand-
ing at - 16 ° F. ; we had
covered sixteen miles of
an up-hill road, and I gave the word to camp. To
pitch the tent and fasten and feed the dogs took but
a short time, and we were soon in the tent waiting
for the boiling of our tea. This accomplished, and
the tea utilised to wash down two or three biscuits
apiece, we lost no time in going to sleep.
The next morning we were up long before sun-
VOL. II. — 19
FLAHERTY.
290 Northward over the "Great Ice"
rise, and after a repetition of the tea and biscuit, re-
inforced by some frozen seal meat, we were again
under way. For this trip I did not feel that we could
encroach upon my limited sledge supplies for the
spring journey, so our rations consisted, besides tea
and a scant allowance of biscuit, of seal meat, frozen
to the consistency of a stone. No more signals were
seen, but at four o'clock my pacing indicated the vi-
cinity of the first cache, and as I swept the circuit of
the snow-field, I thought that I had found the object
of my search, for sharp and clear against the western
sky, now yellow from the departed sun, stood up a
pole, projecting from the snow apparently about a
foot, and seemingly some few hundred yards distant.
Directing my steps towards it, the few hundred yards
lengthened to a mile, and the little pole to four, stand-
ing nine feet high and marking the cache which Lee
had left a few days before.
When I got back to my sledge, the cold blue
shadow of night, sweeping down from the north-east,
had taken full possession of the field surrendered
by the light, and I gave the word to stake out the
dogs and pitch the tent. The day was a repetition
of the previous one, bright and clear, with a fresh
and biting north-east breeze. The snow, as we in-
creased our elevation, had grown softer, and, the snow-
shoes sank deeply, making the travelling decidedly
heavy. Tea having been made and despatched, we
stretched upon the snow with draw-strings of koole-
tah and trousers pulled tight, arms withdrawn from
the sleeves and folded upon the chest, and were soon
sleeping comfortably.
At midnight. Matt, who had gone outside, reported
a cloudless sky, the stars shining brightly, and a low
but brilliant aurora to the north. At six o'clock fog
and clouds had obliterated everything, the wind had
Fall Ice-Cap Work
291,
veered to the south-east, and that dead grey empti-
ness of minute snow particles, which I knew so well,
shrouded the universe. I had the tent turned to
bring its back to the wind, the sledge brought along-
side, the dogs refastened in front of the tent, and
everything carried inside, — preparations which more
than one disagreeable experience had taught me to
CLIMBING TO THE MORAINE.
make. These completed, I re-entered the tent and
Matt followed me.
Absorbed in my thoughts, I did not notice for
some time that Maksingwah had not entered with
us, and that I had heard no sounds from him outside.
The suspicion at once came to me that he had de-
camped, rather than take the chances of an October
storm on the dreaded sermiksoak (ice-cap). Looking
292 Northward over the "Great Ice"
out and seeing nothing of him, I tied on my snow-shoes,
and, picking up our sledge tracks, found his footprints
overlying them, and pointing down the back track. I
did not follow him for any distance, as, if we were
booked for a long storm, he would be of no earthly use
to us, while his absence would very materially econ-
omise our food supply, and enable us to stand a longer
siege. Poor fellow, I learned afterwards that it took
him four days to reach the lodge, arriving at the end of
that time so weak with hunger and cold that he could
o
barely crawl.
The wind increased to a steady whistling gale, the
air became saturated with horizontally frying snow, and
those Arctic barometers, the dogs, were every one
curled in a ball, backs to the wind, and noses and feet
buried in their bushy tails. Reluctantly I resigned
myself to the prospect of another of those dreary
storm-bound episodes upon the " Great Ice," only
hoping that I might be as fortunate as hitherto in
sleeping away the majority of the long hours. All
day and night the monotonous music of the storm
continued. Late in "the afternoon of the next day,
the wind slackened a little and enabled us to get out,
feed and untangle the dogs, and muzzle several
suspicious members of the team that might be ex-
pected, under the influence of that arch-devil of mis-
chief and destruction which in storms on the " Great
Ice" possesses the Eskimo dog, to eat their harnesses
and traces. Then the fury began again and continued
till six weary gnawing days and nights, the most ac-
cursed I ever spent upon the ice-cap, had crawled
their slow lengths into the past.
My little tent, pitched at an elevation of five thou-
sand feet above the sea-level, stood upon the abso-
lutely unbroken, unobstructed surface of the " Great
Ice." The fury of the wind drove the snow through
Fall Ice-Cap Work
293'
the walls of the tent in a constant shower of impal-
pable white dust, which settled upon us and every-
thing in it. The clouds and the driving snow combined
to almost completely obliterate the little daylight re-
maining at this season of the year, and kept us in
continual gloom. About twice in each twenty-four
hours we lit the little oil-stove, and made a cup of
CARRYING A SLEDGE.
tea, ate a biscuit and some of the seal meat, then put
out the stove, pulled our hands and arms inside our
fur sleeves, and, rolling on our faces to avoid the snow-
dust, tried to sleep again.
But after the first three days I could not sleep and
could only lie and listen to the infernal driving of the
snow against the tent, knowing that the demoniac
white down-pour was destroying the last chance of
294 Northward over the "Great Ice"
finding my caches, destroying all the work of the
previous year on which I had counted so largely to
assist me the next spring, reducing my resources to
the very minimum, and perhaps even destroying every
chance of success next year. Plans for the future
failed me. Interest in anything refused to be
aroused ; thoughts of wife and blue-eyed baby, of
mother, pictures of boyhood, happy scenes and mem-
ories, before this devil of Arctic Exploration took
possession of me, rose and ranged themselves opposite
to the precious hours of my life being wasted, the
sacrifices of me and mine, all perhaps to end in nought,
till it seemed as if with this, and the unceasing hissing
of the wind and snow, I should lose my reason. Sun-
day evening especially, I thought of dear brown eyes
and blue baby-eyes until I could stand it no longer,
and by brute force turned my thoughts elsewhere.
At last, at midnight of Monday, the stars were shin-
ing in a nearly cloudless sky, and soft yellow moon-
light tinted the infinite marble plain and fell upon my
sleeping dogs, while a light but bitter north-east breeze
rustled past the tent. The work of digging out sledge
and tent, beating the tent free of its frost coating, and
repairing harnesses and traces consumed several hours.
The snowfall, as measured on the poles at Lee's cache,
had been a little over three feet on a level. When,
towards noon, the sun at length rolled up above the
rim of the great feeder basin of the Heilprin, Tracy,
Melville, and Farquhar Glaciers, it fretted every in-
equality of the "Great Ice" with burnished gold. With
the disappearance of the clouds and the return of the
north-east breeze, the temperature had dropped again
to -12° F., equivalent at least to -25° F. at the sea-
level.
The signal at the Cache Igloos, a yellow bamboo
pole projecting in the previous march ten to twelve
Fall Ice-Cap Work
295
feet above the snow surface, would, I hoped, be only
partially submerged by even the enormous snow pre-
cipitation of the intervening months, and if this were
found I knew I could find the cache of provisions one
mile beyond, while, if it were buried in the excessive
snowfall, it would be useless to waste time in looking
for any other signals. I feared from the first that
my search would be unavailing, for during this last
storm alone over three feet of snow on the level had
PACKING.
fallen. Yet through every minute of the precious
daylight we diligently quartered the surface of the
desert of snow, straining our eyes in the effort to
detect a bit of the top of the pole which had been
left to mark the position of the cache.
All our efforts were in vain ; and blue-black night
again folded the "Great Ice" in its embrace.
The sole result of nine days of wasted time and
effort had been to satisfy me beyond a doubt that all
my essential supplies for the next spring's sledge jour-
296 Northward over the "Great Ice"
ney, nearly a ton and a
ounce of my alcohol and
and forever buried in the
Ice," and that all of the
been completely blotted
by my loss ; I felt like a
uninhabited shore, with
half in all, including every
pemmican, were irrevocably
insatiate maw of the " Great
work of the past year had
out. I was ahnost stunned
man shipwrecked upon an
nothing left him but the
DOGS AT THE MORAINE.
clothes upon his back. Listlessly I pitched my tent,
to rest even though I could not sleep, through the
thickest of the darkness before commencing the re-
turn march.
However, our troubles were not yet over. When
the twilight of the following day had grown enough for
us to move, I found that one of those indescribable
opaque sightless fogs had settled upon the ice-cap, and
Fall Ice-Cap Work 297
in every direction was only blank nothingness. We
must make an effort to get back to the lodge, for we
were on the last round of our provisions. With com-
pass in hand I started off, and travelled as far as I
could without losing sight of Matt and the team, which
might be two hundred feet, then with the compass
put myself on the course, then at the word Matt would
drive the team up to me. The dogs wallowed to their
chins in the soft snow, and the sledge, though loaded
with nothing but the tent, oil-stove, and shovels,
dragged like a snow-plough.
VIEW FROM THE ICE-CAP.
Two days of this kind of work brought us twenty
miles nearer the lodge, and on the third morning I
was delighted to find that we were just beneath the
cloud level, and could make out ahead of us, beyond
the ghastly white stretch of the ice-cap, the sullen
shapes of the snow-covered land, barely discernible in
the dead lio-ht.
From the landward crest of the ice-cap where it
begins to slope sharply down to the surrounding
moraine, the bold capes and points of land jutting
out into the gulf and Sound seemed, in the dim, grey
298 Northward over the "Great Ice"
sunless light, like huge Arctic monsters crouching at
each other.
Tooktoo Valley was almost unrecognisable, so
deeply was it shrouded in snow, blown into it from
the surrounding ice-cap. The lodge itself, drifted in,
was almost invisible from the rear, but before reaching
it we met all the inmates of the place. Our dogs,
loosened from the sledge at the moraine as usual, with
their traces coiled about their necks, had gone on
ahead of us to the lodge and heralded our approach.
With the return from the ice-cap in gloomy spirits.
HARD AT WORK.
began the long winter night. While on the ice-cap,
a mile above sea-level, we had several hours of day-
light ; down at the lodge, under the shadow of the
mountains, the duration of daylight at noon was but
an hour or two. We were already on the confines of
the valley of the shadow of death, the great, the inde-
scribable night of the Arctic regions.
The loss of my caches was a blow which dazed me
for a time. We had been badly enough off before in
regard to equipment, having only odds and ends and
wreckage, so to speak, from which to evolve it ; all the
Fall Ice-Cap Work
299
flower of my material having been expended on the
fall work of 1893 and the attempt of the previous
spring. I had, however, seen my way clear to obtain
from the material at hand such an equipment as I be-
lieved would meet our requirements. Now practically
all of my provisions were gone. Every ounce of
pemmican and alcohol, the two prime essentials of an
Arctic sledge ration under any condition, and doubly
so for ice-cap work, were lost. What should I, what
could I do ? — and yet the idea of abandoning the jour-
IN CAMP.
ney, even in the face of this apparently overwhelming
disaster, never for a moment occurred to me, nor, I
think, to either of my companions.
It would be necessary to revert to first principles as
to rations, and then leave the result to the Almighty.
An account of stock at the lodge showed the follow-
ing :^raw, frozen venison for ourselves and frozen
walrus meat for our dogs must take the place of pem-
mican ; and coal oil must serve as a substitute for
alcohol. We could make out rations of tea, biscuit,
oil, and raw meat for ourselves and dogs for two
300 Northward over the "Great Ice"
months, i.e., sufficient for the journey to and from In-
dependence Bay under favourable conditions ; and
have a httle tea, biscuit, and oil still remaining for use
beyond that point. For dog food and our own meat
rations beyond that point, our entire dependence must
be upon the country beyond the ice-cap.
I had in my 1891-1892 Expedition demonstrated
that one pound of pemmican per dog and three-
fourths pound per man per diem would keep both in
good working condition. The values of walrus meat
"THE DIM, GREY SUNLESS LIGHT."
and venison for such work were unknown quantities,
though unquestionably much inferior to pemmican,
yet I felt that we stood at least an even chance of
reaching Independence Bay, and that chance we would
take. Beyond there everything would depend upon
circumstances. Still, by a favourable combination of
these we might yet accomplish something.
Heavily handicapped at best, my chances for accom-
plishing anything beyond Independence Bay depend-
ing entirely upon the most fortuitous combination of
Fall Ice-Cap Work 301
circumstances, my haunting fear was that something
would happen to prevent our even starting from the
lodge. Had the problem before us been merely the
passing of the winter in comfort and safety, I should
not have had a care. As it was, my favourite night-
mare durinor the winter was to dream that I was
back home aQ^ain without havino- been able to make
another attack upon the ice-cap, and I would waken
with a feeling of positive relief to find myself stretched
on my bearskin couch, with the howling wind of the
ereat niaht tearingr at the house, and realise that I
still had the struggle before me. That I had reason
for this fear will be understood from our utter lack of
any margin for accidents or mishaps, either to our-
selves, our material, or our supplies.
Should the dog-madness descend upon the dogs, it
would end everything completely ; should I happen to
be disabled, it would result in the same way ; should Lee
or Henson meet with an accident or die (and we had
no doctor), it would be a crushing blow ; should the
house catch fire and our scant material and remaining
sledge supplies be destroyed, it would cripple us.
And I had reason for these fears, Lee came home
from a late October surveying trip so used up that it
took weeks to get him in shape again. Matt entered
the New Year with an attack which at home would
have been called the grip. And I, going out in One
of the furious winter blizzards to see that everything
was securely lashed, was nearly brained by a heavy box
of frozen meat, which, blown from the roof, just grazed
my temple and struck a glancing blow upon my arm
that rendered it useless for a week. I should have
liked to put my comrades in fire- and burglar-proof
safes, and had them fed with a spoon until the day
arrived to start upon the ice.
CHAPTER VI.
FALL HUNTING, ARCTIC DAY AND NIGHT.
Preparation of the House for Winter — Interior Details — A Guest-
Chamber — My own Suite of Apartments — The Waning of the Summer
Day— The Departure of the Sun.
CHAPTER VI.
FALL HUNTING, ARCTIC DAY AND NIGHT.
THE supply of meat
obtained during
my return from
Cape York, and in the
grand walrus hunt, was
by no means all that was
secured during the fall.
Every possible opportun-
ity for hunting was
utilised, and every ounce
of meat was cared for and
put away as carefully as a
miser hoards his gold.
The meat secured during the boat trip consisted of
eight saddles of venison weighing 249 lbs., together
with four tongues, four livers, and three hearts, also
thirty-eight looms, one duck, one brant, and six Arctic
hares.
A few days after my return, I shot two more hares
not far from the lodge.
The hunting trip to Kangerdlooksoah doubled our
meat supply, adding to it six saddles of venison (a
total weight of 215 lbs.), together with six hearts, six
tongues, two livers, some thirty pounds of sirloin, and
nine hares weighing 64^ lbs. A doe and a fawn, killed
305
VOL. n.— 20
Fall Hunting, etc. 307
by Nooktah on the day Matt returned, added fifty
pounds more, making a total of 353 lbs. obtained in
a week. Three more hares I obtained at Cape Cleve-
land during the walrus hunt. An oogsook, killed dur-
ing the walrus hunt, netted me eighty-four pounds of
clear edible meat.
On the 27th of October, Matt obtained two more
deer in Tooktoo Valley, weighing about 150 lbs. gross,
and ninety to one hundred pounds net. On the ist
of November, eighteen pounds more of venison were
added to my supply, from a fawn shot by Nooktah and
Panikpah in Five-Glacier Valley. The week ending
November 15th added two hundred pounds more of
venison to my stock, from three deer, killed by Panik-
pah and Matt at Kangerdlooksoah, during the last of
the twilight.
Next after an abundant supply of food, the most
important item affecting the comfort of the Arctic
traveller is his winter quarters. The houses erected
for my expeditions have been constructed after a new
design, and possess new features. They have con-
sisted of an inner shell made as nearly air-tight as
possible ; separated, by an air space of from one to
three feet, from an outer shell, also air-tight. The
roof is practically flat, and the entire structure sur-
rounded by a continuous, closed, nearly flat-roofed
corridor, four to six feet wide, the outer wall built of
the boxes containing supplies, and banked w^ith snow
outside. By this method of construction, the house
is protected completely from the fierce assaults of the
winter storms. In severe stress of weather it can,
like the Eskimo huts, be completely covered in with
snow. Every package of supplies is perfectly acces-
sible, and the corridor affords ample room for work
upon and storage of equipment.
The most advantageous way of modifying the
TYPICAL CROSS-SECTION OF PEARY ARCTIC HOUSE SHOWING
PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION.
2, 2, 2,
1. Double floor, tongued and grooved, with tarred paper between.
2. Inner sheathing, tongued and grooved, and lined with blankets or
felt.
3, 3. Double windows.
4. Overhead sash to prolong Arctic day as much as possible, covered
with hay in winter.
5, 5> 5. 5- Outer sheathing, tongued and grooved, with tarred paper nailed to
it inside and out, and outer joints covered with battens.
6. Lantern or skylight.
7. 7? 7. 7- Air spaces between inner and outer sheathing, from i to 3 feet wide.
8, 8. Corridors, 5 to 6 feet wide, and 6 to 7 feet high, extending entirely
round house, and serving both as a protection from cold and as
storehouses.
9, g. Walls formed of the boxes of supplies, enclosing these corridors.
These boxes are all opened and laid on their sides so that their
contents can be removed as from so many shelves.
10, 10. Snow embankments ; blanketing the corridors. If necessary this
snow blanket can be carried over the roof as shown by the dotted
lines.
308
F'all Hunting, etc. 309
lodge to meet the requirements of my little party
during the winter of 1894-95 was quickly decided
upon, and the work carried on from time to time in
the intervals of outdoor work, until everything was
completed. The central portion of the main house,
nine by fourteen feet, and eight feet high, which during
the previous winter had been the kitchen and dining-
room, was selected for our use. On the west side of
this, and separated from it by a double partition one
foot thick, was the room formerly occupied by Mrs.
Peary and myself, and on the east side, separated by
a single partition, the large room formerly occupied
by the party. A window three feet high extended
clear across the front of the room, and a skylight, six
feet wide, ran across the centre of the ceiling.
A door opened into each of these adjacent rooms,
and two ventilating shafts led through the ceiling and
roof to the open air. To adapt this space to our
needs, the partition between the former kitchen and
dining-room was removed, the table cut down to half
its original size, and a small stove set up nearly in
the centre of the front half of the room. The stove-
pipe, a home-made affair, constructed of two sheets
of corrugated iron wired and riveted together, was
carried up through one of the ventilator shafts, where
it was wrapped with asbestos to prevent the possibil-
ity of igniting the woodwork, and perhaps turning us
out homeless into the Arctic night. Under the
windows a wide bench was built, extending the entire
width of the room. A big bearskin was thrown over
this, and by day it served as a seat, while at night it
formed my couch. From it, up to the time that the
intense cold compelled me to nail a blanket across
the windows, and paper over them, I could, without
rising, look out in twilight, or moonlight, or starlight,
upon my frozen world.
Fall Hunting, etc. 311
The rear portion of the room was to serve as a
sleeping" apartment for Lee and Matt, and a plat-
form was constructed across the front of it, three feet
above the floor, and six feet from the rear wall. The
heads of the cots rested on this platform, and their
feet were supported on a cleat fastened to the rear
wall. This arrangement of the cots was something
after the Eskimo method, lifting the occupants out
of the low temperature near the floor, and permit-
ting a free circulation of air. Blanket curtains to
these cots and my couch, which could be drawn at
will, rendered them quite cosy. Under the platform
and near the stove, shelves were put up for the cur-
rent supplies of flour, corn-meal, sugar, coffee, etc.,
and the space back of these offered a convenient
storaofe room. Along: the east wall of the room were
two cupboards, one for dishes and books, the other
for medicines. Along the floor on the west wall were
our water tank (a ten-gallon milk-can), and the gun-
rack, containing two Winchester lo-gauge shotguns,
two 45-calibre Winchester repeaters, three 44-calibre
Winchester carbines, and a Daly three-barrel, which,
after having twice burst, and twice been cut down,
was now seventeen and a half inches long in the
barrel, and looked like a Mafia weapon.
This arsenal with filled magazines represented sixty-
four shots. A pair of six-shooters hanging in the
corner under the barograph, and Matt's carbine slung
over his bed, added twenty-four more, or a total of
eighty-eight shots, in immediate readiness for an attack
by bears, deer, foxes, natives, or other equally danger-
ous animals.
Above the gun-rack were the clock, thermometers,
barometers, barograph, and chronometers. Finally,
the entire walls and ceiling were papered by Lee with
full-page pictures from our store of illustrated papers.
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Fall Huntino:, etc. 313
't>'
partly to stop the cracks and keep out the cold, partly
as a decoration. These pictures, with three barrel
hoops suspended around the stovepipe near the ceil-
ing, for drying mittens, kamiks (boots), stockings,
and so on ; one of the nets used in catching little
auks, suspended near the ceiling, for drying grass for
our kamiks ; a coal bucket ; and a molasses keg for
a chair, completed the furniture and adornments of
the room.
The bulk of this work was done by Lee during my
absence on the boat trip, the minor details were added
from time to time, as necessity suggested and oppor-
tunity permitted. So much for the interior.
The consumption of the supplies, and the utilisa-
tion of the boxes and barrels containing them for
fuel the previous year, had done away with the greater
portion of the corridor wall surrounding the house,
leaving only that along the rear and a portion of the
west end. Deprived of this outer line of defence
against the cold, it became necessary to devise some
other method of insulating and protecting our room.
The rooms on either side were a great assistance, but
were not sufficient. Immediately after my return
from Cape York, and while Matt was away at Kan-
gerdlooksoah, the remaining bales of hay were opened,
spread upon the rocks, thoroughly dried in the wind
and last of the sunshine, and the spaces between the
inner and outer shells of the house filled with the
hay. Later, when the long night commenced, and
daylight had vanished, the skylight was covered a
foot thick with the same material.
The partition between our quarters and the main
room was re-enforced by a wall of hay two and a half
feet thick, extending from floor to ceiling. A small
vestibule with double doors completed the protection
on this side. The double partition between our room
Fall Hunting, etc. 315
and the one on the west was made tight by closely pack-
ing with furs. In the west room, our furs, fur clothing,
and lighter and more important articles of equipment
were kept, while the large eastern room served as
storeroom, workroom, and guest-chamber. At the
end of the latter, stood a rude stove of corrugated
iron, supported on the base-plate of the launch boiler ;
and the back part of the room was occupied by the
coal-bin, a cask of biscuit, a barrel of sugar, and a
rude table, on which burned constantly an Eskimo
stone lamp. There was a broad seat also, covered
with a deerskin, for the accommodation of our seam-
stresses ; a seat on which they could sit tailor-fashion
while sewing. Entrance to our quarters was effected
through this room. Here my walrus meat was cut
up and packed ; here my tent was made ; my sledges
assembled and lashed ; and here the natives gathered
and made merry.
The best that we could do in the way of exterior
protection was to range my four big biscuit-casks
side by side against the house under the windows of
our room, with their tops just level with the window-
sills, pack the spaces between them and the house,
also the junction of the house and the ground, with
hay, then, after a sufficient quantity of snow had fal-
len, bank everything with it to a height of three or four
feet, build a wall of snow blocks against the eastern
end of the house, and enclose the outer door with a
roomy storm entrance, from which a narrow snow
passage, closed by a second door, led to the outer air.
This snow vestibule also afforded entrance to the
smaller building, formerly the studio, but now the
domicile of my faithful hunter and dog-driver, Nook-
tah, — the father of " Bill," the little girl whom Mrs.
Peary took home with her, — and his family. Should
the winter prove unusually severe, I intended to pro-
c..
V
Fall Hunting, etc. 317
tect the house still further by a belt of snow armour
amidships, extending from the ground up the walls,
over the roof, and down to the ground again, but the
necessity for this never arose.
Thus, in our little house within a house, we lived
without serious discomforts.
At first, the quality of my coal gave me some
trouble ; but after I commenced screening it through
a discarded wire mattress, thus removing the dust
and dirt, our tiny stove kept the room too warm for
comfort, until I bored three three-inch holes in the
bottom of the door leading into the west room. This
caused a powerful and steady circulation, and kept
the room entirely comfortable. At no time was there
any condensation of moisture or formation of ice in
the room. The temperature of the room, at all times
when there was a fire in the stove, was high enough
for comfort. But, as the fire was allowed to go out
when we turned in, the temperature would fall consid-
erably by the time the fire was started the next morn-
ing, frequently reaching 12° and 13° F., and, on one
occasion, 8° F.
A single picture of my own corner in the house
where we spent the winter, — a corner which served
as parlour, sitting-room, library, dining-room, kitchen,
workshop, and bedroom, — will give an idea of our in-
terior surroundings.'
The phenomena of night and day in the Arctic
regions are clear to very few. I think I should be not
far from the truth if I said that they are fully under-
stood only by those who have spent a year there.
There is a vague appreciation of the fact, that in
very high latitudes there is a long period in summer
' When I left the lodge in August, 1895, I gave it to the faithful Eskimos
who went on the ice-cap with me, and they moved into it. In the fall, through
the carelessness of Ahtungahnaksoah, it caught fire, and was totally consumed.
J
Fall Hunting, etc. 319
during- which the sun never sets, and it is constant day ;
and another long period in winter during which it
never rises, and it is constant night.
We hear the terms, midnight sun and noonday
night, and remember that our geographies say that at
the Pole there is only one night and one day in the
year. Yet, after all, we have no clear conception of
how this can be.
Let us see if we can come to a somewhat clearer
understanding of the subject. Let us place ourselves
at the lodge, the latitude of which is ^'^° 40' N., and
its distance from the Pole, therefore, the difference
between that latitude and 90°, or 1 2° 20'. We grasp
the fact, that were we standing at the Pole, our ac-
tual visual horizon would coincide with the celestial
equator, and that every heavenly body above (north
of) that equator would be visible to us, and that every
heavenly body below (south of) that equator would
be invisible.
At the lodge, as already noted, we are 12° 20'
south of the Pole ; consequently, our southern (or
noon) horizon has dropped 12° 20' below the celestial
equator, while our northern (or midnight) horizon
has been raised an equal amount above the celestial
equator. What results from this ?
Any heavenly body that is more than 1 2° 20' below
(south of) the celestial equator will be continuously
invisible {i. e., will never rise) ; a body just 12° 20'
below the equator will be visible only for a moment
when it is precisely south of us ; a body more than
12° 20' above (north of) the celestial equator will be
continuously visible (i. e., will never set) ; a body just
12° 20' above the equator will be invisible only for a
moment when it is precisely north of us ; and a heav-
enly body anywhere between the limits of 12° 20' N.
and 1 2° 20' S. of the equator will rise and set in the
sa iinii
Fall Hunting, etc. 321
usual way. We all know that the sun is north of the
equator during a portion of the year, and south of it
the remainder. It swinofs back and forth like a sen-
tinel on his beat, in a path extending from 23-^° north
of the equator to 23^° south of it, and is at the
northern extremity of its beat on the 21st of June and
at the southern on the 21st of December.
Now what is the effect of these facts, and these
movements of the god of day upon our days at the
lodge ?
Just as long as the sun is more than 12° 20' north
of the equator, he will be continuously above the
horizon day after day throughout the twenty-four
hours (the long Arctic summer day) ; just as long as
he is between 12° 20' north, and 12° 20' south, he will
be visible part of the twenty-four hours and invisible
the remainder, i. e., will rise and set in the way famil-
iar to us here at home ; and just as long as the sun is
more than 12° 20' south of the equator, he will be
continuously below the horizon and entirely invisible
day after day throughout the twenty-four hours (the
long Arctic winter night).
Let us assume it to be the 21st of June at the
lodge, mid-noon of the summer ; the sun is at its
maximum northern declination, 23° 27', and at noon
on that day is 35° 47' above the southern horizon, and
at midnight is 1 1° 7' above the northern horizon.
Slowly, day by day, the sun drops lower (goes
south) until on August 20th its northern declination is
but 12° 20', and at midnight it is just on the northern
horizon ; the next night it disappears entirely for a
few moments, and the long summer day (four months
for this latitude) is at an end. Each day, the time
that the sun remains invisible rapidly increases,
though it is bright daylight all the time, until on Sep-
tember 2 1 St the sun reaches the equator, sets at six
VOL. II. — 21
^'^^
Fall Hunting, etc. 323
o'clock, rises at six the next morning, and day and
night, as everywhere else on the earth, from north
pole to south pole, are equal in length. Even now,
however, there is a brilliant twilight, amounting to
almost full daylight, for some three hours after sun-
set, and an equal time before sunrise.
Still farther and farther southward drops the sun,
and each day the light with startling rapidity shrinks
and dwindles in the cruel grasp of night.
On the 25th of October, the sun's declination is
12° 20' south, and if it is clear on that day he will be
seen for a moment at noon on the southern horizon ;
the next day he does not appear, and the long Arctic
winter night has commenced.
There are still a few hours of twilight at noon, but
the sun is yet a long distance from the southern limit
of his beat, and day by day this twilight fades and
sinks below the horizon, until at last there is no differ-
ence between the southern and the northern horizon
at noon, and the midnight of the " Great Night" (De-
cember 2ist) arrives and passes. By January 15th, a
faint narrow band of twilight is visible in the south ;
on February 14th, the sun has returned to 12° 20'
south declination, and peeps for a moment at noon
above the southern horizon.
Rapidly now the darkness recedes. March 21st,
day and night are again equal throughout the globe,
and now the exultant light rapidly drives its antagon-
ist from the field. April 26th, the sun has reached
12° 20' north declination, and is now continuously
above the horizon; it is dawn of the "Great Day";
the brilliant glowing Arctic summer has commenced,
and the wild reaches of snow and ice and ragged cliffs
which surround the Pole lie in incessant light.
Every sojourner for a winter within the Arctic Cir-
cle has made the departure and return of the sun
324 Northward over the "Great Ice"
occasions for a display of thoughts and emotions,
gloomy and sad in the former instance, and bright and
joyous in the latter.
With an experience of three winters in high Arctic
latitudes, my own sensations have never been similar.
The departure of the sun has never seriously im-
pressed me ; in fact the Arctic landscape then does
not show half the savage sombreness that it does
when seen through the dead-grey noon twilight of
two or three weeks later, especially if viewed from the
ice-cap. Neither has the return of the sun seemed
joyous, but quite the contrary. Of the two events,
the latter to me is the sadder. At the departure
of the sun, one does not realise its meaning. We
look upon the landscape, as upon the face of a dear
one just dead. It is yet warm and soft, perhaps there
is still a slight flush, we cannot believe the light is
gone forever ; while the steely rays of the returning
sun light the ghastly pallor of a white and frozen
landscape, a corpse stiff with rigor mortis, revealing
every drawn feature, every harsh line, that life and
warmth had masked.
CHAPTER VII.
DECEMBER JOURNEY TO CAPE YORK.
Brilliant Moonlight — Karnah, Netiulumi, and Cape Parry — Along
THE Outer Coast — A False Alarm — Raised Beaches — An Arctic Trag-
edy— A Winter Anoahtaksoah — Piblockto — Cape York — Kyoahpahdu.
the Medicine Man.
CHAPTER VII.
DECEMBER JOURNEY TO CAPE YORK.
D
URING the De-
cember moon,
Lee and myself
went to Cape York, leav-
ino- the lod^e on the loth
and returning on the 24th.
One of the main ob-
jects of the trip was to
determine accurately the
positions of the promi-
nent points of the coast, as
Capes Parry, Athol, and
York, Conical Rock, etc., but the frozen conden-
sation from the North Water, which was steaming
like a huge black cauldron, shrouded the coast in a
silvery veil, and rendered the stars invisible most of
the time.
At two A.M. of the loth, I left the lodge with Lee,
Ingeropahdoo (or " Freckles"), and Alakasingwah for
Karnah. Lee had " Freckles's " sledtre and three
dogs, while the rest of us, together with the impedi-
menta of our trip, occupied the big sledge recently
purchased from Tellikotinah, drawn by six dogs.
The last observations for time had just been com-
pleted and the transit taken down and lashed on the
327
Z2^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
sledge. The snow on the bay was firm and fairly
smooth. Orion, blazing in scintillant splendour above
the Tigerahomi cliffs, dominated the southern sky ;
and the surface of the bay, and every line of the dark
guarding cliffs, stood out sharp and clear in the bril-
liant moonlight.
The giant statues of the Sculptured Cliffs of Kar-
nah were still holding silent communion with each
other as we passed beneath them. Just outside of
Karnah, in the rough ice lying against the shore, a
piece of my ivory sledge shoe was torn off, and while
** Freckles " was repairing it, I walked on ahead to
"NUMEROUS GLACIERS IN GLISTENING SPLENDOUR."
the village, and proceeded at once to the commodious
igloo of Kardah.
Remembering vividly my last experience in his
igloo, I politely requested the master of the house
to keep children out and maintain quiet while I
slept. This he did effectually, and once or twice I
was half conscious of his voice silencing the gossip-
ing women with " OkaJilooktoo naggah " (" Stop your
talking " ). At six p.m., with only " Freckles " and my-
self on my big sledge drawn now by nine dogs, I
bumped over the broad Karnah ice-foot, and dashed
out upon the dazzling moonlit expanse of the Sound,
for Netiulumi on the south shore. Lee with " Freck-
December Journey to Cape York 329
les's" wife and child, and Myall and Ihrllie, accom-
panied us on two sledges.
The broad Sound was a sea of silvery light, and
the brilliant moonlight brought out in glistening
splendour the numerous glaciers of the distant south
shore. Our course lay straight past the eastern end
of Herbert Island, and in a patch of rough ice off the
great bluff, " Freckles's" sledge lost a piece of shoe,
and this caused a long delay for repairs.
Finally at three in the morning I reached Netiu-
lumi, and went at once to the igloo of Tellikotinah.
By the time Madame Tellikotinah had the water on
for our coffee, Lee came in from a tour of the village,
and a call upon the happy young mother Ahwe-
aungwonah (alias Jessie).
I was anxious to get to Cape Parry by three in the
afternoon, to use certain stars for my observations,
and our hours for sleep were therefore limited.
While we were sleeping, the lady of the house melted
snow for our coffee, and the water was hot when at
eleven a.m. I was awakened by my alarm clock, taken
on this trip as an experiment. Necessary repairs to
the sledge, which " Freckles " had failed to make
when we first arrived, delayed me somewhat, and irri-
tated by this, I discharged him and engaged a new
driver. At last I dashed away from the ice-foot, and
with fresh dogs, over smooth ice, in the bright moon-
light, galloped westward for the black front of
Kangahsuk (the Great Cape, Cape Parry).
Tellikotinah, wife, and daughter on one sledge, and
little Kessuh on another, accompanied us. With
favourable conditions of ice, and ample light, the dogs
were pushed rapidly along, and in two hours and a
half we whirled around the now ice-bound black
angle of the Great Cape. Half an hour previous
a bank of clouds from the south-west had blotted out
330 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
the stars, and a raw wind was blowing round the
cape, just as it did the day that Lee, TelHkotinah,
and I rounded it on our way to Cape York the pre-
vious May.
Observations were out of the question, but a short
stop was made under the beethng diff for Kessuh to
repair his sledge,
and while he was
doing this, Telli-
kotinah took me
up over the ice-
foot and showed
me a cave, which,
like the one near
Petowik Glacier,
is a frequent ref-
uge and sleep-
ing-place for the
natives journey-
ing along the
coast.
From the cape
we went directly
westward to get
outside of the
rough ice lying
jammed against
the shore ; but,
scarcely a mile
distant from th^
cape, we came upon young ice, so thin as to be unsafe,
the point of the seal harpoon, with which it was tested,
penetrating it at the least blow. A few hundred
yards farther was the inky North Water. We were
thus compelled to stick to the old rough ice, but, aided
by the bright moonlight, a practicable route was found
MADAME TELLIKOTINAH.
December Journey to Cape York 331
through the crystal chaos, and I drove southward
past the famihar points of this coast, Anoah Glacier,
lennah, Tessuissak, black Pooeenyah, Ignimut Glac-
ier, Oobloodahingwah, and the Land of Noogli.
Opposite the point of the latter, we emerged from
the rough ice upon the smooth expanse of Wolsten-
holm Sound, extending white and glistening to the
carnelian cliffs of Saunders Island and the shadowy
formof Wolsten-
holm Island.
Several bear
tracks were seen :
in one place two
big fellows had
followed an old
sledge track for
some distance,
and once we had
a bit of excite-
ment when Kes-
suh's team, two of
the dogs in which
I knew to be ex-
perienced bear
hunters, swerved
suddenly from
the course, and
dashed madly
over the ice to
windward. In a few moments I saw Kessuh lean for-
ward and cut a trace. The dog thus liberated leaped
rapidly forward and disappeared in the broken ice,
while the others, with Lee and Kessuh running at the
upstanders of the sledge, followed on his trail. Ihrllie
and I both jumped off our sledge, and each with a
hand on an upstander, urged on our team, excited.
MISS TELLIKOTINAH.
2)2>^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
but handicapped by the heavy load. TeUikotinah,
who was ahead, observing the excitement, dumped
his wife and daughter unceremoniously in the snow,
and came dashing back to join the chase. When we
again caught a glimpse of Kessuh's team I saw that
another dog had been cut loose, and soon we saw the
two tearing about in the broken ice.
We could see no bear, but his colour might easily
make him invisible, and I hurried forward as fast as
I could run to have a shot at him. As I passed
Kessuh the dogs ceased their antics, and when I came
up to them were eating snow at a seal's breathing
hole. My breathless disgust at such a finale, after
running in my furs through the heavy snow, is not
necessary of description.
I fear that I expended some of my little remaining
wind in unbecoming language concerning the intellect-
ual calibre of Kessuh's favourites.
However, the episode enlivened the monotony of
the long journey, and knowing that there was a warm
igloo at its end, and a cafe-au-lait hostess to dry my
perspiration-saturated clothes over her lamp while I
slept, I soon recovered my equanimity, and when we
came up with disconsolate Mrs. and Miss TeUikotinah,
everyone was in good humour again.
While crossing the Sound more bear tracks were
seen, some of them quite fresh, then we reached the
shadow of the Saunders Island Cliffs, and after wind-
ing along under them a few miles, arrived at the settle-
ment of Akpani, fourteen hours from Netiulumi.
There was but one igloo in commission here, and
that occupied by Ahngeenyah and Ahngodoblaho and
their families. The snow houses and enclosures for
meat and dogs gave the place the appearance, from
the ice-foot, of quite a village. A snow igloo was
built, into which the younger inmates of the house
December Journey to Cape York 333
were bundled, to make room for my party in the stone
mansion.
At three p.m. I was up again setting up the transit,
and between my star sights I strolled over the flat,
raised, triangular patch of detritus lying at the foot
of the western cliffs of the island. This triangular
bit of foreshore seems to be identical in appearance
with the one which I noticed on the eastern side of
the island during last spring's sledge trip to Cape
RAISED BEACHES.
York, formed originally under water by tidal eddies,
and then raised to its present position by the gradual
elevation of this region.
On the very crest of the bank, at the outer or
western apex of the triangle, is located the group of
igloos (three double and three single) forming the
villacje.
Northward from the village to the northern end of
the island, extend the great bird cliffs rising perpen-
dicularly from the sea. In summer on these cliffs the
334 Northward over the "Great Ice"
sea-birds are " thick as leaves in Vallombrosa " ; now
the great rampart was death-Hke in its frozen stihness.
Several of the natives have lost their lives while get-
ting birds and eggs here, and the last of these trage-
dies was the result of those fierce human passions,
which are the same the world over, whether the set-
ting be tropical or hyperborean. One of two friends
coveted the other's wife, but lacked the strength or
courage to take possession of her, as is the custom of
these people.
At last one summer day his opportunity came.
He and his friend were gathering birds' eggs from
the great cliffs, he on the summit holding one end of
a long rawhide line, his friend suspended from the
other down the face of the cliff. Nothing was sim-
pler than to loosen his grasp. The rope slipped
through his hands ; the sound of a soft shapeless mass
fallincr from ledo^e to ledo^e, and changrinor colour from
brown to red, was drowned in the roar of millions of
startled sea-birds' wings ; a spot of blood-stained foam,
with circles widening from it, flashed for an instant
upon the deep green water hundreds of feet below ;
and to-day the murderer is living with his victim's
widow.
The two natives at Akpani had been very success-
ful in their fall hunting. In addition to several seals,
they had killed six walrus, a bear, and an oogsook,
out to the westward ; and piles of meat were stacked
on the level top of the ice-foot, in front of the igloo.
While I slept, Ahngodoblaho fed my dogs and re-
paired my sledge, reinforcing the points with walrus
hide, which, when frozen, is the toughest and most
unbreakable of all substances.
Leaving the village of Akpani, three and a half
hours of orood travelling across the southern arm of
Wolstenholm Sound, brought us at midnight to Cape
December Journey to Cape York 335
Athol, where on my return from the ship last August I
had landed from my whale-boat to reconnoitre the ice.
The night was perfect for my observations, not a
breath of air stirring, and while I set up the transit
and took my first sight, Tellikotinah built a small
snow igloo in which he started two lamps, and during
the five hours' stop here, several cups of hot coffee
took the chill off the night air most effectually. From
Cape Athol I again drove southward, past the well-
THE BIRD CLIFFS.
known landmarks of this coast, all sharp and distinct
in the brilliant moonlight ; crossed without difficulty
in front of the Petowik Glacier, where last May I had
toiled so wearily through the slush and round the
leads ; and reached the settlement of Ipsueshaw, at
the head of Parker Snow Bay, at 12:30 p.m.
One stone and two snow igloos comprised the vil-
lage here ; the former occupied by two families, the
latter by one each.
33^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
In the stone igloo was our old friend of Red Cliff,
Nuikingwah, with three children ; one a bright-faced
manly boy of perhaps twelve years, another equally
bright-faced laughing little girl of perhaps four years,
and the third, the baby Bur-off (Verhoeff). The
other family in the igloo was that of her married son
Kahutah.
This woman Nuikingwah is a model woman,
plump, matronly, cleanly, and smiling ; the mother
of a little girl and four handsome, intelligent, active
PARKER SNOW BAY.
sons, two married and all good hunters ; the two still
with her dressed in the best manner with nicely made
kapetahs, nannookies, and kamiks. The arrival of
our party of nine was quite a tax on the accommoda-
tions of the place, but Lee found room in one of the
snow igloos occupied by our host of last May at Cape
York, good old Tahweenyah, and his equally good
old wife Simiah ; while I lodged in the stone igloo,
and Tellikotinah built a snow one for himself and
family. After a good sleep and a cup of coffee, I was
out at five a.m. of Monday the 14th, to make, with Lee's
December Journey to Cape York 337
assistance, my observations. The observations were
not entirely satisfactory, owing to a fresh breeze blow-
ing down from the glacier at the head of the bay,
and sweeping noisily over the village, loaded with
fine drift. I had hoped to start immediately after the
observations, but the increasing force of the wind, the
glistening silver mist which was gradually hiding the
crest of the cliffs
on the opposite
side of the bay,
and the low mur-
mur coming from
the same direc-
tion, were unfail-
ing signs that an
anoataksoah was
next in order, and
that it would be
folly to start for
Cape York un-
til its force was
spent, so we re-
signed ourselves,
as best we could,
to the inevitable
delay.
The crest of
the cliffs with-
drew behind a veil of silvery haze, the sigh grew to
a continuous roar, the light of the moon paled and
disappeared, and then the demon of the Great Ice,
wrapped in blinding clouds of snow, rushed down from
his lair, beat against the unyielding cliffs, shrieked
through their clefts, and carved the frozen snow into
marble waves, throwing the stinging foam aloft till
neither man nor beast might face the fury and live.
CHILDREN OF NUIKINGWAH.
338 Northward over the " Great Ice "
This settlement of Ipsueshaw, so named from the
abundance of grass in the vicinity, is located at the
western end of a low shore, curving round the head
of Parker Snow Bay, from the vertical bird cliffs which
wall it to the north ; and comprises two permanent
stone igloos.
Additional snow igloos were half built, half exca-
vated in the overhanging drift formed under the steep
bank of the shore.
So close to the water were these igloos, that the
entrance and part of the front wall of one of them
were shattered while we were there, by the lifting of
the ice-foot under the enormous pressure of the spring
tides. Just back of the igloos, at the foot of the bluff,
there grows such an abundance of long soft grass,
that Tellikotinah, in less than half an hour, cut enough
to cover the bed platform in his igloo a foot thick.
The proximity of the bird cliffs makes the foxes nu-
merous here, and there are deer in abundance on the
uplands. All Friday afternoon and night, Saturday
and Saturday night, and Sunday forenoon the storm
continued, keeping us unwilling prisoners.
The incessant cutting wind made the dogs uneasy,
and twice they chewed their harnesses and traces to
almost utter destruction.
Then our provisions got so low that we were
oblieed to beo^in upon walrus meat.
Ill'
About six P.M. Sunday we started southward agam.
When the does were beine harnessed, I discovered
that the affectionate white Ikwahdog had been seized
by the dread piblockto or Arctic hydrophobia, and I
was obliged to shoot him.
Passing out of the bay, we went close under the
cliffs of Parker Snow Point to its southern extremity,
known as Akpani by the natives, then from Conical
Rock headed seaward to avoid the deep snow and
December Journey to Cape York 339
rough ice near the shore. The moon did not rise to
mve us the benefit of its Hcrht until towards midnicrht.
After that we had httle trouble in avoiding the patches
of roughest ice, except in one instance when we got
caught in a pocket, and had to traverse something
like half a mile of it. This was enough to rip two or
three pieces of ivory off the bottom of my sledge, and
cause a long delay in repairing.
The rough ice in this vicinity was apparently the
CAPE YORK IN WINTER GARB.
same that was lying along this coast, when I was here
in the Falcon, August 27th and 28th, and to avoid it
we travelled almost due south until abreast of the
cape, then turned directly eastward towards it.
After the moon rose, the savage coast, broken by
its numerous glaciers, stood out so sharp and clear,
that though several miles distant it seemed close at
hand. We arrived at the most southerly of the igloos
comprising the winter's settlement at Cape York,
about six a.m. of Monday the 17th. Two stone ig-
340 Northward over the "Great Ice"
loos, one occupied by Tahwana and his numerous
family, and the other by Kyoahpahdu the aiigakok,
were situated a hundred feet or more above sea-level,
on a slope so steep, that now, when it was covered
with snow, it was almost impossible to maintain a
footincr.
Tellikotinah and his family went to Tahwana's
igloo, while Lee and I went to the more cleanly and
less crowded residence of Kyo.
Here we were most hospitably entertained, the
great medicine-man laying aside his dignity like a
garment in the presence of his distinguished guests,
and in return for the privilege of sharing our coffee,
prepared with his own hand our repast of boiled seal
meat, cleaning the stone pot carefully, selecting the
choicest pieces, and using the cleanest snow from
which to melt the water.
CHAPTER VIII.
RETURN FROM CAPE YORK.
Rough Ice and Unpropitious Weather — Steering by the Stars —
Eskimo Hospitality — An Arctic Caravan — A Midnight Cataclysm —
Indescribable Going — Passe Meat — A Forced March without Food
OR Sleep.
CHAPTER VIII.
RETURN FROM CAPE YORK.
WHEN, on awak-
ening from my
first sleep at
Cape York, I stepped out
of the igloo, I found every
star blotted out, the wind
whistling past the face of
the cliffs, and a light dust
of snow falline.
Again I was obliged to
possess my soul in pa-
tience, and await the
pleasure of the weather demon that haunts this infer-
nal cape. Finally, on Tuesday afternoon and Wednes-
day morning, I was able to make my observations,
though not under the most favourable conditions, and
at 10:45 ^•^^- I started on my return.
I had on the sledge a good supply of bearskin for
our ice-cap costumes, and had filled the gap made in
my team by the death of the Ikwah dog, with the
powerful big Panikpah clog that escaped from Lee's
team near Petowik last May, and had been caught
and kept by Kyoahpahdu since.
As I rounded the cape, I found the wind blowing
with much violence, though, fortunately, somewhat
343
344 Northward over the "Great Ice"
at our backs. Out to the westward it was too thick
with the flying drift for me to risk the outside pass-
age. My young driver was much frightened at the
prospect, and said he was afraid he should be cold
and die. With many misgivings, and visions of
broken sledges, and a comfortable (?) night or two
behind some rock, without fire, drink, or food, I told
him to take the inside passage, through the rough
ice, close to the shore.
Late in the afternoon, my team suddenly quick-
ened its pace, and, looking shoreward, I saw a faint
HOMEWARD BOUND.
light, which proved to be that from the snow igloo
of Annowkah. He and his wife were sleeping
soundly when I crawled into the entrance, as I could
see through a hole in the sealskin with which they
had closed the door. I made no attempt to enter,
as I did not wish to stop here, but told Ihrllie to bor-
row a piece of blubber that would enable us to make
a fire, in the event of our becoming storm-bound.
So far, the going had been fairly good ; but, on
leaving the igloo, we entered on a patch of rough ice,
which seemed of such extent that I told the driver to
Return from Cape York
)45
turn to the westward and g-et outside of it. To my
great satisfaction, the wind had now moderated, the
stars were shining brilhantly, undimmed by haze or
flying snow, and once outside of the rough ice I
knew we would
have plain sail-
ing. In a short
time we were
through it, and
then, through
the darkness,
steered north-
ward by the stars,
without mishaps
or delays, other
than those re-
sulting from my
driver's falling
asleep, drop-
ping his whip,
and then beingf
obliged to run
back and hunt
for it, till the
shadowy needle
of Conical Rock
rose out of the
darkness ahead.
Then the base of
the ereat Cliffs
of Akpani were
traversed, Parker Snow Bay re-entered, and at five
A.M. of Thursday, as the rapidly waning moon was
climbing over the southern bluffs, and lisfhtino" the
ice and northern shore, we reached the village. After
our journey of twenty-four hours, we were in con-
WOMAN IN FULL WINTER COSTUME.
34^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
dition to do full justice to an ample meal of boiled
walrus meat.
My sledge had lost several pieces of the ivory-
shoeing on the upward trip, so old Tahweenyah took
it into the entrance of his igloo, and, with the assist-
ance of Accommodingwah, began repairing it. The
stock of ivory in the settlement was so small, how-
ever, that it was necessary to eke it out with walrus-
skin, and this, after being put on, must have time to
freeze solid, so there was another delay.
I had rather an annoying experience here of the
effect of a heavy snow blanket in increasing the
warmth of an igloo, for I was awakened from sound
sleep by a gallon or two of ice-water dashing in my
face. This water had collected on the upper side of
the skin lining of the igloo, until at last it found an
outlet, which was unfortunately directly over my
head.
The going was good, and the march from Parker
Snow Bay to Saunders Island was made comfortably
in about twelve hours.
While I slept uneasily (owing to bugs !) at the
Saunders-Island village, Ahhu, the plump, comforta-
ble wife of burly Ahngeenyah, dried my rabbit-skin
stockings, mended my kamiks and kooletah, and made
me a mitten to replace the one lost during the day.
From Ahngeenyah himself, I obtained a big feed for
my dogs, a fine long, heavy walrus line, a coil of sin-
nigshah, and a large piece of bearskin, more than
enough to make a fine pair of trousers for Lee.
Visiting here was the oldest man in the tribe, Ah-
gotah of the wooden leg, from his igloo near the head
of the Sound.
At 5:30 A.M. of the 2 2d, I left Akpani for the
northward.
The travelling party had received accessions at
Return from Cape York
347
Parker Snow Bay, and ag^ain here, and one or two
families liad been added at intermediate points, so
that, as we groped our way along to the northern end
of the island, throuoh the almost tancrible orloom at
the base of the bird cliffs, we formed a caravan of
eighteen persons, eight sledges, and fifty dogs ; a
microscopic speck of life and warmth and animation.
"PLUMP, COMFORTABLE AHHU."
in the midst of a world of ice and frozen stillness.
From the extremity of the island we headed north-
ward through the darkness, across the grey waste of
Wolstenholm Sound, towards the invisible " Land of
Noogli,"
Only a few miles from the island, my, as it proved,
very fallible native companions led the way into a
patch of the roughest ice, where two or three of
348 Northward over the "Great Ice"
the sledges were crippled, and the caravan was obliged
to wait while they were repaired. Then it came
my turn in the loss of several sections of my ivory
sledge shoes. This happened just at a time when my
sledge was a little behind the rest, owing to the loss
of one of the strongest dogs, the untamed Panikpah,
who broke his trace and disappeared in the darkness ;
and in a few moments the caravan had vanished from
ACCESSIONS TO OUR PARTY.
sio-ht and hearino-. It was a lone time before the
o o o _
work of repairing was completed, and then the faint
noon twilio-ht enabled me to make some selection of
a route, and in a short time extricate ourselves from
the roupfh ice. For some time we followed the trail
of the caravan, and then, during a few moments of
inattention on my part, my driver wandered away
from it, and without wasting time in the effort to re-
Return from Cape York 349'
2"ain it, I headed north-westward for the outer edee
of the rough ice, which, from the experience of the
down trip, I knew lay all along the coast northward
from the land of Noogli.
Good progress was made over the hard and level
surface, the almost imperceptible noon twilight en-
abling us to avoid bergs and areas of rough ice.
The cliffs of Oobloodahingwah, the great rock Poo-
eenyah, and then the low land of Noogli loomed on
our rieht, and soon we reached the south-western
angle of the rough ice, bounded to the west by young
ice, covered by efflorescence. Here we recovered
the trail of the caravan. Knowing that this young
ice extended northward about parallel with the coast,
well up to Cape Parry, I wanted to go out on it and
follow along its edge, thus avoiding all the rough
country.
My young driver, however, was so extremely reluc-
tant to go upon it, and offered so many objections,
"that it was unsafe," "that the efflorescence would
injure the dogs' feet," etc, that I followed the caravan
trail along the edge of the old ice, going upon the
young ice only when absolutely necessary, and then
leaving it again at the earliest moment.
I was amused at the persistence with which the na-
tives had stuck to the more difficult travelling on the
old snow-covered ice. It is true the young ice when
we came down had been unsafe, but the several days
of cold weather since then had strengthened it to ab-
solute safety, yet it was like pulling teeth to keep dogs
or driver on it. Thus alternately on and off the
young ice, we made our way northward till nearly up
to Cape Parry, the repairs to the sledge enduring be-
yond my utmost expectations. Here, just as we were
crossing an arm of the young ice, a sudden roar as of
distant thunder came crashing through the trembling
35° Northward over the "Great Ice"
western blackness. My driver uttered a cry of fear,
pushed at the sledge with all his force, urging the
dogs with whip and voice, for the old ice.
We had scarcely gained a few yards on this, when
the young ice be-
hind us rose and
fell, broke into
cakes from be-
tween which the
black water
spouted in hiss-
ing sheets ; the
heavy ice on
which we stood
heaved and
groaned, cracks
formed reverber-
atincr throuo^h it
in every direc-
tion ; the doo-s
stopped, whin-
ing, regardless of
whip or voice ;
a biof berof close
by burst the
bonds of the
surrounding ice
with a vicious
erindine, Sfrat-
ing sound, and
rocked and
groaned till it seemed about to topple over upon us.
Then the infernal tumult passed on through the dark-
ness toward the savage shore. An enormous berg
out in the North Water had disrupted. When the ex-
citement was over I looked at my watch. It lacked
'AHGOTAH OF THE WOODEN LEG.
Return from Cape York
351
but a few minutes of midnight of the 2 2d of Decem-
ber, the midnight of the Arctic night.
The sun had turned back in his course, and there,
in sight of mighty, frowning Kangahsuk, I had been a
pigmy witness of a cataclysm, which may perhaps have
been the responsive thrill of this Arctic Cimmeria.
After the commotion had subsided, I struck a bee
line for the black shadow of Kangahsuk, and for
hours toiled to-
wards the orreat
headland over a
chaos of broken
ice, which rapid-
ly reduced my
sledge to a state
of almost com-
plete wreckage.
The nearly in-
distinoruishable
dark mass of the
does, climbinof
skyward just in
front of the
sledge, would be
the only warninor _,^^^,„
before the sledge
came to a dead stop against a ragged block of blue
ice ; cries from the dogs as they disappeared down-
wards, the instantaneous prelude to a headlong plunge
of the sledge, only to stop with a shock and crash,
with its nose wedged under a rock of ice. The only
warning of the presence of icebergs in our path was
the sudden blotting out of the stars. Then by put-
ting my head to the snow, some idea of the berg's
extent could be obtained from the size of the starless
area.
352 Northward over the "Great Ice"
When almost up to the cape, the sledge was so
badly wrecked as to necessitate a stop for repairs, and
my driver was so discouraged by this, that I found a
resort to the kitchen box necessary, and turned him
loose upon the few crumbs of biscuit and spoonfuls of
molasses left in it, which perceptibly improved his
feelings. Soon after starting again, we turned the
savage black angle of Kangahsuk, and from here to
Netiulumi had a comparatively easy time, although
the completely shattered front of the sledge caused
every lump of ice to bring us up standing.
Several times between Cape Parry and Netiulumi,.
Ihrllie was very solicitous about my battered tin cup
which hung at the upstanders, and finally intimated
that perhaps I was well enough satisfied with his serv-
ices during the journey to give it to him. In spite
of the munificence of the remuneration I readily an-
swered yes.
It was 6:30 A.M. when I climbed over the Netiu-
lumi ice-foot, having been twenty-five hours on the
road.
The caravan had arrived long before us, and I
found that Lee had stopped just long enough to en-
gage a sledge and fresh driver, Ooblooyah, and had
then hastened on to the lodge. I soon discovered
the reason for this. I had expected to sleep and ob-
tain a meal of walrus or seal here, but found almost
everyone away, and the only food in the place very
passe narwhalmeat, which even my pretty well accli-
mated stomach objected to. My own provisions had
been exhausted at Saunders Island, so there was
nothing to do but to keep on. Yet my sledge was a
complete wreck, and neither my dogs nor driver were
in condition to proceed.
At this juncture big Kyogwito, the Nalegaksoah,
came in from a visit to his fox-traps, his round face:
Return from Cape York
353'
glowing, in its halo of blue foxtails, like a molten
bronze sun. He offered to take me to the lodge.
I was only too glad to accept, and after a delay of
scarcely an hour, I started on the last stage of the
journey, the sixty-mile ride to the lodge, where I
arrived early the next morning, having been forty*
six hours without food or sleep.
"ROUND FACE QLOW^ING LIKE A BRONZE SUN."
During this sledge trip, made in the depth of the
Arctic night, from my lodge at the head of Bowdoin
Bay, to Cape York, a distance of about two hundred
miles, and return, we slept in the stone huts of the
natives, or, if none of these was convenient, in snow
houses which we built ourselves. We lived upon tea,
biscuit, and walrus meat, and yet suffered no serious
discomfort from extreme cold, or other causes, except
VOL. II. — 23
354 Northward over the " Great Ice "
during the last return march, when I travehed for
forty-six hours without food or sleep ; and we were
in no special danger except for the few moments
when the big berg capsized while I was rounding
Cape Parry.
CHAPTER IX.
WINTER ROUTINE.
Arctic Details — Beginning Winter Routine — Occupations— Flash-
light Studies— Visits from the Natives— The "Great Night" —
Auroras — A New Year's Party — End of the Old Year and Beginning
OF the New — " Lassie " and " Lady."
TYPE COSTUMES.
Summer. Winter.
CHAPTER IX.
WINTER ROUTINE.
T
HE details of every-
day life, the dull
routine of getting
up and going to bed, of
eating and drinking, of
small talk, of ever-recur-
rinof and never-finished
work, of dressing, sleep-
ing, and all the other
nothings, is a subject
which, when the scene is
laid in any of God's coun-
tries, demands the pen of a master to make attractive.
But when the scene is in some place beyond the
pale, and especially when under the stress of the polar
night, the eager curiosity of the human animal as to
how his brother human animal manages to achieve
these humdrum yet vital matters, gives an interest to
the subject which enables it to survive prosaic
presentation.
I remember, when my years were less than now, and
everything within that magic circle that bounds the
northern disc of midnight suns and noonday nights
possessed a glamour, I read with deepest interest
every trifle with regard to the Arctic winter life in the
357
35^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
narratives of those who had penetrated the mysterious
region. Now, looking back through several years of
life in those self-same regions, where savage black
cliffs and treacherous crevasse-riven glaciers take the
place of neighbours, screaming sea-birds and howling
dogs serve as friends, and man and his highest aspira-
tions shrivel into utter insignificance among the huge
shattered bones of mother earth's primeval skeleton,
lying ghastly in the frozen starlight, a description of
WINTER VISITORS.
life's daily routine seems a waste of ink. Yet there
are doubtless many others who feel to-day as I did in
those earlier years, and for them I write.
With the departure of the sun in the latter part of
October our winter routine began. This routine was
simple, and our thorough knowledge of the country,
and adoption of Eskimo methods, enabled us to inter-
rupt it frequently by sledge journeys of greater or
less length, so that it did not become seriously wear-
Winter Routine
159
ing in its monotony. The alarm rang at 6:45 a.m.,
and whoever was on morning duty for the week rose,
built the fire, and prepared the simple breakfast, of
hardtack, or corn-meal mush, and coffee. The break-
fast hour was
eight A.M. After
breakfast, the
coal and water
supply for the
day was brought,
the meat for din-
ner taken in so
that it would
have a chance
to thaw, and any
outdoor work at-
tended to.
Up to the first
of January our
water supply
was brouofht on
sledges from
Baby Lake, up
the valley, but on
that date a well,
dug through the
ice to the rock
bottom in the
deepest part of
the lake (seven
feet), showed the
entire contents of the lake to have been transformed
Into flint-like ice. After that our water supply was
brought in the form of ice, and a laro-e box full of this
was kept in the outer room, from which we drew to
melt into water.
AN ARCTIC LAUNDRESS.
360 Northward over the " Great Ice "
Our coal, the soft steamer grade, contained so much
dust and dirt and snow, that I found it necessary to
screen it in order to obtain satisfactory resuhs in
our tiny stove. These things, and in the first of the
winter the bankine-in of the house and construction
of the snow entrances, gave us occupation for the
hours immediately following breakfast. Lunch of
griddle cakes, of venison stew, or beans and brown
bread, tea, and biscuit was eaten at twelve, and then
work commenced on our equipment.
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY.
It is surprising how much work there is in the
equipment of even a party of three, when everything
must be made from the raw material.
First, there were the sledges, five in number, then
the tent, the cooking apparatus, the odometer (for
measuring the distance travelled during the sledge
journey), the dog-harnesses, traces, boots, whips, etc.,
the clothing, the packing of the rations, fitting of
snow-shoes and ski, and the thousand trifling, yet
vital, details.
The plans for the sledges, the construction of the
tent and cooker, and the designs for the clothing fell
Winter Routine 361
to my lot. Lee built one of the sledges, constructed
the odometer wheel, and packed the rations. Henson
built three of the sledges, made the whips, and super-
intended the manufacture of the harnesses, traces,
etc., by the natives. Each one looked after the
sewing of his own costume, the work being done by
the willing, faithful Eskimo women. With these
various occupations, the time from lunch till dinner
was taken up.
At five P.M. we sat down to our principal meal,
the menu of which varied from day to day, though
the chief dish was usually reindeer steak. After
dinner, interest in our equipment frequently led us to
continue work on it through the evening, or if not,
there were books to read, notes to write, plans and
details of further work to be perfected, and when, as
frequently happened, a considerable number of natives
was visiting us, there was always information to be
obtained from them, and more or less amusement in
taking their pictures.
I continued work on the ethnological photographic
record of the tribe as in the previous winters, but now
that new subjects were comparatively scarce, it gave
me an opportunity for an auxiliary series of pictures
showing action, special positions, characteristics, etc.
Some of these photos scattered through this chap-
ter, will give an idea of the work. Many others, while
not adapted for a narrative of the nature of this, are
of much interest to the artist and ethnologist, and
contain many surprises.
Usually about ten p.m. a cup of tea and a biscuit
were in order, and by eleven or twelve o'clock lights
were out, fires expiring, and quiet reigned in the lodge.
Besides the sledge trips which we took during each
of the winter moons, we had the nearly constant visits
of the Eskimos, and the two together destroyed al-
362 Northward over the "Great Ice"
most completely the wearying monotony of the long
night. The large east room was assigned to our vis-
itors, a fire being built in it for their comfort. The
attractions of this palatial guest-chamber, combined
with the presence of an abundant food supply at Kar-
nah, about twenty miles
from the lodge, resulted
in that place being, dur-
ing the winter, the me-
tropolis of the country,
about one-fourth of the
entire tribe residing
there.
Some of these peo-
ple were running back
and forth all the time.
Sometimes it would be
a couple of young sports
out partly to exercise
their dogs, largely to get
a drink of much-prized
coffee and a biscuit ;
sometimes a hunter
bringing something to
trade ; sometimes a fam-
ily anxious to have a
taste of biscuit and cof-
fee and get a lump of
sugar ; and sometimes,
as was the case at Christmas, an entire picnic party
of several families, children and all, would descend
upon us and completely fill the big room.
I can see such a party now — the large room, but
partially lit by the yellow flame of an Eskimo lamp
and the glow of the soft-coal fire ; the red-brown faces,
with black eyes and dazzling teeth, gleaming like
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY.
Winter Routine
36:
living bronzes. Here a woman nursing her baby,
there another mending a kamik, perhaps a third tend-
ing the lamp, and another washing towels and stock-
ings for us. Perched on the edee of a bunk, their
feet swinging over the edge, two girls, guying, in
audible asides, a third who,
stretched on the cover of the
biscuit cask, took their per-
sonal remarks with smiling
good-humour. Near the lamp
a man fashioning ivory toggles
for dog-harnesses from a wal-
rus tusk ; mixed up about his
feet two boys pulling fingers to
see who was the stronger ; and
in the warmest corner near the
stove two old men gossiping
volubly, cracking jokes at each
other's expense, and empha-
sising specially good hits by
friendly pokes in the ribs.
The " Great Nio-ht," as well
as the vagaries of the sun, is
one of the common phenomena
of the Arctic regions in regard
to which there exist variant
and erroneous ideas.
Though the long night be-
gins technically on the day
when the sun sinks for the last
time below the horizon, yet he
is still so little below the south-
ern horizon at noon of each day for some time longer,
that there are several hours of twilight, practically
equivalent to daylight, in the middle of the day. But
this twilight rapidly pales and fades, and then the
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY.
364 Northward over the " Great Ice "
gloomy night for weeks holds full sway throughout
every hour of the twenty-four, unbroken except by
the brihiant moons, of which there are three, in every
Arctic winter night, and the Aurora.
And what is this months-long " Great Night " like ?
Words cannot describe it, and no one who has not
himself felt its savage pressure and Luciferian beauty
can correctly imagine it.
The Arctic world, stern and savage and desolate
enough even in the dazzling summer sunlight, changes
in the Cimmerian grasp of the " Great Night" to an
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY.
inferno of universal death, eternal silence, deadly
cold, and crushing darkness beyond all conception of
the liveliest imagination.
True there is a devilish beauty in this night when
storm-free, and the blue-black sky, set with indescrib-
able brilliants, arches above the black cliffs and the
ghastly surface of the fettered sea ; and when the
white moon lights the same, its splendour is unearthly ;
even as it is when the devil dancers of the Aurora
people sky and frozen sea with spectral-flitting
wraiths.
Winter Routine
565
long" winter
different
But when day after day and week after week pass
without a benign ray from the great alchemist and
mist dissipator, the sun, then the animal feels the
effect and the machinery begins to jar.
Nine out of every ten people the first time they
meet me ask, '* How did you
stand the cold ? " As a matter
of fact, the cold of the Arctic
regions to a well man, properly
fed and properly clothed, is no
more serious than is the cold
of our own winters to us here.
But the darkness, the months-
ght ! That is
Just so long as man
remains an animal, just so long
can he never entirely avoid the
effects of the long-continued
pfloom. We all know that a
plant will grow in darkness,
but it does not grow properly,
and is weak and colourless.
So, too, man will live through
the Arctic night, but he does
not live properly. No temper-
ament can avoid its effects en-
tirely. The man of sanguine
temperament, full of plans for
the future, gifted with self-
contained resources, feels it
least, while, on the other hand,
there are nervous tempera-
ments upon which the stress of the Arctic night would
bring complete and literal insanity.
Try and imagine, if you can, what it would be like
if, here at home, the sun set every year on the 26th
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY.
366 Northward over the "Great Ice
of October, not to rise again until the 14th of Febru-
ary ! ! Yet it is not the fact of absolute darkness, not
that it is impossible to see anything during all this
long night, that gives it its awful power. By no
means. During each of the three winter moons, the
Arctic landscape is flooded
with the most brilliant light,
and at other times, the dark-
ness is somewhat less than that
of our starlit winter nights at
home, owing to the nearly un-
broken snow expanse which
reflects instead of absorbinof
the starlight. Only during the
fierce winter storms is the dark-
ness of the Arctic night a tang-
ible, oppressive, ponderable
substance. No, it is not the
inability to see, it is the absence
of the chemical, the actinic,
the physiological effects of the
magic rays of the great source
of light.
In reo^ard to the Aurora of
high northern latitudes, the
popular idea is almost as erron-
eous as in reo'ard to the niofht.
In the Whale-Sound reo;"ion, a
dazzling auroral display is of
extreme rarity. Usually the
display takes the form of cur-
tains and streamers of mod-
erate intensity, and as frequently in the south as
elsewhere. But when one of the rare brilliant Au-
roras does occur in the heart of the " Great Night,"
the effect is infinitely grand and inspiring.
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY.
Winter Routine
Z^l
For days, or even weeks, the great northern con-
stellations, Cassiopeia, Orion, the Great Bear, Gemini,
and those sparkling brilliants, Arcturus, Aldebaran,
Wega, and the rest, have glittered undimmed by rival
light, when suddenly the ebon dome of the " Great
Night " is rent and slashed by flashing blades of light
which dart like rapiers athwart
the blue-black sky, then rush
together to form a blazing
arch, spanning the heavens,
and bristling with points which
leap and flash like the uplifted
sabres of charging cavalry.
Then arch and sabres melt
into a faint luminous cloud,
which breaks into a hundred
tenuous fluttering banners.
Then, as the celestial elec-
trician turns the current on
full force, with an instant,
simultaneous movement, the
banners leap and merge into
a rayant waving curtain, the
folds of which sway to and fro
far out across the desolate,
rigid sea.
As the ghostly undulations
sweep along the curtain's edge,
pale flashes of red and green
spring out, and, standing in the
utter silence of the frozen night, one almost fancies
that he hears the waving of the mighty folds shaping
itself to sound.
Then instant as it came, it vanishes, and the stars,
the ebon dome, and the uplifted desolation of the
"Great Ice" hold full sway again.
FLASH-LIGHT STUDY.
368 Northward over the " Great Ice "
The last day of the year was one of inky darkness,
sable clouds blotting out all starlight.
AN ESKIMO MOTHER'S BURDEN.
In view of a prospective storm, I had Lee and Nook-
tah commence the construction of a covered passage
between the two houses, with snow-blocks which Nook-
Winter Routine
369
tah and Koko have been cutting. I myself undertook
the job of getting the coal pile, which the Eskimos, in
bringing coal for the house, have scattered over con-
siderable ground, into more compact shape.
While at work on this I heard voices down the bay,
and in a short
time a whole con-
tingent of Eski-
mos arrived.
Oomah, wife and
two children ;
Kio, wife and
two children;
Elingwah, wife
and child; Sipsu,
Akp alisoaho,
and two boys.
The men, after
they had fas-
tened their do^s,
went to work
immediately as-
sisting Lee and
Nooktah, and in
a short time the
entrance to the
house w^as com-
pletely protected
from the wind.
These natives brought blubber with them, and I orave
them an iron pot and molasses, and during the even-
ing they have been making and drinking coffee to their
hearts' content. They have helped out what would, I
fear, have been otherwise a sad day for at least one
of the party.
The year just coming to a close has been the dark-
"LASSIE.
Z7^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
est one in my life ; it has brought me more care, more
worry, more disappointment, more heartache, than all
the others put together. It has through me brought to
those near and dear to me much sorrow, I trust I may
see no more like it. And yet, what is the outlook for
the coming year ? Matt is sick, Lee is in no condition
either physical or mental, and I have, I fear, lost my for-
mer elan and sanguineness. These feelings viay be only
the effect of this hellish Arctic night. I hope they are.
Just before midnight I got out my remaining stock
of fireworks, a few Roman candles and pin-wheels,
and set them off for the amusement of my Eskimo
friends, the display closing just after midnight.
Their ahnmnians were loud and numerous when I
held the blazing wheels in my hand, and let them
flash their coruscatincr lives out there.
The wind blew strongly as the old year passed away.
New Year's Day was clear with the exception of a bank
of clouds in the south.
I dreamed last nieht of home and mother. Is it a
favourable omen for the coming year ? I shall take it
as such.
Among the dogs that arrived last night were Baby's
two, " Lassie" and " Lady," who in the brilliant days
six months ago, hauled her about the place on her
little sledge. I have given them to-day a good feed
for the dear child's sake.
The wind last night was accompanied by a rise in
the temperature to 14° F.
The crowd of native visitors had intended to leave to-
day, but the south-easterly wind has detained them, and
they will not go till to-morrow. They have solaced
themselves with constant coffee-makinof. The New
Year's dinner menu was beans and brown bread, peas,
kippered herring, pears, and tea. Matt is feeling better
to-night, and Lee is more like himself.
CHAPTER X.
SLEDGE TRIPS OF THE LONG NIGHT.
Seventy Miles for a Deer — Bear Tracks — The Loneliest Light the
World can Show — Egyptian Karnak and Greenland Karnah — Eskimo
Children at Play — A\ Eskimo Legend — An Ogre — The Winter North
Water — An Exciting Ride — Savage Scenery— A Bflle (?) — Feasting,
Astronomy, and Gossip — Death of Lion.
CHAPTER X.
SLEDGE TRIPS OF THE LONG NIGHT.
B
ESIDE the long
sledge journey to
Cape York in the
midnight of the winter
niofht, numerous shorter
journeys were made from
time to time duringf the au-
tumn and winter months.
A description of two of
these will g-ive a Qreneral
idea of all.
At 7:30 A.M., November
14th, with Matt, Panikpah, sledge, and nine dogs, I
left the lodgfe for Kangerdlooksoah to brinor home a
deer killed and cached by Panikpah. The tempera-
ture was -1 1° F., and the gritty snow covering the
ice made the sledge pull heavily. Still we covered
the five miles to the East Glacier in an hour. An
hour later, we were rattling along under the shadow
of the Castle Cliffs. The twilight of dawn was just
appearing in the east, vying with the brilliant moon-
light, and the numerous grim stone faces of the cliffs
stood in sharp silhouette against the silver sky, chang-
ing their expression as we passed.
The going across the Sound was fairly good, inter-
373
374 Northward over the "Great Ice"
rupted only occasional-
ly by patches of rough
ice, and we covered the
thirty-five miles to Kan-
gerdlooksoah in six
hours. Fastening the
doo^s to the ice-foot, and
taking a hasty lunch of
biscuit, corned beef, and
pork, we clambered to
the shore, and com-
menced the climb up the
rough, rapidly rising,
boulder-littered hills
which lie back of Kan-
eerdlooksoah. The
moonliaht and the noon
twilight together gave
us ample light, so that
even a raven's track
could be seen some
yards distant. Hare,
fox, and deer tracks
were numerous, and
about a mile from the
shore, a broad track,
like the trail of a man
on snow-shoes, was seen
winding down the slope
ahead of us. I was at a
loss to account for this,
until we reached it and
found the huge planti-
grade footprints of a
polar bear or iiannook.
The width of the actual
Sledge Trips of the Long Night 375
tracks was just the length of my kamik, and their length
twice as much, i.e., 1 1x22 inches, while the dragging of
the toes and the hair of the heel through the snow made
the trail fully as large as that by a pair of snow-shoes.
The tracks had been made the day before, but what
the brute could have been after in that locality, so far
away from the open water, I could not imagine, unless
— and a sudden fear came to me — it might be the
cached deer, and I quickened my steps.
A little farther on, we came upon the track of the
puny Lord of Creation, man ; and just beyond this, the
little pile of stones (much to my relief, undisturbed)
and a patch of blood-stained and trampled snow,
marking the place where the deer had met his fate.
Detaching a small stone with his heel, Panikpah used
it as a hammer with which to loosen others, and soon
the soft grey pelt and bright-red meat were exposed to
view. Distributing these between us, we turned our
faces towards the shore.
The scene before us was a brilliant one : the snow
lay dazzling white in the rays of the full moon, broken
here and there by the jet-black rocks projecting
through it ; almost at our feet lay the little black speck
of Ptarmigan Island, and beyond it the marble sea of
Inglefield Gulf, reaching to the glaciers and black
nunataks of the north shore. Above these, the roll-
ingr swells of the " Great Ice" threw back the moon-
light like burnished silver ; the loneliest, weirdest,
most desolate light the world can show.
At eleven p.m., we were at the lodge, having made
the round trip of seventy miles in thirteen travelling
hours.
At noon of January 7th, I left the lodge on my iron-
shod sledge drawn by eight dogs, upon a trip round
Whale Sound, the object of which was to determine
astronomically the positions of certain salient points.
Z1^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
as Kanga, the point at the mouth of Ohiks Bay ; Kan-
gahsuk, or Cape Parry, the southern portal of Whale
Sound ; AkpasunI, the western extremity of Hak-
luyt Island ; Kiaktoksuami, the eastern end of Her-
bert Island, and perhaps also the eastern end of
Northumberland
Island. Just be-
fore we started,
Ootoonlah ar-
rived with news
of having killed
a bear out near
Peterahwik.
The moon was
shining brightly,
but the going on
the bay was hard,
and the iron-
runner sledge
pulled so heavily
that Matt and I
walked the first
eight miles, turn-
ing the sledge
over to the two
girls, Alakahsing-
wah and Elating-
wah, who had
seized this oppor-
tunity to get a
ride home. Out
in the Sound the
ice was free of snow and we all rode, dashing rapidly
along under the towering Sculptured Cliffs, whose co-
lossal statues, holding silent communion with each other
across the intervening chasms and amphitheatres, re-
ELATINGW^AH.
Sledge Trips of the Long Night
Z11
minded me of Turgenieff's dialogue between the
Yungfrau and Finsteraarhorn, and afforded endless
amusement to the girls, as they named one after another
of the great stone faces after members of their tribe.
Strange antithesis of names — Egyptian Karnak and
its statues, bur-
ied in eternal
tropic sands;
Greenland Kar-
nah and its stat-
ues, towering
above eternal
hyperborean
snows. One
carved by man
and buried by
great Nature;
the other carved
by Nature her-
self, never to be
buried or hidden
until the last day.
A squad of the
Karnah children
met us some dis-
tance beyond the
ice-foot,and their
shout of recog-
nition brought
the entire popu-
lationout of their
houses. All
along the ice-foot in front of the village, seals
were stacked in great piles, like bags of grain, for
the harvest this year has been very bountiful. The
double light, shining through sealskin window and
MYOUKSOAH.
Z7'^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
open tossiit (entrance) of each of the ten igloos,
gave ample ground for applying the term "Arctic
Metropolis " to the settlement. Everywhere about
the place dressed sealskins were hanging out to dry,
and the women were all at work on others, a striking
contrast to the dearth of last season.
On my way to Kardah's igloo, I stopped to watch
the children at play on the level ground back of the
igloos. Standing there in the grey darkness of the
early afternoon, I had difficulty in realising my
position. In every direction glowed the yellow
lights from the iMoo windows and toss2tts ; and the
merry cries of a score of children playing tag, snap
the whip, etc., and their shouts of ''Tessa'' (stop),
"" Karr'' (come on), '' AksJiid'" (pull), '' Toioi''
(hurry), "■ Ahtitdo'' (again), filled the air. In spite
of the strange little furry figures, the boys bare-
headed and unkempt, the girls with little pointed
sealskin hoods, their voices were the same children
voices that sound the world over. Yet here I was
among a race of savages, under the shadow of barren,
eternally frozen cliffs, the temperature far below zero,
and the gloom of the " Great Night " enveloping me.
When I entered the igloo, I found an entirely nude
boy of some five years, standing upon the bed plat-
form, playing the kiloon, the solitary musical instru-
ment of these people.
Early the next morning, I galloped away from
Karnah, bound for Kanga, at the entrance to Olriks
Bay. The ice was smooth and almost snow-free, and
we reached the point in good time. All the way
from the lodge to Karnah, and while crossing the
Sound from Karnah to Kanga, the sky had been
cloudless, but as we reached the ice-foot at the latter
place, a silvery veil began forming over the sky, ob-
scuring the stars, and just the faintest breath of air
380 Northward over the " Great Ice "
issued from the bay. There was no snow at Kanga
from which an igloo could be built, so I drove across
the mouth of the bay to Ittibloo, seven miles distant,
to sleep and return in the morning. There were
three igloos here, and I went at once to that of my
friend, Ootooniah. After I had finished my dinner
(fortunately), Ootooniah brought in half a seal,
which, judging from the perfume, had been buried
several summers, and with the assistance of a hatchet
"A CANAL OF BLACK WATER AT ITS FOOT."
dispensed the hospitality of his mansion to some
native guests who had just arrived from the west-
ward, in the shape of great chunks of the frozen,
putrid meat. Words fail me. The proverb here is
not "kill the fatted calf," but " bring in the fetid
seal." In the walls of this igloo, as in nearly all the
old ones of this region, I observed bones of the whale,
now extinct in these waters.
It was past midnight when I turned in after setting
my little alarm clock for six a.m. Before that time I
Sledge Trips of the Long Night 381,
wakened to hear, even in the cavern of the igloo, the
wind roaring overhead. Stepping outside, I found
the stars completely blotted out, and the wind howling
down from the crest of Kirsirviahsuk as the wind
can howl only at Ittibloo, hurling the snow along in
blinding clouds. Observations were out of the ques-
tion, so after a generous meal of salt beef, mush, and
coffee, we started for Kangahsuk (Cape Parry) via
Netiulumi, in a gloom through which the trail was
recognisable only to the keen instincts of my dogs.
I did not go up to the igloos at Netiulumi, but
had the fire for our mush and coffee built under the
overhanging rocks of the shore, just above the ice-
foot. While these were preparing, I arranged with
Kyoguito, the Nalegaksoah, to take me on his big
sledge with his powerful team of dogs to Cape
Parry, while Nooktah, my driver, and my dogs rested
at Netiulumi. The consideration for this service
was a dish of mush and a cup of coffee. As soon as
our meal was finished I started westward, determined
to see for myself the open water reported by the na-
tives here, and the existence of which was unques-^
tionable, as evidenced by the bank of dense, inky
water-clouds visible from the village through the
faintly filtering moonlight. We came upon it sooner
than I had expected, its edge located eastward of the
little bay half-way between Netiulumi and Cape
Parry, and curving away northward towards North-
umberland Island, Standing upon the frozen shore
of this Stygian sea, I could hear the occasional long-
drawn puff of a kahlillozvah (narwhal), like the sigh
of some weary spirit.
Reluctantly I turned back, and with the Nalegak-
soah's cracking whip urging his dogs to their best
pace, we were soon back to Netiulumi, and I went
at once to Tellikotinah's igloo, the inner compart-
382 Northward over the "Great Ice"
ment of a large, well-warmed, and lighted double
igloo, the other half of which was occupied by Myah
and Myouksoah, with their families. Kessuh and
Koodlah with their wives were here from Koinisu-
ni visiting, but they were hustled off to other igloos
for the night, leaving me in possession of an undi-
vided half of the igloo, the other half being occupied
by Tellikotinah, his wife, and daughter. Both My-
"THE SAVAGE BLACK LOVER OF THE NORTH WATER."
ouksoah and Tellikotinah had killed a seal during
the day, and while I was obtaining from the latter a
map and list of all the settlements and igloos from
Humboldt Glacier to Melville Bay, Myouksoah was
cutting up his seal in the adjoining igloo. When the
catechism was ended, I gave Tellikotinah a mouth-
ful of whiskey, and then called Myouksoah for the
same dose. Fresh from the dissection of the seal,
hands, arms, body, face, and neck covered with blood,
Sledge Trips of the Long Night 3^3
he looked, as he came forward and put out his great
mouth for me to pour the whiskey into, like some
horrible oo^re.
My star sights finished here, I started for Keate,
the settlement on the south side of Northumberland
Island. The open water precluded any possibility of
getting to Hakluyt Island or even to the western end
of Northumberland.
MENDING A KAMIK.
It was nearly midnight when I left Netiulumi in a
flood of brilliant moonlight. The water-clouds, mount-
ains of burnished lead, hung on our left and almost
ahead of us, hiding the western end of Northumber-
land completely. At first, I headed direct for Keate,
but soon saw a black bight of the open water extend-
ing up the Sound well across our course. Reaching
it, I found it bordered by a ribbon of glassy ice, sev-
eral yards in width, formed by the flying spray of the
waves in the last eale. On this the sledge moved
without resistance, and, as is their custom, my dogs
Sledge Trips of the Long Night 385
broke into a wild gallop. Close to the sledge on the
left dashed and murmured the inky waves of this mid-
winter North Water, and my dogs, with their invaria-
ble and unaccountable perversity, acted as if nothing
on earth would satisfy them except to dash into it.
The slewing of the sledge caused by their rapid move-
ments more than once brouofht the heel of the runner
over this water, and once, when there was a particu-
larly sharp turn, only the quick and concerted action
of my driver and myself prevented the sledge, and
ourselves with it, from oroino- in. This incident, to-
gether with some perti-
nent remarks from me,
waked my driver up, and
after this he kept at a safe
distance from the dangfer
line. When we reached
the ice-foot about a mile
east from Keate, the ebb
of the spring tides had
left it a formidable verti-
cal wall of ice, with a canal
of black water at its foot.
Some time was consumed „.r^^„^^
^ . ^ KIOSHOO.
m nuntmg tor a place
where the ice-foot was scalable, but once on top of it
we had a fairly good road all the way to the foot of the
slope which reaches down from the igloos. With a
chorus of savage yelps and howls, my team dashed
straight up this slope, halting only at the entrance to
the igloo. Looking back from here toward the open
water, I beheld a scene of the most savage grandeur.
Behind, on either side, lay the snow-vv^hite land ;
below, the white surface of the upper Sound ; the
southern cliffs seemed only a few miles distant, they
were so sharp and clear. Along the shore at my
VOL. II. — 25
386 Northward over the "Great Ice"
feet the waves of the North Water, silver in the wake
of the moon, ink everywhere else, dashed against the
ebon rocks, in the depth of the iron Arctic winter.
Almost due south, across the Sound, stood out the
dark mass of Kangahsuk, the savage black lover of
the North Water, who, ever when the full moon
lights his iron features, wakens in amorous fury, and,
aided by the rushing torrents of the spring-tides
sweeping out of the Sound, shatters the steely-white
fetters of his mistress like thinnest glass, till she can
heave and throb against his breast, and waken in his
caverned heart fierce sio^hs and muffled roarines, the
passion language of this frozen world.
Were we at westward-reaching- Peterahwik now, we
would see, at noon, a dim ribbon of light upon the sea
horizon to the south, the faint reflection of the dis-
tant sun. Here in the Sound the cliffs of the r,outh
shore rise far above this narrow zone of twilight, and
the reign of the "Great Night" will be undisputed
for weeks yet.
Only one of the Keate igloos was in commission.
It was occupied by a family no member of which I
had seen. The man, a shiftless, lazy, dirty specimen,
according to all reports, was said to have obtained his
wife by allowing her husband, his friend, to fall over
the bird cliffs. She was a sister of Ikwah, my native
hunter at Red Cliff. They had a nearly grown
daughter who had never seen a kobhuiah or white
man. It was with considerable Interest, therefore,
that I followed Lee through the lone, narrow tos-
silt, or entrance, and emerged into the Igloo. I was
expectmg to find a dirty and disreputable igloo,
and in this I was not disappointed. With all that I
had seen of the physical beauty (?) of this tribe, I
was not prepared for the face (belonging to the
daughter) which met my eyes as I looked towards
Sledge Trips of the Long Night 3^7
the bed platform where she sat tailor fashion and
nearly nude, chewing the sole bf her step-father's
kamik preparatory to sewing a patch on it. As Lee
expressed it, " It would fry eggs." Its radiance in the
io-loo made the wind-swept snow and rocks outside
seem a heaven. The igloo was too small to accom-
modate all of us, even had it been more attractive,
and I instructed the men to build a snow igloo for us.
"EETOO" AND " TOOKY "
This brought out the information that one of the
unoccupied stone igloos was available for us, and here
our impedimenta were taken. This igloo was the
storehouse of the family, and in it were several, seal-
skin bags pressed full of hundreds of little auks,
feathers and all, just as killed, — the winter food supply
of the family.
fm^
.^^
m -^i
Sledge Trips of the Long Night
189
Though bleak and savage now, in summer Keate
is a garden-spot : a httle southward-facing niche
beside a glacier, protected by bluffs and cliffs on
either side and behind from the wind, the breeding-
place of millions of little auks, the stream beside the
glacier furnishing abundance of water, and the south-
ern exposure, together with the protection of the
•cliffs and the presence of the little auks, carpeting the
little nook with flowers and an abundance of grass.
After my star sights here, which were abruptly cur-
tailed by an inrushing bank of fog from the open
water, I started for the
eastern end of Her-
bert Island. At the
eastern end of North-
umberland, we had
outpaced the fog, and
emerged into brilliant
moonlight, and then,
passing along the
s t r a t i fi e d bluffs of
Herbert, we started
■our fires and erected a
rude snow house un-
der the overhanging
shore rocks at the east- towser.
ern end of Herbert.
The following day, we galloped back to Karnah,
arriving just as Kaiwingwah and Kioshoo, the cripple,
■came in from Kookan ; the former with a sledge-
load of little auks, the latter with his stalwart wife,
and a pair of black eyes which she had given him
in some family misunderstanding. In the evening
the village was a scene of feasting. A fetid seal-feed
was in progress in Kardah's igloo ; in Akpalisoa-
Jio's a little-auk spread was laid out; and in Inger-
390 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
opahdoo's another feasting crowd was gathered
about a huge wahus-ham, which took up nearly all
the floor. Ootooniah and Tellikotinah, and their
wives, visitors from the south shore of the Sound,
now on a round of social visits, were making calls
from igloo to igloo, sampling all the feasts, and
gathering all the gossip.
Finally, I managed to get a comfortable place in
Ingeropahdoo's igloo, and, seated beside Eetooshok-
shua, his wife, drew from her the simple astronomy
LION.
of her people, and learned about Tooktokstte, the
celestial herd of reindeer (Ursa Major), Pitoohen,
the lamp stones (Cassiopeia), the Bear and Dogs
(Pleiades), etc. Some material was still needed
for my sledge equipment, such as sealskin, rawhide
line, etc., and I made a tour of the igloos to obtain
the articles. A present of a few biscuit to Tah-
tahrah, the incurable invalid, lightened his poor^
Sledge Trips of the Long Night 391
emaciated face wonderfully. Little Koodlooktoo's
heart was also made glad by a deerskin for his koole-
tah (winter coat), and Eetooshokshua by enough
little-auk skins to make herself a shirt. Towser,
Hector's little pup, was the honoured guest in the ig-
loo of Ingeropahdoo, to whom I had given him.
He eats when the family eats, quarrels with the child-
ren if they step too near him when eating, and when
he is through, stretches himself full length on the bed
platform and objects strenuously if anyone has the
temerity to sit down there and disturb his slumbers.
These royal attentions and bed of roses, as it were,
are due to his possession of drooping ears, a peculiar-
ity greatly prized by these Eskimos in a dog.
To my great regret I found old Lion dead. Poor
old fellow, the only dog of his kind in the tribe, big,
powerful, thick-furred, maned like a lion, yet white
as an Arctic wolf, I had hoped to keep him through
the winter and take him to the States again. He had
seen much of the world, but, more fortunate than
many other travellers, died on his native heath, in the
heart of the " Great Night," which he knew so well.
Only two of the five noble brutes that made the first
journey across the frozen Sahara of the "Great Ice"
are left now, and one of them is not likely to survive
the winter.
The next day we were back at the lodge.
CHAPTER XI.
MISCELLANEA.
Characteristic Occupations of a Day — Missionary Work — Panikpah
OF the Old Guard — Frost Phantasies— An Eskimo Legend — The Seal
Harvest, Wives, and a Baby — A Young Girl's Tramp— La Grippe — An
Eskimo Duel — The Stillness of Death — At Last the Sun — A Fohn
Storm — Brilliant Parhelion — Kokoyah (the Eskimo Devil) — Story
OF the Thermograph — Pessimism.
AN ARCTIC BRONZE.
CHAPTER XI.
MISCELLANEA.
p-ive an idea of these :
SANDWICHED in
between the more
important events of
the preceding chapters,
and sometimes occurring
simultaneously with them,
were many interesting
and essential, even though
trifling, incidents of our
life and work. The fol-
lowinor extracts from the
pages of my journal will
Skating on Baby Lake. — September 9, 1894. The
ice on Baby Lake has formed with astonishing rapid-
ity. The lake was not frozen over when I returned
from Cape York three days ago, and yet this afternoon
the ice on it is three inches thick, and Lee has been
skatincr there.
Characteristic Occnpations of a Day. — September 1 1,
1894. Lee contracts the coal pile, spreads some hay
to dry for filling the house walls, and does his year's
washinor. Nooktah o-oes deer-huntinof and returns
about midnight unsuccessful. The last of the ereen
deerskins nailed up to dry to-day. In spite of the
low temperatures, these skins dry in twenty-four hours.
3Q5
39^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
After lunch, I take my folding kodak and scale the
southern face of Mt. Bartlett for a round of views,
returning down the north slope via the mule cache.
The summit and the surrounding plateau are covered
with snow. The prospect down the bay is very dis-
courag^inor for boat work. The cold weather since I
returned from Cape York has been extremely favour-
able for the formation of new ice, and in the entire bay
there is no open water. The bergs and trash ice,
cemented by a glassy young ice, extend well out into
BABY LAKE.
the Sound. Matt will have a difficult job getting
back from Kangerdlooksoah. McCormick Bay, in
its upper portion at least, is entirely free of ice, and
the wind-swept lakes of Tooktoo Valley are apparently
still open. On the way up Mt. Bartlett, I see a hare,
and while returning, another just above Baby Lake.
I get my gun and go back after the latter. He weighs
eight pounds.
Ahnigkitds Birthday. — September 12, 1894.
Baby is a year old to-day, and Lee and I have had a
modest spread in her honour: venison steak, corn, hard-
Miscellanea
)97
tack, peaches, coffee, nuts, candy, figs, and oranges.
She and her mother must be nearly to St. John's
now.
An Eskimo J'/j//'/^— September 28, 1894. Adah-
rahingwah tells me to-day that her people have
heard of large men living far to the north, who wear
nctclichs (fur jackets) made of oogsook (bearded-
seal) skin. She also tells me that the Eskimos are
very curious to
know why I am
so persistent in
going on the ice-
cap, and if, per-
haps, it is be-
cause I wish to
see these men.
Mi s sionary
Work. — Octo-
ber 2, 1894. I
began to-day an
attempt to re-
claim and par-
tially civilise my
aboriginal reti-
nue here. Every-
one was required
to take a thorough bath with hot water, plenty of soap,
and scrubbing-brush. I was surprised at the lightness
of some of the skins. Panikpah is nearly white.
The cuticle of the two grirls was almost freed of the
dirt accumulations of years, though some of it will
have to wear off. After Adahrahincrwah had washed
and combed her hair persistently, till it was presuma-
bly uninhabited, I gave her an old undershirt, and a
bit of red cloth to tie about her head, and as she sits
tailor-fashion, sewing upon a pair of new fur trousers,
HE WEIGHS EIGHT POUNDS.
39^ Northward over the " Great Ice "
which she is making for herseh from scraps of fox- and
coonskins, she would compare quite favourably with
many of the South-Greenland half-breed belles. I
shall endeavour to get new clothes on these girls, who
are accomplished seamstresses, so that they can make
our ice-cap costumes without danger of colonising
them. It is pos-
sible, also, that
they may be
taught to wash
dishes, towels,
etc., sweep, and
perhaps cook.
Little Kood-
looktoo I must
clothe for the
winter ; and also
the children of
Nooktah, who
has worked so
steadily and
faithfully for me
that he has had
no time to look
after them. I
feel that I have
quite a respon-
sibility upon me.
Paiiikpa/i of
the Old Guard.
— Oct, 3, 1894.
All my dogs, ex-
cept Panikpah,
of that noble Old
Guard which survived the battle with the " Great
Ice" in 1892, and Lassie's surviving pup, are on the
AHW^EAH.
Daughter of Nooktah.
Miscellanea
399
ice-cap with Lee and Matt. Their absence, and the
abundant food since the return from the walrus hunt,
has made Panikpah act something like his old self ;
and when I go out, he jumps before me, wags his
tail, shakes his poor scarred head, growls affection-
ately, and licks my hands as of old. When the other
younger and
stronger dogs
are here, they
punish the old
veteran so much
he does not dare
to move. He
will never re-
cover from his
last starvation
experience, when
two brave (?)
members of my
party, in a fiasco
trip to Tooktoo
Valley, left him
across the bay,
and the poor dog
was two weeks
without food,
reaching the
lodge at the end
of that time in a
pitiable condi-
tion. It is a waste
of meat to feed
him, yet he shall
be fed until he dies, for his splendid work in the past.
An Experiment. — Oct. 24, 1894. This afternoon
I put my liquid boat-compass on a sledge, and pushed
KOODLOOKTOO.
400 Northward over the " Great Ice "
it down the bay before me, to get an idea of its avail-
abihty for use on the ice-cap. I think I can utiHse it.
Frost Phantasies. — Oct. 30, 1894. While lying on
my bearskin divan this afternoon, close to the windows,
thinking out a design for my sledge tent, my atten-
tion was attracted by the frostwork on the windows.
On one of the outer of the double windows, the inci-
sive Arctic artist has chosen for his theme a deformed
evergreen tree,
such as cling to
crevices and nar-
row ledgfes on
mountain cliffs,
or fringe barren
summits, or
straggle along
bleak sandy
sea-coasts ;
trees that have
been scorched
and frozen and
s t o rm-beaten
their entire life,
whose branches
are all on one
side, and perhaps
one of them a
monstrous de-
formity as large
as all the others,
and even vvino"
-PANIKPAH OF THE OLD GUARD." .^. even v;yiii^
With the parent
trunk ; trees that are huncj with orrev moss and
crusted with lichen, whose every branch-extremity is
a lance, and every twig an arrow, acute with defiance
of the world and mutiny at their own hard lot. The
Miscellanea 401
pane looks as if an entire forest of such had suddenly
betaken itself to a wild witch's ride, and at every pos-
sible inclination, in twos, and threes, and singly, was
careering across the crystal field. On another pane
the design is like that on galvanised iron, but far more
dainty and crystalline. On an inner pane, to which
the moisture of the room has free access, and which
is protected from the radiation of the stove by one of
the side boards of my divan, is an exquisitely pure and
simple design in bas-relief, fit for a frieze, or the decor-
ation of an heroic vase ; its theme, the curving stalks
and spiral-coiled heads of young ferns, just pushing
their heads through moist spring for-
est carpets. The stalks of these glit-
tering Arctic prototypes of their living
Southern brethren are fully one-fourth
inch thick. And doMm the bay, on the
new ice which continually forms and
breaks again around the big bergs as
they surp;e to and fro with the sprinor ^„^^?,ost ,
-^ . &> r 1 EVERGREENS.
tides, is an abundance of the most
exquisite frozen vegetation : large, feathery, fern-like
crystals, some in bunches several inches across, look-
inof Hke baskets of skeletonised leaves ; others in dense
ribbons,like the coleusborders in West FairmountPark.
Given favourable conditions, these boreal flowers grow
with the rapidity of the bean-stalk of the fairy tale.
Concentrated Cooking. — Oct. 30, 1894. When I
am here alone I evade and avoid, in every possible
way, the drudgery of cooking, and some of the home
folks would be amused at the way in which I made
the coffee-pot do simultaneously treble duty in get-
ting my dinner to-day. The little stove has but two
holes for cooking, and on one was a large iron pot,
in which I was cookinof venison stew enough to last
me the rest of the week. This left me but one hole
VOL. n.— 26
402 Northward over the "Great Ice"
over which to consummate the rest of my dinner,
which, according to my mental menu, was to com-
prise brown bread, apple-sauce, and tea. While the
water for the tea was heating in the bottom of the
coffee-pot, a half-loaf of brown bread was being
steamed in the coffee-bag at the top, and above that
a saucerful of frozen apple-sauce was thawing, covered
with the lid of the coffee-pot.
An Eskimo Legend. — Nov. i, 1894. Nooktah
relates to me the following legendary conversation
between an Es-
kimo and a raven
flying over with
something in its
mouth. "" Sitnah
kingmiahpeu ? "
("Whathaveyou
inyourmouth?")
asks the man.
" Inukkoktooah
niahmaktoksuah.
Eeoquaw ; eeo-
qtcaw " (" The
It is very sweet. Caw, caw"),
answers the raven.
The Seal Harvest, Wives, ajid a Baby. — Nov. 4,
1894. Matt returned this morning from Karnah alone,
Nooktah remaining there to hunt seals. The natives
are making the most of the new ice in the Sound, be-
fore snow comes to cover it and bring the harvest to
an end. Every man and boy that can raise a pussy-
mitt (seal spear) is living on the ice night and day,
clad in his heaviest furs, his feet muffled with noiseless
bearskin pads, and with his little three-legged stool,
on which at a pinch he sits for hours, waiting for the
unsuspecting seal to come to its breathing-hole, and
Vs/AT-e.R. FOK
MY COFFEE-POT
thigrh-bone of a man.
Miscellanea
403
receive the murderous spear-thrust. In the afternoon
Panikpah returns and tells me he has killed sixteen
seals off the Castle Cliffs, and Koolootingwah an
equal number. Over a hundred seals have already
been killed by the natives of Karnah and Koini-
suni, and if the snow holds off a few days longer, it
is likely that, in addition to their store of walrus and
ft
*•
«•*
' 1
8
I- 4
"•^v
1
^
%
»
ii
■■
» ^^
,
"
1 j
H 1
1
'>•»
'^^
/ J
m 1
1 *-^
' J
■ %
■ U
w «
J
SEAL AND HUNTER.
narwhal meat, there will be two seals apiece for each
man, woman, and child at these settlements. Panik-
pah also tells me that Koodlah's wife has a boy baby,
and that he saw Myah on his way from Netiulumi,
up the gulf to Koinisuni, to exchange wives with
Kessuh. This shows that the Sound is frozen over
as far out as Netiulumi, and that Myah has a soul
above monotonv.
404 Northward over the "Great Ice"
An Embai^rassing Position. — Nov. lo, 1894. Lee,
Matt, and Panikpah, with two sledges and all the dogs,
got away at 9:30 this morning for Kangerdlooksoah,
to endeavour to get a few more deer in the last of the
rapidly waning twilight. Their departure puts me
in the somewhat embarrassing position of being left,
alone and unprotected, with five buxom and oleagin-
ous ladies, of a race of naive children of nature, who
are hampered by no feelings of false modesty or bash-
"A BUXOM AND OLEAGINOUS LADY."
fulness in expressing their tender feelings. My years,
and at present semi-crippled condition from a fall on
the rocks, will, I trust, protect me.
A Young Girl's Ti^anip. — Dec. i, 1894. After start-
ing the fire this morning, I went out in the big room
where the natives sleep, and found that Alakahsing-
wah, one of the girls, was gone. Inquiries brought
out that she had gone to Karnah. Seized by one of
those sudden impulses which sway these children of
Miscellanea
405 •
nature, she had risen during the night, and started off,
with nothing to eat, and without a word to anyone, to
walk the distance of twenty miles alone in the bitter cold
and dim starlight. What would any of our fourteen-
year-old girls at home think of such a constitutional ?
Aitrora and
Meteor. — Dec.
27, 1894. Early
this morning
there was a bril-
liant curtain au-
rora extending
across the sky
from south-east
to north-west,
somewhat west
of the lod^e at
first, but shifting
later to directly
overhead ; and
about noon, as I
stepped out of
the house, a bril-
liant meteor fell
from near the ze-
nith southward
into the mouth
of the bay, leav-
ing a long trail
behind it, and bursting finally into several fragments.
La Grippe. — Dec. 27, 1894. Almost everyone at
Karnah has a severe cold and sore throat, some of
the people being completely laid up with it and un-
able to talk. It is doubtless similar to the Grippe
which appeared among the natives, and my own party
as well, at Red Cliff, in March, 1892.
ALAKAHSINGWAH.
4o6 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Tales of Blood. — Dec. 27, 1894. Nooktah tells
me to-night that Koodlah, father of Eetookashoo
and grandfather of Panikpah, killed a native, Ah-
wahtingwah, at Peterahwik, years ago. Also that
Ahwahtingwah himself, years before, had killed a
man at the western end of Northumberland Island.
An Eskimo Duel. — Dec. 28, 1894. Oomah and his
family left this morning, and Koko and his latest
wife, the recent widow, arrived in the afternoon.
AHTOOKSUNGWAH.
"Her Curves Were a Trifle Heavy."
And hereon hangs a tale. During the autumn, Mak-
sah, one of the Cape York hunters, had his side torn
open by the claws of a polar bear, and, after lingering
along for weeks, finally died. His widow, Ahtook-
sungwah, came north with her young daughter, in
the cavalcade which accompanied me back in Decem-
ber, and her arrival in the metropolis of Karnah
caused ereat excitement amonof the masculine ele-
ment. Ahtooksungwah was quite light (in colour)
Miscellanea 407
and had a form like a walrus. Her glistening face
was considerably broader than it was long, she stood
about four feet six inches high, and weighed about
three hundred pounds, her figure resembling a num-
ber of stuffed pillows fastened together. To my
mind, her curves were a trifle heavy, but she evidently
realised the Eskimo ideal of beauty, and being a
widow besides, she was irresistible. Many were her
suitors, but the most favoured ones were Koko, a
several-times divorce, and Nowdingyah, or Akpudia
(" Jumbo," we called him), who, since the death of his
wife, several years before, had had no eyes for the
opposite sex beyond his little apple-cheeked daughter
Ahweahgoodloo, on whom all his affections seemed
centred. Yet his heart had incontinently melted
with the warmth of the widow's oleaginous smile, like
a piece of frozen blubber in the flame of an ikomar.
The rivalry between these two waxed so intense
that it was evident something serious would occur,
and no one was surprised when Koko entered the
igloo where Nowdingyah, seated upon the edge of
the bed-platform, was trimming a whip-lash, jerked the
lash from his hands, and seating himself beside him,
threw his arms about his waist, and attempted to force
him upon his back upon the platform. Not a word
was said by either or by anyone in the igloo, yet
everyone knew, as the two strained and twisted with
quick, loud breath, that the struggle was for the
widow. For several minutes the struororle continued,
till Koko, at last, with a supreme effort, crushed his
antagonist prone upon his back, then, jumping quickly
to his feet, left the igloo and, harnessing his dogs,
drove off with the widow on a bridal tour to the
lodge. He had won the prize in a bloodless Eskimo
duel. An interesting sequel to this was that, after
spending a brief and blissful honeymoon of two or
4o8 Northward over the "Great Ice
three days at the lodge, Koko returned to Kar-
nah, when my previously staid henchman Ikwah,
though already possessed of a wife and child, became
enamoured of the widow, strayed from the paths of
propriety, vanquished Koko in another bloodless
duel, left him to proceed alone and disconsolate to
Cape York, and installed the rotund siren, with all
her wealth and witchery of charms, in his own igloo.
Eskimo Superstitions. — Jan. 15,
1895. One of the women dreamed
last night of seeing a recently deceased
woman, and, as a result, all my Eski-
mos are in mortal terror to-day and
will not move a step alone.
The Stillness of Death. — Jan. 19,
1895. While adjusting my transit to-
day for some star sights, I was deeply
impressed with the stillness, broken
only by the cracking and groaning of
the ice-foot. It is a great contrast to
a year ago, when half a hundred dogs
made every hour in the twenty-four
hideous. Now there is only poor old
Lion, whom I brought home from
Karnah, because I wanted his skin,
lying stark and stiff in the starlight.
First Glimpse of Sunlight. — Feb.
II, 1895. Kyogwito returned early
this morning from Ittibloo with a seal for me. He
reports seeing the sun shining upon the highest ice-
cap of Northumberland Island yesterday. He tells
me many natives will start for Peterahwik in a few
days to hunt walrus. The Tigerahomi notch at noon
to-day was a blaze of yellow glory, though the sun is
still below the horizon.
Matt Returns from Sledge Trip. — Feb. 14, 1895.
AHW^EAHGOOD-
LOO.
Miscellanea
409
Matt returned to-night from Karnah, Netiulumi, Keate,
and Igloodiowny, as I directed. He has been gone
eight days and is back a day sooner than I anticipa-
ted. He reports that Tellikotinah (alias " George
Washington ") is anxious to bring me a load of
narwhal meat, to atone for past misdeeds ; that there
is still open water at Cape Parry, and much young
ice between there and Netiulumi, which will require
a few more days to render safe ; that the open water
RETURN OF THE SUN.
at Keate has retreated a little to the west of the Ke-
ate Glacier ; and that Ikwah and his new wife are
alone at Keate, the other family having moved to
Netiulumi. He found a pool of open water in the chan-
nel between Northumberland and Herbert Islands,
with three bergs in it ; a pool similar to the one I saw
in 1892, but much larger. That had one berg in it.
This accounts for the somewhat erroneous informa-
tion obtained from Erasmus York and appearing in
4IO Northward over the "Great Ice
the following legend on his map in Arctic Papers ;
" No ice ever forms in this channel ; icebergs pass
through this channel in winter." If a berg is caught
here, the powerful tidal currents sway it back and forth,
keeping open water about it till the next summer.
An Anniversary. — Feb. 15, 1895. A dull day,
leaden grey
clouds overhead,
finally settling
down upon the
bluffs, and to-
wardsnightdrop-
ping snow and
rain. A year ago
to-day, Jo and I
welcomed the re-
turning sun from
a rocky knob well
up Mt. Bartlett.
Had it been
clear, I should
have gone there
to-day to wel-
come it again and
indulge in rever-
ies and memories
of the dear one
far away.
Work on
Eqiiipment. —
Feb, 16, 1895. Lee at work putting up meat rations
for the ice-cap journey. This evening he is plotting
the work of his last sledge trip. Matt, with a little
native assistance, has assembled the trailer sledge
" Chopsie." It is eight feet long, eighteen inches wide,
and weighs seventeen pounds, "Freckles" has been
AHTUNGAHNAKSOAH.
Miscellanea 411
fitting a pair of ski for the "Josephine" to be used in
soft snow, and Nooktah and Ihrllie have made them-
selves generally useful.
Old Ahtungahnaksoah, who has quite a reputation
as an angakok, had one of her spells to-day, and
chanted herself into a state of hysteria during which
she cried and sang and shrieked, and acted like an in-
sane woman.
At Last the Sun.— V^. 17, 1895. The sun touched
the lodge to-day, and for a few minutes bathed the
south side of Mt. Bartlett in s^olden liMit. Thoughts
of Jo and the blue-eyed mite have been with me all
day. At three a.m., the trace of the thermograph had
risen above the zero line ; at five p.m., it touched the
freezing-point.
A Fohii StoT-in. — Feb. 18, 1895. The wind blew
furiously at intervals during the night, the tem-
perature rose to 42° F., and the heavy icy condensa-
tion inside the lantern was loosened, and came crashing
down on to, and in some places through, the inner
glass. The high temperature held throughout the
forenoon, with continuation of wind from the south-
east. Within the lodge it was insufferable. Between
noon and one o'clock, the wind changed to north-east,
the temperature fell rapidly, and it began to snow. I
had a virulent attack of the blues to-day, due doubt-
less to the physical relaxation resulting from the high
temperature. This storm is the third and most pro-
nounced of these surprising manifestations which have
occurred this winter; the first, January 13th, and the
second, February 6th, the latter accompanied by a tem-
perature of 39° F. and a barometer of 31.28 inches.
A Bi'illiant Parhelion. — Feb. 20, 1895. At last a
clear day, and at eleven a.m. the sun was entirely above
the Tigerahomi Bluffs, and shone on the lodge for
almost an hour. As it disappeared behind South
^-.. (.
p^.^
.^X^^^il ..— i
ESKIMO DRAWINGS.
Miscellanea 413
Point, a bright parhelion appeared and afforded a
striking display. The wind was from the east, off
the ice-cap, so that the upper atmosphere was laden
with impalpable snow-dust from the frozen Sahara of
the interior, and the entire bay was lit with the splen-
dour, the dazzling colours of the "sun-dog" or parhe-
lion, a phenomenon which is nowhere to be seen in
such brilliancy as in the Arctic regions. Around the
god of day circled two concentric rings of rainbow-
coloured light, with a third inverted, resting upon the
top of the others. Set in the inner of these rings,
directly over the sun and on either side, were three
fainter images of itself, the " sun-doo^s." A brilliant
corona of yellow light surrounded the sun, rendering
the disk indistinct. From this corona a triangular
tongue of yellow light flared upward till its point
touched the upper "sun-dog," and two paler bands of
light stretched horizontally from the sun to and be-
yond the flanking " sun-dogs."
Native Drawing. — Feb. 21, 1895. I amused my-
self for an hour or two to-day with the artistic efforts
of some of the natives. The aptitude of the Eskimo
as a race at map drawing is well known. Many of
this tribe show a surprising talent for drawing, and I
am collecting examples of their efforts.
A Visit front Kokoyah (Eskimo Devil). — Feb.
23, 1895. Was wakened at three a.m. by a loud
crash, and became conscious that the demon of the
wind was on hand aofaiin and doino- more mischief. I
Immediately dressed, went out, and climbed to the
roof — throwing myself flat when the gusts came tum-
blinof off Mt. Bartlett — to see that the sledo^es were
securely lashed. I took a few additional turns for
safety, and then made a tour of the house^ but could
discover nothing wrong. This morning the Freya
had disappeared and a search discovered what was
Miscellanea
415
left of her high up among the rocks at the head of the
harbour. She had been picked up bodily by the wind,
borne through the air some hundred yards, dashed
against a pinnacle of the ice-foot, then picked up
again and hurled far up the rocks, fully fifty feet
above high-water mark. There was not an unbroken
board, knee, or
timber in her.
Every time the
devilish wind
destroys some-
thing. Last time
it was my transit;
now, my boat.
Perhaps it will
get one of us
next. Nooktah
says Kokoyah
(the Devil) de-
stroyed the boat.
He saw a dog
barking furious-
ly at the boat
yesterday and
has no doubt
that Kokoyah
was in it at that
very time.
A Frozen Fog.
— March 11,
1895. A New England coast fog all day except for the
temperature, which has been -4° F. to -6° F. Every-
thing is densely coated with finest frost-crystals. At
noon the crest of Mt, Bartlett, lit by the yellow light,
shone throuofh a rift in the foor overhead, suoforestinof,
though in no way resembling, the Peak of Teneriffe.
ARROTOKSOAH.
41 6 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Matt Goes SoiUh. — March 12, 1895. Matt left this
mornine for Wolstenhohn Sound and Petowik Glacier
via Karnah and Netiulumi to purchase dogs. He is
to meet me at Peterahwik next Tuesday night.
The Story of the Ther77iograph. — March 13, 1895. A
brilliant clear day. The thermograph tells now whether
it is a clear day or not, the trace rising as the sun ap-
pears from behind the eastern wall of the bay, and
falling as it disappears behind the Red Cliff ice-cap.
The sheet for the week looks like the profile of an
Alpine range.
Hoi'ace Greeley. — March 1 3, 1 895. In the afternoon,
Arrotoksoah (Horace Greeley), my old friend of Red
Cliff House, arrived. The old man is aging and,
though still sturdy, his hair is getting decidedly grey.
He is just as affable and unassuming as ever.
Pessimism. — March 16, 1895. I do not know if it
is impaired digestion or the lingering effect of the un-
utterable Arctic night, but, in spite of the return of
the sun, I have the blues repeatedly. As long as the
sun is above the horizon, I almost take a hopeful view
of things, though with an effort. But the moment
the evening shades begin to gather, I grow pessimistic,
and waken in the morning in the depths of the blues.
The journey now so near, is, under our heavy handi-
cap, such a forlorn hope. I do not count the work,
the risk ; but can we win '^.
CHAPTER XII.
A WEEK AT PETERAHWIK.
Haunts of the Walrus — The Spring Walrus Grounds — Purchasing
Meat -The Capture of Walrus on the Ice. — Wild Ooglooksoah —
Weird Songs of the Angakoks — Bustle and Excitement at the Spring
Rendezvous— Successful Hunters — Back to the Lodge.
CHAPTER XII.
A WEEK AT PETERAHWIK.
IN summer there are
three haunts of the
walrus in the region
lying between Cape Olsen
and Cape York. One
is in and off the mouth
of Wolstenholm Sound ;
another in Omenak Sound,
from the eastern end of
Herbert Island out past
Cape Robertson ; and a
third is about Littleton
Island and Life-Boat Cove, and well out toward the
centre of Smith Sound.
During July, August, and September, the animals
may be found in large numbers in each of these lo-
calities, feeding on the bottom in shallow water, where
they find large quantities of a species of shell-fish, or
basking in the sun upon the drifting ice-pans. In
one locality only, Littleton Island and the shore of
the mainland abreast of it, are the walrus of this
region ever found upon the rocks. At any of these
places they may be seen either upon the ice or in the
water, singly, or by twos or threes, or in groups, and
so on up to herds numbering hundreds. I have seen
what I carefully estimated as between one hundred
419
420 Northward over the ''Great Ice
and one hundred and fifty on one large pan of ice,
and as many more in the water about it.
There is a pecuHar circumstance in connection with
these three summer haunts of the wahus, and that is
that only females, calves, and young males are to be
found about Littleton Island and Omenak Sound,
and only males,
and most of
them old ones,
in Wolstenholm
Sound.
A few of the
animals are ob-
tained at each
of these places
by the Eskimos
durinof the sum-
mer, but not less
than two-thirds,
and perhaps
three-fourths, of
the annual wal-
rus catch of the
tribe is obtained
duringthe spring
hunt at Peterah-
wik.
Peterahwik is the Eskimo name for Cape Chalon
of the charts. It is easily recognisable by a black
trap dyke running along the southern side of the
bluff forming the cape, from its extreme point to
the first glacier east, a distance of some two miles.
This dyke, which is from thirty to fifty feet thick,
forms a titanic retaininof-wall for a mass of stratified
sandstone rising above it to a heigflit of from one
thousand to twelve hundred feet.
SIPSU.
A Week at Peterahwik
421
From this point wild Ooglooksoah (Cape Alexan-
der) stands out in savage relief twenty-five miles
to the northward, and in clear weather the opposite
coast of Ellesmere Land is visible, westward across
Smith Sound,
PETERAHWIK.
Here is the spring walrus-hunting ground of the
natives ; the edge of the North Water, with its border
of thin ice forming after every wind, being never
many miles distant to the west or south-west.
The North Water off this cape seems to be the
winter resort of all the walrus of the region, and as
early as the first of February, when there area few hours
of twilight at noon, but before the sun has returned,
scouts from the nearest Eskimo village, with li^ht
sledges and picked dogs, dash off to Peterahwik, and
thence westward from the cape, till they reach the
edge of the North Water, where they note the con-
42 2 Northward over the "Great Ice
ditions of the ice, and Hsten for the deep beUowing of
the wahus beyond. If the indications are favourable
they return to their homes, and couriers carry the
news throughout the tribe. Then family after family
takes up its march for the cape, and on arriving
erects a snow igloo upon the ice-foot at the base of
the cliffs ; until, by the latter part of February, half
or two-thirds of the tribe will be gathered there.
Then the hunt
is prosecuted
well into the
spring, when the
widening North
Water reaches
the cape, and
begfins to eat its
way past it, which
would cut off the
retreat of the
natives.
During all this
time there is the
greatest bustle
and activity, and
the numerous
sledge tracks
from all parts of the coast, uniting as they near the
cape, form a broad beaten highway.
Then at last family after family deserts the snow
igloos, and flits eastward to Robertson Bay, where
they have for some time previously been transporting
their meat, and from here they separate to the vari-
ous localities which they have chosen for their sum-
mer residence. The spring sun melts the sledge
tracks, and the disrupting floes carry the ephemeral
highway to dissolve in warmer waters, and the wild
KOODLAH.
A Week at Peterahwik
423
rocks of Peterahwik are left to the noyahs (burgo-
masters), the sergwahs (black guillemots), and the
pounding waves.
Monday, March 18, 1895, I left the lodge with my
iron-runner sledge drawn by eight dogs, for Peterahwik
via Karnah, to obtain walrus meat and dogs to make
up my full complement of both for the ice-cap journey.
ogcooksoam
rwo MAP3 Of coftsr
'BOM P£:T£.nAHVJIK To C a Z-e.X/>/VO£./^
£?^J\ W/^/ 9 Y o
'. H £.n/r Jfv/\r/v £.5
On the way down the bay I overtook Kyangwah,
wife, and child, and Soker, wife, and child, who were
walking, and gave them a lift by taking the child-
ren on my sledge. It was a brilliant clear day, and
I arrived at Karnah in the afternoon, just as the sun
was setting behind the ice and bergs of Murchison
Sound. I found the settlement almost deserted, nearly
everyone having moved to Peterahwik.
The next morning, early, I too started westward,
424 Northward over the " Great Ice
accompanied by handsome young Sipsu. Sipsu was
anxious to get to Peterahwik and take a hand in the
wahus hunting, but he had no dogs, so I told him
that if he would work his passage by driving mine he
might go with me. It was another fine day, crisp,
cold, and clear, the road was well broken by the
numerous sledges which had preceded us, and we
reached Cape Cleveland at noon, then passing across
the mouths of McCormick and Robertson Bays ar-
rived at Nerke, at the
base of its black cliffs,
about eight o'clock in
the evening.
Some time before
reaching Nerke, the
tracks of a sledge com-
ing from the south,
from the channel be-
tween Herbert and
Northumberland Is-
lands, had joined the
main trail, and from
certain peculiarities
about the track I knew
that it had been made
by Matt's sledge, and
that he, returning from the southern journey on which
he had started just a week previous, had passed that
way the night before or that very morning, to keep the
rendezvous which I had appointed at Peterahwik.
At Nerke I learned that he had passed the day
before, and had succeeded in purchasing but three
dogs. It had been my original intention to make the
distance from Karnah to Peterahwik in one march,
but Annowkah, one of the two men living here, who
was on my list of eligibles for the ice-cap party, was
ESKIMO BOY.
A Week at Peterahwik
425
away for the night, and as I wished to have a talk
with him on the subject, I told Sipsu to make the
dogs fast and that we would sleep here and go on to
Peterahwik in the morning.
The following morning, after an early coffee, I had
a short talk with
Annowkah and
his companion in
the house, Kar-
dasuh, which re-
sulted in my en-
pfagfinor both of
them for the ice-
cap. Then a
short ride in the
stineinof morn-
i n g twilight
brought me to
bustling Peter-
ahwik. I found
Matt here, and
learned from
him that he had
been the round
of the settle-
ments as far
south as the Pe-
towik Glacier,
but that the na-
tives south of
the Sound held
their dogs too
dear, and three was all that he had been able to obtain.
I very quickly effected the purchase of six from the
Peterahwik hunters, but found that Akpalisoaho,
Panikpah, Kardah, and Koolootingwah had left the
ESKIMO DRAWING.
426 Northward over the "Great Ice
village four days before for an extended bear hunt
to the north in Kane Basin, beyond Anoritok and
Rensselaer Harbour. They would not be likely to
return for several days yet, and as each had dogs
that I wanted, I must perforce wait for them.
In the evening, after the return of the men from
the walrus grounds to the westward, with their sledges
loaded with crimson meat, there was an angakok
gathering in one of the snow igloos which I attended.
The hoarse
voices of the
wraiths of bears
and walrus, the
shrill cries of
sea-birds, the
croak of ravens,
the gloom of the
Arctic night, are
minofled in the
weird "medi-
cine " sonofs of
these people.
The following
morning, with
the earliest
light, nearly all
the hunters
started off to the west and south-west for the haunts
of the walrus, on the thin ice along the edge of the
distant North Water.
From the men who remained I purchased thirteen
pieces of walrus meat averaging some fifty pounds each.
Before noon three sledges came in piled high with
the meat from a big walrus just killed, and of this I
obtained a portion. Then I drove down to Ahwaglu-
ahwi, where I obtained ten more pieces. Then at
A GOOD JOKE.
A Week at Peterahwik
427
nlorht the hunters came in bring-ino- two more walrus
killed by my handsome driver Sipsu, and from him I
obtained a few hundred pounds more. Though I
must remain till the bear hunters returned from the
north, there was no reason why Matt, who had already
been ten days in the field, should remain here, when
PLAM AND SECTION
O F
SMOW I G UOO / 1 G LOOY A H^
P E-T El R A H W I K
M A a. I 395"
he might be at the lodge perfecting a number of last
things in connection with the ice-cap equipment.
Now that I had a good supply of meat, he could
take charge of a party to convey it and my recently
purchased dogs to the lodge. On the way back from
Ahwasfluahwi, I had arrangred with Maksinorwah and
Ahlettah to accompany him with their sledges and
dogs, and each take a load of meat. They got away
428 Northward over the "Great Ice"
at daylight the next morning, intending to take the
short cut for the lodge via McCormick Bay, Took-
too Valley, and across Kahkoktah Glacier,
After seeing them well off down the winding track
toward Ahwagluahwi, I jumped on the sledge of one
of the hunters, and rattled away westward to the hunt-
ing grounds to see for myself the noble sport.
W^ARMING HIS W^IFE'S COLD FEET.
The open North Water off Peterahwik may be
anywhere from ten to twenty-five miles to the west or
south-west, and its edge shifts like the fringe of a
waving curtain. Two or three days of heavy wind
will eat into the ice and bring" the water several miles
A Week at Peterahwik 429
nearer the shore. Then during the following calm, the
fierce temperatures of February and March, the low-
est of the year, bind the motionless water with a
zone of young ice, which in twenty-four hours will
support a sledge and team of dogs. Then is the
hunter's time ; leaving the village at earliest daybreak
he drives out to the edge of the old ice where the
dogs are fastened, and then on foot with his har-
poon, line, and lance, he starts out upon the black
mirror of the new ice.
HEAD OF POLAR BEAR.
Soon the mufifled erunt of a walrus in the water be-
neath him comes to his ear, or perhaps his quick eye
may catch a glimpse of the animal darting through
the water, and with intuitive judgment he runs noise-
lessly over the ice to the point where the animal is
likely to lift his head through the ice for breath.
With dexterity born of long practice, the harpoon is
driven into the animal, and with a quick motion a
turn of the line is taken round the iron point of the
430 Northward over the "Great Ice"
lance, driven into the ice, and braced with the foot.
These actions have aheady attracted the attention of
a comrade, who hastens to his assistance, and in a
few moments his murderous lance has pierced the
lungs of the bellowing brute, and then it is only a
question of keeping the line fast until he is dead,
when the huge carcass is warped out on the ice, and
quickly cut up ; then the dogs and sledge are brought
up, the meat loaded on it, and the hunters return to
the village.
WOMEN PREPARING A BEARSKIN.
The precise position of the settlement of Peterah-
wik depends upon the particular season and condition
of the ice.
In 1894, the snow igloos, over forty in number, were
located under the bluffs close by the glacier, some two
miles east of the point of the cape, and over two-
thirds of the entire tribe were assembled here. At the
time of my visit now, the majority of the igloos were
located on the ice-foot on the southern side of the
A Week at Peterahwik 431
trap dyke, at its very extremity, where a long drift of
compact snow furnished suitable material for con-
struction purposes. Other igloos in groups of twos
and threes were located at various points along the
coast, for a distance of twelve miles.
The igloos at the cape were arranged in a regular
line with their backs to the dyke, their entrances to
the south, and about fifty feet from the ice-foot, the
level upper surface of which formed a wide, smooth
street in front of them. These igloos were on an
average twenty-five feet apart, and though varying
somewhat in size, according to the number of occu-
pants, were all built on one pattern.
With the Whale-Sound Eskimo, the iglooyah, or
snow house, is only a temporary habitation, built for a
night's shelter when travelling-, or for a week or so at
hunting grounds far distant from his village. From
the fact that the snow igloos of Peterahwik are occu-
pied sometimes for three months, while at other locali-
ties they are temporary structures, occupied only for
a few days or at most a week or two, more care is
taken in their construction, and for this reason, at
Peterahwik the snow igloo may be seen in its highest
perfection.
The igloo of Ingoahpadu, occupied by me, was one of
the largest, and is shown in detail in the sketch (page
42 7), It was twelve feet long, by twelve feet wide, and
seven feet high, in the highest part beneath the seal-
skin lining. The bed-platform, raised a foot and a
half above the floor, was six and a half feet deep ;
and the standing room in front of it six feet by five
feet. The window of seal intestines was two feet
square. The igloo was lined throughout with the
tupik or summer tent, so arranged as to leave an
air space between it and the snow walls of the igloo,
thus preventing the latter from melting, and keeping
432 Northward over the "Great Ice"
the interior dry. A small hole In the highest part of
this lining, and another directly over it in the top of
the igloo, afforded ventilation.
The succeeding days pending the arrival of the
bear hunters, I whiled away as best I could, measur-
ing the igloos as already described, taking photos,
questioning the natives and getting them to draw
maps and pictures for me, sometimes telling them, in
return, stories about the wonderful land awahnaksoah
RETURNING FROM PETERAHWIK.
(far away) to the south, where the sun every day in
the year rose in one direction, passed directly over-
head, and disappeared in the opposite direction !
land where there was grass (trees) as tall as the ice-
berofs ! ! and houses as largfe as the smaller of the
bergs ! ! !
The last of my supplies had been consumed by
Matt and myself on the morning before he started
back to the lodge, and after that I lived upon walrus
meat pure and simple, without tea, sugar, biscuit, or
A Week at Peterahwik
433
salt. I was delighted to be awakened soon after
midnight of the sixth day, by someone shouting into
the entrance of the igloo, " Na7inooksue shadago "
(" They have killed the bears "). Hurrying outside, I
found that the bear hunters had returned, bringing
five skins and their sledges piled high with meat.
They reported the ice in Kane Basin smooth and
hard. They encountered intense cold with much
wind. All had their faces more or less frost-bitten.
I did not turn in till I had joined the victors in a
bear feast, which was a very agreeable change from
my steady diet of walrus, and to which I did full
justice.
The next day I purchased nine more dogs and
some walrus meat, and the following morning started
back for Karnah, accompanied by a regular caval-
cade, in which were the brave fellows who were to
accompany me on the ice-cap.
The fifty-mile journey to Karnah with the meat-
laden sledges was long and tedious, and it was mid-
night when we climbed over the ice-foot at the latter
place. Here I obtained a few hours' sleep, and at
daylight was on my way to the lodge again, arriving
shortly after noon.
*«,^ -»-
'*-*<.^..,
.*!
^0^1^^
'
s.
!
j
-X !
CHAPTER XIII.
UPWARD ICE-CAP JOURNEY.
Deficiency of Provisions— Final Preparations — The Start — Pemmican
Cache Buried beyond Recovery — My Eskimos Turn back — Lee Sick —
Two Men and Forty Wolfish Dogs — Over a Mile and a Half above
THE Sea — Prisoned by a Furious Storm — Unbroken Expanse of the
Frozen Sahara — Destruction of Sledge — Dog Food Used up and Dogs
Give out — Exhaustion — Land at Last.
CHAPTER XIIL
UPWARD ICE-CAP JOURNEY/
A
T last the day ar-
rived to which I
had looked for-
ward and for which I had
planned so long, the day
set for the departure upon
the journey across the
" Great Ice."
What a striking illus-
tration of the law of the
failure of reality to equal
expectation ! Though at
last in the position for which I had worked so long, I
was terribly handicapped.
' The usual stock chapter on equipment to be found in Arctic narratives is
omitted in this book, primarily for economy of space, secondarily because such
chapter is of value only to those specially interested in Arctic work, and not to
the general reader.
Were I through with my work in the North, it would be my duty to contribute
my experience and results for the benefit of those following. As my task is
not completed and further experience may modifiy many things, I feel that de-
tails of equipment can easily bide their time, and for the present yield room
for matters of more general interest.
Some general remarks on equipment will be found in the Introduction.
The following details of the devising and construction of our cooker are
given simply as a typical illustration of the shifts to which we were forced in
connection with every vital item of our equipment.
With the loss of my alcohol, the only resource left us in the way of fuel was
kerosene, and this of the poorest quality. The question of how to use this, and
how to make an effective cooker and boiler from the material at hand, was a
437
43^ Northward over the "Great Ice
Equipment and rations were both makeshifts, de-
vised to the best of my abihty from the scant means
at my command, and
many times when at
work upon them was I
reminded of Robinson
Crosoe, devising h i s
boat and its simple fit-
tings from material ill-
suited to the purpose.
Yet I was better off
in equipment than in
provisions. Experience
and ingenuity could
make up for deficiencies
in the former, but noth-
ing could take the place
of the alcohol and pem-
mican. Without these
two indispensable items
of an Arctic field ration,
no expedition has in re-
cent years attempted a
long sledge journey. So
heavy was this handi-
cap, that it more than
made up for our perfect
training and fitness, and
our complete experi-
ence. When we started on this journey, we knew that
serious and important one ; for upon the effectiveness of our cooker depended
not only our comfort, but even our safety, which would be seriously imperilled
by the failure of the cooker at any time in the heart of the great ice-cap.
After some experiments with my Rochester lamp, I determined to utilise it
for the foundation of my cooker. The lamp, however, could not be used with-
out a chimney, and a glass chimney would be entirely out of place in the
rough work of the ice-cap, A metal chimney of some kind must be devised.
At first I tried a cylinder of tin wired together, but this did not prove satisfac-
SOKER.
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 439
we were relying solely upon our own exertions and the
Almighty. Whatever fortune, ill or good, awaited us
in or beyond the heart of the "Great Ice" ; whatever
accident or mishap befell, there would, there could, be
no rescuing party.
And even if we returned in safety, if the trust which
I reposed in my Eskimo friends was ill-founded, I
might find my house and stores appropriated, and our-
selves left destitute.
The day set for our departure into the white desert
of the " Great Ice " arrived calm and clear. The
night before, Lee, Henson, and myself had indulged
in a thorough bath, a clean shave, and a prize-fighter's
hair-cut before turning in, and now, after a few hours'
sleep, had risen to an early breakfast and put on our
new clean ice-cap costumes. These had for the past
two or three weeks been hanging out-of-doors in the
low March temperature, to freeze out any unwelcome
inhabitants that might have found a lodgment while
our Eskimo seamstresses were makingf them.
tory, as the draught at the joint interfered with the flame, and I had no means of
making the joint tight. Finally a cylindrical copper cup or measure about six
inches deep was found, which, fortunately, was of just the same diameter as the
chimney.
The bottom was cut out of this, and a hole cut in the side at the level of the
wick. Over this latter was fitted one of the small mica windows from a double
Florence stove. Through this, the action of the flame could be seen, and by
opening it the lamp could be lighted without removing the chimney.
This arrangement proving satisfactory after several tests, the next require-
ment was something in which to melt snow and make our tea. Going carefully
through our scant stock of tinware, nothing was found that seemed satisfactory,
the nearest approach to what was wanted being some rectangular bread pans.
The capacity of these was, however, rather too limited, and they had the fatal
defect of having the bottoms soldered on.
The boiler for sledge use must have the bottom and sides all in one piece to
enable it to withstand the severe usage to which it is subjected. Every time
the lamp is lighted, the bottom of the boiler is subjected to the direct action of
the flame for some time before the snow is melted sufficiently to yield water to
protect it.
It was evident that a boiler must be made, but how this was to be done from
the material at our command was a puzzler.
At last while turning over some sheets of tin, and studying how to make a
boiler from them, the idea occurred to me of making a seamless boiler by fold-
ing one of these sheets of tin at the corners. The idea was immediately put to
440 Northward over the "Great Ice"
All my ammunition and valuable papers had been
deposited under the lodge, in such a way as to pro-
tect them from fire and the curiosity of natives from
distant settlements. The remaining provisions were
brought into the house. Letters had been written
and given to the natives to deliver to the ship, in the
event that the " Great Ice" should close behind us
forever, and now the windows were closed, and the
doors locked and nailed. While this was being done,
my faithful natives were assembling the dogs, and in
a short time we were moving up the little valley on
our way to the moraine, the shore of the " Great Ice,"
leaving the house and its contents in charge of my
Eskimo friends. Besides Lee, Henson, and myself,
there were my six Eskimo men, Nooktah, Kardahsu,
Annowkah, Soker, Nupsah, and Akpalisoahho, with
sixty dogs, and six sledges ; but only the first four of
the natives were to go beyond the moraine. This
was on Monday morning, April i, 1895.
the test and, proving feasible, a shallow rectangular boiler was carefully made,
and the upper edges tacked to the inside of a wooden Maillard's cocoa-box.
This doubled the capacity of the boiler, making it hold sufficient snow to fill
the tin part with water when melted down, and also stiffened and strengthened
it. The next requisite was a case to protect lamp and boiler, ensure the steady
burning of the former, and prevent the escape of any heat. This was found in
the wooden case of one of my flour-tins, a strongly made box. The external
dimensions of the chocolate-box forming the ring of the boiler were just a trifle
smaller than the interior breadth and width of this case, and when the boiler
was put inside, a space of ^ inch was left all around it. The case was fitted with
a hinged cover on the top end ; a hinged door on the side, its top about an inch
below the bottom of the boiler, and a small glass window in it to permit inspec-
tion of the lamp ; and the entire case covered carefully with summer deerskin,
the hair inside.
The bottom of the lamp was then cut off, the oil-chamber fastened to a light
wooden frame sliding in and out on the bottom of the case, cleats nailed on the
inside of the box for the boiler to rest on with its bottom about ^ inch above the
top of the chimney, holes bored in the top and bottom of the door for draught,
and the affair was complete. Though heavy and uncouth, as was of necessity
more than one other item of our equipment, this cooker served its purpose well,
and gave us no trouble except that the lamp had to be watched carefully or it
would smoke. This was due more to the poor quality of the oil — a St. John's
article which at temperatures of —30' F. became so viscid that it could not be
poured — than to any feature of the cooker. The boiler, rude as it was, lasted,
to my agreeable surprise, during the entire trip.
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 44 1
From the moraine, Tooktoo and Lodge Valleys,
with their nunataks and tributary glaciers, and the
expanse of McCormick Bay opening out into the
Sound beyond, lay below us, like a pictured map.
Lee led the caravan, setting the course, he not being
in condition to handle his h'lQ- sledee with the fre-
quent stops and starts inevitable on the steep up
grades of the landward slopes of the ice-cap. After
him came three of the Eskimos with their sledees,
then Matt with the catamaran, or tent-sledge, then
Nooktah with the Josephine (my sledge). I, with
UP THE LANDWARD SLOPES OF THE ICE-CAP.
Lee's sledge, brought up the rear, where I could note
the behaviour of each team. On the catamaran, or
tent-sledge, were the supplies for the return trip from
Independence Bay, and those for consumption at and
north of Independence Bay, together with the tent,
sleeping- and cooking-gear, a total of about one thou-
sand pounds. This sledge was drawn by a team of
thirteen picked dogs.
On Lee's Long Serpent were about seven hundred
and fifty pounds of dog food, drawn by ten dogs, and
on the other four sledgfes the remainder of the dog"
442 Northward over the "Great Ice"
food, our own supplies for the upward journey, the
cooking- and sleeping-gear, and supplies for the men
and dogs of the supporting party up and back. The
y osephine sledge, which I should drive after the
Eskimos left us, was drawn by my own team of ten
dogs ; the other Eskimo sledges had nine dogs each.
The steep gradient of the ice from the moraine tried
the strength of the dogs to the utmost, and called
forth energetic use of the whip from their drivers.
MY ESKIMO COMRADES.
On the second day's march, when we arrived in the
vicinity of the cache igloos, I made another most de-
termined effort to recover the cache. Armed with
saw-knives, shovels, and light rods, the entire party
scattered, quartering the surface in every direction.
Every suspicious-looking sastrugi and inequality of
the snow was probed, and several pits four or five feet
deep dug, but all without result, and, unwilling to
waste more time on an evidently fruitless search, I
gave the word to go on to Camp Equinoctial and
search for the cache there. Thus ended the final effort
to recover this valuable cache, containing fourteen
cases of biscuit, three cases of milk, one hundred
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 443 '
pounds of pea soup, and ten gallons of oil, all buried
forever in the inscrutable bosom of the " Great Ice."
I had more hopes of finding the equinoctial cache,
as it had been dug up by Lee, and replaced on the
surface of the snow the previous July. Halting
when compass and odometer indicated that I had
reached its position, I sent out my Eskimo scouts on
the little trailer sledges, to quarter the surface of the
snow. Seated upon my own sledge, I watched them
dashing back and forth, and in a few minutes saw a
sharp-eyed, keen-scented dog in one of the teams
swerve to one side, and, followed by the entire team,
dash at something invisible to me in the snow.
A moment later, Nooktah stood up and waved some-
thing about his head, then came galloping back, and
handed me a piece of an old bag which had been tied
to the tip of the pole marking the position of the
cache. Only three inches of the pole were now pro-
jecting above the snow, and even this could be seen
in but one direction, owing to a tiny drift which had
formed aofainst the windward side. At the end of a
forty-mile compass and odometer course, I had
stopped my sledge within a hundred yards of the
buried cache. This cache, though not as large as
the other one, containing only ten cases of biscuit,
and a case and a half of milk, was still very accepta-
ble, as it enabled me to complete my milk ration, and
replace my heterogeneous assortment of open boxes
of biscuit, with tight-soldered tins of superior biscuit
originally ordered for the Expedition. During the
search for the cache, Annowkah, one of the Eskimos,
weakened, and took the opportunity to decamp and
go back to the lodge with his sledge and dogs. This
desertion necessitated a new arrangement of the
loads. The marches of the three following days, of
twenty-two, twenty-eight, and thirty miles, respect-
444 Northward over the '' Great Ice "
ively, carried us across the Whale-Sound-Kane-Basin
wind-divide and well into the snow-shed of the Hum-
boldt Glacier, bringing us, at midnight of Saturday,
the 6th, to the vicinity of the pemmican cache, one
hundred and twenty-four miles from the moraine, and
six thousand five hundred feet above the level of the
sea.
The weather during the week had been favourable,
with no severe winds and no extremely low tempera-
A SHELTER.
tures, these ranging from —12° F. to —23° F. The
surface of the ice-cap had been firm enough to sup-
port men, sledges, and dogs. We had strained every
nerve to reach the site of this cache before there
should be a change in the weather, and in spite of
the heavy up grades and frequent interruptions of
the first three marches, we had made the very satis=
factory average of a trifle over twenty-one miles
per day. Lee and myself each had a frost-bitten toe,
and the cheeks and noses of Henson and myself were
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 445
frozen. These mishaps, however, were regarded
lightly. Personally I was a trifle fatigued, as I,
alone of the party, had walked the entire distance,
the duty of setting the course, which I had done
after the first two days, giving me no opportunity for
riding.
I wasted but a few hours' sleep before commenc-
ing the search for the cache, and this was prosecuted
for twenty-four hours, the Eskimos, on the trailer
sledges, scouring the vicinity in every direction to a
distance of live miles, while Lee, Matt, and myself.
LEE AND THE "LONG SERPENT."
on foot, examined the immediate neighbourhood of
the camp. All proved unavailing. The prominent
signal of the previous year had been broken off by
the furious winds, and it and the cache were buried
beneath the deep snow. The loss of this cache of
some fourteen hundred pounds of pemmican was a
staoro-erinor blow to me. While I had all alono- recop;-
nised the possibility of this very contingency, and
had made up my rations for the journey without refer-
ence to this pemmican, yet at heart I had felt as if
we must find the cache, for I well knew that neither
446 Northward over the "Great Ice"
walrus meat for the dogs, nor venison for ourselves,
could fill the place of pemmican. Already, I could
see the effects of the continuous hard work and the
ration of frozen meat upon my dogs. The recovery
of this cache would have enabled me to lie over here
two days, rest my dogs thoroughly, fill them to reple-
tion with pemmican and walrus meat, and then start
with full sledges and my dogs fresh and full of enthu-
siasm, as when we started from the moraine. In
other words, it would have brought my starting-point
one hundred and twenty-four miles nearer to Inde-
A CAMP.
pendence Bay. As it was, I could not waste an hour
here, but must push on, and take every advantage
of the continuance of pleasant weather.
From here I sent my faithful Eskimo allies back to
the lodge. Only I and they can know how brave and
loyal and faithful they were. For six sleeps and six
long rapid marches they had followed me unquestion-
ingly into the awful heart of the sermiksoak, where
none of their tribe had ever been or dared to go
before. Never before, even in their longest pursuit of
the polar bear across the frozen surface of Smith Sound,
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 447
had they been out of sight of the cHffs and mountains of
their savage coast. Yet now, since four days back,
the highest peaks of those mountains had disappeared
below the surface of the " Great Ice," and for four days
the unbroken steely horizon of the frozen desert had
circled round them in a glittering ring. And now
they must hasten back alone with feverish speed,
before a storm could obliterate our sledge tracks, and
leave them lost, bewildered, and bewitched, at the
mercy of the dread demons of the " Great Ice." One
of them carried a letter to the brave woman waitino-
in the South, in which was the following paragraph :
" I shall push on to Independence Bay and do all
that is possible for man to do. After that I do not
know. Everything will depend upon circumstances,
and in any case a knowledge of my plans would avail
nothing. We have only ourselves and the All-Power-
ful One to rely upon, and in the event of mishap no
human help can find or reach us."
As the Eskimos dwindled into invisibility toward
the frozen line of the southern horizon, we beo^an our
march into the glittering northern expanse, three
of us, with forty-two dogs. The order of march of
the little advance party, which had now cut com-
pletely loose, and from now on must paddle its own
canoe, was as follows : Myself in advance with the
"Josephine" sledge and a team of twelve dogs,
setting the course by means of the boat-compass
lashed on top of the load, which, as may be inferred,
had been selected with reference to a total exclusion
of anything composed of iron ; next Matt, with the
tent-sledge and the " Chopsie " trailer drawn by a team
of sixteen dogs ; and finally Lee, with the long sledge
and the other trailer drawn by fourteen dogs.
It requires considerable experience to steer a direct
course across this white desert, with not a thing to
448 Northward over the "Great Ice "
guide or fix the eye. It takes long practice for
a white man to drive a team of ten or twelve
Eskimo dogs. And it is something more than
either, to force a heavily burdened dog team on
a direct line into the blank nothingness of that Arctic
Sahara. Yet necessity knows no master, and,
driven by necessity, I did this from now on for a
FEEDING THE DOGS.
distance of three hundred miles. The efficiency of
the teams was very seriously impaired by the contin-
uous fiofhtinof resultinor from the rearrang-ement of the
dogs ; fighting which no earthly power can stop till
it has been conclusively decided which dog is the king
of each team.
On the third march, Lee was very much under
the weather, and on reaching camp I gave him some
medicine and sent him to the tent. The care of
the forty odd dogs then fell upon Matt and myself,
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 449
and to keep a pack of forty ravenous Eskimo dogs in
order during feeding-time is something beyond the
power of any two men. We succeeded in tying them
as usual in groups of five to eight, to stakes driven in
the snow about the camp, and Henson had nearly
completed chopping up the daily ration of frozen
walrus meat, while I, with whip in hand, tried to
keep the yelping brutes from breaking loose. But
it was impossible to be everywhere at once, and, while
busy quieting one group, another, with a sudden com-
bined rush, and the superhuman strength which the
NOOKTAH AND THE "JOSEPHINE."
sight of food inspires in a hungry Eskimo dog, tore
up the stake to which they were fastened, and dashed
for the pile of meat. There was a simultaneous
savage cry from every other dog, and in an instant
every stake was broken or pulled up, and a howling
avalanche of dogs swept through the camp and fell
upon the meat. Each group being still fastened
together by their traces, anything about the camp less
firm than primeval rocks, such as projecting points of
sledges, odometer, trailers, thermometer support, and
so on, came to sudden grief.
VOL. II. — 29
450 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Whip and voice were equally unheeded, and Matt
and myself were obliged to jump out from among the
furious animals, to save our foot-gear from being torn
to pieces by their savage snaps at the meat and each
other. There was nothing to be done but let them
finish the meat, regardless of whether each got his
proper share or not. I smiled as I thought of the
trouble that other parties of two or three men had
experienced in taking care of a team of eight or ten
dogs, and wondered if they knew anything about real
trouble. Here, before us, were forty savage, power-
GOOD-BYE.
ful dogs, the flower of the king-dogs and trained
bear-hunters of the tribe, mad with the struggle for
food and the attacks of each other, and inextricably
tangled and bound together by their traces, — Kil-
kenny cats multiplied twenty-fold.
Then came the straigfhtenincr out of the snarl. The
temperature was 25° below zero, and a strong wind
was sweeping through the camp, loaded with a sting-
ing drift of snow. Silently we went to work, and at
the end of five hours had the Gordian knots untied
and every dog secured, except one. He, tangled up
Upward Ice-Cap Journey
451
and rendered helpless by the twisting traces, had
been bitten by the others till he had gone mad with
rage and pain, and, with bloodshot eyes, frothing
mouth, and clashing teeth bit at everything he could
reach, until I was obliged to quiet him with a bullet.
THE GORDIAN KNOT WAS NOWHERE.
After this episode with the dogs, we kept on day
after day across the white, wind-swept waste, con-
stantly ascending, and the snow surface gradually
becoming less firm. While crossing the head of the
Petermann-Fjord Basin, we were caught in an ahnoah-
taksoah, which went hurtling down the ice-slopes toward
the land with express-train speed. This storm delayed
us for forty-eight hours, and the force of the wind flat-
tened the tent down upon us so that it was with the
utmost difficulty that I could extricate myself from it
and grope my way to the sledges for necessary sup-
452 Northward over the "Great Ice"
plies. This contraction of our at best Hmited space,
the temperatures of -25" F. to -30° F. in the tent, and
the howUng of the poor dogs outside as the murder-
ous wind penetrated even their thick coats, rendered
our detention here extremely uncomfortable. A sin-
gle storm plays more havoc with dogs, harnesses, and
traces, than the wear and tear of a fortnight of con-
tinuous travel. Two dogs used up by this storm were
fed to the others.
The gradual ascent continued, and the close of the
next week found us over seven thousand feet above sea-
level. Temperatures ranged, when there was consid-
erable wind, from -25 ° F. at noon, to -25° F. and -35°
F. at midnight ; and when calm, from -10° F. to -20° F.
at noon, to -35° F. and -45° F. at midnight. On
these latter days the weather seemed almost mild, and
the exercise of snow-shoeing and driving dogs at the
same time, compelled us to strip to our deerskin shirts
in order to avoid perspiration. The moment we
halted, the kooletah became essential to our comfort.
During the week, the *' Long Serpent " was abandoned,
and the loads rearranged. As the dogs grew more
tired, it became, daily, more and more difficult for me
to force my team into the white emptiness ahead.
Covering distances of from ten to twenty-five miles
per day, we reached an elevation of 7865 feet above
sea-level, our maximum. To enable the dogs, which
were daily growing weaker and weaker, to cover
these distances, every expedient known to the Es-
kimo was made use of to lighten their work. The
tent-sledge was iced nearly every day, and my own
sledge, which could be iced by turning it on its side
without unloading, twice a day ; the most careful
attention was paid to the trim of the loads, the fit of
the harness, the untangling of the traces, etc. ; and
with my own sledge the upstanders permitted me
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 453
to aid my dogs very materially. The average eleva-
tion for this week was 7670 feet, and the effect of this
was very perceptible upon both men and dogs. The
latter showed it by their lack of strength, and their
rapid breathing at the least increase over our usual
speed of about two miles per hour. As for ourselves,
while we could walk without discomfort at a two- to
two-and-a-half-mile-an-hour pace, and continue it for
THE DISASTER AT THE FOUR-HUNDREDTH MILE.
from twenty to twenty-five miles, a run of a few
yards to overtake the sledge after stopping to tie
a kamik string or pick up a mitten, or two or
three vigorous pulls to start the sledge, would take
our breath completely, and, in the case of Matt and
Lee, be frequently accompanied by bleeding at the
nose. The strength of all of us was reduced fully
fifty per cent, though this was undoubtedly largely
454 Northward over the "Great Ice"
the result of our rarely, if ever, eating our full meat
rations. Our meat was raw and frozen ; the nearest
approach we could make to cooking it was to warm it
up in our tea, and we did not seem to care for it. Tea
and biscuit appeased our hunger temporarily, but did
not crive us strength.
Up to the four-hundredth mile, we had not wasted a
moment's time in repairs to our sledges, but almost
simultaneous with our passing the four-hundredth
LEE AND HIS FIREPLACE.
mile, one of the runners of the tent-sledge broke short
off at the forward upright. During this march, the
wind, which had all this time been blowing steadily
from the south-east, fell calm, and the sasti^ugi, the
wind carvings on the snow, changed their direction.
I knew the meaning of the change. We had passed
the continental divide, and were sloping to the east
coast, the land clouds over which we could make out
far to the north-east. The greater portion of a day
was consumed in repairing the sledge with a runner
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 455
from one of the trailers. With this breakage, the be-
ginning of the fifth week, and our entrance into the
fifth hundred miles, began a series of mishaps. The
new runner did duty for only twelve miles, when it
broke beyond possibility of repairs, even had I pos-
sessed any spare material. The load was removed, the
wreck cut away, the sledge stiffened laterally by a pair
of ski, and the catamaran transformed into a three-
runner sledge. Then, by making another twenty-four-
hour day of it, we covered twenty-three and a half
miles, and at the end of the march, fed the last walrus
meat to the dogs, of which I now had seventeen.
MATT AND THE TENT-SLEDGE.
With these it must now be a case of dog eat dog, un-
til we found game. Under this arrangement, my dogs
went to the dogs, figuratively and literally, very rap-
idly, and in a few days there were but eleven left, and
we were obliged to get into the drag-ropes ourselves,
and, in addition, begin the hateful work of double-
banking. It was evident that some of us must get to
the land with all speed and at any sacrifice, and let our
after movements depend upon the success there. I
made an observation to determine our position, dis-
456 Northward over the "Great Ice"
mantled the three-runner sledge, took the unbroken
sledge and the " Chopsie " trailer, our sleeping- and
camp-gear and about a week's supplies, and caching
everything else, hurried on. The down grade and a
stern wind enabled us to cover twenty-one miles,
though all of us were completely used up at its finish.
The next day was a trying one, relieved only by the
welcome sight of land, rising blue and serrated above
the blinding ice-cap ahead and on our left. To our
LOOKING DOWN ON THE NORTHERN LAND.
half-blinded and untrustworthy eyes, it was uncer-
tain at first whether it was land or mirage. It was
high time that we sighted it. The rapid pace of the
previous day's march had destroyed what little life
there was in the dogs, and of the eleven poor brutes
three were scarcely able to walk, to say nothing of pull-
ing ; the others were not much better, and we our-
selves were unequal to any violent or prolonged
exertion. We camped on the crest of the ice-cap
looking down on the land west of Independence Bay.
Upward Ice-Cap Journey 457
We were now over five hundred miles in a direct line
from the lodge, and I had eleven dogs, all of them com-
pletely exhausted, and three so nearly dead that they
were fit only for dog food. If we found musk-oxen
down below, well and good. ' If we did not, not a dog
in the pack, even under the most favourable circum-
stances and with continuous fine weather, would get
more than a third of the distance back to the lodge,
and the remainder of the way we must drag the sledges
ourselves. Supposing that we were fortunate enough
to cover this third of the distance in ten or twelve
days, I should then have twenty days' rations with
which to cover the remaining two-thirds (three hun-
dred and thirty-three miles). Nansen, in his crossing
of Greenland, with fresh men, had taken forty days
to cover two hundred and eighty miles.
As soon as we had camped, my programme was un-
folded. After a complete rest and good sleep, I, with
Matt and the " Chopsie " sledge, three days' provisions,
duplicate lamp (for making tea), and our rifles, would
go down to the land and make a thorough search for
musk-oxen. Lee was to remain in camp to rest and
recuperate, look after the dogs, and make some altera-
tions in the tent, which was no longer to be erected
on the sledge. During our absence, he was to feed
the two completely exhausted dogs to the others. I
did not dare to take the dogs down to the land, for I
knew that, if we did not find musk-oxen, they would
never climb to the camp again, while, if we did find the
musk-oxen, we could come back after the dogs, take
them down to the carcasses, and fill them to repletion.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LAND BEYOND THE ICE-CAP.
An Unsuccessful Search — Camp Resolution — A Never-to-be-Forgotten
Scene — Reach Land in a Furious Storm — The Forlorn Hope — The
Northern Land — Thank God ! the Musk-Oxen— Awakened Hunger —
The Musk-Ox Hunt — A Royal Repast — My Faithful Dogs.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LAND BEYOND THE ICE-CAP.
LEAVING the tent,
which was forty-
eigfht hundred feet
above sea-level, at mid-
night, we went straight
down for the land, taking
turns at dragging the
sledofe. There is one
peculiarity about my dis-
covery of this land be-
yond the ice-cap which
has always struck me very
forcibly, a peculiarity which in a way distinguishes it
from all other discoveries of new lands.
More than one explorer has seen the summits of a
new land rise from below the sea horizon, until at
last, as he stepped upon the virgin shore, they towered
far above him. Many others have crept along a tor-
tuous coast, constantly opening up new bays and
headlands ; but never before has an explorer, after
travelling for weeks in an unending day, thousands
of feet above the sea-level, seen the peaks and valleys
of a new land lying in the yellow midnight sunlight
far below him, and has literally descended from the
sky upon his maiden prize.
461
462 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Cortez, it is true, looked down from the mountains
which circle the great plain of Mexico, upon the glis-
tening lakes, and the wonderful city ; and Balboa, upon
that " peak in Darien," looked down upon the smihng
Pacific, but what an unimaginable contrast here !
For them trees rustled in the warm, perfumed breeze,
and the panorama spread before them glowed with
fullest tropical opulence.
For us hissed the driving snow, borne on the freez-
ing breath of the heart of the " Great Ice," and the
new land far below was but a barren heap of fragments
of earth's skeleton.
Yet, by contrast with the frozen desolation im-
mediately around us, even those bare primeval bones
seemed warm and inviting.
Some four miles from the tent, we passed a se-
ries of huge concentric crevasses, ranged like the
benches in an amphitheatre, from the crest nearly to
the foot of one of the ice-slopes. I recognised the
group as one which I had seen in 1892.
Several miles beyond these and lower down, we
entered upon a tract, some two or three miles in width,
intersected in every direction by narrow crevasses, and
dotted with peculiar ice-mounds, from two to three
feet high, formed by the freezing of the moisture in
the air exhaled from the crevasses. These crevasses,
covered with a snow crust, were difficult to detect,
and almost as soon as we entered the tract, Matt went
into one up to his waist. It was his first introduction
to a crevasse, and it naturally gave him a pronounced
shake-up, and bleached his dark face, though he said
little. My turn came next ; then it was one or the other
or both of us, with one leg or both and part of our
bodies, down in the villainous cracks, till we got har-
dened and made no effort to detect or avoid them, but
walked straight ahead, though constantly on the qui
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 463
vive to throw ourselves forward, the moment we fek
the snow giving way beneath us.
Akhough the land here was very similar in appear-
ance to that below the Independence-Bay moraine
(as seen in 1892), the junction of the ice-cap and the
land was very dissimilar. In the former it afforded
free and easy access to the rocks, in the latter it was
marked by a nearly continuous, vertical wall of blue
ice, utterly impracticable of ascent or descent. Finally
ICE-CAP CREVASSE.
we were able to scramble down over an incipient gla-
cier, picking our way across crevasses, and winding
among turquoise seracs, till at last we found ourselves
at the bottom of a large pit, walled partly by the ice-
cliffs and partly by the rocks, and its floor intersected
by embankments and mounds of moraine detritus. As
we stepped from the ice upon this, Matt, who had
wearied of the frightful monotony of the ice-cap, ex-
claimed," Rocks once more, thank God ! " Later, with
foot-gear cut to pieces and feet bruised to agony, we
464 Northward over the "Great Ice"
were even more delighted to leave the rocks for the sur-
face of the ice.
On the lee side of one of these mounds, we drew up
the sledge. We had taken with us only the lamp full
of oil, and when Matt started to make tea, he found
that most of the oil had been spilled while coming
down through the seracs. A spare pair of stockings,
which had been packed about the lamp to keep it up-
right, had absorbed considerable of the oil, and by cut-
"THREE EXHAUSTED MEN AND NINE STARVED DOGS."
ting one of these in strips and using it as fuel in a very
small and very carefully constructed stone fireplace,
Matt succeeded in makingr a tinful of tea. We then
ate our biscuit and a few mouthfuls of meat, tightened
the draw-strings of our kooletahs, and stretched our-
selves on the frozen and partly snow-covered gravel,
to pass the hours of meridian sun-glare in sleep.
When I again became conscious, heavy grey clouds
were marshalling above the ice-cap, the sun was ob-
scured, and by the time we had eaten breakfast and
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 465
were ready to start, the clouds had descended upon
the ice-cap and the summits of the land, hiding them
from view.
All day in a drizzling- snow-storm we wandered over
and among a mass of barren nunataks, sentinels in the
picket-line of the land in its eternal conflict with the
" Great Ice " ; climbing over the jagged rocks, scram-
blinof down cliffs, crossino- oflacier arms, following ice-
walls, in search of a practicable ascent or descent,
and unable in the grey obscurity to reach the main-
land.
Evidently the guardian demon of this land was
opposed to our examining it, or making any havoc in
his musk-ox herds.
Tired, footsore, and disappointed, we retraced our
steps, and after a twenty-five-mile tramp, reached our
sledge. We had seen during the day some ten or
twelve snow-buntings, a wolf track, fresh hare tracks,
and musk-ox droppings ; the latter, however, very old.
There was to my surprise practically no snow on
this land, except in the ravines and places favourable
for the formation of drifts, and the bare, sharp rocks
had cut and ripped our kamiks, and pounded our feet
till they were bruised and swollen. The constant
climbing up and down, and stepping from rock to
rock, had overtasked muscles which the level travel-
ling on the ice-cap had long left indolent, and our legs
and backs were aching savagely.
Tea finished, we lost no time in stretching ourselves
for sleep, regardless of the snow beneath us or that
falling upon us. When we awoke, it was still storm-
ing, and we could only climb empty-handed back up
the weary ice-cap to the tent, considering ourselves
fortunate if we did not have to sleep a night or two
without shelter on the ice-cap, for we could easily miss
the tent in the thick weather. But the tract of nar-
466 Northward over the " Great Ice "
row crevasses, and the group of big ones, enabled us
to retrace our route, and after ten hours' march we
were back at the tent, breaking the disagreeable news
to Lee. It was a very sober, silent little party gath-
ered round the cooker, and it was Iouq: before I went
to sleep.
The next morninor after breakfast I brought the
matter up, and with very little discussion it was
decided we should stake everything on finding the
musk-oxen. I fully explained to the boys that we
were taking our lives in our hands, and they expressed
themselves as perfectly willing to take the chances, I
never think of that camp without a thrill of admira-
tion for the two brave, loyal, unquestioning men with
me, who did not hesitate a moment. In the midst of
the still thick weather we started back for our cache,
the ice-cap hidden in the clouds and fog, everything
invisible in the grey shroud.
There are few things more tiresome physically
than the monotonous drudgery of dragging hour
after hour at a sledge, and when this has to be done
in one of those dense fogs of the ice-cap, under the
intense mental strain of trying to keep a straight
course with absolutely nothing on which the eye
can rest, or toward which the steps can be directed,
a powerful element of mental fatigue is added, which
exhausts one completely. Twenty-two miles of this
killing work, for my dogs were utterly useless now,
brought us back to my cache, and gave us a fore-
taste of what the homeward journey would be like
if we found no musk-oxen. Matt and myself were
thoroughly used up, feet, legs, and eyes, when we
halted. Lee, having had a two or three days' rest,
was fresher. Yet no one's courage wavered, and after
a few hours' sleep we were ready to start for the land
again, with everything except one sledge and scant
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 467
rations for ourselves for the return journey. These
were left in the camp.
Never shall I forget that time and scene ; three
exhausted men and nine starved does, standino- there
in the gaunt, frozen desert. These and the glistening
snow, the steel-blue sky, and the cold white sun.
Five hundred miles in an air-line across a waste of
snow to the nearest human being, with insufficient
rations for even that distance, yet we were still facing
MORAINE CONE.
the other way. I think that, as we started, each one
of us felt an unspoken prayer that the constant peti-
tions of the dear ones in the far-off homeland, where
birds were sino-inor and flowers bloomine, mio-ht be
listened to, and that the All-Seeing Eye would watch
over us.
I felt then, as I feel now, that in that cool, deliber-
ate moment we took the eolden bowl of life in our
hands, and that the bowl had suddenly grown very
468 Northward over the '' Great Ice "
fragile. And I feel now, as I felt then, that we were
neither rash nor foolhardy in so doing, but simply
followed the dictates of temperaments which could
not act otherwise, and which would do the same thing
again under the same circumstances.
When we reached what might be called the actual
crest of the ice-cap, about fifteen miles from its edge,
where it begins to slope rapidly to the land, and I
could make out the familiar landmarks far below, I
THE NORTHERN LAND FROM THE MORAINE.
found that we were approaching the land on a course
about five miles east of the one on which I had de-
scended to it in 1892. This difference of position re-
sulted in a higher elevation, and enabled me to look
over the eastern edge of the Academy-Glacier basin,
and make out the summits of the east-coast land
ribbon, considerably farther to the south than I had
seen them in 1892. At this time it was entirely clear
on the ice-cap and along the inner edge of the Inde-
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 469
pendence-Bay land. Farther out, heavy cumulus clouds
hung at a considerable elevation over the land.
Underneath these, I saw, due north, and distant ap-
parently some seventy-five miles, what had escaped ob-
servation on my previous trip, owing- to the heavy land
•clouds, a magnificent mountain, massive in form and
heavily buttressed, towering in savage grandeur far
above the intervening cliffs and ice-caps. Apparently
it was twice their height. As, however, its shape was
constantly changing under the mirage effects of these
high latitudes, it is very likely that its elevation was
•exaggerated by the same cause. The clouds descend-
ing soon hid it from our view, and a few hours later a
dull veil formed across the sky. The clouds sank in
^reat leaden masses upon the land, the ice-cap took on
a ghastly hue, short, sharp gusts of wind came up
rapidly from behind us, and, hurrying past, rushed
down the slopes of the " Great Ice" to the land.
We, too, hurried on with all possible speed, in order
to pass the landward slopes of bare blue ice before the
wind increased too much, and reach the moraine before
it was obliterated. We reached and passed the site of
my 1892 moraine camp just before the storm broke,
and gained the shelter of the big cone of detritus
Avhich, in 1892, had marked my point of departure from
the ice-cap, and had been my far distantly visible
beacon on my return to it. Hurriedly pitching the
tent behind it, we were partially protected from the
hissing and howling Niagara of wind and snow which
poured over us. The demon angel of the land was
evidently still on the alert.
May 15th, the storm which, for two days, had held
us prisoners upon the moraine of the " Great Ice," more
than four thousand feet above the level of the sea,
ceased, and in a very short time I had completed all
my preparations for a trip down to the land in search
470 Northward over the "Great Ice"
of the musk-oxen which must be our salvation. Matt
and ah the dogs were to accompany me ; and I took
the httle " Chopsie," our rifles, four days' half-rations
of tea, biscuits, and oil, and the last of the walrus
meat, a frozen lump a little larger than a man's head,
which I had been husbanding to get the dogs up the
ice-cap again, Lee was to remain at the tent during
our absence, to give his toe a chance to recover
entirely.
OUR BOULDER SHELTER.
The almost entire absence of snow on this northern
country was a surprise as well as an annoyance to me,
as it threatened to interfere seriously with the portage
of the big sledge and supplies from the ice-cap to the
sea ice. By continuous reconnaissance in advance of
the dogs, I found a fairly good though circuitous
route along the snow-drifts lying in the lee of the
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 47 1
labyrinth of glacial tumuli and dykes through which
our path led for some miles. After passing these,
and ascending a gentle incline, we entered the main
thalweg of this region, which gave us a nearly direct
course (situated west of the route followed by Astrup
and myself in 1892, when we intentionally kept along
the ridge of the land divide) toward the head of the
bay.
This thalweg, commencing at first in an extensive
elevated, shallow basin, became gradually more ac-
centuated, narrower, and deeper, until, abreast of
Musk-Ox Valley, where Astrup and myself had seen
and killed our first cattle, it was a shallow canyon.
Twelve hours of steady, rapid marching brought us
to this point, and here I left Matt with the sledge and
dogs, and with my rifle went across to the valley to
look for game or traces of it. So far we had not seen
the slightest indication of musk-oxen, though we had
crossed the same places where, on my previous visit, I
had seen their droppings, tracks, and wool, on almost
every square rod of ground.
My reconnaissance of the valley also failed to show
the least trace of their presence, and I returned to the
sledge in a mood the reverse of cheerful.
Could it be that the musk-oxen of this region were
migratory, retreating southward along the east coast
in the fall, and returning in late spring or early sum-
mer, and that we were too early for them ? Or had
the sight and smell of ourselves and dogs and the
carcasses of their slain comra.des, in that awful visi-
tation of three years before, terrified them so that
they had deserted this region completely ? These re-
flections were perhaps accentuated by the fact that it
was now late in the day, and we were exhausted with
the arduous travelling, and weak and hungry from our
previous continuously scant diet of tea and biscuit.
472 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
The last unpleasant sensation was partially ameliorated
by a recourse to the dog-food meat. True, this was a
frozen mixture of walrus meat, blubber, hair, sand, and
various other foreign substances, but it "went" just
the same, and the fact that the meat was pronouncedly
" high " and the blubber more or less rancid caused no
complaint from the parties most interested. Even
HE SANK ON HIS HAUNCHES.
this unattractive food we could only nibble, for the
dogs needed it more than we.
We then went on down the canyon, which narrowed
and became more tortuous, until farther progress was
barred at the entrance to what we called the " Devil's
Den," — vertical cliffs within arm-stretch of each other,
the bottom of the cleft filled with huge angular masses,
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 473
almost impracticable for a man alone, and utterly so for
a sledge. We were compelled to retreat nearly to where
I had left the sledge to reconnoitre Miisk-Ox Valley ;
then climb the banks and go across country. The scarc-
ity of snow made it useless to try to keep the sledge
on it, and we proceeded in as nearly a direct line as
the topography would allow across rocks, gravel,
cobble, and boulders.
A few miles beyond the valley, I saw a fresh hare
track, and a few hundred yards beyond came upon
the hare itself, squatting among the rocks a few
paces distant. With the sight of the beautiful spot-
less little animal, the feeling of emptiness in the
region of my stomach increased. I called to Matt,
who was some little distance back, to stop the dogs
and come up with his rifle. He was so affected by
the prospect of a good supper, that, though usually
a good shot, his first and second bullets missed the
mark, but at the third the white object collapsed into
a shapeless mass, and on the instant gaunt hunger
leapt upon us like a starving wolf upon its prey. A
little pond, surrounded by high banks a short distance
away, offered the advantage of ice for cooking pur-
poses, and here we camped, lit our lamp, and cooked
and ate the entire hare. It was the first full meal we
had had since the Eskimos left us thirty-five days ago,
— the first meal possessing proper substance and stay-
ing quality, to fit a man for a heavy day's work.
While we were enjoying our feast, it began snowing,
and at its conclusion we lay down as we were, upon
the snow-covered shore of the little pond, without tent
or sleeping-bag or anything except the clothes we
wore, and, with the snowflakes falling thickly upon us,
slept.
This meal brought home to me very forcibly the
great advantage that a party of two or three men has,
474 Northward over the '* Great Ice "
in this region, over a larger number. The one hare
had suppHed two of us with all that we could possibly
eat at one meal, and, like the Eskimo dog, we could
now, after a good sleep, travel for a couple of days
without meat. Had there been seven or eight of us,
to share the animal, the portion of each would have
been so small as to only aggravate hunger, and would
not have materially increased the strength or travel-
ling effectiveness of anyone.
The next morning we started for a valley between
Musk-Ox Valley and Navy Cliff. I had seen numer-
ous musk-ox tracks here in 1892, but none of the
animals themselves, though as a matter of fact I
had not looked for them. At the entrance of this
valley, I came upon a track, but so indistinct that it
was quite possible that it might have been made the
previous fall. Following it a short distance, the ac-
companying tracks of a calf were discernible, showing
at once that the tracks were of this season ; and a little
farther, there were traces but a few days old. Thank
God, the musk-oxen were not far distant !
Fastening our dogs securely to a rock, and muz-
zling them so they could neither chew themselves
loose, nor make a racket to disturb the musk-oxen,
we passed rapidly and eagerly down the valley, Win-
chesters in hand, with eyes fixed upon the tracks.
Other tracks joined these, and soon the feeding-ground
of the animals the preceding day was reached, their
tracks and the places where they had dug away the
snow in search of grass and moss being covered lightly
with the frost precipitation of the previous night.
Evidently there was quite a herd of them, and I was
as sure of the animals now as if I already had them
lying at my feet.
A survey of the valley with my binoculars failing
to locate the animals, we directed our steps to an
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 475
entirely snow-free tract of rocks at the lower end
of the valley near the glacier, where it seemed quite
likely they might be. Nothing was seen of them
here, and we turned back towards the feeding-place,
when a brace of snowy ptarmigan fluttered up from
before us, and then settled a few yards away. Know-
ing that the report of our rifles would not alarm
the musk-oxen, accustomed as they were to the
"WITH A BULLET BACK OF THE FORE SHOULDER."
cracking of the glaciers, I told Matt to take one and
I would take the other, and a moment later ptar-
migan stew became one of the assured items on our
menu. Surely we were in a land of plenty, with hare,
ptarmigan, and, in the near future, musk-ox, at our
command.
Reachinor the feedinor-arounds agrain, we did what
we should have done at first (though we would
476 Northward over the "Great Ice"
then have missed the ptarmigan), circled the valley
till we found tracks leading out of the labyrinth
and up the slopes of the surrounding mountains.
These tracks showed that the herd numbered some
fifteen or twenty, including several small calves.
Rapidly following these, my eyes were at last glad-
dened by the sight of a group of black spots, on a
little terrace just below the crest of the mountains.
Seen through the glass, some of the animals were ly-
ing down. The herd was evidently beginning its
midday siesta. Climbing the slope to the leeward of
the oxen, we reached the edge of the terrace com-
pletely out of breath, and lay down behind a big
boulder to regain it and watch their movements.
The herd was almost two hundred yards distant, and
numbered twenty-two. The cows and calves were all
lying down not far from us, while an old bull prome-
naded slowly near them, A short distance away, two
other bulls were lying down on a snow-bank, but soon
got up and began what seemed to me like a friendly
butting-match, though it may have been a thoroughly
dead-in-earnest contest for the affections of some fair
cow in the herd. Certain it is, it lacked that run-at-
full-tilt, and strike-fire-when-stopped element, that one
is apt to associate with the combats of the bull, the
goat, and the sheep, when stung by Cupid's shafts.
It reminded me more of the calm and harmless con-
tests of Eskimo swains for the favours of a dusky
charmer.
We were trembling too much with excitement, and
our eyes were too weak from the incessant blinding
glare of the ice-cap, for us to think of shooting at that
distance. We must rush on them. Would they run
or stand their ground ? We should soon know.
I wonder if a single one of my readers really knows
what hunorer is. I do not mean the hungfer which has
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 477
reached within a few gasps of death. I fancy that the
pain has passed at that stage ; and I imagine, too,
that one who has had that experience does not talk
of it vohmtarily. The hunger that I do mean is that
which has gone to the utmost hmit consistent with
the full retention of all the faculties, mental and
physical.
DEAD MUSK-OX.
That meal of fresh, hot, luscious meat from the
hare, the first adequate meal in nearly six hundred
miles of daily snow-shoeing, in nearly six weeks of
arduous work in the rarefied air and low temperatures
of the " Great Ice," had been to us like the taste of
freshly spilled blood to the long-tamed tiger ; and
had wakened in us every one of the merciless hunger
pangs which, during those previous six weeks, had
gradually been dulled into insensibility. Now as we
47^ Northward over the " Great Ice "
lay there, looking at the big black animals before us,
we had none of the sportsman's sensations in the
presence of big game. They were not game for us,
but meat ! and every nerve and fibre in our gaunt
bodies was vibrating with a savage lust for that meat,
— meat that should be soft and warm, meat into which
our teeth could sink and tear and rend, meat that
would not blister lips and tongue with its frost, nor
ring like rock against our teeth.
Panting and quivering with excitement, we lay for
a few moments longer, then: " Do you think they
will come for us, sir?" said Matt. — "God knows, I
hope so, boy, for then we are sure of some of them.
Are you ready?" — " Yes, sir." — "Come on, then." One
of us one side of the big boulder, the other the other,
and we dashed across the rocks and snow straight
towards them.
There was a snort and a stamp of the hoof from
the big bull guarding the herd, and the next instant
every animal was facing us ; the next, they were in
close line with lowered heads and horns. I could
have yelled for joy if I had had the breath to spare,
for I knew now we were sure of some of them.
Many of us have read one of these thrilling
stories of travellers in the Russian forests, chased by
hungry wolves, and have had our feelings wrought
up to the highest pitch of sympathy for the poor dev-
ils in their efforts to escape. But did any of us ever
stop to think of the sensations of those other poor
devils, the starving wolves ? I know now what their
feelings are, and my sympathies are with the wolves.
We were within less than fifty yards of the herd,
when the big bull with a quick motion lowered his
horns still more. Instinct, Providence, call it what
you will, told me it was the signal for the herd to
charge. Without slackening my pace, I pulled my
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 479
Winchester to my shoulder, and sent a bullet at the
back of his neck, over the white, impervious shield of
the great horns. Heart, and soul, and brain, and
eyes, went with that singing bullet, for I knew that
it meant our lives. I felt we were hungry enough,
and wolfish enough, that, had the bull been alone, we
could have sprung upon him bare-handed, and torn
the life-blood from his throat. But as^ainst the entire
"THE FAITHFUL SHADOWS WE CALLED DOGS."
herd we would have been powerless ; once the black
avalanche had gained momentum, we would have been
crushed by it like the crunching snow crystals under
our feet.
As the bull sank upon his haunches, the herd wav-
ered. A cow half turned, and as Matt's rifle cracked,
fell with a bullet back of her fore shoulder. Without
raising my rifle above my hips, another one dropped.
480 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Then another, for Matt ; then the herd broke, and
we hurried in pursuit.
A wounded cow wheeled, and, with lowered head,
was about to charge me ; again Matt's rifle cracked
and she feh. As I rushed past her he shouted, " My
last cartridge ! "
A short distance beyond, the remainder of the herd
faced about again, and I put a bullet into the breast
of another bull, but though the blood crimsoned his
SOMBRE NORTHERN LANDSCAPE.
chest and legs, it did not stop him, and the herd broke
again and disappeared over a sharp ridge. I had
neither wind nor strength to follow. Suddenly the
back of one of the animals running behind the ridge
appeared for an instant. I whirled and fired. I did
not see my sights, I scarcely think I saw my rifle, but
felt my aim as I would with harpoon or stone, yet I
heard the thud of the bullet, and saw the fatal crim-
son stain spring out behind the fore shoulder as the
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap ^Si
animal disappeared, then sank down on the snow used
up. But I knew that he too was mine. I can scarcely
realise as I write these lines, what absolute animals
hunger makes of men, and yet I can say truthfully,
never have I tasted more delicious food than was that
tender, raw, warm meat — a mouthful here and a mouth-
ful there, cut from the animal as I skinned it. I ate
till I dared eat no more, although still unsatisfied.
Then Matt went back to bring up the dogs and
sledee, while I continued the work of removing^ the
skins from the dead animals. With Matt's return,
came the supremest luxury of all ! That was to toss
big lumps of the rich, steaming meat to the faithful
shadows which we called dogs, till they, too, could eat
no more, and lay gorged and quiet upon the rocks.
The removal of the shaggy black pelts of the musk-
oxen was neither an easy nor a speedy job ; and by the
time the work was done it was midnip-ht, the sun low
over the mountains in the north, and a biting wind
whistling about our airy location.
We were glad to drag the skins to a central place,
construct a wind-guard with the assistance of the
sledge, a few stones, and a couple of the skins, and
make a bed of the others on the lee side of it. A lit-
tle stone shelter was constructed for our cooking-lamp,
and then, stretched upon our royally luxurious couch,
thick, soft, and warm, we were, for the first time, able to
spare the time to make ourselves some tea, and cook
some of the delicious musk-ox meat. Then, with the
savage, sombre northern land lying like a map below
us, the barren rocks, mottled here and there with
eternal snow-drifts, the summits of the distant mount-
ains disappearing in a mist of driving snow, and the
bitine breath of the " Great Ice " following even here,
and driftingf the fine snow over and about us, we
slept as tired children sleep.
i
CHAPTER XV.
THE LAND BEYOND THE ICE-CAP {Continued).
An Exhausting and Unsuccessful Chase — The 1892 Cairn Revisited —
Pushing on — Disappearance of the Snow — Frightful Travelling — De-
struction OF Last Sledge — The End of our Rope— Compelled to Turn
back^Disappearance of the Musk-Oxen — The Struggle back to the
Ick-Cap— MusK-Ox Skins for Sledge — Preparations for the Return.
'^y^^Jxi.^^.^^o^.^ J^r^^^^ ^j^C^
CHAPTER XV.
THE LAND BEYOND THE ICE-CAP {Continued).
o
UR slumbers were
undisturbed ex-
cept by "Sambo,"
a little coal-black musk-
calf. His mother was
the last cow killed by
Matt, and he the smallest
of calves. After we had
skinned the cow, the little
fellow persisted in placing
himself between my legs,
and, in this position, ac-
companied us to the sledge, and after the camp was
made, seemed to want to come to bed with us. I
curled him up and covered him with a corner of the
skin, once or twice, but this did not seem to suit.
Though I pitied the little fellow, and was considera-
bly annoyed by his performances, I could not help
laughing at them. He persisted in nibbling at my
hair, licking my nose, and pawing my face with his
hoofs, which, though small, were by no means soft.
Though he was undoubtedly hungry, I could not de-
tect either the hunger-note or that of fear in any of
his four or five distinct baby-cries.
By the middle of the following forenoon, we had our
485
486 Northward over the "Great Ice"
dogs fed again and muzzled, and, with rifles slung
across our backs, were climbing up from the camp on
the trail of the animals. From the direction they had
taken in their flight, I felt sure their objective point
was the valley in which I had killed my musk-oxen three
years before, and expected to come upon them there
during their noon rest, and bag the remainder of the
herd. Their tracks led to the very summit of the
mountains, and then along the crest of a long hog-
SAMBO, THE MUSK-CALF.
back formed by a narrow projecting dyke, which on
one side formed a vertical wall from ten to one hundred
feet in height. Aloncj this narrow ridofe,the animals had
made a trail no wider than a man would make, and,
arrived at the end of it, had gone down the wall
where it was lowest and down the steep talus of loose
fragments, apparently at full speed, in places evi-
dently sliding upon their haunches. They had en-
tered the valley, but had not stopped, and, emerging
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 487
from it, turned in the direction of our first night's
camp on the Httle pond. Before reaching this, they
had become quieted down, and were feeding when
one of the bulls came upon the camp, and the scent
of it started them off ao-ain.
Twice after this, our tracks turned them like an
invisible fence, but at last they had bolted across
the trail, and again, in single file, and evidently at
full speed, had taken to the interminable and most
villainous slope of angular fragments and blocks of
all sizes, leading to the top of a high mountain spur.
MUSK-OX IS VERY GOOD."
From the top of this, they had descended into the
valley west of it, and making a long circuit, had
again become reassured and, after feeding for a
while, some of them had slept. Then, as if actuated
by Satan himself, they had made for the steepest
mountain-side in the vicinity, climbed it to the crumb-
ling ledge at the top, frequently only a foot or two
wide (we were often obliged to use hands as well
as feet in following them), and, travelling some-
times on this, and sometimes along sharply inclined
drifts of indurated snow, where we were obliged to cut
488 Northward over the "Great Ice"
steps to keep from sliding into the valley below, had at
last taken a bee-line for the valley where we first
found their tracks.
We had now been following the trail of these
animals for some twenty hours, and for a distance
of not less than thirty miles, over a country the
roughness of which no one who has not seen it can
imagine. During this time, we had each eaten one
biscuit, and we were now completely fagged out.
The return of the animals to their former haunt, indi-
cated that they were not too badly frightened, and
having the two small calves with them, they could
not, after the outrageous run they had already en-
gaged in, go much farther without a long rest, so we
could undoubtedly overtake them the next day.
Anyway there was no more tramp left in us, and in
climbing to our mountain ranch we were obliged,
more than once, to stop and rest. While we were
waiting for our stew to cook, Matt spied some black
spots away at the lower end of the valley below us,
and the glasses showed our game just emerged from
a narrow pass leading round an angle of the glacier-
bounding cliffs. They were walking leisurely, and
with the glasses I could make out that there were two
bulls, five cows, three yearlings, or perhaps two-year-
olds, and two calves.
Glad as I was to see them again, my chagrin at our
useless tramp may be imagined. We had completely
exhausted ourselves, destroyed our foot-gear, and
wasted a day, and the animals were still wearing their
skins ; when, if we had remained at the camp and
kept a good lookout, we would now have had them
skinned and cut up.
After promenading for a time along the edge of the
little lake, and once making a move as if to come in
our direction, the cows and calves lay down on a big
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 489
drift under a bluff on the opposite side of the valley.
I felt sure they were ours now, and that after two or
three hours' rest and sleep we would gather them in
without difficulty. When we woke they had gone,
but we went down to where they had slept, and fol-
lowing their tracks from there, were led directly back
up the mountain slopes just east of our camp. They
had travelled along leisurely, feeding here and there
to within half a mile of our camp, when our scent, or
STILL PUSHING ON.
the music of the dogs, had startled them, and they
had made off in Indian file over the mountains.
When we had followed their trail some miles farther,
it began snowing heavily, and, losing the trail, we re-
turned to the ranch. The sledee and skins were now
converted into a tupik, or tent, and we crawled in, to
forget the storm and our weariness in sleep. The
next day I sent Matt with the sledge, dogs, and ten
quarters of the beef back to the moraine after the
490 Northward over the "Great Ice"
rest of our material and Lee, who by this time I
knew would be somewhat nervous about us. The
beef was for dog- food on our return journey, and was
to be cached at the moraine.
I gave Matt instructions to examine Musk-Ox Val-
ley, en route to the moraine, and gather in the oxen
if he found them there. During his absence, which
would cover three or four days, I would keep a look-
out for such of the animals as might escape him, and
would also reconnoitre for a practicable route for the
big sledge from here on. After he had gone, I slung
my rifle over my shoulder, and started in the oppo-
site direction. Descending to the valley, I crossed
it, and examined the pass from which the musk-oxen
had emerged, to see if it offered a practicable route,
then climbed the acclivity, and along the summit of
the mountains to the 1892 cairn on Navy Cliff.
From this I took the copies of the New York 82111
and Harper s Weekly which I had deposited there,
the papers being still in good state of preservation
in spite of a three years' Arctic experience. The
musk-oxen had used the cairn as a shelter from
the wind, as shown by the abundance of excreta on
the lee side.
Turning away from it, I saw a hare browsing on
the bleak wind-swept summit. He fell an easy prey
to my rifle, and I then descended to examine another
section of country for a practicable " route to the
sea." Several hours of reconnaissance, though not
resulting as favourably as I could have wished, left
me so fatigued that I turned back to the camp. The
last of our biscuit and milk had been consumed that
morning before Matt left, and my supplies consisted
of about three ounces of tea, with musk-ox meat ad
libititin.
The tea straight, without biscuit, was not particu-
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 491
larly palatable, the broth from the meat being prefer-
able, even though unsalted. Boiled musk-ox meat,
therefore, and the broth from it, formed my diet till
Lee and Matt joined me, which they did about noon
of the fourth day. The little sledge had broken
down beyond repair, less than three miles from the
camp, and Matt had been obliged to leave it where
it was and cache all the meat.
He had found where the musk-oxen had slept in
Musk-Ox Valley the previous night, but saw nothing
CATARACT OF THE ACADEMY GLACIER.
of them. Some two or three miles beyond the val-
ley, while following our sledge tracks back to the
moraine, they had crossed ahead of him, going at full
speed, and the dogs, in spite of his efforts, had fol-
lowed in their chase for a mile or more before he
could check them. This was disappointing news, for
I felt the animals would not soon recover from this
fright. The boys had had a difficult time coming
down from the moraine, the rocks having cut two pair
of ski to pieces under the Josephine sledge, and
492 Northward over the '* Great Ice"
torn off two or three pieces of the ivory shoes. We
had now only one pair of ski left. I was reluctant
to send these to destruction after the others, and de-
termined to see if w^e could not get along by protect-
ing the ivory shoes of the Josephine with long strips
of musk-ox hide, and dragging the twelve quarters of
beef which we were to take with us lashed up in the
bull's hide.
By the time we had descended to the valley the
strips of musk-ox hide and several pieces of ivory had
been torn off by the rocks, and there was no alterna-
tive but t(» make a sledge from the pair of ski, and put
the Josepiiine on it. The tent was pitched, and
Matt began at once on the sledge, while Lee and my-
self, with the dogs, went back after the skin of meat.
This we dragged about five miles beyond the tent,
and then the skin being worn out and torn to pieces
by the rocks, we threw the meat down the precipitous
walls of a canon debouching upon a little lake lying
in the path which the sledge must take. Here it could
be easily reached by sledge from the lake. We then
returned to the tent.
On snow or patches of cemented gravel, this novel
sledge dragged with comparative ease, but over rocks
of any size it was constantly catching, when the dogs
would stop and the load must be lifted off the rocks
before they would pull again. This had to be repeated
every ten or twenty feet. If my dogs had recovered
from their terrible ice-cap hunger, it would have been
much easier for all concerned to have transported the
meat as I did in 1892, panier fashion across the dogs'
backs, but under the circumstances this was impracti-
cable. Matt finished the sledge before turning in, and
the next morning, after the tent was struck, I started
on ahead, leaving the boys to lash up and follow.
Just as they were about to start, one of the dogs
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 493
slipped his harness and went back up to the ranch,
where he had to be followed and brought back. Con-
sequently it was some hours before they joined me.
This march brought us to the little lake, into a tribu-
tary canon of which we had thrown the meat the day
before. Our route was a circuitous one, a constant
succession of up-hill and down-hill, with very little
snow, and what there was, interspersed with angular
LOOKING ACROSS ACADEMY GLACIER.
Stones and boulders, to avoid which compelled utmost
watchfulness and constant lifting and pushing.
Arrived at the lake, the ski sledge was taken from
under the Josephine, and with this Lee and Matt
went up the canon after the meat, while I crossed the
lake and climbed the mountain-slope to the rolling pla-
teau above, in search of a practicable route for the next
day's advance. After getting the meat, the boys were
to bring it and the Josephine with its load across the
lake, get their supper, and turn in without waiting for
494 Northward over the "Great Ice"
my return. The snow on the plateau, though more
continuous and evenly distributed, was very shallow,
the smallest rocks projecting through it. After lo-
cating, partly per pedem, partly with the glasses, a
practicable, though at its beginning a very steep, road
for the morrow's advance, I descended to the lake, ate
my supper of musk-ox stew and tea, stretched myself
beside the boys at the edge of the lake, and was soon
asleep. We did not pitch the tent here, the sheltered
location and southern exposure making the camp very
comfortable without it. The next morninsf we started
half of our load and took it some three miles up the
slope to the plateau. Then the boys went back after
the remainder. After getting everything up to the
plateau, we could then take it all at one load, and with
the rosiest anticipations we pushed on for the head of
the snow-filled ravine, trending down towards the
head of the bay, confident that the end of the march
would see us camped on the ice-foot. After descend-
ing it a few miles, it began to narrow in an ominous
manner that I distrusted, and after going down a
particularly steep descent, I halted the sledge and
went ahead to reconnoitre, I found that the ra-
vine in a short distance became impracticable for a
sledge, and finally ended several hundred feet up
the face of a vertical cliff. I could also see that the
Academy Glacier had advanced much farther into the
bay than when I was here before.
I followed the cliff for some distance, then returned
to the sledge, and sent Matt out to take up the search
where I had stopped, and see if he could find any
practicable place for a descent.
During his absence, Lee and I double-banked our
load back up the ravine to a point suitable for a
start in a new direction, and camped. Several hours
later. Matt returned, wearily dragging himself into
i
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 495
camp, footsore and ahnost exhausted, as I had been,
with the incessant cHmbing, scrambhng, and jumping
over the rocks, and reported no success. It remained
for us now to examine the reeion to the west of us,
and the next morning we retraced our steps to the
plateau, and, leaving the dogs and sledge securely
fastened, all three of us started out upon a re-
connaissance.
GETTING W^EARY AGAIN.
The result of the combined tramp was to show the
existence of a glacier west of the land we had been
traversing, projecting till it joined the Academy Gla-
cier ; to show us that in order to reach the bay ice
we must back everything for some distance over the
rocks, then down the precipitous shore (we were
some three thousand feet above sea-level), across the
glacier's lateral canon, and over two or three miles of
496 Northward over the "Great Ice"
the roughest and most shattered portion of the gla-
cier surface. Lee, whose rest at the moraine, while
Matt and I had been chasing the musk-oxen, had ren-
dered him rather the freshest of the three, was reduced
by this scout to the same state of exhaustion as our-
selves. During the descent of the ravine our oil tin
had been punctured by the rocks and much of the
contents had escaped, leaving us only a few pints of
fuel.
A SHORT REST.
The close of this day compelled me, bitterly as I
disliked it, to look the question of our turning back
squarely in the face. To whatever causes it might be
due, — whether to our work the last week on the ice-cap,
combined with the elevation and inadequate rations,
or to the sudden chanofe from the rarefied air of that
region, with the change of diet and the excessive and
unremitted exercise of travellino- over this frightful
hash of mountains, cliffs, and ravines, — the fact was
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 497
unevadable that we were at a very low ebb of strength.
We had that feehng of lassitude, lack of energy, and
heaviness of limbs which one experiences at home at
the beginning of spring, or during sudden sultry
waves in summer, and we had scarcely a third of our
usual strength. The transportation of our load down
the bluffs and across the glacier to the bay ice was a
work which, if not impossible, would certainly have
taken the last remnant of our force. While we owed
MY LITTLE THEODOLITE.
it to ourselves as men and Americans to take every
possible chance, I did not think we were justified in
taking a course which presented no chance, but simply
a certainty, and that one not agreeable to contemplate.
Though from the time that I had found my provi-
sions and my essentials of Arctic sledge-work buried
beyond recovery in the snow of the ice-cap, I had
recognised this very thing as a possibility, if not pro-
bability, and had tried to prepare myself for it ; yet
VOL. II. — 32.
498 Northward over the "Great Ice"
deep down I had felt all along that our patience and
persistence must in the end win, and I could not thus
abruptly resign completely the object upon which I
had for years centred my efforts. It might be that
we could obtain more musk-oxen, and, thus secured
on the vital question of food for ourselves and dogs,
could afford a complete rest of a week or ten days
and then make another attempt.
In 1892 my route from the moraine to Navy Cliff
had been selected with a view to giving me as good
an outlook as possible, and I had travelled intention-
ally along the crest of the mountains which bound
the Academy Glacier on the west. Now my chief
object was to get the sledges to the sea by the easiest
practicable route, and this meant following the valleys
of the streams, where the greatest amount of snow
was to be found, and the grade certain to be more
regular and gradual. For this reason, during our
work upon the Independence-Bay land, hunting the
musk-ox, and transporting the sledges and equipment
to a point about ten miles north of Navy Cliff, we
saw only the slopes and the valleys which formed our
road. Now when the unpleasant fact was forced upon
me that our efforts had probably been futile, and
that it would be folly to proceed farther, I ascended
with some difficulty to the nearest eminence, to see if
I could make out anything more in regard to the feat-
ures of the region.
Where I stood, and from there east and north-east
out through the bay, the sun was shining brightly on
the unbroken expanse, and from my more advanced
position I could see several miles of the south shore
of the bay, a land of precipitous black cliffs trending
eastward from the cape which confined Academy
Glacier on the east. Westward, north-westward, and
northward, heavy clouds were rolling across the sum-
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 499
mits of the land from the westward, hiding its features.
The shore bluffs reached away first north, and then
north-east, interrupted by the two probable inlets
which I saw in 1892, until they vanished in the dis-
tance.
The face of the Academy Glacier was advanced
considerably beyond its position in 1892 ; the surface
of the bay was smooth, except for the sastrtigi, caused
THE MORAINE FROM THE LAND.
by the violent winds which undoubtedly rush down
from the ice-cap and out of this bay, as they do out of
Whale Sound ; and there were but two or three bergs
in the bay away from the immediate face of the gla-
cier. A large tidal crack ran northward from the
cape east of the Academy Glacier.
The next morning, leaving the Josephine sledge,
we continued to retrace our tracks and travelled some
ten or twelve miles, when the sledge, which had erad-
ually been going to pieces, broke down completely.
The first part of this march as far as the lake was
comparatively easy, in fact the descent of the bluffs
500 Northward over the "Great Ice"
surrounding the lake too easy, for, in spite of the drag-
chain on one runner and a stone lashed to the other,
the dogs and ourselves pulling back on the sledge, it
had a narrow escape from getting away from us and
being dashed to pieces on the rocks. The next morn-
ing, Lee started for the ranch camp with the dogs to
feed them from the remains of the musk-oxen there ;
Matt went after the pieces of the CJiopsie sledge to
use in patching the one we had ; and I took my rifle
and glasses and started to make a wide circuit in
search of musk-ox tracks. After several hours I joined
Lee at the ranch camp without having seen a track
more recent than the ones made before Matt went to
the moraine.
It was evident we could not afford to remain here.
If the musk-oxen had not left the valley entirely,
they were undoubtedly up nearer the moraine, and
we would come across them on our way there. On
leaving the ranch, we took two of the musk-ox skins
with us, and went to the cache of meat which Matt
had been compelled to abandon by the breaking of
the CJiopsie sledge.
The sun for the last day or two had been warm
enough to partially thaw this meat, and we cut the
bones out, laced the clear meat up in the skins, and
then dragged this across country to the ravine above
the Devil's Den, in the line of march between our
camp and the moraine. Then we returned to the
tent, where the sledge was nearly completed. It was a
sorry-looking affair, pieced and patched in every part,
but it was the best that could be done with the mate-
rial at hand, and we cared not for looks if it would
only see us to the moraine.
The next morning early, we resumed the march.
The change in the few days since we first came over
the ground was almost incredible. It seemed as if the
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 501
arch-fiend himself had made it his special business to
remove what little snow there had been at first. Then
we had been able, with care, to keep the sledge upon
snow for distances of one or two hundred yards at a
time. Now it would drag for half a mile or more
upon the bare rocks without touching snow. No
wood that ever grew could stand this usage long,
and the sledge began to break up before we reached
the bundle of meat.
VIEW NEAR ICE-CAP.
It was impossible to add this to the load in the con-
dition of the sledge, and the dogs could not pull the
sledge with the skin in tow, so there was nothing
left but to double-bank. After going ahead a few
miles with the sledge, and then going back and bring-
ing up the meat, I decided to push on with the sledge
until it went to pieces, or we found fresh tracks of
musk-oxen, when one could return with the dogs to
bring up the meat, while the others were backing the
502 Northward over the *' Great Ice"
things from the wreck to the moraine, or hunting
the musk-oxen, as the case might be. A sharp look-
out was kept as we went along for fresh traces of
these animals, but no signs of them were discovered.
Not one had recrossed the sledge-trail since they had
crossed it to the westward with the dogs yelping at
their heels. As a partial recompense for this dis-
appointment, our sledge endured beyond our bright-
est expectations, and though the runners were rapidly
THE RELENTLESS WHITE SLOPE OF THE "GREAT ICE."
diminishing in size as they left splinter after splinter
on the rocks, and the cross-bars were all broken, the
sledge in some wonderful way still held together and
did not collapse entirely until we were within a few
miles of the moraine.
We camped beside the wreck, and in the morning
Matt with the dogs went back to bring up the meat,
while Lee and I, with the tent, cookinof-eear, and a
few other thmgs to make up two light back-loads.
The Land beyond the Ice-Cap 503
went on to the foot of the moraine. During the day
we got everything else up, part of the work being
done in the face of a gale which swept down from the
ice-cap and filled all the adjacent valleys with a blind-
ing, cutting drift.
Matt returned late, himself and dogs very tired
with the day's work. This struggle back across the
land to the foot of the " Great Ice " had been a severe
one. The work was the hardest we had done yet,
and the hope which had constantly buoyed us up
during the advance had been replaced by a general
relaxation, but our scanty supplies did not allow us to
waste a moment. The next day the pair of ski left
at the moraine for that purpose was converted into
a small light sledge; the tent, cooker, and our clothes
put in as thorough repair as possible, hand- and foot-
gear dried ; all sleeping-gear, and nearly all extra hand-
and foot-gear, with everything that could possibly be
spared, thrown away in preparation for the return
ice-cap trip.
I
i
I
i
CHAPTER XVI.
RETURN ICE-CAP JOURNEY.
Good Progress at First — Eight Thousand Feet above the Sea — A
Killing Pace — Lee under the Weather — Dogs Going to Pieces — The
Outlook not Pleasant— Gaining every Possible Yard — Number of Dogs
Constantly Decreasing — Fog and the Pathfinder — Last of our Meat
— Land at Last — One Dog and No Food Remaining — Down the Rocks
to the Lodge — Poor Panikpah — The Never-to-be-Forgotten Luxuries,
Food and Rest — My Noble Dogs.
^^^^m
Barograph,
ji
\l
111
It
* I
\ Kfef
- s.ljjiaii.
i
1
Thermometers.
Chronometers,
Aneroids, etc.
SOME OF MY INSTRUMENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
RETURN ICE-CAP JOURNEY.
A
T six A.M., June ist,
we left our camp
at the foot of the
moraine with the skin of
meat in tow of the new
sledge, and taking- a dia-
gonal course up the steep
/ moraine slope, began our
homeward march.
Up the steep landward
base of the ice-cap we
zicfzagged, scaling the re-
lentless blue slope in the teeth of the wind and drift till
the even snow-covered surface beyond was reached,
when the meat was transferred to the sledge, and we
shaped our course for Camp Resolution. Here we
slept for some five hours, making our tea over the
fire kindled with the wooden case of the cooker, which
had been thrown away at this camp, and then went
on to Camp Josephine, The march between these
two camps was made in just such thick weather as it
had been the first time, and I had no expectation of
being able to find the cache that day ; but thought
the best we could do would be to travel the required
distance as indicated by the odometer, then camp and
507
5o8 Northward over the "Great Ice"
wait for it to clear. Fortune favoured us, however, as
it had done occasionally before in minor ways, though
cruel to us in the one grand thing that would have
covered all the rest, and at the end of twenty miles
the clouds and fog dispersed enough for me to discern
the cache with my binoculars, and we were soon be-
side it. We felt here that we were at the beginning
of our homeward voyage, well out on the deep sea
DINNER-TIME.
(our elevation six thousand feet), with a clear course
before us.
I had nine dogs and fourteen days' rations for them ;
thirty days' half-rations of tea, biscuit, and oil, and sev-
enteen days' rations of frozen venison, for ourselves.
More or less of the latter, however, I expected to give
to the dogs after their rations of musk-ox meat were
expended. Two methods were open to us : one was
to eat our own meat rations and have to drag our load
ourselves for the last half of the return journey ; the
R.eturn Ice-Cap Journey 509
other, to live on our biscuit ration, scant as it was,
reserving the meat for the dogs, to prolong their
effectiveness as far as possible, and thus be compelled to
drag our sledges only the last quarter of the return
journey. I considered the latter method the better,
and was confident it would result in a distinct gain
of speed.
If we were so fortunate as to escape storms, a single
one of which would annihilate my team in its present
DRIFTED IN.
condition, and did not encounter any deep soft snow,
our prospects for getting back I considered good.
During our stay at this camp, the weather cleared, and
our start was made under auspicious circumstances.
The principal incidents of our fortunate and rapid
return may be gathered from my daily notes.
" June jd. — A clear day with little wind ; recent
snow makes going a trifle heavy, but dogs pull well
and we cover twenty-five and a quarter miles. The
5IO Northward over the " Great Ice "
march from the land to Camp Resolution was made
in the daytime, with the sun in front instead of behind
us, but we are now travelling in the proper way — that
is, during the hours when the sun is traversing the
semicircle behind us. As we are going south-west
true, these hours are from nine p.m. to nine a.m.
" Jiinejdto^tJi. — Still clear and the wind not heavy.
The going heavier than yesterday, but by extra exer-
tions we make a fair march. We must gain every
mile we possibly can while the dogs last.
" yune 4th and ^tk. — Cloudy, with strong and biting
head-winds and heavy drift. The wind is nevertheless
doing us a service in sweeping up the newly fallen
snow, and giving us an easier travelling surface. We
are all having trouble with our feet and legs : the former
almost as tender as a boil, the result of the bruising
given them by the rocks ; the latter stiff and aching in
joints and muscles. We travel with the grace and
debonair of cripples. This march brings us onto the
wind-divide and debatable land of sastrtigi pointing
both to the east and north-west coasts ; the winds
which rush down from the interior, turning either into
the Independence-Bay or the Sherard-Osborne- Fjord
basins, or even blowing across from one to the other
as the atmospheric balance may determine.
" yzine ^th and 6tJi. — Yesterday's wind seems to
have been only a local squall, and to-day we are
beyond its effects, and the new snow is looser and
deeper than ever. At the end of three and a half
miles Lee is completely used up, aching all over, and
scarcely able to drag one foot after the other, and he
thinks he can advance no longer. By giving him qui-
nine, anti-kamnia, and brandy, a line from the sledge
to support himself by, and stopping twice to brace him
up with hot tea, peptonoids, and brandy, he manages
to worry through the march. It has been a hard day
Return Ice-Cap Journey 511
for men and dogs. The pace is telling on us all, but
it cannot be helped. We cannot loiter while the
weather permits us to march, and we have the clogs
with us.
" June 6th and yth. — The heavy going and the
extra labour of assisting Lee was more of a strain upon
the dogs yesterday than I had thought, and to-day
they are much exhausted. Two of them give out
entirely. This, and a dense frost-fog whose minute
OUR TRAIL ACROSS THE FROZEN SAHARA.
crystals make the surface as gritty as so much sand,
cut our day's advance down to seventeen and a half
miles. The remainino- seven doo^s were Qriven the
usual meat ration, in addition to the bodies of their
used-up comrades. Lee is still feeling very unwell.
'' y^ine yt/i and StJi. — At this camp everything was
transferred to the smaller sledgfe, which is the easier
running as well as the lighter of the two, and the
larger one abandoned. We must take the chances
512 Northward over the "Great Ice"
of the one sledge making the remaining four hundred
miles without breaking. A continuance of the fine
weather, but Lee is worse, and the frost precipitation
covering the surface is dragging the life out of the
does. Icine the runners seems to have no effect
in makingf the sledee run easier on this. But twelve
and a half hours' plodding enables us to cover twenty
miles.
THE "PATHFINDER."
" Jime 8 til and gtJi. — At the end of four miles Lee
gives out entirely and we are obliged to camp. The
pace and our altitude are telling upon him and the
dogs, and matters are beginning to look very serious
for him and for us. With exhausted dogs, a sick com-
rade, and the lodge nearly four hundred miles away, the
prospect is not entirely pleasant. If a short rest and a
course of stimulants do not put him in travelling con-
dition, we shall be in a disagreeable position.
Return Ice-Cap Journey 5^3
" Jtine gth ajid lotli. — Took advantage of our
enforced delay to take an observation. Have been
giving Lee treble allowance of milk, with pepton-
oids, and brandy every few hours, and this with the
fifteen hours' rest has been so beneficial that he has
been able to cover twenty miles with us to-day. The
weather was very thick during the entire march, and
we were able to advance only by lashing my ski
too-ether as a narrow sledge with the boat compass
on them, and pushing this ahead of the one setting
the course.
" June loth and i itli. — Another dog falls exhausted
to-day. This leaves us six.
" June 1 1 til and 12 th. — Another dog gives out
to-day, and the remaining five are so discouraged
that we drag the sledge the last five miles of the
march ourselves, the dogs barely able to follow in
our tracks. Evidently the day when we will have to
SH Northward over the "Great Ice"
do all the pulling is not far away. Our distance from
the lodge now is six miles less than the distance
travelled by Nansen in forty days. We have nine-
teen days' half-rations of biscuit, tea, and milk.
" Jtiiie I2th and ijth. — The warmth of the sun
now at midday is such that we are compelled to bury
the sledofe runners in the snow when we come into
FIVE.
camp to prevent the icing from being loosened. My
eyes, which have been useless since taking the observ-
ation two days ago, are now enough better so that I
can take my regular turn at setting the course. This
has been the last march for another one of our dogs,
leaving us four. Encouraging circumstances are, that
we now have a slight but perceptible down grade in
our favour, and that to-night we are a little more than
half-way on our return.
Return Ice-Cap Journey 515
" June i^tk and i ^th. — A violent snow-squall with
heavy drift dead against us delayed us for several
hours at the commencement of this march.
'' Jiine i^th and i6th. — A warm day, the effect of
the sun upon the sledge-runners being, after a time,
sufficient to raise their temperature to the vicinity of
the freezing point, and loosen the icing. The in-
creased friction and consequent tax upon the dogs
used up another one of them^ Yet we made the
THREE.
same distance as during the preceding four marches,
i. e., between twenty and twenty-one miles. This is
our limit ; a single mile over this causes a strain to
which it is not advisable to subject either ourselves
or the doo-s. The last of our doe food consumed to-
night.
"" Jtme lytk and i8th. — The violent squalls, accom-
panied by heavy drift, which, arising from four a.m.
to six A.M., have cut our last two marches short by an
5i6 Northward over the "Great Ice"
hour or two, have had the effect of hardenine the
snow, and in this march we ran the score up to
twenty-one and one-hah miles.
" June 1 8th and igth. — -To offset our march of
yesterday, we made to-day but ten and one-half miles.
It was snowing when we started, and about an inch
of new snow made the sledge, as is always the case,
drag very heavily. At the end of ten and one-half
miles it had ceased snowing, but the wind was blow-
TWO.
ing so hard against us that we were compelled to
halt. The delay annoyed me less than it would
otherwise have done, had I not known that a few
hours of this wind would, by compacting the snow,
improve the travelling a hundred per cent.
" J7ine zotJi and 21st. — The last of the venison
went to the dogs to-night. We have two left.
" June 2 1st and 2 2d. — The last but one of our
dogs gave out to-day ; but the last three good
Return Ice-Cap Journey 517
marches have put us so near home that we can con-
sider ourselves certain to see the lodge again in spite
of weather or condition of snow.
" JiLne 22d and 2jd. — The labour of dragging our
sledge through another fall of new snow, in the face
of a heavy drift and wind, showed us that we have
overrated our strength, and that to make any pro-
gress with even our now light load we must have en-
tirely favourable conditions. Camped at the end of
two miles to wait for calm weather. We are now on
the Whale-Sound-Kane-Basin " divide," and a few
miles west of our upward route. I shall keep on our
course, however, till we make the land."
Leaving this camp on the cessation of the wind,
after about three hours' marching, we saw the sum-
mits of the land, and soon after could recognise
various features. The course was changed to the
southward to bring us down onto the Bowdoin-Bay-
Inglefield-Gulf peninsula, and at the end of seventeen
and one-half miles, having reached a position from
which I could find my way down in any weather, we
made our last camp on the ice-cap some twenty miles
from the moraine. We had four biscuits remainino;
for supper and breakfast. Our one dog was obliged
to get what comfort he could out of a pair of seal-
skin boots and several yards of rawhide line. Our
stay at this camp was limited to a few hours, when
we were again on the move, and kept on without in-
terruption till we reached the moraine, upon which
Matt and myself stepped at 1:30 p.m.
Lee was some distance behind, travelling very
slowly, but insisting on our not waiting for him. I
had no doubts as to his being able eventually to
reach the lodee, and we mio^ht as well eo down and
get the stove in commission and something on it.
Weak and tired as we were on reaching the moraine,
5i8 Northward over the "Great Ice"
we experienced a still further drop in our physical
barometer on passing down onto the land. As we
entered the valley above Baby Lake I began to feel
some nervousness as to how I should find the lodge
and its contents, if, indeed, I should find them at all,
and I was considerably relieved, as we descended the
slope back of the house, to see the observatory sup-
ports still in place, then the roof of Nooktah's house,
and finally the lodge itself, all apparently intact. No
sign of life was perceptible, but this I accounted for
by supposing Nooktah and his family to be sleeping
through the heat of the day. Coming close to the
lodge, it was evident the place had been deserted for
some time ; but the doors and their fastenings were
undisturbed, and we found, on breaking in, that
everything was just as we left it. Our first work was
to get the stove in commission, and make some mush
and coffee. Before this was effected Lee reached
the lodge.
So much for the bald facts from the pages of my
diary. Let me review the journey briefiy :
Somewhat recuperated by the liberal rations of
musk-ox meat, men and dogs fortunately started on
the return journey in fairly good condition, and were
thus enabled to make the ascent of nearly eight thou-
sand feet to the crest of the " Great Ice." For the
first one hundred and fifty miles everything went well,
the dogs being in fair condition ; then the pace, the
ascent, and the altitude began to tell upon them, and
we were obliged to assist them at the drag-ropes.
The musk-ox meat seemed to give them no stamina.
After this the dogs gradually went to pieces, some-
times dropping in their tracks during the march, when
a short halt would be made to despatch the poor brute
and feed him to the others ; sometimes struggling into
camp to lie down and never rise again.
Return Ice-Cap Journey 519
When their food was s^one we orave them our ven-
ison, and so kept them along as best we could, but at
last there was no more to give them. Then it was
" dog eat dog," and finally, — well, dog meat does not
taste badly, in fact it has little or no taste, but it is
frightfully tough.
Throughout the entire journey we pressed on to the
utmost of our ability, making every yard we could in
every march, and when our limit was reached, hastily
"AT LAST THE WHALE-SOUND SUMMITS."
pitched our tent, made our tea, and as soon as it and
a biscuit or two had been swallowed, threw ourselves
down for a few hours' sleep, to be roused by the first
one that woke, and hurry on again. We could feel
the last mile or two of each march draeeingf the life
and vital force out of us, and we anxiously scanned
each bank of clouds, for we all knew what a snow-
storm would mean to us.
We were not troubled with hopes or fears as to any
520 Northward over the "Great Ice"
fortunate chance which might throw help in our way.
There would be no searching" for us. There was no
one to search, even could any human prescience say
where to look for us.
Neither was there any possibility, on this dead
desert, of coming upon a bear or seal with which to
put new life into us and our dogs. We knew the im-
mutable facts of our problem. They had the cold pre-
cision of mathematics.
So many weary miles to the lodge, so many meagre
rations on our sledg-e. If we could cover those miles
in the time-equivalent of those rations, well ; if not —
there was no uncertainty.
Personally I did not suffer much from hunger. The ra-
tions had been so continuously insufficient that my sys-
tem seemed to have gradually accepted the inevitable.
Lee and Henson, brave boys, never complained ; but
the hourly and ever interesting subject of what sump-
tuous feasts they would have if they ever reached the
lodge, gave me the key to their feelings.
In ordinary weather I had no difficulty in keeping a
direct course across the ice-cap. But when clouds
swept across the frozen plateau, they enveloped us in
a fog so dense that it was impossible to take ten con-
secutive steps in a straight line. I had had experience
with these fogs in the 1892 journey and had been de-
layed several days by them then. Now we had no sev-
eral days to waste. One day might hold the balance
of life for us, and spurred by this necessity we devised
a little compass-sledge which was called the Path-
Jindcr, and which, pushed before us, saved three days
of priceless time.
At last the time came when as we halted at the end
of the day's march, I could just make out the summits
of the Whale-Sound mountains above the snow hori-
zon ahead of us. We had, besides a little tea and
Return Ice-Cap Journey 521.
milk, four biscuits remaining for our supper and break-
fast, and one dog, Panikpah, was still alive. To
him I fed a pair of sealskin boots and a few yards of
rawhide line. Here we threw away our cooking-gear,
for there was no further work for it, and began our
last and it seemed endless march.
When we reached the land the warm odour of the
earth, the soft moss, the bright flowers, carried me
" THE SOFT MOTTLED SURFACE OF THE BAY."
back to the opulence of warmth and life and perfume
of the waving fields in the distant home-land, and
gave me a flash of added energy. A few hours later
I reached the head of the little valley stretching back
from the lodge.
Even should I in the hereafter be permitted to gaze
upon the glory of the Golden City, the sight of its
splendour will not outburn the peerless view that met
52 2 Northward over the "Great Ice"
my blurred eyes as I rounded the last angle of the
rocks and saw before me, bathed in the mellow June
sunlight, the placid pool of Baby Lake, walled by the
warm, flower-sprinkled rocks, and beyond, framed be-
tween Lookout Rock and the cliff of Mt. Bartlett, the
soft mottled sur-
face of the bay,
reachinof to the
glowing brown
cliffs about
Gnome Glacier.
Food. Rest.
Heaven.
The rough
road down over
the rocks was
too much for my
poor dog, who
gave out and lay
down some dis-
tance from the
lodge, where I
left him, know-
ing- that after a
rest he would
strugorle on after
us. When he
did come in, I fed
him with my own
hands, and be-
fore I had eaten
anything myself,
with tender, unfrozen deer meat, till he was absolutely
satisfied and could eat no more. Poor brute ! The
memory of those famine days upon the " Great Ice"
remained so vividly with him, that for weeks after our
THE SOLE SURVIVOR.
Return Ice-Cap Journey
523'
return, though weak and afflicted hke ourselves, he
might be seen at any time, when not asleep, hiding
away every bit of meat or blubber, and every bone
that he could find about the place.
"FAITHFUL, NOBLE SERVITORS.'
After a light and simple meal, we threw ourselves
down and slept for a few hours, then bathed, ate
lightly again, and then turned in for a long, long sleep.
The strain of the grim race was ended. We had
distanced our grisly competitor. We had reached
524 Northward over the "Great Ice"
those unspeakable luxuries, food and rest. But my
noble does had been less fortunate.
<z>
Every true man and every true woman loves a
noble dog, and there are no more splendid dogs in all
the world than those magnificent brutes of Whale
Sound. Perhaps my reader may think me prejudiced.
I have a right to be. They saved my life and the
lives of my two comrades.
Powerful, savage brutes, as one would expect from,
dogs whose ancestors were wolves, yet they are sus-
ceptible to kindly treatment.
My favourite, the leader of my team, was a tall,
steel-muscled animal, quick and strong as a panther
and brusque as a bull, easily the match of the entire
team, yet when I approached, he would come and rub
his big head against my leg, with that deep bass growl
of satisfaction which tells you beyond the shadow of a
doubt that your dog is glad to see you.
And never were dogs or men more faithful than
those poor brutes. Day after day they struggled
back across that awful frozen desert, fiehtingf for their
lives and ours ; day after day they worked till the last
ounce of work was ofone from them, and then fell dead
in their tracks without a sound, forty-one of them out
of the forty-two with which I left the "lost cache."
Faithful, noble servitors, Nupsah, Kardahsu, Ko-
monahpik, Ahgotah, Elingwah, and the rest, never
shall I forget you ; and my only consolation is the
knowledge, that like ourselves, you did not suffer pain.
The starvation was so gradual that, when at last the
end came, and your exhausted limbs refused to move,
your bright eyes closed, and your faithful lives went
out upon the savage heart of the " Great Ice," your
end was painless, as our own would have been, had it
not been for you.
CHAPTER XVII.
AFTER THE RETURN.
Rki.axation and Utter Exhaustion — Return of mv Natives — Merid-
ian OF the Arctic Summer — Extremes of Feeling— Ooiiz/^A'so^^ (the
Ship) — Arrival of Diebitsch and Salisbury — A Long Tramp to the Ship
— Return of "Miss Bill" — Cape Sabine — Walrus and Deer Hunting
— Farewell to the Lodge — The Meteorites — Jones Sound — Dexter-
ity Harbour — Caught in the " Middle Pack" — Godhavn — St. John's.
CHAPTER XVII.
AFTER THE RETURN.
WE had crossed
from moraine
to moraine in
twenty-four and a quarter
days, making in that time
twenty-five marches of an
average of 20. i miles.
This does not seem Hke
the performance of ex-
hausted men. Yet no-
where else in all the
Arctic reg"ions but on the
Greenland ice-cap could we have travelled the distance
we did in our condition ; and each of us knows full
well that with a less perfect equipment than ours, with
different sledges, with less experience in sledgecraft,
or with any severe weather or storms, our return would
have been extremely doubtful.
Without snow-shoes or with a different type of
sledge, we would never have gotten more than half-
way home. The character of the snow after the first
one hundred and thirty miles was such that no man
living could maintain a pace of more than ten miles
per day in it. Our broad-runner sledge and our snow-
shoes enabled us to skim along on its surface without
undue exertion. The use of the boat compass placed
527
528 Northward over the "Great Ice"
upon the ski enabled us to travel in the thickest weather,
and thus prevented the loss of any precious time ; and
finally, the absence of storms or any severe weather
permitted us to march practically without interruption.
For this last we all have occasion to be very thank-
ful. A severe and protracted storm, like the one that
stopped Maigaard and myself on the Inland Ice in
THE SHORE LEAD.
Early July.
1886 ; that prisoned Dr. Cook, Astrijp, and myself on
the Red Cliff-Peninsula ice-cap in 1892; that halted
AstriJp and myself for sixty hours, less than a hundred
miles from Independence Bay ; like either of two or
three that my parties experienced in September, Oc-
tober, and November of 1893, and again in March
and April of 1894 ; or that held Matt and myself pris-
oners for six days in October, 1894, after the cessa-
After the Return
529
tion of which we were able to make but twenty-two
miles in two days with ten dogs and empty sledges ;
— a storm like these occurring at any time after we
had passed the four-hundredth mile on our upward
journey, would have emphatically negatived our return.
Though able at a slow pace to walk straight ahead
on a level for twenty to twenty-one miles a day, I do
not believe one of us could have dragged a load of
JULY MIST-W^REATHS.
seventy-five pounds two days in succession. Any
sudden or increased exertion was invariably followed
by bleeding at the nose, and a weakness which would
compel us to stop and rest.
The use of every expedient known to the Eskimos,
or that our own ingenuity could devise ; Matt's skill
in icing the sledge, and driving the dogs, in both of
which accomplishments he was almost as expert as an
530 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Eskimo, reduced the tractive resistance of the former
to the very minimum, and rendered the last ounce of
pull in the latter effective.
No man could have been more fortunate than I in
having two such brave, loyal comrades as stood by me
in this journey — Lee, a typical Yankee boy, as full of
"sand" as one of his own Connecticut sea-beaches;
Henson, unhesitating and tenacious as a bulldog. And
no man could have been more unfortunate than I in
that I was unable to reward their courage and loyalty
by full measure of success.
I endeavoured to impress upon the boys the impera-
tive necessity of exercising the utmost caution in eat-
ing, and the almost certain disastrous results that
would follow, in our exhausted condition, if we over-
loaded stomachs accustomed for so long to meagre
rations of the simplest kind.
I think I practised what I preached, and I do not
think any of us ate ravenously, yet we did not escape
severest indigestion.
For a week after our return from the ice-cap, we
felt no inclination to do anything but lie down. The
relaxation consequent upon the cessation of our long
struggle ; the great change from the pure rarefied air
and low temperatures of the upper ice-cap to the
denser, moister air and comparatively high tempera-
tures at sea-level ; and the obstinate diarrhcea with
which we were all afflicted from the moment of our
return, united to drag us down to the lowest notch of
physical exhaustion. I would not have believed that
I could be so weak and short of breath. The journey
to the brook, a hundred yards away, for a pail of water
was a serious task, and impossible of accomplishment
without several stops for rest. Matt had at first the
most acute attacks of stomach disturbances, but Lee
recovered more slowly than any of us. Matt and 1
After the Return 53 r
had an annoyance which he escaped, in the way of
swollen feet and legs. Within an hour or so after
rising in the morning, our feet and legs from just
above the knees down would swell almost to bursting,
the articulation of knee and ankle disappearing en-
tirely. After lying down for a few hours the swelling
would be almost imperceptible, only to come on again
as soon as we moved about. All this time the weather
was of the finest, it was the midnoon of the long Arc-
ALONG THE SCULPTURED CLIFFS.
tic summer day, and we lived with all doors and win-
dows wide open. After being so long in the pure
and limitless atmosphere of the ice-cap we should
have suffocated with them closed.
The only drawback to this was the numbers and
voracity of the mosquitoes. On the sixth day after
our return, Nooktah and Kardahsu and their families
came back from Karnah. They were delighted to
see us back again, and their presence enlivened us
very materially. At the end of two weeks, we were
532 Northward over the "Great Ice"
evidently gaining, and Matt rode to Kangerdlooksoah
with some of the natives, carrying presents and in-
structions to the hunters there to go out for deer for
me. He returned with three saddles of venison.
-^^HH
CASCADE IN THE SCULPTURED CLIFFS.
Two weeks later, on the 21st of July, I was feeling so
well that I thouo^ht I would qto to Karnah to see what
the ice was like out in the Sound. The condition of
the bay ice was the same as the year before, the numer-
ous pools and leads making riding an impossibility^
After the Return 533
and necessitating almost continuous jumping. I
never expect to feel any older, if I live to be a hun-
dred, than I did after the first few miles. Such stiff-
ness, and lack of spring and energy, I would not have
believed possible. Though I did not think that we
had been strained beyond the elastic limit, yet it was
evident we had come very close to it, and it would
take a long time to restore us completely.
The outlook from the Karnah bluffs over the
ice in the Sound gave no encouragement for an
earlier breaking up of the ice than usual, and, after
a twenty-four hours' rest, I started back for the
lodge in order to get home before the rapidly widen-
ing leads became impassable. The very day of my
return there was a pronounced change in the weather,
and from then on to the end of the month it was
as foggy and rainy as it had been clear and bright
previously. Yet there was consolation for us in the
knowledge that the fog and rain were rapidly eating
up the ice, and opening a way for the ship. The
boys were constantly thinking and talking of this,
and now that it was impossible to see more than
half a mile down the bay, were constantly listening
for her. Never did either wake at night without
getting up and going out to listen, and several times,
when everything was quiet, one or the other would
say : " Listen, is n't that her propeller thumping
through the ice ? "
As for myself, I felt the sharpest extremes of feel-
ing. At times it seemed as if I could not wait
another moment for the ship to bring my brown eyes
and my blue eyes to me ; then I felt that even were
the ship here I could not go on board and say I had
failed. It would be preferable to remain where I was.
At times I even hoped that the ship would not come,
so that I might make another attempt the next spring.
/
/
i
kL
After the Return 535
I planned how we would pass the winter, living, with
the natives, entirely upon walrus and seal, our sole
luxury a cup of coffee once a week, which was all that
my scant remaining supplies would permit.
August 2d, I read till nearly midnight, and then
threw myself down, dressed as I was, upon the bed in
the west room, with doors and windows all wide open.
The boys had been talking of the ship all day, and
were getting a little anxious. Last year we had heard
from the Falcon on the last day of July, and the ice
was worse then than now. I had no fears myself. I
knew the brave woman at home would send a ship for
us, and I should feel no uncertainty in regard to her
until the twentieth came without her arrival.
Next I was conscious of someone shaking me by
the shoulder to awaken me, and opening my eyes,
was sleepily conscious of Mrs. Peary's brother, Mr.
Diebitsch, and a stranger, standing in my room.
Then I heard Lee's voice in the other room,
''Oomiaksoah !'' (the ship), and in an instant was fully
awake. Curiously enough, Lee, wakened by the
sound of voices in my room, had understood their
significance at once, yet in his excitement had ex-
pressed himself in Eskimo.
My first question may be imagined, and learning
that they were not on board, my interest flagged and
I let my visitors tell their story, while Lee and Matt
hurried to start a fire and set out some beans and
coffee. From Diebitsch I learned that the Falcon had
been lost with all on board the previous October after
landing my party in Philadelphia, and that he had
come north In the Kite, Capt. Bartlett, Master, accom-
panied by a scientific party, composed of Prof. Rollln
D. Salisbury of the Chicago University, Prof. L. L.
Dyche of Kansas, Collector for the American Museum
of Natural History, Dr. Walsh of Washington, and
After the Return 537
Mr. Le Boiitillier, representative of the Geographi-
cal Club of Philadelphia.
Nooktah and his family, wakened by the excitement,
crowded about the door, and seeing his eager face re-
minded me that there was one whom he too was anxious
to hear of, — his girl, who had gone south with Mrs.
Peary a year before. I interrupted the conversation to
ask about her, and when I told him she was well and on
the ship, his face brightened, he turned to old Ahtun-
gahnah with a brief " Get my kamiks ready," and with
his family disappeared to their house to prepare for the
tramp to the ship. The A'zV^ was over in McCormick
Bay, fast in the ice off the mouth of Four-Mile River.
She had been unable to get near the mouth of Bowdoin
Bay by reason of the heavy ice, and so had entered Mc-
Cormick Bay and forced her way as far as possible,
and Diebitsch and Salisbury, leaving her, had walked
up the shore of the bay, traversed Tooktoo Valley,
crossed the Kahkoktah and Bowdoin Glaciers, and
wading the glacier river had reached the lodge an hour
after midnight, and finding the door open had entered
and wakened us. They were thoroughly tired and
soaked after their long tramp, and I was very glad to
have a mouthful of whiskey to offer them. Then after
a hearty meal of beans, brown bread, and coffee, I
tucked them in under some deerskins to sleep like
Babes in the Wood. At noon the same day we
started back with them, accompanied by Nooktah,
and reached the Kite about four in the morning.
I had felt considerable interest to see what the
meeting between faithful old Nooktah and his
daughter, from whom he had been separated a year,
would be like. When we reached the ship she was
asleep, but was awakened, and told that her father
was on deck. After waiting some minutes, and she
not putting in an appearance, someone was sent to
53^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
see what the trouble was, and found that she had
cahnly gone to sleep again. She was re-awakened
and told to dress and come on deck, as her father was
there. A few moments later she appeared, but, as far
as any external indication was concerned, she and her
father might have been separated only ten minutes.
The next day, however, I learned from some of the
ship people that, after she and her father had gone
below, where they were by themselves, she had talked
SAVIKSOAH BAY.
to him an unceasing stream through nearly two entire
watches (eight hours).
As it would evidently be impracticable for the Kite
to reach the lodge for ten days or two weeks yet, I de-
cided to put in the intervening time in securing some
deer and walrus, and examining, more closely than I had
yet had the opportunity to do, the islands in Whale
Sound, so that as soon as the ship could reach the
lodge and get my things on board, we might steam
After the Return 539
south to Cape York and begin work upon the meteor-
ites, a second attempt to remove which I intended to
make. Consequently we spent a day or two in se-
curing wahus in the Whale-Sound walrus grounds ;
then parts of two days in a circumnavigation of the
three islands, with a visit to the loomeries ; and then,
after some delay on account of the ice, we succeeded in
effecting an entrance to Olriks Bay, where two days
were spent and a number of reindeer secured. Steam-
AN AUGUST SNOWSTORM.
ing out from here, we bore away for the entrance of
the Sound, and then steamed southward into Wolsten-
holm Sound, where we devoted another day or two
to eettino- walrus to add to the collection of the Amer-
ican Museum of Natural History. From here we
continued our southward journey to Cape York,
where we took on board all the able-bodied men of
the village, and steamed eastward to the site of the
meteorites.
540 Northward over the "Great Ice"
I was very agreeably surprised to find the ice in
such condition that the Kite could be forced to within
about a mile and a half of the head of the little bay,
near which the two smaller meteorites were located, and
the next four or five days were consumed in moving the
six-thousand-pound mass, which I had excavated from
the snow and ice previously, together with the still
smaller one (the " Dog "), which, now that the snow
was melted away, was found about one hundred feet
from the other, down to the shore and out through
the bay to the ship's side, where they were hoisted on
board and deposited in the hold. The excavation of
the third and largest mass on the island at the mouth
of the bay was also commenced, but it was soon found
that we had no appliances whatever with which to
handle its enormous weio^ht.
On the last day of August, the Kite forced her way
out through the now rapidly forming new ice and
steamed westward for Cape York.
Here my Eskimos went ashore, loaded with pres-
ents, with the most unrestrained exclamations of de-
light, in their great acquisition — the whale-boat which
I had given them. With the glasses I watched them
on the shore gathered about their newly acquired treas-
ures, until the point of the cape shut the village from
view. Rounding the cape, our course was shaped
for Jones Sound, over a summer sea, and through a
myriad fleet of fantastic-shaped, exquisite-coloured
bergs. The great green-brown cliffs, rich in the
yellow sunlight, glowed good-bye to me, as they had
glowed a welcome two years ago. Great cliffs ! long
will you live in remembrance with the merry, care-
free human children sheltered at your feet, careless of
the comine ni^ht, thoug-htless of the orreat hereafter.
Soon after leaving the cape, we ran into the fog
which for the past week or more had been lying off
542 Northward over the "Great Ice"
to the south and west, and during much of the night
were obliged to run at half-speed through its dense
folds. No ice and but few bergs were seen. At nine
P.M. of Saturday we were close to the glacier-burdened
shore of North Devon, just north of Philpot Island,
and turned north to enter the Sound. The strong
southerly current, and an unreliable compass had
taken us from our course. Running at half-speed
during the night, at eight a.m. Sunday morning we
were well inside Cobure Island, steamina- towards
Cone Island, under the north shore ; the morning
clear, except for a light haze which made distant land
indistinct or invisible, with a fresh northerly breeze,
and no ice discernible.
West of Cone Island, we passed through loose ice
for a few miles, and twenty-five miles west of the is-
land encountered more of it which became more
closely packed as we advanced, till at the end of two
miles it was evident we could proceed at best but a
mile or two farther. At three p.m., twenty-seven miles
west of Cone Island, the Kite was turned about, and
headed back for the island, which was reached between
seven and eight p.m. A landing was effected here, and
numerous traces of Eskimos — viz., meat caches, graves,
remains of igloos, rings of tent-stones, stone wind-
shelters, bones of whale, narwhal, bear, walrus, seal, and
birds were found, and one or two implements of bone.
The remains of a soft-coal fire were also observed.
Arctic poppies were seen still in bloom. Before leav-
ing the island, a cairn was built on a conspicuous
rounded rock just south of the main island, and con-
nected with it by a dyke bare at low water. In the
cairn was deposited a brief record, then we returned
to the Kite, and she steamed away for Cape Fitz Roy.
The ice seen in Jones Sound was very rough, but
not especially thick, as far as observed. There were
After the Return
543
comparatively few bergs visible, and none of large
size. There was a strong current setting into the
Sound. Several seals, a few burgomaster gulls, two
or three young black guillemots, and numerous ful-
mars comprised the life seen. There is a colony of
the latter on the south side of Smith Island.
Though no survey, properly speaking, was made
during our stay in the Sound, which would warrant
1
/.'/ 1
1 II
fij
11
■
4
^ <
fl
w^^ 1
'ill
li ^
' 1
§»" 1
^
[^
WHALER EMERGING FROM THE FOG.
a change in existing charts, such angles as were taken,
together with the evidence of our eyes, indicate that
the shores of Jones Sound, as now shown, are some-
what in error.
The south shore of Jones Sound is not as direct as
shown on the charts, but is pronouncedly convex to
the northward, the maximum convexity being about
abreast of a point somewhat west of Cone Island.
544 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Cape Tennyson is a high ragged brown island
some distance off the shore, with a smaller one just
west of it ; the line of the coast back of it is flatter
than shown on the charts, and the change in trend of
the north shore is more nearly at the point of the
mainland just east of Smith Island, than at Cape
Tennyson. The bay behind Smith and Cone Islands
is more extensive than shown on the chart.
There is no such bend in the northern shore of the
Sound as is shown on the charts at the point marked
Sir R. Inglis Peak. The coast-line, broken only by
perhaps two or three small fjords, is continuous for a
distance of seventy-five miles beyond Cone Island,
and is concave to the south.
Cone Island is a ragged-profiled cone, of what Pro-
fessor Salisbury determined to be granitic gneiss.
Though larger, it bears a strong resemblance to the
well-known Conical and Dalrymple Rocks of the east
side of Smith Sound, and the Little Matterhorn at
the head of Inplefield Gulf.
From the appearance of the cliffs forming the
shores of the Sound, it is probable that the formation
of the entire region, with the exception of two or
three very limited areas, is the same as that of Cone
Island.
Glaciers are numerous on the south side of the
Sound ; the ice-cap is nearly continuous with the shore
line, and some twenty glaciers, several of which are of
large size, may be counted from Cape Fitz Roy west-
ward. The ice-cap from which these glaciers flow
suo-orests in its accented undulations that between
Saviksoah and Cape York Bays. On the western side
of Coburg Island are nine glaciers, the extremities of
which, protruding beyond the line of the cliffs and ex-
panding laterally, are nearly all united to form an al-
most continuous sea-plain. This side of the island
546 Northward over the "Great Ice"
suggests very forcibly the north side of Northumber-
land Island and the western side of Cape York Bay.
The north shore of the Sound, except where inter-
rupted by glaciers, is a series of nearly continuous pre-
cipitous cliffs from Cape Tennyson to Smith Island,
and from a few miles west of Cone Island west as far
as observable. The number of glaciers is considerably
less than on the south side of the Sound. One larw
one debouches behind Cape Tennyson and three
others near and west of it. Near the last of these
is a peculiar truncated, pyramidal mountain or rock.
Just east of Smith Island, a glacier descends through
a gorge from three-quarters of a mile to a mile in width,
and, reaching the sea, spreads into a huge fan the width
of which is ten times the width in the gorge.
A large glacier at the head of the bay behind Smith
and Cone Islands has a fan-shaped extremity appar-
ently from twelve to fifteen times the width of the
ice-stream in the o-orw. This excessive lateral devel-
opment of the extremity seems to be a peculiarity of
all the larore glaciers of this Sound. The laro^e o-laciers
on the north side have terminal moraines along the
western portion of their faces. On the eastern side
of the bay, behind Smith and Cone Islands, are four
small haneinof or drift grlaciers.
Coming out of Jones Sound we steamed south
along the west coast, past the mouth of Lancaster
Sound, and, when down near Dexterity Harbour, des-
cried a couple of whalers approaching from the north.
By the time we had entered the harbour in which I had
lain in the Eagle in 1886, the two whalers (the Au-
rora, Captain Jackman, and the Esqznmaux, Captain
Adams) were up with us, and dropped anchor just
outside of us. In 1886, Dexterity Harbour was unin-
habited ; now a settlement of quite a number of tents
was located on the south side, attracted here by the
548 Northward over the "Great Ice"
visits of the whalers. A short stop only was made, to
make some studies of these people, and then we got
under way and steamed out. Before this, however.
ESKIMO WOMAN AT DEXTERITY HARBOUR.
a third whaler (the BalcEiia, Captain Fairweather)
came in.
Heading south-east from Dexterity, we soon en-
countered the " middle pack," and in a short time
it was so dense and heavy that we found it impossible
to advance, and equally impossible to retreat by the
After the Return
549
way we had come. In this predicament we remained
for three days, drifting slowly southward with the
pack, and some on board were beginning to get
anxious at the prospect of wintering in the pack,
when a temporary slight slackening of the ice about
us allowed us, by crowding on all steam, to worry our
way out Into somewhat looser ice, and then gradually
force our way back to the north-westward, and then
northward, until we found a practicable opening-
through the middle of the pack, and were enabled
to get into the Greenland waters off Upernavik, and
bear away southward for Godhavn,
Here, after the usual stop for water and ballast, we
steamed out and down Davis Strait, and though we
had rather heavy weather for nearly two days, the
winds, as a rule, were favourable, and our voyage
to St. John's was accomplished without incident.
Arriving here late in September, the Kite was dis-
charged, and the party, with the meteorites, and a
large quantity of valuable specimens for the American
Museum, transhipped to the Red Cross steamer for
New York.
550 Northward over the '* Great Ice "
OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF NORTH-GREEN-
LAND EXPEDITIONS OF 1893 TO 1895.
OBJECTS.
The delimitation of the detached lands lying north of main
Greenland.
The filling in of the rejnaining gaps in the northern and
north-eastern coast-line of Greenland.
In the event of favourable conditions, an attempt upon the
Pole.
The completion of the detail survey of the Whale-Sound
region.
Continuation of the studies of the SmitJi-Sound Eskimos.
The discovery of the '^Iron Mountain.''
RESULTS.
The crossing of the Inland Ice-cap of North Greenland
under a most serious handicap of insufficient provisions.
The completion of the detail survey of Whale Sound.
Large accessions of material and information in connection
with the Smith-Sound Eskimos.
The discovery of the ^' Iron Motmtain'' or Cape-York
" Saviksue," and the bringing home of two of those interesting
meteorites.
PART V.
SUMMER VOYAGES OF 1896-1897.
THE ''SAVIKSUE" OR CAPE-YORK METEORITES.
Cape York "Saviksue" — History, and Efforts to Secure them — Dis-
covery in 1894 — Location — Securing "Woman" and "Dog" in 1895 —
Work on " Ahnighito" in 1896 — Securing "Ahnighito" in 1897 — De-
scription— Authenticity — Notes and Speculations — Discovery of
Ancient Eskimo Knives Made from "Saviksue" — Proposed Group —
Rh.^uMF. of Points of Special Interest.
Site of Saviksue
C.San Lucas
_Q^ Uuaclil.
— ^TTaVWi^ s -
r
NORTH
AMERICA
-B J,
>/
Lonsitude West
from Greenwich
MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF "SAVIKSUE" AND VOYAGE OF
" HOPE " IN 1897.
PART V.
THE "SAVIKSUE" OR CAPE-YORK METiEORITES.
THE two summer voyages
made by me in 1896
and 1897 had for their
object, among others,
the bringing home of the third,
last, and largest of the Cape-
York meteorites. The securing
of this enormouscelestial visitor
was the main object of the
1896 voyage ; the secondary
object of the voyage of 1897.
In both these voyages my
ship was the S.S. Hope. In
both, her Master was Capt.
John Bartlett, and each time I
took parties of scientific men and students for a summer of Arctic
field work.
These voyages were full of incidents which, under other cir-
cumstances, would furnish abundant material for a volume.
But these incidents must yield space to a condensed narrative of
one of the most unique episodes in the annals of Arctic explora-
tion, the discovery and removal from their frozen beds of the
most interesting of known meteorites, with a brief description of
them.
HISTORY, AND EFFORTS TO SECURE.
Of all the great meteorites of the world's collections, as well
as the more or less legendary and mysterious celestial visitors,
the "heaven stones," "thunderbolts," " abaddirs," Palladium,
etc., which have elicited the awe and veneration of man since re-
mote antiquity, the " Saviksue " or Cape-York meteorites, must,
553
554 Northward over the "Great Ice"
from their exceptional size, their purity and homogeneousness
of composition, the extreme northern latitude in which they
were found, their incontrovertibly celestial origin, and their
human associations, be conceded to rank first.
The history of these meteorites up to the time of their dis-
covery by me is comprised in the statement that, when Capt.
Ross in 1818 discovered the existence, in the vicinity of Cape
York, of a previously unknown tribe of Eskimos, he found in
their possession rude knives and harpoon points with cutting
edges of iron. The metal in these implements, as well as could
be determined from the imperfect communication with these
people, had been obtained by them from an " Iron Mountain "
on the northern shore of Melville Bay.
An analysis of the metal showed the presence of nickel, and led
to the inference that the source of iron supply of these northern
people was meteoric. For a full account of this, and for various
papers bearing upon the subject, the reader is referred to Capt.
Ross's narrative and to theArc^u Manual.
Nordenskjold's discovery of the famous Ovifak irons on Disco
Island, and the ultimate determination of their telluric rather than
extra-terrestrial origin, gave rise to doubts as to the meteoric
character of the more northern and semi-mythical Cape-York
iron, and it was assumed that this iron was also telluric.
One of the objects of almost every expedition which has gone
north in that region since 181 8 has been the solution of the
mystery of the " Iron Mountain."
In the '40's the King of Denmark authorised an expedition for
the purpose of discovering and determining the character of the
" Mountain," but nothing came of the effort.
The officers of the North Star, one of the Franklin search
ships which passed the. winter of 1849-50 in Wolstenholm Sound,
north of Cape York, were unsuccessful in locating the iron, and
the same may be said of the various expeditions, English, Ameri-
can, and others, and the whalers, which visited these waters during
a long series of years after Ross's voyage. None of these came
any nearer than Ross himself to clearing up the mystery.
From the fact that the existence of this iron was discovered
by an English officer, the British Museum has been specially
interested in the subject, and one of the objects of the splendid
English Arctic Expedition of 1875-76 was to clear up the ques-
tion of its location and character if possible. This desired result,
however, was not accomplished.
Baron Nordenskjold's ship in 1883 went to Cape York for
the express purpose of discovering and, if practicable, bringing
55^ Northward over the "Great Ice"
away the iron, but the ice did not permit her to penetrate Melville
Bay, and this expedition, like previous ones, returned unsuccess-
ful.
Up to the spring of 1894, the information already noted aboye
comprised the sum-total of our knowledge on this interesting sub-
ject.
It was fortunately reserved for me to settle the question finally
and definitely. After I had gained the confidence of the entire
little tribe of Smith-Sound Eskimos, Tellikotinah, one of the
hunters, in May of 1894, guided me to the "Iron Mountain,"'
where 1 found, not a mountain or vein of iron, but three large
masses of homogeneous metal, the peculiar and unmistakable
characteristics of which, and especially the nature of their sur-
roundings, proved them to be, beyond the possibility of doubt,
true meteoric irons.
In the latter part of August of the same year I attempted, in
the Falcon^ to penetrate Melville Bay to the site of the meteorites,
and embark them for the purpose of sending them home. The sum-
mer of 1894, however, was an unusually severe one in this por-
tion of the Arctic regions, and the ice of Melville Bay did not
move out at all, but remained cemented to the shore throughout
the entire season, rendering it impossible for me to get my ship
within thirty or forty miles of my prizes.
In December of the same year (the midnight of the Arctic win-
ter night) I made a second attempt to revisit the meteorites, sledg-
ing from the lodge in Bowdoin Bay, but bad weather combined
with the darkness to close the ever inhospitable door of Melville
Bay to me, and I was unable to get beyond Cape York, where I
was storm-bound for several days, and then returned to the lodge,
narrowly escaping the loss of my dogs and sledge by the breaking
up of the ice about me while rounding Cape Parry."
LOCATION.
The location of these meteorites is on the northern shore of that
great icy fastness, Melville Bay, some thirty-five miles east of
Cape York. Just inside of Bushnan Island is a second island,
larger than Bushnan, and hitherto taken for part of the main-
land. This island lies directly across the mouth of a double-
armed bay which reaches northward into the land, and has an
opening westward toward Cape York, and eastward into Melville
Bay, past the ends of the island.
The eastern arm of this bay terminates in a little rectangular
cove, walled by a series of hills three hundred to six hundred
' See Chap, vi., Part III. ''■ See Chaps, vii. and viii., Part IV.
558 Northward over the "Great Ice"
feet high. 'J'his wall is continuous except at the eastern angle of
the cove, where a narrow, gently sloping valley opens. Proceed-
ing up this valley for a few hundred yards, one finds oneself on
the divide of a narrow isthmus separating the bay already men-
tioned from a glacier bay to the eastward, and uniting the mount-
ains which overhang the head of the bay with the bold and
striking masses that form its eastern shore and headland. The
centre of the isthmus is about eighty feet above the sea-level at
its highest point, and a few yards north of this divide, on the
southern slope of the mountain, the two smaller of the famous
"Saviksue," the " woman " and the "dog," lay loosely upon the
gneissose rocks which cover the ground.
Standing here the. eye roams southward, over the broken ice-
masses of Glacier Bay, the favourite haunt of the polar bear ;
eastward, across the glacier itself, to the ebon faces of the Black
Twins, two beetling ice-capped cliffs, which frown down upon the
glacier ; northward, to the boulder-strewn slopes of a gneissose
mountain ; and westward, over the placid surface of Saviksoah
Bay, which presents a striking contrast to the berg chaos on the
opposite side of the isthmus.
About midway of the eastern shore of the inner island, and some
six miles south of the site of the " woman " and the "dog," lay
the third and largest, the "tent," meteorite, nearly buried in the
rocks and soil, upon a terrace some eighty feet above high-water
mark, and distant about a hundred yards from the shore. Near
by rises one of the most peculiar peaks that I have seen anywhere
upon the Greenland coast, — a gneissose mass with sharp, over-
hanging crest, — which I have called Signal Mountain, since it has
for centuries been marking the position of the celestial visitor.
Both from this mountain, and from the site of the meteorite itself,
the northern shores of Melville Bay present an eastward-stretch-
ing panorama until hidden behind a labyrinth of icebergs.
In winter this region is the desolation of Arctic desolations,
constantly harassed by biting winds, and every rock deep buried
beneath the snow, swept in by these winds throughout the long
dark night, from the broad expanse of Melville Bay, and
piled in drifts, which in many places are hundreds of feet
deep. Even in summer, only the directly southward-facing slopes
of the mountains are free from snow for a few weeks, while in the
valleys and on the northward slopes the drifts remain eternally.
A large portion of the ice and bergs of Melville Bay pass close
along this coast in their slow drift westward toward the southerly
current of Smith Sound. Consequently the shore is beset with
ice during about ele\en months of even the most favourable
PANORAMA OF SITE OF THE "SAVIKSUE"
Looking Eastward
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 559
years, and the slightest in-
crease in the severity of a
season beyond the normal,
results in the coast being
completely blockaded and
rendered inaccessible
throughout the entire year.
The historical data to
be obtained from the na-
tives in regard to the me-
teorites is rather scanty.
According to them the "Sa-
viksue " (great irons) have
been where I discovered
them from time immemori-
al ; but they were originally
an Innuit woman and her
dog and tent hurled from
the sky by Tornarsuk (the
Evil Spirit). They say that
at first the " woman " v/as
in shape like a woman seat-
ed and sewing, but that the
constant chipping off of
fragments through succes-
sive ages has gradually re-
moved the upper portion of
her body and reduced her
size one-half or one-third.
Years ago her head became
detached and a party of
Eskimos from Peterahwik
or Etah (settlements north
of Whale Sound) attempted
to carry it away, actuated
probably by the desire to
have a supply of the pre-
cious metal more conven-
ient, and save themselves
the long and arduous jour-
ney to Cape York and into
Melville Bay, when they
needed to replenish their
stock of iron. The head
The "Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 561
was lashed upon a sledge and the party started for their home,
but when well out from the shore the sea ice suddenly broke up
with a loud noise, and the head disappeared beneath the water,
dragging down with it the sledge and dogs. The Eskimos them-
selves narrowly escaped with their lives, and since that time no
attempt has been made to carry away any but the smallest frag-
ments of the heavenly woman.
This mass is the one from which all the ancient iron supply of
this people was obtained, and the supposed statement of the
natives to Captain Ross that one mass was composed principally
THE "DOG."
of a black rock containing iron in the shape of small nodules
imbedded in it, was a misinterpretation. The hard, dark rock
mentioned by the natives, a piece of which they gave Ross, was a
piece of one of the trap-cobbles used in hammering off fiakes of
the iron, and not a portion of the rocky matrix enclosing the
metal. For several generations, probably from the time of the
wintering of the JVorth Star or possibly earlier, no use has
been made of the iron of these meteorites by the natives ; they
obtaining their scant supply of knives from the whalers and
expedition ships visiting their coast or beset in the ice off Cape
York.
Northward over the "Great Ice
SECURING WOINIAN AND
" DOG " IN 1895.
In spite of my previous
unsuccessful attem]jts to
revisit tlie meteorites the
effort was not given up, and
finally late in August, 1895,
I rounded Cape York in
the steamer X/Vi^jWhich had
been sent by Mrs. Peary to
bring me and my two com-
panions home, and finding
Melville Bay comparatively
free from ice, every possi-
ble pound of steam was
crowded on and the Kite
pushed eastward at her ut-
most speed in order to
reach the vicinity of the
meteorites before a change
of wind should shut the
door in my face.
As we penetrated mile
after mile into the icy fast-
nesses of Melville Bay with-
out finding our progress
barred by ice, my hopes
began to rise, only to be
dashed again when we en-
tered Saviksoah Bay and
saw the previous winter's
ice stretching entirely
across it. It looked as if
even after getting thus far
I was yet to be stopped
several miles away from the
objects of my visit. From
the masthead a narrow lead
of open water was detect-
ed penetrating the bay, and
following this lead to its
end, then ramming the Kite
her length into the edge of
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 563
the floe, the ice-hooks were
put out and the ship made
fast a mile from the shore.
No sooner was this done
than, with Diebitsch and
Bartlett each armed with n
boat-hook to assist in cross-
ing the leads and pools of
water which interrupted the
surface of the ice in ever\
direction, I climbed over
the side of the Kite^ crossed
the ice, reached the ice-foot
at the head of the bay, and,
passing up the little valley,
stood once more beside the
great heaven-born mass,
from which a little morr
than a year before I had
removed the deep coverini;
of the winter's snows.
With the snow n o a\
melted away from the " wo-
man " and her surround-
ings, it was possible to ob-
tain a clear idea of the
difficulties incident to
transporting the mass to the
ship. I was encouraged to
find the meteorite was not
larger than I had first esti-
mated it to be (about 5500
lbs.), my excavation of tlic
previous year having deter-
mined its maximum di-
mensions. The continued
existence of a large drift of
compacted snow and ice in
the little valley between it
and the head of the bay was
also a valuable point in our
favour. Yet the several
hundred feet of distance
intervening between the
564 Northward over the "Great Ice
meteorite and the upper end of this drift, thickly covered with large
gneissose boulders, and the wide lane of open water separating the
ice in the bay from the shore at the mouth of the valley, presented
difficulties which I could see would require all our resources to
overcome.
The next day, Diebitsch began work with the ship's crew and
the Eskimos ; the " woman " was lifted out of her bed with jacks,
and a rough sledge of spruce poles made for the " dog." On
the second day, the " woman " was blocked up ready for transport-
ation, and the " dog " rolled upon its sledge and dragged by the
combined force of the ship's crew and my native allies over the
boulders and down the snow-drifts to the shore ; then ferried
MOVING THE "WOMAN" ON ROLLERS.
across the open water upon a cake of ice, and finallyhauled for a dis-
tance of about a mile over the surface of the ice in the bay to the
ship's side, where it was hoisted on board and deposited in the hold.
On the third day a heavy timber drag was constructed for the
" woman," upon which she was placed and secured, then slowly
transported upon iron rollers over a plank tramway laid along a
rude road-bed, roughly graded by my Eskimos with the abund-
ance of stones in the vicinity. In this way the meteorite was
brought to the upper end of the snow-drift. Then after mid-
night, when the surface of this drift was frozen firmly, it
The "Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 565
was moved down to the shore, where a huge cake of ice, 40 ft.
long by 20 ft. wide by 7 ft. thick, had been securely moored to
receive it. Upon this novel ferry-boat it was floated across
the open water to the bay ice, and into a dock cut to re-
ceive it. Once on the bay ice, progress was continued upon
rollers running on a plank tramway until within half a mile
from the ship, when the work was expedited by splicing all spare
ropes together and carrying them out from the ship, using the
winch for tractive power. As soon as the prize was alongside, all
possible speed was made in hooking on to it with the ship's
tackles and purchases ; but before this could be completed the
"KITE" DOCKED IN THE ICE.
ice gave way under the great weight, leaving the meteorite only
partially secured. Fortunately, the lines and chains already
fastened to it were strong enough to hold, though insufficient to
lift it, and finally, although nearly submerged by the listing of
the Kite under the unbalanced load, additional lines were at-
tached and the meteorite slowly warped up to the rail and swung
inboard. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the sulky
giant was safely deposited in the hold.
The work of transporting and embarking these two masses
was engineered entirely by Diebitsch, and was accomplished by
him in a most able and effective manner.
While this work on the two smaller meteorites was progressing,
566 Northward over the "Great Ice"
the big one out on the island was visited and partially excavated
with a view to getting an idea of its size and weight.
A portion of it about four feet long by two feet high by one
and one-half feet wide, projected above the scant turf and moss
on the crest of a terrace on the eastern side of Meteorite Island,
eighty feet above, and some three hundred yards distant from
high-water mark. The excavation developed that this projection
was in the nature of a dorsal fin, rising from nearly a flat table
about twelve feet long and eight feet wide, tapering at one end
THE "TENT" OR "AHNIGHITO" IN SITU.
to a point or tail. The excavation, although carried down over
three feet at this time, did not discover the depth of the mass,
which was evidently considerable.
Two ten-ton screw-jacks which I applied together under one
end and forced to the point of crippling without disturbing the
monster, showed that not only our appliances but the ship itself
were entirely inadequate for handling and transporting such a
huge mass and concentrated weight, which I estimated at one
hundred tons. Four days were then devoted to an attempt to
S 3
568 Northward over the "Great Ice"
break off the point already noted, by drilling holes close together
and driving in taper bolts. The toughness of the metal rendered
the effort abortive, and the rapid formation of heavy young ice
then compelled the retreat of the Kite to escape being frozen in
for the winter.
With the two meteorites safely on board, the Kite proceeded to
Cape York and thence to St. John's, Newfoundland, in safety,
though the presence of these unusual masses of iron affected our
compasses to such an extent that, whenever thick or stormy
weather compelled us for any length of time to depend upon our
dead reckoning, it was found impossible to keep on our course.
From St. John's, Newfoundland, the meteorites were trans-
ported by steamer to New York.
WORK ON " AHNIGHITO " IN 1896.
Determined to secure the giant, I chartered a larger ship, the
Hope, of 307 tons net register, and went north in July of 1896
with more powerful ap])liances on board, reaching Cape York
August 9th.' The ice in Melville Bay being not yet broken up,
I put in two weeks north of Cape York, returning there the 22d
of August.
The stop at Cape York was only long enough for me to take on
board all the able-bodied men of the village, when the Hope con-
tinued on her course eastward across Cape-York Bay, and so on to
Saviksoah Bay and the eastern side of Meteorite Island, where we
arrived shortly before noon. Before we reached the natural pier
just below the meteorite, its dark-bronze crest could be seen on
the top of the terrace, peering out from the debris of last year's
excavation. A barrier of ice-pans packed close against the shore
delayed us somewhat in getting in ; but outside of this was a nar-
row lane of open water, and beyond this again a chain of grounded
icebergs, holding the still unbroken ice of Melville Bay in check.
My full force of Eskimos was set to work at once with pick and
shovel, clearing away about the meteorite, and by supper-time the
brown monster stood out in all its immensity as to length and
breadth, though its depth was still indeterminate. From this
time on during ten days, the work on the meteorite was continued
' On this voyage the following gentlemen accompanied me : Prof. A. E.
Burton in charge of a party composed of Professor Barton, Assistant Putnam,
of the U. S Coast Survey, and Messrs. Dodge, Phillips, and Porter ; Prof. R.
S. Tarr in charge of a party composed of Professor Gill and Messrs. Martin,
Bonesteel, and Watson ; Mr. Benj. Hoppin with his companion Mr. Suther-
land and their steward. My personal party consisted of Albert Operti, artist,
Hugh Lee, Mr. Figgins, naturalist, and Matthew Henson.
Professor Burton and his party were landed at Umanak, Professor Tarr and
party at Wilcox Head.
The ''Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 569
nightandday. The Captain and the ship'scomplement took the day
watch, and I, with Lee, Henson, and my Eskimos, took the night.
The first thing to be done was to tear the heavenly visitor from
its frozen bed of centuries, and as it rose slowly inch by inch un-
der the resistless lift of the hydraulic jacks, gradually displaying
its ponderous sides, it grew upon us as Niagara grows upon the
observer, and there was not one of us unimpressed by the enor-
mousness of this lump of metal. The expressions of the Eski-
mos about the " Saviksoah " (the great iron) were low but earnest,
and it, and the other wonderful great irons (the jacks) which
could tear it from its bed, awed them to the utmost.'
CARRYING THE HUNDRED-TON JACK.
Sliding the meteorite upon steel rails laid upon heavy timbers
across the few yards intervening between it and the crest of the
hill, it was then rolled down the slope to the natural rock-pier.
It was interesting, though irritating, to watch the stubbornness
of the monster as it sulked and hung back to the last inch. Un-
der the strain of the two powerful chain blocks which transformed
the wire cable and the big chain straps into rigid bars of steel,
and urged by the resistless lift of the jacks, the huge brown mass
' In this work my sixty-ton jack, a second-hand affair, gave out after the first
lift, and, as I had no appliances for repairing it, it remained useless from this
time on, depriving me of nearly one-third of my total power.
570 Northward over the "Great Ice
would slowly and stubbornly rise on its side, and be forced to a
position of unstable equilibrium ; then everyone, except the men
at the chain blocks down at the foot of the hill, would stand aside.
A few more pulls on these, then cable and the chain straps would
slacken, the top of the meteorite would move almost impercepti-
bly forward, the stones under the edge of revolution would begin
to splinter and crumble, then, amidst the shouts of the natives
and our own suppressed breathing, the " Iron Mountain " would
roll over. When it struck the ground the harder rocks would
elicit streams of
sparks from its
brown surface be-
fore they crumbled,
the softer ones would
dissolve into dust
and smoke, and the
giant would bury
itself half its depth
in the earth with the
slow, resistless mo-
tion of a hydraulic
punch cutting cold
iron, then lunge sud-
denly forward a few
feet, throwing up a
dam of earth and
stones before it like
the terminal mo-
raine of a glacier.
Arrived at the bot-
tom of the slope, the
meteorite was again
lifted upon the rails
and timbers, and
slowly and labor-
iously pushed for-
ward towards the
edge of the pier.
Never have I had
the terrific majesty
ROAD FOR THE METEORITE. of the force of grav-
ity and the meaning
of the terms " momentum " and " inertia" so powerfully brought
home to me, as in handling this mountain of iron. No pur-
The "Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 571
chase or appliance which we could bring to bear upon it,
outside of the jacks, made the slightest impression upon it.
When lowered slowly upon heavy timber blocking by the jacks,
it settled resistlessly into the wood until it seemed as if it
would never stop. The timber creaked and groaned in every
fibre, and in the immediate vicinity of the pressure its structure
was entirely destroyed and it became a mass of incoherent fibres.
If the meteorite slipped and fell even for half an inch, as it fre-
quently would, in spite of every precaution, it would bite into the
steel rails like a punch, and the rail itself would sink into the
AFTER A HALF-REVOLUTION.
timber beneath, if near the middle, or crush through it if near
the end. The inherent deviltry of inanimate objects was never
more strikingly illustrated than in this monster. Had the matter
been a subject of study for weeks by the celestial forge-master, I
doubt if any shape could have been devised that would have
been any more completely ill suited for handling in any way,
either rolling or sliding or lifting.
The difficulties in getting a hold on it were also great. The
shallowness of the conchoidal depressions on the surface left but
few places where a jack could be applied. Even where it was pos-
sible to get a grip with the head of the jack, the hardness of the
572 Northward over the "Great Ice"
metal, combined with the excessive pressure, and the shifting angle
of contact between the jack and the surface of the meteorite, as
the latter changed its position, necessitated following the mass
up closely with block and wedges, so that if the head of the jack,
like a melon-seed pressed between thumb and finger, flew out
with serious risk to adjacent legs and arms, the meteorite could
not fall back. In spite of every precaution, however, this some-
times happened, and I have a half-inch steel link on which the
meteorite fell a distance of perhaps an inch, which is flattened as
if it were so much lead. These terrific blows were too much for
my two thirty-ton jacks, which, owing to the failure of the sixty-
ton one, had been constantly working beyond their capacity, and
they gradually gave out, until at last I had only the unwieldy
hundred-ton one left. Then progress became so slow that be-
fore I could get the meteorite close to the edge of the pier a furi-
ous south-easter broke up my iceberg barrier, and the pack ice
of Melville Bay driving in upon the shore forced us to pull the
ship out with haste to avoid having her crushed like an eggshell
against the rocks.
During all this time it was an impressive sight to see the Hope
lying quietly beside the natural rock-pier, with her mooring lines
out, waiting for her cargo as if at home, yet everywhere about
her a wilderness of ice and bergs and savage snow-capped
mountains.
During the first of our stay here the weather was clear, and
there was light enough for us to work continuously through the
night. Then it came on much colder, and the young ice began
to form and increase rapidly in thickness. The effect of the
drop in temperature upon the fleet of Melville-Bay icebergs
outside of us was startling. Throughout one brilliant biting
night, the crash and roar of their convulsions was almost con-
tinuous, and the huge swells caused by their foundering kept
the Hope tossing and surging heavily at her moorings. Sunrise
on such a morning was a magnificent spectacle, the yellow disk
of the sun rising from behind the savage peaks which mark the
line of the heart of Melville Bay, and painting the slopes of the
eternal ice-cap above us an exquisite pink. Then this clear
cold weather gave way to a few days and nights of fog and snow,
followed by the south-easter already mentioned. The fog and
storm, combined with the rapidly shortening autumn days, made
it too dark to work at night.
There were many incidents of the work to suggest the super-
natural even to the most prosaic mind. The dogged sullen
obstinacy and enormous inertia of the giant against being
The ''Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 573
moved ; its utter contempt and disregard of all attempts to guide
or control it when once in motion ; and the remorseless way in
which it destroyed everything opposed to it, seemed demoniac.
I remember one particularly striking occasion. It was the last
night of our stay at the island, — a night of such savage wildness
as is possible only in the Arctic regions. In spite of the driv-
ing storm, it kept artist Operti running up out of the warmth
and light of the cabin, upon the snow-covered deck, to feast his
TWO OF MY HYDRAULIC JACKS.
eyes upon the scene. The wild gale was howling out of the depth
of Melville Bay through the Hopes rigging, and the snow was driv-
ing in horizontal lines. The white slopes of the hill down which
the meteorite had been brought, showed a ghastly grey through
the darkness ; the fire, round which the fur-clad forms of the
Eskimos were grouped, spread its bright red glare for a short
distance ; a little to one side was a faint glow of light through
the skin wall of a solitary tupik. Working about the meteorite
574 Northward over the "Great Ice"
was my own little party, and in the foreground the central
figure, the raison d'etre of it all, the " Saviksoah," the " Iron
Mountain," towering above the human figures about it, and
standing out black and uncompromising. While everything else
was buried in the snow, the " Saviksoah " was unaffected. The
great flakes vanished as they touched it, and the effect was very
impressive. It was as if the giant were saying : " I am apart from
all this, I am heaven-born, and still carry in my heart some of
the warmth of those long-gone days before I was hurled upon
this frozen desert." To strengthen this fancy that the meteorite
still held some of its celestial fire and feeling, if a sledge, ill aimed
in the darkness at wedge or block, chanced to strike it, a spouting
jet of scintillating sparks lit the gloom, and a deep note, sonor-
ous as a bell, a polar tocsin, or the half-pained, half-enraged bel-
low of a lost soul, answered the blow.
Through all this time of labour and exposure, my Eskimo allies
worked faithfully and contentedly, sleeping between decks when
they could find time. They assisted in every possible way, and
neverinterposed theslightest objection tomyremoval of their heav-
enly guest, — in fact, seemed almost as disappointed as I when the
insweeping ice compelled me to give up my prize till another time.
As soon as the Hope was free of the ice, she steamed into the
little bight where the Kite had lain to embark the two smaller
meteorites the previous summer, and the anchor was dropped
till daylight and the cessation of the storm should enable us to
see our way back to Cape York. From Cape York the voyage
was continued home and Sydney, C. B., reached late in September.
SECURING " AHNIGHITO " IN 1897.
Disappointed, but not discouraged by my non-success in em-
barking the meteorite, I again put on board the Hope in 1897,
when I went north in her to communicate with my Eskimos,
powerful appliances with the view of giving the giant another
fight if the Melville-Bay ice would permit me to get near him.'
' On this 1897 voyage the following gentlemen accompanied me : Prof.
Schuchert of the National Museum, with his party, consisting of Prof. White
and Mr. Stickney, Mr. Robert Stein, of the U. S. Geological Survey ; Mr.
Porter with his party, consisting of Dr. Fitzgerald, his son, Messrs White,
Goodrich, Shaw, Boal, and Carpenter. Mr. Jensen, the Dane whom I brought
to this country in 1S96, returned to his station at Cape Haven. My own party
consisted of Mrs. Peary, our little girl Ahnighito with her nurse, artist Operti,
Mr. Perry, my young friends Arthur Moore and Lansing Baldwin, Dr. Fred.
Sohon, Mr. Figgins, naturalist, and Matthew Henson. Hugh Lee with his
bride spent their honeymoon at Godhavn. Mr. Porter and party were landed
at Cape Haven, Prof. Schuchert and party at Umanak, and Mr. Stein at
Nugsuak.
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 575
Arriving at Cape York the 12th of August, the ice conditions
of Melville Bay were found to be favourable to an immediate ap-
proach to the meteorite, and instant advantage was taken of these
conditions to force the Hope again to her berth alongside the
natural rock-pier on Meteorite Island.
My ten days' work on the " Saviksoah " in 1896 had given me
a very thorough acquaintance with its peculiarities and perversi-
ties, and had emphasised to me the full meaning of its concen-
trated weight, its intractable shape, and its almost resistless inertia.
THE METEORITE ON MY RETURN IN 1897.
I felt, however, the utmost confidence that the equipment that I
had brought with me, the powerful hydraulic jacks, the magnifi-
cent oak timbers (the best that could be bought), the heavy steel
rails, the bolts, chains, and tools of various kinds, all of the best
quality, would enable me to bring it safely on board, provided
the hostile Arctic ice would allow me to get near it.
This year as I neared the locality again the outlook was at first
disheartening. There was much less open water and double the
number of bergs that I had found last year, but, much to my re-
lief, by butting a passage through two or three icy barriers, and
after grounding twice from being forced to the shore by the ice,
the Hope was brought alongside the natural rock-pier where I had
left the meteorite a year before.
57^ Northward over the ** Great Ice"
In spite of this good fortune, the ship's position and surround-
ings were such as to cause disquietude even in the mind of a
man who had seen some Arctic experience, and to a novice were
discouraging to the verge of fear. The rocky shore to which
the ship was made fast lay fully exposed and absolutely unpro-
tected against the resistless pressure of the Melville-Bay ice-pack
under the stress of south-east winds : the open water through
which we had crept close along the shore was scarcely more
than a ship's length in width, was already coated with young ice,
and outside of it lay an indescribable labyrinth of icebergs,
through which even the practised eye could not discover an open-
ing. To add to the dismal outlook and the mental unrest of
many on board, we forged alongside the meteorite in a driving
snow-storm that twelve hours later had covered our little world a
foot deep in snow, and formed upon the water a thick covering
of slush, which forty-eight hours of severe cold would trans-
form into unbreakable fetters for the Hope. No one who was
not present can form any idea of the savageness and hostile as-
pect of the scene. There were good reasons for the belief that
the Arctic winter had already set in.
Fortunately the natural features of the shore, at the site of the
meteorite, were uniquely favourable for getting it on board the
ship, and my previous summer's work had left the huge mass
close to the edge of the natural rock-pier, with sufficient depth of
water alongside to allow the ship to be brought within about
eighteen feet of the shore.
I proposed to construct a very strong bridge, reaching from
the shore across the ship ; lay the heaviest steel rails upon this,
and then, after depositing the meteorite upon a massive timber
car resting upon these rails, slide the huge mass across the bridge
until it rested directly over the main hatch ; remove the bridge ;
then lower the meteorite with my hydraulic jacks through the
hatchway to the ship's hold.
This was simple enough in theory, yet when such an enormous
and concentrated mass is concerned, every detail of construction
must be of the most massive character, and every detail of manip-
ulation studied with the utmost care.
The transferring of such an enormous weight from the unyield-
ing support of the shore to the yielding and continuously chang-
ing support of the ship, with the shifting and complicated strains
resulting from the rise and fall of the tide, the varying displace-
ment of the ship with the increasing load, and her listing with the
unbalanced weight as it came upon her rail, all demanded the
most careful thought and study.
578 Northward over the "Great Ice"
The first thing was to prepare the ship for receiving her pon-
derous and unusual freight, so as to insure against the possibility
of any mishap, and cause as little strain and reduction of her
stability as might be.
To accomplish this, all the coal remaining amidships was
hoisted out and put in the bunkers ; heavy oak timbers laid fore
and aft on either side of the keelson ; then the entire amidships
space filled with coarse, heavy ballast up to the deck beams, and
in the centre, directly under the main hatch, some two feet
higher. The 'twe^n-deck beams were carefully wedged and
blocked up upon this ballast, and the main deck throughout the
ship's waist supported from them by a small forest of twelve-inch
posts kept in position by systems of horizontal struts and braces.
The object of the ballast was to increase the inertia and stabil-
ity of the ship ; absorb and distribute the shock in case, through
any mishap, the meteorite should be allowed to drop ; and finally
to serve as a firm bed and matrix for the enormous mass during
the homeward journey. The posts were to enable the deck to
sustain the great load while in transit without collapsing, and also
form a rectangular shaft downward from the main hatch, so that
the meteorite would be compelled to descend into the hold with-
out the possibility of shifting laterally.
This work accomplished below decks, an almost continuous
floor of heavy timber was laid on deck, so as to distribute the
weight of the meteorite and bridge over some twenty-five feet of
the ship's length.
With the exception of a few minor details to be noted later,
and the secure mooring of the ship to the rocks with all her
cables and hawsers, this completed the preparation of the ship.
The backbone of my bridge consisted of two royal sticks of
fourteen-inch by sixteen-inch white oak, sixty feet long, straight-
grained, tough, and well seasoned, which were to span the gap
between the ship and the shore, reach well under the meteorite
at one end, and across the ship at the other.
A third stick of timber twelve by twelve inches and thirty inches
long, re-enforced these in the span from the ship to the shore,
and the whole was bound rigidly together by heavy timber cross-
heads and spreaders, bolted through and through by powerful
screw bolts of the best Swedish iron.
The inshore end of this bridge rested continuously upon the
rocks and gravel. The shipboard end was almost continuously
supported by the heavy timbers on deck. The span from the
ship to the shore was re-enforced and strongly trussed with the
ship's steel-wire cable and posts of twelve-inch timbers.
The "Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 579
The work of preparing the ship had been entrusted to Captain
Bartlett, and had been elfected in the most thorough and seaman-
like manner. The assembling of the bridge had been done by the
engineer force under Chief Hunter, and the setting up of the
steel cable of the truss I had assigned to Mr. Taylor, the first
mate, a thoroughly practical seaman, who had accomplished it in
a most effective manner. My faithful Eskimos were useful
wherever any lifting had to be done, and the gentlemen members
of the party, in their interest and enthusiasm, lent a hand when-
ever they could see a chance.
CAPTAIN JOHN BARTLETT.
The assembling of the bridge had of necessity to be done in
place, as the big oak timbers weighed some three tons each, and
the completed structure would be too heavy for the ship's tackle
to handle. These were launched separately under the meteorite,
which had previously been raised for the purpose, and supported
upon blocks at each extreme end.
Scarcely had they been so placed and the work of assembling
commenced, when a huge iceberg in the labyrinth outside of us
went to pieces, sending a succession of heavy swells in upon the
shore. On these the Hope rolled and danced like a cork, jerking
580 Northward over the *' Great Ice "
viciously at lier moorings and keeping me in a fever of anxiety
during minutes which seemed like hours, knowing as I did if one
of the lines parted, the great timbers, with one end still resting
upon the Hope's heaving deck, would act as irresistible levers to
pry the blocks from under the meteorite and let it topple over
the edge of the pier into the water. It was with the utmost re-
lief that I saw the swells gradually subside, and yet the occurrence
kept me in a state of apprehension for the next forty-eight hours,
until I had the meteorite firmly mounted upon its car and rest-
ing its full weight upon the inshore end of the bridge.
The same thing might again occur at any moment, and I remem-
THE MASONIC GROUP.
Figgins, Peary, Bartlett, Hunter, Operti.
bered with unpleasant vividness an entire night last year during
which the Hope tossed and tugged at her lines like a wild animal,
upon the continuous swells caused by the disrupted icebergs
about her.
Previous to launching the timbers to the shore, the edge of the
pier had been carefully levelled and a heavy timber bridge seat
laid upon it. The earth and rock back of this had been graded
and tamped to afford a firm bearing.
The assembling of the bridge, and the stringing of the cable
truss completed, the thirty-foot standard steel rails of the New
York, New Haven, and Hartford R. R., weighing one hundred
582 Northward over the "Great Ice"
pounds to the yard, were hoisted out and laid in pairs, side by side,
on each of the oak timbers, with their inshore ends coming just
through under the meteorite, and the other ends coming just in-
board of the Hopes starboard rail. Two fifteen-feet lengths of
rail continued the track across the main hatch, and then all were
fastened down with numerous spikes.
The massive timber car, clamped together like the bridge, by
heavy screw bolts, and sheathed underneath with steel plates,
was then hoisted upon the rails, and pushed out against the
meteorite ; some of the timbers were removed ; the front of
CROSSING THE BRIDGE.
the meteorite jacked up till the half of the car could be forced
under it ; then this part lowered, the rear raised, the other tim-
bers of the car placed in position, and the car bolted firmly to-
gether again, then the meteorite was finally lowered to its position
on the car.
As the plungers of the powerful jacks retreated into their cas-
ings upon the opening of the valves, transferring the mighty
weight entirely to the car, every projection on the underneath
side of the meteorite buried itself in the solid timber, the joints
closed up till almost invisible, every inequality in the steel
sheathing beneath the car flattened out, the bases of the rails
The "Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 583
sank perceptibly into the oak stringers, and the earth and gravel
beneath these, settled and compressed into rock-like solidity.
Then the monster was lashed to the car by fathom after fathom
and turn after turn of steel chains, tightened by oak wedges, un-
til it and the car M'ere inseparable.
The next thing was to adjust the ship in precisely the right
position, with the bridge centred, to an inch, over the main
hatch, for the opening of the hatch was scarcely large enough to
admit the meteorite, and the least error in the position of it, and
the car, when it came in over the hatch, would necessitate much
trouble in shifting it. By careful manipulation of the cables to
the anchors, and the stern and bow lines and springs, which were
THE ESKIMOS' FAREWELL TO THE "SAVIKSOAH."
made fast to the rocks ashore, the Hope was finally adjusted to a
nicety, the shipboard end of the bridge lashed down to eye-bolts
in the deck and down on the starboard side, then cables and
mooring lines were all set taut and carefully stopped.
While this was being done, a ten- or fifteen-ton counterpoise
was being loaded on the inshore end of the bridge behind the
meteorite, with the old timbers and rails of last year for a plat-
form, and big gneissose boulders for weights.
The ship's heaviest tackles were then attached to the car, and
the ends carried to the drums of the steam winch. The hydrau-
lic jacks were also placed in position behind the car, with their
bases working against the heavy cross-head.
584 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Nothing remained now but to clear the Hopes waist of every-
thing, except tools and materials needed while bringing the me-
teorite on board, slush the rails with a thick mixture of tallow
and soap, then await the proper stage of the tide, start the huge
mass with the jacks, and warp it inboard with the tackles, if they
could handle it, or, if not, jack it the entire distance.
This matter of the tide was an extremely important one, and
I am indebted to my young assistants, iirthur Moore and Lans-
ing Baldwin, for their assiduous, hourly readings of the tide
through storm and darkness, and plotting the tidal curves from
the time the Hope came alongside the meteorite, so that now I
knew to a nicety at just what time the tide would serve me.
At last the tide was right, and while Mrs. Peary and Captain
Bartlett, at the levers of the jacks, started the monster, draped in
" Old Glory," toward the ship, the baby dashed a little bottle
of wine against it and named it " Ahnighito." Then the jacks,
manned by the engine-room force, pushed it steadily forward to
the edge of the pier.
Every man on board had his station and knew his work. The
Captain had charge of the winch and tackles, the chief engineer
of the jacks, and men were stationed at the lashings to slush the
rails, etc., while I kept an eye on everything.
As the jacks moved the meteorite to the edge of the pier, the
winch started, setting the heavy tackles taut, and the huge mon-
ster, in a series of short jumps, crept out upon the bridge.
At this moment, every Eskimo on board went over the stern
gangplank to the shore. With all their confidence in me, and
their awe for the size and power of the ship, which they had re-
peatedly seen smashing her way through the pack ice, and even
battering pieces off the bergs themselves when they opposed her,
they could not overcome a superstitious fear that the mountain-
ous weight of the " heaven stone " would crush the ooniiaksoah
(ship), and they preferred to say farewell to it from the shore.
When the meteorite reached the centre of the bridge, a master
might have played a grand march with the tense strands of the
steel cable for violin strings. When it reached the rail, the Hope
began to careen, but not seriously, and the men stationed at the
lashings took in every inch of slack the moment it appeared.
In an hour from the time it started, a motion of my hand
stopped the winch with the meteorite precisely over the main
hatch. Three cheers went up from everyone on ship and
ashore, and the glorious Stars and Stripes and the ship's flags
went flying to the mastheads.
As matters now stood, the Hope was heeling toward the shore,
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 585
and the bridge had a pronounced gradient. The next step was to
get the bridge out of the way. This had already been provided
for. Two of the jacks were brought on board, pumped up to
their full height, placed on the deck timbers under each of the
oak stringers just inboard of the rail joints, then the cross-
cut saws were brought into requisition, inserted in the rail
joints intentionally left open, and the bridge sawed clear through
some three feet inside the Hope's rail.
As the saw passed nearly through the last timber, a long crack
A MOMENTARY HITCH.
split out into each part, and Mr. Figgins, the naturalist, seizing a
broad axe, jumped upon the rail, and with a blow or two severed
the last connection of the " great iron " with the land. After
years of rest it was to resume its wanderings.
I had anticipated that the Hope would right herself suddenly
when the bridge was severed, with something in the nature of a
Icick, but had endeavoured to provide against it as much as
possible. Fortunately these precautions were successful. As
the saws went through, the Hope righted herself slowly and
quietly to an even keel, and the heavy stone counterpoise ashore
586 Northward over the "Great Ice"
held the severed bridge projecting like a cantilever. The valves
of the jacks were opened, and the portion of the bridge under
the meteorite sank till it rested true and level across the ship's
waist. It was now six p.m., of Friday, August 20th. We had
been engaged upon the meteorite five days, working throughout
the entire day and much of the night, and during this entire time,
from the moment the Hope came alongside the meteorite in a
blinding storm, it had been one constant succession of fog and
driving snow. This not only retarded the work very seriously,
but had a pronounced dampening effect upon the spirits of the
men, particularly the superstitious sailors, some of whom had been
"STOP THE WINCH!"
with me last year and called this regular meteorite weather.
They insisted that the brown monster was hoodooed, that I would
never get it on board, or if I did we should never get it home, as it
would surely take the ship to the bottom. These same ones
were in the habit daily of looking over the rail at the labyrinth of
bergs about us, and the steadily forming young ice, and prophesy-
ing that even if the meteorite did not smash the ship in coming
aboard, we should certainly be frozen in and have to spend the
winter here.
Under the circumstances I could certainly almost forgive
their associating supernatural agencies with the meteorite, and it
was a strange but actual and unexaggerated fact that, as the great
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 58/^
mass crept slowly over the bridge and across the ship's rail,,
patches of blue sky appeared overhead ; and when at last it
rested safely over the main hatch, the last tie which bound it to
the land completely severed, the horizontal rays of the low mid-
night sun burst past the cliffs of Signal Mountain, fell upon the
meteorite, changing it into molten bronze, flooded the countless
icebergs east of us in light, and bathed the ragged black crests and
flowing ice-domes of Imnahlooksoah and Nahgloktoo, the savage
mountains of Prince Regent's Bay, in unspeakable tints of rose and
\ "■^^^'■':0,
METEORITE IN THE HATCH COMBINGS.
yellow. It was as if the demon of the " Saviksoah " had fought
a losing fight, accepted the result, and yielded gracefully.
The congratulations that evening in the cabin of the Hope
were numerous and earnest.
By the middle of the next afternoon the car was lowered into
the hatch combings, and in a safe position for the ship to steam in
smooth water, which we were certain to have in this region with
all the icebergs about us. At five o'clock, the last lines were
cast off, and the Hope steamed away for the last time from the
shore of Meteorite Island.
Throughout the forenoon and early part of the afternoon, it
RAMMING THE ICEBERG BARRIER.
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 589
had been snowing again, and rny superstitious sailors said that we
should never have clear weather until the hatches covered the
brown demon crouching amidships completely from the light of
day. As we started, it cleared, however, and offered a striking
contrast to last year, when in a driving south-easter I swung away
from the same place in feverish haste, in order to escape having
the ship crushed by the resistless Melville-Bay ice-pack, leaving
the big brown demon perched derisively upon the shore. Now the
persistence of three years had won, and at last I had the prize on
board.
Yet my risks and uncertainties were not yet ended. During our
MY ESKIMO LABOURZR5.
Stay at Meteorite Island, the young ice had formed in every inter-
val of calm, the last day's snow-storm had cemented everv'thing
with a thick leathery stratum of slush, and the almost continuous
south-easterly wind had been steadily compacring the icebergs
and forcing them nearer and nearer to the shore. Just before
starting. Captain Bartlett and myself reconnoitred the bay from
the top of the island, and saw that there was but one practicable
route of escape, and even by that we should be obliged to force a
barrier of bergs. A short distance from the shore of the island,
we entered a lead formed by the tide, and soon reached the bar-
rier which separated us from comparatively open water. This
barrier, though narrow, was formidable, made up entirely of bergs
590 Northward over the '' Great Ice "
and heavy berg-fragments. At first we tried to squeeze through,
but without success. It was evident we must ram a passage in
spite of our ugly load. Additional timber-braces were hurriedly
put about the meteorite, and it was with considerable anxiety that
I watched the effect of the first blow, as the Captain from the
foretop conned the rushing ship straight at the keystone of the
barrier. As the bow struck the ice, it rose upon it with a harsh
grating lift, and then with a crash and quiver the Hope came to a
dead stop. The meteorite trembled, and the ballast underneath
■WORKING UNDER THE METEORITE.
groaned and settled slightly, but no serious results followed, and
as there was no alternative, the engines were reversed, and we
backed out for another blow. Blow after blow was delivered,
big pieces of ice were broken off and sucked out by the draught
of the ship's backing, till at last the massive wedge of the Hopes
iron-clad bow could be entered between the last two bergs of the
barrier, and, with engines going at full speed, gradually forced
them apart. The entire engine-room force was stoking like de-
mons, black smoke poured in clouds from the Hope's funnel, the
propeller was whirling at ninety revolutions per minute, and the
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 591
Hope herself was pulsating like a human heart. Inch by inch we
squeezed between the frozen blue rocks on each side, rasping the
iron bark sheathing from stem to stern, and as the sternpost
cleared the bergs, the flying propeller-blades struck once or
twice, sending throughout the ship a resonant clangour, fierce as
the bellow of fire bells on a winter's night. It was our pgean of
escape.
Looking back over the Hopes wake I saw the bergs between
which we had squeezed swing slowly together again. The icy
i 7-
METEORITE AT 'TWEEN-DECKS LEVEL.
cordon of Meteorite Island had closed for the winter, but the
treasure of the island, the celestial prisoner, had escaped, and
now was throbbing there amidships, as it had never throbbed
since that cataclysmic day when it hummed through the burning
air, and shook land and sea with the frightful fury of its impact.
Six hours later we were at Cape York, where I sent my faith-
ful Eskimos ashore, accompanied by several barrels of biscuit,
and loaded with guns, knives, ammunition, and numerous other
articles which I had brought to reward them for their faithful
592 Northward over the "Great Ice"
•»
In going into the village at Cape York, the bergs, driven in by
the south-easter, forced us to hug the shore, and all at once I
heard that horrible grating sound which tells the sailor that his
ship is on the rocks. A glance at the shore showed me that the
tide was high. It was a critical moment. If caught here with
the huge mass of the meteorite still at the deck level, when the
falling tide left the ship to fall upon her bilge, no earthly power
could keep her from capsizing. For perhaps a minute (it seemed
to me a week) the vibrations continued, then, with a lift and
lurch of the stern, they ceased. The danger was past. The
Hope s momentum had carried her over the reef.
REMAINS OF GREELY HOUSE AT CAPE SABINE.
From Cape York we steamed away for Cape Sabine ; but the
next morning, off VVolstenholm Island, a furious Arctic gale de-
scended upon the ship, against which she was barely able to fight
her way inch by inch to safety under the lee of the island, where
for thirty-six hours she dodged back and forth, a phantom ship,
her decks deep with snow, her spars, sails, and rigging crusted
with the frozen crystals, barely able with full head of steam to
hold her own, while I, with four of my bravest Eskimos, worked
like miners in our timber-cage under the meteorite, lowering it
with the jacks, inch by inch and foot by foot, in order to get it
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 593
low enough not to endanger the ship's safety. All this time the
furious wind howled througli the Hopes tense rigging, as if the
demon of the " Saviksoah " were shrieking at us.
The superstitious ones on board were now more firmly con-
vinced than ever that we should never reach home, and that this
storm was but a warning from the devil of the meteorite.
After this Cape Sabine was visited, where I was the first one to
step inside the Greely house since the rescue of the survivors of
that ill-fated partyin 1883 ; the tour of theEskimo settlements com-
pleted ; and the homeward voyage effected as far as Godhavn with-
out special incident. Here the meteorite was lowered to within
a few feet of the keelson, where it rested firmly upon the ballast,
which was also packed solidly about it. Then twelve-inch by
twelve-inch timbers were placed between it and the ship's side
and wedged, blocked, and spiked in place until there was no pos-
sibility of the huge weight moving except as the ship moved.
Every loose object on deck was also sent below, and the ship
made snug for the mauling which the experience of the previous
years had led us to expect in crossing Davis Strait.
And fortunate it was that every precaution was taken. Before
we were across the strait a fierce north-wester descended upon
the ship, and during the night of September 8th, she rolled and
pitched dizzily upon the furious seas till the grey light of dawn
began to filter through the tumult. Time after time the lee
dead-eyes were underwater, and as ^ht Hope leaned and wavered
and hesitated with her rail out of sight, and the boiling tumult to
leeward seething up to the side of the companion-way, it seemed
as if she would never right.
I'urning from the ship, an inferno of Arctic hellishness, a furi-
ous horde of scourged, bitter-cold waves, rose out of the wind-
ward gloom and tossed up their heads, only to be lashed down
by the merciless wind, until in savage revenge th-ey rushed upon
the Hope like Arctic wolves, and poured over her rail as if to
devour her.
Crouched behind the weather rail, with eyes just pupil width
above it, fascinated, I watched the turmoil.
The wind, resistless and sonorous as Niagara, roared across
the seething waters, almost as tangible as they. And as in the
plunging flood of Niagara there are countless tiny sagittate
spurts or jets of greater velocity than the rest, so in this aerial
torrent there were jets which cut the water as a graver's tool
cuts metal and drove the liquid shavings in sagittate lines.
Nowhere will such a mad sea be raised in such an incredibly
short time as when the autumn boreal winds, marshalling in
594 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Baffin's Bay, charge southward, and, crowding through the nar-
rows of Davis Strait, hurl every intruder out of the realm of
night, foundering many a majestic berg, and driving others,
foaming like battle-ships, through the water. It is the mighty
besom of Kokoyah, the demon of the North, sweeping his domain
clear and closing his realms for the winter. And nowhere does
the sea subside more quickly after the wind goes down.
More than one anxious heart on board was certain at every
wave shock that the demoniac iron had broken loose and was
smashing a way for itself through the ship's side, and more than
one gave up hope of ever seeing the morning light again.
Though the bulwarks of the starboard bow were smashed by a
sea, and occasionally the waist filled with green water to the rail
level, yet with everything, including the hawse holes to the cable
lockers, battened down, no serious damage was done, little water
was taken in, and the meteorite never moved.
The next morning we were steaming under the lee of the Cape
of God's Mercy, named by Davis centuries ago.
After this nothing of moment occurred, though the presence
of such an enormous mass of iron on board rendered the com-
passes useless, and compelled us to make a coasting voyage all
the way back to Sydney, where the ship arrived in safety on the
2oth of September, burning her last ton of coal. The homeward
voyage was hampered and delayed by almost constant fog and
head-winds. The dangerous passage of the Straits of Belle Isle,
with its rapid and erratic currents, was made in the night and in
densest fog, and was one of the neatest pieces of navigation by
Bartlett, who knows every inch of this coast, that I have ever seen
It was simply intuition on his part that brought us through.
Saturday, October 2, 1897, the hundred-ton floating crane at
the New York Navy Yard, through the courtesy of the Navy De-
partment, lifted the giant from the Hope and deposited it upon
the quay wall, the largest known meteorite in the world, and a
meteorite with human associations such as attach to no other.
Three years of persevering efforts had won. The great Star
Stone of the North, traced to its icy matrix and torn therefrom, had
been brought safely out through the ice, the storms, and dark-
ness of the Arctic seas.
This brief narrative would be incomplete without my acknow-
ledgment of the invaluable assistance, of Capt. John Bartlett, one
of the most reliable, conservative, and gentlemanly of that hardy
company of Newfoundland ice navigators ; of Emil Diebitsch,
the able, cool-headed young engineer ; of the officers and crews
of the Kite and the Hope, who, though they availed themselves
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 595
of the sailor's universal prerogative to grumble, still did yeo-
men's work ; and of my faithful little band of Eskimos, who,
handling heavy rails and timbers, working with pick and shovel
and bar, and pumping on the jacks, did all they could to put into
my possession the " Iron Mountain " of their forefathers.
HOISTING METEORITE OUT OF THE "HOPE."
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSES OF THE SAVIKSUE.
The smallest of the three meteorites (the "dog") is an ellip-
soidally rounded mass with dimensions 2"]^ inches by 19I- inches ;
an estimated bulk of 2 cubic feet ; and an estimated weight of
1000 pounds.
The "SaviCsue" or Cape-York Meteorites 597
When found, it was lying loosely upon the surface among the
gneissose rocks of the vicinity, and though the natives tell me
that it has been used but little because it is harder than the
others, it certainly seems to have been pounded sufficiently to
destroy nearly or quite all of its original surface. It was situ-
ated 80 feet above, and 1625 feet distant from, high-water
mark.
The next larger meteorite (the " woman ") has an irregular
rounded trapezoidal shape, with a maximum length of 4 feet 3
inches, a maximum width of 3 feet 3 inches, and a maximum
thickness of 2 feet. Its estimated bulk is 12 cubic feet, and its
THE "DOG" IN SITU.
estimated weight 6000 pounds. It was situated 96 feet distant
from, and 2i|- feet higher than, the "dog."
Its entire upper portion has been worked and pounded by the
Eskimos through many generations, until all the original surface
has been removed. A well-defined and continuous rough burr
of metal like that round the head of a stone drill extends along
the original ground-line of the mass and shows clearly how much
of it projected from the ground. The under part preserves the
original meteoric surface characteristics.
This mass, when discovered, lay slightly imbedded or perhaps
indented in the coarse material at the bottom of a shallow saucer-
The ''Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 599
shaped depression, formed partly by the work of the natives
and partly by the piling up of the trap-stones brought by them
during many generations for use as hammers.
The circumference of this pile of stones at the base is some 60
yards, and its height from the toe of the down-hill slope to the top
is 18 or 20 feet. The contrast between the smooth rounded green-
ish trap-cobbles and the rough angular lichen-covered grey gneis-
sose rocks of the vicinity is very striking. When viewed from
THE "AHNIGHITO" IN SITU.
across the valley, one is reminded of the pile of debris usually
to be seen at the mouth of a mine shaft.
The third and largest, the " Ahnighito," is an irregular mass,
of a shape difficult to describe, with a maximum length of 11. 2
feet, a maximum width of 7.6 feet, and a maximum thickness
of 6 feet. Its estimated weight is 90 to 100 tons. One end is
rather square and bluff, the other tapers to a point or tail. One
side has a massive wedge shape, while the opposite side is tabu-
6oo Northward over the "Great Ice"
lar, with a pronounced dorsal fin rising from it. When found, it
was nearly buried in the earth and gravel with the wedge side
down, the tabular side nearly parallel with, and about a foot
below, the surface, and the dorsal fin alone showing through the
mossy turf. The bluff end was toward the shore and the long
axis nearly perpendcular to it and lying nearly east and west
(magnetic north and south).
The exposed part had the colour and appearance of weathered
bronze, and in places showed in slight relief the lines of the
Widmannstatten figures. Much of the tabular surface showed
scales of rust caused by the corrosion from the water which, per-
colating down from the eternal snow-drift a few hundred yards
in the rear, settled and remained upon it. All the rest of the
mass showed the characteristic meteoric surface markings.
The surface of all the meteorites is dark brown in colour, inter-
spersed with greenish bits, and resembles bronze. To the eye
the appearance of the metal seems the same in all, a dense, tough,
fibrous soft iron or mild steel, with silvery lustre and resonant as
a bell. The homogeneousness of the metal is surprising. There
is apparently not so much as a single grain of any foreign sub-
stance in the entire mass of either meteorite. The metal can be
cut with a knife, and when scraped with a file shows a bright sil-
very lustre. Etching with acid brings out the characteristic
Widmannstatten figures, and analyses show the typical meteoric
nickel-steel alloy, the composition being about 92 per cent, of
iron and 8 per cent, of nickel. Similar, hov/ever, as the three
are in appearance, I am convinced that there is a pronounced dif-
ference in the amiability of the metal : the "woman" being the
softest. The statements of the natives are unvarying on this
point, and their statements are borne out by the huge pile of
broken trap cobble surrounding the "woman," while scarcely a
score of these stones were scattered about the " dog," and none
were found about the "Ahnighito."
Preliminary analyses of samples of the " Ahnighito," made
after my return in 1895 by Ricketts and Banks of New York City
and J. K. Phelps, of Yale College, gave the following results :
R. & B. Analysis. Phelps Analysis. Mean.
Iron 93-8oo 90.410 92.105
Nickel 5-99° 8180 7.085
Cobalt 0-540 0.540
Copper
Sulphur 0.190 0.190
Phosphorus 0.150 0.180 0.175
Carbon trace 0.150 0.150
w
..A'Jti^- 1
Woman."
" Ahnighito."
91.468^ . . ,
••• 91-476^
7-775
... 7-785
0.533 ••■
••• 0-533
0.018
0.014
none
none
0.188
0.202
0.020
, .. 0.023
602 Northward over the "Great Ice"
These analyses demonstrated the true meteoric composition of
the mass.
Final analyses of all three masses by Prof. Whitfield of the
American Museum of Natural History, after my return in 1897,
gave the following results :
"Dog."
Iron 90.993^ . . .
Nickel 8.265 •••
Cobalt 0.533 ...
Copper 0.016
Sulphur 0.019
Phosphorus 0.172 o.i<
Carbon 0.0 14 ....
These last analyses settled what I had personally been convinced
of from the first, that the three masses are fragments of one original
mass. The difference in hardness on which the Eskimos insist is
probably due to a process of tempering, variations in which were
caused by the difference in size of the masses and the resultant
differing temperatures, when at the end of their descent they
plunged into the snow and ice.
That there are additional specimens unknown to the natives I
doubt, as nothing escapes the Eskimo eye, and in the ages that this
tribe has lived in its contracted Arctic prison, there is not a stone
on shore, or mountain-side, or summit, that has not been pressed
by the foot of some fur-clad hunter, or noted by his quick eye.
Immediately upon my return with the large meteorite, the
chronic objector came to the front in full force, and paragraphs
appeared repeatedly in the press, both in this country and abroad,
asserting that the discovery of these irons was not new, that
scientists had decided their telluric origin, and that I was taking
a great deal of trouble to secure comparatively uninteresting
specimens.
It seemed to be assumed by these objectors, that the deter-
mination of the telluric origin of the Nordenskjold irons, and the
occurrence of nickeliferous iron in sihc in the basaltic forma-
tions in and about Disco Bay, settled conclusively the character
of all metallic iron in Greenland, and precluded the possibility of
true meteoric irons being found in any portion of that country,
even though several hundred miles distant.
This skepticism was not confined entirely to the press. Some
eminent gentlemen, in advance of any personal acquaintance with
the meteorites or the facts connected with them, did not hesitate
to class them with the Nordenskjold irons.
6o4 Northward over the '' Great Ice "
Though absolutely satisfied myself, from the first, as to the ex-
tra-terrestrial origin of these masses, I was entirely willing to
waive any considerations as to whether my own judgment in the
matter had weight, and submit the question to experts whose
verdict would be incontestible.
My friend President Morris K. Jesup of the American Museum
of Natural History kindly offered to obtain for me the decision
of the greatest authorities on meteorites in the world ; and the dic-
tum of Fletcher of the British Museum, Weinschenk of Munich,
and Brezina of Vienna, together with the verdict of Prof. Rollin
D. Salisbury of the Chicago University, who saw all three of the
masses in situ, before a stroke of work had been done toward
their removal, and the report of Prof. R. P. Whitfield of the
American Museum of Natural History, are here appended.
Even were it not for the unquestionable proof contained in
their surroundings, the characteristics of the masses themselves
are so unequivocal as to be absolutely conclusive, and a simple
examination has been sufficient to immediately convince anyone
conversant with the subject and competent to form an opinion
of their meteoric origin.
It may be said that in but one respect, /. e., that their compo-
sition is an alloy of nickel and iron, are these Cape-York meteor-
ites similar to the Nordenskjold telluric irons of Ovifak.
The following points of difference between these meteorites
and the Nordenskjold telluric irons will be of interest.
The Nordenskjold irons were found in 69° N. Lat., the Cape-
York " Saviksue " in 76° N. Lat. The Nordenskjold irons are
rough and rusty in external appearance, with no surface mark-
ing'j differing from those of any rusty lump of iron, and they
oxidise rapidly, some of them even to complete disintegration.
Some it was found impossible to preserve, others are kept con-
stantly wet in closed cases.
The surface of the Cape-York "Saviksue," except where it has
been abraded by the Eskimos, has the pittings, striations, and
slightly fused appearance of the edges, distinctive of all siderites,'
and is of a rich, smooth bronze colour, unaffected by exposure.
A small surface on the " Ahnighito " meteorite^ planed in 1895,
was in '97 still bright and uncorroded.
The beautiful Widmannstatten figures, the celestial trade-mark,
are as sharp and clear on these Cape-York meteorites as if made
by a graver's tool. Not only do these markings show on a
polished surface under the action of acid, but on the exterior of
the meteorites as well.
' Metallic meteorites.
6o6 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
As regards surroundings, the Nordenskjold irons lay in an
exten-sive igneous region at the foot of basaltic cliffs in which
are found nodules of the same iron, and from which every year
additional masses are weathered. The Cape-York meteorites
rested upon gneissose boulders in the midst of a purely gneissose
region which extends, uninterrupted by igneous or basaltic forma-
tions, for miles about them. Were any further proof needed, the
legends of the Eskimos attribute a heavenly origin to the masses.
REPORT OF PROF. ROLLIN D. SALISBURY.
In the summer of 1895, in company with Lieutenant Peary, I
visited the region near Cape York, North Greenland, where the
meteorites, which he has subsequently brought to the United
States, were seen. The two smaller ones were brought back
that year. The third, the one which Lieutenant Peary has just
brought back, was visited, but having no machinery by which so
heavy a body could be handled, it was reluctantly left behind.
Sufficient time was spent in its immediate vicinity, however, to
allow both the meteorite and its surroundings to be well seen.
Because of the special interest attaching to the meteorite, its
character and relations were noted with some care.
The character of the meteorite itself was such as to leave no
doubt as to its origin. The topography of its surface, studied
in detail, possessed all the characteristics which mark the surface
of metalHc meteorites, characteristics which are not found in any
other stones or metallic masses on the earth's surface. It had
the pecular pit-like indentations so characteristic of metallic
meteorites, and its surface showed at several points the Wid-
mannstatten figures which are one of the distinctive marks of
the etched surfaces of those bodies. A hole several inches
deep was drilled into it, and its metallic character established.
Like many other meteorites composed chiefly of iron, oxidation
had affected only a thin film at the surface. These and other
considerations less capable of brief statement led to the con-
fident conclusion that the metallic mass was meteoric.
Its surroundings were in harmony with the conclusion reached
by examination of the iron itself. It lay upon an island com-
posed of gnessic rock. No other sort of rock was seen about it,
and though there was drift on the island, it likewise was com-
posed of gneissic debris. No other stone bearing the least re-
semblance to the meteorite was seen in the vicinity, nor was
there in the drift or in the bed-rock, so far as seen, any basic
igneous rock, the only sort of rock known to contain metallic
iron even in tiny particles.
•^ 1'
6o8 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Chemical analysis of the material of the meteorite subsequently
confirmed the conclusion to which the examination of the metallic
mass and its surroundings had led.
The position of the meteorite, which was no more than half
buried, seemed to indicate that it fell on glacier ice when ice
covered the region where it lay. On the melting of the ice the
meteorite was let down upon the surface in the position where it
was found.
Oct., 1897. RoLLiN D. Salisbury,
Professor, Chicago University.
[copy.]
American Museum of Natural History,
New York, N. Y., December 11, 1897.
Prof. Lazarus Fletcher,' M.A., F. R. S.,
British Museum, South Kensington,
London, England.
Dear Sir :
As conflicting views are likely to be presented regarding the
meteoric nature of the iron masses brought from Greenland by
Lieut. Peary during 1895 and 1897, I have taken the liberty of
soliciting an expression of your valuable opinion.
The section which I have sent to you for examination is cut
from the great mass now at the Navy Yard. I also have included
a copy of the analysis of borings made from each of the meteorites.
If it is not too great an intrusion upon your valuable time, I
shall be pleased to receive an expression of your judgment in this
matter at your early convenience. I have sought your opinion
in the cause of science, and in the knowledge that it will be ap-
preciated by Lieut. Peary as well as myself.
I am, sincerely yours,
Morris K. Jesup,
President.
letter from prof. fletcher.
British Museum (Natural History),
London, December 23, 1897.
President Morris K. Jesup,
American Museum of Natural History,
New York.
Dear Sir :
The specimen of Peary iron and the letter have reached me
this morning. I return the specimen herewith.
' Similar letters addressed to Dr. Weinschenk and Prof. Brezina.
The "Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 609
The character of the etched surface is decisive as regards the
extra-terrestrial origin ; no such figures have been shown by any-
iron which is not regarded as meteoric, and such figures are shown
by irons which have been actually seen to fall.
As regards other Greenland irons, it has been possible to hold
opposite views as to the origin ; about this iron there can be no
doubt whatsoever ; the figures are as distinct as in any I have
seen. I am, faithfully yours,
L. Fletcher.
TRANSLATION OF LETTER FROM DR. E. A. WEINSCHENK, INSTI-
TUTE OF MINERALS, MUNICH, BAVARIA.
Munich, December 28, 1897.
President Morris K. Jesup,
New York.
My dear Sir :
Fortunately, I am able to determine, with certainty, the piece
of iron which you kindly sent me for examination. Like all
others, it bears the characteristics of meteoric origin, and it is
absolutely and without doubt a meteorite. If one should wish to
doubt this, one might as well question all the known meteorites
of the day which belong to this class of irons, as their falling has
never been observed. The sample you sent me belongs to the
group of the Oktaedriethen irons, and it resembles that of Totura
of prehistoric times.
Dr. Weinschenk.
cable from prof. brezina, director natural history
museum, vienna.
" Cutting sent is a Montahedral Meteorite."
REPORT OF PROF. WHITFIELD, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL
HISTORY.
To Morris K. Jesup,
President American Museum of Natural History.
Dear Sir :
I have investigated the subject of the Peary meteorites, as
you requested, and find they are among the most pronounced
meteorites known, as far as their structure and nature can deter-
mine. Sections were cut from the two largest, and etched por-
tions submitted to three of the most noted experts on this subject
in Europe, Prof. Fletcher of the British Museum, Prof. Brezina
of Vienna, and Prof. Weinschenk of Munich, Bavaria.
6io Northward over the "Great Ice"
Drillings were taken from each of the three irons and submitted
to an expert in meteorite analysis.'
None of the specimens show Silicon or Manganese. A trace
of Chromium was found in the outside crust of the largest speci-
men.
The analyses show all three irons of the Peary group to be not
only decidedly meteoric in nature and composition, but quite
similar in character, proving they are parts of the same fall, and
were originally one celestial mass. So the meteoric nature of the
masses can be considered as definitely established.
Yours truly,
R. P. Whitfield.
NOTES AND SPECULATIONS.
Surprise at finding this little family of Hyperboreans on a par
with the Greeks, the Romans, the Carthaginians, and the devotees
of Buddha, in their possession of a " heaven stone," is almost
startling in its intensity ; yet surprise gives way to admiration as
we note the shrewdness of these brown hunters of the " Great
Night." The savage stress of natural environment in which the
Creator placed them to struggle for existence, left them no room
for any such Platonic manifestations as worship of their celestial
guests. A Diana of Ephesus or Venus of Cyprus '^ would be
utterly useless to them. Nor, on the other hand, would any
glittering blade, irresistible in conflict, appeal to them.' Their
sole and ever-besieging enemies were the demons Hunger and
Sf irvation ; and so, with intense practicalness, they pressed the
" Saviksue " into their service, in solving the, to them, funda-
mental equation of the problem of existence, — securing food, —
and chipped their heavenly visitors to point the harpoons that
brought this great essential.
In contemplating these brown masses, a host of strange fan-
cies, speculations, and queries crowd upon one. Did man or the
meteorites first arrive in that inhospitable region ? If the former,
and the meteorites fell in the long, dark winter night, what terror
the detonations, the blinding glare, and the earthquake shock of
their fall must have caused among the poor savages cowering in
their shaking stone and turf huts ! Would it be strange if they
had thought that the sun itself had broken loose and was falling
upon the earth, and that the earth was going to pieces under the
shock, like one of their own icebergs ?
If the meteorites fell in summer, howthe seals must have plunged
' See page 604. ^ Sacred statues said to have fallen from the sky.
^ Sword of Antar, and other legendary blades said to have been forged from
thunderbolts (meteorites).
The ''Saviksue" or Cape- York Meteorites 6ii
for the water, and the polar bears rushed at full speed over the
ice-floes, fear-stricken by the awful cataclysm !
If the arrival of the meteorites antedated that of man, did they
fall but a short time previous to his advent, or thousands of
years ago, during the glacial epoch, when this entire region was
covered by an unbroken ice-sheet ?
The fact that the " woman " and the " dog " were not buried in
the ground, and that there were no indications of crushing of the
rocks beneath them or abrasion or indentation of the under sur-
faces of the meteorites themselves, phenomena which must have
accompanied their direct fall upon the ground, would seem to
indicate that they had originally descended upon the surface of
the then much-expanded ice-sheet, and upon its recession had
gradually settled to the positions in which they were found.
On the other hand, one of the enormous snow-drifts which form
along this coast even in ordinary winters might have received
the meteorites and cushioned their fall completely, allowing the
presumably high temperature of the masses to effect their
gradual descent and final deposition upon the underlying rocks.
The existence of the Eskimo legend already noted above in
regard to those meteorites, lends colour to the belief that their
arrival was subsequent to that of man ; else how could these
rude natives have obtained any idea of their heavenly origin, and
why should not the brown masses have been to them simply
weeaksue (rocks) like all the others in their country, including
the soapstones which have furnished them with material for their
lamps and pots ?
Next, and to me most astonishing, how did these poor aborigi-
nes discover the qualities of the material composing the masses,
and the uses to which it could be put, and then devise means of
availing themselves of it ?
From what I have seen of this people, and their exhaustive
knowledge of all the materials to be found in their country, and
the special qualifications of each, I am inclined to think that
these little brown wizards of the North have, at one time or other
during the past centuries, put through the laboratory of common
sense and practical experience every stone or other material in
the whole range of their observation, and settled for all time the
characteristics, the qualities, and capabilities of each ; and, where
these capabilities could be used for their own benefit, have de-
vised means for so utilising them.
The spectacle of these little fur-clad children of the ice-floes
using for centuries a heaven-invented alloy (nickel steel), which is
almost precisely the same in its composition as the nickel-steel
6i2 Northward over the ''Great Ice"
armour plate with which we are protecting our battle-ships to-
day, is to me one of the most striking in the annals of Arctic
exploration.
DISCOVERY OF TWO ANCIENT ESKIMO KNIVES MADE FROM
THE METAL OF THE " SAVIKSUE."
During the moon of January, 1895, I made with Lee a tour of
the Eskimo settlements in Whale Sound, for the purpose of pur-
chasing material for the equipment for my Inland-Ice journey
the following spring.
We stopped one night at Netiulumi.
In the morning, Lee brought in a small oodoo, or woman's
knife, which his hostess, the wife of Kyangwah, wished to give me
in exchange for some needles. Something peculiar in the appear-
ance of the implement caused me to examine it, and I saw that
the cutting edge was composed of five small fragments of iron
ingeniously set in a groove in the ivory handle.
Sending for the woman, I asked her where she got the knife,
and she replied : '''' Saviksuami ; sukke?i?iuksue" (" It is from the
great iron ; it is very old "). Further questioning elicited the
information that in the autumn, while she was rebuilding an old
igloo for their winter residence, she found this knife buried in the
interior. She herself had never seen one like it before, but the old
men of the tribe had told her that it was one of those made from
the " Saviksue," and used by their women of generations past.
Pleased with my prize, I gave the woman all the needles I had
left, — an entire paper, — which unbounded wealth immediately
raised her to the proud position of millionaire among her less
fortunate sisters.
The cutting edge of the knife thus obtained is formed of five
fragments of the meteoric iron. The handle is composed of
three pieces of bone, and the entire implement is of a size to
make it seem almost a toy. Yet small and crude as it is, it still
must have been a great improvement over the fragments of flints
which, previous to the utilisation of the metal of the " Saviksue,"
formed the only cutting implements of these people.
Diligent inquiry of nearly every member of the tribe since,
demonstrated not only that there is no other knife like it in the
tribe, but that this is the only one ever seen by any of the tribe,
with the exception of one or two of the oldest men.
In March of 1895, while packing various specimens previous
to starting upon the Inland-Ice trip, I came across some relics of
the ancient people of this region, discovered by one of the men
"OODOO," OR WOMAN'S KNIFE.
"SAVIK," OR MAN'S KNIFE.
ANCIENT ESKIMO KNIVES MADE FROM METAL OF THE " SAVIKSUE.
Actual size.
6 14 Northward over the "Great Ice"
while digging in an old igloo at Kangerdlooksoah, and brought
bv him to me.
There was a lance-head of bone, the bone-point of a harpoon, a
bone-scraper, and a peculiar piece of bone some three or four
inches in length with a groove extending along a portion of one
side. It at once occurred to me that this was the handle of an-
other of these ancient knives, and in order, if possible, to deter-
mine the matter absolutely, I called in one of the old men then
visiting at my headquarters and, spreading the various articles
out upon the table, told him I wished to know what they were.
Pointing to each one in turn, he explained to me what they were,
and the peculiar-shaped piece of bone was identified by him as
the handle of a man's knife, the cutting edge of which had been
composed of fragments from the " Saviksue."
The length of the groove was only one and one-fourth inches,
and it would seem that this knife must have long antedated those
which Ross saw in 1818, as the cutting edge of one which he fig-
ures is much longer. Probably, as the result of long experience,
the natives had, at the time of his visit, become more expert in
working the iron. This knife, like the other one already de-
scribed, is the only one of the kind known to any of the tribe.
PROPOSED GROUP IN CONNECTION WITH THE " SAVIKSUE."
From that dazzling May morning in 1894, when Tellikotinah,
kneeling beside the " woman " at the bottom of the snow-pit,
showed me how his grandfathers had removed fragments of the
iron and fashioned their rude knives, I felt that these unique
meteorites deserved more than to be simply ranged in order
among so many other inert masses of iron in some great col-
lection.
I believed that the important part they had played in the ad-
vancement of this little family of Eskimos should be perpetuated
forcibly, and the meteorites themselves given warmth and life by
making them the central feature in a life-size group representing
the ancient method of utilising them. With this object in view,
I invited artist Albert Operti to be my guest on my summer
voyages of 1896 and 1897 and assist me in putting my ideas in
shape.
A scene of a hundred years or more ago, as described and in
part re-enacted for me by some of the older men of the present
generation, was outlined by the facile brush of my friend Operti,
and suitable individuals of the tribe were selected and posed for
the group.
Operti then made a complete series of casts, measurements, and
6i6 Northward over the "Great Ice"
sketches, as well as studies of the surroundings. I assisted with
my camera. The costumes and all accessaries of the group were
then purchased, and packed away with the casts.
In the foreground, are the " woman," and two families of Eski-
mos who are availing themselves of the opportunity to rer\ew
the cutting edges of their knives and harpoon heads. One family,
consisting of the father, mother, grown son, and small child, has
taken possession of one of the numerous kangmah, or small
stone shelters, constructed by their long-dead a-ncestors, and in
front of this the woman is preparing a meal of seal meat which
THE SCULPTOR'S STUDIO ON METEORITE ISLAND.
she is heating in a stone pot over a stone lamp. The child stands
near her eating a piece of the raw meat.
Kneeling beside the " woman," is the young man, with one of
the rounded trap-stones grasped in both hands. With this he is
engaged in the arduous labour of laminating some small promi-
nence of the meteorite by continuous pounding in the same spot,
until a small flake becomes partially separated and can be re-
moved.
The father, seated upon his sledge, which for convenience has
been drawn near the " woman," is engaged in the skilled labour
of joining and fitting the bits of iron detached by his son into the
The "Saviksue" or Cape-York Meteorites 617
groove of a bone handle, to form as continuous a cutting edge as
possible. The dogs of this family, four in number, are tied to
one of the numerous gneissose boulders in the background.
The second family has just arrived, and comprises a man, his
wife, and a baby, carried in the mother's hood. While the man
is untangling the traces of his dogs, three in number, preparatory
to tying them to a rock, the woman brings up from the sledge an
armful of the rounded trap-stones which they gathered a hundred
miles or more up the coast, for use as hammers upon the " Savik-
sue." Upon the sledge may be seen, in addition to these stones,
the meat of a seal just killed on the bay below, which will insure
an ample supply of food for the entire party during the several
days that they must remain in order to obtain their meagre sup-
ply of the precious iron.
RESUME OF POINTS OF SPECIAL INTEREST.
The Cape- York " Saviksue " stand easily first among all known
meteorites, with an unapproachable combination of charms.
Their extra-terrestrial origin is unimpeachable. On this the
highest authorities are unanimous and emphatic. ''''As regards other
Greenland irons, it has been possible to hold opposite views as to the
origiji J about this iron there cati be no doubt whatsoever T — Fletcher.
"/ am able to deterfnine the iron 7vith certainty. It is absolutely and
without doubt a meteorite." — Weinschenk. "/.$■ a meteorite." —
Brezina. "'The character of the meteorite itself was such as to leave
no doubt as to its origin." — Salisbury. ''''They are among the most
pronounced meteorites known." — Whitfield.
The extremely high latitude in which they were found, the
peculiar physical conditions existing in the locality of their dis-
covery, the bearing of these conditions upon the details of their
arrival upon the earth, their wealth of suggestion of questions
and speculations of the most attractive nature to the scientist, and
the fact that though their existence has been known since 1818
they for seventy-six years baffled all efforts to locate their
hiding-place, would lend them under any circumstances unusual
attraction.
But their wealth of interest does not end here. The " Ah-
nighito " far surpasses m size the largest of the known meteor-
ites in the world, and the " woman " is exceeded by but one or
two specimens in the world's great museums. The Cranbourne
meteorite in the British Museum weighs some 8000 pounds. The
gems of the National Museum, the Paris Museum, the Yale Univers-
ity Museum, and the Field Columbian Museum, weigh, respect-
ively, 2500 pounds (estimated), 1709, 1630, and 1013 pounds.
6i8 Northward over the ** Great Ice"
while the largest in the museums of Vienna and the University
of Bonn are still smaller.
The group is absolutely complete. The three specimens are
intact and undivided and together comprise the entire fall. In
this respect they are unsurpassed.
Yet perhaps most prominent of all their attractions stand their
ethnological or human associations. Heaven-sent, they have
made it possible for an entire aboriginal tribe, the most northerly
one upon the earth, probably the smallest, and perhaps the most
interesting, whose habitat is metal-barren, to rise from the stone
to the iron age.
Last are the by no means uninteresting incidents of their dis-
covery and transportation to civilisation.
This combination of values renders these Cape- York " Savik-
sue " peerless and unique among all the meteorites of the world.
HOMEWARD BOUND WITH THE STAR STONE.
THE ARCTIC REGIONS
ROBERT E PEARY. FRIDTJOF NANSEN AND F. JACKSON
BY PROF. ANGELO HEILPRIN
THE OEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA
1897
INDEX OF VOL. II.
Academy, Bay, 6i, 79, 124, 130, 154,
232 ; Glacier, 494, 495, 498, 499 ;
Glacier Basin, 468
Adams, Capt., 546
Advance, the s. s., 213, 218 ; boat
party from the, 136
Agony, Mount, 138, 2ir
Alexander, Cape, 421 ; steaming past,
52, 58
American Museum of Natural His-
tory, 549, 611
Andersen, fruit for Mrs., 24
Anniversary, Camp, 39 ; Lodge, 65,
68, 72, _ 85, 120, 153, 327, 518 ;
completing, 66 ; dog food brought
to, 79 ; reaching, 96 ; return of
sun to, 80 ; return to, 247
Anoah Glacier, 220, 331
Arctic Circle, crossing the, 19 ; night
reindeer hunting in the, 79 ; settle-
ment within the, 21
Astrlip, Eivind, 46, 65, 66, 72, 86,
114, 159, 471, 528 ; attended by
doctor, 68 ; condition of, 94 ; ill, 70,
93 ; preparing food, 90 ; return of,
95
Athol, Cape, 137, 162, 211, 212, 214,
327, 335
Aurora and meteor, 405
Auroral notes, 191-203
B
Baby Lake, 88, 96, 288, 518, 522 ;
skating on, 395
Baffin Bay, 594
Balboa, 462
Baldwin, E. B., 65, 86, 97, 98, 108,
115, 187, 190, 203 ; meteorological
instruments of, 100
Baldwin, Lansing, 574, 584
Barden Bay, 149, 161, 220, 222 ; the
Falcon in, 38
Bartlett, Capt. Harry, 19, 47, 54, 59.
155
Bartlett, Capt. John, 535, 553, 563,
579, 584, 589- 594
Barton, Prof., 570
Battle Harbour, 10, n
Bay, Academy, 61, 79, 124, 130, 154,
232 ; Baffin, 600 ; Barden, 149, 161,
220, 222 ; the Falcon in, 38 ; Bow-
doin, 39, 65, 154, 208, 241, 242,
247, 275, 353, 517, 537, 556 ; Disco,
604 ; Granville, 173 ; Independence,
66, 93, 102, 108, 113, 210, 300, 441,
446, 447, 456, 463, 528 ; McCor-
mick, 88, 127, 153, 232, 273, 396,
424, 428, 537 ; Melville, 124, 128,
142, 155, 163, 167, 382, 554, 556,
558-562, 568, 572, 573, 575, 589,
614 ; crossed, 33 ; passage begun,
30; sledge journey to, 159; Olriks,
119, 123, 129-131, 174, 231, 244,
376, 378 ; glaciers of, 126 ; hunting
in, 72 ; inaccurately charted, 61 ;
party for, 67 ; returning from, 60 ;
steaming for, 58, 59 ; Parker Snow,
140, 335, 338, 345, 346 ; Robert-
son, 273, 422, 424 ; Saviksoah, 558,
562, 568 ; Sonntag, 58
Bears, killed, 433
Belle Isle, Straits of, 600
Bell Rock, 135, 220, 221
Bergs, fleet of, 46 ; overturning of,
350 ; scattered, 39 ; seen, 11
Birds, Greenland, 141
Bismarck, Cape, 93
Bjorling, 217 ; and Kallstenius, 153
Boal, Mr., 574
Bonesteel, Mr., 568
Booth Sound, 135, 149, 161, 220, 222
)i9
620 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Bowdoin, Bay, 39. 65, 154, 208, 241,
242, 247, 275, 353, 517, 537, 556 ;
bergs in, 39 ; Falcon anchored in,
39; Glacier, 75, 247, 537
Brezina, Professor, 606, 609
Bridgman, H. L., 153, 211
British Museum, 554, 606, 617
Bryant, H. G., 153
Burros, attacked, 42 ; death of two,
10 ; landing the, 41 ; on board the
Falcon, 4
Burton, Prof. A. E., 570
Bushnan Island, 145, 164, 556
Cache, digging out the, 91 ; equinoc-
tial, 443 ; igloos, 117 ; leaving the,
92 ; one hundred and twenty-four
miles from the moraine, 113 ;
searching for the, 442
Cairn, erected on Cape York, 37
Cairn Point, 53, 54
Camping in a snow-storm, I15 ; on In-
land Ice, 86
Cape, Alexander, 421 ; passing, 52,
58; Athol, 137, 162, 211, 212, 214,
327, 335 ; Bismarck, 93 ; Chalon,
420; Cleveland, 44, 251, 307,
424 ; Falcon passing, 52 ; Dudley
Digges, 140 ; Frederick VII., 54 ;
Hawkes, 53 ; Ingersoll, 54 ; Isa-
bella, 53, 54; Louis Napoleon, 54;
Melville, 164, 165 ; Murdock, 169;
Ohlsen, 56, 419 ; Parry, 134, 149,
161, 219-221, 327, 329, 349, 352,
354, 376, 381, 409, 556 ; sighted, 38 ;
Robertson, 419 ; Sabine, 53, 54,
592, 593 ; Seddon, 168 ; Shackleton,
28 ; Walker, 166, 168 ; York, 128,
129, 141, 142, 155, 159, 162, 164,
169, 171, 211, 219, 273, 305, 313,
327, 330, 333, 336, 339, 343, 353,
373, 396, 408, 419, 553, 554, 556,
559, 561, 562, 568, 574, 575, 591,592,
606, 607, 618 ; cairn on, 37 ; families
from, 70; fox-traps on, 37 ; ice-cap
on, 37 ; landing at, 37 ; meteorites
of, 553, 607, 617, 618 ; outlook from,
37 ; region about, 133 ; rounding,
143 ; sighted, 32
Carey Islands, 38, 217
Carpenter, Mr., 674
Carr, George H., 66, 71, 155
Carrier pigeons, 4 ; letter by, 68
Castle Cliffs, 43, 129, 241, 242, 275,
403
Chalon, Cape, 420
Chamberlin, Prof. T. C, 153
Christmas, 78
Clark, George H., 65, 97, 99; ac-
companying the invalids, 95, 96 ;
decides to go ahead, loi ; frozen to
sleeping-bag, 109
Cleveland, Cape, 44, 251, 307, 424;
Falcon passing, 52
Cliffs, Castle, 43, 129, 241, 242,
275, 403 ; Crimson, 141, 172 ; Navy,
498
Coburg Island, 542, 544
Cone Island, 542, 544, 546
Conical Rock, 140, 172, 211, 220, 327
338, 345, 544
Cook, Dr. F. A., 46, 528
Cortez, 462
Cranbourne meteorite, 617
Crimson Cliffs, 141, 172
Cross, Mrs. Susan J., 66, 68
Crystal Palace Glacier, 52
D
" Daisy," death of the, 45
Dalrymple Rock, 220, 544
Davidson, James W., 66, 71, 72, 99,
155 ; frozen heel of, loi ; return of
102
Davis Strait, 549, 593, 594
Devil's Thumb, 166
Dexterity Harbour, 546
Diebitsch, Emil, 153, 535, 537, 563,
-565, 594
Disco, Bay, 611 ; Island, 554
Dodge, Mr., 568
Dogs, assistants on ice-cap, 4 ; at-
tacked by disease, no; attacking
the burros, 42 ; buried in snow,
III ; disease of the, 92 ; endurance
of the Eskimo, 120 ; exhausted,
117 ; killed, 94 ; loss of, 10 ; mad,
III, 115; nearly a hundred, 26;
of Whale Sound, 524 ; on board,
17 ; pitiable condition of, 100
Duck Islands, landing on, 26 ; leav-
ing the, 30
Ducks, eider, 30 ; shooting, 56
Dudley Digges, Cape, 140
Dycle, Prof. L. L., 535
Index
621
Eagle Island, 7
East Glacier, 242, 275, 279, 373
Eider-ducks, 30 ; shooting the, 56
Ellesmere Land, 153, 421
English Arctic Expedition, 554
Entrikin, Samuel J., 65, 67, 86, 97,
99, 115, 116, 152; better, no;
frost-bitten, 107 ; hunting, 72, 73 ;
sick, 109 ; team of, 108
Equinoctial Camp, 107, 117
Equipment, pushing work on Inland
Ice, 79; work commenced on, 78
Eskimo, dogs, loss of, 10 ; pack of,
82 ; hunters, 43 ; knives, 612 ;
mail carrier, 133 ; of Whale Sound,
431 ; visitors, 2J-r3^9
Eskimos, building igloos, 91 ; Labra-
dor, 14, 17 ; return to lodge, 92 ;
Smith-Sound, 556 ; taken onboard,
Expedition, English Arctic, 554 ;
Kane, 6, 161 ; Peary, 151
Fairweather, Captain, 548
Faith, whale-boat, 4, 47, 67 ; crushed,
76
Falcon Harbour, 60, 75 ; Falcon re-
turns to, 61
Falcon, the s. s., 49, 50, 126, 128,
143. 153-155, 207, 210, 213, 339,
556 ; anchored in Bowdoin Bay,
39 ; arrival at Duck Islands, 26 ;
at Constitution Wharf, 6 ; at cus-
tom-house pier, 6 ; breaks the rec-
ord, 33 ; burros on board, 4 ; cabin
accommodations of, 9 ; cruising for
meat supply, 43 ; in Barden Bay,
38 ; in the ice, 18 ; leaving Boston,
6 ; leaving New York, 5 ; leaving
Portland, 7 ; leaving St. John's, 10 ;
loss of, 535 ; moored in Brooklyn,
5 ; passing Cape Cleveland, 52 ;
return to Falcon Harbour, 61 ; re-
turning home, 65 ; scene on deck,
8 ; steaming down the Delaware,
5 ; steaming past Cape Alexander,
52 ; steaming toward Cape Sabine,
53 ; unloading, 40 ; walrus hoisted
on, 47, 48
Field Columbian Museum, 617
Figgins, Mr.. 568, 574, 585
Fitzgerald, Dr., 574
Fjord, Foulke, 52 ; Petermann, 67
Fletcher, Prof. Lazarus, 606, 608,609
Flowers, at Battle Harbour, 11 ; at
Hopedale, 15
Foulke Fjord, 52
Fox-traps at Cape York, 37
Franzen, Asst. Gov., 21
Frederick VII., Cape, 54
General Wistar, launch, 67 ; stove in,.
76 ; whale-boat, 207, 213, 248, 250,
275, 279
Geographical Club of Philadelphia,
537
George W. Childs Glacier, 58
Gibson, Langdon, 46
Gill, Prof. 568
Glacier, Academy, 494, 495, 498, 499 ;
Anoah, 220, 331 ; Bowdoin, 75,
247, 537 ; Crystal Palace, 52 ;
East, 242, 275, 279, 373 ; George
W. Childs, 58 ; Heilprin, 43 ; Hub-
bard, 43, 72, 73 ; Humboldt, 124,
382, 444 ; Hurlbut, 43 ; Ignimut,
219 ; Kahkoktah, 82, 428, 537 ;
Keate, 409 ; Marie, 123 ; Misumi-
su, 229 ; Petowik, 137-139, 141,
155, 163, 207, 211, 330, 335, 4e6,
425 ; Savage, 126, 232 ; Sculptured
Cliffs, 241 ; Tyndall, 150; view of, 88
Glaciers of Olriks Bay, 126
Godhavn, 549, 593 ; entering the
harbour of, 22
Goodrich, Mr., 574
Granville Bay, 173
Greely house, 592, 593
Greenland birds, 141
Gulf, Inglefield, 43, 58, 81, 117, 119,
252, 375, 544
H
Hakluyt Island, 38, 47, 376, 383 ;.
steaming toward, 58
Harbour, Dexterity, 546 ; Pandora^
52 ; Rensselaer, 213, 426
Harrington, Hon. M. W., 177
Hawkes, Cape, 53
Hayes, Dr. I. I., 161
Heilprin Glacier, 43
622 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Heilprin, Professor, 7
Henson, Matthew, 66, 88, 155, 207,
217, 231, 232, 236, 237, 239, 244,
248, 277, 278, 281, 287, 301, 307,
311, 313, 361, 370, 373, 376, 396,
398, 402, 408, 410, 416, 424, 425,
427, 432, 440, 441, 444, 445, 447-
450, 453, 457, 462-464, 466, 470,
471, 473, 475, 478, 480, 481, 485,
488-496, 500, 503, 517, 520, 528-
530, 532, 568, 574
Herbert Island, 38, 46, 58, 59, 67, 78,
130, 160, 224, 232, 251, 258, 329,
376, 389, 409, 419, 42a ; absence of
ice in vicinity of, 47
Holsteinborg, harbour of, 20 ; pic-
turesqueness of, 22
Hope, the s. s., 553, 568, 572-576,
579, 580, 582-587, 590-595
Hopedale, Moravian Mission of, 14
Hoppin, Benjamin, 568
House, commencing work on, 40 ;
Greely, 592, 593 ; Red Cliff, 45,
127, 416 ; site of Polaris, 54
Hubbard Glacier, 43, 72, 73
Humboldt Glacier, 124, 382, 444
Hunter, Chief, 579
Hurlbut Glacier, 43
Ice-cap, beginning of journey upon
the, 437 ; end of fall work on, 77 ;
on Cape York, 37 ; packing sup-
plies to, 66 ; Red Cliff, 416 ; sup-
plies on the, 72 ; travelling upon,
77 ; wind-storm upon, 98 ; work
on, 288, 300
Igloo, construction of, 26S, 269 ; de-
scription of, 430, 431 ; Lee's, 89 ;
Peary's, 153
Ignimut Glacier, 219
Independence Bay, 66, 93, 102, 108,
113, 210, 300, 441, 446, 447, 456,
463, 528
IngersoU, Cape, 54
Ingifitield Gulf, 43, 58, 81, 117, 119,
252, 375, 544
Inland Ice, 66 ; camp on, 86 ; equip-
ment for, 78, 79 ; journey on,
612 ; Lee starts for, 80; returning
on the, 114; sledges blown from
edge of, 72 ; surface of, 107 ; visi-
ble, 38 ; work on, 67, 72
" Iron Mountain," 127, 133 ; dis-
covered, 147 ; search for, 145
Irons, Ovifak, 554, 606
Isabella, Cape, 53, 54
Island, Bushnan, 145, 164, 556 ; Carey,
38, 217 ; Coburg, 542, 544 ; Cone,
542, 544, 546 ; Disco, 554 ; Duck,
26, 30 ; Eagle, 7 ; Hakluyt, 38,
47, 376, 383 ; steaming toward, 58 ;
Herbert, 38, 46, 58, 59, 67, 78, 130,
160, 224, 232, 251, 258, 329, 376,
389, 409, 419, 424 ; absence of ice
in vicinity of, 47 ; Josephine Peary,
242; Littleton, 56, 57, 61, 419,
420 ; abreast of, 52 ; landing on,
57 ; hunting walrus off, 57 ; Mc-
Gary, 56 ; Meteorite, 566, 568, 575,
587, 589, 591 ; Northumberland, 38,
47, 58, 78, 173. 224, 376, 381, 383,
389,409, 424, 546 ; Ptarmigan, 375 ;
Saunders, 136, 137, 161, 172, 173,
215, 217, 331, 332, 346, 352 ; Thom,
174; Wolstenholm, 211, 215, 331,
592
J
Jackman, Capt., 546
Jensen, Mr., 574
Jesup, Morris K., 606, 608, 609
Jones Sound, 542, 543, 546
Josephine Peary Island, 242
Kahkoktah Glacier, 82, 428, 537
Kallstenius and Bjorling, 153
Kane Basin, 107, 117, 426, 433 ; ice
unbroken in, 53
Kane, Dr. E., 138, 172 ; expedition
of, 6, 161 ; ship of, 213
Kangerdlooksoah, reindeer pastures
of, 79
Karnah, Sculptured Cliffs of, 43
Keate Glacier, 409 ; settlement of,
78
Kirkland, Com., 4
Kite, the s. s., 128, 535, 537, 542,
549, 562, 563, 565, 568, 574, 595
Labrador, Eskimos of, 14, 17 ; steam-
ing along the coast of, 13
Lake, Baby, 88, 96, 288, 395, 518, 522
Index
623
Lancaster Sound, 546
Larry, the steward, 152
Launch, General IVtsiar, 67 ; stove
in, 76
Le Boutillier, Mr., 537
Lee, Hugh J., 66, 71, 72, 127, 130,
137, 139, 142, 143, 146, 148, 155,
208, 243, 248-250, 253, 256, 273,
277, 27S, 2S1, 287, 301, 3ti, 313,
327-329, 331, 336, 346, 361, 370,
387,395, 398, 410, 440, 441, 443-
445, 447, 448, 453, 457, 466, 470,
490-494, 496, 500, 503, 510-513,
517, 518, 520, 530, 535. 568, 569, 574,
612 ; condition of, 94 ; exhausted,
81 ; frost-bitten, 92 ; igloo of, 89 ;
leaving camp, 90 ; loses his way,
8i ; return of, 95 ; starts for Inland
Ice, 80
Libbey, Prof. Wm., 153
Life-Boat Cove, 54, 419
Little Matterhorn, 220
Littleton Island, 56, 57, 61, 419,420 ;
abreast of, 52 ; landing on, 57 ;
hunting walrus off, 57
Louis Napoleon Cape, 54
M
Maigaard, Christian, 528
Marie Glacier, 123
Martin, Mr., 568
Mary Peary, whale-boat, 4, 47, 57,
60, 72, 250, 275, 279 ; struck by
ice, 50
McCormick Bay, 88, 127, 153, 232,
273, 396, 424, 428,_ 537
McGary Island, landing on, 56
Melville Bay, 124, 128, 142, 155, 163,
167, 382, 554, 556, 558-563, 568,
572, 573, 575, 589, 614 ; crossed,
33 ; passage begun, 30 ; sledge
journey to, 159 ; Cape, 164, 165 ;
Monument, 168
Meteor and aurora, 405
Meteorite, christening the, 589 ;
lifted from its bed, 565 ; sledge
made for, 565 ; Cranbourne, 617 ;
Island, 566, 568,575, 587, 589, 591
Meteorites, analysis of, 609 ; Cape
York, 553, 607, 617, 618 ; descrip-
tion of the, 595 ; history of, 554 ;
location of, 556
Meteorological notes, 177-203
Misumisu Glacier, 229
Moore, Arthur, 574, 584
Moraine Camp, 74, 85, 96, 120 ;
picket duty at, 75
Morch, Eskimo pastor, 25
Mount, Agony, 138, 211 ; Bartlett,
80, 396, 410, 411, 413, 522 ; Gyr-
falco, 235
Mountain," the " Iron, 127
Murchison Sound, 38, 58, 153, 231,
232, 242, 423
Murdock, Cape, 169
Museum, American, of Natural His-
tory, 549, 61 r ; British, 554, 606,
617 ; Field Columbian, 617 ; Na-
tional, 617 ; Paris, 617 ; Yale Uni-
versity, 617
Musk-calf, 485
Musk-oxen, following the, 486 ;
killed, 479, 480 ; meat, 491 ; seen,
476 ; skinned, 481
Musk-Ox Valley, 471, 473, 474, 490,
491
N
Nansen, Dr. F., 457, 514
Navy Cliff, 474, 498 ; cairn upon, 490
Navy Department, 594
Navy Yard, N. Y., 594, 60S
New Year, 79
New York Navy Yard, 594, 608
Nordenskjold, 554 ; irons, 604, 606
North Star, the s. s. , 554, 561
Northumberland Island, 38, 47, 58,
78, 173, 224, 376, 381, 383, 389,
409, 424, 546
O
Odometer, 129
Ohlin, Dr. Axil, 153
Ohlsen, Cape, 56, 419
Ohlsen, Governor, 25
Oil, loss of, 76
Okkak, mission station of, 17
Olriks Bay, 119, 123, 129-131,
174, 231, 244, 376, 378; glaciers
of, 126 ; hunting in, 60, 72 ; inac-
curately charted, 61 ; party for, 67 ;
returning from, 60 ; steaming for,
58 ; steaming up, 59
Omenak Sound, 38, 208, 419, 420
624 Northward over the "Great Ice"
Operti, Albert, 568, 573, 574, 614,
617
Ovifak irons, 554, 606
Fa7idora, the s. s., 56
Pandora Harbour, 52
Panther, the s. s. , 29
Paris Museum, 617
Parker Snow Bay, 140, 335, 338, 345,
346
Parker Snow Point, 140
Parry, Cape, 134, 149, i6r, 2ig-
221, 327, 329, 349, 352, 354, 376,
381, 409, 556 ; sighted, 38
Peary Expeditions, 151 ; igloo, 153
Peary, Little Ahnighito, 70 ; Marie
Ahnighito, 68
Peary, Mrs. Robert E.,40, 47, 54, 59,
66, 80, 88, 123, 152, 212, 309, 315,
535, 537,562,574, 584; boarding
the Falcon, 7 ; landing at Godhavn,
24
Peninsula, Red Cliff, 119, 232
Perry, Mr., 574
Petermann Fjord, 67 ; Basin, 451
Petowik Glacier, 137-139, 141, 155,
163, 207, 211, 330, 335, 416, 425
Phelps, J. K., 602
Phillips, Mr., 568
Pigeon Camp, 88, 95, 96, 119
Pigeons, the carrier, 4 ; letter by, 68
Plateau Camp, 89
Polaris House, site of, 54 ; souvenir
from, 55
Porter, Mr., 56S, 574
Portland, farewell banquet by the city
of, 7
Prudhoe Land, 107, 117
Ptarmigan Island, 375
Putnam, Assist., 568
R
Red Cliff, 133; ice-cap on, 416;
peninsula of, 119, 232
Red Cliff House, 45, 127, 416
Red Mountain, 211
Reindeer, cache, 375 ; haunts, 59 ;
hunted, 60, 72, 154; pastures of
Kangerdlooksoah, 79; shot, 137
Relics of Polaris party, 55
Rensselaer Harbour, 213, 426
Ricketts and Banks, 602
Robertson Bay, 273, 422, 424 ; Cape,
419
Ross, Capt. John, 554, 561, 614
Sabine, Cape, 53, 54, 592, 593
Salisbury, Prof. Rollin D., 535, 537,
544, 606-608
Salmon River, 234
Saunders Island, 136, 137, 161, 172,
173, 215, 217, 331, 332, 346, 352
Savage Glacier, 126, 232
Saviksoak Bay, 558, 562, 568
Schuchert, Prof., 574
Sculptured Cliffs of Karnah, 232, 249,
275, 328, 376; glacier of , 241
Seddon, Cape, i68
Shackleton, Cape, 28
Shaw, Mr., 574
Sledge, 132; cached, 117 ; construction
of, 97 ; iron runner, 423 ; journey
to Melville Bay, 159 ; left, 117, 118 ;
observatory, 98 ; trips, 78
Sledges, blown from Inland Ice, 72 ;
broken, 106 ; buried, iii ; com-
pleted, 108 ; overhauling, 92 ; re-
paired, 130
Sledging by moonlight, 79
Smith Sound, 207, 252, 419, 421, 446,
544, 558 ; Eskimos of, 556
Sohon, Dr. Fred, 574
Sonntag Bay, 58
Sound, Booth, 135, 149, i6[, 220, 222 ;
dogs of Whale, 524 ; Jones, 542, 543,
546 ; Lancaster, 546 ; Murchison,
38, 58, 153, 231, 232, 242, 423;
Omenak, 38, 208, 419, 420 ; Smith,
207, 252, 419, 421, 446, 544, 558;
Eskimos of, 556 ; Whale, 38, 58,
93, 117, 127, 134, 150, 172, 173, 229,
232,242, 366, 375, 376,499,612;
Wolstenholm, 129, 136, 161, 162,
172,215, 219, 331, 334,347,416,
419, 420, 554, 592
Stein, Robert, 578, 579
Stickney, Mr., 578
Stokes, F. W.,66
St. John's, N. F., 3, 10, 397
Strait, Davis, 593, 594
Straits of Belle Isle, 594
Sugar Loaf, 28
Sunrise Point, 58
Index
625
Supplies on ice-cap, 72
Sutherland, Mr., 56S
Swain, Walter T., 66
Sweigard, Supt., 3
T
Tarr. Prof. R.S., 568
Tasiusak, settlement of, 26
Taylor, Mr., 584
Temperatures, 30, 77, 90, 97, 100, 105-
lio, 115-117, 120, 129, 162, 163,
178, 179- 181-187, 317, 370, 373,
411, 415, 444, 450, 452 ; of air, 33 ;
of water, 33
Thom Island, 174
Tooktoo Valley, 82
Traps on Cape York, 37
Turnavik, leaving mail at, 13
Tyndall Glacier, 150
U
Umanak, 570, 579
Upernavik, 25, 213, 549
VerhoeiT, John M., 37, 46
Vincent, Dr. Edward E., 65, 68, 99,
loi, 102
W
Walker, Cape, 166, 168
Walrus, 57 ; feeding grounds of the,
208 ; hoisted on board, 47 ; hunting
the, 251, 262, 429 ; killed, 67 ; meat
of, 426 ; off Littleton Island, 57 ;
securing, 48 ; seen on the ice, 47 ;
steaming toward the, 46
Walsh, Dr. John, 535
Watson, Mr., 568
Weinschenk, Dr. E. A., 606, 608, 609
Wetherell, Dr. II. E., 153
Whale-boats, 67 ; the Faith, 4, 47 ;
crushed, 76 ; the General Wistar,
207, 213, 248, 250, 275, 279; the
Mary Peary, 4, 47, 57, 60, 72, 250,
275, 279
Whale Sound, 38, 58, 93, 117, 127,
134, 150, 172, 173, 229, 232, 242,
366, 375, 376, 499, 612 ; dogs of,
524 ; Eskimo of, 431
White, Mr., 574
White, Prof., 574
Whitfield, Prof., 604, 609
Widmannstatten figures, 602, 606
Wilcox Head, 28, 568
Wind-storm on ice-cap, 98 ; subsides,
100
Wistar, General I. J., 4
Wolstenholm, Island, 211, 215, 331;
Sound, 129, 136, i6r, 162, 172, 215,
219. 331. 334. 347. 416, 419, 420,
554, 592
Y
Yale College Museum, 627
York, Cape, 128, 129, 141, 142, 155,
159, 162, 164, 169, 171, 2ir, 219,
273, 305, 313. 327, 330, 333. 336.
343, 353, 373, 39^. 4o8, 419, 554.
556, 559, 561. 562, 568, 574, 575,
591, 592, 606, 607, 618; cairn erected
on, 37 ; families from, 70 ; fox-traps
on, 37 ; ice-cap on, 37 ; landing at,
37 ; meteorites, 553, 607, 617, 618 ;
outlook from, 37 ; region about,
133 ; rounding, 143 ; sighted, 32
Young, Sir Allen, 56
JUl ■) 9 1927
WELLESLEY COLLEGE LIBRARY
3 5002 03111 8339
G 742 . P37 1898 2
Peary, Robert E. 1856-1920.
Northward over the great ice
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