\' \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\S\\S\\\\SS\\\^^^ M «;i:.f*:«:s If Rf ^m^ ^^^^^^^S5^^^^^^^^^^^^^S^^^^S JMarinc %o\oQm\ Ubcmtoru Ubr(iru CoWcctc^ Oiim^B Uhompsom £^\ontjomery (1007-1936) ^hik(icl£hm f^rchifuf, ncphcvf of Thomas Oit^rrison McntQ(mcru (lS75'i9l2X ^BL itimti^atcr; and ^mcilla ^rmlm CKiont^mcru (1874' 19561 MBL Uhranm. Ofjjtoj tharsms D{uQh MmtQomcrtj^ MfD. md ^(lifmimd ^. Monfgomcru --1967. /or ■^ ^ 2 D X < LJ CQ THE OPEN POLAR SEA: NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY TOWARDS THE NORTH POLE, DI THB SCHOONER "UNITED STATES. 99 BT ISAAC I. HAYES, M. D., OOMMANDEB OP THB BXPEDITION. ILLUSTRATED BY BARLEY AND OTHERS. PHILADELPHIA: DAVID McKAY, 23 South Ninth Stbeet. Copyright, D AVI D Mc K AY, 1885. S»— . — < / HAD INTENDED TV DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO WILLIAM PARKER FOVLKE, Of Philadelphia, To whom I am indebted for all that a powerful intellect and a generous friendship could do^ to give practical shape to my plans^ and to insure success to an enterprise in which I had embarked^ with the simple advantage of an aim^ and with no better guide than the impulse of youth : hut since it is denied me to pay that tribute of my admiration to one of the noblest ofmen^ ~ I now inscribe it to his MEMOKT, PREFACE. The interest which has been freshly awakened in the progress of Arctic discovery by the recent expe- ditions towards the North Pole has appeared to jus- tify my exjDerienced publisher in issuing a new edi- tion of this work, about which it may not be inap- propriate to observe here, as in the Preface to the former edition, that, rather than confine myself strictly to a record of scientific investigations, I have aimed, so far as the narrative would allow, to bring- before the mind of the reader a general picture of the strange life and sublime scenery of a quarter of the world to which we have all been drawn, from childhood, by the ever-powerful charm of the mys- terious and unknown. LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. PAOK 1. A BEAR-HUNT Frontispiece. Drawn by Darley, from Description. 2. MAP OF SMITH SOUND 1 Showing Dr. Hayes, Track and Discoveries 3. A GREENLAND FAMILY 34 4. AN ARCTIC TEAM 104 Drawn by Q. G. White, from a Sketch by Dr. Hayes. 5. SEAL-HUNTING 112 6. BEAR-HUNTING 174 7. CROSSING THE HUMMOCKS 328 Drawn by G. G. White, from a Sketch by Dr. Hayes. 8. THE SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA 360 Drawn by H. Fenn, from a Sketch by Dr. Hayes. 9. A WALRUS-HUNT 408 Drawn by Darley, from Description. 10. TYNDALL GLACIER, WHALE SOUND 438 Drawn by H. Fenn, from a Photograph by Dr. Hayes. EXPLANATION OF TAIL-PIECES. Draum on wood by G. G. White from Photographs and Sketches by Dr. Hayes* En- graved mostly by J. A. Bogert. PAQK 1. Anchor 15 2. Aeched Iceberg 27 3. Geeenlander in his Kayak 34 4. Upernavik 45j 5. Snowflake (magnified three diameters) 56 6. Seal on Cake of Ice 67 7. Head of a Reindeer 91 8. Port Foulke IOC 9. Snowflake (same as No. 5) 126 10. Chester Valley, showing Alida Lake and the Glacier 136 11. " My Brother John's Glacier," from First Camp 148 12. Group of Reindeer 164 13. Schooner in Winter Quarters 211 14. The Esquimau Hut at Etah 235 15. Head of Walrus 247 16. Portrait of Birdie, the Artic Fox 250 17. Sonntag's Grave 276 18. Snowflake (same as No. 5) 296 19. Camping in a Snow-Bank 306 20. Polar Bear 314 21. Dog Sledge 321 22. Head of the Esquimau Dog Oosisoak 332 23. Cape Union 352 24. A Sketch 362 25. Observatory at Port Foulkb 375 26. Snowflake (same as No. 5) 380 27. Kalutunah and his Family 395 28. Head of Arctic Hare 425 29. A Sketch 438 30. *»End" 454 CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Plan of the Expedition. — First Announcement. — Appeal to Scien- tific Societies. — Aid solicited. — Public Lectures. — Liberality of various Societies and Individuals. — Vessel purchased in Boston. — Interest manifested in that City. — Difficulty in obtaining a proper Crew. — Organization of the Party. — Scientific Outfit. — Abun- dant Supplies •! CHAPTER I. Leaving Boston. — At Anchor in Nantasket Roads. — At Sea IS CHAPTER II. Passage to the Greenland Coast. — Discipline. — The Decks at Sea. — Our Quarters. — The First Iceberg. — Crossing the Arctic Cir- cle. — The Midnight Sun. — The Endless Day. — Making the Land. — A Remarkable Scene among the Bergs. — At Anchor in Proven Harbor 16 CHAPTER in. The Colony of Proven. — The Kayak of the Greenlander. — Scarcity of Docjs. — Liberality of the Chief Trader. — Arctic Flora 28 CHAPTER IV. Upernavik. — Hospitality of the Inhabitants. — Death and Burial of Gibson Caruthers. — A Lunch on Board. — Adieu 35 CHAPTER V. Among the Icebergs. — Dangers of Arctic Navigation. — A Narrow Escape from a Crumbling Berg. — Measurement of an Iceberg .... 44 CHAPTER VL Entering Melville Bay. — The Middle Ice. — The Great Polar Cur- rent. — A Snow-Storm. — Encounter with an Iceberg. — Making Cape York. — Rescue of Hans 57 XX CONTENTS. CHAPTER Vn. rA«ni Hans and hit Family. — Petowak Glacier. — A Snow-Storm. — The Ice-Pack. — Entering Smith Sound. — A Severe Gale. — Collision with Icebergs. — Encounter with the Ice-Fields. — Retreat from the Pack. — At Anchor in Hartstene Bay. — Entering Winter Quar- ters 68 CHAPTER Vni. Our Winter Harbor. — Preparing for Winter. — Organization of Du- ties. — Scientific Work. — The Observatory. — Schooner Driven Ashore. — The Hunters. — Sawing a Dock. — Frozen up. — Sun- set 92 CHAPTER IX. Sunset. — Winter Work. — My Dog-Teams. — *' My Brother John's Glacier." — Hunting. — Peat Beds. — Esquimau Graves. — Putre- faction at Low Temperatures. — Sonntag climbs the Glacier. — Hans and Peter. — My Esquimau People. — The Esquimau Dog. — Surveying the Glacier. — The Sailing-Master. — His Birthday Dinner 101 CHAPTER X. Journey on the Glacier. — The First Camp. — Scaling the Glacier. — Character of its Surface. — The Ascent. — Driven back by a Gale. — Low Temperature. — Dangerous Situation of the Party. — A Moonliorht Scene 127 o CHAPTER XI. Important Results of the recent Journey. — The Glacier System of Greenland. — General Discussion of the Subject. — Illustrations drawn from the Alpine Glaciers. — Glacier Movement. — Outline of the Greenland Mer de Glace 137 CHAPTER XIL My Cabin. — Surveying. — Castor and Pollux. — Concerning Scurvy. — Dangers of eating Cold Snow. — Knorr and Starr. — Frost-Bites. — Hans, Peter, and Jacob again. — Coal Account. — The Fires. — Comfort of our Quarters. — The House on Deck. — Mild Weather. — Jensen. — Mrs. Hans. — John Williams, the Cook. — A Cheer- ful Evening 14S CHAPTER Xm. Increasing Darkness. — Daily Routine. — The Journal. — Our Home. — Sunday. — Return of Sonntag. — A Bear-Hunt. — The Open Water. — Accident to Mr. Knorr. — A Thaw. — " Tlie Port Foulke CONTENTS. XXI PAOI Weekly News." — The Tide-Register. — The Fiie-Hole. — Hunt- ing Foxes. — Peter 165 CHAPTER XIV. Midwinter. — The Night of Months. — Brilliancy of the Moonlight. — Mild Temperatures. — Remarkable Weather. — A Shower. — Depth of Snow. — Snow Crystals. — An Epidemic among the Dogs. — Symptoms of the Disorder. — Great Mortality. — Only one Team left. — New Plans. — Schemes for reaching the Esquimaux in Whale Sound 192 CHAPTER XV. The Arctic Midnight. — Sonntag starts for Whale Sound. — Effects of Darkness on the Spirits. — Routine of Duties. — Christmas Eve. — Christmas Day. — The Christmas Dinner 200 CHAPTER XVI. The New Year. — Looking for Sonntag. — The Aurora Borealis. — A Remarkable Display. — Depth of Snow. — Strange Mildness of the Weather. — The Open Sea. — Evaporation at Low Tempera- tures. — Looking for the Twilight. — My Pet Fox 212 CHAPTER XVH. The Arctic Night 222 CHAPTER XVm. Prolonged Absence of Mr. Sonntag. — Preparing to look for him. — Arrival of Esquimaux. — They report Sonntag dead. — Arrival of Hans. — Condition of the Dogs. — Hans's Story of the Journey. . . 227 CHAPTER XIX. Sonntag. — Twilight increasing. — A Deer-Hunt. — The Arctic Foxes. — The, Polar Bear. — Adventures with Bears. — Our New Esqui- maux. — Esquimau Dress. — A Snow House. — Esquimau Imple- ments. — A Walrus Hunt 236 CHAPTER XX. Looking for the Sun. — The Open Sea. — Birds 248 CHAPTER XXI. Sunrise 251 CHAPTER XXH. Spring Twilight. — Arrival of Esquimaux. — Obtaining Dogs. — Kal- utunah, Tattarat, Myouk, Amalatok and his Son. — An Arctic Hospital. — Esquimau Gratitude 255 XXll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXm. PAGl Kalutunali returns. — An Esquimau Family. — The Family Prop- erty. — The Family Wardrobe. — Myouk and his Wife. — Peter's Dead Body found. — My New Teams. — The Situation. — Hunt- ing. — Subsistence of Arctic Animals. — Pursuit of Science under Difficulties. — Kalutunah at Home. — An Esquimau Feast. — Kalu- tunah in Service. — Recovering the Body of Mr. Sonntag. — The Funeral. — The Tomb 265 CHAPTER XXIV. Starting on my First Journey. — Object of the Journey. — A Mishap. — A Fresh Start. — The First Camp. — Hartstene's Cairn. — Ex- plormg a Track. — A New Style of Snow-Hut. — An Uncomfort- able Night. — Low Temperature. — Effect of Temperature on the Snow. — Among the Hummocks. — Sighting Humboldt Glacier. — The Track impracticable to the Main Party. — Van Rensselaer Harbor. — Fate of the Advance. — A Drive in a Gale 277 CHAPTER XXV. Sending forward Supplies. — Kalutunah as a Driver. — Kalutunah civilized. — Mr. Knorr. — Plan of my Proposed Journey. — Prepar- ing to set out.' — Industrious Esquimau Women. — Death and Bu- rial of Kablunet. — The Start 29C CHAPTER XXVI. The First Day's Journey. — A Fall of Temperature. — Its Effect upon the Men. — Camped in a Snow- Hut. — The Second Day's Journey. — At Cairn Point. — Character of the Ice. — The Pros- pect. — Storm-stayed. — The Cooks in Difficulty. — Snow-Drift. — Violence of the Gale. — Our Snow-Hut 207 CHAPTER XXVII. The Storm continues. — At Work. — Among the Hummocks. — Diffi- culties of the Track. — The Snow-Drifts. — Slow Progress. — The Smith Sound Ice. — Formation of the Hummocks. — The Old Ice- Fields. — Growth of Ice-Fields. — Thickness of Ice. — The Pros- pect 307 CHAPTER XXVIH. Tlie Difficulties multiplying. — Sledge broken. — Reflections on the Prospect. — The Men breaking down. — Worse and Worse. — The Situation. — Defeat of Main Party. — Resolve to send the Party back and continue the Journey with Dogs 812 • • » CONTENTS. XXUi CHAPTER XXIX. PAQI The Main Party sent back. — Plunging into the Hummocks again. — Advantages of Dogs. — Camp in an Ice-Cave. — Nursing the Dogs. — Snow-Blindness. — A Chapter of Accidents. — Cape Hawks. — Cape Napoleon. — Storm-stayed. — Grinnell Land looming up. — Discovering a Sound. — Ravenous Disposition of Dogs. — A Cheer- less Supper. — Camping in the Open Air. — Prostration of Men and Dogs. — Making the Land at last 322 CHAPTER XXX. The Prospect Ahead. — To Cape Napoleon. — To Cape Frazer. — Traces of Esquimaux. — Rotten Ice. — Kennedy Channel. — Mild- ness of Temperature. — Appearance of Birds. — Geological Feat- ures of Coast. — Vegetation. — Accident to Jensen 333 'o" CHAPTER XXXL A New Start. — Speculations. — In a Fog. — Polar Scenery. — Stopped by Rotten Ice. — Looking Ahead. — Conclusions. — The Open Sea. — Climax of the Journey. — Returning South 348 CHAPTER XXXIL The Open Polar Sea. — Width of the Polar Basin. — Boundaries of the Polar Basin. — Polar Currents. — Polar Ice. — The Ice-Belt. — Arctic Navigation and Discovery. — The Russian Sledge Explora- tions. — Wrangel's Open Sea. — Parry's Boat Expedition. — Dr. Kane's Discoveries. — Expansion of Smith Sound. — General Con- clusions drawn from my own Discoveries and those of my Prede- cessors 35S CHAPTER XXXIII. On Board the Schooner. — Review of the Journey. — The Return down Kennedy Channel. — A Severe March in a Snow-Storm. — Rotten Ice. — Effects of a Gale. — Returning through the Hum- mocks. — The Dogs breaking down. — Adrift on a Floe at Cairn Point. — The Open Water compels us to take to the Land. — Reaching the Schooner. — Projecting a Chart. — The New Sound. — My Northern Discoveries 36S CHAPTER XXXIV. Inspection of the Schooner. — Method of Repairing. — The Serious Nature of the Injury. — The Schooner unfit for any further Ice- Encounters. — Examination of my Resources. — Plans for the Fu- ture 371 Xxiv ^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXV. PAOl The Arctic Spring. — Snow disappearing. — Plants sho\r Signs of Life. — Return of the Birds. — Change in the Sea. — Refitting the Schooner. — The Esquimaux. — Visit to Kalutunah. — Kalutunah's Account of the Esquimau Traditions. — Hunting- Grounds contract- ed by the Accumulation of Ice. — Hardships of their Life. — Their Subsistence. — The Race dwindling away. — Visit to the Glacier. — Re-survey of the Glacier, — Kalutunah catching Birds. — A Snow-Storm and a Gale. — The Mid-day of the Arctic Summer ... 381 CHAPTER XXXVL The Arctic Summer. — The Flora. — The Ice dissolving. — A Sum- mer Storm of Rain, Hail, and Snow. — The Terraces. — Ice Action. — Upheaval of the Coast. — Geological Interest of Icebergs and the Land-Ice. — A Walrus Hunt. — The " Fourth." — Visit to Lit- tleton Island. — Great Numbers of Eider-Ducks and Gulls. — The Ice breaking up. — Critical Situation of the Schooner. — Taking Leave of the Esquimaux. — Adieu to Port Foulke 396 CHAPTER XXXVII. Leaving Port Foulke. — Effort to reach Cape Isabella. — Meet the Pack and take Shelter at Littleton Island. — Hunting. — Abun- dance of Birds and Walrus. — Visit to Cairn Point. — Reaching the West Coast. — View from Cape Isabella. — Plans for the Fu- ture. — Our Results. — Chances of reaching the Polar Sea dis- cussed.— The Glaciers of EUesmere Land 416 CHAPTER XXXVIIL Leaving Smith Sound. — Crossing the North Water. — Meeting the Pack. — The Sea and Air teeming with Life. — Remarkable Re- fraction. — Reaching Whale Sound. — Surveying in a Boat. — The Sound traced to its Termination. — Meeting Esquimaux at Itepllk. — Habits of the Esquimaux. — Marriage Ceremony. — The Decay of the Tribe. — View of Barden Bay. — Tyndall Glacier 426 CHAPTER XXXIX. Homeward Bound. — Entering Melville Bay. — Encounter with a Bear. — Meeting the Pack. — Making the " South Water. " — Reaching Upernavik. — The News. — To Goodhaven. — Liberality of the Danish Government and the Greenland Officials. — Driven out of Baffin Bay by a Gale. — Crippled by the Storm and forced to take Shelter in Halifax. — Hospitable Reception. — Arrival in Boston. — Realize the State of the Country. — The Determina- tion. — Conclusion 489 SOITND Shavdng au3- fliscovsnes 1860-61 ^'^j; . ■' ' — — '_ i' ■ " • -v^ ^^^K 7^ Wort INTEODUCTION. PLAN OP THE EXPEDITION. — FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT. — APPEAL TO SCIENTmC SOCIETIES. — AID SOLICITED. — PUBLIC LECTURES. — LIBERALITY OP VARI OUS SOCIETIES AND INDIVIDUALS. — VESSEL PURCHASED IN BOSTON. — IN- TEREST MANIFESTED IN THAT CITY. — DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING A PROPER CREW. — ORGANIZATION OF THE PARTY. — SCIENTIFIC OUTFIT. — ABUNDANT SUPPLIES. I PURPOSE to record in this Book the events of the Expedition which I conducted to the Arctic Seas. The plan of the enterprise first suggested itself to me while acting as Surgeon of the Expedition com- manded by the late Dr. E. K. Kane, of the United States Navy. Although its execution did not appear feasible at the period of my return from that voyage in October, 1855, yet I did not at any time abandon the design. It comprehended an extensive scheme of discovery. The proposed route was that by Smith's Sound. My object was to complete the survey of the north coasts of Greenland and Grinnell Land, and to make such explorations as I might find practicable in the direction of the North Pole. My proposed base of operations was Grinnell Land, which I had discovered on my former voyage, and had personally traced beyond lat. 80°, far enough to sat- isfy me that it was available for my design. Accepting the deductions of many learned physi- cists that the sea about the North Pole cannot be frozen, that an open area of varying extent must be found within the Ice-belt which is known to invest it, I desired to add to the proofs which had already been 2 PLAN OF THE EXPEDITION. accumulated by the early Dutch and English voy- agers, and, more recently, by the researches of Scores- by, Wrangel, and Parry, and still later by Dr. Kane's expedition. It is well known that the great difficulty which has been encountered, in the various attempts that have been made to solve this important physical problem, has been the inability of the explorer to penetrate the Ice-belt with his ship, or to travel over it with sledges sufficiently far to obtain indisputable proof My former experience led me to the conclusion that the chances of success were greater by Smith's Sound than by any other route, and my hopes of suc- cess were based upon the expectation which I enter- tained of being able to push a vessel into the Ice-belt, to about the 80th parallel of latitude, and thence to transport a boat over the ice to the open sea which I hoped to find beyond. Reaching this open sea, if such fortune awaited me, I proposed to launch my boat and to push off northward. For the ice-transpor- tation I expected to rely, mainly, upon the dog of the Esquimaux. How far I was able to execute my design these pages will show. It will be remembered that the highest point reached by Dr. Kane with his vessels was Van Eens- selaer Harbor, latitude 78° 37', where he wintered. This was on the eastern side of Smith's Sound. It seemed to me that a more favorable position could be attained on the western side ; and from personal observations made in 1854, while on a sledge jour- ney from Van Rensselaer Harbor, it appeared to me probable that the degree of latitude already indicated might be secured for a winter station and a centre of observation. ANTICIPATED RESULTS. 3 It would be needless for me to attempt to illustrate the value of such a centre for the purpose of scientific inquiry. It was not alone the prospect of the satis- faction to be achieved by completing our geographi- cal knowledge of that portion of the globe, nor that of solving definitely the problem of an Open Polar Sea, that encouraged me in the task which I had undertaken. There were many questions of physical science to be settled, and I hoped to take with n^e a corps of well-instructed observers. The movements of the currents of the air and water, the temperature of these elements, the pressure of the former and the tides of the latter, the variations of gravity, the direc- tion and intensity of the "magnetic force," the Au- rora Borealis, the formation and movement of the glaciers, and many important features of Natural His- tory remained to be solved by observations about the centre indicated. Years of profitable labor might in- deed be expended in that locality by an enterprising force of skilled workers. With these objects in view, I applied with great confidence to the scientific men of the world and to the enlightened public sentiment of my country- men. The response, although in the end highly gratify- ing, was more tardy in its coming than had been at first anticipated. There were indeed many circum- stances of discouragement, not the least of which was ac impression which then had possession of the public judgment, that any further efforts toward the North Pole must be fruitless, and must involve an unjusti- fiable loss of life. It was only after many endeavors that here and there the influences favorable to the design began to affect the community. The most ini 4 FIRST announceme:nt. portant of* these was, of course, the sanction given to the project by those associations whose opinions gov- ern the mass of men in relation to scientific matters. The first public announcement of it was made to the American Geographical and Statistical Society, before which body I read a paper in December, 1857, setting forth the plan, and the means proposed for its accomplishment. It was on this occasion that I first experienced the discouragement to which I have al- ready referred, and it became evident to all who had thus far interested themselves in the subject, that it would be necessary to instruct the public mind in relation to the practicability of the proposed explora- tion, and its comparative freedom from danger, before any earnest support could be anticipated. To this task I at once addressed myself, although, indeed, I might with some show of reason have aban- doned the undertaking altogether; but at twenty-five one is not easily discouraged. In concert with the friends of the enterprise, I caused it to be understood that I was open to invitations from any of the numer- ous literary societies and clubs who were organizing popular courses of lectures for the winter. Such lec- tures were at that time quite the fashion, and almost every little town in the country could boast of its "course." The invitations which reached me were very numerous, and I availed myself of them to the fuU limit of my time. The scientific and literary jour- nals and the press, ever ready to aid in the advance- ment of liberal and enlightened purposes, gave very cordial support; and, when the spring of 1858 opened, we had the satisfiiction to perceive that we had dis- pelled some of the popular illusions respecting the do.i\^ers of Arctic exploration. Among the most im- SCIENTIFIC INTEREST. 5 portant of the lectures given at this period was a course which I dehvered at the instance of Professor Joseph Henry, in the fine lecture-room of the Smith- sonian Institution at ¥/ashington. These lectures were the more important, m that they secured to the un- dertaking the friendship and support of Professor A. D. Bache, the learned and efficient chief of the United States Coast Survey. In April, 1858, I brought the subject before the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- ence, at its annual meeting held in Baltimore ; and that body of representative men, at the suggestion of Professor Bache, appointed sixteen of its leading members a committee on "Arctic Exploration." It remained now only to secure the necessary ma- terial aid. With this object in view, committees were promptly appointed by the American Philosophical Society, the Academj^ of Natural Sciences of Philadel- phia, the American Geographical Society, the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, the American Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences, and the Boston Society of Natural History. Subscription Hsts were at once opened by these sev- eral committees, and Professor Bache, at all times fore- most to promote scientific discovery, headed the list with his powerful name. The learned Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- tion, Professor Joseph Henry, further strengthened the cause by the profl:er of scientific instruments, and this was followed by the earnest support of Mr. Henry Grinnell, v/hose zealous efforts and sacrifices in behalf of Arctic exploration are too well known to gain any thing from my commendation. At a subsequent period I addressed the Chamber 6 PUBLIC LECTURES. of Commerce in New York, and the Board of Trade in Philadelphia. The latter promptly appointed a committee with the same objects as those previously appointed by the scientific societies. Still later I spoke to a large audience in the lecture-room of the Lowell Institute, Boston, assembled under the auspices of the committee of the Academy of Arts and Sci- ences, on which occasion, after eloquent addresses by the chairman, the late Hon. Edward Everett, and Pro- fessors Agassiz and W. B. Rogers, a committee of cit- izens was appointed to cooperate with the committees already named. The system of public lecturing which had been improved with such satisfactory advantage in the beginning, was continued, and, in addition to the increased public interest which the lectures created, they proved a source of more substantial benefit. Two of them were delivered under the auspices of the American Geographical Society. The value of these last was derived from the circumstance that public support was given to the project by Dr. Francis Lieber, the late Rev. Dr. Bethune, Rev. J. P. Thomp- son, the late Professor (afterward Major-General) 0. M. Mitchel, and Mr. (now Brigadier-General) Egbert L. Viele, who spoke on the occasion. The principal ad- dress was made by Dr. Lieber, and it was characteristic of that able and learned writer. The interest manifested among geographers abroad was scarcely less than that shown by scientific men at home. The eminent President of the Geographical Society of London, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, in announcing the proposed renewal of Arctic discovery bo that distinguished body, expressed the earnest de- sire of the society for the success of the undertaking ; FOREIGN SUPPORT. 7 and the enlightened Vice-President of the Geograph- ical Society of Paris, M. de la Koquette, promptly offered, as an earnest of his good will, a liberal contri- bution to the fund. The Masonic Fraternity in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia also gave their assistance, and it was not the less appreciated that it was spontaneous and un- expected. Notwithstanding the unceasing efforts which were thus made in every quarter, and the almost universal interest which the imdertaking at length excited, it was not until the beginning of June, 1860, that I was able to commence my preparations. My plans of ex- ploration had been based upon the expectation of being able to start with two vessels, — one a small steamer, to be taken out under sails, and the steam- power only to be used when actually among the ice ; — the other a sailing vessel, to be employed as a ten- der or store-ship. It now became evident to us that if my departure was deferred to another year, the chances of my sail- ing at all would be diminished rather than increased ; and we therefore determined to do the best we could with the means at hand. These means would enable us to fit out and man only one small sailing vessel. To Mr. Kichard Baker, Jr., the energetic chairman of the Boston Committee, (aided by a sub-committee consisting of Mr. Warren Sawyer, Mr. John Stetson, Mr. 0. W. Peabody, and Mr. J. D. W. Joy,) was in trusted the selection and purchase of such a craft as would best compromise between the services to be performed and the state of our finances ; and the duty was accomphshed with characteristic sagacity. When I reached Boston, a few days after the purchase 8 Vessel purchased. had been made, I found the vessel lying at a wharf, heavily laden with a cargo brought from the West Indies. She was a strong, snug, jaunty looking craft, and appeared to be well adapted for the peculiar service to which she was destined. Her "register" quaintly set forth that she was "A 1," that she meas- ured one hundred and thirty-three tons burden, that she was a fore-and-aft schooner, drew eight feet of water, and was named Spring Hill. For this name we at once substituted United States, which change was, upon my memorial, subsequently confirmed by act of Congress. The season was now growing very late. Before the vessel had been purchased it was fully time that I should have been upon my voyage, and every day's delay added to my anxiety lest I should be unable to penetrate the Bafl&n's Bay ice, and secure a harbor before the winter had shut out all access to the land. It was therefore with no small degree of satisfaction that I saw the schooner on the ways in the ship- yard of Mr. Kelly in East Boston, and the work of refitting her going rapidly forward. As a protection against the wear and pressure of the ice, a strong sheathing of two and a half inch oak planking was spiked to her sides, and the bows were cased with thick iron plates as far aft as the fore- chains. Internally she was strengthened with heavy beams, crossing at intervals of twelve feet a little below the water-line, which, as well as the deck-tim- bers, were supported by additional knees and diagonal braces. For convenience of working among the ice, her rig was changed from a fore-and-aft to a fore top- Bail schooner. Giving to many unavoidable delays, the month of PREPARATION. 9 June had almost passed before the schooner was brought to the wharf in Boston to receive her cargo. Much of this cargo was made up of voluntary gift offermgs, "in the cause of science," and came from various places, and, as these " offerings " arrived irreg- ularly, there was naturally much confusion in the storage. It will not therefore appear surprising that our departure was several days delayed. One month was indeed a short time, even under the most favor- able circumstances, to fit a vessel, purchase and store a complicated cargo, construct and get together sledges, boats, and other equipments for travelling, obtain in- struments and all the requisite materials for scientific exploration, — in short, to accumulate the various odds and ends necessary for so unusual and protracted a voyage. It was a busy month, and into no equal period of my life did I ever crowd so much labor and anxiety. The selection of my ship's company gave me not a little concern. Of material from which to choose there was quite an ample supply. In numbers there were indeed enough to have fitted out a respectable squadron; but it was not easy to find those whose constitutions and habits of life fitted them for the service. The greater number of the volunteers had never been to sea, and most of them were eager " to serve m any capacity," — a declaration which, too often on this, as on other occasions, I have found to signify the absence of any capacity at all. I esteemed myself fortunate in securing the ser vices of my former companion and friend in the Grin- nell Expedition, Mr. August Sonntag, who early volun- teered to join me from Mexico, in which country he was engaged in conducting some important scientific 10 OFFICERS AND CREW. explorations. He even proposed to me that he should abandon the work upon which he was then employed, in order to aid me in the preliminary preparations. Returning to the United States in 1859, he was ap- pointed to the Dudley Observatory, Albany, and, to accompany me, he sacrificed the fine position of Asso- ciate Director of that institution. My party, when at length completed, numbered fourteen persons all told, as follows: — August Sonntag, Astronomer, and second in command. S. J. McCoRMiCK, Sailing Master. Henry W. Dodge, Mate. Henry G. Radcliffe, Assistant Astronomer. George F. Knorr, Commander's Secretary. Collin C. Starr, Master's Mate. Gibson Caruthers, Boatswain and Carpenter. Francis L. Harris, Volunteer. Harvey Heywood, Volunteer. John McDonald, Seaman. Thomas Barnum, Seaman. Charles McCormick, Seaman. William Miller, Seaman. John Williams, Seaman. Our equipment for scientific observations was rea- sonably perfect. The Smithsonian Institution fur- nished a good supply of barometers and thermometers, besides other apparatus not less important, and also spirits, cans, and other materials for the collection and preservation of specimens of Natural History. In this latter department I owe especial obligations to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and also to the Cambridge Museum. From the skilful maker, Mr. John Tagliabeau, of New York, I had a handsome present of spirit thermometers. From the Topographical Bureau at Washington, through the SCIENTIFIC OUTFIT. * 11 courtesy of its chief, I was supplied with two pocket, sextants, instruments which could not have been ob- tained either by purchase or loan elsewhere. I had hoped to secure from the National Observatory the use of a deep-sea sounding apparatus, until it was made known to me that the concession was not pro- vided for by act of Congress. Outside of the limits of nautical routine I fared better. The Chief of the Coast Survey furnished me with a vertical circle, which contained the double advantage of a transit and the- odolite, a well-tested unifilar magnetometer, a reflect- ing circle, a Wurdeman compass, and several other valuable instruments. We had five chronometers, — three box and two pocket, which last were intended for use in sledge travelHng. We had an excellent tel- escope, with a four and a half inch object-glass ; and, under the joint superintendence of the late Professor Bond, of Cambridge, and Mr. Sonntag, I caused to be constructed a pendulum apparatus after the plan of Foster's instrument. I lacked not instruments, but men. My only well- instructed associate was Mr. Sonntag. Our outfit was altogether of the very best descrip- tion, and our larder contained every thing that could reasonably be desired. An abundant supply of canned meats, vegetables, and fruits insured us against scurvy, and a large stock of desiccated beef, beef soup, (a mixture of meat, carrots, onions, &c.,) and potatoes, prepared expressly for me by the American Desiccat- ing Company of New York, gave us a light and port- able food for the sledge journeys. I preferred the food in this form to the ordinary pemican. We were amply provided with good warm woollen clothing, and four large bales of buflalo-skins promised each of us 12 READY TO SAIL. the materials for a coat and protection against the Arctic winds. A good stock of rifles and guns, and a plentiful supply of ammunition, finished our guar- antees against want. We had forty tons of coal and wood in the hold, and a quantity of pine boards, in- tended for housing over the uj)per deck when in win- ter quarters. Our sledges were constructed after a pattern fur- nished by myself, and the tents, cooking-lamps, and other camp fixtures, were manufactured under my personal supervision. From numerous friends, whose names I cannot here mention without violating the obligations of confidence, we received books and a great quantity of " small stores " which were after- ward greatly appreciated during our winter imprison- ment in the ice. We had expected to sail on the 4th of July, and the friends of the Expedition were invited by the Boston Committee, through its secretar}^, Mr. 0. W. Peabody, to see us off Although the day was dark and drizzly many hundreds of persons were present. Through some unavoidable accident we did not get away. The guests, however, made us the recipients of their best wishes, and when the members of my little command (assembled together on that day for the first time) found themselves addressed in turn by the Governor of the State, the Mayor of the City, and the President of Harvard, and by renowned statesmen, orators, divines and merchants of Boston, and by savans of Cambridge, the measure of their happiness was full. Inspired by the interest thus so conspicuously manifested in their fortunes, they felt ready for any emergency. THE OPEN POLAR SEA. CHAPTER I. LEAVINa BOSTON. — AT ANCHOR IN NANTASKET ROADS. — AT SEA Late in the evening of July Gth, 1860, the schoonei United States was hauled into the stream, prepared to leave port the following morning. The morning dawned clear and auspicious. Upon going on board, I found that a number of friends whom I had invited to accompany ns down the bay had preceded me by half an hour. Among them were His Excellency the Governor of the State, and rep- resentatives of the Boston, New York and Philadel- phia committees. The fine, large steam-tug R. B. Forhes soon came alongside, alive with a gay party of well-wishers, and, taking the end of our hawser, started us from our an- chorage. As we passed Long Wharf we were honored with a salute from a battery which the Mayor of the city had sent down for that purpose, and numerous parting cheers greeted us as we steamed down the bay. The wind being unfavorable, we dropped anchor for the night in Nantasket Koads. The tug took most of our friends back to Boston, and I was left in my cabin with the official representatives of the pro- moters of the enterprise, engaged in the last of our 14 LEAVING BOSTON. numerous consultations. A handful of papers was put into my possession, and I became the sole owner of the schooner United States and the property on board of her. The sun had set before our conference ended, and the wind promising to hold from the east- ward during the night, I returned to Boston with Mr. Baker, in his yacht. Upon arriving at the schooner next morning, I found that the executive officer had availed himself of the delay to break out the ship's hold and effect a better stowage of the deck cargo. Indeed, we were in no condition for going to sea. Many of the stores were hurried on board at the last moment, and the deck was hterally covered with boxes and bales, which, in the haste of departure, could not be stowed away. It was long after nightfall when the hatches were closed and every thing secured ; but as the pilot did not come on board, we were compelled to wait until daylight. I passed the night on Mr. Baker's yacht, which lay near by, with some kind friends who would not quit us until they saw us fairly off. The pretty yachts Stella and Howard, to whose gentlemanly owners I was in- debted for courteous attentions, also kept us company. With the first gray streak of the dawning day, this little fleet tripped their anchors and glided home, bearing our last good-byes, while we, with a fair wind, stood out to sea. Before the night closed in, the coast had sunk out of sight, and I was once more tossing on the waves of the broad Atlantic. Again I saw the sun sink be- neath the line of waters, and I watched the changing clouds which hung over the land I had left behind me, until the last faint flush of gold and crimson had FIRST NIGHT AT SEA. 15 melted away into the soft twilight. Creeping then into my damp^ narrow bunk, I slept the first long, un- broken sleep I had had for weeks. The expedition which had absorbed so much of my attention during the past five years was mnv fairly on its way. Trust- ing in Providence and my own energy, I had faith in the future. CHAPTER n. PASSAGE TO THE GREENLAND COAST. — DISCIPLINE. —THE DECKS AT SEA. — OUR QUARTERS.— THE FIRST ICEBERG. —CROSSING THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.— THE MIDNIGHT SUN. —THE ENDLESS DAY. — MAKING THl LAND.— A REMARK- ABLE SCENE AMONG THE BERGS. — AT ANCHOR IN PROVEN HARBOR. I WILL not long detain* the reader with the details of our passage to the Greenland coast. It was mainly devoid of interest. My first concern was to regulate the domestic af- fairs of my little company ; my second, to make the schooner as tidy and comfortable as possible. The former was much more easily managed than the lat- ter. Calling the officers and crew together, I ex- plained to them that, inasmuch as we would for a long time constitute our own little world, we must all rec- ognize the obligations of a mutual dependence and the ties of mutual safety, interest, and ambition. Keeping this in view, we would find no hardship in making all selfish considerations subordinate to the necessities of a mutual accommodation. The response was highly gratifying to me, and I had afterward abundant reason to congratulate myself upon having at the outset established the relations of the crew with myself upon such a satisfactory footing. To say noth- ing of its advantages to our convenience, this course saved much trouble. From the beginning to the end of the cruise I had no occasion to record a breach of discipline ; and I did not find it necessary to establish THE DECKS. 17 any other rules than those which are usual in all well disciplined ships. To make the schooner comfortable was impractica- ble, and to make her tidy equally so. I found my- self rocking about on the Atlantic with decks in a condition to have sorely tried the patience of the most practised sailor. Barrels, boxes, boards, boats, and other articles were spiked or lashed to the bul- warks and masts, until all available space was covered, and there was left only a narrow, winding pathway from the quarter to the forecastle deck, and no place whatever for exercise but the top of the trunk cabin, which was just twelve feet by ten ; and even this was partly covered, and that too with articles which, if they have existence, should at least never be in sight on a well-regulated craft. But this was not to be helped, — there was no room for any thing more be- low hatches ; every nook and cranny in the vessel was full, and we had no alternative but to allow the decks to be " lumbered up " until some friendly sea should come and wash the incumbrance overboard. (We were entirely too prudent to throw any thing away.) That such an event would happen seemed likely enough, for we were loaded down until the deck, in the waist, was only a foot and a half above the water ; and, standing in the gangway, you could at any time lean over the monkey-rail and touch the sea with your fingers. The galley filled up the entire space between the fore hatch and the mainmast ; and the water, coming in over the gangway, poured through it frequently without restraint. The cook and the fire were often put out together, and the regularity of our meals was a little disturbed in con- sequence. 18 THE CABIN. My cabin occupied the after-half of the "trunk/' (which extended two feet above the quarter-deck,) and was six feet by ten. Two " bull's-eyes " gave me a feeble light by day, and a kerosene lamp, which creaked uneasily in its gimbals, by night. Two berths let, one into either side, furnished commodious recep- tacles for ship's stores. The carpenter, however, fixed up a narrow bunk for me ; and when I had covered this with a brilliant afghan, and enclosed it with a pair of crimson curtains, I was astonished at the amount of comfort which I had manufactured for myself The narrow space in front of my cabin contained the companion ladder, the steward's pantry, the stove- pipe, a barrel of flour, and a " room " for Mr. Sonntag. Forward of this, two steps down in the hold, was the officers' cabin, which was exactly twelve feet square by six feet high. It was oak-panelled, and had eight bunks, happily not all occupied. It was not a com- modious apartment. The men's quarters were under the forecastle deck, close against the " dead-wood " of the " ship's eyes." They, too, were necessarily crowded for room. Our course from Boston lay directly for the outer capes of Newfoundland, inside of Sable Island. Every one who has sailed down the coast of Nova Scotia knows the nature of the fogs which hang over the banks, especially during the warm season of the year ; and we had our full measure of the embarrassing fortune which usually befalls the navigator of those waters. We ran into a fog bank on the second day out from Boston, and for seven days thereafter were envel- oped in an atmosphere so dense as completely to nbscure the sun and horizon. We could, of course, "BREAKERS AHEAD." 19 obtain no "sights," and, during that period, were obliged in consequence to rely for our position upon the lead line and our dead reckoning. Uncertain cur- rents made this last a method of doubtful depend- ence. On the sixth day of this seemingly endless fog I grew rather more than usually uneasy ; but the sail- ing-master assured me that he was certain of our position ; and, with the map before us on the table. he proved it by the soundings. We would clear Cape Kace in the morning watch. The morning watch found me on deck, and, as be- fore, our position was shown by the record of the lead. The lead was a false prophet, for instead of running outside we were rushing squarely upon the cape. Satisfied, however, by the assurances which I had re- ceived, I went below to breakfast, and had scarcely been seated when that most disagreeable of all cries, — once heard, never to be forgotten, — " Breakers ahead ! " startled us. Upon reaching the deck, I found the sails shivering in the wind, and almost within pistol- shot rose a great black wall, against which the sea was breaking in a most threatening manner. Foruc nately the schooner came quickly to the wind and held in stays, otherwise we must have struck in a very few minutes. As it was, we settled close upon the rocks before the sails filled and we began to crawl slowly off The spray, thrown back from the sullen cliff, actually fell upon the deck, and it seemed as if I could almost touch the rocks with my hand. We were soon relieved by seeing the dark fog-veil drawn between us and danger. But the danger was, appa- rently, not yet passed. In half an hour the wind died away almost to a calm, leaving us a heavy sea to fight 20 ACROSS THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. with, while out of the blackness came the wail of the angry surf bemoaning the loss of its prey. The wind increased toward noon, and freed us from suspense. Eesolved this time to give Cape Race a wide berth, we ran off E. S. E., and not until I was sure, by the color of the water, that Newfoundland was at a safe distance, did I let the schooner fill away on her course toward Cape Farewell. By this time a stiff breeze was blowing from the south, and as the night closed in we were running before the wind un- der a close-reefed topsail. A succession of southerly gales now chased us northward, and we hauled in our latitude with gratify- ing rapidity. In a few days we were ploughing the waters which bathe the rock-bound coasts of Green- land. On the 30th of July I had the satisfaction of being once more within the Arctic Circle. That imaginary line was crossed at eight o'clock in the evenin-g, and the event was celebrated by a salute from our signal- gun and a display of bunting. We now felt that we had fairly entered upon our career. We were twenty days out from Boston, and had made throughout an average run of a hundred miles a day. The schooner had proved herself an excel- lent sea-boat. The coast of Greenland was about ten leagues away, obscured by a cloud ; we had Cape Walsingham on the port beam, and the lofty Suckertoppen would have been visible over the star- board quarter had the air been clear. We had not yet, however, sighted the land, but we had made our first iceberg, we had seen the "midnight sun," and we had come into the endless day. When the hour- THE FIRST ICEBERG. 21 hand of the Yankee clock which ticked above my head pointed to XII., the sunlight still flooded the cabin. Accustomed to this strange life in former years, the change had to me little of novelty ; but the officers complained of sleeplessness, and were lounging about as if waiting for the old-fashioned darkness which suggests bed-time. The first iceberg was made the day before we passed the Arctic Circle. The dead white mass broke upon us out of a dense fog, and was mistaken by the lookout for land when he first caught the sound of breakers beating upon it. It was floating directly in our course, but we had time enough to clear it. Its form was that of an irregular pyramid, about three hundred feet at its base, and perhaps half as high. Its summit was at first obscured, but at length the mist broke away, disclosing the peak of a glittering spire, around which the white clouds were curling and danc- ing in the sunHght. There was something very im- pressive in the stern indifference with which it re- ceived the lashings of the sea. The waves threw their liquid arms about it caressingly, but it deigned not even a nod of recognition, and sent them reeling back- ward, moaning and lamenting. We had some rough handling in Davis' Strait. Once I thought we had surely come ingloriously to grief We were running before the wind and fighting a wretched cross-sea under reefed fore and mainsail and jib, when the fore fife-rail was carried away ; — down came every thing to the deck, and there was left not a stitch of canvas on the schooner but the lum- bering mainsail. It was a miracle that we did not broach to and go to the bottom. Nothing saved us but a steady hand at the helm. 22 A LAND-FALL. The following entry in my journal, made at this period, will exhibit our condition and the temper of the crew: — "Notwithstanding all this knocking about, every body seems to take it for granted that this sort of thing is very natural and proper, and a part of the engagement for the cruise. It is at least gratifying to see that they take kindly to discomfort, and receive every freak of fortune with manly good nature. I really believe that were affairs otherwise ordered they would be sadly disappointed. They are "the small band of brave and spirited men " they read about in the newspapers, and they mean to show it. The sail- ors are sometimes literally drowned out of the fore- castle. The cabin is flooded at least a dozen times a day. The skylight has been knocked to pieces by the head of a sea, and the table, standing directly under it, has been more than once cleared of crockery and eatables without the aid of the steward. My own cabin gets washed out at irregular intervals, and my books are half of them spoiled by tumbling from their shelves in spite of all I can do to the contrary. Once I caught the whole library tacking about the deck after an unusually ambitious dive of the schooner, and the advent of a more than ordinarily heavy rush of water through the ' companion-way.' " It had been my intention to stop at Egedesmindie, or some other of the lower Danish stations, on the Greenland coast, to obtain a stock of furs, and at the upper settlements to procure the needful supply of dogs for sledge travelling ; but, the wind being fair, 1 lesolved to hold on and trust to obtaining every thing required at Proven and Upernavik. We made our first land-fall on the 31st It proved VIEW OF GREENLAND. 23 to be the southern extremity of Disco Island. The lofty mountains broke suddenly through the thick mist, and exposed their hoary heads, not a httle to our astonishment ; but they vanished again as quickly as they had appeared. But we had got a clutch upon the land, and found that, befogged though we were, we had calculated our position to a nicety. From this moment the interest of our cruise was doubled. The next day we were abreast the Nord Fiord of Disco, in latitude 70°, and, gliding on with a hght wind, the Waigat and Oominak Fiord were soon be- hind us ; and on the evening of August 2d we were approaching the bold promontory of Svarte Huk, which is only forty miles from Proven, whither we were bound. "A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps." Just as we were congratulating ourselves upon the prospect of getting an appetite for breakfast among the Greenland hills, the wind began to show decided symptoms of weakness ; and, after a succession of spasmodic efforts to recover itself, pro- longed through the next four and twenty hours, it at length died away completely, and left us lying on the still waters, impatient and ill at ease. We were sadly disappointed ; but the sun scattered the vapors which had hung so long about us, and, in the scene which broke out of the dissolving mist, we buried our vex- ation. Greenland had been for some time regarded by my companions as a sort of myth ; for, although fre- quently only a few miles from its coast, so thick and constant had been the clouds and fogs, that, except for a few brief minutes, it had been wholly hidden from our view. Here, however, it was at last, shaking 24 AMONG THE ICEBERGS. off its cloud mantle, and standing squarely out before us in austere magnificence, — its broad valleys, its deep ravines, its noble mountains, its black, beetling clifls, its frowning desolation. As the fog lifted and rolled itself up like a scroll over the sea to the westward, iceberg after iceberg burst into view, like castles in a fairy tale. It seemed, indeed, as if we had been drawn by some unseen hand into a land of enchantment, rather than that we had come of our own free will into a region of stern real- ities, m pursuit of stern purposes ; — as if the elves of the North had, in sportive playfulness, thrown a veil about our eyes, and enticed us to the very " seat eternal of the gods." Here was the Valhalla of the sturdy Vikings ; here the city of the sun-god Freyer, — Alfheim, with its elfin caves, — and Glitner, with its walls of gold and roofs of silver, and Gimle, more brilliant than the sun, — the home of the happy ; and there, piercing the clouds, was Himinborg, the Ce- lestial Mount, where the bridge of the gods touches Heaven. It would be difficult to imagine a scene more sol- emnly impressive than that which was disclosed to us by the sudden change in the clouded atmosphere. From my diary I copy the following brief description of it : — -'MmNiGHT. — I have just come below, lost in the wondrous beauty of the night. The sea is smooth as glass; not a ripple breaks its dead surface, not a breath of air stirring. The sun hangs close upon the northern horizon; the fog has broken up into light clouds ; the icebergs lie thick about us ; the dark headlands stand boldly out against the sky ; and the clouds and sea and bergs and mountains are bathed in BEAUTY OF THE ICEBERCo. 25 an atmosphere of crimson and gold and purple most singularly beautiful." In all my former experience in this region of start- ling novelties I had never seen any thing to equal what I witnessed that night. The air was warm al- most as a summer's night at home, and yet there were the icebergs and the bleak mountains, with which the fancy, in this land of green hills and waving forests, can associate nothing but cold repulsiveness. The sky was bright and soft and strangely inspiring as the skies of Italy. The bergs had wholly lost their chilly aspect, and, glittering in the blaze of the brilliant heavens, seemed, in the distance, like masses of bur- nished metal or solid flame. Nearer at hand they were huge blocks of Parian marble, inlaid with mam- moth gems of pearl and opal. One in particular ex- hibited the perfection of the grand. Its form was not unlike that of the Coliseum, and it lay so far away that half its height was buried beneath the Hne of blood-red waters. The sun, slowly roUing along the horizon, passed behind it, and it seemed as if the old Roman ruin had suddenly taken fire. Nothing indeed but the pencil of the artist could depict the wonderful richness of this sparkling frag- ment of Nature. Church, in his great picture of " The Icebergs," has grandly exhibited a scene not unlike that which I would in vain describe. In the shadows of the bergs the water was a rich green, and nothing could be more soft and tender than the gradations of color made by the sea shoaling on the sloping tongue of a berg close beside us. The tint increased in intensity where the ice overhung the water, and a deep cavern near by exhibited the solid color of the malachite mingled with the transpa- 26 NEARING HARBOR. rency of the emerald; while, in strange contrast, a broad streak of cobalt blue ran diagonally through its body. The bewitching character of the scene was height- ened by a thousand little cascades which leaped into the sea from these floating masses, — the water being discharged from lakes of melted snow and ice which reposed in quietude far up in the valleys separating the high icy hills of their upper surface. From other bergs large pieces were now and then detached, — plunging down into the water with deafening noise, while the slow moving swell of the ocean resounded through their broken archways. I had been watching this scene for hours, lost in reverie and forgetfulness, when I was brought sud- denly to my senses by the master's mate, who came to report, " Ice close aboard, sir." We were drifting slowly upon a berg about the height of our topmasts. The boats were quickly lowered to puU us off, and, the schooner once more in safety, I went to bed. I awoke after a few hours, shivering with the cold. The "bull's-eye" above my head was open, and a chilly fog was pouring in upon me. Hurrying on deck, I found the whole scene changed. A dense gray mist had settled over the waters and icebergs and mountains, blending them all in chaotic gloom. Twenty-four days at sea had brought the water very low in our casks, and I took advantage of the delay to send off to a neighboring iceberg for a fresh supply. The water of these bergs is pure and clear as crystal. Gettino^ at last a slant of the wind, we ran in amons: the low islands which line the coast above Svarte Hiik : and Sonntarc, who had i*:one ahead in a boat to AT PROVEN 27 Proven, having sent off to us a swarthy-looking pilot, we wound our way slowly through the tortuous pas- sage, and at a little after midnight of August 6th we dropped anchor in the snuggest of little harbors. The loud ba^dng of dogs, and an odor, baffling de- scription,— "a very ancient and fish-like smell," — first warned us of our approach to a Greenland set- tlement. CHAPTER m. THE COLONY OF PROVEN. — THE KAYAK OP THE GREENLANDER. — SCARCITK OF DOGS. — LIBERALITY OF THE CHIEF TRADER. — ARCTIC FLORA. We were escorted into the harbor of Proven by the strangest fleet of boats and the strangest-looking boatr men that ever convoyed a ship. They were the far- famed kayakers of Greenland, and they deserve a passing notice. The hayah of the Greenlander is the frailest speci- men of marine architecture that ever carried human freight. It is eighteen feet long and as many inches wide at its middle, and tapers, with an upward curv- ing line, to a point at either end. The skeleton of the boat is made of light wood; the covering is of tanned seal-skin, sewed together by the native women with sinew thread, and with a strength and dexterity quite astonishing. Not a drop of water finds its way through their seams, and the skin itself is perfectly water-proof The boat is about nine inches deep, and the top is covered like the bottom. There is no opening into it except a round hole in the centre, which admits the hunter as far as his hips. This hole is surrounded with a wooden rim, over which thr kayaker laces the lower edge of his water-tight jacket, and thus fastens himself in and keeps the water out. He propels himself with a single oar about six feet long, which terminates in a blade or paddle at either end. This instrument of locomotion is grasped in the THE KAYAK OF THE GREENLANDER. 29 centre, and is dipped in the water alternately to right and left. The boat is graceful as a duck and light as a feather. It has no ballast and no keel, and it rides almost on the surface of the water. It is therefore necessarily top-heavy. Long practice is required to manage it, and no tight-rope dancer ever needed more steady nerve and skill of balance than this same savage kayaker. Yet, in this frail craft, he does not hesitate to ride seas which would swamp an ordinary boat, or to break through surf which may sweep com- pletely over him. But he is used to hard battles, and, in spite of every fortune, he keeps himself up- right. I watched their movements with much interest as they collected about the schooner. Among the bene- fits which they had derived from civilization was an appreciation of the value of rum, coffee, and tobacco ; and they were not overly modest in their demands for these articles. Most of them had, however, some- thing to trade, and went home with their reward. One old fellow who had managed to pick up a few words of English, without being particularly clear as to their meaning, was loud in his demands for a "pound rum, bottle sugar," offering in exchange a fine salmon. I had intended to remain at Proven only a single day, and then to hasten on with all possible speed ; but our stay was prolonged by circumstances to which I was forced to submit with as good a grace as possible. It was idle for me to leave without a supply of dogs, for my plans and preparations were entirely based upon them ; and the prospect of accomplishing my design m this respect appeared, from the first, very feeble In order to save time, Sonntag had gone to the vil- 30 SCARCITY OF DOGS. lage wlien we lay becalmed off Svarte Huk, and be returned on board with the most discouraging ac- counts of the poverty of the settlements in that which was such an essential addition to our equip- ment. A disease which had prevailed among the teams, during the past year, had diminished the stock to less than half of what was required for the pros- perity of the people ; and all our offers to purchase, either with money or provisions, were at first flatly refused, and were in the end only partially successful. Mr. Sonntag had called upon the Assistant Trader immediately after his arrival, and was at once informed by that official of the unfortunate state of affairs. He would, however, personally interest himself in the matter, and advised that we should await the arrival of the Chief Trader, Mr. Hansen, who resided at Upernavik, which is forty miles to the north, and would be in Proven in a day or so. It was evident that nothing could be done without the aid of this all-powerful public functionary, for whose arrival we had no alternative but to wait. If we went on to Upernavik we ran the hazard of missing him ; and, by not seeing him until his return to that settlement from his southern tour, of losing the advantage of his prompt cooperation. Mr. Hansen arrived the following day, and assured me that he would do what was in his power ; but he feared that he should have little success. As an ear- nest of his good-will, he informed me, with a delicate courtesy which made me for the moment wonder if a lordly son of Castile had not wandered to this land of ice, and disguised himself in a seal-skin coat, that his own teams were at my disposal. Beyond this, how- ever, he could neither advise nor command. There LIBERALITY OF THE CHIEF TRADER. 31 was no public stock from which to supply my wants ; and so great and universal had been the ravages of disease among the animals, that many hunters were wholly destitute, and none were in possession of their usual number. He however at once dispatched a cou- rier to Upernavik, and others to various small settle- ments, and thus heralded the news that any hunter who had an extra dog would find a market for it by bringing it forthwith to Proven or Upernavik. This action of the Chief Trader was the more ap- preciated that it was disinterested, and was uncalled for either by any official demands which were laid upon him, or by any special show of dignity or im- portance with which the insignificant schooner lying in the harbor could back up my claims. The State Department at Washington had, at my solicitation, requested from the Danish Government such recogni- tion for me as had been hitherto accorded to the American and English naval expeditions ; but the courteous response which came in the form of a com- mand to the Greenland officials to furnish me with every thing in their power did not reach the settle- ments until the following year. The commands of his Majesty the King could not, however, have stood me in better stead than the gentlemanly instincts of Mr. Hansen. There is little in the history of Proven, either past or present, that will interest the readers of this nar- rative. What there is of it stands on the southern slope of a gneissoid spur which forms the terminus of one of the numerovis islands of the vast archipelago lying between the peninsula of Svarte Huk and Mel- ville Bay. A government-house, one story high and plastered over wdth pitch and tar, is the most conspic- 32 THE SETTLEMENT. nous building in the place. A shop and a lodging* house for a few Danish employees stands next in im- portance. Two or three less imposing structures of the pitch and tar description, inhabited by Danes who have married native women ; a few huts of stone and turf, roofed with boards and overgrown with grass ; about an equal number of like description, but with- out the board roof, and a dozen seal-skin tents, all pitched about promiscuously among the rocks, make up the town. There is a blubber-house down by the beach, and a stunted flag-staff on the hill, from which the Danish Flag gracefully waving in the wind, gave the place a show of dignity. The dignity of civiliza- tion was further preserved by an old cannon which lay on the grass under the flag, and whose rusty throat made the welkin ring as our anchor touched the Greenland rocks. The settlement, or Cohnien, as the Danes distinguish it, dates back almost to the days of good old Hans Egede, and its name, as nearly as can be interpreted, signifies " Experiment ; " and, after the Greenland fashion, a successful experiment it has been. Its peo- ple live, chiefly, by hunting the seal ; and, of all the northern colonies, few have been as prosperous. The collections of oil and skins during some years are sufii- cient to freight a brig of three hundred tons. The place bears ample evidence of the nature of its business. Carcasses of seals and seal's offal lay strewn along the beach, and over the rocks, and among the huts, in every stage of decomposition ; and this, added to every other conceivable accumulation that could exhibit a barbarous contempt for the hu- man nose, made the first few hours of our stay there any thing but comfortable. ARCTIC FLORA. 33 A better prospect, however, greeted us behind the town. A beautiful valley lay there, nestling be- tween the cliffs, and rich in Arctic vegetation. It was covered with a thick turf of moss and grasses, among which the Poa Ardica, Glr/ceria Arctica, and Alo- peciiriis Alpimis were most abundant. In places it was, indeed, a perfect marsh. Little streams of melted snow meandered through it, gurgling among the stones, or dashing wildly over the rocks. Myriads of little golden petaled poppies [Papaver nudicaule) flut- tered over the green. The dandelion [Leontodon pa^ lustre)^ close kindred of the wild flower so well known at home, kept it company ; the buttercup [Rammciilus nivalis), with its smiling, well-remembered face, was sometimes seen ; and the less familiar Potentilla and the purple Pedicularis were dotted about here and there. The saxifrages, purple, white, and yellow, were also very numerous. I gathered not less than seven varieties. The birch and crowberry, and the beautiful Andromeda, the heather of Greenland, grew matted together in a sheltered nook among the rocks ; and, in strange mimicry of Southern richness, the wil- lows feebly struggled for existence on the spongy turf With my cap I covered a whole forest of them. I had been in Proven in 1853, and the place had not changed in the interval. The old ex-trader Chris- tiansen was there, a little older, but not less frugal than before. He complained bitterly of Dr. Kane not having kept his promises to him, and I endeav- ored to mollify his wrath by assuring him that Dr. Kane had lost his vessel and could not return ; but his Ufe had been made unhappy during seven long years by visions of a barrel of American flour, and he would not be comforted. He was scarcely able to 3 34 VALUE OF DOGS. crawl about ; but, when I sent ashore to him the cov- eted treasure, he found strength to break the head out of the cask, to feast his eyes on the long-expected gratuity. His sons, each wdth a brood of Esquimaux visaged, though flaxen-haired children, crowded around the present. My diary records that they were the best hunters in the settlement, and that they had the best teams of dogs ; and it also mentions, with a little chagrin, that they would not sell one of them. I at- tributed this obstinacy, at the time, to their cross old paternal relative ; but there were better reasons than this. They knew by bitter- experience the risks of going into the long winter without an ample supply of dogs to carry them over the ice upon the seal hunt, and to part with their animals was to risk starvation. I offered to give them pork and beef and canned meats, and flour and beans; but they preferred the seal and the excitement of the hunt, and refused to trade. At last the couriers had all come in, bringing un- welcome news. A half-dozen old dogs and a less num ber of good ones were all that I had to console myself for the delay ; but the Chief Trader had returned to Upernavik, from which place I had received more en couraging accounts than from the lower stations. iV'A 111 > < ii. a z < z til Ul cr. O I CHAPTER IV. PPBRNATIK.— HOSPITALITY OF THE INHABITANTS. — DEATH AND BURIAL OP GIBSON CARUTHERS. — A LUNCH ON BOARD. — ADIEU. We put to sea early in the morning of the 12th, and in the evening of the same day were at Uperna- vik. The entrance to the harbor is somewhat unsafe, owing to a reef which Hes outside the anchorage ; but we were fortunate in obtaining a native pilot at Pro- ven, and ran in without accident. This pUot was a character in his way. It seems that he had been con- verted from his heathen ways, and rejoiced in the benefits of baptism and the name of Adam. Dressed in a well-worn suit of seal-skins, Adam had about him little of the sailor trigness ; yet, though not a Palinu- rus, no pilot in all the world had ever a higher appre- ciation of his personal importance. His appearance, however, was not calculated to inspire any great de- gree of confidence in liis skill ; and the sailing-master plied him so incessantly with questions that he at length grew impatient ; and, concentrating his vanity and knowledge into one short sentence, which signi- fied plainly, "I am master of the situation," he in- formed that officer that there was " plenty water all de times, no rocks altogeder," and retired with every mark of offended dignity. He was correct in his in- formation, if not in his English. We found the Danish brig Thialfe lying snugly 36 UPERNAVIK. moored in the harbor, and we anchored close beside her. This was the first vessel we had seen since leav- ing the fishing-smacks off Cape Cod. She was taking in oil and skins for Copenhagen, and her commander, Mr. Bordolf, informed me that he expected to sail in a few days, — a chance, at last, for letters to the anx- ious ones at home. The people of the Colony were already much ex- cited over the arrival of the " Danske skip," and two vessels in the port at once was a sight which they had not for a long time witnessed. The moss-covered hill which slopes from the town to the beach was covered with a motley group of men, women, and children, presenting quite a picturesque appearance as we ap- proached the anchorage. Mr. Hansen received me with true Scandinavian heartiness ; and, escorting me to the governmentr house, introduced me to the retiring Chief Trader, Dr. Rudolph, a very gentlemanly representative of the Danish Army, who was about returning home in the TMalfe. Over a jug of home-brewed beer and a Dutch pipe, we were soon discussing the prospect of obtaining dogs and the state of the ice to the north- ward. Upernavik differs but little in its general appear- ance from Proven. There are a few more huts and a few more inhabitants ; and, from being the residence of the Chief Trader for the " Upernavik district," which includes Proven and its dependencies, it has attached to it something more of importance. Per- haps this is, in a measure, due to a quaint little church and a parsonage. To the parsonage I quickly found my way, for I fancied that from behind the neat mus- lin curtains of its odd little windows I detected a THE PARSONAGE. 37 female face. I tapped at the doorj and was ushered into a cosy little apartment, (the fastidious neatness of which left no doubt as to the sex of its occupants,) by the oddest specimen of woman-kind that ever answered bell. She was a full-blown Esquimau, with coppery complexion and black hair, which was twisted into a knot on the top of her head. She wore a jacket which extended to her waist, seal-skin pantaloons, and boots reaching above the knees, dyed scarlet and em- broidered in a manner that would astonish the girls of Dresden. The room was redolent of the fragrant rose and mignonette and heliotrope, which nestled in the sunlight under the snow-white curtains. A canary chirped on its perch above the door, a cat was purring on the hearth-rug, and an unmistakable gentleman put out a soft white hand to give me welcome. It was the Kev. Mr. Anton, missionary of the place. Mrs. Anton soon emerged from a snug little chamber adjoining. Her sister came in immediately afterward, and we were soon grouped about a home-like table ; a genuine bottle of Lafitte, choice coffee, Danish fare, and Danish heartiness, quickly made us forget the hardships of our cramped life in the little tempest- tossed schooner. My visit to Mr. Anton had, however, an association of much sadness. A valued member of my party, Mr. Gibson Caruthers, had died during the previous night, and I called to ask the missionary to ofl&ciate at the funeral service. His consent was promptly given, and the hour of burial was fixed for the following day. The burial of a companion, at any time painful, was doubly so to us, isolated as we were from the world. The deceased had endeared himself to all on board by 38 AN AECTIC SEPULCHRE. his excellent qualities of head and heart; and the suddenness of his death made the impression upon his late associates all the more keenly felt. He had re- tired the night before in perfect health, and was found dead in his berth next morning. To the expedition he was a serious loss. Besides Mr. Sonntag, he was the only member of my party who had been in the Arctic seas, and I had counted much upon his knowl- edge and intelligence. He had served under De Haven in the First Grinnell Expedition of 1850-51, and had brought home an excellent record for fortitude and daring. The burial-ground at Upernavik is a sad place ''for human sepulture. It lies on the hill-side above the town, and is dreary and desolate past description. It is made up of a series of rocky steps, on which lie, covered over with piles of stones, (for there is no earth,) a few rude coffins, — mournful resting-place for those who sleep here their last sleep in the everlast- ing winter. The body of poor Caruthers lies upon a ledge overlooking the sea, which he loved so well, and the beating surf mil sing for him an eternal requiem. We were detained four days at Upernavik, collect- ing dogs and accumulating the elements of an Arctic wardrobe. This last consisted of reindeer, seal, and dog skins, a quantity of which had been obtained at Proven, and placed in the hands of the native women, to be converted into suitable garments. The boots required the longest time to manufacture. They are oaade of tanned seal-skin, sewed with sinew, and are "crimped" and fitted to the foot in a very ingenious manner. When properly made they are perfectly water-proof The boot worn by the half civilized na- tive women is really a pretty as well as serviceable POPULATIO^N" OF UPERNAVIK. 39 piece of cunning needlework. The tanned seal-skin, by alternate freezing and thawing, and exposure to the sun, becomes perfectly bleached, and in that con- dition is readily stained wdth any color which woman's caprice may suggest, or the Chief Trader may happen to have in his store-room. The women of Greenland are not exempt from the graceful vanities of other lands. They are fond of gay colors, and do not dis- dain admiration. Ked boots, or white, trimmed with red, seemed to be most in vogue, though, indeed, there is no more an end to the variety than there is to the strangeness of the fancy which suggests it. It would be difl&cult to imagine a more ludicrous sight than was presented by the crowd of red and yellow and white and purple and blue legged women who crowded along the beach as we entered the harbor. The population of Upernavik numbers about two hundred souls, comprising about twenty Danes, and a larger number of half-breeds, the remainder being na- tive Greenlanders, that is, Esquimaux. I shall have more to say of them hereafter, my purpose now being to carry the reader as rapidly as possible to the scene of our explorations. He may indeed have as much anxiety to get away from Upernavik as I had. Through the kindness of Mr. Hansen, I obtained here three native hunters, and also an interpreter. Tliis latter had taken passage by the Thialfe for Co- penhagen, but he could not withstand the tempting offer which I made him, and he quickly transferred himself from the Danish brig to our crowded cabin. He was a hearty, strong man, had lived in Green- land for ten years ; and, being more than usually in- telhgent, had picked up on board the English whale- ehips a sufficient knowledge of the English language 40 NEW RECRUITS. to insure his being a very useful member of my party in the event of our falling in with Esquimaux, with whose language he was perfectly familiar. Besides, he was an excellent hunter and dog-driver; and, by joining me, I secured his team of dogs, the finest in all North Greenland. But unfortunately this involved another halt, for they were sixty miles up the coast, at Tessuissak, a small hunting station of which he was Trader at the time of obtaining his leave of absence to go home for the year. I also shipped two Danish sailors, thus increasing my party to twenty souls. As the new recruits will figure frequently in these pages, I- give their names : — Peter Jensen, Interpreter and dog-manager. Carl Emil Olswig, Sailor. Carl Christian Petersen, Sailor and Carpenter. Peter (converted Esquimau), Hunter and dog-driver. Marcus, " '' a a Jacob, " " « *' I owe much to the kindly disposition of the inhab- itants of Upernavik. Their simple though cordial hospitality was a refreshing incident of our cruise ; and the constant desire to supply my wants, and the pains which they took to furnish what I so much needed, is gratefully remembered. If those in author- ity had allowed me to shift for myself I should have been badly off indeed. I mention it to their credit that they refused compensation of every kind ; and it was not without great effort that I could prevail upon any of them to accept so much as a barrel of flour or a box of canned food. " You will want them more than we," was the uniform answer. The Chief Trader actually sent aboard a present I had made him in re- turn for the line team of dogs which I owed to his generosit}^ A LUNCH ON BOARD. 4l It was in some measure to show my appreciation of the spirit which prompted these warm-hearted peo- ple that I resolved to signalize our departure with a lunch to the representatives of King Frederick the Seventh, at this most northern outpost of Christian settlement. Accordingly I sent my secretary, Mr. Knorr, out with some formal-looking invitations, got- ten up in all the dignity of Parisian paper and rose- scented wax. He came back in a few hours with three couples. Two of the ladies were from the par- sonage ; the other was the wife of the Chief Trader. Dr. Rudolph, Mr. Hansen, and the missionary, were their escorts. The master of the Thialfe was already on board. Meanwhile our old Swedish cook had gone half crazy, and the steward kept him company. To pre- pare a lunch for ladies in these high latitudes was not within their conception of the hard-fisted require- ments of exploration dignity. They " could Twt un- derstand it." The steward contrived, however, to stow away in the bunks the seal-skins which encum- bered the cabin, and thus got rid of all our Greenland rubbish but the odor. But it was not until the clean white table-cloth, which he produced from some out- of-the-way locker, was covered with the smoking dishes which his ingenuity had contrived, that his face was lit up with any thing approaching the kindly. Being, however, in a general way a mild-mannered man, his ferocious looks did not materially affect the progress of the preparations ; and the solemn face with which he predicted, in great confidence, to the cook that •^ such folly would bring us all to ruin, indeed it would," at length wore a ghastly smile, and finally exhibited decided manifestations of a forgiving dis- 42 A LUNCH ON BOARD. position. Indeed, he was in the end very proud of his " spread." In truth, the spread was a very creditable affair. The contents of our hermetically sealed cans furnished a welcome variety to these dwellers in the land of seals ; the lakes of Greenland supplied some noble salmon, and my lockers contributed something from sunny France and golden Italy, and the materials for an excellent punch from Santa Cruz. At first we got on badly with the conversation, but by and by Eng- Hsh, Danish, German, and bad Latin became mixed harmoniously together like the ingredients of the punch ; healths were drunk, — to the King, to the President, to all good fortune, to ourselves, and speeches were made, in which were duly set forth the glorious memories of the children of Odin. The merriment was waxing warm. Some one, stimulated perhaps by a recent tribute of praise to the valiant Harold and the Eussian Maiden, and the fights and loves of the vikings generally, had just proposed that best toast of the sailor, " sweethearts and wives," and obtained a fitting response, when the heavy thump of a pair of mammoth sea-boots was heard on the companion-ladder, and the master's mate broke in upon us like the ghost of Banquo. " The officer of the deck directs me to report, sir, tha,t the dogs are all aboard, sir, and that he is hove short on the anchor, as ordered, sir." " How 's the wind ? " " Light, and southerly, sir." There was no help for it. The guests must be got away. The ladies' " things " were hunted up ; the la- dies themselves were hurried over the gangway into the boat ; Dr. Rudolph took charge of our letters, FAREWELL TO UPERNAVIK. 43 promising to deliver them to the American consul at Copenhagen ; " click, click," went the windlass ; up went our white wings, and the last Hnk which bound us to the world — the world of love and warm skies and green meadows — was fairly broken, when we caught from the hill-top the last glimpse of a gay ribbon and the last flutter of a white handkerchief. .^^"^ CHAPTER V. AMONG THE ICEBERGS. — DANGERS OP ARCTIC NAVIGATION. — A NARROW ESCAPE FROM A CRUMBLING BERG. — MEASUREMENT OF AN ICEBERG. Upernavik is not less the limit of safe navigation than the remotest boundary of civiUzed existence. The real hardships of our career commenced before its Httle white gabled church was fairly lost against the dark hills behind it. A heavy line of icebergs was dis- covered to lie across our course ; and, having no alter- native, we shot in among them. Some of them proved to be of enormous size, upwards of two hundred feet in height and a mile long ; others were not larger than the schooner. Their forms were as various as their dimensions, from soUd wall-sided masses of dead whiteness, with waterfalls tumbling from them, to an old weather-worn accumulation of gothic spires, whose crystal peaks and sharp angles melted into the blue sky. They seemed to be endless and numberless, and so close together that at a little distance they ap- peared to form upon the sea an unbroken canopy of ice ; and when fairly in among them the horizon was completely obliterated. Had we been in the centre of the Black Forest, we could not have been more ab- solutely cut off from " seeing daylight." As the last streak of the horizon faded from view between the lofty bergs behind us, the steward (who was of a po- etical turn of mind) came from the galley, and halting AMONG THE ICEBERGS. 45 rbr an instant, cast one lingering look at the opening, and then dropped through the companion scuttle, re- peating from the " Inferno " : — " They who enter here leave hope behind." The officers were calling from below for their coffee, and it was never discovered w^hether the steward was thinking of the cabin or the icebergs. During four days we continued threading our way through this apparently interminable labyrinth. The days passed wearily away, for the wind, at best but a *^ cat's paw," often died away to a dead calm, leaving us to lounge through the hours in a chilly fog or in the broad blaze of the constant daylight. If this state of things had its novelty, it had too its dangers and anxieties. The bergs, injfluenced onl}^ by the under-currents, were, to us, practically stationary ; and the surface flow of the Vv^ater which drifted us to and fro, when we lost our steerage-way, rendered our situation any thing but safe. They soon came to be looked upon as our natural enemies, and were eyed with suspicion. We were often drifted upon them, and escaped not without difficulty and alann ; and many times more we saved ourselves from collision by the timely low- ering of the boats and taking the schooner in tow, or by planting an ice-anchor in another berg and warp- ing ourselves into greater security. Sometimes we tied up to a berg and w^aited for the wind. We had hard v>^ork, and made little progress. I found con- solation, however, in my sketch-book, which was in constant use ; and one fine day I got out my photo graphic apparatus. Landing on a neighboring island, with the aid of my two young assistants, RadcHflfe and 46 PIIOTOGRAPHIXG Knorr, I made my first trial at this new business. It was altogether unsatisfactory, except to convince me that, with perseverance, we might succeed in obtain- ing at least fair pictures. Practically I knew nothing whatever of the art. It was a great disappointment to me that I could not secure for the expedition the services of a professional photographer ; but this deficiency did not, I am happy to say, prevent me, in the end, from obtaining some views characteristic of the rugged beauties of the Arc- tic landscape. We had, however, only books to guide us. With our want of knowledge and an uncomfort- able temperature to contend with, we labored under serious disadvantages. Sonntag went ashore with me, and obtained good sextant sights for our position, and some useful results with the magnetometer. Knorr added to my collec- tion some fine specimens of birds. The gulls, mol- limuks and burgomeisters, the chattering kittiwake and the graceful tern were very numerous. They fairly swarmed upon the bergs. The hunters were often out after eider-ducks, large flocks of which con- gregate upon the islands, and sweep over us in long undulating lines. Seals, too, were sporting about the vessel, bobbing their intelligent, almost human-looking fixces up and down in the still water, marks for the fatal rifles of our sportsmen. They looked so curi- ously innocent while making their inspections of us that I would not have had the heart to kill them, were it not that they were badly needed for the dogs. We led a strange weird sort of life, — a spice of danger, with much of beauty and a world of magnifi- cence. I should have found pleasure in the lazy hours, but that each hour thus spent was one taken from my JN DANGER. 47 Liore serious purposes, and this reflection made the days irksome to me. Four days of ahnost constant cahn would tax the patience of even Job-like resignation. We had a breath of wind now and then to tantalize us, treach- erous currents to keep us ever anxious, icebergs al- ways threatening us ; now at anchor, then moored to a berg, and again keeping free from danger through a hard struggle with the oars. We had many narrow escapes, one of which, as illustrating a peculiar feature of Arctic navigation, is perhaps worthy of more par- ticular record. We had made a little progress during the night, but soon after breakfast the wind died away, and the schooner lay like a log upon the water. Giving too little heed to the currents, we were eagerly watching the indications of wind which appeared at the south, ^nd hoping for a breeze, when it was discovered that the tide had changed, and was stealthily setting us upon a nest of bergs which lay to leeward. One of them was of that description known among th(3 crew by the significant title of " Touch me not," and presented that jagged, honey-combed appearance in dicative of great age. They are unpleasant neigh bors. The least disturbance of their equilibrium may cause the w^hole mass to crumble to pieces, and w^oe be unto the unlucky vessel that is caught in the dis- solution. In such a trap it seemed, however, that w^e stood a fair chance of being ensnared. The current was car- rying us along at an uncomfortably rapid rate. A boat was lowered as quickly as possible, to run out a fine to a berg which lay grounded about a hundred yards from us. While this was being done, we grazed 48 FIGHTING AN ICEBERG. the side of a berc^ which rose a hundred feet above our topmasts, then slipped past another of smaller dimensions. By pushing against them with our ice- poles we changed somew^iat the course of the schoon- er ; but w^hen we thought that w^e were steering clear of the mass w^hich we so much dreaded, an eddy changed the direction of our drift, and carried us al- most broadside upon it. The schooner struck on the starboard quarter, and the shock, slight though it was, disengaged some frag- ments of ice that were large enough to have crushed the vessel had they struck her, and also many little hunps wdiich rattled about us ; but fortunately no per- son was hit. The quarter-deck wTiS quickly cleared, and all hands, crowding forward, anxiously watched the boat. The bero^ now beo^an to revolve, and was settling slowly over us ; the little lumps fell thicker and faster upon the after-deck, and the forecastle was t])e only place where there was the least chance of safetv. At leno^th the bero; itself saved us from destruction. An immense mass broke off from that part which w^as l)eneatli the surface of the sea, and this, a dozen times larger than the schooner, came rushing up within a few vards of us, sendin^: a vast volume of foam and water tlying from its sides. This rupture arrested the revo- kition, and the bei*g l^egan to settle in the opposite direction. And now came another danger. A long tongue was protruding immediately underneath the schooner ; already the keel w^as slipping and grinding upon it, and it seemed probable that we should be knocked up into the air like a foot-ball, or at least capsized. The side of our enemy soon leaned from us, and we were in no danger from the worse than hail- PULLING FOR LIFE. d9 BcOne-showers which had driven us forward ; so we sprang to the ice-poles, and exeited our strength in endeavoring to push the vessel ofl. There were no idle hands. Danger respects not the dignity of the quarter-deck. After we had fatigued ourselves at this hard labor without any useful result, the berg came again to our relief A loud report first startled us ; another and another followed in quick succession, until the noi.^e grew deafening, and the whole air seemed a reservoir of frightful sound. The opposite side of the bei'g had split oif, piece after piece, tumbling a vast volume of ice into the sea, and sending the berg revolving back upon us. This time the movement was quicker ; frag- ments began again to fall ; and, already sufficiently startled by the alarming dissolution whicii had taken place, we were in momentary expectation of seeing the whole side nearest to us break loose and crash bodily upon the schooner, in which event she would inevitably be carried down beneath it ; as hopelessly doomed as a shepherd's hut beneath an Alpine ava- lanche. By this time Dodge, who had charge of the boat, had succeeded in planting an ice-anchor and attaching his rope, and greeted us with the welcome signal, ^•' Haul in!' We pulled for our lives, long and steadily. Seconds seemed minutes, and minutes hours. At length we began to move off. Slowly and steadily sank the berg behind us, carrying away the main- boom, and grazing hard against the quarter. But we were safe. Twenty yards away, and the disruption occurred which we had all so much dreaded. The side nearest to us now split off, and came plunging wildly down into the sea, sending over us a shower of spray, bO CRUMBLING ICEBERGS raising a swell which set us rocking to and fro as if in a gale of wind, and left us grinding in the debris of the crumbling ruin. At last we succeeded in extricating ourselves, and were far enough away to look bade calmly upon the object of our terror. It was still rocking and rolling like a thing of life. At each revolution fresh masses were disengaged ; and, as its sides came up in long sweeps, great cascades tumbled and leaped from them hissing into the foaming sea. After several hours it settled down into quietude, a mere fragment of its for- mer greatness, while the pieces that were broken from it floated quietly away with the tide. Whether it was the waves created by the dissolu- tion which I have just described, or the sun's warm rays, or both combined, I cannot pretend to say, but the day was filled with one prolonged series of reports of crumbling icebergs. Scarcely had we been moored in safety when a very large one about two miles dis- tant from us, resembling in its general appearance th^ British House of Parliament, began to go to pieces. First a lofty tower came plunging into the water, starting from their inhospitable perch an immense Hock of gulls, that went screaming up into the air; over went another ; then a whole side settled squarely down ; then the wreck capsized, and at length after five hours of roUing and crashing, there remained of this splendid mass of congelation not a fragment that rose fifty feet above the water. Another, which ap- peared to be a mile in length and upwards of a hun- dred feet in height, split in two with a quick, sharp, and at length long rumbling report, which couki haidly have been exceeded by a thousand pieces of artillery simultaneously discharged, and the two frag- EFFECTS OF DISSOLUTION. 51 ments kept wallowing in the sea for hours before they came to rest. Even the berg to which we were moored chimed in with the infernal concert, and dis- charged a corner larger than St. Paul'.s Cathedral. No woi'ds of mine can adequately describe the din and noise which filled our ears during the few hours succeeding the encounter which I have narrated, and therefore I borrow from the '* Ancient Mariner " : — " The ice was here, The ice was there, The ice was all around ; It creaked and growled, And roared and howled Like demons in a swound." It seemed, indeed, as if old Thor himself had taken a holiday, and had come away from his kingdom of Thrudwanger and liis Winding Palace of ^\e hun- dred and forty halls, and had crossed the mountains with his chariot and he-goats, armed with his mace of strength, and girt about with his belt of prowess, and wearing his gauntlets of iron, for the purpose of knocking these Giants of the frost to right and left for his own special amusement. It is, however, only at this season of the year that the bergs are so unneighborly. They are rarely known to break up except in the months of July and August. It must be then o\ving to an unevenly heated condition of the interior and exterior, caused by the sun's warm rays playing upon them. From the sunny side of a berg I have not unfrequently seen pieces discharged in a line almost horizontal, with great force, and vdth an explosive report like a quar- ryman's blast. -These explosions and the crumbling of the ice are always attended with a cloud of vapor 62 BEAUTIES OF THE ICEBERGS. no doubt caused by the colder ice of the interior being brought suddenly in contact with the warmer air. The effect is often very remarkable as well as beauti- ful, especially when the cloud reflects the rays of the sun. If, however, my pen cannot convey a picture of these icebergs in their more terrible aspects, it will, I fear, be equally impotent to portray their wondrous beauties. I have tried it once before, and was much dissatisfied with the result. I had then, however, a soft sky, when the whole heavens were a mass of rich, warm color, the sea a dissolved rainbow, and the bergs great floating monoliths of malachite and marble bathed in flame. Now the sky was gray, the air clear, and the ice everywhere a dead white or a cold trans- parent blue. I clambered up the sloping side of the berg to which we were tied, and, from an elevation of nearly two hundred feet, obtained a view which well repaid me for the trouble of the venture. I am glad to say, however, that I came down again before St. Paul's Cathedral tumbled from its corner ; an event which sent us drifting away to a less uncomfortable neigh- borhood, at the expense of an ice-anchor and eighty fathoms of manilla line. As I approached the berg, I was struck with the remarkable transparency of the water. Looking over the gunwale of the boat, I could trace the ice stretch- ing downward apparently to an interminable distance. Looking back at the schooner, its reflection was a per- fect image of itself, and it required only the separation of it from the surrounding objects to give to the mind the impression that two vessels, keel takeel, were float- ing in mid-air. This singular transparency of the water VIEW FROM AN ICEBERG. 53 was further shown when I had reached the top of the berg. Off to the southeast a high rocky bhiff threw its dark shadow upon the water, and the dividing hne between sunlight and shade was so marked that it re- quired an effort to dispel the illusion that the margin of sunlight was not the edge of a flithomless abyss. It is difficult for the mind to comprehend the im- mense quantity of ice which floated upon the sea around me. To enumerate the separate bergs was impossible. I counted five hundred, and gave up in despair. Near by they stood out in all the rugged harshness of their sharp outlines ; and from this, soft- ening with the distance, they melted away into the clear gray sky ; and there, far off upon the sea of liquid silver, the imagination conjured up effigies both strange and wonderful. Birds and beasts and human forms and architectural designs took shape in the dis- tant masses of blue and white. The dome of St. Pe- ter's loomed above the spire of Old Trinity ; and under the shadow of the Pyramids nestled a Byzantine tower and a Grecian temple. To the eastw^ard the sea was dotted with little islets, — dark specks upon a brilliant surface. Icebergs, great and small, crowded through the channels which divided them, until in the far distance they appeared massed together, terminating against a snow-covered plain that sloped upward until it was lost in a dim line of bluish whiteness. This line could be traced behind the serrated coast as far to the north and south as the eye would carry. It was the great mer de ghee which covers the length and breadth of the Greenland Continent. The snow-covered slope was a glacier descending therefrom, — the parent stem from which had been discharged, at irregular intervals, 54 TESSUISS'AK. many of the icebergs which troubled us so much, and which have suppHed materials for this too long de- scription. At length a strong breeze came moaning among the bergs, and sent us on our way rejoicing. In the evening of August 21st we were moored in a little harbor scarcely large enough for the schooner to turn round. We lay abreast of a rocky slope on which were j^itched a few seal-skin tents, inhabited by a set of well-to-do-looking Esquimaux. I noticed two or three native huts, overgrown with moss and grass, and one, better looking than the rest, in which Jensen, my interpreter, informed me that he had resided. The place is called Tessuissak, which means "the place where there is a bay." Sonntag went ashore with his sextant and "horizon," to find out its exact position in the world, an event which had not before come to pass in its history, and which I fear was not duly ap- preciated by its inhabitants. We should have been away in a couple of hours ; but Jensen discovered that his team was scattered, and many of the animals could not be found until after much searching. Meanwhile some ice drifted across the mouth of the harbor, and hermetically sealed us up. At last the dogs were all aboard, something over thirty in number. The poor ones I had either given aw^ay or exchanged, and we had four superb teams Thirty wild beasts on the deck of a little schooner ! Think of it, ye who love a quiet life and a tidy ship ! Some of them were in cages arranged along the bul- warks ; others running about the deck ; all of them badly frightened, and most of them fighting. They made day and night hideous with their incessant hcwlinfc. MEASUREMENT OF AN ICEBERG. 55 We were all ready for sea, and impatient to be off! Oar Arctic wardrobe was complete with a few pur- chases made of the natives in exchange for pork and beans. We were thoroughly prepared for the ice en- counters. The lines were all neatly and carefully coiled ; the ice-anchors and ice-hooks and ice-saws and ice-chisels and ice-poles were all so placed that they were within easy reach when wanted. The capstan and windlass were free, and Dodge, who had not forgotten his naval experience, reported " the decks cleared for action." Would the tide float away the ice and let us out ? I w^as growing very restless. The season was mov- ing on ; already ice begfin to foi'm ; the temperature was below freezing. The nights made a decided scum on the fresh-water pools. I could count upon only fifteen days of open season. The Fox was frozen up in the '^pack" on the 26th of August, 1857, only four days later, notwithstanding her advantage of steam- power. I did every thing I could to while away the tedium of this detention. I tried the photographic appara- tus, and with less satisfactory results than before. I tried dredging, without much to show for it ; botaniz- ing, and found nothing which I had not already in my Proven and Upernavik collections. The flowers warned me of the approach of winter. The petals had begun to fall, and their drooping heads wore a melancholy look. They seemed to be pleading with the chilly air for a little longer lease of life. One thing only w^as satisfactorily done. An im mense iceberg lay off the harbor, and I had the meas- urement of it in my note-book, and a sketch of it in my portfolio. The square wall which faced toward my 56 HEADING FOR MELVILLE BAY. base of measurement was three hundred and fifteen feet liigh, and a fraction over three quarters of a mile long. The natives told me that it had been grounded for two years. Being almost square-sided above the sea, the same shape must have extended beneath it ; and since, by measurements made two days before, I had discovered that fresh-v^ater ice floating in salt water has above the surface to below it the proportion of one to seven, this crystalized piece of Eric's Greenland had stranded in a depth of nearly half a mile. A rude estimate of this monster, made on the spot, gave me in cubical contents about twenty-seven thousand mil- lions of feet, and in weight something like two thou- sand millions of tons. I leave the reader to calculate for himself its equivalent in dollars and cents, were it transported to the region of ice-creams and sherry- cobblers, and how much of it would be required to pay off the national debt, and how much more than half a century it would withstand the attacks of the whole civilized world upon it, for all those uses to which luxury-loving man puts the skimmings of the Boston ponds. The tide at length carried off the ice which impris- oned us, and in the evening of the 2 2d we were again threading our way among the bergs and islands. Cape Shackleton and the Horse's Head lay off the starboard bow, and we were shaping our course for Melville Bay. CHAPTER YI. ■NTERING MELVILLE BAY. —THE MIDDLE ICE. —THE GREAT POLAR CURRENT — A SNOW STOILM —ENCOUNTER \Vl'£ll AN ICEBERG. -MAKING CAPE YORK -RESCUE OF HANS. The Sim was now no longer above the horizon at midnight, and the nights were growing gloomy, a cir- cnnistance which warned ns to additional carefulness. Notwithstanding our precautions, we narrowly es- caped running upon a sunken reef which lies off the Horse's Head, and is not laid down on the chart. We came also among some ice-fields, the first that we had yet encountered. The waves were rolling in threat- eningly from the southwest, and the ice, tossing madly upon them, gave us an uncomfortable sense of insecu- rity ; but we escaped into clear water after receiving a few thumns v/hich did no material damao:e to our solid bows. Bv eio^ht o'clock in the mornino; we had Wilcox Point clea,rly in view, and the Devil's Thumb loomed above a light cloud which floated along its base. Be- fore us lay Melville Ba}^ Climbing to the fore-yard. I swept the horizon with my glass ; — there was no ice in sight except here and there a vagrant berg. To the westward an "ice-blink" showed us that the " pack " lay there ; but before us all was clear, — notli- ing in sight but the " swelling and limitless billows." No discovery of my life ever gave me greater grat- ification. The fortunes of the expedition were, at 58 MELVILLE BAY. least for the present year, dependent upon an open season, and my most sanguine anticipations did not equal the apparent reality. In order that the reader may appreciate, in some measure, the satisfaction which I took in the prospect that opened before me, it is necessary that I should^ here pause to give a general description of the region we were about to traverse, and an explanation of the physical conditions which made this portion of the Greenland waters of such conspicuous importance in the destinies of our voyage. The shores of Melville Bay, as laid down on the maps, appear as a simple curved line of the Greenland coast ; but the Melville Bay of the geographer com- prehends much less than that of the mariner. The whalers have long called by that name the expansion of Baffin Bay which begins at the south with the " middle ice," and terminates at the north with the "North Water." The North Water is sometimes reached near Cape York, in latitude 76°, but more frequently higher up; and the "middle ice," which is more generally known as "the pack," sometimes stretches down to the Arctic Circle. This pack is made up of drifting ice-floes, varying in extent from feet to miles, and in thickness from inches to fathoms. These masses are sometimes pressed close together, having but little or no open space between them ; and sometimes they are widely separated, depending upon the conditions of the wind and tide. They are always more or less in motion, drifting to the north, south, east, or west, with the winds and currents. The penetration of this barrier is usually an undertaking of weeks or months, and is ordinarily attended with much risk. THE MIDDLE ICE. 51=) Since the days when Baffin first penetrated these waters, in the Discovery, a vessel of fifty-eight tons bur- den, (it was in the year 1616,) a fleet of whale-ships has annually run this gauntlet. The fleet was once large, numbering upwards of a hundred sail ; but of latter years it has been reduced to less than one tenth of its former magnitude. Great though the danger, it has always been a favorite route of the whale fishers. Many a stout ship has gone down with her sides mer- cilessly crushed in by the " thick-ribbed ice ; " but those vessels which escape disaster almost uniformly return home with holds well filled with the blubber and oil of unlucky whales whose evil destiny led them to frequent the waters about Lancaster Sound, Pond's Bay, and the coasts below. The " middle ice " is always more or less in motion, and is never tightly closed up, even in midwinter. Of this we have abundant proof in the fate of the Steamer Fox, which was caught towards the close of the autumn, and released in the spring, after a peril- ous winter drift, down near the Arctic Circle. As the summer advances, it becomes more and more broken up \ and, little by little, the solid land-belt, which is known as the "fast" or "land -ice," is encroached upon. Of this, however, there usually remains a nar- row strip up to the close of the season. To it the whalers cling most tenaciously, and the exploring ves- sels have usually followed their example, taking al- ways the last crack that has opened, or, as they call it, the " in-shore lead." They have naturally a great horror of being caught in the " pack." The " fast " gives them security if the wind brings the ice down upon them from the westward, for they can always saw a dock for their ships in the solid ice, or find a 60 THE GREAT POLAR CURRENT. bight ill which to moor the vessel. They have always, too, the advantage of being able, when the ice is loose and there is no wind, to tow their vessel along its margin witji the crew, steam being rarely used by the whalers. The currents have much to do with the formation of this barrier. The great Polar Current coming down through the Spitzbergen Sea along the eastern coast of Greenland, laden with its heavy freight of ice, and bringing from the rivers of Siberia a meagre supply of drift-wood to the Greenland ers, sweeps around Cape Farewell and flows northward as far as Cape York, where it is deflected to the vv^estward. Joining here the ice-encumbered current which comes from the Arctic Ocean through Smith, Jones, and Lancaster Sounds, it flows thence southward, past Labrador and Newfoundland, receives on its way an accession of strength from Hudson Strait, wedges itself in between the Gulf Stream and the shore, gives cool, refreshing waters to the bathers of Newport and Long Branch, and is finally lost ofl" the Capes of Florida. Now it will readily be seen, by the most casual glance at any map of Baflin Bay, that this movement of the current forms, where the middle ice is found, n sort of slow-moviug whirlpool, and this it is which locks up the ice and prevents its more rapid move- ment southward. It will also be readily understood that, by the end of August, the pack has been very materially shorn of its dimensions. The sun above and the waters beneath have both eaten it away, until uuich of it has disappeared altogether, and all of it has become more or less rotten. The month of Au- gust is necessarily the most favorable period of the year for the navigation of this sea, so far as concerns A SXOW-STORM. 61 the ice ; but the whiter is then near at hand, and pre- sents a serious source of danger ; for if the ice once closes around you, the first fall of temperature may g-lue vou fast for the next ten months to come. The whalers usually take the pack in May or June, and even sometimes earlier, when the ice is hard and is just beginning to break up. When we entered Melville Bay there were but eight days remaining to us of the month of August. I had to regret the loss of time at the settlements ; but this was unavoidable. Before leaving Upernavik I had resolved upon the course w^hich I w^ould pursue, — to take the pack whenever we should find it, enter it at the most favorable opening, and, without looking for the land ice, to make the most direct line for Cape York. It was much in our favor that the wind had prevailed for many days from the eastward, and had apparently pushed the whole pack over toward the American side, opening for us a clear, broad expanse of water. Would it so remain, and give us a free passage to Cape York ? I have already said that I saw its reflection over the clouds, — the " ice-blink " to the westward. It was not far away. Would it remain so ? While reflecting upon the chances ahead the wind rose, and blew^ half a gale. A heavy sea was getting up behind us. A dark cloud, which had hung upon the southern horizon for some time, came climbing up the sky, and at length spreading itself out in flying fragments, it shook over us a shower of frozen vapor, and then settled into a regular snow storm. Unable to see fifty yards on either side, I came down from my uncomfortable perch on the fore-yard. It became now a subject for serious consideration 62 AN ANXIOUS NIGHT. whether we should contmue on m our course, or heave to and wait for better weather. In either case we were exposed to much risk. By heaving to, the ves- sel would not be under command ; and, drifting through the gloom, we stood a fair chance of settling ujDou a stray berg or upon the ice-fields which we had every reason to suppose would, sooner or later, ob- struct our progress ; besides, and it was not an unim- portant consideration, we lost a fine wind. On the other hand, by holding on, although we had the ves- sel under control, there was an even chance that, in the event of ice lying in our course, we would not be able to see it through the thick atmosphere in time to avoid it. The question was, however, quickly decided. Preferring that danger which had some energy in it, I reefed every thing down, pointed the schooner's head for Cape York, and went at it. I paced the deck in much anxiety of mind. We were traversing a sea which no keel had ever plowed before without meeting ice, and why should better for- tune be in store for our little craft. The air was so thick that I could sometimes barely see the lookout on the forecastle ; then again it would lighten up, and, underneath the broad canopy of dark vapors, which seemed to be supported by the icebergs that here and there appeared, I could see a distance of several miles. Then again the air became thick with the falling snow and rattling hail ; the wind whistled through the rig- ging, and all the while the heavy waves were rolling up behind us, deluging the decks, and threatening to swallow us up. I shall not soon forget our first ten hours in Melville Bay. At length, after a few hours of this wild running, my ear, which was keenly alive to every impression, ENCOUNTER WITH AN ICEBERG. 63 caught the sound of breakers. The lookout gave the alarm a moment afterward. " Where away ? " " I can't make out, sir." The sound came from an ol)ject which was evidently near at hand, but no one could tell where. A few mo- ments more, and the loom of an iceberg appeared in our course. There was no time for reflection, and it was too late for action. To haul the schooner by the wind was to insure our plunging broadside upon it ; and so indistinct was the object that w^e knew not which way to steer. We could not see either end of it or its top, — nothing but a white shimmer and a Ime of angry surf. I have always found inaction to be a sjife course when one does not know what to do ; and in the pres- ent case that course saved us. Had I obeyed my first impulse, and put the helm up, we should have gone straight to ruin ; as it. was, we slipped past the ugly monster, barely escaping a collision which, had it oc- curred, would have been instantly fatal to the vessel, and of course to every one on board. The fore-yard actually grazed its side, and the surf was throw^n back upon us from the white wall. In a few moments the berg was swallowed up in the gloom from which it had so suddenly emerged. "A close shave, that ! " said cool-headed Dodge. "Yer — very close," answered Starr, much as if he had just received the first shock of a shower- bath. The old cook was called out of his galley to lend a hand, and in the midst of the excitement he was heard to growl out, " 1 don't see how I 's to get de gentle- mens' dinner ready if I 's to be called out of my galley 64 CAPE YORK IN SIGHT. in dis way to pull and haul on de ropes." He did not seem to have a thought that there was, a moment before, very little expectation on the part of "de gentlemens " that any of them would have further occasion for his services. This adventure inspired the crew with greater confidence. I suppose they thought that, as two cannon-balls never strike in the same spot, another iceberg would not very likely lie in our course ; and so it fell out. The cry of " breakers " was often heard from the forecastle-deck, but in the end the sound proved to come from off the bow, and we passed on unharmed. At length the wind blew itself out, the snow ceased falling, the clouds broke, the sun shone out brightly, and we lay becalmed not far from the centre of Mel- ville Bay. The snow and ice were shovelled from the deck and beaten from the ris^o-ino;. I went aloft ao'ain wuth my glass. There were no ice-fields in sight, but the reflection of them was still visible in the skv to the westward. The sea was dotted over w^ith icebersrs, and it seemed wonderful that we should have passed safely between them. One near b}'^ particulary excited my admiration. It was a perfect " triumphal arch," through which the schooner might have passed with perfect ease. The schooner lay motionless during the night, but earl}^ in the morning a fair wind sent us again upon our course, and this wind held steadily through the day. Icebergs rose before us and set behind us in solemn procession. My journal designates them as '' mile- stones of the ocean." The lofty, snow-croA\Tied high- lands behind Cape York rose at length above tho IN THE NORTH WATER. 65 horizon, and the bold, dark- sided cape itself was, after a while, seen " advancing in the bosom of the sea." We did not meet any field-ice until near noon of the 25th. I had been aloft in anxious watching dur- ing ahnost all of the whole preceding day and night ; but when I had made up my mind that we should clear Melville Bay without a single brush with the enemy, a line of whiteness revealed itself in the dis- tance. We were not long in reaching it, and, select- ing the most conspicuous opening, forced our way through. It proved to be only a loose " pack " about fifteen miles wide, and, under a full pressure of can- vas, we experienced little difficulty in -' boring " it. And now we were in the " North Water." We had passed Melville Bay in fifty-five hours. Standing close in under Cape York, 1 kept a careful lookout for natives. The readers of the narrative of Dr. Kane may remember that that navigator took with him from one of the southern settlements of GreenLuid a native hunter, who, after adhering to the fortunes of the expedition through nearly two years, abandoned it, (as reported,) for a native bride, to live with the wild Esquimaux who inhabit the shores of the headw^aters of Baffin Bay. This boy was named Hans. Anticipating that, growing tired of his self imposed banishment, he would take up his residence at Cape York, with the hope of being picked up by some friendly ship, I ran in to seek him. Passing along the coast at rifie-shot I soon discovered a group of human being-s makino- sio^ns to attract attention. Heaving the vessel to, I went ashore in a boat, and there, sure enough, was the object of my search. He quickly recognized Sonntag and myself, and called u? by name. 6 66 AX ESQUIMAU FAMILY. Six years' experience among the wild men of this barren coast had brought him to their level of filthy ugliness. His companions were his wife, who carried her first-born in a hood upon her back ; her brother, a bright-eyed boy of twelve years, and "an ancient dame mtli voluble and flippant tongue," her mother. They were all dressed in skins, and, being the first Esquimaux we had seen whose habits remained wholly uninfluenced by contact with civilization, they were, naturally, objects of much interest to us all. Hans led us up the hill-side, over rough rocks and through deep snow-drifts, to his tent. It was pitched about two hundred feet above the level of the sea, in a most inconvenient position for a hunter; but it was his "lookout." Wearily he had watched, year after year, for the hoped-for vessel ; but summer after sum- mer passed and the vessel came not, and he still sighed for his southern home and the friends of his youth. His tent was a sorry habitation. It was made after the Esquimau fashion, of seal-skins, and was barely large enough to hold the little family who were grouped about us. I asked Hans if he would go with us. " Yes ! " Would he take liis wife and bal^y. " Yes ! " Would he go v/ithout them. "Yes!" • Having no leisure to examine critically into the state of his mind, and having an impression that the permanent separation of husband and wife is regarded as a painful event, I gave the Esquimau mother the benefit of this conventional suspicion, and. brought them both aboard, with their baby and their tent and KESCUE OF HANS. 67 all their household goods. The old woman and bright- eyed boy cried to be taken along ; but I had no fur- ther room, and we had to leave them to the care of the remainder of the tribe, who, about twenty in number, had discovered the vessel, and came shout- ing gleefully over the hill. After distributing to them some useful presents, we pushed off for the schooner. Hans was the only unconcerned person in the party. I subsequently thought that he would have been quite as well pleased had I left his wife and child to the protection of their savage kin; and had I known him as well then as, with good reason, 1 knew him afterward, I would not have gone out of my way to disturb his barbarous existence. CHAPTER YII. HANS AND HIS FAMILY. — PETOWAK GLACIER. — A SNOW-STORM. — THE ICE- PACK. — ENTERING SIVHTH'S SOUND. —A SEVERE GALE. — COLLISION VTLTH ICEBERGS. — ENCOUNTER WITH THE ICE-FIELDS. — RETREAT FROM THE PACK.— AT ANCHOR IN HARTSTENE BAY. — ENTERING WINTER QUARTERS. It was five o'clock in the evening when I reached the schooner. The Avind had freshened during our absence ; and, unwilHng to lose so favorable an op- portunity for pushing on, I had hastened on board. Otherwise I should gladly have given some time to an examination of the native village which lies a few miles to the eastward of the cape, on the northern side of a conspicuous bay, near a place called Kiker- tait, — " The Place of Islands." In anticipation of a heavy blow and a dirty night, McCormick had, during my absence, taken a reef in the sails, and the little schooner, with her canvas shiv- ering in the wind, seemed imj)atient as a hound in the leash. When the helm went up, she wheeled round to the north with a graceful toss of her head, and, after steadying herself for an instant, as if for a good start, she shot off before the wind at ten knots an hour. Capes, bays, islands, glaciers, and icebergs sank rapidly behind us ; and, rejoicing over their extraordi- nary fortune, the ship's company were in the best of spirits. As we dashed on through nest after nest of icebergs, it was curious to observe the evidences of reckless daring which inspired their thoughts. Dodge A HAZARDOUS PASSAGE. 69 had the deck, and Charley, as dare-devil an old sailor as ever followed the fortunes of the sea, had the helm ; and it seemed to me, as I sat upon the fore-yard, that there was some quiet understanding between the two to see how near they could come to the icebergs with- out hitting them. We passed through many narrow places ; but instead of finding the schooner in the middle of the channel, she generally managed to fall off to one side or the other at the critical moment (of course, by mere accident) ; and w^hen I shouted a re- monstrance at the lubberly steering, I was answered with the assurance that the schooner would not obey her helm with so much after-sail on, when running be- fore the wind ; so I accordingly hove the schooner to, and close-reefed the mainsail ; and now, either from the want of a reasonable excuse for doing otherwise, or from a real difficulty being overcome, the vessel was made to keep somew^hat nearer to a straight course ; and we dashed on through the waveless waters with a celerity which, in view of our surround- ings, fairly made one's head swim. I was once not a little alarmed. Before us lay what appeared to be two icebergs separated by a distance of about twenty fathoms. To go around them was to deviate from our course, and I called to Dodge to know if he could steady the schooner through the narrow passage. Ever ready when there was a spice of danger, he willingly assumed the responsibility of the schooner's behavior, and we approached the en- trance ; but, when it was too late to turn either to the, right or left, I discovered, much to my amazement, that the objects which I had supposed to be two bergs were in fact but portions of the same mass, connected together by a link which was only a few feet below 70 HANS AND HIS FAMILY the surfiice of the water. The depth of water proved, however, to be greater than at first appeared, but the keel actually touched twice as we shot through the opening ; and while the schooner was, with some hes- itancy and evident reluctance, doing this sledge duty, I must own that I wished myself anywhere else than on her fore-yard. The officers and men amused themselves with our new allies. Hans was delighted, and he expressed himself with as much enthusiasm as was consistent with his stolid temperament. His wife exhibited a mixture of bewilderment and pride ; and, apparently overwhelmed with the novelty of the situation in which she so suddenly found herself, seemed to have contracted a chronic grin ; while her baby laughed and crowed and cried as all other babies do. The sailors set to work at once with tubs of warm water and with soap, scissors, and comb, to prepare them for red shirts and other similar luxuries of civili- zation. At this latter they were overjoyed, and strut- ted about the deck with much the same air of exalted consequence as that of a boy who has been freshly pro- moted from frock and shoes to pantaloons and boots ; but it must be owned that the soap-and-water arrange- ment was not so highly appreciated ; and well they might object, for they were not used to it. At first the whole procedure seemed to be great sport, but at length the wife began to cry, and demanded of her husband to know whether this was a white man's re- Jigious rite, with an expression of countenance which appeared to indicate that it was regarded by her as a refined method of Christian torture. The family were finally stowed away for the night down among the ropes and sails in the " ship's eyes ; " and one of the TETOWAK GLACIER. 71 sailors who played chamberlam on the occasion, and who appeared to be not overly partial to this increase of our family, remarked that, " If good for nothing else, they are at least good lumber for strengthening the schooner's bows against the ice." The coast which we were passing greatly interested me. The trap formation of Disco Island reappears at Cape York, and the land presents a lofty, ragged front, broken by deep gorges which have a very pic- turesque appearance, and the effect was much height- ened by numerous streams of ice which burst through the openings. One of these figures on the chart as Petowak Glacier. Measuring it as we passed with log-line and chronometer, it proved to be four miles across. The igneous rocks are interrupted at Cape Athol, on the southern side of Wolstenholme Sound, and the lines of calcareous sandstone and greenstone which meet the eye there and at Saunders Island and the coast above, toward Cape Parry, brought to my recollection many a hard struggle of former years. They were famihar landmarks. At eight o'clock in the evening we were abreast of Booth Bay, the winter quarters in my boat journey of 1854. I could distinguish through my glass the rocks among which we had built our hut. They were suggestive of many unpleasant memories. Soon afterward the sky became overcast, and a heavy snow began to fall. The wind dying away to a light breeze, we jogged on through the day, and, passing Whale Sound, outside of Hakluyt Island, were, at five o'clock in the evening, within thirty miles of Smith's Sound. Here we came upon an ice-pack which appeared to be very heavy and to stretch off to the southwest ; but the air being too thick to warrant us 72 MEETING THE ICE PACK. in approaching near enough to inspect its character we began to beat to windward with the hope of reach- ing the lee side of Northumberland Island, there to aw^ait better weather. In this purpose we were, how- ever, defeated, for, the wind falling almost to cahn, we were forced to grope about in the gloom, seeking an iceberg for a mooring ] but the waves proved to be running too high to admit of our landing from a boat, and we passed the night in much uneasiness, drifting northward. Fortunately the pack was moving in the same direction, otherwise we should have been carried upon it. The breakers could be distinctly heard all the time, and on several occasions we caught sight of them ; but, by availing ourselves of every puff of wind to crawl off, we escaped without collision. Once I was satisfied that we had no alternative but to wear round and plunge head foremost into the danger, rather than await the apparent certainty of drifting broadside upon it; but at the critical moment the wind freshened, and, continuing for a few hours, we held our own while the pack glided slowly away from us. Our dogs had made a heavy drain upon our water- casks, and the watch was engaged during the night in melting the snow which had fallen upon the deck. AVe also fished up from the sea some small fragments of fresh ice with a net. By these means we obtained a supply of water sufftcient to last us for several days. The wind hauled to the northeast as the morning dawned, and the clouds broke away, disclosing the land. Cape Alexander, whose lofty walls guard the entrance to Smith's Sound, appeared to be about twenty miles away, and Cape Isabella, thirty-five miles distant from it, was visible on the opposite side. Hold- ENTERING SMITH'S SOUND. 73 mg to the eastward toward Cape Saumarez, we found a passage through the pack near the shore, but after- ward the greater part of the day was passed in a pro- voking calm, during which, being embarrassed by a strong tidal-current that set us alternately up and down the coast, we were obliged almost constantly to use the boats to keep ourselves clear of the bergs, which were very numerous, and many of them of im- mense size. We were, however, at length gratified to find ourselves passing with a fair wind into Smith's Sound, the field of our explorations. Standing over toward Cape Isabella, we had for a time every pros- pect of good fortune before us, but a heavy pack was, after a while, discovered from the mast-head, and this we were not long in reaching. This pack was composed of the heaviest ice-fields that I had hitherto seen, and its margin, trending to the northeast and southwest, arrested our further progress toward the western shore. Many of the floes were from two to ten feet above the water, thus indicating a thickness of from twenty to a hundred feet. Had they been widely separated, I should have attempted to force a passage ; but they were too closely impacted to allow of this being done with any chance of safety to the schooner. The ice appeared to be interminable. No open water could be discovered in the direction of Cape Isabella. The wind, being from the northeast, did not permit of an exploration in that direction ; so we ran down to the southwest, anxiously looking for a lead, hut without discovering any thing to give us encour- agement. We were not, however, permitted to come to any cionclusions of oiu^ own as to what course we should 74 STOPPED BY THE PACK. pursue, for the most furious gale that it has evei been my fortune to encounter broke suddenly upon us, and left us no alternative but to seek shelter under the coast. Our position was now one of great danger. Tlie heavy pack which we had passed the night previ- ous lay to leeward of us, and was even visible from the mast-head, thus shutting off retreat in that direc- tion, even should our necessities give us no choice but to run before the wind. The entries of my diary will perhaps best exhibit the ineffectual struggle which followed : — August 28th, 3 o'clock, P. M. Blowing frightfully. We have run in under the coast, and are partly sheltered by it, and trying hard to find an anchorage. But for the protection of the land we could not show a stitch of canvas. We are about three miles from Sutherland Island, which lies close to Cape Alexander, on its south side, but we have ceased to gain any thing upon it. We can carry so little sail that the schooner will not work to wind- ward ; besides, here under the coast, the wind comes only in squalls. If we can only get in between the island and the mainland we shall be all right. ^ I have not been in bed since the day before leaving Tessuis- sak, and during these six days I have snatched only now and then a little sleep. If our anchor once gets a clutch on the bottom I shall make up for lost time. I ought to have been more cautious, and sought shelter sooner. A heavy white cloud hanging over Cape Alexander (Jensen calls it a " table-cloth ") warned me of the approaching gale, but then I did not think it would come upon us with such fury. It is a perfect hurricane. My chief fear is that we A SEVERE GALE. 75 will be driven out to sea, which is everywhere filled with lieavj ice. August 29tli, 12 o'clock, M. There has been a dead calm under the coast for an hour. The " table-cloth " has lifted from the cape, and there is a decided chan2:e in the northern skv. The Hght windy clouds are disappearing, and stratus clouds are taking their place. The neck of the gale appears to be broken. 2 o'clock, P. M. My calculations of the morning were quite wrong. The gale howls more furiously than ever. We are lying off Cape Saumarez, about two miles from shore. Failing to reach Sutherland Island, w^e were forced to run down the coast with the hope of finding shelter in the deep bay below ; but the wind, sweeping round the cape, drove us back, and we are now trying to crawl in shore and get an anchor down in a little cove near by, and there repair our torn sails. We are a very uncomfortable party. The spray flies over the vessel, sheathing her in ice. Long icicles han^- from the rio-oincy and the bulwarks. The bob- stays and other head-gear are the thickness of a man's body ; and, most unseam anlike procedure, we have to throw ashes on the deck to get about. I can now readily understand how Inglefield was forced to fly from Smith's Sound. If the gale which he encountered resembled this one, he could not, with double the steam-power of the Isabella, have made headway against it. Were I to leave the shelter of these iViendl}^ cliffs I should have to run with even greater celerity ; — and, very likely, to destruction. The squalls which strike us are perfectly terrific and the calms which follow them are suggestive of 76 SEEKING SHELTER. gathering strength for another stroke. Fortunately the blows are of short duration, else our already dam- aged canvas, which is reduced to the smallest possible dimensions, would fly into ribbons. The coast which gives us this spasmodic protection is bleak enough. The cliffs are about twelve hun- dred feet high, and their tops and the hills behind them are covered wdth the recent snows. The wind blows a cloud of drift over the lofty wall, and, after whirling it about in the air, in a manner which, under other circumstances, would no doubt be pretty enough, drops it upon us in great showers. The mnter is sel> ting in early. At this time of the season in 1853-54 these same hills were free from snow, and so remained until two weeks later. 10 o'clock, P. M. We have gained nothing upon the land, and are al- most where we were at noon. The gale continues as before, and hits us now and then as hard as ever. The view from the deck is magnificent beyond de- scription. The imagination cannot conceive of a scene more wild. A dark cloud hangs to the north- ward, bringing the white slopes of Cape Alexander into bold relief Over the cliffs roll great sheets of drifting snow, and streams of it pour down every ra- vine and gorge. Whirlwinds shoot it up from the hill- tops, and spin it through the air. The streams which pour through the ravines resemble the spray of mam- moth waterfalls, and here and there through the fickle cloud the dark rocks protrude and disappear and pro- trude again. A glacier which descends through a val- ley to the bay below is covered with a broad cloak of revolving whiteness. The sun is setting in a black and ominous horizon. But the wildest scene is upon A WILD SCENE. 77 the sea. Off the cape it is one mass of foam. The water, carried along by the wind, flies through the air and breaches over the lofly icebergs. It is a most wonderful exhibition. I have tried in vain to illus- trate it with my pencil. My pen is equally powerless. It is impossible for me to convey to this page a pic- ture of that vast volume of foam which flutters over the sea, and, rising and falling with each pulsation of the inconstant wind, stands out against the dark sky, or of the clouds which fly overhead, rushing, wild and fearful, across the heavens, on the howUng storm. Earth and sea are charged with bellowing sounds. Upon the air are borne shrieks and w^ailings, loud and dismal as those of the infernal blast which, down in the second circle of the damned, appalled the Italian bard ; and the clouds of snow and vapor are tossed upon the angry gusts, — now up, now down, — as spirits, condemned of Minos, wheel their unhappy flight in endless squadrons, " Swept by the dreadful hurricane along." In striking contrast to the cold and confusion a])ove is the warmth and quiet here below. I write in the of&cers' cabin. The stove is red-hot, the tea-kettle sings a homelike song. Jensen is reading. McCor- mick, thoroughly worn out with work and anxiety, sleeps soundly, and Knorr and Radcliffe keep him company. Dodge has the deck ; and here comes the cook staggering along with his pot of coffee. I will fortify myself with a cup of it, and send Dodge below for a little comfort. The cook had no easy task in reaching the cabin over the slippery decks. 78 A CABIN SCENE. " I falls down once, but de Commander see I keeps de coffee. It 's good an' hot, and very strong, and go right down into de boots." " Bad night on deck, cook." " Oh, it 's awful, sar ! I never see it blow so hard in all my Hfe, an' I 's followed de sea morn 'n forty year. And den it 's so cold. My galley is full of ice, and de water it freeze on my stove." " Here, cook, is a guernsey for you ; that will keep you warm." " Tank you, sar ! " — and he starts off with his prize ; but, encouraged by his reception, he stops to ask, " Would de Commander be so good as to tell me where we is ? De gentlemens fool me." " Certainly, cook. The land over there is Green- land. That big cape is Cape Alexander ; beyond that is Smith's Sound, and we are only about eight hun- dred miles from the North Pole." " De Nort' Pole, vere 's dat ? " I explained the best I could. " Tank you, sar. Yat for we come — to fish ? " " No, not to fish, cook ; for science." "Oh, dat it? Dey tell me we come to fish. Tank you, sar." And he pulls his greasy cap over his bald head, and does not appear to be much wiser as he tumbles up the companion-ladder into the storm. Somebody has hoaxed the old man into the belief that we have come out to catch seals. August 30th, 1 o'clock, A. M. The wind is hauling to the eastward, and the squalls come thicker and faster. We are drifting both up and from the coast, and I fear that if we recede much further we shall be sent howling to sea under AT ANCHOR. 79 bare poles. It is not a pleasing reflection — a "pack" and a thousand icebergs to leeward, and an unman- ageable vessel under foot. McCormick is struggling manfully for the shore. 10 o'clock, A. M. We reached the shore this morning at 3 o'clock, and anchored in four fathoms water. The stern of the schooner was swuns^ round and moored with our stout- est hawser to a rock ; but a squall fell upon us soon afterward with such violence that, although the sails were all snugly stowed, the hawser was parted like a whip-cord; and we now lie to our "bower" and " kedge," with thirty fathoms chain. And now, in apparent security, the ship's company abandon themselves to repose. Weary and worn with the hard struggle and exposure, we were all badly in need of rest. An abundant supply of hot coffee was our first refreshment. But, notwithstanding their fa- tigue, some of the more enthusiastic members of the party went ashore, so anxious were they to touch this far-north land. 8 o'clock, P. M. I have just returned from a tedious climb to the top of the cliffs. At an elevation of twelve hundred feet I had a good view. The sea is free from ice along the shore apparently up to Littleton Island, from which the pack stretches out over the North Water as far as the eye will carry. There appears to be much open water about Cape Isabella, but I could not of course see the shore line. Above the cape the ice appeared to be solid. Although the pros- pect is discouraging, I have determined to attempt a passage with the first favorable wind. The journey was a very difficult one, and when I 80 VIEW FEOM THE CLIFFS. had reached the summit of the cHfF I was almost blown over it. The force of the wdnd was so great that I was obliged to steady myself against a rock while making my observations. Knorr, who accom- panied me, lost his cap, and it went sailing out over the sea as if a mere feather. The scene was but a broader panorama of that which I described in this journal yesterday. It was a grand, wild confusion of the elements. The little schooner, far down beneath me, was writhing and reeling with the fitful gusts, and straining at her cables like a chained wild beast. The clouds of drifting snow which whirled through the gorges beneath me, now and then hid her and the icebergs beyond from view ; and when the air fell calm again the cloud dropped upon the sea, and the schooner, after a short interval of unrest, lay quietly on the still water, nestling in sunshine under the pro- tecting cliffs. There are yet some lingering traces of the sum- mer. Some patches of green moss and grass were seen in the valleys, where the snow had drifted away ; and I plucked a little nosegay of my old friends the poppies and the curling spider-legged Saxifraga flage- laris. The frost and snow and wind had not robbed them of their loveliness and beauty. The cliffs are of the same sandstone, interstratified with green- stone, which I have before remarked of the coast below. McCormick has replaced the old foresail which was split down the centre, with the new one, and has patched up the mainsail and jib, both of which w^ere much torn. An immense amount of ice has drifted past us, but we are too far in-shore for any masses of considerable DRIVEN FROM SHELTER. 81 size to reach the vessel. Three small bergs have, however, grounded in a cluster right astern of us, and if we drag our anchors we shall bring up against them. A perfect avalanche of wind tumbles upon us from the cliffs; and instead of coming in squalls, as heretofore, it is now almost constant. The tempera- ture is 27°. I made a trial to-day with the dredge, but nothing was brought up from the bottom except a couple of echinoderms [Asterias Groenlandica and A. Albida). The sea is alive with little shrimps, among which the Cran- gon Boreas is most abundant. The full-grown ones are an inch long, and their tinted backs give a purpHsh hue to the water. August 31st, 8 o'clock, P. M. Night closes upon a day of disaster, — a day, 1 fear, of evil omen. My poor httle schooner is terri- bly cut up. Soon after making my last entry yesterday I lay down for a Httle rest, but was soon aroused with the unwelcome announcement that we were dragging our anchors. McOormick managed to save the bower, but the kedge was lost. It caught a rock at a criti- cal moment, and, the hawser parting, we were driven upon the bergs, which, as before stated, had grounded astern of us. The collision was a perfect crash. The stern boat flew into splinters, the bulwarks over the starboard-quarter were stove in, and, the schooner's head swinging round with great violence, the jib- boom was carried away, and the bowsprit and foretop- mast were both sprung. In this crippled condition we at length escaped most miraculously, and under bare poles scudded before the wind. A vast number of icebergs and the "pack" coming in view, we were G - 82 BACK IN SMITH'S SOUND. forced to make sail. The mainsail went to pieces as soon as it was set, and we were once more in great jeopardy; but fortunately the storm abated, and we have since been threshing to windward, and are once more within Smith's Sound. Again the gale appears to have broken ; the northern sky is clear. Our spars will not allow us to carry jib and topsail ; — bad for entering the pack. The temperature is 22°, and the decks are again shppery with ice. Forward, the ropes, blocks, stays, halyards, and every thing else, are covered with a solid coating, and icicles a foot long hang from the monkey-rail and rigging. If they look pretty enough in the sunlight, they have a very wintry aspect, and are not at all becoming to a ship. I tried this morning to reach Cape Isabella, but met the pack where it had obstructed us before. Some patches of open water were observed in the midst of it; but we found it impossible to penetrate the inter- vening ice. My only chance now is to work up the Greenland coast, get hold of the fast ice, and, through such leads as must have been opened by the wind liigher up the Sound, endeavor to effect a passage to the opposite shore. Of reaching that shore I do not yet despair, although the wind has apparently packed the ice upon it to such a degree that it looks like a hopeless undertaking. I have already an eye upon Fog Inlet, twenty miles above Cape Alexander on the Greenland coast, and I shall now try to reach that point for a new start. While I write the wind is freshening, and under close-reefed sails we are making a little progress. My poor sailors have a sorry time of it, with the stiffened ropes. The schooner, everywhere above the water, is E^^TERING THE PACK 83 coated with ice. The dogs are perishing with cold and wet. Three of them have already died. September 1st, 8 o'clock, P. M. We have once more been driven out of the Sound. The gale set in again with great violence, and in the act of wearing the schooner, to avoid an iceberg, the fore-gaff parted in the middle ; and, unable to carry any thing but a close-reefed staysail, we were forced again to seek shelter behind our old protector. Cape Alexander. McCormick is patching up the wreck and preparing for another struggle. The next two days were filled with dangerous ad- venture. The broken spar being repaired, we had another fight for the Sound, and got again inside. The pack still lay where it was before, and again headed us off There was a good deal of open water between Littleton Island and Cape Hatherton, and apparently to the northwest of that cape ; but there was much heavy ice off the island, with tortuous leads separating the floes. I determined, however, to enter the pack and try to reach the open water above. Taking the first fair opening, we made a northwest course for about ten miles, when, finding that we were unable to penetrate any further in that direction, we tacked ship, hoping to reach the clear water that lay above the island. We were now fairly in the fight. The current was found to be setting strongly against us, and it was soon discovered that the ice was coming rapidly down the Sound, and that the leads were already slowly closing up. We worked vigorously, crowding on all the sail we could ; but we did not make our point, and soon 84 IN THE PACK. had to go about again ; or rather, we tried to ; for the schooner, never reUable without her topsail, which we could not carry owing to the accident to the topmast, missed in stays ; and, fearful of being nipped between the fields which were rapidly reducing the open water about us, we wore round ; and, there not being suffi- cient room, we were on the eve of striking with the starboard-bow a solid ice-field a mile in width. There • was little hope for the schooner if this collision should liappen with our full headway ; and being unable to avoid it, I thought it clearly safest to take the shock squarely on the fore-foot ; so I ordered the helm up, and went at it in true battering-ram style. To me the prospect was doubly disagreeable. For the greater facility of observation I had taken my station on the fore top-yard ; and the mast being already sprung and swinging with my weight, I had little other expecta- tion than that, when the shock came, it would snap off and land me with the wreck on the ice ahead. Luckily for me the spar held firm, but the cut-water fiew in splinters with the collision, and the iron sheath- ing was torn from the bows as if it had been brown paper. And now came a series of desperate struggles. No topsail-schooner was ever put through such a set of gymnastic feats. I had been so much annoyed by the detentions and embarrassments of the last few davs tliat I was determined to risk every thing rather than go back. As long as the schooner would float I should hope still to get a clutch on Cape Hatherton. Getting clear of the floe, the schooner came again to the wind, and, gliding into a narrow lead, we soon emerged into a broad space^ of open water. Had this continued we should soon have been rewarded with BESET. 85 success, but in half an hour the navigation became so tortuous that we were compelled again to go about and stand in-shore. And thus we continued for many hours, tacking to and fro, — sometimes gaining a little, then losing ground by being forced to go to leeward of a floe, which we could not weather. The space in which we could manoeuvre the schooner became gradually more and more contracted ; the col- lisions with the ice became more frequent. We were losing ground. The ice was closing in with the land, and we were finally brought to bay. There was no longer a lead. And it was now too late to retreat, had we been even so inclined. The ice was as closelv impacked behind us as before us. With marvelous celerity the scene had shifted. An hour later, and there was scarcely a patch of open water in sight from the deck, and the floes were closing upon the schooner like a vice. Utterly powerless within its jaws, we had no alternative but to await the issue with what calm- ness we could. The scene around us was as imposing as it was alarming. Except the earthquake and volcano, there is not in nature an exhibition of force comparable with that of the ice-fields of the Arctic Seas. They close together, when driven by the wind or by cur- rents against the land or other resisting object, with the pressure of millions of moving tons, and the crash and noise and confusion are truly terrific. We were now in the midst of one of the most thrill- ing of these exhibitions of Polar dynamics, and we be- came uncomfortably conscious that the schooner was to become a sort of dynamometer. Yast ridges were thrown up wherever the floes came together, to be submerged again when the pressure was exerted io S6 FORCE OF THE ICE-FIELDS. another quarter ; and over the sea around us these pulsatmg hues of uphft, which in some cases reached an altitude of not less than sixty feet, — higher than our mast-head, — told of the strength and power of the enemy which was threatening us. We had worked ourselves into a triangular space formed by the contact of three fields. At first there was plenty of room to turn round, though no chance to escape. We were nicely docked, and vainly hoped that we were safe ; but the corners of the protecting floes were slowly crushed off, the space narrowed little by little, and we listened to the crackling and crunch- ing of the ice, and watched its progress mth conster- nation. At length the ice touched the schooner, and it ap- peared as if her destiny was sealed. She groaned like a conscious thing in pain, and writhed and twisted as if to escape her adversary, trembling in every timber from truck to kelson. Her sides seemed to be giving way. Her deck timbers were bowed up, and the seams of the deck planks were opened. I gave up for lost the little craft which had gallantly carried us through so many scenes of peril ; but her sides were solid and her ribs strong ; and the ice on the port side, working gradually under the bilge, at length, with a jerk which sent us all reeling, Hfted her out of the water ; and the floes, still pressing on and break- ing, as they were crowded together, a vast ridge was piling up beneath and around us ; and, as if with the elevating power of a thousand jack-screws, we found ourselves going slowly up into the air. My fear now was that the schooner would fall over on her side, or that the masses which rose above the bulwarks would topple over upon the deck, and bury us beneath them. THE SCHOONER IN DANGER. 87 We lay in this position during eight anxious hours. At length the crash ceased with a change of wind and tide. The ice exhibited signs of relaxing. The course of the monster floes which were crowding down the Sound was changed more to the westward. We beheld the prospect of release mth joy. Small patches of open water were here and there exhibited among the hitherto closely impacted ice. The change of scene, though less fearful, was not less magical than before. By and by the movement ex- tended to the floes which bound us so uncomfortably, and with the first cessation of the pressure the blocks of ice which supported the forward part of the schooner gave way, and, the bows following them, left the stern high in the air. Here we rested for a few moments quietly, and then the old scene was renewed. The further edge of the outer floe which held us was caaght by another moving field of greater size, when the jam returned, and we appeared to be in as great danger as before ; but this attack was of short du- ration. The floe revolved, and, the pressure being ahiiost instantly removed, we fell into the water, reel- ino- forward and backward and from side to side, as the ice, seeking its own equilibrium, settled headlong and in wild confusion beneath us from its forced ele- vation. Freed from this novel and alarming situation, we used every available means to disengage ourselves from the ruins of the frightful battle which we had encountered ; and, as speedily as possible, got into a position of greater safety. Meanwhile an inspection was made to ascertain what damage had been done tc the schooner. The hold was rapidly filling with water, the rudder was split, two of its pintles were broken off 88 THE SCHOONER CRIPPLED. the stern-post was started, fragments of the cutrwater and keel were floating alongside of us in the sea, and, to all appearances, we were in a sinking condition. Our first duty was to man the pumps. We were many hours among the ice, tortured with doubt and uncertainty. We had to move with great caution. The crippled condition of the schooner warned us to use her gently. She would bear no more thumps. Forward we could not go, because of the ice ; retreat we must, for it was absolutely necessary that we should get to the land and find shelter somewhere. The rudder was no longer availa- ble, and we were obliged to steer with a long " sweep." The wind hauled more and more to the eastward, and spread the ice. Although at times closely beset and once severely " nipped," yet, by watching our op- portunity, we crept slowly out of the pack, and, after twenty anxious hours, got at last into comparatively clear water, and headed for Hartstene Bay, where we found an anchorage. The damage to the schooner was less than w^e had feared. A more careful examination showed that no timbers were broken, and the seams in a measure closed of themselves. Once at anchor, and finding that we were in no danger of sinkmg, I allowed all hands to take a rest, except such as vrere needed at the pumps. They were all thoroughly worn out. On the following day a still further inspection of the vessel was made; and, although apparently unfit for any more ice-encounters, she could still float with a little assistance from the pumps. One hour out of every four kept the hold clear. Such repairs as it was in our power to make were \t once begun. We could do very little without ANOTHER TRIAL. 89 beaching the vessel, and this, in the uncertain state of the ice and weather, was not practicable. The rud- der hung by one pintle, and after being mended was still unreliable. While McCormick was making these repairs I pulled up to Littleton Island in a whale-boat, to see what the ice had been doing in our absence. The wind was dead ahead, and we had a hard struggle to reach our destination ; but, once there, I found some encourage- ment. There was much open water along the coast up to Cape Hatherton, but the pack was even more heavy at the west and southwest than it had been be- fore. To enter it would be folly, even with a fah^ wind and a sound ship. There was clearly no chance of getting to the west coast, except by the course which I had attempted with such unhappy results two days previous. We were not a little surprised to discover on Little- ton Island a reindeer. He was sound asleep, coiled up on a bed of snow. Dodge's rifle secured him for our larder and deprived the desolate island of its only inhabitant. During our absence, Jensen had been out with Hans, and had also discovered deer. They had found a herd numbering something like a dozen. Two of them were captured, but the rest, taking alarm, es- caped to the mountains. The wind falling away to calm, we got to sea next day under oars, and again entered the pack. More ice had come down upon the island, and all our efforts to push up the coast were unavailing. The air had become alarmingly quiet, considering that the tem- perature was within twelve degrees of zero, and there was much fear that we should be frozen up at sea. 90 KETREAT FROM THE PACK. A snow-storm came to add to this danger ; but still we kept on at the cold and risky work of " warping " with capstan and windlass, whale-line and hawser, sometimes making and sometimes losing, and often pretty severely nipped. At length we were once more completely " be- set." The young ice was making rapidly, and I was forced reluctantly to admit that the navigable season was over. To stay longer in the pack was now to in- sure of being frozen up there for the winter, and ac- cordingly, after having exhausted two more days of fruitless labor, we made what haste we could to get back again into clear water. This was not, however, an affair to be quickly accomplished. He who navi- gates these polar seas must learn patience. Our purpose was, however, in the end safely accom- plished, and, a breeze springing up, we put back into Hartstene Bay ; and, steering for a cluster of ragged- looking islands which lay near the coast at its head, we came upon a snug little harbor behind them, and dropped our anchors. Next morning I had the schooner hauled further in-shore, and moored her to the rocks. Meanwhile the crew were working with anxious uncertainty; and when I finally announced my in- tention to winter in that place they received the intel- ligence with evident satisfaction. Their exposure had been great, and they needed rest ; but, notwithstand- ing this, had there been the least prospect of service- able result following any farther attempt to cross the Sound, they would, with their customary energy and cheerfulness, have rejoiced in continuing the struggle. But they saw, as their faces clearly told, even before 1 was willing to own it, that the season was over. I re- ENTERING WINTER HARBOR. 91 cord it to their credit, that throughout a voyage of unu- sual ;^eril and exposure they had never quailed in the presence of danger, and they had to a man exhibited the most satisfactory evidence of manly endurance. The reader will readily understand that to me the failure to cross the Sound was a serious disappoint- ment. Hoping, as heretofore stated, to reach the west coast, and there secure a harbor in some convenient place between latitude 79° and 80°, it was evident to me that in failing to do this my chances of success with sledges during the following spring were greatly jeopardized. Besides — and this to me was the most painful reflection — my vessel was, apparently, so badly injured as to be unfit for any renewal of the attempt the next year. CHAPTER VIIT. OURTTTNTER HARBOR. — PREPARING FOR ^riNTER.-- ORGANIZATION OF DUTIE3 — SCIENTIFIC WORK. —THE OBSERVATORY. — SCHOONER DRIVEN ASHORE. - THE HUNTERS. — SAWING A DOCK.— FROZEN UP. I NAMED our harbor Port Foulke, in honor of my friend, the late WilUam Parker Foulke, of Philadel- phia, Avho was one of the earUest, and continued to be throughout one of the most constant advocates of the expedition. It was well sheltered except from the southwest, toward which quarter it was quite exposed ; but, judging from our recent experience, we had little reason to fear wind from that direction ; and we were protected from the drift-ice by a cluster of bergs which lay grounded off the mouth of the harbor. Our position was, even for the Greenland coast, not so satisfactory as I could have wished. Had I reached Fog Inlet we should have gained some advantages over our present location, and would have been in- deed better situated than was Dr. Kane at Van Rens- selaer Harbor ; and w^e would then be as sure of an early liberation as we were lil^ely to be at Port Foulke. In truth, the principal advantage which it possessed was that we would not be held very late the next summer, and there was no possible risk of my vessel being caught in a trap like that of the Advance. Besides this prospect of a speedy liberation to recom- OUR WINTER HARBOR. 93 mend it, there seemed to be a iliir chance of an abun- dant supply of game. From Dr. Kane's winter quarters we were not very remote, the distance being about twenty miles in latitude, and about eighty by the coast. We were eight nautical miles in a northeasterly direction from Cape Alexander, and lay deep within the recesses of a craggy, cliff-lined bight of dark, reddish-brown sienitic rock, which looked gloomy enough. This bight is prolonged by three small islands which figure in my journal as " The Youngsters," and which bear on my chart the names of Radcliffe, Knorr, and Starr. At the head of the bight there is a series of terraced beaches composed of loose shingle. The ice soon closed around us. My chief concern now was to prepare for the win- ter, in such a manner as to insure safety to the schooner and comfort to my party. While this was being done I did not, however, lose sight of the scien- tific labors 3 but, for the time, these had to be made subordinate to more serious concerns. There was much to do, but my former experience greatly simpli- fied my cares. Mr. Sonntag, with Radcliffe, Knorr, and Starr to as- sist him, took general charge of such scientific work as we found ourselves able to manage ; and Jensen, with Hans and Peter, were detailed as an organized hunting force. Mr. Dodge, with the body of the crew, discharged the cargo, and, carrying it to the shore, swung it with a derrick up on the lower terrace, which was thirty feet above the tide, and there deposited it in a store-house made of stones and roofed with our old sails. This was a very laborious operation. The beach was shallow, the bank sloping, and- the ice not 94 PREPARING FOR WINTER. being strong enough to bear a sledge, a channel had to be kept open for the boats between the ship and the shore. The duty of preparing the schooner for our winter home devolved upon Mr. McCormick, with the carpenter and such other assistance as he required. After the sails had been unbent, the yards sent down, and the topmasts housed, the upper deck was roofed in, — making a house eight feet high at the ridge and six and a half at the side. A coating of tarred paper closed the cracks, and four windows let in the light while it lasted, and ventilated our quarters. Between decks there was much to do. The hold, after being floored, scrubbed, and whitewashed, was converted into a room for the crew ; the cook-stove was brought down from the galley and placed in the centre of it under the main hatch, in which hung our simple appa- ratus for melting water from the snow or ice. This was a funnel-shaped double cylinder of galvanized iron connecting with the stove-pipe, and was called the " snow melter." A constant stream poured from it into a large cask, and we had always a supply of the purest water, fully ample for every purpose. Into these quarters the crew moved on the first of October, and the out-door work of preparation being mainly completed, we entered then, with the cere- mony of a holiday dinner, upon our winter life. And the dinner was by no means to be despised. Our soup was followed by an Upernavik salmon, and the table groaned under a mammoth haunch of venison, which was flanked by a ragout of rabbit and a venison pasty. Indeed, we went into the winter with a most en- couraging prospect for an abundant commissariat. The carcasses of more than a dozen reindeer were OUii COMIVIISSAKIAT. P5 hanging in the shrouds, rabbits and foxes were sus- pended in clusters from the rigging, and the hearty appetites and vigorous digestions which a bracing air and hard work had given us, were not only amply pro- vided for in the present, but seemed likely to be sup- plied in the future. The hunters rarely came home empty-handed. Reindeer in herds of tens and fifties were reported upon every return of the sportsmen. Jensen, who had camped out several days on the hunting-grounds, had already cached the flesh of about twenty animals, besides those which had been brought on board. In a single hour I had killed three with my own hands. Both men and dogs were well pro- vided. The dogs, which, according to Esquimau cus- tom, were only fed every second day, often received an entire reindeer at a single meal. They were very ravenous, and, having been much reduced by theii hard life at sea, they caused an immense drain upon our resources. My journal mentions, with daily increasing impa- tience, the almost .constant prevalence of strong north- east winds, which embarrassed us during this period ; but at length the wind set in from the opposite direc- tion, and, breaking up the young ice about us, jammed us upon the rocks. If there was little consolation in the circumstance of our situation being thus altered for the worse, there was at least novelty in the ca- price of the weather. For once, at least, the uniform " N. E." had been changed in the proper column of the log-book. It was not without difficulty that we suc- ceeded in relieving the schooner from the unpleasant predicament. While these preparations for the winter were being made, I must not forget the astronomer and his little 96 THE OBSERVATORY. corps. Between liim and the executive officer there sprung up quite a rivalry of interest. While the one desired a clean ship moored in safety and a well-fecl crew, he was naturally jealous of any detail of men for the other; and it must be owned that the men worked with much greater alacrity for the follower of Epicurus than the disciple of Copernicus. An appeal to head-quarters, however, speedily settled the ques- tion as to where the work was most needed ; and, by a judicious discrimination as to what was due to sci- ence and what to personal convenience, we managed, while the daylight lasted, to lay the foundation of a verv clever series of observations, while at the same time our comfort was secured. A neat little observatory was erected on the lawer terrace, not far from the store-house, and it was promptly put to use ; and an accurate survey of the harbor and bay, with soundings, was made as soon as the ice was strong enough to bear our weight. The observatory was a frame structure eight feet square and seven high, covered first with canvas and then with snow, and was lined throughout with bear and reindeer skins. In it our fine pendulum apparatus was first mounted, and Sonntag and Radclifie were engaged for nearly a month in counting its vibrations. It was found to work admirably. Upon removing this instrument, the magnetometer was substituted in its place, upon a pedestal which was not less simple than original. It was made of two headless kegs, placed end to end upon the solid rock beneath the floor, and the cylinder thus formed was filled with the only ma- terials upon which the frost had not laid hold, namel}', beans. Water being poured over these, we had soon, at ten degrees below zero, a neat and perfectly solid SCIENTIFIC WORK. 97 colimm ; and it remained serviceable throughout the winter, as no fire of any kind was allowed in this abode of science.^ In order to obtain an accurate record of tempera- ture, we erected near the Observatory a suitable shel- ter for the thermometers. In this were placed a num- ber of instruments, mostly spirit, which were read hourly every seventh day, and three times daily in the interval.^ In addition to this, we noted the tem- perature every second hour with a thermometer sus- pended to a post on the ice. -Mr. Dodge undertook for me a set of ice measurements, and the telesco})e was mounted alongside the vessel, in a dome made with blocks of ice and snow. But the wind would still give us no rest, and, set- ting in again from a southerly direction, the ice was once more broken up, and we were again driven upon the rocks, and a second time compelled to saw a dock for the schooner and haul her off-shore. This opera- tion was both laborious and disagreeable, even more so than it had been on the former occasion. The ice was rotten, and so tangled up with the pressure that it was not easy to find secure footing ; and the result was that few of the party escaped with less than one good ducking. These accidents were, however, un- 1 It is proper to mention here that the pendulum and magnetic observa- tions, as well indeed as all others in physical science, were, upon my return, sent to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, and were placed in the very competent liands of Mf. CMiarles A. Schott, Assistant in the United States Coast Survey, to whom I am indebted for most able and efficient cooperation, in the elaboration and discussion of my materials, preparatory to their publication in the " Smithsonian Contributions," to which source I neg to refer the reader for details. ^ These instruments were carefully compared at every ten degrees of temperature down to — 40°, and the records were subsequently referred to our " standard," a fine instrument which I had from G. Tagliabue. 7 98 DRIVEN ASHORE BY THE ICE. comfortable rather than dangerous, as there was al- ways help at hand. The schooner was, for a time, in rather an alarming situation, and there were many doubts as to whether we should get her off; but not even the consciousness of this circumstance, nor the repeated plunges into the water by the giving way and tilting of the ice, could destroy the inexhaustible fund of good-humor of the ship's company. From this happy disposition I must, however, except two individuals, who were always apt to be possessed of a sort of ludicrous grav- ity when there was least occasion for it, and, as is usual with such persons, they were not very service- ably employed. One of them, with great seriousness and an immense amount of misdirected energy, com- menced chopping into my best nine-inch hawser, that was in nobody's way ; and the other, with equa.1 so- lemnity, began vigorously to break up my oars in pushing off pieces of ice which were doing nobody any harm. He even tried to push the schooner off the rocks, alone and unaided, with the tide-|)ole, an in- strument which had cost McCormick two days to man- ufacture. Of course, the instrument was broken ; but the poor man was saved from the sailing-master's just indignation by following the fragments into the sea, where he was consoled, in the place of prompt assist- ance, with assurances that if he did not make haste the shrimps would be after him, and leave nothing of him but a skeleton for the Commander's collection. The temperature was not below zero, and no v/orse results followed our exposure than a slight pleurisy to the mate and a few twitches of rheumatism to the destroyer of my oars. Our efforts were, however, finally rewarded with FROZEN UP. 99 success, and the schooner was once more in safety The air falling calm, and the temperature going down to 10° below zero, we were now soon firmly frozen up, and were protected against any further accidents of this nature, and were rejoiced to find ourselves able to run over the bay in security. In anticipation of this event, I had set Jensen and Peter to work mak- ing harness for the dogs, and on that day I took the first drive with one of my teams. The animals had picked up finely, and were in excellent condition, and I had satisfied myself both as to their qualities and those of their driver, Jensen. The day was indeed a lively one to all hands. The ice having closed up firmly with the land, the necessity no longer existed for keeping a channel open for the boats ; and the hunters, being able now to get ashore with ease^ set off early in the morning, in great glee, after reindeer. On the day following, the hawsers by which we had thus far been moored to the rocks were cut out of the ice and elevated on blocks of the same material. We also made a stairway of slabs of this same cheap Arc- tic alabaster, from the upper deck down to the frozen sea ; and, a deep snow falling soon afterward, we banked this up against the schooner's sides as a fur- ther protection against the cold. During the next few days the teams were employed in collecting the reindeer which had been cached in various places, and when this labor was completed our inventory of fresh supplies was calculated to inspire very agreeable sensations. The schooner being now snugly cradled in the ice, we had no longer occasion for the nautical routine, so T adopted a landsman's watch, with one officer and one sailor; the sea day, which commences at noon, 100 THE DAY ENDED was changed to the home day, which begins at mid- night ; and, conscious that we had reached the divid- ing hne between the smnmer sunlight and the winter darkness, we settled ourselves for the struggle which was to come, resolved to get through it with the cheer- fulness becoming resolute men, and to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. And the personal charac- teristics of my associates augured well for the future. While there was sufficient variety of disposition to insure a continuance of some novelty in our social in- tercourse, there was enough cBprit to satisfy me as to the continuance of harmony in the performance of individual duty. The sun sank out of sight behind the southern hills on the 15th of October, not to be seen again for four long months. The circumstance furnished the subject of our conversation in the evening, and I could easily read on the faces of my companions that their thoughts followed him as he wandered south ; and a shade of sadness fell for a moment over the table about which we were grouped. We had all been so intent upon our cares and duties, during the past five weeks, that we had scarcely noticed the decline of day. It had vanished slowly and as if by stealth ; and the gloom of night following its lengthening shadow made us feel now, for the first time, how truly alone we were in th(i Arctic desert. mm///' »-r'<-;^>V'**^ "^ ' — CHAPTER IX. SUNSET. — WINTER WORK. — MY DOG-TEAMS.— *' MY BROTHER JOHN'S GLACIER.* — HUNTING. — PEAT BEDS. — ESQUIMAU GRAVES. — PUTREFACTION AT LO^ TEMPERATURES. — SONNTAG CLIMBS THE GLACIER. — HANS AND PETER. — MY ESQUIMAU PEOPLE. — THE ESQUIMAU DOG. — SURVEYING THE GLACIER. — THE SAILING-MASTER. — HIS BIRTHDAY DINNER. My diary thus records the advent of winter : — October 16th. The fair-haired god of Hght reposes beneath the Southern Cross. His pathway is no longer above the silent hills; but his golden locks stream over the mountains, and day lingers as a lover departing from the abode of his mistress. The cold-faced regent of the darkness treads her majestic circle through the solemn night ; and the soft^eyed stars pale at her ap- proach. Her silver tresses sweep the sea, and the wild waves are stilled like a laughing face touched by the hand of death. Although winter and darkness are slowly settling over us, yet we have still nine hours of twilight daily, wherein to perform our out-door duties. I have com- pleted my arrangements for the health and comfort of my little household, and have perfected my system of domestic discipline and economy, and I feel sure that the wheels of the little world which revolves around this ice-locked schooner will now move on smoothly. This done, I am at liberty to seek greater freedom of action than I have hitherto enjoyed. I have desired tspoons, paper-cutters, and other little trinkets which, with an old file, a knife, and a 114 MY ESQUIMAU PEOPLE. piece of sand-paper, he has carved for me out of a wal- rus tusk. They are cut with great accuracy and taste. He is always eager to serve my wishes in every thing ; and since I never allow zeal to go unrewarded, lie is the richer by several red-flannel shii;ts, and a suit of pilot-cloth clothes. Of course, Hans is jealous, indeed, it is impossible for me to exhibit any kindness of this sort to any of my Esquimau people without making Hans unhappy. He avoids showing his tem- per openly in my presenoe, but he gets sulky, and does not hunt, or, if ordered out, he comes home with- out game. He is a type of the worst phase of tlie Esquimau character. The Esquimaux are indeed n very strange kind of people, and are an interesting study, even more so than my dogs, although they are not so useful; and then the dog can be controlled with a long whip and resolution, while the human ani- mal cannot be controlled with any thing. They might very properly be called a negative people, in every thing except their unreliability, which is entirely pos- itive ; and yet among themselves they exhibit the sem- blance of virtuous conduct, at least in this : that while in sickness or w^ant or distress they never render vol- untary assistance to each other, yet they do not deny it ; indeed, the active exhibition of service is perhaps wholly unknown or un thought of amongst them ; but they do the next best thing — they never withhold it From the rude hut of the hardy inhabitant of these frozen deserts the unfortunate hunter who has lost his team and has been unsuccessful in the hunt, the un- protected family who have lost their head, even the idle and thriftless, are never turned away ; but they are never invited. They may come, they may use what they find as if they were members of the family, ESQUIMAU TRAITS. 1]5 taking it as a matter of course ; but if it were known that they were starving, at a distance, there is no one who would ever think of going to them with supphes. Thej are the most self-rehant people in the world. It does not appear ever to occur to them to expect as- sistance, and they never think of offering it. The food and shelter vv^hich the needy are allowed lo take is not a charity bestowed ; the aid which the liunter gives to the dogless man who jumps upon his sledge for a lift on a journey is not a kindness. He would drop him or give him the slip if occasion offered, even if in a place from whence he could not reach his home. He would drive off and leave him with the greatest unconcern, never so much as giving him a thought. If he should change his abode, the family that had sought his protection would not be invited to accompany him. They might come if able, he could not and would not drive them away; indeed, his lan- guage contains no word that would suit the act; but, if not able to travel, they would be left to starve with as much unconcern as if they were decrepit dogs which the hunt had rendered useless. They neither beg, borrow, nor steal. They do not make presents, and they never rob each other ; though this does not hold good of their disposition toward the white man, for from him they make it a habit to filch all they can. I cannot imagine any living thing so utterly callous as they. Why, even my Esquimau dogs exhibit more sympathetic interest in each other's welfare. They at least hang together for a common object ; sometimes Qghtmg, it is true, but they make friends again after the contest is over. But these Esquimaux never fight, ^y any chance. They stealthily harpoon a trouble- 116 ESQUIMAU TRAITS. . some rival in the hunt, or an old decrepit man or woman who is a bm^den ; or a person who is sup- posed to be bewitched, or a lazy fellow who has no dogs, and Hves off his more industrious neiglibors. They even destroy their own offspring when there happen to be too many of them brought into the world, or one should chance to be born with some de- formity which will make it incapable of self-support ; but they never meet in open combat ; at least, such are the habits of the tribes who have not yet been reached in some degree by the influences of Christian civilization, or who have not had ingrafted upon them some of the aggressive customs of the old Norsemen, who, from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, lived and fought in Southern Greenland. With such traits of character they are naturally dis- inclined to be amiable toward any one who is particu- larly fortunate, and it is not surprising, therefore, that Hans should be envious of Peter. Even had I o;iven the latter no more clothing than was sufficient to cover his nakedness, it would have been all the same. Had I crowded upon Hans the best of every thing in the vessel, without respect to quantity or usefulness, it would not be more than he covets. But the fellow is especially jealous of my personal kind attentions to Peter, for he sees in that the guaranty of still fiu'ther gifts. Hans, by the way, keeps up an establishment of Iris own ; and, having a piece of feminhie humanity, he can claim the dignity of systematic liousekeep;5^;r. Within the house on the upper deck he has pitched his Esquimau tent, and, with his wife and baby, half buried in reindeer-skins, he lives the life of a true native. His v/ife bears the name of Merkut, but is HANS AND HIS FAMH.Y. 117 better kno^vn as Mrs. Hans. She is a little chubby specimen of womankind, and, for an Esquimau, not ill-looking. In truth she is, I will not say the pret- tiest, but the least ugly thorough-breed that I have seen. Her complexion is unusually fair, so much so that a flush of red is visible on her cheeks when she can be induced to use a little soap and water to re- move the thick plaster of oily soot which covers it. This, however, rarely happens ; and as for undergoing another such soaking and scrubbing as the sailors gave her on the way up from Cape York, she cannot be induced to think of it. The baby is a lively specimen of unwashed human- ity. It is about ten months old, and rejoices in the name of Pingasuk — "The Pretty One." It appears to take as naturally to the cold as ducklings to water, and may be seen almost any day crawling through the open slit of the tent, and then out over the deck, quite innocent of clothing ; and its mother, equally regard- less of temperature or what, in civilized phrase and conventional usage we designate as modesty, does not hesitate to wander about in the same exposed man- ner. The temperature, however, of the house is never very low, mostly above freezing. My other two Esquimau hunters, Marcus and Jacob, are lodgers with the Hans family. They are a pair of droll fellows, very different from Hans and Peter. Marcus will not work, and Jacob has grown like the Prince of Denmark, "fat and scant of breath," and cannot. As for hunters, they are that only in name. They have been tried at every thing for which it was thought possible that they could be of any use and it is now agreed on all sides that they can only oe serviceable in amusing the crew and in cutting up 118 MARCUS AND JACOB. our game ; and these things they do well and cheer- fully, for out of these pursuits grows an endless oppor- tunity to feed ; and as for feeding, I have never seen man nor beast that could rival them, especially Jacob. The stacks of meat that this boy disposes of seem quite fabulous ; and it matters not to him whether it is boiled or raw. The cook declares that " he can eat heself in three meals," meaning, of course, his own weight; but I need hardly say that this is an exag- geration. The steward quotes Shakespeare, and thinks that he has hit the boy very hard when he proclaims him to be a savage " of an unbounded stomach." The sailors tease him about his likeness to the ani- mals which he so ruthlessly devours. A pair of ant- lers are growing from his forehead, rabbit's hair is sprouting on his distended abdomen, and birds' feath- ers are appearing on his back ; his arms and legs are shortening into flippers, his teeth are lengthening into tusks, and they mean to get a cask of walrus blubber out of him before the spring ; all of which he takes good-naturedly ; but there is a roguish leer in his eye, and if I mistake not he will yet be even with his tormentors. So much for my Esquimau subjects. October 21st. I have had another lively race to the glacier, and have had a day of useful work. Hans drove Sonntag, and Jensen was, as usual, my " whip." We took Carl and Peter along to help us with our survejdng ; and, although there were three persons and some instru- ments on each sledge, yet this did not much interfere with our progress. We were at the foot of the glacier in forty minutes. The dogs are getting a httle toned down with use, HABITS OF DOGS 119 and I have directed that their rations shall not be quite as heavy as they were. They are lively enough still, but not so hard to keep in hand. My teams greatly interest me, and no proprietor of a stud of horses ever took greater satisfaction in the occupants of his stables than I do in those of my ken- nels. Mine, however, are not housed very grandly, said kennels being nothing more than certain walls of hard snow built up alongside the vessel, into which the teams, however, rarely choose to go, preferring the open ice-plain, where they sleep, wound up in a knot like worms in a fish-basket, and are often almost buried out of sight by the drifting snow. It is only when the temperature is very low and the wind unu- sually fierce that they seek the protection of the snow-walls. These dogs are singular animals, and are a curious study. They have their leader and their sub-leaders — the rulers and the ruled — Hke any other commu- nity desiring good government. The governed get what rights they can, and the governors bully them continually in order that they may enjoy security against rebellion, and Hve in peace. And a commu- nity of dogs is really organized on the basis of correct principles. As an illustration, — my teams are under the control of a big aggressive brute, who sports a dirty red uniform with snuff-colored facings, and has sharp teeth. He possesses immense strength, and his every movement shows that he is perfectly conscious of it. In the twinkling of an eye he can trounce any dog in the whole herd ; and he seems to possess the faculty of destroying conspiracies, cabals, and all evil designings against his stern rule. None of the other dogs like him, but they cannot help themselves ; they 120 THE LEADER OF THE PACK. are afraid to turn against him, for when they do ac there is no end to the chastisements which they re- ceive. Now Oosisoak (for that is his name) has i\ rival, a huge, burly fellow with black uniform and white collar. This dog is called Karsuk, which ex- presses the complexion of his coat. He is larger than Oosisoak, but not so active nor so intelligent. Occa- sionally he has a set-to with his master ; but he always comes off second best, and his unfortunate followers are afterwards flogged in detail by the merciless red- coat. The place of Oosisoak, when harnessed to the sledge, is on the left of the line, and that of Karsuk on the right. There is another powerful animal which we call Erebus, who governs Sonntag's team as Oosisoak gov- erns mine, and he can whip Karsuk, but he never has a bout with my leader except at his peril and that of his followers. And thus they go along, lighting to preserve the peace, and chawing each other up to maintain the balance of power ; and this is all to my advantage ; for if the present relations of things were disturbed, my community of dogs would be in a state of anarchy. Oosisoak would go into exile, and would die of laziness and a broken heart, and great and bloody would be the feuds between the rival interests, led by Karsuk and Erebus, before it was decided which is the better team. Oosisoak has other traits befitting greatness. He has sentiment. He has chosen one to share the glory of his reign, to console his sorrows, and to lick his wounds when fresh from the bloody field. Oosisoak has a queen ; and this object of his affection, this idol of his heart, is never absent from his side. She runs beside him in the team, and she fights for him hardei THE QUEEN OF THE KENNEL. 12] than any one of his male subjects. In return for this devotion he allows her to do pretty much as she pleases. She may steal the bone out of his mouth, and he gives it up to her with a sentimental grimace that is quite instructive. But it happens sometimes that he is himself hungry, and he trots after her, and when he thinks that she has got her share he growls significantly -, whereupon she drops the bone without even a murmur. If the old fellow happens to be par- ticularly cross when a reindeer is thrown to the pack, he gets upon it with his forefeet, begins to gnaw away at the flank, growling a wolfish growl all the while, and no dog dare come near until he has had his fill except Queen Arkadik, (for by that name is she known,) nor can she approach except in one direc- tion. She must come alongside of him, and crawl between his fore-legs and eat lovingly from the spot where he is eating. So much for my dogs. I shall doubtless have more to say about them hereafter, but there is only a small scrap of the evening left, and I must go back to "My Brother John's Glacier." Halting our teams near the glacier front, we pro- ceeded to prepare ourselves for ascending to its sur- face. Its face, looking down the valley, exhibits a somewhat convex lateral line, and is about a mile in extent, and a hundred feet high. It presents the same fractured surfaces of the iceberg, the same lines of vertical decay caused by the waters trickling from it in the summer, — the same occasional horizontal lines, which, though not well marked, seemed to con- form to the curve of the valley in which the glacier rests. The slope backward from this mural face is quite abrupt for several hundred feet, after which the 122 « CLIMBING THE GLACIER. ascent becomes gradual, decreasing to six degrees^ where it finally blends with the mer de glace which appears to cover the land to the eastward. At the foot of the glacier front there is a pile of broken fragments which have been detached from time to time. Some of them are very large — solid lumps of clear crystal ice many feet in diameter. One such mass, with an immense shower of smaller pieces, cracked off while w^e were looking at it, and came crashing down into the plain below. The surface of the glacier curves gently upward from side to side. It does not blend with the slope of the mountain, but, breaking off abruptly, forms, as I have before observed, a deep gorge between the land and the ice. This gorge is interrupted in places by immense boulders which have fallen from the cHifs, or by equally large masses of ice which have broken from the glacier. Sometimes, however, these inter- ruptions are of a different character, when the ice, moving bodily forward, has pushed the rocks up the hill-side in a confused wave. The traveling along this winding gorge was labori- ous, especially as the snow-crusts sometimes gave way and let one's legs down between the sharp stones, or equally sharp ice ; but a couple of miles brought us to a place where we could mount by using our axe in cutting steps, as Sonntag had done before. We were now fairly on the glacier's back, and moved cautiously toward its centre, fearful at every Btep that a fissure might open under our feet, and let ns down between its hard ribs. But no such accident happened, and we reached our destination, where the surface was perfectly smooth — - an inclined plain of clear, transparent ice. SURVEYING THE GLACIER. 123 Our object in this journey was chiefly to deteraune whether the glacier had movement ; and for this pur- pose we followed the very sunple and efficient plan of Professor Agassiz in his Alpine surveys. First we placed two stakes in the axis of the glacier, and care- fully measured the distance between them ; then we planted two other stakes nearly midway between these and the sides of the glacier ; and then we set the theodolite over each of these stakes in succession, and connected them by angles with each other and with fixed objects on the mountain-side. These an- gles will be repeated next spring, and I shall by this means know whether the glacier is moving down the valley, and at what rate. On this, as on every other occasion when we have attempted to do any thing requiring carefulness and deliberation, the wind came to embarrass us. The temperature alone gives us little concern. Although it may be any number of degrees below zero, we do not mind it, for we have become accustomed to it ; but the wind is a serious inconvenience, especially when our occupations, as in the present instance, do not admit of active exercise. It is rather cold work handling the instrument ; but the tangent screws have been covered with buckskin, and we thus save our fingers from being " burnt," as our little freezings are quite significantly called. I purpose making a still further exploration of this glacier to-morrow, and will defer until then any fur- ther description of it. During my absence the hunters have not been idle. Barnum has killed six deer ; Jensen shot two and Hans nine ; but the great event has been the sailing- master's birthday dinner 3 and I returned on board 124 A SOCIAL RULE. finding all hands eagerly awaiting my arrival to sit down to a sumptuous banquet. I have inaugurated the rule that all birthdays shall be celebrated in this manner ; and, when his birthday comes round, each individual is at liberty to call for the very best that my lockers and the steward's store- room can furnish ; and in this I take credit for some wisdom. I know by experience what the dark cloud is under which we are slowly drifting, and I know that my ingenuity will be fully taxed to pass through it with a cheerful household ; and I know still further, that, whether men live under the Pole Star or under the Equator, they can be made happy if they can be made full ; and furthermore, at some hour of the day, be it twelve or be it six, all men must " dine 3 " for are they not u a carnivorous production, Requiring meals, — at least one meal a day ? Tliey cannot live, like woodcock, upon suction ; But, like the shark and tiger, must have prey." And hence they take kindly to venison and such like things, and they remember with satisfaction the ad- vice of St. Paul to the gentle Timothy, to " use a little wine for the stomach's sake." McCormick was not only the subject to be honored on this occasion, but to do honor to himself He has actually cooked his own dinner, and has done it well. My sailing-master is a very extraordinary person, and there seems to be no end to his accomplishments. Possessing a bright intellect, a good education, and a perfect magazine of nervous energy, he has, while knocking about the world, picked up a smattering of almost every thing known under the sun, from astron- omy to cooking, and from seamanship to gold-digging THE SAILING-MASTER. 125 Aii'l he is something of a philosopher, for he declares that he will have all the comfort he can o-et when oft duty J while he does not seem to regard any sort of exposure, and is quite careless of himself, when on duty ; and besides, he appears to possess that highly useful fliculty of being able to do for himself any thing that he may require to be done by others. He can handle a marline-spike as well as a sextant, and can play sailor, carpenter, blacksmith, cook, or gentleman with equal facihty. So much for the man ; now for his feast. A day or so ago I found lying on my cabin-table a neat little missive which politely set forth, that " Mr. McCormick presents the compliments of the officers' mess to the Commander, and requests the honor of his company to dinner in their cabin, on the 21st in- stant, at six o'clock." And I have answered the sum- mons, and have got back again into my own den overwhelmed with astonishment at the skill of mv sailing-master in that art, the cultivation of which has made LucuUus immortal and Soyer famous, and higlih' gratified to see both officers and men so well pleased. The bill of fare, " with some original illustrations hy Radcliffe," set forth a very tempting invitation to a hungry man, and its provisions were generally fulfilled. There was a capital soup — jardiniere — nicely fla- vored, a boiled salmon wrapped in the daintiest of napkins, a roast haunch of venison weighing thirty pounds, and a brace of roast eider-ducks, with currant- jelly iind apple-sauce, and a good \'ciriety of fresh veg- * etables^ and after this a huge pluiti-pudding, unported from Boston, which came in with the flames of Otara flickering all around its rotund lusciousness ; and then there was mince-pie and blanc-mange and nuts and 126 A BIRTHDAY DIXXEIl. raisins and olives and Yankee cheese and Boston crackers and coffee and cigars, and I don't know what else besides. There were a couple of carefulh'-treas- nred bottles of Moselle produced from the little recep- tacle under my bunk, and some madeira and sherry from the same place. The only dish that was purely local in its character was a mai/onnaise of frozen venison (raw) thinly sliced and dressed in the open air. It was very crisp, but its merits were not duly appreciated. The ^^ Bill " wound up thus : — " Music on the fiddle by Knorr. Song, ^We won't go home till mornin',' by the mess. Original ^ yarns ' always in order, but ' Joe Millers ' forbidden on penalty of clearing out the 'fire-hole' for the balance of the night." I left the party two hours ago in unrestrained en- joyment of the evening. And right good use do they appear to be making of the occasion. The whole ship's company seem to be like Tarn O'Shanter, — " O'er a' the ills o' life victorious," without, however, so far as I can discover, any thing of the cause which led to that renowned individual's satisfactory state of mind. The sailors are following up their feast with a lively dance, into which they have forced Marcus and Jacob ; while the ofhcers, like true-born Americans, are making speeches. At thi? moment I hear some one proposing the health of "The Great Polar Bear." j^^^sj-Sc' CHAPTER X. JOURNEY ON THE GLACIER. — THE FIRST CAMP. — SCALING THE GLACIEB.- CHARACTER OF ITS SURFACE. — THE ASCENT. —DRIYEN BACK BY A GALlt — LOW TEMPERATURE— DANGEROUS SITUATION OF THE PARTY. — A MOON- LIGHT SCENE. Notwithstanding that we had no actual daylight even at noontime, yet it was light enough for travel- ing : and the moon being full, and adding its bright- ness to that of the retiring sun, I felt no hesitation in carrying into execution my contemplated journey upon the glacier. The severe gales appeared to have subsided, and I thought that the undertaking might be made with safety. I could do nothing at this period that would bear directly upon my plans of exploration toward the north, and I desired to employ my time to the best advantage. The sea immediately outside of the har- bor still remained unfrozen, and we were kept close prisoners within Hartstene Bay — being unable to pass around the capes which bounded it to the north and south. Both Cape Alexander and Cape Ohlsen were still lashed by the troubled sea. There was evi- dently a large open area in the mouth of the Sound, extending down into the " North Water." When the wind set in from that dhection the ice was broken up far within the bay, to be drifted off when it changed to the eastward. Besides this, even if the ice had closed up, so Httle faith had I in the autumn as a season for sledge trav- 128 JOUKNEY OX THE GLACIER. eling upon the Kea, that I doubt if I should have attempted a journey in that quarter. In those posi- tions most favorable to early freezing the ice does not unite firmly until the darkness has fully set in ; and traveling is not only attended with much risk, but with great loss of that physical strength so necessary to resist the insidious influences of the malady, hith- erto so often fatal to sojourners in the Arctic darkness. And it has been the general judgment of my prede- cessors in this region, that the late spring and early summer are alone calculated for successful sledge trav- eling. I recall but two commanders who have sent parties into the field in the autumn, and in both of these cases the attempt was, apparently, not only use- less, but prejudicial. The men were broken down by the severity of the exposure — having been almost constantly wet and always cold — and when the dark- ness set in they were laid up with the scurvy ; and in the spring it was discovered that the depots which they had established were, for the most part, either destroyed by bears or were otherwise unavailable. With inland traveling the case is different. There is then no risk of getting wet, and I have not ordina- rily experienced serious difficulty in traveling at any temperature, however severe, provided I could keep my party dry. Some dampness is, however, almost unavoidable even on land journeys, and this is, in truth, one of the most embarrassing obstacles with which the Arctic traveler has to contend. Even at low temperatures he cannot wholly avoid some moist- ure to his clothes and fur bedding, caused by the warmth of his own person melting the snow beneath him while he sleeps. This being our first journey, of course everybody JOURNEY ON THE GLACIER. 120 was eager to go. I had at first intended to take the dogs, with Jensen as my only companion and driver ; liut upon talking the matter over with that individual, (in whose judgment with respect to such things I had niuch confidence), I yielded to his opinion that the dogs were not available for that kind of work. I had reason afterwards to regret the decision, for it was found that they might have been used during some parts of the journey with great advantage. It oc- curred to me, upon subsequent reflection, that for Jensen's aspersions of the dogs an ample apology might be found in Sonntag's broken barometer. Having concluded to make the journey with men alone, my choice fell upon Mr. Knorr, John McDonald, Harvey Heywood, Christian Petersen, and the Esqui- mau Peter. McDonald was one of my very best sail- ors — a short, well-knit fellow, always ready for work. Christian was not unlike him in make, disposition, and endurance, and, although a carpenter, was yet some- thing of a sailor. He had lived during several years in Greenland, and had become inured to a life of ex- posure. Heywood was a landsman from the far- West, and had joined me from pure enthusiasm. He was full of courage and energy, and, although occupying a position in the ship's company much inferior to his deserts, yet nothing better could be done for him. He was bent upon accompanying the expedition, no matter in what capacity.^ With Peter the reader is already acquainted. We set out on the 22d of October, the day follow- ing the celebration which closes the last chapter. Our 1 It affords me great satisfaction to learn recently that Harvey Hey- wood has served during the late war, in the Southwest, with great gal- lantry, winning for himself a commission, being attached to the engineers, on the general staff. I found him to be an excellent, draughtsman. ]r;0 THE FIRST CAMP. rlerlge was lightly laden with a small canvas tent, two biiflfiilo-skins for bedding, a cooking-lamp, and provis- ions for eight days. Our personal equipment needs but a brief description. An extra pair of fur stock- ings, a tin cup, and an h'on spoon, per man, was the whole of it. Our first camp was made at the foot of the glacier. The first camp of a journej^ anywhere in the world is usually uncomfortable enough, notwithstanding it may perhaps have its bright side ; but this one, to my little party, did not appear to have any bright side at all. The temperature was — 11°, and we had no other fire than what was needed in our furnace- lamp for cooking our hash and coffee. I believe no one slept. Our tent was pitched, of necessity, on a sloping hill-side, and on the smoothest bed of stones that we could find. We turned out in the moonlight and went to work. The next journey carried us to the top of the gla- cier, and it was a very serious day's business. I have already described, in the last chapter, the rugged char- acter of the gorge through which we were obliged to travel, in order to reach a point where we could scale the glacier. The laden sledge could not be dragged over the rocks and blocks of ice, and the men were therefore compelled to carry our equipments, piece by piece, on their shoulders. Reaching the spot where, with Mr. Sonntag, I had before made an ascent, we prepared to hoist the sledge. The scenery was here quite picturesque. We were standing in a little triangular valley, with a lake in its centre. At our left rose the great glacier, and at our right a small stream of ice poured through a deep gorge. Before us st^od a massive pillar of SCALING THE GLACIER. 131 rcd-sandstoiie rock, behind which these two streams uniting, wholly surrounded it, making it truly an island — an island in a sea of ice. The little lake exhibited a phenomenon which I fonnd quite instruc- tive in connection with my present journey. It had been well filled with water at the close of the thaw season, and the ice was formed upon it before the water had subsided. When the lake had drained off under the glacier the ice was left with no other support than the rocks. In many places it had bent down with its own weight, and in one instance I ob- served that, the pressure being finally exerted on the corners of the remaining slab, this ice, in a tempera- ture below zero, and six inches thick, had been twisted into a shape resembling the mold-board of a farmer's plow. The first attempt to scale the glacier was attended with an incident which looked rather serious at the moment. The foremost member of the party missed his footing as he was clambering up the rude steps, and, sliding down the steep side, scattered those who were below him to right and left, and sent them rolling into the valley beneath. The adventure might have been attended with serious consequences, for there were many rocks projecting above the snow and ice at the foot of the slope. The next effort was more suc- cessful, and the end of a rope being carried over the side of the glacier, the sledge was drawn up the in- clined plane, and we started off upon our journey. The ice was here very rough and much broken, and was almost wholly free from snow. We had not traveled long before an accident hap- pened to me similar to that which had before occurred to Mr. Sonntag. Walking in advance of the party, 132 THE ASCENT. who were dragging the sledge, I found myself, with- out any warning, suddenly sinking through the snow, and was only saved by holding firmly to a wooden staff which I carried over my shoulder, fearful that such a misadventure might befall me. The staff spanned the opening and supported me until I could scramble out. The crack may not have been very deep, but, not having found any support for my feet, I felt glad to have been able to postpone the solution of the interesting scientific question, as to whether these fissures extend entirely through the body of the glacier, to some future occasion. As we neared the centre of the glacier the surface became more smooth, and gave evidence of greater security. The great roughness of the sides was no doubt due to an uneven conformation of that portion of the valley upon which the ice rested. Journeying then about five miles, we pitched our tent upon the ice, and, turning into it, after a hearty supper of hash, bread, and coffee, we slept soundly, — being too much fatigued to give thought to the tem- perature, which had fallen several degrees lower than during the previous night. On the following day we traveled thirty miles ; and the ascent, which, during the last march, had been at an angle of about 6°, diininished gradiiallj^ to about one third of that angle of elevation ; and from n sur- face of hard ice we had come upon an even plain of compacted snow, through which no true ice could be found after digging down to the depth of three feet. At that depth, however, the snow assumed a more icy condition, and, although not actually ice, we could not penetrate further into it with our shovel without great difficulty. The snow was covered with EXCESSIVE COLD. 133 a crust through which the foot broke at every step, thus making the traveling very laborious. About twenty-five miles were made during the fol- lowing day^ the track being of the same charncter as the day before, and at about the same elevation ; but the condition of my party warned me against the hazard of continuing the journey. The temperature had fallen to 30° below zero, and a fierce gale of wind meeting us in the face, drove us into our tent for shel- ter, and, after resting there for a few hours, compelled our return. I had, however, accomplished the princi- pal purpose of my journey, and had not in any case intended to proceed more than one day further, at this critical period of the year. My party had not yet become sufficientl}' inured to exposure at such low temperatures to enable them to bear it without risk. They were all more or less touched with the frost, and the faces of two of them had been so often frozen that they had become very painful and much swollen, and their feet being con- stantly cold, I was fearful of some serious accident if we did not speedily seek safety at a lower level. The temperature fell to 34° below zero during the night, and it is a circumstance worthy of mention that the low^est record of the thermometer at Port Foulke, during our absence, was 22° higher. The men complained bitterly, and could not sleep. One of them seemed likely to give up altogether, and I was compelled to send him into the open air to save him- self from perishing by a vigorous walk. The storm steadily increased in force, and, the tem- perature falling lower and lower, we were all at length forced to quit the tent, and in active exercise strive to prevent ourselves from freezing. To face the wind 134 A DANGEROUS SITUATION. was not possible, and shelter was nowhere to be found upon the unbroken plain. There was but one direc- tion in which we could move, and that was with our backs to the gale. Much as I should have liked to continue the journey one day more, it was clear to me that longer delay would not alone endanger the lives of one or two members of my party, ])ut would wholly defeat the purposes of the expedition by the destruction of all of us. It was not vdthout much dif&cultv that the tent was taken down and bundled upon the sledge. The wind blew so fiercely that we could scarcely roll it up with our stiffened hands. The men were suffering terribly, and could only for a few moments hold on to the hardened canvas. Their fingers, freezing con- tinually, required active pounding to keep them upon the flickering verge of life. We did not wait for neat stowage or an orderly start. Danger suggests prompt expedients. Our situation at this camp was as sublime as it was dangerous. We had attained an altitude of five thou- sand feet above the level of the sea, and we were sev- enty miles from the coast, in the midst of a vast frozen Sahara, immeasurable to the human eye. There was neither hill, mountain, nor gorge anywhere in view. We had completely sunk the strip of land which lies between the mer de glace and the sea ; and no object met the eye but our feeble tent, which bent to the storm. Fitful clouds swept over the face of the full- orbed moon, which, descending toward the horizon, glimmered through the drifting snow that whirled out of the illimitable distance, and scudded over the icy plain ; — to the eye, in undulating lines of downy soft- ness ; to the flesh, in showers of piercing darts. JOURNEYING BY MOONLIGHT 135 Our only safety was in flight ; and like a ship driven before a tempest which she cannot withstand, and which has threatened her ruin, we turned our backs to the gale ; and, hastening down the slope, we ran to save our lives. We traveled upwards of forty miles, and had de- scended about three thousand feet before we ventured to halt. The wind was much less severe at this point than at the higher level, and the temperature had risen twelve degrees. Although w^e reposed without risk, yet our canvas shelter was very cold ; and, not- withstanding the reduced force of the gale, there was some difficulty in keeping the tent from being blown away. We reached Port Foulke the next evening, after a toilsome march, without having suffered any serious accident. The latter part of the journey was made wholly l»y moonlight. The air was found to be quite calm v/hen we reached the base of the glacier ; and the journey down its lower face, and through the gorge, and over the valley, and across Alida Lake and the Fiord, was made in the presence of a scene which was very im- pressive. Sheets of drifting snow swept over the white-crested hills like insubstantial spirits flitting wildly through the night. These told that the gale yet howled above ; but in our lowly shelter the air was still as a cave in the midst of winds. No cloud obscured the broad archway of the skies. The gentle stars, robed in the drapery of night, rejoiced to behold their forms in the smooth mirror of the lake. The glacier threw back the chilly moonbeams. The shad- ows of the dark cliffs stole into the flood of light which filled the valley. The white Fiord, dotted with 136 AN IMPRESSIVE SCENE. islands, wound between the rugged capes, and its ice-clad waters spread out into the bay and then merged with the broad sea. In the dim distance loomed up the lofty snow-clad mountains of the west coast. Upon the sea floated a heavy bank of mist, which, slowly changing when moved by the wind, dis- closed within its dark bosom the ghostly form of an iceberg ; and a feeble auroral light fringed this sombre cloak of the waves. Angry flashes darted from be- hind this mass of impenetrable blackness, and, rush- ing fiercely among the constellations, seemed like (iery arrows shot up by evil spirits of another world. CHAPTER XT. IMPORTANT RESULTS OF THE RECENT JOURNEY - TJIE GLACIER SYSTEBI 01 GREENLAND. — GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE SUBJECT. — ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN FROM THE ALPINE GLACIERS. — GLACIER MOAT.MENT. — OUTLINR OF THE GREENLAND MER DE GLACE. The results of the journey recorded in the last chapter gave nie great satisfaction. They furnished an important addition to the observations which I had made in former years; and I was glad to have an opportunity to form a more clear conception of the glacier system of Greenland. The journey possesses the greater value, that it was the first successful attempt which had been made to penetrate into the interior over the me7^ de glace. Although I had, in my overland journey from Van Rensselaer Harbor with Mr. Wilson, in 1853, reached the face of the mer de glace, where it rested behind the lofty chain of hills which runs parallel with the axi.s of the continent, yet this was the first time that I had actually been upon it \ and its vastness did not on the former occasion impress me as now. Even the de- scription of the great Humboldt G-lacier which 1 had from Mr. Bonsall, and the knowledge that I had ac- quired of the immense glacier discharges of tbe region further south, failed to inspire me with a full compre- hension of the immensitv of ice which lies in the val- leys and upon the sides of the Greenland mountains. Greenland may indeed be regarded as a vast reservoir 138 THE GLACIER SYSTEM. of ice Upon the slopes of its 'lofty hills the downy snow-flake has become the hardened crystal ; and, in- creasing little by little from year to year and from century to century, a broad cloak of frozen vapor has at length completely overspread the land, and along its mde border there pour a thousand crystal streams into the sea. The manner of this glacier growth, beginning in some remote epoch, when Greenland, nursed in warmth and sunshine, was clothed with vegetation, is a subject of much interest to the student of physi- cal geography. The explanation of the phenomena is, however, greatly simplified by the knowledge which various explorers have contributed from the Alps, — a quarter having all the value of the Greenland moun- tains, as illustrating the laws which govern the for- mation and movements of mountain ice, and which possesses the important advantage of greater accessi- bility. It would be foreign to the scope and design of this book to enter into any general discussion of the vari- ous theories which have been put forth in explanation of the sublime phenomena, which, as witnessed in the Alpine regions, have furnished a fruitful source of widely different conclusions. It was, however, easy to perceive in the grand old bed of ice over which I had traveled, those same physical markings which had arrested the attention of Agassiz and Forbes and Tyn- dall, and other less illustrious explorers of Alpine gla- ciers ; and it was a satisfaction to have confirmed by actual experiment in the field the reflections of the study. The subject had long been to me one of great interest; and I was much gratified to be able to make a comparison between the Alpine and Greenland ice. GLACIERS. 139 rt was not difficult to read in the immense deposit over which I had walked whence came the suggestion of dilatation to Scheuchzer, or of sliding to De Saussure ; or, in the steady progress of knowledge and discovery, the principles of action that are illustrated by the terms tntrions and viscous and differential motion, as ap- plied to the Alpine ice by eminent explorers of later date. The subject of Greenland ice is one about which there exists much popular misapprehension. As be- fore stated, I do not here propose to enter into a minute discussion of the manner of its formation and movement, but will content myself with simply recog- nizing the fact, and ^vith drawing such comparison as may be needful between the mountain ice of Green- land and similar deposits in other quarters of the world. Under this head I trust that the reader may find sufficient interest in the line of argument to fol- low me through a few pages, in a general review of the whole field. At a later period I will recur to some more specific details of information and discussion, as the narrative carries us to other objects of inquiry. In order to make the subject clear, I cannot do better than to cite my Dlustrations from the region of the Alps, where, through a long period, earnest explorers have laboriously pursued their inquiries. One of the most important and gifted of these was M. Le Chanonie Rendu, Bishop of Annecy. This ex- cellent and worthy man, and sincere devotee as well of science as of religion, died some seven years ago. A lifetime spent among the rugged crags and ice-clifis of the Alpine Mountains had familiarized him with every phase of Nature in that region of sublimity and home of the wonderful. Professor Tyndall says truly 140 ORIGIN OF GLACIERS. of him, that " his knowledge was extensive, his rea- soning close and accurate, and his faculty of observa- tion extraordinary ; " and he early brought his splen- did faculties of mind and his energy of body and profound love of truth to bear upon the elucidation of those natural phenomena which were constantly exhibited in his presence. After many years of con- scientious toil, he gave to the world the results of his systematic investigations in an essay which was pub- lished in the Memoirs of the Koyal Academy of Sci- ences of Savoy, entitled, " Theorie des Glaciers de la Savoie^ I will use the information acquired from this source as the basis of my present argument, — to demon- strate, by the law as interpreted to us from the Alps by this learned priest of x\nnecy, how the Arctic con- tinent receives its cloak of crystals, and how it dis- charges the superabundant accumulation. Rendu first observes the piling up of the mountain snows. The snow falling upon the mountains is partly converted into water, which runs away to the river, and through the river to the sea ; and is partly con- verted into ice. The ice thus formed Rendu estimates to equal, in the Alps, fifty-eight inches annually, — " which would make Mont Blanc four hundred feet higher in a century, and four thousand feet higher in a thousand j^ears." " Now it is evident," observes he, " that nothing Hke this can occur in Nature." This ice must be removed by the operation of some natural cause ; and observation having shown that this actually takes place, Rendu occupies himself with methods to discover how Nature has perfonned the task ; and he comes to this very rational conclusion : THE LAW OF CIRCULATION. 141 That the glaciel* and the river are in effect the same ; that between them there is a resemblance so com- plete that it is impossible to find in the latter a cir- cumstance which does not exist in the former : and as the river drains the waters which fall upon the hill- sides to the ocean, so the glacier drains the ice which forms from the snows on the mountain-sides down to the same level : And he closes his argument with declaring the Law: — " The conserving will of the Creator has employed for the permanence of His work the great Law of Oir- culatimi, which, strictly examined, is found to reproduce itself in all parts of Nature." And, in illustration of this law, we see that the waters circulate from the ocean to the air by evapora- tion, from the air again to the earth in the form of dews and rains and snows, and from the earth back again to the ocean through the great rivers which have gathered up the little streams from every hill- side and valley. Now this law of Circulation is, in the icy regions of the Alps, of the lofty Himalayas, of the Andes, of the mountains of Norway and of Greenland, the same as in the lower and warmer regions of the earth, where the rivers drain the surface-water to the sea. A glacier is in effect but a flowing stream of frozen water ; and the river systems of the Temperate and Equatorial Zones become the glacier systems of the Arctic and Antarctic. We have now seen that a part of the snow which falls upon the mountains is converted into ice, and this ice, strange though it seems, is movable. By what exact principle of movement has not yet been 142 MOVEMENT OF THE GLACIERS. decided to the mutual satisfaction of the learned, but it is nevertheless true. Kendu truly remarks : — "There is a multitude of facts which would seem to necessitate the belief that the substance of glaciers enjoys a kind of ductility, which permits it to mould itself to the locality which it occupies, to grow thin, to swell and to narrow itself like a soft paste." And this, true of the Alpine passes, is true also of the Greenland valleys. A great frozen flood is pour- ing down the east and west slopes of the Greenland (continent ; and, as in the Alps, what is gained in height by one year's freezing is lost by the downward flow of the mobile mass. And this movement is not embarrassed by any ob- stacle. The lower chains of hills do not arrest it, for it moulds itself to their form, sweeps through every opening between them, or overtops them. Valleys do not interfere with its onward march, for the frozen stream enters them, and levels them with the highest hills. It heeds not the precipice, for it leaps over it into the plain below, — a giant, frozen waterfall. Winter and summer are to it alike the same. It moves ever forward in its irresistible career, — a vast, frozen tide swelling to the ocean. It pours through every outlet of the coast ranges, down every ravine and valley, overriding every impediment, grinding and crushing over the rocks ; and at length it comes upon the sea. But here it does not stop. Pushing back the water, it makes its own coast line ; and, moving still onward, accommodating itself to every inequality of the bed of the sea, as it had before done to the surface of the land, filling up the wide bay or fiord, expanding where it expands, narrowing where it narrows, swallowing up the islands in its slow^ and FORMATION OF ICEBERGS. 143 steady course, it finally reaches many miles beyond the original shore-line. And now it has attained the climax of its progress. When, long ages ago, after pouring over the sloping land, it finally reached the coast and looked down the bay which it was ultimately to fill up, its face was many hundreds of feet high. Gradually it sank below the line of waters as it moved outward, and finally its front has almost wholly disappeared. In a former chapter I have mentioned that a block of fresh- water ice floating in sea water rises above the surface to the extent of one eighth of its weight and bulk, while seven eighths of it are below the surface. The cause of this is too well known to need more than a passing explanation. Every school-bo}^ is aware that water, in the act of freezing, expands, and that in the crystal condition fresh water occupies about one tenth more space than when in a fluid state ; and hence, when ice floats in the fresh water from which it was formed, one tenth of it is exposed above, while the remaining nine tenths are beneath the surface. When this same fresh-water ice (which it will be remembered is the composition of the glacier) is thrown into the sea, the proportion of that above to that below being changed from one and nine to one and seven, is due to the greater density of the sea-water, caused by the salt which it holds in solution. Now it will be obvious that, as the glacier continues to press further and farther into the sea, the natural equilibrium of the ice must ultimately become dis- turbed,— that is, the end of the glacier is forced fur- ther down into the water than it would be were it free from restraint, and at liberty to float according to the properties acquired by congelation. The moment 144 FORMATION OF ICEBERGS. that more than seven eighths of its front are below the water line, the glacier will, like an apple pressed down by the hand in a pail of water, have a tendency to rise, until it assumes its natural equilibrium. Now it will be remembered that the glacier is a long stream of ice, many miles in extent, and, although the end may have this tendency to rise, yet it is, for a time, held down firmly by the continuity of the whole mass. At length, however, as the end of the glacier buries itself more and more in the water, the tendency to rise becomes stronger and stronger, and finally the force thus o-enerated is sufficient to break off a frao:ment, which, once free, is buoyed up to the level that is nat- ural to it. This fragment may be a solid cube half a mile through, or even' of much greater dimensions. The disruption is attended with a great disturbance of the waters, and with violent sounds which may be heard for manv miles ; but, floatino- now free in the water, the oscillations which the sudden change im- parted to it gradually subside ; and, after acquiring its natural equilibrium, the crystal mass drifts slowly out to sea with the current, and is called an Iceberg.^ And thus the glacier has fulfilled its part in the great law of Circulation and change. •The dew-drop, distilled upon the tropic palm-leaf, falling to the earth, has reappeared in the gurgling spring of the primeval forest, has flown with the riv- ulet to the river, and with the river to the ocean ; has then vanished into the air, and, wafted northward by 1 It was formerly supposed that the icebergs were discharged by the force of gravity, but this error, as well as the true theory of berg discharge, WIS pointed out by Dr. H. Rink, now Royal Inspector of South Greenland. Some fragments are, however, detached from the face of the glacier and fall ii.to the water, but these are always necessarily of comparatively small dimensions, and can scarcely be called bergs. THE LAW OF CIRCULAllON. 145 the unseen wind, has fallen as a downy snow-flake upon the lofty mountain, where, penetrated by a solar ray, it has become again a little globule of water, and the chilly wind, following the sun, has converted this glob- ule into a crystal ; and the crystal takes up its wan- dering course again, seeking the ocean. But where its movement was once rapid, it is now slow; where it then flowed with the river miles in an hour, it will now flow with the glacier not more in centuries ; and where it once entered calmly into the sea, it will now join the world of waters in the midst of a violent convulsion. We have thus seen that the iceberg is the discharge of the Arctic river, that the Arctic river is the glacier, and that the glacier is the accumulation of the frozen vapors of the air. We have watched this river, mov- ing on in its slow and steady course from the distant hills, until at length it has reached the sea ; and we have seen the sea tear from the slothful stream a monstrous fragment, and take back to itself its own again. Freed from the shackles which it has borne in silence through unnumbered centuries, this new-born child of the ocean rushes with a wild bound into the arms of the parent water, where it is caressed by the surf and nursed into life again ; and the crystal drops receive their long-lost freedom, and fly away on the laughing waves to catch once more the sunbeam, and to run again their course through the long cycle of the ages. And this iceberg has more significance than the great flood which the glacier's southern sister, the broad Amazon, pours into the ocean from the slopes of the Andes and the mountains of Brazil. Solemn, stately, and erect, in tempest and in calm, it rides the 10 *■'* 14G BEAUTY AND GRANDEUR OF ICEBERGS. deep. The restless waves resound through its broken archways and thunder aojainst its adamantean walls. Clouds, impenetrable as those which shielded the graceful form of Arethusa, clothe it in the morning ; under the brio-ht blaze of the noondav sun it is ar- mored in glittering silver ; it robes itself in the gor- geous colors of evening ; and in the silent night the heavenly orbs are mirrored in its glassy surface. Drifting snows whirl over it in the winter, and the sea-gulls swarm round it in the summer. The last rays of departing day linger upon its lofty spires ; and when the long darkness is past it catches the first gleam of the returning light, and its gilded dome her- alds the coming morn. The Elements combine to render tribute to its matchless beauty. Its loud voice is wafted to the shore, and the earth rolls it from crag to crag among the echoing hills. The sun steals through the veil of radiant fountains which flutter over it in the summer winds, and the rainbow on its pallid cheek betrays the warm kiss. ' The air crowns it with wreaths of soft vapor, and the waters around it take the hues of the emerald and the sapphire. In fulfillment of its destiny it moves steadily onward in its blue pathway, through the varying seasons and under the changeful skies. Slowly, as in ages long gone by it arose from the broad waters, so does it sink back into them. It is indeed a noble symbol of the Law, — a monument of Time's slow changes, more an- cient than the Egyptian Pyramids or the obeHsk of Heliopolis. Its crystals were dew-drops and snow- flakes long before the human race was born in Eden. The glacier by which I had ascended to the mer de glace furnishes a fine illustration of growth and move- ment as I have described it. Coming down from the THE MER DE GLACE. 147 Vie)' de glace in a steadily flowing stream, it has at length filled up the entire valley in which it rests for a distance of ten miles ; and its terminal face, which, as heretofore stated, is one mile across, is now two miles from the sea. The angles and measurements of October, 1860, were repeated in July, 1861, as I shall have occasion hereafter to illustrate, and the re- sult showed the rate of progress of the glacier to be upwards of one hundred feet annually. It will thus be seen that more than a century will elapse before the front of the glacier arrives at the sea ; and since six miles must be traveled over before it reaches deep water, at least five hundred years will transpire before it discharges an iceberg of any considerable magni- tude. The movement of this glacier is much more rapid than others which I have explored. From " My Brother John's Glacier" the margin of the mer de cflace sweeps around behind the lofty hills back of Port Foulke, and comes down to the sea in a discharg- ing glacier above Cape Alexander. This has a face of two miles, and some small icebergs are disengaged from it. Thence, after surrounding Cape Alexander, embracing it as with the arm of a mighty giant, it comes again into the water on its south side ; and, continuing thence southward in a succession of broad and irregular curves, a frozen river is poured out from this great inland sea of ice through every valley of the Greenland coast from Smith's Sound to Cape Fare- well, and from Cape Farewell on the Spitzbergen side northward to the remotest boundary of the explored. Northward from " My Brother John's Glacier " it makes a broad curve in the rear of the hills hitherto mentioned, and opposite Van Rensselaer Harbor it is between fifty and sixty miles from the sea, where 148 THE MER DE GLACE. it was reached by Mr. Wilson and myself, as before stated. Its first appearance upon the coast in that direction is at the head of Smith's Sound, in the great Humboldt Glacier, which is reputed to be sixty miles across. Beyond this it presses upon Washing- ton Land, and thence stretches away into the region of the unknown. CHAPTER XII. MY CABIN. — SURVEYING. — CASTOR AND POLLUX. — CONCERNING SCURVY. - DANGERS OF EATING COLD SNOW. — KNORR AND STARR. — FROST-BITES. - HANS, PETER, AND JACOB AGAIN. — COAL ACCOUNT. — THE FIRES. — COM- FORT OF OCR QUARTERS. — TILE HOUSE ON DECK. — MILD WEATHER. — JENSEN.— MRS. HANS. — JOHN WILLIAMS, THE COOK. — A CHEERFUL EVEN- ING. After a sound sleep had in some measure worn off the fatigues of the journey on the glacier^ I returned to my diary : — October 28th. I am not sorry to get back again into my cosy little cabin. I never knew before what a snug home I have in the midst of this Arctic wilderness. A few days on the ice and a few nights in a tent were required to give me a proper appreciation of its comforts. Once I had begun to regard it as a dingy, musty cell, fit only for a convict. Now it is a real " weary man's rest," an oasis in a desert, a port in a storm. The bright rays of the " fine-eyed Ull-Erin " were not a more cheering guide to the love-bound Ossian than was the glimmer of this cabin-lamp as I came in last night from the cold, — trudging across the waste of snows. The curtains which inclose what is my lounge by day and my bed by night have taken on a brighter crimson. The wolf and bear skins which cover the lounge and the floor, protecting my feet against the frost which strikes up from below, are positively luxu- 150 MY CABIN. rious ; the lamp, which I thought burned with a sicklj? sort of flame, is a very Drummond hght compared with what it was ; the clock, which used to annoy me with its ceaseless ticking, now makes grateful music ; the books, which are stuck about in all available places, seem to be lost friends found again ; and the little pictures, which hang around wherever there is room, seem to smile upon me with a sort of sympa- thetic cheerfulness. Rolls of maps, unfinished sketches, scraps of paper, all sorts of books, including stray vol- umes of the " Penny Cyclopasdia " and Soyer's " Prin- ciples of Cooking," drawing implements, barometer cases, copies of Admiralty Blue Books, containing re- ports of the Arctic Search, track charts of all those British worthies, from Ross to Rae, who have gone in search of Sir John Franklin, litter the floor ; and, in- stead of annoying me with their presence, as they used to do, they seem to possess an air of quiet and refresh- ing comfort. My little pocket^sextant and compass, hanging on their particular peg, my rifle and gun and flask and pouch on theirs, with my traveling kit be- tween them, break the blank space on the bulk-head before me, and seem to speak a language of their own. My good and faithful friend Sonntag sits opposite to me at the table, reading. I write nestling among ni}* furs, with my journal in my lap ; and when T contrast this night with the night on the glacier summit, and listen now to the fierce wind which howls over the deck and through the rigging, and think how dark and gloomy every thing is outside and how light and cheerful every thing is here below, I believe that i have as much occasion to write myself down a thank- ful man, as I am very sure I do, for once at least, a contented one. SURVEYING. 151 Sonntag has given me a report of work done during my absence, and so has McCormick. With Jensen I have had a talk about the hunt. I have dined with the officers, and all goes "merry as a marriage bell." My companions on the journey have recovered from their fatigue, and they seem none the worse for the tramp, except such of them as have been touched by the frost; and these look sorry enough. They get little consolation from their shipmates. I am much gratified to find that every thing has gone on so smoothly while I was away. Sonntag has been twice to the glacier, and has finished the survey and made some spirited sketches. He has also done some valuable work on a base line, accurately meas- ured upon the ice of the outer bay. This base line is 9100 feet long, and his triangulations give the fol- lowing distances from the western point of Starr Island : — To Cape Alexander, 8 nautical miles. " " Isabella, 31 " " " ■ Sabine, 42 " My commands respecting the hunt have been care- fully observed, and numerous additions have been made to our rapidly accumulating stock of fresh food. This gives me much gratification. My experience with Dr. Kane has led me to believe that the scurvy, hitherto so often fatal to Arctic travelers, may be readily avoided by the liberal use of a fresh animal diet ; and, although I have a fair supply of canned meats and a good allowance of fresh vegetables, yet I do not wish to depend wholly upon them ; and, in order to make assurance doubly sure, I have endeav- ored to spare no pains in securing whatever game is within our reach. Accordingly I have always had a 152 CONCERNING scaRvr. well-organized party of hunters, who are exempt frora other duty, and this system I propose continuing. The result thus far has shown the correctness of my plan. A more healthy ship's company could not be desired. Not a single case of illness has yet oc- curred. I do not expect to have any scurvy in my party, and I am firmly impressed with the belief that at Port Foulke men might live indefinitely without being troubled with that " dread scourge of the Arctic Zone." I do not, however, wholly rely upon the hunt- ers. The moral sentiments have much to do with health everywhere ; and, with the best food in the world, unhappiness will make more than the heart sick. For my own part, I would rather take my chances against the scurvy with the herbs and the love, than with hatred and the stalled ox. Luckily my ship's company are as harmonious and happy as they are healthy, and the fault v/ill be mine if they do not continue so. Our game-list, according to Knorr, who keeps the tally, sums up as follows : Reindeer 74, foxes 21, hares 12, seals 1, eider-ducks 14, dovekies 8, auks 6, ptarmi- gan 1. This includes all that has been brought on board from the beginning. Besides these substantial contributions to our winter supplies, there are some twenty or thirty reindeer cached in various places, wliich are available whenever we choose to bring them in. The dogs are the largest consumers. I find McCormick suffering with a sore throat and swelled tongue, resulting from eating snow. Leaving me at the glacier, he set out to return on board, and^, growing thirsty by the way, without being aware of the evil consequences likely to result therefrom, com- menced eating snow to quench it. The effect of thi."^ CASTOR AND POLLUX. 158 indulgence was so to inflame the mucous membrane as, in the end, to render the thirst greater and greater the more the desire was indulged. Finally respiration became difficult and painful, and he arrived on board much exhausted. It is a good lesson for the ship's company, — a fact doubtless more consoling to me than to the sufferer. October 29th. I went out to-day with Mr. Sonntag to his base line, and made some further measurements. In that direc- tion there are a couple of mammoth icebergs, which I have named " The Twins." They loom up grandly against the dark western sky. Castor carries his head 230 feet above the sea, and Pollux, though of smaller dimensions, is seventeen feet higher. After our usual evening game of chess, we have talked over some further projects for the field. I propose a drive into the region of Humboldt Glacier, Sonntag one to Van Kensselaer Harbor. It is impor- tant that the meridian of this latter place should be connected with that of Port Foulke. I yield to Sonn- tag for the present, and he starts the day after to- morrow, weather permitting, — a proviso peculiarly necessary in this blustering place. There is very little light left to us, but the moon is full, and will probaljly serve to guide the party. There was not even the faintest streak of light to-day at three o'clock. October 30th. Sonntag is all ready to start. He will take two sledges, with Jensen and Hans for drivers. They are prepared for seven days' absence. I have allowed Sonntag to provide his own equipment, without inter- ference. He has, I think, made it a little more cum* 154 FROST-BITES. brous than he should, — a little too much for personal comfort, that will be dead weight. Traveling in this region is governed by very rigorous laws, and very little latitude is allowed in the choice of one's outfit. There is probably no place in the world where the traveler is compelled to deny himself so completely those little articles of convenience which contribute so much to the personal satisfaction. On shipboard he may indulge his taste for luxury to the extent of his means ; but when he takes to the ice-fields and the dog-sledge he must come down to hard fare and carry nothing but what is absolutely necessary to sus- tain life, — and this is simply meat, bread, and coffee, or tea if he prefers it. The snow must serve for his bed, and his only covering must be what is just suffi- cient to keep him from freezing. Fire he cannot have, except the needful lamp to cook his food, and if he should get cold he must warm himself by exercise. During my late journey to the glacier, I carried for fuel only three quarts of alcohol and the same quan- tity of oil, and this was not all used. I went this morning into the hold to look after my companions on the recent journey. They have all recovered from their little frosi>bites except Christian, whose nose is as big as his fist and as red as a beet. He takes good-naturedly the jeers of his messmates. Knorr is, however, almost as badly off in the nasal re- gion as Christian, but he has suffered no further misad- venture. The nose is, indeed, a serious inconvenience to the Arctic traveler, for it insists upon exposing it- self upon every occasion ; and if you put it under a mask, it revenges itself by coaxing the moisture of the breath up beneath it, so that in an hour's time the intended protector becomes a worse enemy than the 1 KNORR AND STARR. 155 wind itself. The mask is, in a little while, but a lump of ice. My youthful secretary, by the way, bore up bravely on the tramp. I should not have taken him but foi his constant and earnest appeals. There does not ap- pear to be much of life in him, but he has pluck, and that is an excellent substitute ; and thus far this qual ity has carried him through. My friends told me, be- fore leaving home, that I was needlessly taking him to a very cold grave ; but he does not appear inclined to fulfill their predictions, and seems likely to hold his own with the hardesi>fisted sailor of the crew. He is but eighteen years old, and, except Starr, who is about the same age, is the youngest member of my party, Starr, too, is a plucky and useful boy. He got into the party against my intentions, but I am very far from sorry. Inspired with enthusiasm for Arctic ad- venture, he volunteered to go with me in any capac- ity ; and, having no convenient room in the cabin, I told him that he could go in the forecastle, little dreaming that he would accept my offer; but, sure enough, he turned up the next day in sailor's rig. His bright beaver and shining broadcloth and polished pumps had given place to cap and red shirt and sea boots, and I went on board to find the metamorphosed boy of recent elegance manfully at work. Admiring his spirit, I promoted him on the spot, and sent him aft to the sailing-master, — the best I could do for him. The rivalry between Hans and Peter waxes warmer. My sympathies go with the latter, of which I have to- day given substantial proof Up to this time Hans has had charge of vSonntag's team, and has used it pretty much as he pleased ] but he being absent this mom« 156 HANS, PETER, AND JACOB. ing, and Jensen being off after some venison, I used Peter to drive me to the lower glacier, where I wished to make some sketches. It appears that this excited Hans' ire against poor Peter ; which fact being duly reported by Jensen, I have taken the dogs from Hans and given them into Peter's exclusive charge. So one savage is pleased and the other is displeased ; but we shall j)robably have no public exhibitions of his spleen, as I have read him a lecture upon the evil conse- quences arising from the display of ill-temper, which he will probably remember, — as likelj^, however, for evil as for good ; for he is not of a forgiving disposi- tion. Jensen tells me that " they have made friends," which probably means mischief Hans seems to retain the intelligence for which he was distinguished when in the Advance. His charac- ter has undergone but little change, and his face ex- presses the same traits as formerly, — the same smooth, oily voice, the same cunning little eye, \\\k^. same ugly disposition. I have very little faith iu him; but Sonntag has taken him into his favor, and greatly prefers him to Jensen for a dog-driver. Peter, on the other hand, is a quiet, unobtrusive fel- low, and is always readj?- and willing to do any thing that is required of him, even by the sailors, with whom he is very popular ; and, of course, as with good-nature everywhere, he is sometimes imposed upon. Jacob is Peter's brother, and he continues to be the butt of the forecastle. The men have made a bargain with him, and, according to all accounts, it works satisfactorily. He is to wash their dishes, and they in return are to give him all the crumbs that fall from their table. On these he is growing more and more fat, and he has now greater difficulty than ever in getting about. There COAL ACCOUNT. 167 is a beam in the fore-hold, only two feet and a half from the floor, which he can no longer climb over. His efforts to crawl under it have been not unaptly compared to those of a seal waddling over the ice about its breathing-hole. Mr. Wardle's fat boy was not more shapeless, and, like that plethoric individual, he chiefly divides his time betw^een eating and sleep- ing. His cheeks are puffed out in a very ridiculous manner, and altogether he answers very well the de- scription of Mirabeau's corpulent acquaintance, who seemed to have been created for no other purpose than to show to what extent the human skin is capa- ble of being stretched without bursting. The execu- tive officer tells me that he sent him the other day to the upper deck to dress a couple of reindeer ; but, having proceeded far enough to expose a tempting morsel, he halted in his work, carved off a slice of the half-frozen flesh, and was found some time afterwards fast asleep between the two dead animals, with the last fragment of his bon7ie boiiche dangling from his lips. November 1st. The new month comes in stormy. The travelers were to have set out to-day, but a fierce gale detains them on board. The moon is now three daj^s past full, and if they are delayed much longer they will scarcely have light enough for the journey. McCormick and Dodge have set a bear-trap between the icebergs Castor and Pollux. It is a mammoth steel-trap, and is baited with venison and fastened with my best ice-anchor. I pity the poor beast that get« his foot in it. I have been overhauling our coal account, and have regulated the daily consumption for the winter. We 158 THE HOUSE ON DECK. have thirty-four tons on board, and have but two fires Two and a half buckets full a day go to the galley stove in the hold, and one and a half to tlie cabin ; and with this consumption of fuel the people live in comfort and cook their food and melt from the ice an abundant supply of water. The ice, which is of the clearest and purest kind, comes from a little berg which is frozen up in the mouth of the harbor, about half a mile away. I have no stove in my own cabin, all the heat which I require coming to me across the companion-way through the slats of my door, from the officers' stove. The temperature in which I live ranges from 40° to 60°, and, among my furs, I lounge through the hours that I do not spend out of doors as snug and comfortable as I could wish to be. Some- thing of my comfort is, however, due to the excess of heat of the officers' quarters. The temperature of their cabin runs sometimes to 75°, and is seldom lower than 60°, and they are at times actually sweltering. Our quarters are throughout free from dampness, and are well ventilated. A portion of the main-hatch above the men's quarters is always open, and the com- panion-scuttle is seldom closed. This ventilation being through the house on deck, that apartment is kept at quite a comfortable degree of warmth; and it is a very convenient medium between the lower deck and the outer air. In this house such work is performed as cannot be done below ; and there, in the dim light of the signal-lamp, which hangs suspended from the main-boom, one may see almost at any time a motley group of men working or playing, as the case may be. Forward in one corner stands Hans's tent, through the slits in which come the cheerful glimmer of a lamp and the lullaby of an Esquimau mother, sooth- COMFORT OF OUR QUARTERS. 159 ing to sleep her " pretty one." On the opposite side is our butcher-shop, where are piled up a lot of frozen reindeer, awaiting Marcus and Jacob, — the butchers. Near by stands our portable forge and anvil, where McCormick is forever blowing the hot embers and pounding at nobodj^ knows what. Dodge says "he is kiUing time." Under the window amidships stands the carpenter's bench and the vice, where Christian, Jensen, Peter, and Hans are always tinkering at some hunting or sledge implements, — while, mingling pro- miscuously on the deck, the ofl&cers and men may be seen smoking their pipes, and apparently intent only upon as little exertion and as much amusement as the Arctic night will give them. A cheerful light bursts up from below through the hatchways, bringing with it many a cheerful laugh. Around the mainmast stands om^ gun-rack, and near by is a neat arrange- ment of McCormick's where every man has a peg for his fur coat, as we do not bring these things below, on account of the great change of temperature pro- ducing dampness in them. November 2d. The barometer, which yesterday sank to 29.58, has been steadily rising since, and stands now at 29.98, giving us thus a reasonable assurance that the gale will come to an end by and by, and let the travelers off. The gale has made wild work with the ice, breaking it up and driving it out to the southwest until the open Avater is within two miles of the schooner. The " twins " are right upon the margin of it, and, wore they not aground, would float away. One of Sonn- tag's base-line stations has drifted off, and the bear- trap has followed after it, carrying away my fine ice- anchor. Strange, the loose ice has all drifted out of 160 MR. JENSEN. sight, and not a speok is to be seen upon the unhappy waters which roll and tumble through the darkness around Cape Alexander. The temperature during this gale has been, through- out, very mild. Although the wind was northeast, it has not been below zero at any time. November 3d. The travelers are off at last, and at ten o'clock this evening they disappoint me by not returning. Since it is evident that they have gone around Cape Ohlsen, which I had some reason to doubt, I see no cause why they should not reach their destination. They will have, however, cracks which have been opened by the recent gales, and doubtless heavily hummocked ice, to contend with ; and I hardly know how Jensen will get on with this sort of traveling. Bad enough for those who are accustomed to it, it will be a sore trial to him. He is a splendid whip, and drives his dogs superbly when the ice is reasonably smooth, and the sledge glides glibly over it with the dogs at a gallop ; but this tioundering through hummocks and deep snow-drifts, where the sledge has to be lifted and is often capsized, where the dogs are continually getting into a snarl, — their traces tangled, their tempers ruffled, and a gen- eral fight resulting, — is a very different sort of busi- ness, and is what he is not used to. To get through with it one requires an almost superhuman stock of enduring patience ; and if Jensen returns from this journey with a good record, I shall have no fears for him in the future. He is a very strong and able- bodied man, standing six feet in his shoes, and is of powerful muscular build. The knowledge acquired by some eight years' residence in Greenland, of hunt- DOMESTIC FELICITY. 161 ing, and of the Esquimau language, which he speaks like a native, and of the English which he has picked up from the British whale-ships, makes him one of the most useful members of my party. The men have been busy sewing up seal-skins into coats, pantaloons, and boots, to complete their winter wardrobe. They have tried very hard to get Mrs. Hans to do this work for them, but the indolent crea- ture persistently refuses to sew a stitch. She is the most obstinate of her sex ; feels perfectly independent of every thing and of everybody ; pouts fiercely when she is not pleased, and gets the sulks about once a fortnight, when she declares most positively that she will abandon Hans and the white men forever, and go back to her own people. She once tried the experi- ment, and started off at a rapid rate, with her baby on her back, towards Cape Alexander. There had evidently been a domestic spat. Hans came out of his tent as if nothing had happened, and stood at the window leisurely smoking his pipe, and watching her in the most unconcerned manner in the world. As she tripped off south I called his attention to her. "Yes — me see." " Where is she going, Hans ? " ** She no go. She come back — all right." "But she will freeze, Hans?" " She no freeze. She come back by by, — you see." And he went on smoking his pipe with a quiet chuckle which told how well he understood the whims of his beloved. Two hours afterward she came back, sure enough, very meek and very cold, for the wind was blowing in her face. The day being Saturday, the sailors are busy by turns at the wash-tub, to have a clean turnout for 11 162i A CHEERFUL DAY. Sunday, on which day, even in this remote corner of the world, everybody puts on his best, and at Sunday morning muster my people present a very neat and creditable appearance. The gray uniform which I have adopted as a dress-suit is always worn on that occasion, both by officers and men. Each officer has a sailor for a " washerwoman," and I have mine ; and Knorr has just brought me in the most encouraging accounts of his skill, and as a proof of it I found on my table, when I came in out of the moonlight from a tramp to the open water, (where I had been making some observations for temperature,) a well-starched and neatly ironed cambric handkerchief, sprinkled with cologne. The day, for some reason or other, seems to have been peculiarly bright and cheerful to everybody, and the cheerfulness runs on into the evening. I fancy that our old cook was in a more than usually good humor, and doubtless this has had something to do with it. For my own part, I must acknowledge the power of his artistic skill as affecting the moral sen- timents. My walk to the open water was both cold and fatiguing. Desiring to get out as far as I could, I sprang over the loose ice-tables, and reached an iceberg near " The Twins," which I mounted ; and, after digging a hole into it, found that it had a tem- perature only 8° lower than the temperature of the water that floated it, which was 29°. I scrambled back to the fast ice as quickly as I could, for the tide and wind, which were strong from the land, looked very much as if they intended to carry the raft out to sea. To come back to the cook, — I was in a condition upon my return to do ample justice to a fillet of veni- 'JOHN WILLIAMS, THE COOK. 163 son, garnished with currant-jelly, which was await- ing me, and upon the preparation of which the cook had evidently exhausted all his skill ; and afterward Knorr made for me, with my alcohol furnace, a cup of aromatic Mocha. And so one may find pleasure even where Bacchus and Cupid deign not to come. True, this is the re- gion into which Apollo voluntarily wandered after the decree of Olympus made him an exile, and where the Hellenic poets dreamed of men living to an incredible age, in the enjoyment of all possible felicity; but, to say the truth, I question the wisdom of the banished god, as tradition makes no mention of a schooner, and I find that in this " Residence of Boreas " one must look out for himself pretty sharply, — poets to the contrary, notwithstanding. The cook brought me the dinner himself " I tinks de Commander likes dis," said he, " coming from de cold." " Yes, cook, it is really superb. Now, what can I do for you ? " " Tank you, sar ! I tinks if de Commander would only be so kind as to give me a clean shirt, I shall be very tankful. He see dis one be very dirty, and I gets no time to vash him." " Certainly, cook, you shall have two." " Tank you, sar ! " — and he bends himself half double, meaning it for a bow, and goes back well pleased to his stove and his coppers. Our cook is quite a character. He is much the old- est man on board, and is the most singular mixture of adverse moral qualities that I have ever chanced to meet. He makes it his boast that he has never been ofi* the ship's deck since leaving Boston. " Vat should 164 A CHEERFUL EVENING. I go ashore for ? " said he, one day, to some of the offi- cers who were reciting to him the wonders of the land. " Me go ashore ! De land be very good place to grow de vegetables, but it no place to be. 1 never goes ashore ven I can help it, and please my Hebenly Fader I never vill." I have passed an hour of the evening very pleas- antly with the officers in their cabin, have had my usual game of chess with Knorr, and now, having done with this journal for the day, I will coil myself up in my nest of furs and read in Marco Polo of those parts of the world where people live without an effort, know not the use of bear-skins, and die of fever. After all, one's lines might fall in less pleasant places than in the midst of an Arctic winter. "^ CHAPTER XIIT. INCREASING DARKNESS. — DALLY ROUTINE. — THE JOURNAL. — OUR HOME. -- SUNDAY. — RETURN OP SONNTAG. — A BEAR-HUNT. — THE OPEN WATER. — ACCIDENT TO MR. KNORR. — A THAW. — " THE PORT POULKE WEEKLY NEWS.'' — THE TIDE-REGISTER. — THE FIRE-HOLE. — HUNTING FOXES. — PETER. The steadily increasing darkness was driving us more and more within doors. We had now scarcely any light but that of the moon and stars. The hunt was not wholly abandoned, but so few were the hours wherein we could see that it had become unprofitable. The gloom of night had settled in the valleys and had crept up the craggy hills. The darkness being fairly upon us, we had now little other concern than to live through it and await the spring, and a return to active life and the performance of those duties for which our voyage had been undertaken. As a part of the history of the expedition, I will continue to give from my diary our course of life. November 5th. Our life has worked itself into a very systematic rou- tine. Our habits during the sunlight were naturally somewhat irregular, but we have now subsided into absolute method. What a comfort it is to be reheved of responsibihty 1 How kind it is of tlie clock to tell us what to do ! The ship's bell follows it through the hours, and we count its shrill sounds and thereby know precisely how to act. The bell tells us when it is half-past seven in the morning, and then we " turn 166 DAILY ROUTINE. out." An hour later we breakfast, and at one o'clock we lunch. We dine at six, and at eleven we put out the lights and " turn in," — that is, everybody but the writer of this journal and the " wa^tch." After dinner I usually join the officers at a game of whist, or in my own cabin have a game of chess with Sonntag or Knorr. One day differs very little from another day. Radcliffe shows me the record of the weather when he has made it up, in the evening ; and it is almost as monotonous as the form of its presentation. The daily report of ship's duties I have from McCormick, but that does not present any thing that is peculiarly enlivening. I make a note of what is passing, in this voluminous journal, — partly for use, partly from habit, and partly for occupation. The readings of the magnetometer and the barometers and thermometers, and the tide-register, and of the growth of the ice, and all such like useful knowledge, find a place on these pages ; but novelties are rare, and when they do come I set opposite to them marginal notes, that I may pick them out from time to time as one does a happy event from the memory. The ship's duties go on thus : — After breakfast the men " turn to " under the direction of Dodge, and clear up the decks and polish and fill the lamps ; and a detail is made to go out to the iceberg for our daily supply of water. Then the fire-hole is looked after, the dogs are fed, the allowance of coal for the day is measured out, the store-room is unlocked and the ra- tions are served ; and before lunch-time comes round the labors of the day are done. After lunch we take a walk for exercise, and I make it a rule that every one who has not been at work two hours must spend at least that much time in walking for his health. OUR HOME. lb 7 For my own part I take an almost daily drive around the bay or a stroll over the hills or out upon the frozen sea. Sometimes I carry my rifle, hoping to shoot a deer or perhaps a bear, but usually I go unarmed and unaccompanied, except by a sprightly Newfoundland pup which rejoices in the name of Gen- eral. This little beast has shared with me my cabin since leaving Boston, and has always insisted upon the choicest place. We have got to be the best of friends. He knows perfectly well when the hour comes to go out after breakfast, and whines impa- tiently at the door ; and when he sees me take my cap and mittens from their peg his happiness is com- plete. And the little fellow makes a most excellent companion. He does not bore me with senseless talk, but tries his best to make himself agreeable. If in the sober mood, he walks beside me with stately grav- ity ; but when not so inclined he rushes round in the wildest manner, — rolling himself in the snow, tossing the white flakes to the wind, and now and then tug- ging at my huge fur mittens or at the tail of my fur coat. Some time ago he fell down the hatch and broke his leg, and while this was healing I missed him greatly. There is excellent companionship in a sen- sible dog. I try as much as a reasonable regard for discipline will allow to cultivate the social relations and usages of home. True, we cannot get up a ball, and we lack the essential elements of a successful tea-party ; but we are not wholly deficient in those customs which, in the land where the loved ones are, take away so much of life's roughnesses. And these little formal ob- servances promote happiness and peace. There is no place in the world where habits of unrestrained famil- 168 RETURN OF SONNTAG. iarity work so much mischief as in the crowded cabin of a Httle vessel, nor is there any place where true po- Hteness is so great a blessing. In short, I try to make our winter abode as cheerful as possible ; and we shall need all the brightness we can get within these wooden walls, if we would not be overwhelmed with the darkness which is outside. I want my people always to feel that, whatever hardship and expo- sure they may encounter, they can here find cheer- ful shelter from the storms, and repose from their fatigues. As far as possible, Sunday is observed as we would observe it at home. At ten o'clock, accompanied by the executive officer, I hold an inspection of every part of the vessel, and examine minutely into the health, habits, and comforts of the whole ship's com- pany; and immediately afterward they all assemble in the officers' quarters, where I read to them a por- tion of the morning service ; and this is followed by a chapter from the good Book, which we all love alike, wherever we are. Sometimes I read one of Blair's fine sermons, and when meal time comes round we find it in our heart to ask a continuance of God's provident care ; and if expressed in few words, it is perhaps not the less felt. November 6th. The travelers have returned, and, as I feared, they have been unsuccessful. Sonntag has dined with me, and he has just finished the recital of the adventures of his party. The journey was a very difficult one. High hum- mocks, deep snow-drifts, open cracks, severe winds were their embarrassments ; and these are obstacles not to be encountered without danger, fatigue, and frost-bites. A BEAR HUNT. TOP They had much trouble in getting out of Hartsteno B^y, the water coming ahnost in to the land-ice. Once outside, however, they had an easy run up the 3oast to Fog Inlet, where one of the sledges broke down, and they came upon open cracks which they could not pass. After repairing the sledge as well as they were able, they turned ilieir faces homeward. When a little way above Cape Hatherton, they struck the trail of a couple of bears ; and, giving chase, the animals were overtaken and captured. They proved to be a mother and her cub. Sonntag has given me a lively description of the chaf5e. The bears were started from the margin of a ridge of hummocked ice where they had been sleep- ing ; and they made at once for the open cracks out- side, distant about four miles. As soon as the dogs discovered the trail, they dashed off upon it into the hummocks, without waiting to be directed by their drivers, and utterly regardless of the safety of the sledges or of the persons seated upon them. The hummocks were very high, and the passages between them rough and tortuous. Had the bears kept to them they might have baffled pursuit ; for the prog- ress of the sledges was much interrupted, and the track could not always be followed. But the ridgo was not above a quarter of a mile in width, and the bears, striking directly across it, evidently preferred seeking safety beyond a crack, over which they could pass by swimming. The first plunge into the hummocks was rather exciting. Jensen's team led the way, and Hans, fol- lowing after, rushed up pell-mell alongside. Jensen's sledge was nearly capsized, and Sonntag rolled off in the snow ; but he was fortunate enough to catch the 170 A BEAR HUNT upstander, and with its aid to recover his seat. The tangled ice greatly retarded the impatient dogs, bring- ing them several times almost to a stand ; but their eagerness and their drivers' energy finally triumphed over all obstacles, and they emerged at length, after much serious embarrassment, upon a broad and almost level plain, where for the first time the game came in view. The delay of the sledges in the hummocks had al- lowed the bears to get the start of fully a mile, and it appeared probable that they would reach the water before they could be overtaken. The dogs seemed to be conscious of this danger, as well as the hunters, and they laid themselves down to the chase with all the wild instinct of their nature. Maddened by the detention and the prospect of the prey escaping them, the blood-thirsty pack swept across the plain like a whirlwind. Jensen and Hans encourao-ed their re- spective teams by all the arts known to the native hunter. The sledges fairly flew over the hard snow and bounced over the drifts and the occasional pieces of ice which projected above the otherwise generally smooth surface. It was a wild chase. The dogs manifested in their speed and cry all the impatience of a pack of hounds in view of the fox, with ten times their savageness. As they neared the game they seemed to Sonntng like so many wolves closing upon a wounded buffalo. In less than a quarter of an hour the distance be- tween pursuers and pursued was lessened to a few hundred yards, and then they were not far from the water, — which to the one was safety, to the other de- feat. During all this time the old bear was kept back by the young one, which she was evidently unwilling A BEAR HUNT. 171 to abandon. The poor beast was in agony. Her cries were piteous to hear. The little one jogged on by her side, frightened and anxious ; and, although it greatly retarded her progress, yet, in full view of the danger, she would not abandon it. Fear and mater- nal affection appeared alternately to govern her reso- lution ; but still she held firm to her dependent off- spring. One moment she would rush forward toward th^ open water, as if intent only upon her own safety, — then she would wheel round and push on the strug- gling cub with her snout ; and then again she would run beside it as if coaxingly encouraging it to greater speed. Meanwhile her enemies were rushing on and steadily nearing the game. The dogs, forgetting their own fatigue in the prospect of a speedy encounter, pressed harder and harder into their collars. The critical moment was rapidly approaching ; and, to add to the embarrassments of the bruin family, the little bear was giving out. At length the sledges were within fifty yards of the struggling animals. Leaning forward, each hunter now seized the end of the line which bound the traces together in one fastening, and slipped the knot. The sledges stopped, and the dogs, freed from the load which they had been dragging, bounded fiercely for their prey. The old bear heard the rush of her com- ing enemies, and, halting, squared herself to meet the assault, while the little one ran frightened round her, and then crouched for shelter between her legs. The old and experienced leader, Oosisoak, led the attack. Queen Arkadik was close beside him, and the other twenty wolfish beasts followed in order of their speed. The formidable front and defiant roar of the infuriated monster split the pack, and they passed to 172 A BEAR HUNT. right and left. Only one dog faced her, and he, (a yonng one,) with more courage than discretion, rushed at her throat. In a moment he was crushed beneath her huge paw^ Oosisoak came in upon her flank, and Arkadik tore at her haunch, and the other doses followed this prudent example. She turned upon Oosi- soak, and drove him from his hold ; but in this act the cub was uncovered. Quick as lightning Karsuk flew at its neck, and a slender yellow mongrel, that we call Schnapps, followed after ; but the little bear, imitating the example of its mother, prepared to do battle. Karsuk missed his grip, and Schnapps got tangled among its legs. The poor dog was soon doubled up with a blow in the side, and escaped yowling from the meV^e. Oosisoak was hard pressed, but his power- ful rival Erebus came to his relief, and led his fol- lowers upon the opposite flank, wdiich concentrated onslauo;ht turned the bear ao-ain in the direction of her cub in time to save it ; for it was now being pulled down and worried by Karsuk and his pack. For a moment disreo^ardino; her own tormenters, she threw herself upon the assailants of the cub, and to avoid her blows they quickly abandoned their hold and enabled her once more to draw the frightened though plucky little creature under her. She had come to the rescue at the critical moment, for the poor thing was w^eakened with the loss of blood, and was fairly exhausted wath the fight. ' By this time Jensen and Hans had drawm their rifles from the sledge, and hastened on to the conflict. The doo;s were so thick about the «:ame that it was some time before they could shoot with safety. They both, however, succeeded at last in getting a fine (ihance at the old bear, and fired. One ball struck her A BEAR HUNT. 173 in the mouth, and the other one in the shoulder ; but neither did much harm, and brought only a louder roar of pain and anger. The dogs, beaten off from their attack on the cub, now concentrated upon the mother, and the battle be- came more fierce than ever. The snow was covered with blood. A crimson stream poured from the old bear's mouth, and another trickled over the white hair from her shoulder. The little one was torn, and bleed- ing from many ugly wounds. One dog was stretched out crushed and almost lifeless, and another marked the spot, where his agony was expending itself in pite- ous cries, with many a red stain. Sonntag now came up with a fresh weapon. A well- directed volley from the three rifles brought her down upon her side, and the dogs rushed in upon her ; but though stunned and weakened by loss of blood, yet she was not mortally hurt ; and, recovering herself in an instant, she once more scattered the dogs and again sheltered her offspring. But the fate of the cub was already sealed. Exhausted by the fearful gashes and the throttlings which it had received from Karsuk and his followers, it sank expiring at its mother's feet. Seeing it fall, she forgot, for a moment, the dogs, in her affection, and, stooping down, licked its face. As if unwilling to believe it dead, she tried to coax it to rise and make a still further fight for life. But at length the truth seemed to dawn upon her, and now, apparently conscious that the cub no longer needed her protection, she turned upon her tormenters with redoubled fury, and tried to escape. Another dog was caught in the attack, and was flung howling to join the unlucky Schnapps. For the first time she now appeared to realize that 17l THE OPEN WATER. she was beset with other enemies than the dosfs. Hans's rifle had missed fire, and he was advancinor with a native spear to a hand-to-hand encounter. See- ing him approach, the infuriated monster cleared away the dogs with a vigorous dash, and charged him. He threw his weapon and wheeled in flight. The bear bounded after him, and in an instant more neither speed nor dogs could have saved him. Fortunately, Sonntag and Jensen had by this time reloaded their rifles, and, with well-directed shots, they stopped her mad career. A ball, penetrating the spine at the base of the skull, rolled her over on the blood-stained snow. The skins being removed, and a portion of the flesh of the young bear j^repared for carrying home, the dogs were allowed to gorge themselves, and the party pitched their tent and camped. The next run brought them to the vessel. The frost has nipped Jensen a little on the nose, and Hans is touched on the cheeks ; but Sonntag has come off without a scratch. They have had a very haid journey. Every thing conspired against them ; and if they did not reach their destination, they are none the less entitled to great credit for their perse- vering efforts, continued as they were against such odds. The existence of this open water greatly puzzles me. No such phenomenon was witnessed in 1853-55 from Van Rensselaer Harbor. Whether it extends across the Sound, or how far to the north or south, I am unable to judge. It is probably merely local, — dependent u2)on the currents and winds. November 7th. The wind is blowing fiercely from the northeast, o z H z < u ffl ACCIDENT TO MR. KNORR. 175 and the temperature is 16° below zero. The effect of the gale has been to drive the ice away again from the outer bay, and we are once more within the sound of the roaring surf November 8th. The air having become somewhat more quiet, I walked out to-day to the open water. Knorr accom- panied me. The view from the margin of the ice was dark and fearful. Heavy mist-clouds hung over the sea. Loose ice-fields were drifting through the black- ness, crashing harshly against each other, and sending the spray gleaming into the moonlight. The icebergs stood out here and there in stern defiance of the jar- ring elements, while the tumbling seas struck the white foam far up their lofty sides ; and out of the gloom came a wail, as of " a thousand ghosts, Shrieking at once on the hollow wind." On our way back, Knorr, who has much skill in getr ting himself into trouble, failed in a spring as we were making our way over some loose floes, and he plumped bodily into the sea. The accident was not less dangerous than disagreeable ; for after I had dragged him out of the water there were almost two miles between us and the schooner. Fortunately he arrived on board after a vigorous run with nothing worse than a frozen foot, which did not, however, re- sult in any inconvenience greater than the pain, since my former experience readily suggested the proper remedies. The frozen member was first placed in ice- cold water, the temperature of which was slowly in- creased from hour to hour until the flesh was com- pletely thawed out. There was no resulting inflam mation, and the foot came from the batli without even a blister. 176 A THAW. November 10th. We are in the midst of a regular thaw, — a thaw in November under the Pole Star, — truly a strange event to chronicle. The temperature has gone up to 11° above zero. The cold of the last month has frescoed the house on deck with delicate frost, — the condensed moisture that escapes from below. In many places this frost is two inches thick, and now it is melting. The water drops upon the deck, and every thing thereon is soaked. We have reduced the fires and opened the windows. November 11th. The temperature continues to rise, and the thaw goes on. A regular shower falls upon the deck. There is a huge puddle amidships, and the drip, drip, drip is any thing but agreeable. My journal is looking up, — two novelties in one day. First a thaw, and then a newspaper. The free press follows the flag all over the world, and the North Pole rejoices in " The Port Foulke Weekly News." During the past week everybody has been much in- terested in a newspaper enterprise, bearing the above title. Thinking to create a diversion that would con- found our enemy, the darkness, I proposed some time ago to the officers that we should publish a weekly paper, offering at the same time my assistance. The proposition was hailed with pleasure, and my fullest anticipations are more than realized. Mr. Dodge and Mr. Knorr undertook to act as editors, at least for the first week, and they have busied themselves gathering fi'om cabin and forecastle whatever was likely to prove attractive, and right good success have they met with. The first number appeared to-day, and it contains "THE PORT FOULKE WEEKLY NEWS." 177 Bome things that are " rich and rare/' and very clever, and many of the best came from the forward part of the ship. Its appearance makes quite an event, and, as a hygienic agent, its importance cannot be too highly estimated. The project set everybody on tip-toe of expectation, and for several days past very little else has been talked about but " the paper." All the de- tails of its getting-up have been conducted with a most farcical adherence to the customs prevailing at home. There is a regular corps of editors and report- ers, an office for "general news," an "editorial depsirt- ment," and a " telegraph station," where information is supposed to be received from all quarters of tlic world, and the relations existing between the sun, moon, and stars are duly reported by " reliable corre- spondents," and pictorial representations of extraordi- nary occurrences are also received from "our artist on the spot." Of course, much depended upon the echi Avith which it burst into being ; and, conscious of this important fact, the editors spared no pains to heighten public curiosity, by the issuing of " hand-bills " and " posters," and all other means known among the caterers for the popular intellectual palate. McCormick lent his assistance, and directed the preparation of a somewhat better dinner than usual ; so that, no matter what might be the merits of this eagerly expected prod- igy, it was sure of a hearty reception. Mr. Knorr had charged himself with the mechanical execution, and was known to have the infant periodical in his keeping ; and accordingly, after the cloth was re- moved, loud calls were made for its production. While he was hauling it out from under his pillow, 12 178 "THE PORT FOULKE WEEKLY KEWS." (where it had been carefully stowed out of sight until the auspicious moment should arrive,) demands were made upon him to read it aloud. This he was about to do when some one claimed that so important an event should not pass off so informally. "Agreeably to national usage, we should call a meeting, organize it by the appointment of the proper officers, and name an orator for the occasion. Then, and not until then, can it be said that we have properly inaugurated the important event which has transpired. The public of Port Foulke will not rest content with any less con- spicuous mark of glorification over so momentous an occurrence as the establishment of a free press on this remote frontier of civilization." To this proposal no objection was made, — indeed, it was received with much favor ; and the meeting was accordingly organized by unanimously calling Mr. Sonntag to the " chair." After naming the requisite number of vice-presidents and secretaries, Mr. Knorr was selected orator by acclamation. And now there commenced a violent clapping of hands and a rattling of tin Clips, mingled with cries of " order " and " hear, hear ! " in the midst of which the orator mounted the locker and addressed his auditors as follows : — " Fellow-citizens : — Called by the unanimous voice of this unenlightened community to inaugurate the new era which has dawned upon a benighted region, it is my happy privilege to announce that we have, at the cost of uuich time, labor, and means, supplied a want which has too long been felt by the people of Port Foulke. We are, fellow-citizens, no longer without that inalienable birthright of every American citizen, — a Free Press and an Exponent of Public Opinion. " Overcome with the gravity of my situation, I find "THE PORT FOULKE WEEKLY NEWS." 170 myself unable to make you a speech befitting tlie so- lemnity aiul importance of the occasion. It is proper, however, that I should state, in behalf of myself and my Bohemian brother, that, in observance of a time- honored custom, we will keep our opinions for our- selves and our arguments for the public. The inhab- itants of Port Foulke desire the speedy return of tlie Sun. We will advocate and urge it. They wish for Light. We ^vill address ourselves to the Celestial Orbs, and point out the opportunities for reciprocity. They are in search of happiness. We will, in pursuance of that same time-honored custom, (which I may say has made the press a power, sir, in this great and glorious nineteenth century) — we will, I say, at all times freely counsel them to the observance of both public and private virtue. " Fellow-citizens : — This is a memorable epoch in the history of Port Foulke. We are informed that its aboriginal name is Annyeiqueipablaitah, which means, after it is pronounced, ^The Place of the Howling Winds.' On this public occasion it is proper that we should direct our thoughts to the future, especially to our sublime ^mission.' This ^ Place of the Howlin