With the World's Great Travellers Volume I Part 13

On the 2d of April a thin sheet of bay-ice several miles square had formed on the sea to the eastward and southward, where for two or three days past there had been a s.p.a.ce of open water. This was occasioned more by the wind remaining very moderate and the neap tides occurring about this time than from any great degree of cold, the thermometer seldom falling below -6 or -7. The wind, however, settling in the southeast to-day, the main body of ice, which had been scarcely visible in the offing, soon began to move insh.o.r.e, forcing before it the young floe and squeezing it up into innumerable hummocks, which presently, being cemented together by a fresh formation in their interstices, const.i.tuted an example of one of the ways in which these "hummocky floes" are produced, of which I have before so often had occasion to speak. We were always glad to see this squeezing process take place while the ice was still thin enough to admit of it, as it thus became compressed perhaps into one-fiftieth part of the compa.s.s that it would otherwise have occupied, and of course left so much the more open s.p.a.ce upon the surface of the sea. The temperature of the water at the bottom in eight fathoms was to-day 28, being the same as that of the surface.

Early in the morning the Esquimaux had been observed in motion at the huts, and several sledges drawn by dogs and heavily laden went off to the westward. On going out to the village, we found one-half of the people had quitted their late habitations, taking with them every article of their property, and had gone over the ice, we knew not where, in quest of more abundant food. The wretched appearance which the interior of the huts now presented baffles all description. In each of the larger ones some of the apartments were either wholly or in part deserted, the very snow which composed the beds and fireplaces having been turned up, so that no article might be left behind. Even the bare walls, whose original color was scarcely perceptible for black, blood, and other filth, were not left perfect, large holes having been made in the sides and roofs for the convenience of handing out the goods and chattels. The sight of a deserted habitation is at all times calculated to excite in the mind a sensation of dreariness and desolation, especially when we have lately seen it filled with cheerful inhabitants; but the feeling is even heightened rather than diminished when a small portion of these inhabitants remain behind to endure the wretchedness which such a scene exhibits. This was now the case at the village, where, though the remaining tenants of each hut had combined to occupy one of the apartments, a great part of the bed-places were still bare, with the wind and drift blowing in through the holes which they had not yet taken the trouble to stop up. The old man Hikkeeira and his wife occupied a hut by themselves, without any lamp or a single ounce of meat belonging to them, while three small skins, on which the former was lying, were all that they possessed in the way of blankets. Upon the whole, I never beheld a more miserable spectacle, and it seemed a charity to hope that a violent and constant cough with which the old man was afflicted would speedily combine with his age and infirmities to release him from his present sufferings. Yet in the midst of all this he was even cheerful, nor was there a gloomy countenance to be seen at the village.

Almost all the men were out, and some of them had been led so far to sea upon the floating and detached ma.s.ses of ice in pursuit of walruses that Captain Lyon, who observed their situation from the s.h.i.+ps, had it in contemplation, in the course of the evening, to launch one of the small boats to go to their a.s.sistance. They seemed, however, to entertain no apprehension themselves, from confidence, perhaps, that the southeast wind might be depended upon for keeping the ice close home upon the sh.o.r.e. It is certain, notwithstanding, that no degree of precaution, nor any knowledge of the winds and tides, can render this otherwise than a most perilous mode of obtaining subsistence; and it was impossible, therefore, not to admire the fearlessness as well as dexterity with which the Esquimaux invariably pursued it.

Having distributed some bread-dust among the women, we told old Illumea and her daughter Togolat that we proposed taking up our lodging in their hut for the night. It is a remarkable trait in the character of these people that they all always thank you heartily for this as well as for eating any of their meat, but both board and lodging may be given to _them_ without receiving the slightest acknowledgment either in word or deed. As it was late before the men returned, I asked Togolat to get the rest of the women to perform some of their games, with the hope of seeing something that was new. I had scarcely time to make the proposal when she darted out of the hut and quickly brought every female that was left at the village, not excepting even the oldest of them, who joined in the performance with the same alacrity as the rest. I could, however, only persuade them to go through a tedious song we had often before heard, which was now indeed somewhat modified by their insisting on our taking turns in the performance, all which did not fail to create among them never-ceasing merriment and laughter. Neither their want of food and fuel, nor the uncertain prospect of obtaining any that night, were sufficient to deprive these poor creatures of that cheerfulness and good humor which it seems at all times their peculiar happiness to enjoy.

The night proved very thick with small snow, and as disagreeable and dangerous for people adrift upon floating ice as can well be imagined.

If the women, however, gave their husbands a thought or spoke of them to us, it was only to express a very sincere hope that some good news might shortly arrive of their success. Our singing party had not long been broken up when it was suddenly announced by one of the children, the usual heralds on such occasions, that the men had killed something on the ice. The only two men who were at home instantly scrambled on their outer jackets, harnessed their dogs, and set off to a.s.sist their companions in bringing home the game, while the women remained for an hour in anxious suspense as to the extent of their husbands' success. At length one of the men arrived with the positive intelligence of two walruses having been taken, and brought with him a portion of these huge animals as large as he could drag over the snow.

If the women were only cheerful before, they were now absolutely frantic. A general shout of joy instantly re-echoed through the village; they ran into each other's huts to communicate the welcome intelligence, and actually hugged one another in an ecstasy of delight by way of congratulation. One of them, Arnalooa, a pretty young woman of nineteen or twenty, knowing that a dog belonging to her husband was still at the huts, and that there was no man to take him down on the ice, ran out instantly to perform that office; and, with a hardiness not to be surpa.s.sed by any of the men, returned after two hours' absence, with her load of walrus-flesh, and without even the hood thrown over her head to protect her from the inclemency of the weather.

When the first burst of joy had at length subsided, the women crept one by one into the apartment where the first portion of the sea-horses had been conveyed, and which is always that of one of the men immediately concerned in the killing of them. Here they obtained blubber enough to set all their lamps alight, besides a few sc.r.a.ps of meat for their children and themselves. From this time, which was nine o'clock, till past midnight fresh cargoes were continually arriving, the princ.i.p.al part being brought in by the dogs, and the rest by the men, who, tying the thong which held it round their waist, dragged in each his separate portion. Before the whole was brought in, however, some of them went out three times to the scene of action, though the distance was a mile and a half.

Every lamp now swimming with oil, the huts exhibited a blaze of light, and never was there a scene of more joyous festivity than while the operation of cutting up the walruses continued. I took the opportunity which their present good humor afforded to obtain a perfect head and tusks of one of these animals, which we had not been able to do before; and indeed, so much were their hearts opened by the scene of abundance before them, that I believe they would have given us anything we asked for. This disposition was considerably increased, also, by their taking it into their heads that their success was in some way or other connected with, or even owing to, our having taken up our night's lodging at the huts.

After viewing all this festivity for some time, I felt disposed to rest, and wrapping myself up in my fur coat, lay down on one of the beds which Illumea had given up for our accommodation, as well as her _keipik_, or large deer-skin blanket, which she had rolled up for my pillow. The poor old woman herself sat up by her lamp, and in that posture seemed perfectly well satisfied to doze away the night. The singularity of my night's lodging made me awake several times, when I always found some of the Esquimaux eating, though after we lay down they kept quiet for fear of disturbing us. Mr. Halse, who was still more wakeful, told me that some of them were incessantly employed in this manner for more than three hours. Indeed, the quant.i.ty of meat that they thus contrive to get rid of is almost beyond belief.

Having at length enjoyed a sound nap, I found on awaking about five o'clock that the men were already up, and had gone out to resume their labors on the ice, so that several of them could not have rested more than two or three hours. This circ.u.mstance served to correct a notion we had entertained, that when once abundantly supplied with food they took no pains to obtain more till want began again to stare them in the face.

It was now more pleasing to be a.s.sured that, even in the midst of plenty, they did not indolently give themselves up to repose, but were willing to take advantage of every favorable opportunity of increasing their store. It is certain, indeed, that were these people more provident (or, in other words, less gluttonous, for they do not waste much), they might never know what it is to want provisions, even during the most inclement part of the year. The state of the ice was to-day very unfavorable for their purpose, being broken into pieces so small that they could scarcely venture to walk upon it....

The morning of the 5th proved favorable for a journey I had in contemplation to the distant huts, to which Iligliuk, who had come to Winter Island the day before, promised to be my guide. At six o'clock I set out, accompanied by Mr. Bushman and two of the men, carrying with us a supply of bread-dust, besides our own provisions and blankets. As the distance was too great for her son Sioutkuk to walk, we were uncertain till the moment of setting out how this was to be managed, there being no sledge at hand for the purpose. We found, however, that a man, whom we had observed for some time at work among the hummocks of ice upon the beach, had been employed in cutting out of that abundant material a neat and serviceable little sledge, hollowed like a bowl or tray out of a solid block, and smoothly rounded at the bottom. The thongs to which the dogs were attached were secured to a groove cut around its upper edge; and the young seal-catcher, seated in this simple vehicle, was dragged along with great convenience and comfort.

The ice over which we travelled was a level floe that had never suffered disturbance since its first formation in the autumn, and with not more than an inch and a half of snow upon it. The path being distinctly marked out by the people, sledges, and dogs that had before travelled upon it, one might, without any great stretch of the imagination, have almost fancied it a road leading over a level and extensive heath towards a more civilized and substantial village than that which we were now approaching. Iligliuk walked as nimbly as the best of us; and after two hours and a half brisk travelling we arrived at the huts, and were received by the women (for all the men were absent) with every expression of kindness and welcome. Each was desirous of affording us lodging, and we had speedily arranged matters so as to put them to the least possible inconvenience.

These huts, four in number, were in the mode of their construction exact counterparts of those at Winter Island on our first visit, but, being now new and clean, presented a striking contrast with the latter, in their present disordered and filthy state. What gave a peculiarity, as well as beauty also, to the interior appearance of these habitations, was their being situated on the ice, which, being cleared of the snow, presented a flooring of that splendid blue which is, perhaps, one of the richest colors that nature affords. A seal or two having been lately procured, every lamp was now blazing, and every _ootkooseek_ smoking with a hot mess which, together with the friendly reception we experienced and a little warmth and fatigue from travelling, combined in conveying to our minds an idea of comfort which we could scarcely believe an Esquimaux hut capable of exciting.

On the arrival of the men, who came in towards evening, with two seals as the reward of their labor, we were once more greeted and welcomed.

Arnaneelia in particular, who was a quiet, obliging, and even amiable, man, was delighted to find that my quarters were to be in his apartment, where Aneetka, his wife, a young woman of about twenty-three, had already arranged everything for my accommodation; and both these poor people now vied with each other in their attention to my comfort. The other two apartments of the same hut were occupied by Kaoongut and Okotook, with their respective wives and families, it being the constant custom of these people thus to unite in family groups whenever the nature of their habitations will allow it. Mr. Bushman being established with Okotook, and the two men with Kaoongut, we were thus all comfortably lodged under the same roof....

On the 22d a number of the Esquimaux came to the s.h.i.+ps with a sledge, and among the rest my late host Arnaneelia and his wife, the latter having the front of her jacket adorned with numberless strings of beads that we had given her, arranged with exact uniformity, to which, in the fas.h.i.+on of their dresses and the disposition of their ornaments, these people always rigidly adhere. Aneetka had scarcely reached the cabin when she produced a little ivory comb and a pair of handsome mittens, which she presented to Mr. Edwards, at the same time thanking him for the attention he had shown her on an occasion when she had been taken in a fit alongside the "Fury," from which she was recovered by bleeding.

This expression of grat.i.tude, in which she was heartily joined by her husband, was extremely gratifying to us, as it served in some degree to redeem these people in our estimation from the imputation of ingrat.i.tude which is indeed one of their greatest failings.

They stated having seen two reindeer the preceding day going over the ice to the mainland. They spoke of this with great pleasure, and we were ourselves not displeased with the prospect of changing our diet for a little venison. They now became extremely urgent with us for wood to make bows and arrows, most of their own having, with the childishness that accompanied their first barterings, been parted with to our officers and men. Having several broken oars which could be turned to little or no account on board, we were enabled, at a small expense of useful stores, to furnish them very abundantly with wood for this purpose. Arnaneelia also informed us that Okotook, who had been unwell for some days, was now much worse, and seemed, as he described it, to be laboring under a violent pulmonary complaint. On the circ.u.mstance being mentioned to Mr. Skeoch, he kindly volunteered to go to the village, and accordingly took his seat on the sledge, accompanied also by Mr. Sherer.

They carried with them a quant.i.ty of bread-dust to be distributed among the Esquimaux at the huts, their success in seal-catching having lately been indifferent....

In digging up the piece of ground for our garden, we found an incredible quant.i.ty of bones scattered about and concealed under the little soil there was. They were princ.i.p.ally those of walruses and seals, and had evidently been left a long time before by Esquimaux, in the course of their wandering visits to the island, being gradually covered by the vegetable mould formed upon the spot which they helped to fertilize.

Afterwards, when the land became more clear of snow, this was found to be the case to a much greater extent, every spot of ground upon the southeast point, which was not absolutely a rock, being covered with these relics. Some graves were also discovered, in one of which were a human skull, apparently a hundred years buried, and some pieces of wood that had probably been parts of spears or arrows almost mouldered to dust. Knowing as we do the antiseptic properties of this climate, animal or vegetable substances in this state of decay convey to the mind an idea of much greater age than they would in any other part of the world.

[Escape from their winter quarters was not accomplished till the 1st of July, they having been for nine months frozen in the ice.]

FUGITIVES FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS.

ELISHA KENT KANE.

[Of all works of travel in the Arctic seas, none have attracted more attention than Dr. Kane's "Arctic Explorations," an attractively written journal of hards.h.i.+p and adventure that had the interest of a romance to most readers. The expedition ended in the enforced abandonment of the s.h.i.+p and a long boat journey over the ice, in which the adventurers experienced many perils and suffered much from hunger. We give the concluding incidents of this journey.]

It was the 18th of July before the aspects of the ice about us gave me the hope of progress. We had prepared ourselves for the new encounter with the sea and its trials by laying in a store of lumme [an Arctic bird], two hundred and fifty of which had been duly skinned, spread open, and dried on the rocks as the _entremets_ of our bread-dust and tallow.

My journal tells of disaster in its record of our setting out. In launching the "Hope" from the frail and peris.h.i.+ng ice-wharf on which we found our first refuge from the gale, she was precipitated into the sludge below, carrying away rail and bulwark, losing overboard our best shot-gun, Bonsall's favorite, and, worst of all, that universal favorite, our kettle,--soup-kettle, paste-kettle, tea-kettle, water-kettle, in one. I may mention before I pa.s.s that the kettle found its subst.i.tute and successor in the remains of a tin can which a good aunt of mine had filled with ginger-nuts two years before, and which had long survived the condiments that once gave it dignity. "Such are the uses of adversity."

Our descent to the coast followed the margin of the fast ice. After pa.s.sing the Crimson Cliffs of Sir John Ross it wore almost the dress of a holiday excursion,--a rude one, perhaps, yet truly one in feeling. Our course, except where a protruding glacier interfered with it, was nearly parallel to the sh.o.r.e. The birds along it were rejoicing in the young summer, and when we halted it was upon some green-clothed cape near a stream of water from the ice-fields above. Our sportsmen would clamber up the cliffs and come back laden with little auks; great generous fires of turf, that cost nothing but the toil of gathering, blazed merrily; and our happy oarsmen, after a long day's work, made easy by the promise ahead, would stretch themselves in the suns.h.i.+ne and dream happily away till called to the morning wash and prayers. We enjoyed it the more, for we all of us knew that it could not last.

This coast must have been a favorite region at one time with the natives,--a sort of Esquimaux Eden. We seldom encamped without finding the ruins of their habitations, for the most part overgrown with lichens, and exhibiting every mark of antiquity. One of these, in lat.i.tude 76 20', was once, no doubt, an extensive village. Cairns for the safe deposit of meat stood in long lines, six or eight in a group; and the huts, built of large rocks, faced each other, as if disposed on a street or avenue.

The same reasoning which deduces the subsidence of the coast from the actual base of the Temple of Serapis, proves that the depression of the Greenland coast, which I had detected as far north as Upernavik, is also going on up here. Some of these huts were washed by the sea or torn away by the ice that had descended with the tides. The turf, too, a representative of very ancient growth, was cut off even with the water's edge, giving sections two feet thick. I had not noticed before such unmistakable evidence of the depression of this coast: its converse elevation I had observed to the north of Wostenholme Sound. The axis of oscillation must be somewhere in the neighborhood of lat.i.tude 77.

We reached Cape York on the 21st, after a tortuous but romantic travel through a misty atmosphere. Here the land-leads ceased, with the exception of some small and scarcely practicable openings near the sh.o.r.e, which were evidently owing to the wind that prevailed for the time. Everything bore proof of the late development of the season. The red snow was a fortnight behind its time. A fast floe extended with numerous tongues far out to the south and east. The only question was between a new rest, for the sh.o.r.e-ices to open, or a desertion of the coast and a trial of the open water to the west.

[They had at this time but thirty-six pounds of food per man and fuel enough to last them three weeks.]

I climbed the rocks a second time with Mr. McGary, and took a careful survey of the ice with my gla.s.s. The "fast," as the whalers call the immovable sh.o.r.e-ice, could be seen in a nearly unbroken sweep, pa.s.sing by Bushnell's Island, and joining the coast not far from where I stood.

The outside floes were large, and had evidently been not long broken; but it cheered my heart to see that there was one well defined lead which followed the main floe until it lost itself to seaward.

I called my officers together, explained to them the motives which governed me, and prepared to re-embark. The boats were hauled up, examined carefully, and, as far as our means permitted, repaired. The "Red Eric" was stripped of her outfit and cargo, to be broken up for fuel when the occasion should come. A large beacon-cairn was built on an eminence, open to view from the south and west, and a red flannel s.h.i.+rt, spared with some reluctance, was hoisted as a pennant to draw attention to the spot. Here I deposited a succinct record of our condition and purposes, and then directed our course south by west into the ice-fields.

By degrees the ice through which we were moving became more and more impacted, and it sometimes required all our ice-knowledge to determine whether a particular lead was practicable or not. The irregularities of the surface, broken by hummocks, and occasionally by larger ma.s.ses, made it difficult to see far ahead, besides which we were often embarra.s.sed by the fogs. I was awakened one evening from a weary sleep in my fox-skins to discover that we had fairly lost our way. The officer at the helm of the leading boat, misled by the irregular shape of a large iceberg that crossed his track, had lost the main lead some time before, and was steering sh.o.r.eward, far out of the true course. The little ca.n.a.l in which he had locked us was hardly two boats'-lengths across, and lost itself not far off in a feeble zigzag both behind and before us; it was evidently closing, and we could not retreat.

Without apprising the men of our misadventure, I ordered the boats hauled up, and, under pretence of drying the clothing and stores, made a camp on the ice. A few hours after the weather cleared enough for the first time to allow a view of the distance, and McGary and myself climbed a berg some three hundred feet high for the purpose. It was truly fearful; we were deep in the recesses of the bay, surrounded on all sides by stupendous icebergs and tangled floe-pieces. My st.u.r.dy second officer, not naturally impressible, and long accustomed to the vicissitudes of whaling life, shed tears at the prospect.

There was but one thing to be done: cost what it might, we must harness our sledges again and retrace our way to the westward. One sledge had been already used for firewood; the "Red Eric," to which it had belonged, was now cut up, and her light cedar planking laid upon the floor of the other boats, and we went to work with the rue-raddies as in the olden time. It was not till the third toilsome day was well spent that we reached the berg that had bewildered our helmsman. We hauled over its tongue and joyously embarked again upon a free lead, with a fine breeze from the north.

Our little squadron was now reduced to two boats. The land to the northward was no longer visible, and whenever I left the margin of the fast to avoid its deep sinuosities, I was obliged to trust entirely to the compa.s.s. We had at least eight days' allowance of fuel on board; but our provisions were running very low, and we met few birds, and failed to secure any larger game. We saw several large seals upon the ice, but they were too watchful for us; and on two occasions we came upon the walrus sleeping, once within actual lance-thrust; but the animal charged in the teeth of his a.s.sailant and made good his retreat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WINTER IN THE FAR NORTH ]

On the 28th I inst.i.tuted a quiet review of the state of things before us. Our draft on the stores we had laid in at Providence Halt had been limited for some days to three raw eggs and two b.r.e.a.s.t.s of birds a day, but we had a small ration of bread-dust besides; and when we halted, as we did regularly for meals, our fuel allowed us to indulge lavishly in the great panacea of Arctic travel, tea. The men's strength was waning under this restricted diet, but a careful reckoning up of our remaining supplies proved to me now that even this was more than we could afford ourselves without an undue reliance on the fortunes of the hunt. Our next land was to be Cape Shackleton, one of the most prolific bird-colonies of the coast, which we were all looking to, much as sailors nearing home in their boats after disaster and short allowance at sea. But, meting out our stores through the number of days that must elapse before we could expect to share its hospitable welcome, I found that five ounces of bread-dust, four of tallow, and three of bird-meat must from this time form our daily ration.

So far we had generally coasted the fast ice; it had given us an occasional resting-place and refuge, and we were able sometimes to reinforce our stores of provisions by our guns. But it made our progress tediously slow, and our stock of small shot was so nearly exhausted that I was convinced our safety depended on increase of speed. I determined to try the more open sea.

For the first two days the experiment was a failure. We were surrounded by heavy fogs; a southwest wind brought the outside pack upon us, and obliged us to haul up on the drifting ice. We were thus carried to the northward, and lost about twenty miles. My party, much overworked, felt despondingly the want of the protection of the land-floes.

Nevertheless, I held to my purpose, steering south-southwest as nearly as the leads would admit, and looking constantly for the thinning out of the pack that hangs around the western water.

Although the low diet and exposure to wet had again reduced our party, there was no apparent relaxation of energy, and it was not until some days later that I found their strength seriously giving way.

It is a little curious that the effect of a short allowance of food does not show itself in hunger. The first symptom is a loss of power, often so imperceptibly brought on that it becomes evident only by an accident.

I well remember our look of blank amazement as, one day, the order being given to haul the "Hope" over a tongue of ice, we found she would not budge. At first I thought it was owing to the wetness of the snow-covered surface in which her runners were; but, as there was a heavy gale blowing outside, and I was extremely anxious to get her on to a larger floe to prevent being drifted off, I lightened her cargo and set both crews upon her. In the land of promise off Crimson Cliffs such a force would have trundled her like a wheelbarrow: we could almost have borne her upon our backs. Now with incessant labor and standing hauls she moved at a snail's pace.

The "Faith" was left behind and barely escaped destruction. The outside pressure cleft the floe asunder, and we saw our best boat with all our stores drifting rapidly away from us. The sight produced an almost hysterical impression upon our party. Two days of want of bread, I am sure, would have destroyed us; and we had now left us but eight pounds of shot in all. To launch the "Hope" again, and rescue her comrade or share her fortunes, would have been the instinct of other circ.u.mstances; but it was out of the question now. Happily, before we had time to ponder our loss a flat cake of ice eddied round near the floe we were upon; McGary and myself sprang to it at the moment, and succeeded in floating it across the chasm in time to secure her. The rest of the crew rejoined her only by scrambling over the crushed ice as we brought her in at the hummock-lines.

Things grew worse and worse with us; the old difficulty of breathing came back again, and our feet swelled to such an extent that we were obliged to cut open our canvas boots. But the symptom which gave me most uneasiness was our inability to sleep. A form of low fever which hung by us when at work had been kept down by the thoroughness of our daily rest; all my hopes of escape were in the refres.h.i.+ng influences of the halt.

It must be remembered that we were now in the open bay, in the full line of the great ice-drift to the Atlantic, and in boats so frail and unseaworthy as to require constant baling to keep them afloat.