 Chapter 9 of North Pole Voyages by Zaharia A. Mudge This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 9 Arctic Hunting Early in October, the Eskimo disappeared from the range of travel from the brig. Hunts and hickey were sent to the hunting grounds, and they returned with the unwelcome news. No walrus, no Eskimo. Where could they have gone? Were they hovering on the track of the escaping party under Dr. Hice? And where were these? Would the natives return from a tripped house and bring any news of the battle they were fighting with the ice and cold? While such queries may have been indulged by the brig party, they had serious thoughts concerning their own condition. Their fresh provisions were nearly exhausted. Without walrus or bear meat, their old enemy, scurry, would come down upon them like an armed man. There was now plainly another occasion for one of those accidental occurrences, through which the eye of a devout Christian sees God's kind hand. In the midst of these painful thoughts, the shout by hands was heard ringing through the brig, Nanook, Nanook! A bear, a bear chimed in Morton. The men seized their guns and ran on deck. The dogs were already in battle array with the bear, which was attended by a five-month-old cub. Not a gun was in readiness on the instant, and while they were being loaded, the canyons were having rough sport with Brune. Tudla, a champion fighter, had been seized twice by the nape of his neck and made to travel several yards without touching the ground. Jenny, a favorite in the sledge, had made a grand somerset by a slight jerk of the head of the bear and had a lighted senseless. Old Whitey, brave but not bear-wise, had rushed headlong into the combat and was helping his utter dissatisfaction with the result while stretched helpless upon the snow. Nanook considered the field of battle already worn and proceeded, as victors have always done, to a very cool investigation of the spoils. She first turned over a beef barrel and began to nose out the choice bits for herself and child. But there was a party interested in this operation whom she had not consulted. Their first protest was in the form of a pistol-bowl in the side of her cub. This, to say the least, was rather a harsh beginning. The next hint was a rifle-bowl in the side of the mother which she resented by taking her child between her hind legs and retreating behind the beef house. Here, with her strong forearms, she pulled down three solid rows of beef barrels which made one wall of the house. She then mounted the rubbish, seized a half barrel of herring with her teeth and with it beat a retreat. Turning her back on the enemy was not safe, for she immediately received a half-pistol range, six buck shots. She fell, but was instantly on her feet again, trotting off with her cub under her nose. She would have escaped after all, but for two of the dogs. These belonged to the immediate region and had been trained for the bear hunt. They embarrassed her speed but did not attack her. One would run along ahead of her, so near as to provoke the bear to attempt to catch him and then he would give her a useless chase to the right or left. The other one, at the right moment, making a diversion by a nip in her ear. So coolly and systematically was this done that poor Nanook was hindered and exhausted without being able to hurt her tormentors in the least. This game of the dogs brought again Dr. Cain and Hunts on the field of conflict. They found the bear still holding out in the running fight and making good speed away from the brig. Two rifle balls brought her to a standstill. She faced about, took her little one between her faux legs and ground defiance. It took six more balls to lay her lifeless on the bloodstained snow. This method of conquering the foe was no doubt from the bear point of view mean and cowardly. Instead of the hand to paw fight, recognized as the arctic lawful way of fighting, it was sending fire death at a safe distance from the attacking party. With her own chosen weapons, two powerful arms and a set of almost resistless teeth, the bear was the stronger party. But then it was the old game of brains against brute force with the almost sure result. As to the cruelty, the bear had no reason to complain. She came to the brig seeking, if happily she might find a man or men, to appease her craving hunger and feed her child. The men sought and obtained her life that they might stay the progress of their bitter enemy, the scurvy and save their own lives. When the mother fell, her child sprung upon her body and made a fierce defense. After much trouble and wish to think some danger from her paws and teeth, both of which she used as if trained for the fight, she was caught with a line looped into a running knot between her jaws and the back of her head, somewhat as former sketched hogs for the slaughter. She was marched off to the brig and chained outside, causing a great uproar among the dogs. The mother bear's carcass weighed when cleaned 300 pounds before dressing, the body weighed 650. The little one weighed on her feet 114 pounds. They both proved most savory meat and were eaten with gratitude as the special gifts of the great giver. This bear capture was soon followed by one no less exciting and truly arctic in its character. It was the hunt and capture of a walrus, the lion of the sea, as the bear is the tiger of the ice. The story is as follows. About the middle of October, Morton and Hunts were sent again to try to find the Eskimo. They reached on the first day a little village beyond Anano Tok, 70 miles from the brig. Here, they found four huts, two occupied and two forsaken. In one was Miok, his parents and his brother and sister. In the other was Avah Tok, Utunien, their wives and three young children. The strangers were made to feel at home. Their moccasins were dried, their feet rubbed, two lamps set ablaze to cook them a supper, and a walrus skin spread on the raised floor for them to stretch and rest their rear limbs. The lamps and the addition to the hut's company sent the thermometer to up to 90 degrees above the row, while outside it was 30 below. The natives endured this degree of heat finally, as the men and children wore only the apparel nature gave them, and the woman made only a slight, but becoming addition to it. The strangers, after devouring six small seabirds apiece, enjoyed a night of profuse perspiration and sound sleep. In the morning Morton perceived that Miok and his father were preparing for a walrus hunt, and he cordially invited himself and Hans to go with them. The two strangers accepted the invitation that's given, and the party of four were soon off. A large-sized walrus is 18 feet long, with a tusk 30 inches. His whole development is elephantine, and his look grim and ferocious. The eskimo of this party carried three sledges, one they hid under the snow and ice on the way, and the other two were carried to the hunting ground at the open water, about ten miles from the hut's. They had nine dogs to these two sledges, and by turns one man rode while the other walked. As they neared the new ice, and saw by the murky fog that the open water was near, the eskimo removed their hoods and listened. After a while Miok's countenance showed that the wished-for sound had entered his ear, though Morton, as attentively listening, could hear nothing. Soon they were startled by the bellowing of a walrus bull. The noise, round and full, was something between the mooing of a cow and the deep baying of a mastiff, varied by an oft-repeated quick bark. The performer was evidently pleased with his own music, for it continued without cessation, while our hunters crept forward stealthily in single file. When within half a mile of some discoloured spots, showing very thin ice surrounded by that, which was thicker, they scattered, and each man crawled toward a separate pool, Morton on his hands and knees following Miok. Soon the walruses were in sight. There were five in number, at times rising altogether out of the deep, breaking the ice and giving an explosive puff, which might have been heard, through the thin, clear atmosphere, a mile away. Two grim-looking males were noticeable as the leaders of the group. Now came the fight between Miok, the crafty, expert hunter, and a strong, maddened, persistent walrus. Morton was an interested looker on, following the hunter like a shadow, ready, if it had been wanted, to put in his contribution to the fight in the form of a rifle ball. When the walrus' head is above water and peering curiously around, the hunter is flat and still. As the head begins to disappear in the deep, he is up and stirring, and ready to dart toward the game. From his hiding place behind the projecting ice null, the hunter seems not only to know when his victim will return, but where he will rise. In this way, hiding and darting forward, Miok, with Morton at his heels, approaches the pool, near the edge of which the walruses are at play. Now, the stolid face of Miok glows with animation. He lies still, beating his time. A coil of walrus hide many yards in length lying at his side. He quickly slips one end of the line into an iron barb, holding the other, the looped end in his hand, and fixes the barb to a locket on the end of a shaft made of a unicorn's horn. Now the water is in motion, and only 12 feet from him, the walrus rises, puffing with pent-up respiration, and looks grimly and complacently around. What need he fear, the mighty monarch of the Arctic Sea? Miok coolly, slowly rises, throws back his right arm, while his left arm lies close to his side. The walrus looks round again, and shakes his dripping head. Up goes the hunter's left arm. His victim rises breast-high to give one curious look before he plunges, and the swift barbed shaft is buried in his vitals. In an instant, the walrus is down, down in the deep, while Miok is making his best speed from the battlefield, holding firmly the looped end of his harpoon line, at the same time paying out the coil as he runs. He has snatched up and carries in one hand a small stick of bone, rudely pointed with iron. His stops, drives it into the ice and fastens his line to it, pressing it to the ice with his foot. Now commends the frantic struggles of the wounded walrus. Miok keeps his station, now letting out his line, and then drawing it in. His victim, rising out of the water, endeavors to throw himself upon the ice as if to rush at his tormentor. The ice breaks under his great weight, and he roars fearfully with rage. For a moment all is quiet. The hunter knows what it means, and he is on the alert. Crash goes the ice, and up come two walruses only a few yards from where he stands. They aimed at the very spot, but will do better the next time. But when the game comes up where he lost so the hunter, he has pulled up his stick and run off, lying in hand, and fixed it as before, but in a new direction. This play goes on until the wounded beast becomes exhausted, and is approached and pierced with the lands by Miok. For hours this fight went on. The walrus receiving 70 lance thrusts, dangling all the while at the end of the line with the cruel harpoon fixed in his body. When dying at last, hooked by his tusk to the margin of the ice, his female, which had facefully followed all his bloody fortune, still swam at his side. She retired, only when her spouse was dead, and she herself was pricked by the lands. Morton says the last three hours wore the aspect of a doubtful battle. He witnessed it with breathless interest. The game was by a sort of double purchase, a clever contrivance of the Eskimo, thrown upon the ice and cut up at leisure. Its weight was estimated at 700 pounds. The intestines on the larger part of the carcass were buried in the crevices of an iceberg, a splendid ice house. Two sledges were loaded with a remainder, and the hunters started toward home. As they came near the village, the woman came out to meet them. The shout of welcome brought all hands with their knives. Each one having his portion assigned, according to a well-understood Eskimo rule, the evening was given up to eating. In groups of two or three, around a 40-pound joint, squatting crook-legged, knife in hand, they cut, ate and slept, and cut and ate again. Hunts in his description of the feast, Dr. Cain says, Why, Captain Hen, sir, even the children ate all night. You know the little two-year-old that Ariane carried in her hood, the one that bit you when you tickled it? Yes. Well, Captain Cain, sir, that baby cut for herself, sir, with a knife made out of an iron hoop, and so heavy it could hardly lift it. Cut and ate, sir, and ate and cut, as long as I looked at it. Morton and Hunts returned to the brick with 200 pounds of walrus meat and two foxes to make glad the hearts of their comrades. Besides these arctic monsters of the sea and shaggy prowlers of the land and ice, there was another sort of game requiring a different kind of hunting found near home. We have related the experiment a year before this of the explorers with the rats. They had failed to smoke them out by a villainous compound and, as the experience came near burning up the vessel, it was not repeated. They bred like locusts in spite of the darkness cold and short rations and went everywhere under the stow into the steward's drawers into the cushions about the beds amongst the furs, woolens and specimens of natural history. They took their abode amongst the bedding of the men in the forecastle and in such other places seemed to them cozy and comfortable. When their rights as tenants were disputed they fought for them with boldness and skill. At one time a mother rat had chosen a bare-skinned mitten as a homestead for herself and family of little ones. Dr. Cain thrust his hand into it not knowing that it was occupied and received a sharp bite. Of course his hand left the premises in rather quick time and before he could suck the blood from his finger the family had disappeared taking their home with them. Vrina, a brave bear dog which had come out of him counters with his shaggy majesty with special honors was sent down into the citadel of the rats. She lay down with composure and slept for a while but the vermin gnawed the corny skin of her paws nipped her on this side and bit her on that and dogged into their hiding places. There were so many and so nimble that poor Rina yelled in vexation and pain. She was taken on deck to her kennel a cowed and vangished dog. Hans, due to his hunter's propensity amused himself during the dreary hours of his turn of the night watch by shooting them with his bow and arrow. Dr. Cain had these carefully dressed and made into a soup of which he educated himself to eat to the advantage of his health. No other one of the vessel's company cared to share his potage. Hans had one competitor in this small deer hunting as the sailors called it. Dr. Cain had caught a young fox alive and domesticated it in the cabin. These deer were not quick enough to escape his nimble feet and sharp teeth but unfortunately he would kill only when and what he wanted to eat. December came in gloomily. Nearly every man was down with this curvy. The necessary work to be done dragged heavily. The courage of the little company was severely taxed but not broken. But where were the escaping party under Dr. Hayes? Were they yet dragging painfully over their perilous way? Were they safe at Aparnavik or had they perished? While such queries might have occupied the sorts of the dwellers in the advance on the seventh of the months Peterson and Bonsal of that party returned. Five days later Dr. Hayes arrived with the remainder of his company. Their adventures had been marvelous and their escape wonderful. It will be a pleasant fancy for us to consider ourselves as sitting down in the cabin of the advance and listening to their story from the lips of one of their party. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of North Pole Voyages by Zaharia A. Maj. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 10 The Escaping Party Having as has been seen provided for all the contingencies of our journey as well as circumstances permitted we moved slowly down the ice food away from the break. The companions we were leaving waived us as silent adieu. A strong resolution gave firmness to our step but our way was too dark and perilous for lightness of heart. At ten miles distance we should reach a cape near which we expected to find open water where we could exchange the heavy work of dragging the sledges for the pleasanter sailing in the boat. This we reached early the second day but here we experienced our first keen disappointment as far as the eye could reach was only ice. Before us a thousand miles away was Upernavik at which we aimed the first refuge of a civilized character in that direction. As we gazed at this intervening frozen wilderness it did indeed seem afar off. Yet every man stood firm through fourteen hours of toil before we encamped facing a strong wind and occasional gusts of snow. After this the shelter of our tent and a supper of cold pork and bread with hot coffee made us almost forget the wind which began to roar like a tempest. We looked out in the morning after a good night's rest hoping to see the broken flow fleeing before the gale giving us our coveted open sea but no change had taken place. We had no resort but to very sledging. We carried forward our freight in small parcels a mile on our journey finally bringing up the boat. We took from under a cliff of the cape the boat forlorn hope which Dr. Cain had deposited there. It was damaged by the falling of a stone upon it from a considerable height. Peterson's skillful mending made it only a tolerable affair. Thus we read and baffled in our efforts at progress we returned early to our tent and slept soundly until three o'clock in the morning when we were aroused by shouting without. It came from three Eskimo a boy 18 years old and two women. The boy we had before seen but the women were strangers. They were filthy and ragged in fact scarcely closed at all. The matted hair of the woman was tied with a piece of a leather on the top of the head. The boy's hair was cut square across his eyebrows. One of the women carried a baby about six months old. It was thrust naked feet foremost into the hood of her jumper and hung from the back of her neck. It peered innocently out of its hiding place like a little chicken from the brooding wing of its mother. They shivered with cold and asked for fire and food which we readily gave them and they were soon off down the coast in good spirits. These visitors were only well started when Hans rushed into our camp excited and panting for breath. He was too full of wrath to command his poor English and he rattled away to Peterson in his own language. When he had recovered somewhat his breath we caught snatches of his exclamations as he turned to us with Smith's own Eskimo no coat, no coat, all same dog, steel me bag, steel Nelligag buffalo. The fact finally came out that our visitors had been to the brig and stolen among other things a wolf skin bag and a small buffalo skin belonging to Hans presents from Dr. Cain. Hans took a lunch, a cup of coffee and continued his run after the thieves. The ice had now given away a little and small leads open near us. Loading the boat we tried what could be done at navigation but the water in the lead soon froze over and became too thick for boating while yet it was too thin for sledging. So after trying various expedients we again unloaded the boats and took to the land ice. But this was too sloping for the sledges so we took our cargo in small parcels on our backs carrying them forward a mile and a half and finally bringing the sledges and boat. Bonsal had on one of these trips taken a keg of molasses on the back of his neck grasping the two ends with his hands. This was an awkward position in which to command his footing along a sideling icy path his foot slipped the keg shot over his head and glided down into the sea. Coffee without molasses was not pleasant to think of and then it was two hours after our day's work was done before we could find even water. Our supper was not eaten and we ready to go to bed until 10. We slept the better however from hearing just as we were retiring that Bonsal and Godfrey had recovered the keg of molasses from four feet of water. The next morning we resolved to try the flow again. It was plain we could make no satisfactory progress on the land ice so we loaded first the small sledge and run it safely down the slippery slope then the large sledge, faith, was packed with our more valuable articles. Cautiously it was started men in the rear holding it back by ropes but the foothold of the men being insecure they slipped lost their control both of themselves and the sledge and away it dashed. The ice as it reached the flow was thin first one runner broke through now both have gone down Overgoes the freight and the hole is plunged into the water. Fortunately everything floated. A part of our clothes were in rubber bags and was kept dry all else was thoroughly wet. No great damage was done except in one case. Peterson had a bed of aider down in which he was won't snugly to stow himself at night. When moving it was compressed into a ball no larger than his head. It was a nice thing costing forty Danish dollars. It was of course spoiled. So rueful was his face that though we really pitied him we could not repress a little merriment as he held up his dripping treasure. Seeing a smile on Dr. Hayes face he hastily rolled it up into vat and in the bitterness of his vexation hurled it amongst the rocks muttering something in Danish of which we could detect only the words Dr. and Satan. Our situation seemed gloomy enough the man's courage was giving way and one took a final leave and returned to the advance yet we pressed forward we were not long in readjusting the load of the faith and met with no further accident during the day but our fourteen hours toil left us six more hours of ice travel before we could reach what seemed to be a long stretch of clear sea. Hans returned from his pursuit having overtaken the thieves but did not find about them the stolen goods. He proposed to remain and help us but we could go no farther that night we encamped and obtained much needed rest and sleep. We were awakened at midnight to a new and unexpected discouragement. And Gory and Goodfellow arrived from the advance bringing a pre-eventary order from Dr. Cain to bring back the faith. We could not understand this we had been promised its use until we reached the open sea we had only one other which was very poor and utterly insufficient for our purpose. We were sure it was not needed at the brig what could the order mean but there it was in black and white so we delivered it up and the messengers returned with it on the instant. This journey of Goodfellow and Gory was a wonderful exhibition of endurance. They had worked hard all day having eaten supper they were dispatched with the message they were back to the brig to breakfast having traveled in all to and fro 30 miles without food or rest. Our slidging almost insufferable before was more difficult now. Peterson exhausted his skill in improving our poor sledge with little success. We made about six miles during the day gained the land at the head of Forth Bay and pitched our tent. We had shipped and unshipped our cargo and had experienced the usual variety of boating and slidging. Several of us had been broken through the ice and been thoroughly wet. All dromatic and scurvy complaints renewed their attacks upon the men. While the supper was cooking three of the officers climbed a bluff and looked out upon the ICC. To our joy they reported the open water only six miles away. With a good sledge we could reach it in one day's pull. With our shaky affair it would take three. Indeed it seemed a hopeless task to make it all six miles with it. Such was the situation when our supper was eaten and we had lain down to sleep. It's solace had scarcely come to our relief when Morton's welcome voice startled us. He could come to bring back the faith how timely. And then he brought also a satisfactory explanation of its being taken away. Dr. Cain had been informed that a dissension existed among us and that the sledge was not in the hands of the officers. The next morning the good sledge faith was loaded and the men now in good spirits made fine speed towards the open sea. Morton pushed on after the thieves. Late in the afternoon he returned with them. He had overtaken them where they had halted to turn their goods into clothing. They had thrown aside their rags and were strutting proudly in the new garments they had made of the stolen skins. Morton soon left with his prisoners to return to the advance. We did not reach the open water until midnight. Everything was now put on board the boat and we sailed about two miles and drew up against Eskimo Point, pitched our tent on a grounded ice raft and obtained brief rest. In the morning Riley who had been sent to us for that purpose returned to the advance with the faith. We packed away eight men and their baggage in the forlorn hope. It was an ordinary new London whale boat rigged with a mainsail, foresail and a chip. Her cargo on passengers on this occasion brought her gun whale within four inches of the water. But for five miles we made fine progress. Then suddenly the ice closed in upon us compelling us to draw the hope up upon a solid ice raft where we encamped for the night. Near was a stranded burg from which we obtained a good supply of birds of which we ate, ate or for supper. In the morning while our breakfast was cooking the ice scattered and a path for us through the sea was again opened and we bore away joyously for the capes of refuge harbor. With varying fortune we passed under the walls of Cape Hetherton and sighed the low lands of Lifeboat Bay. There, as has been stated in August 1853 Dr. Cain left a Francis metallic lifeboat. Could we reach this bay and possess ourselves of this lifeboat? A great step would have been taken we thought toward success. For a while all went well. Then came the shout from the officer on the lookout ice ahead. We ran down upon it before a spanking breeze and got into the bend of a great horseshoe while seeking an open way through the flow. We could turn neither to the right nor left and we were too deep in the water to attempt to lay too. The waves rolled higher and higher and the breeze was increasing to a tempest. Our cargo piled above the sides of the boat left no room to handle the oars if they had been of any use. There was no resort but to let her drive against the flow. John sat in the stern, steering oar in hand. Peterson stood on the lookout to give him steering orders. Bonsal and Stephenson stood by the sails. The rest of us with boat hooks and poles stood ready to fend off. The sails were so drawn up as to take the wind out of them. Peterson directed the boat's head towards that part of the ice which seemed weakest and on we bounded. See any opening Peterson? No sir. An anxious five minutes followed. I see what looks like a lead. We must try for it. Give the word Peterson. On flew the boat. Let her fall off a little off. Ease off the sheet so steady. A little more off so steady there steady as she goes. Peterson cool and skillful was running us through a narrow lead which brought us into a small opening of clear water. We were beginning to think that we should get through the pack when he shouted I see no opening tight everywhere. Let go the sheet fend off. Thump went the boat against the flow but the poles and boat hooks in strong steady hands broke the force of the collision out sprang everyone man upon the ice. No serious damage was done to our craft. Our first thought was that we were in a safe icebound harbor but no see the flow is on the move. We unshipped the cargo in haste and drew up the hope out of the way of the nips. The stores were next removed farther from the water's edge the spray beginning to sprinkle them. The whole pack was instantly in wild confusion ice smitting ice filling the air with dismal sounds but it was a moment for action not of moping fear. Our ice raft suddenly separated the crack running between the cargo and the hope. This would not do. A boat without a cargo or a cargo without a boat were neither the condition of things we desired but as the ice bearing the boat shot into the surging water it was evident no human power could hinder it yet divine power could and did prevent it. Just that hand always so ready to help us in our time of need and seeming now almost visible. The boat's raft after whirling in the eddying waters swung around and struck one corner of ours. In a minute of time the hope was run off and both cargo and men were once more together. Soon the commotion brought down a heavy flow against that on which we had taken refuge and no open water was within a hundred yards of us. End of chapter 10 Chapter 11 of North Pole Voyages by the Harrier A. Mudge this LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 11 a green spot we seemed now to be in a safe resting place. Dr. Heis and Mr. Bonsow accompanied by John and Godfrey took the advantage of this security to go in search of a lifeboat which they judged was not more than two miles away. After a walk over the flow of one hour they found it. It had not been disturbed and the articles deposited under it were in good order. There were, besides the oars and sails, two barrels of bread, a barrel of pork and one of beef, thirty pounds of rice, thirty pounds of sugar, a saucepan, an empty keg, a gallon can of alcohol, a bale of blankets, an ice anchor, an ice chisel, a gun, a hatchet, a few small pearls, and some pieces of wood. They took of these a barrel of bread, the saucepan filled with sugar, a small quantity of rice, the gun, the hatchet, and the boat's equipment. They were to carry this cargo and drag the lifeboat back to the camp unless a fortunate lead should enable them to take to the boat. They ascended a hill before starting to get the view of the present state of the fickle ice. All was fast in the direct line through which they came. But a mile away, washing a piece of the shore of Littleton Island was open water. They concluded to push forward in that direction and wait the coming of their companion in the hope. They reached this open water in six hours, a slow march of one mile, but it must be remembered that they had to carry their cargo piece by piece, then go back and draw along the boat, thus going over the distance many times. Besides, they had to climb the hammocks with their load and lower it down on the other side and tumble about generally over the rough way. The island thus reached was three-fourth of a mile in diameter. They landed in a tumultuous sea which only a lifeboat could survive. There was no good hiding place from the storm which was increasing. They were completely wet by the spray and ready to faint with cold and hunger. In a crevice of the rock a fire was kindled, the saucepan half filled with sea water and an eider duck John had knocked over with his oar was put into it to stew. To this was added four biscuits from the bread barrel. The hot meal thus cooked refreshed them, but it was their only refreshment. Bonsal and Gottfrey crept under the sail taken from the boat and from sheer exhaustion fell asleep. John and Dr. Hayes sawed warmth in a run about the island. Dr. Hayes wandered to a rocky point which commanded a view of the channel between the island and the hope. He watched every object expecting to see her and her crew adrift. He had not watched long before a dark object was seen upon a whirling ice raft. After a close and careful second look he saw that it was John. He called but received no answer. John's raft now touched the flow and away he went jumping the fearful cracks and disappearing in the darkness. What could inspire so reckless an adventure had he seen the hope in peril and was this a manly effort to save her and his comrades? He was going in the direction in which he had left them. Bonsal and Gottfrey were soon thrown out of their comfortless tent and joined Dr. Hayes on the rocky point. They took places of observation a short distance apart and watched this intense anxiety both for the hope and John. The morning came, the sea grew less wild and the winds subsided but nothing was seen of the boat. Leaving Dr. Hayes and his parties us watching on the island we will glance at the experience of those of us who were left in the camp. Soon after they left the wind and the waves played free and wild. The spray wet our clothes, buffaloes and blankets as it flew past us in dense clouds. Our bread bag wrapped in an India rubber cloth was kept dry. We pitched our tent in the safest place possible but were driven out by the increasing deluge of spray. We tried to cook our supper but the water put out the lamp. So we obtained for 30 hours neither rest nor a warm meal. Dry hard bread without water was our only food. Finally the flow broke up and hastily packing ourselves and stores into the hope. We went scutting through the leads earnestly desiring but scarcely daring to hope that we should fall in with Dr. Hayes and his party. As we approached Littleton Island the lead closed and the pack for a moment shut us in. As we waited and watched we saw a dark object moving over the flow in the misty distance. Had we been on the lookout for a bear we might have sent a bullet after it at a venture. But a moment only intervened before John, nimbly jumping the drifting ice cake sprung into the boat. He brought the welcome news of the whereabouts of our companions with the lifeboat and his needed help in our peril. Soon a change of tide brought open water through which with all sails set we board down on the island. About eight o'clock we saw Dr. Hayes watching for our coming from his bleak rocky lookout. So rough was the sea that we could not land but rode round Cape Olson the nearest mainland where we found a snug harbor with a low beach. The lifeboat and her crew followed. The cargoes were taken from the boats and they were hauled up. From a little stream of melted snow which trickled down the hillside our kettles were filled. The camp was set ablaze. Some young aiders and a burgamaster shot just before we landed were soon cooked. A steaming pot of coffee served up and we talked over our adventures as we satisfied our craving hunger. John was questioned concerning his wild adventure. He had not seen the hope nor did he know where she was but he was concerned about her and wanted to hunt her up. After dinner we set ourselves to work preparing the boats for a new voyage which we had some reason to hope would be one of fewer interruptions. The hope was repatched and caulked by Peterson. A mast and sail was put into the lifeboat which we named the Ironsides. The heavier part of the freight was put on board the hoop of which Peterson took command with Sontag, George Stephenson and George Whipple as companions and helpers. Dr. Hayes commanded in the Ironsides with whom was Bonsal, John, Blake and William Godfrey. Having spread our sails to a favoring breeze we gave three cheers and bore away for Cape Alexander about 14 miles distant. As we sped onward the scene was delightful. On our left was Hardstein Bay with its dark precipitous shoreline and white glacier fields in the background. The outlines of Cape Alexander grew clearer over our bows and cheered us onward but a dark threatening cloud crept up the northern sky sending after us an increasing breeze and tipping the waves with caps of snowy whiteness. The storm king came on in frequent squalls giving earnest of his wrath. We could not turn back nor did such a course at all accord with our wishes nor could we run toward the shore on the left where only frowning rocks awaited us. We could only scud before the tempest toward Cape Alexander come what would. The wind roared louder and the waves rolled higher yet on we flew. We came within half a mile of the Cape unharmed. Now the current as it swept swiftly round the Cape produced a chopping sea. The hope being made for a heavy sea rounded the point in good style. The iron sides were shorter, stood more out of the water and was therefore less manageable. John who was entrusted with the steering oar in minding the business of Bonsall and Gottfrey instead of his own let it fly out of the water and so permitted the boat to came round roadside to the current. Of course the sea broke over us at its pleasure filling every part which could be filled and sinking as deep in the water. But for its metallic structure and airtight apartment we should have sunk. As it was we held fast to the sides and mast to prevent being washed overboard and thus we drifted ingloriously round the Cape. Here we found our consort ready to come to our assistance but as the water was smooth under sheltering land we bailed out our boat, took in our sails and shipped the mast and road for a small rock called Sutherlands Island hoping to find a harbor but we found none nor was it safe to land anywhere upon the island. There was nothing to do but to pull back again in the face of the wind. The men were weary and disheartened. The sun had set and it was growing dark. Our clothes were frozen and unyielding as a coat of mail. Cutting sleet pelted our faces and we were often compelled to lose for a moment part of what we had with such toil gained. But the sheltering mainland of the Cape was at last gained and we coasted slowly along for some distance looking for a haven. We finally came to a low rocky point behind which lay a snug little harbor. A harbor, here we are boys, a harbor, shouted the lookout. The men responded with a faint cheer. They were too much exhausted for a rouser. The boats were unladen and drawn up the land. Everything in the iron sides was wet but the stores of the hope were in perfect order. We pitched our tent, cooked our supper and laid down to sleep. The sea roared angrily as its waves broke upon the rocky coast and the wind howled as it came rushing down the hillside. But they did but lull us to rest as we slept away our weariness and disappointment. Two days we were detained in this place. Once a little fox peered at us from the edge of the cliff which set our men upon a fruitless hunt for either his curious little self or some of his kindred. We greatly desired a fox stew but fox cunning was too much for us. We started for Northumberland Island on the 8th of September. To reach it we must pass through a wide expanse of sea which was now clear. Not a burg greeted our vision. No fragments of drifting ice packs met our sight. The wind was nearly after us and the boats glided through the waves as gloriously as if carrying a picnic party in our own home waters. The spirits of the men ran over with glee. Isn't this glorious cried Bipple as the boats came near enough together to exchange salutations? We have it watch and watch about. And so have we replied Godfrey. We're shipping a galley and mean to have some supper, shouted Stephenson. And we have got ours already, exclaimed John. Look at this, he added, flourishing in the air a pot of steaming coffee. But these joys were emphatically of the arctic kind which are in themselves prophecies of ill. Burgs were soon seen lifting their unwelcome heads in the distance and sending through the intervening waters their tidings of evil. Next came long, narrow lines of ice. Then these were united together by a thin, recent formation. We were now compelled to dodge about to find open lanes. Coming to a full stop, the officers climbed an iceberg to get a view of the situation. The pack was everywhere, though in no direction was it without narrow runs of open water. Then and there they were compelled after careful consultation to decide a question deeply concerning our enterprise. It was this, should we take the outer passage or the one lying along shore? The first would afford a better chance of open water, but if this failed us, as it was even likely to do at this late season, we must certainly perish. The second gave us a smaller chance of boating, but some chance to live if it failed. But we were on a desperate enterprise and were inclined to desperate measures. But Peterson who had 20 years experience in these waters counseled the inner route and by his counsel the officers felt bound to abide. While this consultation was going on, the sea became calm and the boats could be urged only by the oars. It was night before we found the sheltered, sloping land behind the projecting rock. The boats were anchored in the usual way by taking out their loads and lifting them upon the land. The tents were pitched upon a terrace a few yards above the boats. This terrace we were surprised to find was covered with a green sod full of thrifty vegetation. The sloping hillside above had the same greenness. A little seeking brought to our wandering sight an abundant supply of sorrel and cochlear aria, anti-scurvy plants which our men much needed. Some of the men soon filled their caps with them. A fox had been shot and was already in the cooked steaming pot to which a good supply of the green plants was added. Such a supper as we had. Nothing like it had been tasted since we left home. Our scurvy plague spots disappeared before its wonderful healing power. The men became as hilarious as boys when school is out. They rebelled and rolled upon the green arctic carpet like young coves in a newly found clover field. They smoked their pipes, spun yarns and laughed cheerfully as if their lives had not just been in peril and as if no imminent danger slay at their door. Our camp had indeed been pitched by the all-guiding hand in a goodly place. The men declared on retiring that they felt the healing cochlearia in their very bones and it is certain that we all felt the glow of our changed condition throughout our whole being. The next day, two of us climbed the highest land of the island for a glance at our situation. We found it as depressing as our paradise of greenness had been encouraging. We could see southward the closed ice pack for twenty miles and faint indications of the same condition of the sea could be discerned for twenty more miles. We returned and a council was called in which all men and officers were called upon freely to discuss and finally to decide by vote the question shall we go forward or attempt to return to the advance? All the facts so far as known were fairly brought out. Upernavik was six hundred miles in a straight line. The brig was four hundred. Dangers if not to death were everywhere yet none despondent. Whipple or Long George as his messmates called him made a heroic speech which expressed the feelings of all. He exclaimed, the ice can't remain long. I'll bet it will open tomorrow. The winter is a long way off yet. If we have such luck as we have had since leaving Cape Alexander we shall be in Upernavik in two weeks. You say it is not more than six hundred miles there in a straight line. We have food for that time and fuel for a week. Before that's gone we'll shoot a seal. We voted with one voice. Upernavik or nothing. The decision was made. End of Chapter 11 Chapter 12 of North Pole Voyages by Zaharia A. Maj. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 12, Netflix We were unwillingly detained on the island several days more. During the detention we were visited by an Eskimo who came most unexpectedly upon us. His name was Amalatuk. He had been at the ship last winter and had seen Dr. Cain in his August trip. His dress was strikingly arctic, a bird skin coat, feathers turned in, bare skin pants, hair outward, seal skin boots, and dog skin stockings. He carried in his hand two seabirds, a bladder filled with oil, some half-buttered walrus flesh, and a seal thong. He sat down on a rock and talked with animation. While thus engaged he twisted the neck from one of the birds, inserted the forefinger of his right hand under the skin of its neck, drew it down its back, and thus instantly skinned it. Then, running his long thumbnail across the breastbone, he produced two fine fat lumps of flesh which he offered in turn to each of our company. These were politely declined to his great disgust, and he bolted them down himself, sending after them a hearty draught of oil from the bladder. The other bird, the remaining oil and the coil of seal-hide we purchased of him for three needles. Soon after Amalatuk's wife came up with a boy, her nephew. The woman was old and exceedingly ugly-looking. The boy was fine-looking, wide awake and slivish. We watched him narrowly. In the evenings the Eskimo left for their home on the eastern side of the island. In the afternoon of the fourteenth of September we left the island and set our course towards Cape Pari. The sky had been clear, the air soft and balmy, and the open sea invited us on board. But a cold mist soon settled down upon us, succeeded by a curtain of snow, shutting out all landmarks and leaving us in great doubt as to our course. The compass refused to do its office, the needle remaining where it was placed. We struck into an ice field and became perfectly bewildered. As we groped about we struck an old floating ice island about twelve feet square. On this we crawled and pitched our tent. The cook contrived with much perseverance and delay to light the lamp, melt some snow, and make a pot of coffee. This warmed and encouraged us. But as the snow fell faster and faster we could not unwrap our bedding without getting it wet, so we huddled together under the tent to keep each other warm. None slept, and the night wore slowly away as our ice island floated we knew not wither. There was great occasion for despondency, but the men were wonderfully cheerful. Codfrey sang Negro melodies with Augusto. Peterson told the stories of his boyhood life in Copenhagen and Iceland. John gave items of a runner's life in San Francisco. Whipple related the horrors of the forecastle of a Liverpool packet, and Bonsall brought down the house by striking up, who wouldn't sell his farm and go to sea. During this merriment a piece of our raft broke off and came near, plunging two of the men into the sea. The morning dawned and showed the dim outlines of some large object near us, whether iceberg or land we could not tell. Before we could well make it out, we were near a sandy beach covered with boulders. We tumbled into the boats and were soon ashore. As we landed, Peterson's gun brought down two large seafalls. We were in little time high on the land, our tent pitched, and all but John the cook laid down in the dry, warm buffalo skins and slept away our viriness. John, in the meantime, contended through six long hours with the wind, which put out his lamp, the snow, which wet his tinder when he attempted to relight it, and the cold, which froze the water in the kettle during the delay, as well as chilled his fingers and face and cooked us at last a supper of seafall and fox. As we ate with appetite sharpened by a fast of 24 hours, we heard the storm, which raged fearfully with thankfulness for our timely covert. God and not our wisdom had brought us hither. When the morning broke, we learned that we had drifted far up whale sound and were camped on Herbert Island. After a little delay, we entered our boats, rode for several hours through the slush the snow had created near the shore, and then, spreading our canvas, we sailed for the mainland. We struck the coast 20 miles above Cape Perry. We had scarcely time to glance at our situation before we heard the huck-huck-huck of Eskima voices. It was the hailing cry of a man and a boy who came running to the shore. While Peterson talked with the man, the boys camped off. The man was Calutuna, the Angacoc, or priest of his tribe. He had been, as will be recollected, at the ship in the winter. He said the village was only a short distance up the bay, but there was plenty of blubber and meat, which we might have, if we would allow him to enter our omniac and pilot us there. While we were talking with Calutuna, the boy had spread the news of our visit through the village. On came a troop of men, women and children, rushing along the shore and throwing their arms about and shouting merrily with howling dogs at their heels. The Calutuna and omniac, white men and ship, had come and they were happy. We took on board Calutuna from a rocky point before the crowd could reach it and pushed off and rode up the bay. Our passenger was delighted, having never before voyaged in this vise. He stood up in the boat and called to his envious countrymen who ran abreast of us along the shore, exclaiming, See me, see me. We landed in a little cove at the head of which we pitched our tent. The sailors threw up the boat over the gentle slope, shouting heave-ho. At this, the natives broke out into uproarious laughter. Nothing of all the strange shouts and sights brought their notice so pleased them. They took hold of the ropes and sides of the boats and dug away shouting, E you, E you, E you. The nearest approach they could make to the strange sound of the white faces. A short distance from the beach on the slope stood the settlement, two stone huts twenty yards apart. They were surrounded by rocks and boulders, looking more like the lurking places of wild beasts than the abodes of men. The entertainment given us by our new friends was most cordial. A young woman ran off to the valley with a troupe of boys and girls at her heels and filled our kettles with water. Kalutuna's wife brought us a steak of seal and a goodly piece of liver. The looker's own laughed at our canvas wick lamp as it sputtered and slowly burned and the chief's daughter ran off and brought their lamp of dried moss and seal fat. We gave them some of our supper as they expected, of course, that we would. They made dry faces at the coffee and only sipped a little, but Kalutuna was more dignity persevered and drank freely of it. We passed round some hard biscuit which they did not regard as food until they saw us eat them. They then nibbled away, laughing and nibbling a while until their teeth seemed to be sore. They then thrust them into their boots, the general receptacles of curious things. After supper the white men lighted their pipes. These two the natives was the crowning wanderer. They stared at the strangers and they looked knowingly at each other. The solemned faces of the smokers, the devout look which they gave at the ascending smoke from their mouths as it curled upward, impressed the Eskimo that this was a religious ceremony. They, too, preserved a becoming gravity. But the lotto-cross scene was too much for our men and their faces relaxed into smiles. This was a signal for a general explosion. The Eskimo burst into loud laughter springing to their feet and clapping their hands. The religious meeting was over. The Angacook, who seemed desirous to show his people that he could do anything which the strangers could, desired to be allowed to smoke. We gave him a pipe and directed him to draw in his breath with all his might. He did so and was fully satisfied to lay the pipe down. His awful grimaces brought down upon him shouts and laughter from his people. The mimic puffs and the poorly executed e-hose of the sailor's heave-o went merrily round the village. Having established good feeling between ourselves and the Eskimo, we entered upon negotiations for such articles of food as they could spare. But they, in fact, had only a small supply. They wanted, of course, our needles, knives, wood, and iron and were profused in their promises of what they would do, but their game was in the sea. It was midnight before the Eskimo retired and we lay down to sleep. Dr. Hayes and Stephenson remained on guard, for our very plausible friends were not to be trusted where anything could be stolen. The stars twinkled in the clear atmosphere, while yet the twilight hung upon the mountain and all nature was hushed to an oppressive silence, save when it was broken by a sudden outburst of laughter from the Eskimo or the caving of a solitary raven. Leaving Stephenson on guard, Dr. Hayes walked toward the huts. Kalutuna, hearing his footsteps, came out to meet him, expressing his welcome by grinning in his face and patting his back. The huts were square in front and sloped back into the hill. They were entered by a long passageway, tossed of twelve feet, at the end of which was an ascent into the hut through an opening in the floor near the front. Into this, the chief led the way, creeping on all fours, with a lighted torch of moss saturated his fat. Snarling dogs and half-ground puppies were sleeping in this narrow way who naturally resented in their own amable way this midnight disturbance. Arriving at the upright shaft, the chief crowded himself aside to let his visitor pass in. A glare of light, suffocating orders and a motley sight greeted the doctor. Crowded into the den on a raised stone bench around three sides were human beings of both sexes and of all ages. They huddled together still closer to make room for the stranger, whom they greeted with an uproarious laugh. In one of the front corners on the raised stone bench was a mother dog with a family of puppies. In the other corner was a joint of meat. The whole interior was about ten feet in diameter and five and a half high. The walls were made of stone and the bones of animals and chinked with moss. They were not arched but drowned in from the foundation and kept above with slabs of slate stone. The doctor's visit was one of curiosity, but the curiosity of the eskimo in reference to him was more intense and must first be gratified. They hung upon his arms and legs and shoulders. They patted him on the back and stroked his long beard, which diseased beardless people was wonder. The woolen clothes puzzled them and their profoundest thought was at fault in deciding the question of the kind of animal from whose body the material was taken. They had no conception of clothing not made of skins. The boy's hands soon found their way into the doctor's pockets and they drew out a pipe which passed with much merriment from hand to hand and mouth to mouth. Kalutuna drew the doctor's knife from its sheath, pressed it fondly to his heart and then with a mischievous side glance stuck it into his own boot. The doctor shook his head and it was returned with a laugh to its place. A dozen times he took it out, hugged it and returned it to its place, saying besiegingly, Me, me, give me. He did want it so much. The visitor's pistol was handled with great caution and seriousness. They had been given a hint of its power at the seashore. Where one cell had brought a large seafowl down into their midst by a shot from his gun. While the examination of the doctor was going on, he examined more closely the objects about him. There was a window or opening above the entrance over which dried intestines, sewed together or stretched to let in light. The wall was covered with seal and fox skin stretched to dry. There were in the hut three families and one or two visitors in all 18 or 20 persons. The female head of each family was attending in different parts of the hut to her family cooking. They had each a stone scooped out like a clam shell in which was put a piece of moss, soaked in blubber. This was both lamp and stone and was kept burning by feeding with fat. Over this a stone pot was hung from the ceiling in which the food was kept simmering. These and the animal heat of the inmates made the hut intensely warm. Seeing the white man panting for breath, some boys and girls laid hold of his clothes to strip him after their own fashion. This act of eschemic courtesy he declined. They then urged him to eat and he answered, Kojenuk, I thank you, at which they all laughed. Though he had dreaded this invitation, he did not think it good policy to declare it. A young girl brought him the contents of one of the stone pots in a skin dish, first tasting it herself to see if it was too hot. All eyes were upon the visitor. Not to take their preferred potage would be a greater front. To him the dose seemed insufferable, though of necessity to be taken. Shutting his eyes and holding his nose, he bolted it down. He was afterward informed that it was one of the delicacies of the table made by boiling together blood, oil and seal intestines. After thus partaking of their hospitality, the doctor left the eschemic quarters escorted by the Anga Cook and his daughter. We were a stir at dawn, preparing to leave this little village known as Netflix. We had obtained a valuable addition to our slender store of Blober and a few pairs of four boots and mittens for which we amply paid them. Knowing that the Eskimo had never heard of the commandment, though shalt not covet, and that they did not understand well the law of mine and thine, we watched them closely as our stores were being passed into the boat. When we were ready to push off, it was ascertained that the hatchet was missing. Peterson openly charged them as they stood upon the shore with the theft. They all threw up their hands with expressions of injured innocence. My people never steal, exclaimed their front-achieve. One fellow was so loud in his protestations of innocence that Peterson suspected him. The dain approached him with a flash of anger in his eye which told its own story. The Eskimo stepped back, stooped, picked up the hatchet on which he had been standing and gave it to Peterson with one hand and with the other presented him a pair of mittens as a piece of ring. We pushed off and they stood shouting upon the beach until their voices died away in the distance as we pulled across the bay. End of Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Of North Pole Voyages by Zaharia A. Maj. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 13 The Hut We now made for Cape Perry with all speed, though this was slow speed. The young ice which covered the bay was too old for us, or at any rate it was too strong for easy progress. It was sunset when we reached the Cape. Beyond this there had been open water seen by us for many days past, from the elevated points of observation which we had sought. From this point therefore we expected free sailing southward and rapid progress toward safety and our homes. But here we were at last at Cape Perry against a pack which extended far southward. In our desperation we tried to force the boat through. The iron sides was badly battered and the hope made sadly leaky by the operation and no progress was made. We then pushed slowly down the shore through a lead and having gone about seven miles, darkness and the ice brought us to a stand and we drew up for the night. In the morning we observed a lead going south from the shore at a point twelve miles distant. For six days bringing us to the twenty seventh of September we fought hard to reach the lead but failed. We could now neither retreat nor go forward. Ice and snow were everywhere. The sun was running low in the heavens seeming to rise only to set and soon the night which was to have no sunrise morning until February would be upon us. Our food was sufficient for not more than two weeks and our fuel of blubber for the lamp only was but enough for eight or ten days. Our condition seemed almost without hope but it had entered into our calculations as a possible contingency and regarded ourselves for the struggle for life, trusting in the great deliverer. We were about sixteen miles below Cape Perry and about midway between Whale Sound and Walston Home Sound. We pitched our tent thirty yards from the sea on the rocky upland. After securing in a safe place the boats and equipments we began to look about us for a place to build a hut. It was indeed a dreary death-threatening region. Time was too pressing for us to think of building an Eskimo hut if indeed our strength and skill was sufficient. While we were looking round and debating what to build and where one of our party found a crevice in the rock. This crevice ran parallel with the coast and was opposite to and near the landing. It was eight feet in width and level on the bottom. The rock on the east side was six feet high its face smooth and perpendicular except breaks in two places making a ditch a shelf. On the other the ocean side the wall was scarcely four feet high, ground and sloping but a cleft through pit made an opening to the crevice from the west. We at once determined to make our hut here as the natural walls would save much work in its construction. The only material to be sought of was rocks. These we had to find beneath the snow and then loosened them from the grasp of the frost. For this we fortunately had an ice chisel, a bar of iron, an inching diameter and four feet long bent at one end for a handle and tempered and sharpened at the other. With this Bonsal loosened the rocks and others bore them on their shoulders to the crevice. When a goodly pile was made we began to construct the walls. Instead of mortar we had sand to fill in between the stones. This was as hard to obtain as the stones themselves as it had to be first picked to pieces with the ice chisel then scooped up with our tin dinner plates into cast-off bread bags and thus born to the builders. This work was done by four of us only the other four being engaged in hunting to keep away threatened starvation. In two days our walls were up. They ran across the crevice, that is, east and west, where fourteen feet apart, four feet high and three thick. The natural walls being eight feet apart our hut was thus in measurement fourteen feet by eight. The entrance was through the cleft from the ocean side. We laid across the top of this doorway the rudder of the hoop and erected on it the gable. One of the boat's masts was used for a ridge pole and the oars for rafters. Over these we laid the boat's sails, drew them tightly and secured them with heavy stones. Being sadly deficient in lumber, Peterson constructed a door of light framework and covered it with canvas. He hung it on an angle so that when opened it shut off its own weight. A place was left for a window over the doorway across which we drew a piece of old muslin well greased with blubber and through which the somber light streamed when there was any outside. We then endeavored to fetch the roof and baton the cracks everywhere with moss. But to obtain this article we had to scour the country far and near, dig through the deep snow, having tin dinner, plates for shovels, branch it from the grip of the frost with our ice jizzle, put it in our bread bags and back it home. In four days, in spite of all obstacles, our hut assumed a home-like appearance, at least home-like compared with our present quarters. We said, tomorrow we shall move into it and be comparatively comfortable. But that day brought the advanced force of a terrific storm of wind and snow. It caught some of us three miles from the tent. We huddled together in our thin hemp canvas tent and slept as best we could. Two of our company crawled out in the morning to prepare our scanty meal. They found the hut half full of snow which had sifted through the crevices. But they brought to the tent's company a hot breakfast after some hours' toil. We ate and our spirits revived. We tried all possible expedients to pass away at the time, but the hours moved slowly. The storm continued to howl and roar about us with unceasing fury for four days. Our little stock of food was diminishing, our hut was unfinished, and winter was upon us in earnest. Our situation was one of almost unmitigated misery. On Friday, October 6, the storm subsided and nature put on a smiling face. We renewed our work at the hut, clearing it of snow with our dinner plate shovels and then under greater difficulties than ever because the snow was deeper and our strength less. We finished it. The internal arrangements were as follows. An aisle or floor, three feet wide, extended from the door across the hut. On the right, as one entered, was a raised platform of stone and sand about 18 inches high. On this, we spread our skins and blankets. Here, five of us were to sleep. On the back corner of the other side was a similar platform, or brick, as the Eskimo would call it. Here, three men were to sleep. In the left-hand corner near the door, Peterson had extemporized a stone out of some tin sheathing torn from the hope with a funnel of the same material running out of the roof. This sort of fireplace stove held two lamps, a saucepan and kettle. On a post which supported the roof hung a small lamp. Into this hut, we moved October 9, compared with the tent it was comfortable. It was evening when we were settled. At sundown, Peterson came in with eight seafowl, so we celebrated the occasion with a stew of fresh game, cooked in our stove with the staves of our blubber kegs, and we added to our meal a pot of hot coffee. The supper done, we talked by the dim light of our moss taper. A storm, which was heralded during the day, was raging without in full force, burying us in a huge snowbank. We discussed calmly our duties and trials, and we all lay down prayerfully to sleep. What shall we do now? was the question of the morning. Indeed, it was the continual question. John reported our stores thus, there is three quarters of a small barrel of bread, a cap full of meat biscuit, half as much rice and flour, a double handful of lard, and that's all. Our vigilant hunting thus far had resulted in seventeen small birds. That was all. Some of us had tried to eat the stone moss, a miserable lichen, which clung tenaciously to the stones beneath the snow. But it did little more than stop for a while, big knowings of hunger, often inducing serious illness. Yet this seemed our only resort. The storms still raged. We were all reclining upon the breaks except John, who was trying to cook by a fire, which filled our hut with smoke. When we were startled by a strange sound, what is it, we asked. We could not get out, so we listened at the window. It was the wind, we said, for we could hear nothing more. In a half hour it was repeated clearer and louder. We opened the door by drawing the snow into the house, and made a little opening through the drift so we could see daylight. It was the barking of a fox, says one. No said another. It was the growling of a bear. Whipple, whose half of sleep muttered, it was just nothing at all. While these remarks were being made, the Eskimo shout was clearly recognized. Peterson put his mouse to the aperture in the snow and shouted, Huck, Huck, Huck! After much shouting, two bewildered Eskimo entered our hut. They were from Netflix. The village we had last left, and one was Kalutuna. Their fur dress had a thick covering of snow, and hardy so they were, they looked weary almost to faintness. They each held in one hand a dog whip, and in the other a piece of meat and lubber. They threw down the food, thrust their whip-dogs under the rafters, hung their wet outer furs upon them, and at once made themselves at home. The chief hung around Dr. Hayes, saying fondly, Dockty, Dockty! John put out his smoking fire at the Angacock's request, and used his lubber in cooking a good joint of the bear meat. We all had a good meal at our guests' expense. Necessity was more than courtesy with hungry men. While the cooking and eating were going on, we listened to the marvelous story of the Eskimo. They left Netflix, forty miles north, the morning of the previous day on a hunting excursion with two dogsledges. The storm overtook them far out upon the ice in search of bear, and they sheltered themselves in a snow hut for the night. Fearing the ice might break up, they turned to the land, which they happened to strike near our boats and tent. Knowing we must be near, they picketed their dogs under a sheltering rock and commands tramping and shouting. The supper eaten, the story told, and the curiosity of our visitors satisfied, in closely observing everything, we made for them the best bed possible, ducked them in, and they were soon snoring lustily. In the morning we tunneled a hole from our door through the snow. Kalutuna and Dr. Hayes went to the seashore. The dogs were howling vitiously, having been exposed to all the fury of the storm during the night, without the liberty of stirring beyond their tethers. Besides, they had been forty-eight hours without food, having come from home in that time through a widely deviating track. Everything about them was carefully secured which could be eaten, and they were loosened. Dr. Hayes turned toward the hut, and having reached the snow tunnel, he was about to stoop down to crawl through it, when he observed the whole pack of thirteen snapping savage brutes at his heels. Had he been on his knees, they would have made at once a meal of him. They stood at bay for a moment, but seeing he had no means of attack, one of them commenced the assault by springing upon him. Dr. Hayes caught him on his arm and kicked him down the hill. This caused a momentary pause. No help was near, and to run was sure death. It was a fearful moment, and his blood chilled at the prospect of dying by the jaws of wolfish dogs, whose fierce and flashing eyes assured him that hunger had given them a terrible earnestness. His eye improved the moment's respite in sweeping the circle of the enemy for the means of escape, and he caught a glimpse of a dog whip about ten feet off. Instantly he sprang, as only a man thus situated could spring, and clearing the back of the largest of the dogs seized the whip. He was now master of the situation. Never amiable and terribly savage when prompted by hunger, yet the Eskimo dog is always a coward. Dr. Hayes' vigorous blows laid on at right and left with much effect and more sound and fury, sent the pack yelping away. In our discussions of the question of substance, we had about decided that we must draw our supplies from the Eskimo or Parish. Our hunting was a failure, and our supply of food was about exhausted. So when Kalutuna came back, we proposed to him through Peterson to purchase blubber and baremeat with our treasures of needles, knives, etc., so valuable in the eyes of the natives. He looked at our sunken cheeks and desolate home with a knowing twinkle of his eye and a crafty expression on his besotted face. This was followed by the questions, how much shoot with mighty guns, how much food you bring from ship? These questions and the speaking eye and telltale face were windows through which we saw into the working of his dark heathen mind. They meant as we understood them. If you are going to starve, we had better let you. We shall then get your nice things without paying for them. But Peterson understood and outmanaged the crafty chief. How are we going to live? He boldly exclaimed, facing the questioner. Live. Shoot bare when we get hungry, sleep when we get tired. Eskimo will bring us bare. We shall give them presents and sleep all the time. White man easily get plenty to eat, always plenty to eat, plenty sleep. The glory of life from the Eskimo point of view is plenty to eat and nothing to do. They held those who had attained to this high estate in profound respect. The starving could scarcely be brought within the range of their consideration. Hence the policy adopted by Peterson and it had its desired effect. Kalutuna and his companion tarried another night and departed, promising to return with such food as the hunt afforded and exchange it for our valuables. Two weeks, days of misery passed before their return. We set fox traps constructed much after the style of the rabbit traps of the boys at home. Tramping for this purpose over the coastline for ten miles. One little prisoner only rewarded our pains, while the saucy villains showed themselves boldly by day, barking at us from the top of a rock, dodging across our path at the right and left, and even following us within sight of the hut. But all this was done at a safe distance from our guns. Peterson went far out to sea on the ice, but neither bear nor seal rewarded his toil. We had burned up our large keg from our semi-dily fire to cook our scanty meals, and now with a sorrow that went to our hearts began to break up the hope. We knew this step argued badly for the future, but what could we do? Besides it was poor, water-soaked fuel, and would last but a little while. We saved the straightest and best pieces for trade with the Eskimo. Our scanty meals badly helped with the stone moths, told upon our health. Stephenson gasped for breath with a heart trouble, got refainted, and was happily saved a serious fall by being caught in John's arms. Chapter 14 of North Pole Voyages by Zaharia A. Mudge This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 14. Eskimo Treachery The kind providence which had interfered for us in so many cases came with timely help. October 26, Kalutuna and his companion returned. They came south to Cape York nearly a hundred miles, calling on their way at the village called Akbat, thirty miles off. They had killed three bears, the most of which they had upon their sledges. They sold us reluctantly enough for a few days. We ate of the refreshing meat like starving men, as we really were. Our sunken eyes and hollow cheeks seemed to leave us at a single meal. The faint revived, and our despondency departed. Our past sufferings were for the moment at least forgotten, and we looked hopefully upon the future. The next day the Eskimo called and left a little more meat and lubber. We caught two small foxes, one of them in a trap, and the other was arrested by a shot from Dr. Hayes' gun. The audacious little fellow ran over the roof of our hut and awoke the doctor, who, without dressing, seized his double-barreled gun and bolted into the cold without. It was dark, and he fired at random. The first shot missed, but the second wound on him, and he went limping down the hill. The doctor gave chase and returned with the game, but came near paying dear for his prize, barely escaping without frozen feet. On Sunday, the 29th, in the midst of pensive allusions and more pensive thoughts concerning home, in which even Peterson's weather-beaten face betrayed the tear, an Eskimo boy came in from Akbar. His bearing was manly, his countenance fresh and agreeable, if not handsome, and his dress of the usual material was new. He drew a fine team with decided spirit. He was evidently somebody's pet, and we thought we saw a mother's partial stamp upon him. He was on his way to Netflix, and our curious inquiries brought from him the blushing acknowledgement that he was going according. He was nothing loathed to talk of his sweet heart, and he bore her a bundle of bird skins to make her an undergarment as love token. We gave him a pocket knife and a piece of wood, to which we added two needles for his lady love. He was full of joy at this good fortune, but when Sontag added a string of beads for her, his cup run over. He had on his sledge two small pieces of blubber, a pound of bear's meat, a bit of bear's skin. He laid at our feet and dashed off toward Netflix in fine spirits. When he was gone, we renewed our ever-returning, perplexing, never-settled question, what shall we do? We could agree on no plans of escape, for all seemed impossible for execution. Yet we did agree in the expediency of opening a communication with the brig, but how to do it was the question. Our dependence upon the Eskimo growing more humiliatingly absolute every day pained us. We feared their treachery, of which we already saw some signs. What shall we do? was ever repeated. While thus perplexed, Kalutuna made his appearance. With him were a young hunter, and the woman was a six-month-old baby. The little one was wrapped in fox skin and thrust into its mother's hood, which hung on her neck behind. It peered out of its hiding place with a contended and curious expression of face. Its mother had come forty miles, sometimes walking over the Hamaki Way, with a thermometer thirty-eight degrees below zero, with a liability of encountering terrific storms, and all to see the white men and their igloo. Mother and child arrived in good condition. We conversed with the chief about our plan of going to Upernavik on sledges, and proposed to buy teams of his people, or hire them to drive us there. He received the proposal with a decided dissent, amounting almost to resentment. His people, he said, would not sell dogs at any price. They had only enough to preserve their own lives. This we knew to be false. We offered a great price, but he scorned the bribe, and talked with an expression of horror about our plan of passing with sledges over the frozen sea, as he called Melville Bay. While we were urging the sale by him of dogs and sledges, he looked quizzically at our emaciated forms and sunken cheeks, and turning to the woman with a significant tingle in his eye, he sucked in his cheeks. She returned the knowing glance and sucked in her cheeks. This meant we shall get all the white men's coveted things without paying when we find them starved and dead. This was a comforting view of the case for them. We dropped the plan of going south and proposed to the chief to carry some of our party to the ship. This he readily assented to and said at least four sledges should go with Peterson if to each driver should be given a knife and piece of wood. We closed the bargain gladly and Peterson was to start in the morning. Guests and entertainers now saw trust. We gave the mother and child our bed in the corner. This was to us a self-denying act of courtesy compelled by policy. We had usually given a good distance between us and such lodgers on account of certain specimens of natural history which swarmed upon their bodies, which, though starving, we did not desire. But to put her in a meaner place would be a serious affront for which we might be obliged to pay dearly. About midnight voices were heard outside and soon our young lover, the boy-hunter, entered, accompanied by a widow who was neither young nor beautiful. The hut was an instant confusion. There was but little more sleep for the night, which was peculiarly hard on Peterson, who was to start in the morning on his long journey. We had no food with which to treat our guests, which they saw, and so subbed upon the provisions which they brought. The widow ate raw young birds, of which she brought the supply saved over from the summer. The hunger cook had decided that her husband's spirit had taken temporary residence in a walrus, though she was forbidden that animal. She chewed choice bits of her bird and offered them to us. We tried politely to decline the kindness, but our refusal plainly offended her. The widow's husband had been carried out to sea on an ice raft on the sudden breaking up of the flow and had never been heard from. Whenever his name was mentioned, she burst into tears. Peterson told us that according to Eskimo custom in such cases, we were expected to join in the weeping. At the first attempt our success was very indifferent. On the next occasion, we equalled in sincerity and naturalness the expressed sorrow of the heirs of a rich miser over his mortal remains. Even the tears we managed so well that the widow, charitably forgetting our former affront, offered us more chewed meat. In the morning Peterson was off, Godfrey accompanying him at his own option. The same evening John and Sontag went south with the widow a young hunter. Thus four of us only were left in the hut and of these one Stevenson. He was seriously sick. His death at any time would not have been suprised to us. The hut was colder than ever and our food nearly gone. A few books, among which was a little Bible, the gift of a friend, were a great source of comfort. In a few days John and Sontag returned. They had fared well during their absence. They were accompanied by two Eskimo who brought us food for a few days for which they demanded an exorbitant price. They, like people, claiming a higher civilization took advantage of our necessity. When they were about to depart on a bare hand Dr. Hayes proposed that two of us accompanied them with our guns but they declined. We went with them to the beach, saw them start, watched them as they swiftly glided over the ice and dodging scuffly around the hammocks faded into a black speck in a distance. The day was spent as one of rest by four of our number while two of us visited the traps returning as usual with nothing. The evening came. A cup of good coffee revived us. The temperature of our den came up to the freezing point. We were in the midst of this feast of hot coffee and increased warmth when we heard a footfall. We hailed in Eskimo with no answer. Soon the outer door of our passageway opened. A man entered and fell prostrate with a deep moan. It was Peterson. He crept slowly in as we opened the door staggered across the hut and fell exhausted on the break. Guthrie soon followed, even more exhausted. They both called pitchlessly for water, water. They were in no condition to explain what had happened. We stripped them of their frozen garments, rubbed their stiffened limbs and rolled them in warm blankets. We gave them of our hot coffee and the warmth of the hut and dry clothes revived them. But the sudden and great change was followed by a brief cloud over their minds. They fell into a disturbed sleep and their sudden starts, groans and muttering, stalled of some terrible distress. Peterson, while sipping his coffee, had told us that the Eskimo had thrown off their disguise and had attempted to murder them. But he and Guthrie had walked all the way from Netflix with the Eskimo in hot pursuit. We must watch, he said, that if, of our guard, they might overwhelm us with numbers. This much it was necessary for us to know the details of the terrible experience he was in no mood to give. We immediately set a watch outside, who was relieved every hour. He was armed with Bonsal's rifle. Our other guns we fired off and carefully reloaded, hanging them upon their pegs for instant use. Peterson and Guthrie awoke once, ate and lay down to their agitated sleep. No other slept or even made the attempt. The creak of the boots of the sentinel, as he tramped his beat near the hut, on a little plane, cleared of snow by the wind, was the only sound which broke, the solemn silence. The enemy would not dare attack us except unawares, knowing as they did, that there were eight of us armed with guns. At midnight, noises were heard about the rocks of the coast. They were watching, but seeing the sentinel and finding it a chilling business to wait for our cessation of vigilance, they sneaked away. In the morning one of our men visited the rocky cohorts and found their fresh tracks. We received at the earliest opportunity the details of Peterson's story. They left us on the 3rd of November and were gone four days. They arrived in Netflix in nine hours and were lodged one in each of the two igloos. Their welcome had a seeming heartiness. They had a full supply set before them of tender young bear steak and choice puppies too. Many strangers were present and they continued to come until the huts were crowded. The next day the hunters all started early on the chase to get, as Kalutuna said, a good supply for their excursion to the ship as well as a store for their families. This looked reasonable, but when night came, the chief and a majority of the men returned not, nor did they appear the next day. The moon had just passed its full, no time could be spared for travelling, and Peterson grew uneasy. This feeling was increased by the strangers which continued to come, the running to and fro of the women, the sight glances and the covered love among the crowd. Kalutuna returned on the evening of the third day of our men at the hut. Several sledges accompanied him and one of them was driven by a brawny savage by the name of Sipsu. He had shown his ugly face once at our hut. He was above the usual height, broad-chested and strong-limbed. He had a few bristly hairs upon his chin and upper lip and dark heavy eyebrows overshadowed his well-set, evil-looking eyes. He was every inch a savage, while the crowd laugh choked and fluttered curiously about the strangers. Sipsu was dignified, sullen, or full of dismal stories. He had, he said, killed two men of his tribe. They were poor hunters, though he stole upon them from behind a hammock and harpooned them in the back. Whatever shrewdness Sipsu possessed, he did not have wit enough to hide his true character from his intended victims. About twelve sledges were now collected and Peterson supposed they would start early in the morning for the advance, so he ventured to try to hurry them a few hours by suggesting midnight for the departure. To this suggestion they replied that they would not go at all and that they never intended to go. The crowd in the hut greeted this announcement with uproarious laughter. Peterson maintained a bold bearing. He rose and went to the other hut and put Godfrey upon the watch, telling him what had happened. He then returned and demanded good faith from the chiefs. They only muttered that they could not go north, they could not pass that blowing place, Cape Alexander. He then asked them to sell him a dock team. He would pay them well. They evaded his disquestion and Sipsu said to Kalutuna in a side whisper, we can get his things in a cheaper way. No commenced the game of wait and watch between the two parties. The chiefs waited and watched to kill Peterson and he waited and watched not to be killed. He had his gun outside because the moisture of the hut condensing on the lock might prevent it from going off. He had told the crowd that if they touched it it might kill them and this fear was its safety. Those inside thought he had a pistol concealed under his garments. They had seen such articles and witnessed their deadly power. Their purpose now was to get possession of this weapon and Sipsu was the man to do it. Peterson, cool as he was prompt and skillful had not betrayed his suspicions of them so he threw himself upon the brick and feigned himself asleep to draw out their plans. The strategy worked well. The gossiping tongues of men, women and children loosened when they thought him asleep and they revealed all their secrets. Peterson and Godfrey were to be killed on the spot and our hut was to be surprised before Sontag and John returned from the south. Sipsu the while moved softly towards Peterson to search for the pistol. Just at this moment Godfrey came to the window and hallowed to learn if his chief was alive. Peterson rose from his sham sleep and went out. A crowd were at the door and about the gun but they dared not touch it. The intended victims kept a bold front and coolly proposed a hunt. This the natives declined and they declared they would go alone. It was late in the night when our beset and worried men started. They were watched sullenly until they were two miles away and then the sledges were harnessed for the pursuit. Fifty helping dogs mingled their cries with those of the men and made a fiendish din in the airs of the flying fugitives. What could they do if the dogs were let loose upon them having only a single rifle? One thing they intended should be sure Sipsu or Kalutuna should die in the attack. When the pursuers seemed at the very heels of our men that one gun made cover of the Eskimo chiefs. They seemed to understand their danger. The whole pack of dogs and men turned seaward and disappeared among the hammocks. They meant a covert attack. Keeping the shore and avoiding the hiding places Peterson and Godfrey pressed on. The night was calm and clear but the cold was over 50 degrees below zero. When halfway at Cape Perry they well nigh fainted and fell but encouraging each other they still hurried onward and made the 50 miles. It was 40 in a straight line in 24 hours. The reader understands why they arrived in such distress of exhaustion. End of chapter 14