Part 35 (1/2)
We also learned that our acquaintance was a parent. By a little exploration in February we discovered the bear den, in a snow covered cave, less than a mile west. In it were two saucy little teddies in pelts of white silk that would have gladdened the heart of any child.
The mother was not at home at the time, and we were not certain enough of her friends.h.i.+p, or of her whereabouts, to play with the twins.
With a clearing horizon and a wider circle of friends.h.i.+p our den now seemed a cheerful home. Our spirits awakened as the gloom of the night was quickly lost in the new glitter of day.
On the eleventh of February the snow-covered slopes of North Devon glowed with the sunrise of 1909. The sun had burst nature's dungeon.
Cape Sparbo glowed with golden light. The frozen sea glittered with hills of s.h.i.+mmering lilac. We escaped to a joyous freedom. With a reconstructed sled, new equipment and newly acquired energy we were ready to pursue the return journey to Greenland and fight the last battle of the Polar campaign.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GUILLEMOT]
HOMEWARD WITH A HALF SLEDGE AND HALF-FILLED STOMACHS
THREE HUNDRED MILES THROUGH STORM AND SNOW AND UPLIFTED MOUNTAINS OF ICE TROUBLES--DISCOVER TWO ISLANDS--ANNOATOK IS REACHED--MEETING HARRY WHITNEY--NEWS OF PEARY'S SEIZURE OF SUPPLIES
XXIX
BACK TO GREENLAND FRIENDS
On February 18, 1908, the reconstructed sledge was taken beyond the ice fort and loaded for the home run. We had given up the idea of journeying to Lancaster Sound to await the whalers. There were no Eskimos on the American side nearer than Pond's Inlet. It was somewhat farther to our headquarters on the Greenland sh.o.r.es, but all interests would be best served by a return to Annoatok.
During the night we had fixed all of our attention upon the return journey, and had prepared a new equipment with the limited means at our command; but, traveling in the coldest season of the year, it was necessary to carry a c.u.mbersome outfit of furs, and furthermore, since we were to take the place of the dogs in the traces, we could not expect to transport supplies for more than thirty days. In this time, however, we hoped to reach Cape Sabine, where the father of E-tuk-i-shook had been told to place a cache of food for us.
Starting so soon after sunrise, the actual daylight proved very brief, but a brilliant twilight gave a remarkable illumination from eight to four. The light of dawn and that of the afterglow was tossed to and fro in the heavens, from reflecting surfaces of glitter, for four hours preceding and following midday. To use this play of light to the best advantage, it was necessary to begin preparations early by starlight; and thus, when the dim purple glow from the northeast brightened the dull gray-blue of night, the start was made for Greenland sh.o.r.es and for home.
We were dressed in heavy furs. The temperature was -49. A light air brushed the frozen mist out of Jones Sound, and cut our sooty faces. The sled was overloaded, and the exertion required for its movement over the groaning snow was tremendous. A false, almost hysterical, enthusiasm lighted our faces, but the muscles were not yet equal to the task set for them.
Profuse perspiration came with the first hours of dog work, and our heavy fur coats were exchanged for the sealskin _nitshas_ (lighter coat). At noon the snows were fired and the eastern skies burned in great lines of flame. But there was no sun and no heat. We sat on the sledge for a prolonged period, gasping for breath and drinking the new celestial glory so long absent from our outlook. As the joy of color was lost in the cold purple of half-light, our shoulders were braced more vigorously into the traces. The ice proved good, but the limit of strength placed camp in a snowhouse ten miles from our winter den. With the new equipment, our camp life now was not like that of the Polar campaign. Dried musk ox meat and strips of musk fat made a steady diet.
Moulded tallow served as fuel in a crescent-shaped disk of tin, in which carefully prepared moss was crushed and arranged as a wick. Over this primitive fire we managed to melt enough ice to quench thirst, and also to make an occasional pot of broth as a luxury. While the drink was liquefying, the chill of the snow igloo was also moderated, and we crept into the bags of musk ox skins, where agreeable repose and home dreams made us forget the cry of the stomach and the torment of the cold.
At the end of eight days of forced marches we reached Cape Tennyson. The disadvantage of manpower, when compared to dog motive force, was clearly shown in this effort. The ice was free of pressure troubles and the weather was endurable. Still, with the best of luck, we had averaged only about seven miles daily. With dogs, the entire run would have been made easily in two days.
As we neared the land two small islands were discovered. Both were about one thousand feet high, with precipitous sea walls, and were on a line about two miles east of Cape Tennyson. The most easterly was about one and a half miles long, east to west, with a cross-section, north to south, of about three-quarters of a mile. About half a mile to the west of this was a much smaller island. There was no visible vegetation, and no life was seen, although hare and fox tracks were crossed on the ice.
I decided to call the larger island E-tuk-i-shook, and the smaller Ah-we-lah. These rocks will stand as monuments to the memory of my faithful savage comrades when all else is forgotten.
From Cape Tennyson to Cape Isabella the coast of Ellesmere Land was charted, in the middle of the last century, by s.h.i.+ps at a great distance from land. Little has been added since. The wide belt of pack thrown against the coast made further exploration from the s.h.i.+p very difficult, but in our northward march over the sea-ice it was hoped that we might keep close enough to the sh.o.r.es to examine the land carefully.
A few Eskimos had, about fifty years previously, wandered along this ice from Pond's Inlet to the Greenland camps. They left the American sh.o.r.es because famine, followed by forced cannibalism, threatened to exterminate the tribe. A winter camp had been placed on Coburg Island.
Here many walruses and bears were secured during the winter, while in summer, from Kent Island, many guillemots were secured. In moving from these northward, by skin boat and _kayak_, they noted myriads of guillemots, or ”acpas,” off the southeast point of the mainland. There being no name in the Eskimo vocabulary for this land, it was called Acpohon, or ”The Home of Guillemots.” The Greenland Eskimos had previously called the country ”Ah-ming-mah Noona,” or Musk Ox Land, but they also adopted the name of Acpohon, so we have taken the liberty of spreading the name over the entire island as a general name for the most northern land west of Greenland. In pus.h.i.+ng northward, many of the Eskimos starved, and the survivors had a bitter fight for subsistence.
Our experience was similar.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PUNCTURED CANVAS BOAT IN WHIH WE PADDLED 1,000 MILES FAMINE DAYS WHEN ONLY STRAY BIRDS PREVENTED STARVATION DEN IN WHICH WERE SPENT 100 DOUBLE NIGHTS]
[Ill.u.s.tration: BULL FIGHTS WITH THE MUSK OX ABOUT CAPE SPARBO]
Near Cape Paget those ancient Eskimos made a second winter camp. Here narwhals and bears were secured, and through Talbot's Fiord a short pa.s.s was discovered over Ellesmere Land to the musk ox country of the west sh.o.r.es. The Eskimos who survived the second winter reached the Greenland sh.o.r.es during the third summer. There they introduced the _kayak_, and also the bow and arrow. Their descendants are to-day the most intelligent of the most northern Eskimos.
To my companions the environment of the new land which we were pa.s.sing was in the nature of digging up ancient history. Several old camp sites were located, and E-tuk-i-shook, whose grandfather was one of the old pioneers, was able to tell us the incidents of each camp with remarkable detail.
As a rule, however, it was very difficult to get near the land. Deep snows, huge pressure lines of ice, and protruding glaciers forced our line of march far from the Eskimo ruins which we wished to examine. From Cape Tennyson to Cape Clarence the ice near the open water proved fairly smooth, but the humid saline surface offered a great resistance to the metal plates of the sled. Here ivory or bone plates would have lessened the friction very much. A persistent northerly wind also brought the ice and the humid discomfort of our breath back to our faces with painful results. During several days of successive storms we were imprisoned in the domes of snow. By enforced idleness we were compelled to use a precious store of food and fuel, without making any necessary advance.