THE AUTUMN WORK
The main purpose of the autumn sledge parties was the transportation to
Cape Columbia of supplies for the spring sledge journey toward the Pole.
Cape Columbia, ninety miles northwest from the ship, had been chosen
because it was the most northerly point of Grant Land, and because it
was far enough west to be out of the ice current setting down Robeson
Channel. From there we could strike straight north over the ice of the
Polar Sea.
[Illustration: VIEW BETWEEN THE ROOSEVELT AND CAPE COLUMBIA]
The moving of thousands of pounds of supplies for men and dogs for a
distance of ninety miles, under the rigorous conditions of the Arctic,
presented problems for calculation. The plan was to establish stations
along the route, instead of sending each party through to Cape Columbia
and back. The first party was to go to Cape Belknap, about twelve miles
from the ship, deposit their supplies, and return the same day. The
second party was to go to Cape Richardson, about twenty miles away,
deposit their supplies, return part way and pick up the supplies at Cape
Belknap, taking them forward to Cape Richardson. The next station was at
Porter Bay, the next at Sail Harbor, the next at Cape Colan, and the
final station at Cape Columbia itself. Parties would thus be going back
and forth the whole time, the trail would constantly be kept open, and
hunting could be done along the way. The tractive force was, of course,
the Eskimo dogs, and sledges were the means of transportation. The
sledges were of two types: the Peary sledge, which had never been used
before this expedition, and the regular Eskimo sledge, increased
somewhat in length for special work. The Peary type of sledge is from
twelve to thirteen feet in length, two feet in width, and seven inches
in height; the Eskimo type of sledge is nine feet in length, two feet in
width, and seven inches in height. Another difference is that the Eskimo
sledge is simply two oak runners an inch or an inch and a quarter thick
and seven inches wide, shaped at the front to give the easiest curve for
passage over the ice, and shod with steel, while the Peary sledge has
oak sides rounded, both in front and behind, with two-inch wide bent ash
runners attached, the runners being shod with two-inch wide steel shoes.
The sides of both are solid, and they are lashed together with sealskin
thongs.
The Peary sledge is the evolution of twenty-three years of experience in
arctic work and is believed to be the strongest and easiest running
sledge yet used for arctic traveling. On a level surface this sledge
will support ten or twelve hundred pounds.
The Eskimos have used their own type of sledge from time immemorial.
When they had no wood, before the advent of the white man, they made
their sledges of bone--the shoulder-blades of the walrus, and the ribs
of the whale, with deer antlers for up-standers.
For dog harnesses, I have adopted the Eskimo pattern, but have used
different material. The Eskimo harness is made of sealskin--two loops
joined by a cross strip at the back of the neck and under the throat.
The dog's forelegs pass through the loops, and the ends are joined over
the small of the back, where the trace is attached. This harness is very
simple and flexible, and it allows the dog to exert his whole strength.
The objection to sealskin as a harness material is a gastronomic one.
When the dogs are on short rations they eat their harnesses at night in
camp. To obviate this difficulty, I use for the harnesses a special
webbing or belting, about two or two and a half inches in width, and
replace the customary rawhide traces of the Eskimos by a braided linen
sash cord.
The dogs are hitched to the sledge fanwise. The standard team is eight
dogs; but for rapid traveling with a heavy load, ten or twelve are
sometimes used. They are guided by the whip and the voice. The Eskimo
whip has a lash sometimes twelve, sometimes eighteen, feet long, and so
skilful are the Eskimos in its manipulation that they can send the lash
flying through the air and reach any part of any particular dog they
wish. A white man can learn to use an Eskimo whip, but it takes time. It
takes time also to acquire the exact Eskimo accent to the words
"_How-eh, how-eh, how-eh_," meaning to the right; "_Ash-oo, ash-oo,
ash-oo_," to the left; as well as the standard, "_Huk, huk, huk_," which
is equivalent to "go on." Sometimes, when the dogs do not obey, the
usual "_How-eh, how-eh, how-eh_," will reverse its accent, and the
driver will yell, "_How-ooooooo_," with an accompaniment of other words
in Eskimo and English which shall be left to the imagination of the
reader. The temperature of a new man trying to drive a team of Eskimo
dogs is apt to be pretty high. One is almost inclined to believe with
the Eskimos that demons take possession of these animals. Sometimes they
seem to be quite crazy. A favorite trick of theirs is to leap over and
under and around each other, getting their traces in a snarl beside
which the Gordian knot would be as nothing. Then, in a temperature
anywhere between zero and 60° below, the driver has to remove his heavy
mittens and disentangle the traces with his bare hands, while the dogs
leap and snap and bark and seem to mock him. And this brings me to an
incident which practically always happens when a new man starts out to
drive Eskimo dogs.
[Illustration: "PEARY" TYPE OF SLEDGE
12-1/2 ft. Long, 2 ft. Wide, 7 in. High; With Steel Shoes 2 in. Wide]
[Illustration: ESKIMO TYPE OF SLEDGE USED ON JOURNEY
9 ft. 6 in. Long, 2 ft. Wide, 8 in. High; With Steel Shoes 1-1/4 in.
Wide
Each has standard load of supplies for team and driver for fifty
days--pemmican, biscuit, milk, tea, oil, alcohol]
A member of the expedition--I, who have also suffered, will not give his
name away--started out with his dog team. Some hours later shouts and
hilarious laughter were heard from the Eskimos. It was not necessary to
inquire what had happened. The dog team had returned to the
ship--without the sledge. The new dog driver, in attempting to unsnarl
the traces of his dogs, had let them get away from him. Another hour or
two went by, and the man himself returned, crestfallen and angry clear
through. He was greeted by the derisive shouts of the Eskimos, whose
respect for the white man is based primarily on the white man's skill in
the Eskimo's own field. The man gathered up his dogs again and went back
for the sledge.
The gradual breaking in of the new men is one of the purposes of the
short trips of the fall. They have to become inured to such minor
discomforts as frosted toes and ears and noses, as well as the loss of
their dogs. They have to learn to keep the heavy sledges right side up
when the going is rough and sometimes, before a man gets hardened, this
seems almost to rip the muscles from the shoulder blades. Moreover, they
have to learn how to wear their fur clothing.
On the 16th of September the first train of supplies was sent to Cape
Belknap: Marvin, Dr. Goodsell, and Borup, with thirteen Eskimos, sixteen
sledges, and about two hundred dogs. They were an imposing procession as
they started northwest along the ice-foot, the sledges going one behind
the other. It was a beautiful day--clear, calm, and sunny,--and we could
hear, when they were a long distance away, the shouts of the Eskimo
drivers, "_Huk, huk, huk_," "_Ash-oo_," "_How-eh_," the cracking of the
whips, and the crisp rustle and creaking of the sledges over the snow.
It is often asked how we keep warm when riding on the sledges. We do not
ride, save in rare instances. We walk, and when the going is hard we
have to help the dogs by lifting the sledges over rough places.
The first party returned the same day with the empty sledges, and the
next day two Eskimo hunting parties came in with three deer, six hares,
and two eider ducks. Neither party had seen any tracks of musk-oxen. On
the 18th, the second sledge party was sent out to carry fifty-six cases
of crew pemmican to Cape Richardson, where they were to camp, bring up
the biscuit from Cape Belknap to Cape Richardson the following day, and
then return to the ship. That gave them one night in the field.
A man's first night in a canvas tent in the Arctic is likely to be
rather wakeful. The ice makes mysterious noises; the dogs bark and fight
outside the tent where they are tethered; and as three Eskimos and one
white man usually occupy a small tent, and the oil-stove is left burning
all night, the air, notwithstanding the cold, is not over-pure; and
sometimes the Eskimos begin chanting to the spirits of their ancestors
in the middle of the night, which is, to say the least, trying.
Sometimes, too, the new man's nerves are tried by hearing wolves howl in
the distance.
The tents are specially made. They are of light-weight canvas, and the
floor of the tent is sewed directly into it. The fly is sewed up, a
circular opening cut in it, just large enough to admit a man, and that
opening fitted with a circular flap which is closed by a draw-string,
making the tent absolutely snow-proof. An ordinary tent, when the snow
is flying, would be filled in no time.
The tent is pyramidal, with one pole in the center, and the edges are
usually held down by the sledge runners or by snowshoes used as tent
pegs. The men sleep on the floor in their clothes, with a musk-ox skin
under, and a light deerskin over them. I have not used sleeping bags
since my arctic trip of 1891-92.
The "kitchen box" for our sledge journeys is simply a wooden box
containing two double-burner oil-stoves, with four-inch wicks. The two
cooking pots are the bottoms of five-gallon coal-oil tins, fitted with
covers. When packed they are turned bottom side up over each stove, and
the hinged cover of the wooden box is closed. On reaching camp, whether
tent or snow igloo, the kitchen box is set down inside, the top of the
box is turned up and keeps the heat of the stove from melting the wall
of the igloo or burning the tent; the hinged front of the box is turned
down and forms a table. The two cooking pots are filled with pounded ice
and put on the stoves; when the ice melts one pot is used for tea, and
the other may be used to warm beans, or to boil meat if there is any.
Each man has a quart cup for tea, and a hunting knife which serves many
purposes. He does not carry anything so polite as a fork, and one
teaspoon is considered quite enough for a party of four. Each man helps
himself from the pot--sticks in his knife and fishes out a piece of
meat.
The theory of field work is that there shall be two meals a day, one in
the morning and one at night. As the days grow short, the meals are
taken before light and after dark, leaving the period of light entirely
for work. Sometimes it is necessary to travel for twenty-four hours
without stopping for food.
The Cape Richardson party returned on the evening of the 19th, and was
sent out again on the 21st, nineteen Eskimos and twenty-two sledges, to
take 6,600 pounds of dog pemmican to Porter Bay. MacMillan, being still
under the weather with the grip, missed this preliminary training; but I
felt certain that he would overtake the experience of the others as soon
as he was able to travel. When the third party returned, on the 24th,
they brought back the meat and skins of fourteen deer.
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
CAPTAIN BARTLETT AND HIS PARTY
Panikpah, "Harrigan," Ooqueah, Bartlett. (A Typical Unit Division of the
Expedition)
(Tents Were Used for Shelter in Earlier Autumn Hunting and
Transportation of Supplies. In Winter Traveling and in the Sledge
Journey Igloos Were Used)]
On the 28th there was a general exodus from the ship: Henson, Ootah,
Alletah, and Inighito were to hunt on the north side of Lake Hazen;
Marvin, Poodloonah, Seegloo, and Arco on the east end and the south side
of Lake Hazen; and Bartlett, with Panikpah, Inighito, Ooqueah, Dr.
Goodsell, with Inighito, Keshungwah, Kyutah, and Borup, with Karko,
Tawchingwah, and Ahwatingwah, were to go straight through to Cape
Columbia.
I had planned from the beginning to leave most of the hunting and other
field work to the younger members of the expedition. Twenty odd years of
arctic experience had dulled for me the excitement of everything but a
polar-bear chase; the young men were eager for the work; there was much
to do on board ship in planning for the spring, and I wished to conserve
my energies for the supreme effort.
There was no systematic training, because I do not believe in it. My
body has always been able thus far to follow my will no matter what the
demands might be, and my winter's work was largely a matter of
refinement of equipment, and of mathematical calculations of pounds of
supplies and miles of distance. It was the lack of food which had forced
us to turn back at 87° 6´. Hunger, not cold, is the dragon which guards
the Rhinegold of the Arctic.
I did allow myself one break in the monotony of ship life--a trip to
Clements Markham Inlet, in October. Ever since April, 1902, when I had
looked around the angle of Cape Hecla into the unexplored depths of this
great fiord, I had had a longing to penetrate it. On the previous
expedition I had started twice with that purpose, but had been
prevented from carrying it out, partly on account of bad weather, partly
by reason of my anxiety for the _Roosevelt_, which I had left in a
precarious position. But now the _Roosevelt_ was safe; and though the
sun was circling near the horizon and the winter night would soon be
upon us, I decided to make the trip.
On the 1st of October I left the ship with three Eskimos, Egingwah,
Ooblooyah, and Koolatoonah, three sledges with teams of ten dogs each,
and supplies for two weeks only. With the sledges thus lightly loaded,
and the trail broken for us by the parties which had preceded us, we
made rapid progress, reaching Porter Bay, thirty-five miles from the
ship, for our first camp in a few hours.
Here we found two Eskimos, Onwagipsoo and Wesharkoopsi, who had been
sent out a day or two before. Onwagipsoo went back to the ship, but
Wesharkoopsi we took along with us to carry a load of supplies to Sail
Harbor, which we expected to reach on the next march; from there he also
would return to the ship.
Our camp at Porter Bay was in the permanent tent which had been erected
there by the first of the autumn parties, the canvas tent with the
sewed-in floor which has already been described. It was not very cold
that night, and we slept comfortably after a hearty supper of beans and
tea. Beans and tea! Perhaps it does not sound like a Lucullan feast, but
after a day in the field in Grant Land it tastes like one.