After AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father returned, the time fairly flew.
Ahnǵoodloo and Billy Bah were among the Eskimos who returned with
AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father, and they now joined AH-NI-GHI´-TO and
Koodluk´too in their play.
AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father said he would not return home this summer, but
would remain another year and once more try to reach the North Pole.
During all the long winter months, while AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S home had been
on the “Windward,” the old ship had been as steady as a house on shore,
for she was held firmly by the ice and could not move. But on June 7th,
while AH-NI-GHI´-TO was at dinner with her parents, they were surprised
to hear a loud creaking noise and at the same time feel the ship quiver
and then roll slightly from side to side.
[Illustration:
“_A Narwhal_”
]
“We are free,” said AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father; “the old ‘Windward’ has
broken out of her winter berth and longs to be off again.” Everybody
rushed on deck, and surely enough the old ship was afloat once more.
But the ice had only melted away from her sides, leaving her without a
support. Nowhere else did it seem inclined to break away, so that while
the “Windward” was afloat she was still a prisoner in the ice.
By the middle of June the sea ice was covered with pools of water, and
it was no easy task to get ashore from the ship without getting the feet
wet. Snow buntings (our snowbirds) were flitting about the rocks, and
small tufts of green grass were to be seen here and there.
The Eskimos harpooned some narwhal out at the edge of the ice, and
AH-NI-GHI´-TO is perhaps the only little white girl who ever saw these
strange Arctic sea animals, with their long white ivory horns and huge
tails.
It was now decided to help free the ship by having the men saw a road
through the ice to the open water beyond.
Saws eight and ten feet long were used, and for weeks the sawing went
on.
Sometimes a bottle filled with gunpowder was let down under the ice
through a hole that had been drilled, and the long fuse that had been
fastened to it was lighted. When the fire reached the powder it
exploded; but although it cracked the ice for a little distance, very
little was broken off.
[Illustration:
“_AHNG´OODLOO and a Narwhal Head with its Long White Ivory Horn_”
]
During this time AH-NI-GHI´-TO was over on the island with Koodluk´too
and Billy Bah every day, gathering eggs, which were plentiful now.
[Illustration:
“_The huge Tail of a Narwhal_”
]
The ducks lay their eggs on the ledges of the rocks, in nests made of
the down which they pluck from their breasts.
As hundreds of the birds had their nests on this island, it was not
necessary to take the eggs from the same nest twice, and this left
enough eggs for the birds to breed.
One day a great windstorm swept down from the north and broke off all
the ice which had been cracked by the blasting and carried it out of the
harbour. Only a small pan of one-year-old ice was left between the ship
and the open water.
The fires were started under the boiler, and with the help of the saws
and the steam, the ship soon pushed out the remaining ice, and on July
3rd, with every living creature in the settlement on board (not
forgetting about seventy-five dogs), the “Windward” steamed out of the
little harbour where she had been lying for ten months, and reached
Littleton Island on the opposite shore that evening.
The next day was Fourth of July, and it was decided to have a holiday.
The ship was dressed in her flags, and all who wanted to go went
shooting birds or hunting walrus.
AH-NI-GHI´-TO did neither of these things, but she had a happy day and
in her diary tells about it:
“_July 4, 1901._—A beautiful day. Warm, bright, and sunshiny. The
Eskimo men and most of the sailors went out after breakfast to see
what they could find, and came in at four o’clock with one hundred
and twenty-five ducks, three barrels of eggs, and two walrus. The
eggs will be packed away for father’s use in the fall. Mother,
father, Percy, and I have been ashore gathering flowers and playing
tag and having a fine old-time. Dinner at five o’clock, and then I
heard mother and father planning to walk across the country to Etah
while Captain Sam took the ‘Windward’ around there. I coaxed them to
let me go with them. Mother said I could not walk it because there
would be so much climbing to do, but father said, ‘Let her try it. I
believe she can do it.’ At half-past seven father had two of the
sailors put us ashore and with our kapetahs (fox-skin coats) over
our arms we started off. Over the rocks we went—up one side, down
the other side, of the cliffs. In some places my feet went into the
wet moss above my ankles. The steep, hard snowbanks gave me lots of
tumbles. In one place we had to climb around the high steep walls of
a cliff with the icy water dashing against them twelve feet below.
Father said it was about twelve feet, but I thought it was
twenty-five. If I had fallen I should have had the coldest bath I
ever had. We had to wade through some of the shallow brooks, and
they were cold enough for me. I was very tired, but I had made up my
mind not to say a word about it. It took us two hours, and father
said we had walked about six miles; but we beat the ‘Windward,’ for
when we got to the Igloos at Etah, she was just coming round the
point, and that pleased me, for now I could tease Captain Sam. As
soon as the ‘Windward’ got in, mother and I went on board, and
mother rubbed me down, gave me a cup of cocoa, and put me to bed,
too tired to write up my diary; but I wrote it up this morning so
the home folks will know what I did on the glorious Fourth.”
[Illustration]