THE ARCTIC SPRING.--SNOW DISAPPEARING.--PLANTS SHOW SIGNS OF
LIFE.--RETURN OF THE BIRDS.--CHANGE IN THE SEA.--REFITTING THE
SCHOONER.--THE ESQUIMAUX.--VISIT TO KALUTUNAH.--KALUTUNAH'S
ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAU TRADITIONS.--HUNTING-GROUNDS
CONTRACTED BY THE ACCUMULATION OF ICE.--HARDSHIPS OF THEIR
LIFE.--THEIR SUBSISTENCE.--THE RACE DWINDLING AWAY.--VISIT TO
THE GLACIER.--RE-SURVEY OF THE GLACIER.--KALUTUNAH CATCHING
BIRDS.--A SNOW-STORM AND A GALE.--THE MID-DAY OF THE ARCTIC
SUMMER.
Having determined to be guided by circumstances, as set forth in
the last chapter, I had now only to await the breaking up of the
ice and the liberation of the schooner,--an incident which I could
not anticipate wholly without anxiety, owing to our exposure to the
southwest rendering the disruption liable to come in the midst of a
heavy swell from the sea that would set us adrift in a rolling pack.
[Sidenote: THE ARCTIC SPRING.]
The spring had already fairly set in when I returned from the north,
and each day added to the encroachment of the water upon the ice. A
wonderful change had taken place since my departure in April. The
temperature had risen steadily from 35° below zero to as many degrees
above it; the wintry cloak of whiteness which had so long clothed the
hills and valleys was giving way under the influence of the sun's
warm rays; and torrents of the melted snow were dashing wildly down
the rugged gorges, or bounding in cascades from the lofty cliffs;
and the air was everywhere filled with the pleasing roar of falling
waters. A little lake had formed in a basin behind the Observatory,
and a playful rivulet gurgled from it over the pebbles down into the
harbor, wearing away the ice along the beach, and the banks of the
lake and stream were softened by the thaw, and, relieved of their
winter covering, were, thus early in June, showing signs of a returning
vegetation; the sap had started in the willow-stems, while ice and
snow yet lay around the roots, and the mosses, and poppies, and
saxifrages, and the cochlearia, and other hardy plants, had begun to
sprout; the air was filled with the cry of birds, which had come back
for the summer; the cliffs were alive with the little auks; flocks
of eider ducks swept over the harbor in rapid flight, seemingly not
yet decided which of the islands to select for their summer home; the
graceful terns flitted, and screamed, and played over the sea; the
burgomaster-gulls and the ger-falcons sailed about us with solemn
gravity; the shrill "_Ha-hah-wee_" of the long-tailed duck was often
heard, as the birds shot swiftly across the harbor; the snipe were
flying about the growing fresh-water pools; the sparrows chirped from
rock to rock; long lines of cackling geese were sailing far overhead,
winging their way to some more remote point of northness; the deep
bellow of the walrus came from the ice-rafts, which the summer had
set adrift upon the sea; the bay and the fiord were dotted over with
seal, who had dug through the ice from beneath, and lay basking in the
warm sun; and the place which I had left robed in the cold mantle of
winter was now dressed in the bright garments of spring. The change had
come with marvelous suddenness. The snow on the surface of the ice was
rapidly melting; and, whenever we went outside of the ship, we waded
through slush. The ice itself was decaying rapidly, and its sea-margin
was breaking up. The "Twins" had been loosened from their bonds and had
floated away; and a crowd of icebergs, of forms that were strange to
us, had come sailing out of the Sound in stately and solemn procession,
wending their way to the warmer south--their crystals tumbling from
them in fountains as they go.
Every thing about me gave warning that I had returned from the north in
the nick of time.
[Sidenote: REFITTING THE SCHOONER.]
McCormick had been at work as well on the inside as on the outside
of the vessel. The temporary house had been removed from the upper
deck, and the decks, and bulwarks, and cabins, and forecastle had been
furbished up; and, after all this spring house-cleaning, the little
schooner looked as neat and tidy as if she had never been besmeared
with the soot and lamp-smoke of the long winter. The men were setting
up the rigging; the bow-sprit, and jib-boom, and foretop-mast had
been repaired; the yards had been sent aloft; the masts were being
scraped down; and a little paint and tar fairly made our craft shine
again. The sailors had moved from the hold to their natural quarters
in the forecastle; and Dodge was busy getting off and stowing away the
contents of the store-house, except such articles as I had proposed
leaving behind, which were carefully deposited in a fissure of a rock,
and covered over with heavy stones.
[Sidenote: A CHIEF WAXED FAT.]
The Esquimaux still hung round us. Tcheitchenguak had set up a tent on
the terrace, and had for a companion a new-comer, named Alatak, and for
house-keeper a woman, who appeared to have a roving commission, without
special claim on anybody, and whom I had seen before at Booth Bay,
where she figured among my companions as "The Sentimental Widow." Hans
had gone, with his family, up to Chester Valley, where he was catching
auks by hundreds, and living in the seal-skin tent that he brought
from Cape York. Angeit still prowled round the galley and pantry, and
continued, alternately, to annoy and amuse the cook and still stoutly
to resist the steward's efforts at conversion. Kalutunah, my jolly
old chief, held on at Etah, and looked to my abundant commissariat
and fruitful bounty as the source of all human bliss. He had grown so
rich that he did not know where to put all his wealth; and when I went
over to Etah to look after him, I found him waxing fat on laziness,
and stupid with over-feeding. I discovered him lounging behind a rock,
basking in the warm sunshine, like the monk in the "Monastery," sitting
before the fire, "thinking of nothing." He was much rejoiced at seeing
me again, asked me many questions about my journey, and where I had
been; said that he had never been so happy in all his life before; and
he stole the thoughts, if not the Spanish, of honest Sancho, in his
emphatic declaration, "You have filled my belly, and therefore have won
my heart." I was sorry to have but one dog; to restore to him of the
eight with which he had supplied me; but he declared himself satisfied.
He appeared, at first, strongly to fear that, in returning his dog, I
was withdrawing my support, and was much gratified when I told him to
come over and get as much food as he could carry away.
[Sidenote: TRACES OF ESQUIMAUX.]
Kalutunah's first question was, whether I had found any Esquimaux.
Before starting, I had frequently spoken to him concerning the
extension of his people to the north, and he recited to me a
well-established tradition of the tribe, that the Esquimaux once
extended both to the north and the south; and that, finally, the tribe
now inhabiting the coast from Cape York to Smith Sound were cut off by
the accumulation of ice as well above as below them; and he believed
that Esquimaux were living at this present time in both directions.
That there was once no break in the communication between the natives
of the region about Upernavik, along the shores of Melville Bay,
there can be no doubt; and Kalutunah appeared to think that the same
would hold good in the opposite direction. The ice has accumulated in
Smith Sound as it has in Melville Bay; and what were evidently once
prosperous hunting-grounds, up to the very face of Humboldt Glacier,
are now barren wastes, where living thing rarely comes. At various
places along the coast Dr. Kane found the remains of ancient huts; and
lower down the coast, toward the mouth of the Sound, there are many
of more recent date. Near Cairn Point there is a hut which had been
abandoned but a year before Dr. Kane's visit, in 1853, and has not been
occupied since. In Van Rensselaer Harbor there were several huts which
had been inhabited by the last generation.
The simple discovery of traces of Esquimaux on the coast of Grinnell
Land was not altogether satisfactory to Kalutunah, for he had
confidently expected that I would find and bring back with me some
living specimens of them; but he was still gratified to have his
traditions confirmed, and he declared that I did not go far enough or
I should have found plenty of natives; for, said he, in effect, "There
are good hunting-grounds at the north, plenty of musk-ox (oomemak), and
wherever there are good hunting-grounds, there the Esquimaux will be
found."
[Sidenote: THE ESQUIMAUX.]
Kalutunah grew more sad than I had ever before seen him, when I spoke
to him of the fortunes of his own people. "Alas!" said he, "we will
soon be all gone." I told him that I would come back, and that white
men would live for many years near Etah. "Come back soon," said he, "or
there will be none here to welcome you!"
To contemplate the destiny of this little tribe is indeed painful.
There is much in this rude people deserving of admiration. Their brave
and courageous struggles for a bare subsistence, against what would
seem to us the most disheartening obstacles, often being wholly without
food for days together and never obtaining it without encountering
danger, makes their hold on life very precarious. The sea is their
only harvest-field; and, having no boats in which to pursue the game,
they have only to await the turning tide or changing season to open
cracks, along which they wander, seeking the seal and walrus which come
there to breathe. The uncertain fortunes of the hunt often lead them
in the winter time to shelter themselves in rude hovels of snow; and,
in summer, the migrating water-fowl come to substitute the seal and
walrus, which, when the ice-fields have floated off, they can rarely
catch.
From the information which I obtained through Hans and Kalutunah,
I estimated the tribe to number about one hundred souls,--a very
considerable diminution since Dr. Kane left them, in 1855. Hans made
for me a rude map of the coast from Cape York to Smith Sound, and set
down upon it all of the villages, if by such name the inhabited places
may be called. These places are always close by the margin of the sea.
They rarely consist of more than one hut, and the largest village of
but three. Of the nature of these habitations the reader will have
already gathered sufficient from my description of Kalutunah's den at
Etah.
[Sidenote: SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIONS.]
Awaiting the thawing out of the schooner, I could only employ my
time in the immediate vicinity of Port Foulke with such work as I
found practicable. The pendulum experiments of the previous autumn
were repeated, and several full sets of observations were made for
the determination of the magnetic force. The survey of the harbor
and the bay was completed; the terraces were leveled and plotted;
and the angles on "My Brother John's Glacier" were renewed. In all
of these labors I found an intelligent and painstaking assistant
in Mr. Radcliffe. This gentleman also labored assiduously with the
photographic apparatus; and, through his patient coöperation, I was
finally enabled to secure a large number of reasonably good pictures.
Some valuable collections of natural history were also made, and in
this department I had much useful assistance from Mr. Knorr and Mr.
Starr. The ice in the harbor offered them a fine opportunity as the
cracks opened, and their labors were rewarded with one of the finest
collections of marine invertebrata that has been made from Arctic
waters.[13] My journey to the glacier occupied me a week. We pitched
our tent near Alida Lake, and went systematically to work to measure
and photograph our old acquaintance of the last autumn.
[Footnote 13: I am indebted to Dr. William Stimpson for a careful
examination and comparison of this collection, the results of which
were published by him in the "Proceedings" of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia, for May, 1863. The collection contains little
that is wholly new; but, as Dr. Stimpson has remarked, "They possess
great interest from having been found, in great part, in localities
much nearer the Pole than any previous expeditions have succeeded in
reaching on the American side of the Arctic Circle. They include some
species hitherto found only on the European side; and, we may add, the
number of species collected by Dr. Hayes is greater than that brought
back by any single expedition which has yet visited those seas, as
far as can be judged by published accounts." The collection embraces,
of _Crustacea_, 22 species; _Annelida_, 18 species; _Mollusca_, 21
species; _Echinodermata_, 7 species; _Acalephæ_, 1 specie; and, besides
these, a considerable number of _Nudibranchiata_, _Actiniæ_, etc.,
which cannot well be determined from alcoholic specimens.]
[Sidenote: AN ENLIVENING SCENE.]
We arrived at the lake in the midst of a very enlivening scene. The
snow had mainly disappeared from the valley, and, although no flowers
had yet appeared, the early vegetation was covering the banks with
green, and the feeble growths opened their little leaves almost
under the very snow, and stood alive and fresh in the frozen turf,
looking as glad of the spring as their more ambitious cousins of the
warm south. Numerous small herds of reindeer had come down from the
mountains to fatten on this newly budding life. Gushing rivulets and
fantastic waterfalls mingled their pleasant music with the ceaseless
hum of birds, myriads of which sat upon the rocks of the hill-side,
or were perched upon the cliffs, or sailed through the air in swarms
so thick that they seemed like a dark cloud passing before the sun.
These birds were the hitherto mentioned little auk (_uria allæ_), and
are a water-fowl not larger than a quail. The swift flutter of their
wings and their constant cry filled the air with a roar like that of a
storm advancing among the forest trees. The valley was glowing with the
sunlight of the early morning, which streamed in over the glacier, and
robed hill, mountain, and plain in brightness.
Hans had pitched his tent at the further end of the lake, and Kalutunah
came up with Myouk and Alatak, and joined him. Jensen quickly shot
a deer, and Hans brought us some auks; and, before going to work, we
drew around a large rock, of which we made a table, and partook of a
substantial dinner of Carl's preparation, washing it down with purest
water from the glacier, while listening to the music of gurgling
streams and the song of birds.
[Sidenote: GLACIER MOVEMENT.]
The face of the glacier had undergone much change. Blocks of immense
size had broken from it, and lay strewn over the valley at its base;
while the glacier itself had pressed down the slope, crowding rocks,
and snow, and the _débris_ of ice before it in a confused, wave-like
heap. The progress toward the sea had been steady and irresistible.
The journey to the top of the glacier was much more difficult than in
the previous autumn, the snow having in a great measure melted away,
exposing the rocks, and embarrassing us in the ascent of the glacier's
side, as well as of the gorge. Every thing was wet and mucky, overhead
as well as under foot. The glacier-surface was shedding water from
every side, like the roof of a house in a February thaw; and the
little streams which flowed down its side, joining the waters of the
melting snow, trickled underneath the glacier and reappeared in rushing
torrents in the valley below from the glacier front; and thence poured
into the lake, and from the lake to the sea.
I was fortunate in finding my stakes all standing; and, having brought
up the theodolite, I repeated the angles which, with Sonntag, I had
taken the previous October. These angles, when afterwards reduced,
exhibited a descent of the centre of the glacier, down the valley, of
ninety-six feet.
[Sidenote: THE MUSK-OX.]
Chester Valley has in former times been quite a resort of the
Esquimaux. We found there several old ruins of huts, some of them
with bones strewn about them, which showed that they were not of very
ancient date. Among these bones, which were mostly of the walrus,
seal, and bears, I found a part of the head of a musk-ox, and in such
a position as appeared to render it probable that the animal of which
it had formed a part had been the food of the former inhabitants of
the ruin. Upon referring the matter to Kalutunah, he told me that the
musk-ox was supposed to have been once numerous along the entire coast,
and that they are still occasionally seen. No longer ago than the
previous winter, a hunter of Wolstenholme Sound, near a place called
Oomeak, had come upon two animals and killed one of them. It would
seem from this circumstance that the musk-ox is not yet extinct in
Greenland, as naturalists have supposed.
One day of my stay in the valley was occupied with running a set of
levels down from the foot of the glacier to the sea, by which I found
the former to be ninety-two feet above the latter; and another day was
passed in hunting.
It would be impossible to convey an adequate idea of the immense
numbers of the little auks which swarmed around us. The slope on both
sides of the valley rises at an angle of about forty-five degrees to a
distance of from three hundred to five hundred feet, where it meets the
cliffs, which stand about seven hundred feet higher. These hill-sides
are composed of the loose rocks which have been split off from the
cliffs by the frost. The birds crawl among these rocks, winding far in
through narrow places, and there deposit each a single egg and hatch
their young, secure from their enemy, the foxes, which prowl round in
great numbers, ever watching for a meal.
[Sidenote: AUK-CATCHING.]
Having told Kalutunah that I wanted to accompany him and help him at
auk-catching, that worthy individual came to my tent early one morning,
much rejoiced that the Nalegaksoak had so favored him, and, bright and
early, hurried me to the hill-side. The birds were more noisy than
usual, for they had just returned in immense swarms from the sea,
where they had been getting their breakfast.[14] Kalutunah carried a
small net, made of light strings of seal-skin knitted together very
ingeniously. The staff by which it was held was about ten feet long.
After clambering over the rough, sharp stones, we arrived at length
about half-way up to the base of the cliffs, where Kalutunah crouched
behind a rock and invited me to follow his example. I observed that
the birds were nearly all in flight, and were, with rare exceptions,
the males. The length of the slope on which they were congregated was
about a mile, and a constant stream of birds was rushing over it, but a
few feet above the stones; and, after making in their rapid flight the
whole length of the hill, they returned higher in the air, performing
over and over again the complete circuit. Occasionally a few hundreds
or thousands of them would drop down, as if following some leader; and
in an instant the rocks, for a space of several rods, would swarm all
over with them,--their black backs and pure white breasts speckling the
hill very prettily.
[Footnote 14: The food of the little auk, as indeed the food of all
of the Arctic water-fowl, consists of different varieties of marine
invertebrata, chiefly _crustacea_, with which the Arctic waters abound.
It is owing to the riches of the North water in these low forms of
marine life that the birds flock there in such great number during the
breeding season, which begins in June and ends in August.]
While I was watching these movements with much interest, my companion
was intent only upon business, and warned me to lie lower, as the birds
saw me and were flying too high overhead. Having at length got myself
stowed away to the satisfaction of my savage companion, the sport
began. The birds were beginning again to whirl their flight closer to
our heads,--so close, indeed, did they come that it seemed almost as
if I could catch them with my cap. Presently, I observed my companion
preparing himself as a flock of unusual thickness was approaching; and,
in a moment, up went the net; a half dozen birds flew bang into it,
and, stunned with the blow, they could not flutter out before Kalutunah
had slipped the staff quickly through his hands and seized the net;
with his left hand he now pressed down the birds, while with the right
he drew them out, one by one; and, for want of a third hand, he used
his teeth to crush their heads. The wing's were then locked across each
other, to keep them from fluttering away; and, with an air of triumph,
the old fellow looked around at me, spat the blood and feathers from
his mouth, and went on with the sport, tossing up his net and hauling
it in with much rapidity, until he had caught about a hundred birds;
when, my curiosity being amply satisfied, we returned to camp and made
a hearty meal out of the game which we had bagged in this novel and
unsportsman-like manner. While an immense stew was preparing, Kalutunah
amused himself with tearing off the birds' skins, and consuming the raw
flesh while it was yet warm.
[Sidenote: HURRICANE.]
Our stay at the glacier was brought suddenly to an end by a violent
storm of wind and snow, and both ourselves and our Esquimau companions
were forced to seek other shelter. The storm came from the northeast,
and the first mischief done was to pick Hans's tent up and carry it off
down the valley like a balloon, and finally to drop it in the lake.
Without waiting long to lament over the unhappy circumstance, the whole
Esquimau party set out for Etah. As they passed our tent, Kalutunah
stopped a moment at the door, and despite the fierce wind and the
snow which covered him all over, he still bore the same imperturbable
grin. "You should have seen Hans's tent!" said he; and the old fellow
fairly shook with laughter, as he recalled the ridiculous scene of the
suddenly unhoused party and their vanishing tent tearing away toward
the lake. But his satisfaction reached its climax when he informed
us that it was going to blow harder, and that our turn would come
directly. Sure enough it was as the savage had predicted; for, soon
afterward, we heard a great noise,--the photographic tent had given
way, the instruments and plates were scattering over the stones, the
glasses were being all crushed up into little bits; and, while we were
springing up to go out and save the wreck, our windward guys gave way,
and our canvas protection following the example of Hans's seal-skins,
left us standing in the very jaws of the storm. As may be supposed, we
did not delay long in finding our way back on board.
I found the schooner in a somewhat critical situation. The spars had
been sent aloft and caught the wind, and the vessel being still firmly
locked in the ice, the masts were subjected to a dangerous strain. I
thought, at one time, that they would be carried bodily out of the
schooner, and had guys fastened to the mast-heads and secured to stakes
driven in the ice to windward. The loose ice was all blown out of the
bay, the icebergs were driven out of sight, and the open water was not
more than a quarter of a mile distant from us.
[Sidenote: MID-SUMMER.]
The sun reaching its greatest northern declination on the 21st, we were
now in the full blaze of summer. Six eventful months had passed over
since the Arctic midnight shrouded us in gloom, and now we had reached
the Arctic mid-day. And this mid-day was a day of wonderful brightness.
The temperature had gone up higher than at any previous time, marking,
at meridian, 49°, while in the sun the thermometer showed 57°. The
barometer was away up to 30.076, and a more calm and lovely air never
softened an Arctic landscape.
[Sidenote: LITTLE JULIA'S GLEN AND FALL.]
Tempted by the day, I strolled down into the valley south of the
harbor. The recent snow had mostly disappeared, and valley and
hill-side were speckled with a rich carpet of green, with only here and
there a patch of the winter snow yet undissolved,--an emerald carpet,
fringed and inlaid with silver and sprinkled over with fragments of a
bouquet,--for many flowers were now in full bloom, and their tiny faces
peeped above the sod. A herd of reindeer were browsing on the plain
beneath me, and some white rabbits had come from their hiding-places to
feed upon the bursting willow-buds. New objects of interest led me on
from spot to spot--babbling brooks, and rocky hill-sides, and little
glaciers, and softening snow-banks, alternating with patches of tender
green--until, at length, I came to the base of a lofty hill, whose
summit was surmounted with an imposing wall which overlooked the sea,
seemingly a vast turreted castle, guarding the entrance to the valley.
I thought of my late comrade, and named it Sonntag's Monument. Passing
this, I climbed to a broad plateau, probably five hundred yards above
the sea; and keeping along this toward Cape Alexander, came at length
upon a deep gorge at the bottom of which flowed a stream, some ten
yards over, which came from the melting snows of the mountains and the
_mer de glace_. Descending into this ravine I followed its rough banks
until they came abruptly to the tall cliff of the coast, over which the
water leaped wildly down into a deep and picturesque glen, which it
filled with a cloud of its own spray. The spot figures in my diary as
Little Julia's Glen and Fall.
[Illustration]