THRILLING INCIDENTS.
AFTER a brief rest our explorers continued their voyage. They warped the
vessel round the cape near which they found shelter, into a bay which
opened to the north and west. Along the shore of this bay they toiled
for several days and reached its head. It seemed impossible to go
farther, for the ice was already thick and the winter at hand. A
majority of the officers, in view of these facts, advised a return
south. But Dr. Kane thought they might winter where they were, or
further north if the vessel could be pushed through the ice, and their
explorations be made with dog-sledges. To learn more fully the
practicability of his view he planned a boat excursion. While this was
in contemplation an incident came near ending all further progress of
the expedition. The brig grounded in the night, and was left suddenly by
the receding tide on her beam ends. The stove in the cabin, which was
full of burning coal, upset and put the cabin in a blaze. It was choked
by a pilot-cloth overcoat until water could be brought. No other harm
was done than the loss of the coat and a big scare.
About the first of September the doctor and seven volunteers started in
the boat "Forlorn Hope" to see the more northern shore-line. The boat
was abandoned at the end of twenty-four hours, all the water having
turned to ice, and the party tramped many a weary mile, carrying their
food and a few other necessary things. Dr. Kane attained an elevation of
eleven hundred feet, from which, with his telescope, he looked north
beyond the eightieth degree of latitude, and through a wide extent of
country east and west. From this observation he decided that sledging
with dogs into and beyond this region was practicable. This had seemed
doubtful before. He therefore returned with the decision to put the
"Advance" into winter-quarters immediately.
A few facts interesting to the scientific were learned on this
excursion. A skeleton of a musk ox was found, showing they had been, at
no distant time, visitors to this coast. Additions were made to their
flowering plants, and up to this date twenty-two varieties had been
found.
The brig was now drawn in between two islands, and the mooring lines
carried out. The explorers were in a sheltered, and, as to the ice, safe
winter home. They called it Rensselaer Harbor. Near them an iceberg had
anchored as if to watch their movements. A fresh-water pond on the
upland promised them its precious treasure if they would _cut_ for it.
An island a few rods distant they named Butler Island, and on this they
built a store-house. A canal was cut from the brig to this island, and
kept open by renewed cutting every morning. They then run the boat
through this canal, thus transferring the stores from the hold to the
store-house.
While one party was thus engaged, others were equally busy in other
directions. The scientific corps selected a small island which they
called Fern Rock, and put up a rude "observatory," from which not only
the stars were to be watched, but the weather, the meteors, and the
electrical currents were to be noted.
While this outside work was going on Dr. Kane was taxing his ingenuity
to arrange the brig, now made roomy by the removal of the stores, so as
to have it combine the greatest convenience, warmth, and healthfulness.
A roof was put over the upper deck, which was then made to answer for a
promenade deck for pleasure and health.
Even the wolfish Esquimo dogs were remembered in this general planning.
A nice dog house, cozy and near, was made for them on Butler Island. But
the dogs had notions of their own about their quarters. Though so savage
at all times as to be willing to eat their masters if not kept in abject
fear, yet they refused to sleep out of the sound of their voices. They
would leave their comfortable quarters on the island and huddle together
in the snow, exposed to the severest cold, to be within the sound of
human voices. So they had to be indulged with kennels on deck.
While these matters were being attended to the hunters scoured the
country to learn what the prospect was for game. They extended their
excursions ninety miles, and returned with a report not very
encouraging. They saw a few reindeer, and numerous hares and rabbits. It
was plain that hunting would not make large returns.
The winter came on with its shroud of darkness. On the tenth of
September the sun made but a short circuit above the horizon before it
disappeared again. In one month it would cease to show its disk above
the surrounding hills; then would come a midday twilight for a few days,
followed by nearly a hundred days of darkness in which no man could
work. Even now, at noon, the stars glowed brightly in the heavens,
though but few of them were the familiar stars of the home sky.
While the work of which we have spoken was going on Dr. Kane's thoughts
were much upon the necessity of establishing, before the winter nights
fully set in, provision depots at given distances northward for at least
sixty miles. These would be necessary for a good start in the early
spring of a dog-sledge journey North Poleward. For the spring work the
Newfoundland dogs, of which he had ten, were in daily training.
Harnessed to a small, strong, beautifully made sledge called "Little
Willie," the doctor drove his team around the brig in gallant style.
These Newfoundlanders were a dependence for heavy draught. The Esquimo
dogs were in reserve for the long, perilous raids of the earnest
exploration into darkness and over hummocks.
While all this busy preparation was going on the morning and evening
prayers were strictly maintained, bringing with them a soothing
assurance of the Divine care.
On the twentieth of September the provision deposit party started on an
experimental journey. It consisted of seven men in all, M'Gary and
Bonsall officers. They carried about fourteen hundred pounds of mixed
stores for the "cairns." They took these stores upon the strong,
thorough-built sledge "Faith," and drew it themselves, by a harness for
each man, consisting of a "rue-raddy," or shoulder-belt, and track-line.
The men then generously did a service they would in future have the dogs
do.
While this party was gone the home work went on, enlivened by several
incidents involving the most appalling dangers, yet not without some
comic elements.
The first was occasioned by rats. What right these creatures had in the
expedition is not apparent; nor do we see what motive impelled them to
come at all. If it was a mere love of adventure, they, as do most
adventurers, found that the results hardly paid the cost. They were
voted a nuisance, but how to abate it was a difficult question. The
first experiment consisted of a removal of the men to a camp on deck for
a night, and a fumigation below, where the rats remained, of a vile
compound of brimstone, burnt leather, and arsenic. But the rats survived
it bravely.
The next experiment was with carbonic acid gas. This proved a weapon
dangerous to handle. Dr. Hays burnt a quantity of charcoal, and the
hatches were shut down after starting three stoves.
The gas generated below rapidly, and nobody was expected, of course, to
go where it was. But the French cook, Pierre Schubert, thinking his soup
needed seasoning, stole into the cook room. He was discerned by Morton,
staggering in the dark; and, at the risk of his own life, he sprung to
his relief, and both reached the deck bewildered, the cook entirely
insensible.
Soon after this Dr. Kane thought he smelt a strange odor. The hatches
were removed and he went below. After a short tour between decks, he was
passing the door which led to the carpenter's room, and he was amazed to
see three feet of the deck near it a glowing fire. Beating a hasty
retreat, he fell senseless to the floor at the foot of the stairs which
led to the upper deck. The situation was critical. A puff of air might
envelope the hold in flames, with the doctor an easy victim; but the
divine Hand still covered him. Mr. Brooks, reaching down, drew him out.
Coming to the air the doctor recovered immediately and communicated his
startling discovery quietly to those only near him. Water was passed up
from the "fire-hole" along side, kept open for just such emergencies.
Dr. Kane and Ohlsen went below, water was dashed on, and they were safe.
The dead bodies of twenty-eight rats were the net result of this
onslaught with carbonic acid gas. But they were but few among so many.
The rat army was yet in fighting order.
The other incident was less serious, yet quite on the verge of fatal
consequences. Several Esquimo dogs became the mothers of nice little
families. Now these young folks in the kennels were considered intruders
by the master of the vessel--rather hard on them since they were not to
blame in the matter. But it happens with dogs as with the human race,
that they sometimes suffer without fault of their own. Six puppies were
thrown overboard; two died for the good their skins might do as mittens;
and, alas! seven died more dreadful deaths--they were eaten by their
mammas! Whether these puppy calamities bore heavily upon the brains of
the dog mothers or not we cannot tell, but the fact recorded is that one
of them went distracted. She walked up and down the deck with a drooping
head and staggering gait. Finally she snapped at Petersen, foamed at the
mouth, and fell at his feet. "She is mad!" exclaimed Petersen.
"Hydrophobia!" was the dreadful cry which passed about the deck. Dr.
Kane ran for his gun. He was not a moment too soon in reappearing with
it. The dog had recommenced her running and snapping at those near. The
Newfoundland dogs were not out of her reach, and the hatches leading
below were open. But a well-directed shot ended at once her life and the
danger.
It was now the tenth of October. The sun, though just appearing above
the horizon to the surrounding country, only sparkled along the edge of
the hill-tops to the gazers from the "Advance." The depot party had been
gone twenty days, and Dr. Kane was beginning to feel anxious about
them. He harnessed four of his best Newfoundlanders into the "Little
Willie," and, accompanied by John Blake, started in search of them.
For a little time the party progressed very well. But after awhile the
new ice between the broken floes was found thin. The seams thus frozen
had to be leaped. Sometimes they were wide, and the dogs in their
attempts to spring across broke in. Three times in less than as many
hours one had received an arctic bath. The men trotted along side,
leaping, walking, running, and shouting to the dogs. Extended and
exhausting diversions were made to avoid impassable chasms or too steep
hummocks. Thus four days had passed in a fruitless search for the
missing ones.
On the morning of the fifth day, about two hours before the transient
sun showed his glowing disk, Dr. Kane climbed an iceberg to get a sight
of the road ahead. In the dim distance on the snow a black spot was
seen. Is it a bear? No, it now stretches out into a dark line. It is the
sledge party! They see their leader's tent by the edge of a
thinly-frozen lead; into this they launch their boat and come on,
singing as they come. The doctor, in breathless suspense, waits until
they draw near, and counts them: one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven! They are all safe! Three cheers go up from both parties, followed
by hearty hand-shaking and congratulations. The depot enterprise was a
success.