BACK AGAIN.
WE tarried in our camp full two hours. We obtained a pot of hot coffee
and rest. The whips had been used so freely that they required
repairing, for without their efficient help there could be no progress.
All being in readiness, we were about starting when three Esquimo came
in sight. They were those we had left asleep in our hut! Dr. Hayes and
Mr. Sontag seized their guns, and rushed down the ice-foot to meet them.
They stood firm until our men, coming within a few yards, leveled their
guns at them. They instantly turned round and threw their arms wildly
about, exclaiming in a frantic voice, "Na-mik! na-mik! na-mik!"--don't
shoot! don't shoot! don't shoot!
Dr. Hayes lowered his rifle and beckoned them to come on. This they did
cautiously, and with loud protestations of friendship. By this time
Whipple had come up. Each of our men seized a prisoner, and marched him
into the camp. Reaching the mouth of the cave, the doctor turned
Kalutunah round toward his sledge, pointed to it with his gun, and then
turning north, gave him to understand, mostly by signs, that if he took
the whip which lay at his feet, and drove us to the "Oomeaksoak" (ship)
he should have his dogs, sledge, coat, boots, and mittens; but if they
did not do so that he and his companions would be shot then and there;
and to give emphasis to his words, he pushed him away and leveled his
gun.
The chief went sideling off, crying, "Na-mik, na-mik!" at the same time
imitated the motion of a dog--driving with his right hand, and pointed
north with the other. His declaration was, "Don't shoot! I'll drive you
to the ship!"
Dr. Hayes seeing he was understood, told Kalutunah that the dogs and
sledges were the white men's until the promise was fulfilled, to which
he answered, "tyma"--all right, approaching with smiles and the old
familiarity, as though some great favor had been done him. He could
respect pluck and strength if nothing else.
The prisoners had been awakened by our escaped dogs, which, on arriving
at the hut, run over the roof and howled a startling alarm. Their
masters starting up, found means of lighting a lamp, and being refreshed
by sleep and the food we left, entered at once on the pursuit. Coming to
the abandoned sledge, they harnessed the dogs and made good time on our
trail, bringing away with them as many of our treasures as they could
well carry.
They were rare looking Esquimo just at this moment. They had cut holes
in the middle of our blankets and thrust their heads through. One had
found a pair of cast-off boots and put them on; the others had bundled
their feet up in pieces of blanket. Neither of them had suffered much
from cold.
We expressed our confidence in their promises by restoring their
clothes. They jumped into them, happy as Yankee children on the Fourth
of July. They were as obedient, too, as recently whipped spaniels. They
touched neither dogs, sledge, nor whip until they were bidden. "Onward
to Netlik!" we shouted as we mounted our sledges and dashed away. Our
distant approach was greeted by the howling of a pack of dogs, which
snuffed our coming in the breeze. As we drew nearer, men, women, and
children ran out to meet us. As soon as we halted fifty curious and
wondering savages crowded around us, pressing the questions why we were
brought by their friends, and why we came at all. But our bearing was
that of those who came because they pleased to come without
condescending to give reasons why. We told Kalutunah that three of us
would go to each of the two huts, and stop long enough to eat and sleep,
and then we would continue our journey. A renewed leveling at him of our
guns, and pointing northward, brought out the prompt "tyma," giving the
gaping bystanders a hint of the nature of our arguments for the services
of their friends.
When we had entered the huts, the crowd rushed in too, making quite too
many for comfort or safety. We told our hosts to order out all but the
regular occupants of the huts, as many strangers had come in who were
lodging in the adjoining snow-huts. They did not understand our right
to give such a command until a hint about our "booms" convinced them.
Ours was the right of self-preservation by superior strength.
We had traveled fifteen successive hours, making in the time fifty
miles. So weary were we that even these Esquimo dens, affording as they
did refreshment and rest without danger of freezing, were delightful
places of entertainment. The women kindly removed our mittens, boots,
and stockings, and hung them up to dry. They then brought us frozen
meat, which intense hunger compelled us to try to eat, but the air of
the hut was one hundred and twenty degrees warmer than that without, and
we fell asleep with the food between our teeth. Having taken a short nap
we were aroused by the mistress of the house, who had prepared a
plentiful meal of steaming bear-steak. We ate and slept alternately
until the stars informed us that we had rested twenty-seven hours. We
intimated to Kalutunah that we would be going, and in a few moments he
had every thing in readiness.
Our next halting place was Northumberland Island, a distance, as we
traveled, of thirty miles, which we made in six hours. Here we found two
huts belonging to our old friends, Amalatok and his brother, "Mr. Rock."
We divided ourselves into companies of threes as before, and made
ourselves at home in the two households. Mr. Rock, aided by his wife,
and the witch-wife of his brother, was kindly attentive. Our fare was
varied by abundant supplies of sea-birds, which in their season swarm
here. We tarried until our physical strength was sensibly increased. We
learned that Petersen and Bonsall had been at this hospitable
halting-place, eaten and rested, and pushed northward under the guidance
of Amalatok.
Our next run was to Herbert Island, and, passing round its northwestern
coast, we struck across to the mainland, and halted near Cape Robertson,
at the village of Karsooit. We were on the northern shore of the mouth
of Whale Sound. We had made a run of fifty miles, halting to eat our
frozen food only once. We had walked much of the way to prevent being
frozen, and to lighten the load of the dogs over a rough way.
The village consisted of two huts half a mile apart. One of them
belonged to Sipsu, our old enemy. He received us gruffly, and because he
felt that he must. His only kindness was a fear of our _booms_. The huts
were crowded, there being here, as at Netlik, many stranger visitors
from the south. We were almost suffocated on entering, passing as we did
from a temperature of fifty degrees below zero to one seventy-five
above. Our entertainers immediately laid hold of our clothes and began
to strip us. They were much surprised at our persistence in retaining a
certain part of them. We feasted on seal flesh, slept, were refreshed
and encouraged.
Our stay was short, and our next run was to a double hut, a distance of
thirty miles, which we made in five hours. We had been joined at
Karsooit by an old hunter named Ootinah. We were on four sledges, the
dogs were in good condition, the ice smooth, the drivers full of
merriment and shouts of "Ka! ka!" by which their teams were stimulated
onward.
Our next run was to be one of sixty miles, including the rounding of
Cape Alexander, and ending at Etah. It was to be a terrific adventure we
well knew. At the mention of it our drivers shrugged their shoulders.
The natives dread the storms of this cape, with their blinding snows, as
the wandering Arabs of the desert do a tempest-cloud of sand.
The first twenty miles was made comfortably. But we were yet many miles
from the rocky fortress guarding the Arctic Sea, when we were saluted
with a stunning squall. It cut us terribly, though it was but an eddy,
for the wind was at our backs; it was only a rough hint of what we might
expect when the giant of the cape sent his blast squarely in our faces.
The night came on, lighted only by the twinkling stars. The ice was
smooth, and the wind at our backs drove our sledges upon the heels of
the dogs, who ran howling at the top of their speed to keep out of their
way. The cliffs, a thousand feet above us, threw their frowning shadows
across our path, pouring upon the plain clouds of snow sand, and
shouting in the roaring wind their defiance at our approach. Yet we sped
swiftly on, until a dark line was seen ahead with wreaths of
"frost-smoke" curling over it. "Emerk! emerk!" shouted the Esquimo.
"Water! water!" echoed our men. Our teams "reined up" within a few
yards of a recently opened crack, now twenty feet across and rapidly
widening. We were quite near Cape Alexander, but between it and us was
ice, across which numerous cracks had opened. Against the cape was open
water, whose sullen surges fell dismally upon our ears. It was plain
that we could not go forward upon the floe; to mount the almost
perpendicular wall to the land above was impossible; to turn back and
thus face the storm would be certain death. Our case seemed desperate.
Even the hardy Esquimo shrunk at the situation and proposed the return
trail, against which to us, at least, ruinous course they could not be
persuaded until the pistol argument was used.
In our peering through the darkness for some way of escape we caught a
glimpse of the narrow ice-foot, hanging over the water at the bottom of
the cliff. Along this we determined to attempt a passage.
We ascended this ice-foot by a ladder made of the sledges. Then we ran
along the smooth surface and soon passed the open water below; but we
had advanced a short distance only before a glacier barred our progress
and turned us to the floe again. A short run on this brought us to
another yawning crack with its impassable water. We ran along its margin
with torturing anxiety, looking for an ice bridge. Finding a place where
a point of ice spanned the chasm, within about four feet, Dr. Hayes made
a desperate leap to gain the other side. Lighting upon this point, it
proved to be merely a loose, small ice-raft which settled beneath his
feet. Endeavoring to balance himself upon it to gain the solid floe
beyond he fell backward, and would have gone completely under the water;
but Stephenson, standing on the spot from which the doctor jumped,
caught him under the arms and drew him out. As it was he had sunk deep
into the cold stream, filling his boots and wetting his pants.
In the mean time a better crossing was found, and Dr. Hayes followed the
last of the party to the other side.
We returned to the ice-foot and found a level and sufficiently wide
drive-way, and made good progress, soon reaching and running along that
part of the icy road which overlooked the open water below. We met with
no interruption until we came to the extreme rocky projection of the
cape. Here the ice-foot was sloping, and for several feet was only
fifteen inches wide! Twenty feet directly below was the icy cold, dark
water, sending up its dismal roar as it waited to receive any whose foot
might slip in attempting the perilous passage. The wind howled fearfully
as it swept over the cliff and along the ice-foot in our rear, pelting
us incessantly with its snow sand.
"Halt!" was passed along the line, and the whole party, men and dogs,
crouched under the overhanging rocks, seeming for the moment like beings
doomed to die a miserable death in a horrid place.
There was no time for indecision, and the pause was but for a moment.
Dr. Hayes, taking off his mittens, and clinging with his bare hands to
the crevices of the rock, was the first to make the desperate
experiment. His shout announcing his safe landing on the broad belt
beyond the dangerous place, welling up as it did from a heart
overflowing with emotions of joy and gratitude, sent a thrill of
gladness along the shivering and shrinking line, of which even our poor
dogs seemed to partake.
The teams, each driven by its master, were next brought up, as near as
safety permitted, to the narrow, slippery pathway. The dogs were then
seized by their collars, and one by one dragged across safely. Next the
sledges were brought forward. Turning them upon one runner, they were
pushed along until the dogs could make them feel the traces; then a
fierce shout from their drivers caused a sudden and vigorous spring of
the animals, which whirled the sledges beyond the danger of sliding off
the precipice. Cautiously, one by one, then came the remaining members
of the party, all holding their breath in painful suspense, and each, we
trust, in silent prayer, until all were safe over. The Divine arm and
eye had been with us! We could not have gone back, nor have turned to
the right or left. A few inches less of width in the ice-foot, or
slightly more slope, and we had all perished!
Except some frost bites on our fingers, every man was all right. We had
traveled five miles on the ice shelf above the foaming sea. We now had
a smooth, safe ice-foot, which conducted us soon to the solid ice-field
of Etah Bay. Across this, fifteen miles, we scampered with joyous speed,
and arrived at the village of our old Esquimo friends, a worn and weary,
but thankful party.
Good news met us at the hut. Petersen and Bonsall had, we were told,
preceded us, and arrived safely at the ship.
But our trials were not ended. There was a sledge journey of ninety-one
miles yet awaiting us. Dr. Hayes's frosted feet gave him intense pain
and he could not sleep. There was danger, if the heat of the hut thawed
them, that he would lose them altogether. So, after only four hours'
rest, he whispered his intention of a speedy departure toward the
"Advance," to Sontag, who was to take charge of the party; he then crept
stealthily out of the hut, accompanied by Ootinah, the faithful Esquimo
from Karsooit. Sontag was not to mention his departure to his comrades
until they were rested and refreshed.
He had hardly started before the rest of our company were at his heels.
They did not wish their leader to endure the perils of the journey
without them; besides, they too had reason for a desire to be speedily
at the brig.
The wind was high, the floe full of hummocks, the cold intense, and
altogether the journey was not unlike in its dangers that already
endured. Whipple, ere they had reached the end, began to whisper that he
was not cold, and finally fell from the rear sledge, benumbed and
senseless, and was not missed until he was a hundred yards behind. He
was lifted again to the sledge, but others gave signs of the approach of
the same insensibility.
But the track becoming smoother, the drivers cracked their whips and
shouted fiercely, goading onward their teams to their utmost speed in
the fearful race for life. Now old familiar landmarks are passed; the
hull of the dismantled ship opens in the distance, and its outlines grow
clearer until we shout with feeble voices, but in gladness of heart,
"_Back again!_" During the last forty hours we had been in almost
continual exposure, with the thermometer eighty degrees below zero, in
which time we had traveled a hundred and fifty miles. During the run of
ninety-one miles from Etah to the "Advance" we encamped once only, but
failing to light our lamp, or to secure any protection from the cold, we
immediately decamped and finished our run of forty-one miles.