After two winters of cold and darkness, Doctor Kane made up his mind to
leave the ship fast in the ice. He wanted to get to a place in
Green-land where there were people living. Then he might find some way
of getting home again.
The men started out, drawing the boats on sleds. Whenever they came to
open water, they put the boats into the water, and took the sleds in
the boats. When they came to the ice again, they had to draw out their
boats, and carry them on the sleds. At first they could travel only
about a mile a day.
It was a hard journey. Some of the men were ill. These had to be drawn
on the sleds by the rest. They had not enough food. At one time they
rested three days in a kind of cave. Here they found many birds’ eggs.
These made very good food for them. At another place they staid a week.
They staid just to eat the eggs of the wild birds.
After they left this place, they were hungry. The men grew thinner and
thinner. It seemed that they must die for want of food. But one day
they saw a large seal. He was floating on a piece of ice. The hungry
men thought, “What a fine din-ner he would make for us!” If they could
get the seal, they would not die of hunger.
Every one of the poor fellows trembled for fear the seal would wake up.
A man named Pe-ter-sen took a gun, and got ready to shoot. The men
rowed the boat toward the seal. They rowed slowly and quietly. But the
seal waked up. He raised his head. The men thought that he would jump
off into the water. Then they might all die for want of food.
Doctor Kane made a motion to Pe-ter-sen. That was to tell him to shoot
quickly. But Peter-sen did not shoot. He was so much afraid that the
seal would get away, that he could not shoot. The seal now raised
himself a little more. He was getting ready to jump into the water.
Just then Petersen fired. The seal fell dead on the ice.
[Illustration: A Seal]
The men were wild with joy. They rowed the boats with all their might.
When they got to the seal, they dragged it farther away from the water.
They were so happy, that they danced on the ice. Some of them laughed.
Some were so glad, that they cried. [Illustration: Shooting the Seal.]
Then they took their knives and began to cut up the seal. They had no
fire on the ice, and they were too hungry to think of lighting one. So
they ate the meat of the seal without waiting to cook it.