Santa Fe weekly gazette. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 185?-1859, 1857-03-21
EXTRACTS FROM KANES ARCTIC
TRAVELS.
Surveyor General.

The ARCTIC 6LEEP.--l was, of courbe, fam.
iliar with the benumbed and almost l9thargc
sensation Of extreme cold; and once, when
exposed tor some hours in the mid winter Of
BalHn's Bay | had expcrinced symptoms
which compared TO the difused paralysis OF
the eectrogalyanic shock. But had treat
ed The aeepy co@toH Of freezing as sopcthing
like the establishment ofa romance. ] had
eylnced now 10 the contrary. Bors Il and
Morton, two Of our stoutest men, came to me-
begging permission 10 sleep; they were not
cold; Che wind lid not enter them now; "a
little sleep was all they wanted" Presently
Haus was found nearly stiff under q dti.t ,aud
Thomas, bolt upright had bis eyes closed. and
ronll la4l, ..li.-..late. II iast JuIr Bake
threw himself on the snow, andrefuSed to rise.
They did not complain Of feeling cold but it
was in vain that wrcstIed, boxed, ran. an.
gued, jeered, or reprimanded: an immediate
battle could not be avoided The foe was of
level ice, and the walking excellent eau
not tell how long it tooks us to make thenine
miles; for we were in strange sort Of stupor,
and had little apprehension of time 1t was
probably about four hours. We kept our-
selves awake by imposingo on each other con,
tinred articulation of words; they must have
been incOhercnt enough. recall thyse hours
es among the most wretchod have ever gore
through; we were neither ofus in our right
senses, and retained very confused Iecollec.
ton of what produced our arrival at the tent
We both of u.s. however, remember bear
who walked leisurely before Us aud tore up
as he vent jumper that Mr.. McGhry hat
improvidenty thrown off the day before. HI
tore ltinto shrees, and rolled it into q ball
but never offered to interfere with our pro
gress. ! lremember this, and with il q con
fused idea that our tent end builaorobt
might probably share the same fate. God
frey, with whom the memory Of tho day,
work may atone for many faults Of a htel
time, had a better eye than myself; ard, lool.
ing some miles ahead, he could see Chat ou
tent was undergoing the same unceremonou
treatment. | thought | saw it too but VI
were so drunken with cold that we strobe Oh
steadily, and, far aught l know, without qui
ckenmg our pace.
ATTACK FROM A BEAR-"NannooE, nan
nook p "a bear, a bear" cried Hans anO
Morton in breathe. 10 the scandal Of on
domestic regulations, the guns we've all i'm
practicable While the men were loading
, and capping anew, | seized my fellow cOmpo
nion six.shooter, aud ran on deck. A med
um.szed bear with four months cub was i
active warfare with our dogs. They wer
! hanging on their skirts, and she, with Won
/ deriul olertneSs, was picking out one yictir
after another, snatching him by the nape c
the neck and finging him many feet or ratl
1 er yards, by barely pcrceptble moyemeu
of her head. Tudla, our master dog, was q
ready hOrs de combat; he lad been toSse
tweed. Jenny, just as emerged from tn
hatch, was making an extraordinary SomerSC
of some fifty feet, and alighted senseleSs. OF
Whitley, staunch, but not bear-wiSe, had bee
the FIRST in the battle--he was yelping in he
plessnesS on the snow. 1t seemed as if ii
6 controversy was adjourned; and Nannook III
bear) evidently thought SO; for she turned 9
b to our beef barrels, and begin in the most u
concerned manner to turn them over, andno
n out their fatness, She was apparently as d
void Of fear as any Of the bears in the stori
s Of old Barentz and the Spitsbergen yoyagel
% she would really have escaped but for the q