The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-20


| from side to side line, like sandal-lacinR.
! and the whole was bound down compactly TO
the sledge and on the top OF IL rode the family,
Kalutunah himself walking alongside and en-
couraRtng on his team rather with klnu pers,uia-
! sion than with the usual Esquimaux cruelys
! In front sat the mother the finest specimen OF
| the Esquimaux matron that had seem, In sn9
large hood of her foX-sxin coat, sort OF uorbal
! opossum-pouch nestled sleeping infant Close
/ beside the mother sat the boy TO whom have nave
before referred, their first born, and the fathers
pride. Next came girl, about seven years d oIui @
! and another, a three year old, was Wrappeu uP
| in an immense quantity OF 1urs, anu WAS
| lashed to the upstanders
Astbe sledge rounded to, near the vessel
! went out TO meet them. The children We're az
first little frightened, but they were soon got 20
! laugh and found that the same arts which win
| the affections of Christian babies were equally
| potent with the heathen. The wife remembered
| me well and called me "Doc-tee," while Kalu-
| tunah, q inning all over with delight pointed
| to his dogs, exclaiming with pride, They are
nne onesp to which 1 readily assented; and
then he added, 81 come TO give them all TO the
Nalegaksoab;" and to this also assented.
What surprised me most with this family was
their apparent Indifference to the cold. They
had come from Iteplik in slow marches,
stopping when tired in snow shelter, or in
deserted huts, and during this time our ther-
mometers were ranging from 800 TO 400 below
zero; and when they came on board out of this
temperature it never seemed to occur to them
to warm themselves, but they first wandered
all over the ship satisfying their curiosity.
A few hours afterwards there arrived family
of quite another description-Myouk and his
wife of the ragged coat. They had walked all
the way up from IteplilI, the woman carrying
her baby on her back all of these hundred and
fifty miles MyoulS was evidently at n loss to
find excuse tor paying me this visit; but he
put a bold front on, and like Kalutunah dis
covered q reason. 81 come to show the Male
gaksoak my wife and Daktagee," pointing to
husband, and the forlorn being that owned
him for father. But when he perceived that
timidly remarked, with another significant
point, "Ste made me come" and then started
of, doubtless to see what he could steal.
After encountering innumerable dangers
and hairbreadth escapes, and undergoing that
fatigue and exposure incident to such an un-
dertaking, the fond hopes of the Expedition
were realized on the 18th Of May, 1861, when
he sighted the open sea. He thus describes
his arrival at its shores, and the sight pre-
sented when he first, from am ice peak, saw
the long-talked-of open sea which is supposed
to surround the North Pole:-
Standing against the dark sky at the north
there was seen in the dim outline the white
sloping summit of a noble headland-the most
northern known land upon the globe judged
fifty miles from the North Pole. Nearer, another
bold cape stood forth; and nearer still the head
land, for which had been steering my course
the day before rose majestically from the sea,
as If pushing up into the very skies a lofty
mountain peak, upon which the winter had
dropped its diadem of SHOWS. There was no
land visible except the coast upon which
stood.
The sea beneath me was a mottled sheet of
white and dark patches, these latter being
either soft decaying ice, OF PLACES where the ice
heightened in intensity OF shade and multiplied
in size as they receded, until the belt OF the
uniform color of dark blue. The old and solid
foes (some quarter of a mile, and others
miles, across) and the massive ridges and wastes
of hummocked ice which lay piled between
them and around their margins were the only
paris Of the sea which retained the whiteness
and solidity of winter.
reserve to another chapter all discussion of
the value of the observations which made from
this point. Suffice IL here 10 say that all the
evidences showed that stood upon the shores
Of the Polar Basin, and that the broad ocean lay
at my feet; that the land upon which / stood,
eliminating in the distant cape before me, was
but point of land projecting far into it, like
the Ceyerro Nostochnoi Moss Of the opposite
coast of Siberia; and that the little margin of
ice which lined the shore was being steadily
worn away; and within a month, the whole sea
would be as free from ice as l had seen the north
water of Bafin Bay-interrupted only by
moving pack, drifting TO ana fro at the will OF
the winds and currents.
To proceed further north was, of course, i'm
possible. The crack which / have mentioned
would of itself have prevented us from making
the opposite land, and the ice outside the bay
was even more decayed than inside. Several
open patches were observed near the shore, and
in one of these there was seen flock of DOUekie.
AZ several pointSduring our marchup Kennedy
Channel had observed their breeding-placeS,
but was not little surprised to see the birds
at this locality so early in the season. Several
way noTthward, seeking the open water for
their feeding grounds. and summer haunts.
ice after the early days of June.
And now my journey was ended and had
nothing TO do but make my way back to Port
Foulke. The advancing season, the rapidity
with which the thaw was taking place, the GER
talnty that the open water eating into
Smith Sound as well through Ba1fin Bay
from the south, as through kennedy Channel
from the north thus ,endangering my return
across to the Greenland shore, warned me that
had fingered long enough,
1t now only remained for us to plant our flag
IN token OF our discovery, and TO deposit
record in proof of our presence The flags were
tied 10 the whip-lash, and suspended between
TWO tall rocks, and while we were building a
cairn, they were allowed to flutter in the breeze;
Chen, tearing leaf from my notebook, wrote
on IL as folloWs;-
been reached, visited by the undersigned, May
18th, 10Th, 1861, accompanied by George f. Knorr,
oilsome march of forty-six days from my winter
harbor near cape Alexander, at the mouth of Smith
longitude zoo SO W. further progress was stopped
b. rotten ice and cracks. Kennedy Channel appears
naYigable ut least during the months of July August
and september, 90 hence to my winter harbor, to
"May 18TH 1861, l. Hayes"
This record being carefully secured in a small
glass vial, which l brought for the purpose, it
was deposited beneath the cairn; and then our
faces were turned homewards. But / quit the
place with reluctance. 1t possessed fascina-
tions that l contemplated my situation, with
one solitary companion, in that hitherto un-
trodden desert; while my nearness to the earth's
axis, the consciousness OF standing upon land
far beyond the limits OF previous observation,
the reflections which crossed my mind respect
ing the vast ocean which lay spread out before
me, the thought that these ice-girdled waters
might lash the shores OF distant Islands Where
dwell human beings of an unknown race. We're
circumstances calculated to invest the very air
| with mystery, to deepen the curiosity, and TO