The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-08-06

once.
Two of my unfortunate shipmates, cauyn
In a blight of the flying whale line. were
drawn out of my sight i'll moment. disap-
peaT1ng, with one simultaneous shrek, into
the deep waters.
Never shall l forget the look of their wild,
horror-stricken faces. which for an instant.
were revealed to me ere the sea closed over
them forever.
The rest of us We're, meanwhile, strug-
Cling in the cold waters, two of the men
holding on to oars, and the mate and
clingiug to a spur of ice projecting out from
the side of one of the bergs.
To add to the peril of our situation, a
thick mist had gathered, hiding the other
boats from our view.
We shouted with all our might, but we
had little hopes of making ourselves heard.
Now and then, we still chung to our
hold, we could distinguish far up in the
mist through the opening in the ice ravne,
the form of some Arctic bird wheeling past
with rushing winds, while around us fell
the eternal roar of the icebergs, as they
wee washed by the everlasting tides.
Finally the mate pointed out to me an
opening in the side OF the berg just above
our heads, leading probably to some cavern
in the very bosom of the iceberg.
How to reach IT, however, we could not
determine, until at length, unbuckling the
long strap around his waist the mate
formed a sort of hitch at the end and threw
it over spur of ice projecting just above
the hollow. By this, with our half-be-
numed hands, we four men contived to
draw ourselves up 10 the cave.
We entered it to fad it comparatively
warm; and By exercising, which we now
had plenty of room to do, we contived to
infuse some degree of warmth into our
chilled frames.
Then we commenced to explore the cave
1t was more than four feet Deep and had
a sloping roof, from which, like "crystal
chandeliers" depended large fragments of
ice Of almost every shape and hue. There
were green, gold, blue and purple, all hang
| ing downward, while at the sides the cave
seemed studded with precious stones, gleam-
ing with a beautiful luster almost dazzling
| to the eye,
Il think we are safe enough now." said
| the mate. The boats viii, doubtless, be
here soon, as they were pulling after US
| when we got fast
"Aye, aye, sir,' answered the boat
steerer; "Lut let us shout so as to make
sure"
We adopted this suggestion, but it SEEM
ed to us as if our voices did not penetrate
beyond the ice gorge.
Meanwhile we waited vainly for the ap-
| pearance of the boats.
| Night came upon us a dark, gloomy
night, and still there we were in the cave
All night long we there remained without
closing our eyes.
In the morning, the mist having cleared,
We took a survey of our situation. 1t was
! about the same as on the previous night,
still with no sign of the boats.
As on the previous night we again
shouted, and thought this time we heard a
response.
"Hark ~ said the boat-steerer; 81 think
there's the sound of paddles'
We all listened to hear it quite dis
tinctly.
"D'p! dip Dip"
Eagerly we gazed round the edge of the
cave opening, expecting every moment
to behold one of our boats coming to the
! rescue.
| Suddenly we saw the edge of a boat come
round the corner of the ice gorge.
Not ours, however, but one of far dif-
ferent kind.
| was al1 1pr1tt tIya IN,
was made of sealskin tightly drawn over
ribs of whslebone.
1t contained about half-a-dozen Esau-
maux, wearing garbs of sealskin and
having great rings in their ears and
nostils.
They We're a most uncouth-looking set.
being short, squat and armed with spears
! and lances of fishbone.
The moment they caught sight of us they
stopped their boat and stood gazing toward
us with hideous expression of counte-
! nance.
By signs we endeavored to make them
understand what had happened, and that
we We're anxious to get back to our ship.
"Celupi - celupi /" they all screamed
by which we mG, o5i hrm TO mean
tobacco, ha'1r nz me- ua..,- Of
this region ext res she....o.,es in a sln.ilar
manner.
We shoos our heads in The negative, i'm
plying that we had no tobacco, which was
really the truth, as we had chewed up all
in our possession during the night.
! They seemed, however, to doubt us, and
| Withdrawing round the angle they held
what seemed 10 be a consultation, Judging
/ by the sound of their voices
Finally they reappeared, and we knew it
was with hostile intent
party of whalemen had recently COM
mltted an outrage upon their tribe, whom
they had driven from their vessel, which
the natives had boarded for the purpose of
trafficking, and had afterward pelted them
with rotten potatoes.