The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-12-27

Professor L. Lummelein, of Wi,con-
sin, naturalist of the ArtiG expedition on
board the ship Florence, has written the
following letter to a friend in Milwaukee :
From St. Johns to Cumberland Sound
we encountered only four terrific gales
making the passage in fifteen days-go-
ing over the same distance in thirty-five
hours that took US sixteen days last year.
when we were iorty-one days TO our first
harbor. When we left our winter haTbor
(July 7, or more properly the 10Th, a.
this was the date we feirly got underway,
we took the ice snd-wUrhed throw two
hundred and fifty np Les of IT. Il 1ga-
bere@ hat the
sprung leak that closed after we got 10
anchor on the Greenland coast, and re-
opened on the 10Th day OF October off St-
BILE As yeu know, there was no expe
ditiOn to meet us, so we had to 90 back
again to Cum berland with our sixteen
E,quimaux and thirty dogs, with all
their outements We had but got
fair started when the wind sprung
up from the southeast. 1t soon increased
to q living gale, and kept increasing. We
were in close proximity TO the heavy
Bafin's Bay back (tbe heaviest ever
known-no vessel got through, and
drifting right into it.
We lay hove to four days, and when it
cleared we found ourselves in the mouth
of Exeter Sound, two hundred miles
to the westward of our course. We had
drifted all this time among hundreds OF
icebergs without getting foul of any
The poor E-quimaux were battened
Down in the hold all this time, and thirty
wild dogs running the decks. This wa
the heaviest gale we have encountered,
and came within an ace of tripping the
schooner many times. One sea swept
everything off the decks and one the
house. but.we only lost four dogs. So
much, bri5 fly, for the passage.
My companion and lived in snow
hut eight months on a small island. No
light pat one of your tin boxes with an
oil burner in it, and burning seal oil Our
allowance of fuel gave out Two months
before the cold weather did. Our great
est cold was in January. It was fifty
two degrees, or eighty two degrees below
freezing point. The mercury exposed in
q dish frOze solid, 50 as to be handled ike
a chip, at fortY-two degrees The heav- /
lest snow fell on June 5, and I walk
ed ashore on the ice en- the 14th of July, /
and sketched of the harbor and schooner. /
Ga the last day of April l undertook /
a long Journey with some EsquimsuX /
with dog teams, and while sleeping along
side of the sled, thirty-f miles from /
land, with iorty mile north wind blow /
ing and a temperature of forty-one de- /
grees. either tro zs or caught cold in the /
first fnget OF my left hand, which lett me /
q crippled hand until the end Of July, /
and / nov have a much deformed and 4
nearly useless finger. I froze my nose /
times without number. even after | /
made thick covering of. some heavy |
cloth your mother gave me for the Fur-
pose. | substituted fine reindeer skin |
while travelling, which answered better. |
One of the sailors froze foot SO badly |
that he was laid up for seven months. /
Two others were less badly frozen. This /
was in November, while trying to take |
care of whale. | have not been sick q
day since / lett New London.
My bunk is just six feet long, two and /
one-half feet wide, AMI the same height. /
In this space l slept, worked and studied. |
In it l Kept three guns, all my cloths /
bedding, forty-twe books, pipes, tobacco |
and hundred other things You shske |
your head, and wsuld say, if you knew /
Exguimaux, Kinnati tbin shanglent- /
ing" But such is the fact.