The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1879-05-20
Life fn u Snow Hut,

Professor L.. Ltmmclcin, Of Wisconsin,
naturalist Of the Arctic expedition on board
ing letter to IL friend in milwaukee,. FTlfSm
st. Johns to Cumberland Sound we encoun-
tered only four terrible gales making the
pa>-ag in fifteen days-going over the same
distance in thirty-tivc hours that took us
sixteen days last year, when we were forty
one days TO our first harbor. When we left
our winter harbor (July 7th, or more pro-
pcrly the 10th, us this was the tlato.wc fairly
got underway we took the ice and worked
through two hundred and fifty miles of il.
IL was here that tho schooner got jammcd
aud sprung Il leak that closed after we got
to anchor on the Greenland coast, and re-
opened OH the 10Th of October Off Sable.
AS you know there was no expedition TO
meet us, so we had to go back again to Cum
berland with our sixteen Esquimaux and
thirty dogs, with all their accoutermcnts.
We had but got fairly started when the
wind sprung up from the southeast 1t
soon increased to Il fair gale, and kept in
crcusing. We were in close proximity TO
tho heavy Balin's Bay back 0hc heaviest
ever known--no vessel got through, and
drifting right into it. We lay hove to four
days, and when it cleared We found our
selves in the mouth of Exeter Sound, two
hundred miles to the westward of our course
We had driftcd all this time among hundreds
OF iccbcrgs without getting foul of any.
The poor EsquimauX were battcncd down
in the hold all this time, and thirty wild
dogs running the decks. This was 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, briefly, for the
passage. My companion and | lived in a
snow hut eight months on a small island
No light but a tin box with an oil burner in
1t, and burning seal oil. Our allowance OF
fuel gave out two months before tho cold
Weather did. Our greatest cold was in Jan
uary. 1t was tifty-two degrees, or eighty
| two degrees below freezing point. The nlcr-
curry exposed III dish froZc solid, 80 as to
be handled like chip, at forty-two degrees.
The heaviest snow fell on June 5th, 9th and
7th, and walked ashore Oh the ice on the
18th of July. On the last day of April |
undertook n long journey with some Esqui-
mauX " ith dog teams, and while sleeping
alongside of the shed, thirty five miles from
land, with a forty mile north wind blowing
and temperature of forty-on degrees, /
either froZc or caught cold in the first finger
.of my left hand, which left me a crippled
hand until the end Of July, and now have
much deformcd and nearly useless finger.
frozc my nose times without number, even
after made a thick covering of some heavy
cloth your mother gave Inc for the purpose.
| substituted fine reindeer skin while travel
ing, which answered better. One of the
sailors frozc a foot 80 badly that he was
laid up for seven months This was in
November, while trying to take care of q
whale. / have not been sick day since
4 left New London My bunk is just six feet
long, ,at'vo and one-half feet wide, and the
same height. In this space slept, worked
and studied In It kept three guns, all
my clothcs bedding, forty-two hooks, pipes,
tobacco and hundred other things. Yoi
shake your head, and would say, If yor
know Esquinatx, "KinnaH chin sha,ag
icnHng." But II is the fact
Z. = d