The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-10-21
Schwatka.


day of the year and made about seven
miles in a southeast direction, and en-
camped and stopped to hunt, the last
halt we made for that purpose The
mean temperature for December was
50.4' Fahrenheit, the lowest co., and
the highest 26'. January Sd the Their
mometer reached the lowest point that
we saw during our sojourn in the eli
mate-in the morning TO-, at noon So,
and at 5 o'clock in the afternoon the ex-
tracrdinary mark of IL. Equeeisk
moved his igloo about 10 miles ahead
this day, but the other two igloos were
compelled to wait for their hunters t.,
come in. To-day, Notwithstanding the
intensity of the cold, was very pleasant
There was scarcely breath OF wind,
and our igloo door was open the entire
day. In fact, it was far pleasanter
day to be out of doors than with So
warmer and the wind blowing Janu-
airy proved to be very stormy month;
indeed, there were but i days in which
we could travel, and We only accom-
plished 81 miles toward our destination
that time. One day, the 10Th, We lay
over to follow up some musk OK tracks
we had seen the day previous. The
weather was fine, Notwithstanding very
strong wind and temperature Of IS
degrees.
We followed the tracks about IS
miles and only desisted when we found
that wolves were ahead of US and had
already frightened the game away. The
country is filed with reindeer, and on
every hillside their breath can be seen
rising like clouds of steam. A herd that
was frightened by the dogs, which were
following the musk OK tracks, scampered
off in every direction, and it looked as
if lot Of locomotives had been let loose
over the country, the smoke coming
from their lungs in great puffs as they
ran, and streaming along behind them.
When the sledges ale moving during a
clear, cold day the position of any one
of them is known to the team, though
they may be widely separated. Some
times, for the advantage of hunting to
be obtained thereby, our igloos have
been separated by days march of
about 10 miles, and at that distance the
condensed breath of the dogs and people
could be distinctly seen and the position
of the igloos located.
January proved the coolest month of
our experience, with a mean thermom-
eter of-53.2 degrees, lowest-7l de-
grees, and the highest-23 degrees Fab
renheit. We experienced one s.orm of
Is days duration during the latter part
of January and the early part of Febru.
airy, and found but Is days during
which we corld travel during the latter
month.
1t was almost our daily experience
now to lose one or more dogs. They got
plenty of reindeer meat, but it was
usually fed frozen, and has but little
nourishment in it in that state for cold
weather, when fat and warming food is
required. A seal skin full Of bluober
each week would have saved many of
our dogs, but we had none to spare for
them, as we were reduced to the point
when we had to save it exclusively for
lighting the igloos at night We could
not use it to warm our igloos or cook
with. Our meals had to be eaten cold
that is, frozen SO solid that it had &c be
sawed and then broken into convenient
sized Jumps, which when first put into
the mouth were like stones, or cooked
with moss gathered from the hillsides
and the snow beaten off with a stick.
Meat will freeze in temperature little
below the freezing point, but it is then
in very different condition from the
freezing it gets at from so to 20 degrees
below zero. Then every piece of meat
you put in your mouth has first to be
breathed upon to thaw the surface, or it
will stick to your tongue and the sides
of your mouth and lips like frosty iron,
and with the same disagreeable results.
The luxury of Q cooked meal could only
be INDUCED in on the days when we
were laying over in camp, as to gather
the moss and cook the meal would take
from three to four hours.
The country now began to swarm with
wolves as well as reindeer, and we would
meet them daily. Often they would
come close to the igloos, and one night
Tooooah shot enc Of three that were
eating with our dogs the meat he had
thrown on, for food.
They killed and ate four Of Equeesik's
4