, 1880-10-22
Schwatka.

"
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 ther-
mometer reached the lowest point that
we saw, during our, sojourn, in the ch-
mate-in the,morning 70f, at noon 69',
and at 5, o'clock in the afternoon the ex-
tracrdinary mark Of 10. Equeeisk
moved his igloo about 10 miles ahead
this day, but the other two igloos were
compelled to wait for their hunters Is
come in. To-day, notwithstanding the
intensity Of the cold, was very pleasant
There was scarcely a breath OF wind,
and our igloo door was open the entire
day. In fact, it was a far pleasanter
day to be out Of doors than with So
warmer and the wind blowing Janu-
ary proved to be- avery stormy month;
indeed, there were but ii days in which
we could. travel, and, we only accom-
plished 81 miles toward our destination
that timenilOne day, then l9thy wetlay
over to follow up some musk OK tracks
we had seen the day previous, The
weather was fine, notwithstanding a very
strong wind and temperature Of 65 deg
We followed the tracks about 25
miles and only desisted when we found
that wolves were ahead Of US and had
already frightened the game away. The
country is filled with reindeer, and On
every hillside their breath can be seen
rising like cloadsof steam Aherd that
was frightened by the dogs, which were
following the musk OK tracks, scampered
off in every direction, and it looked IS
if lot of locomotives had been let loose
over the country, the smoke coming
from their lungs in great pufs as they
ran, and streaming along behind them
When the sledges al g moving during q
clear, cold day the position of any one
Of them is known to,sthe 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 niles 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 coldest month Of
our experience, with mean thermon-
eter of--532 degrees, lowest-7l de
grees, and the highest 23 degrees Fab
renheit. We experienced one Storm of
l3 days duration during the latter part
Of January and the early part Of Febru.
ary, and found but Is days during,
which we could travel during the latter
month.
IL was almost our daily experience
now TO lose one or more dogs. They got
plenty of reindeer meat, but lit was
usually fed frozen, ard has but little
nourishment in it in that state for cold
weather, when fat and warming food is
required. A seal skin full of bluobei
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 10 warm our igloos or cook
with. Our meals had TO be eaten cold
that is, frozen so solid that it had to be
sawed and then broken into convenient
sized Jumps, which when first put into
the mouth were ike stones, or cooked
with moss gathered from the hillsides
and the snow haaten of with stick.
Meat will freeze IN temperature little
below the freezing point, hut II is then
II 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
Dreathed 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.
lhe luxury of a cooked meal could only
be iHdulged in on the days when we
We're laying over IN camp, as to gather
the moss and cook the meal would take
from thres to four hours. wssgfprj
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
Iooooah shot one Of three that we're
eating with our dogs the meat he had
thrown out for food. .a
They killed and ate four Of Equeesik's
dogs, and attacked him when he went
OUT ; OF the igloo to drive them of. He
Killed two OF his assailants with his rife
and Two others 10y the most Internal
traps ever devised. He set two keenly
sharpened knife blades in the ice and
covered them with hood, which the
wolves ESEpI OF 40 eoroa TINA oE,;p ~