The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-09-29
ARCTIC TRAVELS.

no very great undertaking to spend a
winter in the arctic regions; but in
earlles times this was not so; every one
shrank from the dreadful climate, even
in summer, and feared the terrors of
the sunless land 1t is true that in old
times they did not possess all the adj
yantages. afforded by r2odern science to
those who undertake arctic travel, but
still 1t seems strange that the prospect
OF such an undertaking should have
been regarded with such terror
Certain Muscovy merchants, we read,
actually obtained pardon for some
malefactOrs condemned to death, on
condition that they should remain a
year in Greenland, where call necessa-
ries of clothes and provisions were to
be provided, and ample payment made
for accomplishing the task" The
terms were accepted and the convicts
embarked; 'but on viewing the place
of their Punishment they rejected the
offer; they preferred death to living
there"
In 1880, however, the feat was ac-
complished. against the will of him who
did it, under far less favorable con-
ditions. Captain Goodler, of the Salu-
tatlon, one OF The vessels engaged in the
whale fishery, left the Foreland for
Green Harbor, in order to take in
twenty men who had been transferred
to one of the other vessels. Finding
himself near a part of the coast famous
for the abundance of its venison, he
sent eight men ashore in boat to hunt.
This was on the 10Th of August. They
carried with them couple of dogs, a
matchbox, two lances and a finder
box, and were so fortunate as to kill no
less than fourteen deer that very day.
AS they were extremely tired, they re-
solved to rest on shore that night and
return to their snip the next day. But
the weather being hazy and much ice
arising between the sea and the land,
the vessel was forced to stand out to
sea, and they lost sight of her. "Under
these circumstances they decided to
hunt along the shore to Green Harbor,
where she was to pick up the twenty
men. They killed eight deer more,
and, with their boat well laden with
provisions, arrived at the place to find
that the twenty men had been picked
up already and that their ship had de-
parted"
The time for leaving Greenland being
the goth of August, they lost not a
moment in pushing into Bell Sound,
the place of general rendezvous, some
fifty miles away. But though they
threw their venison overheard, they
made but slow progress, and "being
without compass, and uncertain of
the navigation, they reached the place
too late. The fleet, having fair wind,
had sailed away"
Their disappointment was very great,
and the misery of being entirely de-
serted was increased by the conviction
that they must winter in a cold, inhos-
pitable and desOlate region, without
anything wherewith to make them
selves comfortable. If they had been
mere sailors taken at random, instead
of picked men accustomed to hunting,
all would have been over with them. As
DR.. Rae, the Arctic explorer, once
pointed out to me, this is the real secret
of life or death in these regions. In his
own marvellous expedition he had the
Hudson Bay Company's men with him,
who do not waste powder. These eight
poor fellows, however, were not sensi-
BILE of the advantage they possessed in
this respect, or, at all events, it COM
forted them but little. They only re-
membered stories of desertion, and now
nine of their fellow-countrymen had
been abandoned at that very place and
had come to a miserable end, their
bodies having been found the next
spring, miserably disfigured by beasts
of prey" They took counsel and re-
solved to winter at Bell Sound, where a
hut had been built by the Dutch for the
whalemen. 1t was, however, eighty
feet long and fifty broad, so that it was
necessary to build a much smaller COM
partment within it for themselves. They
were thus, it will be observed, well pro-
vided with fire-wood-an immense adj
vantage in those regions. Even pro-
visions were not wanting, though at
first fresh meat was so scarce that they
confined themselves to one meal a day.
On Wednesdays and Fridays they had
only whale fritters, scraps of fat thrown
away after the oil had been extracted
They mended their clothes. which were
worn out, as well as they could with
threads of rope-yarn and needles Of
whalebone.
On the 14th of October the sun sank
to rise no more for months, and theil
spirits sank with it. Nevertheless "the
moon was in view all this time both
night and day, shining for the most part
as it does during bright weather in En-
! gland. When it was obscured they used
an oil lamp with wicks made from rope
yarn" As the new year commenced
the cold grew more intense; "blisters
would rise on the poor fellows flesh as
though they had been burned with fire,
and iron stuck to their fingers like bird
lime AT first they procured fresh
water from a spring beneath cliff and
under thick ice; but from the 10th OF
January until the Goth of May they had
to melt the snow for it with hot irons.
During February no less than forty
bears visited the hut, of which seven
were killed, and they trapped fifty foxes.
On the oath of May the first deer was
seen, but their only remaining dog had
grown so fat and lazy that it refused to
hunt. On the next day, being all but
one, Thomas Ayers, collected together
for prayers in the smaller hut, they sud
denly heard voices calling Hey!' to
which, not without surprise Gas one can
i wall