The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1883-10-18

&c. TOUCHED UPON IN THE srNDAY y
MORNING NARRATIVE OF AN OLD SALT.
Ea>tport Cores spondcnce If the Cincinnati
Enquirer.
"What's the matter with my years y
repeated an cid fisherman whom en-
couutered in PassanaQuoddy Bay sun
day morning, rctectively taking hold OF
the upper half pt his right car, which
was all there was OF it, the lower part
being sloughcd away. "Well, III tell
you what the matter with EN- they re
troze of. had the business done iOr me
in Battins Bay, about five years back
He 81 Il nothing tol minute, but fell
to polishing the brass buttons on his pain
fully preserved Sunday coat. It was
very plain that he had put out into the
bay merely to have Il quiet smoke on the
element whereon he was most at home,
and not at all for business purposes. His
coat and truWSerS We're Il shining black.
with creaSeS and wrinkles in them tell
ing OF stowage in a dark chest during the
week his linen Was V0luminous about
the neck, where it was confined with
several yards OF black silk stock, and
his COW hide boots We're creased in streaks.
"lts, I'm an old WhHltr, and many 5
the year I've put in knocking about the
Arctic Ocean all the way from Batlin's
Bay to Behring's Straits. But I'm retir-
ed now The old iolnts are too stiff for
that kind uf business, and | reckon I'll
have t. PUT in my time tWiNt now and
kingdom come Il hauling in cod and mad
dock"
lie pull'-l at his short black pipe for a
few minutes, occasionally ramming his
thumb down into the red hot emberS to
make il draw more easily, and then in
yted We to "Tie Your boat up to the
stern and jump aboard, if you're mind
to talk. Take care of that sluoh- bucket
and keep your weather eye open, or you
will get Your Sunday tO4s full Of tar oil
the ropes"
Careful to avoid the slush bucket and
the ropes, presently found myself a.
board the smack. seated upon an upturn-
ed brine keg, ready to take down any
words OF wisdom that might fall from the
Patrarch'S lips.
The worst trouble that had in my
first voyage north was from sunhurn.
\ es, sir -Sunhurn. could stand the cold
when she was forty degrees below zero ;
| could stand the frozen noses and ears :
but bust my top-rails if | didn't suffer
the tormentS of hell the first time got
sunburnt in the Arctic regions. You see,
it was this way: We was laid up a few
days before the close Of summer making
repairs, in about a degrees north lati-
tude, and right early one morning par
ty Of us went ashore to look around. II
was pretty cold, and the consequence
was we were bundled up in half a dozen
thicknesses of undcrclothes. with fur
hoods over our heads, and looked like
tieas in buffalo robe.
"Weil, sir, along about noon time,
what, with the heat Of the sun, and the
hard exercise that we was taking IN get
ting over the snow and ice humm0cks,
was hot as tarnatiou, and just slipped
the hood off my head and went along for
awhile with nothing on it.
" Put on that hood. YOU fool hollow
ed one of the men. DO you want to get
sunburnt ? A few trecklcs won't hurt
me, says l. j never was much Of a beau
ty. But you're the fool 70 talk about
sun-burn in such a country as this
Il thought that settled the whole
business 50 | kept right along with my
bare head, while the other boys, who
were old hands at travel III the north,
kept covered up. The side of my face
that was next the sun was hot as fire,
while the side that was in the shade was
troze pretty stiff; but as we kept tack
ing around i'll going from place to place,
| showed first one side ana then the
other to the sun, and tile freezing and
cooking was pretty evenly divided.
You take and stick your head ceal
down to the chin in a bucket Of scaldin4
water, and keep ii there tor five minutes
and you'll know what felt like when
got back to the ship that night. NJ,
face was swelled up SO tEat couldn't
see out Of my eyes, and ouc Of the boy,
had to lead me around for three days
Ny head under the ham was So tender
thai | couldn't touch it to the pillow
and | took my sleep like | took my
whisky, standing The boys used t,
come around me and laugh and loIler
because tley said my head looked like {;
hog fattened up for Christmas; huJ i
wasn't no Joke for me, and couldn't IN
derstand the laughing until got wel
enough to see out Of my eyes into a look
my glass, ana then laughed, too, at the
picture.
"lou don't believe me, eh ? Don
he about it ! can see it in your eve:
that you don't but it's true all the same
and any man who has been we'll up nortl
in summer will tell you the same. Tn,
cap'n he told me the cause Of it was tha
the sun shines so straight up and dOWi
there than his rags burn like fire.
don't know nothing about that, but d,
know that sunburn is the painfules
danger in northern travel.
"Freezing- amt Il patching to it. Many
and many a time have had my nos
and years frose without suffering. Tn,
time got these years froze off ] didn'
| tend to them in time, or they'd a-beel
| all right. In fact, | was by myself to
| twenty four hours at the time it happen
ed, and did not know they were froz,
until some of the boys told me when
got back to the ship; but it was too late
| then to save them.
| son first going out into the cold
mans nose feels pretty painful but atte
| he has been out Tor while the pam VII
go away gradually, and just when he be
gins to feel all right some one will run u
and slap his warm hand on your nose
and say you fool, your nose is frozen
"When you put your finger to you
frozen nose it seems cold and hard, a
though you had hold of some one else
nose ; but it soon thaWs out under war;
hand, and never gives you any pain, un
less it has been frozen for long time
The boys kind o keep an eye on cac
others years and nose, and the conse
quence Is the frozen members is soon dis
kivered and thawed out
"The way that happened to be alon
for twenty-four hours was just this: Ha
a dozen of the boys had broke out wit
scurvy, and, as | had my rifle along,
trotted out one morning to see if couldn
shoot a hare, or an elk, or yes, or "a
Eskimo dog - any thing that would bill
up into soup and make a change for tn
sick boys from salt-meat and biscuit
If you are kind O. contemplating tax
ing trip to the pole you want to kno'
something about the scurvy, because 70
are bound to have it, unless you ar
mighty durn well provisioned. At frs
| %;