The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-05-16
THE E SEARCH.
The Expedition Preparing for Arctic Sea-
The Bear and Her Crew.

Tho Bear ana def Grew.
New York Letter.
The Bear, which I visited pretty thor
oughly, is a trim Little 700-ton three
masted steamer, low in the water, and
painted as black as n crow. l met on
| board of her Lieutenant Colwell, q
pleasant and intelligent young officer
who went on the Proteus expedition and
made that memorable journey back
oven the ice when the Proteus went
down between two ice foes a Thousand
miles away from civilization. The Bear
is fitted out with every possible equip
ment for the work, having stores for
three years, two extra screws, 1000 nj
tro-glycerine cartridges for blasting q
harbor in an iceberg if necessary, a
steam launch, boats of every shape and
| sledges. The cabins and mess rooms
have been double sheathed with felt and
wood, and double windows have been
put over the port holes. She will leave
for st. Johns Just as soon as the Cardiff
coal which is expected from the other
side gets here, and will be flor the far
North by the beginning Of next month.
Her engines are not new, but will en-
able her to make eight or nine knots an
hour with ease.
Lieut.. Colwell tells me that the men
are just as anxious to get off as if the
trip was to be q pleasure excursion in-
stead of dangerous expedition in which
the chances Of getting back and of not
getting back are about even. "Two
years from now," he said with a laugh,
you may be over here talking with 9TH
er fellows getting ready to look for the
Bear and her crew." The matter was
made a joke, although he knew better
than / how little a joke it may become.
This spirit of cheerful eagerness to go
upon a dangerous business may partake
somewhat of bravado, but it scarcely
seems so when the numbers who daily
apply for q berth on the Bear are con
sidered, and most of the men have had
experience in arctic seas. Every one
aboutth little ship seemed to be in the
best of spirits, and only nee did Lieut..
Colwell look very grave for a moment
when he pointed to the photographs
of children hanging in some of the Of
ticer's berths: "Three of us leave
children behind" he said.
According to the expectation of the
Bears officers. the first tid1ngs Of
Greedy will be heard from the Esqui-
maux who inhabit that dreary strip of
coast below Cape York. There are
about l25 Esquimaux who range up
and down a coast line of several hun
dred miles. "They are" said the lieu
tenant, about the lowest hu-
man creatures [ have ever seen,
living in holes and on any
thing they find. When I left there on
my way back from the Proteus, these
Esquimaux had caught a flock of birds
about the size Of small chickens and
were liavinga regular orgie. Their way
OF eating n bird wa to take it alive and
bite off its head; then the skin was
pnlled off by main force and the flesh
was eaten raw, just as we would bite in
to an orange. Ihave seen children just
able to walk toddling around with q raw
bird in their hands and their faces
smeared with warm blood. These peo-
pie hear all that can be known about
strangers to the North of them. If we
hear nothing there, then we shall find
winter quarters in some protected cove
and start with our sledges and dogs.
Ihe dogs never complain of cold.
When the Proteus went down we let
the dogs go, and away they scampered
direct for the pole, as if bound for home.
We may go o thousand miles with
sledges; while half of the men sleep in
the sleds the others push or pull. IT is
queer work when the Arctic night closes
around you for months and the brilliant
Boreal lights fash over that desert of
awful silence and gloom, not o civilized
community within a thousand miles or
more, icy water and a mile deep under
you and unknown dangers ahead. But
it is exciting, and there is not a man
who has been North would go now but
for wife and babies.'