The Cecil Whig., 1885-12-05

Who smiled in leaving me, He put him
down,
Beyond ali hurt, beyond my sight. and hade
Him wait for ne! Shall not then be glad,
And, thanking God, press on TO overtake?
Two Thanksgivings in the Arctic.
EY LIEUT.. FREDERICK SCIIwATKA.
Most of my young readers, and the OLD
ones too, FOR that matter. may think that
the proper time for real heart felt
Thanksgiving on the part of an arctic
expedition should take place Just after
it is all over, if they have returned i'll
safety. Yet, after all, an expedition in
the frozen north-land can have Thanks
giving Just as well as the more favored
| ones at home; and although a person
viewing both. were such things possible,
would say that the gathering seemed
little more cheerless "'way up north,
in it, sn extremely cold and nnnviting is
everything around them by co trast,
would remember their arctic Thanks Civ
ings rs the most pleasing and cheerful of
any they have ever had. .
! There is one curious thing about an
arctic Thanksgiving, and some of my
readers may think it would At once deter
Il party from observing the day in that
region; vou clu not tell exactly when
| Thanks giving GENES. We folks at home
| nave nn tr"uhi" in this respect, for the
| President of the United States fixes it by
| proclamation, and the Governors of the
different SS..,cs and Territories follow
| him with their proclaim .tlons, naming
the same date. and thus we know Just
poltant than that. jnSG when to eat them.
Thanksgiving Day is usually, by a sort
of u':writtcn law. the last Thursday in
| November, bat there have been depar
tureS from this rule. and there is no
knowing when one will occur az lin. A
| party in the arctic, therefore, far re
m@vcd fru'n post and telegraph Offices,
are never certain Just when to bring their
can opener irto play i'll order to ''kill'
their turkey. In the polar regions. We
we're compelled to keep the turkey in
such a little pen that that kind of an in
strument was needed to allow it to see
day light; and very little did it see then,
with only an hour or two of twilight at
noon. So the only way out of the di-
limm', if polar party must have a
Thanksgiving, is for the commander to
appoint day himself and if il does not
agree with the date fixed ut home, he
cannot help it if tie President does feel
badly when they return.
We 81 ent two Thanksgivings in the
frigid zpt es, and as one was while We
were ''at home" in north Hudson Bay,
and the other while we were travelling
with dogs and sledges, | will briefly de-
scribe them both.
Our first one in the northern Hudson
Bay found us living like E~quimaux in
houses built of ice and snow. We had
plenty of civilized provisions with us,
however, and among them were some
canned turkey and chicken. both mixed
together, but unfortunately the labels
had become wet i'll fhe long sea-vnyage,
and had dropped off, SCI that We couli
not tell the difference between the true
chickens and the chickens put up and
expressed it. We had 10 place to keep
our provisions so as to project them from
the cold, and as the thermometer had
been down to forty degrees below gro,
verything was frozen solid and stiff In
this condition l would defy any one to
| tell the difference between canned frozen
turkey and chicken 1t would be like
asking boy to shut his eyes and tell
which end of an icIcle he was chewing
upon. SO our Thanksgiving turkey was
a little bit uncertain.
Ebiei bing, oul ESquimau Interpreter,
had told ali the natives roundabout that
an important day with the white men
was about to take place; and as the Es-
quimaux had been in the habit of as
sembling at our snow-hnuse after meals
for such little morsels as they could pick
up-geperally a small painful of boiled
hard bread or sea-crackerS well sweet
ened with molasses-they naturally as
sociated an ''important day. with one
when they would get an important addi-
tion-to their usually rough rations. Ac-
cordingly they were on hand in full force.
and knowing of their coming, We pre-
pared for them accordingly. The can
ned turkey, or whatever it was, was
placed aside, nice saddle of reindeer
had in the snow-house alongside, and
ha'fdozen ptarmigan, or arctic grouse,
were gotten rei dy, being present from
a couple of Esquimaux boys, although
we did no. forget that a present from a
savage means that you m ,st give some
thing in return.
A huge walrus fipper WAS allowed to
simmer for whole day in one of the
curious little stone kettles of these cur.
Gus people, this part Of the cooking be-
lnf left with some native woman
employed for that purpose, and in
snow house not far from ours. Cooked |
i'll this manner for SO long a time, nipper
tastes like some sort of iellied meat, |
served hot; but as the walrus lives on !
clans this II ,vor is the foremost in this |
dish. T. those of my readers who live |
along the seacolst, aud delight in clam
bakes and clam chowders, | am sure wal |
rus iipper would not prove an unaccept-
able dish. y big suroin of seal was
fixed up as a roast, aud We aid not forget |
to have Il steak or two from the round of
a musk OK, and as this Is sometimes |
called the musk sheep, we dressed it as
mutton with capers. Two large arctic |
salmon, caught by these fishermen of the |
frigid zones through ice four or five feet |
thick. and looking like wooden Indian
clubs, they were frozen SO stiff, were