Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-01-13

of ice, however, to hunt for an animal
the drifting waters might separate
their from it so that they could
never return, and this proba-
bility would confine their hunting
tours to a very limited area. So, take
it all in all, however dark and dismal
their outlook seemed. there were many
bright possibilities breaking through the
black clouds, and after the first depres-
sion was over they looked at things in a
far more cheerful light. They went to
sleep early to save their OIL curling up on
the snow bed in their reindeer clothes-a
not unusual circumstance, for they often
stay out at night to hunt, building a
small igloo to sleep in-the only change
being to withdraw their arms from their
sleeves and fold them on their bare
breasts, common practice among these
people when in a chilly, freless snow
house or taking nap in their clothes.
1t was almost certain that they would
not be missed the first night at the vii
lage sufficient to cause alarm, as nightly
absences of hunters are frequent when
watching a seal hole or when success has
taken them far away.
Here they We're, then, sailing away in
the dead of night with a lighted ship
that could carry thousands of tons of
freight. and this, too in the very midst
of an Arctic winter and despite the as
sertions of many newspapers of the At
lantic seaboard that, jealous of their
Canadian cousins and their proposed
Hudson bay route to England, have con-
stantly asserted that it is only navigable
l or two 70
able summers. The stormy night wore
out its weary length, and when at 10
O'Clock the day began breaking there was
some sign of cessation in the stormy
quarter, but they could hear the outlying
ice pack growing like distant thunder.
though their little island of ice was still
intact and in comparatively smooth
water.
To their agreeable surprise the signs
kept on for the better, and some three
hours later-the length of the short day
saw the storm cease and the early evening
gave them a breeze from the south
which, coupled with the northern current
in the bay, sent them floating toward
home, the happiest crew in the Polar
seas. Late that night Polar bear broke
into their store igloo before even the dogs
were aware of its presence, and they got
out to save their meat. \ scufile ensued
with the dogs, an unsuccessful shot was
fired and brllin went scurrying away with
the dogs in hot pursuit, one of them
never coming back, but whether he was
lost on a cake of ice in the darkness by its
floating away, or the bear made a meal
of him was never known.
All that night the long southern swells
of the sea broke on the ice in a pleasant
air that sang of home, and next day, be-
fore the night set in they could make out
the tops of the high hills of North Hud-
sons bay in the clear blue distance. That
night their foe struck something. and
the light grinding of the edges showed
plainly that many pieces of ice We're
keeping them company on the outer edge
of the pack, and as this shortly ceased it
was evident that other incoming ice was
between them and the sea, and that they
were stranded on the shore ice or not far
from it.
Next mornings light revealed to them
that they had mile of pack" to cross,
which they carefully did, leaving the
walrus to keep house. and this brought
them on the shore ice some fifteen miles
from home, and if ever Eskimo dogs
were whipped and pounded this team
certainly was, and nightfall saw them
home giving a description of their peril
GUS adventures, trying to prove the navi-
gability of the Hudson's bay route in the
depth of an Arctic winter.-Frederick
Schwatka in New York Mail and Express.