The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-02-13

uo'sel uetion, ana az rate OF speed that
nearly capsized our frail structure,
winch STUCK hign out OF water like an
oiu-uhe pattie snip.
ne Two Eskimos sank TO the bot
tom " tne scow, and were really quite
va'uapie as ballast, the only use 70
Mnlcn 1ney could be put
our course was oblique to the waves
IN Al he~nl - fa=sMinds soon produced, and
80 loose was the framework of the Gcow,
winch was merely bound together by
"naieoone strips, that 1t took the shape
OF the water like lot Of floating saw
DUST, rather than as rigid body, as
boat should do.
Inc motion was enough to have made
pirate seas1ck, but suppose the hard
work and the peril OF the position pre-
vented our thinking OF such a thing, or
we should have been rendered helpless.
some idea OF the labor we had to ger
form may be formed by tho fact that ~e
were three and a-half hours in going the
last mile, although, of course, in so long
Time ana with such hard work some of
us We're frequently lying exhausted in
the bottom OF the boat, helping the
Eskimos to keep it from upsetting," as
one member expressed it.
When we reached the island at $3.50
oclock-having started from the main
land at 1--WE in the morning-we were
thoroughly exhausted and wet to the
slkfn,a and threw ourselves on the beach
and hardly stirred for four or FIVE hours.
1t was our first and, probably it is I'M
necessary to state, our last trip in an
Eskimo skin boat, and to this day it
seems marvellous to me that it did not
upset in the high waves Had it done SO
We would have either drowned or got to
the shore sooner than we did, for any
thing could have SWAN faster than our=
clumsy craft.
The records of Arctic exploration TEEN
with tight pinches in the way of depri-
walton Of food, and hardly an expedition
is well known that has not gone through
some severe ordeals of this character.
Indeed, 1t is the pivot on which hangs
the fact whether an Arctic expedition
will be well known or not more than
any other, as many that have had long
series of such misfortunes are publicly
much better known than those which
have done more, but have not any record
of severe and sensational suffering
am glad to say that our tight pinches
in that way were more interesting from
the manner by which we just eluded
them through the sagacity Of our hunt
ers than in any other way Several
times they saved us in this manner, and
one OF the incidents | must relate.
TIE -
meat for the next meal, which / surely
thought was a long way off, for fog
had settled over every thing, so thick a
hunter would have had to stumble over
a reindeer to see it at all.
IA If the fog had been little bit thicker
we would have eaten it, or if it had
been great deal thinner we might
have seen how to get something to eat;
but it was just at the right stage to de-
pripe us of a meal either4way.A
My best hunter, Toolooah, got out his
for hunt which / thought was folly.
but he told me he thought he would get
a deer or two. His opinion was too
good to be rejected off-hand. He har-
messed up two dogs-a step which great
ly surprised me, for the Eskimo never
use dogs in hunting the deer, or had
not done so in my long experience with
them-and thought the fog was OBJ
stacfeZenongh- to oyercume- without the
remembrance of dogs.
He disappeared in the fog A small
boy followed him leading the two dogs,
and then another hunter told me how
they worked in such weather. The
dogs sense of smell is used instead of
the hunters sense of sight. Going to
the windward of the game locality the
hunter watches his dogs, and when their
noses go up into the air he knows that
game is to the windward, and he follow
in that direction. WheH4the actions of
the dogs warn him that he*is near and
that they, may Brighten the game, he
leaves the animals with the boy, and
creeps forward on whatever may be in
his front. The Esqimo hunting-do
never banks under these circumstances,
but.his winnings and Nmpings might be
heafd.
In a very few minutes probably a
reindeer's form will be made ontS in a.
hazy way, and the hunter can stalk it
so advantageously now that he has lit
tie or no trouble in securing it. The
fog at such times is an assistance. II
there is herd he will probably get two
or three. Toolooah secured three with
in as many hours, and thus threatened
disaster was avoided by. as ingenious
hunting as have ever known.
But one of our sicges of starvation
after the sledge journey was over was
realTNa very tight pinch for even the
Arctic8regions and We all suffered
great deal, while one person succumbed
in the village
1t was caused by long-continued bad
weather, making hunting impossible.
Not but that the Eskimo can stir out in